Ji Shang's army was ordered to attack Qi and defeated the Qi people. The King of Qi fled away, only to save himself; Pearl jade treasure car armor treasure is all included in Yan!
——— "Book of the King of Yanhui"
Le Yi fell into Qi was an important historical event in the Warring States era, and also a turning point in the history of the development of the State of Qi, when King Yan Zhao had just changed the law in the country of Yan, in order to be humiliated by the State of Qi before Yixue, King Yan Zhao decided to unite with the four countries of Han, Zhao, Wei, and Qin to jointly attack the State of Qi, and the army was led by the famous general Le Yi of the State of Yan.
From the beginning of the war, they showed a state of overwhelming strength, they fought all the way, almost invincible, successively laid down more than seventy cities and pools in the state of Qi, and entered the capital of the state of Qi, Linzi, and finally occupied Linzi City, the king of Qi at that time could only flee to Jucheng to protect himself, and later the people of the state of Qi were resentful of the disaster brought to the State of Yan by the brutal rule of the king of Qi, resulting in the death of the king of Qi at the hands of refugees.
Not only that, the State of Yan also plundered most of the wealth of the State of Qi, and it should be known that the State of Qi was a very strong country in the economic development of the entire Warring States Period, located on the coast of the East China Sea, with a unique advantage in economic development, the lives of the people were exceptionally rich, and the treasures available for the State of Yan were innumerable.
Therefore, on the surface, the benefits brought by this war to the Yan state were enormous. However, what is puzzling is that the Yan state was able to achieve such great achievements in the early stage of the war, but it fell in front of the small city of Jimo. The Yan army besieged Jimo City for six years, but never attacked Jimo, which also led to the state of Qi not completely destroyed, and later restored the country in one fell swoop with Tian Dan's fire bull array.
So why did Le Yi break qi but did not destroy qi? Does the small city of Jimo really have the strength to turn things around? In fact, this is not the case, which is greatly related to the external environment at that time and the internal rule of the Yan state.
First, other countries withdrew their troops, and the Yan state declined
In fact, the forces involved in this protracted war are very complex, and can be regarded as a joint attack on Qi, so that the forces of the coalition army must be strong, and it is not unexpected that the State of Qi cannot resist, and the same is true when you think about it.
After the Yan kingdom entered the Warring States era, the development of the country's strength has been relatively weak, and the change of the Yan Zhaowang law has only lasted for a few years, and it has not been reformed from the fundamental political system, which is to improve the implementation of certain policies based on the politics of the royal road.
In this way, the national strength of the Yan state will certainly not be greatly enhanced, and it is difficult to rely on the improvement brought about by the change of the law, and it is difficult to change the situation that the Yan is weak and strong, so although in the process of Le Yi and Qi Qi, the generals of the unified army are from the Yan state, but a large part of the force is from other countries.
However, soldiers from other countries could not always accompany the Yan state on the battlefield, after all, other countries came to help the Yan country to cut down. Therefore, when the war was initially won, other countries also withdrew their reinforcements. In this way, only the State of Yan and the State of Qi were left to fight, and it was expected that the strength would be somewhat unattainable.
Then some people will also ask, the State of Qi has already collapsed, why do other countries not help the State of Yan to completely end this war and then withdraw its troops? That's because Faqi was only a war to weaken the strength of the State of Qi, and it was natural to help, and the rule of the State of Qi at that time was relatively brutal, which caused dissatisfaction in other countries, but helping did not mean helping the State of Yan to destroy the country.
Second, turn back and exert pressure
The State of Qi is a great power of princes in the Central Plains, its demise will inevitably cause a major change in the pattern of the times, and the territory of the State of Qi is very wide, and the wealth accumulated by the State of Qi is also very rich, if all this is occupied by the State of Yan, then who can guarantee that the State of Yan will not be the second brutal State of Qi?
Therefore, when the rule of the State of Qi threatens the survival and development of other countries, they can unite to suppress the actions of the State of Qi, but they will never tolerate the destruction of the State of Qi, because once the State of Qi is destroyed, the entire Central Plains region will be reshuffled, and the relationship between the strong and the weak will change again, so it is difficult for the State of Yan to eliminate the State of Qi, which will certainly arouse the vigilance of other countries.
Moreover, the State of Qi itself was a piece of fat, so how could the other princely states allow the State of Yan to swallow it alone? Then, if the State of Qi is to be divided, the stakes involved will be enormous, and how will the land be divided? How is wealth divided? Moreover, each country's relationship with the State of Qi is different, and the actual control ability on the land is different, so how can we avoid other conflicts? Therefore, the demise of the State of Qi is likely to involve the whole body, so it is okay to teach the State of Qi a lesson.
However, it was impossible to help the Yan state destroy the state of Qi. Because of this, the pressure faced by the State of Yan at that time was from all directions, so it could only transport the wealth of the State of Qi to the State of Yan as much as possible, and try to seek practical benefits from this war, after all, under the pressure of the major princely states, it was more difficult to directly destroy the State of Qi.
Of course, at that time, the State of Qi only had two small cities left, Jimo and Ju, and if the Yan army insisted on going its own way, it would not be impossible to eliminate it, at least it was possible to eliminate it. However, the State of Yan did not make any move to destroy these two cities, which was not only the influence of external pressure, but also had a lot to do with the internal affairs of the State of Yan.
Iii. The Conjecture of the Taiping Heavenly Son
In fact, at that time, the State of Yan did not think of eliminating the State of Qi, because in the political tradition that the State of Yan had always pursued, the country was very opposed to the submission of the country through oppressive wars, which was one of the reasons why the State of Yan never eliminated any small country throughout the Warring States Period.
For the Yan Kings, the way to destroy a country through war was a very arrogant act, because they were all princely states that were split from the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the Yan Kings were not allowed to do so in terms of political traditions and ideological cognition.
In his understanding, the gap in status is the gap between the Son of Heaven and the monarch, that is to say, the King of Yan at that time had the idea of becoming the Son of Taiping, and wanted to open the gap in status between them through peaceful means, which we can see from Le Yi's reply to King Hui of Yan, when Le Yi recounted the actions he took in the process of vaping Qi, occupying the land as much as possible and collecting wealth as much as possible, but in the end he got the order of the King of Yan to move with affection and understand it.
Therefore, at that time, the State of Yan did not think of directly destroying the State of Qi, which was the ideological shackles brought about by the political system they respected, and it was also a kind of compassion. Moreover, the external environment of the Yan state at that time was also very poor, and it had to face pressure from all directions, which also gave the yan monarch an excuse, and the state of Qi was able to survive.
brief summary:
Therefore, we can see from the above narrative that the reason why the State of Qi was able to survive at the moment of crisis is because of the influence of both internal and external aspects.
From the internal point of view of the Yan state, it itself hated to destroy the princely states through overwhelming war, so there was no direct destruction of the state of Qi, at least not in the Yan monarch. Secondly, the demise of the State of Qi will bring about a huge butterfly effect that other princely states do not want to see, so when they see that the State of Qi is on the verge of extinction, they will naturally exert pressure on the State of Yan, which also leads to the continued survival of the State of Qi.
In addition to these factors, there are other influences, such as the incident of King Hui of Yan changing generals at Jintai, in fact, the Yan army was able to trap Jimo City for six years, indicating that it really wanted the State of Qi to submit, but through peaceful means.
However, the people of Jimo did not give the Yan kingdom such an opportunity, so that the King of Yan began to doubt Le Yi's ability, and finally replaced Le Yi with a horse robber, and also gave the Qi army an opportunity to take advantage of it, so that the Qi army found the flaws of the Yan state, and thus successfully restored the country through huoniu Town.
Therefore, the practice of the Yan state is still relatively sad, if it can eliminate the state of Qi with one blow, then the historical development of the Warring States era will be a different matter.
Reference: The Book of the King of Yanhui
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