The Battle of Changping was the longest-lasting, largest and most tragic war in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, just as the ancients said when referring to the 500-year war history of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, only the two battles of Jinyang and Changping were pushed, the so-called "siege of Jinyang, hanging in the cauldron; the Battle of Changping, the blood flowing."
The final result of the war, according to the "Records of History", the entire army of the Zhao state was destroyed, and 400,000 soldiers were killed in the white pit, leaving only 240 soldiers to return to China: "After the defeat of the army, 400,000 people surrendered to Wu Anjun." Wu Anjun calculated: "Former Qin has been pulled up to the party, and the people of the party are not happy to return to Zhao for Qin." Zhao Shu repeatedly. If you don't kill them all, you're afraid of chaos. "He was blackmailed and killed by all the pits, and the two hundred and forty who left his children were returned to Zhao."
However, from today's point of view, this number is also full of doubts, first of all, the most important question, zhao guo really has so many people?
At that time, the State of Zhao, which included most of Hebei Province and most of Shaanxi, was the most powerful country in the six eastern countries, with a population of about 3 million or so, and was able to put together an army of 400,000, which was obviously an exaggeration, but according to research, most of the Zhao army, nearly two-thirds of them were recruited grain troops. Usually for the common people, so the number of Zhao troops should be real, and in the Battle of Changping, Zhao Guo really sent all the strong labor.
But after the site was discovered, archaeologists believe that things are not so simple, in 1995, in Yonglu Village, Jincheng, Shanxi, a father and son in their own orchard loose soil, but dug out a lot of bronze arrows and bones, after reporting, the archaeological team rushed to come, after confirmation, this is the site of the Battle of Changping that year, which buried more than 130 Zhao Jun corpses, accompanied by Zhao Guo's knife coins, cloth coins, half two, arrows, hooks and other cultural relics.
However, after investigation, it was found that some of these bones had obvious broken marks on their arms and thighs, some had arrows buried in their chests, and some only had bodies without heads, which was enough to show that they were buried after being killed. It is worth mentioning that in addition to the nearby No. 2 pit is a deep pit, this buried bone pit is only a few meters deep, so that people feel curious, Bai Qi really wants to bury the pawn alive, will they not resist? Moreover, with such a thin layer of soil, it is impossible to bury hundreds of thousands of people alive on a large scale.
Some people have proposed another concept, that is, the "pit killing" mentioned in the text is not buried alive, but similar to the "million army", it is a fictitious word, and the ancient army combat has a habit, the victorious side will pile the bodies of the dead on both sides of the road, cover the soil, and form a large pyramid-shaped mound, called "Jingguan" or "Wujun", to boast of martial arts.
The Book of Later Han mentions that Cao Cao fought with Yuan Shao, and after Cao Cao won, he "exhausted the pits" of a forced Yuan army that was forced to surrender, and in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Shi Le attacked Wude, "pit more than 10,000 pawns" When Tang Taizong conquered Goguryeo, he "collected three thousand three hundred and exhausted the pits".
From this point of view, the scene of "pit killing" is not uncommon, but it is unrealistic to want to bury more than 10,000 people alive, so the practice of the Qin people is likely to kill the descendants first, and then bury them. The purpose of this, of course, is to prevent the outbreak of the plague.
The ancients paid attention to the safety of the soil, and this practice similar to that of the victors, but the corpses were piled on the ground, as if showing off their martial arts, just simply covered with a thin layer of soil, in the eyes of historians, it is obvious that it cannot be called "burial", and perhaps the term "pit killing" is used.