In the Battle of Changping against the Zhao State, Bai Qi slaughtered 400,000 Zhao pawns, and the First World War threatened the Six Kingdoms and almost crippled the Zhao State. Some people say that the King of Zhao did not use honesty at the beginning, and replaced Zhao Kuo with this "waste" to fight with the Qin State, otherwise the Zhao State would not have been so miserable. All along, Zhao Kuo's "talk on paper" has been used as an example and has been criticized by later generations, in fact, this is not very fair to Zhao Kuo.
First of all, let's first explore why Zhao Kuo only knows "talking on paper"? Zhao Kuo's father was the famous general Zhao Hao of the Zhao State, and Zhao Kuo was a proper "second generation official", who was familiar with military books since he was a child and often followed his father to the battlefield. In the Battle of Que and Qi, Zhao Hao was able to break the Qin army and make a name for himself, including Zhao Kuo's credit.
At a time when everyone thought that Zhao Kuo would be able to do something big, his father Zhao Hao was not optimistic about Zhao Kuo. He also said such a sentence, "Soldier, death is also, and it is easy to say it." If Zhao does not include it, if it is bound, those who break the Zhao army will also include it. I don't know whether he knows his son too well or has the ability to foresee the future, but this sentence has come true.
Saying that Zhao Kuo only knew "talking about soldiers on paper" did not wrongfully accuse him, after the Que war with him, Zhao Kuo did not have much experience on the battlefield, more as a "military division", and even for a period of time was encountered by Lin Xiang's similar "snow hiding".
What made people confused was that after the Battle of Changping began, the general Lian Po was defeated several times, and then he insisted on not fighting, and King Zhao wanted to replace Lian Po, but who could result in this big task? The courtiers talked a lot, some said that they should continue to use Lianpo, some said that they should use Zhao Kuo, and some said that they would send Lin Xiangru, and of the three, the King of Zhao obviously preferred Zhao Kuo. In addition, at this time, the State of Qin let people release rumors that the State of Qin was afraid of Zhao Kuo, so the inexperienced and young and vigorous Zhao Kuo was pushed to the position of commander.
Not only did Zhao Kuo's father not look favorably on him, but his mother also did not look favorably on him. After King Zhao appointed Zhao Kuo as a general instead of Lian Po, Zhao Kuo's mother went to beg King Zhao not to do so, but King Zhao's attention had been decided, and Mother Zhao could only ask King Zhao, and once Zhao Kuo was defeated, she could not be implicated.
After Zhao Kuo became the main general, he made a major adjustment to the army, resulting in instability in the army, which was also a manifestation of his lack of experience. After fighting against the Qin army led by Bai Qi, Zhao Kuo was besieged for more than forty days and fell into a desperate situation, and even the situation of soldiers killing each other appeared, Zhao Kuo decided to fight to the death to break through, and undoubtedly failed miserably.
Since the ancient victor was the king and the loser, zhao Kuo, no matter what talent he had, this defeat seemed so worthless, which was Zhao Kuo's sadness.