The ancestor of the Qin people, Qin Feizi, was the son of the shang general Fei Lian, and his ancestors, the clan with the surname of Yin, were the right-hand men of Zhen Shou Xi Rong as early as the Yin Shang period. Until 770 BC, Duke Xiang of Qin sent troops to escort king Zhou Ping to move east, and was made a prince. From 770 BC to 221 BC, the Qin people completed the national unification through 549 years, and the Qin king Yin Zheng became the first emperor in Chinese history.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the improvement of agricultural tools, productivity was also greatly improved, and the improvement of productivity required changes in production relations. Judging from the trend of social development, reunification is a historical necessity. However, among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, the State of Zhao, the State of Chu, and the State of Qi were all powerful countries, but in the end, why did the State of Qin complete the unification of the country?
Compared with the princely states of the same era, since the spring and autumn of 770 BC, the warring states of the Warring States period began, the Qin state was only a second-rate state for most of the time. The Qin people are neither academic overlords with excellent achievements, nor are they the second generation of officials and rich people with prominent reputations, and from the beginning, they have lost on the starting line. However, the Qin people finally completed the counterattack and transcendence, and became the co-lord of the world. The reason for this, I tried to explore, and discussed with interested friends.
First, the Qin Kingdom has the strategic determination and unremitting enterprising spirit of the hegemonic princes
The Western Han Dynasty Jiayi said in the "Treatise on Passing the Qin Dynasty", "(Qin Shi Huang) Feng VI Yu Lie, Zhen Chang Ce and Yu Yunei, swallowed the princes of the Second Zhou Dynasty", and the "Sixth Dynasty" here refers to the six generations of Qin monarchs before Qin Shi Huang, namely Qin Xiaogong Yinqu Liang, Qin Huiwen Wang Yingsi, Qin Wu Wang Yingdang, Qin Zhaoxiang Wang Yingzhu, and Qin Zhuang Xiang Wang Yingzhu. Successive monarchs from The Duke of Qin to the King of Qin have aimed to strengthen the Qin state and attack the Six Kingdoms, and these kings have hardly been emperors.
Qin Xiaogong's canal liang changed the law to strengthen and weaken the State of Wei, and the pressure in the eastern part of the Qin State plummeted. King Huiwen of Qin attacked Wei in the east, destroyed Shu and defeated Chu, cut down the Yiqu Canal, eliminated the threat of flankback, and laid the foundation for the qin state to go all out to the east. King Wu of Qin, Ping Shu chaos, Set Up Cheng Xiang, Ba Yi Yang, and Place Sanchuan. Qin Zhaoxiang Wang, After three consecutive defeats of the Jin Dynasty, the Five Kingdoms of Qi, the capture of the Chu capital, the destruction of the Western Zhou State, and the foundation of the unification, so that the national strength of the Qin State began to suppress the Six Kingdoms of Shandong. Qin Xiaowen Wang Yingzhu and Qin Zhuang Xiang Wang's concubine Chu broke the alliance and destroyed the Eastern Zhou Kingdom. After the efforts of the six generations of Qin Jun, the Six Kingdoms were no longer able to oppose the Qin State, and the Qin State began to form an overwhelming advantage over the Six Kingdoms. As a result, although the nations once again attacked Qin in the first half of the world, it was difficult to confront the Qin state on the frontal battlefield, and after Qin Shi Huang's pro-government, he used Li Si's suggestions of "destroying the princes and becoming an emperor" and "doing everything in a few years to merge the world", accelerating the pace of each breakthrough, not giving the countries the opportunity to act jointly again, and finally successfully annexing the world.
The second is the unique geographical location and rich material supply of the Qin Kingdom
The Qin State is located in the western part of China, and the Qinling Mountains serve as a natural barrier to effectively block the enemy from the south, and the Qin State only needs to focus its geopolitical strategic objectives on the east, while other countries other than the Qin State may be attacked by strong enemies in at least two directions at the same time. The State of Qin was proud of the geographical advantages of the Six Kingdoms, and the Hangu Pass was a one-man pass, and it repeatedly blocked the attacks of the Six Kingdoms, and had the geostrategic advantage of being easy to defend and difficult to attack, so the State of Qin occasionally lost, but rarely encountered major setbacks.
The territory of the State of Qin was higher in elevation than other countries located in the East, and all the major rivers in the Territory of the State of Qin were connected to the Wei River, which flowed from west to east. Therefore, with the help of the water system, the Qin state was able to quickly transport troops and military supplies to the combat area. In turn, such geographical conditions made it necessary for other countries to go west against the water when marching to the Qin mainland, making it difficult to ensure military supplies to support a long-term war with the Qin state.
Qin has adopted six major reform measures for the development of agriculture, and such comprehensive reform measures have made the agricultural labor structure of the Qin state more and more reasonable, the production relations and the level of productive forces more adapted, and the Qin people more at ease in farming and strive to increase production. As a result, the qin state's agriculture rose sharply, and the labor force was exceptionally stable, providing sufficient grain, grass, and military resources for the annexation war. Compared with Qin, the six countries' heavy agricultural measures have lost sight of one another, especially in terms of heavy agriculture and suppression of commerce. In this way, the foundation of cultivation warfare is not as strong as Qin's, and it is natural to lose qin in terms of strength comparison.
In 316 BC, King Hui of Qin adopted Sima Cuo's suggestion and annexed the Bashu region, which was known as the kingdom of Tianfu, to completely solve the Yiqu state that threatened western Qin, making the Qin state stronger and richer than all countries.
Third, the Qin Kingdom has recruited talents from all over the world and promoted the strength of the Qin State
The State of Qin is remote and has poor conditions, and does not have the geographical advantage of attracting talents from the geographical location. At the same time, the culture of the Qin State is not deep, and it has not cultivated excellent local talents. However, this defect has brought unexpected positive consequences, because the Qin State advocates the culture of the Central Plains region, coupled with the serious shortage of talents, the Qin State has always held a very open mind on the issue of talents.
Since the founding of the Qin Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Period, there has been a tradition of reusing outsiders, but as a national policy, it was formally proposed, which began with Qin Xiaogong's "Order to Seek Merit". Starting from filial piety to Qin Shi Huang, 20 of the 23 people who served as the prime minister of the Qin state were Keqing. This is also unique among the seven males. Most of these reused guests were loyal to Qin, and they worked hard to serve Qin, making great achievements for Qin. For example, Zhang Yi (a Wei person) "lianheng" for Qin Si, disintegrating the princes' "joint indulgence" against Qin; Gan Mao (Chu) served as a Qin leader in Hanzhong, quelled the Shu rebellion, and pulled out Yiyang of Han; Li Si (a Chu person) and Qin Shi Huang jointly formulated the strategy of "merging the six kingdoms" and promptly went to the "Book of Expulsion", which prevented the qin emperor's ministers from launching a discussion on expelling guests and avoided a major mistake in the political line of the Qin state.
Fourth, the Qin Kingdom's powerful army and high technology are the cornerstones of the Qin Kingdom's foreign hegemony
Although the Six Kingdoms also paid great attention to army building, none of them were able to establish a systematic system of military merit awards through reforms like Qin, and used the means of "making a hole out of profit" to create a social situation in which the people wanted to be rich and noble, and "there was no reason for fighting without war," nor did they unremittingly mobilize the enthusiasm of the peasants, who accounted for the overwhelming majority of the population, to actively join the army and fight bravely like Qin. The army cultivated and trained by Qin zi since the Shang martingale transformation method was indeed a strong force that deterred the six kingdoms, and it was precisely by virtue of this strong brigade that the Qin state was able to defeat the crowd and "swallow the world with the power of a tiger and a wolf."
The Qin army has always been known as the tiger and wolf division during the Warring States period, not only the army system is directly effective, but also a steady stream of famous military generals. During the Battle of the Six Kingdoms, famous Generals of the Qin Army gathered, such as Nei Shi Teng, Wang Qi, Wang Ben, Yang Duanhe, Li Xin, Meng Wu, meng Tian and so on. Among them, Neisten destroyed Korea and captured the King of Han; Wang Qi defeated the combined forces of Yan and Dai, and Wang Ben destroyed the Yan state and captured the King of Yan and the King of Dai; Wang Qi and Meng Tian defeated the Chu army led by Xiang Yan and captured the King of Chu; Wang Ben led his troops to destroy the state of Qi and captured the king of Qi. In the Six Kingdoms, except for Li Mu and Xiang Yan, there were no more famous generals who could stop the Qin army, and what was even more tragic was that Li Mu was also killed by rumors.
In terms of high technology, the Qin state had advantages that the other six princely states did not have. First, the powerful transportation system of the Qin State, the Qin State has established a solid rail transit system, suitable for horses to run on it, which has greatly improved the material transportation capacity of the Qin State. Second, the sword of the Qin State has joined the alloy process, which is far superior to the swords of other countries in terms of strength and sharpness, and because it is not afraid of breaking, the sword body is longer and can kill the enemy more effectively on the battlefield. Third, the number of crossbow warfare troops in the Qin State is huge, and the three-sided arrow used can cause great damage to the enemy.
Fifth, the Qin Kingdom extensively adopted a policy of peaceful evolution to undermine the internal affairs of various countries
Like a beautiful country, the State of Qin undermined the political situation of stability and unity among all countries through bribery, assassination, lies, and deception, extensively created friction between various princely states, and weakened opponents through actions on hidden fronts.
Da Liang ren Wei Ji suggested that the Qin king Ying Zheng spend money to bribe the noble ministers of various countries and sabotage the six kingdoms organization; Li Si was appointed by the Qin king Yingzheng as Changshi, responsible for the work of the hidden front, using money and swords together, spending a lot of money to bribe the noble ministers of the Six Kingdoms, and using swords to solve the bribes that could not be bribed. This policy has been a great success. King Zhao wanted to reinstate Lian po, but was stopped by Guo Kaijin's rumors; Li Mu led an army to block the Qin army at the front line, but was rumored by Guo Kaijin that he was going to rebel, and was killed in the army, resulting in the fall of the Zhao state within three months. The chancellor of the State of Wei made insults to the King of Wei, causing Xin Lingjun to be suspected, and finally drank and died of depression, so after the death of Xin Lingjun, no one in the Six Kingdoms could organize an effective conspiracy and take the initiative to launch an attack on the Qin State. After Wang Jian of Qi appointed Hou Shengweixiang, Hou Sheng accepted bribes from the State of Qin and tried his best to persuade the King of Qi not to accept the six kingdoms' requests for help, and to sit back and watch the six kingdoms perish one by one.
It can be said that the success of the hidden front greatly weakened the strength of the six countries and minimized the military pressure for the Qin army.
Sixth, the political short-sightedness and faint rule of the rulers of the six countries
The monarchs of the Six Kingdoms did not have the ambition of the birds, and did not jump out of the original inherent thinking in the way of thinking. Their thinking is the same as that of the old nobles of the Qin State, and their ambition is at most to be a hegemon. Just like in the Beiyang period, the warlords were divided, and the warlords were constantly in dispute, and the ambition of the warlord lord was to be a corner of peace, as a prince of one side.
During the Warring States period, there were also many lords among the monarchs of the Six Kingdoms, but they were also short-lived, and most of them were short-sighted and incompetent. Unlike the Qin state, from the Duke of Qin Xiaogong to the Qin King, they were basically accomplished masters, and they rarely came out of the way.
In addition, although the pressure of the Qin state was clearly felt between the six eastern countries, there were many contradictions between the countries, and there were many contradictions between Zhao Yan, Yan Qi, Qi Chu, and Wei Qi, and although Han Zhao wei was from the same Jin, there was also a lot of friction. Every time they attacked Qin, they didn't necessarily really contribute. It is difficult for the six countries to truly embrace and fight the Qin state.
Reading history to learn from the present, are there similarities between some of the practices of today's beautiful countries and the practices of the Qin Kingdom? Is there any similarity between the current international pattern and political situation and the international pattern and political situation of the Warring States period? Is there any reference significance?
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