Generally speaking, troubled times are the most likely to appear famous generals, because fighting wars is the same as everything, both depending on talent and the accumulation of continuous practice.
Therefore, it is reasonable that famous generals who bloomed everywhere could emerge in the last years of the Warring States period, the Three Kingdoms period, and the chaotic era at the end of the Sui Dynasty.
When it comes to famous generals of the Warring States period, I believe that there will be many names in everyone's mind, but among them must be Baiqi.
As a recognized "military god", Bai Qi was invincible in his life, especially in the Battle of Changping, and his performance was talked about by countless people.
However, this battle is not only the highlight of Baiqi, but also the place where he has been criticized by countless people, after all, it is too cruel to kill 400,000 Zhao army prisoners.
Of course, there are also many misunderstandings, because the record of the Battle of Changping is only a fragment of the "Shiji". In 1995, archaeologists dug up the site and discovered the shocking truth.
The first battle was successful, and the Zhao army was cursed
In the hearts of most people, Bai Qi is a recognized martial arts ceiling, he can not only skillfully command the battles of large corps, but also accurately seize the fleeting opportunities in the battlefield, and achieve a hundred victories, and is one of the greatest heroes of the Qin State in the world.
Historically, Bai Qi became famous very early, he befriended Wei Ran, the Marquis of Qin, and was recognized by King Zhaoxiang of Qin early and was made a general.
And Bai Qi did not disappoint the King of Qin, and in the Battle of Yique, he led the Qin army to break the Wei-Han coalition army, killing more than 240,000 enemy troops.
This battle laid the foundation for the strength of the Qin state in one fell swoop and cleared the way for its advance into the Central Plains.
A few years later, Bai Qi led the Qin army to defeat the Chu army strongly, storming the opposing capital, and occupying a large amount of land in the Chu state. After this battle, Bai Qi was made the Prince of Wu'an, reaching the peak of his power.
After successively eliminating a large number of new forces of the Wei, Han and Chu kingdoms, the only one who could stop the Qin state from advancing east was the state of Zhao.
At this time, it was also a strong period of Zhao Guo's strength, and it had a good combat power after the reform of King Zhao Wuling's "Hufu Riding and Shooting".
Soon, Qin Zhao began a tentative attack. And the real opportunity for them to make a big move is the competition for the Shangdang region.
At that time, Korea originally wanted to cede this land to the State of Qin, but Shangdang Junshou took the initiative to defect to the State of Zhao after hearing the news.
In order to compete for the rich Shangdang region, Qin and Zhao fought a great war in the Changping region.
In fact, the initial belligerent general of the Battle of Changping was Lianpo of Wang Gong of the State of Qin against the State of Zhao, and soon after the battle began, the Zhao army suffered a major defeat, so Lianpo chose the strategy of defensive counterattack.
Faced with the fortifications built by Lianpo, the Qin army stormed for months but could not make a breakthrough.
In the end, the King of Qin adopted Fan Yu's advice and used counter-tactics to lure Zhao Guo into replacing Zhao Kuo with Zhao Kuo, who had not experienced the baptism of battle.
And the Qin state also quietly changed commanders, replacing the famous general Wang Gong with Wu'an Junbaiqi, preparing to complete the battle and completely crush the Zhao army.
It is not reasonable for later generations to blame Zhao Kuo for the defeat of the Battle of Changping. Although Zhao Kuo lacked battlefield experience, his command was actually not a big problem.
The reason why Bai Qi can win depends more or less on the advantage of poor information. When the two sides were fighting, Zhao Kuo did not know that the Qin State had been replaced by Baiqi, and still used the idea of fighting Wang Gong.
As a result, he fell into Bai Qi's plan to move the tiger away from the mountain, and was divided by the other party and cut off the grain road.
But even so, Zhao Kuo still led the army to resist for more than 40 days, and in the process, Zhao Jun's defensive counterattack was done in an orderly manner. In the end, it was really because of the food shortage that it was necessary to be forced to break through, and finally it was wiped out in vain.
After the victory of the Qin army, Bai Qi made a fateful decision, he killed all 450,000 captured people on the Changping battlefield.
And among them, there are not only the soldiers of Zhao Guo, but also the ordinary people in the Shangdang area, and the degree of their madness can be seen. After killing most of them, Bai Qi also symbolically released 240 very young soldiers.
Although this move was extremely harmful, the effect was immediate, and Zhao Guo's vitality was greatly damaged at this point, and he no longer had the ability of Qin Guo to fight against each other.
An astonishing discovery of the Changping ruins
Because the outcome of the Battle of Changping was too horrific, coupled with the age and the reasons for the war, there are not many records of it in the history books.
Therefore, many mysteries in the Battle of Changping remained unanswered until the 90s of the last century.
One day in 1995, in Yonglu Village, 10 kilometers north of Gaoping City, Jincheng, a farmer named Li Xiaozhu was farming with his son when he suddenly dug up a large number of Sensen white bones in his pear orchard, which scared Li Zizhu into a cold sweat.
At the same time, his son was very bold, and after seeing the white bones, he continued to dig down, and soon dug up many overlapping bones.
Not only that, next to the bones, they also found some strange objects, which looked very old.
After calming his mind, Li Xiaozhu thought that there must be many cultural relics important to the country in this deep pit, so he reported his discovery to the relevant departments early the next morning.
After receiving the information, the local cultural relics department attached great importance to it and immediately sent someone to check it, and at that time some people judged that this was probably the site of the Battle of Changping. It didn't take long for the staff to report the information to the city and provincial bureaus.
A few days later, an archaeological team composed of the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, the Jincheng City Cultural Relics Bureau and other units conducted an in-depth excavation of the place.
Subsequently, they confirmed that the deep pit where a large number of bones were buried was the site of the Battle of Changping and named it Pit No. 1.
Experts have made amazing discoveries in the process of archaeological excavations, they not only excavated a large number of overlapping bones from the site, but also found knife coins, cloth coins, half taels, arrows, hooks and other cultural relics, which are all important physical materials for studying the Battle of Changping.
It took several days for archaeologists to completely excavate Pit 1, a deep pit 5 meters wide and 11 meters long.
Later, using the most advanced radiometry at the time, they found another large bone pit 3 to 4 meters wide and 55 meters long near Pit 1, which was Pit 2 at the Changping site.
A month later, Pit No. 2 was also completely cleared. After research, experts found that these two pits were not excavated artificially, but more like natural ravines.
Experts speculate that after the Battle of Changping, the Qin army was in a hurry to withdraw and repair, and did not specifically dig a pit, but threw the Zhao army into a natural ravine, and then covered it with a thin layer of soil.
After the excavation work at the site, experts conducted a comprehensive examination of the excavated bones, and they found a startling fact.
Many of the bones have very obvious marks of being cut or hit by arrows, which at least shows that the soldiers of the Zhao State in these two large pits were buried after death.
Historians have previously disputed that although Bai Qi brutally slaughtered 450,000 Zhao soldiers, he was not so frustrated that he was buried alive.
The discovery in the Changping site undoubtedly provides strong proof for historians' assertions.
Whether the "pit killing" really happened
Before the Changping site was discovered, historians had doubts about the widely circulated claim that Bai Qi buried Zhao soldiers alive.
The most important evidence is Sima Qian's record in the "Records of History", first of all, it is written in the "Lianpo Lin Xiangru Biography": The army defeated hundreds of thousands of people and surrendered to Qin and Qin Xiyanzhi.
Secondly, Sima Qian also clearly recorded Bai Qi's exclamation before he died in the "Biography of Baiqi Wang Chui Lie": "I deserve to die. In the battle of Changping, hundreds of thousands of Zhao surrendered, and I deceived it, it was enough to die. ”
The reason why later generations believe that Bai Qi buried hundreds of thousands of Zhao troops alive is because there are some versions that change the "Yanzhi" in Sima Qian's original text to "pit zhi".
Although it is only a word difference, the meaning is completely different. "阬" refers to the meaning of killing and pit, and "pit killing" means burying alive.
And a careful analysis of the logic of dealing with prisoners on the battlefield reveals that burying alive is actually a practice that is harmful and not beneficial.
First of all, it is too cruel to do so, and even to hostile forces, it seems too tyrannical. Even if Bai Qi can be ruthless, the soldiers of the Qin State are afraid that it will be difficult to accept.
Secondly, in the Battle of Changping, the Qin State won a victory with difficulty, and it was already the end of the strong crossbow, and it was necessary to clear the battlefield as soon as possible and then retreat.
Therefore, for the Qin army, time is very urgent. And burying prisoners alive is a time-consuming and labor-intensive way to dispose of prisoners, which is far more convenient and faster than directly killing Zhao Jun and then burying them.
Therefore, no matter from which point of view, burying hundreds of thousands of Zhao troops alive is a thankless practice, and a smart person like Bai Qi will naturally not do it.
This is also evidenced by the bones excavated from the site, all of which were killed before being buried.
conclusion
In general, Bai Qi's actions in the Battle of Changping were very much in line with the interests of the Qin State, but this move was indeed too cruel, and even Bai Qi himself recalled that it was a way to take death.
The ancient Chinese emphasis on "ominous killing" is not unreasonable.
In fact, military generals like Bai Qi and Chang Yuchun whose hands were stained with the blood of prisoners were indeed difficult to end in the end. Perhaps after all, it is the light of day, and retribution is not happy.