Why did the obscure State of Yan during the Spring and Autumn Period rank among the Seven Heroes during the Warring States period?
In the early warring states period, the Eastern Jiang clan Qi state has been replaced by the Tian clan Qi state, at this time the Tian clan Qi state, although the country was initially established, but due to the economic development of the State of Qi, the Territory of the Qi dynasty is also peaceful and excessive, is the result of the joint efforts of several generations of the Tian family, in this process there was almost no big war and turmoil, and the State of Qi in the Warring States period threatened the princes, so Tian Qi should be ranked among the seven heroes.
Although the State of Qin, located in the western region, was almost breathlessly suppressed by the Jin State in the east, the State of Qin also dominated Xi rong during the Qin Mu Gong period, and although the national strength was invincible, its strength could not be underestimated. In the Warring States period, after the Shang martingale transformation method, the Qin state was even more prestigious, which made the six kingdoms of Shandong tremble with fear. Looking at the State of Chu again, the internal nobles are vying for power and profit, and there are painful memories of being captured by the Wu army in the capital, but although this is the state of Chu, after all, it is the country with the most vast territory under the whole world, and it is also a big country in the middle and early period of the Warring States.
Although the Zhao, Wei, and Korean states, which also belonged to the Three Jin Dynasties, were also newly established, the predecessor of the Three Jins, the State of Jin, after all, dominated the Central Plains for a long time during the Spring and Autumn Period. Even if the three families of Southern Chu, Eastern Qi, and Western Qin combined forces were not opponents of the Jin State, even after the Three Points of the Jin State, the strength of the three kingdoms of Zhao, Wei, and Han was still strong. Especially in the early warring states period, after the successful change of law, Wei joined the Three Jins, pressed the Qin state in the west, seized the Chu soil in the south, and merged with the Qin state in the east.
The Three Jins, the State of Qin, the State of Qi, and the State of Chu were all powerful princes at that time, and the history of the Warring States for hundreds of years was almost always based on these six kingdoms as the core, and the ancestors of these six countries were also brilliant in the Spring and Autumn Period. For example, The Duke of Qin Mu and the King of Chu Zhuang were designated by some students as the overlords of the Spring and Autumn Period. The Tian family, which is self-reliant on behalf of Qi, is also capable of being born. The successive leaders of the Tian family are all talents of the world, otherwise Jiang Qi's sheji would not have flowed into the hands of the Tian clan, after all, the process of the Tian clan's generation of Qi was as long as 286 years, and the struggle of the Jiang Qi Qing clan was no less tragic than that of the Jin Dynasty. The famous warrior Sima Hoang Tho should be called Tian Hoang Tho, who was a descendant of Tian Quan, the ancestor of the Tian clan, and was later named the Grand Sima of the State of Qi for his military achievements, and only later generations took Sima as their clan.
As for the Wei, Zhao, and Han clans, their ancestors all enjoyed a high reputation in the Jin Dynasty and were full of talents. There were originally more than ten Qing clans in the Jin Dynasty, and after more than a hundred years of infighting, not only three of them survived, and they were finally crowned princes by King Weilie of Zhou. To sum up, the six princes of Wei, Qin, Qi, Zhao, Chu, and Han should be among the powerful countries.
However, there was a prince, before the Warring States, except for the ancestor of the Yan State, zhao Gong, the rest of the monarchs had almost no sense of existence, and even during the Yan Huan Marquis period, the Yan army was beaten by the northern Shanrong and abandoned its armor, and even the Yan State was forced by the Shanrong to move the capital to avoid disaster. It was not until the reign of Duke Huan of Qi, when he called on all the princes to fight against Shanrong, that he saved the Yan kingdom from the brink of destruction. How did the Yan Kingdom, which was so weak before the Warring States, rank among the Seven Heroes during the Warring States Period?
In fact, the State of Yan was not weak, and the reason why it performed poorly was mainly because the State of Yan was located in the northern part of the Zhou Dynasty, and the main duty of the State of Yan was to resist the invasion of forces such as shanrong outside the country. Unfortunately, however, the Shanrong forces of the Western Zhou, early Eastern Zhou, and Spring and Autumn periods were extremely powerful, and they repeatedly attacked the Yan state, the Zheng state, and even the Qi state, especially the Yan state, which was on the front line of resisting the shanrong invasion, had to focus most of its energy on how to resist the shanrong invasion, and there was no time for reform.
The economic structure of the Yan state is bounded by Yanshan, which is in the pattern of northern pastoral and southern agriculture, while the Yanshan and eastern Hebei regions also have agriculture and animal husbandry. Not only that, Yanguo also enjoys the benefits of fish and salt and copper and iron minerals, and there are many water conservancy projects in the territory. And there are also many cities in the Yan kingdom, especially the lower capital Wuyang, which is known for its grand scale, and the upper capital Jicheng, which is known for its prosperity and strength.
The reason why King Wu of Zhou enfeoffed his brother Zhao Gong as the monarch of the State of Yan was to guard against Shanrong. Precisely because Shanrong was in a strong period at that time, in order to avoid being destroyed, the officials in important regions and positions of the Yan state were filled by military generals, and there was almost no room for scribes and talents to make meritorious achievements.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Yan Kingdom, due to its location on the plain, there was no danger to defend. When the Yan people were guarding against the invasion of Shanrong, they also had to guard against rebellions within the Pingding territory. In the long run, the Yan people have a tradition of martial arts, and the martial virtues are quite abundant. Successive Marquis of Yan had a tradition of martial arts, and even many nobles of the Yan state were military commanders. Moreover, a considerable part of the fiscal revenue of the Yan State was used to make weapons and armor, build fortresses and the Great Wall. In particular, the cities near the Great Wall have a strong military nature.
Although the national strength of the Yan state was not weak, due to the long-term large-scale invasion of Shanrong, the country's main financial, material and manpower were used against Shanrong, and what was even more tragic was that the Warring States was still in a strong period before. These reasons have led to the fact that although the Yan people are brave and good at war, they cannot carry out changes to enhance their national strength, and they have no time to participate in the hegemonic struggle of the Central Plains countries. Therefore, before the Warring States, the Yan state has been obscure, even inferior to lu, Song and other countries.
However, in the Warring States period, all this changed. First of all, in the late Spring and Autumn Period, shanrong, which had long been an enemy of the Yan state, had gradually declined, which also freed up the Yan state to use it in other aspects.
In 380 BC, Tian Qi's second ruler, Tian Qi, openly agreed to Korea's request for help and helped Korea repel the invading Qin and Wei states, but at the same time, Tian Qi ordered the Qi army to secretly assemble on the border of Qi Yan and take Sanqiu by the Yan army. The following year, the State of Yan asked the Three Jins for help to repel the Qi invasion. After that, the State of Yan began to actively participate in the affairs of the Central Plains. After Qi Houxian sneaked into the Yan kingdom, many major battles broke out between the Yan and Qi sides, and the two sides won and lost each other.
During the reign of Duke Wen of Yan, he reused Su Qin and funded his envoys to the five kingdoms of Qi, Chu, Zhao, Wei, and Han to form a "Hezhong" alliance to resist Qin, which made the Qin state dare not send letters to Guguan for fifteen years.
The highlight of the Yan kingdom was during the reign of King Zhao of Yan, who was determined to exert great efforts to revitalize the Yan kingdom in order to destroy the shame of the Yan state in the Xueqi state. After King Yan Zhao ascended the throne, he obtained Le Yi, Zou Yan, Ju Xin and other sages through the act of building a golden platform and buying bones for thousands of years.
King Yan Zhao, with the assistance of these sages, and King Yan Zhao, who had pacified the people who had suffered from the war, shared the hardships with his subordinates, and worked hard to govern, which eventually made the yan state rise sharply, and almost destroyed the state of Qi before the snow.
In addition to reusing Le Yi and Fa Qi, King Yan Zhao also appointed Qin Kai as a general and asked him to train soldiers. During an invasion of the northeastern frontier by Eastern Hu, King Zhao of Yan ordered Qin Kai to be a general and defeated the Eastern Hu army and fled. After this battle, the Yan state expanded its territory by more than 2,000 miles, becoming a vast country, with a land area second only to the Qin and Chu states.