The four great war gods of the Qin kingdom ~ Mengtian

Meng Tian (?–210 BC), surnamed Ji (姬), of the Meng clan (孟氏), courtesy name Tian (恬), was a native of the State of Qi (present-day Mengyin County, Shandong Province) and a famous general of the Qin Dynasty. Meng Tian was born into a family of generational celebrities. His grandfather Meng Xiao and father Meng Wu were both famous generals in the Qin State, deeply influenced by the family environment, and had great ambitions since childhood.

　　In 221 BC, Meng Tian was made a general and attacked Qi, and was worshipped as an internal history for breaking Qi's merits, and his brother Meng Yi was also crowned Shangqing. The Meng brothers were deeply favored by Qin Shi Huang, and Meng Tian served as a foreign affair, and Meng Yi was often an internal strategist, and was known as "faithful" at that time. The other generals did not dare to compete with them for favors. After Qin unified the Six Kingdoms, Meng Tian led an army of 300,000 to attack the Xiongnu in the north. It recaptured Henan (around the city of Ordos in the south of Hetao, Inner Mongolia), built Lintao (present-day Min County, Gansu) in the west, and the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Miles in Liaodong (in present-day Liaoning) in the east, conquering northern Xinjiang for more than ten years, threatening the Xiongnu.

　　In the winter of 210 BC, Qin Shi Huang fell ill and died, and the Zhongche Government ordered Zhao Gao to secretly plot a coup d'état with the chancellor Li Si and the prince Hu Hai to appoint Hu Hai the Prince. After Hu Hai ascended the throne, he killed the Meng brothers and committed suicide by swallowing medicine.

　　Meng Tian's grandfather, Meng Xiao, originally lived in the State of Qi, came to the State of Qin during the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, appeared in the history books during the reign of King Xiang of QinZhuang, and constantly fought for the State of Qin, and later became Shangqing. By the early years of Qin Shi Huang, he became one of the most important generals of the Qin state. Meng Tian's father, Meng Wu, served as a general of Wang Qi (who was later the grandfather of Meng Tian's general Wang Li) and participated in the Battle of Qin and Chu. By the time of Mengtian, Mengtian was already able to lead the main force of the Qin army at that time to attack the Xiongnu in the north, and even the eldest son of Qin Shi Huang was sent to the Mengtian army as a supervisor. Meng Yi was also an official and a shangqing at the same time, and once led troops, and the family's status was even higher than that of Meng Xiao during his lifetime. But it also caused contradictions and conflicts of interest with Hu Hai, Li Si and Zhao Gao, which eventually led to the demise of the Meng family.