Su Qin, who was running into walls everywhere, finally received by Marquis Wenhou of Yan after wandering around the Yan kingdom for a year. At this time, to meet an unremarkable idler, Yan Wenhou actually had his own grievances. Obviously, Su Qin also knew this bitterness of Yan Wenhou in order to promote the first great alliance of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong.
After seeing Marquis Wenhou of Yan, Su Qin first made a polite remark, calling the State of Yan a "country of heavenly palaces", and then tried his best to persuade Marquis Wenhou of Yan to alienate the State of Qin, and joined forces with the zhao state who was close at hand: "I am not worried about the scourge of being close to a hundred miles, but I attach importance to the distant worries of thousands of miles away, and there is no worse plan than this!" Therefore, I hope that the great king can unite with the Zhao kingdom and be friendly, and the princes of the world will become one, then the Yan kingdom will certainly have no disasters. ”
Su Qin ate the "closed door soup" in the Qin State, so it was easy to understand that he tried his best to encourage the Six Kingdoms of Shandong to "join forces" to confront the Qin State. However, it was not only the State of Zhao that was a neighbor to the State of Yan, but also another great power in Shandong, the State of Qi. Why did Su Qin not persuade the State of Yan to join forces with the State of Qi, but only mentioned the State of Zhao?
Speaking of which, the interaction between the Yan and Qi states in history was actually far more frequent than that between the Jin dynasty. In the early Spring and Autumn Period, because of the invasion of Shanrong, the State of Yan once asked the overlord Qi Huangong for help, and the Duke of Qi Huan made a big move to fight against Shanrong and solve the threat for the Yan State. In the middle and late Spring and Autumn period, when the Yan civil unrest was in turmoil, Qi Jinggong raised an army to cut down Yan and take the lead for Duke Jian of Yan; although the Qi people failed to restore duke Yan Jian this time, after this conquest, Qi Jinggong got a Yan woman as his wife. In contrast, during the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Yan had almost no contact with the State of Jin, even though the State of Jin had long been recognized as a hegemon by the royal family. However, the State of Qi during the Warring States period had already changed hands. Also at the beginning of the Warring States period, the Tian clan deposed the last monarch of Jiang Qi and replaced him. Jiang Qi once had a favor for Yan, will the Yan people become more and more unfamiliar with Tian Qi because of this?
But in any case, the State of Qi was on the side of the bed of the State of Yan. No matter how bad the relations between the two countries are, Su Qin wants to complete the grand plan of "combining the longitudinal", and the State of Qi is an indispensable link. But in front of Duke Wen of Yan, Su Qin never mentioned the State of Qi, and Duke Wen of Yan seemed to be completely unaware of this, but he gladly accepted Su Qin's grand plan of connivance, is this not too strange?
Wherever there is any abnormality, there will be demons.
The reason why Su Qin's lobbying of the Yan state was so smooth was actually closely related to an unknown battle between Yan and Qi.
During the nearly one year that Su Qin was wandering in the State of Yan, the State of Qi suddenly attacked the State of Yan and besieged Quanyi (Quanyi, in present-day Zhengding County, Hebei). Although they all belonged to the "Seven Heroes of the Warring States", and the Tian Dynasty Qi was only three generations old, the national strength of the State of Qi was long stronger than that of the State of Yan. Especially since King Qi Wei succeeded to the throne, he has relied heavily on the use of energy and greatly improved his national strength. In the more than ten years before Su Qin traveled to the Yan kingdom, the Qi army defeated the Wei army twice at Guiling and Maling, completely pulling the former Eastern Zhou overlord off the altar.
In the same year that Su Qin visited Yan, King Hui of Wei, who had been defeated by the state of Qi, was forced to submit to the king of Qiwei. Because he was dissatisfied with the Zhou royal family's contribution to Qin, the King of Qi Wei simply invited King Hui of Wei to come to Xuzhou to meet the alliance, and then called each other kings! Before Qi and Wei "King Xiang of Xuzhou", the princes of Eastern Zhou dared to claim the title of king, except for Wu, Yue, and other remote foreign countries, and the only one who regarded itself as a barbarian was the State of Chu. Now that Qi and Wei are crowned kings at the same time, in addition to their contempt for the Zhou royal family, it also shows the high dissatisfaction of the Qi people with the Zhou Xianwang Zhi bo Yu Qin. The "Xuzhou Xiangwang" incident is the King of Qi Wei showing his strength to the people of the world in a high profile: the State of Qi has the ability to sit on an equal footing with the Zhou Royal Family, and what a thing is the position of the overlord!
The King of Qi Wei, who was like the sun in the sky, somehow suddenly had a rift with the Yan Kingdom. Therefore, around the time when Su Qin stayed in the Yan state for a year, the state of Qi suddenly sent a large-scale army to attack the Yan state. (Lü Zuqian's "Memorabilia") In the face of the surging Qi army, Yan Wengong felt that he was alone and had to ask for help from another neighboring country, the State of Zhao.
But what was surprising was that another country thousands of miles away suddenly came to stir up trouble. This country is the Qin state that is hated by king Qi Wei.
At this time in the State of Qin, Duke Xiao of Qin had died, and his son succeeded to the throne, known as Hui Wenjun. Because he had a festival with Shang Martin in the early years, Hui Wenjun killed Shang Martin as soon as he succeeded to the throne. When he officially sat on the throne of the following year, Chu, Han, Zhao, Shu and other countries came to Qin for a pilgrimage. In the third year of Huiwenjun, the State of Qin attacked the korean city of Yiyang for the second time. In the fourth year of Huiwenjun, that is, the year when Su Qin first arrived in the Yan Kingdom, King Xianwang of Zhou sent Wenwu to Huiwenjun, officially acknowledging that he had inherited the hegemonic position of Duke Xiao of Qin.
The first few years of Hui Wenjun's reign were so smooth and smooth, all because Qin Xiaogong laid a solid foundation for his national strength. However, although at this time, the State of Qin broke through the natural danger of Kunhan and was also honored by the royal family, it was obviously not as dazzling as the State of Qi. To illustrate this, although Hui Wenjun attacked Yiyang twice, he soon had to return Yiyang to Korea. Yiyang was an important gateway for the Qin state to "pass through the three rivers and peep into the Zhou Room", and Hui Wenjun did not want to take it for himself, but the situation in the Six Kingdoms of Shandong at that time made the Qin people dare not forcibly occupy this strategic place - this is where the deterrent of the Su-Qin conspiracy lies.
In order to open the passage to the Central Plains as soon as possible and steadily, Hui Wenjun couldn't help but set his sights on the distant Yan kingdom. The two kingdoms of Yan and Qin were thousands of miles apart, and there was no direct conflict of interest between them. However, Yan and Qin happened to be located at both ends of the Three Jins, and together they could form a front-and-forth attack on the Three Jins, which was extremely beneficial to the Qin State strategically. Therefore, Hui Wenjun decided to marry the State of Yan and married a Qin daughter to the Prince of the State of Yan. (The "History of the Duke of Yanzhao" calls this woman the daughter of King Hui of Qin, but King Hui of Qin had just held the crown ceremony the year before; if the ancients held the crown ceremony at the age of twenty, then the daughter of King Hui of Qin should not be more than ten years old and is unlikely to marry into the State of Yan.) What's more, the eastern Zhou dynasty was often less than twenty years old. ）
Since Yan and Qin had already married, when the Yan kingdom encountered foreign invasion, the Qin people were even more unlikely to sit idly by. Qin and Yan were thousands of miles apart, and the Qin State sent troops to save Yan, of course, far from the water can not quench the near thirst. When Hui Wenjun succeeded to the throne, the Zhao people went to hajj, and through this relationship, Hui Wenjun urgently sent an emissary to visit Zhao and urge the Zhao state to rescue the Yan state. This emissary of the Qin State was not very famous at this time. However, decades later, he became a well-known figure in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty of Wei Zhen—he was the uncle of King Qin Zhao, the half-brother of Empress Xuan, the Marquis of Yongwei.
Although it was likely that King Qin Zhao had not yet been born in this year, Wei Ran could be regarded as a state relative no matter what. The news of Wei Ran's visit to the Zhao Kingdom was soon discovered by the Qi people. If the State of Zhao sent troops to help Yan, in the case of the former Yan army and the Zhao army after the Zhao army, the Battle of Quanyi was full of variables. Therefore, Tian Bao, who controlled the power of the State of Qi, did not dare to slack off at all, and immediately sent the Doctor Wei to visit the State of Zhao and obstruct the Zhao people from sending troops. In the Battle of Guiling that year, the State of Qi had helped the State of Zhao once; this time Tian Bao wanted the State of Zhao to cooperate with the State of Qi, which was not very difficult in theory.
After arriving at the State of Zhao, Wei did not go to see Marquis Su of Zhao, but directly went to Li Xiang, the chancellor of the State of Zhao, and said: "If the State of Zhao assists Yan in attacking the Qi army, then the Qi army must be in danger." Sensing the crisis, the Qi people would certainly use their land to seek peace with the Yan state and attack the Zhao state in turn. In this way, the Zhao army became the army of the Yan state and seized the land for the Yan state. Therefore, for the sake of Zhao Guo, it is better to stand still. The situation in the State of Qi was alleviated, and it would certainly continue to fight with Yan. If the Yan state won, it would be exhausted, and the Zhao state could seize the opportunity to capture Tang (present-day Tang County, Hebei) and Qu Rebellion (southeast of present-day Shunping County, Hebei); the Yan state was defeated, and its fate was in the hands of the Zhao state. Therefore, as long as the Zhao state remained neutral, it could cut off land from qi and Yan, and the power of both countries was controlled by the zhao state. ”
When the Qi people said this, the Zhao people immediately found the clue: When Zhao and Wei handan fought, didn't the Qi people also operate in this way? That time, the Zhao state of Handan was attacked by the Wei army, but the Qi people ambushed the retreating Wei army at Guiling -- this is really a clever plan to kill two birds with one stone!
Therefore, the Zhao people really remained neutral and were reluctant to send troops to rescue the Yan state.
Without zhao guo's assistance, the Yan people were suddenly short of confidence. Repeatedly fought against the Qi army, the Yan army was defeated. Seeing that the Qi army was about to drive straight in, the whole Yan kingdom was on fire, but no one could come up with a solution to the difficulties. At this moment, a key person appeared and proposed a plan to Yan Wengong. It was this key figure who pushed the Yan kingdom into another abyss more than a decade later—he was the grandson of Duke Wen of Yan, the later King of Yan. Seeing that Grandpa was impatient, Ji Duo suggested: "It is better to cede the land and seek peace with Qi, then Zhao Guo will definitely come to our rescue." If the State of Zhao did not come to the rescue, the State of Qi would become stronger, and then the State of Zhao would have to serve the State of Qi. ”
At this point, Yan Guo really had no other way, and Yan Wengong had to agree: "Good! Therefore, Yan Wengong sent his doctor Guo Ren to seek peace and prepare to cede the land to the State of Qi.
Upon learning this news, Zhao Ren was suddenly not calm. During the Battle of Handan, the State of Qi sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight for a long time, and when the two kingdoms of Zhao and Wei were exhausted, they sent troops to ambush the Wei army at Guiling, which can be described as "the clams fighting each other, and the fishermen gaining profits". But now that Yan and Qi were about to negotiate peace, Zhao Guo still adhered to a neutral strategy, that is, offended the Yan people, and to some extent offended the Qi people even more deeply. After all, after Guiling saved the Zhao state in the first battle, the Zhao people had not yet returned the Qi people. When the State of Qi attacked the State of Yan, the Tiger was thinking of "fishing for profit", how could the Qi people not be more jealous of the State of Zhao?
Thinking of this, zhao ren no longer hesitated, and immediately sent troops to rescue Yan and solve the danger of the Yan kingdom.
Su Qin did not participate in the entire decision-making process of the Battle of Yan and Qi Quan. However, Su Qin, who remained in the Yan kingdom, personally experienced this crisis in the Yan country. The strength of the Yan state was not only weaker than that of the State of Qi, but also weaker than that of the State of Zhao. Therefore, when the State of Qin extended an olive branch, the State of Yan was more worried about angering the two great powers next to it, especially the State of Zhao, who had just saved the State of Yan. Even if the comprehensive strength of the Qin state was stronger than that of any zhao or qi country, once Zhao and Qi were dissatisfied with the Yan state and came to the crusade, the Qin state thousands of miles away could not cross thousands of miles to come to the rescue. Therefore, it was impossible for the State of Yan at that time to abandon the "combination of vertical" and "connect with the State of Qin".
The only way to temporarily free the Yan state from the crisis was Su Qin's "joint indulgence".
However, even if it is "hezhong", under the premise of just a big war with the State of Qi, the Yan people will not be reconciled with the State of Qi without any mustard. Therefore, the interesting Su Qin only mentioned the combination of Yan and Zhao Guo but never mentioned the State of Qi, but vaguely mentioned it as "the unity of the princes under the heavens". The root cause is this unremarkable power war.
Although Su Qin successfully promoted the joint strategy of the six kingdoms of Shandong, from the perspective of the process of the battle of Yan and Qiquan, the combination of the two did not fundamentally eliminate the conflict of interests between the six countries of Shandong. As soon as Duke Wen of Yan died, the State of Qi invaded and captured the Ten Cities of the State of Yan again, which is evident. Because it is impossible to completely eliminate the conflict of interests between the nations, the alliance is only a formal alliance, but it is not stable. Su Qin and Su Qin's subsequent attempts could not completely overthrow the Qin State, and this was probably the key factor in it.