During the Warring States period, the State of Qin, the State of Chu, the State of Qi, the State of Yan, the State of Zhao, the State of Wei, and the State of Korea were the seven most powerful princely states at that time, collectively known as the Seven Heroes of the Warring States. Interested friends with the editor to take a look at it.
After the Battles of Guiling and Maling, the State of Wei further declined, and the Qi-Wei struggle for hegemony ended, replaced by the three powers of Qin, Qi, and Chu, followed by Wei, Zhao, Han, and Yan. At this time, the State of Qin, which already possessed Kunhan and had a very superior strategic position according to the natural dangers of the Yellow River, the intention of moving east became increasingly obvious, causing panic among all countries.
King Huai of Chu inherited the inheritance of his ancestors and had strong national strength. At that time, the Qin and Qi states were evenly matched, and if they wanted to overwhelm each other, they had to unite with other countries. The State of Chu bordered qin and Qi, and was powerful, becoming the object of qin and Qi's struggle to unite.
However, the occurrence of the Battle of Xiangling made King Huiwen of Qin have to adjust his plan and instead choose to fight with the three kingdoms of Wei, Han, and Qi to suppress the State of Chu, and the State of Wei, which was in the cracks, took the opportunity to intensify the contradictions between Qin and Chu. After Qin felt that the Three Jin Dynasties had become handy, King Huiwen of Qin adopted a more active policy toward the State of Chu.
1. Qin Ke Bashu
1. The rise of ancient Shu
The Ba and Shu were the two earliest tribes living in the Sichuan region. Between the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States, Ba and Shu established a state. "At this time, Ba was bounded by Chu to the east, Shu to the west, Qianjiang to the south, and Qin to the north." Since the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Pakistan and the State of Chu have been relatively closely linked, in a state of alternating war and peace.
The State of Shu was centered on the Sichuan Basin, and after three dynasties of Yu Kai, Du Yu and Enlightened Ming, the State of Shu developed into a great country of Yangyang that was "bordered by Ba in the east, Yue in the south, Qin in the north, and Ayang in the west". The State of Shu had frequent contacts with the State of Chu, but the enemies of the State of Shu were mainly the State of Qin, and the two sides had a long-term struggle for Southern Zheng.
"Expanding to the east is an important national policy of the ancient Shu Kingdom", and the Ba Kingdom had to attack the Shu State to the west because the land on the east, south and north sides was plundered by the Chu State, so the two countries fought for generations, which provided a good opportunity for Qin to enter and occupy Bashu later. With the decline of the State of Wei, the situation in the eastern part of the State of Qin was generally stabilized.
Even so, from the overall point of view, the current strength of the Qin state is not enough to control the Central Plains, and it lacks a solid rear base. At that time, the State of Chu occupied the upper reaches of the Han River and the Yangtze River Basin and had the hanzhong and ba and qianzhong regions, and was relatively dominant in geographical location. It can be said that the Bashu region was very important for the hegemonic war between Qin and Chu.
2. The Qin state is both soft and hard
Successive rulers of the Qin state saw the importance of the Bashu region and gradually developed towards Ba and Shu, and adopted a more active policy during the reign of King Huiwen of Qin. The first step of The Chu Dynasty when King Huiwen of Qin was to attack Ba and Shu and compete for the superior position in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, forming a high-rise position for the Chu State. When King Huiwen of Qin first established himself, he realized that Shudi was "the only way to enter Chu".
Later, King Huiwen of Qin knew that the King of Shu was lustful, so he "counted the number of beautiful women to enter", coupled with the weakening of the Chu state at that time and the growing strength of the Qin state, the King of Shu took advantage of this opportunity to repair relations with Qin. In the ninth year of the reign of King Huiwen of Qin (316 BC), war broke out between Ba and Shu, and both countries sent emissaries to qin for help. At that time, just as The Republic of Korea sent troops to provoke the Qin State, the ministers had a heated discussion on whether to cut down the Han or the Shu.
In the end, at sima cue's suggestion, King Huiwen of Qin strengthened his determination to cut down Shu. From this point, it can be seen that during the reign of King Huiwen of Qin, the State of Qin had a clear purpose and steps to pacify the world, and the Emperor and the Emperor were all working together for the ultimate goal of the East Out.
In addition, from the overall point of view, at that time, the conditions for the Qin state to complete the great cause of reunification in the east were not yet mature, and Qin was in a corner of Guanzhong, and it was still unable to defeat the enemy and six enemies, and compared with the eastward advance, the resistance to attacking And Shu was much smaller, and the attack and destruction of Ba and Shu could turn Ba and Shu into their own rear areas.
In addition, "prior to this, Qin's offensive route against Chu was concentrated on the Danjiang and Hanjiang passages that crossed the Qin Mountains obliquely, but both the south side of the Nanyang Basin and the shangyong land at the eastern end of the Han River passage belonged to the control of the Chu state, and therefore attacked Ying, still facing the Obstruction of the Chu Army on both sides of the Dahong Mountain and the Suizao Corridor." "It was very advantageous to capture Ba and Shu in the future, so King Huiwen of Qin was determined to cut down Shu.
3. The Chu state did not move
From the perspective of the State of Chu, the inaction of the State of Chu during the Qin attack on Ba and Shu provided a favorable external environment for Qin to destroy Ba and Shu. First of all, from the perspective of decision makers, after Wu Qi changed the law, Chu once paid attention to the development of the southwest. Since King Huai of Chu succeeded to the throne, he gradually relaxed his vigilance against the Bashu region. Secondly, from a cultural point of view, the Chu people mainly lived in the plain area, and in the long run, they only liked to live in the original and live in the mountains.
The reason why the Chu state failed to unify the world is closely related to this cultural characteristic of the Chu people. Third, from a strategic point of view, at that time, the terrain of the land of Ba and Shu was dangerous, if the State of Chu wanted to attack Ba and Shu, it would have to go up the Yangtze River by water, and it would have to cross the rugged Wushan Mountains by land, which was more difficult, and there were too many choices around the Chu State, and taking Ba and Shu was the most time-consuming and laborious one, so although there was a conflict between the Chu State and Ba, it was only to set up Ba County and build a pass for strategic defense, and did not take more active measures.
Moreover, from the perspective of the distribution of the chu state's troops, "only a few of the Chu military strength are distributed in the hinterland of the Chu state and the ancient mining and smelting sites, most of which are in the north, east and south of the Chu state", so the Chu state has no intention of expanding westward. More crucially, the rulers of the Chu state lacked a proper understanding of the important economic and strategic position of the Bashu region, thus providing good external conditions for Qin to successfully conquer Ba and Shu. The inaction of the Chu state during the Qin attack on Ba and Shu was the second major mistake made by King Huai of Chu in his strategy toward Qin.
Second, the competition between Hanzhong and China
After Qin captured Ba and Shu, in order to threaten the core area of the Chu state, Qin launched a fierce offensive against the Chu state in order to compete for the eastern Hanzhong, and the importance of Hanzhong also determined that the struggle between Qin and Chu for this region would be long-term and repetitive.
In the early Warring States period, the State of Chu was the largest ruler of the Han River Basin, and although the Qin people knew the importance of the Han River Basin, they had no time to look south. It was not until the time of Qin Li's reign that the Qin people, who were blocked by the Three Jins in Guanzhong and unable to advance eastward, began to infiltrate into the Hanzhong Basin. In the 26th year of qin ligong (451 BC), the "Zuoshu Great Wall South Zheng", the Qin state began to extend its power to the Hanzhong Basin.
Since then, the ownership of Southern Zheng has been repeated, after several generations, and finally in the Qin Huigong period, the Qin state seized this area. At this point, the Qin state finally took root in the largest basin of the Han River. At this time, the area gained by the Qin state was the western Hanzhong. After that, because the strategic center of gravity of the Qin state at that time was still in Hexi, it did not continue to deepen after occupying Southern Zheng.
It was not until the time of King Huiwen of Qin that he again launched an offensive against hanzhong in the east and captured the region through the Battle of Danyang. For the Chu state, Hanzhong was a strategic powerhouse for the Chu state. In the middle and late Spring and Autumn period, the Qin state became increasingly powerful, and its sphere of influence began to expand to the Hanzhong Basin and the Shangdan Basin. In order to prevent the Qin people from moving south to the east, the State of Chu set up Hanzhong Commandery in the middle and upper reaches of the Han River, and the county administration was in Danyang, so when King Huiwen of Qin, the capture of Danyang marked the fall of Chu Hanzhong County.
In the middle of the Warring States period, the Qin state, which became stronger through the business martingale transformation method, gradually became a major problem for the Chu state. When King Chu Wei was king, he had already seen the ambitions of the Qin state. Therefore, "Chu ordered Zhao Rat to strengthen the defense of Hanzhong with an army of 100,000 troops". By the time of King Huai of Chu, some people of insight in the Chu state still attached great importance to the military status of Hanzhong. In order to protect the northwest gate of the Chu state, they advocated the alliance against Qin, but the king of Chu Huai ignored it, causing the Chu state to lose Hanzhong, and the northwest border of the Chu state was opened, laying a hidden danger for the later fall of Yan and Ying.
After the Five Kingdoms cut down Qin, Qin and Qi began to annex land each. Qin and Qi did not have direct entanglement of interests, but the situation at that time had transitioned from the struggle for hegemony between Qi and Wei to the stage of the juxtaposition of Qin and Qi, of which the State of Chu not only bordered Qin and Qi, but also had strong strength, which was the key force restricting Qin and Qi.
Therefore, for the State of Qin, the combination of Qi and Chu was not conducive to the power competition of the State of Qin in the Central Plains on the one hand, and on the other hand, it made the power of the State of Qi more powerful, which had to arouse the vigilance of the State of Qin. In addition, at that time, Qin felt that the three Jin Dynasties were already handy, so he decided to "cut down Qi and Jing with the strength of Qin, Han and Wei" and point the spearhead of the struggle directly at the Chu state.
Faced with the ambitions of the State of Qin, King Huai of Chu allied with the State of Qi and sent troops to the borders of Lu and Qi and the south of Wei and Han, while sending troops north to attack Quwo and Yuzhong, threatening Qin's allies. With the help of the State of Qi, the State of Chu successfully captured Quwo and prepared to attack the land of Shangyu.
"And King Hui of Qin not only wanted to defeat the Chu army in the land of Shangyu, but also wanted to take advantage of the victory to capture the Hanzhong region of Chu, so he had to try to break up the alliance of Qi and Chu, and also be prepared to counterattack the Chu army's military victory in Shangyu and take advantage of the victory to seize Hanzhong." This was the second step of the Qin State's plot against Chu. After the failure of the Five Kingdoms attack on Qin, serious differences occurred within the ruling clique of the Chu state in terms of domestic and foreign policies.
Madame Zheng Gui, Ling Yin Zilan, and Shangguan Dafu Jin Shang were jealous of Xian Xian and did not think of making progress, and still adhered to the traditional pro-Qin policy in foreign policy. People of insight represented by Qu Yuan realized that the conservative forces at the upper echelons of the Chu state were too strong, so they demanded internally the elimination of maladministration, the selection of talents and the appointment of talents, and externally advocated uniting forces to resist Qin. In the early days, King Huai of Chu had the desire to be strong, supported Qu Yuan's political innovation, and sent "Qu Yuan to serve as An envoy to Eastern Chu to Form a strong party." ”
In this situation, in order to break up the Qi-Chu alliance, Zhang Yi first bribed the pro-Qin faction's Shangguan Dafu Jin Shang, Gongzi Zilan, and King Huai's favorite, Ji Zhenggui, to expel Qu Yuan, the pro-Qi representative, through their influence on King Huai of Chu. Later, he asked King Huai of Chu to break off diplomatic relations with the State of Qi, so that Qin and Chu could become "brotherly countries".
Upon hearing this, King Huai of Chu gladly agreed, "Grant Zhang Yi a seal and bribe him generously", and ordered a severance of diplomatic relations with the State of Qi. This was the first time that King Huai of Chu betrayed the Qi-Chu alliance, and it was also a major mistake in diplomatic strategy during the reign of King Huai of Chu. After the State of Chu broke off diplomatic relations with the State of Qi, Zhang Yi only admitted to offering six miles of land, and the King of Chu Huai, Fang Fang, knew that he had been deceived and raised an army to cut down Qin.
In the thirteenth year of the reign of King Huiwen of Qin (312 BC), Qin and Chu fought at Danyang, and Korea also joined forces with the State of Qin to attack the State of Chu. As a result, the Chu state was greatly defeated, and more than 70 people, including the Chu general Qu Qi and the general Feng Hou Ug, were captured, losing 80,000 people. Soon, the Qin army occupied Hanzhong of Chu, "taking six hundred miles of land and placing It in Hanzhong County." ”
epilogue
During the reign of King Huiwen of Qin, the strategic encirclement of the State of Chu by the State of Qin mainly revolved around three places: Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong. Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong had a very important strategic position and were important factors affecting Qin-Chu relations and Qin unification of the world.
The annexation of Ba and Shu not only enabled the State of Qin to obtain a base for a rich country and a strong army, but also caused the State of Chu to lose its forward position against the State of Qin, lifted the threat of the State of Chu to the State of Qin, and opened a path for the future Occupation of the State of Chu. Qin's victory in Hanzhong opened the northwest gateway of the Chu State, and since then, the Chu State has always been in a passive position in the relations between the two countries.