How does Zhang Yi attack the strategy of combined vertical?

Zhang Yi returned to Qin

The "Records of History" records that in the fourth year of King Shenliang of Zhou (317 BC), Zhang Yi re-assumed the post of prime minister of the Qin state in this year. This is very reasonable, because zhang Yi was in the heart of the State of Wei in Qin, establishing the Qin, Wei, and Han Lianheng alliances together to deal with the Eastern Qi state, and as a result, the Qin army was defeated by the Qi general Kuang Zhang, and the Lianheng alliance naturally dispersed, and the Hezhong faction, which was once suppressed by Zhang Yi, took this opportunity to re-enter the political arena, Gongsun Yan and Huishi actively joined Zhang Luohezhong's alliance, and Zhang Yi had to retreat in ashes.

However, Zhang Yi's loss of power in the State of Wei was not the same as losing power in the State of Qin. King Huiwen of Qin still trusted him and reserved him the position of prime minister. Therefore, although Zhang Yi stepped down as the premier of the State of Wei, he returned to the State of Qin as prime minister, and the political policy did not waver in the slightest, and the temporary defeat did not prevent him from continuing to work hard.

The opportunity to turn the tables was not difficult to wait, and soon the Five Kingdoms failed to cut down qin, And Li Lizi advanced into the hinterland of the Central Plains, and the battle of The Fish beheaded 80,000 levels, shocking the world. In this battle, the Qin state obviously let go of the fight, and if it can kill more people, it will kill more people, and the purpose is not to attack the city strategically, but to beat the opponent painfully, fight fear, and fight back to the negotiating table, which is a classic case of perfect cooperation between war and diplomacy.

After the pain and fear, the army withdrew, the diplomats came, and it was time for Zhang Yi to exert her eloquence. The records of the "Records of History" failed to clarify the timeline, and the "Biography of Zhang Yilie" arranged the whole thing in the era of The King of Wei after King Xiang of Wei, and the "Chronology of the Six Kingdoms" placed Zhang Yi's return to the Qin State as the prime minister in the second year of the Battle of Yuyu. The biggest possibility of this contradiction is that Sima Qian neglected in the "Biography of Zhang Yilie", writing that King Hui of Wei died and King Xiang of Wei succeeded him as King Xiang of Wei died and King Wei Ai succeeded him.

This year, there was also a major event, which is worth mentioning, that is, the State of Qi took advantage of the fire to loot, united with the State of Song, and fought with the State of Wei. At this time in the State of Qi, King Qi Wei had just died, and he and King Hui of Wei ran on a front and back foot, and the successor was King Xuan of Qi, and the monarch of the State of Song was the King of Song who had just been crowned king. King Xuan of Qi and King Yan of Song, one was a new king, the other was self-aggrandizing, and they both wanted to set three fires and go together to fight the State of Wei.

In doing so, Qi Guo not only betrayed his faith, but also fell into the well, appearing to be too much of a chicken thief. When Song Guo did this, he really didn't know how many pounds he had, just like a child who had learned martial arts for a few days and wanted to fight in the upper grades. Song Guo did not know that the Qi State around him was the one who had the most evil intentions towards him.

From the perspective of Wei Guo, he was first beaten by his opponent, and then beaten by his allies, and those who did not betray among the allies were also beaten by their opponents with themselves. The conclusion can only be: the allies are either useless or untrustworthy; the opponents are too strong to fight. Now that the conclusion is there, it is self-evident what the countermeasures should be. Therefore, zhang Yi's arrival, the tongue can lotus is not important, it is nothing more than pushing the boat along the water and helping King Wei Xiang to finalize his decision.

Vertical and horizontal rhetoric

Zhang Yi's rhetoric recorded in the Zizhi Tongjian was abridged from the Records of History and the Warring States Policy. The credibility of this kind of rhetoric is more or less suspicious, but the literary style is particularly good, and the influence on the Chinese language is very deep. Therefore, it is necessary to look at the unabridged versions recorded in the "Records of History" and "Warring States Policy".

Zhang Yi said this: "On the land area of the Wei State, the radius is not more than a thousand miles, and on the military strength, the soldiers are only 300,000 people. Looking at the geographical environment, a horse Flat River, in all directions, there is no natural danger of famous mountains and rivers. From Korea to Wei, more than 200 miles, it can be easily walked. The state of Wei bordered the state of Chu to the south, South Korea to the west, Zhao to the north, and the state of Qi to the east, and all sides were garrisoned, consuming at least 100,000 people.

Therefore, the terrain of the State of Wei is naturally a battlefield, even diplomacy is difficult to engage in, and neither side of the east, west, south, nor north dares to snub it, otherwise it will be beaten, which is called the road of fragmentation. ”

The idiom "fragmentation" comes from this, which originally described the situation of wei guo, which was surrounded by strong enemies on all sides. But you may think of the famous Xihe dialogue between Wu Qi and Wei Wuhou when the Wei kingdom was infinitely beautiful.

It was the fifteenth year of King An of Zhou (387 BC), and Marquis Wu of Wei had just taken over. Wei Wuhou boated on the West River, admiring the great rivers and mountains he had just inherited along the way, and could not suppress his little excitement, saying to Wu Qi, who was in the same boat: "Such a high mountain and a big river is really a solid natural danger, it is so beautiful, it can be called the treasure of our Wei country." Wu Qi was not impressed, and said a famous saying that has been passed down through the ages: "There is no danger in Germany." This means that only "morality" deserves to be called a national treasure, and natural danger is not so important. （s1-066）

From the Xihe Dialogue to Zhang Yi's efforts to woo King Wei Xiang, a full 70 years have passed, and judging from the progress of our course, we have completed more than 200 lectures. Let's first care whether the proposition of "not in danger in Germany" is too short, as long as we review the focus of discussion between Wei Wuhou and Wu Qi, we can think of Wei Guoming, who is clearly not short of mountains and rivers, how did it reach Zhang Yi's mouth, Wei Guo became a horse Pingchuan, there is no danger to defend?

There are two reasons for this, one is that the Zongheng family likes to exaggerate, and in order to achieve the goal, they do not care about cutting the facts, and attacking them is not as good as the rest; the other is that the most important period of natural danger in the Wei State is really gone. At the beginning, the dialogue between Wei Wuhou and Wu Qi took place in Xihe, which was a section of the north-south direction of the Yellow River Loop, which was indeed called a natural danger, Wu Qi once dominated the land of Hexi for the State of Wei, but for many years the State of Qin and the State of Wei fought a tug-of-war here, and later Shang Martin used a trick to trap the Wei general Gongzi Jie, and occupied the land of Hexi as much as possible, and it was precisely because of this military merit that Shang Martin was sealed in the Fifteen Yis, and from then on he was called Shang Martin or Shang Jun. （s1-205）

Zhang Yi continued to eloquently, and then analyzed why hezhong was unreliable: "People who engage in hezhong, who gather together to call brothers and brothers, kill white horses by the river, and make sacrifices, as if they can really unite more, but brothers, even parents and children, will quarrel over money, how can the alliance relationship connected by Su Qin," which is connected by su Qin' capricious generation, last? ”

Next, Zhang Yi began to analyze the international situation, saying that the State of Qin wanted to weaken the State of Chu the most, and the one who could best deal with the State of Chu was the State of Wei. Chu Guo seemed to be powerful, but in fact, he couldn't help but fight. If the State of Wei went south to fight the State of Chu, the odds of winning were very high, the profits were also great, and it could still make the State of Qin happy, and only the State of Chu suffered losses. Therefore, from the perspective of King Xiang of Wei, if he transferred the evil to the Chu state and enjoyed peace for himself, why not enjoy it? Zhang Yi's original words were: "Marry the misfortune of an country, this good deed is also." That's how the word "blame" comes from.

Next, Zhang Yi turned to attacking the Hezhong faction, saying that those people were just fooling people with a set of fallacious reasons and heresies, and who let this year's tricks be able to worship xiang Hou, they only cared about personal profits from it, and who would really care about the safety and survival of the princes of the big countries.

Zhang Yi finally summed up the statement, said a series of very beautiful comparative sentences, the original words are: "Subjects hear it, accumulate feathers and sink the boat, group light folding shafts, all mouths shovel gold, accumulate and destroy bones", this is to put the preventive needle enough, these 4 phrases later became our idiom, still the same meaning, describing the objection even if it is absurd, as long as there are more people who say it, then the correct opinion is good, the upright gentleman is good, it will be excluded. The implication is that I, Zhang Yi, am a righteous gentleman, a person who states the correct views, and there must be a lot of people who oppose me, but no matter how many people and many powerful people, you should not listen to them.

Zhang Yi's analysis of the international situation is actually completely untenable, but the key to persuasion has never been to convince people with reason. Even without Zhang Yi's words, King Xiang of Wei would have reconsidered diplomatic relations, and most likely would have fallen to Lianheng, and all he needed was to pass a step and give a gesture to the Qin side. Therefore, King Xiang of Wei took over the olive branch extended by the Qin State without any suspense, which was not difficult to understand and predict.