Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Where is the Great Wall now?

Among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, Yan and South Korea are the weakest.Yan State was one of the earliest vassal states enfeoffed by the Zhou Dynasty. Its qualifications were very old, but its national strength was limited. It was only because of its remote location that it was not annexed by other big countries.South Korea once had the famous Shen Buhui reform, and the mountain people were fierce and strong, and they were rich in strong bows and crossbows, so it was called "Strong Korea".As for the Yan Kingdom, in the early years of the Warring States Period, there was basically nothing worth mentioning except for showing off its qualifications.Not to mention the superpowers Qin and Qi, even the newly emerging Zhao State did not take Yan State seriously.At that time, Jicheng (now Beijing), the capital of Yan State, was not as prosperous and congested as Beijing is now, it was a slightly larger frontier city.

A person and a country may be without strength, but they cannot be without dignity. In order to enrich the country and strengthen the army, King Kui of Yan took the initiative to learn from Yao and Shun, and abdicated the throne to the clever and capable Xiang Guozi.Zizhi is very capable and can perform well.Before taking the throne, he was loyal and devoted to planning everything for the king; after taking the throne, he began to reveal his essence and become arbitrary.His superiority directly aroused the dissatisfaction of the old nobles of Yan State headed by Prince Ji Ping.Soon, the two groups of people opened up and fought.As a result, Yan Wangkui, Ji Ping, and Zizhi all died in civil strife.

How can you stand by and watch when your neighbors are in trouble! Who is Yan's biggest neighbor?Qi State.At that time, although Zhao Guo was cutting-edge, he had not yet annexed the strength of Yan Guo.The ambitious King Xuan of Qi saw the opportunity, sent a large army to take advantage of the fire, captured Jicheng in one fell swoop, and then refused to leave, grandiosely becoming the new master of the Yan Kingdom. No matter how useless the Yan Kingdom is, it is still an old prince of hundreds of years. How can you allow Qi Kingdom to swallow a large piece of fat!Other countries can't stand it anymore, but Qi State has already occupied Yan State, so they have to act both hard and soft, diplomatic mediation and military threats: Your Qi State must either divide Yan State equally among everyone, or withdraw from Yan State. If you don't do it, we will unite Get up and kill you!

There are as many heroes as there are enemies, so King Xuan of Qi had no choice but to order the withdrawal of troops, and before leaving, he swept away all the property of Yan State, earning a lot of money.Qi State and Yan State formed a feud over this.But Qi is strong and Yan is weak.what to do? Only rich countries and strong soldiers. Easier said than done! But Yan State has indeed become stronger under the threat of Qi State and Zhao State. The strength of the Yan Kingdom is inseparable from four people—— King Yan Zhao, Su Qin, Le Yi, and Qin Kai. It was these four people who made the plan to develop Liaodong.Yan State developed Liaodong for three purposes: expelling Donghu, opening up wasteland and farming, and secretly training troops.

The purpose of expelling Donghu is to relieve the threat of Donghu in the north to the rear of Yan State; The purpose of opening up wasteland and farmland is to allow Yan State to obtain military rations and timber, and store strategic materials; The secret military training is to avoid the eyes and ears of the princes and prepare for the defeat of Qi State in one fell swoop. The stories of King Yan Zhao, Su Qin, and Le Yi are familiar to everyone; what I want to talk about is Qin Kai, the real executor of the development of Liaodong. Before becoming a famous general of the Yan Kingdom, Qin Kai's identity was that of a hostage; to be precise, he was an undercover agent.

In the middle of the Warring States period, the Donghu tribe living in what is now Shanxi and northern Hebei gradually became stronger.After Zhao Wuling Wang Hufu rode and shot, more Donghu tribes were driven to the east border of Yan State.Seeing that Yan State is not very strong, they have to make an inch of it, constantly harassing the northern border of Yan State, posing a great threat to Yan State's mainland, and greatly restraining Yan State's military strength. If you can't beat them, you have to ask for peace.To seek peace, you need to show sincerity.Therefore, Yan State began to select people from famous families.Please note that Yan Guo is not picking young girls, but young boys.The royal family of Yan, who claims to be orthodox in Zhou etiquette, feels that using women to solve the country's diplomatic problems is really not what a big country should do (it seems to be more masculine than the later Han Dynasty).Of course, Yan Guo did not send beautiful men to the Yuan Dynasty as child prostitutes and eunuchs like the later Goryeo. Instead, it selected some young, ambitious, and honest children from famous families to Donghu as hostages.

The so-called hostages actually have three purposes: First, of course, is to be a hostage and show sincerity to the Donghu people; Second, let the young people go to the bitter cold area of ​​the grassland for a few years, and when they come back, they will be qualified soldiers and generals; The third is to spy on information, go to the enemy's place to find out, and prepare for the future to clean up Donghu. In this way, with the mission of the country, Qin Kai came to Donghu. Everything is difficult at the beginning. When he first came to Donghu, Qin Kai was discriminated against and lived a very hard life.But he persevered, and relying on his intelligence and courage, he overcame all kinds of difficulties and survived tenaciously on the prairie. He became an outstanding warrior, and was gradually recognized by the Donghu people and won the title of warrior. .

This is only the first step of his undercover career. Next, he needs to complete a bigger mission, which is to familiarize himself with the geographical environment and customs of Donghu, learn the characteristics of nomadic warfare from Donghu people, and keep in mind the living rules and military strength of Donghu people. deploy. After that, King Yanzhao came to the throne, reformed and forged ahead.The strength of Yan State has been greatly improved, and the foreign policy towards Donghu has also become tougher.Seeing that the Yan State is no longer as easy to deal with as before, and the army has become able to fight, Donghu was angry, so he took the hostages of the Yan State among the tribes to vent his anger, cut off Qin Kai's title of warrior, and restricted his actions free.

Qin Kai has lived in Donghu for many years and made many friends.They didn't want to see Qin Kai become a victim of the war between the two countries, so they helped Qin Kai escape from the Donghu camp and escorted him back to Yan. After returning to China, Qin Kai reported to King Yanzhao the truth about Donghu and the mountains and rivers of Liaodong, and made a judgment on Donghu's combat effectiveness, believing that the current Yan army is fully capable of defeating Donghu and expanding Liaodong.Qin Kai's words greatly strengthened King Yan Zhao's confidence in attacking Donghu.King Yan Zhao soon appointed Qin Kai as the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong front, and ordered him to reorganize the army and prepare to send troops.

In 300 BC, Yan State officially declared war on Donghu.When Qin Kai led the army to the west of Liaoning, he encountered the Eastern Hu cavalry unexpectedly.Relying on his familiarity with Donghu's tactics and environment, Qin Kai commanded the Yan army to break through Donghu, chasing and killing them all the way.After several fierce battles, Donghu was beaten and retreated steadily, and had to withdraw from Liaodong and return to Beyond the Great Wall.Taking advantage of the remaining prestige of defeating Donghu, Qin Kai led an army across the Liaohe River, repelled the army sent by Jizi North Korea, expanded the land for more than two thousand miles, and included all the vast land east of the Liaohe River, the Liaodong Peninsula, and the Changbai Mountains into the Kingdom of Yan. The territory has been fighting until today's Yalu River before withdrawing troops.

Qin Kai defeated Donghu and defeated Jizi North Korea. This was the first large-scale confrontation between the Han army and Hu forces in Liaodong, and it also opened the prelude to the competition between the Han regime and minority forces in Liaodong. Under Qin Kai's suggestion, Yan State set up Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaoxi, and Liaodong five counties on the long northeastern border from west to east.In order to prevent the invasion of Donghu and Jizi North Korea, while setting up administrative agencies, Yan State also spent ten years building a road from Zaoyang (near Zhangjiakou, Hebei) to Xiangping, Liaodong (now Liaoyang, Liaoning), with a width of four to six. meters, no less than five meters high, and a total length of about 1,000 kilometers. The five counties of Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaoxi, and Liaodong became the five most important cities along the Great Wall. Among them, the government of Liaodong County is Xiangping.Xiangping is now Liaoyang, Liaoning.Although Xiangping was only an inconspicuous small city at the time, it was the first city in Liaodong.Liaodong County is the earliest administrative organization established by the Han regime in Liaodong. Since then, on the vast and barren land of Liaodong, a vigorous production training movement has been launched in full swing, and advanced production methods and cultural systems have begun to affect this area.Don’t underestimate Yan’s move to develop Liaodong. If it weren’t for Qin Kai’s suggestion, the development of Liaodong might take decades, hundreds of years. included. The current Shenyang was built under the auspices of Qin Kai, and it was called Houcheng at that time.Houcheng belonged to Liaodong County at that time, and it was a small border city with the main function of stationing troops for security. Houcheng is the earliest record of Shenyang's organizational system and the starting point of Shenyang, and Qin Kai is the originator of Shenyang's city building.In recent years, archaeologists have successively unearthed many tombs of the Warring States Period, ruins of ancient city walls, tiles, tiles and other special building components for government agencies in the urban area of ​​Shenyang.And in Wulihe Park in the south of Shenyang City, there is still a 50-ton bronze statue of Qin Kai, which is Shenyang people's commemoration of Qin Kai and the best affirmation of Qin Kai's great achievements. There are also rumors that the Qin Wuyang who followed Jing Ke to assassinate Qin was the grandson of Qin Kai. A country of Yan, the second-to-last weakest among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, went to develop a place that was considered to have little strategic value at the time, and then built a city of Xiangping by the Liao River.Since then, Xiangping has been the capital of the Liaodong region for nearly two thousand years.Along with the development of Liaodong, the local economy and culture have made great progress, and the local tribes in Liaodong have also gradually formed their own ethnicity and way of life driven by Han immigrants. This is an epoch-making ice-breaking move, and it is also the first time that the Chinese nation bravely "breaks through the Guandong". There is such a record in the book: "The giant swallow is in the northeast, the Gai country is in the south of the giant swallow, the north of the Japanese, and the Japanese belongs to the swallow". The country of Gai referred to here refers to the country of Gaima on the Gaima Plateau of the Korean Peninsula.The Gaima Kingdom is one of the slavery states established by the aborigines of the Changbai Mountains and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula (actually it cannot be called a state, it can only be regarded as a rough tribal regime).With the expansion of Yan's power, these local tribes gradually learned to use iron.In the ancient tomb of Weiyuan, Cijiang Road, located on the south bank of the middle reaches of the Yalu River, relics such as the Yan State currency "Ming Dao" and iron hoes, sickles, half-moon knives, daggers and spears were unearthed in the third century BC. The predecessors of these slavery countries (such as Boliu country, Huanglong country, Ningren country, Gaima country, etc.) were the five parts of Goguryeo.The development and immigration of Jizi Korea and Yan Kingdom to Liaodong and the Korean Peninsula have effectively promoted the emergence and development of the Koguryo nation. In 284 BC, with the active cooperation of the double-faced agent Su Qin, General Yan Le Yi led the Allied Forces to turn the Qi State, which had just annexed the Song State, to the bottom of the sky; It is the elite team that Le Yi brought from Liaodong! The Liao Army appeared for the first time in Chinese history! For the first time, warriors born in the bitter cold of Liaodong used their iron and blood to make the whole world look at them! The commander of the cavalry of the Liao Army is Qin Kai! At the end of the Warring States period, the Qin army swept across the Central Plains and defeated Han and Zhao. Jing Ke failed to assassinate Qin, so Yan Wangxi and Prince Dan had to flee to Liaodong with their clan treasures.Soon, King Xi of Yan sent someone to kill Prince Dan, the assassin's mastermind, on the bank of Yanshui River in order to preserve Yan.The people of Yan State lamented Prince Dan's loyalty, so they changed the name of Yanshui to Prince River.Five years later, Wang Ben, a general of the State of Qin, went on an expedition to Liaodong, wiped out the remnants of the State of Yan, captured King Xi of Yan, and destroyed the State of Yan. Liaodong has since been officially incorporated into the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty; the history of Liaodong has also turned around.