Chapter 5 5. When the Kingdom of Shu was broken, Qin Huiwen and Wang Zhi sent the "Golden Bull"

In the third year of King Qin Huiwen (322 B.C.), the Wei State had no choice but to adopt Qin Hanwei's strategy of attacking Qi and Chu by Qin Xiang Zhang Yi's Qin Han Wei Lian because of Hui Shi's appointment to the Qi and there was no result. Prime Minister, trying to connect Qin and Han to attack Qi and Chu.The ultimate goal of King Qin Huiwen and Zhang Yi is to make Wei the leader of Qin, weaken the strength of Wei and South Korea, and pose a threat to the six countries.In the sixth year of King Huiwen of Qin (319 BC), Gongsun Yan, a native of Wei, was supported by Qi, Chu, Han, Zhao, Yan and other countries, and became Minister of Wei. Zhang Yi was expelled back to Qin, and Chu, Qi, Zhao, Han, Yan, and Yiqu The six countries joined forces to attack Qin.In the eighth year of King Qin Huiwen (317 BC), Yiqu took advantage of the war between Qin and the Three Jins to attack the western part of Qin and defeated the Qin army.King Qin Huiwen sent his half-brother Gong Ziji to defeat the Allied Forces of the Three Jins on the eastern battlefield, captured his general Shen Chai, defeated Zhao Gongzi Ke and Han Prince Huan, and beheaded 82,000 soldiers.Yiqu retreated, and Wei Guohe failed.

After defeating the army of the Hezong Kingdom, King Qin Huiwen spared no effort to encroach on other small countries. After recapturing Hexi, he stepped up his attack on the Kingdom of Shu (now central and western Sichuan).Ba and Shu are two very ancient kingdoms with their own cultural traditions. They are highly civilized and powerful. They are the two most powerful countries in the Southwest.Moreover, the Sichuan and Chongqing areas where Ba and Shu are located are mountainous, and the passage to Shu is easy to defend and difficult to attack.Chu State, Qin State had many wars with Ba and Shu, but they were not able to invade the hinterland of Ba and Shu, but were defeated by Ba and Shu many times.However, Shu Kingdom and Ba Kingdom, the two major powers in the southwest, also often fought. Ju Kingdom (now Zhaohua, Sichuan) is another powerful country in the southwest region. It is friendly with Ba. Ju and Ba often jointly resist Shu. It's time to merge with Bashu in the west.

In the ninth year of King Qin Huiwen (316 BC), South Korea aggressively attacked Qin.At this time, envoys from Ju and Shu arrived in Qin successively.It turned out that in order to defeat Ba, the Kingdom of Shu decided to cut off the Ju State, the party feather of Ba State, and attack Ju State.The state of Ju asked for help from the state of Ba, but the coalition forces of Ba and Ju were still defeated by the state of Shu. Since the state of Ju and the state of Qin had established an alliance against Chu, they turned to the state of Qin for help. King Huiwen of Qin considered that if he wanted to attack the land of Shu, he had to pass through the sword gate guarded by the state of Ju, so he accepted the generous gift from the envoy of the state of Ju.King Qin Huiwen also accepted all the generous gifts sent by the envoys of the Shu Kingdom.In other words, King Qin Huiwen agreed to all the demands of Ju and Shu.

After the envoys from the two countries returned to the country, King Qin Huiwen immediately sent Zhang Yi, Sima Cuo, Zhang Ruo, and Du Weimo to lead Qin's elite soldiers into Sichuan.The Qin army quickly passed through the sword gate guarded by the state of Ju, and rushed straight to the state of Shu. In terms of military strength, although the State of Shu is far inferior to the State of Qin, if relying on the dangerous terrain and concentrating its forces to guard the dangerous pass, it can be said that "one man guards the pass, and ten thousand men cannot open it."Even if it breaks in, it will be the end of the past and the end of the future.Therefore, although he passed through the Jianmen Gate, he did not succeed in raiding Shu, and after repeated attacks and defeats, many soldiers were defeated, and it was still difficult to pass through the Qinling Mountains.King Qin Huiwen was restless because of this, and Zhang Yi, Sima Cuo and others inspected the terrain many times, and inquired about the reality of Shu.

"The mountain streams on the Shu road are steep, and the soldiers cannot pass through. The terrain is extremely dangerous. Our army has lost countless troops, but we can't attack. Do you have a good strategy?" One day, King Huiwen asked. "My lord, what do you think if we meet mountains to open roads, build bridges when we meet water, and create a flat passage to attack Shu?" Sima Cuo was the first to speak. "General, how can it be feasible to consume so much manpower and material resources? Besides, every pass on the mountain pass is guarded by enemy soldiers, so it is not easy to attack, let alone such a big bridge building to open the way?" Zhang Yi advocated the first attack at the beginning. South Korea, and then pay attention to the affairs of Shu.

"Prime Minister, don't you think it's a good idea to turn the moat into a thoroughfare? Let General Sima continue. Maybe he really has thought of some clever plan." King Qin Huiwen just wanted to know what Sima Cuo had thought of. any solution. "My lord, we are now in a stalemate with the Shu army. They will never allow us to build mountains and bridges to attack them. But if they are willing to build wider mountain roads, then things will be easier." Before King Qin Huiwen expressed his opinion, everyone couldn't help booing, thinking that Sima Cuo had thought of some great trick, but after a long time it was just talking in his sleep.Now it's too late for them to defend, and they want to let them help you build the road. It seems that they are confused in the war.

"Go on, how do you ask them to help us build the road?" King Qin Huiwen ignored everyone's reactions and asked all the way. "My lord, what I said is not in vain. The soldiers of Shu are weak, the treasury is empty, and they are eager to get rich. If we can create a huge 'Golden Bull' in a difficult and dangerous area, the king of Shu may not let it go in vain. .” "What's '屙金牛'?" Everyone was very curious about what kind of trick the prime minister had. "The prime minister is talking about a cow that can suck up gold." "My lord, Shengming."

The next day, King Qin Huiwen ordered to stop the attack on the Shu army.In the next few days, although the Qin army did not come to attack, the Shu army still did not dare to neglect for fear of a surprise attack, and still strictly guarded the dangerous pass.In this way, the Shu army on the mountain has been waiting for half a month, but there is no shadow of a Qin army soldier.Not only that, but they also unexpectedly waited for a strange thing.According to the spies who went down the mountain to inquire about the news, the Qin army stationed at the foot of the mountain no longer knew where they had gone, but left behind a huge cow where they had been stationed. Get out a pile of gold.The news quickly reached the king of Shu, who was skeptical and sent his confidants to check.

The confidant went to have a look, and it was indeed so: a big stone ox three times the size of the big yellow ox stood beside the road, with several piles of broken gold under the buttocks.The confidants put away the gold, hurried back to the palace, and dedicated the gold to the king. The king of Shu was worried that he could not make ends meet, and the treasury was empty. He was elated when he heard the good news.In order to prevent other countries from attacking first, he immediately sent troops to protect it, and tried every means to get the giant bull that could suck gold back to the palace.But this cow is so big that the rugged mountain road cannot pass at all.So the king of Shu, who was eager to get rich, gave an order and used a lot of material and manpower at the same time.Open roads when encountering mountains, and build bridges when encountering waters.Just as King Qin Huiwen hoped, "the natural moat becomes a thoroughfare", a transportation road leading to the capital was quickly completed after day and night rush repairs by the soldiers of the Shu Kingdom, and the "Golden Bull" was finally successfully transported to the Palace of the Kingdom of Shu.

The king of Shu couldn't wait to see how the golden bull sucked the gold.But after waiting for a long time, no gold fell from the cow's buttocks. He was puzzled, turned around the "golden bull" a few times, and asked angrily, "Why can't this 'golden bull' eat gold?" The confidant said tremblingly: "Report to the king, the little one really doesn't know." The monarch was furious: "How dare you lie about the military situation and tease the widow, come here, drag him down and behead him!" But before the words fell, a guard came in to report: "Qin's army has approached the city." The monarch was shocked, and the palace suddenly became chaotic.

It turned out that after inspecting the terrain, King Qin Huiwen felt that a strong attack would not work and he had to use wisdom.When he found out that the soldiers of the State of Shu were few and weak, and the monarch was eager to seek wealth, he sent Zhang Yi and others to secretly carve out this huge stone ox, and quietly transported it to the most difficult and dangerous area leading to the State of Shu. A few piles of broken gold were scattered behind the butt.Then he asked his subordinates to spread lies everywhere to deceive the king of Shu.In this way, the state of Shu opened the way to transport the "cattle" in front, and the Qin army quietly followed behind the Shu army that had already relaxed its vigilance. When the "golden bull" was transported to the capital of the state of Shu, the Qin army naturally also arrived. The King of Shu was defeated in Jiameng (now northeast of Jiange, Sichuan) and killed by the Qin army.Zhang Yi and Sima Cuo then occupied Chengdu, the capital of Shu, and the Kingdom of Shu perished.Zhang Yi also took advantage of Ju and Ba's labor forces to destroy Ba and Ju in one fell swoop.King Qin Huiwen took all the land of Bashu. King Qin Huiwen got a glimpse of the greedy character of the King of Shu when the treasury of the State of Shu was empty, and sent the "golden bull" wisely. A wise man. Bashu, like Qin’s native Guanzhong, was the first-class fertile land in the world at that time. Since then, the rich Bashu land has gradually become the rear material supply base of Qin, which greatly improved Qin’s economic strength.Next, in 312 BC, King Qin Huiwen ordered Wei Zhang to lead his son Ji and Gan Mao to defeat the Chu army in Danyang (the area west of Xixia in today's Henan Province and north of Danshui), and occupied Hanzhong of Chu State.Occupied Hanzhong, lifted the threat of Chu State to the Qin State and the Bashu area.In this way, Qin's native Guanzhong and Bashu formed a large area, and Qin formed a condescending oppression situation against the six countries.