Chapter 19 1. Traveling to other countries, Zhang Yi talks about Lianheng

After Shang Yang's reform, the national power of Qin State became stronger and stronger, and the monarch of Qin State was no longer willing to live in a corner of the West, so he pointed his finger at the East.After the Maling War, Qi State replaced Wei State as the overlord of the Central Plains.In this way, both Qin and Qi took expansion to the Central Plains as their main development direction, which made the situation of melee more complicated.In the late Warring States period, Le Yi broke Qi, and Qi fell into a slump. In the Battle of Changping, Zhao was severely weakened, and Qin gained an absolute advantage over the six eastern countries, and took the opportunity to annex a lot of land.In order to deal with the powerful state of Qin, under the lobbying of the famous strategist Su Qin, the six countries decided to implement a joint vertical strategy and jointly fight against Qin.Although the Qin State is powerful, it is not so big that one equals six.The six countries joined forces to fight against Qin, which brought danger to Qin's national security.

After King Qin Huiwen ascended the throne, in order to change this situation, he continued to adopt the policy of "appointing people on their merits" in the Xiaogong era, and attracted a large number of diplomatic talents who were good at rhetoric and power. Zhang Yi was one of the most outstanding representatives. Zhang Yi, a native of Wei, came from the same school as Su Qin, the founder of the six-nation strategy and the founder of the vertical strategy at that time, and both were students of Guiguzi.In 329 BC, Zhang Yi entered Qin from the west of Zhao State, and was worshiped as a guest minister by King Huiwen of Qin, who was eager for talents.In 328 BC, Zhang Yi and his son Hua led troops to attack the State of Wei, and captured Puyang City in the State of Wei in one fell swoop.At the celebration meeting, Zhang Yi took the opportunity to promote his Lianheng policy to King Huiwen, suggesting that King Qin return Puyang to Wei State, and send his son Yao to Wei as a hostage, and he will use the opportunity of escorting Prince Yao to Wei to lobby Wei King to join him Qin State.This proposal was approved by King Qin.

After entering Wei, Zhang Yi said to the king of Wei: "Your Majesty, the state of Qin is sincere to the state of Wei! Don't say nothing when you get the city, but send hostages to the state of Wei instead. No matter what you say, the state of Wei should not be rude. You should give me an answer, right?" "How do you repay him?" Wei Wang asked. "Qin State only likes land. If Wei State can send some land to Qin State, Qin State will definitely regard Wei State as a brother. If Qin State and Wei State form an alliance to attack other vassal states, the land that Wei State will get in the future will definitely be better than that given away. Give Qin many times more."

King Wei was moved by Zhang Yi's words, so he dedicated fifteen counties in Shangjun and Shaoliang, an important town in Hexi, to Qin State. Since then, Qin and Wei have reconciled, and Zhang Yi's Lianheng policy has won the first battle. After Zhang Yi returned to Qin, King Huiwen of Qin followed the example of the Three Jins and set the phase.Because Zhang Yi made a great contribution to Qin, King Huiwen appointed Zhang Yi to this post, and Gongsun Yan, who was not reused, left Qin and joined Wei.In this way, Zhang Yi became the first prime minister after Qin became prime minister.From then on, Zhang Yi began his brilliant political, diplomatic and military career.

In order to further submit Wei State to Qin State, in 322 BC, Zhang Yi resigned from Qin State and went to Wei State.Wei Wang was frightened by the strength of Qin, and immediately worshiped Zhang Yi as his prime minister. After Zhang Yi became Minister of Wei, he took the opportunity to win Wei Wangdao for Qin State: "The land of Wei State is less than a thousand miles long and horizontal, and the soldiers do not exceed 300,000. It is adjacent to Qi in the east, Chu in the south, Han in the west, and Zhao in the north. Therefore, the terrain of Wei State was originally a battlefield.

"Think about it, my lord, once the Qin State sends troops to capture Juandi, Yandi, Yandi, Suanzao and other places, the connection between Wei and Zhao will be cut off, and the joint vertical passage will be cut off. Once the passage is cut off, then Your Majesty, Wei State is even more dangerous. If Qin State persuades South Korea to attack Wei State, Wei State's demise will not be far away." Hearing what Zhang Yi said, Wei Wang was terrified, and hurriedly asked Zhang Yi what good way to solve this crisis. "I think it's better for your king to submit to Qin. If you submit to Qin, Chu and South Korea will not dare to disturb; your king can rest easy. The only thing Qin wants to weaken is Chu, and the only one who can weaken Chu is Wei. Although the state of Chu looks rich and powerful, it is actually very empty; if the state of Wei sends out all its troops to attack the state of Chu, victory is certain. It is a great thing to split the state of Chu and strengthen the state of Wei.”

King Wei thought over and over again, and finally agreed with Zhang Yi's point of view.Soon, the king of Wei sent his prince to the Qin court to show his favor to Qin.Zhang Yi served as Prime Minister of Wei State for a total of four years, and returned to Qin State in 318 BC. King Qin Huiwen still used him as Prime Minister. Later, Qi sent troops to defeat Zhao and Wei, and formed an alliance with Chu.Qi is a powerful country in the east, while Chu dominates the south.Therefore, the Qi-Chu alliance has become Qin's confidant, and the separation of Qi-Chu alliance and weakening Qi-Chu's power has become the key to Qin's expansion to the east.In 313 BC, Zhang Yi once again resigned from the state of Qin and went to Chu as an envoy.After arriving in Chu, he first bribed Jin Shang, the favorite of King Huai of Chu, and used him to gain the trust of King Huai, and then set out to drive a wedge between Qi and Chu.

Zhang Yi said to King Huai of Chu: "Your Majesty is the one we King Qin respects the most, and King Qi is the one we hate the most. Although Qi State and Qin State used to be friendly countries, Qi State has wronged Qin State in many ways. Now Qin State The state wants to attack the state of Qi, and if the state of Chu cuts off relations with the state of Qi, the state of Qin will dedicate the land of Shang and Yu six hundred miles to the state of Chu." The king of Chu was very greedy for profit and agreed very happily.So King Huai of Chu immediately sent someone to Qi to announce the "severance of diplomatic relations", and sent envoys to follow Zhang Yi to Qin to receive the land.

After returning to Qin, Zhang Yi said that he was sick for three months and would not go to court, and King Huai of Chu could not get the land.The king of Qi was furious. While completely breaking off diplomatic relations with Chu, he sent people into Qin to discuss with the king of Qin to jointly attack Chu.Seeing that his goal was achieved, Zhang Yi met the envoy of Chu State and told the envoy, "I told the king of Chu about six miles. Where is six hundred miles?" The envoy returned to Chu and reported to King Huai of Chu. He scolded Zhang Yi for going back on what he said, and angrily wanted to raise troops to attack Qin.

In 312 BC, the Chu State fought against Qin and Qi in Danyang. As a result, the Chu army was defeated. More than 70 generals including Chu general Qu Gai were captured, 80,000 Chu troops were wiped out, and Hanzhong County was also taken by Qin.When the news of the defeat came, King Huai of Chu was almost dizzy with anger.Under the domination of fanatical revenge, he mobilized all the troops of Chu State to attack Qin State.As the lone army went deep, the Chu army was defeated again.This time, Han and Wei also took the opportunity to attack Chu in the south, and they fought all the way to Dengyi.Chu was attacked by the enemy, and hurriedly withdrew his troops, and finally cut off two cities and asked Qin for peace.

After Qin State defeated Chu State, the only country that could compete with it was Qi State.In 311 BC, the state of Qin sent people to negotiate with the state of Chu: they were willing to divide the abundance of Hanzhong and Chu to form an alliance with Chu.However, King Huai held a grudge against Zhang Yi, and would rather not have the land of Hanzhong but Zhang Yi.Upon hearing the news, Zhang Yi happily went to Chu.As soon as Zhang Yi arrived in Chu, he was imprisoned by King Huai of Chu, who was about to kill him.However, Zhang Yi used various means to intercede with Zheng Xiu, wife of King Huai, through Jin Shang, a doctor of the state of Chu. Zheng Xiu asked Zhang Yi to let go and make peace with Qin.Bewitched by his wife, King Huai was afraid of offending Qin, and he was greedy for land. After careful consideration, he finally ordered Zhang Yi to be released. Zhang Yi took the opportunity to lobbied King Huai and said: "The only powerful countries in the world today are Qin and Chu. Once the two big countries go to war, they will be at odds. Qin now occupies Bashu, and the big ships sail down the river. They can sail more than 500 times a day. It takes less than ten days to reach Ganguan. If Ganguan is threatened, it will be difficult to keep the eastern part of Chu State, and Qianzhong and Wujun in the western part will no longer belong to Chu State. If the Qin army leaves Wuguan, Chu The northern part of the country will also be ruined. It took only three months for Chu to be attacked by Qin, but it would take at least half a year for Chu to be rescued by the princes. Therefore, it is impossible for Chu not to be friendly with Qin. Besides, It is extremely stupid to wait for the rescue of a weak country and ignore the threat of Qin. "Now Qin State and Chu State are bordering each other. They were originally geographically close neighbors. If Your Majesty can listen to my opinion, I will let the prince of Qin State go to Chu State as a hostage, and the prince of Chu State go to Qin State as a hostage. The women of the state of Qin should be concubines of the great king, donate a city with tens of thousands of households as Tangmu City, and be brothers and neighbors for a long time, never attacking each other. I don’t think there is a better strategy than this.” What he said made King Huai of Chu nod his head again and again, and immediately agreed to reconcile with Qin. Zhang Yi left Chu State and went to South Korea immediately, and said to the King of Han: "The land of South Korea is less than nine hundred miles away, and the grain reserves are not enough for two years. The king's soldiers are less than 300,000; Qin has more than one million armed soldiers. With thousands of chariots and tens of thousands of horses, how can South Korea's military strength compare with that of Qin? "If Your Majesty does not submit to Qin State, Qin State will send troops to capture Yiyang, cut off the Shangdi of South Korea, and go east to capture Chenggao and Xingyang, then the land of South Korea will not belong to the King. The Qin army will block Chenggao and cut off Shangdi. Your Majesty's land will be divided. It is safest to submit to Qin first, and it will be dangerous if you do not submit to Qin. "So I made a plan for the king. South Korea should help Qin. What Qin wants is to weaken Chu, and nothing can weaken Chu than South Korea. This is not because South Korea is stronger than Chu, but because of its terrain. .If the king goes west to submit to Qin and attack Chu, the king of Qin will be happy. I don’t think there is a better plan than this.” King Han followed Zhang Yi's strategy and immediately expressed his friendship with Qin.Only then did Zhang Yi return to the state of Qin and report the situation to King Qin Huiwen. King Qin Huiwen thought of his outstanding achievements, so he named him Lord Wuxin and granted him five cities. Beginning in 328 BC, Zhang Yi used the art of Lianheng to lobby among Wei, Chu, Han and other countries, and took advantage of the contradictions among the various vassal states to win over Qin and make it belong to Qin; or to break up its alliance. weaken its power.Generally speaking, he started from the interests of Qin.Throughout the period of King Qin Huiwen, he not only enabled Qin to win successive diplomatic victories, but also helped Qin expand its territory and made great contributions to the strength of Qin.