Chapter 24 6. Divorce, Zhao Kuo for Lian Po

Objectively speaking, Qin Shihuang was able to unify the six countries and win the world in the end. In addition to his own great talent, knowledge and wisdom in employing people, the solid foundation laid by his ancestors is also a very important reason. His hard work and knowledge created historical inevitability for Qin Shihuang to unify the world, enabling him to stand on the shoulders of his ancestors and emperors to complete the great cause of unifying the world.Especially the Battle of Changping during the reign of King Qin Zhaoxiang. The victory of this battle was a decisive factor for Qin Shihuang to finally destroy Zhao. It greatly weakened the strength of Zhao, the only vassal state that could compete with Qin at that time. The state of Zhao was devastated, and finally embarked on the road of destruction.Since then, the power of Qin State has been growing day by day, while the power of other vassal states has been weakening day by day. As one grows and the other fades, Qin's unification of the world has become the general trend of history.

In 262 BC, King Zhaoxiang of Qin sent General Bai Qi to attack South Korea, occupied Yewang City, and cut off the connection between Shangdang County and the capital of South Korea.South Korea wanted to donate Shangdang County to Qin for peace, but Feng Ting, the governor of Shangdang County, was unwilling to surrender to Qin, so he asked Zhao Guo to send troops to take Shangdang County.A few days after Mr. Pingyuan arrived in Shangdang, the general of the Qin army, Wang Yan, led an army to kill him, which caught the Shangdang defenders off guard. In addition, Mr. Pingyuan only brought a small number of soldiers, unable to resist the powerful Qin army, so he had to retreat. At that time, the people of Shangdang also fled to Zhao State one after another.The Qin army took advantage of the victory to pursue and pushed the opponent to the vicinity of Changping, Zhao's strategically important place.At this time, under the order of King Zhao Xiaocheng, Lian Po led more than 400,000 soldiers to Changping to assist Lord Pingyuan.

Changping City is located 100 kilometers northeast of Luoyang. It is a strong place with natural dangers. It has always been the most important military town in the south of Zhao State.Changping guards the main traffic route from the Qin army to Handan, so its survival is related to the fate of the entire country of Zhao. At first, Lian Po took advantage of the terrain and adopted a strategic policy of confronting the enemy head-on.Because even if Zhao Jun loses, he can retreat to dangerous places at any time.In June of the same year, in the scorching heat, the Qin army broke through the Zhao army's position, captured two camps, and captured four lieutenants.Due to the unfavorable initial battle, Lian Po changed his war strategy, retreated to Changping, contracted the defense line, and ordered Zhao Jun to strengthen the defense line and build camps in the mountains near Changping City, and issued an order strictly prohibiting Zhao Jun from going out of camp to fight.The Qin army, eager to win, launched several attacks on the Zhao army's fortress, but did not achieve any results. In desperation, they had to set up camp against the Zhao army camp, waiting for a good opportunity.

The general of the Qin army, Wang Yan, originally planned to fight quickly, but he did not expect that the opponent would retreat to Changping and could not avoid it. Such consumption would undoubtedly be disadvantageous to the Qin army.The first thing to solve is the supply of military rations, because Changping is close to Zhao State, and it is difficult for the Qin army to replenish troops and food and grass after the expedition.After more than a month of siege, the Qin army faced a crisis of insufficient military supplies.Although King Qin Zhaoxiang tried his best to export military aid, the supplies were still insufficient and became more and more difficult.

On the contrary, Lian Po waited for work with ease, and he established a very strong position on the east side of Changping City to consolidate the connection between the army and the capital Handan City.He intends to spend a long time with the Qin army and fight a protracted war. Faced with this deadlock, King Qin Zhaoxiang summoned his adviser Fan Ju to formulate countermeasures.Fan Ju offered a plan and said: "Since they can't hold on to it, it is definitely not wise to bite the bullet and attack the fortifications. It will only damage the morale of our army, and we can't spend it like this for a long time. We can only solve it quickly. I thought about it, the problem now The key is Lian Po, if we want to conquer Changping, we must try to make Lian Po leave."

"However, it's not easy to let Lian Po leave! He is a famous general in the Zhao Kingdom, and he is good at fighting. How can he be transferred from such an important battle?" King Qin Zhaoxiang said anxiously. "Don't worry, my lord! Since I thought of dismantling Zhao Guo's solid defense from within through political means, I have my own way to get Zhao Guo transferred away from Lian Po." "Then let's talk and listen quickly." Because of his anxiety, King Qin Zhaoxiang subconsciously leaned in front of Fan Ju. "I have sent people to inquire, and I heard that King Zhao Xiaocheng is deeply dissatisfied with Lian Po's conservative strategy, and there are often conflicts between the monarch and his ministers. If we use the trick of alienation, bribe the ministers around King Zhao Xiaocheng with a lot of money, and create rumors in Handan City , to shake King Zhao Xiaocheng's confidence, isn't the goal achieved?"

"It's that simple? Are they really going to let us lead by the nose?" King Qin Zhaoxiang said suspiciously. Fan Ju smiled slyly and said, "Your Majesty, don't worry. Since I have thought of this plan, I can guarantee that they will be led by us. I heard that King Zhao Xiaocheng trusts Zhao Kuo very much, but Zhao Kuo can only Talking about war on paper, but has no actual combat ability, if we let him replace Lian Po, we will be sure to win." After hearing this, King Qin Zhaoxiang's doubts disappeared, and he ordered Fan Ju to follow the plan immediately. After receiving the order from King Qin Zhaoxiang, Fan Ju followed his own plan and hired spies with a lot of money to spread rumors in Handan: "Lian Po is old and has lost his former power. He will surrender in a short time. If Zhao Guo wants to win Therefore, Zhao Kuo was the only one to lead the army. Because among all the generals in Zhao State, Zhao She was the strongest. Bai Qi was the invincible general who defeated Qin State. Now that Zhao She is dead, his son Zhao Kuo succeeded him, and his bravery surpassed him. His father, if he were to lead the army, the Qin army would just flee in fear."

At the same time, Fan Ju used a lot of money to buy off the ministers who influenced the court's decision-making, and asked them to create the same rumors in front of King Zhao Xiaocheng.King Zhao Xiaocheng was originally dissatisfied with Lian Po, thinking that he was avoiding the defense and not fighting because he was afraid of the Qin army. In addition, there were so many rumors all over the country at this time, which just catered to his dissatisfaction with Lian Po. It is natural to believe it.Therefore, he ordered Zhao Kuo to replace Lian Po and fight the Qin army to the death. Zhao Kuo was ordered to come to Changping, and Lian Po had no choice but to leave.As the saying goes, there are three fires for a new official to take office.As soon as Zhao Kuo took office, he immediately changed Lian Po's strategy, reformed the Zhao army according to his own will, and replaced the staff with his own people; he ordered that all the fortifications built by Lian Po be dismantled, and then all the commanders They gathered together and said: "Humans are not hibernating animals. It is impossible to destroy the Qin army by hiding a huge army behind the city wall. Lianpo's passive combat method is just a waste of our country's resources. If we want to take the initiative to attack, we must With our superiority in numbers, we can also crush the Qin army." Since all the commanders were replaced by Zhao Kuo's own people, naturally no one objected.

Fan Ju was overjoyed when he learned that Zhao Guo had replaced Lian Po with Zhao Kuo. Since everything was within his expectations, of course everything was under his control.He seemed to see that victory had come to the gate of Qin.However, the victory has only just begun, and it is not too early to be happy, because this battle will affect the fate of the two countries. Fan Ju did not dare to be negligent, so he met King Qin Zhaoxiang and said: "If you want to win this battle, you must General Bai Qi is none other than Bai Qi, now the time has come, I implore the king to appoint Bai Qi as the chief general and General Wang Lu as the deputy general to fight to the death with Zhao Jun."

King Qin Zhaoxiang saw that the development of the situation was all within Fan Ju's expectation, so he naturally believed in Fan Ju's ability even more, so without saying a word, he ordered Bai Qi to be the chief general.However, compared with Zhao Jun's change of generals, Qin Jun's change of generals was carried out quietly without anyone knowing.And a military order was passed down: "If there is a word, those who are in the army will be killed." After arriving in Changping, Bai Qi, who has been victorious in all battles and has rich combat experience, secretly ordered the soldiers to build fortifications, arranged an 80-kilometer-long arc-shaped defensive position along Changping City, and arranged 25,000 soldiers to wait for the Zhao army to enter. After presetting the position to cut off the Zhao army's retreat route, another 5,000 cavalry were arranged to block the support of the remaining troops in the Zhao camp. The army held its defensive position and waited for Zhao Jun's attack.

After the layout was all arranged, Bai Qi gave an order, and the leading troops of the Qin Army took the initiative to assault the vanguard army in front of the Zhao Army.Due to Qin Jun's extremely fast actions, Zhao Jun was severely hit and began to retreat.Zhao Kuo, who was in the army, saw that the first battle was unfavorable, so he ordered all the legions to launch a general attack on the Qin army. As a result, more than 400,000 Zhao troops pressed on the Qin army in a mighty manner.The vanguard of the Qin army was defeated as soon as they fought the Zhao army according to the pre-designed plan, and fled to the camp pretending to be afraid of the Zhao army.Seeing this scene, Zhao Kuo was overjoyed, and immediately ordered to pursue the victory, and ordered the whole army to rush towards the Qin army's position. At this time, the generals of Zhao Jun's former Lianpo Army expressed their objections, saying: "The terrain here is steep. We don't know the terrain of the battlefield, and we can't predict the enemy's formation. If the whole army rushes over, I'm afraid they will be ambushed. It’s better to send people to scout the terrain before making a long-term plan.” However, Zhao Kuo was eager to win and criticized the generals, saying: "What do you know? Our army has an absolute advantage in numbers. There is nothing to be afraid of. If we don't take advantage of the victory this time and pursue it, we will deal a fatal blow to the vanguard of the Qin army and miss this once-in-a-lifetime battle." If there is no opportunity, it will be difficult to have another chance to beat Qin Jun." The generals under Lian Po saw that Zhao Kuo refused to listen to advice and insisted on going his own way, so they had no choice but to fight to the death with him.Zhao Kuo gave an order, and Zhao Jun swarmed up to Qin Jun.The Qin army relied on favorable terrain and solid positions to defend, making it impossible for the Zhao army to attack.At this time, Zhao Jun had already left his camp for twelve kilometers. Zhao Jun wanted to return by the same route, but was blocked by 25,000 Qin troops who had ambushed in advance. Five thousand cavalry drove back.In this way, Bai Qi, who was strategizing, made Zhao Jun fall into a helpless situation in his seamless combat method.When the grain transportation channel was blocked by the Qin army and unable to break through, Zhao Kuo, who regretted the original, could only order the construction of a barrier, hold on tenaciously, and wait for the arrival of reinforcements. King Qin Zhaoxiang was very excited when he learned that the first battle had been won, and that the Qin army had blocked Zhao's grain transportation channel. He bestowed a first-level title on each of the people in the country, recruited young adults over the age of fifteen, and rushed to the Changping battlefield under his leadership. , Block Zhao Guo's rescue, cut off Zhao Jun's food. The reinforcements Zhao Kuo was waiting for did not come after all, because Zhao Guo had no soldiers to send, and he asked other vassal states for help but was rejected by the other party.Forty-nine days have passed, and with no reinforcements outside and no food and grass inside, the destruction of the Zhao army is close at hand.Seeing that the general situation was over, Zhao Kuo decided to lead his troops to make a final fight. Even if he failed, he would die for his country. That was undoubtedly his last and best destination, because he alone caused the whole army to fall here. Zhao Kuo selected some relatively energetic soldiers from the weak soldiers, and formed several death squads to disperse and break through.Zhao Kuo took the lead and rushed to the Qin army, only to see a burst of random arrows. After a while, Zhao Kuo and all the soldiers of the death squad died under the random arrows. Bai Qi ordered the soldiers to pick up Zhao Kuo's head to demonstrate to Zhao Jun. Zhao Jun, who was leaderless due to the death of the coach, had to put down their weapons one after another and honestly became a prisoner of Qin Jun. But what to do with these captives?Bai Qi subconsciously thought of the most thorough and simplest solution, which is to kill. The king of Zhao didn't know right from wrong, so he fell into Fan Ju's plan to divorce him and changed his commander before the battle, which violated the taboo of military strategists.Removing the prudent and experienced Lian Po, and appointing Zhao Kuo, who is only on paper, made major mistakes in strategy and tactics, which eventually led to the disastrous defeat of Zhao Jun.Fan Ju's divorce strategy played a miraculous effect for the Qin army to win the Battle of Changping.It can be said that the fall of Changping became the first step in the demise of Zhao.Because this battle consumed too much manpower and material resources of Zhao State, coupled with the ensuing siege of Handan, Zhao State's military strength was exhausted, and it never recovered from the pain.