Chapter 29 3. Attack Zhao invincibly, and attack Han

In 236 BC, the eleventh year of King Qin Yingzheng, Zhao and Yan fought fiercely.For Qin, which wants to dominate the world, this is undoubtedly equivalent to a civil war in a country, a fight between snipe and clam, and the fisherman will benefit.Qin Wang Yingzheng made a decisive decision. When Zhao State attacked Yan State and the domestic forces were empty, he boldly appointed the little-known but experienced general Wang Jian as the commander-in-chief, and Huan and Yang Duanhe as deputy generals. An excuse to attack Zhao Guo violently. Sure enough, in the face of the powerful Qin army, Zhao Guo could only sit and wait to die, unable to organize effective resistance at all, causing the Qin army to drive straight in.Wang Jian led his troops to attack the Shangdang area, and soon captured Yanyu and Mianyang (now Heshun County, Shanxi).The Qin army led by Huan and Yang Duanhe also successfully captured the six Hejian cities of Zhao State.Soon, Huan captured Ye (now Cidong County, Hebei) and Anyang (now Anyang, Henan), and Shangdang County and the Zhanghe River Basin were completely controlled by the Qin army.

The battle between Qin and Zhao this time was the first large-scale foreign war launched by King Qin Yingzheng after he took office, and it was also the first war that Wang Jian fought as a general.The news of good news spread frequently, which strengthened the confidence of Qin Wang Yingzheng to unify the six countries.After many war tests and governance practices, the young King Yingzheng of Qin who had just come to power has grown up slowly.This time, the battle between Qin and Zhao fully demonstrated Qin Wang Yingzheng's ability to capture and seize opportunities.He saw his own strengths: he was good at analyzing various situations, using the contradictory relations among countries, taking the initiative to attack, launching a fierce offensive, and finally winning.These qualities are essential for a supreme commander who commands a unified decisive battle.

However, for Zhao Guo, Qin's taking advantage of others is undoubtedly worse for them.Facing Qin's fierce offensive, King Zhao Mourning, who felt the danger of subjugation, discussed with his ministers how to resist Qin's attack. All the ministers unanimously suggested: "I am afraid that the only one who can repel the Qin army now is Lian Po. Please send an envoy to the Wei State to recall Lian Po, and then entrust him with an important task to resist the Qin army." However, Guo Kai, an important minister who was bribed by the Qin State, objected: "Even if Lian Po can resist the Qin army, he is still the Lian Po who was brave and good at fighting. What we need is the Lian Po when he was young. Now Lian Po is old. It’s hard to say if you can fight well. Your Majesty should think twice before acting!”

At this time, King Zhao Mourning also felt that Lian Po was indispensable to the survival of Zhao State, and he felt deep remorse for replacing Lian Po with Le Cheng; at the same time, he felt that what Guo Kai said was reasonable, so he said ambiguously: " I also want to go to Wei to recall Lian Po, but as Guo Kai said, what I worry about is whether the current Lian Po can still be as brave and good at fighting as Lian Po was back then, after all, he is also old now!" "Since this is the case, your majesty might as well send an envoy to Wei Guo to check Lian Po's physical condition first, and then make a decision." The ministers suggested.

"That's all there is to it." King Zhao Mourning nodded and replied.Seeing this, Guo Kai was afraid of revealing his intentions, so he couldn't continue to obstruct him, so he secretly bribed the envoy with money and said, "Do you know why King Zhao sent you to Wei?" "Didn't you check Lian Po's physical condition?" Zhao Envoy replied puzzled. "This statement is wrong. I want you to die." "how you said that." "Haven't you seen the current situation? The state of Zhao has come to an end, and its fate is over. It has become the general trend for the state of Qin to unify the world. If you are ordered to recall Lian Po at this time, isn't it equivalent to deliberately opposing the state of Qin? Can you be spared when Qin State destroys Zhao State? What do you mean if this is not self-destruction?"

"Then what should I do according to Mr. Guo's intention?" Zhao Envoy asked. "As long as you try to prevent Lian Po from returning to the country, I can guarantee that you will have endless glory and wealth. Even when Zhao perishes, you will still have high-ranking officials in Qin." After Guo Kai finished speaking, he took out the Gold prepared in advance. The envoy quickly refused: "Master Guo's reminder to the villain undoubtedly saved the villain's life. The villain is already grateful, how can he still accept the money from the adult?" Guo Kai handed the gold to the envoy Zhao and said, "This is what you deserve. As long as you follow my instructions and complete the task smoothly, more glory and wealth will follow."

"Thanks to Mr. Guo for looking down on villains, that villain should be respectful rather than obedient. Please rest assured Mr. Guo." Zhao Envoy said putting away the gold. The envoy Zhao came to the state of Wei and met Lian Po.Because Lian Po was not valued for a long time in Wei State, he also wanted to return to Zhao State to continue to lead troops to fight. He heard that the envoy was ordered to check his physical condition to see if he could be used.So "a meal of rice, ten catties of meat, was put on a horse by armor to show that it was still usable."However, the envoy who received Guo Kai's heavy gift said to King Zhao Mourning Xiang after returning from Wei State: "Although General Lian Po is old and good at food, he sits with your ministers, and the three will be left behind." After King Mourning Xiang heard about it, he thought Lian Po was really old, so he didn't call Lian Po back to Zhao.

In 234 BC, encouraged by repeated victories, Qin Wang Yingzheng marched forward bravely with the Qin army, taking advantage of Zhao's decadence, and once again marched into Zhao.General Huan took on the important task this time.Huan lived up to everyone's expectations, sent his troops eastward, and moved quickly. He surrounded Wucheng (southwest of Ci County, Hebei) and Pingyang (southeast of Ci County today) in Zhao State, and launched a fierce attack on it.At this time, in Zhao State, King Zhao Mourning had already died amidst grief and indignation, and was succeeded by his son, King Zhao Youmiao.

Pingyang and Wucheng are located on the edge of the Zhangshui River in the south of Handan, the capital of Zhao State. One east and one west are the only way to Handan. The strategic location is very important. It is the gateway to the south of Handan, and the geographical location is also very important. If these two places are lost, it will be tantamount to clearing the barrier of Handan, and Handan is at stake.Zhao Qian urgently mobilized 100,000 elite soldiers and sent General Hu Zhe to rescue Pingyang.The Qin and Zhao armies fought fiercely outside Pingyang City. The Zhao army was all wiped out, and the general Hu Zhe died. The Qin army won a decisive victory.

The Battle of Pingyang was the last battle between Qin and Zhao. Zhao's vital forces suffered a devastating blow in this battle, and he was no longer able to organize a battle against the Qin army.When the good news came, the excited Qin Wang Yingzheng decided to go to the front line in person to inspire the soldiers' fighting spirit and take down Zhao State in one fell swoop.He ordered Huan to lead his army to continue to advance, and took Chili, Yi'an (now southwest of Gaocheng, Hebei) and other places in one fell swoop.It can be said that the war to unify the six countries officially kicked off from here.

Qin Wang Yingzheng's strategic intention this time is very obvious, mainly to capture the military town north of Handan, clear the obstacles around Handan, and then point directly at Handan, the capital of Zhao State.The places captured by the Qin army this time echoed the places occupied by the Qin army before, forming a combined north-south attack on Handan and creating conditions for the final capture of Handan. Faced with the continuous attack of the Qin army, King Zhao discussed with the ministers the strategy of resisting Qin in the court. "When the former king was alive, he said that Lian Po was old and could not be used by Zhao. The current Lian Po is probably even older. If so, I think there is another person who can take on this great task." Gongzi Jia stepped forward and said. "Who is it?" King Zhao asked anxiously. "Li Mu guarding the border." "Hmm! This man is a general. He made great contributions to Zhao Guo when he resisted the Xiongnu. I think it can be used." Zhao Wang agreed. However, Guo Kai objected: "If Li Mu is appointed to fight against Qin, who will guard the gate? If the Huns know that Li Mu has been transferred, they will definitely take the opportunity to invade our country's territory, and it is Li Mu who can guard the border. In this way , isn’t it tearing down the east wall to make up for the west? In my opinion, this method is inappropriate.” At this moment, Young Master Jia glared at Guo Kai viciously, but Guo Kai dared not speak any more.Young Master Jia said: "Father, this is our last chance, we can only fight to the death, or we can only sit and wait for death, please think again, Father." After repeated weighing, King Zhao finally decided to remove Li Mu, who was guarding the border, at the risk of being attacked by the Huns, and let him take up the post of general, fully responsible for fighting the Qin army. After Li Mu was appointed as the general against Qin, he was brave and invincible and lived up to everyone's expectations.He led his troops to attack Yiyang and started a fierce battle with General Huan Zaifei (now southwest of Gaocheng City, Hebei).Because the Qin army won consecutive victories and was invincible, they thought that no one could contend with them, so they underestimated the enemy; coupled with Huan's poor command, in this battle, Zhao Jun defeated the Qin army.Huan luckily picked up a life, but he did not dare to return to Qin for his life, lest he be killed by Qin Wang Yingzheng, because this was the first time that Qin State suffered such a big defeat in recent years, according to the laws of Qin State, Qin Wang Yingzheng must Will not let him go.So, he had no choice but to go to the country of Yan. Li Mu won the victory against the Qin army this time, temporarily exempting Zhao from the danger of subjugation, and successfully destroyed the strategic deployment of King Qin Yingzheng's joint north-south attack.Therefore, he was named Wu'an Jun by King Zhao. However, for Qin Wang Yingzheng, the determination to unify the six countries has been determined, and he will never stop there, let alone shake his determination to unify the world because of a temporary failure.In addition, the vital strength of the Qin army was not severely damaged in this fiasco.The process of unifying the world is already unstoppable. In 232 BC, the fifteenth year of King Qin Yingzheng, King Qin Yingzheng once again launched a war to attack Zhao.This time, the Qin army was divided into two groups, one group attacked Ye in the Zhangshui River Basin, and the other group reached Taiyuan, and from here they launched a fierce attack on Panwu (in today's Ci County, Hebei) behind Handan, in an attempt to form a north-south joint attack on Handan again. Zhao Guo once again fell into a precarious situation.Zhao Wang did not hesitate to appoint Li Mu as the commander-in-chief again to lead the Zhao army to resist the Qin army's invasion. Li Mu led his troops straight to Fanwu, where he fought fiercely with the Qin army, defeated the Qin army again, and relieved the plight of Handan being attacked by the enemy in a short period of time. Qin Wang Yingzheng did not expect that the Qin army would receive such strong resistance from Zhao Guo.For this reason, Qin Wang Yingzheng decided to change the overall strategic deployment of the unification of the six countries, abandon the strategy of destroying Zhao first, restore the established strategic policy of destroying South Korea first, and eliminate Qin's confidant troubles, and immediately sent Nei Shi Teng to attack South Korea.At the same time, Qin Wang Yingzheng was also looking for an opportunity to get rid of Li Mu, a stumbling block on Qin's unification of the world.At that time, Zhao Guo's army will be leaderless, like a piece of scattered sand, and then send troops to attack it, and there will be no obstacles. In 231 BC, Qin Wang Yingzheng first sent troops to attack Nanyang (now Nanyang, Henan), the key city of South Korea.Occupy it without any effort, because at this time South Korea has existed in name only.In the second year, that is, 230 BC, King Qin Yingzheng sent Neishiteng who was stationed in Nanyang to set off from Nanyang to attack Xinzheng, the capital of South Korea (now Xinzheng, Henan).The Qin army successfully occupied Xinzheng and captured Han Wangan as if they were stationed somewhere in their own country. In this way, South Korea became the first country that Qin Wang Yingzheng was wiped out on the road to unify China.Although it is in the overall deployment of destroying the six countries, it is not the first country to plan to destroy. Victory in war is first and foremost a victory in strategy.Under the overall strategic deployment of the unification of the six countries, Zhao was originally the first country to be eliminated.However, in the process of attacking Zhao, after repeated failures, if Yingzheng blindly dispatched the Qin army to fight Zhao army according to the overall deployment, then Qin would not only consume a lot of troops, financial resources and time, but also not necessarily able to win.Fortunately, Yingzheng adapts to the situation and changes his strategy in time. He avoids the truth and ignores the truth. He stops fighting with Zhao and instead attacks South Korea, which is weaker. Unifying China saves time.