Chapter 32 6. Leverage strength to force Prince Dan to death

Thinking of Jing Ke's assassination, Qin Wang Yingzheng felt deeply afraid. If God hadn't favored him, he might have become Jing Ke's ghost.At the same time, he felt extremely angry, and he decided to take merciless revenge on Prince Yan's actions.In order to unify the world, King Qin Yingzheng had long planned to destroy Yan, but was delayed by other state affairs. Jing Ke's assassination of King Qin gave Qin the best excuse to destroy Yan. In 227 BC, the enraged King Yingzheng of Qin ordered Wang Jian and Xin Sheng to lead an army of 400,000 to attack the Kingdom of Yan.

Wang Jian led an army to besiege Ji, the capital of the Yan State. The dying Yan State had to join forces with Zhao Taizijia, who had fled and established himself as the king, and used Yishui and the mountains west of Yishui as a barrier to set up a defense line to resist the attack of the Qin army.However, despite the natural danger of Yishui, the Yan army still failed to block the Qin army's frontal attack and flank attack, and suffered a disastrous defeat by the Yishui River. In October 226 BC, the Qin army under the leadership of Wang Jian captured Yandu Ji.Prince Dan's Yan army barely made a decent resistance, so they retreated to the northern mountains.Wang Jian made a prompt decision and sent Li Xin, a former general of the army, with 50,000 cavalry to chase and kill Prince Dan.The main force left behind immediately occupied Jicheng and stabilized the rule of the people.

Prince Dandong fled, the route was originally determined, bypassing Jicheng, heading north into Yanshan Mountain, and then crossing the irrigation water eastward to Liaodong.In the beginning, tens of thousands of common people followed, but as the news spread that the Qin army would not kill innocent common people, the common people gradually collapsed in order to protect themselves.Within two days, there were only more than 10,000 people following Prince Dan.Since Li Xin led the army in hot pursuit, Prince Dan had no chance to breathe, so he fled eastward day and night, crossed the Liaoshui River and entered the Yanshui River Valley in the eastern Great Wall of Yan Kingdom.After running for more than a month, Prince Dan's men and horses were all skinny and exhausted.Entering a valley that day, the soldiers fell on the grass and couldn't get up again.Prince Dan wanted to cry but had no tears, he let out a long sigh, drew out his long sword and put it on his neck.

At this moment, a Liaodong general cried and hugged Prince Dan, took off his long sword, and choked up a way out: "Your Highness, in the Yanshui River Valley more than ten miles ahead, there is a secret camp where you can hide. It is impossible for the Qin army to find it. This secret camp is a rocky cave opened by Le Yi when he was training troops in Liaodong. There is a large amount of grain, grass and dried meat. Later, it became one of the secret camps of the Liaodong Army of the State of Yan. Once you get there, you'll be safe." "Since there is this place, why didn't you say it earlier?" Prince Dan was very puzzled.

"The king of Yan has already issued a strict order that the Liaodong camp must not be disclosed to anyone." Prince Dan stopped talking.This is his own father, who delegated authority to his son, but never forgot to strictly guard the secrets of military power. Even if he left Guodong, he did not explain to his son the place of rescue on Liaodong Road. At this moment, the disheartened Prince Dan suddenly understood: For many years, he has been too kind to this ignorant father. If he had followed Jing Ke's plan for an early coup d'état, how could the Yan Kingdom be in such a desperate situation today?With this in mind, Prince Dan suddenly cheered up, and immediately ordered the cavalry to enter the secret camp, and immediately appointed the Liaodong general as Yaqing of Yan Guo, Le Yi's first official position back then.

Hearing that there was a secret camp, this group of dying people seemed to see a glimmer of hope again, and immediately cheered up.By the time they entered the secret camp, Prince Dan's troops had miraculously turned into a powerful force. In this way, Prince Dan's escaped cavalry suddenly disappeared in front of Qin Jun. Ever since Wang Jian entered Yandu Ji, he has been following Li Xin's progress in pursuing Prince Pill.On this day, he received Li Xin's Kuai Ma Jun Bao, saying that Crown Prince Dan of Yan had suddenly disappeared.Wang Jian frowned again.Prince Danneng's sudden disappearance under the nose of Qin Jun confirmed the rumors that Yan State had many secret camps in Liaodong.How many such camps are there?Is Yan Wangxi's residence also this kind of secret that can't be explored clearly in a hurry?If this is the case, even if the Qin army dispatches the main force, can the remnants of the Yan State be found in a short time?And if the remnants of the Yan State cannot be eradicated in a short period of time, will the forces of the Yan State revive?After thinking for a long time, Wang Jian called Meng Tian and Dun Wei to discuss countermeasures to defeat the enemy.

"Eastern Liaodong is vast, and it takes a long-term plan to eradicate Yan Kingdom." Meng Tian was as steady as ever. "King Yan can suspend the extermination, but the Crown Prince Pill must be eliminated!" Dun Ruo said, "Because if the Crown Prince Pill is not eliminated, Your Majesty will not be at ease." "Does Shangqing have any good strategies?" Wang Jian asked.He knew that he had been stationed in Yan for a long time to mediate, and he probably had a plan on how to annihilate Prince Dan's remnant army. "Leverage strength to force out Prince Pill!"

"Shangqing means to use Daiguo?" Meng Tian's eyes suddenly became bright. Dun nodded weakly and said: "Now this is the only plan that works. Our army can first put pressure on the acting king Zhao Jia, forcing Zhao Jia to put pressure on Yan Wangxi and hand over Prince Dan!" "Yes. I think this plan is feasible." Wang Jian agreed after a little thought. The next day, while Xin Sheng led 50,000 elite troops to press on Dai, Wang Jian wrote a war letter to Dai Wang Zhao Jia, which said: "Prince Dan is the mastermind of assassinating Qin, and Qin must want to get Prince Dan's head and then go back to the country." Hurry up. The king of Dai hides the crown prince pill, which is really incompatible with the state of Qin! Now our army is going north to attack Dai, and if Dai does not hand over the crown prince pill, he will fight with me!" As soon as Dai Wang Zhao Jia received the letter of war, he immediately sent a special envoy to go there Before Xin Shengjun, he declared that Prince Dan had not fled to Dai, and that the Qin army should not have blamed Dai.Xin Sheng was not moved at all, and still sent his troops northward, approaching Daicheng.The ministers of the Dai State were in a hurry, and they unanimously advocated that the Dai King urgently issue a letter of credence to the King of Yan, and force the Yan State to hand over the Prince Pill to end the disaster of subjugation.Dai Wang Zhao Jia had no choice but to know that Dai Guo's current strength could not compete with the Qin army, so he sighed, agreed to Wang Jian's request, and wrote an emergency feather letter to Yan Wangxi who was far away at the foot of the Great Wall in Liaodong.

Zhao Jia said to Yan Wang Xi in the Feather Book: "During the Warring States Period, only Yan Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang were the only people who assassinated King Qin in Xianyang Palace with sharp knives. The reason why Qin State is eager to destroy Yan State is because Prince Dan is the assassin The mastermind of the incident. Yan State offended Qin State for assassinating Qin King Yingzheng, and also implicated Dai State. How to explain to Yan and Dai's covenant! Now as long as Yan King honestly kills Prince Dan, Qin State will definitely retreat, and the country of Yan State Sheji will survive!"

After the fatuous and incompetent Yan Wangxi read Zhao Jia's letter of credence, he really thought that the reason Qin Wang Yingzheng attacked Yan was to get his son's head.In order to preserve the Yan State and prevent it from becoming a subjugated king, Yan Wangxi decided to kill his son.But the problem is that Prince Dan has a heavy army in his hands, and it is not easy to kill him.Fortunately, at this moment, Qin Jun helped Yan Wangxi a lot.It turned out that the remnant army led by Prince Dan was defeated by Li Xin, who led the army to follow, and most of the troops under him were scattered. Prince Dan himself had to flee around in the waters of Liaodong.After Yan Wangxi learned about it, he immediately sent 20,000 Liaodong Qingqi to surround the secret camp in the Yanshui River Valley.

At first, Prince Dan's subordinates thought it was the king of Yan who sent troops to rescue them. When they arrived, they announced King Yan's decree, saying: "Prince Dan is plotting to rebel, let's be decisive!" After hearing this, the soldiers were shocked. He wanted to fight with a loud noise, but was ordered to stop by Prince Dan. Prince Dan stopped the resistance of the soldiers who lived and died with him, because he knew that he would die, and he didn't want anyone to make unnecessary sacrifices for him. When the soldiers were at a loss, Prince Dan said: "Soldiers, my father will not suspect that I have committed a rebellion. My father wants to exchange my death for the peace of Yan, but unfortunately he is wrong! The country of Yan, which was more than 800 years old, was ruined at the hands of such a foolish king. Dan is ashamed of his ancestors and his subjects... But please remember, all soldiers, that Dan died today, not against Qin, nor against Dai, but only The faint king of the Ji Yan royal family." As soon as the words fell, Prince Dan drew his sword and killed himself. After getting Prince Pill's head, Yan Wangxi immediately dedicated Prince Pill's head to Li Xin to make peace. Li Xin asked people to return to Xianyang with the head of Prince Pill, and told King Qin Yingzheng that King Yan offered the head of Prince Pill to make peace.When King Qin Yingzheng saw the head of Prince Dan, whom he hated so much, his anger subsided.But for a while, he still couldn't make up his mind whether to agree to Yan Wangxi's peace request, so he summoned Li Si and asked him, "According to Li Aiqing's opinion, should I agree to peace request?" "In my opinion, Your Majesty should agree to King Yan's request for peace, and give him a way out first. No matter how powerful the Yan Kingdom is, it is now at the end of its battle. Besides, they are far away in Liaodong, and they are no longer a threat to our overall strategy. Influence, it is better to transfer the army back, attack the surrounding princes, wait for them to be wiped out, and then come back to deal with them, so there is no need for a single soldier." In view of the overall consideration of the strategy, Qin Wang Yingzheng ordered to agree to Yan Wangxi's peace request, allowing Yan to linger for a while, and then transferred back to the army.In 225 BC, Wang Ben, son of general Wang Jian, was sent to attack Daliang, the capital of Wei State. Three years later, in 222 BC, Can Yan and Can Zhao united again in an attempt to restore the country, preparing to attack Qin when the Qin army was fighting outside and the country was empty.At this time, after the destruction of Wei, Wang Jian's army and the Chu army were inextricably fighting.After Qin Wang Yingzheng heard about it, he decided to completely eradicate Yanzhao's troubles, so he sent generals Wang Ben and Li Xin to lead an army of 100,000 to the north. Wang Ben's troops went deep into Liaodong. Within a year, they first captured Yan Wangxi, and then returned to the west to capture Zhao Jia, the acting king. It took almost no effort to end the troubles in Liaodong.Since then, the two countries of Yan and Zhao have completely disappeared from the territory of the Warring States Period. Qin Wang Yingzheng used the method of leveraging his strength to force Yan Wangxi to kill Prince Dan, which was really a clever move.Not only because Prince Dan was the person Qin Shihuang hated the most, but also because Prince Dan had the most anti-Qin heart, getting rid of Prince Dan, on the one hand, disintegrated the will of Yan people to resist, and on the other hand, it also eliminated a part of Qin's progress. big obstacle.