Chapter 35 9. The final battle, defeating others without fighting

After destroying the Chu State, it can be said that there is no suspense about King Qin Yingzheng's unification of the six countries.Facing the final state of Qi, although he is sure of winning, Qin Wang Yingzheng dare not be careless, because he hopes to win the final victory with the least sacrifice and complete his final battle to unify the world. For this reason, Qin Wang Yingzheng summoned his close ministers to discuss the countermeasures against Qi. "You must be very puzzled by the widow calling you here, right? Do you think it's a bit too much for the widow to mobilize so many people for the sake of a mere state of Qi? If Aiqing thinks so, it's wrong. Because the widow summoned you, isn't it? Because I was worried that we would not be able to win Qi, but wanted to discuss how to conquer Qi in the simplest way. Of course, it is best to avoid war." King Qin Yingzheng explained.

"What your majesty said is very true. Years of wars have made people's lives miserable, causing countless deaths and injuries to soldiers and civilians. We unify the six countries not only to obtain their land, but also need the farmers who cultivate this land. If the war If it continues, the interests of the common people will be harmed in the end, because the six countries will soon belong to the king and become the king's world. Reducing the damage of the war at this time means reducing the damage of our Great Qin." Wei Liao stepped forward and said . "From this point of view, the Guowei must have a plan to destroy Qi, right?"

"From my point of view, we can first send a large army to station on the border of Qi State to create a threat of alignment, and then send envoys to Qi to lobby and stabilize Qi Wangjian with generous rewards, so that war may be avoided." "This plan is very clever!" Qin Wang Yingzheng agreed, "I don't know what other lovers think?" "The current internal affairs of Qi State are in chaos. What we need to worry about is not the resistance from Qi Wangjian, but the joint resistance of other factions. Because the prime minister of Qi State, Hou Sheng, has already been bribed by us to instill pro-Qin in front of King Qi. Thought. As long as the king promises to give him a fief, and then wins after buying, Qi Wangjian may surrender. As long as the king of a country orders surrender, no matter how powerful the other factions are, they will not pose too much threat to us. It is relatively easy to deal with. Therefore, if the king wants to avoid war, there is no better strategy than what Lord Wei said." Li Si stepped forward and said.

Qin Wang Yingzheng nodded and said, "Okay, let's do it this way. If things don't turn out as we imagined, we can discuss it in the long run." Therefore, according to Wei Liao's plan, in 221 BC, King Yingzheng of Qin sent Wang Ben and Li Xin, who had just destroyed Yan, to invade Qi from north to south. Perhaps it was God's will, this year Qi suffered from a rare winter drought, there was no heavy snowfall in the whole winter, the sun was shining all day long, the dust was flying, and sometimes red and yellow haze shrouded Linzi, which would not leave for several days.Qi State was originally a hotbed of scholars in the world, and there is a long tradition of mysterious and strange studies.Encountered with such a change in the sky, all kinds of rumors sprang up all of a sudden, predicting that the Qi country would enjoy a corner of peace and happiness for a long time, but now it will be condemned by the heavens, and there will be a huge catastrophe!Rumors spread, thieves swarmed everywhere, looting the manors and fiefdoms of the aristocratic families continued all day long, and the ruling and opposition families were in a state of panic.At this time, the Qin army came to Qi again, and Qi Wangjian felt more and more at a loss.Because he has never encountered such a difficult problem in his more than 40 years of succession.

Because Qi State is the farthest from Qin State, under Qin State's foreign policy of making friends far away and attacking closely, there has been no major war for several years.Coupled with the incompetence of the last few generations of kings and the arrogance and lust of the ministers, they sat back and enjoyed their success, resulting in a slack in combat readiness and a useless national defense.In this situation, Qi Wangjian naturally didn't know what to do when he suddenly faced the thousands of troops of the Qin army.If you want to resist, you haven't made any preparations; if you don't resist, you can only catch it with your hands.

In addition, the army of the Qin State was stationed on the bank of Juye Ze, neither advancing nor retreating, nor fighting nor making peace, which caused turmoil and friction among various forces in the Qi State.Qi Wangjian's hesitation made all parties see that there was still hope to win Qi Wang over to implement their own ideas, and the situation became more and more intertwined and entangled with each other. Under the aloof and vacillating King Qi, the three mainstream forces are fighting fiercely.Prime Minister Hou Sheng and the power of the Tian clan, who have always pursued the strategy of "harmonizing Qin and Anqi", have been mediating to sign a contract with Meng Tian's army in order to preserve the state of Qi as much as possible.Many generals in the court combined with the anti-Qin faction in the Tian royal family whose axis was Tian Jin, a descendant of Lord Mengchang, and advocated taking preventive measures. The disciples traveled righteously, claiming to follow the example of the Zhao people and fight against Qin to the end.Not only that, the subjugated family in exile in Linzi is the most violent and restless. Not only have they formed an anti-Qin volunteer army of 6,000 people, but they also gathered in Wangcheng Square to plead for orders, and firmly asked the king of Qi to send back the refugees' goods to help the Five Kingdoms volunteers. .In addition to the power of the three parties, the people of Qi State made great waves.

In this case, either party acts on its own.Whether it was the royal family's urgent letter or the prime minister's order, it was useless, the state affairs and laws were completely out of order, and the whole country was in chaos.Qi Wangjian also believed in the fatalism of "Heaven will perish Qi" circulating among the people, and he said helplessly: "Heaven wants to perish, what can we do?" Then he waved his hands and handed over all state affairs to the prime minister and won. any minister. Taking advantage of the chaotic situation in Qi State, Yao Jia, the envoy of Qin State, came to Linzi, the capital of Qi State.Then he went to the prime minister's mansion with a lot of money. When Hou Sheng heard that the envoy of Qin State was visiting, he quickly received him.

"Our King Qin never forgets the kindness of the prime minister, and sent this envoy to visit the prime minister again. I wonder if the prime minister is healthy?" Yao Jia asked when they met. "Thank you King Qin for your concern, the truth is that there is nothing serious about your health." Hou Sheng replied. "This is a wish from the King of Qin. Please accept it with a smile. It's just that the King of Qin has something to ask, and I hope the Prime Minister will help you." Yao Jia pointed to the treasure presented by his entourage. "I don't know what the king of Qin wants to ask for. I will definitely do my best."

Yao Jia was extremely disgusted by these diplomatic rhetoric, because with his relationship with Hou Sheng, the two had already become brothers in private, so why bother to use these routine, rigid diplomatic rhetoric to alienate each other?Then, Yao Jia suddenly changed his attitude, walked over intimately and whispered a few words in Hou Sheng's ear. After hearing this, Hou Sheng smiled knowingly and said: "Don't worry, sir, this matter is on my shoulders. However, after returning to the state of Qin, sir, please, in front of King Qin..." Before Hou Sheng could finish speaking, Yao Jia interrupted Hou Sheng and said, "Prime Minister, don't worry! As long as Qi surrenders without a fight, you will be a hero of Qin, and the King of Qin will naturally not treat you badly."

After sending Yao Jia away, Hou Sheng immediately came to the harem where Qi Wangjian was, pretending to be panicked and said: "Your Majesty, please forgive me for my incompetence. I really can't control this chaotic situation. If this continues , even if Qin does not destroy Qi, Qi will..." "Is there really no way out?" Qi Wangjian seemed to be talking to himself. "The only way out now is to be close to Qin. I heard that the King of Qin sent an envoy, presumably for peace talks. This is our last chance, Your Majesty, don't miss it!" "What does the prime minister mean?"

"Your Majesty, you know how the other five kingdoms were wiped out! If your Majesty does not want to be imprisoned or die like the kings of the other five kingdoms, then you can only order the whole country to surrender. Your Majesty must know how to keep the green hills. Worry about the lack of firewood!" "The widow also knows what it means to resist desperately, but what is the face of the widow when the whole country surrenders!" "If the King is only worried about this, it would be too simple." "how you said that?" "If the king surrendered in the name of the common people, saying that Qi surrendered without a fight to save the common people from the suffering of the war, the common people will probably thank the king of Qi!" "Wonderful! Why didn't I think of it?" Qi Wangjian said as if he had met a savior. In 221 BC, King Jian of Qi issued an edict to surrender the whole country on the grounds that the common people would avoid the suffering of war. Immediately, most of the people of Qi State gave up their arms.After completing the mission, Yao Jia hurried back to Xianyang and reported the situation to King Qin Yingzheng, who immediately ordered the Qin army to enter Qi State.The Qin army drove straight in, and soon occupied Linzi, the capital of Qi, and took over Qi State without a single soldier, and Qi State was declared destroyed.The State of Qin set up the land of Qi as Qi Commandery (to the east of today's Zibo City, Shandong) and Langya County (to the southeast of today's Jiaonan County, Shandong). Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Wei, and Han depend on each other with their lips and teeth, and their lips are dead and their teeth are cold.Zhao, Wei, and Han were originally the natural barriers of Qi and Chu, but when Qin Wang Yingzheng wiped out the three Jins, the Chu people sat there enjoying peace, and the Qi people were drunk there; He could struggle to the death, but the people of Qi simply caught him without a fight.If it is said that when Qin Wang Yingzheng launched the unification war, the six countries could defeat Qin by joining forces to fight against Qin, then the reason why the six countries perished lies in the lack of a unified front.And this seems to be all due to the diplomatic means of "connecting money" proposed by Li Si and Wei Liao.Compared with this, how meticulous is Qin Wang Yingzheng's strategic deployment to unify the six countries!Almost everything has been considered by them.Therefore, we must have a specific plan for what to do, and be able to adapt to the situation when encountering a crisis, and change strategies in a timely manner on the basis of the original plan.