Chapter 25 Chapter 25 How the Qin Dynasty Unified the Country

The end of the long period of division in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods came from Qin Shihuang's destruction of the six kingdoms.The starting point for the eradication of the six kingdoms came from Qin Xiaogong's eastward struggle for supremacy after the reform.The state of Qin started from Qin Xiaogong, passed through Qin Hui, Qin Wu, Qin Zhaoxiang, Qin Xiaowen, Qin Zhuangxiang, until 238 BC, when Yingzheng officially ruled. These 123 years are the 123 years when the Qin Dynasty annexed the territory.In the era of King Hui of Qin, the state of Qin completely recovered Xihe, opened up the road to the east, occupied Bashu in the south, had a stable rear base, occupied the Guanzhong area of ​​Chu state, and weakened the strength of Chu state.The state of Qin formed a dominance over the princes of the six countries, defeated the state of Wei, which was originally a strong enemy of Qin, suppressed the state of Chu, which also had the heart of annexing the Central Plains, and occupied the commanding heights of unifying the world.The subsequent era of King Qin Zhao was another important era.The Qin State in this era has successively solved two main rivals in the world: Qi State and Zhao State. Facing Qi State, which was once called the strongest country with Qin State, Qin State returned the body of the United Vertical State by the way of unity. , organized the Allied Forces of the Five Nations to enter Qi State, so that Qi State, which was hit hard, could no longer compete with Qin State.After that, Qin State launched an attack on Zhao State with the determination to win, and used the method of mobilizing young and middle-aged men from all over the country to participate in the war, and wiped out Zhao State's 400,000 elite troops in Changping. Lost the capital to challenge Qin.During this period, Qin defeated the anti-Qin alliance formed by the princes of the Central Plains eight times, and eliminated 1.5 million troops from the six countries. This was a very shocking astronomical figure when the population of China at that time was only 20 million. It means that the young and middle-aged people of the six countries in the Central Plains have suffered heavy losses in the previous wars of the Qin State.At the same time, Qin State also occupied one-third of the world's land and three-fifths of the wealth. At this time, Qin State's control area included today's Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Sichuan, Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan. and other areas.King Yingzheng of Qin, who ascended the throne in 238 BC, seemed to be a shooter who caught a fighter in front of the goal. After rounds of cooperation, his previous kings sent the ball to his feet comfortably, waiting for him to complete the final goal. One foot - unify the world.

In fact, for Ying Zheng at the time, it was not easy to do this.Because at this time, he said nothing. As the first emperor of Qin who ruled the world later, Yingzheng, who ascended the throne during this period, was only 13 years old, and the power of the country was in the hands of the Queen Mother and Xiangguo Lu Buwei.In particular, Lu Buwei, who controlled the government, was the real big man in Qin during this period. The relationship between Lu Buwei and Qin Wang Yingzheng is always talked about in various novels and joking TV dramas.Many film and television works say that Lu Buwei is actually the biological father of Qin Wang Yingzheng. There is no evidence for this statement in the official history, but what can be proved is that Lu Buwei behaved like a father when he treated Yingzheng who was enthroned as a young man.

Lu Buwei's fortune began after King Zhuangxiang of Qin returned to his country and ascended the throne.Because of his kindness to King Qin Zhuangxiang, he was established as the prime minister. King Qin Zhuangxiang himself was not a shrewd and capable monarch. During this period, Lu Buwei was in charge of the state of Qin's affairs, and he made the final decisions on major state affairs.During the three years of King Qin Zhuangxiang's reign, the most important work Lu Buwei did was to destroy the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in 256 BC, which was tantamount to declaring the orthodox status of Qin State after the Zhou Emperor.After that, he established Taiyuan County in the north of Shanxi, and recaptured Shangdang County, which caused Changping to be bloody.The strategic posture of Qin to attack the countries in the Central Plains in an all-round way has been fully completed.King Qin Zhuangxiang passed away after only 3 years on the throne, and Lu Buwei took power as a prime minister.During this period, he monopolized all the power, and even took the memorials of major national events back to his home for review, and did not give Yingzheng a chance to handle political affairs at all.At the same time, he had an affair with Yingzheng's mother, the queen mother (the two were originally husband and wife, and Lu Buwei gave him his wife in order to curry favor with the son and stranger, and then gave birth to Yingzheng).He himself was also very greedy. He set up monopoly shops in Luoyang and other places, monopolized the local trade of goods, and made a lot of money from them.It is impossible for such a character not to arouse the hatred of Ying Zheng.

Another important thing that Lu Buwei did before Yingzheng took office was to compile books. The "Lushi Chunqiu" he asked someone to compile was a master of Warring States culture.Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals comprehensively expounded the reform ideas of the emerging landlord class at that time. Many ideas in the book, especially the idea that "the world changes with time, and reforms are appropriate", became the guiding ideology of Yingzheng's later administration.Compared with many powerful officials in the Warring States period, Lu Buwei's behavior is not excessive, and he is not domineering in front of Yingzheng, but what he really caused Yingzheng's suspicion is the unclean relationship between him and the queen mother, and in order to cover up this. Not innocent, but Lu Buwei's description became darker and darker, introducing a fake eunuch Miao Ai into the palace to have an affair with the queen mother, so as to clear up the improper relationship between himself and the queen mother; second, he imitated the four gentlemen of the six kingdoms , I also recruited 3,000 disciples, as if a dominant force, such a situation was intolerable to the highly centralized Qin Empire, so Lu Buwei's fate was doomed early.

In 238 BC, Yingzheng officially took over the government.At this time, Miao Ai, while fighting fiercely with the Queen Mother, also developed political ambitions. He and the Queen Mother gave birth to two sons, and attempted to collude with the Queen Mother to launch a coup and make his son the little emperor.The young Yingzheng belongs to the young and mature type. Miao Ai's every move has been under his surveillance. As a result, Miao Ai was arrested by Yingzheng before he took any action. With the help of Miao Ai's case, Yingzheng announced that Lu Buwei He was dismissed from the position of prime minister for the crime and moved him back to Sichuan.On the way, Lu Buwei committed suicide by taking poison because he was worried that Ying Zheng would be held accountable.In this way, Ying Zheng, who was enthroned as a young man, secured the throne of Qin State.

And the period when Yingzheng said nothing, it was also a period when the Qin Empire's external expansion temporarily stopped, and even turned into a defensive period. During this period, Zhao Guo happened to be King Zhao Mourning, and this person had some ideas. In the early days, he successfully restored the joint vertical alliance of the year, not only defeated the invasion of Qin State, but even led the coalition forces of Qi State, Chu State, Yan State, and Zhao State to attack Hangu Pass, which shocked Qin State into a cold sweat.Fortunately, although King Zhao Mourning Xiang has ambitions, he is not a British lord. He has incompetent eyesight and favors the villain Guo Kai. Qin State poses a threat.

During this period, in order to prevent Qin from advancing eastward, King Han Huiwen deliberately sent Zheng Guo, a Korean craftsman, to Qin to trick Yingzheng into digging the Zheng Guo Canal.Yingzheng took the bait at first, and later found out the identity and origin of Zheng Guo, and wanted to punish Zheng Guo in a rage, but Zheng Guo's heartfelt words made him change his mind: "This water conservancy project may only help South Korea's Guozuo that lasts for a few more years will allow Qin to reap the benefits of a hundred years." Yingzheng, who has a long-term vision, therefore continued this water conservancy project.But it always feels bad to be fooled. When Ying Zheng got angry, he blamed the foreigners living in Qin. These people were called "Keqing" at the time.In 236 BC, Yingzheng issued an order requiring those "guests" who were stranded in Qin to leave Qin within a time limit. As soon as the news came out, the pot exploded, and all the guests complained, but what can you do if you complain? The laws of the state of Qin are strict, and those who disobey will be severely punished. What else can they do?At this time, a young Keqing stepped forward. He boldly criticized Ying Zheng's policy, thinking that Ying Zheng's actions were to drive away all talents, and he belonged to dismantling his own platform.This bold performance was appreciated by Ying Zheng.This young Keqing was later Li Si, the Prime Minister of the State of Qin.

After Li Si's admonition, Yingzheng withdrew the order to expel Qin's guest ministers, and instead vigorously selected talents from them. Apart from Li Si, another important minister who was reused by Yingzheng was Wei Liao from Wei.This Wei Liao's mentorship is very interesting. The school he belongs to is called "Shang Yang Studies". This is because Shang Yang's reform was successful at that time and was admired by many legalists, so many people spontaneously formed such a study of Shang Yang's reform. School of thought, Wei Liao is one of the best.Ying Zheng admired Wei Liao very much, and often ate and lived with him, chatting with him whenever he had the opportunity.The reason for such reuse is that Wei Liao is a person with a long-term vision. He believes that the unification of the six countries is not difficult.In this period of Qin, there was no shortage of civil servants like Li Si, and no shortage of generals like Wang Jian who were good at fighting. What was really scarce was a commander like Wei Liao with excellent strategic vision. The job was given to him.It is worth mentioning that this Wei Liao is also one of the famous military strategists in Chinese history. His military book "Wei Liao Zi" is a military classic as famous as "Sun Tzu's Art of War".As a "military strategist", Wei Liao has a very accurate eye for seeing people and things. For example, on the issue of Zhao, he once suggested that Ying Zheng buy off the favorite ministers around King Zhao, and he plotted against him to kill Li Mu. Li Mu died unjustly. , Wei Liao is actually the instigator.Wei Liao's views on Yingzheng are even more precise. He believes that Yingzheng "lacks kindness, has a heart like a tiger and wolf, and will devour the people of the world after winning the world."Later facts proved that he was unfortunately right in his words.

Yingzheng's war to unify the six countries began in 230 BC.He adopted the method of first easy and then difficult. The first target he hit was South Korea, which was struggling at that time.This year, he sent Neishiteng soldiers to cross the Yellow River and attack South Korea.This dispatch of troops was nothing more than a routine matter. South Korea had already lost its ability to resist. After only a few contacts with Qin, they immediately disarmed and surrendered. South Korea fell like this. The reason why Yingzheng attacked South Korea first was not only because of persimmons, but according to Wei Liao's design, Yingzheng's road map for unifying the world should be like this. First occupy South Korea as a springboard, and then destroy the two wings of South Korea. , and finally destroy the Qi State in the far east. This is a very wise tactic. It can annex all the vassal states through the situation of encirclement, and it can also allow Qin State to avoid possible pincer attacks.

After the victory in the first battle, Qin's second step encountered a small nail. Qin's second step was to destroy Zhao.In 229 BC, the Qin State sent troops. This time, the Qin army was frustrated again and was defeated by Li Mu.Seeing that force was ineffective, Qin Jun resorted to countermeasures and bought Zhao Wangqian's favorite minister Guo Kaijin to slander him. As a result, Li Mu was killed, and Qin State removed a stumbling block, and there was no suspense about the following things.Zhao Wangqian bowed his head and proclaimed himself a minister, Zhao Jia, the son of Zhao Guo, fled to Daidi, and he was no longer a good man.

The state of Zhao is over, and the next opponent is the state of Yan. This time Yingzheng encountered another "episode", which is the famous "Jingke Assassination of the King of Qin" incident.Prince Dan of the Yan Kingdom sent an assassin, Jing Ke, to pretend to meet Qin Shihuang, but took the opportunity to draw his sword and stab him. Fortunately, Qin Shihuang reacted quickly enough and cut off Jing Ke's leg first, saving his life.Ying Zheng, who survived the catastrophe, immediately ordered the attack on Yan State.In 226 BC, the Qin army occupied Ji, the capital of Yan State. King Yan killed Prince Dan and asked to surrender, and then fled to Liaodong—for the sake of temporary safety, he didn't even want his own son.When Qin general Wang Ben attacked Yan State, he hugged grass and beat rabbits, and by the way, he also wiped out Zhao Wangjia who was entrenched in Daidi. Although there was a small episode in the early war against the Six Kingdoms, the Qin army went smoothly on the whole.But it is too smooth, but it may not be a good thing. A hard nut to crack is right in front of you - the state of Chu. In the final stage of the Warring States period, if any country could cause some troubles for Qin, it should be Chu. During this period, the capital of Chu, Yingdu, was already occupied by Qin, and they moved their capital to the Shouchun area.Knowing the huge economic and military potential of Chu State, Yingzheng is determined to get rid of this serious trouble.But he didn't take Chu State as a dish at the beginning. After all, this is a country that has been defeated by Qin repeatedly, and how much trouble can be caused. He asked his generals to estimate how many soldiers and horses would be needed to destroy Chu State. Wang Jian said it was 600,000, and the young general Li Xin said it was 200,000.Yingzheng listened to Li Xin for convenience at the beginning, and as a result, 200,000 troops rushed to Chu, and were wiped out in a short time.Facts have proved that Wang Jian's view is correct: Although the Chu State has suffered heavy losses repeatedly, they have a large land and a large population, their people are strong, and their war potential is huge. The result of despising them is that they will suffer. Ying Zheng, who had suffered a lot, learned to be good quickly. He immediately apologized to Wang Jian and invited Wang Jian to come out.Wang Jian was still the same, gritting his teeth and not letting go: 600,000 troops, there must be one person, otherwise there will be no talk.This time, Ying Zheng will give whatever Wang Jian wants.When setting off, Wang Jian's behavior was very strange. He sometimes asked for rewards from the important officials of Yingzheng, and sometimes asked for rewards from Yingzheng.Everyone thought the old man was crazy, and Wang Jian didn't argue, but he knew in his heart that Ying Zheng was not a broad-minded person at all. It was impossible not to be envied by the generals when they were away, and even more so if they were not to be envied by the king. It's possible, so you have to put on a greedy look and tell Ying Zheng that I don't want power, but money.As Wang Jian expected, Ying Zheng was not only not angry with these actions, but very happy on the contrary. After Wang Jian entered the border of Chu State, he stationed at the border area of ​​Chu State, and was not in a hurry to launch an attack.The general of the Chu State on the opposite side is the famous Chu State Xiang Yan who also has hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The two armies have been stalemate at the border for a full year. Xiang Yan finally couldn't hold on, and the whole army retreated. Wang Jian took the opportunity to chase and kill Xiang Yan in one fell swoop. The millions of troops assembled by the Yan tribe and Chu State were wiped out.This battle was actually extremely dangerous. Wang Jian was far away from his troops, and he himself was not as good as the opponent in terms of supplies and other conditions. This kind of stalemate was originally beneficial to Xiang Yan who was fighting at the "home court", but the problem was that at this time Qin's The war support capability has become so strong that it has just reimbursed 200,000 troops, and then sent another 600,000, and the material reserves are also abundant enough. In contrast, Chu State, which has lost Yingdu, has no traditional economic zone, and war supplies His ability has been greatly reduced, and it was precisely because of this that Wang Jian decided to work with the people of Chu with confidence.The people of Qin can afford it, but the people of Chu can't. Later, Wang Jian struck while the iron was hot, not only annihilated Xiang Yan's army, but also took Shouchun, the capital of Chu State, in one fell swoop, and the king of Chu State was also captured by Wang Jian.The superpower Chu State in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period also perished.Chu's subjugation also means that the overall situation of Qin's destruction of the six countries has become a foregone conclusion at this time.Because the remaining Qi State cannot resist Qin State no matter what. In 221 B.C., the Qin State was led by Wang Ben and killed the last target Qi State.At this time, the last monarch of Qi State was King Jian of Qi who had been in power for 44 years.Because Qin State has been pursuing the policy of "distanced friendship and close attack" for a long time, Qi Wangjian has always had the illusion that Qin State is his friendly neighbor. For many years, anyone who came to the door and asked Qi State to extend a helping hand to resist the strong Qin, Qi Wangjian will ignore it. , Now the retribution is coming, all the princes are destroyed, who can save him?As a result, Wang Ben's troops pacified Qi State without bloodshed.In this way, Chinese history ushered in an epoch-making moment: China, which had been divided by wars for hundreds of years, finally returned to unity. Moreover, it was no longer the loose feudal states of the past, but a unified and centralized country, the Qin Dynasty. In 221 BC, Yingzheng destroyed Qi, which has always been regarded as the end of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period and the completion of the great cause of China's unification.In fact, in the eyes of Ying Zheng, unification has not yet come, because there is still a piece of land that needs to be included under the rule of the Great Qin Empire: the southern Baiyue region. The so-called Southern Baiyue area refers to the vast land south of Chu State, including today's Fujian and Guangdong in the southeast, Yunnan and Guangxi in the southwest.During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, large and small Yue tribes lived here. The reason why the power of the Chu State grew stronger was that the Chu State has been annexing the southern Yue tribes for generations, so that they can obtain vast land and rich land. When Qin Shihuang destroyed the six countries, the territory of the Qin Empire at this time included today's Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Hunan in the south, and the territories in the south were not yet under the rule of the Qin Empire. Down. Therefore, after Yingzheng destroyed Chu, the Qin army did not put swords and guns into the warehouse. The 600,000 Qin army that participated in the war to destroy Chu were reorganized in Chu on the spot, waiting for the next upcoming war.In 220 BC, after completely pacifying the Central Plains, 500,000 Qin troops marched southward, and began their large-scale conquest of southern China.The Qin army first entered the Fujian area, destroyed the local Minyue regime, and established Minzhong County here, and Fujian Province in the south was attached to China's territory for the first time.At the same time, the Qin army entered the Guangdong area via Hunan, wiped out the local South Vietnamese tribes, and included today's Guangdong, Guangxi, and even Hainan Island into the territory of the Qin Empire. For the invincible Qin army, this process was more tortuous than pacifying the six kingdoms.After the early smooth march, the Qin army soon encountered stubborn resistance.The chief general of the Qin army, Tu Sui, had a cruel personality, and he was cruel and easy to kill in the local area, which aroused fierce resistance from the local tribes. Many areas rebelled after they were pacified.At the same time, the soldiers of the Qin Army who lived in the north all year round were not used to the humid weather in the south, and many soldiers fell ill as a result.The prevalence of the plague and the unfavorable situation of the war made Qin's southern expedition fall into a stalemate. However, Yingzheng's determination is firm. Since he has opened the bow, there is no turning back. After three years of bloody fighting, after the Qin army replaced the main general Tu Sui, Ren Xiao, Zhao Tuo and others took the local strategy of winning over Baiyue. The policy finally won the support of the local Yue tribes and sincerely surrendered to the rule of the Qin Empire.Afterwards, the Qin Empire set up three counties in Nanhai, Xiangjun, and Guilin. This is also very meaningful. The provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hunan in southeast China were historically included in the territory of China. In, and from then on into one piece. After pacifying the Nanyue area, the Qin Empire dug Lingqu in Xing'an County, Guangxi.This 30-kilometer-long canal solved the draft and transportation problems of the local Qin garrison.Its unique sluice-style channel is a pioneering work in the history of human canal excavation. Western countries did not adopt similar methods until the Panama Canal was excavated in the 19th century. While building the canal, the Qin Empire dug four post roads between today's Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hunan. These four post roads can extend all the way to Xianyang, the capital of the Qin Empire.Since then, the traffic between the Central Plains and the South has been connected.For the formation of my country's unified multi-ethnic country, this is a "national unification" event that is as meaningful as the end of the Warring States Period. After the Qin Empire successfully pacified South Vietnam, the territory of the Qin Empire was also roughly formed, including the Central Plains and Liaodong in the north, Gansu in the west, and Hainan Island and northern Vietnam in the south.This territorial map is also the rudimentary map of the Chinese feudal dynasty in later generations.