Chapter 45 Lian Po is old, can he still eat?

A new day has begun, and Ying Zheng sits on his throne early to accept congratulations from civil and military officials. On his left stood Ting Wei Li Si, who would soon be promoted to prime minister and become his most important assistant—yes, an assistant, not Zhongfu.He has made up his mind not to let any minister monopolize the power and control the political situation.In the entire kingdom, only he himself is the ultimate caller.Even the prime minister is only exercising his power within a certain authority, and he must obey him at all times. Under Li Si's head stood the young general Meng Tian.Meng Tian is Meng Ao's grandson. He had no fame and position at that time, but because he followed Ying Zheng since he was a child, he became his most trusted personal attendant.

On Ying Zheng's right is Guo Wei Wei Liao.Wei Liao was from Daliang, and his surname was not actually Wei, but because his surname was lost, later generations took his official name and surname as Wei Liao.He was an outstanding military theorist at that time, and his military book "Wei Liao Zi" was regarded as one of the "Seven Books of Martial Arts" by later generations, as famous as "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and "Wu Zi's Art of War".It can be said that he is Ying Zheng's chief of staff. There is also a humble figure, standing tremblingly beside the screen behind Ying Zheng, with fair skin, no beard on his face, and his eyes only dare to look at his own toes.His name is Zhao Gao, he is an eunuch, and he lives in Zhongche Fuling. He is familiar with the laws of Qin and is responsible for providing legal advice to Yingzheng.

It is also a new atmosphere for new people. As soon as Yingzheng came to power, he changed the practice of Lu Buwei, re-established the rule of law as a basic national policy, and restored the strict laws since Shang Yang, even worse than that.As an eunuch, Zhao Gao was originally not qualified to participate in politics, but this eunuch was physically disabled, studied legal knowledge painstakingly, and was able to recite the Qin laws formulated by Shang Yang, so he was favored by Ying Zheng. Externally, Yingzheng basically adopts the strategy of Li Si and Wei Liao. On the one hand, he coerces and lures the countries in Shandong to divide and unite; Winning, deceiving, and attacking, his methods are superb, even better than that of Zhang Yi back then.

In 238 B.C., King Zhao Mourning entered the Qin Dynasty and was warmly received by Yingzheng. King Zhao Yuxiang's trip is to take advantage of Lu Buwei's downfall to rebuild the relationship between Qin and Zhao. Of course, there is no shortage of spying on Yingzheng.During the meeting, Ying Zheng proposed to King Zhao Mourning: "Yan Wudao, I envoy Zhao Youzhi." Since the Battle of Changping, large-scale wars broke out between Yan and Zhao many times, and there have been long-standing grievances.In terms of strength, Zhao is strong and Yan is weak, and the result of every war is that Zhao wins.Zhao State had long wanted to annex Yan State, but was constrained by Qin State and dared not act rashly.Hearing that Ying Zheng offered to allow Zhao to annex Yan, King Zhao Mourning couldn't help but be overjoyed, and immediately arranged to attack Yan when he returned home, completely unaware that this was Qin's plan to divert the tiger away from the mountain.

In 237 BC, King Zhao Yuxiang sent Pang Nuan to lead an army to attack Yan.Almost at the same time that Zhao Jun acted, Qin Jun also acted. The Qin army was divided into two groups. One was led by general Wang Jian and sent troops out of Shangdang;When the Zhao army began to besiege Shaoliang (now Dingxian County, Hebei Province) in Yan State, Wang Jian had already captured Yanyu and (lao) Yang (now Zuoquan, Shanxi Province) in Zhao State.When Zhao Jun captured Licheng (now Renqiu, Hebei Province) in Yan State, Yang Duanhe captured the six Hejian cities.When Zhao Jun attacked Yangcheng of Yan State (now Baoding, Hebei Province), Huan Yu (yi) captured Ye (now Cixian County, Hebei Province) and Anyang.By the time Pang Nuan returned to the south to rescue, the Qin army had completely occupied the Zhangshui Basin.

King Zhao Mourning was full of remorse and died in depression, and the throne was inherited by Prince Zhao Qian. In 234 BC, the State of Qin aggressively attacked the State of Zhao, all the way to the north, capturing Yanmen and Yunzhong; Defeated the Zhao army, killed the Zhao general Hu Zhe, and beheaded one hundred thousand. In 233 BC, Huan Yu led his army from Shangdang again and crossed the Taihang Mountains to attack Yi'an (now Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province) in Zhao State.At that time, Pang Nuan was dead, the Qin army was attacking fiercely, and the Zhao army was retreating steadily. Someone suggested to Zhao Qian to ask the veteran Lian Po to come back to take charge of the overall situation and fight against the Qin army.

When Yingzheng got the news, he sent Wei Liao's disciple Wang Ao to Zhao State, and bought Zhao Qian's trusted minister Guo Kai with a lot of money, asking him to find a way to prevent Lian Po from returning to the country. Guo Kai had a grudge against Lian Po.As for why there is enmity, a more reliable but not mainstream theory is that Guo Kai is Zheng Zhu, that is, the "noble man" who visited Qin State on behalf of Zhao State in the Battle of Changping.Due to Guo Kai's confusion, King Zhao Huiwen made a wrong judgment, and Zhao Kuo, who was only on paper, replaced the experienced Lian Po.For this reason, Lian Po had a great opinion on Guo Kai and publicly humiliated him, and the two became enmity.

After receiving a large bribe from the Qin State, Guo Kai said to Zhao Qian: "It is of course a good idea to invite General Lian Po back, but he is already over seventy years old and has lived abroad for so long. Competent. Why don’t you send someone to Daliang to have a look before making a decision.” Zhao Qian thought it was reasonable, so he sent an envoy to Daliang to present Lian Po with a horse and a pair of armor. Lian Po is an old man, and when he saw Zhao Qian's gift, he knew that he wanted to invite him back to fight.Whether it was out of his feelings for Zhao Guo or his impulse as a warrior, he was full of expectations for this invitation.After thanking Zhao Qian for his kindness, he asked the envoy to dine with him, deliberately wolfing down several large bowls of rice and several catties of meat.After the meal, he rode on the horse that Zhao Qian had rewarded, ran back and forth in front of the door, and said to the envoy, "This old bone of mine can still serve the country!"

Needless to say, this messenger has been bought by Guo Kai.He returned to Handan and said to Zhao Qian: "Old General Lian is still in good health, and he can eat several catties of meat at a time, but he has a problem with his stomach. After sitting with his minister for half an hour, he defecated three times." When Zhao Qian heard that he defecated three times in half an hour, he must be unable to lead troops to fight, so he immediately gave up the idea of ​​inviting Lian Po back. At this time, someone recommended Li Mu, the general who was stationed in Daidi, Zhao Qian accepted the suggestion and quickly summoned Li Mu to the south to rescue Yi'an.

Li Mu was really extraordinary. He defeated the Qin army in Yi'an and killed Huan Yu. There is another saying that after Huanju's defeat in the war, he fled to the country of Yan in fear of crime. Both his wife and parents were executed in Xianyang. Yingzheng also offered a reward of a thousand gold to buy Huanju's head.In order to deceive others, Huan Yu changed his name to Fan Yuqi (actually it is the homonym of Huan Yu), and became a military officer in the mansion of Prince Dan of Yan State.I will talk about the grievances and resentments between Fan Yuqi and Ying Zheng later.

While attacking Zhao State, Ying Zheng also encouraged Wei State to attack Chu State. The contradiction between Wei State and Chu State lies in the Huaibei land of the original Song State.Yingzheng proposed to King Wei Jingmin that if Wei State wanted to seize the old land of Song State occupied by Chu State, Qin State was willing to send "soldiers from the four counties" to help.Wei Guo received this guarantee and really launched an attack on Chu State. As a result, it can be imagined that Wei and Chu countries fought hard, but the soldiers from the four counties promised by Ying Zheng never appeared.