Chapter 17 Cracks appear in the Three Jin Alliance

Regarding Wu Qi's departure, although Wei Wuhou was somewhat surprised, he didn't think it was a serious matter. He quickly put this matter behind him and went to Zhuozze (now Yuzhou, Henan Province) to meet with Tian He, the powerful minister of Qi State who was visiting. The purpose of Tian He's visit this time is very simple. Back then, he agreed to Qi Kanggong to accompany Sanjin to meet the emperor, which fulfilled Wei Wenhou's dream of becoming a vassal. Now it is Wei's turn to help him realize his dream. Wei Wuhou agreed to Tian He's request, and sent envoys to Luoyi to ask the then emperor, King Zhou An, to make Tian He a prince; he also sent people to various countries to lobby for the support of other princes.

Since there are precedents of the Three Jin Dynasties and Wei Wuhou's argument, the royal family did not feel too embarrassed about this matter, and in 386 BC, Tian He was canonized as a prince (that is, Qi Taigong).The Tian family replaced the Jiang family and officially became the ruler of Qi, completing the great cause of "Tian's replacing Qi". For Zhao Guo, Tian's Dai Qi is not happy to see it. In the year when the Three Jins were listed as vassals, Zhao Guo also carried out reforms under the auspices of Xiangguo Gong Zhonglian. Gong Zhonglian recommended three people to Zhao Liehou (Zhao Ji):

The first one is cattle and livestock. He advocated governing the country with benevolence and righteousness, talked about kingly ways, and was appointed as a "teacher" by Zhao Liehou, responsible for the education of ritual and music. The second is Xun Xin. His specialty is to discover talents, know them and make good use of them. He was appointed as a "lieutenant" and was responsible for commanding operations and selecting officials. The third is Xu Yue, who is good at financial management and assessment, and was appointed as an "internal historian", responsible for collecting land rent and evaluating officials' achievements.

It is not difficult to see that the reform of Zhao State is the same as that of Wei State. On the one hand, it uses Confucian "benevolence and righteousness" and "kingly way" to gather people's hearts, and on the other hand, it promotes the Legalist concept of governing the country, taking the path of combining Confucianism and Legalism. Through reforms, Zhao Guo gradually became prosperous and strong.During the three Jin battles against Chu, both Wei and Han obtained a lot of land from Zheng, Song and other countries, but Zhao State did not gain any benefits because it was located in the north.Over time, Zhao Guo became dissatisfied with the Three Jin Alliance.

In 387 BC, Marquis Zhao Lie died and his son Jinghou Zhao (Zhao Zhang) came to the throne; Marquis Han Wen died and his son Han Aihou came to the throne. As soon as Zhao Jinghou came to power, he moved the capital from Zhongmou in Henan to Handan in Hebei.The purpose of moving the capital is naturally to strengthen the strategy of eastward expansion, with Qi and Wei as the goal, to obtain more land. At this time, Wei Wuhou and Tianhe fought fiercely and supported him as a prince. Can Zhao Jinghou be happy? Cracks between the alliances are quietly forming.Not long after, Wei Wuhou made the rift even bigger with his own hands.

In 386 BC, Zhao Chao, the younger brother of Zhao Jinghou, rebelled in an attempt to overthrow Zhao Jinghou and establish himself as king.Although Zhao Jinghou was "good at indulging in sexual desires", he was "clear to serve as a minister". With the assistance of several important ministers, he quickly extinguished the rebellion, and Zhao Chao was forced to flee to Wei State. If Marquis Wen of Wei was still alive, he would definitely put the overall situation of the Jin Alliance first and refused to take in the Zhao Dynasty.But Wei Wuhou obviously didn't think so. He regarded the Zhao Dynasty incident as a good subject to interfere in Zhao's internal affairs. He not only took in Zhao Dynasty, but also sent troops to assist Zhao Dynasty in besieging Handan, Zhao's new capital.

As a result, Wei Jun was defeated by Zhao Jun at the foot of Handan City. Needless to say, this battle completely destroyed the friendship between Zhao and Wei. In 383 B.C., unable to hold back his yearning for territory, Zhao Jinghou invaded the state of Wei on a large scale, and adopted the tactics of "ant attachment" to besiege Diqiu, the capital of the state of Wei (now Puyang, Henan Province). The so-called ant attachment, as the name suggests, is to densely climb the city wall like ants. The second article of the third chapter of "Sun Tzu's Art of War" records: "The first is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the army, and the next is to attack the city. The method of attacking the city is a last resort. Repair the scull (fenwen, used to attack the city) Chariots), equipped with equipment, will be completed in three months; away from the mound (yin, piled up earth mountain), it will be completed in three months. It will be overwhelmed by its anger and ants will attach to it, killing one third of the soldiers, but the city will not be removed Those who are here are the disasters of this attack."

Siege is already the worst policy, and the ant-attachment tactic regardless of one's own casualties is the worst policy of the worst.In order to show his determination not to give up until the goal was achieved, Zhao Jun also built Gangping City to the north of Diqiu as a base for troops to repair and store grain. In desperation, the state of Wei sent people to ask for help from the states of Wei and Qi. Wei Wuhou really deserved the word "Wu" in his posthumous title. He personally led the army to rescue and defeated Zhao Jun in Tutai. In the second year, with the help of the Qi and Wei armies, the Wei army broke through the city of Gangping, took advantage of the situation to attack the territory of Zhao, and broke through the outer city of Zhongmou, the old capital of the state of Zhao.

Zhao Jinghou couldn't bear it anymore, and sent someone to ask for help from Chu State. At this time, it was exactly ten years since Wei Wuhou led the three Jin coalition forces to defeat the Chu army again in Daliang and Yuguan.