Chapter 19 Wu Qi's Legacy to the State of Wei

The melee between Wei, Wei and Zhao and Chu lasted for four full years from 383 BC to 379 BC, causing serious trauma to Wei and Zhao.Decades later, when Su Qin talked about the war, he said with emotion: "The destruction of Gangping, the destruction of Zhongmu, the destruction of Huangcheng, and the burning of thornbush were not the will of Wei and Zhao. However, It happened just like that, when the two countries attacked each other vigorously, didn't they think about the consequences?" For Wei Guo, the consequences are not only these.As mentioned earlier, the state of Wei and Zhongshan are separated by the state of Zhao. When Wei Wenhou attacked Zhongshan, he had to borrow a way from the state of Zhao.After Wei and Zhao turned against each other, Zhao State cut off the communication between Zhongshan and Wei State, and Wei State lost control of Zhongshan.Di Ren, an aborigine in Zhongshan, took the opportunity to revolt and drove away Wei officials, which was called "Zhongshan Restoration" in history.

When Wei and Zhao fought hard, South Korea maintained a neutral attitude and seized the time to expand its territory. In 385 BC, South Korea attacked Zheng and took Yangcheng (now Dengfeng, Henan Province); it also attacked Song to Pengcheng and captured Song Jun.In 375 BC, Wei Guo attacked Chu, and the two sides fought at Yuguan.South Korea took the opportunity to invade Zheng State, destroy Zheng State, and move its capital to Xinzheng. Zhao Guo continued to expand to the northeast.In 377 BC, Zhao attacked Zhongshan and fought in the house (now Gaoyi, Hebei Province).In 376 BC, Zhao attacked Zhongshan again, fought against Zhongren, and obtained a large area of ​​Zhongshan.

In 372 BC, Zhao State invaded Wei State again and captured 73 towns.Marquis Wu of Wei attacked Zhao and rescued the guards, and defeated the Zhao army in Lindi (now Lishi, Shanxi Province). In 370 BC, Wei Wuhou died. When Wei Wuhou came to the throne, he took over the most powerful country in the world.However, he neglected to employ people, forced Wu Qi to leave first, made diplomatic mistakes, and offended Zhao Guo later, so that Chu State could take advantage of it and almost fell into Wei State's peril. When Wei Wuhou died, he had not yet designated an heir. His two sons, Wei Ying (ying) and Wei Huan, competed for the throne, and the state of Wei was divided.

At that time, the monarch of Zhao State was Zhao Chenghou (son of Zhao Jinghou), and the monarch of Korea was Han Yihou (grandson of Han Wenhou). Someone said to Han Yihou: "Didn't you hear that the two sons of Wei State are fighting for the throne? Now Wei Fu has the help of Wang Cuo, occupies Shangdang, and owns half of Wei State. Happy. If you send troops now, you will be able to put the Wei State under your control, and the opportunity will never come again!" Han Yihou was very happy when he heard that, so he contacted Zhao Chenghou, and the two countries jointly sent troops to defeat the Wei army in Zhuoze. , Surrounded Wei Wei.

Zhao Chenghou and Han Yihou disagreed on how to deal with Wei Guo in the next step.What Zhao Chenghou meant was to kill Wei Yu and make Wei Xu the king on the condition of ceding the land.Han Yihou wanted Wei Fu and Wei Huan to divide and rule the Wei state, "Wei is divided into two, if it is not stronger than Song and Wei, then I will never be in trouble with Wei!" In a rage, Han Yihou led his troops back.Wei Wei took the opportunity to counterattack, drove Zhao Jun out of Wei State, killed Wei Huan, and established himself as the king of the country, that is, King Wei Hui in history (why it is not Wei Huihou but Wei Huiwang, I will talk about it later).

When Sima Qian wrote this period of history, he couldn't help sweating for the state of Wei: "The reason why King Wei Hui survived and the state of Wei was not split is entirely because the opinions of Zhao and Han were not unified. Tactics, the Kingdom of Wei must be divided. Therefore, if the monarch does not appoint an heir until his death, the country will be very dangerous!" After this incident, the Three Jin Alliance was completely disbanded. In 362 BC, Uncle Xianggong of Wei attacked Zhao and Han, defeated the coalition forces of the two countries in Weibei, captured Zhao general Lezuo alive, and obtained Zhao's Pilao (now Yicheng, Shanxi Province), Lieren, and Fei (all in today's Yicheng, Shanxi Province). Fei Township, Hebei Province), avenged Zhuoze back then.King Hui Hui of Wei was very happy, and went to meet Uncle Cuo outside the city in person, and wanted to reward him with a million acres of fertile land.

Uncle Gong thanked King Wei Hui for his kindness, but insisted on not rewarding him, saying: "The victory in this battle is entirely due to the soldiers working hard, marching forward bravely, and seeing death as home. The servants just took advantage of the enemy's negligence and beat the drums hard. Dare to slack off." King Wei Hui said: "The reason why the soldiers are doing well is because you have trained well, and that is also your credit." Uncle Zuo got up and left his seat, and said solemnly: "The ability to train the soldiers to such a state is not the work of the subordinates, but the credit of another person."

"Who?" "Wu Qi." Uncle Gong went on to say: "If Wu Qi hadn't laid the foundation and formulated a whole set of military strategies back then, how could Wei have won today's victory? The ministers just stood on Wu Qi's shoulders and tried a little bit. If you want a reward, give it to Wu Qi!" King Hui of Wei nodded his head. At this time, nineteen years have passed since Wu Qi was killed in Chu State.King Hui of Wei ordered people to visit the state of Wei, found Wu Qi's descendants, and rewarded them with 200,000 mu of land. If Wu Qiquan knew about it, it would be a comfort to some extent.