Chapter 38 Gongsun Yan rebuilds Hezong

In 326 BC, that is, the year of "Chu La" in Qin State, Zhao Suhou, the leader of the Hezong Alliance, passed away, and his son Zhao Yong came to the throne, namely King Zhao Wuling. In 325 BC, when Qin Huiwang, Wei Huiwang, and Han Xuanwang were fighting fiercely in Xianyang, an unexpected visitor came to the mansion of General Tian Yu (fen) of Qi State. Let me introduce first, Tian Yu is the nephew of King Qi Wei and the cousin of Tian Ying. According to the "Warring States Policy" records, in 333 BC, King Wei of Chu defeated Qi and won a complete victory in Xuzhou. ).Someone persuaded King Wei of Chu: "The reason why you were able to win the victory in Xuzhou is mainly because Qi State did not use Tian Yu. Tian Yu is loyal and trustworthy, has contributed to the country, and enjoys a high reputation among the people. Tian Ying is jealous of Tian Ying and deliberately does not Tian Yu uses Shen Fu instead. Shen Fu is the kind of character whose superiors are satisfied and the people are not satisfied, so you can easily defeat him. Now if you drive Tian Ying away, Tian Yu will definitely come to power, which is not a good thing for Chu ’” King Wei of Chu dismissed the idea of ​​driving Tian Ying away.

It can be seen from this that Tian Yu is a famous general of Qi State, and also enjoys a high reputation among the princes. The person who came to find Tian Yu was not an ordinary person, but Gongsun Yan, a famous general of the Wei State who was once the leader of the Qin State. When Qin Huiwang appointed Zhang Yi as his prime minister, and Gongsun Yan returned to Wei State, Wei Huiwang appointed him as a general regardless of previous suspicions. For King Wei Hui, who has repeatedly failed in the battle for talents, this move is undoubtedly a remedy.But some people think that King Wei Hui was fooled.

This is a typical conspiracy theory.On the surface, Gongsun Yan left Qin because of anger, but in fact it was arranged by Qin Huiwang and Zhang Yi.In other words, Gongsun Yan returned to Wei State with a hidden mission, which was to destroy the unity of the eastern countries and create conditions for the Qin State to be united. Judging from what happened later, this conspiracy theory is untenable.However, judging from the situation of Gongsun Yan looking for Tian Yu this time, it is inevitable to make people suspicious. Gongsun Yan said to Tian Yu: "Qi State and Wei State each send 50,000 people, led by you and me respectively, and Zhao State can be defeated within five months."

Why do you want to attack Zhao Guo?The key to unity is the unity of the Shandong states, while the key to Lianheng is to divide this unity and cause the Shandong states to fight among themselves.Qi and Wei attacking Zhao, isn't that what Qin is happy to see? Tian Yu is a typical soldier who is not interested in politics. He just expressed doubts about Gongsun Yan's proposal from the perspective of a military strategist: "If you speak lightly and use troops lightly, the country will easily fall into danger. If you say it so easily to break Zhao, I'm afraid will lead to disaster."

The first article of the opening chapter of "Sun Tzu's Art of War" records: "Soldiers, the great affairs of the country, the place of death and life, the way of survival, must be investigated." What Tian Yi meant was that war is a major matter that concerns the life and death of a country, but you underestimate it so lightly. Once the country is dragged into a war and cannot win, the country will be in danger, and you will not be able to escape punishment. Gongsun Yan said disapprovingly: "This is because you are not smart. King Qi and King Wei didn't want to fight. If we make the difficulty so big, they don't want to fight anymore. In this case, we people are useless In the land of martial arts, we can only watch those lobbyists and lobbyists do their best to steal our jobs. One hundred thousand people attack Zhao, which is indeed a little less, but as long as the war starts, King Qi and King Wei will want to fight If we win, why don’t we send people to reinforce us?”

Gongsun Yan's words hit home. Sure enough, Tian Yu persuaded King Wei of Qi to send troops, and Gongsun Yan also persuaded King Hui of Wei. The two each led 50,000 horses to attack Zhao Guo.Before the troops left the country, King Wei of Qi and King Wei Hui both realized that they had been kidnapped—50,000 troops were sent to Zhao, and there was little chance of winning, and the battle had already begun, so why not go all out?So they had to send more troops to support them. As a result of the war, Tian Yu captured Zhao General Han Ju and captured two cities of Zhao State; Gongsun Yan also defeated Zhao General Zhao Hu.

For the Wei State, which has been defeated repeatedly, this battle undoubtedly greatly improved the morale, and also enhanced Gongsun Yan's status in the Wei State. This battle also brought about another expected consequence—King Zhao Wuling was furious, and brought Su Qin to scold Su Qin. Is this your vertical alliance?Wei Guo and South Korea have long betrayed the covenant and defected to Qin Guo, and Qi Guo and Wei Guo even bit us back. What kind of bullshit does this alliance play? Su Qin was speechless.Soon after, he left Zhao and went to Yan.With Su Qin's departure, the joint vertical alliance will be completely disbanded.

Su Qin's departure did not give Zhang Yi a feeling of complete victory.In fact, Su Qin's joint verticality, except for its gorgeous appearance and great momentum, did not produce any substantive effect.From the very beginning, all countries have been in harmony with each other, each with their own minds, as if to satisfy Su Qin's official addiction, it has come and gone, without bringing any change to the world. It is Gongsun Yan who really poses a threat to Qin. Zhang Yi was keenly aware that Gongsun Yan's alliance with Qi to attack Zhao was not as simple as the warriors' greed for fame, but had a deeper political purpose - on the one hand, it was the negation of Su Qin He Zong, and on the other hand, it was to establish a new alliance. Vertical, that is, "Unite Qi and Chu to fight against strong Qin" proposed by Hui Shi back then.

An obvious signal is that King Wei Hui sent his prince Wei Si as a hostage to Qi, and his son Wei Gao as a hostage to Chu. If the three kingdoms of Wei, Qi, and Chu form a joint vertical, it will be more practical than Su Qin's six-country joint vertical.Wei Guo is likely to take advantage of the situation and get rid of Qin's control. This is what Qin Huiwang and Zhang Yi do not want to see. In order to kill the new Hezong in its infancy, in 324 BC, Zhang Yi personally led an army out of Hangu Pass, and once again captured Wei State's Shandi (now Shanxian County, Henan Province). At the same time, he built a fortress in Shangjun to consolidate Shangjun. defense.

In 323 BC, Zhang Yi, Qi Xiang Tian Ying, and Chu Yin Zhaoyang met in nie (nie) Sang (now Pei County, Jiangsu Province) and emphasized the need to strengthen the relationship between the three countries and jointly maintain world peace. In this year, Gongsun Yan launched the "Five Kingdoms Prime Minister".The five heads of state of Wei, Zhao, Han, Yan, and Zhongshan gathered together and called each other kings. The Prime Minister of the Five Kingdoms is regarded as a landmark event of Gongsun Yanhe's vertical resistance to Qin, but it did not achieve the expected effect-Qi and Chu did not participate, which means that the protagonist was not present, and all supporting actors were singing.

The reason why King Qi Wei didn't participate was simple: Zhongshan is so small, yet he dared to be king, and he wanted to be equal to the widows, there is no way! King Huai of Chu (King Wei of Chu died in 328 B.C., and his son Xiong Huai came to the throne as King Huai of Chu) proposed that the widow is the king in the first place, and there is no need for you to admit it!However, if you want some people to participate, it is also okay to add honor to your face. Please ask the king of Wei to abolish Wei Si's position as the crown prince and make Wei Gao the crown prince. Wei Gao was deeply attached to Chu and had a close relationship with the people of Chu.The intention of King Huai of Chu's invitation is obvious.Of course King Wei Hui would not agree.King Huai of Chu was furious, and sent Yin Zhaoyang to attack Wei, defeating the Wei army in Xiangling, and captured eight cities in one fell swoop. Zhaoyang's intentions were still unfinished, and he wanted to move his troops eastward to crusade against Qi.King Wei of Qi was not afraid of fighting with Chu, but felt that the battle was unjust, so he sent a man named Chen Zhen to see Zhaoyang. Chen Zhen first congratulated Zhaoyang on his victory in attacking Wei, and then asked: "According to the military law of Chu State, what is the highest official title and what title should be bestowed upon defeating the army and beheading generals?" Zhaoyang said: "Confer the title of Shangzhu Kingdom, and bestow the rank of Zhigui (gui)." The official rank system of Chu Kingdom is different from that of the Central Plains. Shangzhu Kingdom is the highest rank of generals, and Zhigui is the highest rank of title. Chen Zhen asked again: "Is there a more noble official than this?" Zhaoyang said, "Then there is only Ling Yin." Chen Zhen told Zhaoyang a story.There was a big family in the state of Chu. After sacrificing ancestors, they gave a pot of wine to several servants.These people discussed that drinking a jug of wine for several people would not be enjoyable at all. It is better for everyone to draw a snake on the ground, and whoever draws it first will get the wine.One person painted very fast. After finishing the painting, he held the jug in his left hand and continued to paint on the ground with his right hand, saying, "I'll add feet to this snake." , said: "Snakes don't have feet, but if you add them, they are no longer snakes." Chen Zhen said: "Now you are the Ling Yin of the Chu State, a very personable minister, leading the army to attack the Wei State, defeating the Wei army, capturing eight cities in a row, and moving to attack the Qi State. The King of Qi is very afraid of this. You It is enough to achieve such a great military exploit and gain such a great reputation. If you fight again, the king of Chu will not be able to give you another Ling Yin. You are invincible, but you don’t know how to stop when enough is enough, just like the person who superimposed on the snake Same, I'm afraid that when the time comes, I will be ruined and it will be counterproductive." After Zhaoyang heard this, he thought what Chen Zhen said was right, so he withdrew his troops and returned home. The allusion of the idiom "adding a snake to a snake" comes from this.