Chapter 23 vertical and horizontal

In the 120s of the 5th century BC, the Warring States Period began. Although the Zhou Kingdom had fallen to the size of an ordinary feudal state, it still lingered on Luoyang, but no one looked at it anymore.A large number of weak feudal states were wiped out—they were eaten by powerful feudal states.In the fourth century BC, after the powerful feudal states followed the Chu Kingdom, they were successively renamed kingdoms, and the monarchs were also renamed kings, and they were raised to equal status with Zhou Kingdom and Chu Kingdom.Among the kingdoms, they call each other brothers and fight each other, and the troops dispatched can be hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions.This huge number made the previous wars almost inferior to pediatrics, and they could die of shame.Mr. Meng Ke described the characteristics of the Warring States Period in his collection of speeches "Mencius": "In the battle for the city, people will fill the city. In the battle for the field, people will kill the people." In the late Warring States period, the Qin Kingdom rose in the West, Invincible.The countries in the East have nothing to do except continue to cede land and pay compensation.

When Mr. Mi Huai, King Huai of Chu, was the 21st king of the Kingdom of Chu, it was the late Warring States Period. The battles were more fierce and the tricks were more sinister. His talents could neither cope with the complicated international relations nor reform. The deep-rooted corrupt politics in the long-suffering Chu Kingdom, coupled with his greed and ignorance, made him not only play a tragic role, but also a disappointing tragic role. The fourth century BC was a century of wisdom.In the strict feudal society that lasted for thousands of years, only nobles could receive education, and only these educated nobles held political power.Until the fourth century BC, there were two small people who were both very poor and had no bloodlines of the powerful.Lonely, like an ugly duckling wandering on the street, who will be trampled to death at any time.However, they pursued knowledge assiduously, and suddenly, like a rocket, they shot into space, sending out a colorful rainbow, causing tens of thousands of people to fall to the ground, and changing the international situation.Anyone who is even slightly interested in Chinese history will be deeply impressed by these two stars of wisdom.One is Mr. Su Qin from the Kingdom of Zhou, and the other is Mr. Zhang Yi from the Kingdom of Wei.

Mr. Su Qin persuaded the six great powers in the east: Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, Qi, and Chu to form a north-south defense alliance - called "He Zong" at that time, to jointly resist the aggression of the Western Qin Kingdom.The Kingdom of Qin reacted strongly to the formation of the North-South Defense Alliance (Hezong), which was both furious and terrified.If Mr. Su Qin's foreign policy is followed by the eastern countries, the Qin Kingdom will not be able to sing.Therefore, the Kingdom of Qin must destroy this alliance, so that it can survive and continue to eat persimmons, pinching each of the eastern countries.

Mr. Zhang Yi should be transported into space.The man from the Kingdom of Wei, who served as a counselor to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Qin, proposed another more appealing idea: the East-West Reconciliation Front—called "Lianheng" at the time. Mr. Su Qin's reasoning is very simple. The land will eventually be cut off, and the desire of the Qin Kingdom will be endless. The power of the Eastern countries united will exceed five times the strength of the Qin Kingdom. Don't talk about defense and confrontation. If you are not happy, you can wipe the Qin Kingdom off the map at any time.Against Mr. Su Qin's unbreakable truth, Mr. Zhang Yi has his countermeasures. He takes advantage of the weakness of human nature and resorts to the tactics of dog grabbing bones.Woohoo, Your Excellency doesn’t care, when a group of hungry wild dogs attack you, it seems that nothing can break them up, but as long as you throw a bone, the wild dog master will immediately mess up the camp, and bite himself into a ball first .Mr. Zhang Yi first used "reconciliation" as a political call, threatening that if you want to coexist peacefully and avoid destructive modern wars, you must never treat the Qin Kingdom as an imaginary enemy.Then, Mr. Zhang Yi threw another bone among the nations, and the North-South defense alliance finally collapsed.The protagonist of this article, Mr. Mi Huai, is one of the victims of the two strategies of Mr. Su Qin and Zhang Yi.

Although Mr. Su Qin and Mr. Zhang Yi's strategy of dominating the world is tit for tat, they are classmates and friends, and there is a legendary story that is active in history books, so that when we read it two thousand years later, our hearts are still throbbing.In particular, Mr. Zhang Yi, who was born as a commoner and had suffered incomparable humiliation in the Kingdom of Chu, after gaining power, played with Mr. Mi Huai, who is the king, like a hozen. It is especially amazing.