Zhao vs. Wei: State War, What is the Wise Choice?

The Seven Kingdoms of the Warring States period were relatively limited by geopolitics, and both Zhao and Wei were relatively poorly situated: surrounded by powerful enemies on all sides, and lacking a stronghold to defend itself, Wei relied on the personal ability of its kings to hold up an era.

In the early part of the period, Wei had the upper hand, and it became the most powerful vassal state in the early Warring States period, after the first two monarchs, Marquis Wei and Marquis Wei, reformed the state and became the most powerful vassal state in the early Warring States period.

Marquis Wen of Wei

Politically, Marquis Wen of Wei was the first to implement the Change of Law in the Warring States period, reforming politics and rewarding plowing and warring to build up water conservancy and develop the feudal economy

Militarily, he destroyed the state of Zhongshan in the north (the area of present-day Pingshan and Lingshou in the western part of Hebei province), and captured the land of Qin Xihu (between present-day Yellow River and Luoshui) in the west, and became the strongest state at the beginning of the Warring States period. .

In terms of talents, he appointed Li Yul, Wu Qi, Le Yang, Ximen Bao, Zixia, Zhai Juan, and Wei Cheng to enrich the state and strengthen the army, suppress Zhao, destroy Zhongshan, defeat Qin, Qi, and Chu, and open up a large area of territory, which enabled Wei to become the hegemony of the Central Plains. Worshipping Zixia as his teacher raised the status of Confucianism to an unprecedented height, achieved the political purpose of collecting the hearts of scholars, and was the initiator of the later emperors' respect for Confucianism to enlist the intellectual class. The experience of Wei Wenhou's governance is a classic example of the Chinese empire.

Follow-up: His son, Marquis Wu of Wei, appointed the militarist Wu Qi to carry out reforms, and the country's power continued to rise. By the time King Hui of Wei, son of Marquis Wu, reigned, Wei had dominated the Central Plains for a century. In 343 BC, King Hui of Wei led his vassals on a pilgrimage to the Zhou Emperor, officially marking Wei as the new generation of hegemon.

Ending: But limited by the geopolitics of being surrounded by enemies on all sides, the mighty state of Wei bordered by the tough Qin, the largest state of Chu, the cavalry power of Zhao, and Han, and was restricted everywhere, with the departure of two generations of bright rulers, and the replacement of chariot tactics by the upgraded cavalry tactics, the defeat of Wei by Zhao, coupled with the rise of the strong Qi, the state of Wei fell into disrepair, and coupled with the geographic location of being in the key position of blocking the Qin from entering the Central Plains, the state of Wei was defeated by Zhao, strong Qin, and strong Qin. Being beaten by the peaks of Strong Zhao, Strong Qin, Strong Chu, and Strong Qi, it was a miserable situation. The main reason for this is the fact that the geography is so poor that it is difficult to show off your talents without a great ruler.

Later Zhao dominated, due to the implementation of King Wuling's "HU clothing riding and shooting" and "the Great Wall in the north", so that the country's strength greatly increased, but later due to the failure of the Battle of Changping, was the first general of the Warring States, defeated by Bai Qi, + 400,000 buried alive, so that the Zhao state was in ruins. Destroyed.

Wuling King of Zhao was a gifted and courageous monarch with great ambitions. During his reign, due to the shame of losing the war with the powerful state of Wei, he issued the state policy of "HUI Horseback Shooting", in which all the soldiers of the country changed the traditional wide war uniforms to the tight and small HUI uniforms, and changed the traditional infantry as the main army structure to the cavalry and crossbow soldiers as the main army composition. There was a lot of resistance to this, but King Wuling of Zhao managed to do it, for the first time establishing the first cavalry unit in the history of China, and the mobility, flexibility and explosiveness of the cavalry made the strongest charioteer unit of Wei at that time lag behind greatly at the tactical level. Thereafter, the cavalry, the king of the cold-weapon battlefield, appeared. Note, until the end of the Three Kingdoms China did not have stirrups, before only mounting aids, so at that time the cavalry on the horse need to legs to fix their own, the personal ability requirements are very high, and the need to completely free their hands for horseback riding is more only horseback nation only unique ability.

Militarily, Zhao conquered the state of Zhongshan in the northeast (see Battle of Zhao against Zhongshan.). In the northwest, Zhao defeated Linhu and Louhou. In the north, he set up three counties, Yunzhong (present-day Toktor County, Hohhot), Yanmen (present-day Dai County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province), and Dai (present-day Weixian County, Hebei Province), and built the "Great Wall of Zhao" from present-day Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, to Wuhuyuan County, Bayannaoer League, Inner Mongolia.

Ending:

Finish: King Huiwen of Zhao succeeded to the throne of China. King Huiwen of Zhao succeeded to the throne. During this period, Zhao's famous generals and ministers defeated the Qin army. Taking advantage of the Qin's attack on Chu, Zhao attacked the eastern part of the country, capturing Qi's Gao Tang, and then attacked all the eastern countries of the Guan Dong to seize land. He was a famous general of the Warring States, Bai Qi (白起), until the battle of Changping (长平), when he met the first general of the Warring States (战国). Bai Qi is the strongest person in the history of the whole China's cold weapons in the war, he is different from the general of the ancient generals, he has a broader political vision, at that time, Lian Po held the line to take advantage of the characteristics of the Qin supply line longer than the Zhao to drag Qin to death. But in Bai Qi immediately put pressure on the civil, political backhanders, portraying Lian Po's defense strategy as a passive defense. At that time, King Zhao Xiaocheng was already annoyed that Lian Po's army had suffered too many casualties and repeated defeats but stood firm, plus Zhao's national strength was inferior to Qin's, and itself was close to running out of gas in terms of food, so he replaced Zhao Tuo. Zhao Tuo also had to carry out the political demands of a short period of time to come up with the results of the battle, the battle of Changping in fact, the results of the battle have long been set, this is the gap between the overall national strength. But Lian Po's defensive exertion had a significantly higher chance of winning than King Zhao Xiaocheng's reckless attack. The result was that Bai Qi killed and buried 400,000 people in Changping, and nearly half of Zhao's young men died in the battle, and he was never able to get up again.