Chapter 50: The Road to the Strength of the Seven Heroes

Xi Shi and Zheng Dan had already accepted Long Hui, and Zheng Dan asked Long Hui to go to various armies every day to see all kinds of weapons.

In the forty-sixth year of King Xian of Zhou, the Qin State launched a military operation against the Qi State through Wei Han, first crossed the three kingdoms of Han, Wei and Wei, and feinted to attack the Yangjin main road on the left bank of Dayozawa, and suddenly went south from Yangjin to Kangfu, an important town in the southwest of Qi State, where the road was treacherous, and the Qin army wanted to take it by surprise, and went north from here to bypass the right soil and directly insert the Nanyang hinterland of Qi State. At this time, King Qi Wei appointed Kuang Zhang as a general and led his troops to meet the battle, and Kuang Zhang's father was dead at this time. King Qi Wei had granted him permission to bury his mother after winning the battle, but Kuang Zhang refused to bury his mother on the grounds of "not being taught by his father", so that King Qi Wei had a deeper understanding of Kuang Zhang's personality.

When the Qin army marched to the border of Qilu, the Qin army and the main force of the Qi army led by Kuang Zhang met, and the Qi and Qin armies camped against each other. In order to strictly enforce military discipline and win the hearts of the people, the generals of the Qin army ordered: "Anyone who dares to collect firewood within fifty steps of Liu Xiaji's grave will be sentenced to death and will not be forgiven." At the same time, in order to boost morale, he also ordered a reward of "whoever can get the head of the king of Qi, seal the marquis of ten thousand households, and reward 20,000 taels of gold."

Since the Qin army was alone, it was necessary to take care of the rear, lest Han and Wei would plot in the rear. Therefore, the Qin army only bluffed and threatened to send troops to Qi, but in fact they hesitated and did not dare to attack. Kuang Zhang made full use of the ambivalence of the Qin army that they could not advance and retreat, and on the eve of the war, he asked the envoys of both sides to communicate with each other many times. Kuang Zhang took the opportunity to change the flag markings of some of the Qi army and mixed them into the Qin army, waiting to cooperate with the main attack force of Qi to break the enemy. The spies sent to the front line by King Qi Wei did not understand Kuang Zhang's intentions, and quietly reported to King Qi Wei and said, "Zhang Zi asked the Qi army to join the Qin army. King Qi Wei listened and ignored it. Soon after, another spy who came back from the front reported to King Qi Wei: "Kuang Zhang asked the Qi army to surrender to the Qin army. King Qi Wei still ignored it. And so on and so forth. Seeing this scene, the ministers of the imperial court asked King Qi Wei and said, "The spies who said that Zhangzi failed to surrender to Qin are not the same people, so why didn't the king send troops to fight him?" King Qi Wei replied confidently: "This is obviously not an act of betrayal of the widow, so why should we crusade against him!" Soon after, Kuang Zhang's tactics were a great success, and the Qin army was attacked by the Qi soldiers who had mixed into the barracks and Kuang Zhang's large army, and the Qin army, which was not very resolute in battle, was about to collapse at the first touch. The Qi dynasty learned that the good news of the great victory of the Qi army came from the front. The ministers were surprised and asked King Qi Wei why he had such foresight. King Qi Wei told them that it could be inferred from Kuang Zhang's daily behavior that he firmly believed that he "did not deceive his father as a son of man, but as a minister and deceived the king." Although the front line sent intelligence three times that Kuang Zhang might surrender to Qin, King Qi Wei did not believe it, insisted on letting Kuang Zhang command the battle, and finally preserved the victory of this anti-Qin war.

When Qin learned of the defeat at the front, he hurriedly sent Chen Zhen as an envoy to Qi as a "minister of the Western Domain" to apologize to King Qi Wei.

Qin's strategy of eastward expansion seriously threatened the six eastern states. Gongsun Yan replaced Zhang Yi as the minister of Wei with the support of Korea, and the king of Wei expelled Zhang Yi back to Qin, and fought for the cooperation of various countries against Qin. Gongsun Yan initiated a joint attack on Qin by Wei, Zhao, Han, Yan, and Chu, and organized a coalition army to attack Qin with King Huai of Chu as the commander. Gongsun Yan also lobbied Yiqu to attack the Qin State and cooperate with the coalition forces. Qin sent "a thousand embroidered horses, a hundred good women" to Yiqu to alleviate its threat, Yiqu monarch thought that Qin's gift was actually a temporary strategy, Qin's strength was ultimately unfavorable to Yiqu, so he took the opportunity of the five countries to attack Qin, sent troops to attack, and defeated the Qin army in Li Bo. However, the five kingdoms were not united, and only Wei, Zhao, and Han really sent troops, and the coalition army attacked Hangu Pass, but was repelled by the Qin army.

Qin sent Shu Chang Li Ji to lead the Qin army to send a letter to Guguan to counterattack the Han, Zhao and Wei coalition forces, and defeated the Zhao and Han coalition forces in Xiuyu, defeated the Zhao generals Zhao Qi and Han Huan, captured the Han general Shen Cha, and killed 82,000 coalition troops.

In 318 BC, Chu, Zhao, Wei, Han, and Yan fought together against Qin, and Qin sent troops to defeat the alliance of the Five Kingdoms. In 317 BC, the Qin state defeated Korea in Xiuyu. The state of Qi was defeated by the state of Qin with the three Jins, and the Xing army attacked the border of the state of Zhao and the state of Wei. The states of Zhao and Wei fought against the state of Qi at Guanze and were defeated by the Qi army.

King Shenliang of Zhou was five years old, and the king of Shu crusaded against the Marquis of Tho. The Marquis then fled from Pakistan. Because King Qin Huiwen had a good relationship with Ba and Shu, Ba asked Qin to send troops, and King Qin Huiwen sent Zhang Yi and Sima Cuo to lead troops to rescue Tho and Ba. The Qin army crusaded against Shu, and the Shu king's soldiers were defeated and retreated to Wuyang, where they were killed by the Qin army. Both the prince and the prince died in Bailu Mountain. Subsequently, Zhang Yi was greedy for the richness of Ba and Tho, and treacherously went east to destroy Ba and captured the king of Ba and the Marquis of Tho and returned to Qin. Both the kingdoms of Pakistan and Tho perished. The Qin State placed Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong counties, and divided them into forty-one counties. King Qin Huiwen degraded the younger brother of the prince of Shu as the marquis, with Chen Zhuang as the minister of Shu and Zhang Ruo as the guard of the Shu state. He also named the king of Ba as "the king"; Zhiba County, the county governs Jiangzhou. The Ba and Shu regions were decided, and the Qin State became richer and stronger.

The Qin State destroyed the Ba State and the Shu State, and expanded its territory to the southwest, achieving the three goals of Sima Cuo's initial crusade against the Shu State: "Wide Land", "Rich Country", and "Strong Army". In addition, the Qin State also removed the trouble of going out of the customs to defeat the Six Kingdoms, and the Ba and Shu became the basis for the crusade against the Chu State from the southwest, and the Chu State could be led from the waterway, which had a great impact on the subsequent Battle of Qianzhong and the Battle of Yanying.

In 316 B.C., Yan Wang Xuchan was located in Xiangguozizhi, and caused great domestic chaos due to his promotion of reforms.

In 314 BC, Taiziping and the city of the general were rebelled, and finally pacified, and the city of Taiziping and the city were killed, and tens of thousands of people died. At this time, King Xuan of Qi sent Kuang Zhang to lead the army, and within fifty days he broke through the Yan Kingdom, and the King of Yan was killed, and Zizhi fled, and was caught by the Qi people to make meat sauce. Soon, the military discipline of the soldiers of the Qi State was corrupted, and all parts of the Yan State rebelled, and Zhao, Wei, Han, Chu, Qin and other countries sought to save the Yan State.

In 313 BC, King Wuling of Zhao sent Le Chi to escort the prince of Yan in Korea back to Yan; At the same time, the king of Zhao exchanged the land east of the river for part of the Yan land, so that Chu, Wei and other countries increased the hostility of the Qi state and responded to save Yan.

In 312 BC, King Qin Huiwen launched the battle of Danyang and Pushui in order to prevent Qi from digesting Yan, because King Song Kang led his troops back overnight to expose the flank of Qi, the Qin army defeated the Qi army, and forced Qi to give up the occupation of Yan, so that Yan was able to recover.

In 284 BC, King Yan Zhao took advantage of the fact that most of the troops of the Song State had just been destroyed by Qi and gathered in the south, and united the allied forces of Zhao, Wei, Han, and Qin, and led by Le Yi to attack Qi on a large scale. After King Qi destroyed the Song Dynasty, the national strength of Qi was the strongest in the Warring States, and the King of Qi was proud and forgetful, and refused to share the fruits of the agreed victory with Zhao and Wei, and fell into Su Qin's divisive plan, and did not expect that the Yan State would unite with other countries to attack Qi. It was only when he found out that the coalition army had invaded the Qi State that he hastily appointed Tentacle as a general. The troops of each side were about 200,000 or more than 200,000 troops to fight a decisive battle in the west of Jishui. The morale of the Qi army was low due to years of fighting. In order to force the soldiers to fight to the death, King Qi threatened to dig up ancestral graves and kill, which made the soldiers centrifuge and depressed. As a result, when the coalition forces attacked, the Qi army collapsed at the first touch and suffered a crushing defeat. The tentacle fled and did not know his whereabouts, and the deputy general Dazi packed up the remnants of the army and retired to Linzi, the capital of Qi State. Later, the coalition army invaded Linzi, which also brought the Qi State to the brink of extinction for five years.