The Three Jin Dynasty used to be the most violent characters in the Warring States, why could none of them unify the world?

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Jin State, which had been regarded as the orthodoxy of the Central Plains and confronted the southern superpower Chu State for many years, was divided into three families of Han, Zhao and Wei when it came to the Warring States Period.

At that time, these three emerging vassal states were also the most enterprising and vibrant forces in the Central Plains.

Because of this, Sanjin is quite concerned about who can become the ultimate winner. For example, when Mencius came to Wei, King Xiang of Wei asked him, "Will the world be unified?" ”

Mencius was very categorical: "Of course there will be unity." ”

Then the latter question comes, and that is the question that King Wei is most concerned about: who can unify the world?

Mencius naturally said, "Those who do not love to kill." ”

Hehe, Mencius's prophecy is half right. The world is indeed unified, but it is not the murderer who unifies the world, but precisely the murderous Qin.

So, why not the more civilized Sanjin to unify the world?

Let's talk about each of them, but obviously the first thing to rule out is South Korea, which is too small to expand. Even if Han Fei can be appointed, it is unlikely that he will become a real powerhouse.

So, let's talk about the remaining two: Wei and Zhao.

Speaking of which, the first power in the early Warring States period was none other than Wei. During the reign of Wei Wenhou, Li Kui was appointed as the phase change method, and the talent incentive mechanism with clear rewards and punishments was implemented, so the national strength was strong. Wei once seized Qin's Xihe region, and Qin was powerless to resist and could only accept the reality with reluctance.

Signs of the decline of the Wei state appeared during the reign of Marquis Wu of Wei, and Wu Qi's departure was a reflection of the decline of the rule of law, and then the country broke out in civil strife due to the issue of heirs, and Zhao and Han took the opportunity to crusade against Wei, and the Wei state almost perished.

By the time of King Hui, Wei gradually regained its strength and gained the upper hand in the contest with Zhao and Han. But God does not bless Wei, at this time, there is the rise of Qi in the east, and the Qin State in the west is also ready to move after the Shang Dynasty reform.

At this time, King Wei Hui led the princes to meet Zhou Tianzi, known as the Fengze Meeting, which started the steps of fighting for hegemony in the world. And the first step is to eat Zhao Guo, the second strongest country of the Three Jins.

If he could eat Zhao, Wei would be able to unite all his territories in Shanxi and Henan into a large chunk, and expand his power to Hebei. In other words, Wei will get rid of the unfavorable situation of being geographically in the middle of the world and being enemies on all sides.

At this time, Zhao invaded Weiguo, and Weiguo had previously become the protectorate of Wei, so Wei had a sufficient reason to intervene, and united Song and Wei to form a coalition to invade Zhao, once surrounded Handan, and almost annihilated Zhao in one fell swoop.

However, at this time, the disadvantages of Wei being enemies on all sides became apparent, first of all, the Qin State in the west took the opportunity to steal the western important town of Wei Shaoliang (in fact, it was the former Liang State), and since then Wei forces have withdrawn from Shaanxi. A more direct threat was to the east, when the state of Qi coincided with the reign of King Qi Wei, the lord of the Ming dynasty, and just as the state of Wei was about to capture Handan, the main force of the Qi army suddenly dispatched and advanced towards the Wei state itself with lightning speed. This is the so-called "encircling Wei to save Zhao".

But in fact, it is difficult to say that "encircling Wei to save Zhao" was really completely successful, because in fact, the Wei state

The goal of bringing Zhao to his knees was still achieved. And then, Wei waved his army to the west and beat Qin Xiaogong to the ground.

So in 341 BC, Wei planned to eat Korea, and Korea tried its best to resist the invasion while asking for help from the international community. At this time, it was still the eastern neighbor of Wei that sent troops to intervene and resist Wei and aid Korea. Under the planning of Chief of Staff Sun Bin, the Qi army still made a move to "encircle Wei and save Han", and stabbed Wei in the back, so painful that Wei, the first overlord in the early Warring States period, had to turn around and fight Qi.

General Wei Jun is Sun Bin's classmate Pang Juan, who is also an extremely smart person. But the bad thing is bad in his self-made cleverness, he has nothing to do to find something to peek at the Qi army's pot stove, Sun Bin, who knows Pang Juan's virtue, took advantage of this, and deliberately built a pot stove for 100,000 people to eat on the first day, reduced to a pot stove for 50,000 people on the second day, and only 30,000 people were left on the third day. Pang Juan saw that the Qi army was overwhelmed, so he chased after him wildly, and as a result, he fell into the ambush circle laid by Sun Bin. On the trunk of a big tree on the side of the road, Pang Juan saw the eight big characters "Pang Juan died under this tree" by the light of the fire.

Only then did Pang Juan discover the plan and urgently ordered the troops to retreat. But it was too late, the Qi army saw the firelight, and thousands of crossbows were fired in unison, and the ambushes were everywhere. The Wei army collapsed instantly, Pang Juan committed suicide in shame, and Prince Shen became a prisoner, and even folded 100,000 elite soldiers.

This battle really hurt the vitality of the Wei State, because the Wei State had so many manpower and material resources, and all of them were lost in the first battle. From then on, the Wei State collapsed and lost the qualification to dominate the world.

Naturally, if from the bottom up, Wei still suffers from his geographical location, which is in the middle of the world, and is surrounded by enemies on all sides. If you can focus on one direction in the early Warring States period, you will definitely gain something. It's a pity that they fought in the east and west, made enemies on all sides, and finally lost a great opportunity. When Qi, Qin, and Zhao rose one after another, Wei could only give up the role of the protagonist and be content to be a supporting role.

Since then, the only strong man in the Three Jin Dynasty has been Zhao Guo.

The rise of Zhao was a little slower than that of Wei. He has the Xiongnu in the north, the Yan State in the east to harass him, the violent Qin in the west, and the Han Wei in the south, and he is also in the land of four wars. However, Zhao was lucky, and produced a wise leader, King Wuling, who implemented a trick of "Hufu Cavalry Shooting" during his reign, and reorganized the Zhao army from a traditional mixed army of chariots and infantry to a motorized force mixed with cavalry and crossbowmen, thus creating the situation in which Zhao had the strongest military force in the East.

But King Zhao Wuling obviously ignored one point, that is, the reform of internal affairs. Obviously, this is because of the lack of talents for political and legal innovation, and Zhao has not been able to renew talents in an all-round way like Shang Ying and Wu Qi from beginning to end, and more often it is partial innovation in the military field.

"The Legend of the Fairy Tree"

What's worse is that an outstanding leader like King Zhao Wuling would make a big mistake on the issue of heirs, which directly led to the tragedy of him himself starving to death in the sand dunes as a generation of heroes.

Here's how it happened. The first queen of King Wuling of Zhao gave birth to his eldest son, Zhao Zhang. According to the elder system, Zhao Zhang became the legal heir of King Wuling of Zhao. But the problem is that the queen died early, and King Wuling married the young and beautiful Wu Wa. Wu Wa gave birth to a young son, Zhao He, to King Zhao Wuling.

Hongyan is always a thin life. Wu Wa died of illness soon after, and before she died, she asked King Wuling to make Zhao He the crown prince. For the last wish of the beauty, Zhao Wuling

The king could only agree.

King Wuling of Zhao abolished Gongzi Zhang as promised and made Zhao He the crown prince. and soon officially gave up the throne to Zhao He, and became the emperor himself, and the official title was "Master Father".

In this troubled era when the rites and music are collapsing, everyone has seen a lot, and it is not a big deal. The problem is that King Zhao Wuling is a hero who values feelings. One day, when he was in the court, he saw his eldest son Gongzi Zhang standing lonely in the queue of courtiers, bowing his head to his younger brother Zhao He. The love of the past suddenly reappeared in his mind, making King Zhao Wuling feel infinitely guilty about his eldest son, Gongzi Zhang.

King Wuling of Zhao died in the sand dunes, and by the way, the later Qin Shi Huang also died here. What is even more coincidental is that the wine pond meat forest of the king of Shang is also here.

So in the fourth year of Zhao He, King Huiwen of Zhao (295 BC), King Wuling of Zhao proposed a partition plan, intending to divide the land to Gongzi Zhang, so that Gongzi Zhang would claim to be the king of a country. This caused chaos, on the one hand, Gongzi Zhang's side was about to move, on the other hand, Zhao He also felt the tilt of the balance of the lord's father's feelings, and the result of the discussion between the monarch and the minister, the minister Feiyi came forward and vetoed King Zhao Wuling's plan on behalf of King Zhao Huiwen.

This ignited the raging anger in Gongzi Zhang's chest, the entire Zhao Kingdom was given to your younger brother, and now my father wants to give me a piece of deserted territory, and you still don't give it! Anyway, if you are unkind to me and I am unjust, he simply killed Feiyi and officially turned his face with King Zhao Huiwen.

After a brotherly fight, his brother Gongzi Zhang was defeated and fled to his lord's palace to seek refuge. The master's father softened his heart and took in Gongzizhang. His thoughts, for the sake of his own face, may be able to save Gongzizhang's life. But to the surprise of the master's father, the ministers unceremoniously rushed into the palace and killed Gongzizhang in front of the master's father. The Lord was in tears, but it didn't end there. The ministers opened the palace gate and expelled all the palace people, but did not allow the master father to leave, the meaning was very clear, this was to ask him to "fend for himself". There is not much food in the inner palace, "the master father can't go out, and he can't eat, so he visits the lord and eats it, and starves to death in the Dune Palace for more than three months." "The eagle is the sparrow. It is sighing that a generation of heroes ended up like this.

Starving the Martial Spirit King is said to have been the minister's idea. But is King Zhao Huiwen, the youngest son of King Wuling, suspected of murdering his own father? The history books defended him, saying, "It was the time when the king was young, and he became a dictatorship and was afraid of punishment, so he besieged the master's father." "Age is indeed a reason, but in the long days of more than three months and more than a hundred days, his attitude is obvious when he ignores his father's life and death. Therefore, King Zhao Huiwen is absolutely responsible for the death of his father, King Wuling.

For Tu Qiang of Zhao State, the death of King Wuling is definitely a serious blow, and the hegemony of Zhao State is blown away by the rain and wind. The successors of the King of Martial Arts can only eat their old books. Relying on the brave cavalry left by the King of Martial Spirits, he was barely able to protect himself, and as for the ambition of the world, there was no way to talk about it.

At this point, the old capital of the Three Jin Dynasty was completely exhausted, and in the face of the Qin State's step-by-step advance, only the strength of defense remained, until the Battle of Changping, which exhausted the last strength of the Zhao State.

History really has no ifs, but it is full of accidents. This has led to an endless number of variables that make up history.