If you use one word to describe it, then, Qi is "rich", Chu is "virtual", Qin is "ruthless", Wei is "crazy", and Korea is "slippery".

Yan Zhao, who occupies the land of today's Hebei, Zhao is "tired", and Yan is "bitter".

The term "regional character" is quite popular. Chinese scholar Cao Shichao has devoted many years to the study of the formation of national personalities, and he believes that in the process of formation, all ethnic groups and even countries in the world have formed different characteristics under the strong influence of weather, geography and natural environment, and with the evolution of history and productive forces, religion, system and culture have left a strong imprint.

This is true in the world today, and it is also true in the Warring States of the past.

From the topographical point of view, Zhao is the so-called "land of four wars", there are tigers and wolves in the west, there are rich and powerful Qi in the east, there are fierce Wei in the south, and there are many nomads in the north, such as Linhu, Xiongnu, Donghu, and Loufu, plus a little brother Yan who robs from time to time.

The state of Zhao was often faced with multi-front warfare, dealing with the attacks of other vassal states on the one hand, and defending against the invasion of nomads in the north. What is especially fatal is that Zhao State is the biggest obstacle to Qin's eastward departure, and Zhao Qin's hard shake is historical fate.

Yan is not much better, it is located in a corner of the northeast, a bitter cold land, sparsely populated, barren land, plus nomadic people such as Donghu in the north, and adjacent to the powerful Qi Zhao in the south.

As far back as the autumn period, before the Zhao State was born, the Yan State was overwhelmed by the northern nomads and was forced to move its capital twice.

Time can be traced back to 664 B.C., Shanrong came to invade in a big way, Yan Guo could not resist, the monarch Yan Zhuang Gong had to ask Qi for help, at that time Qi was still Qi Huan Gong reign, one of the "Autumn Five Tyrants", indeed domineering, led the army to counterattack Shanjung, wiped out, and at the same time easily destroyed the lone bamboo and Lingzhi.

Duke Yanzhuang was grateful, and personally sent Duke Qi Huan back to the country, and sent it to the territory of Qi State, and he was still reluctant. In the autumn period, the princes still talked about some etiquette, although the Duke of Qi Huan was the overlord, he was still very sober, and hurriedly said: Oh, I am not the Son of Heaven, you are the princes, we are equal, you should not send me out of the country, so I will be rude to Yan Guo.

At that time, the historian was very powerful, and if he carved this rude act on the bamboo slips, it would be very disadvantageous to the good-faced Qi Huangong. What to do? After all, it is the overlord, Ren, Duke Qi Huan waved his hand and allocated all the land in Qi Country that Duke Yanzhuang sent to enter the country.

It can be seen that the country of Qi was big and the country of Yan was small at that time.

Shanrong, Guzhu, and Lingzhi were wiped out, and Lin Hu, Donghu, Lou Fu, etc. appeared in the north, as well as the "No. 1 villain" Xiongnu who continued to disturb the Central Plains Dynasty until the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Back then, Yan and Zhao, the beacon tower in the north, were always in the clouds.

Today, Hebei is still the longest and best-preserved province of the Great Wall, with more than 2,000 kilometers of the Great Wall remaining. During the Warring States period before the Qin Dynasty, Yan and Zhao began to build the Great Wall on a large scale.

However, the biggest threat to these two countries came from other vassal states, and the Great Wall could not be protected.

The time dates back to 260 B.C., and in the autumn, terror enveloped the kingdom of Zhao.

More than 200 young soldiers of Zhao State, who were almost mentally deranged, ragged and covered with blood, crawled back to Handan City, and said that they had just left the hell they had just left: Changping, the commander Zhao Kuo was killed by random arrows, and 400,000 Zhao soldiers were slaughtered.

According to the history books, "the blood is murmuring, and the water of Yanggu has become Dan", the corpse mountain and the sea of blood, and there are countless unjust souls...... There are 400,000 people, almost every family in Zhao Kingdom has victims, and the whole country, "the son cries for his father, the father cries for his son, the brother cries for his brother, the younger brother cries for his brother, the ancestor cries for his grandson, the wife cries for his husband, the streets are full of cities, and the sound of pain is endless."

This was the psychological warfare of the Qin State, which deliberately released more than two hundred young soldiers. They wanted to use great fear to completely conquer the Zhao Kingdom.

But two years later, the Battle of Handan showed the tenacity and tenacity of the Zhao people.

The Qin army was slaughtered under the city of Handan, while the Zhao state fortified the wall, abandoned the field and satellite cities, and concentrated the defenders and food from all over the country to defend the capital.

The elite soldiers of the Zhao army have been completely lost in the Battle of Changping, and the main force defending the city is mostly old people and children, with less than 100,000 young soldiers, and the Imperial Forest Army has also stood on the city wall. However, they are sad and angry and have morale - in the Battle of Changping, almost every family has the pain of losing children, husbands, and fathers. Fight to the death and fight to the death.

Fortunately, it was the famous general Lian Po who commanded the defense of Handan. The Qin army could not attack for a long time and suffered heavy casualties, while the Zhao army was able to send a small number of elite troops out of the city to raid the Qin army camp fence in addition to defending the city, although few of the raiders could come back alive, but the Qin army suffered more heavy casualties.

The Qin army continued to increase troops and change commanders, and Handan reached the most dangerous moment, but it was still indomitable and resisted to the death. Lian Po finally took Jia Zhuo to the head of the city, and Zhao Xiangpingyuanjun Zhao Sheng even scattered his family wealth to the soldiers, and made up wives and concubines to join the army.

Finally, after struggling to support for more than a year, the reinforcements came, in the midst of the heavy snowfall, Wei Guoxin Lingjun commanded the Wei and Chu coalition forces, launched a powerful offensive against the Qin army, the Wei army attacked in the west, the Chu army attacked in the east, the Zhao army should be in the inside, the Qin army was attacked on three sides, the whole line collapsed, and the coalition army took advantage of the situation to recover the land of 600 miles east of the river, and its power was shocked.

Mencius said, "Autumn is a righteous war." If he could live for another two hundred years, he would definitely sigh: "The Warring States are too cruel."

At the beginning of the autumn, if the large and small vassal states shoot after the rain, as many as more than 140 countries, attack and merge with each other, the big waves wash the sand, to the early stage of the Warring States period, there are only more than 20 families left, and finally only seven heroes remain, fighting each other, and all kinds of schemes, even horizontal and vertical.

Historians generally divide the three families of Zhao, Wei, and Han into Jin as the beginning of the Warring States Period. According to statistics, during the Warring States period, there were 230 large and small wars. In contrast, the war between the autumn princes is more similar to a ritual, where the chariots of both sides attack each other, the loser is convinced, and the winner is generous.

The wars of the princes of the Warring States were extremely cruel, first, the war resources that each country could mobilize were unprecedentedly strong, often hundreds of thousands of people fought against each other, and second, for the purpose of their own survival and elimination of the other party, "fighting for land and killing people, fighting for cities and killing people", killing as much of the opponent's living force as possible, and becoming a terrible mark for measuring the victory of the war.

The martial arts and toughness of the Zhao people were cultivated by years of continuous war. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously said, "War is the father of all things and the king of all things." This is a bit absolute, but for Zhao Guoren, it is very appropriate.

The four famous generals of the Warring States Period, Bai Qi, Wang Qian, Li Mu, and Lian Po, the first two were from Qin, and the last two were from Zhao. The famous generals of the Zhao State are invincible, and the Zhao people are almost all soldiers at the critical moment, surrounded by strong enemies, in order to survive, the Zhao people can only cultivate unity, hardship, and good fighting in order to survive in the troubled times.

King Yan Hui once asked the famous general Le Yi's son Le Xian, whether he could attack Zhao? Le Xian replied: "Zhao Handan, the country of the four wars, its people are trained in soldiers, and it is impossible to cut them down." "It means that the people of Zhao are good at fighting, don't attack them.

Of course, the people of Yan are also quite martial, and the environment they are in, with frequent wars, is not much better than that of Zhao, and they can only raise the strength of the whole country to resist when a strong enemy attacks. The fierceness of the Yan people is also because in the desperate situation that the building is about to collapse, there is a Yan Prince Dan who planned the most famous assassination in Chinese history.

I have always believed that Han Yu's "Yan Zhao is a generous and sad man" should come from the farewell of the Yishui River.

Sima Qian's record of this scene in "Historical Records" is very camera sense and dramatic tension: Prince Dan took a group of people to the Yishui River to give Jing Ke a trip. They were all dressed in white clothes and white hats, and they sent the warriors to the road to the death. The wind is strong, the water is rushing, Jing Ke's friend Gao gradually left the building, he sang with the beat, desolate and sad, the send-off burst into tears, and sang together: "The wind is sluggish and the water is cold, and the strong man will never return!" The tone was tragic and impassioned, and in the midst of the song, everyone's eyes were wide with rage, their hair stood on end, and their hats were almost up. Jing Ke finished singing, stepped into the carriage, and went all the way south, never looking back.

This is the "Song of Generosity".

Far away classical temperament, the perfect combination of tragedy and elegance.

Prince Dan is a man who is unwilling to submit to fate. He sent Jing Ke to assassinate the king of Qin in 227 BC, 14 years before that, Chu, Zhao, Wei, Han and other states attacked in a joint attack and were routed by the Qin army. This was also the last coalition operation of the six eastern powers, and after that, they were no longer able to jointly organize an army to attack or defend against the Qin strategy.

Before the assassination of Qin, Qin had destroyed Korea and captured Handan, the capital of Zhao. Prince Dan knew that military resistance was meaningless, and he could only resort to the extraordinary means of assassination.

The assassination of Qin failed, and the Qin army was iron-hoofed, and it was irresistible.

At the end of the Warring States period, Zhao was the only country in the Six Kingdoms that could compete with the strong Qin, but the Battle of Changping changed the balance between the two sides, and even so, the Qin army could not bargain too much in front of the strong Zhao army.

Zhang Yimou's movie "Hero", which wrote about the grand occasion of the Qin army's thousands of arrows firing at the same time, covering the sky, but in history, the Zhao army was even better at using strong bows and crossbows, so that their opponents, including the Qin army, suffered countless casualties.

There are famous generals, warriors, and advanced weapons, where is Zhao Guo losing? In addition to the comprehensive national strength, there is also a fatal reason, that is, the monarch and the minister are suspicious.

Lian Po and Li Mu are almost invincible gods of war in Zhao State, but the monarch of Zhao State would rather believe in the eunuchs on the side than in the loyal ministers and famous generals who killed the enemy in front. Heraclitus also famously said, "One cannot walk into the same river twice", but the monarch of Zhao walked into the same river twice, first bī) Lianpo, and then unjustly killed Li Mu.

Thinking back then, how tired Lian Po and Li Mu were? !

Time goes back to 229 B.C., Qin coerced the previous year to destroy the power of Korea, attacked Zhao, the monarch of Zhao is Youmiao Wang Sensen), he sent Li Mu to lead the army to resist, Li Mu showed his might, the Qin army was defeated, so he made a discordant plan, bribed the border ministers of King Zhao with heavy money, saying that Li Mu wanted to rebel against Qin, King Zhao actually believed, Li Mu could only die.

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