China is much richer in iron ore than copper, so why did ancient times enter the Bronze Age first?

Because in ancient times it was much easier to smelt copper than iron.

In the early days, people only used the natural copper (red copper) found as a stone tool, but they thought that this stone was shiny and beautiful. Later, when people used natural copper to create "stone tools", it was found that copper had a malleability that stone tools could not compare. People can make natural copper into various shapes, which is much better than stone.

Later, it was discovered that it was easier to shape copper by working it with fire. In addition, if the heating temperature is high, it can be boiled into water and poured into a mold for casting. You must know that when pottery was fired in ancient China, the temperature could reach 900-1000 °C. Slowly, people used not only natural copper, but also malachite and cuprite to smelt copper. It is also for this reason that China first entered the Bronze Age.

Iron is different, it is particularly easy to oxidize, and the melting point is also high - 1537 °C. This requires improved blast and furnace technology. Iron ore cannot be melted and reforged, so it can only be smelted and forged in pieces. However, the finished product of low-temperature (1000 °C) block ironmaking becomes a sponge, with many impurities and soft quality, which can only be forged, not cast. After repeated beating and heating, metal products such as "carbon steel" are formed. In short, the process is troublesome, the output is low, and it is not practical.

Of course, there are also iron tools that are directly forged from iron meteorites, which is a special case.

The main hall of Xianyang Palace of Qin State.

King Yingzheng of Qin completely controlled the military and political power of the Great Qin Empire! His eyes turned to the East!

"The Six Kingdoms call me Daqin like a jackal, and Lone is the wolf king of Daqin. Hahaha! Heaven and earth are furnaces, and creation is work. Yin and yang are carbon, and all things are copper. ”

The great, bright, wise, wise, and irreproducible King Yingzheng of Qin was full of pride, "Among the six countries, Korea is the weakest, and the few people want to annex Korea, and then get rid of Wei, and finally gnaw the hard bone of Zhao." Zhong Aiqing, what do you think? ”

"Great King, I'm afraid that Zhao and Wei will not sit idly by and watch Daqin annex Korea, and besides, although South Korea is weak, it is easy to jump off the wall when the dog is in a hurry, not to mention that South Korea took the initiative to give up a lot of barren cities, hoarding heavy troops to defend the two big cities of Xinzheng and Nanyang, and South Korea's bow and crossbow are second only to Daqin, and in a hurry, I am afraid it will be difficult to capture South Korea. The three Jin are in the same vein, and they will definitely send reinforcements. When the time comes, there will be reinforcements outside and a fortified city inside, and the Qin army will be in danger. Meng Yi reminded the Qin State not to ignore the union of the Three Jins.

"So, the widows still have to weaken the Zhao State and the Wei State first, and wait until they are too busy to take care of themselves, so that they can attack Korea in one fell swoop?" King Yingzheng of Qin also figured it out.

"That's true, with the strength of the Qin State, the princes are like the kings of the counties, what I'm worried about is that the princes are 'united', and they unite to surprise them, which is the reason why the powerful minister Zhibo of the Jin State, the overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period Wu Wangfucha, and the Eastern Emperor of the Warring States Period Qi Yu perished. I hope that the king will not cherish his possessions, and use them to bribe the powerful ministers of various countries in order to disturb their strategies, so that he will lose only 300,000 gold, and the princes can be wiped out. After Lü Buwei's death, Wei Yu returned to Qin and frequently offered advice to King Yingzheng of Qin.

The words happened to talk about the problem that Qin Wang Yingzheng was most worried about, and Qin Wang Yingzheng felt that this person was not ordinary, and he was the person he was looking for in every possible way, so he obeyed Wei Yu's words. Not only that, in order to show his favor, King Yingzheng of Qin also let Wei Yu enjoy the same clothes and food as himself, and every time he saw him, he always behaved very humble.

Wei Yu knows how to divinate faces, and at the beginning of his appreciation by the King of Qin, he once believed that the King of Qin's face was strong, and he could be humble and sincere when he asked for help, but when he was offended, he would become extremely cruel, and he would not be soft on the enemy. Wei Yu believed that such a Qin king lacked the benevolence to take care of the people of the world, and tried many times to escape from the residence arranged for him by the king of Qin.

Therefore, although Wei Yu was named the national lieutenant by King Yingzheng of Qin, he has never had any real power.

In the past, when Lü Buwei's people or clan ministers served as state lieutenants, they all had deep ties with the generals of the unified army, and it was easy for rebellion-like incidents to occur. But now that the King of Qin appoints Wei Mi, who has nothing to do with the forces of the Qin State, he will not have such scruples, after all, Wei Mi has no foundation in the Qin State. In this way, King Qin can firmly grasp the military and political power of the whole country, and turn the national lieutenant into the most competent staff of King Qin!

"High, really high! Quietly, in one fell swoop, he strictly controlled the military power of the whole country, and King Yingzheng of Qin was really a master! Meng Yi secretly admired in his heart!

"Since this is the case, the widow has decided to send Wang Jian to attack the important town of Zhao State." King Yingzheng of Qin immediately made a decision.

During the Warring States Period, it belonged to Shangdang County, which was Han in the early days, and later belonged to Zhao State, now Heshun County, Shanxi, and was the barrier for Qin State to attack Handan, the capital of Zhao State, to the east. In fact, 48 years ago, Qin and Zhao fought because of Shangdang County, and Qin also lost a war in this strategic place. In 270 BC, the state of Qin attacked Zhao and besieged the important town of Zhao (present-day Heshun, Shanxi). Zhao's general Zhao Hao led his army to rescue and come up with a strange plan, and finally won a war that was originally unwinnable. Ending: The 100,000 army of Qin, more than half of the dead and wounded, and the Zhao State won completely.

However, because of the existence of strong Zhao in the north, Qin had some scruples about annexing Han and Wei, so he looked for an opportunity to attack Zhao.

In 273 BC, after Qin captured three cities of Zhao, Zhao sent his son Zhao Bu to Qin as a hostage, and signed an agreement with Qin to exchange three cities for Jiao, Wei, Niuhu and other places. Later, Qin repented. In the forty-sixth year, King Zhaoxiang of Qin sent Hu Yang to lead a large army to attack Zhao Yanhe on the grounds that Zhao did not fulfill his obligations. King Zhao Huiwen urgently summoned the famous generals Lian Po and Le Cheng to ask if they could be saved. Both of them believed that it was far away from Handan, and the road was rugged and difficult, making it difficult to rescue. Only Zhao Hao believes that when the two armies meet, the brave wins. So, King Zhao Huiwen ordered Zhao Hao to lead the army to rescue Yan He. In the battle of Yanhe, while besieging Yanhe, the Qin army had already made preparations to prevent the Zhao army from sending troops to rescue. They sent an army to the east and penetrated directly into Wu'an (now southwest of Wu'an County, Hebei) to contain the actions of the Zhao army. Zhao Hao detected this deployment of the Qin army, and ordered to set up camp only 30 miles from Handan, ordered the army to strengthen the camp, and built many barriers around the camp, deliberately making a gesture without progress. Zhao Hao made a covert attempt to fight, and ordered the army: "Those who dare to talk about military affairs will be beheaded." The first part of the Qin army entered the west of Tunwu'an (in present-day Wu'an City, Hebei), beating drums and shouting, trying to lure the Zhao army to rescue Wu'an and clamp down on the Zhao army. Zhao Haoli beheaded a soldier who asked for the rescue of Wu'an, but was unmoved by the Qin army. Stationed in Tuntun for 28 days, he continued to strengthen the defense of the camp, causing the Zhao army to be cowardly, only to protect the illusion of Handan. Qin sent spies to infiltrate the Zhao camp to find out the truth, but Zhao Hao pretended not to know, and ordered his subordinates to let him move at will and release him to the Qin camp to paralyze the Qin army. The Qin spy reported the situation of Zhao Jun to Hu Yang. Hu Yang was overjoyed, thinking that he could be captured with Yan, and relaxed his vigilance against Zhao's reinforcements. Zhao Hao then led the whole army to stop the drums, galloped for two days and one night, and rushed to build a fortress and set up camp 50 miles away from the city. The Qin army attacked and did not fight, and suddenly heard that Zhao's reinforcements had arrived, and hastily divided their troops to meet them. Zhao Hao adopted the suggestion of the sergeant Xu Li and sent 10,000 troops to seize the heights of Yan and Beishan. When the Qin army arrived, they could not attack the mountain. Zhao Hao took advantage of the situation, condescendingly, and slammed the Qin army. Yan and the defenders also went out of the city to cooperate. The Qin army was not supported, more than half of the dead and wounded escaped, and returned defeated, and the Yan surrounded and relieved. Zhao Hao was named Ma Fujun for his merits.

The course of the battle does not seem complicated, but the concise language contains a surprisingly winning war strategy. General Zhao Hao originally wanted to relieve the siege of the Qin army, but he garrisoned the army for 28 days only 30 miles away from Handan, and built fortifications, making a negative posture of fearing the Qin army, having no intention of relieving him, and only seeking to keep the capital; While using enemy spies to confuse the enemy army, he led the army to leap forward to a distance of 50 miles and stationed down with lightning speed. Previously, in order to prevent his subordinates from raising objections to the seemingly unreasonable marching arrangements and interfering with military politics, Zhao Hao strictly ordered that military affairs should not be discussed, so as to ensure that the combat intention was not leaked; At this time, he listened to the advice of his subordinates in a timely manner and quickly occupied the favorable terrain. Originally, the Qin army could wait for work, but when the Zhao army marched fifty miles away, the Qin army hoped to attack the Zhao army when the Zhao army was not firmly established; However, unexpectedly, the Zhao army arrived first and occupied the favorable terrain, and began to change from passive to active, and finally was able to defeat the Qin army, and the siege of Yan and it was lifted. It's like a tense, unexpected, and rhythmic skit. The subtlety of this lies in the fact that the other side is mobilized through actions that go beyond the norm, so as to break the original pattern and create a new face, so that the enemy comes to me, and I do not have to be the enemy. The wisdom of the ancient military strategists is really vividly expressed here.

"The general trend of the world is mighty, those who go along with it prosper, and those who go against it die. If it is said that the unification of the world by Qin is the general trend of the world, it is an inevitability, but it does not mean that everything is in the direction of necessity. Everything is inevitable and there is accident, just like the battle between the Yan and the war, how much is the necessity, and how much is the accident? Meng Yi, who went out with the army, couldn't help but sigh with emotion, "After all, Zhao Guo, one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, is a hundred-legged insect, dead but not stiff, and if Qin wants to gnaw off the hard bone of Zhao State, I'm afraid it will take a lot of time!" ”

The Central Plains region has admired chariots since ancient times, and how many chariots a country has represents the strength of the country, so it is often used to describe the strength of the country in the country of a thousand times and a country of ten thousand times. In the war between Zhao and the nomadic peoples such as Linhu, Loufu, Donghu, Yiqu, Kongtong, and Zhongshan, King Wuling of Zhao discovered the advantages of the cavalry of ethnic minorities, and King Wuling of Zhao was determined to implement the "Hufu Cavalry Shooting" to make Zhao really strong! Although the Manchu ministers were very opposed, King Wuling of Zhao withstood the pressure and patiently persuaded him, and finally succeeded in carrying out military reforms. Through the military reform of "Hufu Cavalry Shooting", the military strength of Zhao State has been greatly improved.

King Wuling of Zhao attacked the Xiongnu in the north and expanded his territory for thousands of miles; The defeat of Wei to the south avenged a hundred years of humiliation; He crossed the Yellow River to the west and captured the Yuzhong region (present-day Hetao area on the border between northern Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia) on the border between Linhu and Qin, causing serious oppression to Qin. Defeat Qi and Yan to the east. The state of Zhao reached its peak during the reign of King Wuling of Zhao and became a superpower competing with the state of Qin for hegemony!

And because of the contribution of King Zhao Wuling, the Qin State and the Zhao State have been competing for nearly a hundred years, and they have not been able to gnaw off the hard bone of the Zhao State!