The essence of the so-called cooperation is to unite weak forces against a powerful force; The so-called Lianheng refers to the fact that a powerful force uses certain means to win over a valuable ally and prevent itself from being isolated, and at the same time, it also plays a diplomatic role in separatist preparations to unite to attack its own side. There is no right or wrong at all, and even if it is horizontal, when the strong country unites the weak, there will be a period of diplomatic honeymoon period in which the two countries are quite coordinated; Even if it is a joint column, in fact, after real success, the most powerful vassal state in the alliance, or the most profitable in the confrontation, will become the next new target to be hit by the joint column tactics.

During the Warring States Period, once Lian Heng was mentioned, he would always involuntarily think of the Qin State first, a Western prince with great strength and ambition, who often became the target of the Hezhong Alliance. When it comes to cooperation, it will always be associated with some small countries that seem to have weak national strength and insufficient combat strength.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the diplomatic method of combining vertical and horizontal was highly respected, but in fact, the only difference between the two is the art of combining vertical and vertical, uniting the weak to attack a strong, and even horizontal, which is to serve a strong to attack the weak. Judging from the final result, it is obvious that although a small country serving a strong country in the middle of the country can follow in the footsteps of the big country and take some advantage, it will inevitably be annexed by the big power in the end, and in the war, the dependents are very likely to be used as cannon fodder by the big power and abandoned first. The joint longitudinal is obviously more peaceful, concentrating all the forces that can be united, first ensuring the survival of the weak and small countries, resisting the annexation of the strong countries, and when the final reshuffle comes, the weak and small countries are not necessarily without the strength to fight. It seems that it should be easier for the princes to be recognized by the princes than Lianheng, but in the end, the Qin State, which adopted the tactics of Lianheng, had the last laugh, what kind of mystery is there in this?

In fact, whether it is vertical or horizontal, the ideological core of the two needs to be controlled or established as "one strong". The difference is that the strongest in Lian Heng is the enemy of everyone, just like the powerful Qin State, which is always a sharp sword hanging over the heads of all the princes. However, the strongest in the alliance is a platform for the weaker countries to take advantage of.

Under the persuasion of the successive dynasties, the eastern princes launched a total of four grand wars to attack Qin and one to attack Qi. In 287 BC, the state of Qi sent troops to destroy the Song Dynasty, which aroused a strong fear among the princes of all walks of life for this eastern vassal state that had been dormant behind the shadow of Qiang Qin. After all, although the Qin people were fierce and warlike, there was one thing that made the princes of all walks of life more reassured: because of geographical reasons, if the Qin State advanced eastward, there would only be two main passages, and on these two passages, the north was the fierce and warlike Han, Wei, and Zhao three kingdoms, and the south was the powerful Chu State. With these countries as barriers, although the wolf-like army of the strong Qin is still chilling, at least, once the Qin army advances eastward, the countries still have buffer space and leeway. The state of Qi is the opposite of the state of Qin, once the strength of the state of Qi is uncontained, then its superior geographical location will provide convenient transportation for the Qi army to attack in all directions. Although the Qi State is no longer as powerful and awe-inspiring as it was during the reign of Guan Zhong and Duke Huan, there are still three nails in the broken ship, and the thick family foundation can allow this eastern prince to grow and swell rapidly.

Relying on the rich territory and chaotic situation, the Qi State launched a number of foreign expansion operations, including the so-called "dignified war" of the joint attack on Qin by the coalition forces, and the annexation war out of its own selfish interests. The increasingly powerful State of Qi has gradually changed from a leader country that sticks to its land and has excellent popularity to a land of tigers and wolves that is no different from Qiang Qin. The warlike King Min of Qi (also known as King Qi and King Qi Shu) constantly used his status as a great power to infiltrate the princes, interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, and launched wars of aggression without restraint, expanded his territory, and proclaimed himself a generation of holy monarchs, known as the "Eastern Emperor". (Qin was once known as the Western Emperor)

Qi's well-connected transportation environment and developed commerce became the basis of the expansionist ambitions of the eastern vassal states. What frightened the eastern princes even more than the Qin State was that the Qi State could easily attack their vital places from many directions, and it was even entirely possible to unite with the Qin State in the West to attack from both sides and annihilate the small countries. Moreover, the Qin State seemed to be a little tolerant of the aggressive attitude of the Qi State, and did not want to easily engage in a real exchange of fire with the Qi State, but instead showed a little willingness to carve up the world with the Qi State.

In this way, the Chu State in the south and the northern princes all felt a huge crisis, like a man's back. An overly powerful and ambitious Eastern prince clearly does not meet the requirements of various interest groups. The powerful state of Qin can be set up by the eastern princes as an imaginary enemy that needs to be resisted together, and if this powerful imaginary enemy becomes two, then it seems that there is no better choice for the relatively weak princes other than vassalizing one of them. Becoming a vassal of a powerful country is obviously not only losing the strategic initiative, but also the autonomy of the country's administrative system, the control of the army, and the wealth of the country, all of which are very likely to become pawns in the game between major powers and discarded at will.

No prince wants to be an outcast, and no matter how weak a country is, it hopes that it can at least ensure the inheritance of the inheritance. And now, the rise of Qi has made all the princes vigilant, because although Qi and Qin have their own sides, once the two countries reach any political or military alliance agreement openly and secretly, then the disaster of the destruction of other small countries is at hand.

As a result, a terrible Qin state, which at least gave the princes a buffer space and illusions, was put on the back burner by the princes, and a state of Qi, which was expanding and lacked the ability to control himself, was identified by the princes as the target of the alliance. In 284 BC, under the tandem of Yan, Qin, Han, Zhao, Wei and other states formed a military alliance and began to jointly attack Qi, and shortly after the outbreak of the war, Chu also took advantage of the fire to loot. Although the state of Chu joined the camp of the state of Qi in the later stage of the war, it secretly harbored a ghost and only wanted to carve up the state of Qi, rather than sincerely save it. For a time, the pressure on Qi increased sharply. The previous geographical advantage of extending in all directions has become an Achilles' heel at the defensive end, which is full of loopholes and exhausting the army, not to mention, the combat effectiveness of the Qi army is obviously not enough to resist the multinational coalition army, and even after the coalition camp launches an attack, it is difficult to drag a country to the end.

Lacking the strength to destroy one of them desperately from the coalition army, and the Qi State, which did not have the danger of Hangu Pass, faced the combined vertical coalition army, the strength was stretched, and it was soon defeated. Le Yi, the general of the Yan army, led more than 200,000 coalition troops to fight fiercely with the main force of the Qi army west of Jishui (now Gaotang and Liaocheng in Shandong). However, this did not do anything to boost morale, except to hasten the rout of the Qi army. In the battle of Jixi, the main force of the Qi army was crushed for thousands of miles, Le Yi won consecutive battles, attacked the city and plundered the land all the way, and refused the request of the princes' coalition forces to assist in the battle, personally led the Yan army, chased and fought fiercely, and constantly pursued and annihilated the living force of the Qi army, and at the same time reduced the taxes in the occupied areas and bought people's hearts.

In the end, more than 70 cities of Qi were breached, but Le Yi failed to achieve all his strategic goals, Le Yi was transferred back, and the Qi army reluctantly repelled the Yan army, so as to keep a trace of the country's vitality. King Min of Qi, who was so happy and reckless, ended up paying for his wrong political and diplomatic decisions. After that, the coordination of the game forces of all parties and the open and secret battles finally allowed the Qi State to be qualified to become a country, instead of perishing. However, after this battle, the State of Qi is no longer qualified to become an "imaginary enemy" of the strategic attack of the United Column, after all, from being able to decide the life and death of other countries, to only relying on people's breath to barely maintain, the gap is huge, and there will be no more princes to pay attention to a weak person who is doomed to failure.

The Qi State collapsed under the blow of the tactics of the joint column, and the coalition forces that participated in the alliance attack on Qi also more or less achieved the goal of participating in the war. It can be seen that the art of combining and longitudinal does have its unique existence value, allowing everyone to return to the table again and start a new round of games.

At first glance, the tactics of joining forces are very suitable for the princes whose national strength is relatively weak compared to the major powers, and moreover, in the middle and late Warring States period, the overall situation is becoming clearer, and several superpowers have already taken shape, and if the weak princes want to survive and develop in the cracks of the big powers, so as to reverse the fate of being annexed, it seems that the tactics of joining forces are absolutely feasible and of considerable significance. However, during the entire Warring States period, there were only five large-scale strategies in total, of which four attacked Qin, the first was the battle of the five kingdoms of Chu, Wei, Han, Zhao and Yan advocated by Gongsun Yan and the main alliance of King Huai of Chu (318 BC), the second was the battle of Qi, Wei and Han advocated by Meng Weijun and the alliance of King Min of Qi (296 BC), the third was the battle of Wei, Zhao, Chu, Han and Yan advocated by Xinlingjun to attack Qin (247 BC), and the fourth was the battle of Zhao, Chu, Yan and Yan advocated by the general Pang Xuan of Zhao. The Battle of the Four Kingdoms of Wei against Qin (241 BC). And once attacked Qi, that is, in 286 BC, the five kingdoms of Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, and Qin jointly attacked the Qi state, and the Qi state was almost destroyed.

However, judging from the final result, many attacks on the Qin State have never been able to curb the momentum of the Qin State's eventual domination of the world, and only the Qi State has really fallen under the strong firepower of the Qin State. In this way, the Qin state that adopted the strategy of continuous horizontal is the ultimate victor, although the existence value, significance and ultimate strategic goal of the combined vertical tactics seem to be more in line with the interests of the princes than the technique of continuous horizontal tactics, but why was the Qin state that adopted the continuous horizontal technique able to defeat the great powers that adopted the combined vertical technique?

Without him, the pattern is just that.

It is not that the strategy itself is inferior to that of the horizontal strategy, but that the strategy of the combination has quite high requirements for the vision and pattern of each king involved. In an alliance, each member is calculating how to maximize their own short-term interests, rather than giving priority to the overall strategic victory of the alliance, which is the most fatal shortcoming of the strategy of combining vertical and vertical strategies.

Not every country has grand goals and ideals, and its own weak basic national strength determines that some kings will not take the competition for the world as their own goal and that of the country, they only need to get some short-term benefits, so that the country is at least in a more advantageous position than it is now, it is enough, as for the so-called inheritance and future, it is better to leave it to the future. The requirements for allies seem simple, but in fact, due to factors such as different levels of national strength and different geographical locations of various countries, some members of the alliance are destined to be in a disadvantageous state in the short term. Moreover, as the initiator of the merger and the leader of the alliance, the pattern of several mergers and alliances is relatively unsatisfactory, and it cannot achieve the overall goal while giving reasonable compensation to the allies who have suffered losses. After several joint attacks on Qin, the reason for the failure cannot be completely attributed only to the fact that the participants of the alliance have their own evil intentions, yang and yin disobedience, and the lack of a reasonable spoils distributor has doomed the alliance itself to instability.

And in the troubled times, every prince and king understands that no matter what the final result is, in short, the world will enter a new form, similar to the Zhou Dynasty, the form of various princes based on one side and self-supporting doors will definitely collapse, so that since the foundation of the country seems to be absolutely difficult to become the controller of the whole world, then what is the long-term plan and let it go, it is better to let other princes be cannon fodder first, and seek some immediate benefits for themselves.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the different backgrounds of various forces, although the gap was also obvious, it did not seem that there would be subversive and huge social changes. And with the progress of the times, in the middle and late Warring States period, the entire social system from local division to centralized unification of the general trend, has begun to take shape, no prince feels that he has the power to turn the entire era with the power of one country, even if the strong country can seek to become the real master, and the weak country, or take care of the present.

The biggest advantage of Lianheng over Hezong is that it can quickly allow weak countries to participate in alliances with strong countries in a short period of time, and at least they can get the handouts and protection of powerful countries very quickly. Although with the complex situation changes, the weak and small countries that seek the skin of the tiger may be abandoned at any time, but for these vassal states that are already facing the fate of being annexed, they can get it first, and they don't care what the future is, as for being used as a barrier or cannon fodder by the powerful countries, what does it matter, after all, fate is never fair, and it is not sad to sell your country and dignity, but sadly you can't sell it for a good price. Even if you seek the skin with the tiger, at least you have "conspired with the tiger" to "hide", instead of directly facing the tiger's bloody mouth and sharp minions.

Therefore, there is no need to criticize the ugly princes in the alliance, nor do you need to accuse every country that is seeking profit from the Qin state for its own selfish interests. At least at that time, they all chose a path that they thought was the most appropriate, after all, everyone was a pawn, and where the powerful chess players put themselves, who could control them? As for the fate of being used or abandoned, what is there to complain about or even reject? After all, no one can refuse.

As a result, the seemingly powerful and more long-term strategic combination technique was finally broken by the Lianheng technique, not because of which of the two strategies was superior or inferior, but because of the most essential differences in the vision and pattern of the various forces that came to implement them.