The rise of a reform will inevitably stem from the change and integration of ideas. It was in the repeated military confrontations and political competitions that Wu Qi gradually formed his own unique and profound military theory.
The book "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi" contains 48 chapters of "Wu Qi". Unfortunately, it was later lost. There are still 6 chapters of "Wu Zi" that have been handed down to this day, namely "Pictures of the Country", "Governing the Army", and "Lun" Generals, Anticipating Enemies, Changes, and Encouraging Heroes, these were probably written by later generations based on Wu Qi's reputation. Of course, it also inherited a lot of strategies and ideas from Wu Qi. Wu Qi focused on strengthening the country's military power, and at the same time strived for coordination and unity within the country and the military group. Once the "four discords" appeared in the country, he could only stop fighting and stop fighting. . To put it another way, it means emphasizing that a country must have "harmony" internally before it can send out troops to fight; before going to war, the army must have "peace" internally before it can go out to war; when setting up for an expedition, every link must have "harmony" before it can go to war; specifically, On the battlefield, only when armies fight in harmony can they win. That is what is commonly said: "Cultivation of literature and virtue internally, and military preparation externally."
It is also mentioned in the "National Map Chapter" of "Wu Zi's Art of War" that for soldiers, if they know that the king can love their lives and cherish their deaths, even if they encounter danger, the soldiers will be proud to die and treat them with dignity. Retirement is a disgrace. In this way, we can unite as one and unite.
Sun Wu had long put forward the idea of "know yourself and the enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without danger" in "The Art of War", which was cited by later generations as an immortal introduction to military affairs. Wu Qi also inherited Sun Wu's thoughts in his military thoughts, and proposed in "Assessing the Enemy" that it is of very important strategic significance to understand and analyze the enemy's situation and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of both the enemy and ourselves on the entire battlefield.
In the chapter "Response", Wu Qi's idea of adjusting strategic deployments at any time based on the ever-changing battlefield situation demonstrates how to deal with situations such as rushing to meet the enemy, the enemy being outnumbered, the enemy cutting off our retreat, the enemy relying on danger to fight to the death, or even being surrounded on all sides, etc. battlefield conditions.
Although the Wei State at this time seemed extremely powerful on the surface, the combat power and bravery of its soldiers were still inferior to those of the old, weak and remnant soldiers of the Qin State. Planning a strategy and winning a decisive victory thousands of miles away are just big words and empty words in Wu Qi's eyes. Faced with the ever-changing battlefield situation, no matter how perfect the plan is, it cannot keep up with the changes. If an army wants to win in a war, it cannot rely solely on numbers. Compared with quantity, its quality is more valuable. An invincible army must have excellent generals and outstanding soldiers, who complement each other, must have strict rewards, punishments, training, and unified orders.
Therefore, the idea of training Wei's soldiers was born in Wu Qi's mind.
Wu Qi believes that in order for a soldier to leave his home, parents, wife and children with peace of mind, he must be free from worries, so that the widowed, widowed, lonely, alone, disabled, and sick can all have support, support, and something to support them. In battle, it is even more important for the soldiers to work together and fight the enemy bravely. Therefore, Wu Qi exempted all the soldiers under the Wei army from corvee taxes and other taxes, and strictly selected Wei soldiers according to strict standards.
Just as a bad horse cannot travel a thousand miles in a day no matter how hard it works, an army with unqualified quality cannot achieve its strategic goal no matter how hard its soldiers work. So Wu Qi began to select soldiers. He wanted to build an iron army that would be undefeated in the world. In order to gain Wu Qi's attention, a soldier must have excellent physical strength. He must run a hundred miles in half a day. If they travel lightly, perhaps many people can join Wu Qi's army. The difficulty is that those taking the exam must wear full body armor and also carry a twelve-stone crossbow (one stone is equivalent to about 30 kilograms today, and twelve stones is 360 kilograms), but this only refers to the pulling force of the crossbow, not its weight. , otherwise I’m afraid no one will be able to meet the standard), 50 arrows, a gun in hand, a sword on the waist, and three days of rations! Even today, when nutrition is rich and training technology has been greatly improved, it is not easy for a soldier to accomplish such a task. You can imagine how high Wu Qi's standards are, and how much hope he holds for this future iron army. .
Under such harsh conditions, Wu Qi still selected some people. Wu Qi announced in public: "From today on, your family's corvées and farm and house rents will be exempted!" There was thunderous cheers. But they are also prepared to endure hardship, because Wu Qi's requirements for them will only be stricter, and the tasks they perform will only be more dangerous. After a lot of hard work, this team was finally ready to go on the battlefield and make its first cry - this was the famous Wei soldier in the early Warring States period.
Wu Qi led his troops and worked tirelessly. He did not eat the delicious food and did not sleep in the gorgeous tents. Instead, he ate and lived with the poor soldiers. During the march, he left his chariots and horses without riding, and carried his own food on his back like ordinary soldiers. When the soldiers saw this, they all felt that this general was different from others, that he was "one of his own." However, if you think about it carefully, you will know that this man who killed his wife in exchange for the right to lead the army cannot have so much tenderness in his heart, so this is Wu Qi's method to win people's hearts. These methods have paid off. Once, a soldier had a sore on his body. Wu Qi opened his mouth and personally sucked the pus from the soldier and cleaned the festering wound. The soldier was so moved that he burst into tears, and the soldiers watching around him were also willing to die for Wu Qi.
However, when the mother of the sore soldier heard about this, she burst into tears and grabbed the ground with her head. Others were puzzled and asked her: "Your son is just an ordinary soldier. General Wu personally sucked his abscesses and licked his sores. Instead of feeling happy and proud, you cried and cried. Why is this?" She cried: "You don't know something. , his father also served as a soldier under General Wu. He also suffered from sores and pus, and General Wu also leaned over to suck the pus and lick the sores for him. So when he fought, he only knew that there was the general's orders but not himself, and he marched forward indomitably. He rushed forward and died on the battlefield in the end. Even his body was not found. Now that the general is licking my son's sores again, where will I collect my son's bones in the future?"
With the recently trained Wei Wu soldiers, Wu Qi took up the post of governor of Xihe County. Xihe is the junction of Qin and Wei. The two countries have been fighting a tug-of-war here for seven or eight years. Both sides have offenses and defenses, and each has victory or defeat. However, when Wu rose up, the situation suddenly changed. He didn't want to waste time with the Qin people. What he wanted was to solve the problem once and for all, and add the land of Xihe to the territory of Wei so that the Qin people could never get involved. So he no longer dwelled on the details of specific battles, but first laid out a comprehensive strategic plan. He sent troops from Shaoliang, marched quickly, and quickly captured Yuanli (south of today's Chengcheng, Shaanxi) and Linjin (east of today's Dali, Shaanxi). He defended them with heavy troops and established permanent fortresses in this area. In front of Linjin was Yueyang, the important town of Qin State (now in Yanliang District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province), and directly in front of Yueyang was Jingyang, the capital of Qin State at that time. For the people of Qin, how could they not be frightened that Wu Qi had arrived at their doorstep?
Just when the Qin people were worried about their own life and death, Wu Qi moved his troops to Zheng with lightning speed. In this way, Wu Qi had slashed his sword across the land of Qin. The blade started at Pangfan in the north and ended at Zheng in the south. To the east between the two places, only Luoyin (now Shaanxi) was left in Qin. The two strongholds of Dali (southeast of Dali) and Heyang (today's Heyang, Shaanxi Province) were of course easily captured by Wu Qi soon. At this point, the entire Xihe had nothing to do with the Qin people anymore, and this was only two years after Wu Qi guarded Xihe.
If the Xihe River is lost, the opportunity to advance eastward will be lost. If it cannot be recovered, Qin will always be trapped in the barren land in the west, and will be regarded as a barbarian and unable to stand up. So the unwilling Qin people launched repeated counterattacks in an attempt to recapture Xihe, but they were defeated by Wu Qi.
In the thirteenth year of King Zhou An (389 BC), the Qin people made a comeback. This time they gathered an army of 500,000 and fought eastward. Finally, they formed a formation and set up camp outside Yinjin City, an important town in Wei State. The situation was extremely critical. However, the Qin people, who thought they were bound to win, were defeated by Wu Qi again, and their defeat was very ugly.
It turns out that Wu Qi not only never relaxed the training of Wei soldiers, but also personally designed a complete set of incentive mechanisms in order to maintain their high fighting spirit and morale. After each victory, he invited Wei Wenhou to hold a celebration banquet in the army. This is not a simple celebration banquet, but divided into three, six or nine classes, as formal as a palace banquet. First of all, the soldiers who had achieved "meritorious service" on the battlefield were invited to sit in the first row. Their tables were provided with pigs, cows, and sheep, and they also enjoyed the most precious gold, silver, copper and other tableware; The soldiers with "medium merit" were placed in the second row, and could only eat pork, and they could only use copper cutlery; the most pitiful soldiers were those who had not made any merit, they could only sit in the last row, and their cutlery was also They were just clay pots, and they could only sit in a corner where others didn't look at them or looked at them with disdain, silently watching those who had made meritorious deeds accept the awards from Marquis Wei Wen with smiles on their faces, and smell the wine glasses surging as they drank and drank. The aroma of wine spreads out, and I feel as if I am an abandoned orphan. Not only that, after the banquet, the soldiers' families were rewarded for their merits outside the gate to commend them for their support of their families joining the army, making them feel that their efforts were worth it.
Wu Qi's incentive method lasted for three years. Three years later, whenever an enemy invades, the enlisted soldiers will spontaneously put on their armor and prepare their weapons without waiting for the general's orders, because they all hold back a sense of energy in their hearts - hoping that they can participate in the next celebration meeting Go to the first row and stand in the center of the stage! This time Qin's 500,000-strong army invaded, and Wei Wenhou was also a little panicked. He asked Wu Qi for advice. Wu Qi was confident. He just selected 50,000 soldiers who had never made meritorious service on the battlefield, and prepared to use them to deal with the Qin people outside the city.
Sure enough, these 50,000 soldiers who were eager to make meritorious deeds went to the battlefield, like tigers that had been hungry for a long time and suddenly saw a flock of fat sheep, so they all fought with all their strength, one against ten. The soldiers fought bravely and Wu Qi commanded them well. Together, the two conditions finally defeated the Qin army. The Battle of Yin and Jin is also one of the few famous examples in military history of defeating more with less. From then on, Wu Qi's status as the God of War in the Wei Kingdom could not be shaken.
This shows how powerful the strategy of China's first military strategist since ancient times was!
