After the Qin State took back the land west of Hexi, the Chu State was completely exposed to the south of the Qin State, with only the Han River between them, making it easy to attack. There is nothing to be afraid of when the King of Chu is incompetent, but the strength of Chu cannot be underestimated, and Qin cannot attack rashly. Just when Zhang Yi was worried about the plan to destroy Chu, the Shu Kingdom to the southwest of Qin State provided him with an opportunity.
To the southwest of Qin State, Shu State was the overlord. The King of Shu once granted one of his younger brothers the title of Marquis of Ju. Hanzhong under the rule of Marquis Ju was adjacent to the Kingdom of Ba, so Marquis Ju and Ba Wang were on good terms with each other. However, there was enmity between the King of Shu and Ba Wang. The King of Shu was worried that Juhou and King Ba would unite to attack him. In order to nip it in the bud, the King of Shu made a decisive decision to send troops to attack Juhou first.
Juhou was weak and vulnerable, so he fled to Ba after his defeat. When the armies of Ba and Shu met, the battle was extremely cruel and inextricable, but neither side had the strength to defeat the other. The two small countries of Shu and Ba became entangled and developed into a war that consumed national power.
Looking at the world, the newly rising Qin State dared to intervene in everything, unlike other vassal states that were timid. Therefore, both the King of Shu and the King of Ba asked Qin for help.
The good thing came to visit automatically. King Qin Hui was very happy and eager to swallow this piece of fat. Shu is the overlord. As long as Shu is conquered, Ba and other small countries will be invincible, and Qin will have no worries in the southwest. However, when the Qin State sent troops to the Shu State, the mountains were rugged and the roads were dangerous. Most of them were plank roads that even birds and animals were afraid of walking on. This was still the case even in the Tang Dynasty hundreds of years later. Li Bai's "The Road to Shu is Difficult" tells the story of the difficulties .
Blessings never come in pairs, and misfortunes never come alone. Just when King Qin Hui was extremely worried, South Korea in the east took the opportunity to invade. It is said that the Warring States Period was chaotic, and it became more and more chaotic with more wars, because there were too many vassal states, each centered on itself and only seeking profit. When other countries were in trouble, they always sent troops to interfere, disrupt the situation, and get a share of the pie.
To the east is the danger of ulcers, and to the southwest is the temptation of delicious food. King Hui of Qin was like an ant on a hot pot, looking at Korea in the east and Shu in the southwest. If we send troops to counterattack South Korea, we are worried that the two countries are evenly matched, and their efforts will be in vain, and the delicacies of the southwest will be wasted. If we send troops to the southwest, we are also worried that South Korea will take the opportunity to make a sneak attack and be caught off guard, ultimately stealing the chicken but losing the rice.
At this time, Zhang Yi believed that facing the dilemma, he should attack South Korea first because South Korea was close to the capital of the Zhou Dynasty.
The capital is not only a prosperous city, but also represents the center of power of the country. Zhang Yi tried his best to plan a blueprint for King Qin Hui to dominate the Central Plains.
First, Qin should first establish good diplomatic relations with Wei and Chu. After building good relations, Wei and Chu would not interfere when Qin sent troops to South Korea.
Second, after making good relations with Wei and Chu, Qin quickly sent troops to the three major rivers of the Yellow River, Luoshui and Yishui to occupy the Yangchang Slope Road in the Taihang Mountains, so that Korea was under Qin's control.
Third, after taking control of South Korea, use Wei and Chu to have Wei send troops to cut off the passage to Nanyang, and let Chu send troops to control Zheng. After the small countries surrounding the Zhou Dynasty such as Han, Wei, Chu, and Zheng were all restrained, the Qin State directly captured Xincheng (southwest of today's Yichuan County, Henan Province) and Yiyang (now the northwest Korean town of Yiyang County, Henan Province). After these two cities were captured, the Qin army approached the capital of the Zhou Dynasty. The army is pressing down on the country, and the Zhou Dynasty is unable to resist, so the world belongs to Qin.
If the first, second and third steps are taken well, the fourth step will come naturally. Just find any excuse to send out a large army to attack the "crimes" of the Zhou Dynasty, in order to intimidate the Emperor of Zhou. If the Emperor of Zhou understands the situation, he can still be a puppet emperor for a few years; if the Emperor of Zhou toasts and refuses to eat as a fine, it will be easy to kill an emperor without an army. After occupying the Zhou Dynasty, the Qin State concentrated its superior forces and even swallowed up the Wei and Chu states.
Of course, Emperor Zhou has symbolic meaning to the people and cannot be killed casually. In order to be justified, the Qin State should first control the vassal states, and then finally take the idea of the Emperor of Zhou. Once all the princes in the world were manipulated by Qin, the Emperor of Zhou knew that he was incompetent and would inevitably sacrifice the nine cauldrons that symbolized the power of the country. After the Qin State had the great tripod, it took the emperor to order the princes to enfeoff the feudal states according to the map and household registration. No princes dared not to obey, because the world also belonged to the Qin State.
The Kingdom of Shu is located in a remote and remote area and has not yet been civilized. Even if the Shu Kingdom is captured, the first soldier will be exhausted, the second person will work hard, and the third country will consume the economy. The cost is extremely uneconomical. Moreover, sending troops to attack other countries while they are in chaos will not give them a good reputation abroad.
Zhang Yi's point of view is that if you want to pursue fame, go to the court; if you want to pursue fame and fortune, go to the market. Sanchuan and the Zhou Dynasty are like the market and the court. King Qin Hui's army should go to this place, not to the barren Shu Kingdom.
If you march into the Shu Kingdom to pursue the great cause of the emperor, it is tantamount to seeking fish from a tree. Zhang Yi analyzed the general trend of the world lucidly, but his views were opposed by Sima Cuo.
Sima Cuo believed that if you want the country to be strong and prosperous, you must expand its territory; if you want to make the army strong, you must make the people rich; if you want to dominate the world, you must spread benevolence. As long as the above three conditions are met, the great cause of the emperor will be a matter of course.
Some people think that Qin's territory is narrow and the people are not rich enough, so they should do small things that are easy to do first. Although Shu is a small country, it is the overlord in the southwest, and its civil strife is a good opportunity for Qin to advance. If the Qin army marches into the southwest, it will definitely gain something.
If it can occupy the southwest, Qin's territory will expand and its national strength will increase. Sima Cuo was deeply influenced by etiquette and was cautious in doing things. He felt that attacking South Korea and kidnapping Emperor Zhou would violate the world's taboos. Not only was there no guarantee of victory, but it would also affect Qin's reputation.
Although the Zhou Dynasty has declined, it is still supported by some vassal states, such as Korea and Qi. The relationship between Emperor Zhou and Han and Qi was extraordinary. If the status of the Zhou Dynasty was threatened, the Zhou Dynasty would definitely unite South Korea, Qi and Zhao to protect itself. Once the Zhou Dynasty relies on the power of the Three Kingdoms, it will definitely be able to resolve the threats from Wei and Chu. Countries are intertwined and can check and balance each other.
To take a step back, if the Emperor of Zhou was forced to have no choice but to give the nine cauldrons symbolizing power to the Chu State in a rage, and then cut off land to reward the Wei State, then Zhang Yi's strategy of Lian Heng would be ruined. If such a bad result really occurs, Qin will end up in vain.
King Qin Hui, who was in power, was also cautious in doing things, so he followed Sima Cuo's advice in everything.
As Sima Cuo said, Qin sent troops to Shu and completely occupied Shu in October of that year. King Hui of Qin demoted the King of Shu to the rank of Marquis, and appointed Chen Zhuang as the Prime Minister of Shu.
After occupying the most powerful Shu Kingdom in the southwest, the entire southwest became Qin's territory. In the tenth year of King Hui of Qin, Prince Hua and Zhang Yi led an army to attack Puyang of Wei (now northwest of Xi County, Shanxi). As soon as the war drums of the Qin army were beaten, Puyang was captured.
Zhang Yi believes that dealing with the feudal states should be like Shang Yang's dealing with the people, both soft and hard. If the strategy of suppressing with the right hand and coopting with the left hand is implemented, even if the princely states do not surrender, they will not be able to figure out Zhang Yi's intentions.
Based on this, after capturing Puyang in Wei State, Zhang Yi returned it. The people of Wei couldn't understand Zhang Yi's true intention for a while. What is even more shocking is that Zhang Yi actually asked Qin's son Yao to go to Wei as a hostage. During the Warring States Period, there were only two situations in which the king's son was allowed to serve as a hostage in other countries: one was that the country was very weak and the hostage was sent to please a powerful country; the other was that the two countries formed an alliance and the hostage was sent to show sincerity.
Qin is stronger than Wei, so there is no need to please Wei. Moreover, Qin and Wei were enemies of life and death, and they did not have the slightest fondness for each other. The second situation does not exist either.
Facing Zhang Yi, who was acting strangely, King Wei was at a loss for words, but he did not dare to refuse.
Seeing that King Hui of Wei was hesitant, Zhang Yi immediately seized the opportunity and said that Qin was very kind to Wei and Wei should return the favor.
According to custom, after a country accepts a gift from another country, the gift in return should be more valuable. The State of Qin first gave the city to the State of Wei, just to carry on this "gift", and the State of Wei must return a considerable gift. In this way, the King of Wei ceded Shangjun and Shaoliang to Qin.
The state of Qin changed Shaoliang to Xia Yang. King Qin Hui admired Zhang Yi's strategy so much that he made him prime minister. In the blink of an eye, another four years passed. During these four years, the strength of the Qin State increased greatly. Zhang Yi officially proclaimed King Qin Hui as king and used the Qin State's own reign title.
Seeing Qin proclaiming itself king, no other country dared to stop it. King Qin Hui established himself as king, and his status and reputation were higher than those of the kings of other countries who had not claimed the title of king. His ambition was clear.
Qiang Qin acted arbitrarily, and the Emperor of Zhou was unable to stop it because he was not strong enough. But compared with Wei, Emperor Zhou was still lucky, because Qin did not cause him any physical harm after all, while Wei suffered "skin pain". One year after King Hui of Qin became king, Zhang Yi served as the general of Qin, captured Wei's Shaanxi (now Shaanxian County, Henan), and built the fortress of Shangjun. Qin's expansion has become difficult to resist.
