Just when Qin was preparing to temporarily change its generals, Zhao fell into crisis. In the previous period, King Zhao took the initiative and sent envoys to Qin in an attempt to negotiate peace with Qin. Qin State even received Zhao State's envoy Zheng Zhu with a high profile. However, a long time has passed and no substantive results have been achieved between the two countries. In just an instant, everyone in the world learned that Qin and Zhao were preparing to form an alliance. So when the war between the Zhao army and the Zhao army became increasingly intense, when King Zhao sent people to Qi to borrow some food and grass, Qi flatly refused.
It is true that "a mute eats Coptis chinensis and cannot express his sufferings."
The State of Zhao blamed the State of Qi for not caring about morality and integrity, and for not knowing the principle of "the lips are dead and the teeth are cold". But Qi State, like the other five countries, has its own more sufficient reasons: First of all, the relationship between Zhao State and Qin State is really ambiguous. They suddenly faced off in Changping, and saw that a life and death battle was about to break out, but not long after , the envoy from Zhao State arrived at Qin State again, as if to declare that Zhao State and Qin State had joined forces. This rapid identity transformation has left other countries overwhelmed and confused. Secondly, Zhao Guobing captured 17 cities in Shangdang without a single blow. In that era when everyone was seeking benefits, it was really enviable. In the end, no one wants to be a snipe and a clam, and the same goes for all countries. They all want to be the fisherman who wins in the end.
King Zhao Xiaocheng seemed to have seen this. He believed that if the delay continued, even if Zhao had the advantage of geographical location, it would not be able to defeat Qin. What is even more worrying is that if Yan and Qi take action at this time, Zhao will definitely end up like Chu. Therefore, in King Zhao's mind, the only solution was to fight quickly.
Faced with King Zhao's edict, Lian Po remained unmoved at all, and said eloquently: "Whenever fighting the enemy, you must be cautious. Move when you see benefit, stop when you don't see benefit. Be careful not to act lightly." In desperation, King Zhao directly cut Lian Po's military rations. In order to reduce dependence on Zhao's local food and grass, Lian Po had no choice but to expand his army to participate in farming.
Today, there is a mountain on the Changping Ancient Battlefield called "Fake Liang Mountain" (also known as Daliang Mountain). In order to prevent the Qin army from knowing that he was short of food, Lian Po ordered his soldiers to sing loudly at night as if they were carrying food and grass, so as to confuse the Qin army.
Naturally, the Qin army was not deceived. Moreover, rumors spread widely in the territory of Zhao, saying: "The only thing Qin fears is Zhao Kuo, the son of Ma Fujun, as a general! Integrity is easy to deal with, so he will surrender!" There was no way, Zhao Kuo The king could only use two strategies to increase Zhao Jun's bargaining chip for a quick victory: one was to increase troops, and the other was to change generals.
In fact, many people had reminded King Zhao that Qin was probably afraid of Lian Po, so he resorted to this counterintuitive strategy. However, when looking at many issues in history, we cannot start from just one perspective. Just like the Zhao State at this moment, not only because of King Zhao's stupidity, but also because of the reality of Zhao State, King Zhao had to do this.
King Zhao still had doubts about the change of generals, but Zhao's national conditions were obvious: the country was relatively wealthy, but its economic development was extremely uneven. While animal husbandry, handicrafts, and commerce were extremely prosperous, agricultural development was extremely lagging. If there is not enough food and grass as a backing, it will simply not be able to support a long-term large-scale war of attrition. Lian Po could not hold on, which posed a great problem to the supply of grain and grass in the rear. Therefore, it seemed at the time that Zhao had no choice but to change generals. And at this time, King Zhao already had a very suitable candidate in his mind-Zhao Kuo.
This man was the son of the famous general Zhao She. As the saying goes, a tiger father has no dog sons. Zhao Kuo was familiar with military books and was well versed in the art of war. He had helped his father win many wars. Moreover, after Zhao She's death, Zhao Kuo inherited the title of his father Ma Fujun and wrote a book about it, which was known to everyone in the world and many people came to pay him a visit. Suddenly, Ma Fuzi's reputation spread throughout the country, to the point where he could be compared with Sun Tzu, Wu Zi and others.
Undoubtedly, in the mind of King Zhao Xiaocheng, Zhao Kuo became the best candidate for this general change. However, Zhao Kuo had no experience in leading troops independently. King Zhao knew that this battle was the key to the future and destiny of Zhao. Victory If you get it, everything will be fine. If you get it, Zhao will be in danger.
Therefore, King Zhao was extremely troubled by the question of whether to replace Zhao Kuo as his general. What made him even more troubled was that Zhao's civil and military officials were clearly divided into two factions because of this incident. One faction is the pro-noble faction represented by Pingyuan Jun; the other faction is the commoner faction represented by Lin Xiangru. The former advocated using Zhao Kuo as general to replace Lian Po in a decisive battle with the Qin army; and believed that when famous generals such as Tian Dan and Zhao She went to war for the first time, they had no experience at all. But they are still able to fight their way out of an army of millions and become famous generals of a generation. They can even turn the tide from collapse and support the building from collapse. Using Zhao Kuo will definitely achieve such miraculous effects.
The latter firmly opposed the change of generals on the spot. The reason was: "The king uses his name to make Kuo, like a glue pillar, a drum, and a harp. Kuo's disciples can read the biography of his father, but they don't know how to change." The general idea is that if the king wants to use Zhao Kuo leading the troops is like sticking the tuning posts and then playing the piano. You will definitely not be able to play good music. Zhao Kuo only knew how to talk about military affairs on paper and had no ability to actually lead troops.
When things have developed to this point, it is no longer simply a question of whether to change generals, but the conflict between the two major forces within Zhao has once again erupted. In the past, this contradiction caused Zhao Guo to always make wrong choices when his future was critical. If you encounter an incompetent monarch, the situation will be even worse. Because the monarch was incompetent and did not know how to control his subordinates, Zhao's policies were vacillating. This was the drawback that made it difficult for Zhao to become a superpower at that time.
Faced with such a chaotic situation, King Zhao panicked for a while and couldn't tell the direction. He did not choose loyal ministers who could truly contribute to the country, but chose people who were usually close to him. The overall situation has been decided, and Zhao Guo decided to replace Lian Po with Zhao Kuo and take over the war in Changping.
Of course, in order to convince Lin Xiangru and others, King Zhao also invited Zhao Kuo to the lobby to ask him about strategies to defeat the enemy. When King Zhao asked what his opinion was on Lian Po's military strategy in Changping, Zhao Kuo directly said that he did not agree with his tactics and routinely used his signature tactics Lai commented: "There is no such thing as a long-lasting army that benefits the country. Therefore, victory is more important than long-lasting soldiers." Therefore, Zhao Kuo came to the conclusion: the battle of Changping must be fought quickly!
After hearing this, King Zhao happily asked if Zhao Kuo was willing to defeat the Qin army for the Zhao army. Zhao Kuo took it for granted and said: "The only person in the Qin Dynasty who knows how to use troops is Wu'an Lord Bai Qi. This man has never been defeated since his rise. When he was still in Zuo Geng, Bai Qi attacked South Korea and Wei, and beheaded 240,000 people when he first showed his talent. , captured the Wei general Gongsun Xi, captured 5 cities of Wei, and was named a state captain. Soon, Bai Qi captured the eastern part of Anyi in South Korea, and was named Daliangzao by the King of Qin. Since then, he has made great progress all the way, year after year. Triumphant, his name as the God of War is well known all over the world. Even his father, Zhao She, is full of praise when talking about Bai Qi. If I fight him, I am only 50% sure of defeating him. But the person leading the army this time , but he is Wang Hao, Wang Hao has the ears of a rat, but he bullies some people who don’t know how to fight. If he meets me, he will be vulnerable."
If King Zhao had doubts before, he fell into ecstasy after listening to Zhao Kuo's lofty speech. The only person who could soothe King Zhao's uneasy heart at this time was this kind of person who didn't know the heights of the world and whose confidence grew infinitely. Once Zhao Kuo comes out, good or bad fortune will be unpredictable. However, the King of Zhao believed that the Zhao army would definitely win and was overjoyed. In a desperate move, he handed over another 200,000 horses to Zhao Kuo, worshiped Zhao Kuo as his general, and bestowed upon him a large amount of gold and silver. In this way, the Changping Battle can be said to have gathered more than half of the elite forces of the Zhao army.
Although Zhao Kuo's mother went to see King Zhao again and again after that, asking him to take back his life, it was just that King Zhao was determined to have Zhao Kuo replace Lian Po, but to no avail.
So, outside Handan City, all the people in the city came to see him off outside the city gate. You can see this scene: Zhao's army is vast, stretching for dozens of miles, and the people line up on both sides of the official road, saying goodbye with tears. Zhao Kuo sat arrogantly on the tall white horse, looking arrogantly in the direction of Changping. In the eyes of the people of Zhao, this man is the god who saves Zhao. Soon, triumphant songs will be played and the soldiers will return carrying the heads of their enemies. However, some people worry that if they leave here and say goodbye, the good times will be wasted. Because the girl who accompanied him on the expedition has become a ghost on the roadside, and he can only see the person in his dreams when he sees him again.
However, no matter what, they would rather believe that Zhao Kuo would eventually defeat the Qin army like his father, and lead the world's soldiers and horses to unite with the alliance to conquer Xianyang and Yao Guanzhong. The word "hero" shines above Zhao Kuo's head, and everyone becomes his fanatical admirer.
Only Lin Xiangru stood at the gate of Handan City with lonely eyes. His lonely eyes penetrated the clouds and fell together with Lian Po's sigh.
Even Fan Ju didn't expect that everything would go so smoothly, so smoothly that they couldn't believe it, but it happened like this. Qin's powerful intelligence department flew to Xianyang many times to report to the King of Qin that Zhao Kuo had become a general and was rushing to the front line. At the same time, Zhao Guo also handed over the country's 250,000 elite troops to Zhao Kuo and rushed directly to Changping.
Although the arrival of Zhao Kuo put greater pressure on the Changping Battle and even constituted an absolute advantage over the Qin army in terms of total number of troops, the King of Qin was not worried about all this. He had more important tasks at the moment. What needs to be done is to ask Wu'an Jun Bai Qi to come out and deal with this extremely dangerous, extremely critical and once-in-a-lifetime battle situation.
