On this day, in order to show how much he valued Bai Qi, King Qin Zhaoxiang went to Lord Wu'an's mansion in person. This made Lord Wu'an's mansion very confused, because King Qin did not say hello beforehand. As soon as he arrived at Bai Qi's study, King Qin discovered that Bai Qi had made various marks on the map of Changping. As expected, Bai Qi was studying strategies to defeat the enemy.
Bai Qi naturally burst into tears of gratitude when he saw King Qin coming in person, and then asked if he was here for the Changping War.
King Zhaoxiang of Qin Yingji laughed and said: "Jun Wu'an is really quick to talk. The king and his ministers know each other well and work together. Why worry about big things happening? I already know that you want to go to Changping to fight, but you must understand that in my eyes, you are me The sharpest sword in the Qin State should be used only if it is not used. Once it is unsheathed, it must be completely victorious, so that the Qin Dynasty can shock the world in one fell swoop. Fan Ju, the prime minister, also discussed with me and felt that if the Qing family does not come out now, when will it be better? Please don't refuse. .”
Bai Qi has always been a soldier. He emphasizes being quick to speak and straightforward. He has never disdained to play with tactics or advance or retreat suddenly. Without any hesitation, he accepted King Qin's request. Because he knew that he had been waiting for many years just for this battle.
The only regret is that this time Bai Qi still cannot compete with his biggest opponent in life - Lian Po. If he were the decision-maker, he might be more willing to choose a life-or-death showdown with Lian Po instead of caring about the so-called national interests above all else. Because in Bai Qi's eyes, people who can be cited as opponents are people worthy of his respect. Although various conspiracies will be played on the battlefield, they will not use political or diplomatic maneuvers to deny their opponents a chance to have a fair fight with themselves.
Just as King Zhao wanted to test Zhao Kuo when he decided to change generals, King Qin also carefully asked Bai Qi, Lord Wu'an, about his views on the Changping War.
Bai Qi believed that Zhao State was now sending almost all its troops to reinforce Changping. The Qin army is already confronting the Zhao army on the Changping line. It can be said that a single move affects the whole body. They must not be defeated. Once defeated, the country will surely perish. Only with the same reinforcements as the Zhao State, and the total number of troops will not be weaker than the Zhao State, can we ensure that the battle of Changping will not be lost. Of course, Bai Qi's biggest worry is that the Qin army's food and grass supply cannot be lacking for a moment. In the past, only Lian Po would be cheated by the King of Zhao. Now it is Zhao Kuo. In the eyes of King Zhao, just like himself, he will definitely support him fully.
After hearing Bai Qi's analysis, the King of Qin admired him, and at the same time immediately assured that no matter how much reinforcements the Zhao army brings, the Qin army will not be short of a single one, and there is no need to worry about the food and grass supplies. The King of Qin has ordered people to quickly mobilize the food and grass in Shu, and coordinate with Guanzhong and Guanzhong. Raising grain and grass from the fertile fields in the Hedong area can ensure that the Qin army still has food to eat before the last Zhao army on the Changping front line starves to death.
Seeing that Bai Qi was still frowning, King Qin asked, "Is there anything else Wu An is worried about?"
Bai Qi then expressed his last worry: "When King Wuling of Zhao State was on the throne, he once formed a strong cavalry army in Yunzhongqiyi. According to the ministers, all of them were cavalrymen from all over the country. They were selected from a hundred soldiers and foreign warriors, so they were known as the "Men of a Hundred Gold". Although this army only had 20,000 troops, its combat power was astonishing. One of them was as good as ten, and it was a force that could not be ignored. According to legend, they There are two wild goose feathers on their helmets, so they are also known as the "Yan Ling Qi" outside the Great Wall. The "Yan Ling Qi" has been resisting foreigners in the northern part of Zhao State, and has never fought against the country of the Central Plains, but it has No country is willing to provoke them. Now that the State of Zhao is devoting all its strength to reinforce Changping, I am afraid that they will also secretly participate in it. As the saying goes, it is easy to hide with open guns and hard to defend against hidden arrows. If it is a one-on-one battle, the elite soldiers of our Great Qin will naturally be strong. There is no need to be afraid of them, but we are afraid that they will use guerrilla tactics like foreign cavalry to harass our army from behind and cut off our army's food and grass supply. They have been fighting with the barbarians for many years, and it is certainly not unusual for them to borrow foreign tactics. Your Majesty should pay more attention to this matter."
King Qin smiled and told Bai Qi not to worry, he only needed to deal with the battle in Changping with all his strength. It turned out that King Qin and Fan Ju had been worried about this problem before. At Fan Ju's suggestion, the State of Qin sent envoys to the north to persuade the Xiongnu Shanyu to send troops to invade the country. As long as the Zhao army could be held back, regardless of victory or defeat, the State of Qin would It will give them many benefits.
Before that, Zhao State was also worried that the Huns would take advantage of the situation to invade, so they signed an alliance with the Huns. However, in the face of real interests, all covenants become a piece of paper.
As a result, Bai Qi successfully took over Wang Lu's position as coach. Unlike Zhao Kuo, only a limited number of people knew about Bai Qi's trip to Changping. Because even though Zhao Kuo is arrogant, there is still a person he fears in his eyes - Bai Qi. If Zhao Kuo is informed with great fanfare that Bai Qi has become the head coach and joins the war, it will naturally arouse Zhao Kuo's great attention, and what the Qin army wants is precisely Zhao Kuo's contempt. Because war always contains such a truth - arrogant soldiers will lose.
Seeing that a crucial battle that will determine the fate of Zhao and Qin is about to break out, this battle will surely go down in history. While it succeeds some people, it must also destroy some people. Will this accomplished person be Bai Qi or Zhao Kuo? I believe everyone already has the answer in their mind. Because, although the generals were changed at the same time and they were both famous generals, there were always some differences between them, and the collection of these differences became the key factor that led to the outcome of the final war.
Zhao Kuo led the army and set out in high spirits from Handan, the capital of Zhao State, to Changping. Perhaps he thought that one day, he would step on the blood of his enemies, carry their heads in his hands and triumph, and become a legend in the midst of glory and leave his name in history. Unfortunately, the facts gave him a wake-up call, and his dream came to nothing.
Just before he led 250,000 troops to Lianpo's camp, Wu'an Jun Bai Qi had already quietly arrived at Wang Lu's Chinese army tent and took over the military talisman of Wang Lu's 300,000 troops. Following Bai Qi were 250,000 reinforcements from Qin. At this time, the Zhao army was in Changping, with 50,000 troops and horses led by Shangdang Feng Ting and 200,000 troops led by Lian Po. Including Zhao Kuo's 250,000 reinforcements, the total has exceeded 500,000. The Qin State was not to be outdone at all. With the later reinforcements of 250,000 and the final reinforcement of 100,000 troops and horses, the total reached 650,000.
Changping, a small city, actually gathered more than 1 million troops from the two major military powers at that time. Changping is destined to become the darling of history. No matter what the outcome of this battle, it will be remembered by future generations.
Now it is necessary to discuss the military strength of Qin and Zhao participating in the Battle of Changping.
Many people now say that the "Historical Records" record that Zhao Jun had 450,000 soldiers is just an exaggeration. They generally believe that the total population of the Warring States Period was around 10 million at most. According to: How long can a country last? According to the theory that the maximum pressure on soldiers that can be endured during time cannot exceed one-fifth of the country's total population, the total military strength of all countries during the Warring States Period was only about 2 million. Therefore, even if Qin and Zhao used all their strength, it would be difficult to reach 1 million. What's more, while Qin and Zhao were confronting each other, the other five countries were also eyeing them. Whether they were used to defend against the enemy or to defend the country, a large number of men and horses were needed.
In fact, the bottom line of all this discussion is that the population during the Warring States Period was only 10 million. But what is the reality? Throughout the Warring States Period at that time, although war disasters occurred one after another, population reproduction did not stagnate. Instead, various countries focused on population growth. By the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, there were already accurate statistics on the population. At that time, there were more than 40 million people on file. Adding in various undocumented people who were not controlled by the central government, the total number reached at least 60 million. In addition, during the unification war of Qin and the subsequent war between Chu and Han at the end of Qin, at least tens of millions of people were consumed. Therefore, the total population at the end of the Warring States Period was approximately 50 million. Qin and Zhao are both great powers in the world, especially Qin, with a population of at least 13 million. Coupled with the special situation at that time, it is very likely that the recruitment requirements will be relaxed. The two countries dispatched a total of more than 1 million troops to participate in the war, which is really normal.
As soon as Bai Qi arrived at the military camp and took over the military power, he started to block the news. When everyone in the Qin army heard that Lord Wu An was coming, they were all in high spirits, because countless facts have shown that where Bai Qi is present, the Qin army is invincible.
On the other side, Zhao Kuo, who was filled with soaring pride, also rushed to Changping. Zhao Jun's main camp was Daliang Mountain. Unlike the Qin army, King Zhao ordered Zhao Kuo to replace Lian Po, which meant that Lian Po lost all power. Even the efforts he had made in the past were not worth anything in Zhao Kuo's eyes. Just after Zhao Kuo took over Lian Po's military power, the first thing he did was to impose discipline and orders on the army and replace all Lian Po's trusted generals. In this way, Zhao Jun was completely in the hands of Zhao Kuo. The second thing was to transform and merge the star-shaped fortresses arranged by Lian Po into a large camp. According to Zhao Kuo's idea, only in this way can we coordinate with each other and concentrate our forces to prevent the enemy from defeating each other. Finally, Zhao Kuo gave an order to the Zhao army: If the enemy army encounters an invasion, all troops must rush to the front and attack with all their strength. As long as they win, they must take advantage of the victory to pursue it and give the Qin army a way to fight back. Give to him.
It can be imagined how unwilling and sad Lian Po was at that time. But there is no other way. He must be loyal to his country and even more loyal to his monarch. Of course, Lian Po's achievements in the past three years are undoubtedly huge. He not only successfully blocked the Qin army's eastward advance and resisted the attempt to strengthen Qin and destroy Zhao, but also established greater prestige in the army. So much so that when Zhao Kuo arrived, eight of Lian Po's former generals committed suicide because they had disagreements with Zhao Kuo.
These eight people were regarded as righteous men by later generations. Therefore, this place has two place names: "Eight Righteous People" and "Eight Admonition Water", as well as a stone tablet "Eight Righteous People Admonished Zhao". The death of a general in front of the battle can be said to be ominous. Everyone in the Zhao army kept this matter secret. Only Zhao Kuo still went his own way and told Zhao Jun that the army was about to launch a fatal blow to the Qin army in the near future.
In fact, although Zhao Kuo's move had a hint of youthful impetuousness, he had his own thoughts: the decisive battle between Zhao Jun and Qin Jun was imminent. Over the past three years, Zhao's national power has been depleted so much that no one can imagine. The game between Qin and Zhao is not only reflected in the military, but also in politics and diplomacy. Zhao has always been in a passive position. How cruel is it for King Zhao Xiaocheng to face the worry of national subjugation every day? Therefore, Zhao Kuo needed a big victory to boost the morale of the entire Zhao army and people, so that he could live up to the efforts that Zhao had made in the past three years.
