Cangshan is like the sea, and the setting sun is like blood.
Including Shangdang's army and Zhao Kuo's army, the total number of Zhao soldiers captured by the Qin army reached 400,000.
The winner is the king, the loser is the bandit. The victorious party naturally showed off its power. From the commander to the soldiers, the Qin army was immersed in the joy of victory and celebrated this great victory by drinking wine and eating meat. For this hard-won victory, the Qin army spent a huge amount of manpower, financial and material resources, and hundreds of thousands of people died before and after.
While the losing side lamented its failure, it was also secretly grateful that it could survive this meat grinder-like war. Both King Qin and Bai Qi were drinking in the military camp, and they couldn't help sighing at all this. In the past, both of them had ambitions to conquer the world. Now that great things are expected, both of them have turned gray at the temples. Time passes and I don’t know if these two can wait until the day when the world is unified.
During this period, Bai Qi had told King Qin his strategic plan to unify the world. Now Zhao State has been completely defeated by the Qin army. The world is so big that no one can rival it. The top priority of Qin State is to first destroy Zhao State, and at the same time, quickly restore Qin State's national power, and then launch a series of wars to destroy the country. Naturally, South Korea and Wei will be targeted first. Once the three Jin lands are pacified, it will be easy to dominate the world. Finally, separate the remaining three countries and defeat them one by one: after stabilizing Qi, attack Yan first, then eliminate Chu, and finally attack Qi. In this way, the world will be settled.
As soon as Lord Wu An told him his plan, King Qin was in awe, which coincided with the strategy he had discussed with Fan Ju. I think back then, I could only rely on others as a proton, but now that the world has turned upside down, I actually have the strength to dominate the world. It is really amazing how unpredictable the world is.
King Qin Zhaoxiang knew that he could achieve such achievements in his life thanks to three people. One was Empress Dowager Xuan, who helped him rise to the position of King of Qin and laid a solid foundation for the state of Qin; the other was Fan Ju, without him and his " With the strategy of "diplomating far away and attacking close", Qin could not be so comfortable on the stage of other countries; the last person was naturally Bai Qi. Without him, how could the Qin army be invincible in the world and how could it defeat the powerful Zhao army?
The Zhao army was defeated miserably, leaving more than 400,000 prisoners. How to place these prisoners became a difficult problem for Qin.
Bai Qi knew that the current 400,000 prisoners of the Zhao army and the daily consumption of military rations were making Qin unable to cope with its needs. The Battle of Changping almost emptied Qin's food reserves. Now the Qin army's own food supply is already very tight, and there will soon be a danger of food shortage. In addition, Zhao Guojun's soldiers are still an unknown hidden danger, a bomb that may explode at any time. Staying in the military camp will definitely not work. Moving to Qin's land and flooding it with its people will likely lead to mutual vendettas and wars, and there may even be people secretly having an affair with Zhao. If they were returned to the Kingdom of Zhao, as long as the King of Zhao raised his arms, they would definitely be recruited again. In the three-year Changping War, the Qin army suffered more than half of their casualties, which is enough to give a glimpse of the strength of the Zhao army. If they were recruited again, they would definitely know their shame and become brave. , became the Qin army's confidant trouble.
After considering this, everyone understood that there was only one way to prevent Qin from future troubles forever, and that was-kill.
Although King Qin Zhaoxiang was decisive in killing, he never thought that he would massacre 400,000 unarmed prisoners. Once such a thing is done, although it can greatly intimidate the enemy, it will undoubtedly leave an eternal infamy. Therefore, King Qin Zhaoxiang returned to Qin without knowing Bai Qi. Before leaving, he also left a verbal message, allowing Bai Qi to act as he pleased and to have full authority to deal with the prisoner of war issue in Changping.
Wang Lu was at a loss, Wang Jian was also confused, and Sima Geng was also palpitating. They knew that Qin's choice was to kill the prisoners of war; they also knew that King Qin was not willing to bear this infamy. Since this war was started by Bai Qi, let Bai Qi finish it. Anyway, after years of fighting, Bai Qi's hands were already bloody. Killing one person was still killing, killing ten thousand people was still killing. Bai Qi didn't care. As long as it was beneficial to Qin, he would bear the eternal infamy and he would not hesitate.
People at that time were very taboo about killing surrendered prisoners. The King of Qin himself cannot bear this bad reputation and arouse the public anger of the people in the world. Sima Geng, Wang Lu, and Wang Jian are all bloody men, and they all want to help Bai Qi share the blame, but Bai Qi does not need it because he is the commander-in-chief. , is a person who no one in the Qin army can surpass.
In fact, it is already extremely difficult to make the decision to kill 400,000 Zhao Jun, but there is an even more difficult thing behind, that is how to do it. You know, there are a total of 400,000 horses. Even if they stand there and let the Qin army kill them, they don't know how many years and months they will be able to kill them all. If they were aware of it before taking action and took precautions and rose up to resist, the Qin army camp would definitely be in chaos.
So, Bai Qi ordered to drive the Zhao army towards Yanggu while they were still unprepared. Before that, the Qin army also found 240 people under the age of 14 among these prisoners. They were lucky because Bai Qi decided not to kill them, but they were also unlucky. In order to shock Zhao, Bai Qi decided to let them watch the entire process of the Qin army slaughtering Zhao's prisoners.
Therefore, the Qin army divided the 400,000 Zhao prisoners into 10 camps and put 10 generals in command respectively. At the same time, it also allocated 200,000 Qin troops to maintain public order. In order not to arouse the suspicion of the prisoners, Bai Qi issued a false edict to prepare them to be selected by the Qin army tomorrow. Anyone who qualified would be sent to the Qin army's camp, and those who failed would be sent to the Qin army's camp. They will all provide travel expenses and repatriate them back to Zhao State. The prisoners of the Zhao army believed this and thought that Bai Qi was a man of great benevolence and righteousness. However, they did not know that there was a huge murderous intention behind this fake edict. They did not know that what awaited them would be the endless night underground.
This night is destined to be an extraordinary night. The howling of the mountain wind is like the call of hell; the floating in the wild is like the legend of life. The Qin army drove the prisoners from 10 large camps into a valley, then divided their troops to block the entrance of the valley, and then smashed countless rocks and lit firewood down from the cliffs on both sides. Until this time, the Zhao army prisoners were still I thought I could have a good meal tonight and then have a good sleep. Unfortunately, what was waiting for them was rocks and fire raining down on them. At this time, Zhao Jun was so hungry that he had no strength at all and was unable to resist at all. Most of them were either burned into charred corpses by firewood, or had their heads smashed by rocks, or even were completely crushed by huge rocks and turned into a pile of meat patties. Occasionally, a few stronger Zhao soldiers who struggled to climb up the mountain were quickly killed by the Qin army on the top of the mountain and thrown back into the valley.
For a whole night, the hundreds of thousands of Qin soldiers were like madmen, witnessing the ugliness of human nature in the dark night. The next day, a heavy rain suddenly fell from the sky, which seemed to be a deep mourning for the hundreds of thousands of dead souls. May the deceased rest in peace, and may all the blood and sin be washed away and forgiven.
Yang Xiong of the Han Dynasty lamented the entrapment and killing incident in the Battle of Changping: "In the Battle of Changping, 400,000 people died, the flesh of the wild men, the blood of the people in the river valleys, and Chiyou's chaos is nothing more than this."
The green hills after the rain are like a conscience washed by tears. Under Bai Qi's cold appearance, there is a cold heart. It seems that he already feels that his mission has been completed. Whether it is infamy or fame, I leave it to others to comment. At this time, every soldier in the Qin army looked at Bai Qi expectantly with red eyes. Those 400,000 people are the military titles they dream of. Bai Qi looked at those expectant eyes, nodded, and agreed. I don’t know who was the first to rush into the mountain of corpses and the sea of blood, enjoying the joy of the "harvest". Bai Qi also jokingly called those mountains with piled heads "Bai Qi Terrace".
No one was going to bury the 400,000 headless corpses. From then on, within a hundred miles, no one, no matter human or animal, dared to cross or come close. There, people often heard crying. Maybe it was the lonely ghosts who were sad about being homeless, or maybe it was the despair of those in the spring boudoir dream. The wailing that followed.
Until the eleventh year of Kaiyuan of the Tang Dynasty (AD 723), Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty Li Longji visited here and could still see the sight of bones all over the mountains and plains. In order to appease their dead souls, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty personally offered sacrifices and ordered eminent monks to set up water and land rituals for seven days and nights to save the souls of the deceased victims, and named the valley "Valley of Province of Injustice".
In addition, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty also collected their bones, built tombs for them, and built a Skeleton King Temple there. "Select the giant among the skeletons and erect them as the Skeleton King" to commemorate the 400,000 miserable lonely souls. Wild ghost. Since then, there has been a tradition in the land of Changping - local officials, no matter which dynasty, generation or rank, will come here to offer sacrifices on behalf of the emperor every spring and autumn. To this day, there is still a temple remaining, which enshrines the statues of Zhao Kuo and his wife.
