Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 157 The Footsteps of History [First update, please subscribe]

In the eighteenth year of King Zhaoxiang, August 23rd.

Pingdu

The Qin State and the Three Jin Dynasties were mobilizing soldiers. The mountains and fields were filled with soldiers moving at high speeds and the dust stirred up when the soldiers passed by.

This is intentional.

There are clouds in the art of war, and there is movement and stillness.

The reason why the Qin army was like this was to create a confusing formation. Even if Xiang Yan attracted some soldiers from the Three Jin Dynasty to Wei to defend the city, the number of Qin soldiers on the Pingdu battlefield is now less than that of the Three Jin Dynasty.

Although the people of Qin were good at fighting, warlike, and powerful, they could not close such a huge gap.

The generals on both sides were unable to widen the gap.

Perhaps Bai Qi is vaguely stronger than the current "young version of Lord Xinling" and "young version of Lian Po" in the Three Jin Dynasties, but he is not too strong to widen the gap in numbers.

And Sanjin, with the intention of "fighting to the death", naturally would not retreat at this time.

In the eighteenth year of King Zhaoxiang, August 28th.

With the sound of the horn, the "meat grinder" of the Battle of Pingdu was like a switch being turned on, and the "work" was instantly started.

The average number of deaths every day is in the thousands, and this war has only just begun.

Records of this battle can also be seen in the history books of later generations, but perhaps because this war touched the rule of "Qin", there are not many records about this battle in the official "history books" of the Qin Dynasty. Only fragments can be found from the biographies of relevant figures and some miscellaneous conversations of Chen's descendants.

"In the eighteenth year of King Zhaoxiang, the Battle of Pingdu began. The Three Jin Kingdoms attacked Qin, but the king refused to retreat. At that time, Lord Wu'an was the commander-in-chief and led the army to fight. After the war, the trend of wearing single clothes became popular in Xianyang. The atmosphere changed greatly. In this battle, Lord Wu'an was awarded the title of "twenty ranks" for military merit, and he was granted the title of Marquis of Guan Nei, and was given the title of "Wu'an". The king made people remember this battle, calling it the battle to establish Qin. Later, the first emperor ordered it again, saying: With Qin In this way, we have the talent of Lord Wu'an and the bravery of the old Qin people. - "Book of Qin: Biography of Lord Wu'an"

"In the eighteenth year of King Zhaoxiang, the Three Jin Dynasties attacked Qin, and the King of Qin fought to the death. The people slaughtered Wu Anjun as the commander, and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people in the Three Jin Dynasties. The Three Jin Dynasties had no young people in the country. Qin pretended to be benevolent and righteous, but in fact it was empty and powerless. Fight again, only strive for good reputation, this is the art of kingship. - "New Qin Shu·Biography of Wu Anjun""

"In the eighteenth year of King Zhaoxiang, our ancestor killed the young son of Ji in Xianyang to protect the laws of Qin. At that time, Lord Wuan Baiqi started a war in Pingdu. The battle was extremely fierce. After the war, Xianyang was empty, and nine of the ten houses were empty. - "Spring" "Miscellaneous Notes of Death".

What is strange is that there are no traces of the war in ancient history, but many records about this war can be found nearly one or two thousand years later. Everything seems to be witnessed with one's own eyes. .

Whether it is the details of the war, or the description of the consequences and impact of the war, they are all very accurate, which can't help but make people sigh.

Sometimes, perhaps those in power want to bury the truth of history for their own benefit, but no matter what methods they use, future generations will always be able to find a few fragments from the vast history and analyze it.

After all, people can lie, and history books are written by people, so they may also lie.

But real things don't lie, and time doesn't lie. As time goes by, the truth will always be revealed.

"In the autumn of the eighteenth year of King Zhaoxiang, the three-year Battle of Pingdu was finally coming to an end, but neither Wei Wuji, Lian Po, nor the Qin army's coach Bai Qi thought about a single problem. serious problem."

"No matter which country wins the final victory, can their domestic food and grass still support them?" "The three-year war is like a huge furnace. No matter how much food and grass enters the furnace, it will be burned by the flames in the furnace. It is completely exhausted and then turned into fuel for this huge "meat grinder", providing new power for the battlefield."

"When the war ends, the victor of the war and the future Lord Wu An of Qin will finally face the most important decision in his life."

"That's killing or raising."

"In that era when etiquette and music had collapsed, people still had their final moral bottom line. Killing and surrendering meant that no one would surrender in the future, and it also meant that the name of Qin's past benevolence and righteousness would all follow him. Dissipate on command.”

"But what if I don't kill?"

"If we don't kill them, the food and grass of the Qin army will not be able to feed the nearly 200,000 surrendered prisoners left by the Three Jin Dynasties. Although Qin's national power is strong, it is not strong enough yet."

"To kill or not to kill has become a question."

"This Lord Wu An has never thought that he needs to deal with other things besides war." - Excerpted from "History of Chinese War: Battle of Pingdu"; Author: Chen Ke

"The war may end, but the end of every war will not end with the end of the "battlefield", because war is not the purpose, but the story behind the war is the purpose."

"Just like the Battle of Pingdu, the Battle of Pingdu was a war launched by the three Jin Dynasties in order to restrain the Qin State and to dispel rumors among the world. Of course, some scholars believe that this war was fought by Zhao King Huiwen predicted the future situation of Zhao State in advance, so he planned a way out for Zhao State in advance."

"Of course, because of what happened later, we have to admit that this is a possibility."

"But even without these conspiracies and tricks, this war is still a "great" war. After all, after this war, Qin completely established its position as the number one power, and took advantage of the pre-war It was agreed that at the cost of some "money", countless cities were collected."

"This allowed Qin's territory to expand once again, laying the foundation for the future First Emperor's feat of unifying the world and sweeping across Liuhe."

"It can be said that if we summarize the reasons why Qin was able to unify the six countries, then the Battle of Pingdu must be one of the important reasons."

"Although this war did not destroy all the young generations of the Three Jin Dynasties as some war madmen had guessed, the Three Jin Dynasties no longer had the power to stop Qin's eastward march, and the six countries lost an important barrier. ." - "On the reasons why Qin unified the world - taking the Battle of Pingdu as an example"·PhD thesis of Zhongdu University·Author: Fan Muye

War is never a goal, but a process.

In the winter of the eighteenth year of King Zhaoxiang's reign, the Pingdu meat grinder finally stopped its operation.

So far, he has devoured the lives of nearly 200,000 soldiers. In addition, he has turned countless soldiers into "incomplete" people.

Zhangtai Palace

Ying Ji let out a long sigh, looked at the people in front of him and said, "Everyone, how should we deal with the surrender?"

"To kill or not to kill?"

(End of this chapter)