During the Battle of Changping, why did King Zhao not agree with Zhao Kuo Lianpo

The Changping battle between Qin and Zhao was more likely to win in any way, and Lian Po adopted a defensive policy, which was indeed a good method when Qin was strong and Zhao was weak, but it was not a long-term solution; Since the Shang Dynasty changed the law, the Qin State rewarded cultivation and warfare, and both the quality of soldiers and grain and grass reserves far surpassed that of Zhao. In this war, both sides invested a lot of troops, and after the end of the war, the number of soldiers killed by Zhao alone reached 400,000, and the daily consumption of these 400,000 people was not a small amount. Lian Po has adhered to the defensive policy for more than a year, and Zhao can be said to have tightened his belt to live, Zhao is not as good as Qin, and its geographical location itself is not rich in food, and it is very likely that Zhao will be consumed to death first in a defensive war.

At that time, there were not many famous generals in Zhao State, but none of them dared to take over, because they also knew that this battle was difficult to fight, and Zhao Kuo's newborn calf was not afraid of tigers. Zhao Kuo may have military talent, but he still needs to grow, and if he is given time, he may be able to become a famous general like Lian Po and Zhao Hao. The Battle of Changping was a result-oriented, if Zhao Kuo won, his edge would overshadow the killing god Bai Qi, but if he lost, he would end up with a reputation that would have been infamous for thousands of years.

Many people say that Zhao Kuo talks on paper and has no ability. Not to mention anything else, when the grain and grass were exhausted, he was still able to lead the soldiers to hold out for more than 40 days and organize countless charges, which shows that he is not a mediocre talent. After the end of the war, Bai Qi also said that although the Qin State won it, it was also a loss to a certain extent, because the Qin State also suffered a large loss, and showed appreciation for Zhao Kuo's talent.

Throughout Lian Po's life as a soldier, only when facing rookie-level armies like Wei, Han, and Chu, did he cut melons and vegetables without scruples. Why? Because before he died, he revealed the answer:

I think about using Zhao people. Where does this come from? Because King Zhao Mourning Xiang was dissatisfied with Lian Po's use of troops after he ascended the throne, he asked Le Cheng to replace Lian Po in Yan State, but Lian Po refused to obey and fled to Wei after a battle with Le Cheng.

When Chu heard about it, he secretly took him to Chu, but Lian Po had no military exploits in Chu, and he said: "I still want to command the soldiers of Zhao State." "Why are you willing to command the soldiers of the Zhao State?

Because Zhao's combat effectiveness was not at the same level as the other six eastern countries, the Zhao army had undergone the Hufu cavalry and archery reform, and its military ability ranked first among the six eastern countries. Lian Po was extremely cautious in the face of military powers like Qin and Qi, never taking risks, and never winning by trickery. Therefore, in the face of the Qin army, whose combat effectiveness in Changping was equal to that of the Zhao army, after being defeated by the Qin army several times, it had to choose not to fight, and there was no risk in repeatedly challenging it.

It is conceivable that if such a strategy is maintained, the Zhao army will definitely withdraw from the "enclave" of Changping in the future and no longer hold on, but it will not be wiped out 450,000 troops, let alone the tragedy of 400,000 sergeants being killed in Baiqikeng. ‍‍

There are two examples of Lian Po's use of troops without risk, not fighting uncertain battles, and not winning by tricks. The first is the battle of Lian Po's birth of Feng Shangqing - to win the merits of the Yang and Jin Dynasty. Shi Zai:

In 283 BC, Lian Po led the Zhao army to conquer the Qi State, defeated the Qi army, captured the Yang and Jin Dynasty, and was famous for his courage among the princes. However, Lian Po's battle was based on the premise that the use of troops was not risky and that he was sure. Because 2 years ago, the Qin army crossed Wei and Han to attack Qi and defeated the powerful Qi army, and then Zhao also sent troops to defeat the Qi army and set up a front-line stronghold in Lingqiu in the Qi realm.

In 284 BC, the combined forces of Qin, Yan, Wei, Zhao, and Han attacked Qi again and won a great victory. After the king of Qi broke Su Qin, he fled to Ju, and the state of Chu also took the opportunity to occupy a large area of land in the state of Qi. In the year when King Qi was killed and King Xiang of Qi succeeded to the throne (283 BC), Lian Po led the army to fight against Qi, defeated the Qi army, captured Yangjin, and was named Shangqing.

If it weren't for the fact that Qi State has been "abused" for 2 consecutive years, and the national strength and military strength cannot be effectively replenished, I believe that Lian Po would not have used troops like this. If this battle does not show Lian Po's idea of using troops, let's look at this example: Before the battle between Qin and Zhao, King Huiwen of Zhao summoned Lian Po and asked

Can it be saved? He said: "The road is far and narrow, and it is difficult to save."

Can troops be sent to the rescue? Lian Po said: "The road is too far, difficult and narrow, and it is difficult to rescue.

This shows that he is not sure of this battle and does not want to lead his troops forward. Of course, King Zhao summoned Lecheng again, and the answer he got was the same. This is Lian Po's basic thinking and personality in the use of soldiers

Don't fight uncertain battles.

When Zhao Kuo led the troops to the front line, his mother resolutely objected, and said to King Zhao: "When his father was still alive, he was a general at that time, and he personally held the rice bowl and waited for the other party to eat and drink, there were dozens of people, and hundreds of people treated each other as friends. Now that Zhao Kuo is a general, he puts up a shelf, sits facing east, and accepts everyone's court, his subordinates dare not look up at him, and the treasures rewarded by the king are brought home and collected, and the money is used to order people to visit the fields and real estate, and buy what can be bought.

This ** has the shadow of his father? The father and son had different hearts and hoped that the king would not send him to lead the army. ”

It is better to know than to be in the world! Look at what Lin Xiangru, who was critically ill but not dead at the time, said: "The disciple can read his father's biography, but he doesn't know how to mutate."

Zhao Kuo only understands the surface of his father's art of war, memorizes by rote, and does not adapt to improvisation. Later generations' conclusions about Zhao Kuo's talk on paper are directly derived from this evaluation, "Young people like to talk about soldiers, although their father's learning is not proficient." Who can escape from the mother material in a defeat, and pity 400,000 people.

I don't know if those netizens who are keen on whitewashing Zhao Kuo know Zhao Kuo better than Lin Xiangru at that time? Knowing the son is more than the father! Let's see what Zhao Hao said about his son.

Zhao Hao once said to his wife: "Fighting with soldiers is a matter of life and death, but he is like a joke." If Zhao Guo doesn't use Zhao Kuo as a general, it's just that, if he wants to use him, he will definitely let Zhao Jun fail." ‍

In fact, I checked the relevant records of the "Historical Records" and felt that there was no possibility of appointing Lian Po and Zhao Kuo at the same time. The change of generals was originally King Zhao Xiaocheng's own decision, King Xiaocheng was already very dissatisfied with Lian Po's insistence on not fighting, and wanted to replace him for a long time. ‍‍

Zhao Kuo's use of soldiers has his father's family tradition, and he is eager to use tricks and likes to march and take risks. Zhao Kuo's father, Ma Fujun Zhao Hao, became famous because Lian Po couldn't fight the battle of Yan. Let's review the previous situation again:

King Zhao asked Lian Po and Le Cheng and then summoned Zhao Hao, facing the same question, Zhao Hao said: "The road is far and narrow, such as two rats fighting in the hole, the brave will win." Meaning:

Although the road is long, the ground is dangerous, and the road is narrow, but this is like two rats fighting in a hole, and whoever is more brave will win. In Lian Po's eyes, the marching is dangerous, but in Zhao Hao's eyes, everyone is half a catty and eight taels to see who is braver. After that, Zhao Hao continued to weaken in the face of the strong Qin first, and carried out counter-espionage against the Qin army's spies.

In the end, before the great battle, he went out again and listened to the advice of Xu Li (this person is a mysterious strategist who was not born), preemptively occupied the northern mountain, and fought an offensive and defensive battle with the Qin soldiers who were one step late, and finally defeated the Qin army.

Back then, King Zhao wanted to fight the battle with him, but Lian Po said that he couldn't win, and Lecheng also said that he couldn't win. Zhao Hao said that he could win, and finally sent Zhao Hao to fight, and he won, so the key is to choose a general. Lian Po likes to play steadily, Zhao Hao can win with danger, Zhao Hao is here, and Changping's victory or defeat is unknown.

Qin State poured the strength of the whole country and lost more than 200,000 people, and finally killed Zhao State, including 400,000 soldiers, Lian Po stuck to Changping, and the loss was very small during the period of leading the troops, so the more than 200,000 must have been killed by Zhao Kuo. I don't want to, but I don't have food! Isn't it a retreat from the enemy to reduce food losses by sending troops and hundreds of thousands?

But who goes! Lian Po also has no chance of winning, Zhao Kuo, who jumped the highest, said at the time that it was not advisable for Changping to stick to it, or it could be a battle, which reduced the population pressure of the Qin State, but he didn't expect the Qin State to be too ruthless and killed the pawns, Zhao Kuo was too fierce to take people to the decisive battle, fortunately, he had the backbone to die on the way to the charge, the opponent of the Battle of Changping was the killing god Bai Qi, it is estimated that Han Xin could come into the world in advance or be able to fight, because Han Xin did not look down on Bai Qi to kill the enemy 10,000 and lose 800, history has no if, maybe it began to let Zhao Kuo lead the troops 20 and the Qin army to the death, If it fails, let Lian Po hold on, and Zhao Guo will definitely not suffer such a big defeat.

To put it bluntly, the Qin State attacked Zhao, the Zhao State defended according to the danger, and the Qin people spent time, effort, money and food, and they must return in vain, just like Sima Yi guarded the Zhuge Northern Expedition back then, but the emperor of Zhao State is estimated to be a son with no military experience, and he always feels that the enemy is flustered when he can't get rid of the city every day!

Zhao Kuo. King Zhao was angry that Lian Po's army was lost and defeated, and he did not dare to fight against the strong wall, but he also heard Qin's words, because Zhao Kuo would attack Qin on behalf of Lian Po. ("Historical Records: The Biography of Bai Qi Wang Jian Lie").

The Battle of Changping was a war between the 53rd year of King Zhou and the 55th year of King Zhou (one says that it was between April and September of the 55th lunar calendar of King Zhou Xun, and the other is that it was from the beginning of the 54th year of King Zhou to September 55), and the famous general Bai Qi of Qin led his army to fight with the army of Zhao in the area of Changping (now northwest of Gaoping City, Jincheng, Shanxi Province) of Zhao State. The Zhao army was finally defeated, and the Qin army won the victory and occupied Changping, and killed 400,000 troops of the Zhao state.

This battle was a strategic decisive battle between Qin and Zhao. During the war, King Zhao was ignorant of the basic situation of Qin being strong and Zhao weak in his war guidance, and was anxious to win, and mistakenly adhered to the offensive strategy. The plan of the discord between the Central Qin State was to abandon the famous general Lian Po, and replace Lian Po with Zhao Kuo, who was talking on paper; Zhao Kuo followed King Zhao's intentions and was anxious to win, changed Lian Po's defensive deployment and military regulations, changed generals, and organized an attack.

In view of Zhao Kuo's pride and weakness of underestimating the enemy, Bai Qi adopted the operational policy of feinting defeat and retreating, luring the enemy out of the rough position, and then dividing, encircling, and annihilating him, and won the war. Zhao's vitality was greatly damaged by this battle, which accelerated the process of Qin's unification of China. This battle was the earliest, largest-scale, and most thorough siege and annihilation battle in ancient Chinese military history.

Zhao Kuo.

At that time, Fan Ju, the prime minister of Qin, used a discord to make King Zhao distrust Lian Po, and Fan Ju also praised Zhao Kuo to the sky, and King Zhao also knew that his country would be dragged down by logistics in this way, and he was about to be unable to support it, so King Zhao needed a general who could attack, and Lian Po's long-term defense had caused King Zhao's dissatisfaction, and he touted Zhao Kuo in China, so King Zhao sent Zhao Kuo to the front line to defeat the Qin army.

Introduction

In fact, Zhao Kuo also wanted to defend at that time, but because of King Zhao's order, he could only blame the initiative, although Zhao Kuo was not a soldier on paper, but there were also many shortcomings, such as treating war as a child's play, and he didn't know how to be flexible, when King Zhao asked Zhao Kuo to take Qi with him, Lin Xiangru and Zhao Hao were both blocked and stopped, but King Zhao didn't listen, he just wanted to quickly solve the battle.

After Zhao Kuo came on the field, like a trip to Changping, to see the local people, the scenery, as if the world was under their control, when Zhao Kuo replaced Lian Po's generals with his own generals, and one day, suddenly led a fierce 400,000 army to attack without reconnaissance, and finally was surrounded by Bai Qi for more than 40 days.

In the Battle of Changping, King Zhao replaced Lian Po's military leadership with Zhao Kuo.

At that time, Fan Shine, the prime minister of the Qin State, used a discord to make King Zhao distrust Lian Po, and Fan Ju also praised Zhao Kuo to the sky, and King Zhao also knew that his country would be dragged down by logistics if he continued like this, and he couldn't support it. Therefore, the king of Zhao needed a general who could attack, and Lian Po's long-term defense had caused the dissatisfaction of the king of Zhao, and he touted Zhao Kuo in the country, so the king of Zhao sent a search to summon Zhao Kuo to the front line and defeated the Qin army.

Zhao Kuo (chain Zheng 260 BC), Ying surname, Zhao family, name Kuo, Zhao during the Warring States Period, Zhao Guojun, the son of Zhao Fujun Zhao Hao. Zhao Kuo is familiar with military books, but he lacks battlefield experience and does not know how to be flexible.

The Battle of History

During the Warring States period when the Zhou Dynasty was about to come to an end, there was a war that was considered to be a turning point in the situation in the world at that time, the Battle of Changping. And this war was also the largest of the many wars at that time, and the most tragic one, after the war, no one could stop the pace of Qin's unification of the countries.

In 262 BC, the Qin army invaded Han, Shangdang County lost contact with Korea, and the county guard Feng Ting was unwilling to obey the orders of the Han king, and surrendered Shangdang County to Qin. He sent an envoy to Zhao to express his willingness to dedicate the city of Shangdang County to Zhao, and the king of Zhao thought that this was a great benefit, so he readily agreed, and Zhao's move caused the dissatisfaction of Qin, and the king of Qin decided to send troops to attack Zhao.

Although Lian Po has more experience than Zhao Kuo, the situation of Qin Qiang and Zhao Weak has been formed at that time, and Lian Po did not go well in the Battle of Changping, which is also an important reason why he was replaced, and Zhao Guo made mistakes in strategy in the early days of the Battle of Changping, so I think failure is inevitable. At that time, the situation of the Qin State being the dominant family was not through one or two wars, it was painstakingly managed by more than ten generations of monarchs of the Qin State, and it could not be changed overnight. Let's do a horizontal comparison:

King Qin Zhao was not a mediocre lord, and during his reign, he belittled Wei Ran, reused Fan Ju, implemented "distant friendship and close attack", and greatly expanded the territory and strength of Qin, with outstanding achievements; But King Zhao Xiaocheng is a corrupt lord, the virtuous and the foolish, the loyal and the treacherous, and the nepotism, how can these two monarchs talk about the same day. Besides: the lord of Qin will be the "human slaughter" Bai Qi, who has the most beheadings and the greatest credit in all the foreign wars of Qin, and Bai Qi rarely loses battles.

Lian Po, the commander of Zhao State, is tied with Bai Qi as the "Four Famous Generals of the Warring States", has rich experience, is loyal and patriotic, and has not suffered a big loss in the war with Qin, which is considered to be equal. Let's talk about logistical supplies: Since the successive kings, the Qin State encouraged cultivation and weaving, reclaimed wasteland, abolished the well field system, and recognized the private ownership of land, which provided a large amount of food for the Qin State's foreign wars.

And Zhao State, due to the reduction of land area and lack of food, every war is actually worried about food, in such a contrast, Zhao State is bound to lose. So I think that even if Lian Po is not replaced, the defeat of Zhao Guo will be a matter of time.