Why didn t Qin Shi Huang go west?

During the entire period from King Qin to Qin Shi Huang, there was no time to look west.

1. The ancestors of Qin Shi Huang have already dominated Xirong:

The Qin State was originally divided by the Zhou Dynasty and stationed in the western frontier for it. After the decline of the Zhou Dynasty, entering the Spring and Autumn Period, the princes of all walks of life fought for hegemony, and the Qin State did not show weakness, to Qin Mugong, successively destroyed the 12 countries established by the Western Rong people, opened up more than 1,000 miles of territory, dominated the Xirong, and established the hegemony of the Qin State in the Spring and Autumn Period in one fell swoop.

During the Warring States Period, when Qin Xiaogong appointed Shang Yang to change the law, King Qin Huiwen continued to open up the western territory and annexed Ba and Shu, and the territory of Qin was one of the best among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, and the national strength was also strong.

Qin's eyes began to turn to the east, and when Qin Zhao was king, he appointed the famous general Bai Qi to carry out a series of eastern crusades, especially the Battle of Changping against Zhao, killing 450,000 Zhao troops, and the last opponent of Qin was defeated. By the time King Qin won the government, Qin had an overwhelming advantage over the other six countries of the Warring States, and it was imperative to sweep the six countries and unify the world.

2. During the period of Qin Shi Huang, the strategic center turned to the eastern region, and there was no time to look west

Qin Shi Huang, born in Handan, the capital of Zhao State, spent his youth there, ascended the throne at the age of 13, but did not officially govern until he was 22 years old. After the pro-government, first got rid of Lü Buwei, Chang Yu and others, and then reused Li Si and Wei Yu, from 230 BC to 221 BC, launched a nine-year war of unification, successively destroyed Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan, Qi six countries, at the age of 39 to complete the great cause of Chinese unification, the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, called Qin Shi Huang.

At this time, the country initially decided, in order to consolidate the country, a series of systems and reforms were implemented, such as the implementation of the three princes and nine secretaries, the management of national affairs, the abolition of the sub-feudal system in the locality, the replacement of the county system, the unification of writing, weights and measures, the north attack on the Xiongnu, the south of the hundred Yue, the construction of the Great Wall, the construction of the spiritual canal, and the communication of the water system. Establish a strong country with the Han nationality as the main body and unified centralized power.

After Qin Shi Huang unified China, he did carry out expansion wars with great fanfare, conquered the Xiongnu in the north, conquered Baiyue in the south, and carried out large-scale navigation exploration in the east, but he did not carry out the western expedition, and there are probably three reasons for this:

First of all, in the mind of Qin Shi Huang, the empire's conquest of the West had come to an end. In fact, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the Qin State continued to wage wars against the ethnic minority tribes in the west, and by the Warring States Period, there were no large tribes and inhabited populations in the western part of the Qin State. Therefore, in Qin Shi Huang's mind, the exploration of the West has come to an end, and further west there is only a wild land.

Later, the discovery of the so-called Western Regions was actually slowly known to the people of the Central Plains after Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions during the period of Emperor Wu, so during the period of Qin Shi Huang, it was impossible to carry out a westward expedition to a non-existent West.

Secondly, from the perspective of stabilizing the country, the southern and northern expeditions are obviously more important. After Qin Shi Huang unified the world, in order to stabilize his own country, in addition to strengthening the control of internal book burning and Confucianism, he launched two very necessary wars abroad, that is, the northern expedition to the Xiongnu and the southern expedition to Baiyue. These two wars basically stabilized the two borders between the north and south of the empire, and saved the Qin Empire from the invasion of ethnic minorities.

But at the same time, these two wars also basically consumed all the troops of the Qin Empire, and the number of soldiers who went directly into battle reached 800,000, and there were really no more troops to carry out the western expedition.

Third, Qin Shi Huang's rule collapsed too quickly and did not have enough time to launch a westward crusade. In fact, after the northern expedition to the Xiongnu and the southern expedition to Baiyue, if the country can continue to maintain stable development, then the Qin Empire is likely to make an exploratory march to the west like sending people to explore the East China Sea, and once this exploration can discover the existence of the Western Regions, then the western expedition is still possible.

Unfortunately, the Qin Empire soon collapsed, and Qin Shi Huang never had the opportunity to go west.

Netizen 1: Qin Shi Huang did not expand, he should be influenced by the ideas of the time, after all, the Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty have always been based on the Central Plains, and the goal of the Qin State is to occupy the Central Plains and unify the six countries. Netizen 2:

After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, there were still nobles in the Six Kingdoms who did not submit to the rule of the Qin State, so they needed to divide their troops to guard the important places of the Six Kingdoms so as not to subvert the foundation of the Qin State. Netizen 3: Qin Shi Huang sent an army of 500,000 to pacify the land of Baiyue, and the Baiyue people were warlike and had no absolute troops, so they could not achieve the effect of control.

You must know that 500,000 is almost half of Qin's troops, and the expansion of the western expedition should be insufficient. Netizen 4: Qin Shi Huang thought that after defeating the Xiongnu, there was no one in the world who was his opponent, not to mention that the Xiongnu were nomads, there were no cities, and they ran away if they couldn't fight, and it was inconvenient to manage if they occupied the territory.

Netizen 5: Qin Shi Huang knows very well that the richest place in the world is in the Central Plains, and the west is a barren land.

During the Warring States period of China, Europe was under the rule of Alexander's empire, and he also launched Alexander's crusade during the reign of King Qin Hui of Qin, but this time the crusade only reached the Indus Valley and stopped, there are several theories about why Alexander did not continue the crusade, some people say that his soldiers have made a lot of money all year round, and they have no intention of fighting, and some people say that it is because of Alexander's body, who knows, anyway, it is so wrong, The two most powerful forces in the world did not collide. Although the era of Qin Shi Huang's unification of the Six Kingdoms was more than 100 years different from Alexander's Eastern Crusade, even every vassal state at the time of Alexander's Eastern Crusade was very powerful. After Qin Shi Huang defeated the Xiongnu, he never expanded to the outside world, why is this?

You must know that the Xiongnu, a nomadic people, is a very powerful existence in the eyes of Westerners, but our Chinese Qin and Han dynasties have defeated them, and in their eyes, if Qin Shi Huang marches westward, it is entirely possible to take Europe!

There are many reasons, the most reliable is that Qin Shi Huang knew very well that the richest in the world is the Central Plains, and the west is a barren land.

After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, there were still nobles in the Six Kingdoms who did not submit to the rule of the Qin State, so they needed to divide their troops to hold the important places of the Six Kingdoms, so as not to overthrow the foundation of the Qin State.

Qin Shi Huang unified the world, and the military power had been consumed a lot, and at that time, he was bent on unifying internal affairs, including unifying weights and measures, burning books and pit Confucianism, and other internal affairs methods, and he had no time to go west to conquer other nomads. Moreover, in his later years, he pursued the art of immortality.

This question is actually not difficult: first, the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties have always been in the Central Plains Six Kingdoms generation, so the goal of the unification of the Qin Dynasty must also be within this range. Moreover, in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the countries in this region also checked and balanced each other, and common goals and understandings have gradually been generated. Second, after the unification of the Qin Dynasty, the most important goal of the country was to consolidate the unification and develop the economy.

As the first emperor of the millennium, Qin Shi Huang understood very well that the most important thing after agreeing was to consolidate the unification.

1. Restore production and build a common understanding among the people.

Accomplishing the great cause of China's reunification is already the upper limit of his ability, and it is impossible to have the idea of a westward expedition.

Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor in ancient China to complete the great unification, why didn't he go west? In fact, the reason is very simple, because during the Zhou Dynasty, the border of the country was only to the westernmost part of the Qin State, and people at that time also believed that the western part of the Qin Dynasty was the end of western China, so the Qin State would only attack the Six Kingdoms to the east, not to the west. To the west, the Qin State was very desolate, at that time it could almost be said that Liao was uninhabited, and there was no point in the westward expedition, for that time, a large area of fertile land in the Central Plains was waiting for everyone to conquer, why should the already small population be moved to the desolate western area.

Therefore, Qin Shi Huang did not go west.

The geographical conditions and climate of the West are too poor.

1.At that time, Qin Shi Huang probably thought that the Six Kingdoms were all of this world, and no one would know that there was still a group of white people in the West, but to be honest, Alexander's empire in its heyday might not be able to compete with Qin.

2.The situation in the Warring States is more complicated, and there will still be some nobles who are dissatisfied after Qin Shi Huang unifies the Six Kingdoms, so he needs to send troops to defend these areas and disperse his forces, but I don't think this is a reason for him not to go west, after all, a person who annexed the Six Kingdoms, if he knows that there is a strong enemy in the West, his desire to conquer will definitely prevail over his reason, and the consequences will be unimaginable.

First, before Qin Shi Huang, successive Qin monarchs had made many conquests to the west, making many small countries the territory of Qin. Further west, with a sparse population and an underdeveloped economy, the geography makes the expedition seem of little value. This is, of course, related to the cognition of Qin Shi Huang at that time.

Second, after the unification of the Six Kingdoms, there were still many restless factors, and the existence of these factors caused the entire Qin Dynasty to be exhausted. Based on this, if you want to go west, you need to have a stable rear and sufficient financial resources, which the Qin Dynasty did not have at that time.

At that time, although the Qin State won the war, after many years of warfare, the national strength had declined to a certain extent, and there was no strong state that threatened the Qin State in the west, so the Qin State, which had just completed the great cause of unification, focused on reviving the country's economic construction.

The Seven Heroes of the Warring States and the other six states were all in the east of the Qin State, so Qin Shi Huang's main energy needed to deal with the six countries in the east, and he had no energy to go west.

At that time, there were no resources to use in the west. And in order to stabilize the overall situation, Qin Shi Huang can't do that first.