Historians have long had doubts about how long it took for the Qin state to fall to the mighty Zhao state. During the Warring States Period, Zhao was known as the "Northern Duqin", and its national strength and military strength were second only to Qin. Zhao not only had elite soldiers and strong generals, such as Li Mu and Lian Po, but also in the case of vast land and abundant grain and grass, long-term battles with the northern nomads trained their cavalry and archery skills, making Zhao a military power that paid equal attention to infantry and cavalry. In the face of such a powerful opponent, why did it take Qin to completely eliminate Zhao in fourteen years? Was it Zhao's stubborn defense or Qin's strategic mistakes? What are the historical factors and details hidden in this? Let's find out.
The Zhao state resisted tenaciously, and the Qin army won with difficulty
Since Qin determined that Zhao was the first target of attack, it started a protracted expedition to Zhao. In the early days, although Qin used diplomatic means to sow discord, causing Yan and Zhao to turn hostile and fall into civil war, so as to reduce the difficulty of attacking Zhao, Zhao was still a hard bone.
The reason why Zhao was able to resist stubbornly in the face of the Qin army certainly depended on its strong national strength and military strength. Since the military reform of Hufu cavalry and archery was implemented during the reign of King Wuling of Zhao, Zhao has gradually established a cavalry force that is mobile and flexible, and has strong combat power. This cavalry played to its due advantage, not only helping Zhao to consolidate control over the northern steppe region, but also allowing Zhao to hone excellent cavalry and archery skills during the long war with the nomads.
It was with this elite cavalry force, coupled with the sufficient supply of fields and hunting in the rear, and excellent logistics support, that Zhao was able to turn the tide in the fierce battle. For example, in the battles of Yi'an and Feicheng, the Zhao general Li Mu led the Zhao cavalry to launch a strong counterattack, relying on the cavalry's mobility advantage and surprise attack ability, severely damaged the main force of the Qin army. It can be seen from this battle that although the Qin army was outnumbered, it could not easily overwhelm the Zhao army on the battlefield.
In addition, Zhao also has a group of battle-hardened and well-commanded famous generals guarding the town, such as Li Mu, Lian Po and so on. Even in the defeat of the war, they were able to strategize and carefully deploy defenses to block the main force of the Qin army. Lian Po was also known as a legendary figure of "a hundred victories in a hundred battles" by later generations, he once commanded the Zhao army to break hundreds of thousands of horses of the Yan army, besiege the Yan capital Jicheng, and forced the Yan State to cut the city and sue for peace. It can be seen that the famous generals are indeed the key to Zhao's tenacious resistance to Qin.
At the same time, even if the Zhao Dynasty was captured, the important ministers and nobles of the Zhao Dynasty did not give up their resistance. King Zhao's elder brother, Gongzi Jia, the son of King Yan of Zhao Mourning Xiang, led the remnants of the clan resistance to flee to the north before the fall of Handan, and established himself as the "Acting King of Zhao". After that, Gongzijia relied on the abundant reserves of grain, grass and manpower in the north and persisted in the struggle for six years, making it impossible for the Qin army to easily eliminate the Zhao state.
It can be seen that Zhao was able to stand firm under the powerful attack of the Qin army, although the strong military strength was one of the reasons, but more important was the heroic spirit of Zhao State. It was precisely by virtue of this perseverance and indomitable national integrity that Zhao was able to survive the war, and finally became the most difficult member of Qin's conquest of the Six Kingdoms.
Famine ravaged and Zhao's national power gradually declined
Although Zhao successfully blocked the iron hooves of Qin for a time with his brave and skilled army and heroic and promising generals, the long-term war still caused heavy trauma to Zhao after all. Since the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, Qin began a long-term attack on Zhao, and decades of war not only consumed a large amount of Zhao's military salaries and resources, but also led to population loss, grain and grass, and national strength declining.
What's more serious is that just when Zhao State fell into the crisis of military overdraft and lack of resources, a sudden natural disaster made it even worse, causing Zhao State to fall into an unprecedented trough of national strength. According to historical records, at that time, there was a drought in the territory of Zhao State for many years, the fields were full of trees for a hundred years, the land was unproductive, and the people were struggling with famine.
As the drought continued, crops in all parts of Zhao were spared, and even trees withered and died. Faced with a severe food shortage, the people of Zhao could only eat chaff to survive, and some poor people held their babies in their arms and sipped the juice of porridge to maintain their lives. This record is enough to see what a severe food shortage crisis Zhao faced at that time.
It can be said that this sudden drought not only plunged the people of Zhao into dire straits, but also completely cut off the food and grass supply of Zhao's army. Because the farmland was barren and the warehouses were empty, it was impossible to provide enough military horses, baggage, grain and grass for tens of thousands of troops, and the combat effectiveness of the Zhao army plummeted. What's more, some civilians of the Zhao State who had lost the fields and homes they relied on for their livelihood simply abandoned their armor and surrendered and joined the camp of the Qin army.
Faced with a severe food shortage, Zhao was no longer able to support a large standing army. All of a sudden, the once brave and good Zhao army was at a loss, morale was low, and the Zhao State, which was suffering from internal and external troubles, was even more defeated and retreated. It can be said that this sudden catastrophe not only cut off the supply of grain and grass to the Zhao army, but also fundamentally shook the economic foundation of Zhao as a military power.
More seriously, however, the drought has also triggered a series of social unrest. Due to the lack of food, there was a large-scale wave of displaced people in various parts of Zhao State, and many Zhao people fled their homes in order to survive, resulting in a large number of homeless victims. These displaced people, who had lost their land and homes, had to wander around in search of food, and even some violent looting took place, further exacerbating the social unrest in Zhao.
This situation of internal and external troubles and chaos undoubtedly made Zhao's national strength worse. It was precisely because of the successive years of drought and the ravages of war that the army and people of Zhao suffered great disasters, and the country's economic foundation and combat effectiveness were severely damaged, which laid a decisive foundation for Qin to eliminate Zhao in one fell swoop.
The Qin State fought in a curve and was carefully deployed
In the face of the powerful Zhao State, the Qin State did not choose to blindly clash head-on, but used exquisite strategic deployment to reduce unnecessary consumption as much as possible. Qin's combat strategy can be described as tortuous and changeable, step by step, interlocking, and finally achieved the goal of eliminating Zhao.
First of all, before the Qin State officially sent troops to Zhao, it preemptively provoked the contradictions between Yan and Zhao, and weakened the Zhao State with the help of the Yan army. At that time, the State of Qin colluded with the State of Yan to provoke the King of Yan to attack Zhao, and took the opportunity to seize the remote Youzhou region of the State of Zhao. It was this strategic layout of the opening that allowed Zhao to lose important frontier points without a direct exchange of fire with the Qin army.
Secondly, when the Qin army directly sent troops to attack Zhao, it did not fight alone, but divided the troops and encircled them, and attacked from the back of the abdomen. On the one hand, Qin sent the main army directly to Handan, the capital of Zhao, and on the other hand, it supported the Yan army to advance to the northern front line of Zhao. In this way, the two Qin armies surrounded the Zhao State and formed a combined encirclement. In the face of this kind of front and back attack, Zhao Guo, who was originally limited in manpower and material resources, naturally fell into a situation of being passively beaten.
Moreover, during the siege of Zhaodu, the Qin army did not fail to adopt some intrigues. For example, the Qin army once let go of King Zhao in an attempt to create civil strife and discord. Although this ruse did not work in the end, it is enough to see that Qin has written many details of its military operations.
The most critical thing is that after the Qin army surrounded Zhao, it cut off all the grain, grass and supply lines of Zhao. As mentioned above, successive years of drought had left Zhao's warehouses empty, and the Qin army had cut off all transportation channels, and Zhao finally fell into the predicament of completely cutting off military rations. In this way, the Zhao army gradually lost the material basis for continuing to resist.
It can be said that it was this series of strategic deployments of the Qin State that put the Zhao State in a passive and disadvantaged situation from the beginning. When Zhao's national strength was weakening and the military rations were cut off, Qin finally took advantage of the weakness to strike while the iron was hot and conquered the Zhao capital Handan in one fell swoop.
Even Wang Jia, who later became the Zhao Dynasty, temporarily led the remnants of the resistance to retreat to the north, but he was ultimately unable to confront the increasingly powerful Qin State in the small base of Daidi. Especially after the Qin army firmly controlled Handan, Daidi was completely cut off from the outside world and became an isolated island.
In the face of the Qin army's strategy of encircling step by step, even if Zhao once relied on its strong cavalry strength to resist, it was ultimately unable to return to the sky. After all, this is no longer a decisive battle that relies on a single tactic, but a protracted and step-by-step strategic contest. In this way, the state of Zhao was finally completely wiped out under the strategic layout of the Qin army, which was linked one ring after another, and dripping water through stones.
The Qin army stormed the Zhao capital, and the Zhao family fell to the end
After a series of strategic layouts and resource depletion, the fate of Zhao finally came to its final demise. Taking advantage of the decline of Zhao's national strength, the Qin army stormed the Zhao capital Handan, and the king of Zhao was captured, and the Zhao state also perished.
In 265 BC, King Zhaoxiang of Qin personally arrived and stationed outside the city of Handan, the capital of Zhao, and personally commanded the army to begin a decisive siege of Handan. Although the city of Handan was strong and the troops were abundant, the Qin army still used all its strengths to exert pressure on the city by virtue of its large number of people, excellent equipment, and sufficient logistics.
First of all, the Qin army first concentrated a large number of men and horses, and adopted the method of building fortresses to encircle Handan, encircling the city layer by layer, cutting off the connection between the inside and outside of the city. The Qin army erected strong fortifications outside Handan City step by step, completely enveloping Handan. It was difficult for the Zhao army to break out of the city by a remote path, the outer positions were cut off, and the contact between inside and outside the city was gradually lost.
Secondly, the Qin army began to take effective measures such as filling the city and digging pools to completely encircle Handan. According to the records of the Qin army, at that time, the Qin army dug a large number of deep ditches and ditches outside the city of Handan, surrounding the city on all sides; At the same time, the Qin army also built a large number of fortifications outside the city with mud and wood and stone, firmly encircling the soon-to-be-conquered capital.
Under such a tight encirclement, the Zhao army naturally had no time to fight back. To make matters worse, the Qin army then began to cut off the water supply inside Handan City, completely isolating all living resources from the outside of the city. When the attack could not be carried out for a long time, the Qin army actually began to dig ditches outside the city, cutting off the water channels inside and outside the city. In this way, the water supply in Handan City was cut off in one fell swoop, and the people in the city suffered from extreme thirst.
Surrounded by an iron bucket array outside the city, the Zhao army and civilians in Handan City then fell into a desperate situation of water shortage and food shortage. The soldiers and civilians in the city could no longer get enough living materials, so they could only wait for the Qin army to completely attack. Under the pressure of this siege force, whether it was the mighty Zhao army or the civilians who held the city, they were gradually unable to support it.
Under the torture of extreme water shortage, King Youmiao of Zhao, the king of Handan City, finally couldn't bear it anymore and decided to go out of the city in person to make peace with the Qin army and ask for surrender. On the way to the peace talks, the Qin army unexpectedly went against the norm and did not abide by the agreement and captured the King of Youmiao. In this way, King Zhao became a prisoner, and Zhao became the heir of the State of Zhao from then on, completely losing the last ability to resist.
Subsequently, the Qin army quickly surrounded the city of Handan and completely encircled and suppressed the Zhao army. After months of perseverance, Handan City was finally completely occupied, and the orthodoxy of the Zhao Dynasty came to an end. And the orphan of the king of Zhao, Gongzi Jia, the son of Wang Yan of Xiangxiang, led the remnants of Zhao to retreat to the north, trying to resist in the end.
This protracted and costly delaying tactic finally allowed the Qin dynasty to eliminate its suspicious neighbor Zhao more than a decade later. The decisive battle between the Qin army and the Zhao army can also be said to be the largest and most powerful battle in the entire Central Plains at that time. However, the victory of all this also depended on the grand strategic layout carefully deployed and step-by-step by the Qin State.
Zhao Zijia finally resisted, and the dynasty was finally destroyed
Although the orthodoxy of Zhao had been completely broken by the Qin army, and the Qin army had captured the Zhao capital Handan, there was still a remnant of Zhao's strength to resist in the northwestern frontier. The remnants of the Zhao army, led by Gongzi Jia, the son of King Mourning Xiang, will eventually experience a desperate struggle to witness the final fall of the once powerful dynasty of Zhao.
Daidi is a base in the northern border of Zhao, located in the north of the Yellow River, backed by the desert, although the geographical location is remote, but it is an important military base of Zhao in Hebei. In 262 BC, after the fall of Handan, Prince Jia led the remaining elite troops of Zhao to retreat to Daidi, trying to extend the remnants of the royal family and revitalize the royal family here.
However, Gongzijia soon discovers that the environment in Daidi is extremely harsh. This former border town, even in the heyday of the Zhao Dynasty, was far from being able to receive the full attention and supply of materials from the Zhao Dynasty. All the more so in a situation where the dynasty has collapsed and is unable to provide sufficient baggage. As a result, the Zhao army led by Gongzi Jia could not obtain enough food and grass in Daidi, and the soldiers began to fall into starvation.
In such a difficult environment, the resistance of the Zhao army was weakening day by day, and the combat effectiveness was gradually declining. At this time, the Qin army had successfully captured Handan, the capital of Zhao, and immediately sent a large army to crusade against the remnants of Gongzi Jiazaidai. In 260 BC, the Qin army smashed Huanglong and besieged Daidi. Under the double pressure of force and grain and grass, although Gongzijia made several desperate attempts to break through the encirclement, he failed.
The loss of the land is a foregone conclusion. Gongzijia eventually had to surrender to the Qin army, capturing all his royal clan and the remaining Zhao army. In this way, the last resistance force of the once powerful Zhao State was completely collapsed. The Battle of Daidi marked the complete downfall of the Zhao State, and this powerful country that had fought against the Qin State completely faded out of the historical stage.
Although the fall of Zhao was a foregone conclusion, the last resistance of Gongzi Jiahe and his Zhao army was still singable. As early as the beginning of the retreat, the Zhao army had already fallen into a serious food shortage, and the soldiers could only eat the bark of trees to satisfy their hunger. And when the Qin army completely surrounded Daidi, the Zhao army was in a desperate situation.
But even so, Gongzi Jia and his people still persevered and resisted stubbornly in the midst of hunger and cold. It wasn't until the end that Gongzi Jia had to hold on to the last chance of life and try to break through the encirclement.
Gongzijia personally led the rest of the army, and saw the opportunity to break through the encirclement from the Jiuyuan area to the north, trying to break out of the encirclement of the Qin army and escape to the secret passage leading to the frontier by land. Unfortunately, the Qin army had already been tightly surrounded, and the Zhao army was eventually encircled. In this way, the last breakthrough and the dream of recovering the country of Gongzi Jia and his subordinate Zhao Jun could not escape the fate of defeat after all.
In such a difficult environment, Gongzi Jia and Zhao Jun were finally forced to take prisoners, and the Zhao State was completely destroyed. But as the family story of King Zhao Zhao to open the Zhao dynasty is said, the ancestors of Zhao also fled alone to survive. Now Gongzi Jia once wanted to follow the example of his ancestors and revitalize the Zhao family, but after all, he couldn't resist the powerful power of the Qin State and stopped there.