In 260 BC, the Battle of Changping ended, and 400,000 soldiers of the Zhao State were killed. At that time, King Chu Kaolie had just succeeded to the throne for 3 years, and the outcome of the Battle of Changping shocked the court of the Chu State, and the Chunshen Jun Huang Xie, the Chu general Xiang Yan and others all advised The King of Chu Kaolie to prepare for war with the Qin State early, and the King of Chu Kao Lie did not think so. Because for King Chu Kaolie, the relationship between the Chu state and the Zhao state has long been broken, and the chu state and the qin state are an alliance relationship, and the qin state is victorious over the Zhao state, but it is a good thing. Later, it turned out that this view of King Chu Kao Lie was a great fallacy!
King Chu Kaolie, surnamed Xiong, was known as "Xiong Guan", and was the son of King Xiang of Chu. At that time, the alliance between the Chu state and the qin state actually had a certain relationship with Xiong Quan.
In 278 BC, the State of Qin attacked the State of Chu, even several cities, all the way to the capital of the State of Chu, Yanying, and King Xiang of Chu was forced to move the capital, and six years later, out of fear that the State of Qin would attack the State of Chu again, King Xiang of Chu sent Huang Xie (Chun Shenjun) to the State of Qin to negotiate peace, and Huang Xie said to The King of Qin Zhaoxiang:
"The State of Qin and the State of Chu are both great powers, and if they really fight, they will inevitably lose both, and Han Zhao Wei and others will surely gain profits, so it is better to join forces with Qin and Chu and then attack other countries together."
King Zhaoxiang of Qin felt that Huang Xie was right, but if he wanted to make an alliance between the two countries, King Zhaoxiang of Qin proposed a condition: the State of Chu sent the crown prince to the State of Qin as a hostage. King Xiang of Chu considered it again and again and agreed to this request, so that year, Huang Xie accompanied Crown Prince Xiong Quan to the Qin Kingdom, and Xiong Quan began a hostage career of up to 10 years.
That is to say, when Xiong Quan, the king of Chu Kaolie, was crown prince, he had lived in the Qin state for 10 years, and during his hostage-taking of the Qin state, he deeply realized the strength of the Qin state. After 10 years, King Xiang of Chu was seriously ill, and King Zhaoxiang of Qin did not intend to let Xiong Quan return to China, however, Huang Xie used the strategy of stealing beams for pillars to help Xiong Quan return to Chu and inherit the throne, for King Chu Kao Lie. After Huang Xie returned to the Qin kingdom, King Chu Kaolie appointed Huang Xie as Ling Yin and fengchun Shenjun.
At that time, the four princes of the Warring States were together, corporal Chunshen Junlixian, barely maintaining the "stability" of the Chu state, while the king of Chu Kaolie did not want to forge ahead, indulging in song and dance all day, coupled with the calculations of the three clans of Qu Jingzhao, the Chu state was actually a strong foreign power. Three years later, the Battle of Changping ended, and the world was in an uproar, but King Chu Kaolie was unmoved, and did not feel the crisis behind him at all. It was not until another three years later, when the Battle of Handan reached its most critical moment, that the Chu state was involved.
Originally, after the Battle of Changping, King Zhaoxiang of Qin sent Wang Ling to attack Handan, Wang Ling could not be attacked for a long time, the State of Qin sent Wang Gong to continue to attack, the military and people of the State of Zhao paid a huge sacrifice in order to defend Handan, and the war reached the most urgent moment, King Zhao Xiaocheng sent King Zhao Sheng of the Plains to send an envoy to the State of Chu and asked King Chu Kaolie to send troops to assist the State of Zhao.
PingYuanjun said, "King of Chu, I implore you to send troops to aid Zhao!" ”
King Chu Kao Lie replied, "The widows don't want to fight with the Qin State!" ”
Pingyuan Jun also said: "The heart of the tiger and wolf of the Qin Kingdom, if Qin destroys Zhao, the six kingdoms of Shandong will not be protected, and the lips and teeth will be cold!" ”
No matter what Pingyuan Jun said, King Chu Kaolie said just such a sentence.
"History" Cloud:
Pingyuan Jun and Chu joined hands, saying what was at stake, and as far as the sunrise was concerned, the sun was indecisive.
The two talked from sunrise to mid-day, and King Chu Kao Lie was reluctant to send troops.
There were two reasons why King Chu Kaolie did not send troops: First, he and the State of Qin were allies, and if they violated the covenant, the State of Qin would inevitably attack the State of Chu. Second, he stayed in the Qin State for 10 years, and he knew the strength of the Qin State very well, and if the Qin State really fought the Chu State, the Chu State would only suffer losses.
At this time, Mao Sui, a disciple of the Plain King, could not hold back, and he raised his sword and said to King Chu Kao Lie:
"With the strength of Chu, the world can be the best." Bai Qi, a small shaft ear, led tens of thousands of people, xingshi to fight against Chu, one battle and raise Yan Yin, another battle and burn Yiling, three wars and insult the king's ancestors. This hundred generations of resentment and Zhao's shame, and Wang Fu knows evil. The one who joins the subordinate is Chu, not Zhao Ye. ”
Mao Sui's words shook out in public how the Chu State was defeated by the State of Qin, how it moved the capital in a bad way, and how it insulted the ancestors, and the King of Chu Kaolie seemed to have been stripped of his clothes, both angry and ashamed, and in the end, the King of Chu Kaolie decided to be tough and agreed to send troops to resist Qin.
Later, Wei Wuji led the Wei army to the same place through "stealing the charm to save Zhao", and the three kingdoms of Zhao, Wei, and Chu joined forces to defend Handan, and the Qin general Wang Gong was defeated, relieving the danger of the Zhao state destroying the country.
Although the State of Qin suffered a defeat in Handan, the ambition of "going out of the east" did not change, and in 256 BC, King Zhaoxiang of Qin destroyed the State of Western Zhou, and King Zhou Zhao, the Son of Zhou, who lived in the State of Western Zhou, was captured and killed, and the Jiuding, a symbol of royal power, was also taken away by the State of Qin. Seven years later, King Xiang of Qin zhuang succeeded to the throne, and Lü Buwei led his troops to attack and destroy the Eastern Zhou state, and the shandong countries, fearing the qin state, persuaded the chu state to organize everyone to "join forces" to resist Qin. It was not until 242 AD that King Xiang of Zhao sent emissaries to contact the countries again, and King Chu Kaolie, under the joint persuasion of the envoys of the State of Zhao, Chun Shenjun and Qu Jingzhao, decided to straighten his waist again and unite the states against Qin. This was the last time in his life that King Chu Kaolie had cut down Qin, however, he was actually reluctant, and before the army set out, King Chu Kaolie also instructed Chun Shenjun to preserve his strength and not to fight his family foundation.
This time, King Chu Kaolie made Chunshen Jun Huang Xie the commander of the joint column, with the veteran general Pang Yan of the Zhao State as the general, and the troops of the five kingdoms of Chu, Han, Wei, Zhao, and Yan to attack Qin, and the coalition forces once attacked Hangu Pass, but in the end they were defeated. After king Chu Kaolie saw the battle report, he sighed a long time, and from then on, he never mentioned the matter of resisting Qin again, it can be said that from then on, King Chu Kaolie was completely "instigated", and if anyone mentioned the matter of indulgence again, he only pretended not to hear it. When the State of Qin sent troops to attack, King Chu Kaolie even moved the capital to Shouchun, unwilling to confront the Qin army.
In 238 BC, King Chu Kaolie fell seriously ill, and during his illness, he still did not want to mention the matter of resisting Qin, and after the death of King Chu Kaolie, his son Xiong Hun succeeded to the throne as King You of Chu. (Author's note: Many history books, including the "Records of History", are suspicious of the son of Xiong Hunchun Shenjun, the king of Chuyou, and this topic is not discussed in this article.) ）
King Xiong Hun of Chu reigned for 10 years, his uncle Li Yuan controlled the government, and while attacking the State of Zhao, the State of Qin sent the general Xin Wu to attack the State of Chu and the State of Wei, and the King of Chu You was powerless to resist, blindly sacrificing the city to compromise, and like his father, he instigated one.
King Chu You was childless, and after his death, his half-brother Xiong Yu succeeded to the throne as king of Chu, who had only been the king of Chu for two months, and was killed by his half-brother, Negative Jiao, who ascended to the throne and immediately killed the entire Li Yuan clan.
In the second year of the Chu King's defeat, the Qin king Wei sent Li Xin and Meng Tian to lead an army of 200,000 Chu, and the Chu state lost more than 10 cities in a row, but fortunately, the famous Chu general Xiang Yan supported him and defeated Li Xin and Meng Tian. However, soon after, Yin Zheng sent the generals Wang Qi and Meng Wu to lead a 600,000-strong army to cut down Chu, and Xiang Yan led the Chu soldiers and civilians to stubbornly resist for more than a year, because the gap between the two countries' national strength was too large, the Chu state was short of grain and grass, coupled with the people's dissatisfaction in the Chu state, Xiang Yan was eventually defeated, and Wang Qi captured the Chu king.
According to the Records of History, after the Chu king was captured, Xiang Yan supported Xiong Qi, the king of Changping, as the last king of Chu (the "Records of History" believes that Changping Jun Xiong Qi was another son of King Chu Kaolie). Unfortunately, Xiang Yan was once again defeated, Changping Jun committed suicide, and all 4 sons of King Chu Kaolie died.
As Mao Sui said: "Five thousand miles in the land of present Chu, holding a million halberds, the capital of this overlord is also." "At the end of the Warring States period, the Chu state was vast and numerous, and if we talk about population and national strength, it was the country that was most likely to compete with the Qin state, and there were corporals Of the Chunshen Junlixian who recruited talents, and the Chu state could be said to have taken advantage of the time and place, however, the king of Chu Kaolie did not want to forge ahead, instigated a lifetime, and was only forced to resist Qin twice. His 4 sons all served as kings of Chu, and all ended in tragedy.
The author believes that there are three reasons for the defeat of the Chu state: first, the enemy is too strong; second, the king does not enter; third, the Chu people are not united internally. Among them, the second article accounted for the main reason.
Su Xun said in the "Theory of the Six Kingdoms":
"If the wizards of the world are worshipped and forced to the west, then I am afraid that the Qin people will not be able to swallow it."
If King Chu Kaolie could unite the nobles in the country internally, and could work together with the other four kingdoms of Shandong externally, and force them to the west, could the Chu state be protected? Can the Five Kingdoms Be Protected?