According to the records of the historian, the war between Qin and zhaochangping at the end of the Warring States period was the most famous war in Chinese history. As a result of the war, the state of Zhao was defeated and 400000 soldiers were “killed by the Qin army”. From the records of this matter in various ancient books, it should not be fictitious, but a real historical event. Some people think that “400000” is the error of “140000”, but the academic circle takes 400000 as the saying. This “pit killing” has always been understood as: burying alive. Because of this, the battle of Changping was even bloodier. However, it is extremely unreasonable to study this matter carefully and say that it is buried alive.
It is a great event to “kill” Zhao’s 400, 000 people. Many ancient books have recorded this event, and the descriptions are similar. “Historical records: biographies of Lin Xiangru in Lianpo”: “when Kuo’s army was defeated, hundreds of thousands of people came to Qin, and Qin all died. 450000 people died before and after Zhao.”
“Historical records: biographies of Wang Jian from Baiqi”: “Kuo’s army was defeated, and 400000 people died and were demoted to King Wu’an. King Wu’an planned to say: ‘the former Qin Dynasty has been removed from the party, and the people of the party are not happy to return to Zhao for Qin. Zhao’s soldiers repeatedly killed them. They did not kill them all, but feared chaos.” they killed them all by blackmail, leaving 240 of them to return to Zhao. They beheaded and captured 450000 people before and after. Zhao was shocked. “
After Bai Qi, there was another big “pit kill”, that is, Xiang Yu “pit kill” the Qin army.
Historical records – Xiangyu Benji: “Zhang Han made people see Xiang Yu and wanted to make an appointment. Xiang Yu summoned the military officials to make a plan and said, ‘there is little food, so I want to listen to his agreement.’ all the military officials said, ‘good.’ Xiang Yu was on the south side of the Huan river. After an alliance, Zhang Han saw Xiang Yu and shed tears, saying that Zhao was high. Xiang Yu made Zhang Han king of Yong and placed him in the Chu army. He made Chang Shixin the supreme general and led the Qin army forward. When he arrived in Xin’an, the officials and soldiers of various princes were stationed in the middle of Qin at different times. There were many officials and soldiers in the middle of Qin, and the Qin army was demoralized Marquis, the officials and soldiers of the Marquis took advantage of the victory of many slaves and made them humiliate the officials and soldiers of Qin lightly. Qin officials and soldiers often said: “General Zhang and others cheated me of being subordinated to princes. Now they can enter the pass and break through Qin, which is a great kindness; That is to say, if you can’t, the princes will seize my family and go east. Qin will do everything possible to kill my parents and wife. ” The generals heard his plan and told Xiang Yu. Xiangyu summoned qingbu and Pu generals to plan and said: “the Qin officials and soldiers are not satisfied with the public. If they don’t listen to the central pass, things will be in danger. It’s better to kill them. Instead, they joined Zhang Han, Chang Shixin and duweiyi in Qin.” So the Chu army attacked more than 200000 people in the south of Xin’an city at night. “
Another pit kill, another 200000 people.
In a war, as long as conditions permit, the dead of either side must be buried. In addition to moral factors, the main purpose is to prevent plague. Burying alive is another matter. The method of burying people alive has existed in all dynasties. During the war of resistance against Japan, Japanese devils often killed Chinese Anti Japanese soldiers and civilians by burying them alive. Most people are not buried alive by digging a big hole, but by burying people in the soil with their heads exposed. Whether in the cold weapon era or in modern times, living burial is the most troublesome way of execution, but living burial has the most deterrent effect and the greatest psychological impact on people. So the history has been buried alive.
Burying alive is a means of deterrence. It is usually for the enemy to see, and it is often not hidden when dealing with it. After the “pit killing” in the battle of Changping, “240 people left behind were returned to Zhao”. Zhao’s army was basically killed, and its deterrent effect was no different from that of general beheading. If the effect were the same, it would be unnecessary for the exhausted Qin army to bury the Zhao people alive.
The more primitive the weapons are, the smaller the difference between soldiers and civilians, and the smaller the difference between armed and unarmed. In an age when there were only cold weapons, the gap between branches, stones and swords was far from that between branches, stones and machine guns. 400000 people knew that they were going to be buried alive, knew that they would die, and moved their fists and feet to handle stones and branches. Every 100000 or 80000 people were unable to resist. Besides, if we bury 400000 living people, it will be difficult for us to bury them alone. Besides, it is very difficult for us to bury 400000 soldiers who have died. It is not easy to tie up 400000 people? When burying people, they had to lay down their weapons, pick up their shovels and fill them down one by one. After burying this and coming up, 400000 people started to make trouble, but it was a terrible thing. Why did general Bai Qi do such a stupid thing? Wouldn’t it be more foolish for Xiangyu to dig a hole and bury people in the middle of the night?
Zhou Zuoren said in the miscellaneous notes of bitter bamboo that “it’s not very similar to digging a very big pit, pushing 200000 or 400000 people down and covering them with earth. Just as Lin Zhiyang in the” flower in the mirror “often said,” the pit will kill me. “.
The “pit” of “pit killing” is “kan” in the historical records. “Shuowen” has “kan” but no “pit”, which explains: “Kan, the door is also. From Fu, the sound is loud.” Xuxuan said, “it’s not true that this custom is a pit.” It can be seen that “kan” is first followed by “pit”, which is not a word at all. “Yu Pian”: “Kan, sink also “Kan” is explained in the source of CI: “the pit was sunk and killed. Historical records of the first emperor of Qin: in Handan, the king of Qin, there were all kinds of resentments against Wang Sheng and Zhao Shi’s mother’s family It can be seen that “pit killing” is sometimes buried alive and sometimes “killed”.
From the perspective of several large-scale “pit killings”, the battle of Changping was “killing by blackmail” and Xiang Yu was “night attack”. “Deceiving the pit to kill Qin soldiers” and “blackmailing” are the use of deception and disgraceful military means.
The correct solution of the “pit killing” in the Changping war should be killing by deception.
Bai Qi said, “the Shangdang people are not happy to return to Zhao for the sake of Qin. Zhao’s soldiers repeat. If they do not kill them all, they will be afraid of chaos.” The 400000 people killed should include a large number of Shangdang people.
Because it was a bad move, the “pit killing” put great psychological pressure on Bai Qi, a military strategist. Bai Qi said on his deathbed: “I should die. In the battle of Changping, hundreds of thousands of Zhao’s soldiers fell. I cheated and killed them. It was enough to die.” If it’s just a general killing, Bai Qi won’t feel ashamed. He is ashamed of “fraud”.
What kind of “deception” Baiqi used to entrap people is not recorded. It is estimated that it is to release a lie, take advantage of people’s unprepared, and kill them into the barracks of the Zhao army.
However, later generations often say that Zhaojun in Changping was buried alive for 400000 yuan, which is more exciting.