Author: Xusheng source: Xusheng (official account id:lxlong20) has been reproduced with authorization
——As the story goes
Say a few more words about Wuqi.
In terms of the concept of general, he is an excellent general who can attack the enemy. Cherish soldiers and soldiers, and once sucked pus and blood for soldiers.
From the concept of commander, he can take command of the central army.
From the perspective of a famous general, his performance on the battlefield is no worse than anyone else, and he can compete with Bai Qi, Li Mu and others.
From the concept of militarist, he left behind the art of war and was called “Sunwu” together with Sunwu.
From the perspective of political reform, he can compare with Shang Yang.
This man’s comprehensive quality can be said to be very high, and he was absolutely strong in any place in the jungle age. But in history, his evaluation is not high, and he is often splashed with dirty water. There are actually two reasons:
He kills his wife and worships his generals, is ruthless, conflicts with the moral and ethical concepts, and suffers from private morality. Generally speaking, talent is too outstanding, but virtue is not matched. So it became a natural object for monarchs and hypocrites to splash dirty water.
Another factor is that his IQ is very high and talented, but his EQ seems not to keep up. In the state of Lu, he was questioned for slander by villains and went to the state of Wei. He made great contributions in the state of Wei, but was slandered by villains and forced to leave the state of Chu. In the state of Chu, he died at the hands of villains. He was very cowardly. Its foundation is not solid and it has not been brought into full play. The life of Wuqi, the life of a mercenary. Everyone regarded him as a powerful tool without full trust. Of course, this is also a part of the eastern cultural tradition. We can share weal and woe, not wealth and honor. Later, it developed into the strategy of Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang against the founding fathers, that is, the strategy of Yongzheng against niangengyao and others. It was said to be an emperor’s skill and inscrutable. In fact, it was just arbitrary without the spirit of contract.
Looking back at the state of Wei, it worked hard at the early stage, but did not pursue it when it was able, and its strategic appeal was not strong. At that time, Wuqi had a decisive advantage over Qin in the war, but Wei did not have a strategic plan to destroy Qin and seize Guanzhong, let alone to unify the world. So the strong army of the state of Wei became a game of making enemies on all sides. The state of Wei attacked the surrounding Qin, Zhao, Han, Qi and Chu. It was originally a four battle field, and then made enemies on all sides, and there was no plan to destroy the enemy. The result can be imagined.
Not only that, the state of Wei got behind, but because of internal struggle, Wu Qi was forced to leave the state of Chu, and Wu Zu lost his soul. Of course, on the other hand, Wei Dang’s family was deeply afraid of Wu Qi’s ruthlessness. They only treated Wu Qi as a mercenary, not a pillar, and did not give him absolute trust.
After Wu Qi left, Wu Zu lost his soul, but his combat power was still there. During the reign of King Hui of Wei (the grandson of marquis Wen and the son of marquis Wu), pangjuan (I don’t know his birthday, but the time of his death is very clear, 341 B.C.) was put in a position of great importance, and Wu Zu reflected on him. Throughout the history of the state of Wei, apart from Wu Qi, only pangjuan could touch with famous generals.
Pangjuan’s nature is the same as that of Wuqi. She is ruthless and has the character of a soldier in charge, which is specifically manifested in her cruelty to her old classmate Sun Bin. Pangjuan’s teacher is Guiguzi, who has been a dragon for thousands of years. No one can tell what Guiguzi is like, but we all know that he is very divine. He can be called the father of strategists and the master of conspiracy. It is said that pangjuan, Sun Bin, Suqin and Zhang Yi are all students of Guiguzi. In fact, this is a bit ridiculous. The four people are not in the same era at all. However, his book “Guiguzi” is one that no one dares to despise. It is useful in battlefields, shopping malls and officialdom, as is the case in the whole Oriental Chinese civilization circle.
Taking ghost Valley as a teacher, pangjuan is ready to serve as a general when he comes out of the mountain (for example, he is the head of a large company after graduating from a famous university). Pangjuan has a very high starting point, which is better than Wuqi; But his talent and breadth of mind can not compare with Wu Qi. Pangjuan felt that Sun Bin’s talent was superior to his own. Fearing that he would become a threat to him in the future, she tried to trick Sun Bin into the state of Wei. Pangjuan was contradictory to Sun Bin. He had hoped that Sun Bin would be used by him, but he was worried that he could not control it. In addition, he was jealous, so he fabricated accusations and cut off Sun Bin’s feet. When an envoy of the state of Qi was sent to Daliang, the capital of the state of Wei, Sun Bin secretly paid a visit to the envoy of Qi as a prisoner and persuaded him to secretly bring himself to the state of Qi and live under Tian Ji as a disciple. If pangjuan’s pattern is high, learning from baoshuya to Guanzhong, and learning from Wuzixu to recommend Sun Wu, the fate of Wei is different. If Sun Bin commanded Wei Wuzu, what would be the effect?
The core of the history of Wei and Qi during the Warring States period was the gratitude and hatred of the two martial brothers. However, historical facts have proved that pangjuan is indeed inferior to Sun Bin. In 354 BC, Zhao attacked Wei’s allies; Wei intervened and pangjuan led his troops to surround Handan, the capital of Zhao. Zhao could not carry Wei Wuzu and asked for help. Han is weak and incompetent; He appealed to Qi and Chu for help in 355 BC. Qi decided to send troops to help. However, the soldiers under the command of pangjuan were powerful and directly attacked Handan. Sun Bin suggested directly attacking the largest city of the Wei Dynasty (now Kaifeng, the capital of the state of Wei was still in Anyi at that time) to encircle Wei and save Zhao. Pangjuan learned the news, threw away the food, grass and baggage, and withdrew from Zhao Xingye to return home. Sun Bin set up an ambush in advance at gualing (now the northwest of Changyuan, Henan Province), which was the only place for the Wei army to return home. When Pang CuO passed by with the exhausted Wei army after a long journey, he was suddenly attacked by the Qi army and was defeated. Weiwuzu suffered heavy losses.
After that, Zhao recovered Handan. King zhaowuling, who succeeded to the throne, was deeply humiliated, so he promoted the reform of “Hufu riding and shooting” and created a large-scale application of cavalry in the field of farming. Zhao bianqi is famous all over the world.
The first time he was defeated by Sun Bin, pangjuan was unconvinced and waited for an opportunity for revenge. Ten years later, in 342, King Wei Hui took pangjuan as the general to attack South Korea on a large scale. The weak South Korea learned from the state of Zhao and asked Qi for help. Qi then took Sun Bin as general. Sun Bin used the same old technique to encircle Wei and save Han. Sun Bin commanded the Qi army. After a series of delicate operations, he set up an ambush in Maling. Pangjuan fell into a trap again, fell into a encirclement, and was defeated. He himself was also shot and died.
Sun Bin’s great revenge was avenged, and his military career came to an end. Instead, he wrote a book, Sun Bin’s art of war.
Sun Bin used the word “strange and dangerous”, just like his life experience. Sun Bin’s art of war is also famous for its extraordinary risks. Among the later Oriental generals, only Huo Qubing, Su Yu and a few other generals inherited and carried forward this style within the scope of agricultural civilization; In the nomadic civilization, many commanders in Mongolia and the Manchu and Qing dynasties used more troops.
Pangjuan was defeated, and Wei Wu’s death hurt his muscles and bones. The dividends left by the state of Wei through Li Wei’s reform and Wuqi’s military training disappeared. However, Wu Zu was eventually sent into history by Qin Ruishi.
Let me tell you an interesting story. Today, the map of Shaanxi province looks like a kneeling and shooting Figurine!
Bashan and Qinling mountains divide Shaanxi into three regions: the northern part is the hilly and gully region of the Loess Plateau, which is very similar to the head of the terracotta warriors; In the middle is the Guanzhong Plain, which looks like the waist of the terracotta warriors; In the south is the Qinling Bashan mountains, just like the legs of the terracotta warriors, the outline drawn from north to South reflects a kneeling figurine. This is of course a coincidence, but it is also like a revelation left by the great Qin Ruishi to future generations.
How did the great Qin Ruishi become
It is said that Qin was shocked by the defeat of Wei Zhiwu’s new infantry tactics.
You should know that the process of the ancestors of the old Qin family accumulating their family property was to fight against heaven and people, and to start and make a fortune by relying on their fighting power. For hundreds of years, I have never experienced such humiliation. At the beginning of the Warring States period, he was beaten down by Wuqi. Qin knew his shame and then became brave. So he studied the reform of Wei and Chu and worked hard to become strong.
Shang Yang’s reform absorbed the incompleteness and discontinuity of Li Li and Wu Qi’s reform, and made greater efforts. The political reform itself is highly controversial. For example, the tactics of the foolish and weak people are simply a disaster; But there is only one essence: to enrich the country and strengthen the army.
In the Warring States period, there were four famous services: Qi Jishi, Wei Wuzu, Qin Ruishi and Zhao bianqi.
Qi attack took shape in the spring and Autumn period. Duke Zhuang of Qi created the recruitment system of martial arts, and then recruited a group of warriors to train them in unarmed fighting, wrestling, swimming, horsemanship, swordsmanship, archery and various enemy killing skills, and then let them get the corresponding titles by fighting against the enemy. These soldiers have strong individual combat ability and many combat skills, so they are called “technical attack”.
A skilled attacker is as swift as a cone and arrow, and as swift as thunder and lightning! Duke Huan and Guan Zhong of Qi dominated the spring and Autumn period through skilled fighters. However, Qi’s attack on warriors was the play of the spring and Autumn period. In the Warring States period, the shortcoming that attack soldiers could not fight in large-scale regiments was magnified. Therefore, Xunzi said in Xunzi Yi Bing that “Qi’s martial arts cannot meet Wei’s soldiers, and Wei’s soldiers cannot meet Qin’s sharp scholars.”
How did the sharp scholars of the great Qin Dynasty defeat the Wei Wuzu? In fact, it is based on weiwuzu and Qi’s skills.
First of all, in terms of system, the people of Qin Dynasty established twenty level military meritorious knights. From low to high, they were as follows: “1 Gongshi, 2 shangzao, 3 zandiao, 4 Buchang, 5 doctors, 6 Official doctors, 7 Gongdui, 8 Gongcheng, 9 wudui, 10 Zuo Shuchang, 11 youshuchang, 12 Zuo Geng, 13 Zhonggeng, 14 yougeng, 15 Shao shangzao, 16 shangzao, 17 Siche, 18 dashuchang, 19 Guannei Marquis and 20 Che Marquis”. If it is not easy to understand, you can refer to the civil servant level system or the salary system of Huawei, Alibaba and other large enterprises.
The Qin army strictly implemented this system. Regardless of their origins, regardless of their military exploits, they were rewarded with rewards. In terms of punishment, Qin also formulated harsh laws, such as the implementation of the “sitting law”, which tied the soldiers of the Qin army to the same combat unit. Under such circumstances, there is only one way to improve life and social status of oneself and family: go to the battlefield and cut off their heads.
Under the military regulations of the Qin people, their life became——
Only Yan Ruyu is on the battlefield
Only the golden house in the battlefield
There is only a thousand millet in the battlefield
The road to promotion and wealth is clear: go to the battlefield and cut off people’s heads. Because of the fair practice and open operation, children and old people are not deceived, and finally carry forward. Of course, if we have systems, we need someone to turn them into actual combat capabilities. How to train Qin infantry against Wei Wuzu? This task fell to Sima Cuo.
Sima CuO is said to be the ancestor of Sima Qian. Of course, he is not engaged in history, but in politics and military affairs. Like Wang Jian and Zhao Gao, his date of birth and death is unknown. He was called a famous general of the state of Qin in history books. In fact, he was more like a famous official. He did two main things. The first was to have an argument with Zhang Yi. Zhang Yi asked king Qinhui to attack South Korea first, while Sima CuO advocated to attack Shu first. Although Zhang Yi has sharp teeth and can say white is black and peanuts is cherry, she never said Sima Cuo. Attacking Shu was equivalent to taking Sichuan Basin and providing Qin with a secure rear area. This was a decisive step in the history of Qin.
The second thing Sima CuO did was to be appointed as the supreme general by King Huiwen. Based on the model of Wei Wuzu, Sima CuO formed the sharp scholars of the Qin Empire. The requirement of Wei Wuzu was that the soldiers should have three layers of armor, wear steel helmets, hold a spear, carry 20 long arrows and a hard iron bow, carry three days’ rations, carry more than 50 kilograms, and gallop for a hundred miles—— It’s already very abnormal. Sima CuO put forward more abnormal requirements for the sharp men. On the basis of the soldiers, he added full armor, a wide body short sword, a fine iron dagger and a leather shield, with a total weight of more than 80 kg. Why do you abuse yourself so badly? Because the humiliation of Wei Wu’s death to the Qin people was too shocking. Qin people can’t sleep without surpassing.
It is precisely because of such perversity that only 1600 of the 200000 new soldiers were selected. The establishment of Ruishi is similar to that of Wuzu, with thousands of people as the basic combat units. This can also explain why the first thousand people grew up to kill God. Because the commander of a thousand people is the real king of the Qin army. He cut his head step by step on the battlefield to accumulate military achievements.
Of course, on a large-scale battlefield, although the quality of individual soldiers is crucial; But what is more decisive is how to cooperate. A group of uncooperative lions may not be better than a group of cooperative dogs. The basic routine of military cooperation: military array, weapon system and logistics equipment.
After the reform, the Qin army, mainly composed of infantry, chariots and cavalry, formed a distinctive military array of the Qin people——
In front of us are infantry with bows and crossbows and arrow bags.
After the infantry, there are chariots and soldiers: one chariot, three soldiers, eight infantry, one grass-roots unit, six chariots as a group, and eighteen chariots plus one command vehicle as a team. Soldiers hold various long weapons to form a close combat unit.
The two wings are crossbow soldiers and cavalry: four cavalry groups, three groups and one column, nine columns and 108 cavalry groups. This kind of organization is similar to “five cavalry and one commander, ten cavalry and one official, 100 cavalry and one rate, and 200 cavalry and one general” in “six Taos · Jun Bing”.
The guards are also crossbow soldiers. The bows and crossbows unearthed from the Terra Cotta Warriors come in two sizes: the small ones have a range of 150 meters and the large ones have a range of more than 800 meters. They were the standard weapons with the longest range in the world at that time.
There is an interesting assumption. What would happen if the top Qin Ruishi met Alexander’s Macedonian phalanx or the Roman Legion? Of course, there is something about Guan Gong and Qin Qiong, which may be controversial in comparison, but there is no doubt that on the battlefield, the crossbow coverage radius of Qin army is larger than that of Macedonian phalanx or Roman Legion.
All arms of the Qin army are equipped with a large number of bows, crossbows and arrows. In the large-scale No. 1 pit, the infantry “carry arrow sheaths and hold bows”; There is a special line of crossbow soldiers in the No. 2 pit. The image of the terracotta cavalry figures is “holding a horse in one hand and lifting a bow in the other”. This shows that the bow, crossbow and arrow are one of the most important weapons of the Qin army.
Such an army array can be attacked and defended.
When the enemy is still far away, the bowmen can shoot arrows to kill and injure the enemy soldiers; In particular, the crossbow is well made, with a long range and strong penetration. Its effective killing range is 150 meters; When the enemy is approaching, the Qin army’s chariots armed with various long weapons can rush into the enemy’s array and cause casualties.
The greater advantage of the Qin army is that its weapons and equipment are highly standardized. What makes the Qin army great is that the same kind of parts of weapons and equipment can be exchanged. Before the arrival of industrial civilization, this was a very awesome thing. According to the development of productive forces, iron ware is a sign of the maturity of agricultural civilization. Iron ware was used in the six Eastern countries, and bronze ware was used in the Qin army. However, when casting weapons with bronze, the Qin people had a good grasp of the proportion of copper and other elements, and forged weapons with both hardness and toughness.
Take swords for example. The swords of the spring and Autumn period were generally about 30 cm long, and developed to 60 to 70 cm in the Warring States period. The three Qin swords unearthed were 81, 89 and 91.3 cm respectively. It was found that Qin Jian was made of copper tin alloy, with copper accounting for 76.39% and tin accounting for 21.38%, and 13 other trace elements, equivalent to the hardness of medium carbon steel after quenching and tempering.
The surface of the sword body has been treated with chromium salt oxidation. It is still shining after being buried underground for more than 2000 years. It shows that although Qin weapons are bronze, their quality is not poor. Moreover, the bronze technology is mature, and the quality control can be well controlled. Finally, the Qin state, which used bronze weapons, unified the six iron States, which was a remarkable achievement. Qin weapons show that the best technology (iron weapons) is not necessarily the best, but the most suitable weapon system is the best.
One of the biggest advantages of the Qin army lies in the establishment of the system of “farming and warfare” after Shang Yang’s reform. What do you mean? It is to recruit soldiers by counties. In the state of Qin in normal times, a 17-year-old man had to register with the government. After registration, he had to serve in the military for two years from the age of 23, one year in the county, and one year in the capital or border areas. For wartime emergencies, adult men aged 15 to 60 are all recruited. Not only the poor, but even slaves and criminals will be sent to the battlefield. This system made Qin people both military and people, which was equivalent to turning Qin society into two frontlines: farming and fighting. In modern terms, Shang Yang’s reform turned Qin into a militarism of agricultural civilization. Under such a system, the Qin people’s mobilization ability and war bearing ability were far better than those of other countries.
Such a system, such a Qin army, is the basis for the performance of the great Qin generals. Bai Qi, Wang Jian, Wang Ben and others, therefore, can show their skills and be invincible. The king of Qin conquered the world with such a system, such a Qin army and such a famous general.
The myth of the industry, killing God in vain
How powerful are the Qin people in fighting? At any level, you can go to the battlefield if you pull it out.
In 341 BC, after Shang Yang’s reform, the strength of Qin was strengthened. Shang Yang led the new army of Qin to attack Hexi (the territory where Wuqi was the prefect) of Wei. After a series of plans, the Qin army defeated the Wei army, and the land of Hexi was occupied by the Qin state. At that time, the foundation established by Wuqi in the state of Wei was destroyed by Shang Yang. Of course, for Shang Yang, occasionally going to the battlefield was only a sideline, and his main business was still running the country. The cutting of heads on the battlefield is mainly left to the famous generals.
Although Sima CuO was a famous official, he was not ambiguous when he went to the battlefield. He once commanded the Qin army to defeat the Allied forces of the six countries. Looking at the system of the state of Qin, under the king of Qin, Shang Yang, the country planner, could go to the battlefield; Sima Cuo, who is in a high position, can go to war. As for the front-line generals, there is nothing that cannot be fought. This is like starting a company. Everyone is a business expert. For the state of Qin, fighting was the biggest business, so all the staff went there. Only in this environment can there be such a famous general as Baiqi, who has risen from the grass-roots level to become a god killer and become a myth in the industry. But his business is to kill people.
In the biography of MI Yue, Bai Qi is a stunned wolf child adopted by Mi Yue. Later, he was brought into the army by Mi Yue’s younger brother Wei Ran and became a famous general. Actually, Bai Qi has nothing to do with MI Yue, but it was discovered by Wei Ran.
Bai Qi was born in the Qin Dynasty and belongs to the one in a million special forces; Because of his outstanding performance, he became the first 1000 person leader of Qin Ruishi, similar to the king of special forces. But the real influence of Bai Qi on later generations lies in his art of commanding operations.
On the construction of the army, Bai Qi is not as good as Wu Qi, because he has no chance to train his troops, and Sima did it by mistake.
On the construction of military theory, Bai Qi is not as good as Sun Wu, and there is no art of war left.
In terms of imminent command, Baiqi represents the Warring States period, perhaps the highest level of war practice in the entire era of the Chinese Empire.
The greatest characteristic of using the army from the White army is that it is good at analyzing the situation between the enemy and ourselves, can always adopt correct strategies and tactics, and can always launch devastating attacks on the enemy when implemented.
In the battle of yique, we concentrated our troops and broke each one;
In Yan Ying’s war, the tactics of “digging out the heart” were adopted with water attack attached;
The battle of Huayang, a long-distance attack;
In the battle of Changping, the enemy was lured by feigning defeat, so that the Zhao army broke away from its established position, and then divided, surrounded and annihilated.
Look at these classic war cases commanded by Bai Qi. They have a wide variety of categories and have not been repeated, but the results are the same. Victory.
Of course, these foundations are based on the strength of Qin. After Qin Qiang was great, he attacked in all directions like Wei. The attitude of the eastern countries towards the state of Qin changed from ridicule when the state of Wei was defeated miserably to fear. Unlike Wei, Wei was in a position of four wars, and Qin’s geographical position was very favorable. This is the power of Qin Ruishi, but this is only the beginning.
If Qin wanted to unify the world, he must open up the passage to the Central Plains. The first one to bear the brunt is Han Wei near Taihang Mountain.
In 293 BC, Bai Qi led the Qin army to a decisive battle with the Han Wei allied forces in yique. This was Bai Qi’s first time as commander in chief (at the level of 12 of the 20 Military barons of Qin Dynasty and left Geng), commanding the army, and it was also his battle to become famous. Of course, before that, Bai Qi had already made a figure in the Qin army. For example, a year ago, as Zuo Shuchang (ten level military Baron), Bai Qi captured the new city. Although the total number of soldiers of the Han Wei allied army is higher than that of the Qin army, they are not united and wait-and-see with each other. No one is willing to come out first to confront the Qin army. Seeing this, Bai Qi smiled and seized the Han army with a small number of troops and stormed the Wei army.
Wei Jun’s commander Gongsun Xi (also the commander of the Allied forces) hurriedly responded to the battle and asked Han Jun to reinforce him. Han Jun pretended that he had been attacked too and did not listen to his orders. Soon gongsunxi was defeated and captured, and the Wei army was defeated; Han Jun also failed. Bai Qi won the battle and killed more than 240000 Han Wei allied troops. Since then, Han Wei and the other two countries trembled at the sight of Qin and only knew how to carve out land for peace.
After the war of yique, Wei Wuzu stepped into history. Why did Wei not reorganize and train Wei Wuzu to try to rise again? The apparent reason is that there is no such person as Wuqi; The real reason is that the state of Wei lost a large area of territory, leaving only a piece of territory in the middle of Henan (near Kaifeng), losing the foundation to support the soldiers. It is equivalent to losing the highest level of support in the three-dimensional view of history, and the spirit is exhausted.
After the defeat of the Han and Wei dynasties, high technology (advanced iron smelting technology) fell into the hands of the Qin army. Qin was more powerful, but the road to the East was not smooth. Although the Han and Wei dynasties were extinguished, the strength of the state of Zhao was still at its peak on the land of the three Jin Dynasties.
The state of Zhao also carried out reform after suffering from the death of Wei Wu. But king zhaowuling went another way. The impact of that road on the history of China’s military war was no less than that of Wei Wuzu and Qin Ruishi.
Zhao Jun has become a new problem for Bai Qi. So how does Baiqi solve the problem? In the latter part, Zhao shifengyue wrote.
