A lifetime
Bai Qi, also known as Gongsun Qi, was born in the Warring States period, when the feudal lords vied to annex him. Records of Bai Qi’s life in historical books began in the 13th year of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty (294 BC). Bai Qi, a left Shuchang, attacked the new city of Han (now the southwest of Yichuan County, Henan Province). Before that, there was no history to test.
Although there is no history to study Bai Qi’s deeds before the 13th year of the reign of King Zhao of Qin, it can be inferred from the system of conferring knights at that time that Bai Qi was already in the army and had military achievements before the 13th year of the reign of King Zhao of Qin. At that time, there were two types of knighthood system in the state of Qin: military knights and dukes. Military knights were rewarded with military merit, while Dukes were rewarded with meritorious service. After Shang Yang’s reform, military merit was the primary condition for the conferment of knights in the state of Qin. In history, there have been instances of civil servants taking command of wars. However, for the biographies of such people, historical records will use a lot of space to record their civil affairs, such as Shang Yang’s reform, fan Ju’s theory of distant exchanges and close attacks, etc. There is no record of Bai Qi as a civil official in the history books, nor is there any similar record of Bai Qi becoming a military officer. Bai Qi was promoted to Zuo Shuchang, so there is no possibility of conferring a nobility for meritorious service, only for military service. In order to have military merit, Bai Qi had to be meritorious in defeating the enemy on the battlefield. From this, it can be concluded that Bai Qi was already in the army 13 years ago and had certain military merit.
In the 14th year of the reign of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, the Prime Minister of Qin Dynasty “Wei ranju and Bai Qi made Xiang Shoujiang attack Han and Wei”. That year, Bai Qi was promoted to Zuo Geng, who took the place of Xiang Shou to command the Qin army to fight a decisive battle with the Han and Wei allied forces in yique (a Longmen, now nanlongmen mountain, Luoyang City, Henan Province). Bai Qi took advantage of the mentality that “Han Gu Gu and Wei do not want to use the crowd first. Wei, relying on Han Zhirui, wants to push for the front,” and defeated the many with a few. Kill 240000 allied troops of Han and Wei, kill Wei general Xiwu, and abduct Han’s chief General gongsunxi, pulling out five cities. Bai Qi was promoted to a national Lieutenant because of his military exploits. He continued to lead his army to attack South Korea and “took the east of Han Anyi to the Qinhe River”.
In the 15th year of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, Bai Qisheng became daliangzao and led his army to attack the state of Wei and seize the wall city of the state of Wei. (also known as Wang Yuan, now Wangmao Town, Southeast of Yuanqu County, Shanxi Province)
In the 18th year of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, Bai Qi attacked Wei again, taking 61 cities of all sizes. After several heavy blows, Han and Wei were forced to seek peace everywhere: Han gewusui (now southwest of Linfen City, Shanxi Province, said to be in the southeast of Yuanqu County, Shanxi Province) was 200 Li, Wei Gehe was 400 Li East and Qin.
In the 27th year of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, Bai Qi attacked Zhao and pulled out the wolf city. (Qincheng village, 25 miles southwest of Gaoping City, Shanxi Province)
In the 28th year of the reign of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, King Zhao and King zhaohuiwen formed an alliance in Mianchi (today’s Zhucheng, thirteen miles southwest of Mianchi County, Henan Province). King Zhao of Qin turned to the state of Chu, which threatened the state of Qin from the south, and ordered Bai Qi to attack the state of Chu. Bai Qi encouraged the whole army with his determination to “burn the boat” and captured Yan (the ruins of the imperial city of Chu fifteen miles southeast of Yichang City in Hubei Province), Deng (the northwest of Xiangyang County in Hubei Province), and Xiling (the northwest of Yichang City in Hubei Province).
In the 29th year of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, Bai Qi attacked Chu again, captured the capital of Chu at that time, Ying (Ji’nan City, ten miles northwest of Jingzhou District, Jingsha City, Hubei Province), and “burned Yiling (now the North Bank of the Yangtze River in the southeast of Yichang City, Hubei Province), so he reached jingling (now the northwest of Qianjiang City, Hubei Province) in the East, forcing King Qingxiang of Chu to die and leave Chen (now Huaiyang County, Henan Province). Bai Qi was granted the title of emperor Wu’an.
In the thirtieth year of the reign of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, Yun Ziwan, the Duke of Shu, was killed in rebellion. Bai Qi and Zhang ruoshu, the governor of Shu, attacked Chu and conquered Dazhou, Wu and Jiangnan as counties in Central Guizhou. Bai Qi ordered Zhang ruoshu to resist Chu.
In the 34th year of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, Wei and Zhao attacked Han, and Han asked for help from Qin. Bai Qi and Wei Ran saved Han, defeated Yu Huayang (today’s Huayang village, 40 miles north of Xinzheng City, Henan Province) by the joint forces of Wei and Zhao. They first killed 130000 Wei troops, and then fought with Jia Yan, a general of Zhao. “Shen Qi died 20000 in the river.”.
In the 44th year of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, Bai Qi led his army to fight with Han Jun in Xingcheng (also known as xingting and fenxing, now northeast of Quwo County, Shanxi Province), killed 50000 Han Jun and captured Xingcheng.
In the 45th year of the reign of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, the “wild king of Han Dynasty (now Qinyang City of Henan Province) was defeated by the wild king, and the wild king was demoted to Qin”. The Shangdang (southwest of Changzi County of Shanxi Province) was absolutely unique, and the party above Fengting returned to Zhao, and Qin and Zhao became bitter.
In the 47th year of the reign of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, the Qin Dynasty sent Wang Fu to attack Zhao, and Zhao general Lianpo stood firm against Qin. The Qin army challenged him several times, but Lianpo did not fight. The Qin army went far away, which was not conducive to a protracted war. Fan junai went against the king of Zhao and replaced Lianpo with Zhao Kuo, who could only talk on paper. King Zhao of Qin secretly sent Bai Qi as the supreme general and fought with Zhao Jun in Changping (now Wangbao village, twenty miles northwest of Gaoping City, Shanxi Province). Bai Qi took advantage of Zhao Kuo’s weakness of overpowering the enemy, led Zhao Kuo to rashly send troops, and cut off his rear path with a light horse, thus defeating the Zhao army. Zhao Kuo was shot to death by random arrows. Four hundred thousand of Zhao’s soldiers fell to Qin. Bai Qi sent 240 of his youngest to Zhao. He killed them all. After the war of Changping, Bai Qi wanted to take advantage of the victory to destroy the state of Zhao. He ordered Wang Fu to attack Pilao (now the laizhai village in the northeast of Yicheng County, Shanxi), Sima Geng to attack Taiyuan (now Taiyuan, Shanxi), and he led his army to attack Handan, the capital of the state of Zhao (now Handan, Hebei). Zhao’s envoy, Su Dai, came to Qin to speak of fan Ju and agreed with the state of Zhao to carve out land for peace. Bai Qi has been at odds with fan Ju since then. Later, the state of Zhao did not keep its promise to cede land. King Zhao of Qin sent the royal mausoleum to attack Zhao again. After a long attack on Handan, he ordered Baiqi to be the general. Bai Qi resigned with illness. King Zhao of Qin asked fan Ju to invite him again. Bai Qi analyzed the factors that had made no contribution to the attack on Zhao, but he still couldn’t make an excuse for his illness. King Zhao of Qin once again asked Bai Qi to “lie down and make him a general”. Bai Qi said that he would rather die than humiliate the army. Bai Qi thus offended King Zhao of Qin, so he was demoted to the rank of scholar Wu and expelled from Xianyang. In the 51st year of King Zhao of Qin, on the way to Beijing, he was given the sword by King Zhao of Qin to commit suicide in du you (now five miles northeast of Xianyang City, Shaanxi).
Second battle merit
According to the records of Bai Qi’s life from the dialogue in historical books, Bai Qi was almost always accompanied by war and never suffered defeat. For the state of Qin, Bai Qi’s main achievements were as follows.
Greatly broadened the land of Qin
About Bai Qi’s achievements in the siege of the city, there are 75 cities specifically recorded in historical records. In the 13th year of the reign of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, he captured the new city of Korea; The battle of yique in the 14th year pulled out the five cities; In the 15th year, the city of Wei Guoyuan was seized; In eighteen years, he attacked Wei and captured sixty-one cities; In the 27th year, he attacked zhaotuguang wolf city; 28? The battle of Yan Ying in the 29th year captured the five cities of Yan, Deng, Xiling, Ying and Yiling; In the 44th year, the battle of Xingcheng captured Xingcheng.
But Bai Qi’s achievements in land annexation go far beyond this. After the war of yique, although there is no historical record of how much land Bai Qi plundered from Han and Wei, it can be seen from later “taking Han Anyi to the East and reaching Qianhe River”, that this war has won a lot of land. When Wuqi was guarding the West River, the boundary of the state of Wei reached the west of the river. At this time, the land seized by Bai Qi reached the Qianhe River in the East. According to the records of historical records, the Qianhe river was in the east of the river. It can be seen that Bai Qi not only captured the land of Hexi, but also extended the boundary of Qin to Hedong. In the subsequent successive wars against Korea and Wei, Han was forced to cut Wu Sui 200 Li, Wei cut He Dong 400 Li and Qin. In the battle of Central Guizhou, together with Zhang Ruo and Sima Cuo, Ba, Shu and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to the East were included in the territory of Qin. The battle of Changping almost wiped out the state of Zhao.
Successfully carried out the strategy of Qin’s eastward and southward advance
Qin was an insignificant small vassal state in the western border, surrounded by Western armies. To build a country and develop, Qin Dynasty must develop to the East, West and south. During the period of Duke mu of Qin, the state of Qin completed the task of advancing westward, and “then dominated Xirong”. Duke mu of Qin, who had completed the task of advancing westward, was old and unable to complete the hegemony of advancing eastward and southward. After Duke mu, there were no outstanding monarchs in Qin. It was not until the Shang Yang reform was carried out in the period of Duke Qin that the status of a powerful country was slowly restored. The two tasks of advancing eastward and southward were not completed until the reign of King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, and Baiqi was the most effective executor of these two tasks.
To the east of Qin, Han, Zhao and Wei divided into Jin. Although the territory became smaller, various countries became powerful because of the reform. To the south, Chu has always been the largest power. In the battle of yique, Bai Qi inflicted heavy losses on Han and Wei, and forced them to submit to Qin in subsequent wars. As for the state of Chu, there was a popular saying in the Warring States Period: Lianheng was the king of Qin, and hezong was the king of Chu. In the battle between Qin and Chu Yanying, Bai Qi defeated the Chu army, captured the capital of the state of Chu, and brought the state of Chu down. The battle of Changping made the state of Zhao lose all its 400000 elite soldiers and greatly weakened its comprehensive national strength. Caize once said: “Chu is thousands of miles away, and holds millions of halberds. Bai Qi marshals tens of thousands of divisions to fight against Chu. In the first war, Yan Ying was used to burn Yi tombs, and then the South was combined with Shu and Han. Yue, Han and Wei attacked Jiang and Zhao, and the North Keng horse clothing was used to kill more than 400000 people. All of them were under Changping, bleeding into a river, boiling like thunder. So he entered Handan, making Qin an emperor. The territory of Chu and Zhao was also the enemy of Qin. Since then, Chu and Zhao were afraid to attack Qin, Bai Qi has the same momentum.”
Yan and Qi both lost out in their struggle for hegemony.
It can be seen that four of the six theoretical opponents of the state of Qin have been overwhelmed by them, and these four are exactly the most competitive opponents of the state of Qin, laying a solid foundation for the state of Qin to finally unify the six countries.
III. operational characteristics
As a military general, Bai Qi’s contributions all depend on the war. His mission is to successfully implement the policies formulated by the monarch and his advisers on the battlefield. Bai Qi did it. He lived with the war without losing. Throughout Bai Qi’s life, his operational characteristics generally include the following aspects.
Before the war, we should strive to know ourselves and the enemy, and fight only when there is a chance of victory. After the war of Changping, when fan Ju asked Bai Qi to take the lead in attacking Zhao, Bai Qi’s analysis of the futility of attacking Zhao fully illustrates this point.
Fan Ju said: there are thousands of halberds in the place of Chu. Tens of thousands of people came to Chu before you. They pulled out Yan and Ying and burned their temples. Bai Qi said to him: the state of Chu, relying on its great power, did not sympathize with its politics, but the ministers attacked each other, flattered and used things. It can be seen that Bai Qi knew the enemy well before the war.
After the king’s Mausoleum failed to attack Handan, the king of Qin wanted to appoint Wu’an as the general of the mausoleum. Wu’an said: Handan is not easy to attack, and the time has come for the princes to save the day. The other princes have been complaining about Qin for a long time. Although Qin has broken the Changping army, more than half of Qin’s soldiers have died. The country is empty, far away from the rivers and mountains and competing for the capital of the country. Zhao Ying is inside, and the princes attack outside. It is inevitable to break the Qin army.
In the end, I would rather die than be a general who humiliates the army than go to war.
The goal is to occupy important cities. Some people say that Baiqi’s war does not take attacking cities and seizing land as its main objective, which I disagree with. Since ancient times, wars have had the purpose of plundering wealth and land. Bai Qi lived in the Warring States period, an era when princes vied for annexation. How can we talk about annexation if we don’t attack cities and seize land. And look at Bai Qi’s whole life. He attacked 75 cities and plundered land for more than a thousand miles. Why not take cities and land as the goal? The battle of yique was aimed at capturing Hangu pass, a strategic area. In the battle of Central Guizhou, Bai Qi attacked Dazuo, Wu and Jiangnan as counties in Central Guizhou. Bai Qi ordered Zhang ruoshou to resist Chu. This shows that Bai Qi does not take attacking cities and seizing land as his main goal. He just ignores those cities and lands that have no strategic significance. He attaches great importance to those cities and lands that have important strategic significance.
Emphasis is placed on the war of annihilation, and no means are lost in order to achieve the goal of annihilation. From Baiqi’s beheading table, it can be seen that Baiqi aimed at annihilation. During the battle of Changping, more than 400000 Zhao soldiers fell to the Qin Dynasty. Baiqi was afraid that Zhao soldiers would repeat, “cheat and kill”, leaving only 240 young. In order to capture Yan City, water from the West Long Valley was diverted to irrigate the city, resulting in countless deaths and injuries among the army and people in the city. The wars of Huayang and yique also won a complete victory by pursuing after the enemy had fled.
We should attach importance to field fortifications, first lure the enemy away from the fortified position, and then block the enemy in the expected enemy annihilation area to prevent him from breaking through, so as to achieve the goal of annihilating the enemy. In the battle of Changping, Bai Qi first cheated Zhao Kuo out of the battlefield, then cut off his way back and completely annihilated the Zhao army.
Attach importance to psychological warfare. Bai Qi attached great importance to the soldiers’ psychology in the army. When attacking Chu, Bai Qi encouraged the soldiers’ fighting spirit with his determination to burn the boat. In order to make the soldiers have a good psychological state, Bai Qi paid attention to the generals and scholars in the army, and made the soldiers take the army as their home and the generals as their parents. So that when Bai Qi died, Sima Jin, the grandson of Sima Cuo, was also willing to die with him. From the beginning of the Changping war, it was forbidden for officers and men in the army to divulge the secret of changing him into a general. The purpose was not to arouse the attention of Zhao Jun and promote Zhao Kuo’s psychology of belittling the enemy. Because at that time, his reputation was so great that before the war, King Zhao once said, “the Qin soldiers will come, and the emperor Wu’an will. Who can be the king?”. Bai Qi’s secrecy measures finally fooled Zhao Kuo, who easily sent troops and led to the annihilation of the whole army.
IV. world evaluation
Famous generals and beauties have the same fate since ancient times. No one is allowed to see white heads in the world. Changping made a great noise, and Baiqi’s dazzling glory on the battlefield came to an end. However, history does not stop with the passing of people, and the merits and demerits will be evaluated by future generations. The generals, heroes and talents of emperor ren’er, or the villagers in the mountains and the people living in the clouds, cannot escape the long-standing public opinion of later generations. Most of the world’s evaluation of Bai Qi is to praise his military ability and achievements, but hate his killing.
The praise for Bai Qi’s military ability can be seen from the title of “God of war” given to him. His achievements were affirmed by the world when he was alive. Fan Ju, a rebel in the Soviet Dynasty, said that “the more than 70 cities that Qin defeated and captured, the troops of Ying, Yan and Hanzhong in the south, and the troops of Zhao Kuo in the north were captured by the emperor Wu’an. Although Zhou, Zhao and LV Wang had made great contributions, they did not benefit from this.”. Although this is the story of fan Ju in the Su Dynasty who opposed fan Ju in order to save Zhao, it is true and there is no exaggeration. Xiang Shi is an expert at opposing the enemy. How could fan Ju not know that this is a conspiracy against the enemy. It is true that Bai Qi has such merits that he is superior to himself, and fan Ju is a “man who must repay his evil deeds”. Of course, Bai Qi will not be threatened by his high achievements. Qin Zhaoxiang, Wang Xiangguo and caize once said “Chu was thousands of miles away and held millions of halberds. Bai Qi commanded tens of thousands of troops to fight against Chu. In the first war, Yan Ying was used to burn Yi tombs, and then the South was merged with Shu and Han. Yue, Han and Wei attacked Jiang and Zhao, and killed more than 400000 people. All of them were under Changping, bleeding into a river, boiling like thunder. So he entered Handan, making Qin an emperor. The territory of Chu and Zhao was also the enemy of Qin. Since then, Chu and Zhao were afraid to attack Qin. Bai Qi was also powerful.” ? After Bai Qi’s death, “the Qin people took pity on him, and all the towns and cities offered sacrifices as gods”. This is because Bai Qi’s work also made Bai Qi useless to the Qin people. Why are the Qin people so pity and respect him. Qinshihuang also “thought of the merits of Bai Qi and sealed his son Zhong in Taiyuan”. Professor Wang Jianchang commented on Bai Qishi and said, “the emperor’s plan was successful, and the unification of the Qin Dynasty will not wait for the time of the first emperor.”. It’s a pity that King Zhao of Qin refused to adopt Bai Qi’s policy and insisted on attacking Zhao. After his failure, he angered Bai Qi and killed him. It’s not sad.
“Later generations often praised his skillful use of troops, but ridiculed his excessive killing.”. The evil of Baiqi’s killing does not lie in the praise of his military achievements and ability. There are many evil names about Bai Qi, such as murderous God, human butcher, war demon, murderer king, bloodthirsty war god, bloodthirsty maniac and so on. What’s more, he is called the father of Bai impermanence. Among them, “rentu” is quite famous. Although the source cannot be found, Professor linjianming also mentioned that Bai Qi had this title in the historical manuscript of Qin, and called him a general who kills people without blinking an eye. It is also known from the first merit table in the history of Qin Ji that Baiqi’s decapitation reached as much as 900000, but this is only an incomplete record of Baiqi’s killing, which records: 240000 in the battle of yique, 20000 in the battle of guanglang City, 150000 in the battle of Huayang, 50000 in the battle of Xingcheng and 450000 in the battle of Changping, while there are no records of the battles of Xincheng, Yanying, Qianzhong and Handan, There are more than a million people who have lost their lives from scratch. “Human slaughter” is not a fiction.
In addition, the origin of Shanxi Gaoping Braised Tofu can also reflect people’s hatred for Bai Qi. In today’s Gaoping County, Shanxi Province, there is a famous snack &\8211; Gaoping Braised Tofu. Gaoping roasted tofu is also called Baiqi meat. It is said that in order to commemorate the battle of Changping, local people compare roasted tofu to Baiqi’s heart and liver, tofu dregs and mashed garlic to Baiqi’s brain, and eat Baiqi’s liver and brain to relieve people’s hatred.
5. Reasons for being spurned
Bai Qi’s war achievements and military talents are unparalleled, but he has been despised by the world. He would like to eat his liver and brain. There are no more than two reasons.
First, people hate Baiqi because of the geographical situation. During the Warring States period, China had not yet formed a unified situation, and naturally did not form a unified national consciousness. To the people of all countries at that time, Bai Qi was a foreigner. Even if Bai Qi’s war achievements were brilliant, he was also an aggressor. Why do people respect an aggressor? Gaoping was the place of Changping in the past. More than 400000 relatives were killed in the pit. Even if they were not related by blood, they would still have a local feeling. The contrast between the people of Qin Dynasty and Bai Qi’s “sacrifice to all villages and towns” is enough to show that the geographical feeling is one of the reasons why people hate Bai Qi.
Second, Bai Qi did kill too much, and the means were too cruel. For example, in the battle of Yan Ying, in order to break Yan City, it did not hesitate to irrigate the city with water, resulting in “countless soldiers and civilians drowned in the city, and the east of the city smelled”. The battle of Changping was even more an unjust act, and the number of people was rare in the world.
The six elements cause the felling
Bai Qi is not an unscrupulous cold-blooded killer. He also asked King Zhao of Qin to be considerate of the people and treat the people with mercy. He has also been blaming himself for the killing of Changping pit. As the saying goes, “when a man is dying, his words are good.”. Before he died, Bai Qi thought of the killing in Changping pit, and said with emotion, “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”, so he committed suicide. It can be seen that Bai Qi thinks he is guilty of the Changping pit murder. He knows he can’t do it. Why should he do it?
First, it was related to the laws of the Qin state at that time. After Shang Yang’s reform, military skill became the primary condition for conferring knighthood, and the method of calculating military skill was to cut off the enemy’s head. In addition, “in the war, five people come together, one feather is lighter than four, and one head is recovered”, that is, if one person dies and four people cannot be saved, they will be punished. If they avoid punishment, they will cut off the enemy’s head as compensation. According to the records in the Cambridge History of China, the state of Zhao lost only 50000 people before the killing in Changping pit. According to the historical records, more than half of Qin’s soldiers were killed or injured in the battle of Changping. However, King Zhao of Qin made Hanoi “the first one on the 15th year of the reign of the emperor learned about Changping”. It can be seen that Qin has invested a lot of troops in the battle of Changping, which should be equivalent to that of Zhao. According to the calculation of 400000, the Qin army also suffered about 25 deaths and injuries in the battle of Changping. That Baiqi not only made no contribution in this war, but also was guilty. In order to avoid being punished, Bai Qi only has to attack those who fall. In addition, the soldiers also asked Bai Qi to kill Zhao Zu. According to records of the historian, Bai Qi planned to kill Zhao Zu. The plan has the meaning of scheming, and it also has the meaning of summing up and discussing. At this time, Zhao’s death had fallen, so there was no need to plan murder. Therefore, I speculated that this was the intention of summing up and discussing. Bai Qi is naturally a soldier in the army when he counts and negotiates with whom.
Second, it was determined by the conditions of civilization in the Warring States period. The Warring States period was still a period when slavery and feudalism coexisted. Slavery still existed in the Qin state. Slaves were just a symbol of wealth and a tool of labor. Professor wurongzeng also pointed out in the study of the history of the pre Qin and Han dynasties that “in the eyes of the ruling class, prisoners and slaves can not be regarded as human beings”. At that time, almost all prisoners of war would become slaves and be rewarded to meritorious officials. Their humble status made their lives freely deprivable in the eyes of their masters.
The third is the customs of the Qin nationality. The Qin people retained the custom of blood revenge. Blood revenge is mainly revenge for the people. After Shang Yang’s reform, he took the five families in the neighborhood as a guarantee, and was organized into a team in wartime. Therefore, almost all the people in the team were members of the same clan. When one member of the team was killed, the other four had the obligation to revenge for him. In addition, the Qin people also advocated masculine martial virtues, “the people are afraid of private fights and dare to fight in public”. In addition, there is the temptation of military merit, The military work “is particularly greedy and cruel, domineering and murderous, and makes the people fierce. The hypocrisy veil of any benevolent and righteous government has been torn away by them. The only thing left is the naked sword waving and cruel punishment, which has plunged the vast peasant class into a deep pit. The whole knighthood system is just feeding a group of cannibals”.
Fourth, the coercion of war. The purpose of war is to weaken the strength of the other side so that they can seize the interests they want from the other side. In this regard, if Bai Qi released the 400000 Zhao soldiers back to Zhao, it would be another 400000 Zhao troops for Zhao. In the next war between Qin and Zhao, Qin will face 400000 brave people. How can Qin realize its own interests? The book says, “no virtue can be cultivated, no harm can be eliminated”, not to mention war. Maybe we will think that bringing these 400000 people back to the state of Qin would be 400000 strong laborers, which would be good for the development of the state of Qin. But how will such a large contingent end up in turmoil in China. Before baiqikeng killed Zhao Zu, he said: “Zhao Zu repeatedly, not to kill them all, for fear of chaos”, indicating that Baiqi did not think about these problems. But war is war after all, and we are desperate for our own interests. For the benefit of the state of Qin, Bai Qi was only a killer, and he also left a reputation for this.
Seven tragic fates
Since ancient times, generals have had nothing to hate. They have either died in battle or died in battle; Or they will be suspected and end up in a bad way. In history, after all, only zhaokuangyin had a cup of wine to release his military power. Bai Qi was impressed by the people of several countries, took more than 70 cities, and successfully carried out the strategic policy of moving south and East for the state of Qin. His contribution is high, but he also went back to du you. After his death, he was still infamous for hundreds of generations. It is not sad.
Not only is Baiqi’s life a tragedy, but so are Li Mu, Meng Tian, Han Xin, etc. in the final analysis, it is all because of war. Because the essence of war is only that the ambitious put their ambitions into practice. War arises from ambition. When careerists’ ambitions for power, land, wealth, women and energy expand infinitely and put their ambitions into action, war breaks out. If one side wants to satisfy its own ambitions and the other side wants to defend its own interests, conflicts will follow. At this time, the soldiers of the aggressor became the tools of the ambitious, while the soldiers of the defender became the guardians of the people’s interests. But in most cases, soldiers will not always play the role of a single tool or guardian. Even in the same war, the role of soldiers will also change. When the aggressor wins, the role of the soldiers will remain the same, the soldiers of the aggressor become tools, and the soldiers of the defeated side are guardians of the interests of the country and the people; However, when the aggressor is defeated, the rulers of the original Guardian often cannot resist the temptation of victory, and their ambition to occupy the aggressor’s land and wealth will slowly expand. Finally, their ambition conquers everything and becomes a new careerist. At this time, the soldiers who used to act as guardians often listen to the lies of the rulers. In order to take revenge, get some benefits from the aggressors, and compensate for the losses caused to them by the aggressors, the war that should have ended continued, and the roles of the soldiers on both sides also changed. The soldiers of the former aggressor have become guardians of the interests of the country and the people, while the soldiers of the former defender have become the tools of the new careerists. Soldiers take obeying orders as their bounden duty. Driven by ambitious people, most soldiers can only choose to obey orders. Such a fate is doomed to be tragic.
VIII. Conclusion
Guardians are heroes. They have spared their lives to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and the interests of the people from foreign aggression. They are worthy of respect and should be respected. At this time, the war made soldiers, making them from an unknown person to a hero respected by everyone. Of course, in the era of no war, guardians are still sacred, but they have lost the opportunity to become ordinary and great.
The war also made the aggressors, who met the ambition needs of the rulers and were rewarded. Such as Bai Qi, who has been engaged in aggressive war all his life, and won the title of emperor Wu’an with brilliant achievements. His family is famous because of him. His wife and children have no worries about food and clothing. He has won numerous interests for the state of Qin and is respected by the people of the country.
However, the war also destroyed the soldiers, and how many clandestine and iron bones have gone to foreign lands because of the war. They died on the battlefield, wrapped up in horses, and sometimes even dumped their bodies in the wilderness. Unfortunately, many of them have become a tool for rulers to satisfy their ambitions. They have abandoned their children and made their relatives afraid. Maybe they have the opportunity to seal their wives and children, and become heroes respected in the hearts of people. However, rulers can easily deprive them of their gifts, and even their families will be implicated and face life worries. Bai Qi was forced to commit suicide when he changed from Wu’an to Shiwu. There are many kings who have killed meritorious statesmen and implicated nine clans.
War has made and destroyed soldiers. I wish there would be no war in the world.
Reference: Sima Qian’s historical records ? Biographies of marquis Huang, historical records ? Biographies of Bai Qi and Wang Jian, historical records ? Biographies of fan Ju, Cai Ze, Wang Chuanchang, Ma feibai, Jiang Lihong, Wu Rongzeng, Qin and Han Dynasties, Gao Min, Qin and Han Dynasties.