-So Qin was quite powerful right now, dominating Wei and Han after they unsuccessfully tried to invade Qin. However, Qin did not go so far as to counter-invade these two states, as they were under the protection of their powerful brother state (all three used to make up the state of Jin before its partition into three separate states in 403 BC) of Zhao to the north.
-Interestingly enough, Zhao was only recently powerful, as not too long before this time it was the weakest of these former Jin states and had been pushed around quite a bit by Wei. Zhao had been the weakest for a long time because it was kind of a backwater and was under constant attack by the northern barbarians (the most infamous of which were the dreaded Xiongnu horde) of modern-day Mongolia.
-However, in a bizarre twist of fate, Wei decided to invade Zhao in 354 BC! Dick move!
-Zhao was in serious trouble, as they had been unable to adequately resist Wei's invasion and ultimately found their capital Handan (in modern-day Heibei Province) surrounded by Wei forces. Desperate, the ruler of Zhao, Marquess Cheng (he still hadn't declared Zhao an independent kingdom yet, so he wasn't a king), sent for help from the state of Qi (to the southeast).
-Surprisingly, this actually worked, and the forces of Qi arrived to drive off Wei's army. However, this actually made sense for Qi to do this, as Qi knew that once Wei finished off Zhao it would probably go for Qi next, so it was best to crack down on Wei now before they got too powerful. Also, Qi most certainly did not want Jin to reunify, as that would be bad for all of the other states/kingdoms since Jin had been the most powerful of the Zhou states.
-The generals in charge of the Qi forces were Sun Bin (an alleged descendant of Sun Tzu, but honestly who the fuck knows) and Tian Ji, both top-notch commanders. They knew that the Wei army was way too powerful to take on in a straight-up battle, so they came up with a plan.
-Sun Bin led an army to distract Wei by attacking the Wei capital of Daliang (modern-day Kaifeng, Henan Province). Although Sun Bin's force was too weak to capture the city, Sun Bin's plan was to attack and then be driven off, luring the Wei forces into a false sense of security against the forces of Qi. This actually worked, and believing Qi to be weak, Wei sent the majority of its forces to join the invading force in its siege of Handan. Once Wei did this, Tian Ji used this opportunity to lead a Qi force to strike at a (less-fortified) Daliang and this time with a much bigger army! Brilliant!
-Thus, Pang Juan, the commander of Wei's forces, knew that he had no choice but to divide his big army in order to send a force to save Daliang. However, the infantry and artillery were too slow, so he was only able to bring him his elite cavalry for this mission.
-Of course, this is what Sun Bin had expected Pang Juan to do, and so on his way back to defend the capital, Pang Juan was ambushed by Sun Bin's forces! Naturally, the Wei cavalry was slaughtered by the Qi army. Pang Juan was able to escape, however, so this wasn't the last of him.
-Wei knew that it had really fucked itself in trying to invade Zhao, so King Hui of Wei decided to try and sue for peace. This resulted in Wei giving up the invasion and giving some territory to Qi.
-Back in Qi, both Tian Ji and Sun Bin were hailed as heroes! Their strategy of deception and attacking where an army is weak to divide their forces (known in Chinese history as "the Battle of Guiling") was later on referenced in "The 36 Strategems" ("Sānshíliù Jì"), an anonymously-written essay on politics, war, etc. and is almost as legendary as "The Art of War".
-The quote is actually "Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao", which doesn't actually make any sense unless you've studied Chinese history.
-Of course, King Hui was not finished with his wars of expansion, and instead began to raise an army to attack the state of Han to the south!
-Han was confident that, like Zhao, Qi would come to their rescue, and the Qi emissaries essentially stated as much to the Han court. Thus, Han began to confidently raise an army to defend themselves to fight just as long as they could in order for Qi to come in and save the day. However, Qi's real plan was to only come in AFTER both sides were severely weakened.
-This actually worked out exactly as planned for Qi- right when Han was on the brink of defeat, Qi showed up to save the day.
-Pretty much plays out like what happened above (with all the same characters as last time, too!). Once again, Sun Bin came up with a plan to strike at Daliang in order to have the same effect as last time. So, King Hui, when hearing about the attack from Qi, ordered for Wei forces to retreat in order to defend the capital. However, Pang Juan was determined to not fall for the same trick again, so they moved quickly and did not travel along the main road in order to avoid a Qi ambush.
-Once the two armies got close to each other, Sun Bin ordered for his troops to reduce the number of cookfires every night so that it would appear to the Wei army that the Qi army was getting smaller over time. Overconfident from all the ass-kicking they had done against Han, they started to attack the Qi army, and, feigning weakness, the Qi army then retreated (towards Maling (near modern-day Liaocheng, Shandong Province). On their retreat, the Wei forces passed through a narrow, wooded pass, and as they traveled through it Sun Bin ordered his men to cut down a tree and carve into it "Pang Juan shall die in Maling under this tree." When the Wei forces later that night traveled through the area and noticed the message, Pang Juan called for torchlight in order to read what was written. Sure enough, when the torch was lit, that was the signal for the Qi archers to shoot, and thus the Wei troops were completely slaughtered in the ambush (including Pang Juan).
-At this point, Wei was crushed, so Qi demanded huge territorial concessions in return for an end to hostilities.
-Unfortunately for Wei, because they were so weakened from fighting with Qi, they were now quite vulnerable to attacks from Qin! Of course, Qin immediately began to invade and gobble up territory, including Wei's ancient capital of Anyi (modern-day Nanchang, Jiangxi Province) in 361 BC.
-Because of this, King Hui moved the capital of Wei to Daliang.
-At this point, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Qin was becoming too powerful if the other states didn't band together to stop it from conquering all of them. Thus, they all decided to combine their forces against Qin.
-This strategy, known as the Vertical Alliance ("Hé Zòng"), came out of the School of Diplomacy (AKA the School of Vertical and Horizontal Alliances; "Zōng héng Jiā"), a group of thinkers who argued and debated constantly about strategy and shit, and was advocated by thinkers such as Sū Qín.
-Sū Qín's arch-enemy was Zhāng Yí, who was the main thinker behind the Horizontal Alliance ("Lían Héng").
-The vertical alliance included the states of Wei, Zhao, Han, Yan, and Chu. Conspicuously absent was the state of Qi...
-The alliance was led by King Huì of Chǔ, arguably the most powerful of the five.
-Unfortunately, the allied forces were quickly defeated when they tried to invade Qí, and the vertical alliance quickly fell apart (as they probably didn't like each other anyway due to their decades of fighting each other).
-At this point, Qín knew that their most powerful opposition was Chǔ.
-It's thought that Chǔ had a standing army of like 1 million (!). Qín's forces were way smaller by comparison, but Qín knew that Chǔ was having problems internally due to corruption and political gridlock and shit.
-Because Chǔ's vertical alliance had fallen through, Chǔ then looked to the state of Qí to form an alliance (since Qí hadn't been involved in the vertical alliance).
-This idea actually worked, and both Chǔ and Qí became official allies in 314 BC.
-Qín knew that this new alliance posed an existential threat to the state, so Zhāng Yí (now a high-ranking official of Qín) stepped in to try and manipulate the situation.
-Zhāng Yí quickly traveled to Chǔ to seek an audience with its ruler, King Huái. During their meeting, Zhāng Yí proposed that Qín would give back some territory to Chǔ if Chǔ dissolved its alliance with Qí.
-Although it seems obvious that this is a dumb trade, surprisingly, King Huái accepted!
-Of course, Qí was really pissed off because of this.
-Then, after the alliance between Qí and Chǔ was nullified, King Huái tried to take back the land that was promised to Chǔ by Qín. However, Zhāng Yí then backtracked and said that King Huái had misunderstood, and that the area of land that had been offered was actually much smaller than King Huái thought (haha what an asshole)!
-Because of this, King Huái immediately declared war on Qín, but what the king didn't realize was that during this time Zhāng Yí had also been secretly working on an alliance between Qín and Qí!
-Thus, Chǔ was unable to successfully fight a war against both Qín AND Qí, and King Huái was forced to admit defeat and sue for peace in 313 BC.
-At this point, shit seemed to be going pretty well for Qín, but its ruler, Huì Wén, died in 311 BC, he was replaced by his son, Wǔ.
-Things were going OK under King Wǔ, but he ended up dying prematurely (at age 23!) as a result of injuries sustained from lifting a super-heavy bronze cauldron (!). Because of this, the kingdom was thrown into chaos due to their not being a clear successor that had been named by the king.
-Qín was thrown into chaos for about a year before things finally calmed down and King Wǔ's younger half-brother was enthroned as King Zhāoxiāng in 306 BC.
-299 BC- Qín was back to its old tricks again, and this time its target was Chǔ.
-King Zhāoxiāng invited King Huái to a "friendly" meeting of neighboring powers in Qín.
-Surprisingly, King Huái agreed to this (I don't think this dude was very smart...), and traveled to Qín, whereupon he was immediately arrested and imprisoned (where he would eventually die).
-Because King Huái had been imprisoned in Qín, he was replaced as king by his son, King Qǐngxiāng.
-Of course, Chǔ immediately declared war on Qín.
-294 BC- While fighting Chǔ, Qín decided to start a war with another state during this time- Hán (one of the weakest of the warring states, but also of key strategic importance military because of its central location).
-This was also a great time to attack Hán because its military alliance with the state of Wèi had fallen apart and the two former allies were now at war.
-Qín's forces during this time were led by a general named Bái Qǐ, an infamous character in the Warring States Period.
-Bái Qǐ was born in the town of Méi (outside of modern-day Baoji, Shaanxi Province) in the state of Qín.
-Is remembered in history as being a brilliant, yet brutal, commander (his nickname was "The Human Butcher" ("Rén Tú")!!)
-It's also estimated that he was responsible for between 900,000-2,000,000 enemy soldiers and the conquest of over 70 cities, and apparently never lost a battle.
-Because of this, he is considered to be one of the four great generals of the Warring States period.
-So, Qín sent Bái Qǐ to attack Hán.
-Hán and Wèi immediately realized that divided they'd get wiped out pretty fast, so they combined their forces into a mighty army (more than double the number of soldiers Bái Qǐ had to work with).
-However, Qín had two advantages- newer, better equipment, and a great number of battle-hardened veterans led by one of the greatest generals during this time!
-The two armies met at the massive Battle of Yique (near modern-day Luoyang, Henan Province).
-Bái Qǐ knew that there was no real love between Hán and Wèi, and that while they would obviously defend themselves, they wouldn't necessarily defend each other...
-After drawing out Hán's forces with small-scale attacks, Bái Qǐ then sent his main force to attack Wèi's camp while Hán's forces were distracted.
-Wèi ended up getting crushed and forced to retreat, whereupon they immediately began accusing their Hán allies of shenanigans and not holding up their end of the alliance. Of course, these accusations just pissed off Hán, so their alliance dissolved while they were still in the middle of battling Qín!
-Because of this, Hán's forces retreated. Wèi's army was now all alone in their battle against Qín! Of course, after Qín crushed Wèi, Hán then realized that IT was all alone against Qín!
-Of course, Hán's army didn't last long, and they were soon crushed by Qín.
-Overall, approximately 150,000 Wèi and Hán soldiers were killed (estimated to be about 2/3 of their entire armies!). In contrast, it's estimated that Bái Qǐ lost only like 8,500 (!).
-As a result of these great losses, Wèi and Hán were forced to cede vast tracts of land to Qín as a peace offering. Of course, both states must have known that it was only a matter of time before Qín moved into the region and conquered both of them, as their armies were shattered and their grasp on power tenuous at best.
-The war between Chǔ and Qín, however, lasted until 278 BC, when the forces of Qín finally were able to crush Chǔ's defenses and take its capital city, Yǐng (modern-day Jingzhou, Hubei Province). Because of this, Chǔ was forced to relocate its capital to Chen (near Yǐng).
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