-328 BC-
because the smaller states were rapidly getting swallowed up by larger states,
the ruler of Sòng, a minor (but venerable! It had been there for like 800 years
at this point!! However, while it was a powerful state, it was of course in
rapid decline as its neighbors grew increasingly powerful) , Duke (Lord?)
Yǎn decided that it was now or never for his state to try and "get with
the times" in terms of officially declaring itself its own autonomous
kingdom independent of the Zhou dynasty (which was clearly a joke at this
point) since that's what all the other powerful states were doing, so he did
just that and dubbed himself King Kāng (haha) of Sòng, a brand new kingdom.
-While Sòng wasn't the strongest state in the region by any means, it
still could defend itself well enough... although it was increasingly relying
more and more on Qín to defend it from the others.
-During this time, Qín persuades Qí to agree to an understanding- Qín
will leave Qí alone and let them expand, if Qí will do the same for Qín.
-Because of this, Qí then began to focus on taking out the minor
(but venerable! It had been there for like 800 years at this point!! However,
while it was a powerful state, it was of course in rapid decline as its
neighbors grew increasingly powerful) state of Sòng to their south, which had
just broken off its military alliance with Qín... bad move!
-Qín also signed a peace treaty with Hán and Wèi before focusing
on taking out Zhào to the northeast.
-Anyway, so King Kāng had actually pretty successful too in terms of
defending Sòng from its neighboring states, but that was because Qín had a huge
military ally. Once that alliance was broken (for whatever reason), Sòng
must have quickly realized that they were suddenly all alone.
-286 BC- Sòng is conquered (doh!!) by Qí (with additional military
support from Qín, Chǔ, and Wèi).
-Meanwhile,
in the north, the state of Yān had been quietly expanding its borders northeast
into Old Joseon ("Gojoseon" in Korean).
-Fun fact: In Yān's records the warriors (and/or people) of Gojoseon are
described as being both "arrogant" and "cruel" (ha).
-Because of Yān's invasions, Gojoseon was forced to relocate its capital
from the Liaodong Peninsula to the Korean Peninsula (possibly near Pyongyang,
or perhaps this was how Pyongyang was founded; it's unclear).
-Although Gojoseon would survive Yān's assaults from the south,
Yān itself would not survive Qí's assaults from the south!
-314 BC- Yān had spread itself too thin by
squandering all of its resources fighting and expanding into Gojoseon, so Qí
realized that it was their moment to strike! They invaded (and almost
conquered it entirely over the course of a few months!), but after taking over
they raped and pillaged a bit too much... the people of Yān eventually were
able to rebel and drive off the Qí armies.
-After doing so, Yān enthroned its new king,
Zhāo (he was the rightful heir, as his father (King Kuài) had been killed during
the war with Qí.
-He immediately forged an
alliance with Qín, Hán, and Wèi and all four of them began attacking Qí!!
-Of course, Qí was
completely overwhelmed and was almost conquered by the invaders (only two
cities remaining), but all of a sudden King Zhāo died (perhaps he was
murdered?) mysteriously and because no heir had been named Yān quickly fell
into a succession crisis (maybe civil war?). Soon after this, the
Qín-Hán-Wèi-Yān alliance fell apart and Qí was able to drive off the invading
armies and take back the kingdom.
-Meanwhile,
Qín had pretty much dominated the west of Eastern Zhou; both Hán and Wèi were
essentially impotent states at this point. Additionally, Chǔ was also
struggling as well, as their capital, Yǐng (near modern-day Jīngzhōu,
Húběi Province) had been taken by Qín (by their infamous general Bái Qǐ) in 278
BC; because of this invasion, Chǔ was forced to relocate its capital to the
city of Chen (not sure where this was, exactly).
-So, Qín knew that the only neighboring state that still posed any real
threat was Zhào.
-However, there was a slight problem- the border between Zhào and
Qín was apparently really rough and unsuitable for a big army to traverse
easily. So, Qín decided that the best plan of action was to send its army
to Zhào through the Chángpíng mountain pass located in the state of Hán.
-Hán probably wasn't going to be cool with this, so
Qín made the decision to just straight-up invade Hán in 265 BC! It took them
four years to do so, however, as the core of Hán's forces were extremely
well-fortified, so Qín spent these years slowly conquering and pacifying the
less-fortified regions until Hán's defenses were completely isolated and
surrounded by Qín's armies.
-Of course, Hán knew that it was slowly
dying. However, instead of kneeling to their invaders and accepting
defeat, Hán offered its territory to Zhào in exchange for Zhào to rescue them
from Qín!
-This must have been
embarrassing for Hán to do, but what other choice did they have? By doing
this, the king knew that he would be saving potentially hundreds of thousands
of lives, including his own!
-Anyway, so Hán then retreated
while handing over everything (supply lines, fortifications, etc.) to Zhào, and
soon Zhào was set up and ready for whatever Qín was going to throw at
them.
-Leading the Zhào
forces was a dude named Lian Po, considered to be one of the "Four Great
Generals" of the Warring States period (which also includes Bái Qǐ (of
Qín), Wang Jian (of Qín) and Li Mu (of Zhào).
-General
Lian Po's strategy was to simply keep the ChángpíngPass well-fortified and
supplied and wait!
-Lian Po knew that the ChángpíngPass defenses would be an incredibly tough nut
to crack, so it would be foolish to try and take the battle to . By 260
BC, an elaborate network of forts and supply routes feeding into the Changping
Pass was completed! Bring it on, Qín!
-Turns out, Lian Po was right! Qín's forces tried to break through the
defenses for over three years with no success except for ONCE (haha), and
presumably they were later just pushed back out. What was Qín to do?
-Unfortunately for Lian Po, he wouldn't be general for long,
as Qín was able to infiltrate the Zhào court (at Hándan) with
corrupt officials and spies who trolled their way into convincing Zhào's ruler,
King Xiaocheng, to get rid of old Lian Po and his cowardly strategy and instead
replace him a younger general with BALLS!
-His choice? The reckless and arrogant General Zhào
Kuo (son of the respected General Zhào She)! Big mistake!
-When Zhào Kuo arrived at the ChángpíngPass,
he decided to ditch Lian Po's strategy and instead take the fight to Qín, which
is, of course, exactly what Qín wanted them to do!
-July, 260 BC- Zhào Kuo takes a huge force out from the ChángpíngPass
to attack Bái Qǐ 's forces directly. Of course, Bái Qǐ was waiting for this kind of thing to happen,
so upon being attacked he ordered his forces to pull back further and further,
drawing the Zhào army deeper and deeper in.
-When the timing was right, Bái Qǐ ordered his cavalry to fan out and make it so
that the Zhào army was completely encircled. Then, Qín attacked,
completely slaughtering any Zhào forces who refused to surrender!
-Knowing that they were in trouble, Zhào
tried to send out messages begging for help from other states, but one big
problem was that Zhào had a reputation for being fickle and/or untrustworthy
allies, so nobody came to their rescue.
-Many of Zhào's soldiers surrendered,
but Bái Qǐ actually ended up deciding
that it was too risky to allow his prisoners to live, so he had all of them
(possibly up to 450,000 Zhào soldiers!) buried alive in a mass grave (hence Bái
Qǐ 's nickname, "The Human Butcher") except for 240, who were spared
and sent back to Zhào to spread fear among the population!
-We are STILL finding
artifacts at the archaeological site (outside of Gāopíng, Shānxī Province) of
the battle!
-Taking note of this reaction, Qín
then decided to raise another massive army and combine it with Bái Qǐ 's (which
resulted in a force of up to 650,000 soldiers!) to invade Zhào. They
immediately headed straight for Zhào's capital, Hándan!
-However, it's worth
noting that this wasn't going to be a complete walk in the park for Bái Qǐ .
His army had still suffered many casualties during the Battle of Chángpíng(as
many as 250,000!). Additionally, Hándan was proving to be a massive
headache to besiege, even for Bái Qǐ ! It probably felt like the
situation at Chángpíngall over again!
-So, the siege
went on for two more years; Bái Qǐ couldn't get Hándan to crack, and Hándan
couldn't find anyone to rescue them by breaking the siege! At this point,
Bái Qǐ had had enough, so he peaced out
back to Qín!
-257 BC- Wèi and Chǔ finally
decide to help Zhào, so they show up to drive off Qín's forces. Sick of
fighting, Qín relented and headed back home.
-It's also worth-noting
that by doing this, Wèi and Chǔ got some of their old territory back as well,
so perhaps it wasn't a completely altruistic action to help out
Zhào.
-Additionally, although
it looks like Qín had ultimately lost the war by retreating back home, the
campaign against Hán and Zhào had actually been a huge success for them, as they
had still conquered massive amounts of territory and were now the dominant
force in the middle of the Zhou dynasty's kingdom. Of course, no one considered
the Zhou dynasty a legitimate political entity anymore since it didn't have any
real power to go along with its joke of a territory, so Qín decided to finally
call them out once and for all of not having the Mandate of Heaven by invading
the Zhou dynasty capital at Wangcheng (Wangcheng may have just been another name for Chéngzhōu, the old capital city of Eastern Zhou, or if it was actually a different city entirely; it's unclear) and imprisoning King Nǎn, proving
that King Zhāoxiāng of Qín was clearly the true possessor of the
MoH.
-Of
course, King Nǎn's son would organize a resistance and try and drive off the
Qín armies from their occupation of the capital, but it was obviously way too
late. After a few years, he was finally captured and executed. The
Zhou dynasty had finally, officially, come to an end.
-That being said, the other states of course were not immediately willing
to accept Qín's actions! These usurpers must be brought to justice!
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