Trieu Quat studied military strategy all his life, why did he still let 400,000 Trieu troops suffer a miserable defeat?

Trieu Quat studied military strategy all his life, why did he still let 400,000 Trieu troops suffer a miserable defeat?

Zhao Kuo’s mother said to King Zhao: “If you appoint Trieu Quat as general, I have a request. If one day he causes the destruction of the Trieu army, please do not implicate the Trieu family in this matter.“. King Trieu has responded to the request of Trieu Quat’s mother.

King Zhao sent more troops to Zhao Kuo, so Zhao Kuo sent reinforcements to Changping. Besides Zhao She, Zhao She’s wife (Zhao Kuo’s mother) opposed Zhao Kuo’s appointment as general, and there was another person who opposed him… Lan Xiangru.

At that time, Lian Xiangru was sick and could not get out of bed. Not long after, he died. In “Lian Po – Lian Xiangru’s biography” it is said that before he died, Lian Xiangru said to King Zhao: ‘If the king uses this robe for the sake of Quat’s name, it is like ‘a small piece of wood (a zither key) that is tightly attached and cannot be adjusted to play the zither’.

Meaning, if you use it because Trieu Quat has a name, it is like the iron-necked Giao Tru – “Iron ancient pillar” is an idiom, giao – means to stick, tru – this is a movable wooden bar (ie the zither key), moving the zither key can change the sound. Here ‘giao tru’ – means the zither key is stuck/fixed so the zither cannot be played (co sat: play the zither).

The meaning of the above sentence is like a person who is rigid and inflexible. Lan Tuong Nhu added: “Zhao Kuo can read his father’s books but he is not flexible. He only knows how to read ‘dead books’, but does not know that military strategy is unpredictable.

King Zhao still did not listen to these words. After Zhao Kuo arrived at the front line, Lian Po led his close soldiers back to Zhao.

Zhao Kuo completely changed all of Lian Po’s orders and defensive strategies. Furthermore, he also dismantled all of the defensive fortifications that Lian Po had set up, preparing to launch an attack on the Qin army.

Before Trieu Quat sent troops, he boasted: “If my opponent is Wang He, the commander of the Changping battle, then I will have no difficulty fighting him, I will definitely win. If the person fighting me is the famous general Bai Qi, then I will have to think a bit, how to defeat him”.

As a result, when Zhao Kuo led his troops to the front line, the King of Qin secretly sent Wang He back to his country, and let Wu’an Jun Bai Qi go to battle. At the same time, the King of Qin issued a strict order: if anyone revealed that Wu’an Jun Bai Qi was in the Qin army, that person would be immediately executed without mercy. Because if he fought against Bai Qi, Zhao Kuo would be very careful.

Zhao Kuo believed that if the enemy’s general was Wang He, he would have greatly underestimated him in terms of strategy and tactics. This was the seed of the Zhao army’s crushing defeat and subsequent burial.

After arriving at the front line, General Bai Qi of Wu’an formulated a very detailed plan. This plan was divided into three parts. The first part was that when fighting against the Zhao army, the Qin vanguard army was only allowed to lose, not win, and let Zhao Kuo pursue.

The second was to wait until the entire Zhao army pursued the Qin army, then he would send 5,000 troops to block Zhao Kuo’s army. Then he would send 25,000 troops to surround the rear of the Zhao army, to cut off the Zhao army’s supply line. These were the three parts of the plan.

Zhao Kuo went to fight Bai Qi, Bai Qi’s army began to retreat, Zhao Kuo gave chase. Near Changping is Mount Taihang, there are many mountains, many ravines and valleys.

The Qin vanguard led Zhao Kuo’s army to a valley, where Zhao Kuo led 200,000 troops to pursue the Qin army. After reaching the Qin army’s defensive fortifications, Zhao Kuo desperately attacked the Qin army’s main camp, hoping to break through the Qin army’s main camp.

As a result, the Qin army’s defense system was very strong and tight, and the Zhao army was blocked in front of the Qin army’s main camp. At this time, the Zhao army wanted to retreat but… it was no longer possible. The 5,000 Qin troops had already sealed off the valley, and Zhao Kuo was basically in a dilemma.

In the Zhao headquarters, there were another 200,000 troops. Behind the Zhao headquarters was the Zhao food supply route. In the past, Lian Po had used his main army to defend this food route.

Because Zhao Kuo led his troops to the campaign, those who remained in the main camp could not defend this supply route and were cut off by Bai Qi’s 25,000 troops. As a result, Zhao’s army was left without food, making it difficult to continue the war.

Confession: The Zhao army was divided and surrounded, its food supply was cut off, and it was besieged in the valley for 46 days. Zhao Kuo’s soldiers… ate each other. At this time, the King of Qin personally went to the front line, recruiting all the young men over 15 years old of the Qin state to participate in this decisive battle.

Zhao Kuo had no other choice, so he selected 5,000 elite soldiers, wearing heavy armor, and risked his life to break the siege. As a result, Zhao Kuo was hit by a stray arrow and died. The Qin army cut off Zhao Kuo’s head to recruit the troops in the Zhao headquarters to surrender. 400,000 Zhao troops surrendered to Qin. At that time, the Qin army only had 200,000. Because he was worried that the Zhao army would act recklessly, Wu’an Army General Bai Qi gave an extremely cruel order.

That night, Bai Qi secretly issued a military order for all Qin soldiers to tie their hair with white cloth. Anyone without white cloth on their head was from Zhao. Kill all of them. 400,000 Zhao soldiers died in the valley in one night.

In “The Records of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty” it is said that at that time, the blood of the Zhao army that was killed flowed like a river, gurgling gurgling, and the water of the Yanggu region turned red. (Yanggu was the region where the Zhao army was besieged).

In order to encourage war, the Qin state promoted the title of whoever could capture the enemy’s head. The Qin state had more than 20 titles, so at that time, they cut down 400,000 Zhao army heads and piled them in the middle of the Qin army’s headquarters. Bai Qi called it Skull Mountain (Skull Mountain), and later changed the name of Yang Valley to Shagu (Valley of the Massacre).

Zhao Kuo’s discussion of military strategy in the study was clear and coherent, but in reality he sent 400,000 soldiers to the other world, leaving behind an idiom “only discussing military strategy on paper”, behind each word was the blood of 400,000 Zhao soldiers.

In the 11th year of the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, when marching to Yanggu, the ancient battlefield of Changping, thought of the tragic situation of the 400,000 soldiers and soldiers of Zhao who had died and piled up in piles at that time. He sighed in sorrow and ordered the high monks of Shuilu to set up a dojo to deliver the souls of the deceased for 7 days and 7 nights. At the same time, he also built a temple on the mountain called the Skull Temple.

After Bai Qi killed 400,000 soldiers, he only left 240 of them so that they could return to Zhao to proclaim the power of the Qin army. At that time, in the capital city of Handan, Zhao, every house was crying for the dead, the family members were wearing mourning clothes, wives were crying for their husbands, children were crying for their fathers… the sound of mournful crying filled the streets and alleys, extremely sad.

The Qin army took advantage of the victory to pursue and prepare to attack Handan and destroy Zhao in one battle. At that time, Zhao was facing a great disaster. How could everyone save the country that was in danger? Pingyuan Army Zhao Sheng said to a few of his subordinates: “Do you have any measures to save Zhao?“, everyone was silent.

At that moment, Su Tan’s younger brother Su Dai, who was a guest in Binh Nguyen Quan’s house, said: “Give me some money, I can help you solve this problem”.

Ping Yuan Jun gave Su Dai some money. Su Dai took that money to the Qin state and went to pay his respects to Prime Minister Ying Hou Fan Shu. He asked Fan Shu: “I heard that Bai Qi killed Zhao Kuo, the son of Ma Fujun Zhao She?“. Pham Thu said: “Yes”. To Dai asked more: “I heard that the General of Wu’an, Bai Qi, is preparing to destroy the state of Zhao?“. Pham Thu also said: “That’s right”.

To Dai said: “If we say that Wu Anjun destroyed Zhao, which was the strongest of the ‘Three Jins’ (Zhao – Wei – Han), and could then destroy Han and Wei, then destroying the two countries of Yan and Chu is also reasonable.

If that is the case, then General Bai Qi of Wu’an will become the greatest contributor to the unification of the world. The King of Qin will make him the Third Duke. At that time, his status will be higher than that of yours, the Prime Minister.”.

Pham Thu said: “So what should I do?“. To Dai said: “This is very simple, you should tell the King of Qin that, in the battle of Changping, the Qin state has been fighting for two years, the soldiers suffered many casualties, so let them rest a bit.”

So Pham Thu said to the King of Qin: “The Qin soldiers have suffered a lot, so let them rest.”The King of Qin immediately ordered the Qin army to withdraw from Zhao.

Bai Qi had his own way of thinking. He believed that attacking Zhao at this time would have three advantages. First, Handan was not well prepared for combat and defense. Second, Zhao’s main army had been completely destroyed. Not only had Zhao lost its morale, but its army also lacked sufficient soldiers.

Third, if they attacked Handan, they only needed to attack quickly and win quickly. At that time, the vassal armies would not be able to save Zhao in time, and Zhao would be destroyed. However, because the King of Qin ordered the army to retreat, Bai Qi of Wu’an had no choice but to retreat.

Commentary: In the Battle of Changping, Zhao made consecutive wrong decisions. It was not wrong for Zhao to take over the Shangdang region that Han had handed over, and the war between Qin and Zhao was inevitable. However, after taking over the Shangdang region in 262 BC, Zhao did not prepare well for the next two years. This was the first mistake.

In 260 BC, when Qin attacked Shangdang, Zhao sought peace with Qin instead of asking for help from the vassals, which was the second mistake. Next, Zhao abandoned Lian Po’s defensive strategy and trusted Zhao Kuo to risk an attack, which was the third mistake. Zhao Kuo was besieged in Changping, but Zhao did not come to the rescue in time, nor did it ask for help from Chu, Wei, etc., which was the fourth mistake.

After Bai Qi returned to his country, he was extremely dissatisfied, because he was about to destroy Zhao, but this great achievement was disrupted and failed by Ying Hou. After returning to his country, he publicly declared: “After the battle of Changping, the capital city of Handan was in great fear overnight. If the Qin state had attacked the Zhao state at that time, within a month, I could have guaranteed to capture the capital city of Handan. It’s a pity that this Marquis Ying did not know the times and missed such a good opportunity.”.

These words later reached the ears of the King of Qin, who felt regretful after hearing them. So the following year, around September 259 BC, the Qin state once again attacked the Zhao state, and the general sent this time was Wang Ling – because the general Bai Qi had fallen ill at that time. At this time, Wang Ling’s attack on the Zhao state was not very favorable, and Lian Po had set up a defense system, and he defeated Wang Ling’s army one after another.

Seeing that Wang Ling was still losing, the King of Qin wanted Bai Qi to lead the army and said to Bai Qi: “You go to the front line”. Bach Khoi said: “TIt was not long before the battle of Changping was over. Zhao had completed the defense of Handan, and had done so thoroughly..

At the same time, that year, I withdrew my troops, we made peace with Zhao, Zhao ceded some cities to us, now the ink on the peace treaty with Zhao is not yet dry, we go to fight them, it is equivalent to us having no credibility.

In addition, the duration of this defense of Zhao is quite long, it will give the vassal states a chance to reinforce them. Thus, Zhao in the north will fight us, Chu and Wei will fight us in the south, our Qin cannot win this battle, so I suggest that we do not need to fight anymore.“.

Not only did Bai Qi not go, he also said that this battle could not be won. At that time, the King of Qin was also angry but still impatient, so he told Wang Ling to withdraw his troops and sent Wang He, but Wang He also could not win. Afterwards, Bai Qi said: “God said that we cannot win.“. His words also implied ‘laughing at other people’s pain’. As a result, these words reached the ears of the King of Qin.

Bai Qi said some sarcastic words, having previously massacred 400,000 Zhao soldiers, what will be his fate in the end? We invite readers to watch the next part.