Phenomenologically, in the first sixteen years of Qin Shihuang's rule, there were wars almost every year. The unified war of the Qin dynasty to destroy the six countries generally began with Shi Teng's destruction of Korea in the seventeenth year of Qin Shihuang. This division has its own reasons. The war from the first year of Qin Shihuang to the sixteenth year was still a traditional war to attack the city pool slightly. Even on a large scale, it was aimed at attacking the city pool slightly. It was not until the Korean War began that it really became the purpose of the Korean War.
The sixteen years before Qin Shihuang, especially the three or four years of Qin Shihuang, happened to be the most serious period of natural disasters since the pre-Qin period. Drought, locust plague, plague and famine broke out in concentration, and the six countries were miserable, and Qin was also miserable. But Qin can wage war to divert pressure. But this kind of war seems to be a winning streak, but in fact it is to support the war by fighting, and the poor eat even poorer.
Meng Ao's main sites are mainly distributed in Hanoi, the land beyond the river, the north and south banks of the Yellow River and the Wei-Han Capital Circle. The capital circle in Wei and Jin Dynasties was relatively rich. However, in October (the fourth year of Qin Shihuang), locusts came from the east and covered the sun. The world is an epidemic. There are thousands of stones among the people, and they are first-class. This means that the crops in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, especially in the capital circle of Wei and Jin Dynasties, were looted by locusts, so locusts moved westward and rushed to Guanzhong. This year, two major events happened in Wei, one was the death of Xin Lingjun, and the other was the death of Wei Anli. Wei's economic downturn and political transformation have great defects.
Therefore, Meng Ao, the general of Qin Dynasty, decisively sent troops in the following year, laying a solid foundation for the twenty cities of Wei and establishing the East County. The war went so smoothly, not only because Qin was forced by famine caused by locust plague, but also because Wei Han was empty by locust plague. The capital circle of Wei and Jin dynasties can make up for the deficit by drawing blood from other border counties, but it finally makes up for the deficit of Qin counties. In the past, I only said that Meng Ao completed the division of North and South vassals from the military strategy. In fact, from an economic point of view, Qin tore apart a large piece of the northern part of the Wei capital circle along the river, deployed an army here, and reduced the number of meals in the rear area.
The battle of Dongjun triggered the last joint attack of Zhao on Qin. Except for the first year of Qin Shihuang, Zhao fought Qin in Jinyang, followed by Wei or Yan. In the year when the plague of locusts ravaged the world, Zhao attacked Yan State in Li Mu and pulled out Wu Sui and Fangcheng. No matter whether the capital circle of Handan was affected or not, Zhao cut the meat of Yan State to supplement nutrition.
Zhao also persuaded Qin to send the prince who was taken hostage back to China through diplomatic means. The newly established East County of Qin State is located in Wei, Nantong, with Zhao in the north and Qi in the east. Qin has been involved for a long time, and he didn't want to be attacked by Wei and Zhao at this time, so he had a good relationship with Zhao for some time. Zhao knew Qin's strategic intention, and wanted to take advantage of Qin's precarious position to strike a blow at Qin. So there was this alliance.
The record of this alliance is quite confusing. The five-nation allied forces once invaded Guanzhong, but were later defeated by the Qin counter-offensive and seized part of the territory. I still neglected the food problem too much before. This war is very different from the previous war that attacked Qin vertically. In the past, in the battle of attacking Qin, the allied forces were not too short of food and grass. In particular, Meng Changjun organized the division of Qi, Han and Wei, and attacked Qin Guguan for three years, almost reaching the hinterland of Guanzhong. At that time, there was really no shortage of money and food. Han Qi has money, and Zhou royal family, Western Zhou Jun and Eastern Zhou Jun come to squeeze it. But this time is different. Zhoudi became the base of Sanchuan County of Qin State, and it was difficult for the Allies to get supplies from here. This determines the course of the war, unlike before, when one side can quit, fighting our way out in the famine depends on one share of cruelty. I infer that Qin Jun has adopted the strategy of luring the enemy deeper this time. Now it seems that Qinzhuang may have to put the battlefield on the mainland, because its inventory is not as strong as Qinzhuang's.
In fact, Zhao did not lose too much in this defeat, and turned to cutting the meat of Qi State to supplement nutrition. Later, he got the big granary in Hanoi-the wild field from Wei. Unfortunately, the Cheng Jiao Rebellion and the Great Wheel Rebellion broke out successively in Qin State, and the situation was once slightly favorable to Zhao State. Why did Qin and Zhao Shuangxiong fight the hardest next? To put it bluntly, Zhao at this time is not only the first powerful country in Shandong, but also a country with less serious losses under the first round of natural disasters. Zhao tried to make up for it from Yan, Qi and Wei. Just like Qin, Zhao supported the war by fighting, and the poor ate even poorer.
From the first year of Qin Shihuang to the tenth year of Qin Shihuang, during this period, many warlords were forced by successive natural disasters. Both Qin and Zhao Shuangxiong are winners, and most other countries are unlucky to be robbed. Chu in the south is a little better and less affected by the disaster in the Yellow River basin. However, the State of Qin has a key reason that the six countries do not have-Zheng Guoqu.
It started as a conspiracy, but based on the objective needs of Guanzhong's economic development, Qin had to fix it. Guanzhong plain is rich, but its potential is limited by the saline-alkali land in Weibei. Dujiangyan is rich in Shu county, but it is blocked by the majestic Qinling Mountains. It is not easy to transport a large amount of grain from Chengdu Plain to the battlefield in the Central Plains (because it is extremely convenient to transport it to the Yangtze River valley downstream), which is not a long-term solution. Zheng Guoqu was finally built, and the internal political contradictions and economic disadvantages of Qin were solved. At this stage, the state of Qin was different from the past, and the grain production capacity was greatly improved. Qin's next move will further widen the gap between itself and the six countries in logistics strength.
In the eleventh year of Qin Shihuang, Wang Jian, Huan Kun and Ye were at war. Zhao got land from Wei, and his income increased a lot in just a few years. Wang Jian fell here, and Qin was able to have hundreds of thousands of soldiers on his land, which directly threatened Zhao Guo and the capital circle of Handan. This variable makes the comprehensive strength of the two countries trade off. The army in Hanoi, the state of Qin, no longer relies on Guanzhong to transport grain, but can take it from nearby. In other words, the transportation pressure in the border counties such as Guanzhong rear area, Hedong county, Sanchuan county, Dong Jun county and Shangdang county is greatly reduced, which is conducive to economic recovery.
Qin Shihuang changed the war goal of destroying the country because the material foundation was ok, and the six countries just had their own defects and had the opportunity to destroy the country.
When Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms, there was a "great hunger" when Han destroyed it, and there was a "great hunger" when Zhao destroyed it. The last word never appeared again. There are several points worth noting.
1. The great famine during the demise of Korea was probably due to the "earthquake" mentioned in the original historical records, that is, the reduction of production caused by the earthquake.
2. When the Great Famine destroyed Zhao, there was a background that Zhao himself suffered a major earthquake and it was a great famine (unfortunately, Yanqi could not be robbed this time). After Qin destroyed Zhao, it was impossible to go hungry after taking this offer.
3. Wang Jian's method of destroying Zhao is the stalemate method of burning money and consuming grain, and he can't afford to play with insufficient logistics ability. "Hungry people" can only persist for 46 days in the battle of Changping. In the battle of Qin and Zhao, the two sides invested hundreds of thousands of troops and held each other for more than a year.
This incident will cause a huge famine after the war, but it is not recommended to look at Qin's motive of destroying Zhao from the perspective of hungry people's predation. It was because Zhao was poor that Qin wanted to fight Reservoir Dogs. Not only can the State of Qin not afford food, but it will destroy the State of Zhao to support itself. Qin's destruction of the six countries did not rely on the nomadic people's fighting to support the war, but was still the agricultural people's "soldiers and horses did not move food and grass first." Prior to this, when the Seven Chivalrs were fighting against poverty, such as the last few years after the Battle of Handan, Qin Zhaowang chose a truce to support the people. The continuous operation of hungry people forming an army is not a routine of the warring States period, but a wind of the yellow turban insurrectionary.
These six countries can survive without teachers and land, and their economic base can be restored because of their sound organization. Not this time, mainly because the economy collapsed first during the catastrophe. This is by no means what some people think that the six countries are still rich (Qi State, which has only accumulated small Qian Qian without fighting for many years, is an exception). With the blessing of Zheng Guoqu and Dujiangyan, Qin Shihuang gained courage and appetite and took advantage of people's crisis to engage in mergers and acquisitions. However, Qin ate too much, had indigestion and had a heavy burden on his back.
The Qin dynasty engaged in construction, and the financial expenditure was sufficient. Needless to say, Lingnan and the three counties along the Great Wall. Even a small county like Ganling County in Dongting County makes a living by importing grain and grass from other places. Therefore, the corvee of the six countries is heavy, and each capital circle has lost its original central position, so it is necessary to hand over taxes to the customs. Therefore, the grain and rice in Qin land should be used for all kinds of big projects, big projects and big expenses, and the price of rice has soared.
In fact, from several groups of grain price data recorded in unearthed Qin bamboo slips and handed down documents, we can understand the grain production in different periods of Qin State/Qin Dynasty from the side. Besides, there are some other materials for reference and comparison.
If there were no particularly serious natural disasters, or too tragic losses in the war, the economic resilience of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States was actually good, and overall it was good. A few years' rest is usually enough to fight another big battle. Especially in Qin at the end of the Warring States period, the strength of several rich counties added up, which was equivalent to the size of a "public" in the early Warring States period.
After the Battle of Handan, the state of Qin was badly weakened, but within a few years, Zhao Haoqi of Qin was revived as the king of Qin Zhuang in his later years. Of course, an important reason is that Li Bing built Dujiangyan during this period. Dujiangyan and Zheng Guoqu were absent in the battle of Changping.
From the Warring States to the Qin and Han Dynasties, the main grain production bases were those. By the end of the Warring States period, most of them were owned by the State of Qin. Even if the factors such as the popularity of Niu Geng in Qin State and the advanced water conservancy engineering technology are excluded, at least the original grain production capacity can be maintained. The economic strength of the Seven Heroes in the Warring States Period is changing, because the ownership of land and labor has changed. (Unfortunately, there is no more detailed tax statistics of the Qin Dynasty. Qin system divided different tax rates according to land fertility and the actual amount of cultivated land. The tax rate of high-yield fields is higher than that of low-yield fields. This can be calculated from the side of grain production level in old Qin and old six counties)
If we talk too much, we will analyze specific problems, and it will be boring to generalize.