Because it happened so suddenly, the ministers were frightened and everyone lost their normalcy. According to the laws of the Qin State, the ministers of the palace were not allowed to carry any weapons, and the warriors were all under the royal highness, and they could not go to the palace without advice.

At this time, the doctor Xia Wuhe threw a medicine bag towards Jing Xuan, and Jing Xuan stretched out his hand to block it. Ying Zheng took advantage of this moment to turn the sword behind his back and pull it out, turning around and cutting off Jing Xuan's left leg. Jing Xuan fell to the ground and threw the dagger at Yingzheng, unfortunately hitting the copper pillar.

Ying Zheng slashed eight swords at Jing Xuan, and the samurai rushed to the palace and killed Jing Xuan. Afterwards, Ying Zheng commented on his merits and demerits, rewarded the ministers and dealt with the crimes, among which Xia Wu and intercepted Jing Huang for meritorious service, and rewarded 200 gold pounds.

Ying Zheng was furious, and in 227 BC (the twentieth year of the reign of King Qin of Qin), he ordered the armies of Wang Jian and Xin Sheng to cross Yishui and defeat the two armies of Yan and Dai to the west of Yishui.

In the following year, the Qin army captured Ji, the capital of the Yan Kingdom. Yan Wangxi, Prince Dan, Dai Wangjia and others led all the elite troops to retreat eastward to Liaodong, and Wang Jian returned to Qin on the grounds of illness.

Qin's general Li Xin pursued King Yan and Prince Dan closely, Prince Dan hid in the Yanshui River, and Dai Wang Jia advised Yan Wang Xi to kill Prince Dan in order to seek forgiveness from Yingzheng. Yan Wangxi accepted Dai Wangjia's suggestion and sent an envoy to kill Prince Dan and sacrifice his head to Yingzheng. At that time, the main force of the Qin army was almost transferred to the southern front to attack the state of Chu, and Yan Wangxi and Dai Wangjia were able to survive in Liaodong.

Five years later (the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King Qin), Wang Ji was ordered by Ying Zheng to sweep away the remnants of the Yan State in Liaodong, and captured Yan Wangxi and Dai Wang Jia, and the Yan State was completely destroyed.

264 BC. Tian Jian, the king of Qi, ascended the throne and reigned for 44 years, assisted by his mother Queen in the early days of his reign.

Because Qi is located on the eastern coast, Qin frequently attacked Sanjin and Chu, and these four countries only sought to save themselves in the face of Qin's attack, so during the reign of Qi Wangjian, Qi did not suffer much war in the territory of Qi, but this peace was based on the sacrifice of the other four countries, because these four countries blocked Qin for Tian Qi, Tian Qi could enjoy peace.

On the other hand. During her lifetime, the queen tolerated Qin everywhere. The Four Kingdoms did not come to their aid, and even after the defeat of Zhao in the Battle of Changping, they did not advise Qi Wangjian to come to Zhao's aid in time, and as a result, the Qin army then easily surrounded Handan. Zhao's national strength was greatly reduced. Sow the cause for the demise of the Six Kingdoms.

After the death of the queen. The Qin State bought the prime minister of Qi with a lot of money, and the queen family was born in Housheng, so that the Qi State was not in harmony with the Qin. did not strengthen war preparations, Qi Wangjian even went to Qin in person in 237 BC (the tenth year of the reign of King Qin), and Yingzheng set up a banquet in Xianyang to entertain him.

After Qin destroyed the Five Kingdoms, King Jiancai of Qi suddenly felt threatened by Qin, and hurriedly gathered his army to the western border and cut off contact with Qin, but it was too late.

In 221 BC (the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King Qin), Ying Zheng ordered Wang Ji to lead his army south to attack Qi after destroying Yan on the grounds that Qi refused to allow Qin envoys to visit Qi.

The Qin army avoided the main force of the Qi army in the west, and moved south from the south of the Yan state, all the way like a bamboo, almost without resistance, and the army reached the Qi capital Linzi (now north of Zibo, Shandong), and the Qi army was taken by surprise. Qi Wangjian listened to Hou Sheng's advice, surrendered without a fight, and was later moved to Gongcheng.

After the Qin army invaded Linzi, no one dared to resist. However, afterwards, the people of Qi complained that Qi Wangjian did not join forces with the princes to attack Qin earlier, and only obeyed Qin's words, resulting in the death of the country.

The fall of Qi also marked the end of the Warring States Period, which ended more than 500 years of long-term division and strife among princes, and finally established the Qin Empire, the first centralized monarch in Chinese history. This year, King Yingzheng of Qin was thirty-nine years old.

In 242 BC (the fifth year of the reign of King Qin), the Qin army annexed twenty cities of Wei and set up Dongjun in this place, and in the second year (the sixth year of the reign of King Qin), Han, Wei, Zhao, Wei, and Chu formed a coalition to attack Qin and occupy Shoulingyi.

The state of Qin sent troops, and the five kingdoms stopped their march. The Qin state then captured the Wei state, and Wei Junjiao only led his clan to move to Yewang, and the Hanoi county of the Wei state was preserved due to the dangerous mountain, but Chaoge was captured by the Qin state, and Puyang, the original capital of the Wei state, was merged into the eastern county of the Qin state.

After Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms, the defense of the country was still retained by Yingzheng. It was not until the first year of Qin II that he ordered the dissolution of the country, abolished Wei Junjiao as a concubine, and Wei Guo became the last Kwantung country to be destroyed by Qin.

Therefore, some scholars believe that this may be related to the historical mystery of the identity of the empress of Qin Shi Huang, that is, the queen (or queen) of Yingzheng may have come from the family surnamed Ji Weiguo, and the son Fusu may have been born to the queen (or queen) of Weiguo (there is another theory that Fusu's biological mother was the princess of Chu), which also explains the reason why Qin II Hu Hai abolished Wei Junjiao immediately after he ascended the throne, that is, after Qin II killed his brother Fusu, he cut off the threat of the Eastern rebel army using the influence of Fusu and his relatives to defend the country. ”

Many literati in the past have discussed the reasons why the Six Kingdoms were destroyed by the Qin State, among which the Six Kingdoms Theory of the Three Su Fathers and Sons (Su Xun, Su Xuan, and Su Zhe), who ranked among the eight great masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, is more famous.

Su Xun believed that the reason for the collapse of the Six Kingdoms was "the disadvantage of bribing Qin".

Su Xuan believed that the Qin State easily destroyed the Six Kingdoms because of the monks, and after the unification, they died quickly because they regarded the soldiers as useless, probably because the Song Dynasty scholars Zhang Yuan and Wu Hao rebelled against the Song Dynasty and defected to the Xia because of the repeated attempts.

As for Su Zhe, he started from a geostrategic point of view, pointing out that the six states of Shandong must keep Han and Wei as barriers, and that Han and Wei were located in the Central Plains, and when the two countries were not protected, the other four states could only be broken by each of the Qin states.

In fact, the demise of the Six Kingdoms was mainly affected by many factors such as internal and external factors, and the arguments of the Three Sus taken together were closer to the truth that Qin was able to unify the Six Kingdoms, but there were still shortcomings.

Confucius once said, "Sufficient food, foot soldiers, the trust of the people." The Qin people can achieve the three points of sufficient food, foot soldiers, and the convincing of the countrymen, as long as the person who comes to power is not a faint monarch, he can naturally merge the six countries.

For example, the Qin people were not afraid of the salt and iron blockade of the six countries of Shandong, with Zhengguoqu in the north and Dujiangyan in the south, and had achieved a little "sufficient food"; military merits were awarded, the first rank was easy to merit, and the soldiers dared to fight, and they had achieved a little "foot soldier", while Shang Ying's migration of wood showed that he was "convinced" by the people, so he had an overwhelming advantage over the six countries of Shandong.

In addition, the process and system of weapons manufacturing in the Qin State were very strict, and every weapon from the production workers, warehouse storage, and the person responsible for the workshop to the director of the central government must be recorded on the product with his real name.

This system, known as the "Le Ming Gongguan", is not only a product quality control system, but also a product circulation supervision system, which can track the whereabouts of each weapon product from beginning to end, so the Qin State weapons are extremely sophisticated, and the Qin Dynasty bronze Ge "Seventeen Years of Prime Minister Qi Ge" discovered in 1982 is a concrete example (now in the Tianjin Museum).

In addition, the Qin state was strategically located, and there were no strong or evenly matched enemies in its three directions, so it could concentrate on expanding eastward in unison. Even if the expedition to the east fails, there is a solid mountain and Hangu Pass, which can be enough to defend itself, recuperate, and wait for the six countries of Shandong to attack each other.

Compared with the narrow land of the Three Jin Dynasty, the Qin State can be said to be vast and sparsely populated, so the Qin State often recruits the people of the Three Jin Dynasty to the Qin State to farm the land, and gives them land houses, exempts them from military service, and specializes in farming and weaving, so that the local people of the Qin State can fully devote themselves to military service and take turns to fight.

Historical records record that the people of Qin were brave at that time, but they were very simple, and in terms of soldiers, Qin was the strongest, followed by Sanjin, and Qi people were the most cowardly.

In order to prevent the people from becoming weak, the Qin State took measures to minimize the contact between the Qin people and the people of the Kwantung region. For example, in 325 BC, after King Huiwen of Qin sent Zhang Yi to take Shaanxi County of Wei, he sent the locals back to Wei. Even if the Qin State recruited the people of the Three Jin Dynasty to reclaim the land, it only placed them in the Xinli area and did not come into contact with the people of the Qin State. Maintaining a strong civil culture was also the main factor in Qin's elimination of the Six Kingdoms. (To be continued......)