Changping Ash Soil

"The Ashes of Changping" is a tragic historical novel with the Changping War as its core. It is based on the background of the Qin and Zhao struggles for hegemony in the late Warring States period. It takes the political intrigues in the court, the changes on the battlefield, and the sinking and struggle of human nature in desperate situations as the main narrative line. It completely lays out the entire process of the Changping War from the undercurrent to the overthrow of the national destiny. At the beginning of the story, Fan Ju, the prime minister of Qin, devised a vicious plan to alienate Zhao. He stirred up the Zhao court with rumors of huge sums of money. Taking advantage of the suspicion and eagerness for quick success of the young King Zhao Xiaocheng, he forced the famous general Lian Po, who was mature and prudent and had a strategy of clinging to the weak Qin, to resign from his post as the commander-in-chief of Changping. Zhao Kuo, who was familiar with military science but lacked actual combat experience and was arrogant because of his talent, was ordered to take charge of Zhao's 400,000 elites. He abandoned the hundred-mile barrier defense system that Lian Po had painstakingly constructed and insisted on abandoning defense and advancing aggressively in pursuit of a quick victory. The Qin State secretly appointed Bai Qi, Lord of Wu'an, as its commander, and set up a trap to lure the enemy deep into the enemy's territory. He pretended to be defeated and showed weakness to lure the main force of the Zhao army into the narrow valley, and then cut off the rear with surprise troops, divided and encircled them, and trapped 400,000 Zhao troops to death in the Changping Valley. During the long siege, food and grass were completely cut off, military discipline collapsed, the bottom line of humanity was shattered by extreme hunger and despair, and the valley became a purgatory on earth. Zhao Kuo repented and struggled in the desperate situation, and finally died for his country; the leaderless Zhao Kuo's remnant army had no way out but surrendered, only to meet a tragic ending in history. The novel not only describes the machinations of the Xianyang court and the impetuous suspicions of the Handan royal city, but also portrays the character and destiny of the generals and the various behaviors of the soldiers at the bottom. It also describes the cruelty of war in troubled times, the weight of temple decisions, and the gap between ideal talk and the reality of the battlefield.