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Battle of Changping
The Battle of Changping (長平之戰) was a military campaign during the Warring States period of China that was fought between the two strongest military powers of the central plains, the State of Qin, State of Zhao northwest of present-day Gaoping). After a bitter two-year stalemate stretching 262 to 260 BC, the battle ended in a decisive victory for Qin forces. A vast majority of Zhao captives were ruthlessly executed, an unrecoverable loss of manpower and strategic reserve that permanently crippled the State of Zhao.
It is known as the greatest and longest battle of human antiquity. Infamous for being one of the deadliest battles in human history, several hundred thousand soldiers were buried alive in the aftermath. The main historical records for the events of this period is sourced from the Records of the Grand Historian, written more than a century later, which estimated roughly 450,000 dead on the Zhao side and 250,000 dead on the Qin side. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (685–762) later built a temple over a collection of some of the human remains, and scattered bones and mass graves continue to be discovered on the site today.
In 265 BC, Qin attacked the State of Han and captured Qinyang, which effectively cut off Han's Shangdang Commandery (in modern-day Changzhi, Shanxi province) from its southern heartland (in modern western Henan), making Shangdang an isolated northern exclave. Within the following years, the Qin army further isolated Shangdang from Han by capturing the crucial mountain passes and fortresses across the Taihang Mountains, and Shangdang was poised to fall.
Rather than seeing Shangdang being taken by Qin, Shangdang's governing commander, Feng Ting, decided to offer the region to Zhao. Shangdang was a productive and strategically important region just west of Zhao's capital Handan, and its capture would allow Qin easy incursions east into Zhao heartland, so King Xiaocheng of Zhao (趙孝成王) accepted and dispatched senior general Lian Po to lead an army and secure the region from the encroaching Qin.
In 262 BC, the Qin army, led by Wang He, invaded Shangdang, and Feng Ting had to evacuate the commandery. The Zhao army also mobilized, and after arriving at the front line, Lian Po set up three defensive lines pivoted south of Changping Pass (at the border between present-day Gaoping and Zhangzi County).
In April, the Zhao army first encountered the Qin army west of Gaoping Pass (at the border between present-day Gaoping and Qinshui County, Shanxi) on Lian Po's first defensive line, and suffered several defeats during initial confrontations with the Qin vanguards. The Qin army killed the Zhao commander in Gaoping and quickly capitalized on the momentum of these successes, capturing Gaoping Pass as well as three other Zhao strongholds nearby, and the first defensive line collapsed. Having assessed the enemy's strength, Lian Po concluded the only way to counter the Qin offensive was to avoid field battles and hold the second defensive line along the Dan River (丹水, the largest tributary of Qin River, which traverses the present-day Gaoping city). He started focusing on further reinforcing positions on the east bank of Dan River valley using fortified ramparts built along the mountain foothills, hoping to exhaust the Qin army, as Changping was much farther away from Qin territory than Zhao and keeping the army supplied would be much more taxing to the Qin due to the more rugged and winding mountain routes in the west.
The Qin army did attempt crossing the Dan River and even once managed to breach Lian Po's second defensive line, but they did not have enough strength to exploit it and were beaten back. By July, the two sides were forced into a bitter stalemate across the river, which lasted the next two years. Both sides massively reinforced their positions, with total combatants numbering around a million in early 260 BC.
While Lian Po's strategy of holding and wearing out the Qin army was working, problems started to arise back home. The Qin side were frustrated and desperate to break the stalemate, so they sent spies into Zhao and Han to spread rumors that Lian Po was too senile and cowardly to fight. King Xiaocheng of Zhao was already dissatisfied with Po's strategy of dragging out the war for so long, which was also very logistically taxing for Zhao, so he decided to replace Lian Po with Zhao Kuo, the overconfident yet untested son of the famous late general Zhao She.
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Battle of Changping AI simulator
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Battle of Changping
The Battle of Changping (長平之戰) was a military campaign during the Warring States period of China that was fought between the two strongest military powers of the central plains, the State of Qin, State of Zhao northwest of present-day Gaoping). After a bitter two-year stalemate stretching 262 to 260 BC, the battle ended in a decisive victory for Qin forces. A vast majority of Zhao captives were ruthlessly executed, an unrecoverable loss of manpower and strategic reserve that permanently crippled the State of Zhao.
It is known as the greatest and longest battle of human antiquity. Infamous for being one of the deadliest battles in human history, several hundred thousand soldiers were buried alive in the aftermath. The main historical records for the events of this period is sourced from the Records of the Grand Historian, written more than a century later, which estimated roughly 450,000 dead on the Zhao side and 250,000 dead on the Qin side. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (685–762) later built a temple over a collection of some of the human remains, and scattered bones and mass graves continue to be discovered on the site today.
In 265 BC, Qin attacked the State of Han and captured Qinyang, which effectively cut off Han's Shangdang Commandery (in modern-day Changzhi, Shanxi province) from its southern heartland (in modern western Henan), making Shangdang an isolated northern exclave. Within the following years, the Qin army further isolated Shangdang from Han by capturing the crucial mountain passes and fortresses across the Taihang Mountains, and Shangdang was poised to fall.
Rather than seeing Shangdang being taken by Qin, Shangdang's governing commander, Feng Ting, decided to offer the region to Zhao. Shangdang was a productive and strategically important region just west of Zhao's capital Handan, and its capture would allow Qin easy incursions east into Zhao heartland, so King Xiaocheng of Zhao (趙孝成王) accepted and dispatched senior general Lian Po to lead an army and secure the region from the encroaching Qin.
In 262 BC, the Qin army, led by Wang He, invaded Shangdang, and Feng Ting had to evacuate the commandery. The Zhao army also mobilized, and after arriving at the front line, Lian Po set up three defensive lines pivoted south of Changping Pass (at the border between present-day Gaoping and Zhangzi County).
In April, the Zhao army first encountered the Qin army west of Gaoping Pass (at the border between present-day Gaoping and Qinshui County, Shanxi) on Lian Po's first defensive line, and suffered several defeats during initial confrontations with the Qin vanguards. The Qin army killed the Zhao commander in Gaoping and quickly capitalized on the momentum of these successes, capturing Gaoping Pass as well as three other Zhao strongholds nearby, and the first defensive line collapsed. Having assessed the enemy's strength, Lian Po concluded the only way to counter the Qin offensive was to avoid field battles and hold the second defensive line along the Dan River (丹水, the largest tributary of Qin River, which traverses the present-day Gaoping city). He started focusing on further reinforcing positions on the east bank of Dan River valley using fortified ramparts built along the mountain foothills, hoping to exhaust the Qin army, as Changping was much farther away from Qin territory than Zhao and keeping the army supplied would be much more taxing to the Qin due to the more rugged and winding mountain routes in the west.
The Qin army did attempt crossing the Dan River and even once managed to breach Lian Po's second defensive line, but they did not have enough strength to exploit it and were beaten back. By July, the two sides were forced into a bitter stalemate across the river, which lasted the next two years. Both sides massively reinforced their positions, with total combatants numbering around a million in early 260 BC.
While Lian Po's strategy of holding and wearing out the Qin army was working, problems started to arise back home. The Qin side were frustrated and desperate to break the stalemate, so they sent spies into Zhao and Han to spread rumors that Lian Po was too senile and cowardly to fight. King Xiaocheng of Zhao was already dissatisfied with Po's strategy of dragging out the war for so long, which was also very logistically taxing for Zhao, so he decided to replace Lian Po with Zhao Kuo, the overconfident yet untested son of the famous late general Zhao She.