Qualla: Battle of Changping https://qualla.com/battle-of-changping en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:38 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/2/7/battle-of-changping-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Changping https://qualla.com/battle-of-changping Battle of Changping: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-changping/ Photo credit SY, CC BY-SA 4.0. His father had warned against it. On his deathbed, the general Zhao She told his wife: never let their son Zhao Kuo command an army. The young man could debate military philosophy brilliantly -- so brilliantly that his own father sometimes lost arguments. But Kuo treated war as an intellectual exercise, approaching risk with the confidence of someone who had never watched soldiers die. In the summer of 260 BC, Zhao Kuo arrived at Changping to take command of the Zhao army, replaced the cautious defensive strategy of his predecessor Lian Po with an aggressive offensive, and led several hundred thousand men into the most devastating military trap in ancient history.

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Image: SY | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/2/7/battle-of-changping-wp/ww27-battle-of-changping-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Changping: The Trap at Shangdang https://qualla.com/battle-of-changping/ Photo credit Antigng, CC BY-SA 4.0. The chain of events began five years earlier when Qin attacked the State of Han and captured Qinyang, cutting off Han's Shangdang Commandery from its southern heartland. Rather than surrender the territory to Qin, Shangdang's governor Feng Ting offered the region to the neighbori...

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Image: Antigng | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/2/7/battle-of-changping-wp/ww27-battle-of-changping-the-trap-at-shangdang.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Changping: The General Who Talked Too Well https://qualla.com/battle-of-changping/ Photo credit 1969社论, CC BY-SA 4.0. For two years, the stalemate held. Both sides reinforced their positions until the total number of combatants approached a million. The cost of sustaining these armies strained both states to breaking. Qin, desperate to force a resolution, sent spies into Zhao to spread rumors th...

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Image: 1969社论 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/2/7/battle-of-changping-wp/ww27-battle-of-changping-the-general-who-talked-too-well.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Changping: A Million Men in a River Valley https://qualla.com/battle-of-changping/ Photo credit SY, CC BY-SA 4.0. Zhao Kuo discarded Lian Po's defensive strategy and crossed the Dan River to attack the Qin left flank. Bai Qi had anticipated exactly this. His left deliberately retreated toward prepared hill fortifications, drawing Zhao Kuo forward. Behind the advancing Zhao army, a Qin detach...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/2/7/battle-of-changping-wp/ww27-battle-of-changping-a-million-men-in-a-river-valley.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Changping: The Bones Beneath Gaoping https://qualla.com/battle-of-changping/ Photo credit SY, CC BY-SA 4.0. After the Zhao surrender, Bai Qi faced a grim calculus. He could not release hundreds of thousands of prisoners who would be reconscripted against him, and he could not feed them. His solution was mass execution. Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, written roughly 150 yea...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/2/7/battle-of-changping-wp/ww27-battle-of-changping-the-bones-beneath-gaoping.mp3 0:06 5 full