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entity Updated 2026-08-21 Tags: Battle, Zhao-State, Qin-State, Warring-States, Pre-Qin-History

长平之战 / Battle of Changping

长平之战 / Battle of Changping enters this wiki through 《资治通鉴·周纪》93丨在梦里藏着偷天改命？（2） as the war consequence foreshadowed by 赵国’s acceptance of 上党. The episode does not yet narrate the campaign; it identifies Shangdang as the prelude and says the next installment will enter the battle.

The source also uses Changping to complicate 冯亭’s later image. One tradition has Feng Ting later following 赵括 into the Changping fighting and dying there, while another 《战国策》 branch says he rejected Zhao’s reward and returned to Han. The wiki therefore treats Changping here as source-scoped setup rather than a full battle page.

《资治通鉴·周纪》94丨杀神白起，长平之战中的“草包”名将？（1） moves Changping from foreshadowing into the command-decision phase. In 260 BCE, 王龁 continues Qin’s attack, Zhao suffers repeated defeats, and 廉颇 shifts to defensive holding. 赵丹 / 赵孝成王 first loses diplomatic room by sending 郑朱 to Qin instead of following 虞卿’s coalition-first plan, then loses command stability by replacing Lian Po with Zhao Kuo after 范雎’s rumor operation.

The same source gives Changping its first Qin-side command contrast. Zhao’s replacement is public and rumor-driven; Qin secretly appoints 白起 as main commander, keeps Wang He as deputy, and threatens death for disclosure. The battle page should still remain source-scoped because the episode stops before Zhao Kuo’s conduct after taking command, but Changping is now clearly a case of diplomatic isolation, 反间流言楔入, and 阵前换将风险.

《资治通鉴·周纪》94丨杀神白起，长平之战中的“草包”名将？（2） moves Changping into the encirclement and starvation stage. After Zhao Kuo replaces Lian Po, he changes the front-line arrangement and attacks across the Dan River; Bai Qi uses feigned retreat and fortified barriers to absorb the attack, then sends side forces and cavalry to cut the Zhao army away from its camp, retreat, and grain route. The battle therefore becomes a case of 战场围困与断粮 rather than only a morality tale about “paper war” command.

The same source widens Changping into a diplomatic starvation crisis. Qin Zhaoxiang Wang moves to Henei and mobilizes males over fifteen to keep Zhao relief and supplies out, while the other states decline effective help. Qi’s refusal to lend grain despite Zhouzi’s warning makes Changping a concrete case of 屏障国救援失灵 and pushes the trapped Zhao army into forty-six days without food.

《资治通鉴·周纪》94丨杀神白起，长平之战中的“草包”名将？（3） closes the battle branch. After starvation and failed relief, Zhao Kuo divides the army into four breakout groups and personally leads the fiercest assault, but Qin’s barriers and crossbows stop the attack and Zhao Kuo is killed by arrows. Once the commander dies, the exhausted Zhao army collapses and surrenders.

The same source makes the final killing and memory problem explicit. Bai Qi judges the surrendered troops unsafe because Shangdang had shifted from Qin’s grasp to Zhao and because Zhao soldiers might not accept captivity; he then uses deception to calm them before killing the prisoners and sending 240 young soldiers back to Zhao. The episode frames this as 杀降安全困境 inside the wider 战国战争残酷化 pattern, while keeping exact casualty and “坑杀” mechanics source-scoped.

The final installment also adds a strategic afterword. Qin wins one of the largest and most complete encirclement victories in the source’s telling, but the episode stresses that Qin is not cost-free: after Changping, 王陵 attacks 邯郸 unsuccessfully and Bai Qi resists replacing him because Qin is already strained. Changping therefore accelerates Qin’s road toward unification without abolishing 战争成本与速决纪律.

《资治通鉴·周纪》95丨长平之战后秦国为什么没有灭了赵国（1） reopens the immediate aftermath as the beginning of a new campaign question: why did 秦国 not destroy 赵国 at once? The episode reads the released 240 young survivors and Bai Qi platform / jingguan memory as 战后恐怖震慑, then shows 王龁 and 司马梗 attacking Zhao positions around 武安, 皮牢, 太原, and 上党郡.

The same source shifts the explanation from battlefield capability alone to court and diplomacy. 苏代 persuades 范雎 that allowing 白起 to destroy Zhao and take 邯郸 would make Bai Qi’s merit too large, while also arguing that Qin may get land without people if Zhao’s population flees. Changping’s aftermath therefore becomes a case where victory momentum is interrupted by 位阶焦虑式说服, neighboring-state fear, and Qin’s acceptance of immediate concessions.

《资治通鉴·周纪》95丨长平之战后秦国为什么没有灭了赵国（2） makes that aftermath a second political crisis. Zhao Dan returns home intending to carry out the six-city cession, but 虞卿 argues that paying Qin would help an exhausted enemy recover, while 楼缓 argues that failing to appease Qin will invite wider predation. The episode then expands the aftermath beyond Zhao: 魏安釐王’s court initially views Zhao’s suffering as useful to Wei, and 孔斌 warns that this misunderstands Qin’s continuing expansion logic.

《资治通鉴·周纪》95丨长平之战后秦国为什么没有灭了赵国（3） adds a non-battle branch that still belongs to the aftermath. Fan Ju’s demand for 魏齐 lets Qin detain 平原君 and force Zhao into a friend-protection crisis. Wei Qi’s head gets Pingyuanjun back, but it does not stop Qin’s next move: 王陵 attacks 邯郸, while 白起 remains outside command under a contested illness frame.

This keeps Changping’s afterlife from being a clean military sequence. The battle’s damage turns every later decision into a coercive choice: land cession, hezong signaling, aristocratic asylum, and hostage exchange all happen under the same shadow of Zhao’s destroyed field army and exposed capital.

《资治通鉴·周纪》96丨毛遂自荐（1） adds the next afterlife: Changping makes 邯郸 exposed but also harder to break. Bai Qi reads the outcome as both a Qin constraint and a Zhao wound: Qin’s forces are depleted, while Zhao’s survivors and capital defenders are joined by rage over the massacre. That reading feeds Qin’s command-refusal crisis and Zhao’s rescue diplomacy through 平原君.

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