Nanxiong immigrant ban

After Qin unified the six countries, it quickly launched a war to conquer South Vietnam. According to Huai Nan Zi Ren Xun, Qin Wei conquered South Vietnam and mobilized an astonishing 500,000 troops. In 2 14 BC, the state of Qin formally captured Guangdong, Guangxi and northern Vietnam, and established the South China Sea, Guilin and Guangdong.

However, only eight years later, the Qin Empire was declared dead. During the three-year war from 209 BC to 206 BC, 500,000 Qin Jun, who was guarding Lingnan, was indifferent to the demise of the Qin Dynasty. Why?

To understand this problem, we first need to know why the Qin Dynasty conquered South Vietnam.

After the reunification of the Central Plains, the Qin Dynasty used foreign troops on a large scale twice. Once Meng Tian sent 300,000 troops to the north to attack the Huns, and once it conquered South Vietnam. Long before Qin unified the six countries, tarquin often threatened the northern borders of Qin, Yan and Zhao, and Zhao even deployed more than 100,000 troops along the Great Wall of the North all the year round to resist the invasion of Xiongnu. Attacking Xiongnu can completely solve the threat of Xiongnu to Guanzhong area.

However, compared with Xiongnu, South Vietnam was in the late Neolithic period, and its threat to the Central Plains was extremely limited. Qin's forces used to attack Baiyue not only far exceeded those of the north attacking Xiongnu, but even the war time was earlier than that of the north attacking Xiongnu. As early as 2 18 BC, Qin Jun, commander-in-chief of the Qin Dynasty, led Tu Youyou to attack South Vietnam. Two years later, Meng Tian led the troops to recover Hetao. Why did the Qin Dynasty pay more attention to South Vietnam than to Xiongnu?

The whole land is king. The first emperor ruled the country by legalism, and the concept of "everything should be in all directions, in the center, saints should persist, and all directions should be effective" made Qin Shihuang take attacking the south as his own responsibility and expand his territory indefinitely. At the same time, conquering South Vietnam has strategic advantages. At that time, 600,000 had just conquered Chu, and now Hunan, Fujian and other places have all returned to the territory of Qin, forming a strategic pincer-like offensive against South Vietnam, so it is reasonable to recover South Vietnam south. However, compared with the success of attacking Xiongnu in the north, the first war of conquering South ended in Qin Jun's crushing defeat, and even Tu Youyou, commander-in-chief of Qin Jun, died. Historically, South Vietnamese aborigines "get along with animals" and "don't want to be Lu Qin".

This forced Qin Shihuang to readjust the strategy of conquering South Vietnam: slow and steady, heart-oriented, emigrating to the border and stationing for a long time. In 2 14 BC, Ren Tao and Zhao Tuo led the second expedition to the south, and the deceased Qin Fa, her husband and merchants were embedded in the army, which not only established a solid military stronghold for Qin Jun, but also greatly developed the Lingnan area, enabling Qin Jun to successfully capture the area and set up three counties. It was not until four years later that Qin Shihuang died in a sand dune, and the 500,000 troops that Qin conquered South Vietnam did not return to the north. History books do not record why the Qin Dynasty did not recall its headquarters in Qin Jun.

But obviously, this should be allowed by Qin Shihuang, and even we can boldly speculate that in order to completely conquer the land of South Vietnam, the first emperor may have a special imperial edict for Ren Tao and Zhao Tuo, in case that once Qin Jun left, Baiyue people reoccupied the three counties, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people killed in Qin Jun donating blood without compensation, which can be seen from Ren Tao's instructions to Zhao Tuo before his death. In 209 BC, an uprising broke out in Chen Sheng and Guangwu. As the supreme commander of South Vietnam, Ren Tao told Longchuan before his death and ordered Zhao Tuo to "let his people rest and wait for the change of the prince."

If the Commander-in-Chief intends to stay out of it, do 500,000 ordinary Qin soldiers have the subjective desire to go north to rescue? After all, when Wang Jian attacked Chu, Qin Jun stationed in Lingnan mainly came from 600,000 people. It can be said that most of them are Qin people. Will they watch Qin perish? Maybe their parents, wife and children are still waiting for their return in the Central Plains. Will they sit back and watch their homes be destroyed?

Unexpectedly, 500,000 Qin Jun showed unusual calmness in the face of chaos in the Central Plains. Except for a few "Dragon Officers" who were executed by Zhao Tuo for violating the Qin law, ordinary soldiers did not flee and defect. But listen to Zhao Tuo's orders, build Qin Cheng in Xing 'an, Guangxi, and close the country along Sanjiang in Guangxi to Nanxiong in Guangdong. This line of defense has been indestructible until the Lv Hou period, which stopped the pace of the Han army going south.

Special task. Facing the Central Plains Rebellion, Qin Jun's abnormal performance in Lingnan made us have to guess the reason. One possibility is to perform a certain task; The second possibility is that Zhao Tuo wants to be king. Let's analyze the second possibility first. After the demise of the Qin Dynasty, Zhao Tuo really became king behind closed doors, and even once became emperor. But Zhao Tuo didn't act like an ambitious man.

The area controlled by Zhao Tuo is limited to three counties, and its population and economy are far less than those of the Central Plains. If Zhao Tuo intends to sit back and watch the demise of the Qin Dynasty and carve up the country, Zhao Tuo, who holds 500,000 soldiers, should fight for territory in the north, or at least mobilize Qin Jun to go north in the name of counterinsurgency. After all, Xiang Yu's heyday was only over 400,000 soldiers.

Zhao Tuo not only did not send troops, but even surrendered to the Han Dynasty after its reunification. Zhao Tuo can't go north? Obviously not. After Lv Hou, the relationship between the Han Dynasty and South Vietnam deteriorated, and the Han army once went south for conquest, and Zhao Tuo also claimed to be the emperor. In this conflict, the Han army did not occupy any advantage, but the South Vietnamese army invaded Changsha in the north. Even neighboring countries, such as Yelang and fellow brothers, were photographed in the prosperity of South Vietnam and sent envoys to surrender.

After Emperor Wendi ascended the throne, Zhao Tuo immediately went to Emperor Hao to submit to the Han Dynasty again. Zhao Tuo's actions seem to tell us that he is only satisfied with the three counties in South Vietnam and doesn't want to be an enemy of the Central Plains. Now let's analyze the first possibility. Zhao Tuo and Lingnan Qin Jun are carrying out a special mission, that is, to completely merge South Vietnam, which has long been outside the Central Plains civilization, into China.

Although this is speculation, there is no lack of evidence. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Baiyue tribe in Guilin and Xiang Jun took the opportunity to rebel and became independent. For example, Wang Zijian in the post-Shu Dynasty established the "Naked State of West Luo Ou", which was out of the control of the Qin Dynasty. Qin Jun, South Vietnam, after completing the protection of the north, quickly went south to put down the rebellion. If the main force of Lingnan Qin Jun had gone north to Yuan Dynasty, the three counties of Lingnan, which had been laid hard, might have been separated from the Central Plains civilization again.

Return to the Central Plains. From 2 14 BC, 500,000 Qin Jun was stationed in Lingnan, until Zhao Tuo, the commander-in-chief of the fourth year of Emperor Jian Yuan of the Han Dynasty (BC 137), Qin Jun and his descendants experienced chaos in the late Qin Dynasty and many civil wars among princes in the early Han Dynasty. They have countless opportunities to go north, but they are very comfortable in South Vietnam. Although watching the demise of the Qin Dynasty, it objectively accelerated the process of merging the three counties of South Vietnam into China. Perhaps, they and their commander in chief, Zhao Tuo, are really on a mission. We have no way to prove it.