The Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, why has the Yan State never been able to become strong?

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty moved eastward to the capital after experiencing riots by Chinese people and invasions by dog ??soldiers. It had long lost the prestige it had during the period of King Wu of Zhou Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Zhuang of Zheng took the lead in attacking and dominating the Central Plains. Since then, history has become the stage for the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period. However, amid this, Yan State has been lingering on the edge of the stage for a long time because of its weakness. So why did the Yan Kingdom, which had existed since the Western Zhou Dynasty enfeoffed the world, last until the end of the Warring States Period, but have such a low sense of existence?

Lack of arable land and constraints from borders

The Zhou Dynasty divided the world, and most of the people with the Ji surname were enfeoffed on the fertile land in the hinterland of the Central Plains. However, although the Yan State was also a vassal state with the Ji surname, However, the Zhou Dynasty's consideration of being on a stable frontier led to its enfeoffment near Jizi North Korea, which was built by the survivors of the Yin Shang Dynasty. Its initial fiefdom was at the foot of Yanshan Mountain, so the country was named "Yan". Although the Yan State successively eliminated Ji State, Guzhu, Lingzhi, Wuzhong, etc. in the early Spring and Autumn Period, there was not much fertile land suitable for farming, so it was difficult to support enough farming and fighting soldiers.

The Yan State in the Spring and Autumn Period

To the north of the Yan State is Donghu. Before the complete rise of the Xiongnu, Donghu was the overlord in the north of the Central Plains, but its main settlement area was in the northeast. The State of Yan is adjacent. In the long years of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, countries on the edge of the Central Plains such as Qin, Chu, Qi and Yan all faced similar constraints from foreign invasions and were unable to compete for hegemony. However, Qi and Chu had already begun to assimilate the local indigenous people during the Western Zhou Dynasty. By the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, both the Dongyi tribe of Qi State and the Baipu tribe of Chu State had been integrated into the Zhuxia system. However, Yan State did not have the innate conditions of Qi Chu.

Transportation is inconvenient and strong neighbors contain it

Although the Zheng State, the Jin State in the Central Plains, and even the Wei State after the three were divided into Jin Dynasty, they successively rose to dominate the world. However, because it was located in the place of the Four War, there were frequent battles, and the people's power was severely depleted. The Jin State was once a large country in the Central Plains, guarding Qin and Chu for more than a hundred years. However, after being divided into three, the Zhao State inherited Jin's geographical advantages, while Wei inherited the foundation of farming and warfare. In the later stages of the Warring States Period, it was revealed that the State of Zhao was stronger than the State of Wei. This was due to the outflow of population and brainpower caused by years of war. Qin State recruited talents, and Qi State Jixia Academy attracted a large number of Wei people.

The State of Yan during the Warring States Period

Throughout the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were many refugees from the Central Plains who moved around due to wars. However, Yan State failed to benefit from this round of power reshuffle because it was first blocked by Jin Qi and then guarded by Zhao Qi. On the contrary, due to changes in the strength of neighboring countries, cities and territories were frequently captured.

Cavalry came on the scene, and chariots became obsolete

Chariots were once the combat weapons of the Zhou tribe in Xiqi during the Yin and Shang Dynasties. Zhou is a descendant of Xia's remnants. I don't know whether it is because of the inheritance from his ancestors or because of the need to fight against the Guifang, Qiang and other tribes. In short, he has developed a mature chariot system. When King Wu conquered Zhou, the Zhou army's chariots were probably the same in the eyes of the merchant army as when the German army first saw British tanks in World War I. Chariots at that time were still representatives of advanced combat power. During the Spring and Autumn Period, a country's national strength could even be judged by the number of chariots. The Kingdom of Thousand Chariots was already in the ranks of powerful countries.

Hufu Cavalry and Shooting in Zhao State

As the war for hegemony intensified, the tactics on the battlefield also began to innovate, and the cavalry became the main force in the late Warring States Period. Unlike Qi and Chu, who quickly assimilated Dongyi and Baipu, Qin, Jin and even Zhao in the later period had long-term wars and marriages with the grassland nomadic tribes. On the one hand, they shaped the strong folk customs of the two places, and on the other hand, they On the other hand, a large number of pastures and high-quality horses were seized during the expedition, which provided good conditions for the formation and training of cavalry troops. In contrast, Yan's main rival Quanrong, as a branch of Donghu, is actually more closely called not a nomadic tribe, but a fishing and hunting tribe. Due to the congenital conditions of mostly mountainous areas in the Northeast, fishing and hunting are the main way of life here. This also results in the Yan State being unable to gain an increase in combat readiness through exchanges with the Donghu ethnic group.