Alliances and Counter-Alliances in the Warring States

In the last episode, Shang Yang died horribly, but the institutions he built remained. Qin continued down the harder road he had opened, and its power kept rising.

The stronger Qin became, the less the eastern states could sit still.

Yet that itself created the central problem.

Everyone knew Qin had to be checked.

No one fully trusted anyone else.

So one of the liveliest struggles of the Warring States age moved not only onto battlefields, but into speech, persuasion, and diplomatic design.

This is the world of vertical alliances and horizontal alliances.

The Whole Question Was Simple in Principle

Qin stood in the west.

Most of the other major states lay to the east. Yan, Zhao, Wei, Han, and Chu could be imagined as roughly stretching north to south like a vertical line.

If those eastern states joined hands against Qin, that was called a vertical alliance.

If Qin broke that unity and pulled one or more of them over to its own side, that was called a horizontal alliance.

The terms can sound technical.

At heart, they mean only one thing:

who is standing with whom.

The state that can hold more partners wins breathing room.

The state that can split another coalition before battle begins may avoid being cut from every side.

In the later Warring States age, many contests were already half decided in the mouths of envoys before armies ever moved.

The First Great Master of This Game Was Zhang Yi

Among the famous names of this diplomatic world, Zhang Yi stands out earliest and most sharply.

He was originally from Wei and later entered service in Chu as a retainer in the household of the chief minister. His greatest weapon was not noble birth.

It was his tongue.

He could persuade, flatter, read moods, and make himself useful. That also made others around him jealous.

Then came the disaster that changed his road.

At a banquet in Chu, the minister suddenly discovered that a jade ornament was missing. Whether anyone had actually seen Zhang Yi steal anything did not matter. Suspicion fell on him almost immediately.

The minister did not investigate carefully.

He had Zhang Yi beaten savagely.

When Zhang Yi later regained consciousness, the first thing he asked was not whether he would live.

It was whether his tongue was still there.

If his tongue remained, he believed, then he still had a way to survive.

Chu had become impossible for him.

So he went west to Qin.

In Qin, He Identified the Core Danger Immediately

There he met King Huiwen of Qin.

The king's need was direct. He did not want a man who merely knew books. He wanted someone who could help Qin dismantle the strategic positions of others.

So Zhang Yi spoke at once to the deepest danger facing Qin.

What Qin should fear most, he said, was not one powerful state by itself.

It was the eastern states truly joining hands.

As long as the six major states remained united, Qin would face great difficulty no matter how strong it became.

Therefore Qin's first task was not simply to conquer one state after another.

Its first task was to prevent unity.

Split them where they can be split.

Drive wedges where they can be driven.

Make sure they never become one real force.

King Huiwen loved what he heard.

Zhang Yi Began With Wei and Won by Trading Strategic Illusions

His first major target was Wei.

By then, Wei was no longer the overwhelming power it had been in the days of Marquis Wen and King Wu. It had been hurt badly by Qin and by other reverses, yet still carried some of the pride of its older status.

When Zhang Yi met King Hui of Wei, he began with a gift.

Qin, he said, was willing to return the lands west of the Yellow River.

The offer struck deeply. Those territories had been dear to Wei and long mourned.

But Zhang Yi, of course, was not giving anything away freely.

He proposed an exchange.

Qin would return Xihe.

Wei would cede Shang commandery.

King Hui calculated that Shang seemed remote and less attractive than the richer Xihe region, so he agreed.

Zhang Yi returned to Qin carrying the maps.

King Huiwen was delighted.

On the surface, Qin had yielded.

In reality, it had gained strategic value without bloodshed.

As for the lands it appeared to return, they could always be fought over later again.

After this success, Zhang Yi was firmly established in Qin and rose to the highest ministerial rank.

He Also Helped Qin Seize the Royal Title

Once Zhang Yi was secure, he gave the king another important piece of advice.

Claim kingship.

By this point, major powers such as Qi, Chu, and Wei had already done so. Qin had territory and strength enough that if it continued using the old title, it would seem lower than its rivals in standing.

The king wanted the title, but could not thrust it forward too crudely on his own.

Zhang Yi helped create the necessary atmosphere at court and in public discussion.

So King Huiwen of Qin also became a king.

That single move further loosened the old world.

If Qin could call itself king, why should others not do the same? Whatever remained of the old symbolic political hierarchy grew thinner still.

Gongsun Yan Tried to Build a Front, and Zhang Yi Set Himself to Breaking It

Qin had Zhang Yi.

Wei had its own talented diplomat in Gongsun Yan.

Watching Qin become more skillful at pulling states apart, Gongsun Yan tried another strategy. He encouraged Han, Zhao, Yan, and Zhongshan to elevate themselves and join together under a broader anti-Qin framework.

On the surface, it was elegant.

Shared titles, shared dignity, shared resistance.

But Zhang Yi saw immediately that the idea was full of fractures.

Would Qi truly be content to see a smaller state like Zhongshan elevated near its level?

Would Chu be happy to watch Wei use such a coalition to place itself in the lead?

Zhang Yi did not even need to fight.

He only needed to apply slight pressure to the resentments already present.

That was enough.

Qi had little interest in recognizing Zhongshan's claim.

Chu, never fully comfortable with Wei's ambitions, found even less reason to accept the arrangement.

So the seemingly impressive "five kings" framework began loosening before it could truly harden.

That is one of the great strengths of horizontal alliance strategy.

Often it does not cut you from the front.

It simply makes your partners ask, why should I follow you?

Even the First Serious Vertical Alliance Could Not Hide Its Inner Weakness

Gongsun Yan did not stop.

Later, as rulers changed and fear of Qin deepened, Chu, Zhao, Han, Yan, and others made a more serious attempt to create a true anti-Qin front.

In name, everything sounded admirable.

The states would unite against Qin.

In practice, the old problem returned immediately.

No one fully wanted to bear the heaviest burden. Every state preferred someone else to be the first true shield. Every ruler feared that if he spent too much force, another ally might later take the advantage.

Eventually the coalition did march toward Hangu Pass.

But Qin held the terrain, and the allied states did not truly share one will.

Once fighting bogged down, the hollowness inside the alliance became obvious.

The first great vertical coalition collapsed after heavy losses without truly shaking Qin.

Zhang Yi Even Sat in Wei for Qin

After the coalition broke, Wei again had little choice but to lean back toward Qin.

Zhang Yi pushed even further.

He left his Qin office and went to Wei, taking the position of chief minister there.

It sounds absurd.

In strategic terms it makes perfect sense.

What did King Hui of Wei fear most?

Further attack from Qin.

Zhang Yi's presence effectively promised that as long as he sat in Wei, there might still be breathing room with Qin.

So the king accepted him.

Thus a senior statesman of Qin sat in the seat of Wei's chief minister, ostensibly serving Wei while in reality helping Qin hold Wei in place.

Through Wei, He Even Helped Qin Borrow a Road Against Qi

Zhang Yi did not go to Wei in order to make Wei strong.

He went there to make Wei compliant.

Before long, Qin requested passage through Wei in order to attack Qi.

The meaning was obvious. Without Wei's permission, that route would not open.

King Hui was no longer eager to resist Qin directly, especially when Wei's own forces would not bear the main burden.

So he agreed.

Qin marched through.

Yet the campaign also showed something important.

Even Qin was not automatically dominant everywhere. The line of advance was too long. Once an army is stretched deeply and forced far from home, its edge dulls.

Qi's commander Kuang Zhang was not incompetent. He held back, studied Qin carefully, and struck at the right moment. Qin was forced to pull back in rough condition.

Zhang Yi Did Not Win Every Move, but He Changed the Game

Because Qin stumbled in Qi, King Hui of Wei began to revive some of his older hopes. He suddenly realized that Qin was not invincible after all. Zhang Yi had promised much, and his shine dimmed.

Zhang Yi understood this too.

Wei no longer offered a useful future for him, so he returned to Qin.

On the surface, it may look like a long circle ending in retreat.

But the circle was not wasted.

By then, every state in the Warring States world understood that power no longer depended only on armies.

It depended also on who could split an opponent's coalition, who could steal another state's ally, and who could turn yesterday's united front into today's private bargain.

Today you fight Qin together.

Tomorrow you may be lending Qin your roads.

That is what alliances and counter-alliances really meant in the Warring States age.

And Zhang Yi's most famous, and most shameful, triumph in this whole field was still ahead.

It would take place in Chu.