La batalla de Changping (長平之戰) fue una campaña militar que tuvo lugar durante el período de los Reinos Combatientes en China. Llegó a su fin en el 260 a. C., con una victoria decisiva por parte del Estado de Qin sobre el estado de Zhao, lo cual en última instancia le permitió al estado de Qin conquistar y unificar China décadas después. La campaña es considerada una de las operaciones militares más letales de la historia ya que la mayoría de los soldados del estado de Zhao fueron tomados prisioneros y ejecutados después de la batalla.
- ↑ a b The Road to the Throne: How Liu Bang Founded China's Han Dynasty. Hing Ming Hung, pp. 6, Algora Publishing, 2011.
- ↑ War and state formation in ancient China and early modern Europe. Victoria Tin-bor Hui, pp. 89-90, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
(...) For a example, in a battle with Han and Wei in 293 BC, Bo Qi's troops were outnumbered by 240,000 allied troops. But as Han's and Wei's armies fought separately without unified command, Bo Qi could defeat them one by one. Even in the direct confrontation with Zhao in 262-257 BC, Qin mobilized only its standing army plus male populations aged fifteen and older from the nearby Henei commandery. Classical texts report that Zhao lost more than 400,000 troops in this war. While this figure is likely to be inflated, Zhao apparently engaged in masive -if not total- mobilization to fend off Qin's agression. For Qin, mobilization on a comparable scale occurred only in the final wars of unification. In the war against Chu in 226-223 BC, Qin is recorded to have mobilized 600,000 troops after the initial campaign with 200,000 troops went badly.
- ↑ The Confucian quest for order: the origin and formation of the political thought of Xun Zi. Masayuki Sato, BRILL, 2003, pp. 54