Such a big move by Chu certainly attracted the attention of Qin. When Qin heard that Chu was going to attack him, he decided to take the lead in attacking Chu. In thirty-five years, Sima Cuo, a general of the State of Qin, sent troops to Zhou Nanwang, conquered Qianzhong County of Chu, and made King Xiang of Chu terrified. So he quickly made peace with Qin and promised to cede the land north of Hanshui River to Qin. The country has benefited, but it is still unwilling. After a brief renovation, in the second year, the general Bai Qi was sent to lead hundreds of thousands of troops of the State of Qin, approaching Yancheng and the capital of Chu, and the famous battle of Yan Yong broke out in the history of the Warring States.
As the name implies, the battle between Yan Yong is divided into two parts. This is a battle composed of two different battles, so the process of the battle of Yan State is also divided into the battle of Yancheng and the battle of Yongcheng. First, let's look at the relationship between Yancheng and Yuncheng. The distance between the two cities is very close, and Yong City is the capital of Chu State. It has been moved here since the reign of King Wen of Chu, and has been the capital of Chu for 300 to 400 years. It is the political and power center of Chu State. Yancheng is the military town of Yingcheng and the economic center of Chu. According to some data, Yancheng is another capital of Chu. Regardless of the political status of Yancheng, it can be seen that Yancheng was the most important ideal city of Chu except the capital city at that time. The commander-in-chief of Qin Jun is the famous Leitian. He first analyzed the military situation of Chu State, and found that Chu State concentrated all its forces in Yancheng, so he led his troops deep into the hinterland of Chu State, along the Hanshui River basin to the east, and conquered many military towns of Chu State along the river. Because of the abundant aquatic plants in Hanshui, he got enough supplies here, then conquered Dengcheng, and finally went straight into battle with the main force of Chu State stationed in Yancheng. Because Yancheng's geographical position is very important, the Chu army fought to the death here. Unable to attack for a long time, Tian Lei was annihilated by digging Yishui and attacking Yancheng. Soon, a wall in Yancheng was damaged by water. Tian Lei took the opportunity to make an army rush into the city and occupied Yancheng.
After occupying Yancheng, Tian Lei's next goal is Yucheng. He still took a step-by-step approach, let the troops repair in Yongcheng, transfer all the prisoners of Qin to Yancheng, and attack Yongcheng based on Yancheng. As a result, the Chu army was defeated, and King Xiang of Chu was forced to move to Chen. From the course of the battle between Yan and Li, we can find that Tian Lei's slow and steady strategy gradually eroded the important town of Chu, and finally captured the capital of Chu. Therefore, Tian Lei was indeed the most outstanding military general at that time.
The battle between Yan and Li had a great influence on the whole situation of the Warring States at that time, which marked the decline of Chu State, and the growing strength of Qin State made the military proportion in the Warring States period unbalanced, and the balance of victory began to tilt towards Qin State. When Chu began to decline, the Yan-Yong War broke out. At that time, although Qin was the strongest of the seven countries, Chu was the largest, so the only one who could compete with Qin was Chu. Through the battle of Yan, the capital of Chu with a history of three or four hundred years was captured by Qin, and King Xiang of Chu was forced to move to Chen. As the victorious party, Qin dug up all the ancestral graves of Chu people in Tancheng, which was a great blow to the morale and people's hearts of Chu.
The failure of the battle between Yan and Li also caused Chu to lose a large area of land north of the Yangtze River. The State of Qin established the land seized from the State of Chu as the Southern County to restrain the development of the State of Chu. Since then, the power of Chu can only be compressed to the south of the Yangtze River. This is undoubtedly a heavier blow to the declining Chu state. Since then, Chu's power has been greatly weakened, and it has lost its strength to compete with Qin for the Central Plains. The influence of the battle between Yan and Li is that it triggered another war. In the thirty-eighth year of Zhou Nanwang, Tian Lei went south again, and captured Wu County and Qianzhong County of Chu State, which dealt a heavy blow to Chu State again. Since then, Chu has been devastated, and in the struggle with Qin, it is often at a disadvantage. It was not until half a century later that Chun Shen Jun of Chu reconciled Qin and Chu through mediation that Chu got rid of the fate of being destroyed by Qin prematurely. However, despite this, the pre-war Chu State could not compete with the Qin State.