Qin Unites China Under a First Emperor

In 230 BC, the ruler of Qin, Ying Zheng, initiated the final sequence of campaigns that dismantled the fragmented landscape of the Warring States period. Over the preceding centuries, administrative and military reorganisations had turned Qin into the dominant power among the seven major realms. Operating on a strategy of engaging distant kingdoms while isolating and subduing adjacent neighbours, Ying Zheng systematically targeted the rival courts that had shared nominal allegiance to the vanished Zhou royal house.

The smallest and most exposed opponent, Han, collapsed first in 230 BC after a Qin army crossed the Yellow River, turning its heartland into an imperial commandery. Qin commanders then turned their full force against Zhao, whose resistance had already been blunted by earlier conflicts. Although the northern general Li Mu initially held off Qin incursions, the court in Handan was deceived by bribery into executing him. In 228 BC, Qin troops took the Zhao capital, exiling its monarch and leaving only an isolated splinter regime in Dai.