Qin shi huang di(First Emperor) named Ying Zheng.


The Once mighty Zhou dynasty weakens and the feudal lords build up their own kingdoms dividing up china.



china when Yingzheng ascended the throne the period known as the warring states.

china was divided into many states that constantly warred bring suffering to many however Ying zheng would end it.
Qin has been rising for a century and has expanded greatly yet the six eastern states can't co-operate together against the western superpower
Qin, presenting Ying zheng a great opportunity.

In 230 BC, Qin invades Zhao. The kingdom of Han, frightened by the Qin army, Han surrender without a fight.

In 225 BC, The Qin army siege Wei capital, King of Wei surrendered its city to the Qin army in order to avoid further bloodshed of his people.

In 224 BC. General Wang Jian leading the Qin army and conquers Chu after a year of battle.

In 222 BC, Zhao finally falls after Qin army beseiged its capital for ten years.
The Prince of Yan named Dan seeing there is no way of beating the Qin army sent an assassin named Jing Ke to kill the Qin king,
but it fails and Qin army invades and conqures Yan.

In 221 BC, Only Qi kingdom stands, the Qi quickly made the same decision as the Han and surrenders to Qin, completing the unification of China.





Ying Zheng is crowned the emperor known as the first emperor (Shi huang di)
Qin dynasty unifies chinese writing, weights and measurements, axle width and currency.
Qin dynasty builds roads and cannels all over the country.
Qin shi huang builds the largest palace in the world larger then the palaces of the six conqured nations put together,
its filled with the most beautiful women of the six eastern nations.
Qin creates no fiefdoms but divides up the country into commandaries governed directly by governors sent by the central government.


First emperor sends two armies one northward and one southwards in an attempt to expand and also defeat the xiongnu(Hu).
The northern army 300,000 strong and are the elite of the Qin troopers. the army conqures the Ordos and push the Xiongnu north of the Gobi desert
far away from the Qin capital of Xianyang so the Hu(Xiongnu) can no longer threaten Qin, and constructs the great wall of Qin.
The southern army conqures a vast land populated by peoples called 'bai yue' or hundrend yue.




In 210 BC Qin shi huang di finally dies.
Shi Huang Di unites china, repels the xiongnu and conqures the hundrend yue he trully befits the expression "VAST LANDS UNDER MY FEET! ALL THINGS ARE WITHIN MY GRASP!"

However during Qin shi huang di's reign the people of china suffered greatly because Qin dynasty was a super totalitarian dictatorship where
no dissenting views and no failures were tolerated, thus when Shi huang di dies the Qin empire is quickly overtrhrown by a multitude of peasant uprisings.



The Qin army

Han wu di(Martial Emperor) named Liu che
East asia when Han wu di ascends the throne.



When the Qin empire collapsed from the civil war, from the chaos arose the Han dynasty. However when the Qin was collapsing the xiongnu of the north
returned south of the Gobi desert and occupied the ordos again putting xiongnu horsemen only a few days riding distance from the Han capital chang an,
The xiongnu also defeated the yuezhi who lived northwest of Qin and cut China off from the trade routes to the west practically surrounding china.
At the same time when the Qin collapsed the Qin general occupying the Lingnan region decared his own kingdom of Nan yue and remained independent of Han.

Founding emperor of Han named Liu Bang marched north with his army to fight the Xiongnu however he was traped by the xiongnu army and was nearly captured,
from that point onwards the Han dynasty had to let the xiongnu occupy ordos and give xiongnu leader known as chanyu a chinese princess in marriage and
also open horse markets on the border to trade with xiongnu who sold horses in very high prices, yet even then the Xiongnu would raid Han border towns
killing and looting and causing suffering in general however non of the early Han emperors dared to do much because their fear of the xiongnu army.

However Han wu di would change all that.
Han wu di realises that traditional chinese armies of massed infantry was simply too slow to catch steppe warriors riding horses
thus he decided to create a massive army of cavalry.





Han wu di would send Zhang qian westwards to find the Yuezhi to form an alliance against xiongnu however the yuezhi refuses to attack xiongnu
however the yuezhi does enter trade relations with china however zhan qian returns to china with infomation on the western regions.

In 129 BC the xiongnu raids shanggu near modern day beijing, han wu di retaliates by sending four generals to attack. One general named Wei qing with his
cavalry sacks the xiongnu holy sites.

In 127 BC Wei Qing leads an army north and retakes the ordos region from the xiongnu pushing the xiongnu north of the Gobi desert.

In 121 BC General Hou qu bing rides northwestwards with his cavalry all the way to lop nor in xinjiang and defeats two xiongnu princes
occupying modern day Gansu province and the two princes surrender to Hou with their tribes and lands.


In 112 BC the kingdom of Nan Yue murder Han ambasadors and Han wu di sends an army and conqure it.

In 110 BC the kingdom of Min Yue surrenders Under Han pressure.

In 109 BC Weiman Chosun in north korea refuses to allow Jin(San-Han in south korea)'s ambassadors to reach china thus
Han wu di sends an army and conqures it.

In 109 BC the kingdom of Dian surrenders to Han under ,military pressure.

In 108 BC Han wu di sends an army to xinjiang and absorbs many oasis city states of xinjiang, Han wu di also marries a princess to the Wusun to bring
the wusun on the Han side against the Xiongnu.

In 104 BC the Han army invades Dayuan(Near modern day Tajikstan) when its king refuses to give up a breed of great central asian horses
known as blood sweating horses.
Dayuan relents and enters tributary relations with Han as well as many other smaller central asian statelets Intimidated by the Han army.








Han Empire at the end of han wu di's reign where all the surrounding states from the Linyi(Champa) in south vietnam to wa in japan to fuyu in manchuria
all were either vassals or allies of Han.
Only the Xiongnu did not enter formal vassalage yet the xiongnu empire was broken into pieces and the xiongnu was scared.
In the future the xiongnu would be more weakened and split into north and south xiongnu. The south xiongnu would be
absorbed into china while the north xiongnu flees westwards possibly becoming the huns of attila while the xiongnu lands are taken up by the xianbei.

The Great Han empire created during Han wu di's reign rivaled the Roman empire in the west and was trully the "middle kingdom".
The martial emperor Liu che dies in 89 BC.

The wars were a great drain of resources and manpower and caused suffering of the people , an example was the titanic
battle of mobei north of the gobi desert in 119 BC near the center of modern day mongolia han army was victories yet lost some 20,000 men and 110,000 horses.
110,000 horses were enormously expensive back then equivalent to a modern nation losing quater of the entire stock battle tanks in one battle.


Han wu di did apoligize to the people,
he was the supreme ruler yet he was humble enough to appoligize to his subjects for the suffering wars he lead them into caused,
if one looks at the map of han empire one can make out the rough outlines of modern china, he was trully one of the greatest emperors in china's long history.



Han horsemen models

Great contribution and nice maps of the military expansion..