Zhao

Zhao was the martial state of the north, born in 403 BC when the Zhou king recognised the Zhao ministers as lords of the partitioned Jin. Its lands straddled the Taihang mountains with an open frontier to the Hu nomads, and that danger forged its character: in 307 BC King Wuling ordered his court into Hu trousers and horse-archery, enduring the fury of the conservatives to build China's first true cavalry. Zhao swallowed the Xiaohong state of Zhongshan between its territories, moved its capital to Handan, and stood as the one power Qin genuinely feared, winning the admiration of every strategist of the age. The test came at Changping in 260 BC, where Qin and Zhao fed hundreds of thousands into a three-year siege; the young Zhao general Zhao Kuo, all theory, walked into Wang He's trap, and the surrendered Zhao soldiers were buried alive. Zhao never recovered its strength, though the veteran generals Lian Po and Li Mu held the passes for another generation, Li Mu defeating Qin armies until slander removed him. In 228 BC Wang Jian took Handan; a remnant court at Dai held until 222 BC. The cavalry state that taught China to ride ended under the hooves of the army it had inspired.