453 BC · Shanxi (state of Jin) Theater

The mightiest of the Jin ministerial clans, the Zhi, besieged the Zhao at Jinyang and diverted the Fen River to drown the city. On the brink of victory Zhi Yao alienated his allies, the Han and Wei, who defected in the night, breached the dikes against their own commander, and annihilated the Zhi. The three victorious families then carved the great state of Jin among themselves.

354–353 BC · Wei–Qi frontier (western Shandong) Theater

When Wei besieged the Zhao capital Handan, Qi's crippled strategist Sun Bin refused to march to Handan's relief. Instead he struck at Wei's own undefended capital, forcing Pang Juan's army to abandon the siege and race home — then ambushed the exhausted Wei column at Guiling. The maneuver entered Chinese strategy as 'besiege Wei to rescue Zhao.'

359–338 BC · State of Qin (Wei River valley) Theater

Not a battle but the transformation that would win the war. The Legalist statesman Shang Yang remade Qin into a machine for conquest: abolished aristocratic privilege, tied rank strictly to heads taken in battle, organized every household into mutually-responsible groups, standardized law with terrifying severity, and turned the whole society toward 'agriculture and war.' Qin's peasants became the most disciplined soldiers in China.

342 BC · Wei–Qi frontier Theater

Sun Bin lured his old rival Pang Juan into a night pursuit by feigning mass desertion — reducing his army's cookfires each day so the Wei believed Qi's men were fleeing. At the narrow defile of Maling, Qi crossbowmen waited in the dark for the signal: a tree stripped of bark and inscribed 'Under this tree Pang Juan dies.' Ten thousand bolts fell at once. Pang Juan cut his own throat.

293 BC · Han–Wei frontier (near Luoyang) Theater

At the Yique pass the young Qin general Bai Qi faced a combined Han–Wei army twice his size but riven by mutual distrust, each ally waiting for the other to bear the fighting. Bai Qi pinned one force with a screen and hurled his main strength at the other, then rolled up the line. Ancient records claim 240,000 allied soldiers were beheaded.

273 BC · Wei–Zhao frontier (Henan) Theater

Bai Qi marched his Qin army an extraordinary distance in eight days to fall on an allied Wei–Zhao force besieging Qin's ally Han, catching it entirely by surprise before Huayang. The allied army was routed and, by the chronicles, some 150,000 men were killed or drowned in the Yellow River.

262–260 BC · Shangdang plateau (Shanxi) Theater

The largest and deadliest battle of the ancient world. For three years the cautious Zhao veteran Lian Po held an entrenched line against Qin. Qin agents spread rumors until Zhao replaced him with the young theorist Zhao Kuo, who abandoned the defenses and attacked. Bai Qi feigned retreat, split the Zhao army with a flying column, and encircled 400,000 men, starving them for forty-six days until they ate their dead and surrendered. Bai Qi had them buried alive.

259–257 BC · Zhao capital (Hebei) Theater

Flush from Changping, Qin besieged the Zhao capital Handan itself — but a desperate Zhao held the walls for two years. Rescue came when Lord Xinling of Wei stole his king's troop tally and seized command of the Wei army by force, joining Chu's relief column to fall on the Qin siege lines from behind. The Qin army was routed for the first time in a generation.

227 BC · Qin court at Xianyang Theater

With Qin's armies closing in, Crown Prince Dan of Yan sent the swordsman Jing Ke to Xianyang bearing a map of Yan territory — and, rolled inside it, a poisoned dagger. As Jing Ke unrolled the map before King Zheng, the blade appeared; the king tore free of his sleeve and, unable to draw his long sword in panic, at last ran Jing Ke through against a pillar. 'The map unrolled, the dagger revealed' became a proverb for a plot's fatal exposure.

225 BC · Wei capital (Kaifeng, Henan) Theater

Unable to storm the great walls of the Wei capital Daliang, Wang Ben diverted the waters of the Yellow River and its canals and flooded the city for three months until the walls collapsed and the king surrendered amid the ruin. Tens of thousands are said to have drowned.

225–223 BC · Chu (Huai River valley, Anhui) Theater

Qin first sent the brash young Li Xin with 200,000 men; Chu's general Xiang Yan trapped and routed him — Qin's worst defeat of the wars. King Zheng recalled the veteran Wang Jian, who demanded a full 600,000-man army, then camped, entrenched, and refused battle for a year until the huge Chu host relaxed and began to disperse. Then he struck, destroying the Chu army and killing Xiang Yan.

221 BC · Qi capital Linzi (Shandong) Theater

The rich eastern state of Qi had watched the other kingdoms fall without lifting a sword, lulled by Qin bribes and promises. When Wang Ben's army swept down from the newly conquered north, Qi's forces melted away; King Jian surrendered his capital Linzi without a real battle and was carried off to starve in exile. In 221 BC the last independent state was gone.

229–228 BC · Zhao (Hebei) Theater

The last great defender of the old order was Zhao's general Li Mu, who twice halted Wang Jian's invasions. Unable to beat him in the field, Qin bribed a corrupt Zhao minister to poison the king's mind; Li Mu was ordered to surrender his command and, when he refused, was executed by his own sovereign. Months later Wang Jian took Handan and captured the Zhao king.