Stone Cattle Road
Around 250 BC during the warring states period of Chinese history, the kingdom of Qin pulled off what has got to be Asia's version of the Trojan horse trick.
First Qin Emperor - King Zhang
Southwest of Qin was Szechuan (home of the famous chicken!) a vast, fertile and mineral rich plain with 5 major rivers. All of the warring states coveted the Szechuan area, but it was surrounded by multiple rings of mountains and only accessible by remote mountain trails made by wandering pandas. There were two minor kingdoms in the area but they were considered backwards. One was called Shu.
The Qin king devised a wild plan to conquer the area....
He ordered five lifelike cows to be made of stone. The tails and hindquarters of the cows were smeared with gold, then placed in a field on the Qin side of the mountains. Soon, word got back to the two kingdoms in Szechuan that there were magical cows that pooped gold. The Shu king wanted those cows, because let's face it, who wouldn't want 5 stone cows that pooped gold all day long! So he ordered a road built through the mountains big enough to allow the cows to be transported back.
The road was an engineering feat, featuring multiple bridges and holes drilled into the sides of cliffs with logs inserted to support the road.
After the road was built, the Qin now had a highway to march their army into the valley and conquered the Shu, securing grain, rice and bronze making materials to build up their army over the next couple decades. They then smashed the other warring states, creating the first Chinese empire and a lineage of emperors that lasted over 2200 years.
Very interesting story! There are many stories in which people have managed to deceive their adversaries. In Venezuela, during the war of independence, those on one side, seeing that they were reduced and that the enemy was coming in search of them, took branches and began to raise dust making it look like a great army was coming. The opposing side, seeing this, fled. Like this story, many others. Thank you for sharing, @pinkspectre
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Wow, that is very interesting! I wonder how differently things would have happened if they tried to build the road themselves. I also wonder how long it took to actually build the road. This was really informative! Thanks for sharing!
That's interesting and very clever of King Zang - Having his enemies build the road that he would use to conquer them. Smart!
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A cow that poops gold! I can see why they would go to so much trouble to obtain such a creature. I cant help but think that back then it must have been pretty easy to fool people. Very interesting bit of history. I enjoyed that one thoroughly.
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Interesante
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