This is a description of the diplomatic and military debates of the Qin State during the Warring States Period. It was a military debate about King Qin Hui's military expansion and advancement of the king's career. Qin Prime Minister Zhang Yi advocated attacking Han, while Qin General Sima Cuo advocated attacking Shu. The two were in tit-for-tat opposition and each expressed his own opinion.

The article first lists Zhang Yi’s views. First of all, Zhang Yi believes that the attack on Korea can be divided into three steps: first, be friendly to Wei and Chu, send troops to the three rivers, strangle the exits of Zhe Mountain and Fengshi Mountain, and block the passage of Tunliu; second, use Wei to conquer Nanyang and Chu Linnan Zheng, restrained the Han army, while the Qin army took the opportunity to approach the outskirts of Erzhou, denounced the Zhou emperor's crimes, and forced him to hand over the nine tripods, a symbol of royal power; third, he held the nine tripods and held the emperor hostage to order the princes and achieve the king's career. Secondly, Zhang Yi refuted Sima's theory that he wrongly attacked Shu. He believed that Shu was remote and lacked many teachers, so it was not enough to become famous or gain huge profits. The key places for establishing the royal industry are in Sanchuan and the Zhou Dynasty. Conquering Shu is too far away from the successful industry and should not be adopted.

In response to Zhang Yi's argument, Sima Cuo categorically used the word "otherwise" to refute, and then also demonstrated the reasons for conquering Shu in three steps. First, from a macro perspective, the three conditions for establishing a royal industry are put forward, namely, the land is vast and the resources are abundant, the army is strong and the people are prosperous, and the virtues are widespread. However, the people in Qin are small and poor, and do not yet have the conditions to achieve a king's career. It is better to start from easy places to strengthen the national strength; secondly, Shu has Jie and the chaos of Zhou, which is easy to attack and conquer. The troops can be used without hurting the people, so the land can be taken. Enriching the people in a wide area can also gain the moral reputation of prohibiting violence and quelling chaos. It is both beneficial and famous, and will not cause opposition from the vassal states. Thirdly, attacking Korea is not feasible. It may not be beneficial to attack Korea, and it has a bad reputation of holding the emperor hostage, which will inevitably force the various vassal states to unite to resist Qin, putting Qin in a dangerous situation, so attacking Shu is the best strategy.

The two people have very different views, but it can be seen from the debate that Zhang Yi’s ideas are mostly subjective and idealistic, such as whether Wei and Han are friendly to Qin and whether they are willing to send troops to contain the Korean army; especially threatening the emperor. In order to make the princes, whether the princes and states surrender, are all unknown factors. Sima Cuo starts from reality, knows himself and his enemy, and proposes positive and prudent methods, which can not only develop and strengthen himself, but also gain a foothold in public opinion.