,
Hebei. Zhao Jia was the eldest son of
King Daoxiang of Zhao, but was passed over in succession in favor of his younger brother (who became known as
King Youmiao) because of the machinations of the boy's mother, the
concubine Zhao Mianchang.
Qin forces captured the Zhao capital of
Handan in 228 BCE and captured King Youmiao. It is likely that Zhao Jia was not in Handan at the time, for shortly afterwards he led several hundred clan members towards
Dai Commandery, whose seat was southwest of present-day
Yuxian in
Hebei. This controlled the northeastern quarter of the Zhao kingdom. There, having been proclaimed King by his courtiers, King Jia allied himself with
King Xi of
Yan against Qin forces, which were poised to invade Yan after
Jing Ke's failed assassination attempt on
King Zheng of Qin. At the
Battle of Yi River in 226 BCE, the combined forces of Yan and Jia's
Kingdom of Dai were defeated by Qin forces, with King Xi of Yan fleeing to Liaodong. Seeing this, King Jia urged King Xi to kill Jing Ke's patron,
Prince Dan of Yan, in an attempt to appease the King of Qin. This, combined with the commencement of Qin wars against
Wei and
Chu, delayed the conquest of Dai for some years. Ultimately, in 223 BCE, Qin forces under Wang Ben conquered the rump Yan state in Liaodong. On their way back to Central China, they conquered
Dai as well. King Jia was taken prisoner, thus extinguishing the last remnant of the Zhao state. It is unlikely that King Jia was treated too harshly, as his son was sent by the Qin court as an emissary to the
Xirong. The descendants of Zhao settled in
Tianshui in modern-day
Gansu. ==Legacy==