The great minister Shang Yang was just then implementing his legalist reforms to the laws of Qin and he insisted that the crown prince should be punished for the crime regardless of his royal status.
During Huiwen's reign, Qin became very powerful in terms of its military strength, and constantly invaded neighbouring states as part of its expansionism policy.
The strategy here was to annex and colonize the semi-civilized lands to the south rather than confront the more advanced states to the east with their large armies.
The strategist Gongsun Yan, a student of Guiguzi, managed to persuade five of the other six major states to form an alliance to deal with Qin.
However, Gongsun Yan's fellow student, Zhang Yi, came into the service of Huiwen as his prime minister and he helped Qin break up the alliance by sowing discord among the five states.