1. The Warring States

Zhou dynasty: from c. 1046 BC until 256 BC (Zhou = Tchou = Tcheou
Western Zhou
Eastern Zhou:
                Spring and Autumn period: c. 771 – 256 BCE (First half of the Eastern Zhou period)
                Warring States period: c. 475 – 221 BCE (Second half of the Eastern Zhou period)

Map of the Warring States c. 260 BCE

2. Zhan Guo Ce (Wade-Giles Chan-kuo Ts’e)

« Strategies (Annals) of the Warring States »(Wade-Giles Chan-kuo Ts’e)
An online translation: https://warringstates.wixsite.com/warringstates

« The Zhan Guo Ce was originally compiled by Han dynasty scholar Liu Xiang » (77–6 BCE)
(Wikipedia, Zhan Guo Ce)
Information on the text: Loewe Michael (ed.) 1993. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. The Society for the Study of Early China –  The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California.

3. Su Qin (= Su Ch’in), ?–284 BCE 

James Irving Crump Legends of the Warring States: Persuasions, Romances and Stories from the Chan-kuo Ts’e (1998). University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

« In the section labeled « Four Romances » the reader will find reconstructed biographical / rhetorical « romances of the most famous persuaders, Fang Chü,  Zhang Yi, Su Qin and Ch’unshen Chün. » (Legends…, p.10)

— « Peripatetic Persuaders » and their « Persuasions »

« Sometimes during the third to second century B.C., the [Zhou] kingdom and its feudal subdivisions (which we will call states in this book) had crumbled badly […] This era of great change was characterized by, among other things, the rise of a class of political advisors and technocrats who peddled their services to anyone in power.Their activities are known to us today through the hundreds of carefully crafted pieces of rhetorical literature that are called « persuasions” in this book. These are found in several other works but are more often and most closely associated with Chan-kuo ts’e. » (Legends… p. 1)

The debacle 

The debacle [of the Six states] was the overarching historical fact of that age. However, as I see it, the geist of the era, romanticized fictionalized though it may be, is captured in the Chan-kuo Ts’e. This it does by constructing stories about, and giving samples of, the imagined activities (primarily speeches) of the peripatetic persuaders. Although anyone of the names of these men in our book may be entirely fictional, there can be no doubt that such a class, with its skill in political advising and manipulation, did flourish. (Id., p.9)

The « legendary vertical and horizontal alliances » (p. 8)

« By the time of the Warring States period, the major contest was between the powerful State of Qin situated in the west, and the other six mid-power, namely Yan, Zhao, Wei, Qi, Chu, and Han. The seven states engaged in a complex series of pacts and military alliances.
The Horizontal Alliance adopted by Qin, followed a west–east alignment aimed at curbing the coalitions of the other six states.
— In contrast, the Vertical Alliance formed a north–south alignment among the six states to block Qin’s further expansion.
The spokesperson for the Vertical Alliance is Su Qin, while the spokesperson for the Horizontal Alliance is Zhang Yi. (Wikipedia,School of Diplomacy).

Su Qin and Zhang Yi « Persuasions » are translated In Crump, Legends…, :
The  Romance of Chang Yi, p.37-61
The Romance of Su Ch’in, p. 62-88.