战国时代末期，有秦、魏、韩、楚、赵、齐、燕七个国家在争夺霸权。
秦国因为接受了商鞅的改革，变得越来越强大。
秦昭王继位后，他想要统一其他国家，成为唯一的国王。
秦昭王三十六年的时候，他打算派穰侯带领军队，穿过韩、魏两国去攻打齐国。
但是，在秦国的一个聪明人范雎认为这个计划不好。
范雎说：“大王，您想让我们的军队经过韩、魏两国的土地去打强大的齐国，这是不好的想法。如果我们派出的士兵少，就不能伤害到齐国；如果士兵多，秦国就会受到损失。我猜大王是想让我们派出少量的士兵，让韩、魏两国派出很多士兵，但这是不对的。我们不能信任他们，却要经过他们的土地去作战，这样可以吗？这显然是个不好的策略！
以前，齐国打败了楚国，杀了很多士兵和将领，占领了很多地方，但他们最后连一寸土地都没有得到。这是因为他们打了仗，让韩、魏两国变得更强大。这就像是把武器给了坏人，把食物给了小偷一样。大王应该先和远处的国家交朋友，然后再攻打附近的国家。这样，我们得到的每一寸土地都是属于大王的。现在去攻打远方的国家，不是错误的做法吗？
秦昭王听完觉得很有道理，就采用了范雎的建议，向东方扩展自己的领土。这让另一个强国楚国不得不多次迁都，也使秦国更加稳固地走向统一。
范雎对秦昭王说的话是“得寸则王之寸，得尺亦王之尺也”，意思是每一块我们打胜仗得到的土地，都是大王的。
后来，这句话变成了一个成语“得寸进尺”，意思是在得到了一些好处后，还想要更多，用来形容贪心的人。
但是，“得寸则王之寸，得尺亦王之尺也”的意思和现在的成语已经有些不同了。
At the end of the Warring States period, there were seven countries - Qin, Wei, Han, Chu, Zhao, Qi, and Yan - fighting for supremacy.
Qin became stronger and stronger because it accepted the reforms of Shang Yang.
When King Zhao of Qin ascended the throne, he wanted to unify the other countries and become the only king.
In the 36th year of his reign, he planned to send Rang Hou to lead an army through Han and Wei to attack Qi.
However, a wise man named Fan Ju in Qin thought this plan was not good.
Fan Ju said: "Your Majesty, you want our army to pass through the lands of Han and Wei to fight against powerful Qi. This is a bad idea. If we send fewer soldiers, we cannot harm Qi; if we send more, Qin will suffer losses. I guess Your Majesty wants us to send a small number of soldiers and let Han and Wei send many soldiers, but this is wrong. We cannot trust them, yet we have to go through their land to fight. Is this acceptable? It's clearly a bad strategy!
In the past, Qi defeated Chu, killed many soldiers and commanders, and occupied many places, but they did not gain even an inch of land in the end. This is because they fought and made Han and Wei stronger. It's like giving weapons to villains and food to thieves. Your Majesty should first befriend distant countries and then attack nearby ones. In this way, every inch of land we gain belongs to Your Majesty. Isn't it wrong to attack distant countries now?
King Zhao of Qin found Fan Ju's words very reasonable and adopted his advice, expanding his territory towards the east. This forced another powerful country, Chu, to move its capital several times and made Qin more firmly on the path to unification.
What Fan Ju said to King Zhao of Qin was 'If we gain an inch, it's Your Majesty's inch; if we gain a foot, it's Your Majesty's foot'.
Later, these words became the idiom 'inch by inch, step by step', meaning that after gaining some benefits, one still wants more, describing greedy people.
But the meaning of 'if we gain an inch, it's Your Majesty's inch; if we gain a foot, it's Your Majesty's foot' is different from the current idiom.
