Chapter 28 drop one thing

In the past two years, Liu Bang can be said to be exhausted and restless.To be like Xiang Yu, Liu Bang should die a hundred times, but he learned his lesson every time, quickly integrated the army to get the greatest support for preparations, and the united front work was done very well. He quickly contacted the princes and launched guerrilla attacks against Xiang Yu from all directions, making Xiang Yu unbearable and fighting fires everywhere. In this way, he gained precious rest time, quickly captured strategic locations, consumed Xiang Yu's food reserves while holding on, and wiped out Xiang Yu's forces during the campaign. Vitality.

Liu Bang doesn't care about the gains and losses of a city or a place with Xiang Yu. Liu Bang knows this very well. If I can't beat you, I will defend it. If I can't defend it, I will run away.Xiang Yu's army was gradually at a disadvantage in five years because the food supply could not keep up and the soldiers could not be replenished in time, and the situation changed dramatically. At the Hongmen Banquet, Xiang Yu had 400,000 troops, but in the fifth year of Han Dynasty, Xiang Yu had only 100,000 troops.At the Hongmen Banquet, Liu Bang had only 100,000 troops. In the fifth year of the Han Dynasty, Han Xin dispatched by Liu Bang had 300,000 troops along the way. In addition to Peng Yue and the mutiny army, hundreds of thousands of people had completed the strategic encirclement of Xiang Yu.Liu Bang became stronger as he lost, and Xiang Yu became weaker as he won.This is unreasonable.But in fact it is.In the stalemate stage of the war, Xiang Yu's consumption was not well replenished.

Xiang Yu couldn't sit still in Chenggao, and he decided to lead troops to suppress the rebellion himself.The problem came immediately, if he went to quell the chaos, then who would guard Chenggao became a big problem. After Fan Zeng left, there was no one to advise him, and he had to decide everything.The two generals who are now regarded as his right-hand men are Zhongli Mo and Long Qi. Zhong Limei is now guarding Xingyang, an important military area, so he must not be considered.Long Qi has a tough style, is decisive in handling things, and has his style. He is a good candidate, but Xiang Yu has already designated him as the power forward for this expedition, so he cannot be considered.There are also some strong generals, such as Ji Bu and others, but the problem is that their limbs are more developed than their brains, so they may not be able to defend the city.

After much deliberation, Xiang Yu finally selected the general guarding Chenggao as the great Sima Cao Jiu.In fact, Xiang Yu chose Cao Jiu to take on this important task, not because of Cao Jiu's earth-shattering talent, but because of his gratitude to Cao Jiu. When Xiang Yu followed his uncle Xiang Liang to hide in Liyang County, Xiang Liang was hated by his enemies and was charged with "unnecessary" crimes and imprisoned.Xiang Liang and Cao Jiu were old acquaintances, and it happened that Cao Jiu was the prison warden there at that time, so he wrote a letter to Sima Xin, who was then in charge of justice.Sima Xin released Xiang Liang because of his affection.

Now that there is no suitable person to choose from, Xiang Yu wants to repay Cao Jiu with this.He appointed Cao Jiu as the chief general, and appointed another great benefactor, Sima Xin, king of Sai, and Dong Yi, king of Zhai, as his deputy generals to guard Chenggao together.Even so, Xiang Yu still felt uneasy. Before he left, Xiang Yu said: "If you can hold on for half a month, you have made great achievements; if you can't hold on, don't come to see me alive." Xiang Yu's meaning couldn't be more obvious: half a month is enough for me to go to the rear to calm the chaos, as long as you can stick to it for half a month, I can come back victorious.

And he gave Cao Jiu the safest way, it can even be said to be the surest way to win, four words: stick to it.No matter how Liu Bang comes to challenge, you just have to stick to the city and not fight.It's just that they can't hold on, the time is only half a month, the city wall is high and thick, and there are not few soldiers defending the city.Cao Jiu patted his chest and said, "It's a piece of cake, I promise to complete the task." After hearing Cao Jiu's bold words, Xiang Yu was satisfied and led his troops out. Xiang Yu is Xiang Yu, he is invincible wherever he goes, and this time is no exception.Peng Yue captured seventeen cities in a row, and before he had time to be happy, he was shocked to find that Xiang Yu's army had attacked Waihuang City where he was.

It is said that one thing lowers one thing, although Peng Yue is usually brave and unstoppable, but he is like a sick tiger in front of Xiang Yu, there is no life left.He hid in Waihuang City and beat him to death, but he didn't dare to go out of the city to compete with Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu didn't take this trick, he could hide from the first day of the junior high school, but couldn't hide from the fifteenth day of the junior high school. With a big wave of his hand, the Chu army began to attack the city.When the city is broken, the head has to move.Although Peng Yue didn't dare to go out of the city to fight, his defense was not sloppy at all.

In the offensive and defensive battle on the first day, both sides suffered heavy casualties.Xiang Yu saw that Peng Yue was still a bit heavy, so he personally came to command the siege.At this time, all the advanced weapons that should have been used at that time were used, except for powder guns and bombs.Now Peng Yue finally realized Xiang Yu's strength, because there were signs of loosening and cracking in several places in the Waihuang City. Fortunately, God helped him at this critical moment.It was getting dark, and Xiang Yu didn't realize that Waihuang City was in danger like a pebble, as long as he attacked for a while, he would be done.He knew how to be sympathetic to the soldiers, and he didn't intend to let the soldiers continue to work with hungry stomachs and black lights, so he immediately called for money to withdraw.

Just like this, Peng Yue got a chance to escape. In the middle of the night, he led his soldiers to break through the siege. After all, the Chu army's defense was limited in the dark, and Peng Yue's men quickly rushed out of the encirclement.When Xiang Yu woke up from his sleep and led a large army to chase after him, they had already disappeared without a trace.Peng Yue was nicknamed "Zhanshan Leopard", and he used to do a lot of sneaky things at night, so he was really handy when he walked at night. Xiang Yu couldn't catch up with Peng Yue, so he turned his anger on the people of Waihuang.He continued his efforts and made another big murder.The last two murders failed to break Qin General Bai Qi's record of 400,000 murders of Zhao Jun. He has always been worried about it. Now that he has such a good opportunity, he naturally doesn't want to miss it.

The first condition for mass burial is to gather people together.So Xiang Yu ordered people to put up lists everywhere in Waihuang City.The content of the list is simple and easy to understand: the people in the city, all men who have reached the age of fifteen must gather in the east of the city, and those who disobey the order will be beheaded.This order is very clear, you will die if you participate in the mass burial, and you will die if you don't participate in the mass burial.If it is further extended, it is: if you participate in the mass burial, you can still leave a whole body. If you don’t participate in the mass burial, you will be decapitated. You choose it yourself!

After Peng Yue attracted Xiang Yu, it was a golden opportunity for Liu Bang who had been waiting for the opportunity. In October 203 BC, Xiang Yu had just set out to attack Pengyue, and Liu Bang listened to Li Shiqi's suggestion to counterattack Chenggao. After careful consideration, Li Shiqi analyzed the current situation from a strategic perspective, and pointed out sharply: Xiang Yu did not capture the Aocang grain road when he captured Xingyang, which was a big mistake.He compared the struggle between Chu and Han to a game of chess, and the chess game has now reached the middle game.But Xiang Yu's mistake could be fatal.Then he proposed that Xiang Yu should be caught and dealt a severe blow, and first try to recapture Chenggao and Xingyang, occupy the Ao Cang grain road, take advantage of Chenggao's danger, control Taihang Mountain, occupy Feihukou, and guard Baimajin .In this way, the possibility of Xiang Yu marching into Hanzhong is almost zero, because his retreat will be cut off by the Han army. It should be said that Li Shiqi's military analysis is quite reasonable.Maybe it was the seal incident that inspired him last time, and he wanted to make up for his mistakes, so before going out this time, he thought about the problem more comprehensively.Liu Bang also believed that taking advantage of Xiang Yu's absence in Chenggao was the best opportunity to counterattack. Once this opportunity was lost, he would regret it too late. In October of this year, the autumn wind was rustling.Liu Bang led an army of tens of thousands to surround Cheng Gao like an iron barrel.Under the city of Chenggao, the horses neighed, the spears shone brightly, and the soldiers of the Han army pointed proudly at the city, challenging them loudly.At the beginning, Cao Jiu's defense was still in place.Liu Bang continued to attack for several days, but instead of making progress, he also lost a lot of manpower and material resources.There was boiling outside the city, and the city was silent. The two sides had been deadlocked for several days. Liu Bang was so anxious that he couldn't think about it for a while, so he immediately summoned counselors to discuss.Zhang Liang and Chen Ping jointly presented Liu Bang with the "exciting method".The premise of this strategy is: Cao Jiu is a rude and upright person who is very easy to get angry. If you swear at him and lure him out of the city to fight, you will be successful.Zhang Liang and Chen Ping really deserved to be senior advisers, their observation and insight were astonishing. That night, the Han camp was busy.It turned out that all the generals and counselors were in full swing to select soldiers who could speak well. The next day, just after dawn, Cao Jiu went to the city to observe the activities of the Han camp.Suddenly, five Han soldiers on horseback appeared on the open battlefield below the city.While Cao Jiu and the others were wondering, the five cavalrymen yelled at almost the same time: "Cao Jiu boy, do you dare to come out to fight? I think you are scared out of your wits!" Cao Jiu frowned, and the five cavalry scolded even worse: "Cao Jiu, you son of a bitch! Why are you being a turtle, I'm afraid it was raised by my little mother!" Cao Jiu might disappoint Xiang Yu.Xiang Yu's order was to let him guard for 15 days. There is a Si River in the west of Chenggao. With such a natural barrier, it should be said that it is very easy to guard for 15 days.It's a pity that this General Cao Jiu's self-esteem is too strong. The Han army scolded Cao Jiu across the river. As for what they scolded, I don't know what they scolded. I think Cao Jiu's family members should have been greeted all over the place. Faced with such naked scolding. Not to mention Cao Jiu, the soldiers were all filled with righteous indignation when they heard this.They asked to fight one after another, to show the Han army a little bit of color. Cao Jiu was so angry that he yelled, "Open the gates of the city and fight against the Han army!" His advisers rushed forward to persuade him, "Dear Sima, before the king led his troops to attack Peng Yue, he entrusted you to strictly guard Chenggao. I have repeatedly asked you , No matter how challenged the Han army is, you must not accept the challenge. The king also said that your task is to hold back the Han army and prevent them from advancing eastward to assist Peng Yue. When the king captures the land of Liang, he will come back and join your army. " Cao Jiu seemed to be enlightened, and slowly suppressed the anger in his heart. After finally getting through the first day, the scolding in the city was even worse the next day.After the first day of training, the Han army's swearing team not only increased in number, but also came up with some new ideas in response to the needs of the situation.This scolding team is divided into two groups: one group is responsible for scolding, and the other group is responsible for laughing.The soldiers on one side scolded a few words, and the soldiers on the other side laughed a few times. They sang and played a double reed.Their division of labor is very clear, when they are tired of scolding and laughing, they will switch to the second group immediately.Cao Jiu gritted his teeth angrily, wishing to swallow these Han soldiers alive, but remembering the military orders he had issued and Xiang Yu's strategic thinking of "holding firm and not attacking", he finally knocked out his teeth and swallowed them in his stomach. Longer than a century. On the third day, the Han army innovated again, replacing curses with curses.For the ancients who feared ghosts and gods, cursing was a hundred times more vicious than cursing.Some vicious people write down the names and curses of their enemies and bury them under a century-old tree, which is the most vicious way of cursing.At that time, the weapons used by Liu Bang and the others were white flags, which were used by dead relatives to summon their souls.On one side of the flag are animals that are not as good as pigs and dogs, and on the other side are written "Cao Jiu" in big characters.The Han army gave full play to the style of moving their mouths and hands, cursing and cursing. They put the flags on the ground and stabbed them with swords and halberds. Facing such unscrupulous and vicious curses from the Han army, Cao Jiu couldn't bear it anymore, he had completely lost his mind.He didn't inform Sima Xin and Dong Yi, and directly led his trusted soldiers out of the city.When Sima Xin and Dong Yi knew they wanted to stop them, Cao Wujiu and the others had already left the city, and the scolding soldiers saw Cao Jiu coming to kill them, they were so frightened that they lost their flags and fled outside the city for their lives. There is a saying in Sun Tzu's Art of War: "Attack with half the money, it will benefit." Cao Jiu probably has not read it.He may have let his anger get to him, and he actually ordered the river to be crossed.The commander of the Han army seemed to have read the art of war. When half of Cao Jiu's army crossed the Si River, the Han army seized no opportunity to attack. Just halfway through Cao Jiu's army, the Han army was battered head-on, and the Chu army could not look at each other head to tail. One can imagine the tragic scene.The Chu army immediately collapsed and Cheng Gao fell.All the gold and silver treasures stored by Xichu fell into the hands of the Han army.Cao Jiu and Sima Xin knew they were doomed, and they had no face to see King Xiang, so they both killed themselves by the Sishui River. In Chinese history, it is not uncommon for wars to be tolerated that lead to disastrous defeats.Unlike Cao Jiu, Sima Yi maintained a high degree of calmness in the same situation and avoided defeat in the end.Sima Yi was defeated in Shangfang Valley and was trapped in the fire. Fortunately, heavy rain fell from the sky and saved the lives of his father and son.So he couldn't hold on, no matter how the Shu army challenged him, he just stood still. Zhuge Liang sent people to give women clothes to humiliate Sima Yi and motivate him to fight.Unexpectedly, Sima Yi not only didn't get angry, but also put on a woman's dress in front of the envoy, expressing that he would continue to be his shrinking turtle. When all the generals under his command couldn't bear the humiliation and wanted to fight to the death, Sima Yi, as the commander of soldiers and horses and the commander of the three armies, kept his calmness as he should.Not only did he feel calm, but he also started the ideological work of his subordinates.Whether it's treacherous or scheming, Sima Yi's strategy is undoubtedly correct. Zhuge Liang gave Sima Yi a woman's plain clothes and regarded him as a woman, which was undoubtedly a great insult, and his intention was to irritate the other party and make him fight.As the governor of the Wei army, Sima Yi could not swallow this breath according to normal circumstances, but he was scheming and calmly analyzed the situation at that time: First, the war was not good for Wei.Zhuge Liang came out of Qishan six times, with a sharp edge, and vowed to fight the Wei army to the death.And after the new defeat, it is difficult to win the battle rashly.Second, the state of Shu is small and weak. Although it took three years to attack Wei, the rear is far away, the roads to Shu are rugged, and the supplies of 300,000 troops are not easy to solve.Wei Guo is not the same.The country has a large number of people, strong material resources, and the battlefield is not far from the Weishui Plain, so supplies are very convenient, and it is beneficial to wait for work at ease. Out of a correct assessment of the situation on both sides, Sima Yi worked out a strategy of attacking the defense and dragging down the Shu army with Lord Wei before leaving the army.The unfavorable battle has strengthened its determination to persevere and wait for change.He is not without a sense of shame, but in his opinion, humiliation is a small loss.Therefore, he suppressed his anger and only "raged in his heart".You have thousands of ideas, I have old ideas.So fortify the walls and wait for the opportunity. Sima Yi didn't bear the insult in vain, and the situation finally changed fundamentally. The Shu army was struggling, and the ally Wu army was no longer cooperating to attack Weizhong, defeated Hefei, and retreated without success.The situation in which Wei was attacked on both sides has come to an end. Zhuge Liang heard the news, heaved a long sigh, and fainted to the ground, the autumn wind in Wuzhangyuan, the big star fell, the Shu army retreated without fighting, and changed from a strategic attack to a strategic retreat.Sima Yi returned to Chang'an triumphantly without bloodshed.People often make jokes about Sima Yi accepting women's plain clothes, and laugh at Sima Yi's cowardice by saying "dead Zhuge scares Sheng Zhongda away".Didn't he know that if he showed his courage and led the crowd to fight, the Shu army might break the defense of Wei State and advance to the Central Plains.Even if this is not the case, Wei Jun will also suffer heavy losses. What makes Sima Yi better than Cao Jiu is that he always keeps a clear head when he needs to hold on, and he doesn't get angry with insults, doesn't show his strength, and doesn't get fooled.Avoid its edge, wait for the opportunity, and compare your endurance with your opponent.Bearing humiliation has always been the most valuable quality of a man. The strong men in history have always been ninjas, reflecting a superhuman wisdom and an extraordinary strategy. Cheng Gao was retaken by the Han army, Liu Bang got the news, and immediately decided to send his troops south across the Yellow River.Before setting off, Li Shiqi once suggested to Liu Bang that he could go to Qi State in the east to persuade him to surrender, and Liu Bang agreed. Li Shiqi must be taking credit for this. Maybe he doesn't know that this is his last appearance. Liu Bang has sent Han Xin to attack Qi. , Xiang Yu is the only one left in the whole world. The Han army went south from Xiaoxiuwu, crossed the Yellow River, and then entered Chenggao. They stationed heavy troops in Guangwu, and took advantage of the victory to advance to the front line of Guangwu. Ambiguous department. Xiang Yu was shocked when he heard that Cheng Gao had fallen, and hurriedly led the main force back from Suiyang, and captured Xingyang.Zhou Ke and Conggong were captured alive.And captured Han Wangxin, and then surrounded Cheng Gao.Cheng Gao has planted the banner of the Han army. Seeing that Zhou Ke was considered a man of talent, Xiang Yu said, "Make me a general. I will appoint you as the top general and make you a Marquis of Thirty Thousand Households." Unexpectedly, Zhou Ke opened his mouth and scolded: "If you don't surrender quickly, our king will capture you. If you want to be the opponent of the King of Han, you are not qualified!" As can be imagined, Zhou Ke was thrown into a cauldron and boiled, and Duke Cong was implicated and killed together. At the celebration dinner, Xiang Yu seldom drank, and basically did not speak.Feeling his own mood, he didn't even feel the joy of victory.What Zhou Ke said before he died left an indelible shadow in his heart.The Overlord thought of Han Xin and Chen Ping, the rebellious Ying Bu and the ancient Yafu Fan Zeng, and secretly sighed.He felt an unprecedented and unspeakable loneliness and fatigue. Liu Bang, who had just been stationed in Chenggao for a few days, was weak after all, and Xiang Yu came aggressively again, and took Chenggao back again. Liu Bang hurriedly escaped from Yumen, north of Chenggao, in a car with Xia Houying, crossed the Yellow River to the north, and arrived at Xiuwu overnight.Because Zhang Er's army was stationed here, Liu Bang claimed to be an envoy and stayed in the hotel. Early the next morning, when Han Xin and Zhang Er were still in bed, Liu Bang rushed into their bedroom and took the seal and soldier amulet, summoned the generals with a military flag, and changed their positions.All these changes were so fast that Han Xin and Zhang Er didn't know Liu Bang was coming until after they got up, and they were shocked. Liu Bang also didn't care about the courtesy of the monarch and his ministers, so he immediately ordered Zhang Er to defend Zhao's land, appointed Han Xin as the country's prime minister, and asked him to collect Zhao's troops that had not yet been sent to Xingyang to attack Qi. Liu Bang captured Han Xin's army, regained his strength, led his army southward and approached the Yellow River, rewarded the troops south of Xiaoxiuwu, and wanted to fight Xiang Yu again. The doctor Zheng Zhong dissuaded Liu Bang and asked him to deepen the trenches, raise the barriers and stand firm, not to fight against the Chu army.Liu Bang followed his strategy and sent Lu Wan and Liu Jia to lead 20,000 troops and hundreds of cavalry to cross Baimajin and enter Chu. Together with Peng Yue's army, they defeated Chu again in the west of Yan County. He captured more than ten cities in Liangdi.