Chapter 28 Chapter Three: Xiang Yu Divides the World

Xiang Yu seems to have become Zhou Gongdan 800 years ago, but Zhou Gongdan had the patriarchal clan and feudal system as the objective basis when enfeoffing the princes, and Xiang Yu handled this sensitive and complicated issue entirely according to his own preferences. Xiang Yu burned Xianyang City A few days after the Hongmen Banquet, Xiang Yu led his troops into Xianyang; Liu Bang naturally did not dare to stop him, and remained in Bashang, adopting a wait-and-see attitude. Xiang Yu, who has always been cruel to the enemy, immediately ordered a large-scale looting. Jiang Ziying was killed first.

All the royal palaces, nobles' official residences, and rich merchants' mansions were all looted, and the lives and properties of the people were not protected as they should be.Because Liu Bang once ordered three chapters to prohibit robbery, the officials and people of Qin State were seriously injured without psychological preparation. Xiang Yu didn't do anything, but ordered the city of Xianyang to be burned. This was an unprecedented folly, but Xiang Yu seemed to be carried away with complacency, and he had no time to think about demobilization and aftermath after the war.

Fan Zeng didn't seem to dissuade Xiang Yu either, perhaps because the resentment from Hongmenyan was still lingering!Since after killing hundreds of thousands of Qin soldiers, Qin Min no longer liked Xiang Yu, so it is better to inflict strong damage fiercely, so that they are so frightened that they completely lose the ability to retaliate. However, judging from Liu Bang's re-exit from Guanzhong in the future, Qin Min not only quickly turned to support Liu Bang, but also supported the Han army without hesitation during the struggle between Chu and Han. Xiang Yu and Fan Zeng's terror policy seems to have had the opposite effect.

And the worst thing is that Fan Zeng seems to be just a military staff officer, not a chief of staff in business, so he didn't care about the books, materials and documents of the Qin imperial family at all, so he allowed Xiang Yu to burn the imperial palace and Xianyang city. This fire by Xiang Yu destroyed all the files that the Qin imperial family worked so hard to build after the unification of the world. If Xiao He hadn't moved a lot in advance, it might take more time after the establishment of the Han Dynasty to manage these files in the world. The necessary data is restored again.

From this point of view, Xiang Yu's group does not seem to have the ambition to unify China or use a new system to plan the world. Xiang Yu and Fan Zeng still limit their thinking to the Chu-style alliance state system. The worst effect of burning Xianyang is the serious damage to Chinese culture.Qin Shihuang's burning of books only destroyed folk cultural relics. Except for a few hidden ones, almost all books were kept in the treasury of Xianyang City.Now these classics have been burned by Xiang Yu's brutal fire, so the records of the Chinese civilization thousands of years before Qin are almost completely gone.

From the perspective of cultural history, Qin Shihuang, Li Si, Xiang Yu, and Fan Zeng are really the great sinners of the century. The fire is said to have burned continuously for three months. The subordinates of the Xiang family army who had a little brains and opinions were completely disappointed with Xiang Yu because of the fire, and they all transferred to the relatively weak Liu Bang camp. Xiang Yu still cares about the south Xiang Yu's base camp is still in Hongmen. This is only a land of Hakka, and Xiang Yu has no intention of becoming the heir of the Qin royal family.He didn't seem to want to unify the world, but only wanted to rebuild the Chu State, and then make Chu State the overlord of the world's princes.It can be seen that Xiang Yu's thinking style still belongs to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States style.

Therefore, Guanzhong is just the enemy's stronghold for him, and it is not worth cherishing. A Confucian scholar surnamed Han among his subordinates made a suggestion to Xiang Yu after he had a better understanding of the situation in the Central Plains: "The terrain in Guanzhong is dangerous, with mountains and rivers as obstacles. It can be said that it is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is the best place to establish a base camp. Especially the land here is fertile and productive, so that we can have enough resources to compete for world hegemony." This kind of opinion is actually quite pragmatic, and it is quite helpful for the future development of Xiang Yu Group.

But after the great destruction, how could Xiang Yu have the intention to stay here? . Since the uprising, Xiang Yu has traveled around with his uncle Xiang Liang almost non-stop.Especially since the Northern Expedition, it took untold hardships to win this big victory, and finally destroyed the old enemy Qin.What he wants to do most now is to go back quickly to announce the good news to Jiangdong's elders, so that his hard work can be recognized by everyone. "We must settle down in this strange enemy territory!" This kind of thinking is quite unrealistic for Xiang Yu, so he answered directly:

"Being rich but not returning to your hometown is like wearing beautiful clothes but walking at night. Who can see that?" From this sentence, it can be seen that Xiang Yu is really too young, and his experience seems to be still that of a business manager. He just wants to show his achievements as soon as possible, without the long-term business idea of ​​​​an operator who "focuses on the overall situation". This Confucian scholar surnamed Han seemed to belong to the Central Plains family. Hearing Xiang Yu's answer was a bit ridiculous, and he couldn't help feeling that the Central Plains people had always regarded the Chu people as southern barbarians.

So after leaving the tent, he shook his head when he met an acquaintance: "It is said that people from the state of Chu are macaques wearing human clothes, and they are indeed so." The Chu people naturally couldn't bear to hear this kind of criticism involving the feelings and dignity of the ethnic group, and the rumors quickly returned to Xiang Yu's ears. Naturally, Xiang Yu lost his temper, and ordered someone to prepare a big pot and put it in the square, and threw Han Sheng into the pot to cook, as a warning to kill everyone. King Huai and Liu Bang, the most headache for Xiang Yu

For Xiang Yu, King Huai of Chu and Liu Bang were his two most troublesome figures. Liu Bang's power expanded rapidly. Although there was no obvious confrontation with Xiang Yu, his high reputation-especially his image in the Guanzhong area did make Xiang Yu feel uncomfortable. King Huai of Chu is Xiang Yu's immediate boss in name, and he has never liked Xiang's army. The killing of Song Yi even triggered a superficial conflict between King Huai of Chu and Xiang Yu. After Xianyang was burned, Xiang Yu followed common sense and sent someone to King Huai of Chu for instructions on how to deal with the aftermath of the Guanzhong area. King Huai of Chu only replied with two words - "As promised, that is, according to the prior agreement, Liu Bang, who entered Guanzhong first, will be the king of Guanzhong." This incident naturally made Xiang Yu furious. He even complained to Fan Zeng who supported King Huai of Chu: "Is he really a descendant of the Chu royal family?" Fan Zeng said calmly: "In order to fight against the Qin Dynasty, King Huai of Chu was very beneficial to us." In other words, King Huai of Chu is just a "tool to use". Now that the situation has changed, King Huai of Chu is no longer so important.However, he thought it would be advisable to elevate King Huai of Chu to the titular "king of kings"—the son of heaven, and Xiang Yu to be the leader of the real powerful kings—the overlord. From this, it can be seen that Fan Zeng seems to be inclined towards "conservatives" in terms of ruling ideology, still in the form of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and lacks the breakthrough of the times. So Xiang Yu took the initiative to convene a meeting of princes and said: "King Huai was supported by my Xiang Family Legion, in fact, he has no real merit, so he is no longer qualified to issue orders to the world. "When the world rose up to fight against the tyranny of Qin, in order to gather everyone's strength, they pretended to be princes as a call. But the real "hard-wearing" led the anti-rebellion army before, and took the risk of three years in the field, and was able to destroy the Qin royal family and rule the world. It is all the hard work of the generals and Xiang Ji and me, not the credit of King Huai! "However, although King Huai has no credit, he also represents his stage role. After that, he should no longer have real power. He only needs to be allocated some land to continue to be the king of Chu." During the first lunar month, Xiang Yu first respected King Huai as Emperor Yi, and publicly stated: "An emperor who was an emperor in ancient times must have a territory of thousands of miles, and be located in the upper reaches." Enfeoffment of Liu Bang in Hanzhong Another headache is Liu Bang. If Liu Bang was established as the king of Guanzhong according to the original agreement, with Liu Bang's image and ability, he would undoubtedly be raising a tiger.However, if Liu Bang was not given a larger feudal state, and it showed that Xiang Yu deliberately suppressed Liu Bang, Xiang Yu, the new leader of the kings in the country, would be too cautious. Fan Zeng, who had a grudge against Liu Bang, didn't want Liu Bang to have a good time, so he racked his brains to think of a conspiracy that would make Liu Bang dumbfounded. Finally, he told Xiang Yu that Liu Bang should be sealed in Hanzhong. "Hanzhong? What kind of place is this?" Xiang Yu, who lives in Jiangdong, seems to have no impression of Hanzhong. "I think as long as you hear about Hanzhong, more than half of Liu Ji's troops will automatically disband!" Fan Zeng smiled maliciously. "what about this?" The frank Xiang Yu really didn't understand what kind of medicine was sold in Fan Zeng's gourd. "Bashu is also under the jurisdiction of Guanzhong, so on the surface we have not violated the agreement. It's just that the road from Bashu to Guanzhong is very dangerous and difficult, and it can only be connected by artificial plank roads. Therefore, only prisoners in the Guanzhong area have always been sent. Go somewhere like that." Xiang Yu didn't have a good impression of Liu Bang at first, it was just out of face, and he didn't want to hurt Liu Bang too much. Since Bashu and Hanzhong are also in the Guanzhong area, they have an explanation to the people of the world. As for Liu Bang's future survival, Xiang Yu is not particularly concerned. "As long as it makes sense, give him the entire area of ​​Bashu Hanzhong!" Xiang Yu didn't want to know more about the advantages and disadvantages of Liu Bang in the Bashu Han Dynasty. He has always been a big and flexible person. Fan Zeng maliciously wanted Liu Bang to never recover, in order to repay his regret of not being able to kill him when he was in Hongmen. Ba refers to the Chongqing area in Sichuan Province, which has been ruled by the Ba people of the mountainous people since ancient times. Due to the inconvenient transportation in the mountainous area, the Ba people have always had a very high degree of independence and independence, and it is difficult for any political force to intervene. Shu is near modern Chengdu. Thanks to the development of Zhang Yi, Sima Cuo and others during Qin Huiwang, it has a fairly good civilization.Especially during the Qin Dynasty, Li Bing and his son's construction of water conservancy - Dujiangyan, doubled the productivity of central Shu and became an important essence of Qin. However, if you want to enter Guanzhong from Shuzhong, you must pass through Hanzhong Hanzhong is a basin, which is separated from the Qinling Mountains in the middle of Guan with dangerous mountains and difficult transportation. Therefore, once anyone arrives here, it is more difficult to enter the Central Plains. For Fan Zeng, Bashu Hanzhong was a natural prison where Liu Bang was imprisoned. "As long as you get stuck in this kind of place, what else can you do!?" The New Overlord of the World: Overlord of Western Chu After more than a month of planning and negotiation, it was not until February that Xiang Yu decided on the blueprint for the re-division of the world's forces. Xiang Yu didn't want to replace Qin Huang himself as emperor, he named Chuhuai King Yidi mainly because he was "not interested in the title of emperor." What he wants to do most is to become the king of Chu, and then return to his hometown to let his elders and children see his glory and be proud of him. Therefore, he established himself as the overlord of Western Chu, unified the nine most elite counties of Liang State (Wei State) and Chu State in the past, and established his capital in Pengcheng. Pengcheng is now Xuzhou City. In terms of transportation, Pengcheng is an important town between the north and the south, so in terms of management in peacetime, Pengcheng is a good place.However, because it is located on a plain with no defensive fortresses on all sides, Xiang Yu established his capital here before the overall situation was stable, which is really not a good choice. What's more, Xiang Yu's plan still belongs to the pattern of the Warring States Period. This also shows that Fan Zeng is not good enough in business. The next step is to make Liu Bang the king of Han who made the most contribution when he entered Xianyang in the west, rule Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong, and establish his capital in Nanzheng. But the question of who will rule Guanzhong remains unresolved. Due to the incident of killing and surrendering soldiers, and the surrendering general Zhang Han when Xianyang was burned, they did not do their best to stop or remedy it afterwards. Self-protection will definitely implement a thorough tough style, and maintain law and order with strict military rule, so Xiang Yu decided to let the three of them divide and rule Guanzhong. Zhang Han was granted the title of King Yong, who ruled Guanzhong west of Xianyang, and established his capital in Feiqiu. Sima Xin was granted the title of King of Sai, and he ruled from the east of Xianyang to the Yellow River, and established his capital in Liyang. Dong Yi made him king of Zhai, and he ruled over the Shangjun area, with Gaonu as his capital. Since Xiang Yu himself ruled most of the elite areas of the former Liang State, he changed the title of Wei Wang Wei Bao to the Western Wei King, and established his capital in Pingyang. Shen Yang from Xiaqiu, a confidant general of Zhang Er, was ordered to go to Henan County to assist the Chu army to go north. He made a lot of contributions and was named King of Henan and established Luoyang as his capital. Han Wang Han Cheng is still Han Wang, and his capital is Yangdi. Sima Ang, the general of Zhao, pacified Hanoi and made many contributions. Therefore, he was named King of Yin, ruled Hanoi, and established Chaoge as his capital. The original king of Zhao, Zhao Xie, was moved to Dai, and he was still named King Zhao. Zhang Er, the Prime Minister of Zhao State, was very prestigious and resourceful. He also followed Xiang Yu into the customs and provided many opinions. Therefore, he was named Changshan King, governed the original border of Zhao State, and established Xiangguo as the capital. Dangyang Lord Yingbu, who was often the commander of the vanguard army, made great contributions. He was named King of Jiujiang and established his capital in Liucheng. Wu Rui, an ethnic minority leader in the Fanyang area, led the tribes of Baiyue to participate in the coalition into Guanzhong, so he was named King of Hengshan and his capital was Zhu. Gong Ao, Zhu Guo (Prime Minister) of Emperor Yi, led an army to attack Nanjun and made great achievements. He was named King of Linjiang and established Jiangling as his capital. Han Guang, the king of Yan who migrated, became the king of Liaodong, and the capital was built without end. Zang Tu, General of Yan, followed the Chu army to break the siege of Julu. He moved to Qiwangtian City and became the king of Jiaodong, with Jimo as his capital. Tian Du, the Qi general who voluntarily rebelled against Qi and assisted Xiang Liang, entered the pass with the coalition army. He made great contributions and was named the king of Qi and established Linzi as his capital. When Xiang Yu crossed the river to rescue Zhao, Tian An, a nobleman of the Qi State, attacked several cities in Jibei and led his troops to surrender to Xiang Yu, so he was named King of Jibei and his capital Boyang. Tian Rong, the chief military strongman of Qi, clashed with Xiang Yu several times, and refused to form an alliance with the Chu army, so he was not sealed. Although Chen Yu, the Lord of Cheng'an, had meritorious service in persuading Zhang Han to surrender, he had abandoned his seal and left, and had never entered the pass from the coalition forces, so he was not sealed. But many people fought against Chen Yu, so they lobbied Xiang Yu: "Both Zhang Er and Chen Yu have contributed to Zhao. Now that Zhang Er is crowned king, Chen Yu must not deny it. Otherwise, people will not accept it and Zhao will be in chaos." Xiang Yu had no choice but to assign three counties near Nanpi, where Chen Yu was located, to his jurisdiction. In addition, Mei Yan, the leader of the ethnic minorities, also made military achievements and was granted the title of Marquis of 100,000 households. Of course, these are only important feudal lords, and the rest will be properly distributed according to the degree of credit. Xiang Yu seems to have become Zhou Gongdan 800 years ago, but Zhou Gongdan had the patriarchal clan and feudal system (recognition of the old forces) as the objective basis for enfeoffing the princes, and Xiang Yu handled this sensitive and complicated issue entirely according to his own preferences. It can be seen from this point whether the distribution can be successful and how long it can last. 【Chen Wende Commentary】 Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching Chapter Twenty-Four": "Those who are ambitious do not stand up, those who straddle do not do well, those who see themselves do not know, those who are self-righteous do not show, those who attack themselves have no merit, and those who boast do not grow long; in terms of Dao, it is said: Those who eat superfluous things or do evil things, so those who have the way will not go there." In Taoist theory, Xiang Yu's mentality of eagerly wanting to go home and show off his glory often brings him extreme danger, and with this mentality, it is impossible to be slaughtered for the world. Raise your heels and try to overtake others. However, people who are taller than others usually cannot stand on their own feet and try to pass others quickly. Instead, they will hurt their feet due to too much effort, and they will not be able to take a step. In the same way, people who are eager to express themselves are likely to be disgusted, and their advantages are invisible to everyone.Self-righteous people are eager for quick success, but their minds are not clear enough.People who boast about themselves are hated by everyone, and their merits are not valued.People who are arrogant and complacent are likely to attract resistance, but they cannot maintain long-term advantages. This kind of eager self-expression behavior will become the extra fat of the rest of the dishes, and if everyone doesn't like it, it is not only useless, but harmful to oneself, so a person of morality will never do this. In fact, if Xiang Yu at this time bravely proclaimed himself emperor, shouldered the responsibility of stabilizing the world, and then carefully allocated the spheres of influence of the princes, he would be more likely to gain everyone's approval and then rule the world. But Xiang Yu seems to have never thought of becoming an emperor. On the one hand, he may be disgusted with Emperor Qin, which made him not want to own the world by himself; Wang Ban realized that the pursuit of peace must establish a strong political organization. Therefore, Xiang Yu still stays in the thinking mode of the king of Chu Zhuang when he ruled the world, so he calls himself the overlord of Western Chu. But he also hopes to have more strength to control the princes of the world, so in addition to the elite area of ​​Chu, he also wants to own the Liang land in the elite area of ​​the Central Plains. Under such a mentality, the benchmark for allocating the world must be unfair. Judge your own likes and dislikes. The spirit that is driven by this has become a standard based on one's own standpoint. Wei Bao was moved to Hedong, which overthrew the recognition of the old sphere of influence. Except for the weak South Korea, which was temporarily retained, the forces of Zhao, Qi, and Yan were all broken, and they were based on Xiang Yu's personal likes and dislikes. It is doubtful how long this kind of political foundation can last . In fact, Xiang Yu does not have the strength to completely dominate the world. He should win over some princes who admire or respect him to rule the world together, and stabilize his own regime after appeasing those dissatisfied forces. If this situation develops, it may not be certain that he can become the emperor with real power and rule the world. However, he put himself in the same position as the princes, and instead of establishing legitimacy, he clearly showed that he was an overlord who conquered people with "power", and then went on to do the work of the emperor, which naturally caused more grievances from others It rang.