Chapter 20 7. Countdown to Defeat

The story of Hongmen Banquet left many mysteries.The most puzzling thing among them is probably why Xiang Yu didn't kill Liu Bang. yeah, why? There are many reasons. But Fan Kuai's intrusion should be counted as one.In fact, Xiang Yu was still in a dilemma about whether to kill Liu Bang or not.Fan Zeng gestured frequently, but he pretended not to see it.But Xiang Zhuang's sword dance was aimed at Pei Gong, and he didn't stop him.Xiang Bo danced his sword to cover Pei Gong, but he didn't stop.Liu Bang's life, he handed over to heaven. However, Fan Kuai made him love him a lot.Therefore, not only did Xiang Yu not get angry at Fan Kui's reprimand, but he decided not to kill Liu Bang.Apparently, Xiang Yu had already forgotten the world war and his own face at this time, his heart was only full of admiration and admiration for a tough guy.

This is hero to hero sympathy. Indeed, a hero should be respected, how can there be any reason for murder?Even if you want to kill, you have to fight in an upright manner on the battlefield. How can there be any reason to kill secretly at the banquet in your own barracks?That's too cheap. Obviously, this is also a kind of childishness. Xiang Yu is indeed childish.Including his killing, too.He has killed a lot all his life, but often on a whim, and seldom kills in a planned and premeditated way out of political needs, which is completely different from Fan Zeng's scheming.As a result, those who should be killed were not killed, and those who should not be killed were killed indiscriminately, such as the massacre of the city.

In fact, the innocence of children is just ignorance.Therefore, children are often cruel.They would kill a butterfly nonchalantly because he didn't think it was a big deal.But if you tell him clearly that it's a crime and ask him to do it, he won't be able to do it.Therefore, Xiang Yu can slaughter the city, but cannot kill Liu Bang. Even Xiang Yu's proposal of "willing to enter the customs with Peigong" when assigning tasks back then was childish.His purpose was to avenge Xiang Liang, not because he was afraid that Liu Bang would take the lead.Therefore, if the joint meeting of princes disagreed, he no longer insisted.Because he didn't believe that Liu Bang's idiot could defeat Qin Jun at all.

However, when he heard that Liu Bang entered the Guanzhong first, "there are all treasures", he became angry and furious, wishing to kill Liu Bang immediately.It's no different than a child crying when his toy is taken from him.So, when Liu Bang returned the toy to him, he laughed and invited Liu Bang to dinner. Baby, it's so easy to coax. No wonder Fan Zeng said "Shuzi is not enough and tricky". Who is the brat Fan Zeng mentioned?Xiang Yu?Xiang Zhuang?It may be both, or it may explicitly refer to Xiang Zhuang and imply Xiang Yu.But even if Xiang Yu was pointed out, he wouldn't care.Because of his heart, he had already flown back to Pengcheng.

After massacring the people of Xianyang and burning down the palace of Xianyang, Xiang Yu decided to return to Pengcheng with the looted treasures and women.Some people persuaded him that Guanzhong is the birthplace of the Zhou and Qin dynasties, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack.If you build your capital here, you can dominate the world, so why go back to Pengcheng? But Xiang Yu said that if you become rich and don't go back to your hometown, it's like walking in the dark in beautiful clothes. Who can see it? This is not only childish, it can be called "children can't be taught"!So someone commented: Everyone said that Chu people are big horse monkeys wearing high hats, sure enough!Xiang Yu was also unambiguous when he heard about it, and directly threw the man into the frying pan.

Thank you Xiang Yu!He has left four idioms for us now: burn the boat and sink the boat, watch from the sidelines, return home with clothes and clothes, and win the crown after bathing in the monkey. But before Xiang Yu goes home, there is one more thing to do. This matter is to enfeoff the princes.This matter must be done, because the situation at this moment is different from that of Qin Chu.Qin won the world by destroying the six kingdoms, so of course he can no longer divide it.Now it is the Six Kingdoms that destroy Qin, how can anyone swallow it alone? However, how to seal it and who will seal it is a problem.

King Huai of Chu's opinion is to follow the previous agreement. Of course Xiang Yu couldn't agree.As promised, it means that Liu Bang has become the king of the world. How can this be the result Xiang Yu wants? So he decided to go in three steps. The first step is to announce that King Lihuai is the emperor.This is the age of empires, and there is no problem in setting up an emperor.However, Qin Shihuang was called "Emperor Qin", and King Huai of Chu should be called "Emperor Chu", but Xiang Yu called him "Emperor Yi".Righteousness has the meaning of borrowing, such as foster father, foster son, denture, and prosthetic limb.

Therefore, Emperor Yi is a "false emperor". Since he is a fake emperor, he can't control the real issue.Xiang Yu said to the generals: King Huai was established by Xiang Liang from my family, and he has no military achievements at all.Establishing him as the Emperor of Righteousness is already very interesting.It is all thanks to you and my brothers to destroy Qin and rule the world.Therefore, we should divide it ourselves. The generals all said: very good! Xiang Yu enfeoffed eighteen princes and kings.This is his second step.The third step is to call himself the "Overlord of Western Chu", Du Pengcheng.In this way, it seems to be back to the Spring and Autumn Period, where the emperor, the overlord, and the princes all shared peace.

It's a pity that Xiang Yu's political model is really nondescript, and the distribution results are not fair.Xiang Yu is not selfish.His own territory is not large, and there are only four generals in the Chu Army Group who are crowned kings.However, his methods and principles of assigning enfeoffments are not organized, and he is both childish and defensive. For example, Liu Bang was the first to enter Qin Dynasty.Even if he can't be allowed to rule the world as promised, at least he should be allowed to be king in Guanzhong.But how?Liu Bang was granted the title of King of Han, owning the three prefectures of Ba (approximately present-day Chongqing City), Shu (approximately present-day Sichuan Province), and Hanzhong (now south of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province, i.e. northwest of Hubei Province), all of which are Nanzheng (present-day Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, It was named after the Zheng Guoren fled to the south during the Spring and Autumn Period).

In fact, even this place in Hanzhong was obtained by Liu Bang through Zhang Liang's bribery to Bo Xiang and through the back door.Originally, only Ba and Shu were entrusted to him by Xiang Yu.At that time, Bajun and Shujun blocked dangerous mountains in the north, strangled the Three Gorges in the east, and were poor and remote. They had always been used as a place to exile sinners. How could they be used to reward great heroes? This is too overbearing! But Liu Bang is very clear that now is not the time to be reasonable, and Xiang Yu is not a reasonable person either.He could only swallow his anger and go to Hanzhong first.

In April of the first year of the Han Dynasty, that is, half a year after the fall of the Qin Empire, the princes from all walks of life went to their own feudal states with different moods, and Xiang Yu also set off to return to Pengcheng.At this time, Xiang Yu must have been filled with the pride and joy of returning home, and he would never think of his own defeat. In fact, the countdown has already entered.

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Notes: There are other psychological analyzes in the same book, and these analyzes are also established, please refer to it.