Chapter 22 2. The world is in chaos

After getting Han Xin, Liu Bang triumphed all the way. Please see the timetable - In August of the first year of the Han Dynasty, Yong Wang Zhang Han was defeated, Sai Wang Sima Xin surrendered, and Di Wang Dong Yi (Yi read Ruyi) surrendered. In October of the second year, Henan Wang Shenyang surrendered, and Han Wang Zhengchang surrendered. In March, Wei Bao, king of Wei, surrendered, and Sima Ang, king of Yin, was captured. We know that one of Qin Shihuang's so-called reforms is to use October as the beginning of each year.The chronology of traditional historians regards the death of Qin as the first year of Han.Therefore, the first year of the Han Dynasty is from October to September of the next year.

That is to say, Ziying surrendered, Xiang Yu was divided into feudal titles, the feudal lords came to power, and Liu Bang left Hanzhong, all in the first year of the Han Dynasty.But according to the Gregorian calendar, the years were crossed, in 207 and 206 BC respectively. Is it important? Important because it illustrates how quickly the situation is changing. In fact, it was three months from Ziying's surrender to Xiang Yu's enfeoffment; it was also three months from Xiang Yu's entrustment to the princes' surrender to the country;In the next six months, one of the kings named by Xiang Yu was defeated, and six of them either surrendered or were captured, which can be described as extremely fast.

On Xiang Yu's side, there were a lot of troubles.Zhang Er, the king of Changshan he appointed, was expelled by Chen Yu, Han Guang, the king of Liaodong, was killed by King Yan, and Tiandu, king of Jiaodong, and Tian'an, king of Jibei, were all killed by Tian Rong. Kaifeng City, Henan Province) was harassed, and the whole country was in chaos. As the overlord, Xiang Yu had to come out to clean up the situation. But should we deal with Liu Bang first, or Tian Rong? Xiang Yu hesitated. At this time, Zhang Liang played a role again.He deliberately misled Xiang Yu by saying that the king of Han just wanted to be the king of Guanzhong according to the agreement of the year.If you are lucky enough to get to Guanzhong, how dare you go east again?Qi State and Zhao State wanted to unite to destroy Chu.

So Xiang Yu attacked with all his heart. As usual, Xiang Yu's attack on Qi was violent and brutal.He burned the city walls, buried soldiers, and injured the people, even women and children.This is of course unpopular.Therefore, although Tian Rong was defeated and killed, his younger brother Tian Heng appointed Tian Guang, Tian Rong's son, as king and continued to fight.Xiang Yu was trapped in the battlefield of Qi State, almost unable to move. At the same time, Xiang Yu made another serious political mistake. Xiang Yu had a deep hatred for Emperor Yi (that is, the original King Mi Xin of Chu Huai).Therefore, Xiang Yu drove him out of Pengcheng and moved him to Chenxian County (now Chenzhou City, Hunan Province). He still couldn't let go of his hatred, and secretly ordered Yingbu and others to murder him.

It was done brutally and stupidly.That's right, King Huai of Chu didn't have any credit, but he didn't have any fault either.A powerless orphan has already been made pitiful, why should he be exterminated? What's more, after all, Emperor Yi used to be the banner of the anti-Qin struggle, and Xiang Yu himself once held it high.Now, because this flag is no longer useful, should it be thrown away?Wouldn't the world be chilled to kill the donkey like this?We've all seen people with no brains and no heart, but we've never seen someone so brainless and heartless. Liu Bang's chance came.

In March of the second year of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bangbing went to Luoyang to publicly mourn Emperor Yi.He issued a declaration saying that Emperor Yi was established by the world, and killing Emperor Yi was the enemy of the world.Therefore, all my comrades should unite sincerely and punish those who killed Emperor Yi of Chu together! Yes, Killing Emperor Yi, this is Xiang Yu's new title. Xiang Yu was firmly pressed in the dock by Liu Bang, and the banner was held high above his head by Liu Bang.Under this banner, Liu Bang actually assembled 560,000 armies from various princes, and broke into Pengcheng, Xiang Yu's old nest, in one breath.The victorious generals of the coalition army played their crowns to celebrate, and held receptions every day with beautiful women in their arms.

The Overlord of Western Chu is about to be defeated. However, Xiang Yu is Xiang Yu after all.After he got the news, he left a large army to continue fighting, while he personally led 30,000 elite soldiers and hurried back to Pengcheng. What was the outcome? Liu Bang was defeated like a mountain. The battle was fought fiercely.The corpses of the soldiers of the Han army were strewn across the field, blocking the river from flowing.If it hadn't been for the sudden strong wind, flying sand and rocks rushed towards the Chu army, Liu Bang might have lost his life. In fact, Liu Bang was very embarrassed at that time.When he escaped from the battlefield, there were only dozens of cavalry around him.It can be seen that the so-called 560,000 people have already been defeated.He wanted to pass through Pei County to pick up his family, but he couldn't do so. He only met a son and a daughter on the way. These were the later Emperor Hui of Han and Princess Lu Yuan.

But even these two children almost failed to save their lives.Because the Chu army was chasing him urgently at that time, Liu Bang was afraid that he would not be able to escape, so he pushed the child out of the car several times, and was rescued by his driver Xia Houying.Xia Houying said, no matter how urgent the matter is, how could he leave the child behind? Only then did Liu Bang stop. This is the Liu Bang who rose up for the death of Emperor Yi and fought against the rebels with righteousness.How powerful and tear-jerking his declaration of justice is!Where is the awe-inspiring righteousness then?

Maybe, there wasn't one. What Liu Bang didn't have, neither would anyone else.Sai Wang Sima Xin and Zhai Wang Dong Yi, who surrendered to Liu Bang eight months ago, immediately surrendered to Xiang Yu.Seeing Liu Bang's defeat, King Wei Bao of Wei, who was forcibly dragged into the coalition army, also deserted and slipped back to Wei to rebel against Han and surrender to Chu.It can be seen that Liu Bang's coalition of princes was originally a mob. Otherwise, with 560,000 people, how could it not be able to match Xiang Yu's 30,000 elite soldiers? It is of course unreliable to avenge Emperor Yi.

Liu Bang, who escaped from death, retreated to Xingyang (in today's Guxing Town, Zhengzhou City), and relied on Xiao He's reinforcements to gain a firm foothold.However, his father Taigong and his wife Lvhou were taken hostage by Xiang Yu's captives, and they were not released until more than two years later. This happened in April of the second year of the Han Dynasty. Since then, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu have been stalemate in the Central Plains, at a stalemate.Liu Bang's luck is that he has two helpers, Peng Yue and Yingbo.Yingbo was originally named the King of Jiujiang by Xiang Yu, but was rebelled by Liu Bang.Peng Yue was Wei Xiangguo appointed by Liu Bang.Wei Wang Wei Bao rebelled against the Han, but Peng Yue did not rebel. Instead, he fought guerrilla warfare in Xiang Yu's territory and provided Liu Bang with food and grass.Later Liu Bang exterminated Xiang, and the ones who contributed the most besides Han Xin were Peng Yue and Yingbu.

However, Liu Bang has helpers and worries. If Xiang Yu's troubles are in Qi State in the east, then Liu Bang's troubles are in Wei State and Zhao State in the north.Zhao Guo was in trouble not only because of Liu Bang's defeat, but also because Zhao Xiang Chen Yu hated Liu Bang for not killing Zhang Er.Chen Yu and Zhang Er were originally close comrades-in-arms, but after they turned against each other, they became more enemies than enemies.Since Liu Bang took Zhang Er in, Chen Yu was determined to fight against Liu Bang. These two problems must be resolved. What's more, Liu Bang also needs to supplement his troops on the front line of Xingyang.This requires conscription from Zhao and Wei.Therefore, Liu Bang appointed Han Xin as Prime Minister Zuo in August, led his troops to attack Wei, and captured Wei Wang Wei Bao.In September, Han Xin joined forces with Zhang Er to capture Dai.The next step is to solve the Zhao Guo problem. The battle of Jingxing started from this.

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Notes: volume nine.