Chapter 22 5. Peng Yue who was ignored by Xiang Yu

Peng Yue had a poor and humble background similar to Liu Bang's.Liu Bang is a farmer, and Peng Yue is not even comparable to a farmer. He has no land. Since he was a boy, Peng Yue has been fishing in Juyeze in his hometown of Changyi to make a living. Peng Yue didn't talk much, but when he lost his temper, he made people afraid, acted decisively, and didn't panic when things happened, so he gradually established his prestige, and gathered a group of poor people around him. After many years of fishing in the lake, but still not enough to eat, Peng Yue said: "We are exhausted and can't eat enough, so we should just be robbers." It was the heyday of the Qin Dynasty, so It can be seen that Peng Yue's courage.

Peng Yue took over the mountain as king, haunted Juyeze, and started a robbery business.The local county magistrate received many reports from wealthy households that their properties were being robbed, so they sent officers and soldiers to encircle and suppress them. Peng Yue's team began to play hide-and-seek with the officers and soldiers of the Qin Dynasty, but the officers and soldiers never took advantage. It was at this time that Peng Yue exercised his combat ability. The rule of the Qin Dynasty became more and more cruel day by day. Peng Yue's team not only did not disgust the people, but gave them a sigh of relief.I would rather be a robber than a obedient citizen of the Qin Dynasty.Peng Yue's team grew stronger day by day under the eyes of the Qin court, and Peng Yue also became a local celebrity in Changyi.

When the situation in the world changed suddenly, Peng Yue was already in his fifties, and he could be regarded as a senior "bandit leader".When he was a robber back then, he just wanted to have enough to eat and didn't think too much about it. Peng Yue was quite satisfied with his life.Anyway, Qin Bing couldn't do anything to them. Soon, the world was in chaos, and everyone was saying that there are now two relatively powerful rebel teams, one is Chen Sheng, the other is Xiang Liang, and so on... Peng Yue listens to various rumors about these people with great interest every day.The people below said: "Brother, you are no worse than them, let's rebel too, and the dynasty will change in the future, but we will enjoy endless glory and wealth..." Peng Yue laughed and said, "Now there are two dragons just Start fighting, let's talk when they get tired from fighting."

After more than half a year, Peng Yue's life as a robber became more and more difficult.Because of the bad times, the poor peasants all went to join the rebel army, and the rich and officials hid at home, hired thugs, and strengthened their defenses. Peng Yue and the others hadn't done "big business" for a long time.The subordinates persuaded Peng Yue several times to revolt in Zezhong, gather troops, and conquer the city. Life may be better than it is now.Peng Yue has been in a wait-and-see state, and now it seems that the Qin Dynasty is really exhausted, and Peng Yue also wants to share the fruits of the uprising, so he decides to start an uprising.

That night, Peng Yue called everyone together and made an agreement: "Since we are going to start an incident, we must make a rule. We can no longer be as careless as before. We will set off at sunrise tomorrow morning, and those who arrive late will be beheaded!" Everyone said: "Yes!" At sunrise the next day, everyone had assembled. Peng Yue counted the number of people and found that more than a dozen people had not arrived. Peng Yue kept his face and ordered everyone to wait. Everyone laughed and chatted. No one thought it was a serious matter.After waiting until noon, talents came one after another.Peng Yue said: "I'm getting old, since you call me big brother, I have to be responsible to you. Yesterday I repeatedly said that we need to establish a rule, and today there are still many people who are late. Although we can't kill them all, we must kill others!" Everyone panicked when they heard this, and said, "Brother, why bother? I will not dare to do it in the future." Peng Yue ignored it, ordered to kill the one who arrived last, and set up an earthen altar to worship with human heads, formally enforcing the law.The subordinates were shocked. They only thought the rebellion was fun, but they didn't expect the big brother who was laughing together to be so serious all of a sudden.From then on, no one dared to make jokes and disobeyed military orders.

Peng Yue led this team to attack the city and seize the land, and the number of scattered soldiers from the princes continued to increase, from a few hundred to several thousand.Under Peng Yue's strict requirements, this team gradually broke away from the traces of Shanze bandits and grew stronger step by step. During this period of time, the political stage at the end of the Qin Dynasty was also brilliant. You sing and I come on stage. Chen Sheng and Xiang Liang were defeated and killed one after another.When Liu Bang's Western Expeditionary Army arrived in Changyi, it happened to meet Peng Yue.

Liu Bang's Western Expedition Army pointed directly at Guanzhong, but it was far inferior to Xiang Yu's Northern Expedition Army stationed in Julu.Due to the shortage of soldiers, Liu Bang adopted a "buffet-style" army, and along the way he incorporated the remnants of Chen Sheng and Xiang Liang who were scattered in various places after their defeat, which was also a full-fledged "no-name army". Liu Bang's combat genius is far inferior to Xiang Yu's, but his skills in making friends are top-notch.Quite a decent appearance, coupled with a look of indifference, easy-going demeanor, and unkempt appearance. If peace is the most important thing for businessmen, Liu Bang has quite the temperament in this regard.His words are vulgar, but he does not criticize people lightly.The habit of suppressing evil and promoting good causes many people who are accepted and benefited by him to speak good words for him everywhere, and people's reputation is often based on mutual praise in this way.It can be said that Liu Bang's momentum did not come from "war", but from "peace".

Xiang Yu broke the siege of Julu with surprise tactics, and became the leader of the princes with his outstanding achievements.When the news came, Liu Bang was a little impatient, but in the cold weather, what Liu Bang's "miscellaneous army" lacked most was food, so he decided to attack Changyi, the granary established by Zhang Han's army here. In the evening, Liu Bang stationed a military camp in the south of Changyi. As soon as the arrangements were made, he heard a report of someone visiting.Liu Bang was already very tired, but he thought that there might be someone coming to join him nearby, and now he urgently needed to increase his troops, so he couldn't neglect it, so he forced himself to receive the visitors.The person who came was the water bandit Peng Yue.Peng Yue has long heard that Liu Bang, the Western Expeditionary Army, is easy-going and chivalrous. He really wanted to meet him, and when he got the news of Liu Bang's garrison, he came here in a hurry.

Liu Bang received Peng Yue very politely. As soon as Peng Yue heard what Liu Bang said, he felt very angry with himself, so he said bluntly: "I saw the general today, and I think the rumors are true. The general is really a chivalrous and bold person!" Liu Bang just liked it. Others said he was "chivalrous", and they had a good impression of Peng Yue.Peng Yue said: "To tell you the truth, I'm just a water thief..." Liu Bang hurriedly said: "What's the matter? Now everyone is punishing the Qin Dynasty, everyone in the world is brothers, and heroes don't ask where they come from." Liu Bang said what he said from his heart , Peng Yue's life of occupying the mountain as king used to be his ideal life.

Peng Yue said: "The general is stationed here, and I think he will attack Changyi. I grew up here and am very familiar with it. I have more than a thousand brothers under my command. If you need anything, the general can tell you." Liu Bang was very happy.The more they talked, the happier they were, and they simply ate together.Peng Yue also told Liu Bang that Changyi was not easy to attack, and hoped that Liu Bang would be mentally prepared.Peng Yue and Qin Bing have fought against each other for so many years, and they know Changyi's military strength very well. Of course, Qin Bing went out of the city to compete with Peng Yue in the mountains. Of course, he could not gain advantage, but once Qin Bing defended the city, Peng Yue would not be able to break through Changyi.Therefore, although Peng Yue has captured a lot of territory around Changyi over the years, he is still powerless against Changyi.What's more, now that Changyi has become Zhang Han's granary and more troops have been added, it will be very difficult to fight this battle.It is an undeniable fact that Qin's soldiers are mighty, otherwise the Six Kingdoms would not be so easily crushed by Qin.

Liu Bang fought against Qin Bing many times, and he agreed with Peng Yue's analysis very much, saying that he hoped that Peng Yue could help him take down Changyi.This was the purpose of Peng Yue's trip, and of course Peng Yue readily agreed. After Peng Yue left, Liu Bang kept reminiscing about Peng Yue's words. What he cared about was not whether Changyi could be defeated, but what Peng Yue narrated about his experience of fighting against Qin soldiers aroused his interest.Fight when you can, hide when you can't win, come out to fight when you want to fight, only fight in places you are familiar with, and never leave... What kind of tactic is this?It's quite interesting.Liu Bang vaguely felt that Peng Yue was not an ordinary gangster. Peng Yue's troops joined Liu Bang on the appointed date and attacked Changyi.As expected, Changyi was really hard to beat.Compared with the Qin soldiers guarding Changyi, Liu Bang and Peng Yue still had a gap in numbers and equipment, and Qin soldiers knew that Peng Yue was also under the city, so they insisted on not going out of the city to fight. The stalemate lasted for several days, Liu Bang was very anxious. Liu Bang said to Peng Yue: "What you said is indeed true. We can't spend too long here, I want to rush into the customs and capture Xianyang." Peng Yue felt that he hadn't helped Liu Bang on his own territory, and felt very embarrassed in his heart. Said: "You can leave at ease, Changyi will be handed over to me." Liu Bang originally wanted Peng Yue to join him and go west with him, but seeing that Peng Yue had no such intention, he said: "The other day, Brother Peng talked about the art of strategy. I admire you very much, and I really hope that I can fight side by side in the future. My brother is staying here now, and I may ask you for help in the future." Peng Yue said: "I have regarded you as a confidant for a while, and I will talk about whether to help or not. My brother is your brother, if you have anything to say..." The next day, Liu Bang led his troops to march west, while Peng Yue led his brothers back to Juyeze.Afterwards, Peng Yue reorganized his army and continuously recruited scattered soldiers from various vassal states, growing to more than 10,000 people. Soon, Liu Bang entered Guanzhong, occupied Xianyang, and the Qin Dynasty fell.When Peng Yue heard the news, he stroked his beard and said, "I have been optimistic about Brother Liu for a long time. He is a man who can do great things." Soon there was news that Xiang Yu had entered Guanzhong and made him a prince. A little brother asked Peng Yue: "Now The Qin Dynasty was destroyed, and the overlord of Chu wanted to entrust those who had meritorious deeds in punishing Qin, so the eldest brother would also have a share?" Peng Yue didn't think that he would be entrusted with any titles, but now that the dynasty has changed, he can count himself as a little credit, so he should be able to show it.Thinking about it this way, Peng Yue felt that he could still get some benefits, so he smiled and said nothing. But after waiting day after day, there was no messenger from King Chu.Later, when all the feudal princes went to the fiefs, Peng Yue was completely disappointed.The people under Peng Yue talked a lot, most of them were dissatisfied, they were robbers, but they just wanted to live a better life, they had shed blood and worked hard, now that the Qin Dynasty is also destroyed, why is there no benefit at all?These dissatisfaction naturally made Peng Yue feel it, which increased Peng Yue's dissatisfaction with Xiang Yu, and cursed: "Without Xiang Yu, I can still live well. Brothers, I will not treat you badly in the future!" Xiang Yu, who was immersed in the joy of "king of the world", did not know that he had created an enemy for himself. Why did Xiang Yu ignore Peng Yue?Xiang Yu did not think carefully about the overall situation before enfeoffment. In the heyday of his career, all the princes looked up to him, and he would never notice a water bandit with only 10,000 people; And the principle of "king of kings" enfeoffs princes, Peng Yue has no great military achievements, and he is not the princes and kings he established himself, so naturally he will not receive rewards.Xiang Yu had never worked with Peng Yue, so he obviously didn't pay enough attention to Peng Yue. There are three people who lost Xiang Yu's title: Tian Rong, Peng Yue and Chen Yu.The loss of seal this time caused endless troubles. Later, Tian Rong proclaimed himself King of Qi, rebelled against Xiang Yu, and keenly discovered Peng Yue's military value, so he sent someone to give General Peng Yue a seal, asking him to attack Chu in the south.Dissatisfied with Xiang Yu, Peng Yue joined the anti-Chu team under the wooing of Tian Rong. For the first time, he showed his military talent and defeated the Chu army.At this time, Xiang Yu discovered Peng Yue, an excellent talent. In the spring of the second year of the Han Dynasty (205 BC), Liu Bang led the princes to attack Chu together, and met Peng Yue for the second time in Waihuang, and Peng Yue led more than 30,000 people to join Liu Bang.Liu Bang appointed Peng Yue as Prime Minister of Wei State, who was in charge of military power and pacified Liang.Since then, Peng Yue has become a strong general under Liu Bang and the most famous "guerrilla commander" during the Chu-Han War. When Liu Bang was defeated, Peng Yue harassed the Chu army with "guerrilla warfare" and provided Liu Bang with food and supplies.Xiang Yu and Liu Bang were in a stalemate in Xingyang, and Peng Yue took the opportunity to disturb the rear of Chu.Peng Yue seriously restricted Xiang Yu's strategic deployment, and became the biggest obstacle to the Chu army's military supply problem.This was unexpected by Xiang Yu.What Xiang Yu didn't expect was that during the Battle of Gaixia, Peng Yue, Yingbo and Han Xin helped Liu Bang push him into a desperate situation. Xiang Yu's neglect of Peng Yue turned Peng Yue's troops into stragglers, and Liu Bang incorporated Peng Yue's troops based on his understanding of Peng Yue's military talents, which invisibly increased his own strength.Dissatisfaction with Xiang Yu's unentrusted entrustment made Peng Yue a subordinate of Liu Bang, and became the most famous "guerrilla commander" during the Chu-Han War, which increased Liu Bang's weight to win.Peng Yue was the first military strategist in the history of world wars to formally use "guerrilla warfare" tactics. In terms of military strategy and command ability, he was inferior to Han Xin, but in terms of achievements, he was indeed even worse.It was on the basis of Liu Bang's frontal defense, Han Xin's outflanking of thousands of miles and Peng Yue's rear "guerrilla warfare" that the Chu-Han War had the opportunity to wipe out Xiang Yu's exhausted troops in the final battle of Gaixia, and won the final victory.