Chapter 20 third chapter

In less than a month, after eliminating the main force of the Qin army, Xiang Yu led his troops to break through Hangu Pass and march into Guanzhong, where they stationed at Hongmen.At that time, Liu Bang's army was only 100,000, and Xiang Yu's army was as large as 400,000.There is a huge disparity in strength between the two sides, and Liu Bang dare not compete with them, so he can only temporarily live in the ground to wait for Xiang Yu's dispatch.Thus, there was a thrilling "Hongmen Banquet" that later generations talked about.Liu Bangneng's escape at this well-arranged banquet full of killing spirit, although there are many accidental factors, but it is inseparable from his usual kindness and faith and Xiang Yu's aristocratic spirit.

Xiang Yu slaughtered the city of Xiangyang, pitted and killed his soldiers, "everything that happened was destroyed", but the army he led was an invincible "iron army". The sky of Chinese history is fleeting.Especially the battle of Julu, which made the princes "don't dare to look up", the tragic and heroic spirit of breaking the boat is still soul-stirring.Although Xiang Yu was brutal, but he promised a thousand dollars, he was scheming and upright, and he exuded a rare and noble aristocratic atmosphere. If he didn't want to kill Liu Bang at the Hongmen Banquet, he had to do it, or he didn't do it.At that time, the camps of the two armies were forty miles apart, and even the shortest distance was twenty miles. As long as Xiang Yu gave an order to arrest Liu Bang, even if he escaped by a small path, he would be unable to escape.

In terms of Xiang Yu's strength at that time, no warlord could compete with him.Because of this, Xiang Yu became arrogant and self-willed, and planted the seeds of failure. After the Hongmen Banquet, Xiang Yu did not use force against Liu Bang, but went west to Xianyang, killing the King of Qin and his family, burning the Qin palace, looting jewels, and digging the Qin tomb.King Xiang thus made a very bad example. Every time the dynasty was changed, the new successor had to do some extreme actions to deny the previous dynasty. The palace, destroying the achievements of the previous dynasty, and erasing the traces of the previous dynasty.As everyone knows, these fruits of their destruction belong to the civilization accumulation of human history and the Chinese nation.Human development can only be broken through and surpassed by standing on the foundation and shoulders of the predecessors. The Chinese feudal empire has always lingered for thousands of years, always going around in circles in one place. It is not unrelated to this typical Xiang Yu-style nihilism.

Although Liu Bang was a hooligan, he dealt with the legacy of the former Qin Dynasty leniently after all.Compared with the two, Xiang Yu's total negation made his impression and status in the hearts of the people greatly discounted. The Qin Dynasty drifted into the depths of history like a cloud of smoke in an instant, and Xiang Yu no longer had to worry about its resurgence.Enmity has been avenged, anger has dissipated, and the next thing to face is to establish a new type of regime and government.Since it is a total negation, Xiang Yu does not consider Qin Shihuang's centralization of power as the political system of the empire, but intends to restore the state of seven heroes before the great unification and adopt a policy of divide and rule.It was under the guidance of this principle that Xiang Yu gave great rewards to the officials who had contributed to the destruction of Qin Dynasty. He conferred eighteen thrones in total, each with a piece of land, and established a small country, and then these small countries formed a huge union.And he, the leader of this alliance, proclaimed himself the overlord of Western Chu, and he also had a territory of his own. He used his hometown Pengcheng as the center and capital of the new government to issue orders to the princes of the whole country.In the second month of the lunar calendar in 206 BC, Xiang Yu officially put this measure into practice.

The new political system conceived by Xiang Wang has a bit of American federalism, and of course it cannot be compared with its democratization and modernity.The Zhou Dynasty came to an end precisely because of its "federal system". It was obviously not suitable for the reality and soil of China at that time. Although the highly centralized and authoritarian rule established by Qin Shihuang took an extreme path, it actually has the development of Chinese history. The inevitability is contained in it.Once Qin Shihuang established the model of autocracy and centralization, it would be impossible to return to the era of enfeoffment in the Western Zhou Dynasty.In other words, Xiang Yu's political system is not suitable for China's "national conditions", and it is also contrary to the trend of the times at that time.

In the enfeoffment, although Liu Bang also gained the title of king, Xiang Yu did not keep him as king in Guanzhong.This time, Xiang Yu played a little trick and sent him to the closed and remote Hanzhong south of Guanzhong, and made him the King of Han. Liu Bang naturally complained about Xiang Yu's breach of the contract, but it is pretty good to be able to become a king.When he ascended the throne and went south, he ordered people to burn down the plank road, not only to prevent the princes from attacking, but also a manifestation of the satisfaction of planning the land for the king. Of course, there was no lack of strategies to deliberately paralyze King Xiang to show that he had no intention of going east.

As soon as Liu Bang arrived in Hanzhong, all the soldiers who followed him thought of home, and kept complaining about their grievances. It was clearly agreed that whoever entered Guanzhong first would be the king of Guanzhong, but they sent us one by one to such a closed place. Here comes the ghost place.When everyone clamored, Liu Bang's heart moved.Now that you are a king, you can't just think about yourself, you have to share and relieve everyone's worries.As soon as his heart moved, he had the intention of rebelling against King Xiang, and began active and secret preparations.

In the eighth month of the lunar calendar in 206 BC, when King Xiang went north to quell the chaos in Qi, Liu Bang used Han Xin's strategy to suddenly march into Guanzhong.A protracted, four-year dispute between Chu and Han thus kicked off.Under the fierce offensive, the three kings entrusted by King Xiang were quickly defeated or surrendered. Liu Bang took back the Guanzhong land that should have been entrusted to him with peace of mind, and abolished Qin Sheji and replaced it with Han Sheji.The grudge with Xiang Yu was over, and the two became life and death enemies.In the tenth month of the lunar calendar that year, Xiang Yu murdered Emperor Yi of Chu in the south of the Yangtze River.Therefore, under the instigation of everyone, Liu Bang sent his troops eastward to attack Xiang Yu in the name of crusade against regicide.After arriving in Luoyang, he sent a proposal to other princes and princes to join in the charitable deed.And while Xiang Yu was trapped in the battlefield of Qi State, he attacked Pengcheng, the core of Western Chu, with lightning speed.

Xiang Yu learned that he quickly gave up the war in Qi State and led his army to rescue.The Chu army and the Han army met in Suishui, east of Lingbi, Pengcheng, and fought fiercely.Xiang Yu was born in a family of professional soldiers and aristocrats in the state of Chu. For his family, charging into battle and setting up battles were nothing more than a routine way of making a living.The two armies confronted head-on, and Liu Bang was no match for Xiang Yu at all. The Chu army "destroyed the Han army and killed many soldiers, so that the Sui Shui would not flow." It became a corpse that blocked the Sui River.

When Liu Bang escaped from Pengcheng, only dozens of cavalry were left with him.On the way back, he ran into a pair of his precious sons and daughters by chance, and hurriedly pulled them into the carriage and fled for his life.After a while, a cloud of yellow dust suddenly rolled up behind him, and the powerful Chu army followed Liu Bang closely.When there are more people in the car, the speed will naturally slow down.At this time, Liu Bang's hooligan habits began to "show his face" again at the critical moment of his life.In order to survive, he even ignored his own flesh and blood, and suddenly pushed the couple out of the car.When he saw Duke Teng, he was shocked and immediately jumped out of the car to take them back; Liu Bang pushed the two of them out of the car, and Duke Teng got out of the car and took them back; after repeating this three times, Duke Teng said: Although it is urgent, how can you abandon your own children?" Liu Bang then gave birth to a trace of fatherly heart, and did not push them under the car again.Although a pair of sons and daughters lost their lives, his father Taigong and wife Lu Zhi were captured alive by Xiang Yu in this battle.

In the battle between Chu and Han, Liu Bang was either in a difficult situation or ran for his life in a hurry, always playing the dual role of loser and escaper.In times of hardship and embarrassment, it is also the time when a person's nature can be best expressed and reflected. Liu Bang's hooligan habits are often exposed at such moments. A year later, he was besieged by King Xiang in Xingyang again and could not escape, so he asked his general Ji Ping to pretend to be himself, and more than 2,000 women in armor surrounded him and rushed out of the east gate to pretend to surrender.The Chu army believed it was true, so they naturally relaxed their vigilance, and Liu Bang took the opportunity to rush out from Ximen in a panic. When the two armies of Chu and Han confronted each other in Guangwu Mountain, the Han army cut off Xiang Yu's food. Xiang Yu was embarrassed and helpless, so he put Liu Bang's father, Taigong, as a hostage on a tall sacrificial vessel specially filled with sacrifices such as cattle and sheep, and threatened him: " If you don’t agree to my conditions and requirements, I’ll cook and eat your father.” Not only was Liu Bang not in a hurry, but he said with a playful smile: “When we first raised troops against Qin, we were ordered by King Huai of Chu together, and Sworn brothers. According to this, my father is your father, if you cook your father, please don't forget to give me a cup of fresh soup." Still in Guangwu Mountain, Chu and Han were unresolved for a long time, which brought endless disasters to the people all over the world. Therefore, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu met at the foot of the mountain and started a "dialogue" to resolve the dispute across a small river. Xiang Wang proposed to fight Liu Bang alone to decide the outcome. Liu Bang naturally knew his own ability well.So, Liu Bang changed the subject and began to accuse King Xiang of his crimes.King Xiang jumped up in anger, bent his bow and set an arrow with all his might, and shot it straight at his chest.Liu Bang held back the pain, touched his feet and said, "Xiang Thief shot my toe." Under Zhang Liang's suggestion, he got on the chariot again, patrolled the entire barracks, and waved frequently to the Han soldiers. , Said that he was not seriously injured, in order to stabilize the morale of the army.When he returned to the tent after performing all this, he lay on the bed crookedly and could not move.Zuo Zuo hurriedly took off his coat, only to find that the clothes inside had already turned a congealed crimson red, and where the arrow wound was, blood was still bubbling continuously.The only way to get him out of the battlefield is to send him to the rear for recuperation and treatment. In order to get out of the predicament, to escape for his life, and to win, Liu Bang really did everything he could, sometimes to the point of shamelessness.But you have to admire his tenacity, he lost the fight, ran away, turned around, came back again, and challenged Xiang Yu again.He is like a "dog skin plaster", once stuck to the body, it is difficult to remove.And Xiang Yu is impatient, reckless, and rough, and is often exhausted and at a loss by his sticky strength and tenacity.Xiang Yu seems to have entered a battle of nothingness, you can deal with it with all your strength, the opponent is always vulnerable and disappears without a trace in the blink of an eye; you ignore it, he is always provocative around you and creates a kind of oppression The environment and threatening atmosphere make you hard to guard against.The most important thing is that all the princes and countries are in rebellion, and Xiang Yu doesn't have so much time and energy to deal with them.Encountering an enemy like Liu Bang, Xiang Wang, who is really called "powerful and powerful", has nothing to do. The key reason why Liu Bang was able to make a comeback soon after escaping miserably was that he occupied the fertile and rich base camp of the Guanzhong Plain as his backing, and it was also due to the efforts of Xiao He and Han Xin.When Liu Bang went east, Xiao He stayed in Guanzhong, and he was always able to recruit new soldiers in time and accumulate food and grass to make up for Liu Bang's losses; Han Xin's resourcefulness and good use of troops always made Xiang Yu exhausted, and the land he captured in Central China enabled Liu Bang to establish a base in Xingyang .After each fiasco of Liu Bang, in the low ebb of his life, he could always get help from Han Xin in a timely manner, and later he successfully won the support of most of East China for Liu Bang.However, Han Xin was originally Xiang Yu's subordinate, and he defected to Liu Bang's command because he could not be reused. Sometimes a chess piece can really change the overall situation of the world.Another of Liu Bang's biggest characteristics is that he is especially able to take advantage of loopholes. He always takes advantage of the rebellion of the princes, the raging fire, and Xiang Yu's desperation and no time to take care of it.In the battle between Chu and Han, in order to achieve the goal of eliminating Xiang Yu, Liu Bang tried his best, used all kinds of feminine means, and used all kinds of methods.You can call these methods strategic and tricky, or you can call them mean and indecent. Everyone's understanding is different, and the explanations and names are quite different. In fact, the ancient ancestors put benevolence, righteousness and faith first even in the battle of fate.Before the battle, the battle is usually issued first, the time and place are selected, and the two sides are ready to form an array, beat the drum as a signal, and attack each other.No matter the winner or loser, both sides appeared to be upright and awe-inspiring, exuding an awe-inspiring integrity and nobility.It was only in the Spring and Autumn period that there were many big and small countries, and wars became commonplace, and people stopped paying attention to faith so much. Treacherous tricks and tricks gradually gained the upper hand, and military culture changed beyond recognition. Looking through the relevant historical books, we can regard the Song-Chu Hongshui Battle in the Spring and Autumn Period as a turning point and symbol of Chinese military culture.The Song army, who was waiting in full force, could have taken advantage of the chaos of the Chu army crossing the river or when the army formation had not yet been deployed after crossing the river, but Song Xianggong did not do this. Instead, he waited until the Chu army was fully deployed across the river before confronting each other.The Song army suffered a disastrous defeat, and the people of the country blamed Song Xianggong for all the crimes of the defeat.Song Xianggong argued: "A man of benevolence and morality cannot bear to injure an already wounded enemy, and does not capture a person with gray hair; since ancient times, when soldiers are used, the enemy's army is in a narrow and dangerous place, so don't take the opportunity to attack; although I am a descendant of the Shang Dynasty that perished , and will not attack enemies who have not set up their positions." Later generations will ridicule Song Gong as a representative of rigidity, stubbornness and ignorance. Mao Zedong once warned people in the article "On Protracted War": "We are not Song Xianggong. , don't want that kind of stupid pig-like benevolence and morality." Although Song Xianggong was defeated, his faith and integrity, as a long-lost national heritage, are always worth remembering and cherishing. After Song Xianggong, "Soldiers never tire of cheating" as an idiom condensed into the so-called national wisdom, which became a widespread consensus among people in the fields of politics, military affairs, and life, and was widely used, and Liu Bang pushed it to the height of perfection. As Liu Bang's "rogue" methods became more and more skillful and comfortable, Xiang Yu couldn't help being stretched day by day, and his former advantages had long since disappeared.Han Xin and Peng Yue opened up two fronts, successively captured the old land of Qi and Zhao, and invaded the land of Liang; Liu Bang's main force defeated the Chu army led by Sima Cao Jiu in Sishui.Xiang Yu had nothing to do with Liu Bang, so he had to agree to the rather harsh conditions he proposed. The two armies reached an armistice agreement to divide the country with the gap as the boundary: the west of the gap was under the jurisdiction of Liu Bang, King of Han; the east of the gap was under the jurisdiction of King Xiang Yu of Chu. Xiang Yu returned all the captured Liu Bang's family members who had been hostages; the two armies withdrew their respective territories. After the agreement was signed, the sergeants on both sides, who had been fighting hard for a long time, cheered loudly for the coming peace.The straightforward Xiang Yu naively thought that a peace treaty could bring about permanent peace in the world, so he led his army back east. The Chuhe-Han boundary reached by Liu Bang and Xiang Yu is still clearly marked on every Chinese chess board until today.However, before Xiang Yu returned to Pengcheng, Liu Bang resorted to rogue tactics, unilaterally tore up the peace treaty, and led troops to follow the Chu army to pursue day and night. He made a king and worshiped a general, and made a promise to surround himself with all the forces that could be united. He set up a powerful formation under Gaixia, and launched the final decisive battle of life and death with Xiang Yu's main force of the Chu army. Sima Qian gave a vivid description of this battle of Gaixia in "Historical Records: Xiang Yu Benji". When Xiang Yu broke through Liu Bang's siege, there were only 28 followers left.Fleeing to the Wujiang Ferry, Xiang Yu could have crossed the river to get rid of the pursuers, as Liu Bang had done many times, in order to make a comeback.But Xiang Yu is not Liu Bang, and Xiang Yu is Xiang Yu. He declined the kindness of the Wujiang pavilion chief to ferry him across the river, and laughed loudly: "If I die in the sky, how can I cross the river! Let me cross the river with 8,000 children from the east of the river and go to the west." No one has returned, Zong Jiangdong's father and brother are pitiful and king of me, how can I see him? Even if he doesn't say anything, is he worthy of his heart?" Then he turned around and threw himself into the trap, fighting to the death with the pursuers, and "killed" alone Hundreds of Han troops."Killing and killing, he suddenly saw Han cavalry Sima Lu Matong in the pursuit, and King Xiang couldn't help shouting: "Aren't you a friend of mine in the past? I heard that Liu Bang, the king of Han, sealed off ten thousand households with a thousand taels of gold. I offer a reward for my head, and I will give you this opportunity to develop!" As soon as the words fell, a sharp steel knife was wiped on his neck, and a head rolled to the ground, while the huge and stalwart body Standing in place like a stone pillar, it has not fallen down for a long time... Every time I read "Historical Records" describing the scene of Xiang Yu's suicide in the Battle of Gaixia, I can't help but feel a strong sense of tragedy and sigh in my heart. Xiang Yu has experienced more than 70 battles, "the one who deserves to be defeated, the one who is attacked will be subdued". The root cause of the failure can only be attributed to "the death of me in this day is not a crime of war"; since Liu Bang fought with Xiang Yu, it seems that he has never won a single battle, but he fought a beautiful battle in the decisive battle between Chu and Han. After winning the battle, the hooliganism that has always been on the edge has since entered the noisy center of history. After some dressing up and putting on a majestic coat, it has become the mainstream discourse that dominates the destiny of the nation. The death of Xiang Yu marked the physical and spiritual demise of the last real nobleman in China. In a society where femininity and cunning have been alienated for thousands of years, Xiang Yu's death must be unreasonable for some people. In their view, his death is too unworthy; at the same time, Xiang Yu's upright personality charm However, the strong masculinity and upright aristocratic legacy become taller and more stalwart in the hearts of other people day by day.