Chapter 63 7. Wandering of life

Xiang Yu's death was purely accidental.Xiang Yu took the last twenty-eight cavalry to deal with Liu Bang's pursuers, and finally came to the edge of the Wujiang River (in today's Hexian County, Anhui Province), just in time to see a boat on the bank.The boatman registered himself as the head of the Wujiang Pavilion under Xiang Yu's rule. He had been waiting on the bank for a long time to carry Xiang Yu across the river.This was originally a good thing, but his words pushed Xiang Yu to a dead end.Let's see what he has to say. The head of the Wujiang pavilion said to Xiang Yu: "Although the east of the river is small, the place is thousands of miles away, and there are hundreds of thousands of people, which is enough for a king. May the king rush across. Now the only minister has a boat, and the Han army is here, so there is no way to cross." The meaning is not difficult to understand. : Although Jiangdong is not big, it has a radius of thousands of miles, hundreds of thousands of people, and you can become the leader of a party. Hurry up and get on the boat, let me take you across the river.Now there is only my boat here, even if the Han army catches up, they will not be able to cross the river.This is a plan, a perfect plan.It not only solved the problem of Xiang Yu's immediate escape, but also made arrangements for Xiang Yu's future path.It can be described as thoughtful.

However, Xiang Yu's reaction to this plan was very indifferent. He smiled and said to the pavilion chief of Wujiang: "If I die in the sky, how can I cross the river! And I crossed the river with 8,000 children from the east of the river to the west, and none of them returned today. Jiangdong's father and brother pity me, how can I see him? Even if he doesn't say anything, is he worthy of his heart?" This is God wanting me to die, so what's the use of crossing the river?At the beginning, I brought eight thousand children from Jiangdong to conquer the world, but now there is no one left. Even if Jiangdong's father and brothers still support me as king, how can I face them?Even if they don't say anything, how can I have a clear conscience?

This result was unexpected, and this emotion was very sudden, because Xiang Yu originally wanted to cross the river, and "Historical Records" made it very clear: "Xiang Wang wanted to cross the Wujiang River to the east." And in fact, if Xiang Yu really didn't want to If you cross the river, there is no need to run to the edge of the Wujiang River, there is no doubt about this.So why did Xiang Yu suddenly change his mind?The reason lies in the words of Wujiang Pavilion Chief.He hurt Xiang Yu's sore spot. First of all, it hurt Xiang Yu's self-esteem. "Although Jiangdong is small, the place is thousands of miles away, and there are hundreds of thousands of people, he is also the king of feet." This obviously lowered Xiang Yu's status, and made Xiang Yu think of his current slump.What kind of person is that Xiang Yu, the indomitable overlord of Western Chu, who dares not to obey the orders of the princes, is it enough to be a grass head king with hundreds of thousands of people?

Second, it makes Xiang Yu ashamed.Back then, Xiang Yu left Jiangdong full of pride, just to create a world.He gave up the opportunity to set up the capital in Guanzhong, which is thousands of miles away, and insisted on returning to Pengcheng, didn't he just want to show off in front of his folks?Now that the polished commander has returned to Jiangdong, where will he put his face?This feeling is indescribable.Just like a smug and enthusiastic child who goes out to make a living, before leaving, he said to his parents, you can enjoy the happiness when I come back.In the end, he almost came back naked. Do you think he has the nerve to enter the house?

Third, it made Xiang Yu lose face.The performance of losing face is to underestimate Xiang Yu's courage. Look at what the pavilion chief said, "The original (willing) king rushed across, but now the only minister has a boat, and the Han army arrives, and there is no way to cross."This statement itself is contradictory, as long as you have a boat, the Han army will not be able to cross the river, so why let Xiang Yu "rush across"? "Excessive crossing" is of course also necessary. After all, this is not acting, and it is better to get to the opposite side early to be safe.But the head of the pavilion can't say that, after all, Xiang Yu is used to being domineering. He has been afraid of others all his life, but he has never been afraid of others. Isn't it a slap in the face to say this?With Xiang Yu's personality, it would be better to fight to the death than to cross the river in such a state of embarrassment.

It was precisely because of this mentality that Xiang Yu said those words and uttered those bold words. He felt that he was very ashamed to lose, and he had no face to see Jiang Dong's elders again.But then again, the words of the head of the Wujiang Pavilion stimulated Xiang Yu, but in the end it was Xiang Yu's self-esteem that was at fault. If he had Liu Bang go out of the city in makeup to ask for help, or let Ji Xin and a group of women block the guns for him, he would be cheeky Jiner, he would never have such impassioned thoughts, he has already crossed the river swiftly. There are actually two doubts about this matter:

One of the doubts: people.People are naturally the head of the Wujiang Pavilion. This is no problem. The question is how did the head of the Wujiang Pavilion come out?How do you know that Xiang Yu will cross the river here at this time?Why is his news so well-informed?So much so that you have been waiting here for a long time? The second doubt: the ship.It is the boat rowed by Wujiang Tingchang, and the boat rowed is no problem. The problem is why he is the only one.Let's rule out the first doubt. Even if the pavilion chief got the news from elsewhere and came here to pick up Xiang Yu, why didn't he prepare a few more boats?The boats at that time were just fishing boats with oars, and they couldn't carry many people. Not to mention how Xiang Yu's men crossed the river, even if Xiang Yu himself and his war horse, the boat might not be able to carry it. It may not be able to move.Can Xiang Yu abandon his brother who was born and died with him, and escape by boat?This is too contemptuous of Xiang Yu's humanity!Since I have been waiting here for a long time, I should think of this floor. As a pavilion chief, there is still a way to get a few boats.

These issues are not explained in detail in "Historical Records", or it may be that it is unnecessary to explain them.It is not clear whether it has been introduced in other official histories or unofficial histories, but these are not important, and we don't have to care about them.No matter in fact or in emotion, we can fully believe that the head of the Wujiang Pavilion is out of good intentions. He said those words, maybe he was looking for something to say, so as not to make the atmosphere tense and embarrassing.Perhaps in order to curry favor with Xiang Yu and make a good sale, he came all the way early, so he must say a few words when he gets a chance.All in all, he wanted to comfort Xiang Yu, and persuade him not to lose confidence because of the temporary defeat, and to go back to Jiangdong to regroup and start over.He took all the issues into consideration, the only thing he didn't consider was Xiang Yu's self-esteem.This is probably what we usually say about doing bad things with good intentions.

People who do bad things with good intentions are not uncommon in life.For example, a leader was promoted and demoted secretly, transferred from a large place to a small place, and the position was not changed, and he felt very aggrieved.As a friend, if you kindly comfort him and say that you can relax now and don't need to be as tired as before, he must think that you are mocking him. It's a pity that Wujiang Pavilion Chief is inexperienced, he doesn't know what Xiang Yu is thinking, and it's not the place to exchange warm greetings.It was fine if he didn't speak, but Xiang Yu's self-esteem was hurt after he asked for warmth.Originally, he was rushing to avoid the enemy's pursuit, and he didn't have time to think about anything in his head, but now it's good, all the grievances in his heart have been hooked up, and the heroic ambition of seeing death as home has also been aroused.

So far, Xiang Yu has completely found the connection between himself and his destiny.He knew what he should do next, and the knot that had been entangled in his heart since he broke through Gaixia was finally untied.He suddenly became enlightened: Since fate treats me like this, why don't I fulfill it!It was based on this that Xiang Yu made the determination to die, and returned to the same way, and returned to the Han army.Before leaving, Xiang Yu confessed the last thing, which was his black horse.He said to the head of the Wujiang Pavilion: "I was five years old on this horse, and I should be invincible. I can travel thousands of miles a day, and I can't bear to kill it, so I can give it to you." Into the Han army.

In the end, the battle was fought extremely fiercely. With Wu Jiangshui's wailing and whimpering, and Wu Xiaoma's long cry of missing his master, Xiang Yu exerted his prestige to the extreme.Maybe he knew that this would be his last madness, so he had no scruples, so he fought with his life.Hundreds of Han soldiers died under his halberd.He himself suffered a dozen wounds.In the end, Xiang Yu was also tired of killing, and he knew that his life's wisdom would end here.At this time, he saw an old friend, Lu Matong, Sima of the Han Cavalry, and stopped to say hello, "If it's not my old friend?" King also." When everyone didn't understand why, Xiang Yu did something unexpected. He said to Lu Matong, "I heard that the Han bought my daughter's head, and I have thousands of households. I am Ruo De." I heard that Liu Bang offered a reward of a thousand gold. , The price of enfeoffing ten thousand households is my head, and I will give it to anyone, so let me give this opportunity to you, my old friend.So Xiang Yu drew his sword and killed himself.What followed was a bit chaotic and tragic.When people saw Xiang Yu committing suicide, they rushed forward to cut off Xiang Yu's head, so that they could reward him.As a result, they attacked each other, "dozens of people killed each other", and the scene was once chaotic.In the end, Wang Yi got Xiang Yu's head; Lang Zhong riding Yang Xi, riding Sima Lu Matong, Lang Zhong Lu Sheng, and Yang Wu got Xiang Yu's limbs respectively.Poor Xiang Yu, the hero of the first life, was decapitated in the end, and his body was ruined to a disastrous mess. It should be said that Xiang Yu does not believe in fate in most cases. His subjective consciousness is very strong. He feels that everything can be changed by his own strength, as long as he is willing.It was only when he was trapped in Gaixia that Xiang Yu felt the trick of fate, and he felt the insignificance of his own strength.But Xiang Yu refused to admit defeat in his bones. In the end, he used his death to control his own destiny for the last time.It's just that the master is very sad this time. He is a master troubled by fate, and he is ultimately a surrender to fate. Liu Bang's life has always turned danger into good fortune, which made him feel that he was born to be extraordinary.Even though those interpretations and legends were fabricated, in the end, even Liu Bang himself believed that it was true.When Liu Bang personally conquered Yingbu, he was shot by a stray arrow, and the wound became inflamed, so he fell ill. Lu Zhi hurriedly found a skilled imperial doctor to treat him.After looking and asking about it, the imperial doctor said that the disease can be cured.Unexpectedly, Liu Bang seemed to be confused with a high fever, and he cursed: "I take the world with a three-foot sword in my clothes. Isn't this the destiny? Fate is in the sky, so what's the benefit of being flattened!" The world, isn't this the destiny?Death and life have their own destiny, even if Bian Que comes, it can't be reversed.A few months later, the proud son of heaven went to heaven as he wished. There is a very famous poem that reads: Life is precious, but love is even more expensive.For the sake of freedom, both can be thrown away.Petofi revealed the value ranking of the three things in his heart: freedom is the highest, followed by love, and the least valuable is life.This is the pursuit of human ideals, with a detached romantic atmosphere, and it is a way of expressing strong feelings.Under certain circumstances, it is also a slogan, a way to call on people to get rid of their fate.But there is no doubt that fate is extremely difficult to get rid of, otherwise there is no need to change your life. Xiang Yu fought against fate with his own strength, finally succumbed to fate, and completed the eternity of life with the end of his life, which is an explanation for fate; Liu Bang always believed in fate, and he lived in the halo of fate all his life. I completely handed myself over to fate, relying on fate to support my spirit, but in the end I lost my life because I believed in fate too much, and let fate have an explanation for me, which is also worth thinking about. I didn't want to praise Liu Bang, nor did I want to criticize Xiang Yu.I just want to say that there is no such thing as the best of both worlds, and to give up self-esteem and ego for the sake of life is to make ends meet.And after lingering, he did something earth-shattering. The lingering before that was a kind of persistence of faith.The difference lies in: whether you have done something beyond life, whether you have realized the true meaning of life.