Chapter 17 Section 4 Farewell My Concubine

After the boundary agreement, Xiang Yu led the Chu army to retreat eastward.Liu Bang also planned to retreat westward.Zhang Liang and Chen Ping agreed that the tiger should not be let go.They said to Liu Bang: "Now the king of Han has occupied most of the world, and many princes support you. Xiang Yu's army is exhausted. This is a good opportunity to destroy Chu. If you let Xiang Yu go today, don't pursue him. For example, , This is tantamount to raising a tiger to hurt yourself!" (see "Historical Records: The Chronicle of Xiang Yu" for the original text) Liu Bang thought that what the two of them said was reasonable, and decided to take advantage of Xiang Yu's retreat to the east when he was not on guard, and suddenly sent troops to pursue him, and dated Han Xin. He joined forces with Peng Yue and annihilated the Chu army together.

In December of the fifth year of Liu Bang, King of the Han Dynasty (202 BC), Xiang Yu's entire army was surrounded by the Han army in Gaixia (now southeast of Lingbi County, Anhui Province).The Chu army fought against the Han army several times but could not win, and suffered heavy losses.In order to break down the fighting spirit of the Chu army, Liu Bang ordered the soldiers to sing Chu songs.When the Chu army heard this, everyone was homesick and tired of fighting, and the army's morale was greatly shaken.One night, Xiang Yu was drinking in his tent to relieve his worries when he suddenly heard the singing of the Chu army from all sides. He was startled and said suspiciously: "Has the Han army already occupied Chu land? Otherwise, why are there so many soldiers in the Han army?" You are from Chu!" At that time, his favorite beauty, Yu Ji, was accompanying him, and a battle-experienced Wuzhui (a bluish-white horse) horse was still tied outside the tent.Xiang Yu was so upset and desperate that he couldn't help crying, and sang a generous and sad song: "Strengthen the mountain and the world is overwhelming, and the time is not good. The time is not dying. The time is not dying. There is nothing to do. Nai Ruo He!" ("Historical Records·Xiang Yu Benji") These lyrics are translated into vernacular: "Strength can pull up mountains, and strength can overwhelm everything in the world; unexpectedly, the timing is not good, and even black horses can't help!"The black horse is in trouble, so what should I do?Concubine Yu, Concubine Yu!How can I be sorry for you!

Xiang Yu sang it several times.Concubine Yu also sang a song and said: "The Han soldiers have already conquered the land, and there are singing songs on all sides. The king is exhausted, and the concubine can't live." After singing the song, Concubine Yu committed suicide and died. Xiang Yu rode on a black horse before dawn, and led the remaining 800 cavalry to break through the siege and go south.At dawn, the Han army realized that Xiang Yu had fled, so they sent 5,000 cavalry in pursuit.Xiang Yu fled in embarrassment and crossed the Huai River to the south.At this time, there were only more than 100 cavalry following him.They lost their way and asked a farmer for directions.The farmer deliberately pointed in the opposite direction, causing them to fall into the swamp.The brigade of Han soldiers chased them up and surrounded them heavily in Wujiang (now on the edge of the Yangtze River in the northeast of Hexian County, Anhui Province).At this time, Xiang Yu had only 28 cavalry left, and he knew that he could not escape.But he still made the last struggle tenaciously.Xiang Yu divided 28 cavalry into four teams, rushed into the Han army's position, and killed some Han army generals.When he came to the bank of the Wujiang River, the head of the Wujiang Pavilion asked him to get on a boat and cross the river quickly.Xiang Yu felt ashamed to see Jiangdong's elders again, and he didn't want to board the boat. He rewarded the Wuzhui horse to the pavilion chief, and then started a foot battle with the Han army, killed many Han soldiers, and was seriously injured, and finally committed suicide. .

In the battle of Gaixia between Chu and Han Chenggao, at the beginning, Xiang Yu's military strength and prestige were much stronger than Liu Bang's, but in the end Liu Shengxiang lost.This is first of all because Liu Bang and Xiang Yu represent two different political views of unity and division.Both Xiang Yu and Liu Bang made great contributions in the struggle to overthrow the Qin Dynasty.However, after the Qin Dynasty was destroyed, Xiang Yu represented the interests of the old feudal aristocracy and enfeoffed many princes and kings, which violated the people's desire to establish a unified country; resentment.Liu Bang represented the interests of the emerging landlord class at that time. He wanted to establish a unified and emerging feudal regime, which was in line with the trend of historical development at that time, and objectively also met the wishes of the people at that time.Politically, Liu Bang abolished the harsh laws of the Qin Dynasty and paid attention to winning the hearts of the people, so he won the support of the people to a certain extent.The people support Liu Bang and oppose Xiang Yu, which is the root cause of Liu Shengxiang's defeat.

In terms of military affairs, Liu Bang handled the overall situation of the war properly, and he was able to achieve the strategic principle of combining frontal persistence, harassment in the enemy's rear, and containment on the two wings, thus quickly changing the balance of power between the two sides and completing the strategic encirclement of the Chu army. The army fell into the predicament of fighting on multiple fronts and being exhausted.When Xiang Yu was exhausted and the situation changed fundamentally, Liu Bang immediately concentrated his superior forces and turned to pursue, annihilating all the Chu troops and winning the final victory.Xiang Yu is just the opposite. Although he has strong strength and certain talents in military command, he has no overall consideration in strategy.He overestimated his own strength and underestimated the opponent's strength; he did not pay attention to the use of resourcefulness, attacked from all directions, and sought battle everywhere. Weary of war, and finally ended up "besieged on all sides, completely defeated".