Chapter 28 Chapter Twenty-Eight

Han Xin stood up immediately when he heard the report. Liu Bang proposed specific exchange conditions for sending troops, so Han Xin's heart has been greatly inclined to Liu Bang.However, when it comes to the point of view of seizing power, it seems that Xiang Yu is easier.While thinking, an envoy sent by Xiang Yu arrived. "Read what Xiang Yu's letter says first, and then make a decision!" He removed the seal from the bamboo slips and began to read Xiang Yu's letter.Only halfway through the reading, his face was already pale, and his hands holding the bamboo slips trembled—this was because of his rage.

The gist of the letter is as follows: The situation of the world is fixed.The overlord of Chu (referring to Xiang Yu) will become the lord of the world without anyone's help.It has been recently heard that the small princes from all over the world are trying to send reinforcements to Chu to show their merits. The overlord of Chu regards the rush of reinforcements as a matter of course, so there is no merit to speak of, but those who do not send reinforcements will be punished with a large army... Han Xin, who can even climb over other people's crotch, is a very calm and patient person, but after reading this letter, he was furious.

How can such an arrogant attitude be tolerated! Han Xin remembered the past under Xiang Yu's command.He has never forgotten the humiliation he suffered at that time.The scheme he came up with painstakingly was not ignored even once, and Xiang Yu didn't even say "let me think about it".For Han Xin, this is a more unbearable humiliation than getting under someone else's crotch. Anger brings hatred. No matter how powerful you are, you are just a barbarian after all... I heard that you once asked Liu Bang, the king of Han, to fight alone, but was rejected. I want to see how long you can show your power!

Of course, Xiang Yu's letter was written by Zhang Liang.Han Xin even had such doubts: Why would Xiang Yu dare to take such a stance when the battle between the two heroes has come to a showdown?Was this letter really written by Xiang Yu? But the feeling of hatred suppressed the question.The other party is the stupid Xiang Yu who didn't take me Han Xin seriously in the past. It is conceivable that he still has a sense of superiority to himself.it is good!Then I'll show you the colors! "Ready to send troops!" In order to assist Liu Bang, Han Xin immediately issued an order to send troops.In fact, it is better to say that this dispatch of troops was initiated for the purpose of attacking Xiang Yu.

Han Xin went south from Qi—now Shandong Province. At the same time, Zhou Yin, the great Sima under Xiang Yu, rebelled against Chu and surrendered to Han, and captured a city called "Six".The six cities are south of the Huai River.In Shouchun, also south of the Huai River, to the east, there is Liu Jia's army. Xiang Yu's army gradually suffered two-way persecution in the north and south.At this time, more Yingbu troops appeared in the west and occupied Chengfu. Xiang Yu entered a town called Gaixia, built a fortification, and prepared to defend the place with 100,000 soldiers.

It's an all-or-nothing move. Han Xin devoted all his troops to support Han.Not only that, but he also took the lead in the big battle field where the world was divided into two. As Zhang Liang predicted, under the situation of six to four, the local warlords who had been waiting and watching had already scrambled towards the Han. ——Attack Gaixia! This has become their common slogan. The number of armies participating in the siege of Gaixia numbered as many as 300,000. The vanguard of the Han army is the Han Xin Legion, the left wing is its subordinate Kong Xi, and the right wing is General Feihou Chen He.

Liu Bang marched behind Han Xin.Behind Liu Bang's main force are the troops of Zhou Bo and Chai Wu. Liu Bang commissioned Han Xin to command an army of 300,000 troops.This fully shows the greatness of Liu Bang.And Han Xin, who readily accepted, was of course extra careful in commanding. The Han army surrounded Gaixia heavily. The army rations in the city are not abundant.Morale was low, and deserters were on the rise. Han Xin found people from the state of Chu from the armies gathered at Gaixia, and asked them to teach the general soldiers to learn the local folk songs of the state of Chu and organize a chorus of Chu songs.

This is the famous "besieged on all sides". The army under siege expects the arrival of reinforcements most, followed by a base from which they can escape after breaking out of the encirclement.In this way, the soldiers survived the hard life under the siege. But they heard the songs of their own hometown from the enemy camp.Could it be that the strong men of Chu State who came to rescue all surrendered and were included in the Han army?If this is the case, it is absolutely impossible for the rescue army to come, and there is no base to escape to break out of the siege, and the territory of Chu State seems to have been completely occupied...Under this situation, it is predictable that the morale is getting lower and lower.

It is for this reason that Han Xin asked the soldiers to sing the song of Chu.Such psychological warfare is his forte. ——The battle against the water. This famous tactic is also a psychological battle of Han Xin. Before Han Xin became self-reliant, he attacked Zhao as a general of the Han Dynasty. This happened in October of the third year of the Han Dynasty (204 BC).He deployed ten thousand soldiers with their backs to the river.Seeing this, the leader of Zhao Jun laughed at his stupidity. Backwaters are Jedi.Xiang Banzhen was abolished. This is a passage in "Wei Liaozi Tianguan Pian" that must be read by those who are interested in the art of war at that time.

"Wei Liao Zi" is said to be composed of thirty-one chapters, while others hold twenty-four chapters, but both of them begin with "Tianguan Pian".In other words, anyone who reads this book will definitely read this paragraph.It is the most foolish thing to carry the water and face the slope when setting up the formation. This is the necessary knowledge for those who are slightly involved in the military. But Han Xin did such an unreasonable formation.The reason for this is that this is not an army trained by oneself, so they deliberately adopted an formation that could not retreat, forcing them to fight desperately to the end.As a result, these soldiers fought bravely and defeated the Zhao army.After the battle, Han Xin explained to his staff:

Because those are civilian troops that have not been trained and organized temporarily, only by putting them to death can they be forced to fight to the death.If they were placed in a living place, they must all escape, right? The "besieged on all sides" during the siege of Gaixia is also a psychological warfare that only Han Xin would have thought of. Among Chinese folk songs, those belonging to the north are generally narrative and concise in content, while those in the south are mainly lyrical and lingering.The folk songs of Chu State in the south have always been extremely sad, but at this time, the effect of these sad tunes is particularly great.Qu Yuan's Songs of Chu were also adapted into ballads. The rhyme is extremely mournful, and the drawn-out coda is all the more gripping because it is sung in a trembling voice: This is a folk song of Chu that rewrites Qu Yuan's "Li Sao".The rhyme of the chorus is even more miserable. After listening to the besieged song, Xiang Yu sighed infinitely: "Oh, it seems that my Chu land has been completely occupied by the Han... Judging from the chorus just now, there seem to be many Chu soldiers in the Han army..." A person as stubborn as Xiang Yu, after hearing the song of his hometown, his mood suddenly collapsed.Surrounded by more and more enemy troops.The local miscellaneous troops rushing to take refuge in the Han army gathered in Gaixia.Some of them are even temporarily recruited civilian farmers, pretending to be soldiers, in an attempt to be included in the list of heroes in the future. In contrast, the desertion phenomenon of the besieged Chu army spread like an infectious disease, and its troops were decreasing day by day.Xiang Yu, who used to be stingy with rewards for meritorious deeds, had very few retainers who were willing to share life and death because of his gratitude. "I'm afraid the remaining soldiers are less than a thousand?" Even at this time, Xiang Yu didn't want to rely on his subordinates.He believed that the strength of a thousand knights was not as strong as that of himself. "Let's hold a final banquet!" Xiang Yu, who got up in the middle of the night, woke up his staff and prepared the banquet. Xiang Yu has been suffering from insomnia since listening to Chu Ge's chorus, not only him, but the whole army has become nervous.This is Han Xin's combat victory. "Bring Zou here!" Xiang Yu ordered. "Zou" is the name of his favorite horse.This is a chrysanthemum green horse that can travel thousands of miles a day.Xiang Yu ordered someone to bring out the horse, indicating that he was going to fight, and the retainers knew this very well. "Yes, we will also be ready to play." The retainers retreated. Xiang Yu picked up the wine glass in the tent, and Yu Ji poured wine for him.Yu Ji knew that this was the moment of parting from him for life and death. "Since the dispatch of troops, you have always been by my side..." Xiang Yu said after drinking the wine in one gulp. "Yes, it's been eight years." Yu Ji replied and poured wine again. Eight years is a general algorithm before and after.Xiang Yu's uncle Xiang Liang raised his troops in the first year of Qin II (209 BC), which is regarded as the last month of the year according to the Qin calendar.The real time since the raising of troops was actually only about six years and four months. "Time flies so fast..." Xiang Yu said sadly. "Report to the king, Zou is here." The retainer reported from outside the tent. "Just tie it there!" Xiang Yu said as he walked out of the tent. He was in a state of high spirits, so he wrote a poem with generosity: Xiang Yu repeated his poem, and Yu Ji reconciled with it. King Xiang wept for a few lines, weeping on both sides, unable to look up. "Historical Records" describes this scene in this way, but it doesn't mention anything about Yu Ji's later life.The official history will not describe in detail the encounters of women that have nothing to do with historical trends. "Chu-Han Chunqiu" contains the poem of Concubine Yu's answer to Xiang Yu's poem: Later generations of literati made various embellishments to this scene. It is said that, in order to make Xiang Yu have no worries, after singing, Yu Ji begged Xiang Yu for a sword, cut off her own carotid artery and died.It is said that Xiang Yu refused at first, but gave her the sword because of what Yu Ji said later—— The concubine is willing to follow her to break through, so I ask the king Huiyu to borrow a sword. Another theory is that in order to cut off his troubles, Xiang Yu personally swung his sword and beheaded Yu Ji. According to the legend, when Concubine Yu's head was cut off, where the blood dripped, lovely grass grew, which was named "Poppy Grass", also known as "Lichunhua" or "Immortal Grass".One theory is that the poppies grew in her graveyard. The tomb of Concubine Yu is said to be in the east of Lingbi County in northern Anhui Province.Along the Huai River in the south, there is also a place that is considered to be the cemetery of Concubine Yu.Although this is a groundless legend, some people believe that after Xiang Yu beheaded Yu Ji and buried her remains, he fled southward from Gaixia with her head and buried her on the way.This is a story made up by later generations because of the "two tombs" theory! Even when escaping from Gaixia, Xiang Yu justified his failure with the words "the time is not good".He never thinks that he has been defeated, because he is a person who is "powerful and powerful". ——It's because the sky doesn't give me, not because I, Xiang Yu, don't have enough strength. Convinced of this, he kept saying these words during his escape. Xiang Yu was only twenty-four years old when he raised his army.He was only in his early thirties by the time of the final battle for hegemony.Liu Bang, who was twenty-five years older than Xiang Yu, should have been fifty-five or six years old at this time. "Break out and go south, return to Jiangdong (east of the Yangtze River) and let the soldiers rest for a period of time, and then find another way to rise up!" Xiang Yu yelled loudly and stepped on his love horse Zou. The elite eight hundred cavalry selected from the Guards followed behind. It was late at night.Xiang Yu kicked the horse's belly suddenly, as if to encourage himself not to be attached to anything. With a neighing sound, Zou rushed forward suddenly.