A war with regrets

Background of the times

In 207 BC, the Chu general Xiang Yu led a mere 60,000 troops to defeat the 400,000 Qin army led by the Qin general Zhang Han at Julu, which attracted strong attention at the time, and Xiang Yu's name began to be famous all over the world. After the war, because Xiang Yu made the greatest contribution in the process of destroying Qin, he became the most influential figure among the princes, he established himself as the overlord of Western Chu, built the capital Pengcheng, and divided the world. As the overlord, he divided the country into eighteen kingdoms, which were divided into vassals, generals, and generals. The eighteen kings were: Liu Bang of Han, Zhang Han of Yong, Sima Xin of Sai, Dong Peng of Zhai, Wei Bao of Western Wei, Shenyang of Henan, Han Cheng of Han, Sima Qiong of Yin, Zhao Xie of Daiwang, Zhang Er of Changshan, Huang Bu of Jiujiang, Wu Rui of Hengshan, Gongao of Linjiang, Han Guang of Liaodong, Zang Di of Yan, Wang Tianshi of Jiaodong, Tiandu of Qi, and Tian'an of Jibei. Xiang Yu's purpose in dividing the feudal feud like this is, firstly, to establish his own authority in order to command the world; The second was to seal his rival Liu Bang in Bashu, where the Qin Dynasty exiled sinners, and to use Qin to subdue Zhang Han and Sima Xin to clamp down.

Of course, Liu Bang is not a person who can be satisfied with just giving a fief, and he showed strong dissatisfaction with Xiang Yu's decision. If you look at it from today's perspective, Hanzhong and Bashu are located in the current Chengdu Plain, the country of abundance, and are rich in products. Why are you still not satisfied! In fact, this area in the Qin and Han dynasties belonged to an undeveloped area, and it was indeed a remote area compared to Guanzhong and the Central Plains. In the second year of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang decided to send troops to Sanqin to prepare to attack Chu, and at this time, Xiang Yu's army was quelling the rebellion of Qi in the east, and the rear was extremely empty. Liu Bang seized this opportunity to march eastward, invincible along the way, and his troops pointed directly at Xiang Yu's capital Pengcheng. According to the "Historical Records": "In the spring, the five princes and soldiers of the Han Dynasty, 560,000 people, went east to Chu. That is to say, Liu Bang gathered a force of 560,000 people to participate in the invasion of Chu, including 100,000 people led by Liu Bang in Guanzhong. Subsequently, he "kidnapped" five princes (Wei Wang Bao, Yin Wang Sima Wei, Henan Wang Shenyang, Sai Wang, Zhai Wang) to participate in the war, for this eastward advance, Liu Bangzhen can be said to have taken out all his family resources, gathered all his important generals and advisers.

In terms of strategic deployment, the Han army was divided into three routes, the middle route army was personally commanded by Liu Bang, and the troops were Zhang Liang, Chen Ping, Han Xin, Lu Ze, Zhang Er, Lu Juan, Xiahou Ying and the five princes' armies, from Luoyang directly to the east, directly to take Pengcheng. The Northern Route Army was led by Cao Shen and Guan Ying to join Chen Yu's army from Lianglu and attack Pengcheng with the Middle Route Army. The Southern Route Army was led by Xue Ou and Wang Su (or Wang Lingjun) from Guanzhong to Wuguan to Nanyang, attack Yangxia, and attack Pengcheng to the east. At this time, Guanzhong was not stable, and Zhang Han and other forces were still resisting stubbornly. Liu Bang left Xiao He to guard Guanzhong, Zhou Bowei abandoned the hill, Fan Hao and Li Shang moved to various places in Guanzhong, and established Han Wangxin as the king of Han to pacify the Han land. In April of the second year of the Han Dynasty, the North Route Army broke the dragon and Yu Dingtao, went south to Dang and Liu Bang's Middle Route Army to join the division, and then captured Xiang Yu's old nest Pengcheng, it seems that this victory is inevitable for Liu Bang.

Character Analysis

Xiang Yu, (introduced above).

Liu Bang, also known as Liu Ji, was born in Zhongyangli, Fengyi, Pei County, Surabaya County, Qin Dynasty (now in Feng County, Jiangsu Province). He was the first civilian emperor in the history of our country, and he was also an outstanding politician, strategist, and conductor. Liu Bang was born in a peasant family and served as a pavilion chief in his early years, and the pavilion chief was a low-level official position. In the Qin Dynasty, the local administrative system was divided into counties, counties, townships, pavilions, and li. The county has a county guard, a county lieutenant, etc., who are in charge of politics, military affairs, and supervision. The county has a county order, and there are subordinate officers and lieutenants, who are in charge of documents and public security respectively. Grassroots organizations are ten miles. Ten miles is a pavilion, and the pavilion is long; Ten pavilions are townships, and there are three elders (in charge of education), Sifu (in charge of litigation and tax collection), and You Yi (in charge of public security). From this point of view, Liu Bang's pavilion chief should be equivalent to an official position such as the branch secretary of an administrative village today. He was open-minded and generous, and he was not good at farming. Qin Shi died in Mangdang Mountain due to the release of prisoners. In September of the first year of Qin II (209 BC), Liu Bang gathered people in Pei County to respond to the uprising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, called Pei Gong, and soon defected to Xiang Liang. In October 206 BC, when he arrived at Bashang, Prince Ying of Qin surrendered, and Qin perished. Liu Bang abolished the harsh laws of the Qin Dynasty and made three chapters with the father of Guanzhong: "The murderer dies, and the wounding and theft are punished." Therefore, it was welcomed by the people of Guanzhong.

After four years of the Chu-Han War, Liu Bang finally surrounded the Chu army, and Xiang Yu led his troops to break through and kill himself in Wujiang. In February of that year, Liu Bang was the emperor, the capital Luoyang was first built, and soon moved to Chang'an, known as the Western Han Dynasty. After ascending the throne, he put down the rebellion of the princes and kings; On the other hand, the establishment of rules and regulations and the adoption of a relaxed policy of rest and recuperation to govern the world, quickly resume production, and develop the economy, not only appeased the people at that time, but also laid the initial foundation for today's Han nation.

Liu Bang's success lies in the fact that he was an excellent administrator, and he himself saw this very thoroughly, and it is recorded in the "Historical Records of Gaozu Benji": At a banquet in Yangnan Palace, he asked the ministers Gao Qi and Wang Ling: Why do I have the world? What is the reason why the Xiang family lost the world? Gao Qi and Wang Ling said: "Your Majesty is slow and insulting, Xiang Yuren is benevolent and lovely." However, His Majesty sent people to conquer the city and conquer the land, and those who descended were given it, and the benefit of the world was also shared. Xiang Yu is jealous of the virtuous and jealous, the meritorious ones harm him, the sages doubt it, he defeats it without merit, and he gets the land without benefiting others, so he loses the world. Gao Zu said: "The public knows one, but the other is unknown." In the planning of the husband's plan, the decisive victory is thousands of miles away, and I am not as good as the ovary. Town the country, care for the people, give naan, endless food, I am not as good as Xiao He. Even an army of millions, the battle will be won, the attack must be taken, I am not as good as Han Xin. These three are all masterpieces, I can use them, so I take the world. This is very frank, and it can be seen from this that Liu Bang is not a scoundrel or a scoundrel as many people think, of course, some of his practices are indeed debatable, but in terms of employing people, he is a politician with extraordinary strategic vision.

The course of the engagement

In February of the first year of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang took the opportunity of Tian Rong of Qi to raise troops against Chu, and Xiang Yu sent troops to Qi (now Shandong) to attack and occupy Guanzhong (referring to the area west of Hangu Pass). In April, the armies of Qi and Chu fought a major battle in Chengyang (now northeast of Heze, Shandong), leaving the Chu capital of Pengcheng empty. Liu Bang immediately used Xiang Yu's killing of King Huai of Chu as the reason to gather 560,000 allied troops of various princes in Luoyang, and launched a full-scale attack on Pengcheng in three ways. These three route armies consisted of the northern, middle, and southern routes. The Northern Route Army was led by Cao Shen and Guan Ying to join Chen Yu's army through Lianglu and join the Middle Route Army to attack Pengcheng. The Southern Route Army was sent from Xue Ou and Wang Suan from Guanzhong to Wuguan to Nanyang, attack Yangxia, and attack Pengcheng to the east. The Central Route Army was personally commanded by Liu Bang, and the generals were Zhang Liang, Chen Ping, Han Xin, Lu Ze, Zhang Er, Lu Xuan, Xiahou Ying, and the army of the five princes, which went directly east from Luoyang to Pengcheng.

At that time, Xiang Yu, who was fighting with the Qi army, heard that Liu Bang led the soldiers and horses of the Five Kingdoms to capture Pengcheng, and he was furious and scolded: "Thief, dare to do this!" His chief strategist Fan Zeng said: "Pengcheng is the foundation of the Chu State, once it is occupied by Liu Bang, we will be homeless, we must not be saved!" Xiang Yu pondered for a moment and said, "If you send a large army to rescue, I'm afraid it's too late." And Tian Heng is in the city, and when he sees me retreating, he will take the opportunity to chase and kill. When the time comes, it will be difficult to ensure that you will not fall into a dilemma. After weighing it again, it was decided to keep the army here and continue the siege. I led 30,000 elites, day and night, to rush back to Pengcheng and kill him by surprise. When everyone heard this, they were stunned and hurriedly persuaded: "I heard that Liu Bang has no less than a million people, and now the king is fighting against him with 30,000 soldiers, how can he win?" Xiang Yu said with a smile: "Although there are many thieves, they are a rabble after all, how can they stop the cavalry of Chu State?" And the team of thieves is huge and complex, and the orders are different, which is easy for me to take advantage of. So, he asked the strategist Fan Zeng to stay, and continued to besiege Chengyang with Cao Ji, Huan Chu, Long Ji, Zhong Liwu and the six princes. He led Ji Bu, Liji, Ding Gu, Xiang Sheng, Xiang Zhuang, and Xiang Guan six fierce generals, took 30,000 cavalry, turned south from Huling, and went straight to Pengcheng. The team rushed to Huling, and happened to meet Yu Ziqi and Xiang Xiang, escorting the two mothers to escape. Xiang Yu saw that the queen and Yu Ji were safe and sound, and his heart gradually fell, and he went to the camp to rest first. Yu Ziqi and Xiang Xiang bowed their respects and went to Chengyang.

After a short rest, Xiang Yu led 30,000 elite soldiers, who did not take off their armor and did not get off the saddle, galloping all the way to the south. After four or five days' journey, it took only two days and two nights to arrive in the western suburbs of Xiao County. Xiang Yu saw that the men and horses were tired, and saw that the time was in the middle of the night, so he ordered the soldiers to get off their horses and rest first, just waiting for dawn. After resting for more than an hour, it was the fourth watch, and the sound of roosters crowed from time to time in the distance. Xiang Yu got on the horse, divided the men and horses into three roads, and quietly marched towards Xiao County. Nearly five watches, the sky is light, Xiang Yu is on the horse, vaguely see the enemy camp, one village after another, boundless. He couldn't help but laugh evilly, and raised the big lance in his hand into the air, only to see the men and horses surging, the weapons shining, and 30,000 cavalry, all towards the enemy camp. Guarding Xiao County was the military horse of the king of the Western Wei Dynasty, when it was dawn, the soldiers had just gotten up, and their eyes were still hazy, and some people were still yawning. Suddenly, I heard the sound of hooves behind me like thunder, shaking the heavens and the earth, and when I looked back, I was so shocked that my soul flew out of the sky! At this time, countless cavalry troops rushed towards them like rolling waves. When the army saw this, they were all frightened, and they looked into the camp and left. The Western Wei soldiers were in turmoil. Xiang Yu took the lead, and the prancing horse trail rushed into the village, even picking up several generals, and the rest fled in all directions. Wei Baofang finished grooming, and before he put it on, he suddenly heard the sound of killing outside, hurriedly picked up the sword, came out of the tent to see, and saw Xiang Yu killing in. Wei Wangbao was frightened, hurriedly snatched a horse, and walked away. The 30,000 iron horsemen of the Chu army, like a flood beast, killed at will in the camp; The soldiers of the Western Wei Dynasty cried for their fathers and called their mothers, hugging their heads and running around. After only a while, in the camp of the Western Wei Dynasty, there were already corpses all over the ground, and blood flowed like a river. Three people gathered outside Xiao County, but saw that the city gate had been closed. Xiang Yu looked around at the generals and said: "The outnumbered people lead 30,000 elite soldiers, and it is advantageous to fight quickly, so you can't get entangled here." "It didn't stop, and the army rushed to Pengcheng.

In less than an hour, this cavalry was killed in front of Sima Ang's army. When Sima Ang heard the report, he was taken aback, and hurriedly sent his horse to Pengcheng to report the emergency, and then led the Hanoi army out of the village to meet the enemy. Before they could line up, the sound of a tiger's roar was heard. Sima Ang immediately stood under the military flag, and he couldn't help but gasp at this look. I saw that Ji Bu led the first army on the left, Ding Gu led the first army on the right, and Xiang Wang led the first army in the middle, and the wind swept over as if rushing over. Sima Ang shouted "fight", but no one answered. Sima Ang was furious, and was about to scold, when he felt that the military horses around him were moving backwards; As soon as his heart was confused, he returned to his horse and left. When all the soldiers saw this, they looked east and ran together. The Hanoi soldiers collapsed without a fight. The Chu army took advantage of the situation and covered up the killing. The iron rode over and fell a large piece. The Hanoi soldiers were all frightened and scattered in all directions. Sima Ang didn't go far before he was caught up by King Xiang Yu and scolded: "Repeated villain! The horse moved forward, stabbed Sima Ang in the back of the heart, and fell under the horse. The generals around him were all frightened and rode their horses into the crowd. Xiang Yu ignored it and led his men and horses straight to Pengcheng.

News of Sima Ang's killing soon spread to Pengcheng. When Liu Bang heard this, he was stunned and said, "Could it be that a divine soldier descended from the sky?" Hurriedly took his own generals, went out of the north gate, rushed to the Jiulishan camp, and gathered military horses to meet the battle. Fang Bu lowered the formation, and saw the Western Chu army killing. The two formations are in a circle, King Xiang is out of the horse, and the six generals are on both sides. Xiang Yu scolded loudly: "Faithless and unrighteous people, dare to violate my borders? Take my capital? Liu Bang was under the banner of the horse gate and said loudly: "Emperor Yi is the co-lord of the world, virtuous and sage, who in the four seas does not admire?" For your own selfish interests, you actually relied on force to exile the old lord to a wild and distant land. What they have done is abominable! The princes all have grievances, but they dare not speak out. You still don't know how to repent, since the people of the world have surrendered to Chu, they are even more unscrupulous, and then do that great rebellion, and secretly order others to kill the righteous emperor in Jiangnan. How can a widow sit idly by when he sees you so unreasonable? Gather the princes of the Quartet and crusade against you! Gu Hou said: "Who dares to catch this traitor?" "One will come out. This person is Xue Ou; Shoot the horse and hold the lance, and go out to the front of the battle. Xiang Yu was furious, rode a black horse (zhuī), stood up to the king of Yu, and killed him directly. Xue Ou came to greet him. The battle was less than Shihe, and Xue Ou expected that the enemy could not be defeated, and he was defeated in his own position. Chai Wu was in the formation, and when he saw that Xue Ou was defeated, he danced his big knife and came over to fight Xiang Yu. Fighting to sixteen or seventeen, Chai Wu's knife method has been chaotic, and Xiang Yu was a lance and broke the hair tie. scared Chai Wu into disarray, dragged the knife and left. At this time, the sky became more and more sultry, and the shore of Suishui was bloody. Liu Bang saw that there were only hundreds of people left around him, and he was surrounded by three layers of Chu soldiers, and he couldn't help but look up to the sky and sigh: "I will die here!" At this moment, the sky changed and a strong wind blew from the northwest. For a time, the sand was flying, the wood was pulled and the dust was raised, and it was dark, and people turned over on their backs. The Western Chu soldiers were just facing the strong wind, and they couldn't open their eyes when they were blown away, and people couldn't stand, and the war horses were even more frightened, running in all directions. The Western Chu army was suddenly hit by this strange wind, and it was immediately in chaos, and the formation collapsed. Liu Bang was surprised when he saw it, and said, "God help me!" Hurriedly summoned more than a dozen horsemen behind him, followed the direction of the wind, and broke through.

The wind blew for a while before it stopped. Xiang Yuzhong gathered his generals and horses and came back to kill. After a while, he finished cleaning the battlefield, but there was no trace of Liu Bang. Xiang Sheng said: "When the wind blew just now, he took the opportunity to slip away. Xiang Yu was very angry when he heard this. Ji Budao: "Liu Bang fled in a hurry, how to go far? But if you send someone to chase after you overnight, you will be able to capture it. The overlord said, "I don't know where the thief is fleeing?" Ji Bu said: "Most of them went north. Xiang Yu said: "If you can capture Liu Ji alive, the reward will be 100 yi!" He immediately ordered Ji Bu and Ding Gu to take 3,000 horsemen each, chase them north, and lead their horses back to Pengcheng.

Liu Bang continued to flee westward until May of the second year of Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, when Liu Bang, who had retreated to Xingyang, quickly recovered after receiving reinforcements from Xiao He and Han Xin, and fought with the stumbling Chu army between Beijing and Suo (both southeast of present-day Xingyang, Henan). In order to deal with the powerful cavalry of the Chu army, Liu Bang also vigorously strengthened and expanded his cavalry, and finally broke the cavalry of the Chu army in the east of Xingyang, stifling the momentum of the Chu army's westward advance and stabilizing the battle situation.

From then on, the Chu-Han War entered a phase of stalemate, and the two sides confronted each other on the line of Xingyang and Chenggao. In the end, because Xiang Yu did not take advantage of the victory to chase the Han army, Liu Bang once again got a chance to breathe, and later developed and won the world. This cannot but be said that this is a great regret of this war.

War Impact

In the battle of Pengcheng, Liu Bang suffered the biggest defeat since the start of the army. In this war, his father and wife were captured by the Chu army, and all the princes also turned their backs on Chu. Xiang Yu fully demonstrated his unique heroic and resolute, eloquent military command ability, this battle can be said to be a complete victory, Xiang Yu not only annihilated Liu Bang's main force, so that Liu Bang fell into a crisis situation of "the old and weak in the pass did not know Xingyang". It also reversed the political situation of Xiang Yu being embattled and isolated, and regained the initiative in the Chu-Han War. However, this completely victorious battle left a deep regret, in this battle, although Xiang Yu won more with less, almost completely annihilated the Han army. However, at the last moment of the imminent victory, Xiang Yu did not pursue Liu Bang with all his might, so that later, Liu Bang relied on superior geographical and material resources and the superior strength of the entire group, and finally dragged Xiang Yu and won the world. This cannot but be said to be a great pity. More than 2,000 years later, in April 1949, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army occupied Nanjing, the center of Kuomintang rule, Mao Zedong wrote the poem "Seven Laws: The People's Liberation Army Occupies Nanjing", in which he wrote: "Zhongshan is pale and yellow, and millions of heroes cross the river. The tiger is better than the past, and the world is turned upside down and generous. It is advisable to chase the poor bravely, and not to sell the name of the overlord. If there is love in the sky, the sky is also old, and the right way in the world is the vicissitudes of life. Among them, "it is advisable to chase the poor bravely, and not to sell the name of the overlord." "One sentence is not to make Xiang Yu's mistakes in the battle of Pengcheng. This poem describes Mao Zedong's determination to take advantage of the victory to pursue the remnants of the Kuomintang. It's just that Xiang Yu, who was on the edge of the Yangtze River, did not have such determination at that time, otherwise, the battle of Pengcheng was enough to rewrite Chinese history.

▲ The regrets left in the battle of Pengcheng laid the root of Xiang Yu's defeat in the future. A few years later, he was surrounded by Liu Bang, embattled, and his beloved Yu Ji also left him, although he had the courage of ten thousand people, after all, it was the end of the hero. Pathetic, alas!

Strategy analysis

The Battle of Pengcheng can be said to be an unprecedented war miracle in Chinese history. Xiang Yu defeated the 560,000 allied army led by Liu Bang with 30,000 elite soldiers. The reason why Xiang Yu was able to achieve victory seems to be an accidental result, and if we analyze it carefully, we will find that this accident also contains many inevitabilities. According to some historical records: as early as when Liu Bang was in the Three Qins, Xiang Yu had a premonition that Liu Bang would advance eastward, but he still led his troops to attack the Qi State in his rear flank. As for Liu Bang's offensive, Xiang Yu sent Zheng Chang as the king of Han to resist Liu Bang's eastward advance, and sent Chen Ping to lay another layer of defense here; Subsequently, he sent Long He to resist the Northern Route Army, and sent troops to Yangxia to block the Southern Route Army. Except for the southern route, all the other armies failed. Liu Bang's 560,000-strong Han army occupied most of Chu in just a few months, and Xiang Yu was in an unprecedented crisis in the face of this grim situation.

For God to make a person successful, he must first make him crazy. In the face of such a sinister political, military environment. Xiang Yu proposed an unprecedented strategic plan, and he ordered the army to continue to pacify the Qi state as a means of confusing Liu Bang. He personally led 30,000 elite soldiers to detour to the rear of Pengcheng, used Pengcheng as a bait to lure Liu Bang to the bait, and then attacked Liu Bang's rear and annihilated the Han army. When Xiang Yu's battle plan came out, everyone was in disbelief! Not only did he have to annihilate the opponent's 560,000 with 30,000, but he also had to travel long distances and set up a sneak attack! This idea can be said to be unprecedented, and there is no one to come.

☆☆ War Archives ☆☆

Campaign Name: Battle of Pengcheng

Time of occurrence: 2nd year of the Han Dynasty (206 BC)

The warring sides: the allied forces led by the Han army VS the Chu army

Place of battle: Pengcheng (in present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province)

Comparison of strength: 30,000 Chu troops VS 560,000 allied forces

The result of the war: a crushing defeat for the Allies

Nature of war: Counterattack

Intelligence Level: ☆☆☆☆☆