Why didn’t Xiang Yu kill Liu Bang at the Hongmen banquet?

Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu

“Pulling up the mountain is unparalleled, and the times are unfavorable. Zhui never dies; Zhui never dies. What can I do? What can I do? What can I do?” A farewell my concubine song shook the mountains and rivers, and the world couldn’t help mourning the sad ending of overlord Xiang Yu. Many people believe that the outcome of overlord Xiang Yu’s suicide by the Wujiang River was caused by his mercy at the Hongmen banquet. If at the Hongmen banquet, Overlord adopted the suggestion of Yafu fan Zeng and took Liu Bang’s head at the banquet, maybe history would be rewritten. In fact, Overlord Xiang Yu is not just a foolhardy man. If he had taken Liu Bang’s head hastily at that time, he might have been besieged on all sides long before Wujiang committed suicide. So even if Liu Bang finally forced Xiang Yu to commit suicide in the Wujiang River, it was still wise for Xiang Yu not to take his life at the Hongmen banquet.

In fact, a careful study of “historical records” will find that the comments made by the author above are not nonsense. In order to solve the mystery, the author will start with the historical facts before and after the Hongmen banquet to decipher why Xiang Yu didn’t kill Liu Bang at the Hongmen banquet.

After the death of the first emperor of Qin, the Qin Empire was tyrannical and tyrannical, and the people were unable to make a living. On the contrary, heroes from all walks of life fought against the Central Plains to replace Qin. The uncle and nephew of Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu set up troops, pushed Xiong Xin, the king of Chu, as the king of Huai, and restored the land of Chu. When Liu Bang led the crowd to vote. At this time, the main force of the Qin army was expanding soil in South Vietnam and guarding the border on the Great Wall, so the vassal armies of the six countries could take this opportunity to rectify and revitalize. But before long, the Qin Shaofu Zhang Han led the army to calm the chaos, defeated and killed Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, Xiang Liang and others, and invited the princes to the state of Zhao. The war situation quickly became favorable to Qin.

When the situation was critical, King Huai summoned Song Yi, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang to discuss the matter, and decided to divide the troops into two routes, going north all the way to eliminate the main force of the Qin army, and intimidate the princes, and then pass through Hangu pass and renguanzhong together; All the way west, through Wuguan into Guanzhong, take Xianyang to destroy Qin. King Huai agreed with Song Yi and Liu Bang that whoever came first in Guanzhong could be crowned king in Guanzhong. It was this agreement that became the inducement of Hongmen banquet later.

Now let’s talk about the two route allied forces. The leader of the west road is Liu Bang, and the leader of the north road is Song Yi. Liu Bang’s westward March, all the way to win, unexpectedly, Xiang Yu entered the central pass first. In fact, Liu Bang was not lucky, but he had extraordinary military talent. Liu Bang later defected to the Chu army. His troops were not the main force of the Chu army, and most of his soldiers were old villagers who followed him out of Peixian rebellion to eat. While fighting, he gathered the stragglers after the defeat of Chen Sheng and Xiang Liang, and also incorporated the defenders who surrendered in several big cities. Even so, when Liu Bang hit Xianyang, there were only more than 100000 people. In this way, Liu Bang’s outstanding military talent is fully reflected.

Liu Bang knew the importance of popular support, so he became a soldier of benevolence; He knew that the battlefield was unpredictable, so he was familiar with the use of intrigue. So it seems that Liu Bang’s ability to take charge of Xianyang first depends on more than luck. Moreover, after Liu Bang became the master of Xianyang, his opponents made three rules: properly arrange the old officials, do not rob the women of the Qin palace, do not kill and subdue the soldiers, and do not covet the treasures of the Treasury. When everything was arranged properly, Liu Bang made an amazing move – to retreat honestly and dominate the army.

This is another place where Liu Bang is an expert. In fact, if a person wants to succeed, he must first have the quality of knowing clearly! Liu Bang knows that now he is not Xiang Yu’s opponent, so he can only package himself as a saint with perfect morality, a kind comrade in arms, and a forward who takes the lead. It was his low-key that made Xiang Yu unable to find a reason to kill himself at the Hongmen banquet. It can be seen that Liu Bang is indeed not an idle person.

Speaking of Liu Bang’s wit, I have to mention one person, that is fan Kuai. According to records of the historian, fan Zeng once said to Xiang Yu, “when Peigong lived in Shandong, he was greedy for money and goods, so beautiful…”

Since Liu Bang’s nature is lecherous, how can he not be attracted to Qin Gong’s beauty when he first came to Xianyang? At this time, it was fan Kuai who shouted at the head and dragged him to the bully after waking up. Later, fan Kuai broke into the camp savior at the Hongmen banquet. With great wisdom and courage, fan Kuai is really not a reckless man who is brave and foolhardy!

Liu Bang restrained his desire, stationed the army on the bully, and waited for Xiang Yu to come, presenting Xianyang with his hands. Then what was the situation of Xiang Yu’s army going north at this time?

The author mentioned earlier that the commander of the North Route Army was Song Yi. This man made a small calculation on the way to March. When the northern route army was halfway there, the Lord of song suddenly ordered the army to stop moving forward, with a faint intention of watching the success or failure of the world and supporting the army. Xiang Yu quit now. He is still waiting to kill Xianyang and earn a king. Therefore, Xiang Yu and fan Zeng conspired to send old song to the West and seize military power. Then, he crossed the river and launched the famous battle of giant deer with the Qin army in history. He wiped out the Qin army at one stroke and became famous in the first war, which made all the princes afraid& lt;!&# 8211; end–& gt;

After defeating the Qin army, Xiang Yu led his army to March bravely into Guanzhong. But on the March, Xiang Yu made a fatal mistake, that is, recklessly killing 200000 soldiers of Qin’s subdued army. Compared with Liu Bang’s courtesy of being virtuous and ready to surrender, he undoubtedly lags far behind.

All the way to Hangu pass, the coalition army found that Liu Bang had already been closed by his ancestors, and sent troops to guard Hangu pass. Xiang Yu killed the commander, annihilated the Qin army, and fought all the way to Guanzhong. However, he watched Liu Bang win the first prize. He would not be reconciled anyway, so he broke through the pass in a rage. Xiang Yu supported 400000 soldiers and stationed at Xinfeng Hongmen. Settled down, Xiang Yu began to think about the next strategic deployment. Xiang Yu was reluctant to hand over the king of central Shaanxi to Liu Bang. However, after analyzing the current situation, Xiang Yu found that the situation was not optimistic for him. At this time, although Xiang Yu claimed to support 400000 soldiers, most of them were the troops of princes – some of these people were on the sidelines, did not really belong, and some were even disarmed. In fact, at this time, Xiang Yu’s real headquarters only had more than 100000 people. At the same time, Liu Bang’s army also had 100000 troops stationed in Bashang. Xiang Yu knew that if he and Liu Bang conflicted at this time, the vassal army would be happy to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, and few people would really help him. Therefore, even if Xiang Yu can win, his vitality will be greatly damaged.

And even if Xiang Yu can kill Liu Bang, his troops cannot be easily annexed by him (there are many Qin people in Liu Bang’s army, and Xiang Yu just killed 200000 Qin people). And Xiang Yu killed Song Yi before, with the support of fan Zeng and the whole army; Pit Qin soldiers, with the help of the vassal army. But now the contradiction between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang has not been made public. They are still generals under King Huai, both of whom are Chu troops. If Xiang Yu wants to kill Liu Bang at this time, will those princes help him? The answer is No.

But at this time, a traitor came to denounce, which was Liu bangzuo, Sima Cao Wushang.

Cao Wushang sent a messenger to inform that Liu Bang was king in the central Shaanxi plain and made Ziying prime minister, enjoying all the treasures. Cao Wushang’s statement can be described as adding fuel to the fire. Coupled with fan Zeng’s mysterious instigation, Xiang Yu was furious and would attack Liu Bang.

If this continues to develop, Liu Bang will undoubtedly die. But noble people are always blessed.

It was Xiangbo, a relative of Xiang Yu, who saved Liu Bang’s life. This man is quite wise. He seems to have foreseen the death of Xiang Yu sooner or later, but due to his kinship identity, he cannot rebel against Xiang Yu. Therefore, Xiang Bo is in the Chu camp, but his heart is in Liu Bang, secretly helping Liu Bang. According to historical records, Liu Bang’s family members were later taken hostage by Xiang Yu, and he also benefited from it. After Liu Bang became emperor, the Xiang family was killed (although the official saying was “no punishment”), but he was safe and sound, and was given the surname “Liu”. Of course, these are all later words.

In fact, Xiang Yu, who calmed down, also knew that Liu Bang could not be killed now. At present, the most important thing is not to kill Liu Bang, but to take advantage of this opportunity to use their momentum to eliminate their opponents, gather people and create hegemony. Therefore, when Xiang Bo returned to the camp and reported to Xiang Yu that Liu Bang had not touched the Qin palace and treasures, and hoped that Xiang Yu would come to take over day and night, he also found a good step for himself. After careful consideration, on the eve of the Hongmen banquet, Xiang Yu had given up his plan to repair Liu Bang the next day.

It can be seen that Xiang Yu’s failure to kill Liu Bang is not the kindness of women, but a very wise move. This time, he shook hands with Liu Bang and made peace, which laid the foundation for him to become the overlord of Western Chu in the future.

But next, Xiang Yu made some fatal mistakes one after another. Among them, the biggest mistake was that Liu Bang was not eliminated later.

After Xiang Yu dominated, there were only two people who could compete with him, one was Liu Bang, the other was Tian Rong. Originally, Liu Bang was already the meat of Xiang Yu’s knife. Xiang Yu could find 10000 excuses to get rid of it and eliminate future troubles, just like Liu Bang later killed Han Xin and Peng Yue. At this point, overlord is not as good as Liu Bang, that is, how to make his opponent disappear at the right time. Of course, there are also misleading factors such as fan Zeng’s “wise man”. But the overlord chose to seal Liu Bang in Hanzhong. The emperor was far away from Tiangao, and it was not so easy for the overlord to kill Liu Bang again. Later, when Xiang Yu fought with Tian, Liu Bang took advantage of the weakness and fought into the Central Plains.

In addition, Xiang Yu also made two fatal mistakes: first, after breaking Xianyang, he monopolized Qin Bao and took it east to Pengcheng. This also became an incentive for the princes to sneak attack Pengcheng in the future. Liu Bang promised them to share their treasure equally after breaking the city. Second, after the hegemony, the feudal princes were sealed in disorder. Xiang Yu presided over the enfeoffment, which was like a joke. The old royal families of all countries were crowded out, and even had no territory. The best places for enfeoffment were Xiang Yu’s comrades in arms and relatives. This became the direct reason for the war in the following years. In this way, Xiang Yu is far inferior to Liu Bang in the art of controlling people.

At this point, the reason why Xiang Yu didn’t kill Liu Bang at the Hongmen banquet was clear. In fact, if the competition for the country is compared to an exam, Xiang Yu is like a candidate with some geeks, who gracefully made difficult additional questions that no one else can do – for example, Liu Bang was released at the Hongmen banquet, but he handed in a blank paper in the formal questions, so that he failed the exam. Xiang Yu made many mistakes in his life, which is the real reason why he was finally besieged on all sides and killed himself in Wujiang, rather than letting Liu Bang go at the Hongmen banquet. If we must find some shining points in the political decision of overlord Xiang Yu to compete for the country, it may be that Liu Bang was not killed at the banquet of several Hongmen. Otherwise, it is difficult to say whether there is a later overlord.