The "Hongmen Banquet" can be said to be the first head-on confrontation between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu. At that time, Liu Bang, who entered the pass first, accepted the surrender of the Prince of Qin and supported 100,000 garrisons to dominate, and Xiang Yu commanded 400,000 troops to break through the barrier after the "Battle of the Giant Deer", and tun troops to XinfenghongMen. Later, Liu Bang's subordinate Cao Wu injured and denounced Liu Bang for having the heart to establish himself as king in Guanzhong, and the contradictions between the two sides broke out, so Liu Bang decided to personally apologize to Xiang Yu, and Xiang Yu then set up a banquet to entertain Liu Bang.
At the "Hongmen Banquet", Fan Zeng saw that Liu Bang's ambitions were not small, so he laid down a step-by-step killing opportunity, Liu Bang's situation can be described as extremely dangerous, fortunately, with the help of Zhang Liang, Xiang Bo, and Fan Duo, he was able to escape back to his military camp. Then, why would Xiang Yu, who had 400,000 troops, let Liu Bang leave safely, instead of taking the opportunity to lead his army to crush Liu Bang's army and kill Liu Bang to eliminate the troubles?
After the "Hongmen Feast", the reason why Xiang Yu did not meet With Liu Bangbing was actually a very important reason that neither side was sure to defeat the other. In terms of the paper troops of both sides, Xiang Yu, who has 400,000 troops, is indeed four times as strong as Liu Bang, but if we look at the actual strength of the troops, Xiang Yu's headquarters soldiers and horses may not be as many as Liu Bang.
To find out how many troops Xiang Yu really had during the "Hongmen Banquet", we first need to review the changes in the soldiers and horses under Xiang Yu's command during the "Battle of the Giant Deer" to the "Hongmen Banquet".
After Xiang Liang's army defeated Dingtao and was killed, Xiong Xin, the king of Chuhuai, who was supported by him, was unwilling to continue to be a puppet, so he began to cultivate his own forces, and he combined the two armies of Xiang Yu and Lü Chen, and personally commanded himself, and confiscated Xiang Yu's military power in disguise. At the same time, Xiong Xin vigorously promoted Song Yi and other non-Xiang generals.
After initially quelling the Chu rebellion, Zhang Handan crossed the river north to attack Zhao Di, and Zhao Xie, the king of Zhao, was defeated and trapped in Julu, so he asked for help from various princes. Xiong Xin, the king of Chuhuai, then decided to divide his troops into two ways to destroy Qin, and agreed with the generals to "enter the king of Guanzhong first", Xiang Yu originally wanted to lead the army to the west, but the king of Chuhuai refused. After that, King Huai of Chu promoted Song Yi to the title of Champion of Qingzi and made him a general, leading Xiang Yu, Fan Zeng, Yingbu, and others to the north to rescue Zhao, and then ordered Liu Bang to gather Chen Sheng and Xiang Liang to scatter their troops and attack Qin to the west.
After Song Yi marched to Anyang, he stayed for forty-six days without advancing, and Xiang Yu then killed song under the pretext of "Song Yi and Qi plotting against Chu" and killed him under the pretext of the order of King Huai of Chu, thus seizing military power. So, how many troops did Xiang Yu have in his hands at this time? In the "Records of Emperor Gaozu of the Former Han Dynasty", there is a record that "Song Yi and Xiang Yu will be 50,000 generals, and the three generals of Qin" can be seen that Xiang Yu's army should be around 50,000 at this time.
After the "Battle of julu", Xiang Yu recruited the Zhang Handan Army, and then integrated the combined forces of other princes, and on the way to the west into Guanzhong, the large army marched to Xin'an, because it was worried that the number of Qin troops was too large, and if it did not obey the order after entering the pass, it would cause disaster, so Xiang Yu ordered that all the more than 200,000 Qin soldiers be killed overnight in the south of Xin'an City. Therefore, the army led by Xiang Yu entered the pass was mainly composed of his own army and the combined forces of the princes.
After entering Guanzhong, the "History of Xiang Yu Benji" contains, "Xiang Yu has 400,000 soldiers, in the new Fenghong Gate, Pei Gong soldiers 100,000, in the Hegemony", which shows that at that time, Xiang Yu did have 400,000 troops, while Liu Bang only had 100,000. The Book of Han and the Chronicle of Emperor Gao also records that "when it was time, (Xiang) Yu had 400,000 soldiers and millions. Pei Gong soldiers 100,000, number 200,000, invincible. The "Book of Han and Xiang Book Biography" records that "the Yu generals had more than 300,000 soldiers, traveled slightly to Henan, and then went west to Xin'an..... More than 200,000 Qin troops were struck."
Liu Bang was different, Liu Bang only had a few thousand troops when he entered the west, and after collecting four thousand men of Chai Wu, the Marquis of Gangwu, Li Shiqi still said that he was "dissatisfied with ten thousand people", and then Li Shang led four thousand people to defect to Liu Bang, so that Liu Bang's army grew to more than 20,000 after entering Wuguan. After entering Guanzhong, because Liu Bang calmed people's hearts in time, he quickly expanded his soldiers and horses, so that the army was replenished to about 100,000 people, which had the capital to compete with Xiang Yu.
As mentioned above, before the "Hongmen Feast", although Xiang Yu had more than 400,000 troops, he was actually composed of his own soldiers and horses and the combined forces of the princes, of which the main soldiers and horses were mainly 50,000 troops originally under Song Yi's command, even if it was expanded after the "Battle of the Giant Deer", it should be extremely limited, even if the 20,000 troops of General Pu and Yingbu were added, the total strength of their troops should not exceed 100,000 people. After all, Xiong Xin, the king of Chuhuai, could not send reinforcements to him, and the scattered troops on the way west had been almost collected by Liu Bang.
After Liu Bang entered Guanzhong and accepted the surrender of the Prince of Qin, with the 100,000 soldiers and horses in his hand, he had the ambition to divide Guanzhong and establish himself as king, so on the one hand he and the people of Guanzhong "agreed on the three chapters of the law" to stabilize the people's hearts, and on the other hand, he sent troops to garrison Hangu Pass, intending to keep Xiang Yu and other princes' armies out of Guanzhong. After Xiang Yu arrived at Hangu Pass, he found the defenders on the pass and broke through the pass in a rage.
After Xiang Yu entered the pass, Sima Cao, the left sima under Liu Bang, ran to report to Xiang Yu without injury, saying that "The Duke of Pei wants To be king of Guanzhong, so that the children and babies are the same, and the treasures are all there." Xiang Yu, who was already annoyed by Liu Bang's setting up troops at Hangu Pass, was furious when he heard this, and immediately ordered an attack on Liu Bang the next day. However, he did not want Xiang Bo to run to Zhang Liang to tell the news, which led to the leakage of the news, and after Liu Bang learned of Xiang Yu's troop strength, he felt that he was not an opponent, so he proposed to personally come to the door the next day to apologize.
In fact, the main reason why Xiang Yu was annoyed was that Liu Bang established himself as king without going through himself, after all, in his opinion, you Liu Bang took the initiative to defect to my Xiang clan, and now this kind of behavior is obviously a betrayal. Therefore, when Liu Bang explained that he had set up troops at Hangu Pass just to prevent the rebellion, personally went to make amends to Xiang Yu and gave Xiang Yu enough respect, Xiang Yu's anger had actually been extinguished, and the person who really wanted to kill Liu Bang at the Hongmen banquet was actually Fan Zeng, who saw his ambition.
Although Fan Zeng once reminded Xiang Yu, saying, "When Pei Gong lived in Shandong, he was greedy for goods and good beauty. Now that he has entered the customs, he has nothing to gain, and the women have no luck, so his ambitions are not small", but Xiang Yu still did not kill Liu Bang in the case of a low posture, and Fan Zeng had to invite Xiang Zhuang to stage a "Xiangzhuang Dancing Sword, with the intention of Pei Gong".
If Xiang Yu really killed Liu Bang, then even if Liu Bang escaped from the "Hongmen Feast", Xiang Yu could still attack Liu Bang with his troops. Although as mentioned above, Xiang Yu's 400,000 soldiers and horses were not all of his concubines, judging from Xiang Yu's prestige after the "Battle of the Giant Deer", he may not be able to command and not move, not to mention that although Liu Bang has 100,000 people under his command, the combat effectiveness is difficult to guarantee, which is also the reason why Liu Bang does not dare to easily turn his face with Xiang Yu.
More importantly, if Xiang Yu really killed Liu Bang, then when the world was sealed, it was likely that he would not be crowned king of Han again, and it should be known that although Liu Bang's fiefdom was relatively remote, its area was not small among the eighteen princes. It should be known that Tian Rong and Chen Yu, who were also anti-Qin rebels, were not sealed because they did not follow Xiang Yu into Qin, and although Han Cheng was made the King of Han, Xiang Yu did not let him return to the fiefdom. For Liu Bang, Xiang Yu did not do this.
As mentioned above, the reason why Liu Bang was able to escape the disaster at the "Hongmen Banquet" was largely due to the fact that Xiang Yu did not kill him, and the fundamental reason why Xiang Yu set up the "Hongmen Banquet" was that after Liu Bang apologized to Xiang Yu, Xiang Yu set up a banquet for him, and the reason why this banquet was thrilling was more due to Fan Zeng's plot, otherwise Liu Bang could not easily escape.
To sum up, before and after the "Hongmen Banquet", the forces of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu actually reached a clever balance; although Xiang Yu had a large number of troops in his hands, he did not dare to easily use force against Liu Bang because of the relatively small number of concubines; although Liu Bang had a certain amount of self-preservation, he did not dare to easily provoke Xiang Yu because of his undecided military heart.
As a result, Xiang Yu was angry, Liu Bang rushed to make amends, Liu Bang lowered his posture, and Xiang Yu also extinguished his anger.