In the winter of 205 BC, Xiang Yu besieged Xingyang and cut off Liu Bang's Han army grain route, Liu Bang was trapped in Xingyang City helpless, in order to weaken Xiang Yu's strength, Liu Bang gathered his advisers to advise on this, of which Li Shiqi proposed a strategy that was approved by Liu Bang.
Li Yuqi's method was to let Liu Bang learn from Shang Tang and King Wu of Zhou "after the restoration of the Six Kingdoms", so that the subjects of the Six Kingdoms would be grateful to Liu Bang, and then Liu Bang could dominate the world, and Xiang Yu would have to submit to Liu Bang.
This strategy of Li Shiqi sounds perfect, and there is a precedent, Shang Tang destroyed Xia Jie that year, sealed Xia's descendants in the State of Qi, and king Wu of Zhou also sealed the descendants of Shang in the State of Song after destroying Shang, which gained a full heart. These Liu Bang knew, so after listening to Li Shiqi's offering, Liu Bang immediately said: "Good! Interesting engraving, sir because of the admiration. ”
The meaning of this sentence is: Great! Now, immediately, go and engrave the seal, and then sir will take it with him on a mission to various countries.
However, this method of Li Shiqi was not implemented in the end, because Zhang Liang stopped Liu Bang, and it was also coincidental that just when Liu Bang ordered him to go down to engrave the seal and Li Shiqi had not yet traveled, Zhang Liang went out to return to see Liu Bang.
Liu Bang could not wait to tell Zhang Liang about this important matter, and asked Zhang Liang whether this matter was feasible, in the face of Liu Bang's eager gaze, Zhang Liang shouted that it was not feasible, and he said to Liu Bang that if he really did this, then "Your Majesty will go to the matter!" This means that the great cause of unifying the world will be destroyed, which can be regarded as a plan to destroy the country.
Liu Bang was shocked, could there really be such serious consequences? Zhang Liang said eight reasons why he could not do so, and the rules made it impossible for Liu Bang to oppose. We cite a few of these explanations here, such as the first one, after Shang Tang sealed Xia and after King Wu of Zhou sealed Shang because they had the strength to control them, and Liu Bang could not decide the fate of Xiang Yu;
For example, there is another one, King Wu of Zhou ordered the abandonment of chariots and the replacement of them by car to show that Yanwu Xiuwen could not be Yanwu Xiuwen now; and among the six eastern kingdoms, the Chu state was the strongest, and if they were restored, the other princely states would probably submit to the Chu state, and Liu Bang would not get any benefits from it, and so on.
Zhang Liang used chopsticks to analyze the eight reasons for Liu Bang not to restore the Six Kingdoms, Liu Bang was shocked to break out in a cold sweat after hearing it, he spit out the rice he had eaten into his mouth, and scolded Li Qi: "Vertical Confucianism, several defeats and official affairs!" "That's it.
In fact, when we look at this matter, this plan offered by Li Shiqi is inappropriate, at that time, the Chu-Han war was in full swing, Liu Bang often suffered defeats in Xiang Yu, and this time he was besieged in Xingyang, under such a situation, li Shiqi proposed to restore the Six Kingdoms, which was completely unfeasible. Moreover, this matter cannot be compared with Shang Tang and King Wu of Zhou.
After Shang Tang divided the Xia and the King of Zhou Wu divided the Shang, there was a big premise, that is, they had already destroyed the former dynasty, the Xia Jie was destroyed, and the Shang Yu was destroyed, in order not to make them extinct, in order to buy people's hearts to the greatest extent, Shang Tang and the King of Zhou Wu had this move, it can be said that this is very beneficial to Shang Tang and the King of Zhou Wu.
But what was it after Liu Bang restored the Six Kingdoms? In the words of Sima Guang, "Cut off oneself and use one's enemies to make enemies, and set up false names and suffer real disasters." This is not only not half good for Liu Bang, but only bad.
After Liu Bang took out the land he had taken and divided it among the Six Kingdoms, could he really get the support of the subjects of the Six Kingdoms? It is simply impossible, not only is it impossible, but it will weaken Liu Bang's own strength, you must know that after the division of the Six Kingdoms, you can't just talk about it, you have to really cut some meat to appease the subjects of the Six Kingdoms, and What can Liu Bang, who is fighting with Xiang Yu to the death, come up with? land? money? Rende? Yan Wu Xiuwen's determination? This is not something that a person who has not yet completed the great cause of reunification can do.
Moreover, after the Six Kingdoms were really restored, then they could raise the banner to join in the chaos, and in the chaos, the weak have always been attached to the strong, at that time Liu Bang and Xiang Yu made a comparison, who will everyone choose to cling to?
From the perspective of various factors, after Liu Bang restored the Six Kingdoms at this time, not only did he not play a role in buying people's hearts, but he would make a wedding dress for Xiang Yu, so in Zhang Liang's view, this matter must not be done.
In fact, before Li Zhiqi, when Chen Shi was in the army, Zhang Er and Chen Yu suggested that Chen Shi restore the Six Kingdoms, and at that time this plan was feasible, because the Six Kingdoms at that time deeply hated the rule of the Qin Dynasty, and Chen Shi's move would naturally buy people's hearts, and even if it was divided into lands for them, it would not have been chen Shi who had fought down, so for Chen Shi, the benefits after the restoration of the Six Kingdoms outweighed the disadvantages, and for Liu Bang, who was fighting with Xiang Yu, this plan could not be implemented at all.
If such a strategy cannot be used, then how can Liu Bang break the situation? Liu Bang later asked Chen Ping again, and Chen Ping's strategy was to divide Xiang Yu's relationship with Ya Father, Zhong Li, Long He, and others, and Xiang Yu had a big shortcoming that he had just used himself, and he could not listen to the advice and was suspicious. Liu Bang gave Chen Ping forty thousand catties of gold, and the effect of Chen Ping's plan to make Chen parallel to the divisive situation was gratifying.
Under Chen Ping's busy work, Xiang Yu became suspicious of Zhong Liming and others, and later he was even angrier and took away Ya Father, causing Ya Father to die of gangrene on the way, and Xiang Yu became a lonely man. Chen Ping also found Ji Xin, who was somewhat similar in appearance to Liu Bang in the army, and asked him to pretend to be Liu Bang.
So one night in May 204 BC, Chen Ping let more than 2,000 women in Xingyang City be released from the East Gate, and when the Chu army surrounded them, Chen Ping asked Ji Xin to change into Liu Bang's clothes and take Liu Bang's carriage out of the East Gate, threatening to surrender Chu.
Xiang Yu heard the news and rushed, and the guards at various city gates also relaxed, all to see Liu Bang's surrender, this is the best time for Liu Bang to go out of the city, he changed into Ji Xin's clothes, led more than a dozen people from the west gate quietly out of the city to leave, and when Xiang Yu found out that he was deceived, he could not catch up with Liu Bang, so Liu Bang successfully escaped.