Mentioning Fan Zeng, presumably everyone's first impression of him is that of the First Counselor of Western Chu, and Xiang Yu also refers to Fan Zengzun as "Ya Father". Zhang Liang also commented that Fan Zengdao was "three times wiser than me". After Liu Bang won the world, he also said, "Xiang Yu has a Fan Zeng and can't use it, so he thinks I can also capture it." It can be seen that Fan Zeng's ability is very strong, and he has considerable prestige in both the Chu army and the Han army.
When Xiang Liang held a meeting in Xuecheng that year, Fan Zeng was already 70 years old, which is the so-called seventy years of human life, not to mention that it was more than two thousand years ago in the era of war, and it was not easy to live to the age of 70. Logically, such an advanced age should be aged at home and enjoy happiness, but Fan Zeng did not want to waste his strategic wisdom in vain, and resolutely joined the anti-Qin camp.
At the Xuecheng meeting, Fan Zeng summed up the experience of Chen Sheng's failure, he believed that Xiang Liang could not establish himself as king, otherwise the end would be the same as Chen Sheng, when the crowds were divided today, each as the king, the rebel army would be difficult to destroy the Qin state if they did not work together, Xiang Liang listened to it, it was really correct, so he simply set up a puppet emperor, and then the Xiang family called on the rebels all over the world to work together against the Qin state.
However, even the clever Fan Zeng could not escape Chen Ping's counter-plan, and in the same year Xiang Yu sent emissaries to Hanzhong to persuade Liu Bang to surrender. After Liu Bang and the others saw the emissary, they deliberately said that this person was sent by Fan Zeng, and then they put on a big banquet, and then deliberately said that this person was sent by Xiang Yu, so they immediately removed the banquet.
This matter reached Xiang Yu's ears, and Xiang Yu, who was suspicious by nature, immediately became suspicious of Fan Zeng, and finally Fan Zeng was forced to be helpless and could only disarm and return to the field. Losing Fan Zeng's Xiang Yu is like a tiger pulling out its teeth. It was gradually eaten by Liu Bang, which led to the later ten-sided ambush and embattled.
Later, the great scholar Su Dongpo also wrote that in a Fan Zeng paper, Su Dongpo highly praised and praised Half Zeng, and ordinary people could only sigh after reading the historical records, Fan Zeng left Xiang Yu, resulting in Xiang Yu failing to dominate the world.
And Su Shi is not an ordinary person, he instead lamented that Fan Zeng should have left Xiang Yu early, just as the so-called combination is to stay, if it is not in harmony, it will go, even if he does not resign later, he will be killed by Xiang Yu sooner or later, maybe this is the fate of heaven, even if Fan Zeng is strong, he cannot resist Liu Bang's Han room to unify the world.