After the Qin Dynasty was destroyed, the next thing was the division of the princes, and Xiang Yu, as the most powerful prince, naturally became the lord of the alliance. Under his subordination, the princes successively left Xianyang with their men and horses to go to their respective fiefdoms. But Xiang Yu made a major mistake, he thought that by continuing the Spring and Autumn Warring States division model and maintaining order as an ally, the world would be at peace. In fact, it didn't take long for Rebellion to begin in Qidi, and Xiang Yu hurriedly gathered people and horses to quell the chaos.
Due to the complicated situation in Qidi, the war was difficult to end for a while, so that Xiang Yu was always entangled in the war in the State of Qi. The astute Liu Bang found that Pengcheng had a loophole, so he summoned all the princes to attack Xiang Yu's lair. Due to the small number of defenders in Pengcheng, it was quickly breached by Liu Bang's 560,000 princes' combined army. When Liu Bang and the others were intoxicated by the joy of victory, Xiang Yu was like a heavenly divine soldier who led 30,000 people back to Pengcheng. In the end, Xiang Yu defeated Liu Bang with 30,000 and 560,000, so it is not an exaggeration to say that Xiang Yu is a generation of war gods.
However, what was surprising was that Xiang Yu led 100,000 elites in the battle of Xiaxia, but in the end he was defeated. At this time, Xiang Yu obviously had far more troops than at the Battle of Pengcheng, so why couldn't he continue to create a legend? There are three main factors that determine that Xiang Yu will undoubtedly lose.
First, the combat effectiveness is different. Although the battle of Pengcheng and the battle of Xiaxia, the strength of Liu Bang's group was almost half a million people, but the combat effectiveness of the two times was very different. At the time of the Battle of Pengcheng, although there were 560,000 allied troops, most of them were rabble-rousers, many of whom were recruits who had gathered a small number of recruits, and basically had no combat effectiveness. That is to say, there are nominally 560,000 Liu Bang's combined forces, but the number of people who really have combat effectiveness is far less than this number.
In addition, although the Battle of Pengcheng was said to be an alliance of princes against Xiang Yu, the alliance was not reliable at all, and most of the princes were in a wait-and-see state, like wall grass. This moment can turn to Liu Bang to form an alliance, and the next moment may also betray Liu Bang and turn to Xiang Yu. Such as The King of Sai, the King of Wei and others were all like this, so when the princes saw Xiang Yu personally leading the army back to Pengcheng, they were not willing to fight with it to the death to consume their strength, so they were all busy running away from each other. Therefore, under such circumstances, Xiang Yu could win with very few troops.
However, the Battle of Xiaxia was completely different, and Liu Bang and the princes were fully prepared to deal with Xiang Yu. Moreover, at this time, the advantages of Liu Bang Group were already obvious, and Xiang Yu was completely at a disadvantage compared to Liu Bang. The position of the princes had already made their final choice, so when they chose Liu Bang, they would do their best to deal with Xiang Yu.
Second, the commanders are different. The Battle of Pengcheng was led by Liu Bang, and in the face of hundreds of thousands of allied troops, Liu Bang did not have the ability to dispatch and command, which means that Liu Bang may have no problem commanding tens of thousands of people, but he was at a loss to command more than half a million troops. Therefore, in the face of the scattered chaos of the coalition forces, Liu Bang was powerless, and could only watch the collapse of the coalition forces, and eventually even he himself had to get on the carriage and flee in order to survive.
The commander of the Battle of Xiaxia was Han Xin, who was a natural military man, and as soon as he got started, he could skip the so-called gradual promotion and directly become a general in command of thousands of troops and horses. As long as the battles he handled were undefeated, he helped Liu Bang capture Wei and destroy Zhao Yan along the way. And the opponent Xiang Yu faced was such a powerful character, which was a situation he had never encountered before. Xiang Yu had previously defeated Zhang Handan and shocked the world, and at this time, Han Xin's ability was far above Zhang Handan's. Although Xiang Yu still had 100,000 male soldiers at this time, the hundreds of thousands of troops in Han Xin's hands were still stretched. If the opponent at this time is Liu Bang, Xiang Yu may be able to create another miracle. But now that the opponent has been replaced by Han Xin, Xiang Yu is bound to lose.
Third, grain and grass. The Battle of Pengcheng was short because of the short wartime, so there was basically no problem of grain and grass. In the Battle of Xiaxia, Xiang Yu's army was surrounded by han xinli's three-layer outer three-layer regiments, and there was no way to replenish grain and grass from the outside. Grain and grass are the foundation of an army, and if the soldiers do not even meet the most basic grain, they can only starve, and there is no combat effectiveness to speak of. Therefore, in the absence of grain and grass, the fighting spirit of the Chu army seriously declined, and the Chu army, which was originally strong in combat, eventually became completely weak, so in the end, it could only go to the end of losing the battle.