The author | our author Zhang Lan
"Asahisha" (formerly "We Love History") is the headline number signed group media
Word count: 2654, Reading time: 7 minutes
History asks questions
And how important are dragons? Why did Xiang Yu, the King of Western Chu, know that he was not far from extinction as soon as the dragon died?
Answer: In the entrepreneurial history of Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu, who not only makes people's blood boil, but also makes many people sigh, Long Ji, the general under Xiang Yu, is an incomparably important figure.
If you only look at the records in the historical records, the sense of existence of the dragon does not seem to be strong. Although he had been following Xiang Yu's uncle Xiang Liang from the end of the Qin Peasants' War years, he had participated in a series of battles from rebelling against qin to fighting Liu Bang, Yingbu, and Han Xin. But each time it came and went in a hurry, with only a few brief records. Because there are too few "scenes", some film and television drama directors can't watch it. For example, in a certain "huge production" that reflects the Chu-Han War, the director deliberately gave Long He a tragic and magnificent drama of "carrying a coffin out of the expedition" to the front line of the Battle of Weishui, and how many audience friends followed the "burning".
However, after the end of the real "Battle of Weishui" in history, when the news of the defeat and death of the general Long He came, Xiang Yu, who had always been proud and arrogant, suddenly changed his nature: not only was he full of grief, but even for the first time, he had a deep fear of his future. According to the description in the "Chronicle of History", "If you smell the dragon and the army is broken, you are afraid." He was confronting Liu Bang at Mount Guangwu, and he did not want to fight the battle, "just like the Covenant of the King of Han, the world is divided in the middle." Instead of having the courage of the regiment to destroy Liu Bang, he took the initiative to seek peace.
That is to say, as a tyrant who "pulled up the mountain and was full of strength", Xiang Yu was not afraid when the giant deer confronted the 400,000-strong army of the Qin State. When Liu Bang took advantage of the loophole to take the old nest Pengcheng, Xiang Yu was not afraid. Even when he and Liu Bang repeatedly fought on the xingyang and Chenggao lines, and when the war was protracted, Xiang Yu was only on fire, but he was not afraid. However, after learning the news of Long Ji's death, he was really scared.
Why is that? The first reason is that in Xiang Yu's "core team", Long He's status is too important.
How important is the dragon to Xiang Yu? This has to talk about Xiang Yu's employment style. According to Liu Bang's general Wang Ling, although Xiang Yu's use of people seems to be "benevolent and loving people", in fact, "victory without human merit, land without human benefit". To put it simply, it only talks about feelings and does not give practical benefits, and as a result, it has become Liu Bang's "talent transport brigade leader", such as Han Xin, Chen Ping, Yingbu and other "top-notch talents", all "flowing" from Xiang Yu's side to Liu Bang.
But even if this "only talks about feelings", Xiang Yu still gained several hardcore "team members". In Chen Ping's words, "The subordinates of King Bixiang's vassals, Chung Li, Long He, and Zhou Yin are only a few people's ears." In just a few of the "Ministers of the Bone Fish", there is the name of the dragon, which shows the importance of its status. Such an important person, but died in the Battle of Weishui, is equivalent to being cut off an arm alive, of course, Xiang Yu "pain" is severe.
What is also called Xiang Yu's "flesh pain" is the tragic loss of Xiang Yu's army in the Battle of Weishui.
As an important battle before the Chu and Han "decisive battles", Xiang Yu could be said to have invested blood in the Battle of Weishui, not only with the general Dragon and leading the troops, but also sending a large army of "claiming 200,000", and the actual number of troops should also be nearly 100,000. It should be known that when Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, China's national population was less than 20 million, and then after the fierce peasant war at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the population was greatly reduced. For example, the important town of qu rebellion in the Qin Dynasty, the original population of 30,000 households, after the end of the Chu-Han War, the population shrank by five-sixths, which was still a relatively prosperous city at that time, which shows the serious scarcity of the population at that time.
In this context, young and middle-aged soldiers have naturally become valuable resources, and prime-age soldiers with combat experience are extremely precious. The large army led by Long Ji became an extremely thick Laodi army under Xiang Yu's command, but in the Battle of Weishui, it was destroyed by Han Xin, one of the "Three Masters of the Han Dynasty", and almost the entire army was destroyed. We only need to look at the next battle of Xiaxia, Xiang Yu, who once proudly regarded the princes with an army of 400,000, that "Xiang Yu's pawn can be 100,000", and the embarrassment of Liu Bang's army, which was several times larger than himself, we can know how serious the losses in the Battle of Weishui were for Xiang Yu, almost a serious injury to The Yuan Qi.
But what hurt Xiang Yu even more than this is that the Battle of Weishui was actually Xiang Yu's last chance to reverse his fate and win the Chu-Han War.
Speaking of this, we have to talk about the Xiang Yu team, an important slot in the whole process of the Chu-Han War - an extremely clumsy strategic vision. As early as when the princes were divided in the name of the "Overlord of Western Chu", Xiang Yu made a wrong judgment and abandoned the capital Xianyang and instead returned the capital pengcheng. It should be known that although the Jianghuai Plain, where Pengcheng is located, is also rich in products and economic development, there is almost no danger to defend geographically, which is equivalent to calling the Xiang Yu Army, which is as fierce as a tiger and a wolf, and has slipped into a seemingly "comfortable" cage, and once war breaks out, it will inevitably be passively beaten.
Then, the Guanzhong Plain, which was economically developed and populous, easily fell into the hands of Liu Bang. Then, although Xiang Yu beat Liu Bang in the Battle of Pengcheng, the problem of "strategic short-sightedness" was repeated again and again, in order to eliminate Liu Bang, Xiang Yu spared no expense to beat Xingyang, Xingyang Chenggao and other places changed hands several times, but Liu Bang, while struggling to support, turned his hand to open up a second battlefield: on the one hand, Han Xin marched forward in triumph, quickly detoured from the northern strategy, and destroyed Zhao, Dai, and other princes. On the other hand, Peng Yue, Yingbu and others were moving behind Xiang Yu to restrain Xiang Yu's energy...
In this way, although Xiang Yu had repeatedly won battles on the front line and once won Xingyang, due to the involvement of the four sides, he could not hold it, as if it was useless to turn back and forth. Liu Bang's side, however, gradually formed an encirclement of Xiang Yu through the progress of various battlefields. The more Xiang Yu won, the more passive the strategic posture became, almost falling into a dead end.
But even so, until this time, Xiang Yu was not without a chance to turn the tables, and his best chance to break Liu Bang's "strategic encirclement" was the Battle of Weishui commanded by Long He.
How important was the Battle of Weishui? You can first look at the "Qi Di" where it is located. In the territory of China at the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the "QiDi", which is dominated by today's Shandong Province, is a golden area comparable to the Guanzhong Plain, where the products are rich and the economy is developed and has strong war potential. Although the princes of Qi Had also rebelled against Xiang Yu earlier, after Han Xinqi attacked Linzi and broke Qi, the angry Princes of Qi land turned to join forces with Xiang Yu, and Xiang Yu rarely made a correct judgment, sending Long and leading an army into Qi to form a large Qi-Chu coalition army and fight a decisive battle with Han Xin in the Weishui area.
If this battle can be won by the dragon, then I am afraid that the direction of the entire History of China will come to a major reversal: the Qi-Chu coalition army that is pursuing with victory is likely to take more than seventy cities in Qidi, and the rich Qidi will become Xiang Yu's pocket, and the money and food of the soldiers will even flow from now on. And the strategic encirclement that Liu Bang painstakingly designed will also be broken by the First World War, and the Chu army with Qi Di as the large rear will also have the ability to launch a counterattack against Liu Bang from all directions, and the victory or defeat of the Chu-Han War will at least be full of suspense again...
From the perspective of the battlefield situation, at this time, the commander of the Qichu Coalition Army, Long He, can also be said to be holding a good card. As mentioned earlier, Han Xin, who opened up the second battlefield, often sent his elite troops to enrich the Xingyang front line after each victory. Therefore, most of the soldiers and horses in his hands are new recruits in Zhao, Dai, and other places, and their actual combat effectiveness is limited, and their troop strength is at a disadvantage. What's more fatal is that due to the long-distance attack, the logistical supply of the Han Xin Han army is also extremely stressful, and because it is a surprise attack, although the Han Xin army has captured dozens of cities, the foundation is not solid, and it is simply unable to fight for a long time. The time is good for people, almost all on the side of the dragon and the side.
Therefore, when the Chu and Han sides confronted each other in Weishui, Long Ji's advisers put forward the correct view: the Qi-Chu coalition army did not need to rush to fight Han Xin, as long as it used the dangerous terrain of Weishui to stabilize the defensive line, and at the same time sent people to the rear of Han Xin to infiltrate and incite the rebellion of Qidi City, then the Han Xin army would be in chaos without a fight, and the Qi-Chu coalition army could almost win the victory without bloodshed.
However, after listening to this correct suggestion, Long Ji, who was holding a good card in his hand, was a rebuke: "I know han xin as a person in my life, easy to hear." And the husband saved Qi and surrendered without a fight, what did I do? If you win this battle, you can get half of it, so what! "That is to say, Han Xin is nothing remarkable, how can I show my merits if I want to defeat Han Xin without bloodshed?" If I defeated Han Xin with dignity, Xiang Yu would probably give me half of the Qi state. Of course I'm going to have a fight with him!"
Arrogance, greed, and dedication allowed Long He to "perfectly avoid" all the correct paths, and then, there was the god-like operation of the "Bing Immortal" Han Xin: first send people to block the upper reaches of Weishui, and then personally lead the large army to take the initiative to attack, and after fighting with Long He, they retreated in defeat, led long and large army to the west bank of Weishui, and then seized the opportunity to open the gate and release water, soaking the dragon and the Qichu combined forces in one breath. Xiang Yu's last hope of "flipping the plate" was washed away by a big flood.
This whole process seems to be easy, but every link tests the ability of a famous general to coordinate and command, and in that era, only Han Xin, who ordered the soldiers to "get more, the better", could do it. Although Long Ji himself made many mistakes, he was not unjustly defeated by such an opponent.
The consequence of losing was to kill all the suspense of the Chu-Han War in advance: Xiang Yu lost a large number of elite troops, occupied Han Xin in Qidi, and then sent troops deep into Xiang Yu's rear, and the strategic encirclement of Xiang Yu's army had been fully formed. Adding a digression: After the Battle of Weishui, Xiang Yu sent someone to instigate Han Xin to rebel against Liu Bang in order to remedy his losses, but Han Xin refused. Many people in later generations lamented Han Xin's foolishness, but if you think about it carefully, you will know that in the entire Chu-Han War, Liu Bang, thousands of miles away, could at any time transfer away the elite soldiers under Han Xin's command, and this large army was in Liu Bang's grasp from beginning to end.
Xiang Yu, from beginning to end, most of his judgments on the battlefield were correct, but most of his strategic judgments were so wrong. And Long Ji, who had high hopes for him, also lacked such a vision, so the final chance to flip the market seemed to be full of wins, but in fact, there was no chance.
Later generations talked about Xiang Yu's failure, or said that he was "not good at using people", or that Liu Bang was "cunning", but in fact, if Xiang Yu's gang had no pattern, then even if there were hundreds of battles on the battlefield, even if every member of the team was loyal and brave, the strategic failure was still irreparable. From the national game to the small life of all walks of life, this is the truth.
References: "Military Strategy of Chinese Dynasties", "Analysis of Liu Bang's Strategic Thought in the Chu-Han War", "Book of Han", "History"
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