The Qin Dynasty was the first dynasty in history to unify the whole country, and its strength was very strong, but because of the tyranny of the Qin King, the people everywhere revolted one after another. One of the most powerful rebel armies is The Xiang Yu army, Xiang Yu army by Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu jointly operated, after the death of Xiang Liang Xiang Yu led the army and the Qin army to meet in Julu, "Battle of the Giant Deer" Xiang Yu to fight less and how much victory over the Qin army will remain in the annals of history, but in the Battle of Julu, Zhang Handan's army did not collapse, why would Zhang Handan lead 200,000 troops to surrender on their own initiative?
First, the generals of the Qin Army were discordant
After the Qin state unveiled the uprising everywhere, it was overwhelmed by the fierce rebel army, and the Qin army could not save the near fire from far water, at this time Zhang Handan led the Prisoners of Lishan to form a temporary army to suppress the rebel army fiercely, which also achieved his merits, and in the Battle of Julu, Zhang Handan was one of the generals of the Qin army.
And another general is Wang Li, Wang Li's ancestors have a very high status in the Qin Dynasty, his grandfather is Wang Qi, Wang Qi is one of the four famous generals of the Warring States, and his father is also one of the great generals of the Qin State. Therefore, Wang Li can be said to be from a family of officials and eunuchs, and such a general Qin Dynasty is naturally more at ease, so when the two generals are together, the rank is the same, but Wang Li is superior.
And before that, the two generals had a grudge, Zhang Handan was too light on the enemy after the defeat of the Xiangliang army in Dingtao, and accidentally let the King of Zhao escape, and the General of the State of Zhao, Chen Yu, led the remaining 60,000 Zhao troops to garrison Julu City to protect the King of Zhao. Originally, the remaining 60,000 people were nothing to the general Zhang Handan, but Wang Li let Zhang Handan go to the rear as a supply army, so King Zhao was captured by Wang Li, and the military merit was also counted on Wang Li's head, and Zhang Handan was very angry about it.
When Xiang Yu's army attacked, Wang Li thought that this was a group of rabble-rousers and wanted to repeat the same trick, so he let 200,000 Zhang Handan's army go to the rear to make supplies, guard the Zhanghe River, and clear the road, while he led 100,000 troops to attack Xiang Yu's army in front, and the result was predictable. If there was no contradiction between the two, Zhang Handan did a good job in his duties, and led an army of 200,000 to rescue in time, Xiang Yu would not be able to win the battle no matter what.
Second, the King of Qin exerted pressure
After Xiang Yu's army broke through the battle and defeated Wang Li's army, Zhang Handan, as the defense line of the Qin army, still held out, and the two had several small-scale wars, and did not produce too many losses. But the King of Qin asked the emissary to ask Zhang Handan why he had retreated, and why did the King of Qin ask such a question? Because he knew that the Qin army was retreating, but he didn't know whose army was defeated, at this time he did not suspect Wang Li, but directly questioned Zhang Handan, which was really chilling.
Zhang Handan was therefore also very afraid, because the king left the army only to retreat from the King of Qin and came to question him, so what if the king left to die? However, he still sent an emissary to tell the emperor, and the emissary did not look for the emperor, but went to find the prime minister Zhao Gao, but Zhao Gao did not receive it. The emissary was also very flustered to leave from the path overnight, Zhang Handan already had the idea of leaving after knowing it, at this time Chen Yu wrote a letter to Zhang Handan to give an example of Bai Qi's death method, asking him to leave quickly, so he completely destroyed Zhang Handan's psychological defense line.
In the end, Zhang Handan led an army of 200,000 to surrender to Xiang Yu, and it was from this battle that the Qin Dynasty slowly weakened and then finally perished.