The Four-Year-Long Chu-Han War began with Liu Bang returning the Three Qins all the way, then going east out of Hangu and pacifying the Central Plains, uniting 560,000 princes to directly attack Pengcheng ,, the capital of the Western Chu State (present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu), and in the face of great success and victory, Liu Bang seemed to forget the horror of Xiang Yu, the god of war, forgot the battle of the giant deer, and indulged in the dream that was within reach of the world, and drunkenly dreamed of dying in Pengcheng, the capital of the Western Chu State.
Liu Bang forgot that he could break into Pengcheng, it was because Xiang Yu and the main force of the Western Chu State were not in Pengcheng, and in Qidi was deeply mired in war, Liu Bang had the opportunity to go out of Hanzhong and set up the Three Qins, the first hero was not Zhang Liang, nor Han Xin, but Tian Rong, it was the rebellion of the powerful nobleman Tian Rong in Qidi that dragged Xiang Yu down and could not take care of Liu Bang in the west, and although Tian Qi was finally defeated and killed, Xiang Yu fell into Qi because of political mistakes, and this delay was enough to drag more than a year, and it was during this period that Liu Bang entered Pengcheng.
Before the Battle of Pengcheng, Liu Bang united the combined forces of 560,000 princes to deploy heavy troops to guard against Xiang Yu in the north and northeast of Pengcheng, Liu Bang did not think that Xiang Yu would lead the army back to Pengcheng, but just thought that he was well prepared, and zhang liang and Han Xin were in Pengcheng at that time, but no one expected that Xiang Yu came to a large-scale cavalry blitzkrieg in Chinese history, first turning west from Qidi, bypassing Liu Bang's well-defended northeast of Pengcheng, breaking through the defense line of Fan Yu north of Pengcheng, and then turning south, directly reaching the west of Pengcheng.
Liu
Xiang Yu quickly broke through with thirty thousand fine horses, roundabout, directly blocked Liu Bang's rear road, to know that Liu Bang was fighting from the west, Xiang Yu suddenly appeared in the west of Pengcheng, which was a breakthrough point that no one thought of, Xiang Yu's military genius was never just talking, and then Xiang Yu attacked Liu Bang's 560,000 troops with thirty thousand cavalry, pengcheng's well-defended northeast region became the Maginot defensive line, meaningless, the west of Pengcheng is the weakest point of Liu Bang's defense line, a massacre is inevitable, "History" The account of this is:
When Xiang Yu heard about it, he led his troops to Qi, from Lu out of Huling to Xiao, and fought with the Han Dynasty pengcheng Lingbi east of the Sui River, breaking the Han army, killing more soldiers, and suishui did not flow.
Suishui was cut off, 560,000 princes were killed and wounded, the Han army collapsed for thousands of miles, Liu Bang also fled west without a life, until he fled to Xingyang, which was thousands of miles away, to gain a firm foothold, this pengcheng defeat made Liu Bang thoroughly see Xiang Yu's strength, and only then began to be down-to-earth, step by step, and the "Xiayi strategy" proposed by Zhang Liang to Liu Bang laid the foundation for Liu Bang's strategy after the defeat in the Battle of Pengcheng.
Zhang Liang's "Xiayi Conspiracy" is simply to use three people: Han Xin, Peng Yue, and Yingbu
。 Peng Yue was an independent force, Zhang Liang suggested that Liu Bang win peng Yue, Yingbu was originally a subordinate of Xiang Yu, and was also crowned the King of Jiujiang by Xiang Yu, Zhang Liang suggested that Liu Bang ce oppose Yingbu, only Han Xin was Liu Bang's direct subordinate, with the ability to act alone, Zhang Liang suggested reusing Han Xin and letting Han Xin lead the army alone to fight.
Liu Bang worshiped the general
So after the defeat of Pengcheng, Liu Bang really began to reuse Han Xin, although Han Xin had already worshiped Han Xin as a great general when Xiao He strongly recommended him to Liu Bang, but in fact, from the three Qins to the Eastern Ding Central Plains, and then to the Battle of Pengcheng, Han Xin's role in it was at best a senior staff officer, because in this process, there was no record of Han Xin leading troops to fight in the history books.
At the same time, Han Xin also proposed to Liu Bang a military strategy to unify the world, that is:
In the north, Yan and Zhao were attacked, Qi was attacked in the east, the grain road of Chu was destroyed in the south, and the great king would meet in Xingyang in the west.
Simply put:
Attack the Yan and Zhao states to the north, attack the state of Qi to the east, cut off the grain route of the state of Chu to the south, and meet the great king (Liu Bang was the king of Han at that time) at Xingyang to the west
。
In addition, combined with the junction of the Han and Chu control areas at that time was near Xingyang, Xiang Yu's Chu army was actually confronted by the Han army in the Xingyang area, when after the Battle of Pengcheng, the Chu state was strong, the princes of the world saw the wind and made the rudder, the Wei state, the State of Qi, the DaiGuo, and the Yan state that originally belonged to the Han broke away from the Han, defected to the Chu state, and became the enemy state of Han, if Liu Bang and Xiang Yu started a war on the Xingyang front, then the Daiguo and Zhao states in the north would be a direct threat, and the Qi state in the east would be an indirect threat.
Han Xin
Therefore, there was Han Xin's strategy, but why did Han Xin lead the army as a partial division to open up the second front, while Liu Bang, who did not seem to be able to fight, led the main force of the Han army to fight with Xiang Yu's main force on the xingyang front? Can't Han Xin fight Xiang Yu and Liu Bang to open up a second front?
In fact, Liu Bang's approach is correct, and there are three main reasons for doing so:
1, only Liu Bang can drag Xiang Yu.
Liu Bang was the king of Han and the commander of the Han army, if Liu Bang sat in Xingyang against Xiang Yu's main force, Xiang Yu would be at ease to attack Xingyang in order to drag Xiang Yu, if It was Han Xin who fought Xiang Yu in Xingyang, even if Han Xin could withstand Xiang Yu's attack, Xiang Yu would not put Han Xin in his eyes, after all, nominally Liu Bang was on an equal footing with Xiang Yu, and only Liu Bang could drag Xiang Yu.
Saying that Liu Bang was able to drag Xiang Yu down not only in terms of reputation, but also in terms of ability, at that time, the whole world could compete with Xiang Yu, except for Liu Bang, there was really no one else, those generals under Liu Bang, such as Cao Shan, Dou Bao, Fan Duo, Zhou Bo and others, could not fight against Xiang Yu alone, in terms of ability, Liu Bang was able to lead an army into Guanzhong in the anti-Qin war and forced the Qin Dynasty to surrender, which was inseparable from Liu Bang's own ability.
Although Liu Bang and Xiang Yu confronted each other on the front line, Liu Bang was defeated several times by Xiang Yu, but although Liu Bang was defeated many times, he had been fighting repeatedly, Liu Bang used various methods, such as letting Xiao He send reinforcements from Guanzhong, or Liu Bang went to Han Xin's camp to seize Han Xin's military power, and after raising soldiers, he was full of blood and resurrected to continue to fight with Xiang Yu on the Xingyang front, and had to admire Liu Bang's political ability and military ability, Liu Bang's military ability was completely in the top three in the world at that time.
2. Although Liu Bang let Han Xin independently lead the army to open a second front, it did not mean that Liu Bang was not defensive against Han Xin
In the anti-Qin war that began at the end of Qin, the control of the anti-Qin rebels over their subordinates had always been a big problem, and Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were the first to be destroyed because of this problem, when Chen Sheng sent his subordinates to attack Zhao Di, and wu chen used the army provided by Chen Sheng to take Zhao Di and established himself as the King of Zhao, completely out of Chen Sheng's control.
Wu Chen established himself as queen and sent Han Guang to lead an army to pacify Yandi, as a result, Han Guang drew a scoop according to the gourd, and after pacifying Yandi, Han Guang imitated Wuchen to establish himself as the King of Yan, this kind of leader's inability to control subordinate behavior abounded in the chaotic era at the end of Qin at that time, and with these lessons from the past, Liu Bang would also be afraid that this kind of thing would happen to him, and Liu Bang took various measures to prevent such incidents from happening.
First, the important generals under Han Xin were all liu bang's cronies, such as General Kong and General Fei, as well as Cao San, who were all close associates of Liu Bang; second, Liu Bang took away Han Xin's military power from time to time, and then gave Han Xin a group of new recruits to let Han Xin re-test to prevent Han Xin from cultivating private forces; third, as soon as the war ended, Han Xin was immediately deprived of his military power and Han Xin was relocated.
Liu Bang is not Chen Sheng Wu Guang, so through various methods to do such a very good job of preventing incidents, especially for Han Xin, Liu Bang is even more taboo and defensive, after all, Han Xin is the only military general in all of Liu Bang's army who has been leading the army to fight independently, and even Liu Bang's cronies Cao Shan, Dou Bao, Fan Duo, Zhou Bo, etc. rarely have the opportunity to lead the army alone, let alone Han Xin.
Map of the Chu-Han War
3. Although Liu Bang agreed with Han Xin in theory, Han Xin had no actual combat experience after all, and Liu Bang did not dare to take this risk
A military general without any work experience, if Liu Bang put the main military power of the Han army in the hands of Han Xin, who would doubt it, at this time no one knows whether Han Xin will become a later soldier immortal, and no one knows whether Han Xin is the Zhao Kuo of that year, if Han Xin is suddenly given a world's most powerful enemy, will Han Xin be the same as Zhao Kuo of that year, and it is not known whether Han Xin will achieve classic paper talk in the First World War?
On the contrary, if You give Han Xin a chance to lead the army to fight alone, and at the same time do not let Han Xin face the ultimate powerful opponent, it will have a great effect on cultivating Han Xin as a military talent, no one is a soldier immortal in one step, this has a process, although Han Xin has made a lot of efforts before this, but on the actual battlefield, whether any theory can withstand the test, in addition to actual combat, there is no other way.
If Han Xin is Zhao Kuo, then Liu Bang cannot bear the loss of Han Xin's failure, fighting a war is not a civilian work, the role of civilian workers is the wrong person, it is a big deal to change another person, but the direct consequences of the defeat of the war may lead to the demise of a regime and cause huge losses, which Liu Bang cannot bear, so Liu Bang let Han Xin lead a small number of partial divisions to start the history of fighting monsters and mixing experience.
Therefore, under the situation at that time, only Liu Bang resisted Xiang Yu on the frontal battlefield, and let Han Xin open a second front in the north, which was Liu Bang's only choice, and no one could replace this position. Moreover, Han Xin's own strategy was to open a second front to the north by himself, and both Han Xin and Liu Bang agreed with the implementation of this strategy, and only then would they form this strategic posture of jointly attacking Chu.
In the world at that time, only Liu Bang had such a great temperament and heart, Han Xin this Xiang Yu did not use, other princes will not be a fallen hero, but also only Liu Bang used, Liu Bang not only used, but also reused, only by Xiao He's strong recommendation to worship the general, only by Zhang Liang's advice, let Han Xin lead the battle alone, which also achieved the future Western Han Empire.