In the last year of the Qin Dynasty, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang revolted in Dazexiang, and the princes from all over the country took advantage of the trend. Chen Shengbu took advantage of the fact that the main force of the Qin army was far away in the border areas, and commanded hundreds of thousands of troops to break into Hangu Pass and approach Xianyang.
Panicking, Qin II heeded the advice of Shaofu Zhang Handan, pardoned the Lishan prisoners, and temporarily formed a counterinsurgency army of 200,000 people. Surprisingly, the prisoner army led by Zhang Handan showed super combat effectiveness and soon pacified the Zhang Chu regime.
Subsequently, Zhang Handan invaded Chu and engaged Xiang Liang. At the same time, the 200,000 Qin troops guarding the Great Wall, under the command of Wang Li, went south to support Zhang Handan. The total strength of the Qin army used to suppress the rebellion has reached 400,000, and its strength far exceeds that of the rebel armies everywhere. The Chu general Song Yi was deeply worried about this, and he advised Xiang Liang: "Qin soldiers are increasing, and the subjects are feared by the king."
However, Xiang Liang was overwhelmed by the early victory and had great contempt for the Qin army, which had strong troops. Sure enough, "Qin Guo raised his troops to yizhang handan, attacked the Chu army, broke the Dingtao, and Xiang Liang died."
Zhang Handan's abnormal performance
As soon as Xiang Liang died, the princes everywhere were shocked. The Qin army took advantage of the situation to destroy Wei and blame Linji and break the Zhao state of Handan. The Qin Dynasty quelled the rebellions everywhere, and reunification seemed to be just around the corner.
However, after the attack on Handan, the performance of The Zhang Handan Army showed a great contrast. From October to July of the third year of Qin II, for a period of 10 months, Zhang Handan's army did not have any record, and even during the battle between Wang Li and the princes' army Julu, Zhang Handan did not take any substantive action. Until Wang Li was defeated, Zhang Handan surrendered to Chu.
Zhang Handan has been passively avoiding battle
While Wang Li's army was besieging Julu, Zhang Handan's army was stationed in Thorn Plains, and Zhu Yongdao provided food and grass for Wang Li's army. Apparently, at this time, Zhang Handan had pushed Wang away from the army to the front line, while he himself retreated outside the war zone.
If Zhang Handan's approach was to protect the grain road, it was understandable, but his next approach was obviously passive to avoid war.
According to the "Xiang Yu Benji", Xiang Yu broke the cauldron and sank the boat, led troops across the river, and directly engaged Wang Li, and finally Wang Li was captured, and He jian and Su Jiao were killed. Zhang Handan saw that the king had left the army defeated and hurriedly retreated.
According to the "Biography of Zhang Er Chen Yulie", Xiang Yu first attacked Zhang Handan Yongdao, causing Wang To leave the army short of food and eventually failing miserably.
Although there are contradictions in these two records, whether Xiang Yu directly attacked Wang Li or first repelled Zhang Handan before fighting Wang Li, it is undeniable that Zhang Handan always avoided battle. Because even if Xiang Yu defeated Zhang Handan first, his losses were not large, only 20,000 Chu soldiers attacked Yongdao, and later when Zhang Handan surrendered, there were still 200,000 troops, which shows that he had enough strength to return to the battlefield to support Wang Li.
Zhang Handan passively avoided the battle because he heard a message
At the time of the Great Deer War, there were great changes in the rear of the Qin Dynasty. The right chancellor Feng Went ill, the left chancellor Li Si, and the general Feng Hao died at the hands of Zhao Gao. In the third year of Qin II, Zhao Gao succeeded him as chancellor.
At this time, Zhang Handan sent Sima Xin back to Xianyang to meet Qin II, but the news that Sima Xin brought back was: "Zhao Gao used things in Zhong, and the generals were also punished for their merits, and they were also cursed for their non-merits." Sima Xin told Zhang Handan that no matter whether he won or lost, Zhao Gao would kill you, and urged Zhang Handan to surrender Chu. Since winning or losing will be killed, it is better to avoid fighting and protect yourself.
However, Sima Xin probably deceived Zhang Handan. The evidence is 4:
1. At the same time that Sima Xin urged Zhang Handan to surrender Chu, Chen Yu's letter of persuasion to Zhang Handan actually mentioned that "meritorious deeds are also cursed, and no merits are also cursed", and he told Zhang Handan that Zhao Gao "wanted to use the law to rebuke the generals to blame".
Even if Zhao Gao did have the intention of killing Zhang Handan, it should be done in secret, because Zhang Handan still had 200,000 troops in his hands, and Zhao Gao, who was very good at playing with power, would be stupid enough to let Chen Yu, who was far away in the Zhao Kingdom, know that he was going to kill Zhang Handan? Forcing Zhang Handan to rebel, what did Zhao Gao take to resist his 200,000 Qin troops?
2. At the same time as the great deer was defeated, Qin defeated Yang Xiong at liu bang, and Qin II ordered Yang Xiong to be killed, but for the huge losses in the battle of julu, Qin II did not hold Zhang Handan responsible. It can be seen that at least Qin II still trusted Zhang Handan.
3. After Zhang Handan surrendered to Chu, Xiang Yu did not let Zhang Handan command 200,000 old troops, nor did he assign his close general Chu to lead it, but let Sima Xin lead Zhang Handan's army, which showed his trust in it.
4. The most important piece of evidence, the Records of History, records that when Xiang Yu was divided among the princes, Sima Xin was made the king of Sai, on the grounds that "he was therefore a liyang prison guard, and he tasted virtue in Xiangliang". It can be seen that Sima Xin and Xiang Liang already had a friendship. Xiang Yu was clear about this, but Zhang Handan might not know it.
At this point, we have reason to believe that as early as before the Battle of Julu, Sima Xin had secretly joined forces with Chu, and he had fabricated the lie of "meritorious deeds and curses, and no merits are also cursed" to deceive Zhang Handan, and Zhang Handan, who knew zhao Gao as a man, was naturally convinced of this. In this context, Zhang Handan deliberately chose to avoid war and protect himself. Wang Li obviously did not think that with 200,000 friendly troops on his flank, Xiang Yu still dared to attack him.
It can be said that it was sima Xin's influence on Zhang Handan that caused Zhang Handan to support his troops and sit back and watch Wang's 200,000 border troops perish. Soon after Zhang Handan surrendered to Chu, the 200,000 Qin army he commanded was also killed by Xiang Yukeng. At this point, 400,000 Qin troops were completely destroyed, and the Qin Dynasty had no more fresh forces to quell the rebellion.