At the beginning of the Chu-Han War, the war situation was one-sidedly biased towards Liu Bang, from Hanzhong all the way to Pengcheng, 30,000 soldiers directly to 560,000 soldiers, Liu Bang had never fought such a rich battle. Because of this, Liu Bang began to get lost in his own victory, feasting and drinking day and night in Pengcheng, not paying attention to Xiang Yu at all, and as a result, Xiang Yu was injured by Xiang Yu with 30,000 elite soldiers at one time, not only was Peng cheng lost, but he was finally surrounded by Xiang Yu's Chu army in Xingyang City, struggling to support, and the ups and downs of life were too "exciting".
First, Li Sheng's strategy
Of course, Liu Bang was not willing to be defeated by Xiang Yu in this way, and he and his great strategists Li Shiqi discussed ways to deal with the Chu state, so there was Li Shiqi, which was denounced by Zhang Liang as a "strategy for the subjugation of the country" and ridiculed by countless people in later generations.
"Xi Tang cut down the soup, and sealed it after Yu Qi." King Wu cut down the silk and sealed him to the Song Dynasty. Now Qin lost virtue and abandoned righteousness, invaded the princes, and after destroying the Six Kingdoms, there was no place to stand. His Majesty is sincerely able to restore the Six Kingdoms for the hereafter, and has been sealed, so that his monarchs and people will wear the virtues of His Majesty, and they will be willing to be concubines. Virtue and righteousness have been carried out, His Majesty Nanxiang is hegemonic, and Chu will be in a downward spiral. ---Historia. Liu Hou Family》
Li Shiqi's idea was very simple, after Shang Tang destroyed Xia and Zhou Wu cut down the Xia, they all left a fief for the defeated, but when Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms, he did not leave a fief for the Six Kingdoms. If Liu Bang could divide the six kingdoms for the future generations, then the people of the world would naturally be grateful to Shu Zero, and the capable people and strangers would also compete to run, and then dominate the world, and the Chu state would also be subservient.
After Liu Bang listened, he was very happy, and immediately ordered li to quickly engrave the seal, grasp the sealing, and not delay for a moment.
Second, Zhang Liang's rebuttal
Such a happy thing, Liu Bang naturally wanted to share with his good friend Zhang Liang, but what he never expected was that Zhang Liang was not only unhappy, but also angry, and even felt that this plan was a "strategy to destroy the country".
Zhang Liang raised nine objections at that time:
First, when Shang Tang and Zhou Wu were divided, the world had already been decided, and now we and Xiang Yu have not yet won or lost;
Second, when King Wu was cutting down the head of King Wu, the head of King Xiang Yu was cut off, and Xiang Yu's head is still growing on Xiang Yu's head;
Third, to show goodwill to the front (the lu of the table merchant Rong, the tomb of Feng Bi gan, the prisoner of the Shi Jizi) in order to buy people's hearts, which are not conditional to do;
Fourth, there are no conditions to do so by distributing money and grain to the poor people;
Fifth, the military vehicles were changed into ordinary vehicles, and the weapons were also put away and not used, so naturally they could not learn them;
Sixth, the horses put on the South Mountain to show that there was no more war, and it was even more impossible for the Han army's war horses not to fight;
Seventh, grazing cattle north of the peach forest to show that grain is no longer transported, let alone unrealistic;
Eighth, now these people are all leaving their hometowns to follow the King of Han, but also so that they can have a small fief in the future; if the Six Kingdoms are together, why don't they go back to their hometowns to "find a job", but follow the King of Han?
Ninth, Chu is strong and Han is weak, even if there are six kingdoms, the six kingdoms are still turning their hearts to Chu and turning their backs on Han, what good do they want?
In fact, it can be seen that Zhang Liang's rebuttal of Li Shiqi is nothing more than two points: one is that the premise is wrong, and the other is that the result is unfavorable.
Li Shiqi's premise of "Tang Fa Jie" and "Wu Wang Fa Shu" were all after eliminating the opponent, while Liu Bang still had to face the most powerful opponent Xiang Yu. Li Shiqi's idea was that the Six Kingdoms helped to share the firepower and followed the King of Han with a dead heart, while Zhang Liang's idea was exactly the opposite of his, believing that Chu Was strong and Han was weak, even if the King of Han divided them, in the end it was still who was stronger and who was more attractive, and more importantly, there would be a lot of loss of talent.
As for those horses in the middle, such as putting the horses in the South Mountain, knives and guns into the warehouse, Li Shiqi did not mention it, nor would he advise Liu Bang to do it, it was a meaningless thing at all, Zhang Liang just opposed Li Zhiqi at the same time, covering up the truest thoughts in his heart, because he did not want to go back to Korea, and it was his wish to help the King of Han fight the world.
Third, the most "popular" strategy
To be fair, Li Shiqi's strategy is not as bad as Zhang Liang said, but it is already "outdated", it was still "popular" for a period of time, and even Zhang Liang was once a beneficiary of this strategy.
After the uprising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, the initial custom was to establish himself as king, first Chen Sheng established himself as the king of Zhang Chu's regime, followed by his subordinate Wuchen as king of Zhao, and then Han Guang under Wuchen established himself as the king of Yan, but Zhou Wei [fú], who was responsible for going to Wei, changed this atmosphere, and he did not want to establish himself as the king of Wei, but with Chen Sheng's descendant Wei Zhao, who wanted to come to wei to become the king of Wei, which was also the first descendant of the Six Kingdoms to be established after the fall of the Six Kingdoms. Prior to this, Tian Dan had already established himself as the King of Qi, and after this, King Chen Sheng was killed, and Qin Jia supported Jing Ju, a descendant of the nobles of the Chu State, as the King of Chu.
However, the number of people who really use this as a political strategy should also be increased.
Fan Zeng, a juju man, seventy years old, su home, curious, said Xiang Liang: "... Now Chen Sheng's first thing, not standing up for himself after Standing Chu, his momentum is not long. Now that the emperor rises in Jiangdong, the general of Chu Bee noon will all compete for the vassal of the king, and the Chu general of the junshi world will be able to restore Chu after that. ---Historia. Xiang Yu Benji
Fan Zeng gave Xiang Liang an analysis of the reason for Chen Sheng's defeat, that is, he did not establish himself without the descendants of the Chu State, resulting in his lack of strength, so he suggested that Xiang Liang support the descendants of the Chu State Sect, so that the Chu people naturally rushed to vote. Xiang Liang adopted this strategy, and established Xiong Xin, a descendant of king Huai of Chu, as the king of Chu, also known as the king of Chu Huai. This move was still very effective for a while, and the Chu people began to gather under the command of King Huai of Chu, making the Chu state the most powerful anti-Qin force at that time.
Fourth, Zhang Liang's strategy
In the previous article, Shui Yibai once said that Zhang Liang is also a beneficiary of this strategy, why is this?
It turned out that just after Xiang Liang adopted Fan Zeng's strategy and established the King of Chuhuai, Zhang Liang took the initiative to find Xiang Liang and put forward his opinion.
Liang Nai said of Xiang Liang: "The Emperor has established chu, and the Han princes Hengyang Junchengxian can be established as kings, Yishu Dang." Xiang Liang made Liang ask For Han Cheng, and immediately thought that he was the king of Han. Yi Liang was a disciple of Han Shen, and the King of Han sent more than a thousand people to the west of Han Province, and several cities were obtained, and Qin Yuan regained them, and traveled to and from Yingchuan. - "Historia. Biography of Liu Hou Lie
Zhang Liang's opinion was to use this "East Wind" to establish Hengyang Junhan, a descendant of the Korean clan, as the King of Han. It's just a pity that Han Wangcheng and Zhang Liang's "entrepreneurial road" is not good, unlike others who have gradually developed and grown, they can only wander in Yingchuan, constantly repeating in the cycle of seizing several cities and being snatched back by the Qin army.
However, at least this is a good attempt for Zhang Liang, if there is no failure, Zhang Liang will not follow Liu Bang with a dead heart. Suddenly, the monarchs of the six kingdoms of the former Kanto Regions were already descendants of the former clans, namely King Bao of Wei (the brother of King Wei), King Xie of Zhao, Tian Guang of Qi (son of Tian Dan), King Cheng of Han, and Xiong Xin of Chuhuai, but king of Yan was still Han Guang, probably because of the relationship between Jing Ke's assassination of Queen Qin and the death of the nobles of the State of Yan by Qin Shi Huang.
This pattern is similar to what Li Shi envisioned, but the problem is that this pattern has been broken by one person.
5. Catastrophe
This game-breaker is Xiang Yu, who is considered by many to restore the old system of the Zhou Dynasty.
Regarding the division of Xiang Yu, Shui Yibai has stressed many times that Xiang Yu not only did not restore the old system of the Zhou Dynasty, but had a deeper intention, one of which was to break the old pattern. (Interested friends can refer to whether the Princes of Xiangyu Are They Failing?) The King of Western Chu did not call himself emperor only because he missed the pattern of the Zhou Dynasty? ）
Suppose there is no sub-sealing of Xiang Yu:
After the fall of Qin, the pattern would be that Xiang Yu returned to the Chu state to elevate the king of Chuhuai, Liu Bang as the king of Guanzhong, and the other five kingdoms of the Kwantung each occupied their own territory, forming a relative balance of power.
After Xiang Yu was sealed:
Eighteen princes were directly divided, and the former Warring States Seven Heroes, in addition to the Chu state family, the other six were split to varying degrees, introducing many emerging princely forces to compete, and the final result was bound to be a scuffle.
Therefore, by the time Li Shiqi proposed his plan, the whole world had formed a situation in which Chu and Han were in contention, and each of the old and new princes guarded their own territory, sometimes to Chu, sometimes to Han. If, at this time, as Li Shi thought, the introduction of the descendants of the nobles of the Six Kingdoms would not only not form a climate, but would deeply harm the interests of the existing princes, and those princes who were still wavering would not hesitate to throw themselves into Xiang Yu's arms, and it would be a luxury to want to fight for it again.
It can be seen that at this time, the "Li Sheng Strategy" is already an outdated strategy, and only the strategy that conforms to the development of the times can play its greatest role, such as Zhang Liang's Xiayi Strategy.
6. The Conspiracy of Xiayi
After the Battle of Pengcheng, after Liu Bang and others fled to Xiayi, Zhang Liang presented a plan to Liu Bang. Zhang Liang identified three key figures: Yingbu, Peng Yue, and Han Xin.
Liang Jin said: "The King of Jiujiang, Tuobu, the General of Chu, and the King of Xiang, and peng Yue and the King of Qi, Tian Rong, opposed Liangdi: these two can be urgently envoyed." And the Han King's general Du Han Xin can be a big thing, one side. That is, if you want to donate, donate to these three people, then Chu can break it. ---Historia. Liu Hou Family》
Instead of supporting the descendants of the Six Kingdoms who have been eliminated by the times, it is better to support some truly powerful factions. Although Yingbu was under Xiang Yu's hands, but Liu Bang attacked Peng Cheng, Yingbu did not send troops, and had already offended Xiang Yu, which was an object that could be won; and Peng Yue and Liu Bang had always been good friends, and because Xiang Yu did not divide the seals and hated him, naturally it was also possible to use it; and Han Xin should also let him be alone.
Later historical developments also confirmed Zhang Liang's foresight of "The Conspiracy of Xiayi", and all three of them became Liu Bang's great help in the later Chu-Han War. Han Xinlian's five places of Wei, Dai, Zhao, Yan, and Qi naturally contributed to the greatest; and Peng Yue's harassment of Xiang Yu was also the key to Xiang Yu's inability to break through Liu Bang for a while; although Yingbu had relatively least meritorious service, as Xiang Yu's subordinate, his rebellion itself was a kind of business between the weak and the strong, and he made steady profits.
In the end, under the guidance of Zhang Liang's "Conspiracy of Xiayi", Liu Bang successfully defeated Xiang Yu with the strength of the princes, and thus unified the world.
Water talk
This has been the case many times in history, not that the idea itself is not good, but that the idea must be adapted to become a reality at the right time; when the idea has been separated from the development of the existing environment, it is naturally counterproductive, not only will it not succeed in the desired success, but it will also bring results to itself and its own forces that it does not want to see.