Speaking of Xiang Yan, everyone will definitely think of Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu, and Xiang Yu and Xiang Yu are grandchildren. Xiang Yu is The grandson of Xiang Yan. The two were from the Xiang family and were also anti-Qin generals, but the ending of the two was the same. Today, I will take you to understand these two anti-Qin generals.
In 225 BC, the State of Qin launched an attack on the State of Chu. The general Li Xin was sent to lead 200,000 troops to the capital of the Chu state of Yingdu. Under the resistance of the Chu general Xiang Yan. Li Xin's army in the Qin state was defeated, and almost the entire army was destroyed. Xiang Yan is also commonly known as the 5th famous general of the Warring States.
After Li Xin of the Qin army returned to the Qin state, Qin Shi Huang quickly sent Wang Qi, one of the four famous generals of the Warring States, who had experienced hundreds of battles and far-sightedness to conquer the battlefield for many years. Xiang Yan also knew that Wang Qi was a very, very difficult general to deal with.
However, when Wang Qi took 600,000 Qin troops to the mighty Chu Dynasty, he thought that he could take the Chu army Xiang Yan very easily, but the two sides had been deadlocked for a whole year, and it was difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat, and Wang Qi did not break through the solid defense line formed by Xiang Yan.
The front line was full of wars, but the Chu state court was constantly fighting, and Xiang Yan had no choice but to withdraw to the defense, and this retreat also gave Wang Qi the opportunity to attack, and the Chu army was defeated. Later, Xiang Yan supported Qi Qi as the King of Chu, but the foundation of the Chu state had been shaken. Even if Xiang Yan tried harder, he could not return to heaven, and in 24 BC, the Chu state collapsed, and Xiang Yan committed suicide.
After the Qin state unified the six kingdoms, it did not last too long. Hu Hai of Qin II intensified his demonstration of tyranny, making the people unhappy. Although chu three families died, Qin would be Chu. In the last years of the Qin Dynasty, princes from all over the world revolted one after another, among which Xiang Yu and Liu Bang were the most powerful.
Only 15 years after qin unified the six kingdoms, it also entered the collapse. The Chu-Han war began one after another. 202 BC. Xiang Yu, the king of Chu, was besieged by Liu Bang and did not want to cross Jiangdong, and finally killed himself on the Wu River.
Twenty years later, Chu and Han fought each other. Xiang Yan's grandson Xiang Yu also killed himself in Wujiang, and the two died in the same way? Is it a coincidence?
20 years ago, in order to resist Qin, Xiang Yan fought with the Qin army to the death and committed suicide in defeat. And Xiang Yu is also for this reason, preferring to choose suicide rather than live. So why did both General Xiang return like this?
In the author's opinion, Xiang shi has the same principle: the head can be broken, the blood can flow, and the country cannot lose any land. It's an honor and a source of pride. In the face of national interests, the survival of the individual is something, and perhaps some people feel that the eldest husband should be able to bend and stretch, and then realize the ideal ambition in his heart, such as with Liu Bang. But how could Xiang Yan and Xiang Yu, as Chu nobles, be subordinate to others, from another level, this was also the blood nature of the Xiang nobles, the true color of men.