Xiang Yu and Han Xin were both the best military experts of the Chu and Han dynasties, and the scholar Li Wanfang (a descendant of the famous Song Dynasty minister Li Fuying) once commented on Xiang Yu as "Xiang Yu's divine courage, unique throughout the ages". Xiang Yu was superstitious about force all his life, brave and good at war, and his combat characteristics were bravery, so he was praised by future generations as the "God of War".
During the Chu and Han dynasties, people's evaluation of Han Xin was "incomparable to the country's soldiers, slightly unborn", Han Xin's military strategy was to seek victory, with diplomatic means as an aid, he destroyed Wei, destroyed the Dynasty, broke Zhao, descended Yan, destroyed Qi in the east, and died in the south of Chu, famous all over the world, shocking the world, and was praised by future generations as "soldier immortals".
Therefore, Xiang Yu's invincibility lies in "bravery", while Han Xin's attack lies in "conspiracy", Han Xin's strategy focuses on wisdom, and Xiang Yu's courage lies in bravery, and in terms of tactics, Han Xin is slightly superior.
During the Chu and Han dynasties, Xiang Yu and Han Xin were both military wizards who had never been encountered in a thousand years, and Han Xin's path of famous generals began with the Northern Expedition, he adopted the strategy of attacking the west to take the State of Wei, using the battle of backwater to attack the State of Zhao, and finally used the embattled tactics to defeat Xiang Yu, Han Xin had many defeats, four famous.
(1) Wei Wang Leopard
Wei Bao was a nobleman of the State of Wei during the Warring States period, a descendant of Ji Chang, the King of Zhou Wu, who took Wei as his clan because his fief was in Wei. After the outbreak of the peasant revolt at the end of Qin, Wei Bao pacified more than twenty cities and pools of the Wei state and established himself as king, and after the fall of the Qin state, Wei Bao was crowned by Xiang Yu as the king of Western Wei.
After Liu Bang pacified the Three Qins, the soldiers sent out to Guguan to prepare for a decisive battle with Xiang Yu, and the Wei king Saw that Liu Bang's strength had greatly increased and the threat was menacing, so he also joined Liu Bang's team and marched to Pengcheng, the capital of the Western Chu State. To The surprise of Wei Wangbao, Liu Bang's 560,000 allied troops could not defeat Xiang Yu's 30,000 elite soldiers, and the Han army was almost completely destroyed, at this time Wei Wangbao felt that Chu was strong and Han was weak, and the fortune teller predicted that his wife Bo Ji would give birth to a son of heaven in the future, so he rebelled against Han and stood on his own.
After the Wei King Leopard rebelled against the Han, he immediately mobilized elite troops to guard Pusaka to prevent the Han army from crossing the Yellow River, and at the same time ordered the blockade of the Yellow River crossing Linjin Pass, Wei Wang Leopard is not a straw bag, he is very capable of fighting, and he is also a very good military expert.
After Liu Bang heard the news, he sent Han Xin to quell the rebellion, and Han Xin adopted his old method of "repairing the plank road in the ming, and darkening Chen Cang", which as the name suggests is to attack the west from the east. Han Xin sent a part of his army to pretend to cross the river at Linjin Pass, and gathered a large number of ships at the Linjin Pass ferry port, this time to attract the attention of the Wei army, and then led the main force of the Han army to the Shaoliang Ferry in Xiayang upstream, and smuggled it from here, with the aim of directly attacking the Wei capital Anyi.
After hearing the news, the Wei king Leopard immediately withdrew his army to help, and on the way, he heard that An Yi had fallen, and had no choice but to flee, Han Xin took advantage of the victory to pursue, and captured the Wei King Leopard to Xingyang, and the State of Wei was destroyed from then on.
(2) Chen Yu
Chen Yu was a famous scholar of the State of Wei during the Warring States period, and after the fall of the State of Wei, Chen Yu fled to Waihuang to live in seclusion. In the last year of the Qin Dynasty, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang revolted in Dazexiang, and Chen Yu ushered in a major turning point in his life, after all, he was a criminal wanted by the imperial court, and he could use the uprising to change his fate.
In the first year of Qin II, Chen Yu defected to Chen Sheng and became a strategist under Chen Sheng, and later Chen Sheng sent Chen Yu to follow Wuchen to attack ZhaoDi, and after Wuchen captured Zhaodi, he established himself as the King of Zhao and appointed Chen Yu as a general.
After Wu Chen was killed by the traitor Li Liang, Chen Yu and Zhang Er gathered the remnants of the army to rebuild the State of Zhao and established Zhao Xie, a descendant of the Duke of Zhao, as the King of Zhao. When Xiang Yu was given the title of Prince of the Eighteenth Route, Zhang Er was conferred the title of King of Changshan, while Chen Yu was only made a marquis, and he was dissatisfied with this, so he led his troops to drive Zhang Er out of the Zhao kingdom and established Zhao Xie as the King of Zhao.
Later, Chen Yu also participated in the Battle of Pengcheng, due to discord with Liu Bang, chose to rebel against Han, After Han Xin's Northern Expedition destroyed Wei and destroyed the Dynasty, the next target was the State of Zhao, and if the Han army wanted to enter the territory of the State of Zhao, it had to pass through Jingxing Pass, which was dangerously terrained, surrounded by lofty mountains and mountains, easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Zhao Wang Xie mobilized about 200,000 troops from all over the country to garrison Jingxingguan, while the Han army was only 30,000, and the Han army had no advantage in terms of strength. Han Xin stationed his troops 30 miles from Jingxingkou. In the evening, Han Xin sent 2,000 light cavalry with 2,000 red flags to ambush at The Mountain not far from the Zhao army camp, and the next day when the Han and Zhao armies fought, they replaced the Zhao banner with a Han banner.
Han Xin waited until late at night when it was quiet, and sent 10,000 Han troops to smuggle across the Jingxing pass and line up on the east bank of the Mianman River to show the enemy that the Han army had no way out, with the purpose of making the Zhao army light on the enemy and thus luring the enemy deeper.
When dawn came, Han Xin led the remaining more than 10,000 troops to challenge the Zhao army, and after a while, the Han army threw down its flags and drums and pretended to be defeated to meet the army on the east bank of the Mianman River, and the Zhao soldiers ran to pick up the flags and drums, all of which wanted to take them back to ask for merit and rewards, and the army instantly became chaotic.
After the Zhao army was busy, it pursued the Han army to Mianmanshui, and launched a decisive battle with the Han army, the Zhao army could not break through for a long time, and prepared to withdraw the army to fight again the next day, it turned out that all the flags of the Zhao camp became Han flags, and the Zhao army mistakenly thought that the Zhao camp was occupied, so they scattered and fled, Han Xin took advantage of the chaos of the Zhao army, launched a fierce attack on it, 200,000 Zhao troops were completely destroyed, and the Zhao state was destroyed.
(3) Dragon and
After Han Xin destroyed Zhao, the next target was the State of Qi, and after the Battle of Pengcheng, Qi and Chu formed an alliance. In June 204 BC, Han Xin led an army to attack the State of Qi, and the Qi king Tian Guang's troops were defeated and fled to Gaomi, at the same time Tian Guang turned to Xiang Yu for help, and Xiang Yu sent Long and led half of his troops to reinforce Tian Guang, the Qi-Chu coalition army was about 200,000, while Han Xin's strength was less than 50,000.
At this time, someone proposed to Long He that the Han army was victorious and morale was high, so it was better to dig deep trenches, turn attack to defense, and then send people to the State of Qi to spread the news that the King of Qi was not dead, and the reinforcements of the State of Chu had arrived, so that more than 70 cities in the State of Qi that had surrendered to Han would rebel en masse, and when the Time came, the Chu army would launch another attack.
Long and gang do not adopt it, he thinks that Han Xin is a timid and fearful person, he does not know the dragon and sees han xin timidity from there, reading the history books can find that Han Xin has always been a famous general who is brave and good at war, and the dragon does not listen to the good advice of others, which eventually leads to his own tragedy.
In November 204 BC, the Han army and the Qi-Chu coalition lined up across Weishui, and Han Xin ordered his men to make 10,000 sandbags overnight to block the upper reaches of Weishui and build a temporary barrage. Then he led half of his army across the river to attack Long Ji, and after a while Han Xin pretended to be defeated and fled back to the same place.
Long and felt that Han Xin was indeed a coward, so he crossed the Weishui River to pursue the Han army, just at this time Han Xin ordered the soldiers upstream of weishui to remove the sandbags, the river rolled down, cutting the Chu army into two pieces, and the Han army annihilated the Chu army that had already crossed the Weishui river in one fell swoop, and the dragon was killed. The Chu army that could not cross the river could only watch its commander being killed, but there was nothing they could do, the Chu army scattered in an instant, fleeing in all directions, Han Xin took the opportunity to annihilate the remaining Chu army, the Chu army was either dead or captured, and 200,000 Chu troops were completely destroyed.
(4) Xiang Yu
Xiang Yu can be described as an invincible and invincible fierce general, and at the time of the Battle of Pengcheng, Liu Bang's 560,000 allied troops were not opponents of the 30,000 Chu army. Liu Bang did not think that he was Xiang Yu's opponent, so he learned the lesson of the Battle of Pengcheng, and when he fought the Battle of Xiaxia, he handed over the military command to Han Xin, for Han Xin, no matter how many troops he was able to distribute reasonably, Liu Bang wanted to defeat Xiang Yu, and could only rely on Han Xin.
In November 202 BC, Han Xin and Peng Yuexia met Liu Bang at Chen County, Xiang Yu withdrew his army to the east to Xiaxia, and the next month, all the Han armies would join forces, with the Chu army strength of 100,000 and the Han army strength of 600,000.
In the past 3 years of the Chu-Han War, Han Xin and Xiang Yu had not fought head-on, and the two famous generals, who had never lost a battle, launched a decisive battle to determine the fate of Chu Han's life and death.
Han Xin divided the 600,000 Han army into a three-fold and deep six-army formation, with the first road as the main force, about 300,000 people, led by Han Xin himself, Kong Xi as the left wing, Chen He as the right wing, mainly attacking Xiang Yu. The second route was mainly used to support Han Xin's reserve, about 100,000 horses, led by Liu Bang. The third route, led by Zhou Bo and Chai Wu, with about 200,000 people, prevented the Chu army from raiding from the rear.
Han Xin and Xiang Yu fought for a while and then pretended to be defeated, Xiang Yu took advantage of the victory to pursue, Han general Kong Xi and Chen He suddenly killed from the flank, at the same time Han Xin and Liu Bang together attacked the Chu army back and forth, and Xiang Yu's soldiers retreated to the camp.
In the middle of the night, Han Xin ordered the Han army to sing Chu songs, Xiang Yu mistakenly thought that the Han army had occupied all the Chu land, and the morale was instantly depressed, Xiang Yu led eight hundred cavalry to break through and flee to Wujiang, and only 28 of Xiang Yu's cavalry were left in Wujiang, Xiang Yu held a short weapon to fight with the Han army, one person killed hundreds of Han troops, and he also suffered more than a dozen wounds, and finally killed himself in Wujiang, only 31 years old.
Han Xin laid almost half of the foundation for Liu Bang, and his life was undefeated, creating a historical miracle, and finally defeated the invincible Western Chu overlord Xiang Yu and became the first general of the early Han Dynasty. Han Xin's military merit is unique in the world, and it is he who has achieved Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao.
References: "History", "Book of Han"