One wrong step, you will lose all the games, step by step to the end, just because of an episode to gamble all your life and life, no matter who feels a pity, right?
And such examples are actually not uncommon in the ancient history of China, there is Xiang Yu who is the "unfamous overlord", and then there is Cao Cao who is the "hero of troubled times", and Li Zicheng also has a very similar fate with these two.
History has different theories about these three people, but it cannot be denied that they all had the opportunity to win the world, but in the end they fell short, what is the reason?
The fighter plane was lost, and the people defected and died in Wujiang
In the end, the end of death has a lot to do with Xiang Yu's character in a sense, it is undeniable that Xiang Yu was born into an aristocratic family and added martial arts, which once made him quite sought after.
However, just with the so-called superior force, how can he be Liu Bang's opponent, not to mention, after reaching the top, Xiang Yu quickly ushered in the Waterloo of life.
And the most important reason for this is that in Xiang Yu's heart, hatred occupies too high a position, which also makes this Western Chu overlord lose his target later and cannot calmly judge the situation.
The time goes back to the confrontation with Zhang Handan by the Zhangshui River.
After the death of Xiang Yu's parents, he has been raised under the knees of his uncle Xiang Liang, and in Xiang Yu's heart, Xiang Liang's status can be imagined, and when the news of Xiang Liang's death at the hands of Zhang Wei came, Xiang Yu's grief and indignation in his heart did not need to be repeated.
After Xiang Yu led the army to Julu, he carefully observed the layout of the Qin army, and soon grasped the weaknesses in it, so he made a very bold decision, that is, to break the cauldron and sink the boat and fight one of them.
Zhang Wei soon fell into the trap as Xiang Yu expected, and he was defeated, and Xiang Yu also successfully won the battle, and things developed to this point, and everyone was praising Xiang Yu's use of troops like a god.
However, Xiang Yu did not do what everyone had envisioned, but continued to pursue Zhang Wei after King Huai clearly proposed to let Xiang Yu return to the division.
In his eyes, if he can subdue Zhang Handan, then he will definitely clear the way for subduing the coalition army of princes, and then dominate the world.
Xiang Yu hung Zhang Wei like that, defeating Zhang Han every time, but never fighting with him every time, and Zhang Wei was forced to bow his head and surrender in desperation.
Xiang Yu believed that Zhang Handan's motive for surrendering was not pure, but he expected that he had nothing to do, so he led his army to defeat Zhang Wei again.
Zhang Handan, who had no choice but to choose to ally with Xiang Yu, but those subordinates who followed Zhang Wei did not have such good luck and only ended up being killed by Xiang Yukeng.
At this time, more than 6 months had passed, and by the time Xiang Yu led the army to Hangu Pass, Liu Bang had already become the king of Guanzhong early.
Even if the furious Xiang Yu later led his army to retake Hangu Pass, he had to say that such a tug-of-war with Zhang Wei made him lose the upper hand in this battle for heroes.
When the two armies compete, any slight detail will determine success or failure, and the appearance of internal traitors in Xiang Yu's army directly promoted the process of the 'Hongmen Banquet'.
Here, Xiang Yu, under the agitation of Fan Zeng's language, decided to fight Liu Bang, and this news was easily known by Xiang Bo.
After hearing this, Xiang Bo immediately told Zhang Liang that no matter what his original intention was to do this, he still leaked Xiang Yu's military secrets.
Liu Bang, who got the news, brought hundreds of people to Xiang Yu's camp tent to 'plead guilty', and at the same time said secretly: "However, I heard that there was a villain who created rumors for me, and there was some misunderstanding between us. ”
Xiang Yu actually blurted out: "These are all things that your Zuo Sima Cao said without injury, otherwise, why would I come here?" ”
This made Fan Zeng, who was standing on the side, widen his eyes in shock, and the series of trends of things behind also made Fan Zeng's indecision sigh again and again at Xiang Yu.
As everyone knows, Liu Bang's escape this time laid the groundwork for Xiang Yu's defeat.
In 204, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang were tug-of-war in Xingyang, and Liu Bang took the initiative to show weakness, and Xiang Yu was about to agree when he was stopped by Fan Zeng.
"The Han army is not easy to deal with now, if you let it go, you will definitely regret it in the future."
As soon as Xiang Yu heard this, this statement was reasonable, so he stopped the idea of accepting Liu Bang's conditions.
At this time, Xiang Yu still believed in Fan Zeng, but such trust was weak, and he easily became disgusted under Liu Bang's dissociation scheme.
Fan Zeng, unknowingly, his rights were deprived by Xiang Yu, smart as him, and soon understood why Xiang Yu was doing this.
Anger surged up, and he said directly to Xiang Yu: "The overall situation of the world has been decided, and the king will see to it yourself." ”
After speaking, Fan Zeng's request to resign was simply submitted, Xiang Yu was still wary at this time, and naturally quickly agreed, and Fan Zeng's departure also made Xiang Yu lose a big help.
Then, Xiang Yu was led by Liu Bang by the nose and ran back and forth, and wherever Liu Bang ran, Xiang Yu hit wherever he went, but in the end, it was all unsuccessful.
When Liu Bang and the others tore up the so-called chasm and discussion, and turned around to sneak attack, the majesty of this Western Chu overlord was gone.
One step away from success, Xiang Yu betrayed his relatives, exhausted, and finally killed himself in Wujiang, but in this life.
With a thought, let the tiger return to the mountain
If you ask, Cao Cao is only one step away from winning the world, and the most regrettable thing must be that he once released Liu Bei, and in the end he could only watch others claim the throne.
At the beginning, in Cao Cao's eyes, the two opponents Yuan Shu and Liu Bei were undoubtedly more threatening to the former, and it was not an exaggeration to say that Cao Cao devoted all his energy to dealing with Yuan Shu, so Cao Cao was willing to win over Liu Bei in order to deal with Yuan Shu.
After Liu Bei was defeated at the hands of Lü Bu, in fact, there were only two endings, a lifetime, a death, and in desperation, Liu Bei chose to defect to Cao Cao.
But when Liu Bei brought his subordinates to Cao Cao's camp, it was not welcomed by everyone, and Cheng Yu looked at Liu Bei coldly and persuaded Cao Cao.
"Liu Bei is a man of great talent, a person like this will not be willing to succumb to others, not to mention that his popular support is very high, I think it is better to take this opportunity to kill him early."
Cao Cao uncharacteristically furrowed his eyebrows, without saying a word, Cheng Yu saw this victory to pursue, and persuaded again, Cao Cao was a little undecided for a while.
So he went directly to Guo Jia's residence, and after listening to Cao Cao's words, Guo Jia was silent for a long time, and then said: "Cheng Yu's opinion is right. ”
Cao Cao's face sank, and he listened to Guo Jia continue: "However, you started your army to eliminate the riot, and the handsome people in the four directions are all the objects you want to close. ”
"A person with a heroic reputation like Liu Bei comes to surrender, if he kills, he will definitely fall into the truth, which is greatly detrimental to you to pacify the world."
Cao Cao immediately said excitedly: "That's the truth. ”
With Guo Jia's words, Cao Cao was like taking a reassuring pill, so he turned around and went to Cheng Yu's work, and with some efforts, Liu Bei successfully settled in Cao Cao's camp.
Later, Cao Cao successfully killed Lü Bu, and Liu Bei followed Cao Cao back to Xudu, at that time Cao Cao was still a little uneasy about Liu Bei.
So as soon as he returned to Xudu, Cao Cao appointed Liu Bei as the general of Zuo, and Xuzhou, where Liu Bei was stationed in the past, was assigned by Cao Cao to his henchmen.
What Cao Cao did, Liu Bei saw very well, but sending people under the fence was not a long-term solution after all, so Liu Bei put on the appearance of being addicted to growing vegetables.
Although Cao Cao was not confused by Liu Bei's appearance, his guard in his heart finally let go some, and Liu Bei had been waiting for an opportunity.
The plot to assassinate Cao Cao had not yet been carried out, and the news that Yuan Shu wanted to go north to Qingzhou from Xiaping came, Liu Bei thought to himself, sure enough, the opportunity came.
Here Cao Cao was still thinking about who to send troops to intercept, and Liu Bei had already volunteered to stand in front of Cao Cao, I don't know if Liu Bei had disguised himself too well during this time, or if Cao Cao really let down his guard against Liu Bei.
In short, Liu Bei left Xudu as he wished.
After getting the news, Cheng Yu and Guo Jia hurried to Cao Cao, and as soon as they met, Cheng Yu said anxiously: "You refused to kill Liu Bei last time, and you really thought about it a lot, but now that you not only handed over the military power to Liu Bei, but also let him go, he will definitely have a different intention." ”
Guo Jia also affirmed on the side: "Don't let Liu Bei go, let Liu Bei go now, something will happen soon!" ”
Before the words landed, a few more advisers came to Cao Cao in the distance, trying to get Cao Cao to withdraw the order to release Liu Bei, listening to the dissuasion of the people around him, Cao Cao regretted it a little at this time.
However, looking at the army in the distance that had long since lost its shadow, no amount of regret would help, and Cao Cao had to hope that Liu Bei would not be as these people said.
Liu Bei was not easy to escape, how could he go back again?
After receiving Cao Cao's order to return, Liu Bei asked Cao Cao's subordinates to lead their troops back, and he stayed in Xiaping to launch a surprise attack and garrison Fangtiandi.
Soon, the news of Liu Bei's rebellion also reached Cao Cao's ears, and if Cao Cao was remorseful and had some expectations when he released Liu Bei and was dissuaded, then at this moment there was only regret left in his heart.
Of course, Cao Cao would not just sit still, and immediately sent the commander Shi Liu Dai and Zhonglang to fight Liu Bei, but who knew that he was defeated.
Originally, Cao Cao had a great opportunity to take Liu Bei's life and solve a strong opponent for himself, but it was for the sake of that so-called reputation that Cao Cao lost this opportunity.
After this opportunity was lost, it was difficult to have another one, even if later Cao Cao had almost all the rights that a king had, but he was always short of the title of emperor.
One step away, ravines grow
As for Li Zicheng's failure, in fact, it is the inherent thinking of the peasants, he only thinks of 'fighting', but not 'keeping'.
Under the slogan of 'eating his mother, wearing his mother, and not accepting grain when the king comes', Li Zicheng flocked to Beijing with the support of the peasant army, reaching the peak of his power.
And the problem also followed, this huge peasant team has no food, so how to solve this problem that everyone is most worried about?
Those officials of the Ming Dynasty were undoubtedly a sweet potato for Li Zicheng and others at that time.
The ministers, who were caught off guard, were surrounded by the peasant legion led by Li Zicheng, and then sent directly to prison, and the officials were trembling, not knowing what happened.
Then an edict issued by Li Zicheng solved everyone's confusion, saying that ill-gotten wealth, corrupt officials, it turned out that such a stirring was just for money.
Li Zicheng assigned these people according to the rank of officials, and as long as they paid the corresponding money as required, they could walk out of the prison gate unharmed.
Conversely, if you bargain, or if you do not pay on the grounds that you have no money, you will receive a penalty, and the most common punishment is a stick.
At first, officials thought that this was just a means for Li Zicheng to win people's hearts, and Wei Zaode, a university scholar, directly shouted: "If you want to use me, just use it directly, no matter how you use it, why lock me up." ”
However, what he didn't expect was that Li Zicheng's move was really just for money, and the money handed over by Wei Zaode was not worth the rank Li Zicheng divided at all, so it was natural to avoid a severe beating.
Except for a very few who paid money as required and were exempted from punishment, the vast majority of these once glorious officials experienced the torture of sticks.
There was a chorus of mourning throughout the prison, and even though officials had expected Li Zicheng to attack Beijing, none of them had expected such an end.
These officials who could not pay were tortured to death, and their families were not spared, all fell into the hands of this group of peasant troops, and they were devastated.
Later, this torture operation to rectify corrupt officials intensified, and the peasant army was no longer limited to officials, but from rich businessmen to ordinary people, and no one escaped.
When Li Zicheng led the peasant army into Beijing, how happy the people were, how resentful they were at the moment, the people were forced to provide food to the army for free, and the girls waiting in the house were even robbed.
Li Zicheng's so-called great cause of changing the dynasty will also usher in the return of the chapter.
The Qing army was in full swing, Li Zicheng looked at his defeated army, and knew in his heart that this was the general trend, and finally looked at the city of Beijing behind him.
Li Zicheng announced the withdrawal of his troops in a deep voice, and then led the remaining army to flee Beijing, and along the way, Li Zicheng would be attacked wherever he ran, which made his original plan fail again and again.
In the end, Li Zicheng was killed by a group of village braves north of Niujiling in Xiaoyue Mountain, and this is how he lived his life.
Bibliography:
"Peasant War at the End of the Ming Dynasty" 2019
"Troubled King: Li Zicheng" 2011
"Seeking Truth" Series, 2013
"The Biography of Cao Cao" 2022