Chen Ping, a strategist who was well versed in the art of power and strategy, played a key role in the political situation of the early Han Dynasty.
And in 202 B.C., behind a war, there is a hidden epic because of him, a poignant story of sacrifice and prophecy.
Time returned to the final stage of the Han and Chu hegemony, the Han king Liu Bang and the Chu and Han sides competed, and the two sides were in a long-term stalemate in the Pengcheng area. The Battle of Pengcheng was a decisive battle related to the belonging of the entire world.
The two sides were evenly matched, and at the critical moment, Chen Ping had insight into the strategic loopholes of the Chu army and proposed a bold plan - to break through with trickery.
At that time, Liu Bang's army was besieged by Xiang Yu's army, there was a shortage of food and grass, the army's morale was shaken, and the situation was precarious. Chen Ping suggested that the women in General Liu Bang should all dress up to distract the enemy's attention and take this opportunity to secretly break through.
This is a plan that requires great sacrifice, after all, everyone in the siege represents a part of the strength of the Han army, and the women are not easy to protect themselves in the recklessness.
Liu Bang hesitated, which meant that countless innocent women would be in danger. But the war was urgent, and Liu Bang finally agreed to this plan.
Chen Ping disguised 3,000 women as soldiers, confused them with real Han soldiers, and then assigned a small group of soldiers to protect them from the enemy under the cover of night.
Night falls, it gets dark, and everything is carried out in silent arrangement. When the team quietly passed through the checkpoints set by the Chu army, the Chu army did not realize that there was a trick in it.
The women were teary-eyed, knowing that they were using their lives as bait in exchange for the safety of Liu Bang's army.
Just as the group of women was about to arrive at the last line of defense of the Chu army, the Chu army finally discovered the anomaly and launched a pursuit. But it was too late, Liu Bang's main force had already successfully broken through the chaos and escaped from Xiang Yu's encirclement.
When Liu Bang looked back at this desperate breakthrough, his heart was full of complicated emotions. And Chen Ping, after learning the news of the sacrificed women, lamented: "My family will be defeated by women!"
This is not contempt for women, but the helplessness and grief of the decision they made, and the cherishing of life. At that moment, he seemed to see the shadow of the future, and the battle between home and country would eventually succumb to private feelings.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Bang, with the assistance of Chen Ping, regrouped and defeated Xiang Yu in one fell swoop in the Battle of Qixia and established the Han Dynasty.
And Chen Ping's prophecy seems to have been verified, and in the later autocratic power of Empress Lu, there were countless disputes among women in the court of the Han Dynasty, which can be said to have indirectly affected the stability of the Han Dynasty.
After the Battle of Pengcheng, although Chen Ping's achievements were high, he could never forget the 3,000 women who were sacrificed.
In the dead of night, he would sigh to the moon alone, with thousands of thoughts, once again mourning the lives of those who sacrificed in obscurity for the sake of the overall situation. Their story did not go down in history, but it became a sad footnote to the struggle for hegemony in the early Han Dynasty.
This is the story of Chen Ping and his women behind the war that concerns the overall situation of the world, an eternal legend of schemes, sacrifices and prophecies. In that troubled era, they wrote their own epics in their own way.