Preface
Liu Bang, a man born into an ordinary peasant family, seemed to be destined to live an ordinary and boring life forever in the turbulent social environment of the last years of the Qin Dynasty. His innate talent seems to have no chance to be displayed at all, and even his father once commented that he was "muddy and can't hold up the wall". But is he really just a gangster with nothing to do?
Ordinary people, but there are extraordinary
Liu Bang was born in 256 BC into an ordinary peasant family in Pei County. According to records, he was weak and weak from a young age, and was not good at farm work, and was often compared to his hard-working and capable brother. However, Liu Bang has a unique feature, that is, he has a warm and cheerful personality and is very sociable. This may be a kind of compensation given to him by God.
In that era of frequent wars, Liu Bang's life was not satisfactory. But his optimistic personality has taught him to understand and tolerate it all. He often invited his friends in the village to drink and have fun, and sometimes even did not hesitate to smash pots and sell iron to fulfill the friendship of landlords. His practice of squandering money made Liu Bang make a lot of friends. Although most of them were grassroots civilians, this kind of personal connection played a very big role in Liu Bang's later establishment of his career.
Once upon a time, Liu Bang just wanted to rely on this reputation of righteousness and wealth to mix with a small official and live a stable life. However, God destined him to accomplish great things!
By chance, he ushered in a turning point in his life
In 209 BC, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang first raised the banner against Qin in Daze Township. In the months that followed, there were many responders from all over the country, and no less than a dozen people rose up. Among them, Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, Xiang Liang, and Xiang Yu's armies were the most powerful.
At the same time, in order to protect himself, the county commander of Peixian County decided to raise troops against Qin in the local area. He consulted with Liu Bang's old friend Xiao He and others. According to Xiao He's proposal, they decided to nominate Liu Bang, a prisoner in the county, as a standard-bearer, as a shell to protect themselves.
When this suggestion was conveyed to Liu Bang, who was in his forties, he gladly accepted. Maybe it's because you feel that you have achieved nothing in your life, but it is better to gamble; Or maybe he keenly sniffed out that this was a great opportunity for God to turn him over. So, with the support of his old friends and squires, Liu Bang soon gathered 3,000 soldiers and horses and officially unveiled them.
At first, Liu Bang didn't think he could do anything. He voluntarily relinquished his title and only wanted to support him secretly. But a few months later, the situation changed dramatically, and the rebel armies of all stripes were defeated, and Liu Bang became the most promising force. With the help of Xiao He and other strategists, more and more talents joined Liu Bang's command, including the later Fan Xu and Xiahou Ying, one of the five generals. For a time, Liu Bang's momentum soared, and the army grew to more than 100,000 people.
Chance made Liu Bang usher in a turning point in his life. A middle-aged man who should have lived an ordinary life began his extraordinary journey.
Hongmen was frightened and established the Han Dynasty system
In 206 BC, the Qin Dynasty fell. At this time, in just one year, Liu Bang was already one of the most powerful warlords in the world. Especially after escaping in the Hongmen banquet, Liu Bang saw the hope of becoming the king.
In fact, in Liu Bang's eyes, his strength is still insufficient to compete with Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu. But he is well versed in the art of war and knows the truth of "striking while the iron is hot". So he made a lightning march shortly after the Hongmen Banquet, captured Xianyang, and killed the grandson of Qin Shi Huang, the Infant Emperor. Subsequently, he took advantage of the situation to become king, established the regime of the Han king, and proclaimed himself the king of Han. Since then, the two major forces of Western Chu and Han have officially formed a trend.
In this series of operations, Liu Bang showed his decisive and alert side. He is good at seizing the opportunity and has successfully broken through from desperate situations many times. At the same time, he also saw that only by establishing his own regime could he gain a foothold in this great chaos in the world. It was with this decisiveness and political skill that Liu Bang laid the foundation of the Han Dynasty.
Fan Xu's admonition set the will of the people
After defeating the Qin army, Liu Bang, the king of Han, hoped to quickly pacify the world. However, at this time, there is still a long way to go before the true unification of the world, and the biggest obstacle is the equally powerful Western Chu overlord Xiang Yu. The first major battle between the two armies soon began under the mediation of Chunshenjun Fan Zeng, and the result was the victory of the Western Chu army.
This defeat dealt a great blow to the Han army, and its morale was low. Many generals advocated a temporary return to the defense and a reorganization of the army. However, at this time, Fan Xu, who was born as a coachman, admonished the king of Han, and pointed out that now the Western Chu army had just won the victory and was full of ambition, and it was a good time for the Han army to counterattack. If the troops retreat and return to defense at this time, it will give the Western Chu army a chance to breathe.
After hearing this, Liu Bang realized that he immediately turned the head of the car and sent troops again. In the end, the Han army got its wish and fought a decisive battle with Western Chu in Pengcheng, defeating Xiang Yu's main force. This battle completely reversed the decline of the Han army and also allowed Xiang Yu to switch from offensive to defensive. Since then, the four-year standoff between Chu and Han began.
In this tug-of-war, Liu Bang saw clearly the problem of his lack of strength. In order to win the support of the people, he began to implement a series of policies to benefit the people. The most important of these is the implementation of measures to lightly punish the meager taxes and to buy and sell freely, which has rekindled the people's enthusiasm for production. Because of this, before and after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, all parts of the country expressed their submission to Liu Bang, which laid a solid foundation for the future unification of the world.
Pretended to retire and established the Han Dynasty
From the beginning of the Battle of Pengcheng, the momentum of the Han army was in full swing. However, Liu Bang, the king of Han, also knew that it was too early to win a complete victory. Because in comparison, the Western Chu army still occupies an absolute advantage in talent and material resources. Therefore, Liu Bang chose to continue to maintain obscurity and pay tribute to Western Chu.
In the winter of 202 BC, Liu Bang thought that the time was ripe. He quietly mobilized a large army, and under the pretext of welcoming the beautiful Empress Xu, he went straight to Pengcheng, the capital of Western Chu, from another path. Xiang Yu was shocked when he heard the report, and immediately led the army back to rescue the capital, but he was tricked on the way and fell into the siege of the Han army. After several days of fierce fighting, the Western Chu army finally could not support the rout. Xiang Yu saw that the general trend had gone, and killed himself in Wujiang.
So far, Xiang Yu has been handsome all his life, but in the end he was buried because of carelessness. With years of accumulated military experience and political skills, Liu Bang finally got his wish, unified the world chaos that lasted for 5 years, established the Han Dynasty, and created the prelude to China's 2,000-year-old feudal dynasty.
A miracle in life, the gangster ascended the throne as the emperor
In the long history, examples like Liu Bang are not uncommon. Many great men were not noticed by the world at first, and were even regarded as useless people. However, under the opportunities of the times and opportunities, it has successfully opened up a new world.
Liu Bang is no exception. A middle-aged man in his forties was originally just a local official. However, under the favor of the god of opportunity, it is a miracle of life to complete the gorgeous transformation from a gangster to an emperor in just 8 years.
Of course, Liu Bang's personal struggle is also worth learning Xi. For example, he is good at using the vision of talents, such as his political skills in judging the situation and sizing up the situation, and then his resolute character that is not afraid of danger. It can be said that it is the synthesis of this series of qualities that has achieved his brilliant life from scratch and finally becoming the emperor.
epilogue
Life is not perfect. Liu Bang also has many regrets in his life, such as his ruthlessness in order to achieve his goals, such as his killing in order to compete for imperial power. However, this does not prevent us from fully acknowledging the extraordinary achievements of his life. What he left for future generations is not only a prosperous era and a prosperous civilization, but also a precious sample, inspiring every ordinary person to change their fate and create a new world through their own struggle.