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Text: Wen Shuyan
Edited by Wen Shuyan
Preface
Now we know that the famous Chu-Han dispute in history at that time ended with Liu Bang's victory, but in fact, in the process of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu's competition, most of the time the advantage was actually on Xiang Yu's side.
It's just that Xiang Yu didn't seize the opportunity in the end, and he was one move short, and finally lost to Liu Bang.
As a historical scene, the "Hongmen Banquet" is also the process of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu's secret confrontation, and it is also an important turning point in the struggle for hegemony between Chu and Han.
So why did Xiang Yu, who had the advantage at that time, set up a Hongmen banquet? Why didn't he directly proclaim himself emperor in Guanzhong?
Xiang Yu's thoughts
At that time, one of the reasons why Xiang Yu did not directly choose to be the emperor was that he was influenced by social ideology.
At that time, because the rulers of the Qin Dynasty were extremely brutal, so that the people were not able to make a living, and there were many complaints, so a large number of anti-Qin soldiers were produced among the peasants.
The new monarch supported by this group of anti-Qin people is called "Emperor Chuyi", note that there is only "emperor" and no "emperor" here, which means that people at that time were actually extremely dismissive of the title of "emperor" supported by Qin Shi Huang himself.
In the pre-Qin period, only the "emperor" could be considered the supreme ruler between heaven and earth, so the Chu Jun led by Xiang Yu at that time, as part of the anti-Qin, naturally did not recognize the title of "emperor" of Qin Shi Huang.
Secondly, in addition to the influence of the praise and disparagement of the emperor's name on him at that time, Xiang Yu originally had a hatred for Qin Shi Huang, because his uncle and grandfather were killed by the Qin people at that time.
Therefore, after overthrowing the rule of the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu at that time decided to burn Xianyang with fire and extinguish the hatred in his heart for the ruler of the Qin Dynasty.
In addition to these external factors, in fact, Xiang Yu also has some Xiao Jiujiu in his heart, he proclaimed himself the "Overlord of Western Chu" at that time, and also divided the princes and kings of various places after the self-proclaimed overlord, since everyone is a king, then sit on an equal footing.
The most different thing between Xiang Yu and other princes and kings is his "hegemon", that is, what he yearns for is only to occupy a dominant position among the kings of the same level, and does not have to complete a process of great unification like Qin, and the great unification of the ancient Zhou Tianzi is not Xiang Yu's real goal.
And although Xiang Yu had an absolute advantage in the battle between Chu and Han, in fact, there was still a long way to go before he could claim the title of emperor.
At that time, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang were only the largest forces after the fall of the Qin Dynasty, in addition to this, there were also the remnants of the princes of the Six Kingdoms and the forces of their descendants.
At that time, the princes were falling against each other, and Xiang Yu would never dare to rashly establish himself as the emperor, otherwise he might face the siege of other vassal states.
And as far as Xiang Yu is concerned, he is indeed not a mature emperor, and one of the things that Xiang Yu did at that time was very surprising, that is, he set the capital in Pengcheng.
Pengcheng is a city with no name in history, because it does not occupy any of the three "favorable time, place and people", and the ancient capital is generally chosen to be in the rich area of the south of the Yangtze River or a military town in the north, and Xiang Yu obviously has his own plans in Pengcheng.
Because Pengcheng is Xiang Yu's hometown, he chose this place to show off to his relatives and locals in his hometown.
After all, Xiang Yu left a famous saying at that time, which probably means "If you don't return to your hometown after development, it is equivalent to wearing a brocade dress and walking at night."
There is another deep meaning behind this sentence, and the interpretation is to say "brocade clothes at night", beautiful clothes are worn at night, the lights can't shine, and others can't see them, in Xiang Yu's eyes, this is a white dry.
Xiang Yu felt that after he was developed, he was not seen by others, which was equivalent to doing useless work, so he set the capital in Pengcheng for the purpose of showing off.
But as everyone knows, his determination here is also an extremely important reason for his defeat, the terrain here is not good, once the other vassal states come, then Xiang Yu is in an isolated and helpless situation.
Later, this situation did happen, when the king of Qi, who was located in the north of Xiang Yu's country, and Liu Bang's army in the west jointly attacked, causing Xiang Yu's defeat.
Xiang Yu had no intention of killing Liu Bang
Xiang Yu's calculation is actually the background of his Hongmen banquet.
At that time, after the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the first person to enter Xianyang was actually Liu Bang, and in terms of historical timeline, he was more than a month and a half earlier than Xiang Yu's entry into Xianyang.
During this time, Liu Bang also had a good relationship with the people in Xianyang City as soon as possible, and made three chapters of the law with each other, so as to win the hearts of the people of Xianyang.
Although he occupied the favorable terrain faster than Xiang Yu, in fact, Liu Bang did not have the ability to directly claim the emperor, after all, Liu Bang's Peixian group was a bit shabby compared to Xiang Yu's troops.
Most of the people in Liu Bang's troops are from the lowest level of ordinary people, even if there is a genius Xiao He in it, but it is insignificant compared to Xiang Yu's talent.
Therefore, with the manpower under Liu Bang at that time, it was obviously impractical to directly control the operation of the entire Qin Dynasty, and Liu Bang could not control the changes in the situation in the world.
Therefore, if Liu Bang directly raised the flag in Xianyang City and stood on his own, then when Xiang Yu came over, they would not be able to control the entire Xianyang City, and they would inevitably become Xiang Yu's subordinates, so Liu Bang chose to retreat at that time.
A month later, Xiang Yu's men and horses came to Bashang near Xianyang City and confronted Liu Bangyao, at this time Xiang Yu's 400,000 army was much more elite than Liu Bang's, so Liu Bang could not fight this battle.
At that time, after Liu Bang and the strategists around him planned, Liu Bang brought 100 personal guards to personally come to the door to apologize to Xiang Yu, not only to ease the arrogant atmosphere between the two armies, but also to make an example for the other princes watching below.
So there is the plot of the Hongmen banquet later, in this banquet, although Liu Bang and Xiang Yu seem to be harmonious on the surface, in fact, there is an undercurrent surging underneath.
At that time, Xiang Yu Group was divided into two factions on whether to behead Liu Bang under the horse, and the two factions were pulling each other.
So there is the famous scene of "Xiang Zhuang dancing the sword with the intention of Pei Gong", after Xiang Zhuang did not succeed in killing Liu Bang, and then killed a Fan Hao from the side, taking advantage of Fan Xu's fuss at the banquet, Liu Bang pretended to go to the toilet and escaped.
Although Liu Bang escaped smoothly at the banquet, in fact, at that time, it was actually a very simple thing for Xiang Yu to kill him, after all, the forces around Xiang Yu were all standing on a high place.
Xiang Yu did not have murderous intent towards Liu Bang, but acquiesced in the matter of letting him go, the two sides were just secretly competing in this banquet of open and secret fighting, and Xiang Yu's original intention at that time should be to deter Liu Bang, not directly put him to death.
After all, in Xiang Yu's eyes, Liu Bang still has use value, if Xiang Yu rashly relies on his strength to forcibly claim the emperor, then the following 800 princes will naturally rebel immediately, and Liu Bang at this time is a chess piece to balance the princes, which is also a big move by Xiang Yu.
Xiang Yu didn't have the heart to be the emperor, or he wanted to be the emperor but it wasn't urgent at the moment, he just wanted to get the biggest piece of the cake in the process of sharing the cake after the death of Qin, what Xiang Yu didn't expect at that time was that his soft-heartedness at this time would become the source of failure in the future.
epilogue
At that time, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu confronted each other, but what people didn't expect was that after a Hongmen banquet, the two sides reversed their offensives, and Xiang Yu single-handedly sealed his old way.
The Hongmen Banquet became famous for a while, becoming the most famous banquet in the history of the mainland, and it was also this banquet that laid the pattern of China's future, the Hongmen Banquet was not only a banquet for Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, but also a banquet for the Han Dynasty led by Liu Bang to open a new prosperous era.
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