Those who have lofty ideals, things will be accomplished, the cauldron will sink the boat, and the hundred and two Qin Guans will eventually belong to Chu;
Bitter people, the sky does not bear, lying down to taste the guts, three thousand Yue Jia can swallow Wu.
This inspirational couplet is widely circulated, the protagonist is a generation of war god Xiang Yu, telling the story of his battle of the gods - the battle of the giant deer. In this battle, Xiang Yu, who was only twenty-four years old, led all the Chu generals to break the cauldron and sing the generous and tragic song of "Lao Tzu rushed to the battlefield alive, but did not think of leaving alive", and with great courage, rushed to the legion of the Qin general Wang Li who surrounded the giant deer. This lifeless style of play suddenly turned the grandson of the famous general Wang Qi into a grandson.
This story has inspired generations of people to strive to be strong, put to death and come back to life. But many people do not know who he came from. In fact, according to the Qing Dynasty literary scholar Wu Gongheng's "Couplets", this is the cry of the anti-Qing hero Jin Sheng at the end of the Ming Dynasty to the future generations, when the mountains and rivers were broken, although his anti-Qing actions ended in failure, he firmly believed that there could be people in the future like Xiang Yu, like gouge, and after some forbearance, they could finally restore the mountains and rivers.
When it comes to the Battle of Julu, everyone will think that Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu, with a fearless spirit, took the lead in attacking the Qin army when the various princely armies were cowering, led the princes to rebel, and together they finally annihilated the king and left the army, reversed qiankun in a battle, and forced another 200,000 Zhang Handan Qin army to surrender eight months later. Since then, Xiang Yu has established a leading position in various rebel armies. Then, in the Battle of Julu, when the Combined Forces of Chu and the princes were ordered to resist Qin and aid Zhao, could anyone be like Xiang Yu, breaking through the cauldron and sinking the boat, with the determination to die, and win a battle? In fact, don't talk about other people, this battle, at the beginning, Xiang Yu may not have thought of fighting like this, helplessly the situation is stronger than people, step by step forcing him to go all the way to the black, the result is that it is desperate, so that the anti-Qin war ushered in an important turning point.
To understand why Xiang Yu is breaking the boat, we must first understand the background of this war. The Qin general Wang Li and others besieged Julu, threatening to destroy the Zhao state in one fell swoop and reunite the world. Speaking of which, the Battle of Changping and the Battle of Handan between Qin and Zhao in those years were quite similar to those of God, and if the Zhao state in the front line of the anti-Qin resistance fell, it can be said that great Qin would realize reunification again, and it would not be a problem, for this reason, whether it was with the Zhao state or a vendetta, as long as the brain was still normal, it would all come.
But the question is, in the face of the former tiger and wolf division, who will be the cannon fodder and take the lead? The main general of the Chu army was not Xiang Yu, but the General of Qingzi, Song Yi! Xiang Yu seized power by killing Song Yi. So, why was the commander of the Chu army not Xiang Yu, who was well known in later generations, but the unknown Song Yi? Why did Xiang Yu have to kill Song Yi, was it really what he said, "Song Yi conspired with Qi to rebel against Chu, and the King of Chu secretly ordered me to kill him!" But Xiang Yu's words, under Xiang Yu's grace and power, Chu Shi chose to believe and accept. This is a bit bizarre, in ancient times, to steal the dominion of an army, you only need to kill the main general? Obviously doesn't make sense. This point needs to start from Song Yi as a person and how he became the commander of the Chu state to aid the Zhao army.
As we all know, there were rumors at the end of qin, "Although Chu has three households, qin will be chu if it dies", Xiang Liang and other local haojie of the Chu state took advantage of the huge anti-Qin movement set off by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, and when the foundation of Great Qin's rule collapsed, it rose up and led the sons of Jiangdong to fight a world of flowers and flowers, but where did the rebel army go? They accepted Fan Zeng's suggestion, that is, to welcome the descendants of the Chu king and enhance their legitimacy and appeal, "Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms, Chu was the most innocent, Huai Wangke died in the Qin Kingdom, and the Chu people pitied them." Therefore, they found the descendants of King Zhihuai of Chu, who had been reduced to cattle herding, and in the name of reviving the Chu State, they won the people's hearts and minds of the Chu State to the greatest extent possible, and justifiably participated in the race for deer.
But no one is born willing to be a puppet, right? Even if you are reluctant to be a puppet, you will not be willing to do it, right? Moreover, there are still many people in the Chu Kingdom who have expectations for King Huai. After all, the knife handle was in the hands of the Xiang family, and the Chu Kingdom, which was born in its heart, was even more faced with the retaliatory blow of the Great Qin Iron Horse. King Huai is even more inseparable from the Xiang family, and it can be said that he hates and fears the Xiang family.
So what to do? Only Yang Zun Xiangjia, Yin seeped sand. And also have to find the right time, and Song Yi such a person, in September 208 BC (the second year of Qin II), the Xiang family carried their son Xiang Liang to defeat the army of the Qin general Zhang Handan in Dong'a, so he took advantage of the situation to move west, but unexpectedly won another battle and defeated the Qin army again. At this time, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, who were later happy rivals, joined hands to make the Qin army suffer at Yongqiu, and also beheaded Li You, the son of Li Si, the county sheriff of Sanchuan County. A series of good news came frequently, and Xiang Liang was a little fluttering, the tiger and wolf master? I don't think so, the ancestors were actually defeated, incredible. However, he did not know Zhang Handan's combat style, the small group of troops tried first, failed to hit, and then they would shrink the defensive formation and look for the flaws of the other side in order to hit again. In xiangliang's fluttering, Song Yi saw some clues behind Zhang Handan's weakness and advised Xiang Liang that Great Qin might play a big game. But Xiang Liang, who was floating away from the crowd, where he could listen, he sent Song Yi to send an envoy to the State of Qi. However, Song Yi met Gao Lingjun, an emissary of the State of Qi, on the way, and the two talked, and Song Yi once again said with emotion that Zhang Handan might play a big game of chess. As a result, before the emissary Gao Lingjun of the State of Qi had set out, Zhang Handan's big chess game had already fallen, Xiang Liang's main force was beaten half to death, Xiang Liang was killed in battle, and Zhang Handan felt that the main force of the Chu army had been crushed, so he threatened to win a great victory and moved his troops to attack the Zhao State, which triggered the Battle of Julu.
Obviously, Xiang Liang was defeated, and the King of Chu Huai was happy, but he was also a little worried, Zhao Guo was besieged, even if he smashed pots and sold iron, he must also go to save, because saving Zhao Guo was also saving himself. But the army had always been in the hands of the Xiang family before, although this time Xiang Liang was defeated and killed, but Xiang Yu and Xiang Zhuang were still there after all, and they certainly could not let them continue to command the army, and could only take the method of step-by-step infiltration, and this person must also be accepted by the generals. Listening to Qi Zhi Gao Lingjun's narration of Song Yi's "big chess game", the King of Chu Huai immediately came to the spirit. Isn't that God helping me?
Song Yi was not only strategically clever, but also did not belong to the Xiang clan, and could also speak with the State of Qi and use it to reorganize the army, which was the best candidate, but he could not overly provoke the Xiang clan in the army, so in order to aid the Zhao State, with Song Yi as the right and Xiang Yu as the deputy, then the best arrangement was made, as long as Song Yi gradually cut off the influence of the Xiang clan and made great contributions, the great merit would basically be completed.
It can be said that in the battle of the giant deer that aided the Zhao state, the deputy general Xiang Yu even did not understand at first, but he could always think clearly in the future, so that his Xiang clan was estimated to be completely cleaned up. The contradiction with Song Yi seems to be due to differences in the way of aiding the Zhao state, but in fact it was caused by the political policy of King Huai of Chu in trying to get rid of his puppet status and eliminate the Xiang family. Including the first to enter the pass as the king, but deliberately arranged for Song Yi and Xiang Yu to fight a hard battle this way, and the force of containment, but from the place where the risk is minimal and the path is nearest, it has to be said that this arrangement is still quite politically strategic, between the three of them, buy and bury one mine after another. In the face of Song Yi, who is growing day by day, Xiang Yu has a strong sense of crisis, because time is on Song Yi's side. He advocated directly leading the troops to rush over, but Song Yi's view was that when Sun Zhen was encircling Wei and saving Zhao, the strategy was used very well, to relieve the siege of others, we could not fight on their own, we stood on the side and shouted encouragement, first let them fight hard, kill both sides, and then we will sit back and reap the benefits of the fishermen, if the Zhao army resists well, in containing the Qin army, we can also throw Zhang Handan directly west to destroy Qin. And said to Xiang Yu, "I am not as good as you when I charge into battle wearing armor and holding a sharp weapon; but you are inferior to me in strategizing and formulating strategies." In front of Xiang Yu, he also gave an order in the army, directly ordering: "Anyone who is as fierce as a tiger, as fierce as a sheep, as greedy as a wolf, and stubborn and disobedient to the command, will be beheaded!" ”
Not only did he refute Xiang Yu into silence, but he also gave Xiang Yu a chance to get off the horse. Its intention was obvious, Xiang Yu's engagement was basically equivalent to a showdown with Song Yi. Xiang Yu is that no matter how low the political emotional intelligence is, it should also be understood that this set of calculations is purely aimed at himself, tailor-made, and the day of achievement is the time when his soul returns. The rope around his neck was getting tighter and tighter.
If he doesn't kill Song Yi, he will die sooner or later, but how easy is it to kill Song Yi? In the great battle between life and death, if he rushed to kill Song Yi and caused a split within the Chu army, he would also be unable to escape death. What to do? Don't say that Xiang Yu doesn't understand politics, at least from this point of view, Xiang Yu is worthy of being a master of power and scheming. Deliberately provoking the army and provoking dissatisfaction and hatred for Song Yi, he was very good at it. Now Song Yi lived a luxurious life, the soldiers could only eat chaff vegetables, but Song Yi often opened a small stove and rendered this everywhere, but he shared happiness and suffering with the soldiers every day. Then there was the spread of all kinds of half-truths and half-lies, what troops had bad food, grain was withheld, Xiang Yu was begging for the soldiers' lives all day long, their hearts, this contrast, originally most of the old department of the Xiang family, naturally hated Song Yi. Especially Song Yi, he was also to save Zhao, this is to adopt the strategy of watching the fire from the other side, this is a long-term consideration of the Chu state, but this can be told to the generals, but it is not suitable for revealing to the grass-roots soldiers, so Xiang Yu seized this layer of information black hole, hype, Song Yi does not want to save Zhao Guo, what does Song Yi want to do? Didn't he send his son to the State of Qi as an official? There must be a conspiracy to betray the Chu state together with the State of Qi, which Han Xin saw as "how cunning the Qi people are", and these serial propaganda and smears at the grass-roots level, Song Yi was not even aware of it at all, did not follow the mass line, and doomed Song Yi's tragedy.
Who says Xiang Yu can't play conspiracies? You see him dealing with Song Yi's set of serial plans, interlocking, Song Yi is dying, or in the dark, it is simply seamless, wonderful don't want. But this has also become a strategic anchor for Xiang Yu, since you said that Song Yi lived in luxury, then do you want to fulfill your promise and always share happiness and hardship with the soldiers? To a certain extent, this also determined that Xiang Yu could sympathize with the soldiers, but he did not manage the middle-level cadres well, and there was no shrewd and strong middle-level team, and he was always rushing to kill with the soldiers. The second point is, since you said that Song Yi is not saving Zhao, then do you want to go directly to the front with him and take everyone to rush directly?
In the face of these, Xiang Yu basically had no choice but to go all the way to black! But can this ensure that the soldiers will follow them? What if King Huai sent other generals? Or if you hesitate a little, how to explain to everyone? There is also the fact that you killed Song Yi without permission, and the above is not pursued? The longer the time drags on, will people wake up and kill Xiang Yu to throw a name at Huai Wangna? Xiang Yu could only tie the soldiers firmly to his chariot and kill them, we had no way out, only by fighting hard to kill the past and win the victory over the Qin army, there was a way out.
This was the earth-shattering battle that broke the ship, and Xiang Yu himself was particularly fierce in killing the first soldier.
Author: Xiao Yunan, our special guest author