The most powerful emperor Liu Bang

Chapter 22

Being cheated again and again made Xiang Yu and Zhong Li mad with annoyance.The next day, Zhong Limei continued to besiege Xingyang. Unexpectedly, due to the chaos yesterday, many people in the city fled, and the Han army organized some food to come in. No matter how the Chu army called for war, the people inside just did not leave, and Xingyang could not be captured for a long time. .

Xiang Yu personally led the army to pursue Liu Bang.Seeing the strength of the Chu army, Liu Bang did not dare to stay in Chenggao. He stayed overnight, then hurriedly entered Hangu Pass and returned to Xianyang.Xiang Yu conquered Cheng Gao in one fell swoop.

Xingyang and Chenggao assembled most of the Han army's military strength, and they were the first line of defense built by Liu Bang to prevent the Chu army from advancing westward and ensure the safety of Guanzhong.Once this line is broken, there will be several passes behind. If the passes are breached again, Guanzhong will be completely exposed to the intimidation of the Chu army.Therefore, guarding the first pass is the most important task for the Han army.

Xiao He had returned to Chang'an earlier.Guarding the rear, appeasing the people, and raising food and soldiers were originally Xiao He's strengths.After returning to Chang'an, he saw that there must be a fierce battle between Chu and Han. In addition to the continuous supply of logistics and supplies, it is inevitable that a large number of soldiers will be lost. Therefore, during this period of time, he has focused his work on On to recruiting soldiers.

As soon as Liu Bang arrived in Chang'an, he was very happy to see that Xiao He had raised tens of thousands of horses.He also mobilized officials at all levels to recruit troops from a larger area, and promised more favorable conditions to the common people, such as one member of the family serving as a soldier, exempting the whole family from taxes for ten years, etc., to attract more young and middle-aged men to join the Han army. In a month's time, plus the people Xiao He originally recruited, there were almost 10 people.

Xiang Yu chased Liu Bang desperately like a mad lion. Fortunately, Han Xin, Zhou Bo, Wang Ling and other generals confronted the Chu army around the two cities of Xingyang and Chenggao, which prevented them from advancing westward smoothly.Liu Bang was worried that the Han army would not be strong enough to withstand Xiang Yu's strong attack, so he planned to lead the army to reinforce it.

Liu Bang was discussing with Zhang Liang, Xiao He, and Chen Ping how to take Chenggao again. They agreed that although the Chu army occupied Chenggao, they had no foundation, and there was also a problem of running out of food for a long time. If Chenggao's food supply line was cut off from the periphery , the Chu army will soon abandon this lonely city.

The guards came in and reported: "A Guanzhong scholar surnamed Yuan asked to see the King of Han and said he had a good plan to offer to the King."

When the king of Han heard that someone had offered a good strategy, he immediately said, "Please come in."

Liu Bang had always looked down on Confucian scholars. Once, when he met a sour scholar who was chewing on words, he took off his hat and urinated in it in public to show his contempt for literati.This is also the reason why some literati in later generations always have trouble with him and always say that he is a prostitute and a scoundrel.However, since he attacked Xianyang in the west and passed through the Gaoyang area, he met the old Confucian Li Shiqi, and his views on scholars have been greatly changed.Li Sheng taught him a lesson, saying: "If you want to win the world, you can't do without knowledgeable people. Leading troops to fight and governing the country can't just rely on bravado and ruthlessness, but more often rely on fighting wits and minds. You go to wrestle with Xiang Yu, can you beat him? But if you use tricks, like Tian Ji’s horse race, you don’t necessarily lose to him. So no matter what you do, you can’t just pat your chest and shout slogans. You can’t do big things without thinking. This scholar is like your brain." Liu Bang made sense when he heard it, and when he thought about it, Xiao He and Zhang Liang helped him get many of his ideas since the uprising, and it was really hard for him to move without the scholar.

Yuan Sheng came in, introduced himself first, and then said to Liu Bang, Zhang Liang and others: "As a scholar in Guanzhong, I have observed both sides of Chu and Han for more than a day. Huai accepts remonstrance, and will be able to seize the world in the future. But Xiang Yu is narrow-minded, fierce and cruel, and regards human life as worthless. If he wants to take over the world, the souls will inevitably suffer. I predict that Xiang Yu will not last long."

"Sir, what you said is reasonable, but what do you think about the current Chu-Han war?" Zhang Liang heard Yuan Sheng say nothing more than some clichés, and he didn't want to listen to him talking, so he asked directly.

"I feel the benevolence of the king of Han because of my sincerity, so I don't take the liberty to talk about my own views." Yuan Sheng looked at Liu Bang and said.

"But you don't have to worry about expressing your own opinions. You are here to offer advice and suggestions. The few of us will definitely listen to you." Liu Bang nodded, looked around and said.

"That's good. In today's world, the heroes stand side by side, and the core lies in the struggle between Chu and Han. After the Battle of Pengcheng, Xiang Yu pursued the King of Han closely, and wanted to put him to death, so he put Guanzhong in a position of laying eggs. Now Chu The army was pressing down on the territory. On the surface, they were competing for the two cities of Xingyang and Chenggao. The goal was actually the king of Han. As for the Chu army who wanted to break through the defense line of Xingyang and Gao and enter Guanzhong, they also wanted to take away the old nest of the king of Han, so that the Han army would have no place to rest. In Xiang Yu's eyes Li, the land of Guanzhong, is really tied to the king of Han alone. If the king is in Guanzhong, if the king is not there, there is nothing else in Guanzhong. Since the king of Han recently entered the pass, he has recruited troops, and his team has grown rapidly. Gao. However, the actual situation is that the Han army is far less than the Chu army, and the supply of food and grass is not sufficient. The stalemate lasted for a long time, and the loss was huge, and finally lost. I think that the most urgent task of the Han king is not to compete with the Chu army. Win or lose, but try to preserve strength. Then, how can we do this? My analysis, since the goal of the Chu army is the King of Han, why doesn’t the King of Han flexibly mobilize the Chu army by himself, let him follow you, and make him exhausted? In this way, the siege of Xing and Gao can be relieved, the Han army can be rested, and the Chu army can be weakened. In less than half a year, the balance of power between Chu and Han will inevitably reverse, and the Han army can win." Yuan Sheng breathed a sigh of relief. Speak your mind.

"What you said is very true, but I don't know how I can influence the Chu army?" Liu Bangxian didn't take it seriously, but after listening to Yuan Sheng's analysis, he felt very interesting, and then respected him.

"Your Majesty, don't bother you, I've already thought about it for you. The troops will go out of Wuguan and attack Xiang Yu from the side and rear. At the same time, hang up the flag and make a big announcement to let the Chu army know where you are. If this is the case, Xiang Yu will surely Lead most of the forces to besiege you. Wuguan has towering mountains and rivers, and the terrain is dangerous. One man guards the pass, and ten thousand men cannot open it. It is difficult for the Chu army to capture it. There is no danger for you personally. If he wants to go around Attacking the Han army from the rear is too far away, and the losses will be great. They will not make such a choice. But when the king arrives there, he must bear in mind that small battles are indispensable, and major battles are indispensable. Only in this way can the Chu army be held back and neither Abandoning Wuguan will not lead to great danger and loss of troops and generals. This is a humble opinion, and it can be called a strategy to divert the tiger away from the mountain. I wonder if your majesty and everyone think it is feasible?" Yuan Sheng stated.

Liu Bang looked at Zhang Liang, hesitant to speak.In terms of strategy, he still believes in the ovary.

Zhang Liang believed that this opinion was feasible, and immediately said: "Mr. Yuan's opinion is unique, which we have not considered these days. For the past few days, the Han army has been entangled with the Chu army in the Xingyang and Chenggao areas. It is really not the best strategy to recover, but still want to trap the beasts. As Mr. said, there will be a day for the Han army to turn around."

Xiao He and Chen Ping also said, "It makes sense."

Seeing everyone's unanimous opinion, Liu Bang agreed with Yuan Sheng's opinion, and felt that he could not go all the way to the dark. He laughed and said: "This is really a fan of the authorities, and the bystanders are clear. Thank you for your advice. The army will be ordered to leave Wuguan soon. At the same time, invite Mr. Yuan Follow the army to be our military adviser, I wonder if you agree?"

Yuan Sheng replied straightforwardly: "A certain person is willing to help."

Xiao He continued to stay in the pass to prepare food, grass and soldiers. Liu Bang led a group of civil and military officials with an army of [-] and marched into Wuguan mightily.

Xiang Yu heard that Liu Bang showed up at Wuguan, how could he stand up to the temptation, so he immediately mobilized his army to come to Liu Bang.At first Liu Bang was worried that Xiang Yu would not be fooled by this, so he easily threw away the Xingcheng defense line. He didn't know that Xiang Yu had been fooled several times, and he hated him so much that he wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible.In addition, capturing thieves and capturing kings is Xiang Yu's consistent tactics. He thinks your Han army is not Liu Bang, as long as this old man is wiped out, where is the Han army?What's the matter with Guanzhong?For this reason, Xiang Yu would rather hand over the task of killing the main force of the Han army to others, and he has to deal with Liu Bang himself.He didn't believe that he, a descendant of an invincible nobleman, couldn't defeat that rustic old hat who came out of the corner of the country.Liu Bang was very unhappy when he saw this.

As Yuan Sheng said, Wuguan is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It stretches for hundreds of miles. It is either a big mountain or a high slope of loess.Liu Bang appeared on the enemy building once or twice a day, deliberately letting the Chu army see.Xiang Yu sometimes came to Guanxia and asked the soldiers to talk to Liu Bang, but Liu Bang just pretended not to hear.As soon as Xiang Yu left, the Han army sent a small team to quickly attack the Chu army from behind, causing the Chu army to make a fuss.Xiang Yu convened all the generals to discuss a strategy to defeat the Han, but there was no good way. In the end, he only agreed to send soldiers to the pass every day to scold and fight, angering the Han army, let them come down from the pass, and then suppress them from the side.

For more than ten days in a row, the Chu army went to the pass every day to scold and fight, and insulted Liu Bang and the Han army. Many generals of the Han army could not bear the humiliation.Liu Bang just smiled, and said instead: "What can they curse us for? Can they break our arms and hurt our legs? If we want to fight, we will either turn around or lose our arms and legs. Why do we have to take that risk? Let's talk about Xiang Yu The first person to scold me in the scolding war is me. I am not angry yet. Why are you so anxious? The purpose of their scolding is to get us to fight, and if we don’t come out, it is to make them suffer. Let them scold them, and stop scolding when they are tired. "

The generals didn't know what kind of medicine was sold in Liu Bang's gourd. Hearing what Liu Bang said, he didn't say anything, but he was not convinced in his heart.These people have to go to the customs every day, Chu Jun scolds below, they listen to them above, and they can't leave yet.One day, a captain named Zou Tai heard the scolding from below, and he couldn't help complaining: "Soldiers are for fighting. Now even though the Chu army scolds us as cowards, everyone is like a coward! You don't want to fight!" Fight, I will go down and fight with these bastard grandchildren!"

When Zou Tai said this, it happened that Liu Bang came to him, and immediately reprimanded him: "As a leader, you are so reckless, and if you talk about it, you will be killed!" them.

No matter how provocative the Chu army is, the Han army should not.Xiang Yu thought that this might be some kind of trick by Liu Bang, and said to his subordinates: "If Liu Bang doesn't fight, there must be something else. Since he has been here, it means that this place is very important to him, so we can't leave easily. The scolding battle is over, let's pretend to leave, how about him?"

Suddenly, for a few days, the Han army no longer saw the scene of the Chu army scolding and fighting, and only a few teams of soldiers were active below.Liu Bang, Zhang Liang, Chen Ping, and Yuan Sheng went upstairs to observe, and saw that the Chu army was retreating slowly, and then observed in the morning and evening, and found that there was no smoke in the place where the Chu army was stationed.Now Liu Bang was in a hurry, and hurriedly said to everyone: "It seems that the Chu army has withdrawn. We must pursue them quickly and hold them back so that they do not return to Xingyang and Chenggao."

For a while, several gates of the Han army opened wide, and the brigade quickly came to the pass.Seeing the attack of the Han army, the few remaining Chu troops fled one after another.After chasing for several miles, the Chu army turned around to meet the Han army.At the same time, the Chu army who had ambushed in advance attacked from the north and south flanks.The Han army was suddenly surrounded on three sides.However, due to being scolded so badly by the Chu army these days, most of the Han soldiers were so angry that they were extremely jealous when they saw the Chu army, and they couldn't help but slashed and killed them bravely.The Chu army did not show weakness.You have me in the two armies, and you are in me, forming a melee situation.From the morning to the afternoon of the battle, the Chu army was numerous and gradually gained the upper hand.The Han army fought and retreated. They retreated to Guanshang around the evening, counted the number of people, and lost nearly 2 people.

It turned out that Xiang Yu saw that the Han army could only hold out no matter how they called the formation, so he resorted to a trick, saying that he would lure the snake out of the hole.He asked the troops to cook enough food for two days, and not to light fires for the next few days, so as to give the Han army the illusion that most of the Chu army had withdrawn.Then arrange some people to pretend to evacuate, stirring up waves of dust.When Liu Bang saw this situation, he really fell into Xiang Yu's trick, and he regretted it too late.

Liu Bang summed up his experience and lessons, and said: "I thought the Chu army had begun to retreat, but I didn't expect the overlord of Chu to be deceived by us a lot, and he also learned how to play tricks, so he gave us a hard-to-catch game. I regret that I didn't listen to Mr. Yuan's words. If you can’t stick to it, you will be defeated, and the blame lies with me.”

Zhang Liang said: "The King of Han was not wrong. This is also good. Let the Chu army have a small victory, so that they can be tied more firmly and prevent them from giving up Wuguan easily. Through this battle, we also know more about Xiang Yu's attention. Mainly on the lord, strengthen our determination to hold him here."

"Oh, I can only explain it this way, otherwise I really don't know how to explain to the three armies." Liu Bang sighed.

"Your Majesty, don't blame yourself too much. As Mr. Zhang Liang said, as long as we can contain the Chu army here, it will be the greatest victory. You think, the Chu army has been fighting for many years, and now it is facing a problem of insufficient food supply. Even if there are things available in the rear, long-distance transportation is also a big problem. If this continues, how long can they last? So I think that the Han army can take advantage of the convenient supply in the rear, and if it can hold the Chu army for one more day, it will win for one more day. Xiang Yu is also very aware of this, so he wants to fight quickly. After this battle, he must increase his efforts to break through the barriers, and the king should take precautions early." Yuan Sheng suggested to Liu Bangjun and his ministers.

Liu Bang said: "Mr. Yuan's words are very true." Then he ordered all the ministries to strengthen their fortifications and stand ready to prevent the Chu army from attacking.

Xiang Yu knew that this trick had caused heavy damage to the Han army, so he made up his mind to capture Liu Bang alive here.He ordered the troops to detour and compete with the Han army for favorable terrain.The Han army was small, and several strongholds on the high slopes of the loess fell successively.Liu Bang was very anxious about this.

Since He Ce rebelled against Yingbo last time, Xiang Yu mobilized a large number of troops and horses to besiege Jiujiang. It took more than seven months to almost wipe out Yingbo's power.Yingbo was desperate, so he came to vote for Liu Bang at this time.Liu Bang is now an opportunity to employ people. Kuang had promised Yingbo before, so he treated him warmly and asked him to return to Jiujiang to recruit the old troops to support Wuguan.

Yingbu saw that the King of Han would not break his promise, and was willing to accept him, and he did not treat him as an outsider. He arranged tasks for him when he first arrived, showing that he trusted him.After all, Yingbo is a hero, and the centipede is dead but not stiff. After he arrived in Jiujiang, he raised his arms and quickly gathered 2 people.According to the deployment of the King of Han, he launched an attack on the Chu army from the side.

Xiang Yu realized more and more that Liu Bang was very cunning, and it might not be so easy to catch him in a short time. He had to change his strategy in time as the situation changed.With this idea in mind, he dealt with Liu Bang on the one hand, and on the other hand began to pay attention to the battle situation in Xingyang. After learning that the main forces of the two armies were still at a stalemate, he planned to bring some troops back to reinforce Zhong Limei and break through the important line of defense of the Han army in one fell swoop. .

Liu Bang was shocked when he heard the news from the spies, and realized that his plan to hold Xiang Yu in Wuguan was about to fail, so he immediately launched an attack on the Chu army.At the same time, an envoy was sent to Han Xin to send troops to the north of the Yellow River, attack the Chu army from the side and rear, and cut off the Chu army's food delivery channel.In this way, the Han army had opened up two battlefields outside the Xing and Gao lines to disperse the energy of the Chu army.

Fortunately, Xiang Yu was not willing to give up Liu Bang's big piece of fat in the end. He Gu, seeing that Liu Bang dared to come out to fight, immediately gave up his plan to return to Xingyang, obediently obeyed Liu Bang's dispatch, and continued to stay in Wuguan to entangle with his old enemy.What he always thought was that as long as Liu Bang was there, he would fight there, and he couldn't see the opponent jumping up and down there for a moment, alive and kicking.

(End of this chapter)