God of War through the ages: Han Xin

Chapter 41
Since Han Xin became the general of the Han Dynasty, he has conquered the Qin Dynasty, conquered Wei, settled Zhao, surrendered Yan, descended to Qi, and defeated Chu Rui. It seems that the color is not good enough, at least in Han Xin's view.

This expected battle of Gaixia was the first time Han Xin faced Xiang Yu in a real sense, and Han Xin also hoped that this would be the last time.The day Han Xin had been waiting for finally came, and the young general seemed very excited.

From the perspective of the situation, Han Xin is fully confident in annihilating Xiang Yu. At this time, the situation between Chu and Han has obviously developed in a direction that is beneficial to Han.

Northern Line: Han Xin's 30 Qi troops marched southward with high morale.Because the main force of the Chu army was on the front line, Pengcheng had become an empty city. Han Xin took Pengcheng without any effort, and then continued south, greatly reducing Xiang Yu's living space.

North of the west line: Peng Yue's army is like a sharp sword, in the direction of northwest-southeast, straight from the girder to Gaixia.

South of the Western Front: Liu Bang's [-] troops are in Guling with a high base and deep ditch. Liu Bang is not good at attacking, but he is good at defending. With Liu Bang sitting in Guling, it is basically impossible for Xiang Yu to break through to the west.

Southern Line: In November of the fifth year of the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.), Wang Yingbu of Huainan and General Liu Jianan crossed the Huaihe River, forced to land in Zhou Yin, the great Sima of Chu, and accepted Huainan as the border of the Han Dynasty.Yingbo returned to Jiujiang, where he had been away for a long time, recruited the old tribe, and then went north to destroy Chu.

The power of Xiang Yu, the once majestic overlord of Chu, was squeezed into a narrow and long area that was no more than Pengcheng in the north, Guling in the west, Huaihe River in the south, and Gaixia in the east.The various departments of the Han army have received accurate information: the Chu army retreated eastward to Gaixia, and Xiang Yu's next strategic choice is unknown.

Xiang Yu actually understands the art of war, he knows the truth of "a thousand miles, and the enemy kills the general".To put it simply, the strength of the Chu army is only [-]. If they are scattered in various places to fight against the superior Han army, it will greatly weaken the Chu army's ability to resist.Instead of being defeated by the various ministries of the Han army, it is better to shrink all the main forces in one place, and then fight a big battle with the Han army. Instead, there is a possibility of survival.

Put it to death and live later, Han Xin can defeat Zhao in a desperate battle, why can't Xiang Yu defeat Han Xin in a desperate battle?

There are two important reasons why Xiang Yu chose Gaixia as the battlefield:

[-]. The Chu army is good at positional warfare. If the Chu army backs to the north bank of the Huaihe River and fights with the Han army, it will not be able to use this specialty of the Chu army at all.Although Gaixia is close to the north bank of the Huaihe River, it is still more than a hundred miles away from the north bank. Such a large area is enough to fight a large-scale positional battle.

[-]. Once the battle of Gaixia is defeated, Xiang Yu can cross the Huaihe River and go down the Huaihe River from Gaixia, break through to Jiangdong, and then make plans later.Xiang Yu later refused to cross the river after his defeat, saying that he had no face to see Jiangdong's elders again. In fact, Xiang Yu had plans to cross the river, otherwise why would he flee to the north bank of the Yangtze River?You can fight to the death in Gaixia, why break out?
Gaixia was originally a small open area in Huaibei, because the legendary two parties and three people——Xiang Yu, Liu Bang and Han Xin will decide their respective futures and destinies here, attracting the attention of the world.

The outcome of this battle of Gaixia will determine whether the world will continue to implement the county system or retain the enfeoffment system.

From this perspective, Xiang Yu and Han Xin can even be regarded as a camp, because they both advocate the system of enfeoffment, while Liu Bang is a powerful figure in implementing the system of prefectures and counties.But at this moment, Liu Bang and Han Xin are still standing firmly together. No matter how big the conflicts between them are, when they face the same enemy Xiang Yu, all the grievances will be temporarily put aside.

Liu Bang wants revenge, and Han Xin also wants revenge.

In Han Xin's army, there were no generals Cao Shen and Guan Ying.When Han Xin went south, Cao Shen stayed in Qi State to prevent the forces pro-Tian Qi from taking the opportunity to make trouble.But Guan Ying had already left Qi before Han Xin went south, and went south to open the way.Guan Ying's task is to open up the strategic channel between Qi and Han, and at the same time help Liu Bang sweep away the remnants of the army's western front.

Xiang Yu arrived in Gaixia in December of the fifth year of the Han Dynasty (202 BC).

The weather at this time was extremely cold, with heavy rain and snow, and the Chu army had already set up camp in a large open space under Gaixia.Xiang Yu rode a crow, holding a halberd in his hand, letting the cold wind like a knife wrap the snow particles on his cold cheeks, looking at the chaotic sky.Xiang Yu put the army to death, just hoping to turn the weak into the strong mentally, take the last gamble, and as for the success or failure, he just listened to the destiny and did his best.

The wounded lion was trapped in the valley, and countless hungry wolves, staring at their scarlet eyes, howling and murderous, slowly gathered on the side of the valley.

Xiang Yu had already smelled a strong smell of death. He saw teams of Han troops encircling Gaixia from all directions, and they were about to complete their complete encirclement.Xiang Yu tried to make a strategic gap from this tight encirclement. Just when the Han army was not able to gain a firm foothold in Gaixia, Xiang Yu suddenly led a hungry army into the Han army's formation.

Historical data does not indicate which unit of the Han army Xiang Yu attacked, and even the direction of the attack is not clear.However, judging from Xiang Yu's use of Gaixia as a springboard to cross the south and retreat, the Chu army's attack direction should be the south, and the opponent should be Liu Jia's or Yingbu's army.

The battle ended with Xiang Yu's defeat, and he failed to achieve his goal of breaking out of the encirclement.

Among the four directions for the Han army to encircle the Chu army, the south direction is actually the most important. Once Xiang Yu is allowed to break through from the south direction, the encirclement strategy carefully prepared by the various ministries of the Han army will completely fail.This is also an important reason why Liu Bang suddenly sent Liu Jia and Yingbo to copy Huainan in advance. It was to cut off Xiang Yu's southward escape route and buy extremely precious time for the Han army's encirclement strategy.

Faced with Xiang Yu's almost crazy and desperate attack, the Han army on the southern front was like an iron wall, holding Xiang Yu firmly on the north bank of the Huaihe River.Xiang Yu failed to break through the siege, so he had to return to the camp in despair, and used deep ditches and high fortifications to fight the Han army to the end.The trapped beast is still fighting, and Xiang Yu still has to look for the 99% chance to come back from the 1% mortality rate.

The Han army would not give Xiang Yu any respite. All the Han armies had already arrived in their respective combat areas. Liu Bang, Han Xin, Peng Yue, Liu Jia and other main forces of the Han army surrounded the Chu camp from all directions.Relying on the superiority in numbers, the Han army achieved at least three layers of encirclement of the Chu army. It is said in history that "the Han army and the princes encircled (Chu) heavily."

Among the Han armies on all sides, Han Xin's 30 Qi army is undoubtedly the trump card main force for annihilating the remnants of the Chu army this time. Liu Bang sees this very clearly.If Han Xin doesn't come, it's hard to believe that Liu Bang has the guts to launch a strategic attack on Xiang Yu. At most, it will be a strategic stalemate and consume Xiang Yu's strength piecemeal.

It cannot be said that the other Han troops came to "play soy sauce", and their combat tasks are also very heavy-you must drag Xiang Yu to Gaixia.But after they complete this task, a golden road will flash out, allowing General Han Xin to become a god in battle.

In the current military circles of the Han Dynasty, no one dared to be dissatisfied with Han Xin, and they even became loyal admirers of Han Xin.Han Xin made a great contribution to the fact that the Han State was able to achieve a beautiful comeback against the mighty Chu State with its weakness.The world was almost brought down by Han Xin, and it is only reasonable for Han Xin to complete the final blow to Xiang Yu.

In front of the god of war Xiang Yu, Liu Bang did not have any self-confidence, which can be seen from the deployment of troops in the siege of Gaixia this time.

Han Xin's army came from Qi State to the south, and it should be stationed in the north of Gaixia, and also extended to the east and west, forming a fan shape to encircle the Chu army.The 30 troops of Qi were on the front line encircling Chu, with Han Xin in the center, Liaohou Kongxi on the left, and Feihou Chen He on the right.Liu Bang is on the second line, hiding behind Han Xin, and Zhou Bo and Chai Wu are on the third line, which is called a triple siege.

The Han army was very particular about the triple siege of the Chu army, not because the Han army in the second and third lines had much fear of the Chu army.The 30 Qi army newly trained by Han Xin has the strongest combat effectiveness among the various ministries of the Han army. The Qi army has a better chance of winning against the hungry and scattered Chu army.Once the stalemate in the battle situation, the Han army on the second and third lines immediately made up, and implemented wheel tactics against the Chu army. If Xiang Yu could not be killed, he would be consumed.

Liu Bang is in the center, neither because Liu Bang is afraid of Xiang Yu, nor because Han Xin does not want Liu Bang to make meritorious service, but because he effectively protects Liu Bang.Capture the thief first, capture the king first, Liu Bang is the backbone of the Han army, Xiang Yu must be playing Liu Bang's idea, once Liu Bang has two bad things, the Han army will collapse without fighting.

The Han army had a lot of food and high fighting spirit. Han Xin alone commanded 30 troops, not including the tens of thousands led by his two subordinates, Kong Xi and Chen He.With Han Xin in front, it is basically impossible for Xiang Yu to get close to Liu Bang. Even if Han Xin can't stand Xiang Yu, tens of thousands of Han troops from Zhou Bo and Chai Wu in the third line will immediately rush to the front to protect Liu Bang.

During the siege of Gaixia, Han Xin's troops attracted almost everyone's attention, but they ignored the two inconspicuous armies around Han Xin—Kong Xi's and Chen He's troops.Both of them are generals of Han Xin. According to common sense, Han Xin should use their troops for his own use, concentrate superior forces to encircle and annihilate the Chu army.Han Xin did not do this, but deliberately divided Kong Xi and Chen He on both sides.

On the surface, Han Xin's use of troops in this way weakened his military advantage over Xiang Yu. In fact, this is the secret of Han Xin's soldiers.Han Xin's tactical thinking in the Battle of Gaixia, in general, inherited the combat theory of "Sun Tzu's Art of War·Strengthen the Fifth" of "Using Righteousness to Win by Strangeness".Han Xin used heavy troops as bait to lure Xiang Yu out of the cave, and the Chu army would form a long snake formation to pursue Han Xin. The division counterattacked and killed Chu in one battle.

Han Xin knows Xiang Yu too well, the more dangerous he is, the more he can inspire the powerful small universe in Xiang Yu's heart.He knew that the heavy siege of the Han army would surely make Xiang Yu go to the bottom of the boat again and fight to the death with the Han army.Han Xin is not afraid of Xiang Yu, although he knows that in terms of individual combat ability, Xiang Yu is well-deserved number one in the world, and Han Xin is not good at fighting on the battlefield.

Xiang Yu is more powerful than wise, and Han Xin is more wise than powerful.History is about to give a clear answer whether the stronger is the king or the wiser is the king.

(End of this chapter)