God of War through the ages: Han Xin

Chapter 43 The Death of Xiang Yu
In December on the north bank of the Huaihe River, the coldest temperature was more than ten degrees below zero. The Chu army had no food, no clothes, no quilts to sleep, and could not see their loved ones. Morale had dropped to freezing point.

The combat thinking of the Han army is very clear: encircle without fighting, and then take advantage of the disadvantages to wipe them out. Anyway, Liu Bang has plenty of food, and Xiang Yu can't last for a few days.

At this time, someone gave Liu Bang an idea.This man was in the ear of the King of Han, and muttered a few words in a low voice. Liu Bang clapped his hands and laughed loudly: "Besieged on all sides, Xiang Yu deserves his death!"

Besieged on all sides - Famous allusions in history, classic tactics of attacking the heart, who came up with it, there is no record in history.There are three people who are most likely to propose this strategy: Zhang Liang, Han Xin, and even Liu Bang himself, among which Zhang Liang is the most likely.

Although Zhang Liang was not from Chu, he had lived in Xiapi of Chu for ten years and knew the customs of Chu people well, so he could definitely regard Zhang Liang as a Chu person.Songs of Chu, as the name suggests, are ballads of the Chu region, but Gaixia Chu songs compiled by later generations have an obvious style of Chu Ci, which was impossible for semi-literate Liu Bang to create, and Han Xin was not good at it, only Zhang Liang could do it .

……

It was very late at night, but Xiang Yu didn't feel sleepy at all. In such a situation where he was out of ammunition and food, how could he even think about sleeping.Xiang Yu sat weakly in front of the table, drinking to relieve his worries. His beloved concubine, Yu Ji, did not speak, and silently poured wine for her man.

Xiang Yu sighed softly, raised his bottle, and drank it all in one gulp.

Someone outside the tent seemed to be singing, and the voice was getting louder.Xiang Yu listened carefully, and found that the song was sung in Chuyin.Since he crossed the river and conquered Qin Dynasty, countless Chu people have filled the ravines, and not many survived.Under the siege, it is inevitable to miss the hometown and the old land, so Xiang Yu can understand the homesickness of the soldiers.

Xiang Yu decided to go out to sing with the soldiers to encourage everyone's fighting spirit and make everyone believe that he can lead the Chu army to break through and return to his hometown to reunite with his relatives.But when Xiang Yu pulled out the curtain and went out of the tent, he was dumbfounded. None of the brothers in the camp were singing, but sobbing and crying.

The singing came from outside the camp.

The bright moon is like snow, the wind is as cold as a knife, and a desolate and mournful sound of Chuyin flute penetrates the empty wilderness.The Han army outside the camp sang along with the flute.

The people of Chu were homesick, Wangyue shed tears, choked their throats, and sang this song of Chu that broke their hearts.

The morale of the Chu army was already very low, and the battalion was filled with a strong sense of war weariness and homesickness, which could not stand the blow of the Han army's vicious scheming.Although they did not leave the Chu camp and surrendered to the Han army, not many people were willing to continue fighting this war that had no chance of winning. They longed for the war to end as soon as possible so that they could return to their hometown and reunite with their relatives.

Besieged on all sides, the blow to Xiang Yu's self-confidence was devastating.

Xiang Yu returned to the tent with a gloomy face, and saw Yu Ji was still sitting beside the mat waiting for him, with a sad expression, Xiang Yu's hard shell was suddenly shattered, which touched the weakest emotional string in his heart.Although Xiang Yu is strong, he is also a man of flesh and blood, he can laugh and cry.

Xiang Yu suddenly burst into tears. He walked to the case emotionally, took up the remaining wine on the case, drank it down, and then generously sang:
Pull the mountain out of the world.

Time is unfavorable and immortal.

It's not going to die,
What is it?
This historically famous "Song of Gaixia" sang all the pain and anxiety in Xiang Yu's heart.Back then, he was like a tiger swallowing thousands of miles with anger, but now he is trapped in a dead end, unable to advance or retreat.Where are the 40 princes' army in Bashang?Where is the dragon?Where is Fan Zeng?Xiang Yu missed his old friend, and tears fell like rain.

Xiang Yu already faintly felt that the end of his life was just around the corner.

Xiang Yu has always believed in the aesthetics of violence. Looking at the battles Xiang Yu participated in, few of them won with wisdom, and most of them carried out large-scale encirclement and annihilation of the enemy with superior forces.Xiang Yu is more like a flower in a greenhouse. He has never experienced outdoor storms, and his understanding of life is far less thorough than that of Han Xin, who has experienced hardships. He lacks the experience of surviving in adversity, which also affects Xiang Yu's impromptu decision-making.

In the Battle of Gaixia, Xiang Yu did not make any obvious tactical mistakes, but the "momentum" of the decisive battle between the two armies was no longer in his hands. Han Xin had blocked all of Xiang Yu's livelihoods, and Xiang Yu could only struggle painfully in the quagmire. The more I struggle, the deeper I sink.

For Xiang Yu, the best choice is to avoid a decisive battle with the main force of the Han army, and go straight south across the river in a big leap, so as to secure the natural moat of the Yangtze River to defend it.Xiang Yu was obsessed with the Zhangshui victory and the victory of the Pengcheng battle. He hoped to replicate the glory of the year, but unfortunately he met Han Xin.

There are many reasons for Xiang Yu's failure, one is very important, that is, Xiang Yu is not good at overall strategic planning, he is better at tactics, and Han Xin is a genius in both strategy and tactics.Han Xin's strategy of encircling Chu on the northern line was very clever, and Xiang Yu's living space was continuously compressed from the northern line, causing Xiang Yu to become a loner in the end.

The situation has developed to this point, how much confidence does Xiang Yu, who was once full of confidence, still have?Xiang Yu is not afraid of death, and his brothers are not afraid of death, but if there is no food, if they are not beaten to death, they will starve to death.There is only one way for Xiang Yu: lead a small group of elites to forcefully break out of the encirclement, he can no longer stay here and wait to die, he must break out of the encirclement before the food is completely exhausted, as for whether he can successfully break out of the encirclement, it is up to fate.

Xiang Yu was still singing "Gaixia Song" sadly, but his woman was sobbing and fell to the ground.Ever since she married Xiang Yu, the first hero in Jiangdong, Concubine Yu has been living in a romantic fairy tale world.Xiang Yu travels the world, Yu Ji is often afraid of her man, but every time Xiang Yu can sing triumphantly, all the waiting becomes sweet happiness.

But this time, when Han Xin, the halberd of the former Chu army, commanded hundreds of thousands of troops to surround the Chu army in Gaixia, Yu Ji already had an ominous premonition.

Seeing Xiang Yu's handsome face full of haggardness and despair, Yu Ji was heartbroken, but there was nothing she could do.The only thing she can do is to accompany her man through the last part of his life and live up to Xiang Yu's love.Concubine Yu Lihua sang the last monologue she dedicated to her man in Chu dialect with rain and emotion: "The Han soldiers are already on the ground, and the songs are singing everywhere. The king is exhausted, and the concubine can't live."

This is a tear gas bomb that no one can stop. Xiang Yu has killed countless people and his heart is as cold as iron, but he is easily moved by the soft existence of women, let alone in this place full of death for Xiang Yu.Hearing Yu Ji's desperate and poignant singing, Overlord burst into tears.

Not only Xiang Yu was crying, but also his attendants in the tent.The King of Chu listened to these two dirges of the age, and fell to the ground crying, sobbing.For a while, the cloud in the tent was bleak, and the cries were endless, which made people unbearable to hear.

The loud cries in the Chu camp were actually a denial of Xiang Yu's series of strategic mistakes over the years, and Xiang Yu had already realized this.But there is no point in self-criticism at this time. What Xiang Yu needs most now is to escape the encirclement of the Han army and start a new life.

How likely is it to break through, Xiang Yu has no idea, but it is better than sitting here dead.It's just that there are hundreds of thousands of Han troops on the periphery. If you break through with tens of thousands of remnants, the goal is too big, and it is easy to become the target of the Han army.If you want to break through, you must abandon the large army and lead a small number of people to break through.As for the soldiers of the Chu army, Xiang Yu actually saved them by abandoning them, because the Han army did not have the habit of slaughtering prisoners of war.

There is no longer any delay, and we must leave now.Xiang Yu mounted his horse, and eight hundred cavalry guards followed closely behind the Overlord, with the horse's head facing the south.Xiang Yu glanced back at the empty sleeping tent, sighed softly, and gave the order to set off.

The darkness of night witnessed Xiang Yu's last passion.In the distance, the songs of Chu are endless, and the listeners are sad.

There is a famous love story in history, that is, after singing, Ji Yu drew her sword and killed herself for Xiang Yu, but the whereabouts of Ji Yu was not recorded in the history books.Under the circumstances that Xiang Yu might succeed in breaking through, Yu Ji is unlikely to commit suicide. The most likely possibility is that Yu Ji followed Xiang Yu to break out of the siege, and was captured by the Han army on the way or died in the chaos.

The Han army on the southern front did not expect that Xiang Yu would use suicide to break through, and did not make preparations to prevent Xiang Yu from breaking out, and the cavalry rushed forward very fast, almost in the blink of an eye, and [-] cavalry forcibly speeded up and stepped on The antlers of the Han army rushed to the periphery.

However, the Han army has a large number of people, and the Han camp is heavy. Eight hundred cavalry broke through the first camp of the Han army, and there are still several camps behind. When the Han army is ready for military preparations, the speed advantage of the cavalry weakens. down.In the process of rushing, the cavalry of the Chu army continued to fall off their horses, and Yu Ji also disappeared. There were only more than 100 cavalry left by Xiang Yu's side.

Fortunately, Xiang Yu was still alive, and he had rushed out of the encirclement of the Han army.The black horse galloped wildly with lightning, and more than a hundred cavalry around him quickly followed up.

Liu Bang will never let Xiang Yu slip away from his palm, otherwise there will be endless troubles.Liu Bang immediately sent General Guan Ying to lead [-] cavalry out of the camp to pursue Xiang Yu.
Because the information was obtained too late, when Guan Ying led the army to chase and kill, Xiang Yu had won the biggest time difference, leaving the five thousand cavalry of the Han Dynasty far behind.Even if it was a troublesome thing like crossing the river, Xiang Yu still had enough time to find a boat to cross the river, or directly ride his horse to float down the river, but it took more time for thousands of Han troops to cross the Huaihe River.As the time increased and decreased, there were no more pursuers behind Xiang Yu.

The south bank of the Huaihe River is the old land of Chu State. The Han army basically has no mass base in Huainan. Xiang Yu doesn't have to worry about betrayal by traitors. This is also a major advantage of Xiang Yu.But what Xiang Yu never expected was that there was a "traitor" who provided false information to Xiang Yu, causing all the time that Xiang Yu had worked so hard to win before.

This is an unknown farmer who was working in the field when he suddenly saw more than 100 war horses rushing towards him. The general in charge asked him where he was and how to get to Jiangdong.

Although Xiang Yu is from Chu, he has lived in Jiangdong since he was a child and is not familiar with the geographical conditions of Huainan.There were two roads in front of him, one on the left and the other on the right. Xiang Yu didn't know which road to take, so he happened to see the farmer and asked.There were already cavalrymen nearby who ordered him: This is King Xiang, Erhu will not worship!
It turns out that this is the world-famous Overlord of Western Chu!The farmer suppressed the ecstasy in his heart, he raised his left hand, pointed to a road in front of him and said, "Go left, you can go to the east of the river." As soon as his words fell, Xiang Yu had already rode away, and more than a hundred riders disappeared into the mist In the vast fields.

Xiang Yu soon discovered that it was a hoax, because in front of him appeared a large swamp full of death, with no end in sight.Xiang Yu scolded the farmer for cheating him shamelessly, but he didn't think about why the farmer cheated him. The answer was only two words: people's hearts.

Xiang Yu turned his horse's head and turned back to the place where he asked for directions. The most mysterious farmer in history had already disappeared.Xiang Yu spat hard on the ground, and ordered to rush to the right, going back and forth, Xiang Yu wasted too much time.When Xiang Yu fled to Dongcheng in embarrassment (now southeast of Dingyuan, Anhui), he had already heard the sound of horseshoes approaching from far behind. This was the pursuit sent by Liu Bang.As for Xiang Yu, there were only 28 people left.

The Grim Reaper grinned, opened his claws, and approached Xiang Yu who had nowhere to go, which on the contrary aroused the blood in Xiang Yu's bones that had been suppressed for a long time.Xiang Yu impassionedly delivered the last speech in his life to 28 brothers. Even from a certain point of view, this is Xiang Yu's final conclusion on his life. "Historical Records Xiang Yu Benji": "I have been eight years old since I started the army. I have fought more than [-] times. Those who deserved to be defeated and those who were attacked were conquered. I was not defeated, so I dominated the world. But today I am trapped here, and this day is dead. I am not guilty of war. I am determined to die today. I wish to fight quickly for the kings, and I will win three times. I will break the siege for the kings, cut off the generals, and mow the flags, so that the kings will know that heaven has killed me. "

Xiang Yu's personal heroism has reached the extreme, but he has never understood why he has fallen to where he is today, and he has shifted the responsibility for failure to others, even God's will.Why didn't heaven kill Liu Bang, but Xiang Yu?When Xiang Yu killed Qin Qi's army and civilians, why didn't he think that what he did was acting against the sky?

Liu Bang has military and political legs in parallel, plus a strategic brain.However, Xiang Yu is superstitious about the philosophy of violence, blindly using violence to kill, and losing the hearts of the people.Xiang Yu's "died here" is "God"'s denial of his injustice, if there is a will.

If you evaluate Xiang Yu not from the standpoint of heroism in the world, but from the standpoint of individual heroism, you will come to the opposite conclusion: Xiang Yu is indeed a hero like no other in the world!
The Han army had already surrounded the "Chu army" and kept compressing the space, but Xiang Yu divided the 28 cavalry into four teams, each charging in one direction, and agreed that once they rushed out, they would be at the foot of Jiutou Mountain (Quanjiaoxi, Anhui) meet.Don't blame Xiang Yu for dividing up his troops, 28 people VS 5000 people, it doesn't matter whether they are separated or not.As long as Xiang Yu can break out of the siege, for these 28 Chu cavalry, it is worthwhile to die in battle, at least they are worthy of Xiang Yu's promise to them.

Xiang Yu roared angrily, releasing all the anger accumulated in his heart, galloped his horse and swung his halberd, and rushed straight into the cavalry formation of Han with lightning speed.Everyone in the world knows that Xiang Yu's single-handed charging ability is unmatched. Although the Han army is numerous, they do not have the courage to challenge Xiang Yu single-handedly.The Han army was invincible and retreated several miles.Xiang Yu galloped forward and beheaded several generals of the Han army. A black lightning blasted the cloud and rushed straight down Jiutou Mountain.Xiang Yu waited at the foot of the mountain for a while, and 26 cavalry came one after another, only two cavalry were killed.

However, after all, the Han army had a large number of people, and soon surrounded Xiang Yu in a small space.Regarding the location where Xiang Yu was besieged by the Han army for the second time, there is a lot of controversy in history. One is the west bank of Wujiang River (the Yangtze River near Hexian County, Anhui Province), and the other is Dongcheng.Although Sima Qian mentioned Wujiang River in "Historical Records Xiang Yu Benji", it was Xiang Yu who "wanted" to cross Wujiang River, which does not mean that Xiang Yu was on the west bank of Wujiang River at this time. In the same historical material, Sima Qian clearly explained the place of Xiang Yu's death— — East City.

The Wujiang Pavilion Master Xiang Yu met was not waiting for Xiang Yu on the west bank of the Wujiang River, but was in the east city to persuade Xiang Yu to cross the river.From the conversation between Xiang Yu and the head of the pavilion, it can be seen that they knew each other before. It is entirely possible that the head of the pavilion heard the news of Xiang Yu's defeat at Gaixia, went north to meet Xiang Yu, and met Xiang Yu by chance in Dongcheng.

The head of the pavilion of Wujiang said that although Jiangdong is small, it is thousands of miles away, and there are hundreds of thousands of people, enough to confront Liu Bang across the river, but Xiang Yu still rejected the kindness of the head of the pavilion.He told the pavilion chief: "I led [-] children from Jiangdong to cross Jiangxi to destroy Qin. Now all my children are dead, and I am the only one who survives. Even if the elders in Jiangdong support the fight against Han, how can I see them? Even if they don't say I am What, can I be ashamed in my heart?"

Why did Xiang Yu refuse to cross the river?It can be inferred from the fact that Xiang Yu has been fleeing south since he broke through Gaixia. Xiang Yu wanted to cross the river. If he knew that he was ashamed of his elders in Jiangdong, he should have died in Gaixia.

If "Historical Records" does not contain texts or errors in transcription by later generations, there can only be a reasonable explanation.When Xiang Yu faced the siege of the Han army, the pride in his bones broke out again, and he began to despise his escape route, because it did not fit Xiang Yu's character.In a rage, Xiang Yu ordered all 26 people to dismount and fight the Han army with short soldiers to the end. Xiang Yu no longer considered the issue of life and death.

Facing thousands of Han soldiers, Xiang Yu couldn't stop laughing wildly. At this time, he truly experienced the tragic and tragic of a lonely hero. This is not Xiang Yu's pursuit, but at this time Xiang Yu enjoys the pleasure of being a hero alone.All the beauties in the world are left behind, Xiang Yu just wants to prove his greatness and uniqueness in front of a group of men, even if it is the last time in his life.

Xiang Yu was capable of carrying a tripod, and his force was unmatched in the world. The Han army was no match for Xiang Yu at all. Before long, hundreds of corpses fell in front of Xiang Yu, but the price Xiang Yu paid was more than ten stab wounds on his body.Xiang Yu's physical strength was limited. When he could no longer raise his sword, thousands of Han soldiers still held spears and halberds, tightly surrounding Xiang Yu, but no one dared to go forward and kill the dying Overlord of Western Chu.

Under the setting sun, the north wind howled, and Xiang Yu, covered in blood, stood on the ground with his sword as a pillar, panting heavily, and 26 brothers around him had already died in battle.Xiang Yu has realized that it is absolutely impossible for him to break out of the encirclement again, and his great life is about to come to a poignant end, but he has never regretted it. In Xiang Yu's subconscious, men should die like him.

Xiang Yu stared at Lu Matong, the cavalry commander of the Han army not far in front of him, who was his old friend.Xiang Yu forced a smile and greeted Lu Matong, but Lu Matong lowered his head, not daring to look at Xiang Yu, he was afraid of being killed by Xiang Yu's desperate and calm eyes.

Xiang Yu squeezed out the last smile in his life, and told the Han army: "Knowing that the King of Han has paid thousands of dollars to buy my head, I will fulfill you today. After I die, you can take my head and give it to the King of Han to make you rich."

Enduring the knife wound on his body, Xiang Yu slowly raised the sword in his hand, put it on his neck, looked up at the long sky, and the sunset glow was like a charm.He seemed to see some familiar faces flashing before his eyes: Uncle Xiang Liang, Xiong Xin, Song Yi, Fan Zeng, Long Qi, and his beloved woman Yu Ji.

With the sword in hand and blood pouring down, a stalwart figure crashed down, and a passionate legend of the rivers and lakes came to an end.

Xiang Yu was 31 years old.

After Xiang Yu's death, the Han army swarmed up to snatch Xiang Yu's body, or what they scrambled for was just pieces of cold gold.For the sake of fame and fortune, the soldiers and generals of the Han army killed dozens of people. In the end, only five people were lucky enough to get some of Xiang Yu's corpses. Lu Sheng, Yang Wu.

The five lucky ones happily returned to Gaixia Hanying to show Liu Bang their spoils.When Xiang Yu's body was pieced together, Liu Bangfu sighed and was speechless. Some people saw tears in Hanwang's eyes, and Han Xin, the general standing behind Hanwang, also felt a strong sense of loneliness attacking him.

A hero is not afraid of death, but afraid of loneliness.

(End of this chapter)