God of War through the ages: Han Xin

Chapter 50
Since the three families were divided into Jin Dynasty, Zhao has been a great country in the world, and it has played a very important role as a shield for Guanzhong (including Luoyang), which was the capital of Qin and Han Dynasties. Its strategic position is self-evident.Although Zhou Chang was appointed as Zhao Guoxiang, Zhou Chang's main task was to protect Liu Ruyi from being hurt by Lu Zhi's back arrows, and he did nothing military.

Zhao State and Dai State in the north are close to the Xiongnu, so a tough general needs to be stationed in the two places to prevent the Xiongnu from going south.In addition to the god of war Han Xin, Liu Bang has many famous generals under his command, but Liu Bang proposed a somewhat surprising and unpopular candidate-Yangxia Hou Chen Xi.

Regarding Chen Xi's origin, "Historical Records" can't even tell when Chen Xi followed Liu Bang. It only records that Chen Xi was from Wanqu (now southwest of Heze, Shandong).However, "Historical Records: The Chronological Table of Gao Zu Heroic Officials" records that Chen Xi had already been granted the title of Marquis at least when Liu Bang marched into Bashang, but not Yangxia. It was not until Chen Xi followed Liu Bang to defeat Han Wangxin and Zang Tu that he was given the title of Yang Xiahou is considered a quasi-first-line position.

Chen Xi's official position is Dai Guoxiang, which is actually a military position, because Chen Xi's task is to supervise the Dai, Zhao and Han troops on the northern border to prevent the Huns from invading.Although Liu Bang firmly implemented the policy of conferring kings with the same surname, there was no clan of the Liu surname as king in Daiguo at this time.Before Liu Bang made his younger brother Liu Zhong the acting king, but Liu Dai was scared away by the Huns. Later, Liu Bang made his beloved son Liu Ruyi the acting king, but he was later renamed King Zhao.However, the next acting king, the later Hanwen Emperor Liu Heng, has not yet appeared on the historical stage, so Chen Xi is the actual acting king, with a high position and weight.

However, after all, Chen Xi was not a vassal king with a different surname in name, and did not touch Liu Bang's political bottom line to eradicate the king with a different surname.Liu Bang once explained why he sent Chen Xi to guard the border of the country. The reason was that Chen Xi followed him all the year round, and Liu Bang trusted him.

Although it is not clear which year Chen Xi was born, judging from the record in "Historical Records Tai Shi Gong Lun" "(Chen Xi) called Mu Wei Gongzi when he was young", Chen Xi should have met one of the famous four princes of the Warring States Period when he was young. One—Wei Wuji, Lord of Wei Xinling.Wei Wuji is well-known throughout the world for raising scholars. Zhao Wang Zhang Er was Wei Wuji's disciple when he was young, so Chen Xi's age is likely to be about the same as Zhang Er, and he should be around 50 years old.

Lord Xinling supported three thousand servants, served the king, loved his concubines, had advocating banquets, and prepared chariots and horses. The ostentation was so grand that the young Chen Xi was envious.Chen Xi has not gained any status in the Jianghu, so he does not have enough material conditions to emulate Lord Xinling for the time being.

Now that Chen Xi sits in one side, holding a heavy army, he looks like a prince with a different surname, so he naturally has the conditions to support soldiers.Chen Xi spends money like earth, attracting guests from all over the world. Chen Xi has a strong sense of the world, he treats guests with courtesy, and is often a friend of the common people, so everyone returns to him.Nurturing scholars was a symbol of noble social status at that time, and it was normal for princes to raise some idlers in society, but Chen Xi's invitation to guests from all over the world made Chen Xi's neighbor, Zhao Guoxiang Zhou Chang, suspicious.

It's not a bad thing to love to support scholars, but Chen Xi shouldn't show off around with his followers, as if he was afraid that people in the world would not know that Chen Xi had already achieved great success.Once, Chen Xi passed by the State of Zhao on business. Instead of simply following in a light car, he took thousands of guests in more than a thousand luxury cars, and arrived in Handan, the capital of Zhao, like locusts crossing the border. All the hotels in Handan were full.

Chen Xi is not a vassal king, but his airs are bigger than the vassal kings, which naturally aroused great dissatisfaction from Zhou Chang from the Peiren Group.Zhou Chang has been by Liu Bang's side since the uprising in Liu Bangpei County, and fought hard to get a Marquis of Fenyin. How much contribution has Chen Xi made to dare to put on the honor of the kings?Zhou Chang then went to Chang'an to report Chen Xi's illegal behavior to Liu Bang, so it is hard to say that he was not jealous at all.

Zhou Chang's report on Chen Xi's crimes was also groundless. He didn't have any evidence to prove that Chen Xi wanted to rebel.Liu Bang seemed to have some regrets about using Chen Xi to defend the generation and Zhao. Liu Bang thought Chen Xi was very obedient, but he didn't expect that he was a more difficult thorn than Han Xin.

However, if it is said that Chen Xi has the intention of treason, Liu Bang may not believe it too much, but what really makes Liu Bang dissatisfied with Chen Xi is Chen Xi's overly ostentatious way of doing things.Han Xin's meritorious service is unrivaled, but he only returned home with a ceremonial guard of honor. At least Han Xin has no record of supporting three thousand scholars.How can Chen Xi, with his virtue, dare to compare himself to Wei Wuji, Lord of Xinling?

Liu Bang also realized that Chen Xi's current status is no different from that of princes and kings with different surnames, and even more dangerous than Peng Yue and Yingbu who are in the interior. If Chen Xi colludes with the Huns to invade, the consequences will be disastrous.But on the other hand, Chen Xi was appointed by himself as Prime Minister, and led the Dai and Zhao Zhibing, so it was impossible to convict Chen Xi with only Zhou Chang's groundless words.

Liu Bang thought of an indirect way to get rid of Chen Xi, that is, he sent someone to investigate Chen Xi's thousands of customers.According to common sense, investigations into such cases should be conducted in secret, and given the capabilities of the judicial system of the Han Dynasty, it is not difficult to do so.

What is puzzling is that Liu Bang's investigation of Chen Xi's followers has become known all over the world. Not only Chen Xi himself knows, but even Han Wangxin, who fled from the Huns, knows it well.In fact, by doing this, Liu Bang continued his consistent thinking on dealing with the issue of kings with different surnames, that is, through various overt or covert means, to force the kings with different surnames to rebel, and then Liu Bang could justifiably eliminate them.Except for Han Xin who has been under house arrest by Liu Bang, Liu Bang is full of confidence in the military contests of other kings with different surnames.

Chen Xi's reaction to this incident was not as expected by Liu Bang. Liu Bang became suspicious of him.It's just that Liu Bang didn't expect that Chen Xi dragged Han Wangxin who was riding on the wall into the muddy water. Chen Xi obviously wanted to muddy the water and expand his allied army, so that his situation would be even worse. Safety.

In September of the tenth year of the Han Dynasty (199 BC), Chen Xi rebelled in Daidi, claiming to be the king of Dai, and openly broke with Liu Bang.

Chen Xi's status in the ruling group of the Han Dynasty belonged to "two do not rely on". Although he was considered half of Liu Bang's confidant, he did not belong to Liu Bang's most trusted Peiren group, so Chen Xi's rebellion did not come as a surprise to Liu Bang.Chen Xi's rebellion under the background of Liu Bang's increasing efforts to eradicate kings with different surnames actually played into Liu Bang's arms. Facing Chen Xi, Peng Yue, Yingbo and others, what Liu Bang lacked was not strength, but an excuse.

In order to quell Chen Xi's rebellion, the 60-year-old Han Emperor Liu Bang decided to conscript himself. Liu Bang believed that with his ability, he would have no problem dealing with a Chen Xi who was not up to grade.Liu Bang's route of attacking Chen Xi should be the same as the route of attacking Han Wangxin before, that is, going out of Hangu in the east and crossing the Yellow River in the north.Due to the long distance, the army needed supplies and rest, so Liu Bang stopped in Handan and summoned Zhao Xiang Zhou Chang to inquire about the situation on the front line.

From Zhou Chang, Liu Bang learned about Chen Xi's movements after the rebellion. When he heard that Chen Xi was just leading his troops to plunder between Dai and Zhao like bandits, Liu Bang laughed up to the sky, and the generals said: "The boy can't do anything!" Liu Bang was most worried about Chen Xi occupying Handan, the capital of Zhao, and Chen Bing in Zhangshui, preventing the Han army from going north.If this situation really occurs, the whole of Hebei will fall into the clutches of Chen Xi, and the Han army will not be able to advance northward, and it will even affect the overall stability of Henan.

The strategic mistake made by Chen Xi was that he did not guard against danger, just like Liu Yu, the Taiwei of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, attacked Nanyan in the north after more than 600 years. Xianshan, the result was a crushing defeat.Although Chen Xi's rebels almost ate Changshan County, an important town north of Handan, as long as Handan is still in Liu Bang's hands, Liu Bang has a chance to come back.

Liu Bang's military ability is indeed not as good as Han Xin, but Liu Bang is good at combining military and politics closely, or he is good at using military to serve politics.When Chen Xi launched a rebellion, stabilizing the situation in Zhao State became the top priority. Liu Bang's approach was to award four Zhao generals recommended by Zhou Chang to win Zhao people and prevent Zhao people from changing.

As for solving the Chen Xi problem, Liu Bang also used a political first and then military approach.Because most of Chen Xi's generals were from businessmen, businessmen valued profits, and the time with Chen Xi was not very long, and it was too late to be trained by Chen Xi to become a confidant, so Liu Bang spent a lot of gold and silver to buy Chen Xi's generals.

It's not that the confidants and direct descendants have no reason to have trouble with silver. Chen Xi's brothers saw so much gold and silver, their eyes turned green, they threw themselves on the silver and laughed heartily, and then rolled up their bedding and went to find Liu Bang to make a fortune.Don't laugh at Liu Bang's use of such inferior methods. If Xiang Yu used money to buy Xiao He, Cao Shen, Fan Kui and others, he would definitely not get any results.

Chen Xi's outsiders were successfully bought by Liu Bang, and those who did not surrender were Chen Xi's buddies and allies, such as Hou Chang, Wang Huang, Man Qiuchen, Zhao Li, Zhang Chun and others.For these diehards, Liu Bang can only use the strongest military means to solve them. Don't imagine any reconciliation with these people, let alone understand military means as barbaric acts, otherwise what's the use of forming an army?
Although the rebels once extended their tentacles to Shandong, for example, Zhang Chun led more than ten thousand rebels across the river to attack Liaocheng.Fortunately, the Qi army was able to defeat Zhang Chun's ten thousand people in Liaocheng.This battle is very important. Once the rebels are allowed to enter Shandong and make a big splash, Liu Bang will be forced to divide his troops to Shandong, which will not be conducive to Hebei's military operations against Chen Xi's rebels.

In fact, the counter-insurgency of the Han army was divided into two groups. In addition to the main force led by Liu Bang in Hebei, there was another main force led by Taiwei Zhou Bo, who took the Shanxi Road and copied Daiguo.Daidi is Chen Xi's base. If Daiguo can be captured, the rebels on the front line in Hebei will be homeless, and Liu Bang can calm down in one fell swoop.

Zhou Bo's progress was very smooth. He defeated the rebels repeatedly in Mayi and Loufan. He even conquered the [-] counties of Yanmen County and the [-] counties of Yunzhong County. members, basically wiped out Chen Xi's rear forces.Zhou Bo pacified the country and echoed Liu Bang in Hebei, and Chen Xi was squeezed into a sandwich biscuit in embarrassment.

Liu Bang easily broke through Dongyuan County (later changed to Zhending, now Zhengding, Hebei), an important town occupied by the rebels, further reducing Chen Xi's living space.What made Chen Xi even more terrified was that the military officials he relied on most on the front line—Wang Huang and Man Qiuchen—had been paid a lot of money by Liu Bang to bribe their subordinates, and they were captured alive by tricks and dedicated to Liu Bang.

Chen Xi was squeezed into the narrow area south of Dai and north of Zhao, and basically lost contact with his ally Han Wangxin.Another main force of the Han army, Chai Wu, also went north to attack Han Wangxin.Chai Wu wrote to Han Wangxin, urging him to recognize the situation, plead guilty to Liu Bang, and still have a chance, but Han Wangxin strongly refused.He has broken up with Liu Bangyi, what will he do when he goes back?Do you want to be a caged bird in pain like Huaiyin Marquis Han Xin?

(End of this chapter)