In Chinese history, there are many people who have won more wars with less, but no one knows who the originator of winning more with less, but the strongest people who win more with less, except for Xiang Yu, no one dares to call him the second. At the Battle of Pengcheng, Xiang Yu defeated the 560,000 allied troops of Liu Bang's princes with 30,000 cavalry. It can be said that it is the most perfect war in the history books. At that time, Xiang Yu's prestige and his own deterrent power had reached its peak, but when he came to the battle of the back, he had 100,000 male soldiers, but he could no longer defeat Liu Bang's 600,000 troops.
Causes and consequences of the Battle of Pengcheng
From the time liu bang proclaimed himself emperor, he began to plot, defeat xiang Yu, and become the only master in the world. The most important battle was the battle of Pengcheng, which Liu Bang personally led with him. This war is considered to be a battle in which Liu Bang's hegemony was almost destroyed. At that time, Liu Bang thought that he had already defeated Xiang Yu in this battle, and thought that after eliminating Xiang Yu's forces in the near future, he would be able to dominate the world, and even imitate Qin Shi Huang as emperor to unify the whole of China, but he did not expect that Xiang Yu would kill him so quickly and defeat him so quickly.
We all know that Xiang Yu divided himself into his hometown after dividing the world, that is, the Jiangdong area, and now it should be the junction area between the two provinces of Anhui and Zhejiang, and the capital city of Xiang Yu is called Pengcheng, which was the most prosperous city in the entire Jianghuai region at that time. In ancient China, there was a habit that as long as they occupied the capital of other princely states, it was equivalent to destroying this country, so when Japan invaded China, it occupied Nanjing, and they dared to clamor for the destruction of China in three months, all of which were influenced by Chinese culture.
Liu Bang glued the other princes through vertical and horizontal means, he said to the other princes, Xiang Yu is the biggest force today, if everyone does not unite, they will be broken by Xiang Yu one by one, under the temptation of Liu Bang's heavy gold, those small princes have annexed him, everyone asked to gather an army of more than 500,000 together, taking advantage of Xiang Yu's main force to occupy Xiang Yu's capital Pengcheng when attacking the capital of the State of Qi, they triumphantly believed that Xiang Yu had fallen to the dog of the lost family at this time, thinking that they had destroyed the State of Chu, so for a long time in the future As a commander-in-chief, Liu Bang began to fight a celebration banquet that lasted for dozens of days, and he was overwhelmed, which was one of the most fundamental reasons for his failure.
Liu Bang himself thought that the joint army occupied Xiang Yu's capital City pengcheng and successfully defeated Xiang Yu, but he did not understand that Xiang Yu still had hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers in his hands, and he could still make a full comeback. If these living forces were not eliminated, Xiang Yu would not be eliminated, this is a view put forward by famous military scientists in later generations, Liu Bang at that time did not understand these views, but after occupying Pengcheng, he opened a celebration feast, nor did he set up some soldiers in the surrounding area to observe, and did not find the movement of Xiang Yu's cavalry, so in the later Battle of Pengcheng, Xiang Yu's 30,000 elite soldiers were caught off guard.
At the same time that Liu Bang occupied Pengcheng day and night, Xiang Yu's army had already defeated the State of Qi, and he quelled the rebellion of the State of Qi in the present-day Shandong region, but when he learned that his capital Pengcheng was occupied by Liu Bang, he was unwilling to give up the results of the State of Qi, so he let his generals garrison here and led 30,000 elite troops back to pengcheng, which is the famous Battle of Pengcheng in history.
The specifics of the Battle of Pengcheng
The outbreak of war in ancient China was nothing special, nothing more than frontal engagement, counter-engagement, and sneak attacks and two generals single-handedly to reduce the morale of the other side, or cavalry against infantry, with cavalry from both flanks, and Xiang Yu's way of fighting at that time was to use cavalry to directly fight Liu Bang's troops with less victory and more to defeat Liu Bang's more than 500,000 troops and flee. According to historical records, Liu Bang lost a total of more than 200,000 soldiers in this battle.
When Xiang Yu arrived at Pengcheng, it was already morning. When he defeated the Han army, it took a morning, and when Liu Bang reacted, it was already noon. He hurriedly revolted, but there was still no effect, and at one noon more than 100,000 Han troops were killed by the Chu army. Then in the back of the Han army continued to retreat to a river, the Chu army from the back of the tight attack, so that many Han troops lost courage, have jumped into the river to escape, after this encounter the Han army jumped into the river water drowned more than 100,000 people, according to historical records, the number of Han troops is too large, resulting in the river water to block the flow.
Many of the princes that Liu Bang had gathered by relying on gold, silver jewelry and the temptation of power abandoned him when the great calamity came, leaving only Liu Bang's headquarters of tens of thousands of soldiers and horses surrounded by the Chu army, just as Liu Bang was ready to tie his hands and wait, but there was a sandstorm in the sky. Many Chu people believe that Liu Bang has the blessing of the gods and does not dare to attack, which gives Liu Bang a chance to escape, if it were not for the help of this sandstorm or natural disaster, Liu Bang may have died at the hands of Xiang Yu's soldiers, and the victor of the Chu-Han War would also be Xiang Yu, not Liu Bang, and the entire history of China would have been rewritten.
Defeat of Xiang Yu at the Battle of Xiaxia
We all know a classic story, that is, the dialogue between Liu Bang and Han Xin talks about how many soldiers can be led before and when fighting. Han Xin said that the number of soldiers led by Liu Bang could not exceed 100,000, if it exceeded 100,000, there would be a big problem, this sentence had been verified in the previous battles between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, and Han Xin was very confident in himself, believing that the more soldiers he brought, the better, and he could not manage it without him.
At the time of the Battle of Pengcheng, Xiang Yu led more than 30,000 cavalry to fight, and Liu Bang's 560,000 infantry. Such a huge disadvantage allowed Xiang Yu to win the victory, and when Han Xin led the Han army to fight against Xiang Yu, Xiang Yu had 100,000 troops, and the total number of Han troops was only 300,000.
Ancient Chinese military wars will be a problem from a period of time to believe that if their own morale is high, they can get more advantages in the war, and the accumulation of advantages is also the victory of the war, in the Battle of Pengcheng, the Chu soldiers bravely competed for the lead. Because they knew in their own hearts that Pengcheng was their capital, if they didn't work hard, then their fathers, wives, and children who remained in Pengcheng would be insulted by the Han army, so in this war, even if Xiang Yu did not take the initiative to guide morale, their morale was very high.
By the time Han Xin led the Han army and the Chu army broke out, the battle of Xiaxia, for four years, had smoothed out the sharpness of the Chu army, and the glory of the past no longer existed, and many Chu troops missed their families and hometown. The withdrawal of troops for several months made the grass-roots soldiers of the Chu army think that the Chu army would definitely fail, and the army chased out of the Central Plains last year, all the way down to the bottom. Their morale was high, and this form of reversal gave the Han army an innate advantage when fighting the Chu army. Coupled with the fact that Liu Bang promised to seal the reward with the support of Han Xin, the king of Qi, and the reinforcement of Peng Yue, this was another big chip.
By the time the Chu-Han War was carried out in the 5th year, Xiang Yu's army had been surrounded by regiments, many outlying Han Dynasty soldiers had begun to attack other parts of the Chu State, after losing Xiang Yu's leadership, there were no other parts of the Chu State, mutual support and cooperation soon materialized, many Chu people joined the ranks of the Han Army, Han Xin This person was deeply skilled, he ordered the Chu people who joined the Han Army to sing chu folk songs at night to break Xiang Yu's military heart, this move really worked. This made the Chu army, which had already depressed it, even more distracted, and after Xiang Yu organized a failed breakthrough, many Chu troops had lost their fighting spirit.
Under Han Xin's psychological tactics, Xiang Yu had to abandon a large number of protagonists, he knew that if he did not give up now, it was very likely that his own men would rebel and dedicate their activities to Xiang Yu or Liu Bang, in this case, Xiang Yu selected 800 sons of Jiangdong, and the most loyal to him led them to flee to the side of the Wu River, unwilling to cross the river, returning to Jiangdong to think that he was ashamed of Jiangdong's father and elder, after experiencing the overlord Farewell, he personally killed hundreds of Han troops. He eventually committed suicide and died.