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It is said that in 203 BC, after the demarcation of the Chu River and the Han Boundary, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang each returned to their base camps. At this time, Zhang Liang advised Liu Bang that now the King of Han had occupied half of the world, many princes were all bowing down, and the Xiang family army was very tired, and this was the time to eliminate Dachu. If you don't seize this opportunity, it will really be a return to the mountain, and the consequences will be endless.
Sure enough, Liu Bang followed Zhang Liang's advice and ordered him and Han Xin, and Peng Yue to plan to eliminate the Chu army. Zhang Liang arrived at Guling, but Han Xin and Peng Yue did not come, and the Chu army attacked the Han army, and the Han army was defeated. Liu Bang angrily asked Zhang Liang why Han and Peng did not come? Zhang Liang said helplessly: They want "wages", and the money will help you when they are in place.
Liu Bang was angry and helpless, and had to agree to the conditions and sealed the official fiefdom to Han Xin and Peng Yue. After that, Han and Peng gladly sent troops to support. In 202 BC, Liu Bang led his troops to attack the Chu army and fought Xiang Yu to the death at Xiaxia. Han Xin led 300,000 heavy troops as the vanguard, and Liu Bang was behind.
At the same time, Xiang Yu led 100,000 troops to fight Han Xin first, but did not win and was forced to retreat. The generals Kong and Fei Er led the attack from the flank, the Chu army was deeply disadvantaged, and Han Xin took advantage of the situation to pursue, and finally Xiang Yu was defeated.
While pursuing the Chu army, the soldiers of the Chu army heard that Chu Ge was remembered in the Han army, believing that the Han army had completely occupied the Chu land, and the entire Chu army was defeated, the soldiers were defeated, and Xiang Yu had to flee. After years of struggle for supremacy between Chu and Han, Liu Bang had long hated Xiang Yu thoroughly, and ordered: Whoever can obtain Xiang Yu's head, reward thousands of pounds of gold, and seal ten thousand households.
Finally, Xiang Yu was forced to the edge of the Wu River, at this time there was a boatman waiting for Xiang Yu on the riverbank, saw his people, and said to him: Although Jiangdong is not large, it also has thousands of miles of land, with a population of hundreds of thousands, where you can also be called king. Xiang Wang crossed the river as soon as possible and waited for the opportunity to make a comeback in the future! The Han army did not have ships and could not cross the river.
But Xiang Yu laughed and said, "Heaven is going to destroy Chu, why should I cross the river!" Moreover, I led eight thousand sons of Jiangdong to cross the river to the west, and now none of them have returned, so what face do I have to face Jiangdong's father and elder! Even if they don't say anything, I Xiang Yu is ashamed in my heart!
Facing the pursuing Han army, Xiang Yu single-handedly rushed straight to the position, killing more than a hundred Han troops in one person. During the chaotic battle, Xiang Yu was seriously injured and exhausted, and was unable to fight again. In the end, Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, hated himself and killed himself in Wujiang.
After Xiang Yu's death, Han soldiers competed for Xiang Wang's head to receive the reward, both infantry and cavalry trampled and trampled to snatch Xiang Yu's body, and Han soldiers were already red-eyed, killing dozens of people.
According to records, five people each snatched a piece of Xiang Yu's limb. When they closed the stumps, it was confirmed that it was indeed Xiang Yu's corpse. Liu Bang kept his previous promise and made these five men marquises: Wang Feng the Marquis of Duyan, Marquis of Yangxi Chiquan, Marquis of Lü Matong, Marquis of Wufang, and Marquis of Neiyang.
After the death of Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu, the Chu armies in various places also surrendered to the Han army one after another, but Lu Chengning died and did not surrender. In the face of resistance, Liu Bang planned to lead heavy troops to slaughter Lucheng, and later Liu Bang found that the Lucheng people insisted on etiquette and observed the festival for the late master, so he gave Xiang Yu's head to the Lucheng people, and Lucheng's father and brother all wept bitterly after seeing it, and finally chose to surrender.
Once the King of Chuhuai enfeoffed Xiang Yu as the Duke of Lu, after Xiang Yu's death, Lucheng surrendered to Han, so for Xiang Yu's funeral, he was prepared to bury him in Gucheng with the etiquette of treating "Duke Lu". According to common sense, Xiang Yu died tragically, the world belongs to Liu Bang, and Liu Bang should be the happiest.
During the period of the Chu-Han struggle for hegemony, Xiang Yu always wanted to put Liu Bang to death and then quickly, and successive battles have beaten Liu Bang to the point of wretchedness, and Xiang and Liu can be said to have a deep hatred in the blood sea that does not share the heavens.
However, what people did not expect was that at Xiang Yu's funeral, Liu Bang did not mock Xiang Yu's past with a victorious posture, but instead cried bitterly in front of his tomb. This is really unbelievable, is it true that Liu Bang is really a hero who cherishes heroes and truly feels sad for Xiang Yu's tragic death?
The answer is of course no, the main purpose of Liu Bang's doing this is to do it for the "Chu people" to see, Liu Bang is extremely sad on the surface, in fact, in his heart, he has already smiled and blossomed, Xiang Yu died, and the world was mine.
Later, under the general trend, Liu Bang called himself emperor, and Liu Bang, who was called empress, issued an order to the former soldiers of the Chu army: From now on, no one, whether on paper or verbally, as long as he talks about Xiang Yu, is not allowed to call him Xiang Yu again, but can only be called Xiang Yuan.
Originally, "yu" was the word for Xiang Yu, and "yuan" was the name of Xiang Yu. In ancient China, the word to call a person represented respect, and calling a person's name represented the meaning of contempt.
It can be seen that Liu Bang hates Xiang Yu to the bone, even though the world is already his, he still has a grudge against Xiang Yu. Therefore, Liu Bang engaged in funeral crying and sacrificing Xiang Yu, which is purely: cat crying rat - false compassion.
References for this article: "Biography of Liu Bang of Han Gaozu", "History of Gao Zu Benji", "Chu Han Contending for Hegemony", "History of Xiang Yu Benji", "CNKI Related Literature - The Enmity between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang during the Chu-Han Struggle period" and other documents, "Baidu Encyclopedia Related Terms - Chu Han Contend, Liu Bang, Xiang Yu, Xiang Yu's Alliance, Xiang Yu Zi Wujiang, etc."