What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
In the eleventh year of Han Gaozu,The Marquis of Huaiyin, Han Xin was beheaded by Lü Hou in the Changle Palace at the age of 35. Why was Han Xin killed? The official reason given by the Western Han court was rebellion, which of course was a spurious attempt to add. It is generally believed that the Lord of Merit is the real cause of his death.
For his tragedy, there have always been countless literati and inkers who sighed and sighed, and Liu Yuxi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem "Han Xin Temple", which expressed this common voice:
The general will be a little bit of a soldier to order Shi Xiong, and the pale yellow bell room sighs a good bow.
He ordered future generations to ascend to the altar, and every thought was afraid of making a contribution.
In fact, Han Xin had the opportunity to break away from Liu Bang and establish himself as king, and then divide the world, but he chose to give up. It was not until before his death that he regretted it: I regret that I did not have to use the trick of the koutong, but was deceived by my son and woman.
Why didn't Han Xin stand on his own? The usual view is that he never forgot Liu Bang's kindness of knowing, so he did not have a disobedient heart from beginning to end.
Is this really the case?
▲The Chu-Han controversy
One or three parts of the world
The four years of Han Gaozu were the key moments in the Chu-Han war. In this year, Han Xin pacified the State of Qi, which Xiang Yu had divided, and destroyed the 200,000-strong army led by the Chu general Long He, killing Xiang Yu's confidante Long He.
This fiasco suddenly put Xiang Yu into a very unfavorable situation. Therefore, he sent an emissary Wu Shi to lobby Han Xin, hoping that the other side would rebel against Han and form an alliance with Chu, and then divide the world into three parts.
However, Han Xin did not hesitate to refuse:
When I first followed King Xiang, I was only a Langzhong, and no one treated me as a root onion, so I defected to king Han. The King of Han not only made me a general and gave me tens of thousands of horses, but also undressed and fed me and obeyed my words, which is what I am today. People have been very kind to my cronies, and if I betray them, I will be struck by lightning. Trouble for me thank you Xiang Wang Meiyi!
Takeshi had to walk away in ashes. However, it is not over. Soon, the Qi people came to encourage Han Xin to stand on his own. He said to Han Xin:
When Zhang Er, the King of Changshan, and Chen Yu, the King of Cheng'an, were both ordinary people, the two were brothers who intersected life and death. Later, together they participated in the Chen Sheng Wuguang Uprising. With the progress of the anti-Qin cause, the two not only cut off their robes and severed diplomatic relations, but also became enemies of life and death. In the end, Zhang Er surrendered to Liu Bang, and Chen Yu was killed by Liu Bang in the south of Shuishui.
▲Liu Bang
Why is that? Because of too many desires, there are many disasters, and people's hearts are unpredictable. Your relationship with the King of Han is far less than that of Zhang Er and Chen Yu, but you take it for granted that the King of Han will not harm himself, which is pure self-error. Wen Zhong and Fan Li once assisted in the achievement of hegemony, but when the work was completed, it was when they themselves were killed, the so-called "beast has been exhausted and the hound Hound Heng".
In terms of friendship, you and the King of Han are far inferior to Zhang Erzhi and Chen Yu; in terms of loyalty, you are not as good as Wen Zhong, Fan Lizhi and Gou Jian. And you know their ending, so I hope you think about it. With your position today, return to Chu, the Chu people do not believe, return to Han, and the Han people are terrified. Although the world is great, but you have done a great job to shock the Lord, where can you have a place to live?
Pu Tong's words clearly revealed Han Xin's embarrassing situation at this time, and it was really a three-point point. Later events also confirmed his foresight. Han Xin was also shaken after listening to it, however, his heart was still always thinking of the good of the King of Han, and he could not bear to betray Liu Bang, and finally refused The persuasion of Qu Tong.
The above material is from the "History of the Marquis of Huaiyin". According to Sima Qian's description, before the siege of Xiaxia, Han Xin, who had 300,000 heavy troops in his hands, was already fully qualified to rank with Liu Bang and Xiang Yu and divide the world, but he never had the heart of disobedience and was willing to be Liu Bang's pawn, only because the other party had the grace of knowing him.
It can be said that Han Xin was loyal to Liu Bang and never had two hearts. On the contrary, Liu Bang was an old traitor and never had a heart. I really responded to that sentence: I would have turned my heart to the bright moon, but the bright moon shone in the ditch.
However, a careful reading of the corresponding historical materials will find that this view has a lot to explore.
▲Xiang Yu
2. Faithful?
Looking at the deeds of Han Xin's life, you will find that the so-called loyalty is actually very suspicious.
1. Han Xin has two records of desertion.
When Han Xin first joined the army, he followed Xiang Liang and did not have the slightest fame. After Xiang Liang's death, he returned to Xiang Yu. Han Xin offered advice many times, but unfortunately Xiang Yu ignored him and only gave him a minor official in Langzhong. Han Xin then left Xiang Yu and went to Shu land thousands of miles away to defect to Liu Bang. This was his first time as a deserter.
At the beginning of Han Xin's follow-up with Liu Bang, he still did not get reused, so he fled again. Fortunately, he was chased back by Xiao He and repeatedly recommended to Liu Bang, so that he could be reused.
Why did Han Xin become a deserter for the second time? His logic is clear: if you don't reuse me, then I'll go. This style of conduct is exactly the same as that of the scholars in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. At that time, people were all wandering between countries, and in whichever country was valued, they would go to which country. Confucius, Mencius, Shang Martingale, Su Qin, Zhang Yi, Lian Po, Wu Qi... The list of such examples is endless.
Obviously, Han Xin could not talk about the so-called loyalty to the king.
▲ Han Xin
2. Han Xin forced sealing incident.
In the fourth year of Han Gaozu's reign, after Han Xin had pacified Qi, he sent someone to Ask Liu Bang to appoint a false king, that is, a temporary acting king of Qi, on the grounds that: "Qi is fictitious and fictitious, and the country of repeated repetition is also in the south of Chu, and it is not a false king to be a town, and its momentum is uncertain." ”
At this time, Liu Bang was besieged by Xiang Yu in Xingyang, and every inch was in chaos, and he was looking forward to Han Xin's rescue troops day and night. Han Xin's move was undoubtedly suspected of taking advantage of the fire and robbery. From a third-party perspective, this can be called a forced seal.
For Han Xin's behavior, Liu Bang's anger can be imagined. However, Liu Bang eventually overcame his emotions with reason, not only fulfilling Han Xin's request, but also removing the "false" word and directly sealing Han Xin as a real King of Qi. Han Xin was greatly moved by his "wish" and "false" coming true as Liu Bang's listening to his words.
As mentioned earlier, Wu Shi and Qu Tong had twice persuaded Han Xin to stand on his own, and these two lobbies were exactly when Han Xin was crowned King of Qi. If this background is added, it is difficult to say whether Han Xin's reluctance to betray Liu Bang is out of loyalty or interest.
In the fifth year of Han Gaozu, Liu Bang agreed with Han Xin and Peng Yue to jointly attack Xiang Yu. Liu Bang moved first, but Han Xin and Peng Yue did not send troops for a long time, so that Liu Bang was once again defeated by Xiang Yu, and the situation was once again very critical.
At this time, Zhang Liang offered a plan, believing that in order for the two to send troops, it was necessary to first decide on the matter of dividing the seals. Liu Bang listened to Zhang Liang's advice, and Han Xin and Peng Yue sent troops to march out, and then they had the siege of Xiaxia.
Judging from the above things, Han Xin's behavior is quite utilitarian. His relationship with Liu Bang was largely based on the exchange of interests, and it was almost impossible to talk about the so-called loyalty and patriotism.
▲Zhang Liang
3. Why not?
Since what Han Xin did was profit-oriented and did not matter loyal, then, when he held an army of 300,000 people and occupied Qi as the king of Qi, his strength seemed to be enough to resist Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, so why did he not choose to divide the world in the end?
Is it too naïve politically to see the situation?
As a military genius who is good at surprising victory, without a deep insight into certain aspects of human nature, Han Xin cannot achieve a hundred victories. Even if he was confused for a while, after the in-depth interpretation of the current situation by Wu Shi and Pu Tong, with his IQ, would he really not understand his dangerous situation?
So, why didn't Han Xin oppose it in the end? The reason may be simple: he doesn't have the ability.
Han Xin seems to be famous and has heavy troops, as if he can have the whole world with a wave of his hand, but the truth is that he has a fatal weakness: many of his generals are subordinates trusted by Liu Bang, and Han Xin has not actually formed absolute control over the army.
This can be seen from the composition of the generals of Han Xin's army. In the second year of Han Gaozu,Han Xin led a large army on a crusade to the east, destroying the four kingdoms of Wei, Zhao, Yan, and Qi in a row, and the world was shaken. The two generals who assisted Han Xin in these military operations were Dou Bao and Cao Shan, with Dou Bao commanding the cavalry and Cao Shan commanding the infantry.
▲ The Battle of the Bottom of the Rock
Subsequently, Chu Han ushered in the final battle, that is, the Battle of Xiaxia. In this battle, Han Xin led an army of 300,000 people from Qi to the south to participate in the battle. The two main generals in the army, the commander of the left army is Kong Ju, and the commander of the right army is Chen He.
Cao Shan, Dou Bao, Kong Ju, and Chen He all followed Liu Bang to the south and fought in the northern war from the beginning of the Mangzhongshan Uprising, and their seniority in Liu Bang's clique was older than Han Xin's, and their loyalty to Liu Bang was higher than their obedience to Han Xin. It can be said that to a large extent, for the army under his command, Han Xin only has command power, not absolute control.
Because of this, Liu Bang was able to easily take away Han Xin's military power more than once: the first time was in the second year of Han Gaozu, when Liu Bang was defeated by Xiang Yu. The second time was when the Battle of Xiaxia had just ended and Han Xin's fame was at its highest.
It was precisely because of this that Han Xin finally did not listen to the lobbying of Xiang Yu, Pu Tong, and so on, and rebelled against Liu Bang to divide the world into three parts. This was a rational choice repeatedly weighed by Han Xin, who thought that he would be safe from then on, but it turned out that putting his fate in the hands of others was a fatal mistake.