Many people are accustomed to attributing what happened to them outward.
But in fact, a person's encounter is most likely due to himself.
In this article, we will use Xiang Yu's tactical mistakes to talk about life.
(1) Historical stories
"Zizhi Tongjian" Han Ji
The first year of Emperor Gao (Yiwei, 206 BC)
In August, Liu Bang sent troops from the old way to attack Yongdi.
In Chencang, he encountered Yongwang Zhanghan.
Zhang Han was defeated and retreated to Haoqi to rest.
They met again and lost again.
Zhang Han fled to the waste hill, and Liu Bang successfully pacified Yongdi and surrounded Zhang Han.
Seeing this, Sima Xin, the king of Sai, and Dong Peng, the king of Zhai, both chose to surrender, and Liu Bang thus obtained Weinan, Heshang, Shangjun and other regions.
Liu Bang ordered the generals Xue Ou and Wang Su to set out from Wuguan and be led by Wang Ling to Peixian to meet Taigong and Empress Lü.
Xiang Yu learned that Yang Xia was quickly blocked, and Wang Ling and the others could not advance.
Wang Ling was originally from Peixian, gathered thousands of soldiers and horses in Nanyang, and joined Liu Bang during his expedition to the west.
In order to recruit Wang Ling, Xiang Yu captured his mother in the army and made her sit in a noble east-facing position, hoping to influence Wang Ling in this way.
But Wang Ling's mother said to the messenger privately: "Please tell Wang Ling to serve the king of Han well." King Han was a benevolent and prestigious leader who would eventually win the world. Don't be shaken by me. I will die for you. ”
With that, she drew her sword and killed herself.
Xiang Yu was furious and threw Wang Ling's mother's body into the pot to cook.
Zhang Liang sent a letter to Xiang Yu:
"King Han lost his original territory, so he attacked Guanzhong. As long as you allow him to rule Guanzhong, as originally agreed, he will stop further military operations and no longer expand eastward. ”
At the same time, he sent a letter to Xiang Yu about the conspiration of Qi and Liang in rebellion, warning: "Qi is planning to join forces with Zhao to destroy Chu. ”
As a result, Xiang Yu decided not to attack westward, but to the north to attack the Qi State.
(2) Analysis
1, Zhang Han's strength is so strong, in the face of Liu Bang, why did he lose consecutive battles?
Zhang Han is also regarded as the number one person in the late Qin military generals, and he is majestic.
But times have changed, and since he surrendered to Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, and was named King Yong, things seem to have become complicated.
The first reason is within the Yongguo.
There are many contradictions within Yongguo.
Although Zhang Han is the titular King of Yong, in reality, he needs to spend a lot of time and energy to integrate the country.
The Qin State had taken root in the Guanlong region for more than 500 years, how could those remnants of the Qin State easily submit to a general?
For example, Xianyang has two small princes, Nei Shibao and Zhao Ben, who have a lot of soldiers and horses under their hands, but they can't pee in a pot with Zhang Han.
This is not difficult to understand, after all, they are all old ministers of the Qin Dynasty, and they always have some scruples in their hearts. Zhang Han wants to mobilize them, and it is not easy.
In addition, there are few available people under Zhang Han's hands, and by the time Liu Bang comes to attack, his control over Yongguo is far from reaching the level of a finger.
The most important thing is that Zhang Han's image in the hearts of Qin people is very poor.
He surrendered to Western Chu, resulting in the killing of 200,000 soldiers.
Most of these people are children of Guanzhong.
According to the calculation of one soldier per household, 200,000 Qin troops are equivalent to 200,000 families, about one million people.
Father and brother were killed by Zhang Han, how could they have the same heart with him.
lost the support of the people, resulting in Zhang Han's unstable foundation in Guanzhong, and moreover, there were not many violent weapons in the army, so he could not control the situation.
It's normal that you can't beat Liu Bang.
The second reason is the congenital disadvantage of Yongguo.
Even if Zhang Han integrated resources in a timely manner, it would be difficult to deal with Liu Bang.
The location of Yongguo is in the western part of Guanzhong.
In this place, there are mostly plateaus and mountains, and places like Longxi County and Beidi County have a bit of a lagging level of development.
These lands originally belonged to the Yiqu people, and they were grabbed by the Empress Dowager Xuan back then.
Under the rule of the Qin state, this territory was not stable, and there were rebellions from time to time.
Under such conditions, development is naturally poor.
As a result, Yongguo failed to provide Zhang Han with enough strategic space and a strong city to defend.
For example, after Zhang Han suffered a defeat in Chencang, he could only retreat to Haoqi County, and finally retreated to the ruined hill of the capital.
These three cities are all under the jurisdiction of internal history, which shows that the rest of the Yongguo country did not provide Zhang Han with any substantial help at all.
If there were fortified cities in Beidi or Longxi to defend, Zhang Han would not run into Liu Bang's encirclement.
To put it bluntly, the geographical environment of Yongguo is too clumsy, and it doesn't leave much room for Zhang Han to move.
As for Liu Bang's marching route, it was even more of a headache for Zhang Han.
In the Qin period, there were four main routes from Hanzhong to Guanzhong.
Which way Liu Bang's main force will go, Zhang Han depends on guessing.
The probability of his guess being correct is only a quarter, plus Han Xin's move to repair the plank road and darkly Chen Cang, the probability of Zhang Han's guess is even lower.
Therefore, in the face of Liu Bang's repeated defeats, he really can't be blamed entirely.
There are many internal contradictions, the loss of popular support, coupled with the congenital disadvantages of Yongguo and the lack of strategic space, all of which put Zhang Han in a predicament.
The cards in his hand are really bad.
2, Xiang Yu hit Qi Guo first, right?
Judging from the outcome of the matter, Xiang Yu's decision was obviously a mistake.
But in reality, from a strategic point of view, he made the right choice, only that something went wrong with the execution of the tactics.
Compared with Liu Bang, the State of Qi was actually a greater threat to the State of Chu.
The state of Qi was close to Western Chu and very close to Pengcheng (now Xuzhou City).
Only when the state of Qi is weakened, or becomes an ally of the state of Chu, can the state of Chu be truly safe.
When Xiang Yu divided the world, he actually took this into account and deliberately divided the Qi country into three pieces to let it fight among themselves.
Moreover, Tian Rong, the biggest real power faction, has nothing.
This planted the gunpowder.
Tian Rong was not polite, and directly ignited the gunpowder.
Sent troops to attack Tiandu, and Tian Dudi fled to the state of Chu.
Tian Rong took advantage of the victory to pursue, and killed the king of Qi in Jimo, and then attacked and killed Wang An of Jibei.
As a result, the three territories of Qi were unified, and Tian Rong established himself as the king of Qi.
Tian Rong's series of actions gave Xiang Yu an excellent excuse.
According to reason, Xiang Yu can hold high the banner of justice at this time and justifiably send troops to attack Tian Rong.
What's even better is that Tian Rong also killed several kings named by Xiang Yu.
This gave Xiang Yu a perfect opportunity not only to pacify Tian Rong, but also to support his own forces in Jiaodong or Jibei.
So according to the plan, Xiang Yu went north to the Qi country.
As he wished, Tian Rong's soldiers were defeated and fled to the plains, where they were killed by the locals.
It can be seen that Tian Rong's foundation in the Qi State is also like that.
It stands to reason that Xiang Yu's purpose of sending troops has been achieved, and the next step is to stabilize the ground.
Tell everyone that he only targeted Tian Rong, and the others were not to blame in the past.
In this way, we can unite people to the greatest extent.
However, Xiang Yu's handling of it was a big surprise.
Perhaps out of hatred for Tian Rong, or in order to completely eliminate the living forces of the Qi State, Xiang Yu ordered the burning of the cities of the Qi State and carried out a large-scale massacre of the places he passed.
The people of Qi couldn't survive, so they naturally had to stand up against him.
Tian Rong's younger brother, Tian Heng, gathered tens of thousands of stragglers and counterattacked Xiang Yu in Chengyang.
The Qi State, which could have been pacified quickly, continued to resist because of Xiang Yu's brutal behavior.
And Xiang Yu fell into the vast sea of the people's war.
At this time, Liu Bang took the opportunity to unite the princes and took Xiang Yu's hometown Pengcheng.
Xiang Yu had to return to the rescue, but the state of Qi was not completely pacified, but fell into the hands of the hostile Tian Heng.
If Xiang Yu was able to adopt a more moderate and tolerant policy towards the Qi people, then the Qi State would likely become his loyal vassal.
He was also able to end the war early and return to the division to defend.
In this way, it is impossible for Liu Bang to easily attack Pengcheng, and Yingbu may not choose to rebel.
The situation in the whole world may change radically as a result.
Therefore, Xiang Yu's attack on Qi was strategically correct, but in the process of execution, due to his chaotic operation, a good hand of chess turned into a stinky chess.
About the Author:
Zhou Yijian, WeChat public account "Zhou Yijian Circle", welcome everyone to pay attention and send you a copy of "Zizhi Tongjian Decryption" worth 500 yuan.