In fact, there are many discussions about Liu Bang today and film and television works that fully illustrate one point, that is, human beings cannot imagine people they have not seen, or they cannot imagine a certain type of person they have never seen. Just by virtue of "always being generous and not caring about family production", Liu Bang is always portrayed as an idle gangster, and even forms a stereotype, which is obviously a conflict between the different understandings of a certain object or a certain concept in the context of the ancients and today.
The Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Western Han Dynasty in Yangjiawan on display at the National Museum.
In fact, this is a very normal thing, and it is understandable, it is inevitable to reshape the image of the ancients with tenacious understanding in the creation of film and television works. However, Liu Bang's disadvantage lies in the fact that he and Xiang Yu are of the same era. Xiang Yuna can be said to be a person with complete elements: young and strong, brave and invincible, with a good horse, a love that will be praised by future generations, many earth-shattering battles, happy revenge, and a nobleman. With these elements, it is difficult not to be touted by future generations. Therefore, Liu Bang, as a middle-aged man who only made his career at the age of fifty, actually suffered a lot from Xiang Yu. So when Liu Bang and Xiang Yu appear at the same time in a work, Liu Bang's image always seems more obscene. Personally, I think this way of shaping is obviously unfair to Liu Bang, and the historical record of Sima Qian, Gaozu Benji, writes like this: "Gaozu is a man, with a long face and a long face, a beautiful beard, and seventy-two sunspots on the left thigh." Benevolence and love, giving, open-mindedness. Always be generous, and don't do your family's production work".
Western Zhou and Warring States jade objects from the Tianjin Museum's collection.
(Note: Jade is a fairly classic jade ritual form in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and it was still used in the Qin and Han dynasties)
Regardless of the appearance of the problem, because "Long Zhun and dragon face, beautiful beard, and seventy-two sunspots on the left thigh" is obviously a secondary creation of the image of historical figures under the influence of the popular monarchical divine thought during the Han Wu Emperor period, but the authenticity of "benevolence and love, joy of giving, and open-mindedness" is very high. Therefore, Liu Bang should be very arrogant, but the image of a lower-level official of the Qin Dynasty without losing his demeanor, of course, is still a little ambitious.
In addition to ambition, there is also military talent.
In fact, in many film and television dramas or other works, Liu Bang is always portrayed as a person who is not good at fighting, but in fact, Han Xin's family has long said that Liu Bang can lead 100,000 soldiers, and this ability can also be ranked at the end of Qin.
One-piece bronze skulls from the Warring States period.
(Note: Photographed at the National Museum at the end of 2023, it is difficult to imagine that this kind of Shang and Zhou-style one-piece bronze armor still existed in the Warring States Period, and the defense of this bronze helmet is a little weaker than that of the iron helmet or leather helmet of the same era)
There are many historical records about the battles commanded by Liu Bang, and this article only counts before the fall of the Qin Dynasty.
In the first year of Qin II, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang launched an anti-Qin uprising in Daze Township, and the common people of the old land of the original Six Kingdoms rose up against the rule of the Qin Dynasty under the leadership of the scholars and nobles of the original Six Kingdoms. Liu Bang, who returned from Mangdang Mountain, also led hundreds of people to return to Pei County at the invitation of the Pei County Commander, why did the Pei County Commander invite a Liu Bang who had long defected to return to Pei County? Because the anti-Qin war in the old land of the Six Kingdoms was surging, and the officials set up in various parts of the Qin Dynasty became the primary target of attack, so the county commander of Peixian County was afraid, but he couldn't beat it, and if he couldn't beat it, it was better to join.
Bronze weapons.
The county magistrate of Pei County originally wanted to put up the banner of anti-Qin himself, but Xiao He persuaded him: You are an official of the Qin Dynasty and now you want to rebel against the Qin Dynasty, and your people may not obey, so if you call Liu Bang back and rely on his strength to command your subordinates, they will not dare to disobey your orders. may be because he was too afraid, when Liu Bang's hundreds of people appeared under the city wall of Pei County, the county magistrate of Pei County repented and closed the city gate to defend the city. In fact, it can also be understood, after all, whether the anti-Qin uprising can succeed or two words, if the county order himself really obeyed everyone, he can indeed live now, but what if the Qin army fights back? So in this situation of being angry at both ends, the county magistrate of Pei County made the most wrong decision, and then he was killed by the inside and outside, and it can only be said that people with too poor psychological quality really can't make a big deal.
Delicate patterns on bronzes.
After the death of the county commander of Peixian, Liu Bang collected two or three thousand young and middle-aged men in Peixian County and officially set foot on the battlefield against Qin. In the first battle, he encountered a small trouble, the historical records of Gaozu Lie recorded that "so the young officials such as Xiao, Cao, Fan Xu, etc. were all two or three thousand people who collected Pei's children, attacked Huling, Fanghe, and defended Feng" Liu Bang led two or three thousand people to attack Huling and Fanghe, but soon had to retreat in the direction of Fengyi, why? Because the Qin army surrounded Fengyi "Qin Sichuan Jianping's generals besieged Feng", the advantage of the Qin army did not last long, Liu Bang led the army back and quickly broke the Qin army, and in the subsequent battle, he killed the Qin state of Surabaya in Xue County.
Eastern Zhou bronze tripod.
The problem was solved, and Liu Bang also won his first big victory over the Qin army.
But he immediately ushered in another trouble, this trouble was not brought by the Qin army, when he led his troops in the county seat of Xue County to fight hard with the Qin army, his subordinate Yongya rebelled under the instigation of Zhou Shi, the prime minister of Wei, and took refuge in the newly restored Wei state. Liu Bang repeatedly sent troops to counterattack Fengyi, but all of them ended in failure, so he led the remnants of the remnants of the horses to defect to King Jingju and Qin Jia of Chu, preparing to borrow troops to counterattack. But at this time, Sima Qu, a partial general of Zhang Han's department, led a part of the Qin army to conquer Xiangcheng, and fought until Dang, Liu Bang and Dongyang Ningjun sent troops to attack the Qin army together, but unfortunately they were defeated, but soon, Liu Bang defeated the Qin army in Dangdi, and conquered the city, and recruited five or six thousand people, and the strength increased greatly, and Liu Bang's army soon conquered Xiayi. After returning to Fengyi, Liu Bang decided to take refuge in Xiang Liang and find Xiang Liang to borrow troops, Xiang Liang sent ten five doctors and five thousand elite soldiers to assist Liu Bang in counterattacking Fengyi, and defeated Yongya, who fled to Wei.
Han cavalry.
(Note: The extensive use of cavalry on the battlefield is considered an important feature of the Qin War and the subsequent Chu-Han War, and Xiang Yu is very good at using cavalry.) ）
After Liu Bang took refuge in Xiang Liang, he fought with Xiang Yu, and after the end of the Dong'e Campaign, Xiang Liang took Xiang Yu and Liu Bang as an army to send troops to "make Pei Gong and Xiang Yu not attack Chengyang, slaughter it, and fight with the Qin army in the east of Puyang, and break it" until Yongqiu, killing the son of Li Si, the prime minister of Qin, and Li You, the county guard of Sanchuan County. After Xiang Liang was defeated and died, King Huai of Chu recalled Xiang Yu on the grounds that he was too brutal, leaving Liu Bang to continue the crusade against Qin. Liu Bang "is Dao Dang to Chengyang, sandwiched the wall with the Qin army in the bar, broke the second army, and the Chu army sent troops to attack Wang Li, and broke it" Judging from this sentence, Liu Bang seems to have participated in the outpost battle of the Battle of Julu, and successfully defeated a part of the Qin army.
The exquisite chariots and horses used by the princes and kings of the Western Han Dynasty.
After the battle in Gangli, Liu Bang and Peng Yue joined forces to engage the Qin army in Changyi, but the result was a failure, and after the defeat, he annexed the 4,000 soldiers of the Marquis of Gangwu, and united with the Wei army to continue to attack Changyi, but the result was still a failure. After Liu Bang failed in the attack on Changyi, he followed Li Shiqi's advice, raided Chenliu, collected Chenliu's army and grain, and began to attack Kaifeng, but failed. After the failure of the attack on Kaifeng, Liu Bang led his army to advance westward, and encountered Yang Xiong, the general of Qin, in Baima, Liu Bang defeated Yang Xiong in one fell swoop, Yang Xiong fled to Xingyang, and Qin II sent envoys to Xingyang to kill Yang Xiong. After the Battle of White Horse, Liu Bang conquered Yingyang, and the army under the command of Zhang Liang took the opportunity to recover the homeland of Korea.
Late Chu bronzes.
After that, Liu Bang and "north attack Pingyin, Juehejin" to the south to attack Nanyang County, but in the east of Luoyang was defeated by the Nanyang County Guard, Liu Bang retreated to Yangcheng after the cavalry in the army defeated the Qin army in the east of the army, Nanyang County fled to Wancheng, and later with the assistance of his housekeeper Chen Hui and Liu Bang reached an agreement on conditional surrender, Chen Ash obtained the food of a thousand households, and the Nanyang County Guard was named the Marquis of Yin. The next action of Liu Bang's army is to "lead troops to the west, and there are no subordinates".
At the same time as the rout of the Qin army, Zhao Gao had already murdered Qin II and was ready to carve up the Qin state with Liu Bang, Liu Bang listened to Zhang Liang's advice, and took this opportunity to send peace talks, inciting the Qin generals to rebel, paralyzing the Qin army defenders of Wuguan, and then taking Wuguan in one go, and after taking Wuguan, he turned to attack Lantian and broke the Qin army in the north of Lantian and Lantian one after another. At this time, Zhao Gao had already been killed by Prince Ying of Qin, and Prince Ying of Qin was powerless to save the dying State of Qin.
Jin bronze sword.
"In October of the first year of the Han Dynasty, Pei Gongbing led the princes to the hegemony. The prince of Qin was born on a white horse, tied to the neck to the group, sealed the emperor's seal, and descended to the side of the road, "The Qin State was declared extinct, from 770 BC when Qin Xianggong was named a prince to the surrender of the Qin prince to Liu Bang, the Qin State existed for a total of 550 years.
Now summarize Liu Bang's achievements: at the beginning of the army, the battle of Huling and Fanghe was defeated; The battle of Xue County, a great victory; The battle of Dang was defeated first and then won; The Battle of Xiayi was a great victory; counterattacked the battle of Fengyi, first defeated and then won; The Battle of Yongqiu was a complete victory; The battle between the bars and the army won a complete victory; The battles of Changyi and Kaifeng failed; The Battle of the White Horse was a great victory; The Battle of Yingyang was a complete victory; The Battle of Pingyin was a complete victory; In the battle of Nanyang County, Liu Bang was first defeated in the east of Luoyang, and later defeated the Qin army in the east of the county; The three major battles of Wuguan, Lantian and north of Lantian were all won.
Bronze halberd from the collection of the National Museum.
We can see that Liu Bang has actually lost a lot of battles from the beginning of the army to the destruction of Qin, but most of these defeats are siege battles, and whether the siege war is won or not means anything, and the same is true for Xiang Yu. Liu Bang rarely lost in the field decisive battle, even if he lost the battle for a while, he can quickly find the field, the most typical example is against the Qin State Nanyang County Guard, the Qin army first defeated the Han army, Liu Bang quickly assembled all the cavalry in the team after the defeat and defeated the Qin army, it can be seen that the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty is also quite a military talent, although it may be slightly inferior to Xiang Yu and Han Xin, but it is definitely a first-class general in the late Qin and early Han Dynasty.
More importantly, Liu Bang knows how to give both grace and power, or that he is willing to accept the opinions of others, what are the opinions given to him by others? To sum up, it is a combination of grace and power, such as Chen Hui, who assisted Liu Bang to persuade the county guard of Nanyang, he won the position of Marquis of Yin for his monarch in front of Liu Bang, and at the same time he also received a reward of thousands of food estates. After the surrender of Nanyang County Guard, outside the Wuguan, Liu Bang can be said to be overwhelmed.
Han infantry figurines.
King Huai of Chu believed that Liu Bang was a loyal elder, and Sima Qian said that his way of dealing with the world was also an important reason why he was able to successfully break the determination of the remnants of the Qin state to resist.
In fact, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as the Han army at this time, Liu Bang is the Marquis of Wu'an who was named by the Chu State, but we know that Liu Bang was later named the King of Han, and after being named the King of Han, he won the Chu-Han War and established the Han Dynasty, so we can also regard the Chu army led by Liu Bang as the new Han army, or the first Han army. In this way, the nascent Han army relied on its strong field combat ability and the political skills of the leadership to exert grace and power against the remnants of the Qin state, and finally completely ended the 550-year-old Qin state.