Just when Xiang Yu was about to go north, he learned that Wang Ling was leading an army to Yangxia and hurriedly arranged troops to stop him.
Wang Ling is a wonderful person. He and Liu Bang were from the same hometown and were from Peixian County. Although they were in the same county, his and Liu Bang's identities were very different. At that time, Liu Bang was just a commoner, barely a rich farmer, but the Wang Ling family was one of the few powerful men in Pei County. Before Liu Bang became the chief of the pavilion, he always followed Wang Ling, like a follower, and served Wang Ling like a real brother. Wang Ling's personality was completely different from Liu Bang's. Liu Bang was a businessman, but Wang Ling was a scholar, with a stubborn temper and an outspoken attitude. Although Liu Bang always pleased Wang Ling, Wang Ling didn't like Liu Bang at all. Later, Liu Bang followed suit and revolted, and the "business" became bigger and bigger, and he became a prince all the way to Xianyang. At about the same time as Liu Bang's uprising, Wang Ling also uprising, recruiting thousands of troops. At that time, many people went to Liu Bang, but Wang Ling did not want to follow Liu Bang at all. He took several thousand troops and occupied Nanyang (today's Nanyang, Henan Province) and formed his own faction.
When the world's heroes rebel against Qin, any gathering of troops can be considered a rebel army. But now that the Qin Dynasty is gone, the world belongs to all the princes. Big fish eat small fish, and small fish eat shrimps. It was no longer realistic for Wang Ling to occupy Nanyang and live his own life. It happened that Liu Bang came out of Hanzhong at this time, with the intention of taking over the world. Wang Ling thought: To whom is it not to surrender? At least he has a friendship with Liu Bang and can still take care of himself. So, he took his troops and surrendered to Liu Bang.
Liu Bang naturally valued Wang Ling, so he readily accepted it. At this time, he was busy killing Zhang Han in Guanzhong and couldn't get away, so he asked Wang Ling to go directly to Pei County to pick up his family. It has been so long since he came out, and his father, wife and children are still under Xiang Yu's nose. Now Liu Bang has not publicly beaten Xiang Yu, but that's fine. If there is a fight in the future, there is no guarantee that Xiang Yu will not use Liu's family to threaten him, so he must be taken out.
How can it be so easy to pick up Liu Bang's family? As soon as Wang Ling made a move, Xiang Yu got the news and directly sent troops to stop Wang Ling.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, any county or county that had powerful officials could be said to be well-known throughout the country. Xiang Yu has naturally heard of Wang Ling's name for a long time, and he admires those powerful people the most in his life and loves to make friends with them. Hearing that Wang Ling surrendered to the Han Dynasty, Xiang Yu thought about how to instigate Wang Ling to rebel and let him follow him to conquer the world. After thinking about it, Xiang Yu remembered that Wang Ling's mother was still in Pei County, and his eyes lit up. He quickly ordered people to take Mrs. Wang to the army, and sent someone to send a message to Wang Ling: "Your mother is in my hands now. If you can carry the Han and surrender to Chu, you can keep your mother safe; if you insist on having your own way, then don't blame me for being rude!"
Wang Ling was a filial son. As soon as he heard that his mother had been captured by Xiang Yu, his heart was in chaos. He hurriedly sent his trusted envoy to see Xiang Yu, saying that as long as his mother's safety was guaranteed, all conditions would be easy to negotiate. Xiang Yu was very happy when the envoy conveyed Wang Ling's willingness to surrender. He held a banquet in honor of the envoy. At the same time, he invited Wang Ling's mother out and arranged to sit at the top of the table, while he accompanied him as a son. Xiang Yu played such a trick, actually he wanted to let Wang Ling know through the mouth of the messenger: I am very good to your mother.
After eating and drinking, it was time to send Wang Ling's envoy back. Wang Ling's mother asked to send him off alone and gave him a few words of advice. Of course Xiang Yu agreed without much thought. Old Mrs. Wang took the envoy aside and said what was in her heart: "I have met the King of Han before in the county. Although he was not very good at that time, I can also see that he is not an ordinary person. Now that I have fallen into Xiang Yu's army, I can't I have observed that this boy is no match for the King of Han. From now on, the world will belong to the King of Han sooner or later. When you go back this time, send a message to my son for me, asking him to follow the King of Han well and not to be distracted by me. I will always I'm old and don't want to drag my son down. I'm going to die here today. You should leave quickly." After saying that, the old lady suddenly pulled out the messenger's sword and committed suicide.
Wang fell into a pool of blood, which made Xiang Yu very angry. The latter gave an order and threw Wang into the oil pan. Poor Wang is dead, and her body was cooked in oil!
Such behavior is truly outrageous!
At this point, Xiang Yu did go too far. It was an extremely stupid move from both a moral and self-interest perspective. Morally speaking, Wang is an elder and has committed suicide. As a junior, Xiang Yu had no deep grudge against the Wang family or Wang Ling, but cooking the Wang family's body in oil was too cruel and inhumane. From the perspective of self-interest, although Wang's suicide was related to Xiang Yu taking Wang as a hostage, Xiang Yu did not kill the person himself after all. If Xiang Yu had Liu Bang's means, he would lie down in front of Wang's corpse and shed a few tears and bury Wang generously. Even if Wang Ling was not grateful, at least he wouldn't hate Xiang Yu to the core. If everyone is dead, cooking them will not do any good to Xiang Yu; giving them a generous burial can at least restore some of the impact. But Xiang Yu neglected to do good things and chose to do stupid things.
The envoy fled back to Wang Ling's army and told him what Wang had asked him to do and what happened to him after his death. Wang Ling was so painful that he fainted on the spot. After waking up, Wang Ling bit his steel teeth into pieces. From then on, he was determined to follow Liu Bang to fight Xiang Yu, help Liu Bang stabilize the world, and was named the Marquis of Anguo for his merits. When Liu Bang made arrangements for his funeral before his death, he mentioned that the talents of Wang Ling could serve as prime minister. Although there are no detailed records of Wang Ling's achievements in the history books, these two points show how much contribution Wang Ling made to Liu Bang's Han Dynasty. With such a talent, Xiang Yu forced him to be on his opposite side, giving his opponent an advantage in vain.
What does this mean? It was Xiang Yu who drove himself to a dead end step by step.
Things have developed to this point, Xiang Yu has not raised his vigilance against Liu Bang, and still follows the established plan to attack Tian Rong. Before leaving, Xiang Yu issued a recruitment order and ordered Wang Yingbu of Jiujiang to lead his army to go out with him. Yingbu has always been Xiang Yu's most trusted general. With Yingbu here, many tough and big battles will not be a problem. In order to win the war against Tian Rong quickly and avoid long nights and dreams, Xiang Yu hoped that his old subordinates could help him. However, Wang Yingbu of Jiujiang refused to go on the expedition because of illness. He only sent his men with thousands of troops to express his feelings.
Why Yingbo was absent from this expedition, his true inner thoughts are unknown. But according to the rational analysis, it is nothing more than the following points:
The first possibility is that Ying Bujin is ill. Although claiming to be sick was often a way for the ancients to express rejection, it cannot be said that all "claiming to be sick" is a lie. Yingbu is also a human being, so it is not impossible for him to fall ill at this time.
The second possibility is that Yingbu is satisfied with the life of the King of Jiujiang and is unwilling to charge into battle again. He is a fierce general, and every time he fights, he fights hard and viciously. If the earthen pot is not broken away from the well mouth, the general will inevitably die in battle. When they are not living a comfortable life, many people will work hard to achieve it because of desire. When they have a comfortable life and then let them work hard, many people will shrink back. After all, Yingbu was in his thirties or forties at this time. He had only been a free king for a few days and had tasted the comfort of a wealthy life. He probably lost the courage to fight.
The third possibility is that Yingbu is dissatisfied with Xiang Yu's disrespect. From Xiang Yu's perspective, Yingbu's King of Jiujiang was conferred by Xiang Yu. Regardless of Yingbu's current status, in Xiang Yu's eyes, Yingbu is still his subordinate and can be summoned and dismissed at the drop of a hat. But from Yingbu's perspective, Yingbu was already the king of Jiujiang and a prince. In terms of identity and status, he was on the same level as Xiang Yu. At this time, Xiang Yu still used his attitude toward his subordinates to ask Yingbo to accompany him on the expedition, which probably made Yingbo unhappy.
No matter which possibility it is, Yingbu will eventually refuse to go with Xiang Yu. If Xiang Yu had Liu Bang's thoughts, he would probably find out the real reason why Yingbu did not follow him and use targeted means to make up for it.
However, Xiang Yu was a reckless man after all and lacked brains. He did not delve into the underlying reasons for Yingbo's refusal to accompany him, and simply began to resent Yingbo. From then on, the former monarchs and ministers began to become "different bedfellows".
