Prior to this, Fan Zeng had advised Xiang Yu to attack Xingyang quickly, but Xiang Yu did not listen. However, when Fan Zeng died, Xiang Yu planned to attack Liu Bang. But this time it really hit Liu Bang's crux - Liu Bang's army just ran out of food!
Tell me, how can hungry soldiers stop the brave Chu army? Facing the upcoming war, Liu Bang was like an ant on a frying pan, anxious.
But at this critical moment, General Ji Xin, who was loyal to Liu Bang, stepped forward. He resolutely said to Liu Bang: "Your Majesty, the situation is critical now. Xingyang will definitely not be able to defend it. Your Majesty and I are very similar in body and face. I am willing to pretend to be the King, deceive Xiang Yu and create opportunities for you. Please take advantage of it." Escape!"
After hearing this, Liu Bang pretended to decline and immediately adopted Ji Xin's strategy. Whose life is the most valuable in the world! Of course it's yours!
One night, the east gate of Xingyang City suddenly opened wide, and two thousand soldiers surrounded by Luan Jia came out of the city. Not far after they rushed out, these soldiers were surrounded by the Chu army. Oddly enough, these soldiers were all slender, shouted softly, and looked like women. The Chu army lit up torches and took a closer look. They were really a group of women's soldiers!
At this time, someone on the Luan Yu in the female soldiers shouted loudly: "Because the city is short of food, the King of Han is willing to ask King Xiang to surrender!"
The news spread that Liu Bang had left the city and surrendered, and the Chu army was immediately alarmed: "The King of Han has surrendered, you can go home! Long live! Long live!"
For a time, the Chu troops who besieged Xingyang rushed to the east gate to witness this historical moment. How did they know that the person sitting upright on Luan Jia was not Liu Bang, but Ji Xin. The real Liu Bang had already taken this opportunity to leave the West City Gate and ran straight to Chenggao (now northwest of Sishui Town, Xingyang, Henan) under the escort of dozens of people to escape for his life.
Later, Ji Xin was brought to Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu took a closer look and saw that Liu Bang was clearly a fake. He immediately asked.
Ji Xin laughed loudly and said, "My lord has already left Xingyang, so just give up."
Xiang Yu was furious after hearing this and ordered Ji Xin to be burned alive. Later, Xiang Yu rushed to attack Xingyang. When Liu Bang fled, he left the imperial censor Zhou Ke, Song Gong and Ji Bao to guard the city. Zhou Ke and Song Gong could not trust the capricious Ji Bao at all. They were afraid that Ji Bao would surrender to the city, so they killed Ji Bao first. At this moment, Peng Yue launched a surprise attack from behind Xiang Yu, destroying the Chu army's food route. Xiang Yu turned around and drove away Peng Yue first, but Liu Bang toyed with him and beat him everywhere. It wasn't until March of the next year that he got the chance to come back and attack Xingyang again. He conquered it in one fell swoop and captured Zhou Ke, Congong and the newly sent defenders. Han Wangxin.
After capturing Xingyang, Xiang Yu couldn't help but feel envious when he thought that Liu Bang had so many loyal ministers around him. He wanted to recruit Zhou Ke and Congong to surrender, so he first said to Zhou Ke: "You are a talented person, why not work under my command. Liu Bang only wants you to be the censor, but I will make you a general, and you will have 30,000 households in the city!"
A city with 30,000 households means that it directly governs 30,000 households. These 30,000 households did not pay taxes to the state and all were handed over to Zhou Ke.
Facing Xiang Yu's temptation, Zhou Ke just smiled and said: "You should surrender to me, the King of Han, quickly! You are no match for my king. If you don't surrender, you will soon become the king's prisoner!"
Xiang Yu was furious and ordered his men to throw Zhou Ke into a pot and cook him. He also gave up on Duke Cong and had him beheaded. Since Han Wangxin still had value, he ordered people to temporarily keep him in custody.
Let's talk about Liu Bang. After escaping from Xingyang, he fled back to Guanzhong via Chenggao. He gathered a bunch of troops and went south to Wuguan on the advice of his advisers. He put on a posture to attack Pengcheng and lured Xiang Yu south to attack Xingyang and Chenggao. urgency. At the beginning, Xiang Yu was played around by Liu Bang and Peng Yue, running back and forth. Later, he could no longer bear his temper and went straight to Liu Bang to kill him. At this time, Liu Bang had led his army to station in Chenggao, but unfortunately he fell into the siege of Xiang Yu.
As the saying goes, once is born again, Liu Bang has rich experience in escaping. In this aspect, his descendants, Liu Xuande during the Three Kingdoms period, are most like his ancestor: Liu Bang, the great ancestor of the Han Dynasty. In the winter of the fourth year of the Han Dynasty (203 BC), Liu Bang saw that something was not going well, so he left all the soldiers in the city behind, sat alone in Xia Houying's car, and embarked on his escape journey again. This time, he fled directly towards the current Xiuwu County in Jiaozuo, Henan, because Han Xin and Zhang Er commanded the Zhao army and were stationed there.
Liu Bang went to Han Xin and Zhang Er not just for refuge. When he arrived at Xiuwu, he did not rush to see Han Xin, but quietly stopped at the post station. In the early hours of the next day, Liu Bang got on Xia Houying's car and suddenly arrived at Zhao Jun's camp. Pretending to be the messenger of the King of Han, he broke into the bedrooms of Han Xin and Zhang Er and seized the possession of Han Xin and Zhang Er while they were still sleeping. Yinshou took over Zhao Jun.
There is a reason why Liu Bang used a surprise attack to seize military power.
The first is because Han Xin and Zhang Er were acting suspiciously. As early as when Liu Bang was trapped in Xingyang, he asked Han Xin and Zhang Er to rush to support several times. However, Han Xin and Zhang Er used the excuse that Xiang Yu repeatedly sent surprise troops to attack Zhao State, so they only sent a team to support, and they still Stay in Zhao State. With the two of them vaguely exempt from conscription, if Liu Bang openly asked them to allocate troops for support, the two of them would probably not agree.
The second reason is that Liu Bang was alone and weak at this time. In order to fight against Xiang Yu, Liu Bang recruited troops from Guanzhong several times. By this time, he had no troops to recruit. Liu Bang, who escaped from Chenggao, had no soldiers except Xia Houying. Liu Bang, who had nothing, was nothing now. If others recognize him as the King of Han, he is the King of Han; if others do not recognize him, he is just a commoner. Under such circumstances, if Liu Bang openly revealed his identity and entered the Zhao army camp, Han Xin and Zhang Er would be happy to obey. If they had any objections, they would either kill Liu Bang or threaten Liu Bang to order Guanzhong. No chance to turn around!
Liu Bang was kind to Han Xin, and he was kind to Zhang Er. But in politics, kindness is unreliable. Even family ties can be given up, let alone kindness? In Liu Bang's eyes, Han Xin was unreliable, and Zhang Er was a selfish careerist. All he thought about was his hometown, South Korea. Blindly trusting the other party and putting yourself in danger is something only a fool would do.
Therefore, Liu Bang did not give Han Xin and Zhang Er any chance to go against him, and directly seized their seals and ribbons with lightning speed. The army at that time also had very high military qualities and ethics. They recognized seals but not people. Even if the King of Heaven came and had no seals in his hands, mobilizing the army would be more difficult than climbing to the sky. Therefore, Liu Bang gained the seal and took control of the army, while Han Xin and Zhang Er had no choice but to surrender.
Liu Bang immediately presided over a temporary military meeting while Han Xin and Zhang Er were still sleeping, and readjusted their positions: he himself led the main force of the Zhao army to prepare to fight against Xiang Yu; ordered Zhang Er to recruit new soldiers to guard Zhao; he appointed Han Xin as prime minister and led the army to fight against Xiang Yu. The remaining troops attacked Qi.
It wasn't until Liu Bang made arrangements that Han Xin and Zhang Er just got up. When they woke up, the situation changed so drastically that they were so shocked that they thought they had just dreamed.
Liu Bang, who had nothing just now, suddenly had tens of thousands more troops and regained military power. Later, other generals stationed in Chenggao also abandoned the city and fled to follow Liu Bang, and Chenggao fell.
