Xiang Yu suffered a huge setback at the age of 24, his uncle Xiang Liang died in battle, and then he was excluded and suppressed by King Chuhuai Mixin. However, after the victory in the Battle of Julu, Xiang Yu turned over in one fell swoop and eventually became the overlord of Western Chu.
Immediately afterwards, he decisively got rid of King Chu Huai.
During the Chu-Han War, Xiang Yu's killing of Emperor Yi was criticized by later generations. King Chu Huai is only the nominal "co-master of the world", but Xiang Yu is fighting for trivial things.
Liu Bang took this incident as one of the "Ten Crimes of Xiang Yu", so as to create **, demean Xiang Yu's image, and win more allies for himself. This strategy was successful, allowing Liu Bang to gain more and more allies, while Xiang Yu became increasingly isolated.
Why did Xiang Yu kill King Chu Huai? This is inextricably linked with Liu Bang. The two are in a relationship of mutual use and common enemies, and both have a realistic need to trample each other under their feet.
But their relationship wasn't strained at first. Xiang Yu once followed his uncle Xiang Liang to raise troops in Huiji, and they were prosperous for a while. After Xiang Liang's death, Xiang Yu took over his family business.
And Liu Bang turned out to be just a "working boy" under Xiang Liang, and brought a group of brothers to join. At that time, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu fought side by side, cooperated tacitly, and beat the Qin army to a pulp.
So, why did the two go their separate ways? This is determined by Liu Bang's own nature, he joined the Xiang Group in the form of equity participation, not the original team of Xiang Liang's start.
This form of organization was very marketable at the time, because only by uniting together could we fight against the powerful Qin army. Therefore, as long as the flag is high enough, there is no need to worry about not being able to recruit accomplices.
Chen Sheng and Wu Guang are Xiang Liang's role models.
Liu Bang raised troops in Pei County, and with his deep personal friendship, he gathered thousands of displaced people, and they became Liu Bang's original team. Although Liu Bang ostensibly works for Xiang Liang, he is like a professional manager with original shares and has ambitions beyond ordinary people.
Compared to others under Xiang Liang, Liu Bang chose to go it alone earlier, which is not surprising.
Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared, and Xiang Liang's death made King Chu Huai and Liu Bang see an opportunity to turn over. Although Xiang Liang had already established the nominal leader Chu Huai Wang Xiong Xin before losing to Zhang Han, this Xiong Xin was only a descendant of Xiong Huai, the 37th monarch of Chu State, and had been reduced to a shepherd at that time.
Xiong Huai was kidnapped by Qin and finally died in Qin, which made the people of Chu angry with Qin, but also deeply missed Xiong Xin. Xiang Liang took the opportunity to establish Xiong Xin as the king of Chu Huai, although Xiong Xin was only a showdown, but Xiang Liang's soldiers and horses were theoretically controlled by him, although he may not be able to command a single soldier.
Therefore, after Xiang Liang's death, King Chu Huai was busy "turning positive" for himself as soon as possible, putting "theory" into practice, and being a king in the true sense.
In order to establish the authority of the king, King Chu Huai received the support of Chen Ying. Chen Ying has an important influence in the Xiang group because he has handed over more than 10,000 followers to Xiang Liang.
And Liu Bang was also willing to look for opportunities at King Chu Huai, because King Chu Huai was able to temporarily balance Xiang Yu, but he could not annex Xiang Yu. Therefore, Liu Bang needs the support of King Chu Huai to get the opportunity to fly solo.
After Xiang Liang's death, King Huai of Chu used Liu Bang to balance Xiang Yu and gain control and dispatch of the army. Next, King Chu Huai's goal was to marginalize Xiang Yu in order to further consolidate his position.
After Zhang Han defeated Xiang Liang, he didn't care about the defeat of the remaining remnants, and swept through Zhao with his men and horses, trapping Zhao Wangxie, Chen Yu and others in Julu. Zhao Wang Xie saw that he was about to become a turtle in the urn, and hurriedly sent messengers to ask for help.
King Chu Huai seized this opportunity and immediately deployed to attack from two directions. One route was led by Liu Bang, west into Guanzhong, and directly took Xianyang, the old nest of Qin; One route was led by Song Yi and went north to rescue Zhao.
Song Yi relied on his ingenuity and accuracy to defeat Xiang Liang, establish his prestige, and gain the appreciation and trust of King Chu Huai. King Chu Huai's reuse of Song Yi actually saw him as a lifesaver and used his intelligence to suppress Xiang Yu.
However, King Chu Huai did not ignore Xiang Yu and made him Song Yi's deputy. From the point of view of strategic deployment, King Chu Huai's strategy is very wise, and his talent is also commendable, even wiser than King Chu Huai, who was deceived and imprisoned to death by the Qin State.
First of all, he fulfilled Liu Bang and gained a firm supporter. Secondly, he easily suppressed Xiang Yu. The most important thing is that he stood in the foreground and became a king who could influence the general trend of the world.
In addition, if Liu Bang occupied Guanzhong, he could cut off Zhanghan's back roads and supply lines, and form a flank attack on Zhanghan with the anti-Qin forces in Kwantung.
King Chu Huai's plan did not succeed, because Song Yi's ability was not enough to do it, Liu Bang gradually left him, and Xiang Yu was not an ordinary person. At first, King Huai of Chu planned to attack Xianyang from Hangu Pass, but after his failure, he decided to make a detour through Wuguan to enter Guanzhong.
At this time, Guanzhong was empty, and most of the soldiers and horses were brought to Kanto by Zhang Han and Wang Li, so Prince Ying of Qin could only surrender obediently. Liu Bang was able to easily enter Xianyang and wantonly destroyed the Qin palace, including gold, silver, jewelry, and nobles of Qin II.
However, King Chu Huai did not expect that one day he would receive a report from Xiang Yu that Song Yi had betrayed and had been executed. The reason why Song Yi was killed was because of his cunning and incompetence, his inability to convince the public, and his selfishness, so Xiang Yu killed him and became a "black sheep".
Although King Chu Huai's heart was distressed, he still praised Xiang Yu's heroic behavior with a smile on his face. After that, Xiang Yu regained command of the army and personally went into battle, defeating the armies of Wang Li and Zhang Han.
Then, he brutally buried 200,000 surrendered soldiers alive and then marched to Guanzhong.
Xiang Yu took the shortcut of Hangu Pass, but he didn't expect the people guarding the pass to look at him coldly and attack him with arrows, rolling logs, and stones. After inquiry, it was learned that this was the work of Liu Bang's subordinates, who had occupied Xianyang and dreamed of becoming the king of Guanzhong.
Why did Xiang Yu come to Guanzhong? It turned out to be a bureau set up by King Chu Huai, and when he assigned tasks in Pengcheng, he promised that whoever could enter the customs first would become the king. King Chu Huai's words seemed fair, but in fact, he deliberately let Liu Bang take the lead, because he didn't want Xiang Yu or Song Yi to enter Guanzhong.
At this time, Xiang Yu had already positioned himself as the boss because he had a series of advantages. First of all, the Xiang group was the main force against Qin, and he took over the banner of Xiang Liang; Second, he eliminated Zhang Han, the main force of the Qin state, and put the Qin state in a desperate situation.
Therefore, Xiang Yu believed that his merits and abilities were unmatched, and he should naturally become the overlord of the world, while King Chu Huai was just a dispensable existence in his eyes.
However, King Chu Huai did not see the situation clearly, and instigated more contradictions in Xiang Yu's eyes.
After King Chu Huai was killed, Xiang Yu led 400,000 soldiers and horses into the customs and set up a banquet in Hongmen to teach Liu Bang a lesson. Then, Xiang Yu presided over the division without the permission of King Huai of Chu, ignored King Huai's agreement, and demoted Liu Bang to Bashu.
Liu Bang was dissatisfied with this and asked King Chu Huai to uphold justice, and King Chu Huai decided to fulfill the agreement. This made Xiang Yu feel disappointed and angry, because he thought that King Chu Huai was biased in favor of Liu Bang.
At the same time, King Chu Huai tried to maintain his position and win over Liu Bang, but he ignored the fact that Xiang Yu had mastered the general trend of the world, and as a result, his position was even more embarrassing and he was closer to the grave.
For the sake of fame, Xiang Yu still respects King Chu Huai on the surface"Emperor Yi", so that the princes and kings regarded it as"The co-lord of the world", the status is higher than Xiang Yu himself. However, Xiang Yu couldn't tolerate others surpassing him, so it was only a matter of time before he got rid of King Chu Huai.
Soon after Xiang Yu returned to Pengcheng, he moved the king of Chu Huai to Chenxian and arranged for Yingbu to kill him on the way. Therefore, Xiang Yu's motive for killing King Chu Huai stemmed from hatred. King Chu Huai may have realized this fact before his death and should not confront Xiang Yu, but since he was put on the throne, he has become a pawn to be used, and there is no turning back.
Unless he can return to the life of herding sheep, he must regret not herding sheep all the time.