Although Han Xin was the core hero of Liu Bang's victory in the world, after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, his life was not satisfactory.
It originated from the Chu-Han War, when Liu Bang and Xiang Yu competed for the world, and the two armies confronted each other in Chenggao for two years. During this period, Han Xin, as Liu Bang's right-hand man, led part of the army to pacify many vassal states in the north.
After half a year, he successfully pacified the Sanjin region, then lobbied Yan to join Liu Bang's camp, and finally led the army directly into Qi.
As you may have thought, this is Liu Bang's dilemma. Han Xin led his troops to attack the north alone and occupied the territory of the five kingdoms of Han, Zhao, Wei, Yan, and Qi in the late Warring States period, while the territory controlled by Liu Bang was only equivalent to the Qin State during the Warring States Period.
If Han Xin suddenly rebelled, then Liu Bang would face a huge threat and might even be cornered. Therefore, how to deal with Han Xin's problem has become a major issue that Liu Bang has to consider.
Liu Bang had foreseen his possible rebellion as early as when Han Xin was attacking the north, and made many preparations for this. For example, the subordinates who were originally dispatched were all his cronies, and even sent his confidant general Cao Shen to Han Xin's side to assist, ostensibly trusting Han Xin, but in fact secretly spying.
After Han Xin pacified the Three Jin Dynasty, Liu Bang quietly drove hundreds of miles, took Han Xin's talismans, transferred most of his army, and at the same time disrupted Han Xin's position as a general.
This made it impossible for Han Xin to cultivate henchmen, and most of the generals under him were Liu Bang's henchmen. Therefore, Han Shin could not rebel. Han Xin asked Liu Bang for the title of King of Qi after pacifying the Qi Kingdom, and considering Han Xin's importance, Liu Bang agreed to this request.
After Han Xinfeng became the queen of Qi, he led the army south to fight Xiang Yu, completely surrounded Xiang Yu's main force in the Qixia area, and forced Xiang Yu to commit suicide.
Han Xin, the former king of Qi, was renamed the king of Chu and took over Xiang Yu's territory.
Liu Bang adopted a new strategy to limit Han Xin's influence. Previously, Han Xin had established his own power in the Qi State, but due to Liu Bang's arrangement, it was difficult for him to cultivate his henchmen on a large scale.
However, Han Xin still had some influence in the Qi State. However, the situation changed when Han Xin was resealed to the state of Chu. His subordinates remained in the state of Qi, while the state of Chu was Xiang Yu's territory, and many places had not yet been pacified.
Han Shin needs to personally pacify and pacify these places. Therefore, even though Han Xin was very capable, without an army and a new place, he could not pose a threat to Liu Bang's position in a short time.
What's more, Han Xin could not dispute this, because judging from the size of the territory and the importance of the throne, the state of Chu was indeed larger than the state of Qi, and the status of the king of Chu was also higher.
The battle of Qixia ended, but Han Xin was forced by Liu Bang to go to Chu to take up the domain. Despite this, Han Xin was not displeased by this, because Chu was bigger and was his hometown that haunted him.
Under Han Xin's leadership, Chu was pacified in just one year. At this time, he returned to his hometown, went to express his gratitude to the drifting mother who gave him food back then, and also went to the butcher who had brought him the humiliation of his crotch, and the pavilion chief who he often went to eat.
At this time, Han Xin was no longer daunted by past grievances.
His identity is already a prince and a king, and these people are just ordinary people. Now, Han Xinrong has returned to his hometown, and his life is calm and undisturbed, as he wishes. However, the problem is that he wants this kind of life, and Liu Bang does not agree.
For Liu Bang, Han Xin, who has a vassal state, is undoubtedly a huge threat. You must know that Han Xin's military talent, in the era at that time, no one could match.
If he leads Chu Di to raise troops to rebel, I am afraid it will be more difficult to deal with than Xiang Yu. For a true emperor, what matters is not whether you actually rebel, but whether you have the ability to rebel.
Only if you have this ability can you be considered a rebel! Therefore, just a year after Han Xin became a vassal domain, someone in the Han Dynasty accused him of having this intention. Regarding the identity and evidence of the whistleblower, there is no record in the history books.
Perhaps, this is just a play written and directed by Liu Bang, and he just needs to take this opportunity to express his position. Subsequently, when Liu Bang's doubts were made public, his advisor Chen Ping immediately made a suggestion to him.
Chen Ping asked Liu Bang to pass through the border of Chu under the pretext of going on patrol, and invited Han Xin to come and meet him. As soon as Han Shin arrives, they immediately arrest him.
Han Xin was slightly aware of Liu Bang's thoughts, but he was not sure if he could launch a rebellion. After all, he had just been assigned to Chu for a year, and there were not many cronies around him. At the same time, Liu Bang continued to install his own people under Han Xin in the process of Han Xin's separation, making it impossible for Han Xin to determine who was truly loyal to him.
Now, Han Xin is faced with a dilemma: if he goes to Liu Bang, he may be easily arrested and convicted at will; If he doesn't go, Liu Bang may announce that he is rebelling, and he may lose the duel with Liu Bang and die.
Whichever he chooses, it seems impossible to avoid the end of death.
After careful consideration, Han Xin took the doorman's suggestion and adopted a compromise solution. At that time, Xiang Yu's old subordinate Zhong Liwu was under the protection of Han Xin, who forced Zhong Liwu to commit suicide and took his head to meet Liu Bang, hoping to use it to gain a chance for himself.
As expected, Liu Bang directly sent someone to arrest Han Xin and accused him of rebellion. But Han Shin didn't panic, he showed Zhong Liwu's head to show his loyalty.
When the world was just calming down, Liu Bang realized that directly killing Han Xin might cause chills in the hearts of others and be detrimental to his own rule. Therefore, he decided to charge Han Xin with a crime, remove him from the title of King of Chu, and change his title to Marquis of Huaiyin.
In this way, Han Xin lost the power to command the army and was placed under house arrest in the capital. The state of Chu, which Han Xin had worked so hard to establish, was divided into two by Liu Bang, one part to his own brother Liu Jiao, and the other part to his distant cousin Liu Jia.
However, part of Liu Jia's territory was later changed by Liu Bang to his second brother's nephew.
After Han Xin was renamed the Marquis of Huaiyin, Liu Bang's heart stone finally fell halfway. This once powerful general, although he still has strength, has lost his army, like a tiger with teeth pulled out, and poses no threat to Liu Bang's dominance.
Judging from the clues recorded in the historical books, Liu Bang's attitude towards Han Xin is both complex and contradictory. He acknowledges Han Xin's merits to him, and without Han Xin, he may not be able to defeat Xiang Yu, but at the same time, Han Xin's military power in his hands also poses a great threat to his rule.
Therefore, putting Han Xin under house arrest in the capital and depriving him of all military rights seemed to be the best choice. Although Liu Bang had the idea of killing Han Xin at this time, he was still a person who valued love and righteousness after all, and he had to make these decisions only in order to maintain his dominance.
In the years that followed, Liu Bang began to pacify other kings with different surnames, while Han Xin remained under semi-house arrest in the capital, living a relatively quiet life.
Since then, Han Shin's account in the official history has become obscure. Although the historical records are very detailed, there is great controversy about this in later generations. The main concern is: Did Han Shin really intend to rebel at that time?
After being placed under house arrest in the capital, for the next three years, there was almost no record of Han Shin in the official history. This is not surprising, because Han Shin at this time did not have any power. In these years, many major events occurred in the Han Dynasty, such as Liu Bang pacifying several kings with different surnames, fighting with the Xiongnu, and being trapped in Baishan Mountain.
During these three years, Han Shin has not been involved in any major events, which makes his deeds seem a little blank. However, the official history records two seemingly trivial incidents, one of which is when Han Xin went to visit the general Fan Xu.
Fan Xu was a general of the Han Dynasty, and he once considered himself more qualified to be a general than Han Xin. However, Han Shin's visit behaved a little strangely.
There is no detailed record of why Han Xin visited Fan Xu's mansion and the content of the conversation between the two. The only surviving record is that when Han Xin came to visit, Fan Hao bowed respectfully to greet him and called Han Xin "the king".
When leaving, Han Xin smiled at the door of Fan Xu's house and sighed: "I would be in the company of people like Fan Xu." In addition, Han Xin once drank with Liu Bang, and Liu Bang asked Han Xin how many soldiers he could lead at most, and Han Xin replied with 100,000 soldiers.
Liu Bang asked Han Xin how many people he could bring at most, and Han Xin replied, "The more the merrier." In the end, Liu Bang asked why Han Xin led more troops but was caught by himself, Han Xin replied that he brought soldiers, while Liu Bang brought generals, and Liu Bang's power was given by God and could not be changed.
This story later derived an idiom - "Han Xin points soldiers, the more the merrier", these two stories, if you only look at the surface, seem to be simple and clear. The first story is that Han is arrogant and looks down on other founding generals, and is only willing to sit on an equal footing with Fan Hao and others.
And the second story is that Han Xin is proud of his achievements, he doesn't understand Liu Bang's thoughts, and his casual words make Liu Bang jealous of him and become more and more vigilant. However, if we delve into the background of the times and what happened in the past three years, we will find that the deep meaning behind these two stories is shocking!
Putting aside these two intimate events – Han Xin's visit to Fan Hao and his drinking with Liu Bang – let's ponder a question: Why are there only a few people involved in these two events?
The reasons behind this are intriguing.
The words about Han Xin in the historical record may be because he was under house arrest for three years, and there were always people sent by Liu Bang around him. In addition, Han Xin did not have much interaction with Fan Xu during the war, but when he visited Fan Xu, the titles and status of the two had become equal, which in itself is a bit incredible.
Fan Xu's advantage is that he has a closer relationship with Liu Bang, they are not only old friends, Fan Xu is even Liu Bang's brother-in-law. Therefore, when Fan Xu saw Han Xin, he directly bowed and proclaimed the king, probably not out of respect for Han Xin, but because Liu Bang wanted to abolish the crown prince at that time, and Empress Lu began to enlist the support of the ministers of the court and China in order to protect his son.
This is a speculation by historians.
According to historical records, due to the instigation of Empress Lü, many veterans of the Fengpei Hero Group tended to support Empress Lü and the crown prince Liu Ying. Even Zhang Liang, who had long been away from politics, had to save face and give advice to Empress Lu, asking her to invite Shangshan Sihao to assist Liu Ying.
Therefore, later historians speculated that Fan Xu may have invited Han Xin to spy at his home in an attempt to win over Han Xin on behalf of Empress Lü. However, Han Xin thought very highly of himself and felt that this kind of thing was not beneficial to him, or he was unwilling to get involved, so he directly refused.
This may be the reason why Han Xin sighed when he went out, "I would be with people like Fan Xu".
Of course, these things are just speculations of later generations, because there is no record in the history books, and it is difficult for us to make a conclusion. But one thing, we know for sure.
That is, in the past three years, Han Xin has lived a very depressed life in the capital, and there is basically not much freedom to speak of. And then, three years later, the confusing 'Han Xin Rebellion Case' happened in history.
The incident of Han Xin's rebellion is actually quite complicated, and this matter has to start with a person named Chen Xuan. Chen Feng was also a founding general of the Han Dynasty and began to follow Liu Bang very early.
But later, when Han Xin was sent by Liu Bang to pacify the north, Chen Feng was sent to Han Xin's command. It was also from this time that Chen Feng became Han Xin's general.
After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, although Han Xin was suppressed, Chen Feng rose all the way to the rank and made a fortune, and was finally made a marquis and became Liu Bang's confidant. Therefore, he was appointed as the acting minister of the country, in charge of military and political power.
Daiguo had a special status in the early Western Han Dynasty, and it was the foundation laid by Han Xin in the Chu-Han War. Because Chen Feng had served in this place, Liu Bang sent him to represent the country.
After Daiguo was occupied by Han Xin, the Han Dynasty was directly administered for a period of time. After Liu Bang opened the country, he gave this place to his second brother, hoping that he could resist the Xiongnu.
However, his second brother fled when the Huns attacked.
Faced with this situation, Liu Bang was furious, but he couldn't kill his relatives because of this. In order to alleviate the conflict, Liu Bang demoted his second brother's title to a marquis on the one hand, and on the other hand, he began to assist the second brother in dealing with the remaining problems.
At this time, Liu Bang wittily adopted the strategy of borrowing strength, and he changed the person who was originally named the king of Han to the state of Dai, so as to contain the Xiongnu. Liu Bang's decision was the best of both worlds, not only weakening the king of Han with the help of the power of the Xiongnu, but also using the power of the king of Han to defend against the attack of the Xiongnu.
However, King Han was not stupid, he saw that Liu Bang was using him, so he chose to surrender to the Xiongnu. Next, Liu Bang personally led the army north, triggering a major battle between the main forces of the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, as well as the siege of Baideng.
Although Liu Bang was trapped for seven days and seven nights in the war with the Xiongnu, and finally exchanged for the withdrawal of the Xiongnu in a friendly way, the question of the ownership of the next place became a big problem.
The importance of this place is self-evident, and it definitely needs to be taken over by his own family, but the Liu family did not have a suitable candidate at that time. After careful consideration, Liu Bang finally gave this place to his third son, Liu Ruyi, who was the crown prince Liu Ying's biggest rival at that time.
After Liu Ruyi was assigned to Daiguo, because he was only seven years old and unable to control the situation, it caused controversy in later generations about whether he really went to Daiguo. In order to deal with the military and political affairs of the country, Liu Bang found Chen Feng, the founder of the country, who had served in the country.
After receiving the appointment, Chen Feng secretly visited Han Xin and agreed with him to rebel against Liu Bang together. Chen Feng sent troops in the north to lure Liu Bang north to quell the rebellion, while Han Xin waited for Liu Bang to leave in the capital and then launched an uprising, quickly occupying the capital with his great ability.
The joint rebellion of the two is expected to overthrow Liu Bang's rule.
This history is full of mystery and uncertainty. What only Chen Xuan and Han Xin knew was recorded in the history books. This may be because the people sent by Liu Bang are too powerful to hear such intimate things, or it may be because someone tampered with history and fabricated this incident later.
After Chen Feng arrived in Daiguo, he quickly took control of the military and political power. Interestingly, a lot of things happened to Zhao Guo next to Dai Guo. King Zhao was originally Liu Bang's son-in-law, but was later removed from the throne by Liu Bang and sent Liu Ruyi to conquer Zhao.
This history fills people with curiosity and a desire to explore.
After Liu Ruyi left Daiguo to go to Zhao, Chen Yu monopolized power, and even Zhao's ** team was under his command, and he almost controlled the entire northern army against the Xiongnu. Under such circumstances, Chen Feng's rebellion seems inevitable.
In 197 BC, Chen Feng really rebelled, Liu Bang personally went out to quell the rebellion, and Han Xin stayed in the capital.