In the Battle of Pengcheng in April 205 BC, Xiang Yu broke Liu Bang's coalition of 560,000 princes, the Han army was greatly damaged, the anti-Chu alliance fell apart, and many princes changed their positions and turned to Xiang Yu.
In June 205 BC, Xiang Yu personally led his troops to continue the westward attack, and the two sides fought in Xingyang, and the Han army defeated the Chu army under the leadership of Zhongdafu Guan Ying, and the Han army was able to stabilize its position.
The Chu army was unable to break through the Han army's defense line due to its long drive and attack for several months, and the two sides launched a tug-of-war in the Xingyang area, and the war entered a phase of stalemate.
The battle of Xingyang curbed Xiang Yu's offensive momentum, Chu Han returned to strategic balance, how to seize the opportunity to test the ability of the think tanks of both sides, Zhang Liang, who has always been low-key and strategic, drew a new strategic blueprint for Liu Bangbo:
"Jiujiang King Huang Bu, Chu Xiao General, and King Xiang have a gap; Peng Yue and Qi Wang Tian Rong turned against Liangdi, and these two people can be urgent. And the general of the Han Dynasty can be a big deal, one side. That is, if you want to donate it, donate these three people, and Chu Ke can break it. ”The general idea is to take advantage of the estrangement between Yingbu (黥布) and Xiang Yu to win it over for his own use, Peng Yue fought guerrillas in Liangdi and disturbed his rear, these two people are eager to fight for it at the moment, but it is Han Xin who can take charge alone and help the King of Han seize the world!
Liu Bang adopted Zhang Liang's suggestion, and on the one hand, he sent someone to secretly contact Yingbu and promise benefits, and on the other hand, he sent Han Xin to attack Weidi.
Wei Wang Leopard is located in the east of the river, guarding the important places in and out of the Central Plains, before Wei Leopard was at both ends of the first rat between Chu and Han, Liu Bang also set the three Qin to surrender to Han and Chu, and surrendered to Chu and rebelled against Han after the battle of Pengcheng.
In order to solve his worries, Liu Bang first took action to clean up Wei Bao.
In September 205 BC, Han Xin used the same means as the "Ming plank road and secretly crossing Chencang" in the three Qin dynasties, and used a force to feint to cross Linjin and the main force to secretly cross Xiayang, so as to lure the reckless Wei Bao to transfer away from the main force, so that Han Xin's tens of thousands of troops could cross the river smoothly.
Subsequently, Han Xinqi attacked Anyi, an important place in Wei State, completely annihilated the Wei army, captured Wei Leopard alive, destroyed Wei State, and set up Hedong County.
Although the scale of the battle of Anyi was small, it had a great impact on the war situation, and the Han army could use Wei as a springboard, passing through the Zhao Dynasty, attacking Yanqi, cutting off the grain route of the Chu army in the south, and forming an outflanking strategy for the Chu State through a strategic detour.
Liu Bang adopted Han Xin's strategy, increased Han Xin's troops by 30,000, and ordered him to open up a new battlefield in the north.
Liu Bang himself stuck to Xingyang and confronted Xiang Yu. Liu Bang believes in Zhang Liang's strategy, and even more in his judgment of Han Xin, the current critical situation, only Han Xin has the ability to turn things around.
He let go of Han Xin, and all military and political powers were judged by themselves, also because he believed in Han Xin's loyalty, which was always one word: trust!
After the destruction of Wei, Han Xin carried Liu Bang's expectations and missions to embark on the road of the Eastern Crusade, 205 years ago in leap September, Han Xin broke the country, captured the prime minister Xia said, the death of the generation.
In October, Han Xin led the Han army across the Taihang Mountains and attacked Zhao to the east.
Zhao is an important hub connecting Guanzhong and Qi, the geographical location is important, the Zhao army is strong and strong, it is an important wing of Chu in the north, if Zhao is taken, the Eastern Expedition will win most of it.
Zhao also attaches great importance to this battle, Zhao Wang Xie, Zhao army commander Chen Yu gathered 200,000 troops to deploy in Jingchengkou, Jingchengkou, one of the eight passes of Taihang Mountain, surrounded by high mountains, narrow in the middle, easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Chen Yu had a general named Li Zuoche under him, who was very strategic-minded, and he suggested:
Han Xin even destroyed the Wei Dynasty, the morale was booming, the front could not be used, and he could not compete with it head-on, but he had to stick to the well and condescendingly, wait for work at ease, and stick to it.Then with 30,000 strange soldiers along the narrow road to cut off its grain road, the Han army's grain and herbs are difficult to transport, once the grain is cut off, it will be defeated by our army in a few days!
However, Chen Yu was stubborn and self-serving, thinking that Han Xin had come from afar, the army was tired, and he should take the initiative to attack, and the volunteers did not need to deceive and trick, so he refused Li Zuoche's proposal.
The day before the battle, Han Xin drove to camp 30 miles from Jingchengkou.
In the middle of the night, he selected 2,000 cavalry and returned to the flank of the Zhao army's camp from a remote path, and led the main force to cross the Jingchengkou to Mianmanshui and line up against the river.
The generals were puzzled, and the formation was tantamount to cutting off their own lives, and they all asked what they meant, but Han Xin was full of confidence, and only replied by rewarding the three armies after breaking Zhao.
The next day, when the Zhao army saw this situation, they all snickered at Han Xin's place of death, and the Zhao army clashed with the Han army's advance, the Han army pretended to be invincible and retreated, and the Zhao army underestimated the enemy's heart even more, and immediately attacked the whole army in an attempt to destroy Han Xin's main force.
The number of the Zhao army was several times that of the Han army, and in the dilemma of having no way out and being in a dilemma, the Han army was stimulated to have a huge combat potential, and fought to the death to repel wave after wave of strong attacks of the Zhao army.
Just when the two armies were fighting fiercely and were inseparable, the Han army, which had been in ambush for a long time, suddenly came out, occupied the empty Zhao camp, cut off the Zhao army's return route, and the news of the backyard ** spread to the Chen Yu camp in front, and the Zhao army was panicked and panicked.
Han Xin seized the opportunity, took advantage of the chaos of the Zhao army, commanded the main force of the Han army to counterattack on all fronts, annihilated the main force of the Zhao army, killed the commander Chen Yu, captured Zhao Wang Xie alive, and destroyed the Zhao State in one fell swoop.
At the same time, when Han Xin heard about Li Zuoche's strategy, he immediately threw himself into the ground with the five bodies he admired, so he surrendered him, and then followed his advice to pacify Yandi with "soldiers who surrendered without a fight", and forced to land Yan Wang Zang Di.
The Battle of Jingcheng was of great significance to the entire course of the Chu-Han War, as Han Xin swept away this strong opponent in the north, giving the Liu Bang group an advantage in the overall strategic situation.
In 203 BC, Han Xin's army marched east to attack Qi, the Qi army resisted fiercely, and the two sides fell into a stalemate for a time.
Xiang Yu sent Long He to lead 200,000 Chu troops to support Qi State, and the two sides faced each other across the Weishui, and Han Xin first blocked the upstream with sandbags, led troops into the river, and lured the Chu army into battle.
When the enemy led the army to attack, when he reached the middle of the river, Han Xin ordered the army to retreat, broke the embankment and released water, flooding the Chu army, Han Xin took advantage of the situation to rush and kill, annihilated the Chu army, killed Long and pacified the entire territory of Qi.
So far, after nearly two years, Han Xin has fulfilled his mission and completed the strategic outflanking of the Chu army, and the Chu-Han War gradually tilted towards Liu Bang.
From 205 BC to 203 BC, the Chu and Han armies launched a series of tug-of-war battles in the areas of Xingyang and Chenggao.
At first, Liu Bang proposed that the west of Xingyang should be returned to Han and the east to Chu, and Xiang Yu intended to accept it, but was rejected by his father Fan Zeng.
In Fan Zeng's view, Liu Bang is a wolf in sheep's clothing, and the Hongmen Banquet two years ago has lost the opportunity to get rid of him, and this time it must not be missed.
At this time, Liu Bang thought that Fan Zeng was the biggest obstacle to defeating Xiang Yu, so he followed the advice of the strategist Chen Ping and gave him 40,000 catties** to separate the relationship between Xiang Yu and Fan Zeng.
For example, spreading rumors that Fan Zeng was plotting to collude with the Han army, and giving Fan Zeng's envoy a higher reception standard in front of Xiang Yu's envoy, Xiang Yu became suspicious of Fan Zeng and cut his military power, Fan Zeng angrily told the old man to return to his hometown, and finally died of illness on the way.
After that, in order to break the deadlock of the confrontation in Xingyang, Liu Bang ordered Guan Ying to transfer some of the elite of the Han army, and united with Peng Yue of Liangdi to attack the rear grain road of the Chu army.
Liu Bang's series of combination punches annoyed Xiang Yu, and now it was necessary for the Chu army to fight quickly, and in August 204 BC, Xiang Yu gathered the main force of the Chu army to launch a fierce attack on Xingyang, and took Xingyang, Chenggao and other important places.
Liu Bang was forced to retreat to Gongxian and Luoyang, fortunately, the granary Ao Cang was still under the control of the Han army, but Liu Bang could not retreat at this time, once Ao Cang was captured by Xiang Yu, the previous efforts would be wasted.
Therefore, the Han army held Gong County to the death and withstood the strong attack of the Chu army. Just when Liu Bang gritted his teeth and barely insisted, good news came from the Eastern Battlefield.
Peng Yue cut off the grain route of the Chu army and captured 17 cities including Suiyang (now Shangqiu, Henan), which made Xiang Yu ignore each other. Xiang Yu saw that he had to personally lead the army back to help and attack Peng Yue.
In October 204 BC, Liu Bang took advantage of the emptiness of the Chu army's defense and took the opportunity to recapture Chenggao, and after Xiang Yu returned, Liu Bang held on to the danger, and the two sides formed a confrontation again in Guangwu Mountain (northeast of Xingyang, Henan).
At this time, the situation was very unfavorable to Xiang Yu, there was military pressure from Liu Bang in the front, and Peng Yue sneak attacked and made trouble, and the Chu army suffered from the enemy.
The anxious Xiang Yu used a series of absurd tricks to force Liu Bang to fight, first placing Liu Bang's father Liu Taigong on the Ding and telling Liu Bang:
"Don't be in a hurry today, I'm cooking too much. ”(If you don't surrender quickly, I'll cook your father), Liu Bang replied:
"I and you are ordered to conceive the king in the north, about brothers, I am a Weng, if you want to cook, then you are fortunate to share my piece of the pie. ”Anyway, my Lao Tzu is your Lao Tzu, if you have to cook your Lao Tzu, I won't stop you, when the time comes, you will share my piece of the pie, Xiang Yu didn't expect Liu Bang to be so shameless that he had no choice but to give up.
**Ten Thousand Fans Incentive Plan Soon, Xiang Yu came up with another trick and said to Liu Bang:
"The Huns and Huns in the world are a few years old, and they are willing to challenge the king of Han to fight the male and female, and the people of the world will not suffer in vain. ”The gist is that the chaos in the world is our business, and it is better for the two of us to fight it out alone, so that the people will not suffer. Hehe, children only fight, for such a naïve idea, Liu Bang smiled and refused to say:
"I'd rather fight wits than strength. ”The difference between a politician and a samurai is that the former has no bottom line and no shame for the sake of achieving the goal, as long as interests, while the latter seems to be so pure. In order to disgust Xiang Yu, he also announced his ten crimes in public. The angry Xiang Yu took a bow and shot an arrow, hitting Liu Bang in the chest, Liu Bang lied that he had injured his foot in order to stabilize the morale of the army, and then returned to Chenggao to recuperate.
However, Liu Bang's injury could not reverse Xiang Yu's decline. Xiang Yu could neither defeat the Han army in Xingyang and Chenggao, nor could he pull out the stinger behind Peng Yue.
At the time of the confrontation between Chu and Han in Guangwujian, Han Xin was already in the north, and even Zhao Qi was formed, forming an encirclement of Chu, Liu Bang began to close the encirclement, just waiting for the armies of all roads to meet and send the final blow to Xiang Yu.