An Ambush on Ten sides
3 min readIn 202 BC Conqueror of West chu Xiang Yu and his 100 thousand army were tightly encircled in Gaixia by 300 thousand Han troops led by general Han Xin.Although Backed by superior military strength，Xiang Yu styled himself the Conqueror of West Chu to exercise control over all the insurrectionary forces，whilst honoring King Huai with the title of Emperor Yi（literally the”Righteous Emperor”）.He also granted titles and territories to 18 distinguished generals and nobles of the previous six states；among them Liu Bang was made the Prince of Han，acquiring 41 remote counties in modern Sichuan and southern Shaanxi with Nanzheng（today’s same-named county in Shaanxi Province）as the capital.
The War Between Chu and Han
In the winter of 206 BC Xiang Yu had the titular Emperor Yimurdered on the way to his fief. Liu Bang publicly decried Xiang’s wicked act, and thus started the war between Chu and Han.
Sketch Map of the ChuHan War
XangYis Amy
sketch Map ofthe chu-Han War
The next year, Liu Bang commanded an allied force of 560 thousand to march eastward across the Yellow River, and captured Pengcheng –the capital of West Chu–when Xiang Yu was off guard. Xiang at once led a picked troop of 30 thousand to go down south, and inflicted heavy casualties on the Han army: more than 100 thousand were killed in battle and another 100 thousand were drowned in the Sui River when fleeing helter-skelter. Although Liu Bang succeeded in escaping, his father and wife Li Zhi were both taken prisoners.
Liu Bang fled to Xingyang(today’s same-named city in Henan Province) and regrouped his forces there after the debacle. Ever since then the two sides had been locked in a seesaw struggle for a couple of years.
In 203 BC, Xiang Yu who was seriously short of provisions had to negotiate a ceasefire with Liu Bang. They finally agreed to take Honggou(southeast of Xingyang) as the boundary line: Xiang in the east and Liu in the west. Xiang then released Liu’s family members.
Nevertheless, advisers Zhang Liang and Chen Ping pointed out that signing an armistice was like letting the tiger go back to its den; instead, they should muster superior forces to wipe out the enemy at one fell swoop. Following their suggestions, Liu Bang sent generals Han Xin, Peng Yue and Ying Buto pursue and attack the Chu army suffering from hunger and exhaustion.
In 202 BC, Xiang Yu and his some 100 thousand troops found themselves trapped in a tight encirclement in Gaixia(southeast of present Lingbi County of Anhui Province). When night fell, Han Xin ordered the 300 thousand Han soldiers to sing Chu songs from all sides to sap the enemy’s morale.
Xiang Yu bade farewell to his favorite concubine, and led only 800 cavalrymen to break through the ring of encirclement. At daybreak, Xiang was cornered by 5,000 pursuing troops at last, and after killing hundreds of Han soldiers committed suicide by cutting his throat on the west bank of the Wu River(northeast of present Hexian County of Anhui Province). He was only 30 years old.
