The Hongmen Feast
2 min readThe Banquet at Hongmen
Once entering the Qin capital with a scene of bustling activity，Liu Bang got carried away by success and was ready to enjoy the pleasures of life there.Thanks to general Fan Kuai and adviser Zhang Liang’s timely admonishments，he resumed a cool head and retreated to Bashang.
Getting furious at the fact that he was not the first to occupy Xianyang，Xiang Yu led his army to Hongmen（in present Lintong County of Shaanxi Province）and planned to kill Liu Bang.With a force of 400 thousand，Xiang Yu claimed to be one milion strong.Liu Bang who only gathered together 100 thousand troops at that time was obviously no match for him.
However，Xiang Yu’s uncle Xiang Bo revealed Liu Bang’s dangerous situation to his good friend Zhang Liang.Liu Bang turned pale when learning Xiang Yu’s plot，and rushed along with Zhang Liang and Fan Kuai to Hongmen to ask for forgiveness.Xiang Yu accepted Liu’s apology and gave a banquet in honor of his rival.
Knowing that Xiang Yu had changed his mind，adviser Fan Zeng confidentially got general Xiang Zhuang to assassinate Liu Bang whilst pretending to perform the sword dance at the feast.Owingto Xiang Bo and Fan Kuai’s protection，Liu Bang had a narrow escape.On the pretext of going to the toilet he ran back by a shortcut to Bashang.Hearing the news，Fan Zeng sighed，”That fellow（referringto Xiang Zhuang）is not worthy to be taken into our confidence.The one who will gain state power in the future must be the Duke of Pei！”
After the unsuccessful assassination at the Hongmen feast，Xiang Yu marched into Xianyang where he executed King Ziying and more than 800 aristocrats of Qin，and burnt down the uncompleted Epang Palace.The fire lasted for three months.
