The History of China - #23 - W. Han 1: The Chu-Han Contention

Episode Date: May 25, 2014

With the Qin Dynasty dead and buried, the victorious rebels turn on one another to establish who will be the next power in China. The Hegemon-King of Chu, Xiang Yu, squares off against his great rival the King of Han, Liu Bang. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I hope you'll consider becoming our patron here at The History of China. Again, our Patreon address is www.patreon.com slash thehistoryofchina. Thank you very much, and enjoy the show. Hello, and welcome to the History of China. Episode 21, The Chu-Han Contention Last time, we covered the surprisingly rapid decline and fall of the Qin Dynasty at the hands of Qin Arshi and his manipulative chancellor Zhao Gao. The warlord who had militarily defeated the Qin army, Xiang Yu, had declared the empire dissolved, to be broken into 18 kingdoms, and himself Ba Wang, or Hegemon King of Western Chu.

But, as would quickly become apparent, all was not well in the post-Qin world, and nature abhors a power vacuum. This time, we overview the period of civil war that marks the interregnum between the Qin and Han dynasties, the Chu-Han contention. Before we launch in, I'd like to get it right out of the way that this period, though short, is complex. I've done my best to make the constantly shifting alliances and the course of the conflict as clear as possible, but of course you'll have to be the final judge of just how successful I've been in unspooling this particular tangled thread. To help out those who

do better with a visual model of the conflict, which does include myself, I'll be putting up a companion post with a series of maps charting the course of the conflicts on thehistoryofchina.wordpress.com. You got it pulled up yet? All right, wonderful. Let's go. Though Xiang Yu was in many respects the poster boy for the anti-Qin rebellion, and had certainly taken the lion's share of the credit and power following the dynasty's collapse, it was actually not Xiang who had captured the Qin capital or the imperial family. That honor, in fact, belonged to Liu Bang, another rebel commander under King Huai II of Chu. As the insurgency had picked up steam,

Huai had issued a kind of competition among his generals. He had promised that whoever first entered and subdued the Qin heartland would be proclaimed its new king of Guanzhong. Xiang Yu had mightily sought that goal, but was beaten to the punch by Liu in 206 BCE, earning the warlord's ire. First, though, we ought to fill out Liu Bang a bit more. He'll be one of the main focuses of this period, so it behooves us to know a little bit more about him than just his name. Liu was born sometime between 256 and 247 BCE in Pei County, which is within modern Jiangsu province. He was born to a peasant family,

explaining both his lack of a concrete date of birth and the fact that his parents are known only as Old Sir and Old Madam Liu, or Liu Taigong and Liu Ao, respectively. One important aspect of Liu Bang's enduring legend is that he was supposedly just constantly surrounded by the signs and power of dragons. Just prior to his conception, in fact, his mother hid from a storm under a bridge, and Old Sir Liu saw a dragon hovering above her. Throughout Liu Bang's life, whenever drunk, people would claim that the silhouette of a dragon would appear around him. Which, you know, is a neat party trick. And he was even set to physically resemble a dragon, with a high nose and serpentine whiskers and beard. So yeah, the Obang, dragon guy. As a young man,

he had been appointed as a minor patrol officer and village headsman, and made a career of escorting convicts from one place to another, and of course, performing executions. All of that came to an end, though, when, while transporting a group of convicts to Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum to assist in its construction, several of the prisoners escaped. True to Qin dynasty form, the penalty for allowing prisoners to escape was, everyone together now, execution. Seeing his charges flee into the woods, Liu seems almost to have thrown up his hands and said, well, the hell with this then.

He released the rest of his prisoners and joined at least ten of them in becoming a band of fugitives. And in keeping with the all-dragons-all-the-time theme of Liu Bang's life, more embellished tellings claim that almost immediately, the small band stumbled across an evil white dragon that could kill with its toxic breath. That night, Liu Bang slew the beast in single combat, and the following morning, the group encountered a mysterious woman weeping on the roadside as they passed.

When asked what was wrong, she cried out, My child, the White Emperor's son has been slain by the son of the Red Emperor. The weeping figure then vanished into the morning mists, leaving the surprised group of outlaws to interpret her cryptic words to mean Liu himself must have been the Red Emperor's son, and thus was destined to be a ruler in the future. Dragons aside, the fugitive band ultimately settled on the slopes of Mount Mangdang, near Liu's birthplace in Pei County, and built their stronghold therein. There they lived, slowly attracting other like-minded ruffians to their cause, until 208, when King Huai II of Chu called on Liu and his soldiers to rise against the Qin.

Two years and a score of victories later, the Qin dynasty had surrendered to none other than Liu Bang, earning him the Qin heartland, Guangzhong, to rule as rightful king. That, however, was now contingent on how Xiang Yu opted to split up his newly proclaimed 18 kingdoms. And as I said earlier, he hadn't forgot being beaten to the punch by Liu. Instead of honoring Huai II's promise, he split Guangzhong into three pieces, Yong, Sai, and Zhai, and gave each to one of the vanquished generals of Qin, Zhang Han, Sima Xin, and Dong Yi, respectively. This was, understandably, a huge snub for Liu Bang.

His consolation prize would be the far-flung wilds of Sichuan, the former barbarian kingdoms Ba and Shu. Proclaimed the Kingdom of Han, it was a meager gift indeed, meant at least as much to lock Liu away behind the rugged mountains of south-central China and keep him out of sight, out of mind. To reach his new outpost kingdom, Liu was forced to take the same torturous paths that had been constructed through the mountains and gorges by the Qin conquerors a generation prior. These so-called gallery roads were narrow paths literally carved into the mountainside

itself, and where there was no rock to cling to, wooden planks had been set into the cliff faces. Over these trails that could best be described as death traps, Liu led a force of some 30,000 soldiers and several thousand settlers to Han. As his people traversed the gallery roads, Liu ordered them removed behind them, thus preventing any other force from following them, and also to convince the watchful Xiang Yu that he had no intention of leaving Sichuan. Now, Liu Bang had no real intention of actually remaining cooped up in Han, but it wouldn't yet do for the hegemon king or his loyalists to realize it.

As it turned out, though, Liu Bang would not have to wait long for his opportunity to strike. Almost immediately, the new Qi kingdom began to rebel against Xiang Yu's will by reintegrating its neighboring Jiabei and Jiao Dong kingdoms into the former and far more powerful Qi state. In former Zhao, there erupted large-scale rebellions as well, forcing the Hezhiman king to split his energies to attempt to suppress both insurrections at once. Liu Bang realized he would be unlikely to get another chance as good as this one, and so he capitalized on the turmoil of the realm.

His first target was the nearest of the so-called Three Chins, the territory controlled by General Zhang Han, Yong. He ordered the immediate reconstruction of the mountainous gallery roads back into the Qin heartland, provoking Zhang Han to reinforce his borders along that frontier. But the gallery roads were merely a distraction, and with Zhang busily fortifying the mouths of the mountain paths, Liu Bang was able to move his Han army secretly through Chencang, Shanxi, and flank the massed Yong defenders. In the span of two sharp, short battles, the Yong army was defeated and forced to retreat with Zhang Han to a stronghold at Feixiu. The rest of Yong was now under the jurisdiction of Han. With our greatest general in flight and Liu Bang's Han army now securely inside the plains

of Guanzhong, the writing seemed to be on the wall. Seeing no other option, Sima Xin of Sai, Dong Yi of Zhai, and Shen Yang of Henan all entered into a pact of alliance with the Han kingdom. By early 205, Xiang Yu of Chu was still tied down in his attempts to suppress the Qi rebellion, and had resolved to finish them off before squaring off against Han's ever more bold encroachments. And so, it was with almost no opposition that Liu Bang massed his forces, along with those of his new allies, to march east against Chu directly. Now, Sima Qian numbers this army of Han at 560,000 soldiers, but come on. He marched into Sichuan with 30,000, but within a year is able to pull half a million out of his hat?

Allies or no, I'm not buying it, Sima Qian. Once again, I think you've tacked on an extra zero or two to make everything seem more epic. But whatever its actual size, the bolstered Han army marched directly toward the Chu capital, Pengcheng. With all of Chu's defenders battling in the north, the invaders easily seized the city and commenced with pillaging and looting its valuables, food stores, women, and liquor stockpiles. Within a very short amount of time, discipline had largely broken down within the occupying Han army, and the bulk of the soldiers were habitually drunk into a stupor morning, noon, and night. Meanwhile, Hegemon King Xiang Yu had at last received word that his own capital city had fallen to a massive invading force from Han. He dropped what he was doing, gathered his finest 30,000 soldiers, and raced back to

Pengcheng to liberate his people. Arriving outside the city under cover of night, the Chu force camped about 10 miles from the city walls and planned to launch their surprise assault at dawn the following day. The Han army was caught completely by surprise in their drunken stupor, and by noon, Xiang Yu had retaken his city and pursued the fleeing Han. The routed invaders fled to the nearby Gu and Si rivers, where, again going by the probably superinflated figures given by Sima Qian, 100,000 of them were cut down.

The remainder fled south south seeking high ground, but once again found themselves pinned against the Sui River. In their panic to cross the body, another 100,000 were said to have drowned, purportedly damming up the river with their massed, waterlogged bodies. Liu Bang himself managed to escape on horseback, with only a few of his bodyguards in tow, and raced for Pei county to try to secure his family against reprisal but hsiang yu beat lio to the punch this time capturing his father wife and mother Liu Bang was able to escape with. And in a likely fictionalized, but very humorous account, Liu was portrayed as being in such a panicked state to get away that he tried to lighten his carriage by dumping his children out three times. Only through the repeated intercession of his minister, Xia Hou Ying,

were the miners not unceremoniously dumped back onto the roadside and watched their father speed off. Xiang Yu had won a stunning victory and completely reversed the tides of fortune against Han. However, Pengcheng was in a dire state. Its citizens starved, and its infrastructure was in ruins. Xiang Yu now faced the decision of whether to pursue the fleeing Liu Bang or to assist his people.

In a remarkable instance of Iron Age humanitarianism, Xiang chose the latter and ordered his army to stand down and distribute their provisions among the populace and assist with the city's reconstruction. And not to take anything away from his choice, but it certainly helped his decision-making process that Xiang Yu now held much of Liu Bang's family as hostages against further aggression from Han. Down, but critically not out, Liu would retreat back across the mountains to Sichuan to lick his wounds and begin the process of amassing a new army. For their part, Sima Xin and Dong Yi took the opportunity to once again jump ship,

abandoning their alliance with Han for one with Chu. The situation became even more precarious for Liu Bang, as to the north, Qi and Zhao had both grown tired of the conflict with Chu and had sued for peace, thus freeing up more of Chu's military to repulse any further attempts at invasion by Han. But Liu wasn't yet beaten, and upon reaching his capital, Yu, he sent an envoy to the ruler of Jiujiang to choose immediate south, King Yingbu. Yingbu agreed to join Liu Bang's rebellion

and began attacking western Chu. But Jiujiang was no match for Chu and swiftly succumbed to a tremendous counterattack led by General Longzhu. King Yingbu was forced to abandon his kingdom entirely and join Liubang within Han. But with the armies of Chu occupied in holding and securing Jiuzhang, the Han armies were able to score a critical victory at Jing County and drive Xiangyu's forces back east of Xinyang city, which is part of modern Zhengzhou, Henan. In the sixth month of 205, Liu Bang both named his son Liu Ying as his designated heir and finished mopping up the Yong remnant at Feiqiu by flooding the area and forcing Zhang Han to commit suicide.

In addition to Sima Xin and Dong Yi, yet another ally of Han, the king of Wei, decided that his kingdom's prospects looked far brighter allied with Chu than Han. On the pretext of visiting an ill relative, which is, gee, real original Wei Bao, he left Liu Bang's side and returned to Wei, where he declared his allegiance to Xiang Yu and made war with his erstwhile ally. Liu Bang was having none of it, and dispatched his finest general, Han Xin, to nip Wei's insurrection in the bud. The two armies camped near each other at Puban, with the Wei army blocking the path to the important city, Linjin, which Wei Bao had been convinced Han was preparing to attack. Secretly, however, Han Xin had been ferrying his soldiers across the river at night,

and was in fact preparing to besiege the capital of Wei itself, Anyi. In the ninth month of 205, King Wei Bao led his attack against Han Xin's encamped army, but was defeated and captured. Wei Bao surrendered his kingdom to Han, performed a mea culpa, and was accepted back into the fold and reappointed as a general. Han Xin went on to attack the kingdoms of Dai and Zhao to the north, supported by the prince of Changshan in exile, formerly the prince of Zhao, Zhang Er.

The Han army met the defenders of Dai, led by Prime Minister Xia Yue, at Jingxing Pass, the border of Zhao within the Taihong Mountains. The small Dai army was easily overrun and Prime Minister Xia captured by General Han Xin, who then moved his combined forces into Zhao proper. Han Xin's forces emerged victorious from Jingxing Pass, but their celebration was short-lived. Directly across the Zhao River sat the army of Zhao, commanded by its chancellor, Chun Yu. The Zhao army vastly outnumbered the Han expeditionary force, some 200,000 to Han Xin's 30,000.

And Chun had been repeatedly counseled that merely by blocking Jingxing Pass, he would have been able to force Han Xin's forces back by simply waiting them out and bleeding Han dry through supply line maintenance. Chen Yu, however, felt such tactics beneath him, especially with an army of 200,000 backing him. He would meet the Han force in the open field and crush them in the conventional and more honorable fashion. Han Xin, however, had no such compunction about the form in which

victory might take. In preparation for the following day's clash, General Han dispatched a small force of 2,000 mounted men, each equipped with the red battle flag of the Han army. They were to remain out of sight near the Zhao army's camp and wait for General Han's signal. Further, he had an additional 10,000 men cross the Tao River and prepare defensive fortifications on its far side under cover of darkness. They would spend the whole night digging trenches and constructing bulwarks for the day to come. General Han knew his soldiers were critically low on morale,

having seen the size of the force arrayed against them. Thus, his choice of battleground would pin them against the river and without hope of easy retreat, a seemingly foolhardy strategy. But Han Xin was betting everything, that given no other option, his men would fight all the more ferociously to break through the Zhao's attack. Early the next morning, after a meager breakfast, Han Xin marched out of Jingxing Pass and across the Tao to meet the Zhao army, prominently displaying their colors and banners in order to lure the Zhao to battle, and critically, out of their campsite.

Soon after the first clash, the Han army feigned defeat and withdrew to the defensive positions along the river that had been prepared the night before, with the whole of the Zhao army hot on their tail. This was the moment that Han Xin had been waiting for, and as his men fought for their lives from their prepared fortifications, he signaled his hidden mounted force to move into the Zhao camp with their battle flags raised. As the battle along the Tao river was fought to a stalemate, the Zhao commanders attempted to regroup their forces to renew the attack on the beleaguered Han army.

But as they turned around, they saw the thousands of Han battle flags inside their own camp, which created the impression that they had been ambushed from the rear by a secret element of the Han army. The infantrymen panicked and began to break formation, convinced that they now had no hope of victory. As the Zhao officers tried to regain control and enforce discipline among their demoralized troops, Han Qin launched a full counterattack and broke the already wavering lines of Zhao. Under such an assault, and fearing there was nowhere to retreat to, the Zhao army disintegrated entirely and fled along the banks of the river, now closely pursued by the Han army. In the course of the panicked flight,

Chancellor Chen Yu was killed in action, and the Prince of Zhao, Zhao Xie, was captured. In the feast following the Han army's victory, Han Xin's own officers, still not quite believing their own good fortune, having been deeply afraid of the ostensibly suicidal battle plan their general had drawn up, asked him how he had come up with such an unorthodox strategy against such an overwhelmingly larger force. Han Xin explained that since he was not a general of wide renown, and the Han army was itself a joint operation consisting of many desperate bodies of soldiers, he could not expect them to fight to the last or with any cohesion under normal battle conditions. They quite simply didn't have the discipline. As such, the only way to drastically improve their fighting prowess was to put them all into a do-or-die situation with no way out except victory. Or in his immortalized words, 直至死地二活生, survival may be achieved by fighting from a position of certain death.

With Dai and Zhao secured, Liu Bang's Han army turned to directly confront the two eastern powers, Qi and western Chu. For quite some time, Qi and western Chu had been at odds with one another, and it had been that ongoing hostility, in fact, that had prevented Xiang Yu from taking a more active posture against Han's incursions. In 204 BCE, diplomatic meetings between all three states had reached what seemed to be a turning point. Initially, Qi and Chu had reached an armistice agreement, but after intense negotiations with Han's top emissary, Li Yiji, Prince Tian Guang of Qi had decided to acknowledge Liu Bang's Han as the Qi kingdom's leader.

But news of the agreement did not travel fast enough, and before Liu Bang could send word, his general, Han Xin, had launched a preemptive strike against Qi. Taken completely by surprise at Han's apparent treachery, Prince Tian Guang fled to Xiang Yu's court in western Chu, swearing fealty to the Hezhiman king and pleading for his assistance against the Han army. Xiang Yu pledged to protect his new vassal state

and dispatched his general, Long Zhu, to lead a strong expeditionary force to drive back the Han invaders of Qi. Han Xin received word that the enemy commander was marching to meet his army, and was pleased to learn that it was Long Zhu who had been dispatched. Though he was renowned for his fierceness in combat and personal bravery, Long was also rather infamous for his arrogance and recklessness in the heat of battle. He would prove easy to deceive, and thus defeat.

The night before the two armies were to meet, Han Xin ordered his men to construct a jury-rigged dam upstream across the Wei River, which divided the two forces. The following morning, General Han marched his men across the drastically reduced waters and attacked Long's front lines. The Han army quickly began to fall back against the Chu's onslaught and retreated across the river, luring Long Chu's forces after them. General Long had decided to win the battle through overwhelming force rather than attrition, having disregarded advice to the contrary, and believing his enemy Han Xin to be a coward at heart, wanted to end this battle as quickly and decisively as possible. He ordered his forces to commit to their pursuit of the retreating Han and press across the river, just as Han Xin had

predicted. As Long's own vanguard reached the far side, Han Xin signaled his soldiers manning the makeshift dam to break its supports and flood the riverbed as the Chu army made its way across. The bulk of the Chu army was washed away in the torrent to drown, and Long Ju's own company found itself suddenly vastly outnumbered and a flooded river away from reinforcements or retreat. In the ensuing melee, Long's forces were cut down to a man along with the general. The remainder of the Chu army quickly disintegrated under additional Han assault, and Prince Tian Guang of Qi fled but was ultimately caught and killed by Liu Bang's forces. The Qi kingdom had been annexed into Han, and western Chu had lost its ability to open a second

front in the war against Liu Bang. Hezhimon King Xiangyu found himself down between a third up to half of his standing army, along with many of his seasoned veteran troops and officers. Clearly, it was time for a change of strategy. Following General Han Xin's victory and occupation of Qi, he sent word to King Liu Bang, informing him of the success of the operation, and humbly requesting that Liu declare him the new king of Qi. Liu Bang, however, was in a bit of a sticky situation, because though the northern forces had soundly defeated the Qi and Qi massed against them, Xiang Yu had committed the bulk of his remaining forces to besieging the

Han-occupied city, Xinyang, a situation in which Liu Bang found himself and was still awaiting relief. He had been expecting his general Han to follow up his victory in Qi by lifting the siege on the city, not demanding a promotion to lordhood. As Liu waffled on approving Han Xin's request, Xiang Yu attempted to capitalize on what he correctly perceived to be a potential fissure point between the King of Han and his greatest military commander. Xiang Yu dispatched his envoy Wu She to Qi to try to persuade Han Xin to betray his king and take up arms against Han with Chu. In return, hegemon King Xiang Yu would recognize Han Xin's rightful claim to the throne of Qi. Tempting to say the least, but in spite of his initial reluctance and with his minister's urgings, Liobang gritted his teeth and approved Han Xin's request, affirming him as the

new king of Qi and averting the looming conflict of interest. The now king of Qi, Han Xin, would remain in his new seat of power and begin coordinating a southward strike on the Chu interior. Back in the south, within the besieged city of Xinjiang, both Han and Chu had been battered by the extended conflict, and after sustaining heavy losses on his extended supply lines to continue holding the captured city, Liu Bang of Han was ready to come to the table to talk peace. In the course of negotiations, King Liu and King Xiang Yu came to terms that would cede

all Han territories east of Xinyang to western Chu, while all cities west of that line and the city itself would be recognized as Han's alone. Both kings walked away from their talks satisfied with the arrangement, but back in his camp, Xiang Yu had his ear bent by advisor Fan Zheng. Rather than settle for half the country, I mean, Liu Bang is right here, right now. The war is over today if we can just capture him. Xiang Yu changed his mind,

and rather than agreeing to the treaty, he renewed his attack on Xin Yang and Liu Bang within. During the ceasefire, though, Liu had been able to rally his forces within the city, and was able to break the western Chu lines and drive them off. Rebuffed again to his west, Xiang Yu turned north towards Qi once again, striving to unthrone Han Xin and break Qi off from the growing Han sphere of domination. But as Xiang threw his armies against the defenders within Qi, Liu Bang mobilized an expedition of his own into western Chu. As Liu's forces besieged and captured yet more cities and territories within the under-defended

western regions of Chu, Xiang Yu came to understand that he had no choice. He sent messages to Liu Bang, apologizing for breaking off the peace proceedings, and proclaiming that he was now ready to sign and abide by the same conditions the two states had previously agreed to. The document would be known as Hong Gou He Ye, the Treaty of Hong Canal. China would be divided in half, and Liu Bang's family, long-held hostages of Chu, would return to him. As the ink on the paper still dried, however, it was Liu Bang who decided that he wasn't so keen on only half of China after all. As Xiang Yi retreated eastward, Liu renounced the treaty and ordered his forces to

attack. He requested that his vassal lords, Han Xin and Peng Yue, link up with his advance to form a massive three-prong offensive into Chu. But not particularly liking their odds, and having developed an acute case of the, yeah, but what have you done for me lately's, neither Han nor Peng mobilized their forces to assist Liu Bang. Finding himself overextended into Chu, and with no support en route from his vassals, Liu Bang was met with the reality that he must call off his assault and retreat to reinforce his defensive lines. One might expect that Liu would have been furious with Han Xin and Peng Yue for not following their king's commands. However, the quid pro quo nature of the patron-client relationships among kings and their lords in ancient China wasn't nearly so black and white as that. Rather than punishing his vassal kings, Liu essentially admitted that it had been his bad to ask so much from them while offering nothing in return. He promised the pair lands and titles for their support in his next campaign against Chu,

to which the two readily agreed. That campaign would be launched three months later in early 202 BCE. Now united in purpose, Liu Bang, Han Xin, and Peng Yue launched a massive strike from three directions into Chu. The Chu army, already plagued by supply shortages, was quickly overrun. Though he had attempted to flee back to the relative safety of his capital, King Xiang Yu found himself cut off and trapped in the canyoning area called Gaixia, southeast of present-day Suzhou, Anhui province. It's a little confusing because this Suzhou is a homonym

but different from the far more famous Suzhou in Jiangsu province to the north. He had been driven there by Liu Bang's army with the intent of corralling the hegemon king within the narrow canyon walls and limiting his freedom of movement. Deep within, the trap was baited. Xiang Yu's young wife, Yu Ji, had been captured as she traveled with the armies, and word reached Xiang Yu

that his beloved was now awaiting him to rescue her. And since Liu Bang knew that Xiang Yu would do everything in his power to rescue his wife, Gaixia Canyon had been extensively prepared for the Hegemon King's arrival. In this shimian maifu, literally ambush from ten sides, though also appropriated for the 2004 film The House of Flying Daggers, although that is unrelated to the Chuhan contention and in fact was set some thousand years in the future during the fall of the Tang Dynasty, but I digress.

Anyway, numerous traps, ambush points, and encirclement positions had served to drastically slow down, spread out, and dismantle the Chu army piecemeal. Though they managed to reach and free Xiang's wife, the remnants of the Chu army soon found themselves completely encircled and without hope of retreat or survival. At this point, General Han Xin decided to rub a bit more salt in his enemy's wounds, and ordered his men to begin to sing. Not songs of Han victory or glory, but the traditional songs of Chu.

This was aimed to crush the trapped soldiers' morale and make them yearn for home. And boy did it work. In spite of initial threats to force their obedience, Xiang Yu found the bulk of his men desert, and his wife Yu Ji, thinking herself the cause of Western Chu's ultimate defeat, took her own life at only 16. On seeing his dear wife's lifeless body, Xiang Yu's spirit was finally and utterly broken.

However, while the bulk of his army had quietly wandered off into the night, a corps of hardened loyalists, numbering some 800 strong, remained by their king's side, ready to fight to the last. And distraught as he was, Xiang Yu realized that with such a small number of men, they could now hope to outrun the encamped Han forces and break through a gap in their defenses that would have been far too small for a larger force. The small company of cavalry managed to break through the Han lines and make a dash outside of Gaixia. Liu Bang, of course, did not take this news lying down, and immediately ordered 5,000 elite cavalrymen to ride the Chu king's fleeing host down and take him alive, if possible.

The chase ended at the banks of the Wu River. Xiang Yu sent his men across, but stood before the oncoming Han cavalry and refused to surrender. As the soldiers attempted to take him into their custody alive, he lashed out, slaying several, but was wounded in the process. Bleeding heavily from several wounds, Xiang Yu waded out into the river and produced a knife, slashing his own throat. The hegemon king of Chu was no more. The main body of the Chu kingdom, its head severed, would thrash a bit before succumbing.

Xiang Yu's brother attempted to take up the mantle of Hezhimon King, but wasn't nearly the strategic commander his brother had been, and certainly no match for the likes of Han generals Han Xin or Peng Yue. As defeat met with defeat, and both fortresses and cities succumbed to the might of Han, Xu was forced to admit defeat and become again incorporated into the once more reunified Chinese Empire. Liu Bang, as promised, rewarded his subordinates with lands and titles for their victory, declaring Pengyue, Yingwu, and Hanshin the kings of Liang, Huainan, and Chu respectively. King Liu Bang would consolidate his rule into the Han Dynasty and proclaim himself its Emperor Gaozu on February 28, 202 BCE. The storied reign of the Han Dynasty is where we will pick up next time,

with the reign of its first Emperor, Gaozu. Thank you for listening. Today's podcast is brought to you in part by Audible.com. By using the web address audibletrial.com slash china, you can receive a free audiobook download along with a free 30-day trial of the service. With over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle, or MP3 player, Audible is the nation's leading seller and producer of spoken audio content. our official website, thehistoryofchina.wordpress.com, as well as on Twitter via the handle at THOCpodcast, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com slash thehistoryofchina.