chinesegeography

The Destruction of Xiang Yu-Ending



Knowing his days were coming to an end, Xiang Yu ordered wine for his last dinner with his concubine Yu. In his hut, he expressed these tragic lines:



I was able and I shattered the world 'til Fate decided my doom was due. My horse sensing the time quit the race, but you, O my love, what shall I do with you？



Yu joined him in chorus. Xiang Yu was in tears, as was everyone at the dinner. Then Yu killed herself. Xiang Yu mounted his horse, to attempt to flee; just over 800 cavalrymen accompanied him. They managed to break through the siege and headed southeast.



Xiang Yu and his men fought their way to Dongcheng (northwest of Tuxian, Anhui). By this time he had only 28 cavalry with him, with thousands of enemy soldiers pursuing them. Knowing he could probably not escape, Xiang Yu said to his men: "You know that there was not a single encounter in my eight years as commander in which I did not subdue whoever stood up against me. I out-dared all other heroes in this fight for supremacy, but this seems to be how I shall go down. If this is what Fate intends for me, so be it. But it's certainly not that I am not a good fighter." Then Xiang Yu led his men into battle again. By the time they arrived at the Wujiang River (east of Taihe County, Anhui, where the river empties into the Yangtze from the west), they had lost two more companions.



Now, it happened that a district governor in this neighborhood had a boat moored for Xiang Yu. He urged him to board the boat and go across the river back to his home state. Xiang Yu refused to return home defeated and alone. Instead, he and his soldiers headed back into the battle with Liu Bang's men. Xiang Yu was as unyielding as a cornered lion; he and his faithful followers killed hundreds. But in the end, he killed himself with his own sword. Xiang Yu died at only 31 years of age.

The Destruction of Xiang Yu-Sequel І



The political vacuum left by the deposed Qin Dynasty was filled by self-styled petty princes whose power had expanded during the war, to the extent that they claimed relative independence from each other along with a fair share of the spoils. In 206 BC Xiang Yu, the commander-in-chief of the allied forces, took over authority to officially recognize this regressive feudalism by legitimizing allies' titles to princedoms or dukedoms. Xiang Yu proclaimed himself "Xi Chu Ba Wang," or the Grand King of Western Chu.



With the seat of his government in Pengcheng (today's Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province). Liu Bang was among the 18 warlords whom Xiang Yu made princes; he was assigned the territories of Ba, Shu and Hanzhong. The same year saw the beginning of discord between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang vying for supremacy. The ensuing war went on for four years. In 202 BC, Liu Bang chased Xiang Yu to Guling (south of today's Taikang, Henan Province). He was joined by Han Xin, Ying Bu and Peng Yue, as they besieged Xiang Yu in Gaixia. Xiang Yu was outnumbered, yet he refused to go down easily. He still had the same elite troops he had possessed under his command from the time he had risen from his home state of Chu. Now they were cornered but they were set to fight to their last breath. Seeing that force could not break him, Zhang Liang resorted to craft. He had his men sing the folksongs of Chu State.



The psychological warfare proved to be effective. Folksongs from their homeland distressed Xiang Yu's soldiers so severely that they no longer wanted to fight but abandoned their posts. Even Xiang Bo left his nephew for Zhang Liang. Xiang Yu was aghast when he heard the songs, which to him to mean that Liu Bang had taken his home state and drafted soldiers from there.