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Xiang Yu Was Unbeatable—Until His Supply Lines Began to Collapse | Silk and Steel · UK Column Radio

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of the Silk and Steel podcast,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Chinese history series, where we talk about Chinese history from
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the deepest antiquity to what we optimistically hope will be
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the present day. We actually delayed our start time slightly
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and it had kind of calamitous consequences for Mr. Chai
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: in Bali. But this is just to show that, you know,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in the present as in the ancient Chinese history, one
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: has to roll with the unforeseen calamities. And so Mr.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Ja is going to carry us through with the freshly
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: injected natural adrenaline from his recent injury. And I'm sure
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: we will all be fine.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: All right. Well, row is probably the bad choice of
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: words because I literally just rolled my knee because I
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: was carrying my five-year-old And I was, I misstepped, you know,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: because we're at a new place. I'm not familiar with
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: the environment yet. I thought that there were like three steps,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: like one step leading down to the garden path, but
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: there were two. So I, while carrying my son, I,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: all the weight on my, my left foot, I, I,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I misstepped. And then my, my, I, totally rolled on
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: my ankle. My ankle went like that. And now it's
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: swollen to the size of between an orange and a cantaloupe.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: And so after this, I'm going to go to the
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: hospital after this recording. Because this is what happened to
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: my dad also a few years back. And my dad
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: just ignored it, even though it was swollen like a cantaloupe.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: And then like a few months later, he couldn't walk.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: And then by the time he finally checked into a hospital,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the doctor said, okay, you have to have surgery. And
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: then he still delayed it because he didn't want to
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: have surgery. He thought he went back to China to
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: get some Chinese medicinal treatment from his own brother. That
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: worked for a while until the treatment stopped. When he
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: had to come back to the United States. So in
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: the end, he still had to do the surgery. So yeah,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: it's a... You don't.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Want to put those things off, generally. Exactly.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Right after this, I'm going to... We're in the mountains,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: so I'm going to have to drive an hour to
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: the closest hospital to get a look up. This is
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: like four days, three days before my next China trip.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I'm going to have to check to see if they're
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: allowed to carry crutches on a plane. I'll be hopping
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: on one leg.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: You know, as I recall, you started this podcast, not
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: this series, but this podcast in general, partly inspired by
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Radio Warner podcast. And from listening to them, I noticed
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: there is a frequent like interjection at the beginning about
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: one of the hosts being injured for something kind of
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: odd or like funny and whatnot. So we are following
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: in that direction.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: I'm also getting up during age. I'm going to be
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: 50 at the end of this month. So I'm getting
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: my body and I'm having more accidents. Somehow I became
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: more accident prone in my old age. Anyway, let's carry on.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Enough about my problems. Let's go back to ancient Chinese history.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: So we were talking about, you know, we're still in
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: this period of ancient Chinese history, right after the collapse
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: of the Qin dynasty, but before the establishment of the
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Han dynasty, this period of a fight for supremacy between
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: the two former rebel factions that's known as Chu-Han contention
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: in the Chinese history. The Han faction led by Liu Bang,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: who eventually went down to from the Han Dynasty, spoiler alert,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: and the other, the Chu faction led by Xiang Yu.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: But so far, you know, you know, Xiang Yu is
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: having the better, the upper hand in the struggle because
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Xiang Yu's record so far, he's undefeated. Anytime they have
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: to face Xiang Yu, they all, you know, nobody can
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: stand up to him. So Niu Bang having lost his
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: army to Xiang Yu again, had to, you know, sneak,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: literally sneak into the camp of his general Han Xin
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: and Zhang Er, who have their army of their own
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: in the former Zhao state. And because Liu Bang, you know,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: he can't completely trust that Zhang Er and Han Xin
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: not just going to do him in because he only
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: literally was by himself at this point. So he snuck
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: into their camp early in the morning before everybody woke up.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: grabbed the Han Xin's seal of command, called emergency meeting,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: and took away Han Xin's army, stripped him of his army.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: And then he told Han Xin, okay, now I will
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: make point Zhang Er, the new king of Zhao, and
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: you will be the prime minister of Zhao. I will
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: task you with the task of raising a new army
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: by recruiting from the Zhao state. But all the army
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: you have right now, they belong to me. And now
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: with this new army, Liu Bang said to, first he
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: decided to reinforce Peng Yue, the other rebel leader who
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: is becoming a pain in the ass for Shang Yu
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: in his rear because Peng Yue has a sizable force
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: of his own. And whenever Shang Yu is away, Peng
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Yue wreaks havoc in Shang Yu's supply lines. And this
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: time Liu Bang decided to send his cousin Liu Gu
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: and also his best friend forever, Lu Wan. Lu Wan
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: is the one who was born on the same day
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: as Liu Bang, and they grew up together. They're all
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: like inseparable. So basically the two most trusted person by
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang to lead 20,000 men to cross the Yellow
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: River from the Zhao state into the Chu territory to
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: reinforce Peng Yue. And with this additional... reinforcement, Peng Yue
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: quickly expanded his operation. He figured out where the Chu
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: army was storing most of their grains. And he destroyed that.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: And then he expanded upon his victory by capturing a
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: dozen cities behind the Chu territory that effectively cut off
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: the Chu supply line. So by now, At this time,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Xiang Yu just taken the very important city of Chenggao
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: and Xinyang from Liu Bang. He was ready to press
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: eastward into the Luoyang Basin, the former Zhou Dynasty royal domain,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: and further west into the former Qing territory, which became
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang's heartland at this point, headquarter. But now with
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: his supply line getting cut off, Xiang Yu has no
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: choice but to go back to deal with this problem
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: because all the generals he sent against Peng Yue has
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: been defeated and killed by Peng Yue. This is a
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: problem that Xiang Yu has. He doesn't have anybody dependable
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: that he can delegate to. Liu Bang has all these
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: other guys, Peng Yue, Han Xin, Yin Bu. Xiang Yu
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: is just by himself. Even though he's undefeated, but he
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: cannot divide himself into multiple places. So he decided to
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: trust the remaining army at the front to his general
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Cao Jiu. And he told Cao Jiu, all you have
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: to do is to hold the city of Chenggao for
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: 15 days. I will be back in two weeks. I
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: will defeat Peng Yuan and come back in two weeks.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: In those two weeks, all you got to do is
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: hold the city of Chenggao. You don't go out to
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: fight the Han army. You just hold the city, right?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: And the reason Xiang Yu gives Cao Jiu this big
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: responsibility is because Cao Jiu has always been very close
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: to the Xiang family. Now, back when Xiang Yu's uncle,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Xiang Liang, back in the Qin dynasty, committed some kind
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: of offense that led to an arrest warrant against him,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Xiang Liang went to Cao Jiu who was a jailer
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: at that point for a local county, he went to
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Cao Jiu to write him a letter of explanation to
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Sima Xin, the other jailer from the county where the
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: warrant was issued, to persuade Sima Xin to cancel the
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: warrant for Xiang Liang. And that worked. And because Cao
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Jiu and Sima Xin had this This connection, they're old friends. Later,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: when Sima Xing became second-in-command to the Qin general Zhang
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Han in the Battle of Ju Lu, again, Cao Jiu
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: at that time was already working for Xiang Yu. Cao
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Jiu made his contacts through Sima Xing. convinced Sima Xing
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: to convince Zhang Han to surrender after the battle of
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Ju Lu which you know kind of it was a
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: big it was a big deal that won that brought
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: down the Qing dynasty Zhang Han surrendered so for this
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: reason Cao Jiu was one of the few non-Shang Yu
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: family members that was in fifth as a marquee for
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: his contribution. And so also left with Sima Xing, Xiang
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Yu also left with Cao Jiu, also his old acquaintance
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Sima Xing and Dong Yi. So Sima Xing and Dong Yi,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: they were number two and number three for Zhang Han before.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: And they were the two of the kings It was
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: when Xiang Yu divided up the former Qin heartland into
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: three pieces. He gave it to Zhang Han, Sima Xin,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: and Dong Yi. Zhang Han was defeated and then later
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: committed suicide, but Sima Xin and Dong Yi surrendered to
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang. But when Liu Bang was defeated at the
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Battle of Pengchen, Sima Xin and Dong Yi went over
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: to Xiang Yu. So now Xiang Yu assigns Sima Xin
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: and Dong Yi to be lieutenant of Cao Jiu because
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Sima Xing and Cao Jiu have this old relationship dating
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: all the way back. So all three of them, all
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: their task was to hold the city of Chenggao. And
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: in the meantime, so while Xiang Yu went to deal
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: with Peng Yue problem, Li Yi Ji, Liu Bang's closest advisor,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: give him advice. He said, look, this is a heaven-sent
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: opportunity because I heard Ao Chang, the former Qin dynasty
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: imperial granary, which Xiang Yu's army has always also captured,
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: which sits between Chenggao and Xinyang, the two strategic cities,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: that Ao Chang is now lightly defended. And even though
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Xiang Yu has already moved a lot of food from
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Ao Chang, what I heard There's still vast amount of
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: grains stored in the underground storage. And this is a
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: heaven sent opportunity for us to take it and to
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: deprive the true army of this very important source of food,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: you know, and, and. and then Li Yi Ji further
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: goes on to say, look, the, you know, when heaven
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: presents you with this opportunity and you don't take it,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: you usually get punished for it. Right. And say, this is,
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: this is the, this is the, the opportunity for us
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: to kind of turn, turn the tide of the war to, to,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: to go on offensive. Um, and so Liu Bang took
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Li Yi Ji's advice, and then he made a very
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: risky move because right now, um, the two very strategic cities,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Chenggao and Xinyang, they guard, they're kind of guard the
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: path to the Luoyang Basin, right? The Aochang, the Qing
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: imperial granary kind of sit in between them. And Chenggao
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: is defended by Cao Jiu, who was entrusted by Xiang Yu.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: And Xinyang is defended by Zhong Limei, who is the
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: other one of Xiang Yu's very important generals. Ao Chang
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: sits in between them. So even though Ao Chang is
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: slightly defended, if the Han army strike for Ao Chang,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: they could potentially be caught in a pincer movement by
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: the two Chu forces. It's a very risky bet. But
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang has a large number. He has a superior
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: number at this point. So he decided to make that bet.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: And so he... And he doesn't have much time to
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: act because Xiang Yu's movement means he only has 15 days.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Xiang Yu is going to go deal with Peng Yue
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: and come back in two weeks. And on the side
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: of Peng Yue, when he heard Xiang Yu is coming,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: he very wisely withdrew. Well, at first he tried to
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: put up a defense at the city of Weifang. But,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: you know, Xiang Yu being Xiang Yu is quite fierce.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: And when Pen Yue realized that White Huang is not
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: going to help, so he secretly sneaked away. But because
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: the city of White Huang held up Xiang Yu for
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: more than a week, you know, Xiang Yu said he
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: planned to wrap everything in two weeks. But White Huang's
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: city alone held up Xiang Yu for more than a week.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Xiang Yu was very angry with the people of White Huang.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: So he... when he captured the city, he ordered to
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: separate out all the male members, you know, uh, you know,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: of certain age, all the male, all the male members
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: of the city, uh, above the age of 16, they,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: they ordered them to group together and in one corner
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: of the city. Well, given Xiang Yu's record, everybody knew
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: what to expect, right? This is, uh, Xiang Yu is
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: likely is taking revenge for the city, for their, um,
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: resistance to him him and his army and so this
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: at this point there's a there's a white robed uh
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: teen or pre-teen a boy who's either 12 or 13
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: years old at the time he decided to go face
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Xiang Yu himself by himself and um so you know
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Xiang Yu's general were very surprised this this little kid
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: wants to have audience so but they still let him
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: through and and shang yu shang yu himself was also
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: surprised he said are you not afraid you're not afraid
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: of me and the little boy says well i'm not
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: even afraid of death why should it be a i
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: afraid of you your majesty besides you, your majesty, is
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: not a bad guy. You know, you're a good guy.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Why should I be afraid of you? You know, he
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: said the reason Peng Yue had to leave and give
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: up resisting you is because he did not have the
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: support of the people of Weihua. And now everyone here is,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: you know, we are stretching our neck out trying to
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: hope for your return. And yet now you're returning. Looks
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: like you intend to punish everybody for it. How is
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: this going to have a chilling effect on everyone? Not
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: just on people of Waihuang, but all the people in
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: the Chu territory. Remember, we are your subject. Waihuang is
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: a Chu territory. We are your subject. We are loyal
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: to you. And if you punish, because we didn't actively
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: help Peng Yue to resist you and yet we get
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: punished for it. What kind of example would that set
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: for other citizens of the Chu state? So Xiang Yu
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: was very impressed by the bravery of this young kid.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: So he called off this planned massacre of Wai Huang's
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: male population. But his delay in Wai Huang did give
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: the overtime window for the Han army to act. So
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: the Liu Bang let the main source of the army
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: crossing the Yellow River, and they, you know, very surprised attack,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: they capture Ao Cang, the former Qin dynasty imperial granary.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: And now that deprived the major food source for the
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Chu defenders in the city of Cheng Gao and city
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: of Xinyang. Now, in the record of grand historian by
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Sima Qian, In the biography of Liu Bang, it was
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: said that the Han army outside of the city of
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Chenggao hurled insult at the defending general, Cao Jiu, for
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: five to six days. And Cao Jiu couldn't stand it anymore.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: And he finally let his army out to meet the
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Han army. I mean, in this tale, Cao Jiu is
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: kind of an idiot. He's a dumb-dumb. Xiang Yu said
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: 15 days, you know, 15 days. All you got to
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: do is just hold on for 15 days. And because
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: he couldn't hold his temper, because he couldn't stand your
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: mama jokes, he came out and get crushed. But I
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: think it's more because Cao Jiu had to act because
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: the Han army have captured a very important granary of
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Ao Chang. So he was kind of forced to move.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: And there was a river that separates Cao Jiu's army
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: And the Aotang, where the Han army was holding up.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: So the Han army waited for the two armies, waited
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: for half of the two armies to cross the river,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: and they launched an attack. And the two armies were
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: decisively crushed. I mean, that's by all accounts of the
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Chinese art of war books, they always said, Attack your
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: enemy when they're halfway across, right? The counter example was
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: during the spring-autumn period when the duke, Xiang of Song
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: had the opportunity, but he didn't take it. He was
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: being kind of ridiculed ever since for the next 2,500 years.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: But so now, everybody will... seize the opportunity to attack
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: when their opponent is halfway across the river because at
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: that time you're not organized you didn't have time to
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: put up a defensive formation and it's very easy to
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: be thrown into utter chaos so Liu Bang leverages in
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: the battle Cao Jiu, Sima Xin, Dong Yi they were
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: all killed and Liu Bang was able to capture the
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: strategic important city of Cheng Gao again and And so
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: by the time Xiang Yu came back from Waihuang, now
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: the Chu and Han army face off again. They face off.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: In the place where they face off, called Guangwu, there's
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: a stream that cuts the mountain in half. So the
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: two armies faced off across the stream. But this time,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: the Chu position sharply deteriorated. Because one, Peng Yue has
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: really wreaked havoc in Shang Yu's base. So they weren't
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: expecting a lot of grains coming from that direction. And two,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: they lost a very important granary at Ao Chang. So
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Shang Yu now is facing the same situation that the
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Han army previously faced at Xinyang when they got cut
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: off from the granary at Ao Chang. So Xiang Yu
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: is getting a little bit desperate because all his armies
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: have mouths that need to be fed. And so he
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: challenged Liu Bang to do a face-off. he challenged Liu
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Bang to a personal duel, actually. One-on-one personal duel. He said, look,
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: this is between you and me. We don't need to
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: involve other people. We don't need to plunge the average
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: people of all under heaven into misery and war. We
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: can end this just Between you and me. In a
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: personal battle. Of course Liu Bang is not going to
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: take it. Liu Bang is now like 54 years old.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: He's like 20 years older. Than Xiang Yu at this point.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Xiang Yu is like 30. He's barely 30. And Xiang
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Yu is at his peak. And he's like. Famously undefeated.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: In battle. So Liu Bang says. I prefer to fight
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: with my brain. Rather than bronze.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: And.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: And at this time, they had a... But Liu Bang had.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: I think what he technically said, the more specific translation
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: is that we will compete through the cultural attainment. Because...
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: He said 智.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: 智 is wisdom. Oh, okay. He said, I'll compete, you know,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: brains over bones. You know, and then... So what happened is, uh,
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang's actually Liu Bang's sides, they actually had, um, uh,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: he had archer. He had a, a, a famous nomadic
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: horse archer, you know, he, uh, he was, uh, like,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: he always stand behind Liu Bang and like, you know,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: shoot the leading commander of the two side. So at
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: this point that the, The famous archer, you know, he shot,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: launched several arrows, you know, shot some to leading generals.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: And then he made a shot against Xiang Yu, right?
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Because Xiang Yu was standing in a very prominent position.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: But the arrow missed, you know, missed just by Xiang
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Yu's helmet. And Xiang Yu let out a roar, and
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: he said, good shot! But the roar was so loud,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: and the horse actually apparently got startled, and then he
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: ran away, back into the ranks. So at this point,
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: now Liu Bang started to list out, you know, he
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: did a diss track for, he turned into like a
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: rap battle diss track against Xiang Yu. He lists out
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: all the crimes of Xiang Yu. You know, first of all,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: he said, first of all, you did not obey the
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: pact of King Huai of Chu. You know, King Huai
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: of Chu was very clear. He said, whoever march into
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: the Qin heartland first to overturn the Qin dynasty get
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: to make make the king, become the king of Qin.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: I was the one who did that. Yet you, uh,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: you went back on that promise, you know, send me
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: to Sichuan base. Number one, two, you, um, disobey your
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: commanding general, you know, king of Huai sent you as
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: a assistant to the general Song Yi to, to assist
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: the state of Zhao, you know, being besieged in the
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: battle of Zhulu by the Qin general Zhang Han. You
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: kill your commanding general Zhao Yi, you know, without a cause.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: This is a blind betrayal. This is your number two crime.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Number three, you couldn't stomach, you know, the righteous emperor,
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: you know, the king of Huai later got elevated into
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: the You couldn't stand the righteous emperor's refusal to bend
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: to your will, so you had him assassinated. So as
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: a subject, you assassinated your sovereign. You committed regicide. That's
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: your number, the third crime.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I think before that was also he killed the king
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: of Qing after the latter had surrendered.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Ah, yes, yes. The king of Qing already surrendered and
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: you had him killed. This is your number fourth crime.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: And And when I entered the Qin palace, I sealed everything.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: I sealed all the Qin treasury waiting for your arrival.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: What did you do when you come? You looted everything.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: You divide up all these booties among your favorite generals.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: And then you went down to loot the first in-person mausoleum.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: You dig up the graves and dug up the treasure.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: And then you burn the palaces. The fire lasted three months, right?
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: And you sack the Qin capital. This is your when
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: the qin state of qing already surrendered to you right
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: this is your fifth crime and then you when when
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: it's time to you you you you you prompted all
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: the general who follow you to rebel against their respective
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: lords right.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: He also mentioned that uh the the notorious like execution
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of like 200,000.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Ah, yes, yes. You executed 200,000 Qing prisoners of war.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: You know, your number six crime. And your number seven crime,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: you divided up the land to... between your toadies. You
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: had them rebel against their respective lords, and then you
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: took the land to reward your own cronies. And the number,
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: that was number six. And number seven, you only hand
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: out the best rewards for the Shang family members. Other
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: people who follow you to battle only get crumbs. And
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: then the list goes on and on. And so in
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: the end, Xiang Yu got really pissed off and he
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: got tired. So while Liu Bang was sitting there on
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: a horse, keep on listing Xiang Yu's crime, Xiang Yu
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: took a crossbow shot at Liu Bang and the crossbow
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: went straight into Liu Bang's chest and he fell off
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: the horse. And Liu Bang at this point, he said,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: you got my toe, you bastard. You got my toe.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: so at this point you know Liu Bang was seriously
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: injured he he had uh uh when the the doctor
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: came to visit they said oh you're so lucky he
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: missed you by your heart just by a bit you
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: know so that's why you you you can survive um
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: but he was seriously injured but at this time his
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: advisor Zhang Liang said look right now everyone there's there's,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of rumors going around the camp that
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: say you died or you, you're, you're seriously injured. This
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: is a time to suck it up. You got to
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: do a inspection tour of the camp, of the troops
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: to let them know you're okay. Even though I, I know,
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: you know, you're seriously injured, but you cannot let your,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: your common troops know, you know, you cannot let the
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: morale falter. So Nubang, you know, had to suck it up,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: bite his lip, get on the horse. And when, to
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: road around the camp. So all the soldiers could see
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: him that he's okay. And after that, Zhang Liang had him, uh, uh,
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: secretly shipped to the back, to the, uh, from, from
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: Cheng Gao back to, back to the capital of Qin to, to, um,
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: to recuperate and block all the information about Liu Bang's whereabouts.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: And then Liu Bang went back to the old Qin
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: capital of Luoyang. He first cut off the heads of
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: the the former Qin general, later Chu general Sima Xin,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: he cut off his head and had his head displayed
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: on the city wall because Sima Xin was one of
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: the kings of Qin made by Xiang Yu. Niu Bang
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: must hate his guts because Sima Xin changed, he defected
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: a couple times, right? And Niu Bang hated these betrayers.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: And And then Liu Bang sent the order to, he
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: sent another, he sent Ying Bu back to Ying Bu's father-in-law,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Wu Zui. Because Wu Zui at this time was king
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: of Hong Kong. Huan San, and to raise troops to
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: prepare to take back Yin Bu's former fief of Jiu Zhang. Now,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: let's remember, Yin Bu's wife was killed by Xiang Yu.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: So Yin Bu's father-in-law now also have a common cause
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: with Yin Bu to rebel against Xiang Yu. And then
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang sent a also sent troops to send people
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: to convince the general Zhou Ying, who was controlling the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: yinbu's former fief, to defect. Now, Zhou Ying is one
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: of the few core Shang Yu's generals that could be dependable.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: You know, like Chen Ping famously said, Shang Yu only
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: have a few generals who are outstanding. You know, first
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: is the advisor Fan Zhen, and then Zhong Li Mei.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Long Ju and Zhou Ying. So Zhou Ying was one
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: of them. That's why Zhou Ying was tasked to defend
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: the Ying Bu's former territory. But Liu Bang sent his
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: advisor to conduce Zhou Ying to defect, to get back
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: Ying Bu's territory. And then Liu Bang ordered Han Xin
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: to quickly mobilize the new force from the state of
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Zhao to attack the state of Qi. Now at this point,
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: Li Yizhi also put in his two cents. Li Yizhi
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: said like, look, right now we have, everything is going
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: on our side, right? We, we, now we put the
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: state of Chu on defensive. They are now running out
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: of food and we got to, keep rolling with our momentum.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: And Han Xin already have a credible military threat on
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: Qi borders. This is an opportunity for me to travel
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: to State of Qi as a diplomat to convince them
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: to surrender.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Before we get to this point, I think earlier, because
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Xiang Yu still holds Liu Bang's dad and wife hostage.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Ah, yes, yes, I forgot. Sorry. Good, good, good. Okay,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: I forgot. So Xiang Yu... They're getting desperate because Xiang
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Yu's camp is running out of food. So he tried
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: to induce Liu Bang to a duel with no... So
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: this actually happened before the time he challenged Liu Bang
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: to a personal duel. Because he had Liu Bang's dad
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: and Liu Bang's wife as hostage. So Xiang Yu had
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: the two of them tied up and he laid out
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: a giant wooden board and put Liu Bang's dad all
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: tied up, trust upon him. So you like, look, if
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: you don't surrender, I'm going to kill your dad right here.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: And so Liu Bang's, Liu Bang, this is a famous
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang moment. He said, well, You and I, we
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: used to be comrades in arms. Remember the time that
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: we used to be sworn brothers? We were sworn to brotherhood.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: So my dad is your dad. If you're going to
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: kill your own dad, don't forget to, if you're going
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: to kill and boil my own dad, don't forget to
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: to send me a bowl of the minced meat soup after.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: So after that, Xiang Yu was enraged. He was really
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: going to go through with killing Liu Bang's dad. And again,
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang's guardian angel intervened. And this being Xiang Yu's uncle,
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Xiang Bo. This is not the first time Xiang Bo
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: saved Liu Bang's ass or Liu Bang family member's ass.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: So Xiang Bo told Xiang Yu, he's like, look, When
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: people who are chasing after people with great ambition would
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: not let the feeling of responsibility be their obstacle. Obviously,
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang would not care if we killed his dad.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: He would continue to fight us. But now by killing
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: the dad, you are just depriving us of a hostage
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: and making him more angry. You're just unnecessarily raising the
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: level of hatred.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: It doesn't benefit us. So that finally convinced Xiang Yu
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: to back off on killing Liu Bang's dad. Uh, but
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: it's around this time, I was thinking Liu Bang's wife
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: was shacking up with, uh, Liu Bang's friend, Shen Yi Ji. Uh,
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Shen Yi Ji was, was Liu Bang's friend who was
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: entrusted to take care of Liu Bang's wife. You know,
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: all these like three, four years Liu Bang was away.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: And after this episode, I think, you know, um, Liu
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Bang's wife kind of gave up on Liu Bang and, and, and, and, and,
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: and start shacking up with Shen Yi Ji. Um, but anyway,
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: so that, that's for a different, different, different time, different story.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: And, and then, um, Back to jump ahead now. Li
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Yi Ji is proposing some ideas about how to handle...
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: This is Li Yi Ji. Shen Yi Ji is the
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: one that was banging Liu Fang's wife. Li Yi Ji
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: is an old man, 70 years old. They all have
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: the same given name. Apparently, Yi Ji was a popular
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: name back then. Li Yi Ji is like a 70-year-old
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: man at this point, or 60-year-old. he joined Niu Bang
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: because he knew Niu Bang would give him riches. And
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: they knew Niu Bang was very generous with his reward.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: So he proposed Niu Bang like, look, Han Xin now
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: lead a large army sitting on the border with the
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Qi state. It's a credible military threat. And Qi was
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: already previously on the bad side of Xiang Yu. They
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: don't have much choice. So why don't I go acting
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: as diplomats to convince them to give up and surrender
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: to us. This is a way we can avoid bloodshed
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: and we can conserve our strength. Niu Bang thought it
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: was a great idea. So he sent Li Yi Ji
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: to the Qi state. And Li Yi Ji met the
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: king of Qi, Tian Guang.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: I made a mistake. So Tian Zhong's brother, Tian Heng,
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: rebelled against Shang Yu, right? And he reconstituted the Qi state.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: But afterwards, he propped up Tian Zhong, sang Tian Guang
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: as a king, while Tian Hen served as a prime minister.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: So Tian Guang and Tian Hen received Li Yi Ji,
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: and Li Yi Ji asked the king of Qi, he says, like,
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: what do you think, who do you think the all
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: under heaven will fall to? And the king of Qi said,
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: why don't you tell me? Li Ji said, well, it's
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: very obvious. The balance of power is already tipping towards
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: the Han forces. Because right now, we control all the
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: former Qin, Wei, Zhao, Yan territory. We have all the
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: strategic mountain passes on Taihang Mountain, the Yellow River, and
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Chen Gao, all these passes is in our hands. Whereas
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: State of Chu, their supply line is long and they're
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: getting stretched very thin. Now they're running out of food.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: And as you can see, also, you know, Shang Yu
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: does not have many friends. You know, like he's being
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: harassed by the Han forces and the pro-Han unallies on
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: all sides. There's Pen Yue, there's Yin Bu, there's Han Xin. So,
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: sooner or later, this Xiang Yu's defeat is a certainty.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: Right now, State of Qi has a very strategic decision
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: to make because right now, if you make, right now,
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: if you go over to state a hunt right now
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: before their victory, you know, you actually have more leverage.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: You can negotiate for a better position for yourself, right?
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: If you were to wait until all the dust are settled, then...
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: you know, you don't have any leverage anymore. So now
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: it's the time that if you have gone to the
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: king of Han, we'll let you keep, allow you to
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: keep to be the ruler of your state. You know,
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: you just subjugate yourself to the king of Han. And
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: so the king of Qi thought, okay, that's a good deal.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: It's very reasonable. So they agreed to surrender. And previously,
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: the state of Qi had put their army on alert
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: along the Qizao border. But after this talk, they sent
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: an envoy to Liu Bang to accept the terms of surrender.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: And they also pulled back their forces. They tuned down
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: the alert level. They pulled back their forces. And the
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: king of Qi and the prime minister of Qi, Tian
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: Guang and Tian Heng, spend their time partying and feasting
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: with Li Yi Ji to celebrate this new deal. Now,
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: when the news traveled to Han Xin, Han Xin decided
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: to call off, you know, to pull back his army
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: as well. But Han Xin has another advisor called Kuaitong
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: who disagreed. Now, we actually met Kuaitong before. Kuaitong was
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: the guy... who previously, when Chen Sen sent his general
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: Wu Chen, Zhang Er, and Chen Yu to conquer the
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: former Zhao state, Kuaitong gave the advice to Wu Chen.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: He said, look, you don't have to fight every battle
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: to take each city. Right now, the problem that you
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: have to fight to take each city is because the
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: defenders are the Qin defenders, they're scared of you because previously,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: every city that you take, you massacre the Qin garrison
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: and their commanders. So they have every incentive to fight
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: you to the death. Now, if you take this current
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: city you're besieging, if you grant their commander a surrender
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: and you feed them with a title of Marquis and
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: have this news sent out to all corners of the
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Zhao state, pretty soon, most of the Zhao cities will
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: surrender to you because they will have more incentive to
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: surrender now because they know if they surrender to you,
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: they'll be rewarded versus before they knew if you take them,
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: they will be killed. So Wu Chen took that advice
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: and quickly conquered the Zhao state. So I guess Kuaitong now,
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: because Han Xin is a Zhao prime minister, so Kuaitong
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: now serves Han Xin. So Kuaitong said, look, you have
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: conquered the Zhao state and captured 50 cities. And what
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: did Liu Bang do? He gave the Zhao state to
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: Zhang Er, made Zhang Er the king. And now, just
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: as you are poised to take the Qi state, here
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: comes Li Yizhi, just using his tongue, easily got state
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: of Qi, over 70 cities to surrender to the Han dynasty.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: you end up with nothing, right? Like this is actually
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: due to you having an incredible military threat on the
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: border of Qi that induced this king to surrender. Yet
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: now all the rewards will, all the accolade will accrue
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: to Li Yi Ji, right? And this, by the way,
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: is a highlight of Li Yi Ji's career, you know,
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: because she can easily convince people brought the entire state
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: of Qi to the Han side. But Kuaitong then said, besides,
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: King of Han never sent you an explicit order to
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: tell you to desist from attacking the qi state his
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: initial order was you to lead an army into the
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: qi state he had to send a counter order tell
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: you to stop so you don't need to stop you
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: can and right now the state of qi they thought
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: they surrendered so their guards are done this is a
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: perfect opportunity for us to roll in with our army
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: and to take state of qi for yourself and at
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: this point han xin took Kuaitong's advice and launched a
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: surprise attack. And because the Qi defender didn't expect it,
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: they thought they already surrendered. They were very quickly marched
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: to the Qi capital, Linxi. And this enraged the king
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: of Qi and his prime minister. So Tian Guan and
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Tian Hen was really pissed. So they had Li Yiji
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: arrested and told him like, look, this is all because
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: of you. They feel Li Yiji play a trick on them, right?
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: Because of Li Yiji, Their guards were down. They said, like,
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: if you... We'll give you one more chance. If you
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: are able to convince King of Han to pull back
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: his forces, we will let you live. But Li Yixing
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: knew there's no way. I mean, he got jacked by
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: Han Xin. And he knows there's no way. No matter
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: what he say, we'll not get Han Xin to stop.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: So he said, look, man. A man... who with great
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: ambition intend to do great things, is not afraid of death.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: I have nothing more to say to you. There's nothing
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: more you can say to me to induce me to
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: go betray the King of Han. So after he said that,
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: King of Qi and Prime Minister Qi had Li Yizhi
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: tossing a boiling pot and boil it alive. So this
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: became both pinnacle of Li Yizhi's career and his downfall.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: It's funny in a way because it's the first time
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: that he is able to convince somebody to surrender without
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: killing them afterwards.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: There was the King of Wei as well.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: This is not the first time.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: He didn't convince the King of Wei to surrender but
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: there was a time when Liu Bang was marching onto
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: the Qin capital. They had to go through the Pass
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: of Wu and he had Li Yiqi to convince the
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Qin general defending the pass of Wu to surrender and
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: Li Yiqi was able to successfully convince the general to
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: surrender but then Zhang Liang said Nah, let's not trust
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: the commander. Because even if the commander agreed to surrender,
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: we don't know if his troops really would surrender. So
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: let's use this opportunity while their guards are down to attack. But,
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: you know, fortunately for Li Yi Ji that time, Li
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: Yi Ji already returned to the Liu Bang's camp at
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: that time. So they did, you know, they did what happened,
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: you know, to State of Qi. They first convinced them
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: to surrender and then launched a surprise attack.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: This probably flashed before his eyes.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Before the end. I mean, Li Yi Ji got screwed
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: by Han Xin. There's no doubt. But the whole fundamental
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: issue is also kind of this fissure that's developed between
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: Han Xin and Liu Bang. Because Liu Bang, not for
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: one time, Liu Bang, two times in a row, took
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: away Han Xin's army, right? The first time was after
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: Han Xin conquered the state of Wei. Liu Bang was like, okay,
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: good job. Now I need all the troops back. You
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: go recruit a new set of troops to conquer the
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: state of Zhao. So Han Xin did that. And then
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang came to state of Zhao and said, okay,
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: thank you. Good job. Now I'm going to take all
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: the troops away. You go recruit a new army to
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: attack state of Qi. Well, and all those times, You know,
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: everybody else was getting rewarded. Zhang Er got reinstated as
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: the king of Zhao. Han Xin got nothing, right? And
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: Han Xin didn't even get a promise. He didn't even
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: get a promise of... Like, Yin Bu at least got
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: a promise that his fief will be quadrupled once Liu
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: Bang succeeds. Han Xin got promised nothing. So Han Xin decided,
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: you know what? I gotta watch for my own interests here,
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: like Kuai Tong is saying. And.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: In a way, because we have been telling a story
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: that contrasts Xiang Yu's individual military genius, but lack of
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: comparable subordinates that he can rely on, with Liu Bang,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: who is kind of a very crude person on a
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: certain level, but generous to his subordinates most generally speaking.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: And so he's able to have more capable subordinates, but
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: This is a bit of a caricature at times because
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: we see the same contradiction between Liu Bang and Han
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: Xin developing. It reminds me in a way of the
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Ying Bu and Xiang Yu. Ying Bu was also Xiang
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: Yu's foremost commander, the guy who led the battle basically
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: led the vanguard to the Battle of Julu and then
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: broke through into Guangzhou for him when Liu Bang tried
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: to block them and did all the dirty work as well.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: But in the end, the rewards were not very great.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: And so he's kind of pulling back. Now, it's not
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: quite the same thing because as we will see, Han
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: Xing is still contributing very much to the overall war effort.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: He's just showing kind of insubordination because the fruits of
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: his work are being like taken away very obviously right
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: it's like it's it's the literal extraction of the surplus
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: labor like twice in a very like brutal fashion this
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: will vindicate the Marxist reading of the Chinese history later on.
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: Yes and and so the the king of Qi and
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: the prime minister of Qi after they killed Li Yiqi
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: they had to flee the capital because they couldn't stand
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: Han Xin so they immediately sent the envoy to ask
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: for help from Xiang Yu and Xiang Yu also realized
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: it's very important not to let the Qi state fall
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: so he sent his one of the remaining trusted general
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: laundry was a large army into the chief state. That's
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: supposedly 200,000, but probably a inflated number, you know, that
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: probably include all the people who was tasked to ship
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: grain and all that. So the true combat strength is
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: probably somewhere between eight, 80 to 90,000, still a large army.
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: So you said laundry to, to help state of chief. Now,
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: laundry had some battles, uh, he had some battle achievement
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: under his belt because Long Ju was a general who
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: was sent against Ying Bu by Xiang Yu and took
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: Ying Bu's fief. So this is why Long Ju was
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: entrusted with this expedition to the state of Qi. And
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: then he combined, so the combined Qi and Chu forces
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: now faced off against Han Xin, And they have more
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: numbers under their, they have superior numbers. Now, people, so
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: when Han Xin, at this time, there's an advisor under
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: Long Ju giving him advice. They say, right now, the
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: Han army, they came from very far. Their supply line
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: is stretched, right? And they just recently conquered much of
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: the Qi state, but they haven't established firm control of
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: the land yet. We have advantages because we are alive
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: with the king of Qi. We should send the king
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: of Qi, to have king of Qi send his messengers
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: all to the other city of Qi to tell them
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: the large army reinforcement have arrived and to tell all
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: the city to rise up against the Han control, Han state.
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: And this way, we light up fire behind Han Xin's lines.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: Then he has to go deal with those rebellions. We
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: just wait until Han Xin's supply runs out. And then
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: we crush them while they're retreating. But Long Ju didn't
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: like that idea because he said, look, we already have
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: superior numbers. And Han Xin, I knew Han Xin because
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: Han Xin used to work for Xiang Yu as his
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: personal secretary. Long Ju said, I knew Han Xin. Han
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: Xin started out as someone who couldn't even feed himself.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: He had to depend on the kindness of an old
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: fisher woman, a washing woman, to give him food. And
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: he's a big coward too. He famously had to crawl
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: under someone's crotch in order not to get into a fight.
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: Han Xin is a coward. We have nothing to fear.
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: I have this large army. Besides, I crush him. Who
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: is Han Xin? Ying Bu is the most bravest general.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: So Long Ju was getting a little bit too full
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: of himself because his conception of Han Xin is still
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: like the Han Xin before Han Xin was entrusted with
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: his command with the Han army. This is probably also
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: explaining why Han Xin defected from Xiang Yu to Liu
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: Bang in the first place because all these two generals
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: looked down on him because of his path. And Long
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: Ju's conception of Han Xin is still stuck with a
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: Han Xin of old, you know, the young Han Xin,
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: wandering Han Xin, not the now Han Xin, the commander
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: of a large Han army who conquered the Wei state,
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: the Zhao state, the Yan state, and now Qi state.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: But Longzhu, he's very proud because he defeated Yin Bu, right?
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: One of the most bravest generals. So he's like, who's
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: Han Xin? I have I have more experience. I have
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: more men. I defeated Ying Bu. Han Xin is nothing.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: Let Han Xin come. So Han Xin uses Long Ju's
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: arrogance against him. He picked the battlefield across a river,
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: but Han Xin secretly had people prepare 10,000 sandbags to
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: dam the river in the upstream. And then, so the
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: river now became a trickle. And now the Han army
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: crossed the stream to fight the Chu army. And as
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: the two sides got engaged, the Han army suddenly pulled back.
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: Longzhi thought, okay, this is, you know, we had the
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: Han army on the route. Everybody attack, right? And the
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: Han army withdrew across the stream and the Chu army followed.
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: As that happened, as, you know, almost half of the
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: Chu army crossed, Han Xin had the people upstream break
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: the dam. And the water rushed through and destroyed a
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: large portion of the Chu army. And the Han army
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: massacred the remainder. Long Ju himself was killed in the battle.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: And when the news traveled, so after that, Han Xin
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: sent his other general, Guan Yin, to capture the rest
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: of the Qi state because the Qi nobles still hold
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: other parts of the Qi cities. And when the city,
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: the news of Long Ju's defeat traveled to Xiang Yu's camp,
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: Xiang Yu was shaken with fear. Xiang Yu is this
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: one who never felt fear before. You know, he didn't
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: feel fear at the Battle of Ju Lu when he
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: faced against much more odds than He was not feared
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: when Niu Bang captured his capital, Pengchen, and he had
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: to do a blitzkrieg. But this time, for the first time,
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: Shang Yu was seriously shaken because he realized the tide
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: has turned. Because now, Han Xin's strategy of looping around,
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: flanking him from the rear, is becoming a reality. Qi
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: territory is a short distance to Han Xin. Xiang Yu's
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: capital Pengcheng right while right now uh Xiang Yu is
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: still in the front facing off against Liu Bang's main
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: forces and and uh so at this time Xiang Yu
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: and sent a message to Liu Bang for negotiation of
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: peace and then we'll we'll tell the rest of the
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: story um next week when we come back. Any questions
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: or comments?
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I look forward to the rest of
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: the story. Lots of different pieces. A lot that has
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: happened so far. Basically, it's like the Hen Yue's raids
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: behind into the true territory. And then later on, Liu
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: Bang's taking of Aosang is really showing the effects at
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: this point, because Xiang Yu's logistical situation is just getting
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: extremely bad. And so, yeah, that's probably why he's on
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: edge now. And then he does not expect this kind
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: of catastrophic defeat from his best general, like in the
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: state of Qi, right?
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And also, you know, like, because... And also one
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: of the, I think the trust issue between Niu Bang
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: and Han Xin is for Han Xin's strategy of looping
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: around to strike Xiang Yu from the rear to work,
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: someone needs to act as a bait to hold down
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: Xiang Yu's main forces. And that bait is Liu Bang.
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang has been playing the role of the bait.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: This is why Liu Bang was not very happy all
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: this time. Because all this time when he was defeated
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: on the run with Xiang Yu, Han Xin didn't come
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: rescue him. Han Xin was still following the original plan
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: to do the northern sweep. And so this is why
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: Liu Bang repeatedly go take Han Xin's army. But that
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: apparently created some kind of trust deficit between the two
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: because that led to the tragedy of Li Yi Ji.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: Li Yi Ji definitely got shanked because of that.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: Until next time.
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: Bye-bye.