Chapter 174 Finale
An army of 15,000 people, dragging its feet and moving like a limp, dying snake, slowly crawling on the rugged mountain road.

All the soldiers were demoralized and dejected. Even the cavalrymen at the front no longer had any of their former arrogance and domineering spirit.

Liu Bang, who was walking surrounded by a group of generals, turned his head to look at the surrounding mountains and rugged rocks. His eyes had lost their former spirit, and his old face was as cold and hard as wood, without any expression.

After another crushing defeat in the Battle of Chenggao, Liu Bang consumed all of his last bit of wealth. Luckily, he escaped with several thousand cavalrymen under the desperate protection of Xiahou Ying, and retreated all the way to Hangu Pass, while constantly gathering the fleeing cavalrymen.

Cao Shen, Fan Kuai, Zhou Bo from the left, center and right armies as well as generals such as Wang Jing, Zhang Yue and Chai Wu, all fought their way out of the encirclement with the desperate fighting of their guards and managed to escape, constantly gathering together along the way.

In addition, of course, there were some scattered cavalry squads.

When they were about to arrive at Hangu Pass, to Liu Bang’s surprise, he had only gathered a few thousand cavalry, plus the thousands of guard cavalry led by Xiahou Ying who had not suffered any losses, the total number was less than ten thousand cavalry.

His 70,000-strong army was defeated. Under the pursuit of the Chu cavalry, the infantry could not escape and was completely annihilated. However, it was impossible that only a few thousand of the cavalry escaped, right?

Such a cruel reality that he had to believe was laid out before him: the defeated cavalry had obviously lost confidence in him, the King of Han, and fled on their own to seek another way out.

Thinking about this clearly, even Liu Bang, who took defeat as a matter of course, could not help but feel very depressed.

A scene that made him even more depressed began to unfold. When they were still three or two days away from Hangu Pass, deserters began to appear every day among the assembled cavalry.

At night, we rested and set up camp. Everything was normal. But when we continued to retreat the next day, we found that hundreds of people were missing…

Neither Liu Bang nor his generals could do anything about this. They could only enforce military discipline while suppressing their frustration at the defeat, pretending to be high-spirited and constantly boosting morale.

It was not until they arrived at Hangu Pass, where they were given sufficient food and clothing and had a short rest, that the soldiers’ escape gradually stopped.

During the days of rest and recuperation at Hangu Pass, more and more information came from Chenggao, and the situation became clearer.

After the Chu army won a great victory on the Chenggao Line, Xiang Yu led 30,000 cavalry troops north to Yan and Zhao, and the remaining tens of thousands of troops were led by Xiang Zhuang to continue the attack on Guanzhong.

Only then did Liu Bang completely understand that he had fallen into Xiang Chang’s trap again. He only sent two generals to attack the Puzhen Road and Wugu Pass in two directions, while he himself rushed to Yanzhao to sweep across the three kingdoms in the north.

——This is to completely eliminate all roots of instability!

The three kingdoms of Yan, Zhao and Han will be cleared out again, and the princes of the old pattern will be wiped out completely. The Great Chu will truly own the entire world and obtain the complete territory of the Qin Dynasty.

Perhaps the only remnants left are Guanzhong and Hanzhong, which are still under his control.

But, can these two places continue to belong to me?

Standing on Hangu Pass, looking eastward at the endless vast land and mountains, Liu Bang could not help but let out a long sigh.

Before Liu Bang could fully recover in Hangu Pass, Xiang Zhuang led tens of thousands of Chu troops and marched forward with the force of a dragon roaring and a tiger swallowing.

The commander of Hangu Pass, Zhuang Bushi, had 4,000 defenders under his command, plus the more than 8,000 cavalry brought back by Liu Bang. Given the strategic location of Hangu Pass, if they insisted on defending it, even though the army led by Xiang Zhuang was strong in both men and horses, it would not be possible to capture it overnight.

But what about the future?

You must know that the other two armies of the Great Chu are stepping up their attacks on Wuguan Road and Puzhen Road, and a breakthrough may occur at any time.

Even if we take a step back and assume that all three passes are preserved, and the Overlord and his son Xiang Chang, who have swept through Yan, Zhao and Han, come again with a large army, then no matter how strong the three passes are, they will not be able to hold out.

To put it bluntly, after a series of defeats, Liu Bang would find it difficult to maintain a comprehensive defense even if the troops he had were fully armed.

Disheartened, Liu Bang left Zhuang Bushi behind to continue the defense of Hangu Pass, while he himself led 8,000 cavalry back to Guanzhong.

After entering Guanzhong, he did not go to Xianyang where Xiao He was in charge, but instead went past the counties and headed all the way to Hanzhong.

His base camp has always been in Hanzhong, not Guanzhong, and his wife and children are also there at this time.

Since Guanzhong was undefendable and doomed to be lost, he naturally had to act in one step and rush back to Hanzhong as soon as possible.

Speaking of the origin of the name Guanzhong, there are four passes in the southeast, northwest, northeast and southwest, namely Dasan Pass in the west, Hangu Pass in the east, Wugu Pass in the south and Xiaoguan in the north. Guanzhong is located in the middle of the four passes, hence the name Guanzhong.

As for Hanzhong, it is located in the south of Guanzhong, and the two places are separated by the Qinling Mountains, which are 800 miles apart. Since ancient times, there have been five roads to cross the Qinling Mountains from Guanzhong to Hanzhong, namely Ziwu Road, Tangluo Road, Baoxia Road, Chencang Road, and Qishan Road.

This time, Liu Bang retreated from Guanzhong to Hanzhong via the Baoxiade Road.

However, while passing through Guanzhong, Liu Bang acted contrary to his usual behavior and began to make a lot of fanfare and boast, loudly claiming that he had defeated the main force of the Chu army in the Battle of Chenggao, and that the defeated Overlord and his son Xiang Chang had fled to Jiangdong.

While spreading the word, he kept ordering officials from counties and prefectures along the way to reward the troops.

After the defeat at Chenggao, Liu Bang’s cavalry lost everything, except for their horses, weapons, armor, and food.

All of these naturally require the people to pay for them.

All the generals kept their mouths shut about Liu Bang’s outrageous move.

The current situation cannot be dealt with in this way. If the people in Guanzhong knew that hundreds of thousands of their sons and daughters had all died in the war and would never come back, every family would be in mourning. Even without the attack from Chu, Guanzhong would immediately be in chaos, the situation would be out of control, and it would be devastated beyond repair.

Faced with Liu Bang’s nonsense propaganda, all the counties and prefectures he passed through were excited, but when the topic of rewarding the troops was mentioned, they all looked sad.

In the successive wars in recent years, not only were the young and strong men in the counties taken away, but all the output was also taken away by Xiao He. It can be said that they couldn’t even wear their pants after being looted. How could they have any energy left to reward the troops?
As a last resort, bureaucrats and powerful people in the counties and prefectures passing by came out of the city one after another to ask to see Liu Bang and explain their plea.

Who would have thought that Liu Laosan, the elder who was always kind to others, suddenly changed his face this time, and scolded and whipped them.

After rubbing them half to death, Ling Chang came out hypocritically and quietly pointed out a clear way out for them: This is the last time, let’s make the people suffer a little more!

In the past, Liu Bang would never have been so desperate. After all, the people had already reached their limit of endurance. Continuing to plunder and taking away the last rations of the remaining elderly, the weak, women, children and the disabled would undoubtedly be pushing them to death, and there would be starvation everywhere.

But it is obvious that Guanzhong will no longer belong to him, so he will naturally take as much as he can. As for how to clean up this mess later, let Da Chu worry about it.

The powerful and wealthy in the counties had no choice but to once again launch a round of heavy taxation on the people under their rule. They snatched away their last bit of food and cloth, gathered them together, sent them out of the city, and presented them to Liu Laosan in a servile manner.

In order to show their loyalty, these powerful people repeatedly invited Liu Laosan to bring his troops into the city for recuperation. A mere 8,000 cavalrymen could be accommodated in any city, but Liu Laosan refused with a stern face, using the excuse of “not disturbing or hurting the people”.

Liu Laosan was naturally not so kind-hearted. He was afraid that once the army entered the city, they would not be able to conceal the truth, and his cavalry would definitely leak the news of the defeat.

By then, it will be all over.

Ling Chang was ordered to receive the grain and cloth offered by the counties. He saw that some of the grain was stained with blood, and the cloth was in small pieces instead of whole pieces. It was obvious that they were all forcibly looted from the people.

Even this old rogue with a heart as black as charcoal knew what this meant and couldn’t help but say to Liu Bang:
“King of Han, the common people have nothing left to lose. On the contrary, the powerful and wealthy in these counties and prefectures obviously still have a lot of wealth. Why don’t we take action against them like we did with the Chu?”

Liu Bang glanced at him, shook his head and said woodenly: “My good reputation in the eyes of the elders of Guanzhong cannot be destroyed. As for the common people, they are just pigs and dogs. If one dies, there will be a new one. There will be no clean death. One day, once we fight back, as long as these elders still remember my kindness, I will be able to recover the lost territory as quickly as possible and at the lowest cost.”

Yes, until this time, Liu Bang was still planning to retake Guanzhong.

And his thinking cannot be said to be wrong.

Are the elders in the current cities civilians? Wrong! They are just the local tyrants and dignitaries. As for the civilians, they have no existence at all, let alone the right to speak. As long as they get the full support and compliance of these elders, they can truly rule a place. While retreating from Guanzhong, Liu Bang kept secretly gathering the remaining garrison soldiers in various counties, thus slowly turning this army from more than 8,000 people into 15,000 people.

Seeing that it was getting dark, Liu Bang ordered to set up camp on the spot. At this time, the scouts sent the latest intelligence that the Pujin Road in the north was first breached by the Chu army, followed by Hangu Pass and Wugu Pass, and the Chu army began to enter Guanzhong. This made Liu Bang very happy that he saw the opportunity clearly.

He asked about the situation of the scout Xiao He, and learned that Xiao He, who had been staying in Xianyang, had also set off and was rushing over with the last batch of food and troops. Only then did he feel relieved.

The elders of Xianyang City found that the world had changed overnight.

A few days ago, Prime Minister Xiao He gathered them together with a smile on his face, saying that Liu Bang had defeated Xiang Yu at Chenggao and won a decisive victory in the war against the Chu State. He would soon lead his army back to Guanzhong for a short rest, and asked the elders to enthusiastically donate money and materials to “help out”, and repeatedly swore that this was the last time, and from now on there would always be “good days of peace and stability without war”!

Although it seemed a little strange that Liu Bang, after defeating Xiang Yu, did not rush to “pursue the enemy with the remaining courage” but instead returned to Guanzhong, Xiao He had always been reliable and never lied. Even though the elders were hurt to the bone, they still decided to endure it and try their best to curry favor with him.

After a few days, the elders delivered money, goods and food to the military camp outside the city. After Xiao He inspected and accepted them, he sent them away, personally selected all the soldiers and excitedly escorted them to present them to Liu Bang.

The elders were very happy at first, thinking that the good days of “putting the horses aside in the southern mountains and putting the swords and guns into the warehouse” were coming. However, they didn’t know that the old Prime Minister Xiao He disappeared without a trace and showed no sign of returning.

Just as they were puzzled and waiting like confused geese, they did not receive the return of their beloved Prime Minister Xiao, but instead received the shocking news that the three lines of Puzhen Road, Wugu Road and Hangu Pass were all broken, and the three armies of the Great Chu marched straight into Xianyang!
For a moment, the elders of Xianyang City were burnt on the outside and tender on the inside by this shocking thunder.

All the elders rushed into the Prince of Han’s palace, but found it empty, with no one there and nothing left.

Just as they were at a loss, another soldier who had accompanied Xiao He in escorting the grain, grass, cloth and other valuables that they had presented as a tribute came running back in a panic, trembling, saying, “Liu Bang suffered a great defeat at Chenggao, all the men in Guanzhong died in the battle, and Liu Bang led the remaining loyal troops to flee to Hanzhong. These soldiers heard the news while escorting them, so they sneaked back under the cover of night…”

The stunned elders looked at each other, completely bewildered.

I want to curse Liu Bang and Prime Minister Xiao, but what’s the use now?

Want to organize to resist the brutal army of Great Chu – all the sons and daughters are dead, what use are these women, children, the elderly and the weak?

Just when the elders were at a loss, the three Chu armies began to plow the land from east to west, city by city, like a huge net. They did not care at all about Liu Bang’s escape to Hanzhong, and they advanced slowly step by step.

Thus, the nightmare scene that made the people of Sanqin despair was staged again.

Whenever they arrived at a city, officials sent by the Chu army would immediately move in and take over the management of the city. Then they would drag out all the elders in the city – bureaucrats, powerful people and dignitaries, list their crimes, and execute all their nine clans. The land, food and cloth would all be distributed to the people.

After being squeezed out of their situation by Liu Bang, the common people in Guanzhong were already on the brink of death. Without timely relief, who knows how many would have frozen to death or starved to death this winter.

The bureaucrats and tyrants in each city naturally hid a large amount of food, cloth and money in their families. Liu Bang did not touch them in order to keep a good relationship. The Chu army had already offended them thoroughly when Xiang Yu entered Xianyang, and now that they came again, they would naturally be even more rude to them.

Xiang Chang was undoubtedly more ruthless and thorough than his father, the Overlord. He simply uprooted all the powerful and wealthy people and replaced every city with officials loyal to the Great Chu.

It’s not that these elders didn’t think about resisting, but the young and strong men had been taken away by Liu Bang. They only had wealth, but were tigers without claws and teeth, and could only allow the Chu army to manipulate them.

The Chu army, which had accumulated rich and mature experience in the old Chu land and the Yan and Zhao countries, cleared these cities with ease and advanced rapidly.

The people, who had been extremely hostile to the Great Chu Army under the instigation of their elders for many years, saw countless grains and cloth being dragged out of the elders’ mansions and then distributed to them on the spot. The hatred they had for the Great Chu Army quickly dissipated, and they instead looked at the elders with strange hatred!
——Well, you keep plundering us over and over again, and you are so fat and full!

After the Three Qins were cleaned up, officials in all cities were replaced and Da Chu was completely under its control. Xiang Chang and his father Overlord also arrived with their armies and began to organize an attack on Hanzhong.

The Overlord divided his troops into five routes and simultaneously attacked the five roads leading into Hanzhong from Guanzhong.

These five roads were easy to defend but difficult to attack, so Liu Bang left troops behind to guard them. However, they did not hold out for long and unexpectedly opened the roads and surrendered.

Xiang Chang and his father Xiang Yu comforted the surrendered generals, and then led the army into Hanzhong, Liu Bang’s base camp.

After entering, Xiang Chang understood why the guards of the checkpoints surrendered so readily. It turned out that Hanzhong had become an empty shell. Liu Bang, the King of Han, led only 20,000 troops, packed up his belongings, took the old and the young, and fled through Ba County and entered the Yelang Kingdom.

Yelang was a local regime established by ethnic minorities in the southwest. It was once rude to the Great Chu. During the Warring States Period, King Xiang of Chu sent General Zhuang Yue to attack the state of Chenshui and out of Qielan. He won a great victory and forced it to surrender. The Qin Dynasty was in chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty and had no time to take care of it. He secretly made it an independent kingdom again.

In the history of the previous life, during the reign of Emperor Cheng of the Western Han Dynasty, the King of Yelang coerced the surrounding forces of all sizes to raise the banner of rebellion, and even caused a big drama of rebellion against the Han Dynasty. He was defeated and beheaded by the army led by the Han governor Chen Li, and the country was destroyed. In this life, the anxious Liu Bang invaded and greatly advanced the destruction of the country.

Liu Bang was undoubtedly very clear that he could not stop the Chu army with just the land of Hanzhong. Even if these five passes could stop the Chu army for a while, all the old Chu lands would fall into the hands of Chu. Hei Shi, who was stationed in the Kingdom of Linjiang, had already organized soldiers to go upstream in boats and attack Hanzhong by water.

If we continue to delay, defeat will be just around the corner.

The Chu army entered Hanzhong and went straight to the capital Nanzheng. Xiang Chang left some generals to disperse and continued to clean up the counties in a net-like manner, eliminating the powerful, replacing officials, and taking deep roots. At the same time, he sent generals Tian Jian and Qu Fu to lead troops into Ba County and Shu County to recover the two counties.

Xiang Chang thought again and again about Xiang Zhuang’s request to enter Yelang to continue the pursuit and kill all the remaining Han troops of Liu Bang. Instead, he shook his head and refused. Instead, he looked back at the vast grasslands in the north and said in a heroic manner: “The northern border is not yet settled, and Maodun is still determined to kill him. Why not get rid of him first?”

Upon hearing this, all the generals responded with great enthusiasm.

In November of the fifth year of the Chu Dynasty, Overlord Xiang Yu ascended the throne in Pengcheng. At the same time, he appointed Xiang Chang as the crown prince. He granted fiefs to 132 meritorious dukes. He issued a general amnesty and exempted corvée labor for two years.

In the tenth year of the Chu Dynasty, after several years of preparation, Emperor Xiang Yu and Crown Prince Xiang Chang led their generals and 300,000 troops northward, directly into Yanmen County, and fought a great battle with the Xiongnu army in Pingcheng. The two sides fought fiercely for a day and a night, and finally Maodun’s 300,000 troops were defeated.

Maodun fled. Generals Xiang Guan and Hei Shi each led 10,000 cavalrymen in pursuit, conquering a thousand miles of territory, beheading countless people, and seizing countless cattle and sheep. The northern border was pacified.

In the eleventh year of the Chu Dynasty, the crown prince Xiang Chang led a large army from Ba County to attack Yelang, which was changed to Han. The Han State was defeated, and Liu Bang led the remaining troops to retreat into Nanyue again. Yelang was incorporated into the territory of the Chu State.

Nanyue belongs to the old Lingnan area. Since ancient times, the climate is hot and humid, and there are many miasma and snakes and insects everywhere. The people of the Central Plains can’t stand it, so it has always been regarded as a foreign land. Later, Qin unified the six kingdoms. Qin Shihuang sent Tu Sui to lead the army to divide into five routes, one to attack Dong’ou and Minyue, two to attack Nanyue, and two to attack Xi’ou. At the beginning, the war was very smooth. After three years of fighting, it achieved considerable results. However, it ended in failure, and the main general Tu Sui was also killed in the war.

Later, Qin Shihuang reappointed Ren Xiong as the main general and Zhao Tuo as the deputy general, and launched another attack. He finally completed the task of pacifying the area, incorporated it all into the territory of the Qin Dynasty, and established the three counties of “Guilin”, “Xiang” and “Nanhai”.

Later, the world was in chaos, and Ren Xiong died of illness. Zhao Tuo killed the officials of the Qin Dynasty stationed in Nanhai County, raised an army to annex Guilin County and Xiang County, established the Nanyue Kingdom, and was named “King Wu of Nanyue”.

Liu Bang had been entrenched in Yelang for several years, constantly exploring Nanyue and completely understanding its situation. Now he was forced by Da Chu and led his army into it, fighting Zhao Tuo repeatedly. After paying a heavy price, he finally defeated him and occupied three counties.

At this time Liu Bang also realized that the reason why he was able to successfully escape from Hanzhong and Ba County, flee to the Yelang Kingdom, and now invade the Nanyue Kingdom was entirely because Xiang Chang deliberately left him behind to implement the strategy of “driving away the wolf and swallowing the tiger” and use him to pacify Yelang and Nanyue.

Therefore, even though he currently occupies Nanyue, Xiang Chang will certainly not give up, and the Chu army will surely invade next.

In the 12th year of Chu, Liu Bang, the King of Han who had once been powerful and almost seized the whole world, started an uprising against Qin at the age of 47. He died of illness in Longchuan County, the capital of Nanhai County. Before his death, he left a will to his queen, Lü Zhi, Prime Minister Xiao He, and his son Liu Ying.

After Liu Bang’s body was embalmed and his funeral was over, Liu Ying, the successor to the King of Han, sent Yang Tian as an envoy to Da Chu to surrender the whole country according to the imperial edict.

The Great Chu Emperor Xiang Yu accepted the surrender in Pengcheng, sent troops to Nanyue, sent officials to govern the three counties, and then appointed Liu Ying as the Duke of Shun’an, with Fengxian as his fief, and buried Liu Bang’s coffin. As for the other generals in the Han camp, they were also rewarded.

The world was then at peace.

Thank you brothers for your company along the way, and this is the end.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the brothers who subscribed, rewarded, recommended and voted for me. Thank you all very much!!
Now that I am over forty years old, updating every day, even if it is only 4,000 words, is extremely tiring. In the end, I really couldn’t stand it anymore.

Therefore, the last part of this book only completes the main line. Many places are not detailed enough and are a bit rough. The characters are too stereotyped, which is inevitably regrettable.

The brothers have always supported me and never left me. I am very grateful to Huo Niu for his tolerance!

Thank you again!!!


(End of this chapter)