Hello everyone, welcome to historically accurate
After the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang Uprising (209 BC)
various rebel armies spread all over the land of the Qin empire
Some were led by farmers
such as the one led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang
some were led by the nobles of the former six states
such as the Chu rebel army led by Xiang Liang
the son of Xiang Yan
There were also the rebel armies of the
former states of Zhao, Yan, Dai and Qi
In the beginning, these rebel armies dealt a
heavy blow to the brutal Qin empire
but when they encountered the Lishan army led by Zhang Han
the last famous general of the Qin empire
they suffered successive defeats
Chen Sheng, Wu Guang and Xiang Liang all died in battle and
the other rebel armies fled helter-skelter
Zhang Han pursued the rebel armies after his victories and
cooperated with the Great Wall army led by Wang Li to
besiege Julu city where the Zhao rebel army were stationed in
The anti-Qin forces were almost destroyed
The Lishan army and the Great Wall army
were the only two well-prepared troops
that the Qin empire had at that time
The Lishan army had about 200,000 men
made up of prisoners and slaves who were building the
mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Lishan
Zhang Han promised them that if they put down the rebel armies
their freedom would be restored
so their enthusiasm for battle was very high
The Great Wall army also had 200,000 soldiers
who had been stationed at the Great Wall
with Meng Tian to defend against
the Huns before the other six states were defeated
As a regular army of Qin
their combat effectiveness was even higher
Wang Li, who led this army
was the grandson of Wang Jian who helped Qin defeat Chu
Such two powerful armies besieged Julu city
making the king of Zhao, Xie
who was the leader of the Zhao rebel army
and Zhang Er, the general of the Zhao rebel army
anxious like ants on a hot pan
Inside Julu city, there was a shortage of food and soldiers
Outside Julu city, only a few tens of thousand soldiers
gathered by Chen Yu, another general of the Zhao rebel army
were stationed north of Julu city
Those soldiers were from the Zhao army previously defeated by Zhang Han
The king of Zhao, Xie, sent people to ask for help from
the rebel armies of the various states
and soon Zhang Ao, son of Zhang Er
led 10,000 soldiers of the Dai rebel army to help
Zang Tu of Yan and Tian Du and Tian An of Qi
also successively led their armies to Julu
where they were stationed near Chen Yu's army
Although the rebel armies of the various states had joined forces
they still didn’t have enough soldiers
Moreover, their respective states had just been defeated by
the invincible Qin army more than a decade ago
so they were too afraid of the Qin army to
take the initiative to attack and relieve the siege
Zhang Er, who was stuck in Julu city, and Chen Yu were good friends
and Zhang Er repeatedly requested Chen Yu to attack the Qin army
but Chen Yu refused, saying
"Attacking now would be equivalent to sending meat to the tiger's mouth
so what good would it do?"
Zhang Er was furious after hearing this and sent two of his generals
Zhang Yan and Chen Ze to blame Chen Yu
In order to calm Zhang Er down
Chen Yu gave Zhang Yan and Chen Ze 5,000 soldiers
to conduct a tentative attack on the Qin army
and the whole army was wiped out
Since then, none of the anti-Qin rebel armies gathered near Julu
dare to easily propose an attack
And the only rebel army that dared to challenge the Qin army
stopped halfway at the moment
This army was the Chu rebel army
The Chu rebel army was originally commanded by Xiang Liang and
had repeatedly defeated Zhang Han’s Lishan army in previous battles
Xiang Liang began to become proud because of his successive victories
His subordinate Song Yi saw the danger and warned Xiang Liang
not to underestimate the enemy
but Xiang Liang didn’t listen
Xiang Liang was finally defeated by Zhang Han
at Dingtao and died on the battlefield
After this battle
Song Yi and Xiang Liang's nephew Xiang Yu fled back to Chu
When King Huai of Chu heard that Song Yi had foreseen Xiang Liang's defeat
he admired Song Yi very much
So he ordered Song Yi to be the commanding general
Xiang Yu to be the deputy general and
Fan Zeng to be the second deputy general
to organize another army of 50,000 soldiers
to go north to save the state of Zhao
When the Chu army reached Anyang, they stopped moving forward
Xiang Yu questioned Song Yi why he didn't rush north to save Zhao
but Song Yi planned to wait until the Qin army
and the Zhao army fought to the death
before launching an attack to reap the benefits
As a result, the Chu army stayed in place for full 46 days
During this period, in order to make his son
Song Xiang the chancellor of the state of Qi
Song Yi had been partying with the envoys of the State of Qi all the time
He had no scruples about his soldiers
being hungry and cold in the wind and rain
Later, the state of Qi agreed to appoint Song Xiang as its chancellor
so Song Yi sent his son to take office and
didn’t return until he had sent his son to Wuyan
On the second day after Song Yi’s return
Xiang Yu rushed into Song Yi’s camp and killed Song Yi
and publicly announced, "Song Yi colluded with
Qi and wanted to betray Chu
King Huai of Chu secretly ordered me to
kill him and then lead you to save Zhao”
The soldiers had already been dissatisfied with Song Yi
and since the Chu army had always been led by the Xiang family
they decided to follow Xiang Yu and go north to save Zhao
When Xiang Yu's army reached the Zhang River
Xiang Yu didn’t forcibly and rashly cross the river
Instead, he sent Ying Bu and General Pu to lead 20,000 elite soldiers
to cross the river from Pingyuan Jin
which was weakly defended by the Qin army
After crossing the river, Ying Bu and General Pu built solid camps to
resist potential attacks from the Qin army and then began to
repeatedly harass the Yong Dao built by Zhang Han for food supply
So what was this Yong Dao?
Simply put, it was a highway with walls on both sides
Such a road was specifically built for food supply and the walls would
resist harassments from small-scale troops
The food for the Qin army was sent from Jiyuan
shipped along the Zhang River
and then was transferred to land transportation
through the 20-kilometer Yong Dao
to reach the Qin army stationed outside Julu city
However, the Yong Dao was being repeatedly harassed by the Chu army
causing Wang Li’s army to gradually run out of food
At the same time
Zhang Han had to send some of his soldiers to defend the Yong Dao
The rebel armies began to gain the upper hand
Xiang Yu took this opportunity to quickly cross the Zhang River and
ordered the destruction of cooking utensils and the scuttling of ferry boats
Each soldier was only allowed to bring three days’ ration for the
attack on Zhang Han’s camp south of Julu
This is the origin of the idiom
"breaking the cauldrons and sinking the boats"
which is used to describe the readiness to
sacrifice everything for the sake of victory
Seeing that there was no way back
the soldiers of the Chu army were inspired to fight with
astonishing strength and toughness
to the extent of “every Chu soldier taking on ten foes”
After nine fierce battles
Zhang Han's army was completely defeated and
he had to retreat to his base camp in Jiyuan
Xiang Yu saw that he had defeated Zhang Han
then he turned back to attack Wang Li
While the Chu army and the Qin army were fighting
the other rebel armies didn’t participate
They waited until Zhang Han was completely defeated
and only then did they send troops
to assist Xiang Yu to annihilate Wang Li’s army
As a result, these rebel armies contributed
another idiom to Chinese civilization
“Sitting on the wall and watching”
which means to watch without helping
The result of this battle was that Qin army’s Wang Li was captured
general Su Jiao was killed and general She Jian refused to surrender
and committed suicide by throwing himself into a fire
the siege of Julu city was finally relieved
And Xiang Yu, as Xiang Yan’s grandson
captured Wang Jian’s grandson Wang Li alive
which could be regarded as revenge for his grandfather and uncle
Xiang Yu also became the commander of all the rebel armies
due to his outstanding performance in this battle
However, the war was not over yet
Zhang Han rallied his defeated army and stationed it at Jiyuan
This army still had nearly 200,000 soldiers and was still a threat to Zhao
But Xiang Yu didn’t have the opportunity to annihilate this army at one go
Finally, the opportunity came
In the court of Qin
Qin Er Shi and Zhao Gao repeatedly questioned Zhang Han after
they heard that he stationed the army at Jiyuan
and didn’t take any action
If you have watched my previous episode
about the demise of the Qin empire
you would know that after Qin Shi Huang passed away
his minister Zhao Gao first colluded with his chancellor Li Si to
support the brutal and incompetent Hu Hai to succeed him as Qin Er Shi
After that, Zhao Gao persuaded Qin Er Shi to kill Li Si and his whole family
and took control of the government himself
As both Qin Er Shi and Zhao Gao were brutal
Zhang Han was terrified and sent Sima Xin
back to Xianyang to explain the situation
But Sima Xin was not received at all
A few days later, Sima Xin also got scared and
returned to Zhang Han’s camp overnight telling Zhang Han
“If you lose this time, you will definitely be killed by Zhao Gao
Even if you win, you will still be killed by Zhao Gao
just like those meritorious officials such as Meng Tian”
At this time, Chen Yu of the rebel army also wrote to
Zhang Han to persuade him to surrender
Zhang Han began to waver and sent a secret envoy to
Xiang Yu’s camp to discuss the terms of surrender
Probably because they didn’t reach an agreement on the terms
Xiang Yu sent General Pu to travel day and night to raid Sanhu Jin and
block the way of Zhang Han’s retreat
he himself led the main force to defeat the Qin army at Wu river
Realizing that it was all over
Zhang Han decided to surrender to Xiang Yu and attack Qin together
Xiang Yu made Zhang Han the King of Yong
and Sima Xin the commanding general
to continue commanding the surrendered Qin army
The story seemed very satisfactory up to this point
but the ending was actually quite tragic
The soldiers of the rebel armies treated
the surrendered Qin soldiers very badly
The Qin soldiers also worried that if they attacked Qin
all their family members in Qin would be killed
Therefore, the morale was very unstable
Xiang Yu felt that it would be a disaster for the rebel armies if
such a large number of surrendered soldiers
mutinied after they entered Qin
so he buried all those 200,000 soldiers alive……
Until then, Qin had lost all its elite troops and
there was no way for it to stage a comeback
Well, that's it for this episode
If you have any thoughts
please leave your comments below
See you next time!