Hongmen Banquet

After Xiang Yu accepted Zhang Han's surrendervvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv, he wanted to take advantage of Qin's chaos to fight his way to Xianyang.

The Qin soldiers who surrendered when the army arrived at Xin'an (modern Xin'an, Henan Province) argued, "Our homes are in Guanzhong, and if we fight into Guanzhong now, we will be the ones to suffer from the disaster. If we don't get in, the Chu army will take us to the east, and our families will be killed by the Qin Dynasty. What to do?"

The ministers heard these murmurs and went to report to Xiang Yu. Fearing that he could not control the surrendered soldiers of Qin, Xiang Yu got up to kill them. Except for Zhang Han and two surrendered generals, in one night, he buried all 200,000 Qin soldiers alive in a big pit. After that, Xiang Yu's brutality became famous.

When Xiang Yu's army arrived at the Hangu Pass, they saw that there were soldiers guarding the pass and would not allow them to enter. The general who was guarding the pass said, "We are under the order of Lord Pei, no matter which way the army is, they are not allowed to enter the pass."

Xiang Yu was so angry that he ordered his soldiers to attack Huang Pass. Liu Bang's army was small, so it didn't take much effort for Xiang Yu to fight his way into the past. The army went on to Xinfeng and Hongmen (now northeast of Lintong in Shaanxi) and stationed themselves there.

There was a general under Liu Bang, Cao Wuyou, who wanted to join Xiang Yu and secretly sent someone to Xiang Yu to inform him secretly, saying, "This time, Lord Pei entered Xianyang because he wanted to be king in Guanzhong."

When Xiang Yu heard this, he was so angry that he stared at Liu Bang and scolded him for being unreasonable.

Fan Zeng, Xiang Yu's strategist, said to Xiang Yu, "Liu Bang entered Xianyang this time, but he did not covet wealth and beauty, but his ambition is not small. If we don't destroy him now, there will be endless problems in the future."

Xiang Yu was determined to wipe out Liu Bang's troops. At that time, Xiang Yu had 400,000 troops stationed at Hongmen, and Liu Bang had only 100,000 troops stationed at Ba. The two sides were only forty miles apart, and their forces were disparate. Liu Bang's situation was very dangerous.Xiang Yu's uncle, Xiang Bo, was an old friend of Zhang Liang, who had saved his life. Xiang Bo was afraid that if the war started, Zhang Liang would suffer with Liu Bang, so he rode a fast horse to Ba in the night to find Zhang Liang and advised him to escape.

Zhang Liang did not want to leave Liu Bang, but he told him the news that Xiang Bo had brought. Liu Bang asked Zhang Liang to accompany him to meet with Xiang Bo repeatedly arguing that he had no intention to oppose Xiang Yu and asked Xiang Bo to help put in a good word in front of Xiang Yu.

Xiang Bo agreed and instructed Liu Bang to personally go to Xiang Yu's side to make amends.

Early the next morning, Liu Bang took Zhang Liang, Fan Kuai, and more than one hundred attendants to Hongmen to pay a visit to Xiang Yu. Liu Bang said, "I worked with the general to attack Qin with one heart, the general was in the north of the river and I was in the south of the river. I did not expect to be able to enter the pass first. It is a happy thing to meet you here today. It is unfortunate that someone has provoked you in front of you and made you angry."

When Xiang Yu saw Liu Bang talking to him in a low tone, his anger was gone. He said honestly, "It was all said by your subordinate Cao Wuyou. Otherwise, I wouldn't be like this."

On the same day, Xiang Yu kept Liu Bang to drink at the army camp and invited Fan Zeng, Xiang Bo, and Zhang Liang to accompany him.

During the banquet, Fan Zeng winked at Xiang Yu repeatedly and held up the jade penannular jade he was wearing, asking Xiang Yu to make up his mind and kill Liu Bang while he had the chance. But Xiang Yu just ignored it.

Fan Zeng saw that Xiang Yu could not bear to do it, so he used a reason to go out of the camp and found Xiang Yu's cousin Xiang Zhuang and said, "Our king (Xiang Yu) is too soft-hearted, you go in to toast them and see if it is convenient to kill Liu Bang."