Xian Yu and Liu Bang, ancient Chinese heroes

The Qin Dynasty was the first unified empire of China. It is an irony of history that the last empire of China was also the Qin dynasty, although the Chinese character was different. The first unified China, the Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC) was established by Qin Shi Huang (i.e. the first emperor), Ying Zheng (259 BC – 210 BC). ). Their legal system was too strict for the people. Qin Shi Huang was a dictator. People did not like this kingdom. As a result, the Qin Dynasty was always fighting traitors. Only the charismatic character of the first emperor maintained the Qin dynasty. After the death of the first emperor, the resistance army ruined the Qin dynasty.

After the fall of the Qin dynasty, two main generals of the rebel army started a civil war. One is Xiang Yu, the other is Liu Bang. After the Qin Dynasty left, Xian Yu was the king of the Chu Kingdom. Liu Bang was the king of the Han Kingdom. They were in the same resistance army fighting the Qin dynasty. They began to fight to be the next emperor of the unified China, after the Qin dynasty.

Xian Yu was 6 feet tall. He was strong. It was brave. People said that a baby would stop crying if his father told him that General Xian Yu was coming. He was an excellent fighter and a strong leader who did not like compromises. Xian Yu was originally from the Chu kingdom, which was destroyed by the Qin dynasty.

Liu Bang came out of nowhere. He was the son of a farmer. In his youth, he was a bully who walked around town near his home. The only remarkable thing was that he was always with his friends, who did not regret dying for Liu Bang.

Liu Bang continued to lose battles against Xian Yu. However, magically, Liu’s territories continued to expand and grew larger than Xian Yu. Liu won the final battle against Xian Yu and became the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, a kingdom of the second unified China.

It is intriguing to compare these 2 generals and consider what made Liu Bang the winner and Xian Yu the loser. The key word is people. Xian was a strong fighter and his enemies and even his own people were afraid of him. Fear kept the Xian army uniform. He was a violent commander. When he won a battle, he killed almost all of the enemy king, the king’s family, the king’s army, the king’s soldiers, and the king’s people. History shows that Xian Yu buried 250,000 soldiers alive, who surrendered in battle. People were afraid, but they hated it. When he was there, nobody moved. Once he was gone, people betrayed. This is the process that continued to lose its own followers.

On the other hand, Liu Bang prohibited his soldiers from looting civilians. He forgave those who surrendered to the fullest and made them the head of his territory. He kept hiring farmers, merchants, artisans, or any kind of society. When he gained his new territories, he assured the citizens of law and order. He made his local people the head of his new territory. The people of his territory enjoyed peace and order. Once acquired, it never lost its land.

Xian kept losing his followers. Liu kept winning his. Gradually, Liu’s followers and territories outnumbered those of Xian. When he realized, Xian could no longer prevail against Liu.

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