Disciplining Emperor Gaozu of Han

Chapter 10 Why did Liu Bang surrender to Chu?

"Fine, I give up, okay?" Liu Ying had no choice but to admit defeat after being pestered by Liu Bang.

Liu Bang's skin was incredibly thick; even the Great Wall couldn't be as thick as his. Liu Ying rode at full speed, and Liu Bang followed. Liu Ying coldly ignored Liu Bang, but Liu Bang shamelessly tried to please him, nagging on and on...

Having lived two lives, this was the first time Liu Ying had encountered such a shameless person, and he was truly at a loss.

"Haha!" Liu Bang was quite pleased with himself. He moved closer to Liu Ying and said with a grin, "Ying'er, you're still too green to compete with your father!"

"Does a horse not know its own face? Is being shameless something to be proud of?" Liu Ying was utterly speechless.

"Ying'er, what are you saying? This is what a true man should do!" Liu Bang said proudly.

"Don't you have a misunderstanding about what a real man is?" Liu Ying rolled her eyes.

"I said I'm a true man, and I am a true man!" Liu Bang patted his chest, extremely proud, and looked at Liu Ying, asking, "Ying'er, why is your archery skill so extraordinary?"

Xiahou Ying turned to look at Liu Ying, his face full of anticipation.

"Of course my brother's archery skills are amazing, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to catch so many prey." Liu Le held his head high, proud of himself.

In her young mind, Liu Ying's ability to shoot such a large wild boar was already an extraordinary feat of archery.

Of course, the archery skills Liu Bang inquired about weren't for hunting, but for killing enemies. Compared to the archery skills Liu Ying taught Liu Bang, hunting was child's play.

"Guess," Liu Ying said, determined not to satisfy Liu Bang's curiosity.

Liu Bang pressed him again, asking questions all the way, but Liu Ying refused to say anything, leaving Liu Bang helpless.

After passing Pei County, they arrived at Feng County. Liu Bang was pleased with himself: "Feng County is the first city I have captured. Once I reach Feng County, I am home. I will rest here tonight."

It was getting late; the sun was already setting, and it would be dark in another hour. Resting in Feng County was the best option.

Feng County was extremely important to Liu Bang; it can be said to be the decisive factor in his choice of allies.

After Liu Bang became the Duke of Pei, the first city he attacked was Feng County. Feng County was poorly defended and he easily captured it. He then appointed Yong Chi to defend it. Zhou Shi sent someone to summon Yong Chi, and Yong Chi surrendered Feng County to Zhou Shi. Upon receiving this news, Liu Bang led his army back to attack, but failed to capture it, which infuriated him.

Left with no other choice, he surrendered to Xiang Liang. Xiang Liang gave him five thousand men, which enabled him to capture Feng County.

At that time, many powerful warlords rose up, and if it weren't for Feng County, Liu Bang might not have joined Xiang Liang. By joining Xiang Liang, he entered the Chu camp, which led to all the events that followed.

After Xiang Yu returned east, Fengpei was incorporated into Xiang Yu's territory and became his fiefdom.

Liu Bang seized the armies of five vassal lords and launched a major eastward advance. When he attacked Pengcheng, he sent troops to take Feng County under his control. At this time, Feng County had not yet been taken back by Xiang Yu and was still within Liu Bang's sphere of influence, with the Han Chinese flag flying high.

After walking for a while, they came to a village. Half of the houses in the village were tiled, and the other half were thatched. Among them, there was a very large tiled house, like a manor, which must have belonged to a well-off family.

Liu Bang saw this, his eyes darted around, and he said to Xiahou Ying and the others, "You wait for me up ahead."

Having said that, he rode straight to the grove behind the inner wall. Upon reaching the grove, he dismounted, tied his horse to a tree, and stealthily made his way there. Reaching the outer wall, he galloped up, his feet pushing off the wall with the agility of a monkey, and leaped onto the inner wall.

He crouched on the inner wall, looked around, and seeing that no one had noticed him, jumped down from the inner wall and headed straight for the largest courtyard. The courtyard gate was tightly closed, so Liu Bang climbed over the wall again, found several sets of brocade clothes, wrapped them up, carried them on his back, climbed over the wall again, and then climbed over the inner wall, returning to the grove of trees.

He took off his tattered royal robe and put on brocade clothes, looking like a wealthy landlord. Liu Bang picked up the tattered royal robe, stuffed a few small stones inside, twisted it a few times, making it like a chain hammer, aimed at a big tree, and threw it up with all his might, so the royal robe was hanging on the tree.

Then he leaped onto his horse and rode after Liu Ying and the others.

Liu Ying and his entourage traveled some distance before stopping to wait for Liu Bang. Not long after, Liu Bang arrived on horseback.

"Didn't you say Feng County was your territory? Are you doing this because you're afraid of having your head chopped off?" Liu Ying knew what Liu Bang was thinking just by looking at his attire.

"Don't talk nonsense! I just don't want to alert them," Liu Bang retorted stubbornly.

The defeat at Pengcheng was a devastating loss for Liu Bang. He was left without soldiers or generals, with only Xiahou Ying by his side. If the people of Feng County knew he had arrived, it might not be a good thing for him. It was possible that someone with ulterior motives would take his head and present it to Xiang Yu to claim credit.

The cunning Liu Bang would never make such a basic mistake, so he stole a set of fine clothes and replaced his tattered royal robes. Before leaving, he even threw the royal robes into a tree to hide them, so as not to expose his whereabouts.

Although Liu Ying criticized Liu Bang, he genuinely approved of Liu Bang's handling of the situation.

Fengxian is not large; it's a county town. Located in northern Jiangsu, it's not as prosperous as southern Jiangsu, hence it can only be considered a small county town. The town itself isn't large, covering an area of ​​several miles in circumference, but the city walls are high and thick, making them very sturdy.

It was precisely because of this that Liu Bang was unable to conquer the city and had to seek refuge with Xiang Liang for military assistance.

A flag bearing the character "Han" fluttered atop the city wall, its red color particularly eye-catching.

On the city wall, soldiers stood guard, but they were listless and weak, showing none of the heroic spirit of the Han Dynasty that later generations admired.

What surprised Liu Ying even more was that these soldiers were all old and weak, with not a single able-bodied man among them.

"Won't you take all the able-bodied men here to Pengcheng to die?" Liu Ying asked, looking at the old and weak on the city wall and then at Liu Bang.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" The truth was indeed true, but Liu Bang stubbornly insisted: "They voluntarily followed me to eliminate the tyrannical and bring peace to the world, to destroy that scoundrel Xiang Yu."

"Heh." Liu Ying sneered.

Liu Bang, unusually, blushed and stopped arguing.

There weren't many people entering or leaving the city gates. The soldiers guarding the city were a group of old and weak men, wearing their helmets askew and their armor askew—they were clearly not good people. Sure enough, as soon as Liu Ying and his group approached, the leader gave a signal, and immediately three soldiers blocked the road, extending their right hands.

Annoyance flashed across Liu Bang's face, but he quickly concealed it and gave Xiahou Ying a signal.

Xiahou Ying reached into his robes and pulled out several round copper coins with square holes, each inscribed with the characters "半两" (half an ounce) in small seal script. He tossed them to the soldiers. The soldiers caught them, examined them carefully for a while, and, quite satisfied, moved aside.

Liu Bang waved his hand and led the way into the city. Liu Ying followed on horseback, with Xiahou Ying following behind Liu Ying.

As for Liu Bang and his men riding into the city, it was quite common in the chaotic late Qin Dynasty, and the soldiers didn't think much of it.

Although Feng County is not large, it is well-planned, divided into squares by crisscrossing roads, looking like tofu blocks. Each square is a "fang" because the neighborhood system was implemented at that time.

As for the street and alley system, it arose in the Tang Dynasty a thousand years later and was fully implemented in the Song Dynasty.

The road was littered with all kinds of excrement—horse droppings, cow droppings, sheep droppings, and even human droppings—and it smelled awful, almost like being in a pigsty.

"Is your territory this dirty?" Liu Ying glanced at Liu Bang sideways.

"You scoundrels, you've ignored my words, haven't you? They can't even manage to govern the city properly!" Liu Bang clenched his right fist, his face full of anger. "If it weren't for the fact that it's not the right time to wage war, I would have killed them!"

"You call the Qin Dynasty a tyrannical dynasty, but when the Qin Dynasty was in power, would the streets be so dirty and chaotic?" The former had memories of being particular about cleanliness and hygiene, which was both Empress Lü's requirement for him and the requirement of Qin law.

According to Qin law, hygiene must be maintained; failure to maintain hygiene will result in severe punishment.

Hygiene is further divided into environmental hygiene and personal hygiene.

According to what Empress Lü told her predecessor, during the Qin Dynasty, the environment was very clean, and even littering was severely punished. In the worst cases, if someone's ashes were blown away by the wind, they would be punished with nose amputation.

Therefore, people from Shandong mocked the people of Qin for not knowing the ugliness of having no nose.

Personal hygiene is strictly required, and frequent bathing is essential.

If someone doesn't bathe for half a year, they'll be dirtier than a pig and stink unbearably. According to Qin law, if they aren't beaten to death, they'll have a long life.

"Hmph!" Liu Bang snorted angrily, said nothing more, and rode forward.