My father, King Chu, was besieged at Gaixia

Chapter 23: Two Sima
Zhou Yin raised his eyebrows and looked at Xiang Chang with a gloomy expression:

"How dare you! I am now a general of the Han Dynasty, not the Grand Marshal of your Chu State. If you are so rude, I will kill you immediately."

Xiang Chang grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth:
"That's right, that's right! Old man, do you know who the king hates the most? It's not Liu Bang, not Han Xin, not Peng Yue, but you, Zhou Yin! The king appointed you as the Grand Marshal and gave you all the military and political power in Chu, and look at what you did? You actually betrayed him."

"You are not unaware of the king's temper. You also saw the king's night attack on the military camp tonight. Although there are not many Chu troops left, they are still capable of fighting. Now the king has reorganized the elite troops in the city and decided to break through Han Xin's encirclement and attack your army with all his strength. He must kill you, the traitor, and eliminate the hatred in his heart."

"You want to go to the Han camp and enjoy wealth and glory by betraying your former master? Hahaha, you are too naive and wishful thinking. For a traitor like you, the king would rather die than cut you into pieces first! This young master came here because the king considers the relationship between master and servant and specially gave you a message so that you can be prepared to die. Hahaha..."

After hearing Xiang Chang's threat, Zhou Yin, like listening to a child's nonsense, not only did not get angry, but shook his head and smiled to himself, stroking his short beard, his leisurely tone full of disdain:
"If you want to kill me, you should first escape back to Gaixia and avoid this disaster. I don't understand what he was thinking when he led a thousand cavalrymen to attack the Han camp at night. It's really pitiful and ridiculous that he is still showing off his courage when he is about to die! Just based on this, it is the right choice for me to surrender to the Han camp! Let your father open his eyes and see the world. You can't rule the world by relying on force and courage. Not to mention a mere man, even a god cannot be an enemy of all the heroes in the world."

Xiang Chang clapped his hands heavily and said decisively:
"Well said! Well said, old man. The courage of a common man? Haha, you have no idea of ​​the true strength of your king."

At this moment, from the west of Gaixia City, there was another round of earth-shaking shouts and cries, as well as the neighing of horses and shouting of people. Even from such a distance, they could still be heard faintly.

Zhou Yin's face changed, he suddenly jumped up, climbed onto the wooden lookout platform nearby and kept looking around.

"Don't look around, come down. News will be here soon. There's no use in being anxious now." Xiang Chang waved his hand from below, greeting them very considerately.

As expected, as if to verify Xiang Chang's words, not long after, a messenger came on horseback. When he came close, he did not dismount, and hurriedly bowed to Zhou Yin and shouted:

"General Guan Ying led 5,000 elite cavalrymen to pursue and kill Xiang Yu, but they were ambushed halfway. All the generals must guard the camp carefully and do not move without military orders."

After the notification was completed, he hurried away immediately.

Zhou Yin climbed down from the platform, his expression had returned to calmness. He glanced at Xiang Chang and said calmly:
"I didn't expect that the king, being cornered, would resort to conspiracy and trickery. Unfortunately, it's too late. The overall situation has been decided. No matter how much he struggles, it's in vain and will not help the overall situation. I, Zhou Yin, will wait here for him to kill me. Let's see if he can kill me despite Han Xin's siege."

Xiang Chang shook his head and laughed:
"You are still so confident even when you are about to die. The Han army is now surrounding the Chu State. It is a great opportunity to make achievements. However, you are left at the outermost edge, and there are Ying Bu and Liu Jia's troops supervising you. It seems that Liu Bang's trust in you is very limited."

"The Chu army took advantage of the victory of the night attack, and Your Majesty personally led the remaining Chu army to fight you and kill you. In this situation, what do you think Liu Bang or even Han Xin would react to? Would they just open a way and send the Chu army to you, so that both sides would fight and blood would flow, and they would sit on the mountain and watch the fight, and then reap the benefits?"

Zhou Yin's expression finally changed.

Based on his understanding of Liu Bang and Han Xin during this period, it was true that this was their nature, and what Xiang Chang said was really possible. Although the 50,000 elite soldiers of the Chu State surrendered, Liu Bang had always regarded them as a hidden danger, and he had never trusted him.

If the remaining troops of Xiang Yu could fight to the death with the 50,000 Chu troops, both Liu Bang and Han Xin would be happy to see it happen. Even if there was such a possibility, Liu Bang and Han Xin would probably do their best to make it happen. Zhou Yin knew too well how powerful the Overlord was and how he could win the hearts of his soldiers. If it really came to that, many of the 50,000 Chu troops under his command would have to rejoin the Overlord. He was afraid that even he, the main general, might be tied up and sent to the Overlord...

I didn't expect that even after surrendering, I still couldn't get safe. I was about to face such a dangerous and unexpected situation. Zhou Yin really lost his composure and roared:
"Your father wants to kill me, so I'll kill you first! Come on, set up the cauldron and cook him for me."

After Xiang Yu established the Great Chu State, he appointed two Grand Marshals, Cao Ju and the current Zhou Yin. Unfortunately, the glorious foundation of the Great Chu State was eventually destroyed by these two Grand Marshals.

Let’s talk about Cao Ju first. After the Battle of Pengcheng where Xiang Yu defeated 560,000 with only 30,000 troops, the Chu and Han armies faced the Battle of Chenggao, a protracted battle that would determine the final outcome.

The Battle of Chenggao lasted for two and a half years. During this period, the crucial turning point that led to the rise of Han and the defeat of Chu occurred at the hands of Grand Marshal Cao Ju.

At that time, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang had been in a long confrontation. Xiang Yu challenged Liu Bang repeatedly, but Liu Bang kept digging deep trenches and building high walls and refused to come out.

Liu Bang's general Lu Wan and cousin Liu Jia led 20,000 troops across Baimajin and went deep into Chu to assist Peng Yue in attacking the rear of Chu. With their cooperation, Peng Yue successively captured 17 cities including Suiyang and Waihuang.

Seeing that the heartland was about to be destroyed and fall into the hands of the Han army, Xiang Yu was shocked and had to lead his troops to rescue. Before leaving, he appointed the Grand Marshal Cao Ju as the main general and repeatedly told him not to fight no matter how the Han army challenged him. As long as he could hold Chenggao for 15 days, he would rush back immediately after he pacified Peng Yue.

Xiang Yu pacified Peng Yue as planned, but Cao Ju, an incompetent fool, could not stand the humiliation and provocation of the Han army, and took the initiative to lead his troops to fight, but was completely defeated and defeated. In the end, Cao Ju was too ashamed to see his old master and committed suicide by the Sishui River...

After the Battle of Chenggao, the Chu army was severely damaged and unable to defeat the Han army, thus showing its decline. As a result, Xiang Yu had no choice but to sign the "Honggou Agreement" with Liu Bang, and then Liu Bang tore up the agreement and persuaded Han Xin and Peng Yue to encircle Xiang Yu.

It can be said that it was because of the stupidity and incompetence of the Grand Marshal Cao Ju that the Great Chu was pushed into an extremely dangerous situation.

If it were just that, the Great Chu would not have collapsed completely.

At that time, the Great Chu still had a large base in the southern Chu area, which was under the command of another Grand Marshal Zhou Yin. Xiang Yu handed over all the military and political power of the southern Chu area to him, including the elite 50,000 Chu troops.

As long as he helps Xiang Yu return to Chu, the Chu army will still have a chance to make a comeback.

Who would have thought that Zhou Yin was persuaded by Liu Jia to surrender to the Han army? He also led the Chu army to follow Ying Bu and Liu Jia northward and participated in the encirclement of Xiang Yu. This directly led to the complete destruction of Chu and Xiang Yu's miserable situation of being surrounded at Gaixia with no way to escape...

These two Grand Marshals who directly led to the defeat of the Chu State, one was incompetent and stupid, the other was treacherous and bad. Such people were actually valued by Xiang Yu. It has to be said that Xiang Yu's vision for judging people is so poor that one cannot even criticize him.

(End of this chapter)