My father, King Chu, was besieged at Gaixia

Chapter 24: Cooking
At Zhou Yin's command, a group of soldiers brought in a large cauldron filled with water, stuffed firewood under the cauldron, and ignited it, causing it to burn fiercely.

"Boy, as long as you obey my orders and send a silk letter to the Overlord to convince him, I will spare your life, how about that?"

The night before, Xiang Yu led an army of 100,000 in a hard battle, but was finally defeated by Han Xin. Zhou Yin thought that Xiang Yu was at the end of his strength and unable to fight again.

But who would have thought that last night, Xiang Yu seemed to be full of energy, leading thousands of cavalry to roam the Han camp, invincible, and just now he set an ambush under the city of Gaixia, killing Guan Ying, the famous first cavalry general of the Han army, and completely wiped out 5,000 elite cavalry of the Han army.

Seeing that Xiang Chang was so ferocious and showed no signs of decline or defeat, Zhou Yin was really frightened, so he cooked a big pot to threaten Xiang Chang.

In his opinion, Xiang Chang was just a teenager. Wouldn't he be scared to death and willing to accept such torture?
Xiang Chang raised his eyebrows and said angrily: Are you trying to bully me? Then I'll show you what stupidity is!

He strode forward and kicked the huge cauldron over. Then he stared at Zhou Yin with his eyes, took a step forward, and stood proudly in the burning fire!

"Zhou Yin, I was born into a family of generals in the Great Chu State, and now I am the son of the Overlord of Western Chu. How can a lowly servant like you cook me? I will burn myself in front of you. If you frown, you are not the son of the Overlord of Western Chu!"

Looking at this horrifying scene and listening to Xiang Chang's angry lion-like roar in the flames, Zhou Yin and all the soldiers in the camp were shocked.

"Quick, quick, drag him out. We can't let him die. What are you standing there for?" Zhou Yin jumped up and down, shouting harshly to everyone around him.

Qu Fu was the first to rush forward and drag Xiang Chang out. Then a group of soldiers also rushed over, trying to put out the fire.

Xiang Chang, who was rescued, was covered in black, most of his hair was burnt, his clothes and armor were on fire, and large blisters formed on his arms, neck and other exposed skin.

Xiang Chang endured the excruciating pain and beat back the soldiers who came to rescue him with a few punches and kicks. He then pulled out Qu Fu's sword, who was completely unprepared, and strode towards Zhou Yin.

The expression of Grand Marshal Zhou Yin, who surrendered to the Han army, changed again, and he retreated in shock.

Xiang Chang raised his head and laughed wildly, knocking his sword on the wooden table where Zhou Yin was gnawing on the lamb leg. He stretched out his body that smelled heavily of black, and stared at him with his eyes that made people shudder like a beast:
"Why did you save me? Zhou Yin, old villain, if I burn myself to death, you're not satisfied? Then I will cut myself into pieces, and see if the blood of the royal family of Great Chu can splash all over your body!"

As he said this, he turned the sword and without hesitation, cut towards his own chest!

"Stop!" Zhou Yin's momentum was completely taken away, and he shouted subconsciously.

"Haha, what? You don't dare to let me die? Are you afraid that if I die, you will die too? Do you think you can still survive now? Look at these Chu generals around you, many of them still have their hearts set on the Overlord. If my father gives the order, will they chop you off and take your head to the Overlord to ask for credit?"

Xiang Chang held his hand, and slowly pointed his sword at Zhou Yin again, looking down with a look of oppression, like a high and mighty king commanding his subordinates, with unquestionable arrogance, majesty, and tyranny:

"Want to live? Sure, there is only one way for you to go now!"

Zhou Yin's lips trembled violently, his face was struggling, and finally he lowered his head dejectedly.

Xiang Chang looked at him with contempt, threw the sword back to Qu Fu, snorted coldly, sat on Zhou Yin's wooden table with his big horse and golden sword, and called on the soldiers to bring wine to clean and scrub the burns, and mixed egg white with square stem oil and applied it to the wounds.

As for the black, pungent and suspicious medicine carried by the Chinese medicine physician in the military camp, he absolutely dared not use it.

His injuries appeared to be burnt all over and looked horrible, but in reality, apart from most of his hair being burnt and blisters on his exposed arms, his clothes and armor were originally stained with blood and sweat, which were wet and not burned, and there was no serious injury to his body.

"This world is really just a makeshift team! These princes, generals and ministers are just superhuman talents, brave and hardworking, standing at the forefront of the times, and have a certain amount of luck, so they have risen to the top and achieved great things. If you really strip off the cloak of power from them, haha, they are just a group of monkeys obsessed with selfish desires."

While Xiang Chang was treating his injuries, he was thinking coldly to himself.

Seeing that he didn't even discuss the details of his surrender, Zhou Yin was so straightforward and decisive, as if he believed that he would never regret it once he agreed. He opened his mouth to speak, but finally stopped, muttering to himself, "This is weird. This kid is much more cruel and evil than his father. The key is that he is shameless and bold. If his father had these tricks, I wouldn't have second thoughts."

"How magnificent! Master Xiang Chang is truly a hero. I am willing to follow him, even if I die, I will never regret it!"

A deputy general who had just participated in rescuing Xiang Chang from the fire suddenly roared, clasped his fists and saluted Zhou Yin, then strode up to Xiang Chang with great heroic spirit and knelt down to worship him.

Overlord enjoyed high prestige in the eyes of the Chu generals under his command, and Zhou Yin was well aware of this. However, now not only Overlord, but his son also possessed such terrifying ability that made people bow down to him. Zhou Yin's face turned pale and he watched helplessly, but did not dare to say anything to stop it, let alone catch this traitor!

Xiang Chang was also very surprised: when he jumped into the fire this time, did he accidentally trigger the passive golden finger of "Bow down and kneel down"?
For a moment, he turned his head to look at the soldiers around Zhou Yin, wondering whether he should jump into the fire pit a few more times to see if he could recruit all these generals?
This deputy general was tall, strong and sturdy, with a beard, a pair of round eyes, and looked quite brave. Xiang Chang took a liking to him when he first met him. He asked his name, and he was told it was Wenxi.

This was the first general to surrender to the Chu State when it was in danger and at the end of its rope, and it was Xiang Chang who surrendered to him. Without saying a word, Xiang Chang immediately gave him the surname Xiang and appointed him as the General of the Central Army!
The general was happy to hear that, no, Xiang was happy, he was overjoyed. After paying his respects and acknowledging his master, he held his head high, looked silly and stood behind Xiang Chang with a proud look, holding his sword.

Xiang Chang glanced at him and shook his head secretly. He didn't understand why the great Chu was so proud when it was about to be completely defeated.
The reason why Xiang Chang dared to come and force Zhou Yin to surrender again this time was, firstly, based on his previous impression of Zhou Yin, he felt that he was not the kind of person who would surrender and compromise; secondly, he remembered the historical materials about Zhou Yin that he had seen in his previous life.

In Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian", there are not many records about the Zhou and Yin dynasties. There are only two pitiful passages, and both are extremely brief, as if they were consciously downplayed.

One of them was when the Chu State was defeated in the Battle of Chenggao and faced the greatest crisis. Zhou Yin was lured into surrender by Liu Jia and led the elite troops of Chu to join the Han State, which directly led to the complete destruction of Xiang Yu and the Chu State.

And the most bizarre thing is that, logically speaking, Zhou Yin had made such great contributions that even if he was not listed among the eighteen founding marquises, he should at least be among the top in the second group of marquises. After all, Liu Bang was not a stingy person, and he did a good job of rewarding those who had made contributions.

However, no! Not only that, he was not even given the title of Guannei Hou.

The second record, and also the last record about Zhou Yin, was during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, and again there was only a brief sentence: Four months after Emperor Jing of Han ascended the throne, Grand Marshal Zhou Yin rebelled and was executed.

It was these two brief records that allowed Xiang Chang to vaguely make a bold inference: Perhaps Zhou Yin’s initial surrender was not a true surrender, but a false surrender!

Zhou Yin saw that the situation in Great Chu was critical at that time. Coincidentally, Liu Jia came to ask him to surrender, so he went with the flow and falsely agreed. Then he actively followed Ying Bu and Liu Jia north to participate in the encirclement of Xiang Yu.

At that time, he actually had evil intentions. After arriving at the battlefield, he planned to join forces with Xiang Yu's remaining troops to inflict a fatal blow to the Han army.

But during this period, perhaps because the Chu army collapsed too quickly, Ying Bu and Liu Jia were on high alert against him, leaving him powerless, and eventually his false surrender had to turn into a real surrender.

This also explains why after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, Zhou Yin was not granted a title of nobility despite his great contributions, but only had the empty title of Grand Sima.

It was obvious that the Han people had doubts about his surrender.

In addition, there is another piece of information that can support his guess. It is what Chen Ping once said to Liu Bang: "Xiang Yu's loyal ministers are just a few people such as Fan Zeng, Zhongli Mei, Long Qie, and Zhou Yin."

As Liu Bang's top strategist and the smartest brain in the world, Chen Ping was able to see through people with great accuracy and ruthlessness. He could be regarded as a loyal minister along with Fan Zeng, Zhongli Mei and Long Ju. It was impossible that Zhou Yin was a coward who was afraid of death and surrendered himself.

It was precisely because of this speculation, and because Xiang Chang was forced to the edge of the cliff with no way to retreat, that he made up his mind and came forward boldly, taking a gamble of trying his best to save the situation.

Now seeing Zhou Yin's reaction, he understood in his heart that his speculation might be correct.

As for why Zhou Yin was finally executed for treason during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, Xiang Chang understood clearly what he had said when he saw him just now:
I'm afraid that Xiang Yu's descendants had always been protected by him, and in the end, the matter was accidentally exposed and thus eliminated. Otherwise, it would be a joke to rebel during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han. At that time, the Han Dynasty had gone through the reigns of Liu Bang, Empress Lü, Emperor Hui of Han, and Emperor Wen of Han. The country was stable and the Liu regime was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Where was the soil for rebellion? What's more, he was just a mere Grand Marshal with no power.

(End of this chapter)