My father, King Chu, was besieged at Gaixia

Chapter 79: Overlord's Power
Xiang Chang left the tent, mounted a big black horse, and galloped towards Gaixia City surrounded by a group of guards.

Xiang Chang had his own tent in Gaixia City, and it was quite luxurious. However, since he took office as the rear general, he has been living in the military camp and has never returned home for a day. All the property in the tent was looted by Xiang Zhuang to reward and motivate the soldiers. Later, he sent the maid to the wounded camp to take care of the wounded. Now the tent is empty and has nothing.

After entering Gaixia City, Xiang Chang trotted along the familiar route, passing through several streets and numerous tents, and arrived directly in front of the tent of the Chu army commander, his father, Overlord.

He dismounted from his horse, nodded to the guarding soldier, and strode in.

The Overlord was kneeling upright on the soft seat of honor. On the table in front of him were brown rice, salted fish soup, and a few skewers of meat, but he was not eating. Instead, he was holding a bamboo scroll and reading it attentively.

Seeing Xiang Chang coming in, Overlord threw the bamboo slips aside, a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and a pair of double pupils showed a trace of pity. He kept watching Xiang Chang and bowed to him hurriedly, then sat down behind the document beside him, buried his head and began to eat voraciously. He started to eat with his chopsticks and said, "Eat slowly, you are not only a general, but also a nobleman, the eldest son of my Great Chu, you must always pay attention to your appearance, and no one is snatching your food from you, why are you in such a hurry?"

Xiang Chang uttered a few "hmm" sounds, but he remained the same, without any change.

Overlord showed a helpless look, shook his head, but said nothing more. Although Overlord was a brave man, he was no different from most Chinese fathers in terms of being a father. He was obviously thinking about how to get closer to his son, but when he spoke, he couldn't help but scold and teach.

Xiang Chang has learned from Xiang Zhuang that his father had reprimanded and subdued a group of senior core generals at the banquet yesterday, and fully supported him in implementing the Qin military merit-conferring system in the Chu army. While he was pleased and grateful, he also knew that he had finally found the correct way to get along with his father, which was - since ancient times, routines cannot retain people, only true feelings can move people's hearts!

Although the siege of Gaixia had been temporarily lifted, Liu Bang's army of hundreds of thousands did not retreat, and was still watching from the sidelines, waiting for an opportunity to strike. The rest of the princes, such as Han Xin, Peng Yue, Wu Rui, etc., all occupied a piece of land and called themselves kings. In this situation, whether he wanted to defeat the Han army and kill Liu Bang, or to wipe out all the forces and unify the world, the key lay in his father. As for himself, although he had more than enough wisdom and strategies, he was far inferior to him in terms of military strategy, force, prestige and appeal.

Since the banner of his father must not fall, how to get along with his father becomes a new problem that Xiang Chang needs to solve.

Xiang Chang thought about this problem for a long time. Although his father had a childish temperament and was not scheming at all, it did not mean that he was a fool. In fact, it was no exaggeration to say that he was extremely smart. He might be able to deceive him for a while by using scheming and trickery, but he would surely see through it in no time, and it would be difficult to gain his trust again.

After much deliberation, Xiang Chang finally decided that since he was a son, he should do what a son should do. During this period, he traveled more than ten miles every day to come to Gaixia to have breakfast with his father, and decided to continue doing so as long as he was not leading troops outside, in order to cultivate a deep father-son relationship with his father.

In addition, I had a deep talk with my father the day before yesterday. Using the excuse that he had a nightmare, I told him all my thoughts and told him frankly that I would hide nothing from him in the future. At the same time, I also frankly asked my father to hide nothing from me and to discuss with me and the generals before making any major decisions.

Perhaps Xiang Yu's confidence was shattered by Liu Bang's continuous blows, and he had deep self-doubts about himself, or perhaps he was moved by his son's sincerity. In short, Xiang Chang's approach was unexpectedly effective. Not only did Xiang Chang support the cleaning and upgrading of the wounded camp in the barracks, the unified diet of the generals and soldiers, the discussion of important military affairs with the generals, and the implementation of the Qin military merit system, but his own stubborn and arrogant temperament was also greatly restrained. After finishing the rough breakfast quickly and letting the soldiers clean up, Xiang Chang naturally walked behind the Overlord and massaged his shoulders, while the father and son started their daily chat time.

In order to support his son Xiang Chang in cleaning up and upgrading the wounded camp, and also because he missed Concubine Yu, the Overlord sent all the maids to the wounded camp, so there was no woman to take care of him. In this respect, the father and son were the same, and now both became bachelors. Xiang Chang did the work of a maid, massaging his father's shoulders and serving this old noble who was used to enjoying life.

While talking aimlessly and enjoying his son's filial piety, Xiang Yu, the Overlord of Chu, narrowed his pupils and looked very comfortable.

Xiang Chang thought of the incident yesterday when Ding Gu robbed the fine wine, and said thoughtfully: "Father, the generals in the army, especially those middle-level generals, are all from the noble families of Da Chu or Jiangdong. They have always been well-dressed and well-fed. Suddenly, they are asked to share the same hardships and eat the same food as the soldiers. They will feel quite resentful. Otherwise..."

Before he could finish, Xiang Yu raised his hand to stop him, knelt down, sat up straight, pointed at his son's mat and told him to go back and kneel down, then said solemnly:
"Chang'er, remember this. You are the eldest son of our Great Chu. You are the future monarch and king of all the generals and ministers. All of them are your slaves. They must obey all the decisions you make, whether they are right or wrong. There is no room for bargaining."

"I understand your thoughts. You think that since they came to support us with their family's private army, food, weapons, and treasures, and fought bloody battles regardless of life and death, their interests should be taken into consideration. Humph, a few years ago, when we destroyed the Qin Dynasty and established the Chu State, which of them did not gain enough benefits and rewards? Which family's power did not expand several times or even dozens of times? Therefore, we don't owe them a penny. Besides, my father and I can eat, so why can't they?"

At this moment, Xiang Yu, the mighty King of Western Chu, finally revealed his domineering side as a superior.

Xiang Chang was silent, and then he realized: For a tiger, it can take the opinions of wolves and leopards into consideration, but it will never care about the opinions of deer and sheep. In the eyes of his overly powerful and arrogant father, there is no doubt that all his subordinates are deer and sheep. But Liu Bang is not so powerful, so all his subordinates are wolves and leopards, and he has to pay attention to their opinions.

After a pause, Xiang Yu said in a bleak tone:
"I know all the dirty things they did, such as Han Xin, Chen Ping and other extraordinary talents were suppressed by them. But I feel that my own military power is enough to subdue the whole world, so I don't care about them. For example, Ying Bu, why did I make him a king? Although he has made outstanding military achievements, is it really worth making him a king? Compared with Long Ju and Zhongli Mei who also have outstanding military achievements, is he so much better?"

"The reason I did that is because Ying Bu is the only one of my generals who was born as a low-class person. He has always been excluded by the noble generals, and in the end, the two of them have become enemies. If I don't send him far away to own a place by himself, there will only be one result, that is, the two of them will fight each other, and eventually our Great Chu will suffer a great loss of vitality."

Xiang Chang was shocked. He never expected that there was such a murky past behind Ying Bu's enthronement as king.

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(End of this chapter)