Western Han - Part II - Xiongnu to the Left of Me, Rebels to the Right...

-202 BC- the Eighteen Kingdoms period had finally ended and Liú Bāng had crowned himself emperor ("huángdì") of the Hàn (Hàn Gāozǔ) dynasty after reuniting all the Eighteen Kingdoms under his own (Kingdom of Hàn) banner.
   -After his death, he would become known as Emperor Gāozǔ of Hàn ("Hàn Gāozǔ" or "High Ancestor of Hàn").
   -Thus began one of China's greatest golden ages!
   -Emperor Gāozǔ also named his son Liú Yíng as crown prince.
      -This is significant not only because of inheritance stuff (obviously) but also because when Emperor Gāozǔ would be away from the capital he would leave both the crown prince and his queen, Empress Lǚ Zhì (Lǚ Hòu, Hàn Gāo Hòu, etc.), in charge of running the show (although of course they were assisted by courtiers and advisers and shit).
         -Emperor Gāozǔ was smart in trusting Empress Lǚ in this way, as she proved to be a competent administrator; however, she could also be quite ruthless in terms of accomplishing her goals.
   -One of the first things that Emperor Gāozǔ did was establish a new imperial capital.  It was obvious that running the show from the original Hàn kingdom lands wasn't going to work since that region was such a backwater, so instead, by using fēng shuǐ (Chinese geomancy to determine the location which was the "center of the heavens") and historical inspiration (looking back to Yellow River Valley as the cradle of Chinese civilization), he declared that the new capital of the empire would be Chéngzhōu (former capital of the Zhōu dynasty, near modern-day Luòyáng, Hénán Province). 
      -However, it didn't take long for Emperor Gāozǔ to realize that Chéngzhōu, in reality, was not actually a very logical place to govern from, either.  So, instead he finally decided to locate it across the river from Xiányáng (former capital of the Qín dynasty (and one of the former capitals of the Zhōu dynasty before that) and name it "Cháng'ān" ("Constant Peace", located in modern-day Xī'ān, Shǎnxī Province), the former capital of the Qín dynasty (and one of the former capitals of the Zhōu dynasty before that).
         -With this change, he also forced thousands (!) of clans (which made up the military aristocracy) to relocate with him to the new capital.
            -Emperor Gāozǔ did this in order to keep any potential military rivals close to him so that they wouldn't just go back to their own home regions and rebel against him and shit.
               -In addition to this, it also forced the military to become united in their focus on keeping the Xiōngnú (and others) at bay (since Cháng'ān really wasn't that far away from the northern border with the various barbarian hordes of the north), and soon many additional fortifications began to be constructed in the north under new imperial orders.
   -Something else Emperor Gāozǔ first did after being enthroned was immediately reduce taxes and corvée for those who had served in his army (as well as allow them to return home).
      -Those who returned home and lived outside of Guānzhōng were exempt from taxes and corvée for six years, but those who remained in Guānzhōng (capital region) were exempt for 12! 
         -Seems like Emperor Gāozǔ really wanted to try and get everybody to stay in Guānzhōng (in order to still maintain control over them, most likely).
      -He also freed any slaves who had voluntarily sold themselves into bondage in order to avoid starvation (I wonder how this actually played out).
-Interestingly, the influence that Legalism (Fǎjiā) had on the Qín dynasty in terms of an operating system was quickly diminished once Emperor Gāozǔ assumed power.
   -Although he had ruled as a staunch Legalist, once he took the throne Emperor Gāozǔ quickly became influenced by the words of Lù Gǔ, a Confucian scholar and Hàn courtier.
      -Fun anecdote: when they first met, Emperor Gāozǔ asked Lù Gǔ, "I do all my conquering from the back of my horse; what use have I for books and poetry?" Lù Gǔ replied, "Once my lord is done with the conquering, does he also intend to do all his ruling from the back of his horse?"  Intrigued, Emperor Gāozǔ eventually allowed for Lù Gǔ to come to court and read some of his writings to the emperor (all of which would go on to be collected in the 12-volume work Xīnyǔ (New Words or something like that).
         -Lù Gǔ's main argument was that it was better to govern through moral virtue rather than through enacting harsh laws (which is how the Qín dynasty had rocked it), and Emperor Gāozǔ soon became a huge believer in Confucianism (which would eventually become the official philosophy of the Hàn dynasty, replacing Legalism).
            -Confucianism was back!
            -That being said, a lot of the harsh laws still remained in place, so it wasn't like it was a complete overhaul of the Legalist system; torture, mass executions, etc. were all still on the table.  Instead, it was more like a "Qín-light" version of things.
-Meanwhile in the north, shit was starting to get pretty serious with the Xiōngnú.
   -Back in 209 BC- a Xiōngnú chanyu (official title meaning "warlord king", although it's actually short for "chēnglí gūtu chányú" ("child of the open sky" or something like that; this is comparable to the tiānzǐ ("son of Heaven") title used by the emperors of the Zhōu dynasty), although it may have actually translated to "child of the Heavenly Wolf" in Mongolian; it's unclear) known as Mòdù (AKA Mòdùn) had united a bunch of Xiōngnú tribes together (after murdering his father, the chanyu Tümen) into a massive barbarian horde.
      -According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Tümen had had multiple wives (of course), so naturally he had multiple sons as well.  However, Tümen had wanted one particular son to be his successor, so at some point he had Mòdù sent to the Yuèzhī (barbarians to the west of the Xiōngnú) as a hostage/peace offering or whatever, but then soon after this declared war on the Yuèzhī and attacked them so that they would kill Mòdù in retaliation.  However, this plan didn't work out, as Mòdù was able to escape the Yuèzhī and return home.  Impressed by his bravery, Tümen had him appointed as a commander over a large cavalry.
         -Mòdù quickly amassed a group of hardcore loyal followers.  In order to ensure their loyalty, he had them kill his favorite horse (!), and those that refused were executed.  He then repeated this later on, except this time he had them kill his favorite wife (!!).  Finally, as the ultimate test of their loyalty he had them kill Tümen (ah, it all makes sense now!!!); after they did this Mòdù declared himself the new chanyu of the brand-new Xiōngnú Empire (in 203 BC)!
            -This would mark the beginning of the actual Xiōngnú Empire (as opposed to just being a loose confederation of tribes semi-united (but probably also prone to fighting among each other as well) by a similar culture).
               -The Xiōngnú Empire would eventually stretch (in general) from modern-day Mongolia to Inner Mongolia, western Manchuria, Xīnjiāng Province, eastern Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
                  -In fact, it would actually expand to become bigger than even the Hàn Empire (!), eventually becoming one of the biggest empires in the world (in terms of landmass) up to that point in world history! 
                     -That being said, it's also worth noting that amassing a bunch of territory in Eurasia wouldn't be THAT hard considering that this region was nowhere near as populated as like the Hàn or Roman empires, and it's always been this way in Central Asia.
-200 BC- it was around this time that Mòdù Chanyu began to expand his empire in all directions- north in to southern Siberia, east into eastern (modern-day) Mongolia and Manchuria, southwest into (modern-day) Kazakhstan, and lots of territory that had previously been lost to the Qín dynasty. 
   -Of course, it wasn't long before the Xiōngnú began to invade the Hàn Empire proper! 
      -Naturally, Emperor Gāozǔ raised a huge imperial army (led by the emperor himself) to drive off the invading Xiōngnú horde.
         -The Hàn army was initially successful in driving back the Xiōngnú, but the emperor made the mistake of chasing the invaders into Xiōngnú territory. 
            -It didn't take long for the Xiōngnú to surround the Hàn army, in which a week-long standoff ensued (known as the Battle of Báidēng (in modern-day Dàtóng, Shānxī Province)) before Emperor Gāozǔ desperately sued for peace by sending precious gifts to Mòdù Chanyu's wife (or one of his wives/queens, whatever) and begging for her to convince Mòdù Chanyu to let the emperor and his army return home in exchange for these gifts.
               -Surprisingly, this actually worked, but Mòdù Chanyu demanded that in order for their to be peace between the two empires the Hàn would have to do some things for the Xiōngnú, first.
                  -After returning home, Emperor Gāozǔ was to send emissaries to the Xiōngnu for additional peace talks (to which the emperor obliged).  After the Hàn emissaries arrived, they had to have their faces tattooed (!) before speaking with Mòdù Chanyu in his personal yurt.  The chanyu then demanded that the Hàn dynasty recognize the Xiōngnú Empire as its equal (with their dividing boundaries defined by the fortifications originally built by the Qín dynasty).  Also, Mòdù Chanyu demanded that every year the Hàn dynasty had to send silk, booze, rice, and women from the royal family (for the purposes of marrying Xiōngnú nobles, a practice known as héqīn ("peace marriage") which would become a tradition (not just with the Xiōngnú, but any other political entity of note that the Chinese would be making deals with) that would last throughout the rest of imperial Chinese history!) to the Xiōngnú as tribute.
-202 BC- meanwhile, trouble was quickly brewing in the Hàn Empire.
   -General Hán Xìn had garnered an excellent reputation as one of the best Hàn commanders during the Chǔ-Hàn Contention (and would eventually become known as one of the "Three Heroes of the Early Hàn Dynasty" ("Hàn Chū Sān Jié")), and after the war, as a reward for his service, Hán Xìn had been named vassal king of Chǔ (which was obviously a big deal since Chǔ had always been one of the most powerful kingdoms of Ancient China) by Emperor Gāozǔ. 
      -However, the drama started when Hán Xìn decided to help out his close friend Zhōnglí Mò, a former Chǔ general under Xiàng Yǔ who was still wanted by the Hàn government, by giving him a place to stay at his royal fief. 
         -Of course, it wasn't long before Emperor Gāozǔ found out about this, and soon Hán Xìn faced immediate pressure from the emperor to arrest Zhōnglí Mò.  However, Hán Xìn couldn't bring himself to do this. 
            -Soon, Emperor Gāozǔ began to hear of rumors claiming that Hán Xìn was preparing to rebel against the Hàn dynasty, so the emperor decided to invite Hán Xìn to a meeting (which was to be held in a town near the modern-day Zhōukǒu, Hénán Province).  Both Hán Xìn and Zhōnglí Mò knew that this was going to most likely result in the arrest (and subsequent execution) of the former, so Zhōnglí Mò killed himself in order to give Hán Xìn a chance to survive by presenting Zhōnglí Mò's head to the emperor as proof that he was still ultimately loyal to his imperial lord.
               -Unfortunately for Hán Xìn, Emperor Gāozǔ wasn't convinced of his former general's loyalty, so he had Hán Xìn arrested anyway.
                  -Upon his arrest, Hán Xìn allegedly exclaimed, "It is true when people say that the hunting dog becomes food as well after it is used to hunt game; a good bow is discarded when there are no birds left for shooting; an adviser dies after he helps his lord conquer a rival kingdom. Now that the empire is in place, I no longer serve any purpose!"
                     -However, apparently Emperor Gāozǔ later on had a change of heart, and Hán Xìn was eventually released (although Hán Xìn soon found that he was no longer the vassal king of Chǔ, but instead had been demoted to "marquis of Huáiyīn" (modern-day Huái'ān, Jiāngsū Province)). 
                        -This indicated to Hán Xìn that Emperor Gāozǔ no longer trusted him as much as he once did.
-197 BC- Chén Xī, the marquis of Yángxià (not sure where this is/was, exactly), approaches Hán Xìn with an offer to join him in rebellion against Emperor Gāozǔ.  However, Hán Xìn refuses.
   -Unfortunately for Hán Xìn, however, while the emperor was off putting down Chén Xī's rebellion, Empress Lǚ Zhì heard rumors (someone out there must have really hated Hán Xìn!) that Hán Xìn was secretly involved in the revolt, so she began to plot with Imperial Chancellor Xiāo Hé to take down Hán Xìn.
      -By the time Emperor Gāozǔ finally found out about this plot (after putting down Chén Xī's rebellion), Hán Xìn had been arrested, tortured, and executed along with his entire family, and that his entire clan had actually been executed as well!
         -Apparently, Emperor Gāozǔ had a mixed reaction to the news of his former comrade's death- both happiness but also regret.
-196 BC- the drama wasn't over yet, though, as Emperor Gāozǔ then started to learn of rumors claiming that Péng Yuè, the vassal king of Liáng, was plotting a rebellion against the Hàn dynasty.
   -Believing these rumors, Emperor Gāozǔ stripped Péng Yuè of his vassal lordship, demoted him to mere commoner status, and then finally had him exiled to a remote county near modern-day Yǎ'ān, Sìchuān Province. 
      -However, apparently this punishment wasn't severe enough for Empress Lǚ Zhì, so she actually went so far as to intercept Péng Yuè as he was making the journey to his new home.  Knowing that her being there could only mean imminent death for Péng Yuè, the former vassal lord begged for his life.  Surprisingly, the empress seemed to agree with Péng Yuè that his life should be spared, but of course she was just pretending, and as Péng Yuè was returning back to his ancestral home (near modern-day Hézé, Shāndōng Province) he was subsequently arrested, tortured, and executed in Chéngzhōu (along with his entire family).
         -According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Empress Lǚ Zhì must have really hated Péng Yuè because after he was killed she had him ground up into mincemeat, salted, and then sent to all the other noble families of the Hàn dynasty as a warning not to fuck with the Hàn dynasty!!
            -While this may have scared many of the elite families into complete submission, it seemed to also have the opposite effect (scaring many of the elite families into rebellion out of fear) for many of these families as well.
               -One of the lords scared into action against the imperial throne was the former king of Jiǔjiāng, Yīng Bù (whom Emperor Gāozǔ had granted the title "King of Huáinán" ("Huáinánwáng", or "King of the Lands South of the Huái River") after the Chǔ-Hàn Contention (also see last post for more info on this dude, but basically he was considered to be one of the greatest military commanders (initially fighting for Chǔ before switching sides and joining the Hàn army) of his day)).
                  -He secretly began raising an army with the tentative plan of rebelling against the Hàn dynasty just in case he was the next in line to be tortured and executed by the empress. He also felt that his odds were pretty good since the other two greatest generals, Hán Xìn and Péng Yuè, were out of the picture, so he only really had to worry about Emperor Gāozǔ (in terms of being matched in military tactical genius), who was also getting pretty old at this point, too.
                     -The catalyst for the showdown between Yīng Bù and the Hàn dynasty all started with one of Yīng Bù's concubines (I guess whose name has been lost to time...). 
                        -This concubine had become ill, so she was sent to go see the local physician who happened to be neighbors with Bēn Hè, an official of the Hàn court. 
                           -Apparently the concubine had a chronic illness or something because she had to go visit this physician on a regular basis, and she was also most likely really hot which resulted in Bēn Hè seeing her and secretly charming her with expensive gifts and drinks at his house and shit.
                              -When Yīng Bù found out about this, he was obviously pissed off (or at least very suspicious about Bēn Hè's relationship with the concubine) and because Yīng Bù was so scary, Bēn Hè was scared for his life.  So, in order to save himself, he made up a rumor that Yīng Bù was going to be the next vassal king to rebel against the emperor after fleeing to his home to Cháng'ān.
                                 -Emperor Gāozǔ was immediately skeptical of this accusation and discussed the matter with Xiāo Hé.  Xiāo Hé made the argument that Yīng Bù probably wasn't going planning to rebel against the emperor and that it was more likely that Yīng Bù's enemies were trying to frame him.  However, just to be safe, Xiāo Hé advised the emperor to send some imperial investigators to go check out Yīng Bù.
                                    -Despite the imperial court doubting the likelihood of Yīng Bù secretly planning a rebellion, Yīng Bù decided to go forward with his plan of rebelling due to his fears that he had been ratted out by Bēn Hè (due to Bēn Hè's conversations with Yīng Bù's concubine (she may have spilled the beans about Yīng Bù raising an army with the tentative plan rebelling at some point in the near future)), but even IF the court found Yīng Bù to be innocent, Yīng Bù knew that the likely followup would be for the paranoid/insane empress to have him killed one way or another anyway.
                                       -The first thing Yīng Bù did was have his soldiers round up Bēn Hè's family and execute them while expelling Emperor Gāozǔ's investigators from his property.
                                       -Next, Yīng Bù started invading territory in the south (away from Cháng'ān) and was initially successful!  However, he started meeting real resistance when he invaded the territory belonging to the (former) state/kingdom of Chǔ, but was still able to defeat them too (due to his military genius).
                                       -Finally, everything came to a head when Yīng Bù's army clashed with Emperor Gāozǔ's army at some place (a town? field? idk) called Zhuì (in modern-day Sùzhōu, Ānhuī Province).
                                          -The battle did not go well for Yīng Bù and his army, and soon he was on the run with like 100 dudes that were the remains of his shattered army.  However, he WAS able to have one of his archers seriously injure Emperor Gāozǔ by
                                             -Finally he was able to get in contact somehow with his father-in-law's grandson, Vassal King Āī of Chángshā, who promised him a safe getaway to the kingdom of Nányuè (in modern-day southern China and northern Vietnam; although it was officially a Han subject state, the kingdom seems to have retained a large measure of de facto autonomy, hence why it made sense that it would be a good place for Yīng Bù to escape to) to the south, but this plan actually turned out to be a ruse and Yīng Bù was captured and executed in Xīnpíng (modern-day Jǐngdézhèn, Jiāngxī Province).
-At this point it was obvious that no one could really fuck with Emperor Gāozǔ, but it was obvious that not only was he getting older, but also his arrow wounds from the Battle of Zhuì were getting worse, too. 
   -It was obvious that Emperor Gāozǔ was on his way out, so he began to make plans for what was to happen after he died.
      -While he had named his son Liú Yíng crown prince years ago, as time had gone on Emperor Gāozǔ had grown increasingly critical and disappointed in his son, believing him to be too weak and unfit for imperial rule.
         -Emperor Gāozǔ even went so far as to say that he didn't really see any resemblance between himself and his son (implying that Liú Yíng wasn't actually his son, of course).
         -Although Liú Yíng was indeed the son of Empress Lǚ and Emperor Gāozǔ (as far as we know), over the years the emperor had actually gone on to favor Liǘ Rúyì (his son from his favorite concubine, Consort Qī) as his preferred heir instead of Liú Yíng.  Emperor Gāozǔ's advisers had strongly cautioned the emperor in following through with this plan, however, and facing intense pressure from all sides (including the empress who obviously you really didn't want to fuck with) he decided to back down and go along with the original plan of having Liú Yíng be the next in line instead.
   -As he rapidly approached death, Emperor Gāozǔ got super-depressed and began barricading himself in his chambers and refusing to let anyone in (with the exception of his personal eunuch servant).
      -Fearing another situation similar to what had happened with the eunuch Zhào Gāo and Qín Èr Shì, Emperor Gāozǔ's advisers pleaded with him to come out of his room and resume his imperial duties.  Luckily, the emperor seemed to meet their concern with good humor, and he eventually acquiesced to their requests.
         -However, the emperor's health continued to deteriorate.  Empress Lǚ tried to get the emperor's health back on track by hiring a physician claiming that he could heal the emperor's ailments completely, but the emperor stated that he was determined to live according to the way that the heavens had planned for him, and he ended up eventually just sending the physician away.
            -Emperor Gāozǔ finally died on June 1, 195 BC.

Western Han - Part I - The Chu-Han Contention

-206 BC- so, the Qín dynasty ended up collapsing after only being around for like 15 years haha.
   -Because of the empire's collapse, the land was now split into 18 (!) different warring kingdoms (hence the name "Eighteen Kingdoms period" for this time in Chinese history).
   -Although the rebels' main army was led by General Xiàng Yǔ, the Qín capital, Xiányáng (in modern-day Shǎnxī Province), and the royal family had been captured by another allied rebel general, Liú Bāng.
      -Liú Bāng was born to a peasant family in 256 BC (approximately) in the state/kingdom of Chǔ (in a village near the city of Péngchéng (modern-day Xúzhōu, Jiāngsū Province)).
         -According to legend, his upbringing was full of ominous portents (usually associated with dragons, a theme that was constant throughout his life).
            -For example, when he would drink a silhouette of a dragon would appear around him; as he got older he "resembled" a dragon more and more; etc.
         -When he got older he was eventually appointed as a minor patrol officer in the military and village executioner.
            -However, after the land was unified by the Qín dynasty everything changed for him one day when some of his prisoners escaped as he was escorting them to Mount Lí (where they were to be forced to work on Qín Shǐ Huáng's necropolis).
               -The punishment for military officers who had prisoners escape under their watch was death, so naturally Liú Bāng knew that he was screwed.  However, instead of turning himself in to be executed, he decided to escape along with the prisoners and form a band of outlaws.
                  -During this time it's said that Liú Bāng encountered a dangerous white dragon (with a poison breath weapon!) and slew it (drunkenly haha).  However, early the next morning he encountered an old woman on the side of the road who was crying; she told him that her "child had been slain by the son of the Red Emperor (AKA Emperor Yán, the Flame Emperor, the Yán Emperor, etc. (also possibly the same dude as Shénnóng, considered by some sources to be one of the mythical Three Sovereigns of prehistoric China))" before vanishing into the morning mists.  Could this mean that Liú Bāng was a descendant of the Red Emperor and thus destined for greatness??
         -Eventually, Liú Bāng and his band built a stronghold at Mount Mángdàng (near modern-day Shāngqiū, Hénán Province) and there they just kept on growing in number.
            -Finally, in 208 BC King Huái II of Chǔ called upon Liú Bāng and his outlaw army to join in the rebellion against the Qín dynasty!
      -During this time, King Huái II of Chǔ (AKA Emperor Yì of Chŭ), essentially a puppet ruler installed by Xiàng Yǔ as the new ruler of the resurrected kingdom of Chŭ, had issued a competition among all the rebel generals that whoever would "subdue the (Qín) heartland" (which essentially means take the capital, I guess?) would be rewarded with a rulership over Guānzhōng (the capital region of the Qín dynasty; basically the former territory of the state/kingdom of Qín?).
         -So, although Xiàng Yǔ was really calling the shots behind the scenes, it was awkward because King Huái II of Chǔ HAD said that rulership of the Qín heartland would go to whoever took the capital first.  It seems like maybe it was assumed that Xiàng Yǔ would do this, but of course it actually didn't work out this way.
            -Xiàng Yǔ attempted to solve this problem by splitting up Guānzhōng into three different kingdoms (known collectively as "The Three Qíns"):
               -Yōng (ruled by former Qín general Zhāng Hán)
               -Sāi (ruled by former Qín general Sīmǎ Xīn)
               -Zhái (ruled by former Qín general Dǒng Yì)
            -For Liú Bāng, instead of being named king of Guānzhōng as was promised to him, he instead was given the new kingdom of Hàn, a territory to the southwest (land formerly belonging to the "barbarian" states of Bā and Shǔ (known collectively sometimes as the Bā-Shǔ culture) largely separated from the rest of the kingdoms by mountains.
               -Obviously, this was kind of meant to snub Liú Bāng, as Xiàng Yǔ was probably pissed off at him for having the audacity to capture Xiányáng before he got there.
                  -Hàn was so difficult to get to that you would have to travel through all these dangerous tiny roads that curved along the mountains (which had initially been created by the Qín armies as a temporary solution to pass through).  Occasionally there wouldn't even be a road at all and you'd have to walk over wooden planks built into the side of the mountain just to continue on!  No thanks!!
                     -In order to properly settle (and truly pacify?) the region, Liú Bāng was given 30,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilians.
                        -For the time being, he would lay low...
-Of course, the peace of the Eighteen Kingdoms period almost immediately fell into chaos as the different kingdoms started fighting with one another.
   -Qí (one of the three kingdoms (which included Jiāodōng and Jìběi) that the former state/kingdom of Qí had been divided into) immediately declared war on both Jiāodōng and Jìběi in order to reunify the former lands of the state/kingdom of Qí, quickly conquering them.
   -Western Chǔ ("Xī Chǔ"), ruled by Xiàng Yǔ (who had crowned himself "Hegemon-King of Western Chǔ" ("Xī Chǔ Bà Wáng"), invaded and conquered Hán (not to be confused with Hàn (ruled by Liú Bāng), of course).
   -Elsewhere there a bunch of rebellions and insurrections and shit, too.
   -Because of the chaos, Liú Bāng decided to take advantage of the situation and expand his power by invading Yōng.
      -Liú Bāng was able mask his intentions of invasion by claiming that he was just fortifying the defenses of the mountain passes.
      -After two main battles, Yōng's armies were defeated and Zhāng Hán was forced to retreat to a fortress at Fèi Qiū (modern-day Xīngpíng, Shǎnxī Province).
-At this point, it was obvious that Liú Bāng was most likely planning on taking the region of Guānzhōng for himself (and thus conquering the rest of the Three Qíns), and apparently his army was so badass that Sīmǎ Xīn and Dǒng Yì decided to form an alliance (which also included King Shēn Yáng of Hénán for some reason) with Liú Bāng!
-205 BC- although Xiàng Yǔ must have known what was going on in the west, he was bogged down in a war with Qí so I guess there wasn't really much he could do to counter Liú Bāng's rapidly increasing power.
   -Knowing he had to move fast before Xiàng Yǔ could properly organize, Liú Bāng and his allied forces decided to invade Western Chǔ, heading straight for Péngchéng!
      -This kicked off what would become known as the Chǔ-Hàn Contention (which would determine who would replace the Qín dynasty as the next imperial line, essentially).
      -They must have arrived moved really quickly because they were able to immediately capture and sack the capital city.
         -Of course, when he received word of the news that his capital had been taken by Liú Bāng's massive allied forces, Xiàng Yǔ raced back to the city to try and drive off the invaders.
            -Surprisingly, Xiàng Yǔ's army was able to catch the invaders off-guard because they had just been partying, raping, and pillaging the whole time and I guess hadn't prepared for Xiàng Yǔ's obvious return to try and save the city.  So, Liú Bāng's army was driven out of the city and forced to retreat to the nearby Gǔ and Sì rivers, but they were being chased by Xiàng Yǔ's army.
               -When the two armies finally clashed (the Battle of Péngchéng), Liú Bāng's army got its ass kicked and they suffered heavy casualties.
                  -In fact, the casualties were so bad at one point that the sheer amount of bodies dammed up the Sì River!
               -Fearing for his life (obviously), Liú Bāng and his bodyguards fled to his home village (he was born and raised in this area after all, and his family even still lived here!) where he hoped to secure his family from a possible reprisal by Xiàng Yǔ.
                  -However, Liú Bāng was too late (although he did encounter some of his family members randomly along the road on the way there; more on that later), as Xiàng Yǔ had already captured some of Liú Bāng's family.
                     -It probably didn't happen, but according to the historical records Liú Bāng discarded these family members to the side of the road so that his chariot would go faster!
                     -Xiàng Yǔ now had a choice- he could help rebuild his capital city and refortify/regroup, OR he could go after Liú Bāng in order to vanquish the Hàn threat once and for all.
                        -Surprisingly, Xiàng Yǔ decided to rebuild/regroup; after all, he still had much of Liú Bāng's family as hostages.
-Liú Bāng had been soundly defeated, so he headed back to Hàn to try and figure out what to do.
   -Realizing the shift in momentum, Sīmǎ Xīn and Dǒng Yì then decided to break their alliance with Liú Bāng and instead ally with Xiàng Yǔ!
      -To further strengthen Xiàng Yǔ's prospects for domination, Qí sued for peace (which allowed for Xiàng Yǔ to not have to be distracted by fighting them instead of Hàn).
   -Upon returning to the city of Yú (in modern-day Shāngqiū, Hénán Province (and capital of Hàn (I think))), Liú Bāng settled down in order to decide on what to do next.
      -His initial plan was to get King Yīng Bù (who had actually been a former criminal (with a tattooed face as a punishment!), escaped slave, and outlaw warlord in the past!) of Jiǔjiāng to declare war on Xiàng Yǔ and invade Western Chǔ (which actually worked, somehow!), but Xiàng Yǔ's forces were too strong and Yīng Bù's army was defeated.
         -Xiàng Yǔ then decided to launch a counterattack invasion (led by General Lóng Jū) against Jiǔjiāng.
            -Lóng Jū's army was successful in quickly crushing any opposition, and Yīng Bù was actually forced to flee to the court of Liú Bāng!  Doh!!
         -At this point, however, Liú Bāng had had enough time to raise another army, and he immediately used it to start attacking Western Chǔ again!
            -During this time Liú Bāng also named his son, Prince Liú Yíng, as heir to the Hàn throne.
               -It's also worth noting that Zhāng Hán's remaining army was finally defeated by Hàn's forces, which resulted in Zhāng Hán committing suicide before he could be captured.
-Also during this time King Wèi Bào of Western Wèi ("Xī Wèi" in order to make it not confused with its original incarnation as the state/kingdom of Wèi) decided that it was time for Western Wèi to enter the war for domination, and he kicked things off by breaking his alliance with Hàn, allying himself with Xiàng Yǔ, and then declaring war on Liú Bāng!  Rude!
   -Because of this sudden reversal, Liú Bāng knew he had to act quickly in order crush Wèi Bào ASAP, so he sent Hán Xìn, his best general, to lead Hàn's forces.
      -By being tricky, Hán Xìn was able to convince Wèi Bào that the Hàn army was going to attack the Wèi city of Línjìn, but actually Hán Xìn was planning on attacking Wèi's capital at Ānyì!
         -Not really sure what exactly went down, but by the time the armies finally did clash, Wèi Bào's army was crushed and Wèi was completely surrendered to (and promptly annexed by) Hàn!
            -Surprisingly, Wèi Bào actually survived all of this, and after his defeat was actually accepted into Liú Bāng's army and even promoted to general!
-Hán Xìn then continued the drive north and invaded the kingdom of Dài (not sure what their excuse was, exactly)!
   -I could be mistaken, but it seems as if during this time the kingdoms of Dài, Hénán, Chángshān, and Yīn (all ruled by former Zhào royalty or government officials) had all banded together to form a sort-of resurrected Zhào state/kingdom, so that would explain why the sources are saying that Hán Xìn "attacked the kingdom of Zhào" even though really Zhào had fallen to Qín 17 years earlier.
   -Hàn's army clashed with the forces of Dài near the Jǐngxíng Pass (the Battle of Jǐngxíng (AKA the Battle of the Táo River)) in the Tàiháng Mountains.
   -Surprisingly, although Hán Xìn had a much smaller force than Dài's, the Hàn army was able to defeat Dài (which also cemented Hán Xìn's reputation as a badass general!) by feigning a retreat (but being unable to retreat due to the mountains which made them fight more ferociously), ambushes, counterattacks, etc.!
-Once Hán Xìn's army made it through the Jǐngxíng Pass and defeated the Zhào alliance, he set his sights on both Western Chǔ and Qí.
   -Both were powerful states, but Hán Xìn knew that they had been distracted from containing Hàn's wars of expansion due to fighting with each other.
-204 BC- at this point, the three most powerful states in the Eighteen Kingdoms (or whatever China was being called at this time) were of course Western Chǔ, Hàn, and Qí.
   -During a diplomatic meeting there was some sort of an agreement reached in order to calm hostilities where Western Chǔ and Qí agreed to a ceasefire and Qí recognized Hàn as the rightful "leader" of the region (whatever that meant).
      -However, by the time Liú Bāng received word that Qí was on their side it was too late to get the message to Hán Xìn, who was quickly moving to invade Qí!
         -Believing that they had been deceived by Hàn, Tián Guǎng (the new king of Qí (not Tián Du; it's complicated)) fled to Péngchéng and immediately swore fealty to Xiàng Yǔ.
            -Agreeing to protect his new vassal state, Xiàng Yǔ quickly raised an army (led by General Lóng Jū (who had a reputation for being a brave but also arrogant and reckless commander) and sent it to drive out the Hàn forces from Qí.
               -Hán Xìn was able to exploit Lóng Jū's recklessness by causing the Qí/Western Chǔ army to be caught in a genius trap involving the opening of a dam and getting flooded (which also resulted in Lóng Jū's death as well).
                  -Apparently Tián Guǎng was there as well because he was also killed during the battle's aftermath.
                     -Qí was then immediately annexed by Hàn!
                        -At this point, things were really looking grim for Xiàng Yǔ, as the region had obviously been dominated by Hàn and Western Chǔ's armies had suffered too many casualties to resist for much longer.
-Although Hán Xìn had been on a roll up till now, it seems as if he finally overplayed his hand when he requested that he be made the new king of Qí.
   -This actually put Liú Bāng in a tough situation; Hán Xìn possessed a relatively large force compared to what was at Liú Bāng's immediate disposal (an army which was actually busy defending the captured city of Xíngyáng from Western Chǔ forces), and Liú Bāng had expected Hán Xìn to return to Hàn and help drive off the Western Chǔ army from Xíngyáng, not ask to be named king of Qí!
      -However, Liú Bāng knew that he was in no place to challenge Hán Xìn's power grab, so he reluctantly acquiesced to Hán Xìn's request.
         -This was also because Xiàng Yǔ had attempted to exploit this shift in relations between Liú Bāng and Hán Xìn by inviting the latter to join in a military alliance with Western Chǔ against Hàn.  Also, if Hán Xìn agreed to this alliance, Western Chǔ would then recognize Hán Xìn's legitimacy as the new king of Qí.
-203 BC- At this point, Liú Bāng knew that his forces were too weak to continue fighting with Western Chǔ at Xíngyáng and that Hán Xìn was now not to be trusted, so he decided to try and sue for peace with Western Chǔ.  In addition, Xiàng Yǔ had captured Liú Bāng's father, so that might have had something to do with it, too.
   -The deal (known as the Treaty of the Hóng Canal) was that everything west of Xíngyáng (including the city itself) would belong to Hàn, and everything to its east would belong to Western Chǔ.
      -In addition, all of the hostages taken by Western Chǔ would be returned to Hàn.
      -Apparently, Xiàng Yǔ himself even traveled to the city for the peace talks.
      -However, Liú Bāng must have realized that this was not a sustainable solution at all to the Chǔ-Hàn Contention, and that actually it would probably be much easier to just nip this whole thing in the bud by attacking Xiàng Yǔ as he was traveling back east!
         -Liú Bāng then raised an army to go after Xiàng Yǔ and attempted to get both Hán Xìn and the Hàn general Péng Yuè (AKA Zhòng) to do a three-pronged attack, but this didn't really pan out and Liú Bāng's army fought alone and ended up getting defeated (although Liú Bāng was able to survive by retreating).
            -While normally Liú Bāng would have reprimanded his subordinates in some way for not following orders from their king, because of the situation he was in Liú Bāng was obviously in no position to actually follow through with any punishments or disciplinary actions, so he just ended up apologizing for asking so much from his men haha.
               -In fact, in order to rely on them for the next campaign, Liú Bāng even went so far as to grant the two generals land and titles in order to "thank them" for their continued support.
-202 BC- the armies of Hàn invade Western Chǔ!  This is it!
   -The invasion was a three-pronged assault (with each prong led by Liú Bāng, Péng Yuè, and Hán Xìn, respectively).
      -It's unclear how exactly this happened, but it wasn't long before Xiàng Yǔ and his army found themselves trapped in a canyon near the town of Gāixià (outside of modern-day Sùzhōu, Ānhuī Province).
         -To make matters worse, one of Xiàng Yǔ's favorite wives, Consort Yú (AKA Yú Miàoyì or "Yú the Beauty" ("Yú Měirén")), had been captured by Hàn forces (at this point it looks like the armies led by both Liú Bāng and Hán Xìn had joined up).
            -The Battle of Gāixià- the Hàn generals knew that Xiàng Yǔ would do anything to rescue Consort Yú, and they were right- it wasn't long before Xiàng Yǔ's army was ambushed and completely surrounded by the forces of Hàn.
               -It was at this moment that Hán Xìn had told his men to start singing traditional folk songs from Chǔ (meant to make Xiàng Yǔ's men homesick so they'd stop fighting, I guess?  Either way, it worked!) which resulted in the Western Chǔ army drop in numbers due to surrender and desertion.  The final nail in the coffin, however, was the suicide of Consort Yú (who apparently either blamed herself for Xiàng Yǔ's defeat OR just didn't want to distract him from the battle).
                -Although he succeeded in breaking through the Hàn's line in order to escape with a small number of loyalists, Xiàng Yǔ was soon tracked down by Hàn cavalry and was able to commit suicide before he could be captured.
                   -Although Western Chǔ would continue to try and hold out against the Hàn forces and its allies, it was obvious that the Chǔ-Hàn Contention was quickly coming to an end as much of Western Chǔ's territory was easily being conquered by the invading Hàn armies.
-Once Western Chǔ had finally fallen, Liú Bāng declared himself emperor (becoming Emperor Gāozǔ of Hàn ("Hàn Gāozǔ" ("High Ancestor of Hàn"))) of his brand-new Hàn dynasty, although he still ensured that he held up his end of the many deals that he had made with all of the generals, nobles, and members of the royal family who had supported him up to that point (which also included many enemy generals, too, as a sign of respect) and awarded many kingships (who were to rule semi-autonomously, answering only to the emperor, himself) and other titles to them within the empire of Hàn.
   -This was definitely a departure of how the Qín dynasty had done things (an attempt to have complete control of its empire by dividing it up into commanderies governed by non-hereditary official positions (an extremely radical departure from how it had always been in China)) and a return to the traditional Chinese style up till that point (a bunch of different kingdoms all subordinate (in theory) to an imperial overlord of semi-divine ancestry, as seen with the previous dynasties).
      -Would a return to this style of rule be as problematic as it had been for the previous dynasties (not including the Qín)?