Battle of Gaixia
| Battle of Gaixia | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Chu-Han contention | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Han | Western Chu | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Liu Bang, Han Xin |
Xiang Yu | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 600,000-700,000 | 100,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 100,000~200,000 | 80,000 killed in action 20,000 captured |
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| Battle of Gaixia | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 垓下之戰 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 垓下之战 | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Gāixià Zhī Zhàn |
The Battle of Gaixia was fought in 202 BC during the Chu–Han Contention between the forces of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu. The battle concluded with victory for Liu Bang, who proclaimed himself Emperor of China and founded the Han Dynasty.
The Han forces had earned many major victories against Chu, but they still did not control most of the country. Most of eastern China was still under Chu control. Eventually Xiang Yu was able to reorganize his forces, and strike back at Liu Bang.
At this point, major disagreements had occurred between Liu Bang and Han Xin. The primary reasons were because Liu Bang refused to give Han Xin too much control over the Han army, and his refusal to use many of Han Xin's suggestions. As a result, Han Xin withheld his forces in Qi as Liu Bang was under siege from Xiang Yu. Liu Bang was only able to hang on because of the assistance from another excellent military strategist, Zhang Liang.
Xiang Yu was one of the best warrior-commanders in Chinese history, but in most battles he rarely paid sufficient attention to resource logistics. In this battle, Zhang Liang was successful in assaulting Xiang Yu's supply lines, which Xiang Yu did not care much about, and this greatly hurt the Chu army's effectiveness. On the other hand, Zhang Liang was successful in keeping the Han supply lines open. During a conversation, Xiang Yu's archer hit Liu Bang with an arrow, which wounded his lung. However, Liu Bang was able to hide this fact from his own army and Xiang Yu, hence keeping the morale of the Han troops high.
Sensing the tension between Liu Bang and Han Xin, Xiang Yu tried to persuade Han Xin to ally with him, or at least to stay neutral in this war. Xiang Yu warned Han Xin that he would be in grave danger if Liu Bang comes out victorious. Xiang Yu even offered to openly accept Han Xin's Qi as a third nation after Chu and Han. However, due to the past history between the two Han Xin refused any diplomatic relationship with Xiang Yu.
Xiang Yu then threatened to kill Liu Bang's captured father and wife and have them cooked over a fire, to force Liu Bang to surrender. Liu Bang simply replied that since the two had been named 'brothers' (during the earlier years of the revolt against Qin Dynasty) he would be effectively cooking his own father, and that Xiang Yu should not forget to send him a cup of 'their' father's flesh to share as good brothers, but Xiang Yu still did not kill them. At one point, Xiang Yu was about to capture Liu Bang. Finally, Liu Bang agreed with everything that Han Xin requested, and Han Xin finally agreed to help. Later, with the arrival of Han Xin, Liu Bang was able to convince Xiang Yu to agree to a peace treaty. At the end, both parties agreed that the two countries of Han and Chu could co-exist peacefully. Liu Bang's father and wife were returned to Liu Bang. Then, in October 202 BC, Xiang Yu started to move his forces back east.
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