pappabearbooks Chapter 22 Liu Bang's Methods
Chapter 22 Liu Bang's Methods
Liu Bang beat Bing severely until Bing begged for mercy, and only then did Liu Bang let him go.
Lu Ze, Xiahou Ying, and the others looked like they hadn't had enough and were hoping Liu Bang would beat them again.
Liu Ying despised them in her heart; the gang leader's men were all gangsters.
The retreat was agreed upon, and Lü Ze oversaw the arrangements, sending people to inform the people. The total population of Dang Commandery was not large, only about 90,000, and they were all willing to retreat with Liu Bang.
The evacuation of so many people was a massive undertaking, requiring numerous preparations. Under Lü Ze's leadership, the process proceeded smoothly and in an orderly manner.
There's only one thing that's not going well...
"Is there any news about Chen Ping?" Liu Bang asked Lü Ze, who was handling official business, as he entered the room.
"No." Lü Ze replied without looking up.
"How many men did you send to search? Send more!" Liu Bang said, unwilling to give up.
"I've already sent over two hundred men, and you still think it's not enough?" Lü Ze finally raised his head, clearly dissatisfied. "Don't you even consider that after the defeat at Pengcheng, the generals were scattered and fleeing for their lives, all being hunted down by Xiang Yu? Do you think finding Chen Ping is that easy?"
"Good!" Liu Bang thought for a moment, his brows furrowed. "We can't delay any longer in forcing Ying Bu to rebel. We need to find someone else to do it."
"Who do you think you can use?" Lu Ze asked.
"This..." Liu Bang couldn't think of a suitable candidate at the moment.
Liu Ying tilted her head up: "What can I do?"
"Sui He?" Liu Bang scoffed. "This man claims to be skilled in diplomacy and strategy, but he's incapable of handling important matters. Can he really succeed in entrusting such a crucial task to him?"
"Good," Lü Ze agreed.
"Do you have a better candidate?" Liu Ying asked again.
"This..." Liu Bang was speechless.
"Time waits for no one," Liu Ying cautioned. "Ying Bu's rebellion is a matter of the overall situation, a matter of life and death. If we miss this opportunity, even if we find Chen Ping, it will be too late to turn the tide."
"Excellent!" Lü Ze agreed, "Then let's send Sui He there."
"Sui He has some talent, but he hasn't accomplished anything great yet, and I'm afraid he's incapable of doing it." Liu Bang's eyes darted around as he said, "We need to use some methods to motivate him."
"How can we motivate him?" Liu Ying asked curiously, noticing Liu Bang's eyes darting around. He was certain Liu Bang had ulterior motives.
"Stop with your crooked schemes," Lü Ze said in a deep voice, knowing Liu Bang was bound to have no good ideas.
"Whether it's righteous or crooked, as long as it works, that's fine." Liu Bang didn't care at all: "Send the order down, I'll invite them to a banquet."
The banquet was laid out, extremely lavish, with the aroma of wine and meat filling the air.
When He and his advisors entered, they were all overjoyed to see such a lavish banquet.
Even Bing, who had been thoroughly beaten by Liu Bang, was overjoyed. It was rare for Liu Bang, the King of Han, to invite them to a banquet.
Liu Bang was very hospitable, personally standing at the door to invite everyone in and ask them to sit down. He then went to the front and sat in his own seat, allowing Liu Ying to sit to his right and Liu Le to sit to his left.
Lü Ze sat at the head of the table on the right, and Xiahou Ying sat at the head of the table on the left.
The wine was poured, and Liu Bang raised his cup, gesturing towards Sui He and the others: "Come on, bottoms up!"
"Let's do it!" Sui He and the others responded enthusiastically.
Liu Bang was a man who loved wine and was fond of drinking. Drinking contests were his forte, and under his guidance, the atmosphere was excellent. The wine was drunk in abundance, and the atmosphere was lively.
Liu Ying could only watch them drink, unable to drink herself, otherwise she would be lectured by Lü Ze, which was quite a pity.
The atmosphere was right. Liu Bang put down his wine cup, looked at Sui He and the others, and asked, "That Xiang Yu is about to march west and launch a major attack on us. Do any of you have a brilliant plan to prevent him from advancing westward?"
"This..." Bing frowned, at a loss for what to do.
The same applies to Suihe.
Everyone knows that after Xiang Yu's great victory over Liu Bang's 560,000-strong army at Pengcheng, he would inevitably recall his main force in Qi and launch a major westward advance, taking advantage of Liu Bang's weakest moment to attack Guanzhong and wipe him out in one fell swoop.
At present, Liu Bang has neither soldiers nor generals, and is unable to resist Xiang Yu. His destruction is inevitable.
It was impossible to prevent Xiang Yu from advancing westward.
"I have devised a brilliant plan that will prevent Xiang Yu from advancing westward immediately." Liu Bang, shameless as ever, stole Liu Ying's credit.
"May I ask the King of Han: What is your plan?" Bing asked.
"By letting Ying Bu rebel against Xiang Yu, we can prevent Xiang Yu from advancing westward," Liu Bang said, making a startling statement.
"Heh." Bing's lips curled up in a mocking smile. "King Han, what a brilliant plan! Utterly outlandish. Before the defeat at Pengcheng, all it took was one envoy, and Ying Bu would surely have rebelled against King Xiang. After the battle of Pengcheng, anyone with eyesight wouldn't betray King Xiang and join King Han. King Han, were you entangled with your concubine for too long last night and still haven't fully woken up?"
Having been beaten up by Liu Bang, Bing finally found an opportunity to mock him, and he showed no mercy.
"Excellent!"
"Ha ha!"
The staff burst into loud laughter.
At this time, Liu Bang was just a makeshift leader; he was extremely rude to his subordinates, and they were equally rude to him. If he was drunk, they would even "call out recklessly," that is, call Liu Bang by his name directly, saying things like, "You son of a bitch, come here to me."
"You brat, how dare you mock me!" Liu Bang rolled his eyes and coldly replied, "If Ying Bu doesn't rebel, why not force him to? What's wrong with that?"
"Force Ying Bu to rebel?" Bing was somewhat surprised, paused for a moment, and shook his head: "King Han, that's truly a brilliant plan. Everyone knows that Ying Bu is a great general under Xiang Yu, whose achievements surpass all others, a hero renowned throughout the land. Who could force him to rebel?"
"Great job!" the staff cheered.
"You brat, do you understand Ying Bu better than I do?" Liu Bang glared at Bing and rebuked, "Tian Rong rebelled in Qi, and that scoundrel Xiang ordered Ying Bu to go with him. Ying Bu pretended to be sick and refused to go, only sending a few thousand men to deal with him. This has long displeased Xiang. If we use this matter well, we can definitely make Ying Bu rebel."
"King of Han, you should stop thinking about useless things." Bingcai didn't believe it: "Even if King Xiang is dissatisfied with Ying Bu, he won't do anything to Ying Bu. After all, Ying Bu is the most capable general under King Xiang. Forcing him to rebel would be harmful to King Xiang in every way. Although King Xiang values strength, he wouldn't do such a stupid thing."
"Excellent!" the staff echoed.
"Before Xiang Yu marches west, he will definitely send someone to recruit soldiers from Ying Bu. Knowing Ying Bu as I do, he will definitely drag his feet and refuse to give them to him, which will give me an opportunity," Liu Bang said mysteriously.
"What opportunity?" Bing asked, puzzled.
The staff members were equally puzzled.
"We only need to kill the Chu envoy in Ying Bu's fiefdom, and Ying Bu will have no choice but to rebel," Liu Bang said smugly. "What do you think of my plan? Isn't it brilliant?"
"Not so good," Bing retorted. "When the Chu envoy went to Ying Bu's fiefdom, how could he not have elite guards? Killing him would be extremely difficult."
"Excellent!" All the staff members agreed.
The Chu envoy would certainly have guards protecting him, not to mention that he was on Yingmian's territory, so killing the Chu envoy would be no easy task.
"Sui He, do you have a way to accomplish this?" Liu Bang asked, looking at Sui He.
"Difficult! Difficult! Difficult!" Sui He shook his head.
Liu Bang flew into a rage, abruptly standing up. Pointing at He Bing and his advisors with his right hand, he roared, "A bunch of pedantic scholars! All you know how to do is read books and can't get things done! What use are you?"
He Bing and the others were taken aback.
Liu Bang was like a dog, quick to turn on people. He had just been treating them with great courtesy, but now he was cursing them. The change was too fast.
"Such cowards! I've prepared such a lavish feast for you, why not feed it to the dogs!" Liu Bang spat as he berated his advisors.
"Liu Bang, you've gone too far!" Bing, unable to bear it any longer, pointed at Liu Bang with his right hand and cursed, "How dare you compare us to dogs!"
"You're not even as good as dogs!" Liu Bang showed no sign of backing down, waving his right hand: "Bring them in."
The man led several strong dogs, each with a large frame, which were of superior quality.
Several dogs came in, attracted by the aroma of meat, and barked incessantly.
"I don't believe it, you really dare to feed dogs?" Bing was skeptical.
Old Liu the rogue was the king of evil; there was nothing he wouldn't dare to do. With a wave of his right hand, he shouted, "Feed the dogs!"
Tian picked up a pot of meat from in front of Bing and placed it under the mouth of a dog. The dog devoured it, its tail wagging incessantly, thoroughly enjoying itself.
"You...you..." Such an insult was appalling. Bing pointed his right finger at Liu Bang, his eyes wide with fury.
The other soldiers, like Tian, picked up the meat in front of their staff and fed it to the dogs.
As the dogs ate with gusto, they barked loudly, creating a lively cacophony of barks.
"King of Han, you have insulted us so blatantly! If we don't earn your respect, wouldn't we be worse than dogs?" Sui He roared in fury, grabbing a wine cup with his right hand and slamming it to the ground. "So what if it's a trip to Jiujiang Prefecture? Sui He will accept!"