I. Evaluation of Liu Bang's Combat Power Since the Anti-Qin War, Liu Bang has basically spent the rest of his life in the war. There seems to be no statement about his combat capability. Judging from his many battles and defeats with Xiang Yu, it is estimated that future generations will not think highly of this. After Liu Bang won the world, he discussed the reasons for Liu Sheng's defeat with his ministers, and put forward the theory of "Three Heroes of Han Dynasty", which was the first to promote Han Xin's combat power. When discussing the ability to lead troops with Liu Bang, Han Xin only said that Liu Bang could only lead 100,000 soldiers, and the more he had, the better. Judging from this record, Han Xin should be reserved, that is, in his real thoughts, Liu Bang may not even be able to take 100,000 people. The reason why this figure is said is nothing more than to save Liu Bang's face. Liu bang is not convinced. He said, "The more the better. What does my bird want?" Han Xin replied, "Your Majesty can't be a general, but a good general. So I believe this is for your majesty. Besides, your majesty's so-called gift is inhuman. " History has not recorded Liu Bang's response to this, or recognized this evaluation, or he didn't want to be serious about this issue. As a result, in the eyes of future generations, Liu Bang's strength is that he can control people, but his combat capability is not worth mentioning. But that's not true. The fact is that its actual combat capability may greatly exceed the estimation of future generations. In fact, there are quite a lot of records about Liu Bang's fighting, and the frequency of his fighting and the number of targets he hit are probably only a handful in history. But in people's impression, the easiest thing to remember is that he was often beaten by Xiang Yu and fled, even regardless of his own children and army, and only wanted to escape. Indeed, compared with Liu Bang's victory, these defeated scenes are both wonderful and vivid in Sima Qian's works, and people will remember them firmly once they have seen them. But in Qin Chu, Liu Bang was defeated by Xiang Yu, and everyone else was defeated by Liu Bang. For example, in the anti-Qin War, Liu Bang killed Surabaya Shou in the battle at the beginning of the uprising, which was the highest military commander killed by Qin Jun. At least one third of the 36 counties in the Qin Dynasty must have been conquered by Liu Bangbu. Before Liu Bang joined the Xiang Liang camp, Xiang Liang had no record of defeating Qin, and only Xiang Yu had a chance to conquer Xiangcheng. With the addition of Liu Bang, Xiang Liang defeated Qin one after another. Sean sued Liu Bang's Taigong Art of War, which was well used by Liu Bang, indicating that Liu Bang had a great talent for fighting. In the last battle to destroy Qin, Liu Bang completed a series of heavy tasks with less than 10,000 troops, such as assisting Zhao, defending the capital of Chu, and conquering Qin in the west. It is unthinkable to have no extraordinary military talent. Liu bang's fighting capacity may be reflected in several battles after pacifying the world. Before his death, Liu Bang attacked Yan Zang Tea, Han Wangxin Rebellion, Chen Yi Rebellion and Qing Bu Rebellion. Every time Liu Bang is in command, it shows that in the Han camp, the ability of others (except Han Xin, who was deposed as king prematurely and was not reused) can't reassure Liu Bang. When Gao Zuji recorded the attack on Chen Yi, he said: "I know there is nothing I can do without taking Handan south and stopping Zhangshui." The consequences are as they say. Qing Bu's anti-time mentality can also explain the problem. I think: "Shang (referring to Liu Bang) is old and tired of being a soldier. I'm not afraid that the generals will suffer from Huaiyin and Peng Yue alone, and now they are all dead. " In Qing Bu's view, except for Han Xin and Peng Yue, the generals of the Korean camp all fell from the sky. Only Liu Bang's skill is worth worrying about, but he is too old to lead troops to fight in person. So Qing Bu turned it over. To be sure, in the eyes of people at that time, Liu Bang's combat capability was highly respected. But why did you leave a record of fighting Xiang Yu? The reason can only be that Xiang Yu's combat capability is higher, and Liu Hexian is not at the same level. Therefore, Liu Bang has been in the shadow of Xiang Yu for a long time, and his combat capability cannot be shown at all. There is a disproof about Han Xin's statement that Liu Bang can't be a soldier. When Chen Yi was attacked, Liu Bang rushed to Zhao before the arrival of the national army and asked if there was anyone available. Zhou Chang elected four people. After the interview, Liu Bang scolded: "Can an upright person be a general?" Four people are ashamed. On the seals of thousands of families, it will be. The left and right remonstrated, saying, "I have not done enough to attack Chu. Why do you want to seal it now? " He said, "If you don't know! Chen Yi rebelled and Chen Yi was in the north of Handan. I brought feathers to recruit soldiers, but what I didn't arrive was the only soldier in Handan today. I love four thousand households with four people, not to comfort Zhao's children! " It shows that Liu Bang can make full use of authoritative means to mobilize the enthusiasm of local soldiers when there are no soldiers available, which may also resist Chen Yi's fierce offensive. Liu bang's continuous victory under the condition that his strength is not strong enough should be related to his good morale. This single evidence makes the story of a bad general unreliable. Second, Liu Bang's tendency to kill prisoners. When summing up the success or failure of Chu Han, he will never forget to say that cruelty is an important factor that caused Xiang Yu's failure. One of the important evidences of Xiang Yu's cruelty is killing and surrender. It killed Zi Ying, the king of Qin, the imperial clan of Qin, and lost people's hearts. However, Liu Bang's killing of prisoners is rarely raised as a problem. In fact, this problem not only exists, but also is quite serious to some extent. As early as the anti-Qin War, when Liu Bang and Xiang Yu fought side by side, there was a record of * * * following the massacre. Such as killing Chengyang. Because Xiang Yu was there at that time, otherwise the crime could be charged to Xiang Yu's account. However, when Liu Bang entered Qin, Tuwuguan (the biography of Qin Shihuang) was a danger that could not be shared. As we all know, the intensity of the war at that time made the winning party often make an extremely cruel move after the bitter battle, that is, killing the city. Biography of Xiang Yu left this for later generations when the Han Dynasty wanted to slaughter the Yellow River in the fourth year.