it kind of sucks that the wikipedia writers for the chu han contention were NOT coordinating very well with each other, so i had to go on THREE separate wikis about the battle of julu, the hongmen banquet, AND han gaozu's main wiki.
anyways, i was thinking to myself, "damn it seems kinda ill-advised for zhang liang to let liu bang take the qin captial, knowing damn well how mad it would make xiang yu. c'mon man, you're supposed to be this genius strategist, you were THIS close to getting your employer Hongmen Banquet'd and making the wikipedia entry to the chu han contention 1 paragraph long."
ok upon futher reading, i may have been unfair to zhang liang.
xiang yu's uncle had just been killed, and the bulk of the chu army had suddenly transfered out of the xiang's hands and into king huai II (not a real king btw, he was a puppet the xiangs installed to give their rebellion an air of legitamacy). also, as you recall, uncle xiang was like 80% of the brains AND impulse-control of that operation. xiang yu at this point was just an emotionally unstable, 23 yo, loose canon, with one or two big wins under his belt, right alongside all of the other self-serving rebel factions.
xiang yu was only second in command of his forces, whereas liu bang was a full commander. the men they were assigned with were roughly 70,000 v ~100,000. so liu bang might have even outnumbered him, making it a much more favourable match-up.
xiang yu was told to go and AID the zhao forces, and maybe wear down the qin army with a little seige warfare, like a NORMAL HUMAN. y'know, because of the qin had a superior army that outnumbered them 70,000 v 200,000.
zhang liang and liu bang were probably thinking "lmao once we have guanzhong we will have a tactical advantage, and xiang yu would have been weakened after fighting a long and drawn out battle. who cares if he's a bit salty, we'll handle him" <- apparently this was such a cakewalk they barely did any fighting. just chilled at the palace for a whole month, while xiang yu was going through All That.
no one fucking expected xiang yu to a) kill his commander b) take control of the army c) attack the qin forces directly at julu d) survive the suicidal attack with minimal losses e) destroy the bulk of the qin army and basically single-handedly end the war f) most of the rebel fractions flock to him and swear alligance, so by the time he hears that SOMEONE has stolen guanzhong, his ranks have swelled to 400,000 people, and now he's on a warpath. (no he didn't force the qin army to join him. he actually buried all the survivors alive. which is what he'd like to do to you.)
you're liu bang (chilling in e'pang palace) and you get the news that xiang yu has just gone blazing through your garrison at hangu pass (it didn't slow him down one bit. it just pissed him off more.) and now he and his 400,000 men are 10kms away. ETA: start your funeral rites now and save him the trouble. literally, what would you do?
i wish i was in the room when they got the news, i can just imagine the messenger delivering all the info in chronological order, and you can just see the blood draining from liu bang's face with every word.
i think the craziest part of all this is that liu bang DID manage to fucking talk xiang yu out of killing him. well, it didn't convince xiang bo or fan kuai, but xiang yu heard whatever bullshit excuse he had, and was like "ok! yay!" critical thinking skills of a meatball.
