The Battle Plan That Helped Create the Han Dynasty | Silk and Steel

**JJ** (0:01)
Welcome to another episode of the Silk and Steel Podcasts Chinese History Series. We talk about Chinese history from deepest antiquity to what we optimistically hope will be the present day thereabouts. As we are experiencing our own sort of, you know, fall, rise and fall of hegemonic powers, we can always look back in history to this period in China, where not the first hegemon has fallen, but the first, you know, relatively centralized empire has fallen.
And a whole slew of nobles from the former contending states have come out of the woodwork to state claims to various territories. And now there has been a kind of fragile equilibria that has been established, but we emphasize this is fragile. And we will talk about how it's, you know, it's not going to last. I am the perpetual guest, JJ. And welcoming us back is Carl, trapped in his hotel during a typhoon in Shanghai, I think.

**Carl Zha** (1:04)
Hi, JJ. How are you? Yes, right now I'm experiencing the typhoon White Dolphin in Shanghai. This is my second day spending inside my hotel room. So I'm very glad to do an episode on the Chinese history.
We are back in 2006 BC in the Chinese history. This is in the aftermath of the collapse of the Qin Dynasty and the winner, the winner that emerged, the young commander, Xiang Yu. He has became the de facto, a de facto ruler of the rebels by granting out thieves and handing out favors and land and titles to all the generals that follow him. Essentially, he did a coup against all the rulers of the six states who sent them to overthrow the Qin Dynasty.
But Xiang Yu's arrangement left a lot of disgruntled people, the people who felt they had been wronged by his infeefement unfairly. The one in particular is Liu Bang, because Liu Bang, technically, he overthrew the Qin Dynasty. He was the first to break into the Qin heartland. He accepted the surrender from the last Qin king, and according to the promise of King Huai of Chu, whoever overthrew the Qin Dynasty first get to be the king of Qin. Yet, you know, Liu Bang, Xiang Yu decided to chip in, you know, because Xiang Yu promised the former land of Qin to the surrendered Qin general, Zhang Han, and his subordinates. Instead, he gave Liu Bang Sichuan Basin, which at that time is considered a sort of exile because Sichuan Basin is really isolated, geographically, culturally. And, you know, Fan Zhen, you know, the advisor to Xiang Yu rubbed it in by saying, well, you know, Sichuan was also part of the old Qin land. So technically, we're honoring the promise of King Huaiyaozhu. And Liu Bang's advisor and friend, Zhang Liang, because he was good friends with Xiang Yu's uncle, Xiang Bo, he, you know, bribed Xiang Bo so to allow Liu Bang to give the additional land of Han Zhong, which is just north of the Sichuan Basin, but south of the Qinling Mountains. That way, you know, Liu Bang's domain will be immediately bordering the former Qin land, only separated by this Qinling Mountains.

**JJ** (4:01)
And so he has access to the southern end of the passes that will cross those Qinling Mountains. It's not as if he's as if one of these newly-in-fifth Qin kings holds those passes like on the southern side as well, right? He's already got the entrance in a way.

**Carl Zha** (4:21)
Well, Zhang Liang actually advised Liu Bang, he said, look, do not arouse suspicion of Xiang Yu and to also to protect your rear. I suggest you, when you go through the mountain passes of Qinling, burn up the trail behind. The massive Qinling Mountain that divides the former Qinland with basically Sichuan and the surrounding region, is actually the mark, the dividing line between official geographic dividing line between North and South China. Because all the monsoon winds, moisture cannot push beyond the Qinling Mountains. And so Northern China stays dry, while the Southern part, South-South Qinling Mountain is wet and rice planting region.
And to get through the Qinling Mountains, there were some mountain road that was carved, either during or maybe even before the Qin invasion of the Sichuan. And these roads are basically building on cliffs. The construction is that you punch a hole in the rock surface of the cliff, and then you stuck like a three meter long wooden plank into those holes. And then on top of these wooden planks, then you lay down more wood to make a road. And the road is only usually wide enough for one horse to pass through. And after a certain distance, there will be a spot where it's wide enough for two horses, so you can have like the caravan coming from two direction can make their transition over there. But it takes a lot of time, energy, a lot of labor to build such a trail. But Zhang Liang's advice is when you pass into Sichuan, when you go head south, pull up the wooden plank behind you. So that way you don't need to be worried about being attacked. And also you give Xiang Yu, the complacency that you don't plan to ever coming out of Sichuan Basin again, you know.