Liu Bang
Polite Name: Liu Ji
Emperor Han Gaozu
Died June 1st, 195 B.C.

Liu Bang was born in the city of Feng in the district of Pei. When he reached the appropriate age, he took the civil service examination and was made the headman of Si River Village. Liu Bang was rude towards the region's other officials, and often lost himself in wine and women, drinking heavily and on credit at the local wine shops. When a nobleman, Master Lu, was being hosted at the Magistrate of Pei's home, the officials of the region were invited to a banquet honoring him, but a gift of 1,000 in cash was required of the guests. Liu Bang showed up and sent in a card saying he had arrived with 10,000 in cash, while in truth he had none. Surprised at the amount, Master Lu himself greeted him at the door. Impressed by Liu Bang, the matter of the cash was never brought up, and Master Lu decided to give his daughter, who was highly sought after, to Liu Bang in marriage.

As head of the village, Liu Bang was ordered to lead a group of conscripted laborers from Pei to the great mausoleum being constructed on Mount Li. On the way so many of the laborers escaped and ran away that Liu Bang began to worry for his own life should he not show up at Mount Li with enough men. When his party had reached Feng, Liu Bang stopped for the night and began to drink heavily. That night, he freed the rest of the laborers, an act that guaranteed him punishment by the Qin Government. Ten of the men with him then joined him as followers, and Liu Bang had the makings of his first army.

Using his connections with the nobility of Pei, Liu Bang had diviners and wise women declare that signs and portents were found wherever he was, indicating that he was a great man. These stories, along with the harshness of the Qin laws, attracted close to another one hundred followers to Liu Bang's band. When the revolt against Qin spread into Chu and Chen She, its leader, set himself up as King of Chu in the city of Chen, the magistrate of Pei wished to declare himself part of the rebellion. At the advice of his two chief officials, Cao Can and Xiao He, he sent a messenger to Liu Bang to ask him to bring his men to Pei to help him revolt against the Qin. After the messenger had left, the magistrate changed his mind and closed the city gates against Liu Bang and his men when they arrived. Cao Can and Xiao He, narrowly escaping execution by the magistrate, climbed over the walls and joined Liu Bangs force. Bang invested the city and threatened it with a massacre if they did not capitulate, spurring the men of the city to kill the magistrate and let Liu Bang and his men take the city unopposed. Still in fear for their lives, and prompted by Liu Bang's men, the people offered to make Liu Bang Governor of Pei, but he made a great show of declining the honor several times before accepting the position.

Despite his harsh beginning, he proved to be much more popular than the local Qin rulers. The people of the region rose up to support Liu Bang in his revolt against Qin, and he gathered an army that enabled his seizure of the nearby cities of Huling and Fangyu, afterwards returning to Pei with an army of several thousand men. The Qin overseer of the province of Si River marched to attack Liu Bang's rebel army, and surrounded Liu Bang at the city of Feng for two days. After re-organizing his army, Liu Bang sallied forth from the city and defeated him. Knowing the defeat of the overseer would leave the Si Province weakened, he left Yong Chi to guard Feng and Liu Bang led his troops to the Si capital Xue, where he defeated the army of the Magistrate of Si River. The magistrate attempted to flee to Qi, but Liu Bang intercepted him and had him executed. Receiving word that Zhou Shi of the kingdom of Wei was marching to seize his city of Fangyu, Liu Bang returned and put his army into camp outside the city walls. Instead of fighting Liu Bang, Zhou Shi offered Yong Chi a marquisate to switch sides and bring the city of Feng over to Wei. Yong Chi agreed, and Liu Bang abandoned Fangyu, marching to attack the rebellious city of Feng. Yong Chi repulsed his assault, however, and Liu Bang fell ill and was forced to retreat with his army.

Bitter over Yong Chi's betrayal and the loss of his base Feng and the city of Fangyu, he decided to join with a new power that had risen in the city of Liu. The King of Chu Chen She had recently been defeated by the Qin Imperial Army, but his General Qin Jia had set up a new King of Chu in Liu. Liu Bang took service under Qin Jia, requesting in return soldiers to attack the city of Feng. Qin Jia refused the request for soldiers, and instead dispatched Liu Bang with Lord Ning of Dongyang to stop the advance of the Qin General Sima Yi. Sima Yi was massacring the inhabitants of Chu in the region, but when his forces met Liu Bang's, Bang suffered a defeat and Sima Yi went on to take the city of Dang. Liu Bang and Lord Ning returned to Liu and gathered reinforcements before seeking to take on Sima Yi once more. The two launched a successful assault on Dang, taking it in three days and breaking Sima Yi's army. The two generals then moved on and destroyed the Qin garrison at Xiayi before receiving word that Qin Jia's army had been defeated and Qin Jia captured by General Xiang Liang, a scion of the powerful Xiang family of Chu. Xiang Liang had Qin Jia executed for setting up a false king in Chu, and absorbed most of Qin Jia's armies and officers into his own force. Hoping for a chance to strike at Yong Chi and retake Feng, Liu Bang parted ways with Lord Ning and went to Xue to offer his service to Xiang Liang in return for military aid. Xiang Liang gave Liu Bang five thousand soldiers and ten generals, and Liu Bang left with his new force, surrounding and retaking the city of Feng, although he was unable to capture Yong Chi who had fled to Wei.

A few months after Liu Bang had taken Feng, he was summoned by Xiang Liang to witness the crowning of the new King of Chu. Xiang Liang gave Liu Bang a commission as second in command of the Army sent to attack the region of Chengyang in Qi, for Xiang Liang and the King of Qi had become enemies. Under the command of Xiang Liang's nephew, Xiang Yu, Liu Bang looted and burned, massacred the populace, and then marched north through Qi, encamping east of Puyang, where Xiang Yu and Liu Bang defeated a Qin army sent against them. They pursued the remnants of the Qin army into Puyang, but the defenders diverted a river to encircle the city with water, and Xiang Yu was unable to take the city. Instead, he turned his attention to the city of Dingtao, and he and Liu Bang laid siege to it, attempting to seize the large amount of Qin supplies stored there. The fortified city was too well defended, however, and again Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were forced to move on, this time to the city of Yongqiu. At Yongqiu, they engaged a large Qin army led by the famous Qin General Li You, whom they killed on the battlefield while routing his army. Seizing Yongqiu, they looted and burned the city, and then moved on to the city of Waihuang. The defenders there, however, put up a strong defense, and the two generals deemed it not worth the cost to take. Orders arrived from Xiang Liang, requiring them to return and encircle Dingtao and await his arrival at that city.

Xiang Yu complied and he and Liu Bang welcomed Xiang Liang's arrival outside the walls of Dingtao. Under Xiang Liang's direction, the combined army attacked the city of Dingtao, and after a bloody fight, destroyed the strong Qin garrison there. But the destruction of a city previously deemed impregnable spurred the Qin to reinforce their one victorious general in the field: The Supreme Commander, Zhang Han. With a large host, he marched east from where he had been fattening his army on the cities of Wei and launched a surprise attack against the forces of Chu under Xiang Liang. Xiang's army was destroyed, and Liang himself was killed on the field. Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, who had been dispatched north with a small army before Zhang Han's sudden attack, rallied the survivors and tried to take the city of Chen Liu for a new base. Worried at the proximity of Zhang Han, their siege operations failed, and they retreated south, back to Chu.

With Xiang Liang dead, the King of Chu moved his capital further from the Imperial Qin army. He promoted Liu Bang to Governor of Dang Province, making him the Marquis of Wuan. While he dispatched the main body of his army under Generals Song Yi and Xiang Yu to attack Zhang Han's army in Zhao, he ordered Liu Bang to take the army holding Dang and march west to seize the fertile lands around Yangcheng from the Qin. Afterwards, he was to pass through the mountainous Wu Pass and attack the Qin homeland. The King of Chu further promised that the first general to conquer the Qin homeland, known as the "Area within the Pass", would become King of Qin. When Xiang Yu heard of this promise, he angrily demanded that he replace Liu Bang as Commander of the southern expedition, wishing to be made King of Qin himself, but the King of Chu's advisors convinced him that Xiang Yu was too brutal and impetuous to be able to conquer and hold the region. They convinced him that only Liu Bang showed sufficient restraint and tact to undertake such a task. Xiang Yu was ordered back to the army going to Zhao, and Liu Bang was given an army to attack Qin.

To blood his army, Liu Bang reduced two Qin garrisons left behind by Zhang Han in eastern Chu, and joining with several Wei generals, he seized the troops under the command of the Marquis of Gangwu. With a now veteran force under his banner, he attempted to reduce the Qin stronghold of Changyi, but failed three times to do so. Low on supplies, he withdrew to consider his options, and was visited by a Confucian scholar named Li Yiji, who knew a way to take the nearby city of Chenliu and its large stores of Qin grain. When he was shown in Liu Bang was sprawled on his couch and letting two servant girls wash his feet. Li Yiji berated him for his slovenly conduct, and Liu Bang rose and treated him with respect, impressing Li Yiji and convincing him to share his plan to seize Chen Liu. Using the information, Liu Bang was able to capture the Qin stores, and he rewarded the scholar, who had been serving up until know as a village gatekeeper, with a lordship and his brother Li Shang with the rank of General.

With these two men in his service, and his army well fed on the stores of Chen Liu, Liu Bang bypassed Changyi and met and engaged twice with a Qin army, severely defeating it. Heading south, he attacked the city of Yingyang, slaughtering the Qin defenders of the city. A nobleman of the Kingdom of Hann, Zhang Liang, joined his army and his knowledge of the region and its politics enabled Liu Bang to swiftly conquer the lands of the Kingdom of Hann south of the Yellow River, bringing several dozen cities under the sway of the Chu King.

While he was conquering Hann, Liu Bang received word that a Zhao General, Sima Ang, had formed an army and was planning to cross the Yellow River and enter the Area within the Pass. Not about to let someone else claim the Kingship by conquering Qin ahead of him, Liu Bang moved swiftly to the north and destroyed the fords at Pingyin to keep him from being able to. But his movement left his supply lines overextended, and when he engaged the Qin army east of Luoyang, he was forced to retreat south towards the city of Yangcheng. Calling in all his cavalry, he lured the Qin governor of Nanyang out into the nearby open fields and shattered his army with his horsemen.

Still worried that Sima Ang or some other general would manage to come south and get through the pass before him, Liu Bang prepared his army to march for the pass, but Zhang Liang convinced him to hold back. The governor of Nanyang had retreated to the rich city of Yuan, and Zhang Liang was worried that he would attack Liu Bang from behind if he attempted to march into Wu Pass without first reducing the city. Convinced of the wisdom of the advice, Liu Bang moved his forces south to invest Yuan. The besieged governor of Nanyang dispatched an envoy who described the region around Yuan, and the trouble Liu Bang would have supplying his army in the region if he did not have the support of the local people. He proposed that Liu Bang offer the Governor of Yi a marquisate, and allow him to surrender the lands to him, freeing him up from having to conquer it. When Zhang Liang concurred with the envoy's proposal, Liu Bang made both the Governor and the envoy marquis, and the city surrendered to him. With the governor supporting him, soon all the lesser cities in the region also capitulated to Liu Bang, and the Marquis of Gaowu and Xiang came to meet him at the Dan River, surrendering the region of Xiling to him as well. To make sure his conquest stayed secure, he took his greatly enhanced army south and attacked the city of Huyang, breaking the last Qin garrison in the region with little difficulty, working with a general of the Lord of Po to seize the territory directly north of the Yangtze River as well.

Consolidating his holdings, Liu Bang dispatched an envoy to the Qin Court to work out a peaceful surrender and began an advance on Wu Pass. But before the envoy could return, word arrived from Zhao that Zhang Han had surrendered his army to Xiang Yu, and that Xiang had been made Supreme Commander of all the Allied nations. Liu Bang was worried that Xiang Yu would enter Qin before him and steal his prize, so despite an offer from Zhao Gao, the Chancellor of Qin, to split the Qin homeland in two and allow Liu Bang to become a King there, he attacked and captured Wu Pass. Zhang Liang had Liu Bang send his two quick-tongued aides, Li Yiji and Lu Jia ahead of him to tempt the Qin Generals within the pass with spoils, riches and ranks. When he won a great victory south of the city of Lantian against the Qin forces, the Qin generals began to come over to him. During his march on the Qin Capital, he kept his men from plundering the land and seizing prisoners, and by the time he took Lantian, the people of the land were looking forward to his arrival, greeting him with gifts and celebration. Marching towards Bashang, he defeated two more Qin armies whose soldiers fought half-heartedly against Liu Bang and his merciful reputation, and when news spread of the second victory, the remaining Qin armies scattered. In November, 207 BC, Liu Bang reached Bashang ahead of the other allied generals, and Ziying, the King of Qin(he declined calling himself emperor) rode out to greet him in a plain carriage drawn by white horses and wearing a noose around his neck. Liu Bang met him graciously, and Ziying surrendered the imperial seals and credentials to him. Though some of his generals urged an immediate execution of Ying Ziying, Liu Bang continued the policy of leniency that the King of Chu had instructed him to observe, and turned the King of Qin over to his officials to be treated with honor.

Marching west, Liu Bang entered the Qin Capital City of Xianyang. He wanted to take up residence in the imperial palaces, but Fan Kuai and Zhang Liang convinced him that it would look like he was planning to set himself up as emperor, and instead he ordered the treasure houses and palaces of Qin sealed and returned to his military camp at Bashang, dispatching Xiao He to secure the Imperial Archives and Documents. From Bashang, he summoned the important men and officers of the region and delivered a speech:

"Gentlemen, for a long time you have suffered beneath the harsh laws of Qin. Those who criticized the government were wiped out along with their families; those who gathered to talk in private were executed in the public market. I and the other nobles have made an agreement that he who first enters the Pass shall rule over the area within. Accordingly I am now king of this territory within the Pass. I hereby promise you a code of laws consisting of three articles only: He who kills anyone shall suffer death; he who wounds another or steals shall be punished according to the gravity of the offence, for the rest I hereby abolish all the laws of Qin. Let the officials and people remain undisturbed as before. I have come only to save you from further harm, not to exploit or tyrannize over you. Therefore do not be afraid! The reason I have returned to Bashang is simply to wait for the other leaders so that when they arrive we may settle the agreement."

He sent men with the officials back to their districts, towns, and villages, and had them publish his speech. The populace was overjoyed, and sent gifts of food and wine to Liu Bang's armies, but the Governor had the gifts returned, saying there was plenty of grain in the Qin Government granaries, and that his men would not be a burden on the people. This made the people even more pleased with their potential new ruler, and Liu Bang settled into Bashang with the people firmly behind him. Liu Bang's sense of security was short-lived, however. Given advice that Xiang Yu would most likely attempt to take the Kingdom of Qin and the rest of the Lands within the Pass away from him, he sent an army into Hanggu Pass, blocking Xiang Yu from an easy entrance to the Qin Lands. He then began preparing his soldiers to reinforce the Pass himself should it become necessary.

Xiang Yu, meanwhile, had indeed led the combined armies towards Hanggu Pass, and when he found it blocked by Liu Bang's soldiers, he became enraged. Further fuel was added to the fire when one of Liu Bang's marshals sent a messenger to Xiang Yu informing him that Liu Bang intended to name himself King of Qin, employ Ying Ziying as his Prime Minister, and to keep all the treasures and palaces of Qin to himself. Xiang Yu's second-in-command advised Xiang Yu to attack without delay, since his army numbered four hundred thousand soldiers to Liu Bang's one hundred thousand, and Xiang Yu took the advice to heart, sending his skilled general Qing Bu ahead to force Liu Bang from the Pass. Zhang Liang, however, received intelligence from an old friend in Xiang Yu's army, and was able to convince Liu Bang that it was suicide to oppose so great a force. Zhang Liang then used his contact in Xiang Yu's army to convince Xiang Yu that Liu Bang had not intended to oppose him. Once he was sure Xiang Yu would not kill him on sight, Liu Bang went to Xiang Yu's camp with a small escort and affirmed his loyalty to Chu and Xiang Yu as the Supreme Commander. Although several of Xiang Yu's officers had a plot to kill Liu Bang, he managed to escape the encampment, and Xiang Yu himself accepted his good intentions, abandoning his plans to attack Liu Bang's army after Liu Bang's men were withdrawn from Hanggu Pass.

When Xiang Yu's army crossed through the Hanggu Pass, Liu Bang left the majority of his army at Bashang, and joined Xiang Yu's column in its approach to Xianyang, the Qin Capital. Xiang Yu turned his army loose on the city, massacred the inhabitants, and looted and burned all the Qin palaces. Once the city was destroyed, he allowed his men to loot the countryside and surrounding towns and cities, and the people of Qin were too terrified to fight back against their oppressor. Once he had completed his orgy of destruction, he turned to carving up the Empire into kingdoms for himself and his generals. Despite a message from King Huai of Chu that ordered Xiang Yu to make Liu Bang King of Qin in accordance with the earlier agreement, Xiang Yu refused to acknowledge Liu Bang as King of Qin. While generals that had marched with Xiang Yu garnered great recognition and were made Kings over wealthy districts, Xiang Yu made Liu Bang King of Han and gave him the mountainous far western provinces of Han, Shu and Ba. The lands of Qin were divided up between the former Qin Supreme Commander Zhang Han, the former Qin general Sima Xin, and the former Qin official Dong Xi, all three of whom had surrendered to Xiang Yu in Zhao.

Allowed by Xiang Yu to take an army of thirty thousand soldiers with him to take control of his lands, he marched south and west out of Qin, burning the wooden roads behind him to demonstrate he had no intention of marching back and attacking Qin, something that Xiang Yu had been worried about. By the time he had reached his new capital in the city of Nanzheng, a large number of his officers and soldiers, who had all come from cities in the east, had deserted and headed home. Alarmed by the loss of his men, he set about raising a new army in Han, preparing to march east, and biding his time until Xiang Yu had left the former Qin lands. Within eight months, Xiang Yu had gone east again, and Liu Bang's army marched back to Qin, taking the rough, mountainous Old Road. The former Qin general Zhang Han, who had been made King of Yong, the far western part of Qin, brought his own army south and the two armies met at Chencang. Liu Bang's army proved victorious and despite a second stand by Zhang Han, Liu Bang soon had bottled Zhang Han and his men up in his capital of Feiqiu. Encamping an army outside of the walls of Feiqiu, Liu Bang detached several forces from his host, and sent them out to gain control of the western provinces of Qin. The people of Qin, remembering his earlier kindness, assisted his forces in every way they could, and Liu Bang had little difficulty bringing the whole region under his control. Liu Bang then detailed another pair of generals to head south through the Wu Pass, join their army to that of his allies in Nanyang, who were still loyal to him, and march east to Pei to rescue his family from any reprisals Xiang Yu might plan against them.

Xiang Yu had received word of Liu Bang's march, however, and he named Zheng Chang King of Hann and sent him to block Liu Bang and his armies from being able to come through the passes. Liu Bang left a besieging force at Feiqiu, and marched east, forcing the surrender of the two other Kings that Xiang Yu had set up in the Qin territory, and soon he had control of all of the former Kingdom of Qin. When Liu Bang moved his armies towards the Hanggu Pass, Zheng Chang opposed him, and Liu Bang sent his General Han Xin to crush him. Han did so with little trouble, clearing Zheng's men from the passes, and reconquering the Kingdom of Hann in Liu Bang's name. Liu Bang set about reorganizing his newly conquered territory, handing out marquisates and the rank of King of Hann to his Grand Commandant Hann Xin(not the conquering general Han Xin). Using the mass of documents from the Imperial Archive that Xiao He had saved from the burning of Xianyang, he was able to set the region quickly to rights, and declared an amnesty, endearing himself further to the people of the land. His reputation grew so much that Zhang Er, the fugitive former Prime Minister of Zhao fled to him, and was greeted with great kindness and honors. When he moved east with his army, the king of Wei, Wei Bao, joined Liu Bang's advance, and the two conquered the Kingdom of Henei, crossed the Yellow River and seized the city of Luoyang.

At Luoyang, Liu Bang received word that Xiang Yu had banished and killed the King of Chu, setting himself up as the new "Dictator King of Western Chu". Liu Bang made a great show of mourning, and wearing the white mourning garments, issued a proclamation calling all lords to aid him in attacking the "murderous Xiang Yu". Xiang Yu, who had been engaged in brutally putting down a widespread rebellion in the Kingdom of Qi, hoped to finish his conquest, and did not move west to counter Liu Bang's invasions. In his absence, Liu Bang was able to intimidate the noblemen holding the lands around Xiang Yu's capital of Pengchang, and seized their troops as his own. With a huge army, he entered Pengchang, and took Xiang Yu's capital.

Unable to ignore Liu Bang any longer, Xiang Yu led a picked force of his best men from Qi, leaving the rest of his army behind to continue to occupy the territory, and engaged Liu Bang. In a great battle to the east of Pengchang at the fords of the Sui River, Xiang Yu inflicted a severe defeat on Liu Bang's army. So many of Liu Bang's soldiers and officers died in the battle, that the great Sui River was dammed by the mass of corpses. Xiang Yu's army pressed on into Pengchang, and there captured Liu Bang's parents, wife and children, taking them as hostages. The crushing defeat had a severe effect on the morale of Liu Bang's allies, and several of the Kings that had supported him fled to the side of Chu or returned home. With his army disintegrating around him, Liu Bang fled west and met the army of his brother-in-law Lu Ze, and the two managed to rally a small remnant of Liu Bang's once mighty Han Army. At Xiang Yu's approach, they fled again, this time west through Liang. Desperate to slow Xiang Yu's advance, Liu Bang sent an emissary to Qing Bu, the King of Jiujiang, and convinced him to revolt against Xiang Yu. The King of Chu was forced to send a portion of his army to put down the revolt, and Liu Bang was able to gained a little breathing room. Taking advantage of the respite, he set up the one son of his who had escaped the capture of Pengcheng as his heir. Needing soldiers, he traveled back to Yong, where Zhang Han still held out against one of his armies. Liu Bang directed the construction of canals and dams, and redirected several rivers into Feiqiu, eventually overwhelming the defenses and flooding the city. Zhang Han committed suicide as the city walls breached, and Liu Bang was able to bring the besieging army east to form a veteran core for a new army to face Xiang Yu. Accompanied by new recruits from Qin and Han, Liu Bang returned just as Qing Bu was finally driven from Chu Territory. Qing met Liu Bang at the city of Xingyang, where together they formed a new powerful force and broke the Chu army holding the region of Suo.

In 204, one of Liu Bang's supporters, Wei Bao, King of Wei, left Liu Bang's side and returned home on the excuse of tending his ailing parents. Once there, he cut off his borders and refused to send Liu Bang any further aid. After his diplomats had failed to sway Wei Bao back to his side, Liu Bang sent general Han Xin to conquer the area. Han inflicted a decisive defeat on Wei Bao's armies, and proceeded to conquer the entire Kingdom, sending Wei Bao back to Xingyang to serve Liu Bang once more. Meeting up with the former Prime Minister of Zhao, Zhang Er, Han Xin then took his armies into Zhao, where he used Zhang Er;s knowledge of the kingdom to conquer the entire region, putting Zhang Er on the throne as King of Zhao.

While Han Xin conquered the north in Liu Bang's name, Xiang Yu brought his army up against Liu Bang at Xingyang and besieged the city, but Liu Bang had constructed a long walled road from the city to the massive grain depots at the Ao Granary, and was well supplied. The two forces faced each other for well over a year, neither side being able to gain an advantage, despite the fact that Xiang Yu was able to cut the supply road several times. As the siege wore on, Xiang Yu was finally able to close the supply road permanently, breaking the wall, and cutting off Liu Bang's large army from any supplies. Liu Bang's situation began to get desperate, and he sent envoys to Xiang Yu asking to divide the Empire between the two of them. Xiang Yu took the advise of his second in command and refused the offer, deciding it would be better to destroy Liu Bang while he had the chance. The siege continued, and when Liu Bang's food had completely run out, he attempted a desperate plan to escape. Sending out two thousand women dressed in armor and shouting that he was coming out to surrender, he left several generals in charge of the city, and slipped over the wall while the Chu army rushed to attack the women so they could kill "Liu Bang" and claim the reward for his head.

Again having escaped the clutches of Xiang Yu, Liu Bang retreated once more to the Kingdom of Qin and raised a new army while consulting with his officers. A new plan was agreed upon, and this time Liu Bang led his army out of Qin through the southern Wu Pass, passing through a region controlled by his strong allies in and around Nanyang and Yuan. Dispatching envoys, he allied with the Kingdoms of Yan and Qi, and Qi dispatched Peng Yue, a strong ally in the past of Liu Bang's, into northeastern Chu with an army. Forced to defend at many points, Xiang Yu responded with lightning speed, hunting down Peng Yue and putting him to flight, ignoring Liu Bang as the King of Han seized the city of Chenggao deep in the heart of Chu. Moving back west, he attacked Xingyang, which he had abandoned after Liu Bang had fled from it, and overran the defenders, putting to death Liu Bang's commanders in the city. With Liu Bang's northern forces broken, he headed back south, cut Liu Bang's supply lines, and moved to besiege him at Chenggao. Having no desire to once again be trapped in a city by one of Xiang Yu's besieging armies, Liu Bang abandoned the city and his army and fled west in a carriage. Traveling north, he snuck into the army encampments of the King of Zhao and his own general Han Xin, and seized control of both armies while the two men were sleeping. Although both men protested his seizure of their commands, he ignored them and dispatched Zhang Er north to gather more men in Zhao, and sent Han Xin east to take over Qi in Liu Bang's name.

With this new army, Liu Bang fortified his position north of the Yellow River, building up a new base of operations. To keep Xiang Yu from being able to recover, he sent twenty thousand men and two generals to Peng Yue, and had him begin guerilla attacks in Chu, harassing Xiang Yu's supply bases, destroying towns, and creating general destruction. Han Xin, meanwhile, had entered Qi. Liu Bang had sent his best diplomat Li Yiji to Qi, and Li had convinced the King of Qi to surrender to Liu Bang. But Han Xin was jealous of Li Yiji's success, and when the King of Qi ordered his soldiers to stand down, Han Xin invaded. The King of Qi, feeling betrayed, had Li Yiji boiled alive, and then fled to his former General, Peng Yue, who took him under his protection. Han Xin, meanwhile, completed his conquest of Qi and moved his armies just north of Chu, threatening invasion. Xiang Yu sent his generals Long Ju and Zhou Lan into Qi to break Han Xin, but their army was soundly defeated and Long Ju was slain.

Realizing his position was untenable, Xiang Yu decided his first move must be to drive Peng Yue from Chu, and prepared an elite force. Telling his Grand Marshal he would clear out Peng Yue in fifteen days, he left the majority of his army at Chenggao, facing Liu Bang's main army, and rode out to stop Peng's depredations. Despite Xiang Yu's stern warning to not engage Liu Bang in a pitched battle, Liu Bang kept up such a continuous flow of abuse and insults that the Grand Marshal led the Chu army out after the sixth day to attack Liu Bang. The Han army fell on the Chu army as it crossed the River and annihilated it, seizing all of Xiang Yu's supplies, treasure, and gold reserves. Liu Bang then pressed west, coming back to another scene of one of his earlier defeats; Xingyang, and besieged the city. Xiang Yu, hearing of his armies defeat, marched back to attack Liu Bang outside the walls of Xingyang, but Liu Bang had learned his lesson and had his army scatter into the mountains to avoid a pitched battle with the fearsome King of Chu.

While in the mountains, Liu Bang received an envoy from Han Xin, who asked that he be made King of Qi so that he could exercise his authority in the territory and make sure he could hold the region for Liu Bang. Already angry with Han Xin for the death of Li Yiji, Liu Bang made preparations to attack his general, but after his advisor Zhang Liang calmed his anger, he realized the foolishness of facing another skilled enemy with Xiang Yu still on the loose. He then dispatched envoys to Han Xin, and had him made King of Qi, giving him many gifts. Xiang Yu, also realizing the importance of Han Xin in the greater scheme of things, sent his own envoy, and attempted to sway him to his side, but the newly rewarded Han Xin remained loyal to Liu Bang, and refused to listen to Xiang Yu's overtures. Xiang Yu, disheartened, brought his army to encamp across a deep gorge from Liu Bang, and challenged Liu Bang to single combat. Liu Bang rode out, and from the safety of the other side of the gorge, delivered a litany of insults against Xiang Yu, and refused to meet him. Enraged, Xiang Yu pulled out a concealed crossbow and shot Liu Bang, hitting him in the chest. Knowing his army would scatter should they think him seriously wounded, he pretended to only have been hit in the toe, and attempted to ride around the camp to prove he was not truly injured. But the pain proved too much, and he made an excuse to return to Chenggao, leaving the army in his general's hands while he recovered in private from the wound.

But Xiang Yu was too busy to take advantage of the situation, for Peng Yue was again attacking Chu from the rear, destroying his supply bases and harassing his armies and cities. He gathered his army and headed south to deal with him, but just when he had driven Peng Yue back, Han Xin of Qi began to send armies into Chu from the north, forcing him to turn back and meet the new threat. Knowing he would be unable to face invasion from both directions, he sent an envoy to Liu Bang, asking to split the Empire between himself and Liu Bang, and suing for peace. Liu Bang agreed to the request, and Xiang Yu, in relief, returned to Liu Bang his parents and family, and marched away from the battlefront. Liu Bang prepared his own army to return west, but his advisors Zhang Liang and Chen Ping pointed out that the vast majority of Xiang Yu's food supplies were now in Han-held territory, and that if they pressed the attack now, Xiang Yu would be unable to fight for long. Never one to miss an opportunity, Liu Bang pursued Xiang Yu, arranging with Peng Yue and Han Xin to meet him so they could finish him off. Peng Yue and Han Xin did not arrive, however, and Liu Bang was defeated badly in a pitched battle, forcing him to hole up in Guling. Consulting once more with Chen Ping and Zhang Liang, he decided to offer Peng Yue and Han Xin large land concessions from Chu if they aided him in his attack on Xiang Yu. Both men could not refuse the massive rewards Liu Bang was offering, and agreed to come to his aid. To complete his encirclement of Xiang Yu, Liu bang had one of his generals invade Chu from the south and surround the major Chu city of Shouchun. After convincing the Grand Marshal of Chu, Zhou Yin, to revolt against Xiang Yu, four great armies, under the commands of Liu Bang, Peng Yue, Han Xin, and Qing Bu advanced on Xiang Yu's last bastion in Gaixia. Han Xin was made Supreme Commander by general consensus, and after a long day of hard fighting, his wings overran the Chu flanks, and he was able to inflict a severe defeat. Xiang Yu abandoned his army, but was hunted down after a long chase by the cavalry general Guan Ying and killed.

Having been relegated to a secondary role during the great battle, Liu Bang needed to once again seize primacy, especially over his chief rival and fellow King, Han Xin. In a repeat of what he had done before, Liu Bang seized Han Xin's seals of authority while he was away and replaced the key officers of Han Xin's army, relegating Han Xin to the position of a King without an army. In full command once more, Liu Bang completed the conquest of Chu, and after pardoning Xiang Yu's family and granting it many privileges, he had Xiang Yu buried with honor and granted him the posthumous title of Duke of Lu. Gathering the nobles, generals and Kings of the land at Dingtao, Liu Bang was asked to take the mantle of Supreme Emperor of Han. After observing the ritual of declining the honor three times, he took up the title on Feb 28th, 202 BC, founding the Han Dynasty that would last, more or less intact, for over 400 years. He then rewarded his generals and officers with marquisates and kingships. His three greatest generals were made Kings; Han Xin being given the title of King of Chu to go along with his title as King of Qi, Peng Yue was made King of Liang, and Qing Bu was made King of Huianan. When the King of Linjiang revolted in the name of the dead Xiang Yu, Liu Bang sent his generals Lu Wan and Liu Jia to crush the revolt. The King was brought back to Liu Bang's newly established capital of Luoyang and executed, his lands being given to other deserving generals.

Liu Bang then spent the next several months disbanding his armies and establishing his control over all the regions of the Empire. At first, he intended to make Luoyang his permanent capital, but Zhang Liang convinced him that the city was indefensible should a revolt happen, and Liu Bang retired back into Qin, establishing his capital at Chang'an. Immediately upon his move, Zang Tu, the King of Yan, revolted and conquered the kingdom of Dai. Liu Bang raised an army and attacked Zang Tu, killing him, and making his Grand Commandant Lu Wan the new King of Yan. He dispatched Fan Kuai to Dai to reconquer that region in his name. Upon his return, another minor revolt occurred around Chen, and he was forced to lead his army south into Chu, where he quelled it. Returning to Qin at last, he spent a year there, propagating laws, granting amnesties and manumitting taxes while Xiao He continued construction on his new and massive palace. At the end of the year, word arrived that Han Xin was plotting a revolt. While many of his advisers urged him into an immediate attack, Minister Chen Ping suggested that subterfuge would be wiser, considering Han Xin's military skill and possession of a good third of the Empire in Qi and Chu. So instead of attacking, Liu Bang summoned a large number of lords to meet him in Chen, and when Han Xin arrived, he had him arrested and deprived of his ranks and titles. He then made Han Xin a Marquis, appointed his son Liu Fei as King of Qi, and split Chu in half. He made his younger brother Liu Jaio King of Eastern Chu, and his general Liu Jia was made King of Jing.(Western Chu) Deciding he was tired of rebellion, he deprived the King of Hann, Hann Xin, of his lands and made him instead King of Tuaiyin, a region in the far north of the Empire. When Hann Xin arrived there, he was attacked by the Xiong Nu barbarians, and decided to join them in a general attack on Liu Bang. Hann Xin and his two generals Manqiu Chen and Wang Huang set up Zhao Li, a descendent of the Kings of Zhao as the new king of Zhao.

Liu Bang again summoned his soldiers and marched north to deal with this new rebellion, but a severe cold struck his army, and three out of every ten soldiers suffered frostbite, losing fingers and toes during the march. By the time he reached the far northern fortress of Pingcheng, his army was in no condition to fight, and the city was surrounded by the Xiong Nu. After besieging Liu Bang for seven days, the Xiong Nu withdrew, and Liu Bang left Fan Kuai behind to reconquer Dai(again), and make his older brother Liu Zhong King of Dai. Fan Kuai's war against the Xiong Nu and Hann Xin went very badly, however, and Liu Zhong fled Dai, returning to Luoyang, where he was deprived of rank and title and made a minor Marquis. Liu Bang, displeased, came back to the north. Hann Xin had suffered a falling out with the Xiong Nu, and Liu Bang caught his armies exposed at Dongyuan and annihilated them. On his return, it was discovered that Guan Gao, the Prime Minister of Zhao was also intending a revolt against Liu Bang, and Zhang Ao, the King of Zhao, was removed from his position. His patience exhausted by the continuous revolts, Liu Bang ordered the important families of the Empire, the Zhao, Qu, Jing and Huai families of Chu and Tian family of Qi removed from their bases of power and relocated to Qin where he could keep an eye on them. Despite this, the Empire continued to suffer through minor rebellions and revolts, including another one in Dai that convinced him once and for all to complete his conquest of the area. He moved his headquarters to Handan, and from there directed the complete and under destruction of Dai, bringing it firmly under the control of his son Liu Heng, the new King of Dai.

On his return to his capital, he had found that Han Xin had plotted a revolt and been executed by his Prime Minister Xiao He along with all his relatives. Hard on the heels of the execution, Peng Yue, King of Liang, also was found guilty of plotting revolt against Liu Bang. Peng was summoned to Qin, deprived of his rank, and eventually executed when further charges of treason were laid at his doorstep. He was replaced as King of Liang by Liu Hui, one of Liu Bang's sons. The two executions of Liu Bang's greatest generals caused great consternation in Qing Bu, Liu Bang's last remaining great general from the war with Xiang Yu. Sure he would be next, Qing Bu revolted, seized Liu Jia's lands and drove Liu Jiao from Chu. Liu Bang marched east, and encountered Qing Bu's army, putting it to flight. Liu Bang was injured during the battle, and although Qing Bu was defeated and killed by Liu Bang's generals, Liu Bang was forced to return to his Capital. On the way, the wound festered, and shortly after returning to Chang'an he died of his wound, leaving a pacified Han Empire to his heir, Emperor Hui.