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Han Xin (韓信; pinyin: Hán Xìn) (?-196 BC), aka Marquess of Huaiyin (淮陰候), was a capable Chinese general under Liu Bang.

Early life and career

Han's father died early, and he had a poor childhood. It was said that one time when he was alone playing, he was confronted by a couple of hoodlums. They wanted to make fun of him that they made him crawl under their crotch. Han Xin knew at that time that if he were to combat them, he would be at a great disadvantage. So instead of putting up a fight, he did as he was told. This incident as he recalled later on was the best thing that happened in his life, because instead of letting his misfortunes handle his life, he used this event as a stepping stone to achieving his ambitions. After a couple of years of striving, he was able to master the art of war and, not long after, become one of the greatest strategist at that time. "Restraint," as he said, "must be practiced as a child; deny it, will cause your downfall." Once, when he was very hungry, an old lady gave him a meal.

During the rebellion against Qin rule, he initially served as a common soldier under Xiang Liang, then under Xiang Liang's nephew Xiang Yu, who was then the most powerful general in the war of resistance against Qin. Although he showed great military abilities, he was not trusted or promoted by Xiang, so he left Xiang's forces. After Qin fell and Xiang divided the former Qin territories among many princes, Han Xin joined Liu Bang (who was made the Prince of Han under Xiang's division)'s forces in 206 BC. Once, he had violated an unspecific law and was about to be executed, but the army commander in charge of the execution, Liu's friend Xiahou Ying (夏侯嬰) felt there was something special about him and spared him, and in fact recommended him to Liu. Liu was not impressed by Han, and made him in charge of the army food storage. It was during this time that Han got acquainted with Liu's prime minister Xiao He, who became very impressed with him.

Most of Liu's forces were from the region of Chu (modern Jiangsu and Anhui), and they were not happy about following Liu to his Principality of Han (modern Sichuan and southern Shaanxi). Many deserted. Later in 206 BC, after not being promoted by Liu despite multiple recommendations by Xiao, Han decided to desert, too. Xiao heard that Han had deserted and immediately chased after him, and returned only after two days with Han -- and during those two days, Liu, who was heavily dependent on Xiao for administration and advice, was extremely panicked. Xiao, after his return, made another recommendation of Han, and Liu accepted this time, making Han the commander in chief of his armed forces.

Han's masterplan for Liu Bang

Han recommended a plan to step-by-step strangle Xiang's Principality of Western Chu into submission. Under Han's recommendation, Liu got ready for war against Xiang. Liu's first aim, under this plan, were the three Qins -- the Principalities of Yong, Sai, and Zhai, which Xiang had created for three surrendered generals of Qin out of former Qin territory. In the autumn and winter of 206 BC, Liu's forces, under Han, made surprise attacks against the three Qins and easily conquered them.

For a while, under Han's plan, Liu feigned satisfaction merely with the original territories that he was promised by Xiang's predecessor Emperor Yi of Chu -- the former lands of Qin. However, that did not last long. Once Xiang was occupied with a war of resistance by the Principalities of Qi (modern Shandong) and Zhao (modern central Hebei), as part of Han's masterplan, Liu fostered a resistance by remnants of the Principality of Han (modern western Henan -- same pinyin spelling, but different character than Liu's own principality -- same character as Han Xin's family name) and conquered the Principalities of Western Wei (modern southern Shanxi) and Yin (modern northern Henan and southern Hebei). Instead of following Han's plan of eventually strangling Western Chu into submission, however, Liu decided to make a full frontal assault on the Western Chu capital of Pengcheng (彭城), modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu), capturing it in summer 205 BC. Xiang, who was occupied in a war with Qi, quickly withdrew and attacked Liu's forces, nearly annihilating it. LIu barely escaped with his life.

After this near disaster, Liu decided to further implement Han's plan, which was concurred in by Liu's trusted military strategist Zhang Liang. He commissioned Han with a large force with the goals of conquering the principalities to the north of Western Chu and/or forcing them to join Liu's coalition against Western Chu. Under this masterplan, after those principalities either were conquered or became allies, Western Chu would be facing warfare on every side and would be strangled.

Northern campaign

Han's forces left Liu's territory proper in the autumn of 205 BC. His first target was Western Wei, which by that point had again rebelled and aligned itself with Western Chu. Han devised the strategy of confusing Western Wei forces into concentrating itself on the border while making a surprise attack on the capital of Western Wei, Anyi (安邑, in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi), in a strategy that would later be echoed by German World War II strategies in the Battle of France. Western Wei fell easily.

Han's next targets were the Principalities of Zhao and Dai (modern , which were in a close alliance -- with Chen Yu (陳餘), the Prince of Dai, serving as the prime minister of Zhao. In late autumn 205 BC, Han defeated Dai forces, and then got ready to invade Zhao. In winter 205 BC, Han, at the Battle of Tao River (桃水之戰), employed another unusual but brilliant strategy -- the dangerous tactic of pitching camp with a river behind his forces. It caused his forces to have nowhere to retreat and fight to the death, and they routed Zhao forces, killing Chen and capturing Zhao Xie, the Prince of Zhao. With Han's recommendation, Liu created Han's second-in-command, Zhang Er, the new Prince of Zhao, and promoted Han to prime minister (相國, sharing the post with Xiao). The Principality of Yan (modern Beijing, Tianjin, and northern Hebei) was intimidated into submission as well.

In autumn 204 BC, under Liu's orders, Han prepared for an invasion of Qi. Even though Liu's diplomat Li Yiji (酈食其) had already persuaded Qi to join Liu's coalition, Han, jealous of Li's ability to convince Qi to capitulate without a fight, decided to attack Qi anyway. In winter 204 BC, Han defeated Qi forces, which were caught unprepared, at Lisha (歷下, in modern Jinan, Shandong). Belatedly, Xiang sent his general Long Qie (龍且) to come to Qi's aid, but Han defeated joint Qi and Western Chu forces at the Battle of Wei River (濰水之戰) (in modern Gaomi, Shandong, killing both Long and Tian Guang (田廣), the Prince of Qi, in battle. (At that battle, Han used another revolutionary strategy -- he used a temporary dam to lower the water level of the river to trick the arrogant Long into crossing the river to attack him, and then, as Long's forces were on the riverbed, opened the temporary dam and drowned Long's forces.) Han then requested Liu to create him the Prince of Qi. Reluctantly (concerned that Han may rebel), Liu agreed.

Liu's concerns might have been partially correct. Xiang had sent his diplomat Wu She (武涉) to try to persuade Han to disassociate himself from Liu and form an alliance with Xiang instead. Still bearing a grudge over Xiang's earlier refusal to promote him, Han refused. Further, however, Han's advisor Fou Che (剻徹) also tried to persuade him to become independent of Liu, reasoning with him that he has shown himself to be so brilliant militarily that he could not be possibly trusted. Han, however, was grateful of Liu's trust in him thus far and unwilling to rebel. Fou left, disappointed.

Participation in the campaign of Xiang Yu's destruction

With the severe defeats that he suffered on multiple fronts, Xiang sued for peace. In autumn 203 BC, he reached a peace treaty with Liu, setting the boundary of their principalities at Hong Canal (modern Jialu River), ceding the territories to the west of Hong to Liu, and returning Liu's father Liu Zhijia and wife Lü Zhi (whom he had captured in the Battle of Pengcheng) to Liu. Persuaded by Zhang and another strategist Chen Ping (陳平), however, LIu reneged on the peace treaty only two months after it was signed and summoned Han and Peng Yue to join him. Neither Han nor Peng immediately arrived, however; Liu was forced to sweeten the order by promising to create Peng the Prince of Liang and giving large portions of Western Chu territories to Han. Both then joined the campaign.

Under Han's command, in winter 203 BC, Liu's forces surrounded Xiang's forces at Gaixia (垓下, in modern Suzhou, Anhui). Xiang fought his way out of the pocket, but eventually committed suicide at Wujiang (烏江, in modern Chaohu, Anhui). In 202 BC, according to his promise, Liu, who would soon proclaim himself Emperor of Han Dynasty (later known as Emperor Gao), created Han the Prince of Chu, giving him the majority of Xiang's former territory.

As Prince of Chu, Han showed both gratefulness to those who had shown him kindness and graciousness to those who had previously offended him. For the old lady who had previously given him a meal, he gave her a gift of 240,000 Chinese ounces (liang兩, roughly 2,500 pounds) of gold in gratitude. For the hoodlum who had forced Han to crawl under his crotch, Han commissioned him as the police chief of his capital (in modern Huaian, Jiangsu).

Demotion and death

After Liu became emperor, he began to become paranoid about the powerful princes -- all who were considered a threat to the Han empire just had to be removed, including Han Xin. In winter 202 BC, under the guise of a imperial gathering at Chenqiu (陳丘, in modern Zhoukou, Henan) was summoned to a meeting and captured, and then stripped of his principality and demoted to Marquess of Huaiyin with no military authority.

In 198 BC or 197 BC, Liu commissioned Chen Xi (陳豨), the Marquess of Yangxia, a friend of Han's, to be the commander of the northern border forces to defend the empire against Xiongnu. Once Chen got to the borders, however, he rebelled. Liu left the capital to lead an expedition force against Chen. While he was not at the capital Chang'an, in 196 BC, Empress Lü received rumors that Han was involved in Chen's conspiracy and was ready to raise a rebellion against her. Lü acted preemptively and had Han executed, along with close relatives of his father's, his mother's, and his wife's clans.

Impact on Chinese history

Despite his tragic death, Han was regarded as one of the greatest generals in Chinese history, often invoked in future generations as a comparison to when generals were praised. His strategies were required studies for generals.

Two commonly known Chinese idioms are derived from Han's career. The idiom "secretly passing Chencang" (暗渡陳倉) refers to a surprise attack Han made against Yong is now commonly used for "secret conduct" (usually with a sexual liaison cannotation). The idiom "Han Xin's army headcount" (韓信點兵), usually then followed by "the more the better" (多多益善), refers to a conversation that Han had with Liu sometime after his demotion to the Marquess of Huaiyin. Liu was asking Han how large of a force, in Han's opinion, Liu could personally command. Han noted that Liu is capable of commanding 100,000 men. Liu then asked Han how large of a force Han could personally command. Han said, "for my army headcount, the more the better." Although Han then qualified his remarks by noting that Liu's strong point is "commanding the generals" (i.e., administration and decision-making), Han's remarks did not make Liu any more comfortable with him, and might have eventually contributed to his demise.

• 196 BC deaths
• Chinese people