How a 25-Year-Old Warlord Defied an Empire

Last time, on Learn Chinese Now, we saw the brutal—and pivotal—battle of Chángpíng that paved the way for the Qín dynasty’s rise to power, where a dude named Bái Qǐ literally steamrolled an entire one percent of China’s entire population. Alive. But as Newton might have said, what comes up, must come down, and the Qín dynasty would soon have to fall. And fall they did, at the similarly brutal Battle of Jùlù—鉅鹿之戰 Jù Lù Zhī Zhàn. I give you part two of the 5 MORE EPIC Battles of Chinese History: the revenge…of the nephew. Fight’s on. The Qín dynasty officially began in 221 BC, but after the first Qín emperor died in 210 BC, the government quickly devolved into a weakened, nasty mess of conspiracy and infighting. The same states that the Qín had curbstomped to unify the country a mere decade ago now took this chance to rise up and get their revenge. Before we get into the actual battle, we need to set the stage. It’s 207 BC. Qín forces were going around crushing these rebellions and had just defeated an army of the state of Chǔ and took out their commander Xiàng Liáng. They then kept going and directly threatened the capital of the Zhào state, the same one from our last episode. And the Zhào called for help again. But unlike before, everyone was cool with them now. And so the king of the Chǔ state sent an army led by a smart strategist called Sòng Yì with his second in command—the twenty-five-year-old nephew of the Chǔ commander that the Qín just killed—Xiàng Yǔ. Sòng Yì set up camp near the Zhào capital and sat around for over a month making preparations. But Xiàng Yǔ wanted to get going already, anxious for vengeance and valor. Sòng Yì called him an idiot and told him to sit still and not do anything stupid or he’d be executed. Now, as you can imagine, telling a hotheaded young guy to chill out never ends well. The thing is, Xiàng Yǔ wasn’t just some nepo baby with more angst than sense. He was actually one heck of a fighter and a very capable commander. And, well, as you can imagine, things soon escalated quickly. On the forty-sixth day of the encampment—or as Xiàng Yǔ saw it, the forty-sixth day of twiddling their thumbs and doing literally jack squat—Sòng Yì set up a big private banquet to send his son off on a diplomatic mission to another state. And not only did his troops not get to enjoy any of the fun or food, they were all stuck out in the rain while the big smart man was partying in comfort. And that’s when Xiàng Yǔ saw his chance. Using everyone’s discontent to his advantage, he busted into Sòng Yì’s tent the next morning and murdered him, announcing that the Chǔ king told him to take Sòng Yì out because he was in cahoots with that other state. Satisfied that Sòng Yì got what was coming to him and afraid that Xiàng Yǔ would beat them all up, nobody made any objections. And when the Chǔ king heard about it, there was nothing he could do but make the young upstart the new commander. Now, the fight was on. The Zhào defenses were stuck at a critical defensive point about 100 km northwest of their capital called Jùlù—literally “giant deer.” Yeah…not sure where that came from. Anyway, they were being starved to death by the surrounding Qín army. Xiàng Yǔ first sent a few expeditionary forces to back them up a little bit and get a feel for the situation. And after scoring a few small victories over the course of a few months, he decided it was time. Let’s freakin’ go, you Qín scoundrels. Xiàng Yǔ led around 50,000 troops across the Yellow River to Jùlù, telling his forces to pack light and carry only a few days worth of food, destroy their pots and pans, and sink their boats. This became the idiom 破釜沉舟 pò fǔ chén zhōu. 破 pò means to break, 釜 fǔ means cauldron, 沉 chén means sink, and 舟 zhōu is a boat. So literally, “breaking cauldrons, sinking ships.” The term signified a point of no return—essentially the Chinese equivalent of crossing the Rubicon. Because now that they had no food and no way to retreat, their only options were to either defeat the 200,000 strong Qín army and take their stuff, or get annihilated in the process. And it’s not like there was much food left in Jùlù anyway. And so, Xiàng Yǔ and his men fought like mad. Armies from other rebel states had arrived to help, but were all so spooked at the odds, they were like, “Nah, I don’t think there’s any way we can win this,” and just spectated from a distance. Leading to another idiom 坐壁上觀 zuò bì shàng guān. 坐 zuò means to sit, 壁 bì is a wall, 上 shàng means on top, and 觀 guān is to spectate. Literally “sitting on the walls watching.” But to everyone’s surprise, his much smaller army of ragtag rebels killed over 100,000 Qín troops with nothing more than sheer tenacity, leading to yet another idiom: 以一當十 yǐ yī dāng shí. 以 yǐ is to use, 一 yī is one, 當 dāng is as, and 十 shí is ten. As in “using one for ten.” Okay, maybe a little bit of an exaggeration, but it’s a pretty solid K/D ratio. The other rebel forces could only watch in awe and embarrassment, and all 80,000-plus of them submitted themselves to Xiàng Yǔ’s command. After that, the Qín retreated and regrouped with another force of 200,000 about 100 miles away. Before they could decide what to do with themselves, Xiàng Yǔ already swooped in and had them surrounded. Seeing the writing on the wall, they surrendered without a fight. But the problem was he now had 200,000 extra enemy soldiers to feed, and there was no way of telling if they would cause trouble later down the line. As if his earlier power grab wasn’t brutal enough, he took a page out of Bái Qǐ’s playbook and buried all 200,000 of them. Alive. Not nearly as bad as what happened last time at the Battle of Chǎngpíng, but still. If it’s any consolation, even though Xiàng Yǔ would continue taking butt and kicking names with such expertise that he would gain enough power to get a shot at establishing his own dynasty, he would still be defeated at the Battle of Gaixia, as mentioned here in our original epic battles video, by a former Chǔ general called Liú Bāng. Liú Bāng would start the Hàn dynasty in 202 BC, and his grandson would bring about another even more edge-of-your-seat battle: the incredible upset at the Battle of Mòběi—漠北之戰 Mòběi Zhī Zhàn. But that’s a tale for next time on the 5 MORE EPIC Battles of Chinese History. Remember to subscribe and hit that bell icon to know when it comes out, or even better, join our channel membership for early access if you can’t wait to see what happens. Until then, zàijiàn! If you enjoy the deeper meaning behind Chinese culture, folklore, legends, and strange true stories, then come explore more with me on Jared Tells Tales, where mystery, meaning, and the otherworldly still live on. Click the link to watch your first tale.