Qin Dynasty and Chu-Han Contention

The six rival states were gone. Ying Zheng now needed a title no one before him had ever used.

Behind one of the most famous charges in Chinese history, burning books and burying scholars were not originally the same act.

As imperial building projects grew larger, the burden laid on ordinary households grew heavier too.

When Zhao Gao led a deer into court, he was not testing eyesight. He was testing who still dared to disagree.

A message hidden in a fish and fox-cries in the night helped push desperate conscripts onto the road of rebellion.

One came from the line of a famous Chu general. The other came out of the streets of Pei. In the chaos, both stepped onto the stage almost at the same time.

Victory after victory made Xiang Liang more careless, while Zhang Han waited for the one mistake that would matter most.

When the old man threw his shoe down the bridge three times, he was not testing Zhang Liang's patience alone. He was testing whether Zhang Liang could become a man fit for larger things.

The pots were smashed and the boats were sunk. After that, the Chu army had only one road left: charge the Qin army and come back alive.

Zhang Han still had two hundred thousand Qin troops at the front, but the thing he feared was not only Xiang Yu. It was the court behind him.

Qin Shi Huang left behind a unified empire, but the son who inherited it received something more like a smoking volcano.

The swords were already out at the banquet, and Liu Bang had to find a path to life between Xiang Yu, Fan Zeng, and Xiang Zhuang.

Xiang Yu stood at the highest point in the realm, then pushed more and more men into becoming his enemies while dividing it.

Many soldiers deserted Liu Bang, but Xiao He rode through the night only for one nearly unknown man.

While Xiang Yu was trapped by fighting in Qi, Liu Bang gathered allied lords and drove straight at the western Chu capital.

After Pengcheng fell, Xiang Yu turned back with only thirty thousand picked troops to face Liu Bang's huge allied army.

While Liu Bang struggled on the main front, Han Xin was changing the balance of the world one northern state at a time.

The line now remembered on Chinese chessboards as the Chu River and Han Border began as a temporary boundary between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu.

The Hong Canal peace had barely been signed when Han forces began pursuing again, pushing the Chu-Han war suddenly toward its final night.