How the Chu River and Han Border Began at the Hong Canal Peace

In the last episode, Han Xin's northern campaign steadily lifted Han's position. But on the main front, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were still locked in a long struggle.

Eventually both sides became exhausted enough to look for breathing space.

That is where the famous boundary began.

The War Had Become a Test of Endurance, Not Only of Shock

Ying Bu's revolt hurt Chu even though Chu struck him hard. Liu Bang meanwhile improved cavalry under Guan Ying, relied on Xiao He for steady supplies from Guanzhong, and used Peng Yue to harass Chu logistics.

In other words, Han was slowly turning the war into the kind of prolonged pressure that suited it better.

Xiang Yu could still win clashes. But he was increasingly being forced to fight at many points at once.

At Guangwu, Neither Side Could Finish the Other

The lines hardened around places like Xingyang, Chenggao, and Guangwu.

Victories and reversals occurred, but neither side could end the whole contest in one stroke. Between them, the Hong Canal line gradually became the practical central division.

This was the setting in which the future "Chu River and Han Border" took shape.

Xiang Yu Even Tried to Use Liu Bang's Father as a Weapon

Liu Bang's father remained in Chu hands after earlier fighting.

Xiang Yu brought him out and threatened to boil him alive unless Liu Bang submitted.

It was an extreme act, but Liu Bang answered with extreme shamelessness, saying in effect that since they had once sworn brotherhood, Xiang Yu's father was also his father and he should remember to share the soup.

The line was grotesque and unforgettable. It also showed that this kind of pressure would not break Liu Bang.

Xiang Bo intervened again and persuaded Xiang Yu not to carry it through.

Direct Challenge Also Failed

Frustrated, Xiang Yu later rode out and called for personal single combat, arguing that enough common people had already died because of the two of them.

Liu Bang refused.

Instead he denounced Xiang Yu's political crimes one by one: betrayal of agreements, killing Song Yi, slaughtering Qin troops, burning palaces, killing Ziying, expelling and then killing the Righteous Emperor.

Xiang Yu, enraged, answered not with debate but with arrows. Liu Bang was wounded, though not fatally, and carefully concealed the seriousness of the injury from his own army.

Meanwhile, Han Xin Was Becoming Too Important to Ignore

While the main front strained like this, Han Xin continued winning in the north and east. Eventually he sought the title of acting king of Qi in order to stabilize the lands he held.

Liu Bang was furious at first, but Zhang Liang and Chen Ping immediately restrained him. At that stage, pushing Han Xin away would have been disastrous.

So Han Xin received the kingship.

Chu also tried to court him, and advisers like Kuai Tong even urged Han Xin to found an independent third force. He refused. But the very fact that such options existed shows how large he had become in the political equation.

Peace Became Attractive Because Everyone Was Tired

By now Xiang Yu had Liu Bang in front, Peng Yue on his rear communications, and Han Xin in the wider strategic field. Liu Bang, for all Han's improving position, was not free from exhaustion either.

So the Hong Canal peace became possible.

The agreement divided territory with the canal as the line: lands west of it to Han, east of it to Chu. Liu Bang's father was released, and both sides formally swore peace.

That is the historical root of the later phrase Chu River and Han Border.

But no one involved truly believed the struggle was morally settled.

The boundary was a pause, not an ending.

In the next and final episode of this arc, the peace breaks almost at once, and the long Chu-Han struggle rushes toward Gaixia and Xiang Yu's death at the Wu River.