541: Chapter 541 Xiang Yu's Bloody Methods

"I suggest that we first find a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, where the Mauryan Empire's influence is weak, to establish a base, and then gradually expand our power."

Zhao Fusu had a solemn expression, his gaze steady as he looked at Xiang Liang. His eyes were full of sincerity and expectation, hoping that Xiang Liang would adopt this relatively gentle method of development.

After all, in this foreign land, steady and solid progress was the long-term solution.

He knew clearly in his heart that his influence before Xiang Liang, Fan Zeng, and the others was limited; he was merely offering suggestions.

Once they split their forces later, he would be even less able to influence Xiang Liang's decisions. No one knew what radical or risky methods they would employ to conquer cities and seize land across the vast territory south of the Peacock River.

Thinking of this, Zhao Fusu's gaze inadvertently flicked toward Xiang Yu.

He saw that Xiang Yu had a rebellious expression, with an innate ruthlessness in his eyes; it was as if he hadn't listened to a word of what he had just said.

Zhao Fusu sighed inwardly. This guy was no pushover; the intensity of his murderous nature was not inferior to that of Bai Qi in the slightest.

Historically, Xiang Yu's methods were incredibly bloody.

He had recorded instances of killing over a thousand people twice; to him, killing was as routine as a daily meal, and he had long since become numb to it.

Brutal acts like massacring entire cities were frequently performed by him.

The most famous of these was Xiang Yu burning down the Epang Palace, with the fire raging for three months.

Nowadays, many people are influenced by some biased clickbait media, thinking that the Great Wall Legion did not participate in the war.

In reality, Wang Li had once led the 300,000-strong Great Wall Legion into the battlefield. After Wang Li was defeated and surrendered, there were still 200,000 soldiers remaining.

However, because his army lacked food, Xiang Yu could neither supply these 200,000 men with grain nor risk a mutiny, so he heartlessly buried all 200,000 surrendered soldiers alive.

This atrocity undoubtedly planted a time bomb for his later failure.

Being so cruel and bloodthirsty not only made the common people terrified of him, but even his allies feared him.

Wang Li had already led 200,000 men to surrender, yet he betrayed his trust and drove his allies to their deaths. With such behavior, who would dare to defect to him again?

Looking at the Manchu Qing, its ability to rise from the Northeast and seize the world relied on chilling, extreme slaughter.

In terms of murderous nature, it was even worse than Xiang Yu.

If anyone was unwilling to submit, they would suppress them with bloody methods, simply and crudely believing that they hadn't killed enough people.

The most ruthless act of the Manchu Qing was the massacre of the Dzungar Khanate; it was truly an extermination, killing an entire khanate until it became nothing more than a place name. The level of brutality was evident.

In comparison, the people of the White Elephant Country seemed much simpler.

The non-resistance movement initiated back then was also thanks to the British being relatively merciful.

If they had encountered an opponent like the Manchu Qing and refused to surrender, even with a population of two billion, they would likely have been slaughtered without a single survivor.

The Manchu Qing succeeded through slaughter, while Xiang Yu moved toward failure through slaughter; there was a huge difference between the two.

When the Manchu Qing was active in the Northeast in its early days, it adopted plundering tactics.

At that time, there was no migration to the Northeast, and the Han people had not yet moved to the Northeast in large numbers, so the Manchus in the Northeast became the primary targets of the plundering.

In the Northeast dialect, there is a term called "fàn qiǎng," which traces its roots back to the frequent plundering by these Manchu Qing people.

After the Manchu Qing entered the Shanhai Pass, no one was happier than the Manchus in the Northeast, thinking that this group of people had finally gone to wreak havoc on the people of the Central Plains.

They frantically lit firecrackers, happily seeing this group of pests off.

This is also why, after the fall of the Qing Empire, when the Manchus in the Northeast heard that the Qing Emperor was going to return to the Northeast, they shouted, "Do not let the Qing Emperor return to the East"; they knew the vile nature of these Manchu Qing pests too well.