Liu Bang and Xiang Yu

After Chen Sheng and Wu Guang started the peasant uprising, people everywhere killed officials and responded to the uprising. In no time, the peasant uprising swept through half of China.

Chen Sheng sent his soldiers and generals to meet the uprisings, and they won many victories and occupied a large number of places. However, because of the long battle line and the lack of unified orders, some places were occupied by the old nobles of the six states. In less than three months after the uprising, Zhao, Qi, Yan, and Wei all had people who made themselves kings under the banner of restoring the Six Kingdoms.

Chen Sheng sent the rebel army led by Zhou Wen to attack the west, and soon invaded Guanzhong (the area west of the Hangu Pass) and approached Xianyang, the capital city of the Qin Dynasty. Panicked, Qin Er Shi quickly sent his general Zhang Han (pronounced hán) to release the prisoners and slaves who were doing hard labor in Mount Li and formed an army to counterattack the rebel army. The nobles of the original six states each occupied their territories and no one went to support the rebel army. Zhou Wen's rebel army fought alone and finally failed. Wu Guang was killed by his men in Xingyang. In the sixth month after the uprising, Chen Sheng was killed by a traitor on his way to retreat.

Although Chen Sheng and Wu Guang died, the fire of rebellion against the Qin Dynasty that they had ignited was burning everywhere. In the south, in the county of Huiji (the capital is in present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu).

The fire was even bigger.

In the county of Huiji, Xiang Liang and his nephew Xiang Yu were the ones who raised the army. Xiang Liang was the son of Xiang Yan, a great general of Chu. When the state of Chu was destroyed by the great general Wang Jian, Xiang Yan was defeated and committed suicide. Xiang Liang always wanted to restore the state of Chu. His nephew Xiang Yu, who was stout and smart, was taught to read and write by Xiang Liang himself. However, Xiang Yu didn't want to continue learning after a few days. Xiang Liang taught him to learn the sword, but Xiang Yu threw it away after learning for a while.

Xiang Liang was very angry, but Xiang Yu said: "What is the use of reading and writing? If you learn it, you can only remember your name; if you learn the sword well, you can only kill a few people, which is not important. If you want to learn, you have to learn the skills of fighting big battles."

Xiang Liang heard his tone is not small, so he took out the ancestral armament book, and give him to learn. Xiang Yu listened to understand, but slightly know a general idea, and refused to drill down. Xiang Liang was originally from Xia Xiang (now Suqian, Jiangsu Province, southwest), because he had a grudge against someone, he took refuge in Wu Zhong, Hui Ji County. The young men in Wuzhong saw that he could write and fight, they all admired him and treated him as a big brother. Xiang Liang also taught them to learn the art of war and practice their skills.

This time, when they heard of Chen Sheng's uprising, they thought it was a good opportunity, so they killed the governor of Huizhi and occupied Huizhi County. Within a few days, they raised a team of 8,000 men. Because most of them were local youths, so they were called "children's soldiers".

Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu crossed the river with the 8,000 sons and daughters and soon captured Guangling (the name of the county, with its capital in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province), then crossed the Huai River and continued their march. Along the way, there were rebel groups from various places came to join Xiang Liang and united with them.

The next year, a group of more than 100 people, led by Liu Bang, came to join Xiang Liang.