Battle of Gaixia The Battle of Gaixia was fought in 202 BC during the Chu – Han Contention between the forces of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu . The battle concluded with victory for Liu Bang , who proclaimed himself Emperor of China and founded the Han Dynasty . Background . The Han forces had earned many major victories against Chu , but they still did not control most of the country . Most of eastern China was still under Chu control . Eventually Xiang Yu was able to reorganize his forces , and strike back at Liu Bang . At this point , major disagreements had occurred between Liu Bang and Han Xin . The primary reasons were because Liu Bang refused to give Han Xin too much control over the Han army , and his refusal to use many of Han Xin ' s suggestions . As a result , Han Xin withheld his forces in Qi as Liu Bang was under siege from Xiang Yu . Liu Bang was only able to hang on because of the assistance from another excellent military strategist , Zhang Liang . Xiang Yu was one of the best warrior - commanders in Chinese history , but in most battles he rarely paid sufficient attention to resource logistics . In this battle , Zhang Liang was successful in assaulting Xiang Yu ' s supply lines , which Xiang Yu did not care much about , and this greatly hurt the Chu army ' s effectiveness . On the other hand , Zhang Liang was successful in keeping the Han supply lines open . During a conversation , Xiang Yu ' s archer hit Liu Bang with an arrow , which wounded his lung . However , Liu Bang was able to hide this fact from his own army and Xiang Yu , hence keeping the morale of the Han troops high . Sensing the tension between Liu Bang and Han Xin , Xiang Yu tried to persuade Han Xin to ally with himself , or at least stay neutral during this conflict . Xiang Yu warned Han Xin that he would be in grave danger if Liu Bang comes out victorious in this conflict . Xiang Yu even offered to openly accept Han Xin ' s Qi as a third nation after Chu and Han . However due to the past history between the two Han Xin refused any diplomatic relationship with Xiang Yu . Xiang Yu then threatened to kill Liu Bang ' s captured father and wife and have them cooked over a fire , to force Liu Bang to surrender . Liu Bang simply replied that since the two had been named ' brothers ' ( during the earlier years of the revolt against Qin Dynasty ) he would be effectively cooking his own father , and that Xiang Yu should not forget to send him a cup of ' their ' father ' s flesh to share as good brothers , but Xiang Yu still did not kill them . At one point , Xiang Yu was about to capture Liu Bang . Finally , Liu Bang agreed with everything that Han Xin requested , and Han Xin finally agreed to help . Later , with the arrival of Han Xin , Liu Bang was able to convince Xiang Yu to agree to a peace treaty . At the end , both parties agreed that the two countries of Han and Chu could co - exist peacefully . Liu Bang ' s father and wife were returned to Liu Bang . Then , in October 202 BC , Xiang Yu started to move his forces back east . The battle . Unknown to Xiang Yu , this was a tactic from Han Xin . The Chu forces had sieged the Han fortress for a long time , leaving them tired . On top of that , Chu troops were getting less food than they needed to fight effectively . When news reached them that the war was over , and that there would be long term peace ahead , they were overjoyed . Han Xin then led many attacks against the joyful Chu forces . In anger , Xiang Yu tried to fight his way back to Liu Bang ' s fortress , but Han Xin had set up many traps and ambushes along the way . Finally Xiang Yu decided that a quick victory was no longer possible with his low morale troops , and decided to temporarily retreat back to the Chu capital , and regroup there . Han Xin knew that he could not let Xiang Yu return to the capital . Han Xin ordered his forces to increase the number of ambushes , in order to force the Chu troops into a canyon area near Gaixia , where Xiang Yu could not move at will . As the ambushes increased , Xiang Yu , an excellent strategist , became more and more certain that the main traps would await him inside the canyon . So although his troops were constantly ambushed , he insisted that his troops head straight back to the capital city though the main road as fast as they could , avoiding the side paths though the canyon . Unfortunately for Xiang Yu , fortune turned against him , despite his military genius . In one of the ambushes , Xiang Yu ' s beloved wife Yuji ( 虞姬 ) , who always traveled with his forces , was captured by Han troops . Han Xin immediately ordered that she be taken into the canyon . Xiang Yu , without a choice , sent most of his tired forces back to the capital on the main road , while he himself led a smaller force of 100 , 000 soldiers into the canyon to save his wife . The trap . Xiang Yu hoped to save his wife quickly and to get out before becoming totally entrapped . However , the Han forces , under Han Xin ' s orders , moved his wife deep into the canyon . By the time he finally reached them and saved his wife , he and his army were already too deep into the canyon to retreat safely . Han Xin then proceeded with his master plan : " Ambush from Ten Sides " ( 十面埋伏 ) . Han Xin first fought Xiang Yu face to face , and then retreated . Xiang Yu immediately gave chase , but soon found himself trapped among the numerous Han army . Everywhere Xiang Yu led his forces , ambushes and traps awaited them . With the repeated ambushes and encirclements , the Han troops began to elongate Xiang Yu ' s columns and disrupt their formation , allowing their decimation piecemeal . This not only caused heavy casualties for Chu , but also crushed the Chu army ' s morale , since escaping alive seemed impossible . The troops were trapped without supply in the canyon until December 202 BC . To further break the Chu army ' s spirit , Han Xin employed the " Chu Song from Four Sides " ( 四面楚歌 ) tactic . He ordered the Han soldiers and captured Chu troops to sing Chu songs . The Chu songs made the Chu troops remember their families back home , greatly reducing their will to fight . Even Xiang Yu himself thought that the whole Chu had been conquered , while he had been trapped there . Then the Chu soldiers started to leave their camps and escape on their own . Initially Xiang Yu tried , with force , to stop his troops from leaving the ranks . But when the soldiers and his wife begged of him to let the soldiers go home , Xiang Yu sadly agreed . On the same night , Xiang Yu ' s wife , at age 16 , committed suicide , because she considered herself the primary cause of the fall of the Western Chu . This event broke even Xiang Yu ' s spirit . About 800 loyal soldiers left behind and stayed with Xiang Yu , swearing to fight for him until the very end . Xiang Yu was impressed with their loyalty , and promised to lead them to safety . Xiang Yu ' s suicide . Han Xin successfully broke the spirits of the Chu troops , and that broke the Chu ranks , without a fight , as he expected . But the event had an advantage to Xiang Yu . When the Chu army size was still large , they could not move as they wanted , since they were easy to spot . But now Xiang Yu only had 800 men on horses , which allowed him to move much more easily . Xiang Yu was able to break though the traps and ambushes , and escaped the canyon with about a hundred men . Eventually , Han Xin discovered in shock , that Xiang Yu had escaped from the entrapped canyon . Upon discovering this , Liu Bang ordered 5 , 000 elite cavalry to chase down Xiang Yu . Liu Bang ordered the cavalry to not kill Xiang Yu , but to capture him . Unfortunately for Xiang Yu , after he left the canyon , he soon got lost . He tried to ask local people for directions back to Chu , but they pointed him in the wrong direction , with this being possibly intentional given their loyalty towards Han . Xiang Yu then went into the swamps , costing him valuable time for escape . ( The fact is disputed , as it is absent from certain Chinese historiographies , and most historians believe that it to be fictional . ) At the end , the elite cavalry chased him to Wu River ( 烏江 ) . Then Xiang Yu refused to surrender . Xiang Yu had an opportunity to use a local boatsman to escape across the river back into Chu territory , but he had too much pride to do so . Instead , he sent 28 of his loyal soldiers back and made a last stand against the soldiers that attempted to capture him alive , killing dozens of them in the process . After being seriously wounded , he slit his own throat . Aftermath . The loss of Xiang Yu was a major blow to Western Chu . Xiang Yu ' s brother tried to take command over Chu , but he was mostly a fighter and not a military strategist . No one else in Chu had the army - leading ability of Xiang Yu , and hence no one could win any battles against Han Xin and Zhang Liang . Soon , Chu fortresses started to surrender to Liu Bang , and Liu Bang treated all surrendering Chu forces with respect . Had Xiang Yu successfully retreated back into Chu , Chu might have been able to stop Han ' s advance , at least for a while . Soon after the death of Xiang Yu , Chu would fall to Han , and the Han Dynasty , one of the greatest Chinese dynasties , was established . Significance . Paul K . Davis writes , " Liu Pang ’ s victory removed his last rival from power in China and allowed him to establish the Han dynasty . "