Jump to content

Ying Bu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Hanchi (talk | contribs) at 07:39, 14 March 2012 (→‎Defection to Liu Bang). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Ying Bu 英布 (? - 195 BC), A former criminal whom later become a general for the Chu and later the Han in Chu-Han Contention. He begun his career as a bandit warlord after escaping from his prison during the crisis of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rebellion against the Qin. He was noted to have a prison tattoo and was sentenced to hard labour.


Service under Xiang Yu

Xiang Liang personally recruited him after witnessing his bravery in battle during his early wars against the Qin state. After the death of Xiang Liang, Ying Bo went to serve the late general's nephew Xiang Yu and become one of his most able general and right hand man. Ying Bo served with distinction in the Battle of Julu and was involved with burying 200,000 Qin soldier alive. He also personally executed the Emperor Yi of Chu under Xiang Yu orders. After the destruction of the Qin dynasty, Xiang Yu divided China in eighten kingdoms, Ying Bo was granted the Jiujiang (九江) kingdom (in modern day Anhui) for his service.

Defection to Liu Bang

During the 5 year Chu-Han Contention, Liu Bang and his adviser Chen Ping used divide and conquer strategy by sowing discord among Xiang Yu's trusted allies and men (among those was Xiang Yu's advisor Fan Zeng), fearing for his life Ying Bu later defected to Han after Xiang Yu began to mistrust Ying Bo after an impossible request (or intended suicide attack) of attacking Liu Bang even though Ying Bo at that time only had less than 1000 men.

Aftermath and death

After the Chu-Han contention, he was granted the Huainan fief for his services. However in 195 BC Ying Bu was later defeated and executed by Liu Bang after a failed armed rebellion in order to protect himself after Empress Lü started to assassinate most of Liu Bang's former subject, among them where Han Xin and Peng Yue.