Upon learning that Fang Zheng had led his army through Hangu Pass, Xiang Yu and the Allied Armies were all greatly shocked. What followed was intense fury.
For a time, representatives from many of the Allied Armies sought an audience with Xiang Yu, hoping he would lead his forces into Guanzhong as soon as possible and wipe out Fang Zheng's band of rebels to set the record straight.
It was hardly surprising that the Allied Armies thought this way. From the very beginning of the uprising, Fang Zheng's rebel force had always stood apart from the other rebel armies, appearing utterly isolated. He had refused Chen Sheng's enfeoffment and thus naturally had no ties to the main peasant rebel forces. In the eyes of the rebel leadership, Fang Zheng seemed more like a bandit lord holding a mountain stronghold than a commander of the rebellion.
Moreover, the ideals of Fang Zheng's rebel army were completely different from those of the other rebel forces. Not only did he seek to overthrow the tyrannical rule of the Qin Dynasty, he also intended to eliminate the remnants of the nobility and the feudal system. To the Allied Armies, this was downright outrageous—one could even say that Fang Zheng was basically fighting both the rebel forces and the Qin Dynasty single-handedly.
This was another reason why Fang Zheng's power had expanded the slowest. In fact, it was not as if no famous figures from history had wanted to join him. The renowned Han Xin, for example, had once met with Fang Zheng. However, they could not come to an agreement on the matter of the feudal system. Fang Zheng had clearly stated that he wanted to strengthen centralized authority and abolish enfeoffment. This was unacceptable to people like Han Xin, who hoped to restore