Xiang Yu had seized the opportunity to decide the fate of the Central Plains, and his choice was—
To turn back.
He chose to return the realm to how it had been before Qin, back to the age of the Warring States.
Only this time, the "players" were somewhat different.
First was the King of Western Chu, Xiang Yu. He had not abolished his own position; he remained the king of Western Chu, ruling the vast, fertile lands south of the Yellow River.
The former lands of Chu beyond Western Chu, meanwhile, were divided by Xiang Yu into three parts, with three kings enfeoffed: King Wu Rui of Mount Heng, King Ying Bu of Jiujiang, and King Gong Ao of Linjiang.
Liu Ji, whose contributions to the destruction of Qin could even be said to surpass Xiang Yu's, was enfeoffed by Xiang Yu as King of Han, with Ba-Shu and part of Hanzhong as his fief. As for Within the Passes, which had been promised to Liu Ji back at Xutai, Xiang Yu split it in two and granted it respectively to King Dong Yi of Zhai and King Sima Xin of Sai. The two had originally been generals of the Qin Dynasty. After the successive deaths of Zhang Han and Jin Qixiu, they had chosen to surrender to Xiang Yu and later rendered meritorious service in the war against Qin, thus earning the fortune of being made kings.
Together with Gong Ao's territory, Dong Yi's and Sima Xin's fiefs surrounded the territory of Liu Ji, King of Han. Because of the earlier Hongmen Banquet, Xiang Yu believed Liu Ji could not shoulder great responsibility. Since they had already fallen out, he might as well symbolically encircle him.
As for Qi, which had been deeply entangled with Western Chu while