King Xiang realized there was no escape and said to his horsemen, "Eight years have passed since I rose in rebellion, and I have personally taken part in more than seventy battles. All those I confronted were destroyed; all those I attacked submitted. I have never been beaten, and so I became hegemon over the whole empire. But now I finally come to grief here. This is because Heaven forsakes me, not because of any fault of mine in battle!

"Today I shall certainly perish," he continued. "But I want to fight lustily and win three triumphs for you--breaking their encirclement, beheading their generals, and cutting down their flags--so that you will recognize it is Heaven that forsakes me and no fault of mine in battle."

So he divided his horsemen into four squads, facing out in four directions. The Han army surrounded them, many men deep.

King Xiang said to his cavalrymen, "Now I shall get a general for you!"

He ordered all four squads to gallop downhill and then regroup in three locations on the east slope. With a great shout, King Xiang went galloping down; the Han army scattered, and he beheaded a Han general.

At this time the marquis of Chi-quan commanded the cavalry pursuing King Xiang. When King Xiang flashed his eyes and roared at them, the marquis of Chi-quan's men and horses were all startled and fell back several leagues.

When King Xiang rejoined his troops in their three locations, the Han army did not know where he was. So it split into three groups and once more encircled the king's forces. King Xiang then charged out again, beheading one officer and killing almost a hundred men; when he reassembled his cavalrymen, he had lost only two of them. So he said to his men, "What do you think of that?" And they all bowed down and said, "It was as your majesty said!"

Then King Xiang considered crossing the Yangtze at Wu-jiang into Jiang-dong. The Wu-jiang administrator was waiting with a moored boat. He said to King Xiang, "Even though Jiang-dong is small, it covers a thousand leagues and has a population of several hundred thousand; it is enough for a king. Will your majesty please hurry to cross? For the time being I alone have a boat. When the Han army arrives it will have no means of crossing."

King Xiang laughed and said, "Heaven has forsaken me; why should I cross? Moreover, I took eight thousand youths westward out of Jiang-dong, and now I return without a single one of them. Even if the elders of Jiang-dong should forgive me and accept me as king, how could I look them in the face? Though nothing might be said, I would feel shame in my heart.

"I know you, sir," he went on. "I have ridden this horse for five years. It has never met its match, and in one day it once covered a thousand leagues. I cannot bear to destroy it, so I give it to you."

Then he ordered his horsemen to dismount, proceed on foot, and engage the enemy with short swords. He himself killed several hundred Han soldiers, but he suffered more than ten wounds about his body. Looking around, he saw the Han cavalry officer Lü Ma-tong and said, "Aren't you an old acquaintance of mine?" Lü Ma-tong took a good look at him and then beckoned Wang Yi, saying, "Here is King Xiang."

"I hear," King Xiang said, "that Han would buy my head for a thousand gold pieces and a fief of ten thousand households. I shall do you a favor." Thereupon he cut his own throat and died.