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entity Updated 2026-08-23

英布 / 黥布 / Ying Bu

英布 / 黥布 / Ying Bu enters the wiki through Qinji 129-4 as a punished Qin convict who becomes an anti-Qin military actor. The source says he is from the Liu’an region, is sentenced under Qin law, and is sent as a convict laborer to 骊山.

At Lishan, Ying Bu builds ties with other convict heads and forceful men, then escapes with a group toward the Yangtze River area and becomes a bandit leader. When 吕臣 is trying to recover the Chu banner after 陈胜’s death, Ying Bu joins him and helps defeat Qin forces around Chen County.

The next step is local alliance. Ying Bu brings several thousand followers to 吴芮, the Panyang magistrate known as Lord Pan. Wu Rui marries his daughter to Ying Bu and orders him to attack Qin, turning Ying Bu’s punished-and-bandit following into a politically connected anti-Qin force.

Qinji 130-2 folds Ying Bu into 项梁’s larger army. After defeating Qin troops and moving east, Ying Bu hears that Xiang Liang has crossed the Huai and brings his force under Xiang Liang. This makes Ying Bu one of the armed actors whose attachment helps Xiang Liang’s camp grow to roughly sixty or seventy thousand people.

The episode also preserves a fate-reading story. A physiognomist reportedly says Ying Bu will become king after being punished; after the punishment occurs, Ying Bu adopts the surname or name 黥, hoping the second half of the prediction will also come true. This page records that as the episode’s legend-colored framing, not as a verified causal explanation.

Qinji 134 gives Ying Bu a decisive operational role before 项羽’s main 巨鹿之战 attack. Ying Bu and 蒲将军 lead twenty thousand elite Chu troops across the Yellow River first, strike Qin support units, and break the protected corridor carrying grain from 敖仓 toward 巨鹿.

In the episode’s reading, Ying Bu’s corridor attack is what makes the later 破釜沉舟 charge coherent. It separates 章邯 from 王离 and shifts Qin from a well-fed siege posture into a divided battlefield problem.

Hanji 139 gives Ying Bu a darker post-Julu role. When 项羽 worries that the surrendered Qin troops may rebel near 函谷关, he discusses the problem with Ying Bu and 蒲将军. The episode says Ying Bu and Pu General then lead the night attack that kills the surrendered Qin soldiers at 新安坑降.

Hanji 140 part 1 keeps Ying Bu as Xiang Yu’s force-execution instrument. After 刘邦 seals the 关中 entry route, Xiang Yu orders Ying Bu and others to attack the pass, moving Ying Bu from the Xinan surrendered-troop killing into the coercive opening of the 鸿门宴 crisis.

Hanji 143 gives Ying Bu the reward endpoint implied by his prior campaign work. Xiang Yu makes him Jiujiang king, describing him as a brave Chu commander with major battlefield merit. Ying Bu now anchors one of the Chu-side reward cases inside 周秦混合制, linking convict-bandit origins, Julu service, Xinan violence, and post-Qin kingship.

Hanji 149 adds Ying Bu’s reluctant role in 芈心 / 楚怀王’s death. 项羽 orders Ying Bu, 吴芮, and 共敖 to attack Yi Emperor on the river route toward 郴县. The episode says the kings hesitate because Mi Xin had been the anti-Qin alliance’s nominal leader, but Ying Bu eventually carries out the killing under Xiang Yu’s pressure.

Hanji 153 makes Ying Bu the first major target inside 下邑画策. When Xiang Yu fights in Qi, Ying Bu claims illness and sends only a few thousand troops; when Liu Bang captures Pengcheng, he again does not rescue Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu repeatedly sends envoys to rebuke and summon him, while Ying Bu fears going to Pengcheng. The episode reads his Jiujiang kingship as an incentive shift: once a former vanguard commander has his own territory, he begins to protect his own power base, creating the opening for 随何’s mission.

Hanji 157 part 2 brings Ying Bu back as the next target of Liu Bang-side diplomacy. After the Han Xin-Zhao sequence, the episode turns to 随何’s arrival on the Jiujiang route and previews the effort to make Ying Bu abandon 项羽, tying his earlier trust fracture to the next phase of 下邑画策 implementation.

Hanji 158 gives the defection itself. Ying Bu receives Sui He at 九江国 only after delay, showing that he wants a Han-side option while avoiding visible rupture with Chu. Sui He then forces Ying Bu to face the inconsistency between calling himself Xiang Yu’s subject and withholding full support during Xiang Yu’s Qi campaign and Liu Bang’s Pengcheng occupation.

The episode presents Ying Bu’s acceptance as both interest-based and unstable. He privately says “请奉命” to Sui He, but asks for secrecy because he still fears Xiang Yu. When Sui He publicly announces the defection before a Chu envoy and urges the envoy’s death, Ying Bu is pushed into 断路式策反绑定. He kills the envoy, attacks Chu, later loses to Chu forces, and flees with Sui He in civilian clothes to Liu Bang.

Hanji 159-1 continues the story after the flight. Liu Bang first receives Ying Bu while having his feet washed, which makes Ying Bu feel insulted and regret his defection. The later residence arrangement reverses that feeling: Ying Bu finds king-level lodging, vessels, and attendants comparable to Liu Bang’s own, so the episode reads the scene through 先挫锐气后同等厚待. The same source says Ying Bu’s family is killed after 项伯 collects the Jiujiang remnants, and Ying Bu gathers several thousand old contacts before Liu Bang assigns him troops to hold around Chenggao.

Hanji 166 gives Ying Bu a formal reward after the defection branch. In July, Liu Bang makes him Huainan king, converting the earlier Jiujiang defection and post-flight military value into a kingly position inside the anti-Chu alignment.

Hanji 167 places Ying Bu inside the final anti-Chu pressure. After 刘贾 induces 周殷 to surrender and Huainan is pacified, Zhou Yin gathers Jiujiang troops and welcomes Ying Bu northward, making Ying Bu’s earlier defection and Huainan kingship part of the road to 垓下之战.

Hanji 169 places Ying Bu in the accession-petition group after 项羽’s death. With 韩信, 韩王信, 吴芮, 张敖, and 臧荼, he urges 刘邦 to accept the imperial title, turning his earlier defection and Huainan kingship into part of 西汉 founding recognition.

Hanji 186 moves Ying Bu from founding-recognition king into the next surviving target of early Han suspicion. After 彭越 is killed and his corpse-paste is sent to vassal kings, Ying Bu stops hunting, returns to 淮南国, and secretly prepares troops. The immediate trigger is 奔鹤’s flight and accusation after a failed attempt to gain favor through Ying Bu’s favorite concubine. When Han investigators arrive, Ying Bu rejects 平原君诸建’s caution and accepts 梁富侯’s rebellion line, making his page part of 内廷通道攀附风险 and 调查推动式反叛升级.

Hanji 187 turns that decision into open rebellion and early campaign movement. Ying Bu arrests Han envoys, kills involved families, and presents his action as justice for wronged vassal kings, but the source keeps fear after Han Xin and Peng Yue as the deeper motive. He assumes Liu Bang is too old and ill to come personally and that no remaining Han general can match him after Han Xin and Peng Yue are dead. The episode then validates Xue Gong’s prediction that Ying Bu will choose the lower strategy: he attacks east, absorbs troops, crosses the Huai northward, and defeats a divided early Han Chu defense, showing tactical force without broad strategic expansion.

Hanji 188 completes Ying Bu’s defeat. He faces 刘邦 near Qi County after beating 刘交’s Chu forces, but Liu Bang waits for 刘肥 and 曹参 before attacking. Once 郦商 presses the front, Cao Shen attacks from the northeast, and 灌婴 envelops from the northwest, Ying Bu loses the field and flees across the Huai and Yangtze before dying at Zixiang in Poyang County.

Hanji 189 supplies the final lure behind that death. 吴臣’s Changsha-side envoys tell Ying Bu they can flee with him toward 南越, but Ying Bu is killed at Zixiang after trusting the route. The source therefore closes Ying Bu’s branch by moving from battlefield defeat to failed refuge.

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