Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, was born in Pei County (present-day Jiangsu) and once served as a low-ranking village chief of Sishui.
Once, Liu Bang was ordered to escort a group of farmers to Mount Li for forced labor. Before they had even covered half the journey, several farmers had already escaped. Realizing that if things continued, all the farmers would flee before reaching Mount Li and he would be unable to answer for it, Liu Bang made a bold decision: he released all the remaining farmers. Moved by his gesture, a few chose to stay, and together with Liu Bang, they hid in the Mang and Dang mountain regions, preparing for an uprising. Soon, Liu Bang had gathered several hundred followers.
In 209 BCE, the brutal tyranny of Qin Er Shi sparked widespread discontent, culminating in the great peasant uprising led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang. The magistrate of Pei County, seeing Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's growing momentum and the response from surrounding counties, decided to surrender to them.
At this critical moment, Liu Bang's close friends Xiao He and Cao Shen, both county officials in Pei County, recommended him to the magistrate, suggesting they invite him back to help. The magistrate agreed and sent someone to fetch him, and Liu Bang gladly accepted.
But when Liu Bang's forces arrived at the city gates, the county magistrate changed his mind and even plotted to kill Xiao He and Cao Shen. With no other choice, Xiao He and Cao Shen fled the city under cover of night to join Liu Bang. Enraged by the magistrate's betrayal, Liu Bang wrote a letter, shot it onto the city wall with an arrow, and called on the townspeople to rise up and kill the magistrate.
The townspeople, long suffering under the magistrate's harsh rule, immediately rose up upon reading Liu Bang's letter. They killed the magistrate and lined the streets to welcome Liu Bang's army into the city.
Upon entering the city, the elders of Pei County unanimously nominated Liu Bang as their magistrate. Liu Bang declined, saying, "With peasant uprisings sweeping the land and chaos everywhere, if we choose the wrong leader and fail, we will all be ground to dust. Please select someone more capable than me!" However, Xiao He and Cao Can both insisted on supporting him. With their help, Liu Bang gathered several thousand men and officially declared an uprising in Pei County, raising the banner of rebellion against the Qin dynasty.
Later, people used the idiom "a complete rout" to describe a failure so total that nothing can be salvaged.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, Chapter "Annals of Gaozu"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "一败涂地" came to describe a failure so total that nothing can be salvaged.