Founding of Eastern Han: 东汉，试火- 王郎谋反 Pt.3 The Emperor's Crucible

Music: One Against the World

The young farmer had destroyed an empire. At the age of 28, the farmer with blood of ancient kings had broken an empire's fist and took the realm back for his illustrious clan. At age of 28, he lost the only surviving brother- his lifelong shadow. Killed by none other than an unworthy kin. One whom he had helped put on the throne. The age of innocence was truly gone. Yet it was through these tortuous turns that~ at age of 28, Liu Xiu, the future Guangwu Emperor and salvator of the Han dynasty was made.

The moment that forged Liu Xiu was one of triumphal joy and sudden pain, and occurred on the foot heels of one of his- and ancient China's most lopsided victories. Barely a month after his charge at Kunyang in 23.AD, Liu Xiu's elder brother Liu Yan was suddenly executed by his cousin, a puppet emperor placed on the newly restored Han throne. Already, a new world was coalescing at a break neck pace outside Liu Xiu's camps- with so many twists and turns that in hindsight: it might have been fortunate that Liu Xiu was very far away from the ground zero of the crime (and the bad blood that followed.)

Stand Off: power vacuum of the Post- Wang Mang world. virtually all of Central and northeastern China rose up against Wang Mang in the early 20s. By late 23 AD, all the major powers were angling and positioning themselves to become the paramount power. After a climactic massacre at Wang's palace where Wang Mang and his retainers were mercilessly butchered, a faction rose to a unparalleled position among all the rebels. The Lulin (lit. "Green Forest") rebels (Gold) took the capital at Chang An and declared one of their fellow rebels- a puppet still serving on behalf of Lulin's commanders as the new Gengshi Emperor. With this grand illusion of a Han "Restoration," there was at last peace in the realms. 

RESPITE OF EVIL PEACE: SUSPICIONS

After Wang Mang's death, the empire largely, at least nominally, submitted to the Gengshi Emperor as the legitimately restored Han emperor. But this was a peace of daggers. The Post- Wang Mang political climate was one of the most unique moments in Chinese history, and one of a few time in history where the state was directly subordinated under the whims of mobs of peasant rebels. Although speed and the clever installation of the Gengshi Emperor secured momentary political supremacy for the Lulin faction (having toppled Wang Mang, captured the capital as well as having a Han- blooded puppet Emperor at hand): in reality, the empire, and especial Central China was still poised on a knife's edge. Much if not all of Central China was occupied by all manner of armed rebel factions that all had generals of their own.

THE EMBERS OF A NEW CIVIL WAR

The puppet Gengshi Emperor had no talent to reign the empire. He left all government affairs to his father-in-law, Zhao Meng 赵萌

OVERTURES & TREACHERIES

The first of Gengshi Emperor's many policies was sound and seemed to have been put forward by his more reasonable Lulin handlers. One of his first acts was to temporarily place his capital at Luoyang, and he sent diplomats to try to persuade the other major rebel faction, the Chimei (or "Red Eyebrows") to submit to his rule in peace. Thus, he sent diplomats to try to persuade Chimei generals to submit and acknowledge his supremacy. 

Fan Chong- the commander of the Red Eyebrows and the other key Red Eyebrows generals agreed with around 20 generals going to Luoyang where they were made given noble titles and conferred as marquesses. However, they were not given any actual lands of their own, and seeing that Gengshi Emperor was about to disband their formidable army which numbered some over 100,000 soldiers, they hastily left Luoyang and returned back to their base at Puyang.  

THE KILLING OF LIU YAN

Another grim betrayal happened to Liu Xiu's elder Brother Liu Yan. Liu Yan had always been one of the most audacious and charismatic figures who joined the Lulin rebels. As the patriarch of the Liu clan in Hubei he was the one who took Liu Xiu out of his complacent idyl and led the clan on the path to fight Wang Mang's tyranny. In fact, before Gengshi's selection as the puppet emperor- Liu Yan was supposed to be the supreme rebel leader of the whole Lulin. However because the Lulin feared that if Liu Yan ascended the throne he'd not need them anymore, they opted to choose a weak distant cousin of his as the new Gengshi Emperor. 

Two brothers, one content to stay a humble farmer, while another was deeply called by the great turmoils of their times. The blood of ancient kings stirred in their veins, and a prophecy had stated that a descendant of the deposed Han dynasty would sit once again on the dragon throne. The moment Liu Yan died, Liu Xiu was forced to be his own man, alone and without his shadow, his first act was his perhaps his most surprising one.

Music: A World Betrayed (负天下人)

Liu Xiu was still basking in the aftermath of his great triumph at Kunyang when he heard the news. After Gengshi Emperor killed one of Liu Yan's subordinates, Liu Yan- then the Prime Minister bitterly protested the treatment of his executed friend. The Gengshi Emperor~ who long realized that Liu Yan was both more deserving of being an Emperor (and that if he chose to, he could take the throne with popular support) immediately had Liu Yan opportunistically beheaded. And just like that, the man who had smashed the iron fist of Wang Mang, who had saved the whole Lulin Army, who had saved the revolution and who had just put the Gengshi Emperor on the throne, lost the only other close family member he had left to that said Emperor. What Liu Xiu did in the immediate hours after hearing of his brother's wrongful execution defined him. He rode straight to Luoyang and immediately pledged his loyalty to the Gengshi Emperor.

Sparing no time, Liu Xiu mounted and left his army. Without taking great armies nor many guards with him he rode to Luoyang and submitted to the Gengshi Emperor. When he saw Liu Yan's old mourning comrades, he greeted them politely, but did not show any feelings nor allowed conversation to remind him of his recent victory at Kunyang. And when he brokered an audience with the Gengshi Emperor. He only prostrated to assure of his continual loyalty to the Gengshi Emperor and blamed himself for failing to make his elder brother respect the Emperor's will. In a surprising twist, for his actions, Liu Xiu was rewarded with the title of "Great General Smashing the Enemy" (polu da jiangjun 破虏大将军), was given the title of Marquis of Wuxin 武信侯  and appointed to the post of Minister of War (da sima 大司马) with control over a large contingent of Gengshi's imperial army. Liu Xiu was also allowed to bury his brother and conduct a proper funeral for him.

THE MASTER STROKE

So...you read that right. Despite being the sole relative of a major rival who was put to death for being a threat to the sitting regime, Liu Xiu was now not only promoted to be one of the greatest commanders of Gengshi Emperor's army but also the head of his imperial fist. And all of this was exactly what happened, a diplomatic threading of the needle and an epic critical roll of speech. In only a matter of days since Liu Yan's death, Liu Xiu was able to not only save his own skin but turn his bereaved clan's fatal loss from the brink of death and change it to a major win. This action demonstrated two of Liu Xiu's enduring core strengths, a complete strategic mastery of his own temperament, and a keen understanding of political stagecraft. Upon hearing of Liu Yan's death, Liu Xiu realized two things he must achieve, to get his word in before anyone else, and also to convince the 1 person in the empire who could make all the difference.

Music: Silken Wind Through the Bamboo Forest

Having assessed that the Gengshi Emperor is fundamentally prone to be influenced (the primary trait which made his handlers chose him as a puppet) and that he is at heart an insecure and inexperienced man, Liu Xiu deduced that what killed his elder brother was the threat that he seemingly posed. It was his brother's image plus the evil suggestions put forward by the Lulin advisors who whispered to the Gengshi Emperor. Thus- if he would convince the Gengshi Emperor that he was both: not a threat, and give an account of himself personally, it would make all the difference to the suggestive puppet Emperor. Most of all, Liu Xiu bet on his own irreplaceable value, because he was one of Gengshi's most capable remaining commanders, without him essentially meant that the regime's future was severely jeopardized. After the requisite prostrations and assurances, Liu Xiu was able to influence the deeply insecure Gengshi Emperor to be ashamed of what he had done, spare Liu and make him one of the head of the imperial army.

It was during his return to Luoyang that Liu Xiu married his long time childhood friend, Yin Lihua- who was renowned as one of the greatest beauties of Chinese history. Various version of Liu Xiu's biography spoke of the initial power differentials between the two lovers. When Liu was a teenager he was enchanted by the beauty of the young Yin and longed after this beautiful official's daughter. However at the time Liu was but a farm estate's holder. Yin would remain Liu Xiu's life long favorite. After burying Liu Yan, together, they adopted all of Liu Yan's children and raised them as their own.

THE NORTHERN MARCH

For the meantime, duty calls calls for Liu Xiu. After installing Liu Xiu as the head of one of the imperial columns, the Gengshi Emperor summoned Liu Xiu for his muscles. By this time, the Gengshi Emperor was fed up with the vacillation of the other factions in the empire that had not fully capitulate to his rule. In order to forcibly bring all of the yet- submitted regions to heel, in the autumn of 23 AD the Gengshi Emperor ordered Liu Xiu to march north beyond the Yellow River and crush any factions that opposed imperial rule. 

23 AD. An age of muscles: Frustrated with the many factions that refused to recognize his supremacy, the Gengshi Emperor (gold, lower) dispatched Liu Xiu north of the yellow River to bring all the rebel armies who have yet capitulated to the imperial rule under heel. After taking Handan 邯郸 (gold, upper,) Liu Xiu made it the headquarters of his northern operations. 

THE BRINK OF DEATH- USURPER'S UPRISING

However, whatever plans Liu Xiu had for the north it was soon all blown away by an unpredictable turn of events. Little did he knew, his whole region was primed to explode into simultaneous rebellions. After being warmly greeted by the peasants in his march north of the Yellow River, and having received some of Gengshi's talented ministers who into his service, the areas surrounding Liu Xiu's headquarters in Handan 邯郸 came under the sway of a pretender. 

Art by Stanton Feng

A fortune teller named Wang Lang 王郎 had been spreading rumors in the countryside around Handan that he's in fact one of the lost descendants of the Han imperial house and that he would lead the people to a new age of change should they support him as emperor. 

Music: Rat's Nest

After he spread these rumors among the people, the people of Handan began to believe that he was indeed a genuine son of the former Han emperor, and the commanderies north of the Yellow River quickly pledged allegiance to him. In the new years of 24 AD, the pretender's bands attacked Handan in the thousands without warning, many were killed in the first phase of the sudden massacre.

THE DESPERATE FIGHTING RETREAT

Liu Xiu barely escaped with his life out the city. Several times Liu was almost trapped by pursuers or by closed gate passes. It was a relentless escape because Wang Lang had offered a hefty prize for anyone who could slay him and bring back his head. The desperate retreat was filled with crippling hardship, Liu Xiu- ever cautious in his escape, did not dare to visit local hamlets, ate and slept on the side of the winter road.

In January of 24 AD Liu Xiu was forced to withdraw to the northern city of Jicheng (modern Beijing) near the foot of the Han dynasty Great Wall. Not long after, he faced rebellions in all of his surrounding area, and was again nearly killed by rebels who pledged allegiance to Wang. By then, Wang Lang, had adopted the title of emperor in Handan.

Near the Han Great Wall garrisons Liu Xiu reached two commanderies that were still loyal to the Gengshi Emperor—Xindu (信都, near modern Hengshui, Hebei), whose governor was Ren Guang (任光), and Herong, in part of modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei, whose governor was Pi Tong (邳彤). Together they held roughly over two thousand troops. When Liu Xiu arrived at these commanderies, his army had been starving in the wintry frost and was on the brink of exhaustion. 

A MIGHTY WEAVING OF FORCES

Thankfully for Liu Xiu, his diplomacy, vision, and charisma prevailed at this breaking point. Ren 任's pool of talented sub commanders were exceptional military men, and many of these aides came from powerful clans in the region, they pledged their allegiance to Liu Xiu in ending the northern rebellion. An ever clever diplomat, Liu soon actively dispatched many letters to all possible regional powers in the surrounding provinces, rallying the call to put down Wang Lang with their combined forces. To stem the tides of Wang Lang's propaganda, Liu Xiu drafted many letters to be posted throughout the neighboring districts calling for an anti- Wang Lang coalition. After assessing all the powerful military governors and rebel leaders in the region, Liu Xiu made his overtures.

Music: Balance

He actively wrote to the powerful Prince of Zhending, Liu Yang (刘杨)- who held 10,000 crack troops and great sway over Hebei's politics, to join him. To cement this formal alliance and to pledge his continual cooperation with Liu Yang, he agreed to Liu Yang's suggestion of a political marriage between his niece Guo Shengtong (during this time Han dynasty males commonly had multiple wives and concubines in their house hold.) 

The political nature of this arrangement was not lost on all of the participants. There after, the two armies combined in strength. With them under his leadership,  Liu Xiu mobilized these fresh troops and defeated Wang Lang's generals several times.

A UNITED FIST

In the meantime, one of Liu Xiu's officers, Geng Yan 耿弇, the son of the nearby governor of Shanggu Commandery (上谷, roughly modern Zhangjiakou, Hebei), escaped the enemy blockades and fled back to his father's commandery, and persuaded both his father Geng Kuang (耿况) and the governor of the neighboring Yuyang Commandery (渔阳, roughly modern Beijing), Peng Chong (彭宠), to support Liu Xiu's cause. Geng Yan then led the two respective commandery's cavalry south to unite with Liu Xiu.

Liu Xiu wasted no time and directly went on the offensive. Using the separate armies and cleverly launching diversionary feints, he slipped passed Wang Lang's armies and retook many of the captured counties. Once the districts heard that Liu Xiu was winning, many towns began to protest against Wang Lang. During Liu Xiu's southern reconquest from the Great Walls, he killed over 400 of Wang's sub-commanders, scattered some 30,000 enemy soldiers and defeated 2 of Wang Lang's generals. 

UNITED FIST

Contemporary to Augustus, and his wars were no less than remarkable. Liu Xiu possessed a deep understanding of his men's talents as well as a consummate strategic mind that correctly assessed most of his enemies. True to Sun Tzu's quote: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." For the rest of Liu's career he would win many battles even while not present on the battlefield.

The combined forces gave Liu Xiu enough strength to make a direct assault against Handan. According to the Later Han records During the fourth month of 24 AD Liu Xiu's army besieged Handan, and during the fifth month (May 27, 24 AD) the city of Handan was conquered. Perhaps fittingly, the pretender Wang Lang barely escaped from the city at night, but was soon caught and killed by Wang Ba, one of Liu Xiu's commanders. 

NORTHERN HEADQUARTERS 

Alongside Liu Xiu's lopsided victory at Kunyang, Hebei was also a baptism by fire for Liu Xiu. Here his immense sense of improvisation and diplomacy was put on full display. Although having been caught flat- footed and deprived of all of his advantages, Liu nonetheless proved himself to be a highly resourceful survivor whose capable of (just like his cunning and resourceful ancestor Liu Bang) pulling out an unexpected decisive victory out of his bag and roping forces much greater than him into his cause. Having been driven out of his fortress without supplies, starving, frostbitten, and nearly broken, within 5 months he returned to his old quarters at the helm leading some of the most powerful warlords in the province.  

For this victory, the Gengshi Emperor rewarded Liu Xiu with the title of Prince of Xiao 萧. This region thereafter became Liu's stronghold. Soon, nearly all of the major rebellions in the north were pacified under Liu Xiu's leadership. However, despite these series of victories, Liu Xiu's reputation was blackened in his absence.  

By late 24 AD, the remaining leaders of the Lulin Rebels- aka, the handlers of the puppet Emperor were becoming increasingly paranoid of Liu Xiu's achievements. To blacken his name they referred to him as an "Tongma Emperor" 铜马帝 in the north, whose sole achievement involved crushing bands of Tongma rebel peasants. As such, the court soon began to issue orders recalling Liu Xiu to return to the imperial capital. At this time, the Gengshi Emperor had relocated his capital into the old Han imperial capital at Chang An.

Although Liu Xiu maintained appearances and dutifully carried out all the tasks, he began to indirectly sack a number of Gengshi's commanders in his army and slowly replaced them with officers loyal to himself. In time, more talented ministers who were disappointed with Gengshi's rule slowly flocked to Liu Xiu's camps. By late 24, most of the lands from Handan to the Great Walls were personally allied with Liu Xiu, meanwhile the Red Eyebrows have been marshaling their forces north of the Yellow River.

However, Liu Xiu by this point had no intention of returning to Chang An. Not only had he not forgotten the slaying of his elder brother, but he did not trust the ministers and courtiers who whispered in Chang An. Nearly all of Liu Xiu's newly made friends also actively encouraged him to abandon the Gengshi Emperor. Liu Xiu thus delayed his imperial recall and made excuses that the troubled region still needed to be pacified.

Music: Way of the Closed Fist

WHEN FATE AGAIN INTERVENED

Fortunately for Liu Xiu, his weariness with the Gengshi Emperor and the court at Chang An was solved by someone else. In the fall of 24 AD. The Red Eyebrows declared war on the Gengshi Emperor and raced toward Chang An in two massive armies numbered over 300,000 men. 

Having already long predicted that this confrontation would happen, Liu Xiu simply decided to take point and watch as the two forces barreled toward each other's destruction. The age of innocence was truly gone. 

Join us next time in the final chapter as we see Liu Xiu wade into the army of the Red Eyebrows, restore a realm in flames, and finally claim his mantle as the new Shining Martial Emperor, the Salvator of the Han.

→ ☯ [PLEASE SUPPORT ME @ PATREON] ☯ ←

Thank you to my Patrons who has contributed $10 and above: You made this happen!

➢ ☯ Muramasa

➢ ☯ MK Celahir

➢ ☯ Vincent Ho (FerrumFlos1st)

➢ ☯ BurenErdene Altankhuyag

➢ ☯ Stephen D Rynerson

➢ ☯ Michael Lam

➢ ☯ Peter Hellman

➢ ☯ SunB

Eastern Han: PART ONE- Rebel

Eastern Han: PART TWO- General

Eastern Han: PART THREE- Warlord

Eastern Han: PART FOUR- Emperor