How Liu Xiu Became Emperor and Rebuilt the Han

After Wang Mang fell, the empire did not settle at once, and Liu Xiu had to raise the Han banner inside a fractured world.

In the previous Western Han storyline, Liu Xiu had already survived the Gengshi court and built a base in Hebei. But a base was not an empire.

Wang Mang was dead. The Gengshi Emperor had entered Guanzhong. Yet the person who could actually put the broken world back together was still in Hebei, gathering strength one hard choice at a time.

A Political Marriage in Zhending

After Liu Xiu escaped to Xindu, he finally gained enough support to face Wang Lang. Local officials such as Ren Guang stood with him, and the Geng family brought in troops from Yuyang and Shanggu. His momentum grew as county after county submitted.

But Hebei was still dangerous.

Then news came from Zhending. Liu Yang, the King of Zhending, had gathered a force said to number one hundred thousand and was preparing to join Wang Lang against Liu Xiu and the Gengshi regime.

If Zhending turned against him, Liu Xiu's Hebei campaign would become far harder. One of his officers volunteered to negotiate with Liu Yang. The envoy returned with an answer: Liu Yang was willing to submit, but only if he formed a marriage tie with Liu Xiu.

The problem was that the officer had already accepted the condition on Liu Xiu's behalf.

Liu Xiu had only recently married Yin Lihua. Taking Liu Yang's niece Guo Shengtong as another wife made little emotional sense. Politically, however, refusing the marriage might push Zhending straight into Wang Lang's camp.

His followers urged him to accept. In a civil war, Zhending's support could not be thrown away. Liu Xiu agreed to the marriage. When Geng Yan arrived with cavalry from Yuyang and Shanggu, Liu Xiu's military position became much stronger.

The Decision at Handan

Liu Xiu next surrounded Julu. Wang Lang sent his general Ni Hong to relieve it, and Liu Xiu suffered an early setback. Geng Yan's arrival helped turn the situation back.

At this point Geng Chun offered a sharper plan. Julu might take time, but Wang Lang himself was in Handan. Instead of being dragged down by one city, Liu Xiu should strike at the source.

Liu Xiu accepted the advice. His army turned toward Handan, winning as it advanced until it reached the city walls.

Wang Lang saw the danger and sent envoys to ask for terms. He even produced documents that supposedly proved his descent from the Han imperial house.

Liu Xiu refused to play along. Even if Emperor Cheng of Han himself returned from the dead, he said in effect, the empire would not automatically belong to him. How much less could Wang Lang, a false Liu Ziyu, claim it?

With surrender on those terms rejected, Wang Lang held out. Liu Xiu attacked for more than twenty days. Handan finally fell, and Wang Lang was killed by Wang Ba.

Inside the city, Liu Xiu found many letters exchanged between Wang Lang and men in his own camp. If he investigated them one by one, fear would spread through the army.

So he did not read them. He burned them in public.

The message was clear: whatever wavering had happened before, it could end here. Those who were frightened could settle their hearts. After Handan, Wang Lang the false emperor was gone, and Liu Xiu's prestige in Hebei rose sharply.

But in name, Liu Xiu was still a subject of Liu Xuan, the Gengshi Emperor. And the Gengshi regime was already decaying.

Refusing to Return to Chang'an

After Liu Xuan moved to Chang'an, government fell into the hands of men such as Li Song and Zhao Meng. Zhao Meng abused power, offices and titles were handed out recklessly, and resentment in Chang'an deepened.

When Liu Xiu reported his victory at Handan, Liu Xuan made him King of Xiao. At the same time, he ordered him to disband his troops and return to Chang'an.

Liu Xuan understood the danger. A man like Liu Xiu could not be allowed to stay outside with troops and prestige forever. Summoning him to Chang'an was the safest way to control him.

Liu Xiu understood it too. If he went back, he would be forced to bow his head. If he ever tried to stand upright again, he might follow the path of his elder brother Liu Yan, who had been killed by the Gengshi court.

Yet Liu Xiu could not simply declare rebellion. Geng Kuang advised him bluntly: the Gengshi regime had lost the people's hearts, the relatives and generals in Chang'an behaved wildly, and many commoners thought they were even worse than Wang Mang. Liu Xiu had reputation, troops, and momentum. The world should not be left in the hands of men who could not govern it.

Liu Xiu listened in silence for a long time.

Then he answered the Gengshi envoy: Hebei was not yet pacified. He could not return to Chang'an until it was settled.

On the surface, the words preserved the relationship between ruler and subject. In reality, Liu Xiu was preparing to walk his own road.

The Bronze Horse Emperor

Hebei was filled with armed groups: bandits, hungry refugees, local strongmen, ruined imperial clansmen, and private troops attached to wealthy households. Their numbers were said to reach into the millions. If Liu Xiu wanted to pacify the realm, he first had to absorb or defeat these forces.

He sent Wu Han with an imperial staff to requisition cavalry from the ten commanderies of Youzhou. Miao Zeng, the governor of Youzhou, secretly ordered the commanderies not to obey. Wu Han took only a little more than twenty riders to Wuzhong, arrested Miao Zeng on the road, and executed him on the spot.

The northern commanderies were shaken and began sending troops.

Liu Xiu himself attacked the Bronze Horse armies. After several battles, most of the Bronze Horse forces surrendered. Before the surrender was fully settled, other Bronze Horse groups attacked again, and Liu Xiu had to fight at Puyang until they too were defeated and submitted.

He did not treat the surrendered leaders only with suspicion. He gave their chiefs noble ranks and ordered them to return to their camps to reorganize their troops. Then he rode through the surrendered camps lightly armed, without armor and without a heavy escort.

The gesture moved the surrendered generals. They felt that the King of Xiao trusted them openly, and they could no longer keep divided hearts.

Liu Xiu redistributed their troops among his commanders. The number under his control grew into the hundreds of thousands. A large part of the manpower he later used to pacify the empire came from these forces, which is why people called him the Bronze Horse Emperor.

A Rear Base in Henei

As the Red Eyebrow army began moving toward Chang'an, Liu Xiu also prepared to expand. He sent Deng Yu west with twenty thousand elite troops, while he led the main army north to continue recovering Yan and Zhao.

But he had a rear problem. Luoyang was still held by the Gengshi regime. Zhu Wei and Li Yi guarded it. If Liu Xiu moved north and Deng Yu moved west, Luoyang might threaten Henei behind him.

Liu Xiu asked Deng Yu who could handle such a post. Deng Yu recommended Kou Xun, saying he had both civil and military ability and could hold Henei.

Liu Xiu appointed Kou Xun governor of Henei with the authority of a great general, and ordered Feng Yi to command Henei troops along the river as outside support. He told Kou Xun that just as Gaozu had relied on Xiao He to hold Guanzhong, he now hoped Kou Xun would protect the transport routes and grain supply.

Only after this arrangement did Liu Xiu feel able to move north.

Feng Yi used Henei to contain Luoyang. He wrote to Li Yi, urging him to submit. Li Yi remembered his old ties with Liu Xiu and Liu Yan, and also remembered his part in Liu Yan's death. He hesitated and wrote back that he was willing to come over.

Liu Xiu told Feng Yi not to trust Li Yi too easily. Then he deliberately showed Li Yi's letter to the generals.

The generals worried that this exposed a secret. But Liu Xiu wanted the news to leak. It did. Zhu Wei heard that Li Yi had divided loyalties and sent someone to assassinate him. Luoyang's internal trust cracked, and its military morale began to shake.

When Zhu Wei later sent troops across the river to attack Wen County, Kou Xun assembled troops quickly, Feng Yi's reinforcements arrived in time, and they drove the enemy back. Feng Yi and Kou Xun pursued all the way to the walls of Luoyang. From then on, Luoyang kept its gates closed even in daylight.

Danger at Shunshui

Liu Xiu's northern campaigns were not smooth all the way. After defeating several groups, including Youlai forces, he was attacked at Shunshui.

An enemy spear struck his horse in the belly. The horse panicked and threw Liu Xiu to the ground. Enemy soldiers rushed in, and the situation became extremely dangerous.

Geng Yan and Feng Yi arrived in time, broke into the fighting, and rescued him. When they helped him up, they found that his foot was injured. Liu Xiu even joked that he had almost become an enemy laughingstock.

The danger was not over. The enemy soon caught up again. Geng Yan and Feng Yi fought while retreating and escorted Liu Xiu into Fanyang.

Only after the generals regrouped and learned that Liu Xiu was alive did the army settle. Liu Xiu then changed tactics. He used a scorched-earth approach, sending light cavalry ahead of the Youlai forces and ordering local areas not to supply grain. Short of food, the Youlai forces gradually broke apart. Hebei was close to being pacified.

The Throne at Haocheng

By this point, Liu Xiu held territory across multiple regions and commanded troops said to number in the millions. His followers believed the time had come and repeatedly urged him to take the imperial title.

Ma Wu of Nanyang spoke first. The ancestral temples and altars of the state needed someone to entrust them to. Liu Xiu should become emperor first, then discuss campaigns.

The reasoning was practical. If Liu Xiu remained only the King of Xiao, a title granted by the Gengshi Emperor, then attacking the Gengshi regime would look illegitimate. His followers could easily be treated as rebels.

Liu Xiu acted shocked and scolded Ma Wu for saying such a thing. But the generals kept pressing.

Geng Chun put it even more directly. Men had abandoned homes and risked death to follow Liu Xiu because they hoped to earn merit in a new order. If Liu Xiu never took a supreme title, people would see no future and their hearts would scatter.

Liu Xiu said he needed more time to think.

He also asked Feng Yi. Feng Yi said the Gengshi regime had decayed, the world had no true master, and only Liu Xiu could preserve the Han ancestral line. Liu Xiu said he had dreamed of a red dragon rising to heaven. Feng Yi answered that this showed Heaven's mandate and should not be doubted.

When the army reached Haocheng, Qiang Hua, an old classmate of Liu Xiu from Chang'an, arrived from Guanzhong with a red prophecy text. Whether such signs were real or not, they carried great force in that age. The generals used it to urge him again and again.

In the sixth month of 25 CE, Liu Xiu mounted the altar of state at Haocheng and took the imperial title. He kept Han as the dynastic name. Later he would be known as Emperor Guangwu of Han.

From serving the Gengshi regime to becoming emperor in Hebei, Liu Xiu had finally taken the Han banner into his own hands.

But becoming emperor did not mean the realm was settled. Chang'an and Luoyang were still in other hands, and the Red Eyebrow army was pressing toward Guanzhong. The new dynasty first needed a capital where it could truly sit down and govern.