How Liu Xiu Defeated the Red Eyebrow Army

The Red Eyebrows still moved through Guanzhong and the central plains, and Liu Xiu had to finish this threat before the new Han could breathe.

Liu Xiu had settled his court in Luoyang, but Guanzhong was still in Red Eyebrow hands. Chang'an was the old Han capital, and the Red Eyebrows had placed Liu Penzi on the throne. As long as that force remained, Eastern Han could not truly sit securely.

Chang'an Could Not Hold Them

After defeating the Gengshi regime, the Red Eyebrows entered Chang'an. Almost immediately, they discovered that they could not hold the city properly.

Their army was too large, and food was running out. Soldiers plundered everywhere. The people of Guanzhong had already suffered under Wang Mang and then under the Gengshi regime. Now the Red Eyebrows made life feel worse again.

Some people began thinking of rescuing Liu Xuan, the former Gengshi Emperor, and using him to drive the Red Eyebrows out.

Fan Chong was anxious when he heard this, but Wang Kuang and Zhang Ang were even more afraid. They had once been Gengshi generals, then had surrendered to the Red Eyebrows, and had strongly urged Liu Xuan's death. If Liu Xuan were restored, they would be the first to be punished.

They repeatedly urged Fan Chong to kill him. Fan Chong had no deep tie to Liu Xuan and finally agreed. He ordered Xie Lu to strangle the former emperor. Liu Xuan's body was thrown into weeds in the open country.

Liu Gong, the elder brother of Liu Penzi, had helped negotiate Liu Xuan's surrender. When he saw this ending, he risked recovering the body and buried it where he could.

When Liu Xiu heard the news, he condemned the Red Eyebrows for cruelty, partly because Liu Xuan was also a member of the Liu clan. He ordered Deng Yu to collect Liu Xuan's remains and rebury him near the Ba Mausoleum of Emperor Wen of Han. He also made Liu Xuan's three sons marquises.

This mattered politically. To the people of Guanzhong, Liu Xiu now looked more like the protector of Han memory, while the Red Eyebrows looked more brutal and rootless.

A Palace Banquet Became a Scramble for Food

The Red Eyebrows were short of grain, and their court looked less like a court every day.

At the year-end sacrifice, a banquet was held in the palace with music and formal ritual. But before the drinking even began, the ministers started quarreling. Outside, hungry soldiers heard that there was wine and meat inside. They climbed over walls, smashed through doors, and rushed in to seize food.

The commandant of the guards led troops in and killed more than a hundred people before the disturbance was suppressed.

The young emperor Liu Penzi watched bloodshed around him every day. He was terrified and wept constantly. Liu Gong saw that the Red Eyebrow regime could not continue like this. He urged his younger brother to give up the seal and cords of office and stop being an emperor in name only.

On New Year's Day in Jianwu year two, Liu Penzi assembled the officials. Liu Gong stood up first and said that his brother had been emperor for nearly a year, yet the realm had only become more chaotic. He could not bear the post and should be allowed to return to common life while worthier men chose another ruler.

Fan Chong and the others quickly rose and apologized, but some objected. The emperor had been established by the Red Eyebrow generals, they argued, and could not be removed by Liu Gong's words alone.

Liu Gong saw that the situation was not moving and withdrew.

Then Liu Penzi himself stepped down from the throne, removed the seal and ribbons, and kowtowed to the generals. He said they had made him emperor but still burned, killed, and looted until the people no longer trusted them. If they needed to kill him to answer for it, he had nowhere to run.

Fan Chong and the others were ashamed. They all left their seats and bowed, promising not to let the troops run wild again. But then they lifted Liu Penzi back onto the throne and put the seal and ribbons on him once more. He still could not escape the title.

For a few days after that, the Red Eyebrow leaders closed the camp gates and plundering lessened. Within twenty days, hunger drove the soldiers out again. This time the looting was even worse, and more people fled.

Westward, Then Back East

Fan Chong and the others understood that if hundreds of thousands of men stayed in Chang'an, they would starve. But Liu Xiu held Luoyang to the east. Liu Jia, a kinsman of Liu Xiu, blocked the south. Deng Yu pressed from the north. The only open road seemed to be west.

In Jianwu year two, the Red Eyebrows, claiming a force of a million, moved along the Qinling range toward Anding and Beidi, in the direction of today's Gansu and Ningxia. Their purpose was simple: find grain.

Their withdrawal from Chang'an gave Deng Yu a chance to recover the old capital. Liu Xiu criticized him for moving too slowly, saying Chang'an's officials and people were frightened and needed help.

Deng Yu still did not rush. He continued gathering men and grain in the Shang Commandery area and entered Chang'an only after the Red Eyebrows had left.

But he did not stay long. Anding and Beidi had also been stripped of supplies. The Red Eyebrows still had no food, and Wei Xiao in Tianshui attacked them, blocking their westward route. With no road west, the Red Eyebrows turned east again through snow and cold.

In the summer of Jianwu year two, they reentered Chang'an. Deng Yu was driven out.

Deng Yu had a high reputation, but his campaigns against the Red Eyebrows repeatedly failed. The Red Eyebrows were disorderly, but they were also troops hardened by years of chaos, and Deng Yu could not easily crush them.

Local Threats Came First

After the Han setback in Guanzhong, local powers across the central plains began stirring. Liu Xiu had to adjust. Before concentrating again on the Red Eyebrows, he first had to calm unstable places nearer the core.

He summoned his ministers, threw urgent reports from various regions on the ground, and asked who would go. Jia Fu volunteered to attack Yancheng. Liu Xiu approved and sent Jia Fu and Wu Han.

Jia Fu quickly pacified Runan and nearby commanderies and returned north.

Then another problem appeared. One of Jia Fu's subordinate commanders passed through Yingchuan and killed civilians without cause. Kou Xun, governor of Yingchuan, enforced the law and executed him.

Jia Fu felt humiliated and threatened revenge. Kou Xun knew Jia Fu was angry and avoided meeting him, because he did not want private resentment to damage state affairs.

Later Liu Xiu summoned both men and said the realm was not yet settled; how could two fierce tigers fight each other? He personally held a banquet to reconcile them.

Only after his generals were again working together could Liu Xiu focus once more on the Red Eyebrows in Guanzhong.

Feng Yi Replaced Deng Yu

After the Red Eyebrows entered Guanzhong a second time, they searched for valuables and even broke into imperial tombs. Royal remains were disturbed, and the bones of Empress Lu were said to have been used as firewood.

Deng Yu attacked again and lost again. He could only ask Liu Xiu for help.

Liu Xiu appointed Feng Yi to replace him and lead troops west. Before Feng Yi departed, Liu Xiu told him that the people of the Three Capital Region had suffered repeated turmoil. He was not sending Feng Yi merely to take cities and land, but to end the disorder and rescue the people from fire and water.

He also warned Deng Yu that the Red Eyebrows, once short of grain, would naturally move east. The Han army should meet hunger with full supplies and exhaustion with rest.

In Jianwu year two, Guanzhong fell into terrible famine. People even reached the point of eating one another. As Liu Xiu predicted, the Red Eyebrows could not remain there and had to move east. Liu Xiu prepared defenses at Yiyang to intercept them.

Deng Yu's Last Fight

Feng Yi reached Huayin and faced the Red Eyebrows for more than sixty days. Deng Yu had received Liu Xiu's warning, but he was unhappy. He did not want to return without achievement and still wanted one more battle.

Feng Yi urged him not to rush. The Red Eyebrows were numerous. Better to wear them down and accept surrender slowly. Liu Xiu had already placed heavy troops near Mianchi. When the Red Eyebrows moved east, Han forces could press them from both sides.

Deng Yu would not listen. He sent troops to pursue. The Red Eyebrows deliberately abandoned carts loaded with beans. Deng Yu's hungry soldiers rushed to seize the food. The Red Eyebrows counterattacked, and Deng Yu's army was badly defeated. Feng Yi arrived, and only then did the Red Eyebrows pull back.

Deng Yu still wanted to pursue. Feng Yi warned him again: the enemy had only suffered a small setback, not a true defeat, and Han troops were already tired. Deng Yu pushed on anyway. Feng Yi could not stop him and went along.

Before long, Red Eyebrow ambushes rose on every side. Deng Yu and Feng Yi were both scattered. Deng Yu escaped toward Yiyang with a little more than twenty guards. Feng Yi had to dismount and climb along cliffs on foot before he made it back to camp.

Feng Yi Broke Them with an Ambush

When Feng Yi returned to camp, the Red Eyebrows attacked soon after. He first sent a small force to meet them. The Red Eyebrows thought the Han army was weak and threw their strength against Feng Yi's camp.

Once they had committed themselves, Feng Yi ordered his main force forward. The fighting lasted until dusk. Then Feng Yi waved his signal flag, and a force dressed like Red Eyebrow soldiers suddenly struck from the side.

He had prepared disguised troops in ambush.

The Red Eyebrow formation collapsed into confusion. Feng Yi pursued hard and captured more than eighty thousand men. Another force of more than one hundred thousand fled toward Yiyang.

Liu Xiu was already there in person with a prepared army. The Red Eyebrows suddenly found themselves facing the emperor's main force and did not know what to do. Liu Penzi sent Liu Gong to ask for surrender terms.

Liu Gong asked: if they brought a million followers to surrender, how would the emperor treat them?

Liu Xiu answered that he would spare their lives.

Liu Penzi, Chancellor Xu Xuan, and more than thirty leaders came out bare-shouldered in surrender, offering the imperial seal and ribbons. More than one hundred thousand men submitted with them.

The next day, Liu Xiu displayed his army beside the Luo River and let Liu Penzi and the Red Eyebrow leaders look at it. He asked Fan Chong and the others whether they regretted surrendering; if they did, they could return to camp and fight again.

Xu Xuan quickly bowed and said they had already agreed when leaving Chang'an to entrust their lives to the emperor. Now that they had surrendered, it felt like leaving a tiger's mouth and returning to a merciful mother. They had no regret.

Liu Xiu praised Xu Xuan, then brought the surrendered Red Eyebrows back to Luoyang. Fan Chong and the others were allowed to live there with their families and were given fields and houses.

The Ending of Liu Penzi

Later, Fan Chong and Pang An plotted rebellion and were executed. Yang Yin, Xu Xuan, and some others were allowed to live out their lives in their home areas.

Liu Xiu showed pity to Liu Penzi and gave him a post as a palace gentleman in the household of the King of Zhao. Later Liu Penzi became blind. Liu Xiu granted him official fields so that he could live from the rents for the rest of his life.

The Gengshi regime and the Red Eyebrow regime had now both been absorbed into Eastern Han. But the realm was still not unified. Local separatists remained, and even some of Liu Xiu's own old followers and trusted commanders would soon raise armies against him.