From the time Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms as emperor until the abdication of the last emperor Puyi, a total of 422 emperors appeared in Chinese history. Among the more than 400 emperors, many were immediate emperors, such as Liu Bang, Liu Che, Liu Xiu, Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Li Shimin, Zhao Kuangyin, and Zhu Yuanzhang. None of these people are good at marching and fighting, but if anyone is the best at fighting, it is Liu Xiu. He once destroyed Wang Mang's million-strong army with 10,000 elite soldiers in the Battle of Kunyang, a record that no one among more than 400 emperors could match.
Liu Xiu was originally the ninth grandson of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, but because of the "Tui En Ling", there was no fiefdom by the time of his father's generation, and his father only served as a county commander in Jiyang County. More unfortunately, when Liu Xiu was 9 years old, his father died of illness. The Liu family brothers and sisters, who had lost their livelihood support, had to go far to Nanyang, turned to their uncle Liu Liang, and lived a life under the fence. Later, Wang Mang's reform failed, peasant uprisings broke out in many places, and Liu Xiu and his brother Liu Xiu also raised troops in Nanyang to form a Lingling army.
The main forces of the Lingling army were the Liu clan of Nanyang and the local Haojie, who were widowed and poorly equipped, and even in the early days, Liu Xiu rode an ox, so he was also known as the "founding emperor on the back of the ox". Due to their own weakness, in order to increase their momentum, Liu Xiu and his brother Liu Xiu joined the Green Forest Army with their troops, and broke the Mang army in places such as Shuishui and Yuyang, killing the new Mang generals Zhen Fu and Liang Qiu, and their strength increased greatly. In 23 AD, in order to eliminate the original regime established by the Green Forest Army, Wang Mang sent Wang Yi and Wang Xun to lead a heavy army to attack Kunyang, when Wang Yi threatened: The division of a million, what has been destroyed, now slaughter this city, bloody advance, singing and dancing, Gu is not happy!
At that time, there were only more than 9,000 defenders in Kunyang City, and because the difference in strength was too large, many people advocated abandoning the city and fleeing. At the critical moment, Liu Xiu persuaded the generals to hold firm, and personally led 13 cavalry out of the city at night to mobilize reinforcements in Lingxian and Haoxian and other places. Liu Xiu then led the 10,000 reinforcements to save Kunyang. He first personally led more than a thousand elites as the forward, repeatedly charged, and killed more than a thousand people of Wang Mang's army, and the morale of the Han army was greatly boosted. Subsequently, with three thousand warriors, they swerved back to the enemy's flank and sneaked into the base camp, and finally Wang Xun was killed in the rebellion. As soon as the lord died, Wang Mang's army was in chaos, and they all took the road to flee for their lives, coupled with the heavy rain in the sky, the water soared, and many people drowned while crossing the river. The main force of the New Dynasty's claimed million-strong army was destroyed under the city of Kunyang, and the three auxiliaries were shaken, and the New Mang regime collapsed.
As his power and influence expanded, Liu Xiu eventually turned against the Green Forest Army and proclaimed himself emperor in 25 AD at Yancheng, Hebei. In order to reflect the meaning of rejuvenating the Han Dynasty, Liu Xiujian still used the national name of "Han", which was called the Eastern Han Dynasty. Liu Xiu said that the empress treated the heroes well, was diligent in government affairs, paid attention to rest with the people, and the social economy was quickly restored, creating a situation in which Guangwu Zhongxing was created. In 57 AD, Liu Xiu died of illness, and the edict said: "I am not of any benefit to the people, and everything in the future is in accordance with the system of Emperor Xiaowen, and we must be thrifty." Neither the Assassin Nor the Two Thousand Stones Chieftain should leave the city where he was located, and he should not send officials or send condolence letters by post to express condolences. ”。 As the king of a country, before his death, he still remembered the people, Liu Xiu's last words were really touching, and some people also called him an emperor for thousands of years.