In the last year of the Western Han Dynasty, his foreign relative Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty and established a new dynasty, but after the usurpation, Xin Mang soon exposed a series of problems. Blindly retro and unrealistic changes, obstinately moving hard, have made people miss the Western Han Dynasty that has just been replaced. In addition, coupled with the continuous natural disasters, the people were hungry, and eventually the people's resentment boiled over the country, so that the ordinary people under extreme dissatisfaction rose up one after another, and Wang Mang's regime was crumbling.
Picture - Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), the capital of Wang Mang's new dynasty
Compared with the Western Han Dynasty, which lasted for 210 years, Xinmang, which relied on usurpation, was very unpopular, and there were countless rebel armies everywhere at that time, especially the two rebel armies in the north, Chimei and Lulin in the south, which were the most powerful. At first, Wang Mang believed that the threat of the Chimei Army was more serious, after all, the Yangtze River Basin had not yet been fully developed at this time, and the center of the country was in the north. Therefore, Wang Mang put the strategic focus on encircling and suppressing the Chimei army in the north, and sent Wang Kuang, the taishi, to lead more than 100,000 troops to fight against the Chimei army. In the treatment of the Green Forest Army, Wang Mang used the local army cobbled together by Yan You, Chen Mao and others and temporarily recruited soldiers to encircle and suppress.
Picture - The Green Forest Army originated from the Green Forest Mountain in the area of Hubei Mountain
Unfortunately, a wave of uneven, a wave of rise, the momentum of the Red Brow Army has not been completely suppressed, and the Green Forest Army has grown again. In 22 AD, the Green Forest Army defeated the Miscellaneous Army led by Yan You and Chen Mao at Nanyang City, and the Green Forest generals supported Liu Xuan, a descendant of the Western Han imperial family, as emperor, and openly put forward the slogan of eliminating Wang Mang and restoring the Han Dynasty. The stunned Wang Mang realized that the threat of the Green Forest Rebel Army in the south to Xin Mang was even worse, so he hastily shifted the strategic focus, on the one hand, the main force of the new army encircling and suppressing the Chimei Army was transferred to the south to fight, and on the other hand, it urgently mobilized troops from all over the country in an attempt to eliminate the Green Forest Han Army in one fell swoop.
In 23 AD, Wang Mang appointed Sima Wang Yi as his commander-in-chief, and recruited soldiers from all prefectures and counties across the country to assemble near Luoyang within a time limit, and the final strength of the troops gathered to Luoyang was as large as more than 400,000, and Xinmang was known as a million troops. In addition to his numerical superiority, Wang Mang also recruited people who were so-called proficient in 63 martial arts at that time to join the army, and at the same time, they met the defeated armies of Yan You and Chen Mao at Yingchuan and marched towards the Kunyang area in a mighty way. In contrast, the Green Forest Army stationed in Kunyang only had eight or nine thousand people, and when it heard that Wang Mang's million-strong army was coming to Kunyang, the Green Forest Army was immediately worried, and the leader Wang Feng even wanted to abandon Kunyang and escape.
At this time, Liu Xiu (later Emperor Guangwu of Han), who was only a partial general, resolutely opposed it, and he advocated that he hold Kunyang on the one hand and send people to various places to ask for help on the other. It is undeniable that the key moments of history are always dominated by heroic figures, and in the end, the generals of the Green Forest accepted Liu Xiu's advice and decided that Wang Feng and Wang Chang would stay in Kunyang, and Liu Xiu would go out of the city to ask for help. Liu Xiu personally led more than a dozen cavalrymen to leave the city at night to break into the camp, and after reaching Dingling and Haocheng, he transferred all the green forest men and horses from the outskirts to the Kunyang front. Because Wang Feng was firmly defending Kunyang, the new army besieged for several days, and The reinforcements of The Green Forest finally reached the outside of Kunyang City smoothly.
Figure - Location of Kunyang (present-day Ye County).
In this battle, Liu Xiu took the lead and personally led more than a thousand soldiers as a forward to attack the camp of the New Army, and the New Army was stunned and fled. Liu Xiu, who had rushed into the enemy position, went straight to wang Xun and Wang Yi's Chinese army tent, and most of the green forest army's men and horses arrived later, at the same time, Wang Feng and Wang Chang in Kunyang City led the green forest defenders saw reinforcements coming, morale was greatly boosted, and they went out of the city to attack the new army. Perhaps it was providence, at this time the sky suddenly changed dramatically, under the lightning and thunder, the wind roared, the heavy rain poured down, and the new army, which fell into a chaotic situation, completely collapsed, and as a result, the new army was defeated, and Wang Yi only led a few thousand people to flee back to Luoyang.
Picture - Aerial view of the ancient city of Yexian County, Henan
The Battle of Kunyang is a famous example of a battle in China's ancient military history in which less victories were won more, and this battle basically eliminated Wang Mang's main force and weakened Wang Mang's counterattack force. Shortly thereafter, the new dynasty of Wang Mang, which had been established for only 15 years, completely collapsed, and Liu Xiu gained fame through the Battle of Kunyang, and Haojie everywhere followed Liu Xiu. In 25 AD, Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, the world once again belonged to Liu Shi, and the Battle of Kunyang became the foundation work for Liu Xiu to replace Wang Mang.