Liu Xiu was also known as Emperor Guangwu of Han and the founder of the Eastern Han Dynasty in China. Liu Xiu also destroyed all of Wang Mang's main forces of more than 400,000 in the First Battle of Kunyang; today, the historical story of Bin Ge will give you a detailed introduction to Liu Xiu, the Emperor of Han Guangwu.
Liu Xiu's father was just a Nanton County Order, a generation is not as good as a generation, and Liu Xiu became an orphan at the age of nine, raised by his uncle Liu Liang, and likes to farm. His brother Liu Yan liked to act heroically and righteously, comparing Liu Xiu to Liu Zhong, the silly brother of Gaozu Liu Bang. In Liu Xiu's generation, if it were not for the chaotic wang mang doing chaos, perhaps Liu Xiu's life would be a lifetime of happiness as a farmer.
After Wang Mang usurped the throne, he carried out social reforms indiscriminately, and the locust plague continued in the world, thieves rose up, and social order collapsed. What is Liu Xiu doing at this time? Liu Xiu, who liked to farm, became a businessman and sold millet in Wanxian County.
As another glorious achievement of the "son of the plane" Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu, the Battle of Kunyang is a typical example of a victory with less in Chinese history, but it is not so much that Liu Xiu defeated the "million army" of the new dynasty, but rather that Wang Yi himself buried it. Just as the so-called "one general is incompetent and exhausts the three armies", in this battle, Wang Yi, the commander of the new army, successfully discarded all correct suggestions and went farther and farther down the wrong path, resulting in the final defeat.
Wang Mang was increasingly anxious in the face of the attacks of the two major rebel groups in the north, Chimei in the north and the Green Forest Army in the south, both the two most powerful armies of the uprising at that time.
At first, Wang Mang thought that the Chimei army was more powerful, and the rebel army was almost spread throughout the northern states and counties, and felt that the situation was more serious, so the New Mang Dynasty focused its attack on encircling and suppressing the Chimei army in the north, and sent more than 100,000 elite troops led by Taishi Wang Kuang and the general Ai Zhang to fight against the Chimei army.
The County Army and the improvised troops they assembled against the Green Forest Rebel Army in the south, with the Nayan general Yan You and the rank general Chen Mao. Yan You and Chen Mao commanded these armies to fight, and Wang Mang did not easily give them military charms, and every march and battle must be reported first, otherwise they would be sentenced to the crime of "getting soldiers".
When the Green Forest Army annihilated Zhen Fu and Liang Qiu's army, defeated Yan You and Chen Mao at Nanyang City, and then Liu Xuan declared himself emperor and openly proposed to restore the Han Dynasty and establish a new regime, Wang Mang realized that the Green Forest rebel army in the south had more pressure on the New Mang regime, so he decided to shift the strategic center of gravity, on the one hand, to transfer the main force attacking Chimei to the south to fight; on the other hand, to urgently mobilize the troops of various counties to prepare for the complete elimination of the Green Forest Han army.
In order to form a powerful force for fighting against the Han army, Wang Mang specially appointed Wang Yi and Situ Wang Xun as commanders, recruited people who were so-called proficient in 63 martial arts at that time, served as officials similar to staff officers in the army, and appointed the elder Ju Wuba as a lieutenant, who was specifically responsible for building camps and encircling ferocious beasts such as tigers, leopards, rhinos, and elephants into the army, so that they could be released during battle and shock the enemy.
All the prefectures and counties selected their own elite troops, led by the counties and the pastoral guards themselves, and concentrated in the vicinity of Luoyang in the early stage, and the troops from all over the country reached More than 420,000 people, known as a million troops. After these armies were concentrated, they began to march towards the Yingchuan River. At Yingchuan, they joined yan you and Chen Mao's troops, and immediately attacked in the direction of Kunyang. The army is thousands of miles away, and the grain and grass are endless.
In the last years of the new dynasty, Wang Mang's new dynasty was in danger, and the red eyebrows in the north and the green forests in the south were staring at each other. Just as the so-called "press the gourd to float up the scoop", Wang Mang first thought that the northern Red Brow was more dangerous, so he sent heavy troops to surround and suppress the Northern Red Brow, and as a result, the southern green forest developed rapidly, and Liu Xuan openly declared himself emperor and restored the han Dynasty state name, which greatly surprised Wang Mang, so he quickly dispatched heavy troops to the south to quell the chaos.
Wang Mang, led by Wang Yi of the Great Sikong and Wang Xun of Situ, was led by the elite soldiers selected by each prefecture and county (in fact, it was to capture Zhuangding), led by the officials of the prefecture and county, and concentrated near Luoyang within a limited period of time, and successively gathered as many as 420,000 troops, known as a million troops. Wang Yi then led this "million army" to advance towards Yingchuan, and after meeting yan you and Chen Mao's troops at Yingchuan, he began to march in the direction of Kunyang.
In January of the third year (22nd year) of emperor Di, while the new army was advancing in a big way, the Green Forest Army was attacking on all sides, and Wang Feng and the taichang general Liu Xiu were attacking Kunyang, Dingling, Yancheng and other places; Wang Chang was active in the Runan. After learning that the New Dynasty army was coming in the direction of Kunyang, Wang Feng and Wang Chang hurriedly led nearly 10,000 troops into Kunyang, while the main force of the Han army was attacking Wancheng, although the dawn of victory was in sight, but it had not yet broken the city, and there was no time to take care of the new dynasty army. It can be said that the situation is extremely unfavorable to Liu Xiu and others.
In May of the same year, after the New Dynasty army arrived in Kunyang, Wang Yi, the commander of the army, rejected Yan You's proposal to bypass Kunyang to attack the main force of the Han army in Wancheng, and instead ordered the army to immediately besiege Kunyang. Because the gap between the enemy and us was too large, Wang Feng, Wang Chang, and other generals were reluctant to retreat, and Liu Xiu, on the one hand, encouraged Wang Feng, Wang Chang, and others to lead the army to hold Kunyang, and on the other hand, he left Kunyang overnight with Zong Qi, Li Yi, and other thirteen horsemen, and mobilized troops in various places, intending to attack the new army inside and outside.
After that, Liu Xiu, Li Yi, and others persuaded the generals of Dingling and Haocheng to mobilize soldiers and horses from all over the country to return to Kunyang. Liu Xiu commanded reinforcements to attack the New Dynasty army outside to alleviate the pressure inside the city, and on the other hand, spread the news that Wancheng had been breached and reinforcements were coming, which made the Han army inside the city tremble, while the new army outside the city was demoralized.
Liu Xiu later selected three thousand death squads to storm the camp of the new army, under the command of Wang Yi's "wise", himself and Wang Xun were defeated by Liu Xiu, and Wang Xun was directly killed, which made the new dynasty army suddenly fall into chaos, trampling on each other under the rout, killing and injuring countless people, and happened to encounter heavy rain pouring, the river swelled, and the new army generals fell into the water and drowned countless times.
In this battle, the Han army only defeated the 420,000 new dynasty army led by Wang Yi, and the new army suffered countless casualties, and Wang Yi, Yan You, Chen Mao and others only took a few Chang'an elite horses and crossed the river with dead bodies to escape. After the great victory of Kunyang, Emperor Gengshi sent Wang Kuang to attack Luoyang, Shen Tujian and Li Song rushed to attack Wuguan, and the local heroes and strongmen also killed the new dynasty and defected to the Green Forest Army. Soon, the Green Forest Army invaded Chang'an, Wang Mang was killed, and the new dynasty collapsed.
Wang Yi's wrong command was the basis for Liu Xiu's victory in the Battle of Kunyang
Although Liu Xiu showed extremely clever command ability and courage in the Battle of Kunyang, throughout the entire course of the war, Wang Yi's wrong command was probably the root cause of the defeat of the New Dynasty army. So let's take a look at what mistakes Wang Yi has made.
After leading 420,000 troops to Kunyang, the General Yan You believed that the troops should not be used in Kunyang, a small city that took into account the overall situation, but should directly take Wancheng and crush the main force of the Han army, so that Kunyang would not be able to attack itself. However, Wang Yi believed that he now commanded a million troops, and if he went around the city, he would not be able to show his prestige at all, so he firmly advocated the siege of Kunyang. If according to Yan You's suggestion, the new dynasty army could completely attack the main force of the Han army inside and outside the Wancheng defenders, and as a result, because of Wang Yi's insistence, not only did the troops waste in Kunyang, but also lost the valuable fighters.
Wang Feng, the commander of the Han army, and others had little confidence in resisting the new dynasty army, and if it were not for Liu Xiu's persuasion, they would have run away with their private wealth long ago. Therefore, in the face of the siege of the New Dynasty army, Wang Feng and others once wanted to surrender, but Wang Yi and Wang Xun thought that their army's attack on Kunyang was a show of hands, and if they accepted the surrender of the other side, it would not be a great achievement at all, not only did Wang Feng and others not allow them to surrender, but even Yan You's tactic of "encircling three and letting go of one" was also rejected. It is precisely because of Wang Yi's wrong decision that it is equivalent to completely cutting off the way for Wang Feng and others to live, and they can only choose to hold out desperately and wait for reinforcements, but it makes the defenders more tenacious and desperate, which is also an important reason why the defenders can face the new dynasty army and hold on for more than a month.
As early as the first time Liu Xiu led reinforcements back, Wang Yi and Wang Xun had sent thousands of soldiers to meet the battle, but they were beaten by Liu Xiu's charge and killed thousands of people. After that, he was defeated by Liu Xiu many times in succession, and it is reasonable to say that in this case, Liu Xiu should be enough to attract Wang Yi's attention.
As a result, when Liu Xiu finally commanded 3,000 death squads to rush straight to the camp of the New Army, Wang Yi actually strictly ordered the battalions to strictly restrain the troops, and without orders, they should not move arbitrarily, only by themselves and Wang Xun to lead the army to meet Liu Xiu, and as a result, not only was Liu Xiu defeated, but even Wang Xun was killed by Liu Xiu. This directly led to the new army falling into chaos, the new army was originally a temporary patchwork of people from all over the place, once it fell into chaos, it became a rout, the fleeing new army pushed and shoved each other, "the people who walked together, ambushed the corpse for more than a hundred miles", the result was that it encountered strong winds and thunderstorms, heavy rain poured down and the river swelled, more than 10,000 new soldiers fell into the water and drowned, and the river was almost cut off by corpses.
Liu Xiu selected another three thousand death squads to attack the backbone of the new army from the west of the city. Wang Yi and Wang Xun despised Liu Xiu, thinking that it would be easy to defeat Liu Xiu. Therefore, they only led more than 10,000 people to patrol the positions. In order to prevent confusion in the battalions, they ordered the battalions to strictly discipline their troops and not to send troops without orders. Wang Yi and Wang Xun confronted Liu Xiu, but they were not opponents of Liu Xiu's death squad, and the new army's position was quickly broken by Liu Xiu's army, and the soldiers fled in confusion. At this time, the rest of the troops of the New Army did not dare to act rashly, so there was no one to take the initiative to support Wang Yi and Wang Xunjun in battle.
Liu Xiu led the Han army, attacked bravely, and defeated Wang Yi and Wang Xun's troops with a single blow, killing Wang Xun. After Wang Yi's backbone was crushed and Wang Xun was beheaded, the troops of the new army lost their command center and were immediately confused. At this time, the Han army in Kunyang City saw that the death squad led by Liu Xiu and others had won the victory, and also shouted the sound of rushing to kill, rushing out of the city gate, attacking the new army inside and outside, the killing sound was earth-shaking, and the new Mang army quickly collapsed. The New Mang Army was originally a forced conscription of poor people, and they had long hated Wang Mang's regime to the extreme, and after the rebel army attacked inside and outside, they naturally abandoned their positions and fled.
The fleeing soldiers pushed and shoved each other, "the departed people trampled on each other, and the corpses were ambushed for more than a hundred miles." It happened to encounter strong winds and thunderstorms, the roof tiles were blown away by the strong wind, the heavy rain poured down and the water soared, the tigers and leopards accompanying Wang Yijun were trembling with fright, the new soldiers fell into the water and drowned more than 10,000 people, and The river was almost blocked by corpses. Wang Yi, Yan You, Chen Mao, and others only took a few Chang'an jing riders and crossed the river with dead bodies to escape.
The Han army captured all the military materials of the new army, and all kinds of things were piled up, and they had not been moved for more than a month. Wang Yi led more than a thousand remnants of his army to flee to Luoyang. When Wang Mang learned the news of Kunyang's fiasco, he was extremely shocked, and the entire Xinmang court was also terrified.
In the Battle of Kunyang, Wang Mang's army was said to have a strength of one million, and the total strength of the rebel army to defend the city and foreign aid at the beginning was only 20,000 people combined. However, it is no accident that the rebel army was able to achieve a brilliant victory in total annihilation of the enemy in the face of such a disparity in strength. In the final analysis, there are about the following points: political resistance to Wang Mang's tyrannical rule conformed to the wishes and demands of the broad masses of the people, and thus won the support of the people, which was the deep political root of the victory of the rebel army in the Battle of Kunyang.
Militarily, the rebel army implemented the correct practice of holding on to Kunyang, containing the enemy, mobilizing troops, and actively counterattacking, which seriously delayed the action of Wang Yi's army, depleted its strength, and firmly grasped the initiative in attacking and defending the battlefield. In the specific application of operational guidance, the rebel army dared to fight and had high morale, and was good at taking advantage of xinmang's weaknesses, attacking the heart and attacking at the same time, destroying the will to fight of the new army, accumulating small victories into big victories; and being able to grasp the fighter plane, choose the headquarters of the new army as the primary offensive target, and smash it in one fell swoop, so that the enemy army was trapped in a leaderless situation, and it was ultimately difficult to escape the fate of defeat.
The Battle of Kunyang was a famous battle in Chinese history in which few victories were won, and this battle gathered and annihilated a large number of troops on which Wang Mang relied to maintain his rule, and created favorable conditions for the rebel army to successfully march into Luoyang and Chang'an, and finally overthrow the rule of Xinmang, so it attracted much attention in the past.
To sum up, I think that although Liu Xiu performed well in the Battle of Kunyang, Wang Yi's command was the fundamental reason for the defeat of the New Dynasty army.