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On August 5, 25 AD, Liu Xiu proclaimed himself emperor with the jiannian name Jianwu. However, at that time, probably few people believed that he would dominate the world after more than a decade and make the Han Dynasty last for nearly two hundred years.
Among Liu Xiu's many opponents, the ones who threatened him the most were Dou Rong and Kui Huan in the northwest and Gongsun Shu in the southwest. However, although the three of them all supported the army and strengthened themselves and had a pivotal position, they never had the ambition to dominate the world. There were many factors in Liu Xiu's final victory, and the most important thing was that he established the goal of unifying the world from the beginning.
Dou Rong: Take the initiative to submit to the good end
Dou Rong was a descendant of foreign relatives of the Western Han Dynasty, and when Wang Mang was in power at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, he analyzed the situation in the world and believed that the Central Plains were quite dangerous, so he tried every means to get to the position of Hexi. Dou Rong was strong in Hexi, in a stable position, and far from war.
Dou Rong obeyed Liu Xiu from the beginning, accepted the seal silk, and adopted the Jianwu era name. Liu Xiu tried his best to appease Dou Rong in order to strengthen the pressure on Kui Huan and Gongsun Shu, and sent Dou Rong a "seal book" that fully demonstrated his grandeur and superb strategy. Liu Xiu asked Dou Rong to choose between obeying him and supporting Kui Huan and Gongsun Shu, and frankly admitted that "the world has not been merged, and I am absolutely in the realm of Er, not a country that has been swallowed up"; finally declared that "the king has divided the land, has no division of the people, and is only suitable for his own affairs".
That is to say, in the future, he can "divide the land" for Dou Rong and others, but he will never agree to "divide the people" and allow the country to split. After the seal book arrived in Hexi, it caused a great shock, and Dou Rong immediately wrote a letter of allegiance.
After Kui Huan openly rebelled against the Han, Dou Rong sent troops to the five counties and asked for cooperation from the imperial court. In the eighth year of Jianwu, Liu Xiu personally marched west, and Dou Rong led tens of thousands of infantry cavalry such as taishou of the five counties to meet the Han army. After Kui Huan was pacified, Liu Xiu made Dou Rong the Marquis of Anfeng and gave him four counties as feudal titles. When Liu Xiudong returned, he asked Dou Rong to return to he was stationed in Hexi. Dou Rong was well aware that it was not safe for the soldiers to be outside, and he wrote several times to ask for someone to replace him, but Liu Xiu replied: "My relationship with the general is like a left and right hand, you have repeatedly humbled, don't you understand my intentions?" Manage the military and the people well, and don't leave your post without permission. ”
Four years later, Dou Rong finally took up the highest-ranking but powerless clerical position, the Great Sikong, and enjoyed a special situation, ending at the age of seventy-eight. At the same time, "one duke, two marquises, three (married) princesses, and four or two thousand stones (the official position of two thousand stones in the year)" appeared in one door of the Dou clan, enjoying all the glory and wealth.
Kui Huan: Knowing the destiny of heaven but dividing itself to protect itself
Kui Huan was "aware of the Mandate of Heaven" for a long time, and he knew that he did not have the ability to unify, and took the initiative to be loyal to Liu Xiu. However, when Liu Xiu won a decisive victory, he hoped to maintain a divided position, and instead of taking the initiative to cooperate with Liu Xiu, he was restrained in many ways.
After Gongsun Claimed to have established himself, he sent troops from Hanzhong several times and sent Kui Huan the seal of the Great Sikong Fu'an King. Kui Huan killed Gongsun Shu's envoy, and then sent troops to break Gongsun Shu's army, making it impossible for him to go north. However, he also believed that the success or failure of the world was undecided, and there was no need to obey the Han Dynasty wholeheartedly, and when the Han Dynasty wanted to "fake" his place to send troops to pacify Gongsun Shu, he tried every means to obstruct it.
Therefore, Liu Xiu was very impatient, and wrote him a letter, hoping that he would not play tricks again: "Kui Hu you are a civilian official, you should understand the reason, so I will once again give you an edict." Now if you are really willing to surrender, take action, so that you can also save the lord, and the blessings are endless. I'm almost forty years old, I've been a soldier for ten years, and I hate that kind of rhetoric. If you don't want to, you don't have to reply. Kui Huan saw that the conspiracy had been discovered by Liu Xiu, so he had to send emissaries to report to Gongsun as a vassal, and from then on he completely broke with Liu Xiu.
To be fair, Kui Huan did not do anything to apologize to Liu Xiu, and even if he wanted to divide and protect himself, he was limited to his own jurisdiction. He did not obey Liu Xiu's order to send troops to recruit Gongsun Shu, but only to preserve his strength and not want to lose Gongsun Shu, a potential ally. However, his actions hindered Liu Xiu's unification process, which Liu Xiu could not tolerate. Liu Xiu quickly mobilized his forces to overwhelm the superiority and eventually eliminate Kui Huan.
Gongsun Shu: Closing the door and saying that the king lost the opportunity
Gongsun Shu wanted to be emperor from the beginning, let people make a mockery, and tattooed the words "Gongsun Emperor" on his palm. Two months before Liu Xiu became emperor, Gongsun Shu had already established himself as the Son of Heaven. He controlled territories roughly equivalent to today's Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Shaanxi south of the Qinling Mountains, and was very powerful.
However, Gongsun Shu was satisfied with declaring himself king behind closed doors, and repeatedly lost the opportunity to compete with Liu Xiu for the world, waiting for Liu Xiu's final blow after eliminating other separatist forces.
In the eleventh year of Jianwu, the Han army was victorious and drove straight in. Liu Xiu again wrote to persuade Gongsun Shu to surrender, reiterated the policy of leniency, and made assurances. Gongsun Shu showed the letter to his surrounding cronies, and they all advised him to surrender. Gongsun Shu said, "Where is the Son of Heaven who surrenders?" From then on, he never dared to persuade him again.
In September, the Han army led by Wu Han advanced into Chengdu. Gongsun Shu raised a group of death squads with heavy money, and the surprise soldiers fought a victorious battle, but they could not save the momentum. In November, the Han army had reached Chengmen,north of Chengdu. At this time, Gongsun Shu turned over the book of divination and found a sentence that read, "Under the city of death." He thought that the fulfillment was on Wu Han's body, and personally led his troops out of the city to fight, only to be pierced in the chest, fall off his horse, and die that night.
In the first month of the thirteenth year of Jianwu, Wu Han led the victorious Han army down the Yangtze River. At this time, Liu Xiu was receiving greetings from his courtiers in the Luoyang Palace, including the Great Sikong Dou Rong, but there was no Kui Huan and Gongsun Shu who might have been present—if they were willing to surrender, at least they could save their lives!
From the perspective of reunification and division, Liu Xiu was committed to reunification, while Kui Huan and Gongsun Shu both resisted Liu Xiu's unification and were unwilling to engage in reunification, and their demise was inevitable.
Excerpt from | Leadership Digest October 2021
Source of the manuscript | "Unchanged and Ever-Changing: Ge Jianxiong Says a History of the Nation"
The author of this article | Ge Jianxiong
Responsible Editor | Zhang Feng
WeChat Editor | Young