sbdcsierra Chapter 118 The Perfect Emperor - Liu Xiu
Chapter 118 The Perfect Emperor - Liu Xiu
[The emperor who could use magic in history, read the life of the perfect emperor, the great magician Liu Xiu in one go, the history of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu of Han Liu Xiu]
[According to legend, the time traveler Wang Mang once sent an army of 420,000 to encircle and suppress Liu Xiu, the son of the plane whose military strength was greatly disparate. However, a meteorite fell at night and hit Wang Mang's military camp.]
[After that, Liu Xiu marched forward triumphantly and overthrew the Xin Dynasty. He was later called the Great Mage of the Son of the Plane. However, the true history cannot be covered up by a joke.]
【Liu Xiu was once praised by great men as the best warrior, the best at employing people, and the most knowledgeable person in Chinese history.】
[The Emperors of Qin, Han, and Tang and Song all lacked literary talent, but Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was considered a nearly perfect emperor.]
[In this video, let us follow the chronological order and understand the legendary life of Emperor Guangwu of Han, Liu Xiu, in one go. ]
——"Liu Xiu's only shortcoming is Thai Marumi. (Covering face)"
——"I suspect it wasn't a meteorite at all, but a ballistic missile."
——"If you say so, then I think it makes more sense. It's a direct revision of history, right?"
[From his birth in 5 BC to his death in 57 AD, Liu Xiu was 12 years old. He went from a cowherd to a hero who restored the Han Dynasty, and from a younger brother who overthrew Wang Mang, he endured humiliation all the way. After years, he ended the chaotic times and created an extremely glorious dynasty. ]
【His outstanding talent and great strategy can be regarded as a model for monarchs of all dynasties. Internally, he always treated the people in harmony and treated his meritorious officials well. Externally, he consolidated the border defense, improved the military, and created the Guangwu Restoration. 】
[If you want to understand Liu Xiu's life, we have to start from the beginning. ]
【Liu Xiu was the 9th generation grandson of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang. Because he followed the military orders of Emperor Wu of Han, his father Liu Qin could only be a minor official like the magistrate of Jiyang County.】
[In 5 BC, Liu Xiu was born in Jiyang County, Chenliu Prefecture. It is said that when Liu Xiu was born, a red light illuminated the entire room. Even millet grew in front of the house. Therefore, his father Liu Qin named him "Xiu".]
——"Xiu'er!"
——"When he was born, the whole room was bright and there was millet growing in front of the door, so his father called him Xiu'er, so he was named Xiu, is that what you mean?"
——"That's not right. Didn't they say he wasn't called this name at first?"
——"As expected, the birth of important people is always blessed by miracles from heaven. It's so outrageous that they can even grow small grains."
——“Who the hell buys Xiaomi?”
Eastern Han Dynasty.
Liu Xiu looked at the sky with an embarrassed look on his face.
Which descendant wrote this? Wasn’t it embarrassing when he wrote it himself?
Millet growing in front of the house? If you say it's a mushroom or something, even if it's Ganoderma lucidum or ginseng, he will admit it.
Growing millet?
Is this really serious?
This is even more outrageous than Emperor Gaozu's beheading of the white snake!
……
[In 3 AD, Liu Qin died while serving as the magistrate of Nandun County. The nine-year-old Liu Xiu and his siblings became orphans. As they had no one to rely on, they had to be adopted by their uncle. Liu Xiu then became an ordinary civilian.]
【At this time, the government of the Western Han Dynasty was declining, and the royal relatives group headed by Queen Mother Wang Zhengjun monopolized the power of the government. In addition, Emperor Cheng of Han favored the Zhao sisters, which led to the situation of internal chaos and external chaos.】
[Our protagonist has not only been diligent in farming since he was young, but also often hides fugitives, and even officials dare not come to his house to inquire about him. ]
——"Isn't this a pure example of my great-grandfather?"
——"Then you are wrong. Gaozu didn't farm. He did everything except farm work. (Covering face)"
——"The profession of hooligan is a bonus for the Liu family. Once they become this profession, it's as if their bloodline will awaken. Liu Bang, Liu Bingyi, Liu Xiu, Liu Bei, and Liu Yu all have a bit of hooligan temperament."
Han Dynasty.
Liu Bang was so angry that he yelled, "Bullshit! Why don't I do anything for production? Why don't I farm?"
"Then do you farm?" asked Empress Lu on the side.
"Well, I don't farm, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to do it!" Liu Bang explained somewhat embarrassedly.
"I know how to do all those farm chores, but I just don't want to do them!"
"Come on, Your Majesty, other people may not know, but don't I know? Forget about farming, you have never even held a hoe, and you still say you can farm?" Fan Kuai said.
"Hey, that's wrong. Why hasn't Your Majesty ever held a hoe? When he fought with the neighboring village, didn't he hold a hoe? In the end, he was caught by Prime Minister Xiao." Chen Ping also joked with a smile.
"Bullshit! Isn't it okay that I farmed when I was a kid? And I was clearly holding a dung fork, not a hoe!" Liu Bang cursed with a smile.
……
[In 9 AD, Wang Mang deposed the Ruzi Emperor and made him Duke of Ding'an, proclaiming himself emperor in place of the Han Dynasty and establishing the Xin Dynasty. The Western Han Dynasty officially perished after 214 years of rule.]
When Liu Xiu was 20 years old, he went to Chang'an and entered the Imperial Academy. During the five years of school, Liu Xiu learned a little bit of the general idea and made friends with Deng Yu, Zhu You and other friends. These two people also became Liu Xiu's business partners in the future and were listed as the 28 generals of Yuntai. 】
——"Deng Yu, he has a very famous descendant, the Empress Dowager Deng."
[In 22 AD, because the reforms promoted by Wang Mang were impractical and affected the interests of everyone from the powerful to the common people, coupled with the constant natural disasters, the Central Plains was devastated and people were in mourning, and uprisings broke out in various places.]
[Liu Xiu's elder brother Liu Yan spent all his family wealth to make friends with heroes all over the world, and announced his uprising with the slogan of "restore the cause of Emperor Gaozu and rule the world for eternity".]
【The 28-year-old Liu Xiu was extremely cautious. After careful consideration, he saw that the world was indeed in chaos. He just started the uprising in Guancheng and joined his elder brother Liu Yan to raise an army.】
[A year later, Liu Xuan, a member of the Western Han royal family, was supported by the main generals of the Green Forest Army to become emperor. Although Liu Yan and Liu Xiu were dissatisfied, they had to temporarily agree because the Green Forest Army was large in number and had a strong enemy in front of them. Liu Yan was appointed as the Grand Tutor and Liu Xiu was appointed as a general.]
This move greatly shocked the Xin Dynasty, and Wang Mang immediately dispatched 420,000 elite troops from various states and counties to attack Kunyang and Wancheng, trying to wipe out the new Gengshi regime in one fell swoop.
[Faced with the aggressive Wang Mang army, Liu Xiu led 13 cavalrymen out of the city at night and gathered elite soldiers from all over to rescue Kunyang. With more than a thousand elite soldiers as the vanguard, they charged repeatedly, killing countless new soldiers and boosting morale.]
——"It's strange to say, before this, Liu Xiu had always been looked down upon and considered a coward, but this time he was forced to lead the army to charge, and he turned into a god of war. He led the charge and killed several people, which stunned everyone else."
——"There is indeed a kind of person who can burst out with terrifying power when in desperate situations, and then transform as if they were reborn, and then continue to advance triumphantly."
——"Don't make a fuss. Xiu'er was not a good person when he was young. He was a soldier who could ride a cow. His cowardly appearance in the past was probably just an act. He just didn't want to stand out."
[Then, 3000 brave warriors went around the enemy's rear and sneaked across the river, launching a fierce attack on the new army's base camp. The Kunyang defenders also took advantage of the situation and attacked, causing chaos among the new army. They all fled for their lives, trampling on each other, and leaving corpses everywhere.]
[In the end, the main force of the Qing Dynasty, which claimed to have a million troops, was destroyed under the city of Kunyang. The Green Forest Army invaded Chang'an, Wang Mang died in the melee, and the Xinmang regime collapsed.]
[However, when Liu Xiu was marching south to capture cities and territories, his elder brother Liu Yan offended Emperor Gengshi Liu Xuan and was killed by Emperor Gengshi.]
【Knowing that there was a huge gap in strength, Liu Xiu could only suppress his sorrow, keep a low profile, and bear the burden. In order not to be suspected by Emperor Gengshi, Liu Xiu hurried back. He apologized to Liu Xuan and was eventually appointed as the General Wuxinhou, and also married Yin Yinlihua, the daughter of a wealthy family in Xinye whom he had loved for many years.】
[A year later, although the Xinmang Dynasty had collapsed, the states and counties north of the Yellow River were still in a wait-and-see state. The Chimei Army also developed rapidly in Dongshan and its momentum grew day by day. Liu Xiu tried every possible means and finally got Emperor Gengshi to send him to cross the Yellow River to Beihe.]
[Soon after Liu Xiu arrived in Beihe, he won the Battle of Nanluan and conquered Handan. Seeing that Liu Xiu was growing stronger in Beihe, Emperor Gengshi was extremely uneasy and immediately sent an envoy to confer the title of King Xiao on Liu Xiu and demanded that Liu Xiu surrender his military power.]
【Liu Xiu refused to accept the order on the grounds that Beihe had not yet been pacified.】
【Since then, Liu Xiu and the Gengshi regime have made an open decision. On 25 AD, Liu Xiu succeeded to the throne at Qianqiu Pavilion in Haocheng to show his respect for the Han Dynasty. After Liu Xiu founded the country, he still used the name "Han" for the country, which is known in history as the Later Han Dynasty.】
【He was Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, and later established his capital in Luoyang. At this time, the Chimei Army also supported the young emperor Liu Penzi to establish a new regime. With 300,000 soldiers, they advanced into Guanzhong and had a fight with Emperor Gengshi. In the end, Emperor Gengshi surrendered to the Chimei Army and was granted the title of Changsha.】
[However, the Red Guards also suffered heavy losses as a result. Liu Xiu took advantage of the situation and defeated the Red Eyebrows, whose soldiers were exhausted and short of food and fodder.]
[At this point, the Chimei Army, which had dominated Dongshan for more than ten years, was strangled in a pool of blood by Liu Xiu.]
[Starting from 26 AD, Liu Xiu spent five years conquering the east and the west, basically controlling the vast Central Plains except Longyou and Bashu, and unified the east of China. ]
[It formed a tripartite situation with Huai Xiao in Longyou, northwest China, and Gongsun Shu in Bashu, southwest China. It took another four years to pacify Longxi. After Liu Xiu became emperor, he did not slaughter meritorious officials like Liu Bang did. Instead, he enfeoffed more than 4 meritorious officials as marquises, only stripped them of their military power and let them return to their fiefdoms. ]
[In 35 AD, Liu Xiu led his army to attack Gongsun Shu from the north and south. Grand Marshal Wu Han led 6 Qingzhou soldiers to enter Shu along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Gai Yan led the army from the southwest of Longxi to attack Hechi and enter Shu. Counties and prefectures along the way surrendered one after another, and Liu Xiu's army broke through Jiangzhou.]
[A year later, Gongsun Shu died in battle and all the defenders surrendered. Liu Xiu took 12 years after he ascended the throne to finally pacify the country, unifying China, which had been torn apart and ravaged by war since the end of the New World.]
[However, during this period, the people suffered heavy casualties, including those killed in battles, diseases and starvation, and the world's population dropped sharply to 1/5.]
[In 51 AD, in order to restore and develop the war-torn Central Plains as quickly as possible, Liu Xiu implemented a policy of light taxes and reduced levies. ]
[He also developed agricultural production, built water conservancy projects, and issued several edicts to release slaves and prohibit cruelty to slaves, which greatly improved the problem of a large number of farmers who had lost their land and became slaves since the end of the Western Han Dynasty.]
[It also caused a lot of land to become barren after the war. The problem of insufficient population was solved. ]
[By the end of Liu Xiu's reign, the national population reached more than 2000 million, more than double the previous number. The economy also developed greatly, and his reign was called the Guangwu Restoration in history.]
[In 57 AD, Liu Xiu died in the front hall of Nangong Palace at the age of , and his son Liu Zhuang succeeded him.]
——"Liu Zhuang and his son were also quite powerful. It can be said that three generations of the family used up all the couples of their descendants, and each one in the future generations was more useless than the last."
——"That can't be said. The emperors in the early days of a country are generally better than those in the later days, because the situation at that time did not allow them to enjoy themselves. The emperors in the later days basically had nothing to do. They either drank or picked up girls all day. As time went by, they would naturally become useless."
【Liu Xiu's life ended the chaotic situation of peasant wars, warlords fighting and local separatism. He worked hard to govern the country, advocated judo governance in politics, reformed the official system, streamlined the structure, and gave preferential treatment to meritorious officials.】
[Economically, he rested and recuperated, implemented land measurement, and developed the economy. Culturally, he promoted Confucianism and respected integrity. This was known in history as the Guangwu Restoration, but its fame in history does not match its achievements.]
[So much so that he can only be known by everyone through a legend. Apart from the incident of deposing and enthroning the queen, which slightly blemished his reputation, Liu Xiu's life can be regarded as that of a perfect emperor who transcends the ages.]
——"If nothing else, the fact that he didn't kill his meritorious officials made him much better than other emperors."
——"It's mainly because of his confidence. He is the best fighter in the world. Unlike Li Shimin, there is no monster like Li Jing who can fight equally, so he is quite relieved. The founding emperors who killed their meritorious officials were generally not confident, a typical example being Liu Laosan."
——"Not only that, but also because he is young, the older brothers can't outlast him? Just like Li Shimin, he is the youngest in their group, so he didn't panic at all at the beginning, until his health was not so good, then he let Li Jing go."
——"God favors cowherds. Look at Zhu Yuanzhang, he was also a cowherd when he was young. (Dog head)"
——"I have also studied in this position, but unfortunately I am holding them back. (Covering my face)"
——"One thousand men were weaving in and out of an army of hundreds of thousands. Did Liu Xiu not cheat? Three thousand men were chasing over four hundred thousand men. This is even more ridiculous than a meteorite falling from the sky."
——"It's not bad. People in ancient times were like that. They liked to brag. They said there were 400,000 troops. Apart from the false reports and the farmers who transported food and grass and built fortifications, it would be good to have 70,000 or 80,000 troops. So it's not that far-fetched to think so."
——"Liu Xiu is awesome, is there any TV series featuring him?"
——"TV dramas must have conflicts, right and wrong, and hardships to be interesting. What's so good about him making rapid progress and defeating his opponents in seconds? The main thing is that his life is even more outrageous than a cool novel. He will be scolded if he is not shown."
——"Yes, I remember Yuan Hong played in it, but it was an idol drama and didn't respect history very much."