Chapter 76 75 Battle of Kunyang

After Gengshi Emperor Liu Xuan ascended the throne, he sent Wang Feng, Wang Chang, and Liu Xiu to attack Kunyang (now Ye County, Henan).They quickly captured Kunyang, and then captured the adjacent Yancheng (now Yancheng County, Henan) and Dingling (northwest of Yancheng County, Henan). When Wang Mang heard that Liu Xuan was made emperor by the rebel army, he was already restless. Now that he had lost several cities, he was even more anxious. He immediately sent generals Wang Xun and Wang Yi to lead 430,000 troops from Luoyang to Kunming. Positive. In order to bluff, Wang Mang's army found a giant from nowhere, named Ju Wuba, who was very tall and as thick as a cow.He also has the ability to domesticate a group of tigers, leopards, rhinos, and elephants.

Wang Mang appointed him as the captain and asked him to bring a group of beasts to the battle to cheer. The Han army stationed in Kunyang has only eight or nine thousand people.Some generals saw Wang Mang's army with a large number of troops in Kunyang City, and they were afraid that they would not be able to deal with it, so they advocated abandoning Kunyang and returning to the original stronghold. Liu Xiu said to everyone: "At present, we are short of soldiers, horses, food and grass, and we all rely on everyone to work together to fight the enemy; if everyone breaks up and Kunyang falls, all the Han army will be wiped out immediately, and everything will be over."

Everyone felt that what Liu Xiu said was reasonable, but they also felt that Wang Mang's army was so powerful that it was not an option to stick to Kunyang.As a result of the discussion, it was decided that Wang Feng and Wang Chang would stay in Kunyang, and send Liu Xiu to lead a team to break out of the siege, and go to Dingling and Yancheng to dispatch reinforcements. That night, Liu Xiu led twelve warriors on fast horses and rushed out of the south gate of Kunyang City in the dark.Unprepared, Wang Mang's army rushed out of the encirclement for them. Although Kunyang City is not big, it is quite strong.Wang Mang's army believed that it would be easy to capture Kunyang with its large number of people and weapons.They made building cars more than ten feet high, and they shot arrows into the city continuously on the building cars, and the arrows shot towards the city like raindrops.People in the city went to the well to fetch water, but they had to carry the door panel on their backs to block arrows.Wang Mang's army hit the city again with a chong car, and dug tunnels to get into the city.However, the Han army in Kunyang City was also very tightly defended, and the city was never breached by Wang Mang's army.

When Liu Xiu arrived in Dingling, he wanted to transfer all the troops from Dingling and Yancheng to Kunyang.However, some generals of the Han army were greedy for property and were unwilling to leave these two cities.Liu Xiu persuaded them: "Now let's go to Kunyang and gather all the troops. If we defeat the enemy, we can accomplish great things and make great contributions. If we stay here, the enemy will come and we will lose the battle. We will lose our lives." If you can’t keep it, can you still talk about property?” The generals were persuaded by Liu Xiu, so they took all the horses and followed Liu Xiu to Kunyang.

Liu Xiu personally organized a vanguard force of more than a thousand infantry and cavalry, rushed to Kunyang, and they formed a formation four or five miles away from Wang Mang's army.Wang Xun and Wang Yi saw that there were few Han soldiers, so they only sent a few thousand soldiers to deal with them.Liu Xiu took advantage of the fact that the enemy army had not yet established a firm position, preemptively commanded the vanguard troops to charge forward, and killed dozens of enemies in a row. The rescue brigade from the Han army arrived. Seeing Liu Xiu's vanguard fighting bravely, they mustered up their courage. Several groups of troops rushed to kill them, and Wang Xun and Wang Yi were forced to retreat.The Han soldiers took advantage of the victory and attacked fiercely. The more they fought, the more courageous they became. One man was worth a hundred enemies.

Liu Xiu led 3,000 death squads to charge towards the backbone of Wang Mang's army.Wang Xun saw that there were few Han soldiers, so he ignored them.He personally led 10,000 horses to fight Liu Xiu.But 10,000 people really can't beat Liu Xiu's Death Squad.After fighting for a while, Wang Xun's army became chaotic.The more the Han soldiers fought, the more vigorous they became. Everyone spotted Wang Xun, surrounded him and hacked and killed Wang Xun indiscriminately. When Wang Feng and Wang Chang of the Han army in Kunyang City saw that the reinforcements outside had won the battle, they opened the city gate and rushed out.When Wang Mang's army heard that the main general had been killed, they all panicked, ran and fled, trampled on each other, and left a large number of Wang Mang's army corpses along the road for more than a hundred miles.

At this time, the sky suddenly darkened, there was a big thunder, and then the wind howled, and the heavy rain poured down like a torrent.The ferocious beast that Ju Wuba brought to cheer was also trembling with fright, not only did not charge forward, but instead scurried backwards.The Han army chased forward with all their strength, and Wang Mang's army fled towards Fushui (in today's Lushan, Henan Province, now known as Shahe, 滍音zhi) like a torrent of water, and the soldiers fell into the water and drowned. Thousands of people died, and the river was blocked. When Wang Yi, the general of Wang Mang's army, fled back to Luoyang, only a few thousand people remained in the 430,000 army.

The Han army cleaned up the battlefield, and the battlefield was full of weapons, military vehicles, and food left by Wang Mang's army.The Han army moved for more than a month, but did not finish the move. Finally, they set a fire and burned the rest. The news that Wang Mang's main force was wiped out in the Kunyang War inspired people everywhere to respond to the Han army.Many people killed local officials and claimed to be generals, waiting for orders from the Han army. Emperor Gengshi sent generals Shen Tujian and Li Song to lead the Han army to attack Chang'an.Panicked, Wang Mang released all the prisoners in the prison and assembled an army to resist the Han army.But how could such an army be willing to fight for Wang Mang? They fled one after another before making contact.

Soon, the Han army invaded Chang'an City, and the residents of the city responded one after another, setting fire to the gate of Weiyang Palace.Everyone shouted loudly, asking Wang Mang to come out and surrender.Wang Mang was desperate, and took a few soldiers to escape into a gradual platform in the palace.The gradual platform is surrounded by water, and the fire cannot burn there. The Han army surrounded Jiantai layer by layer, until hundreds of layers, and when the soldiers on Jiantai had shot all their arrows, the Han soldiers rushed up to the stage, killing Wang Mang. Wang Mang's new dynasty lasted for fifteen years, but it fell apart.