-23 AD- so Wáng Mǎng was dead. What did this mean for the Xīn dynasty?
-He was replaced as ruler of the empire by the Gēngshǐ Emperor (AKA Liú Xuán, a descendant of Emperor Jǐng of the Hàn dynasty).
-There is some controversy surrounding calling this dude an "emperor" because he was technically a rebel usurper (despite him being a legitimate member of the Liú clan and had reunited the entire empire as sole ruler).
-After his armies defeated Wáng Mǎng, the Gēngshǐ Emperor moved his capital from Wǎnchéng (the temporary capital of the Hàn dynasty loyalists; in modern day Hénán Province) to Luòyáng (in modern-day Hénán Province).
-I guess Cháng'ān had gotten too fucked up during the war.
-The Gēngshǐ Emperor began to restore the empire by allowing for many Xīn dynasty officials to keep their posts and promising rewards and titles to any remaining enemies who surrendered.
-This actually seemed to work out pretty well for awhile but ended up being too inconsistent in its execution and soon many people started to grow unhappy with the way things were being run.
-Among those dissatisfied was the Chìméi ("Red Eyebrows") general Fán Chóng, who eventually left the new capital and returned to his army...
-A rebellion even broke out in north of the Yellow River at one point (in modern-day Héběi Province), so the Gēngshǐ Emperor sent his relative, General Liú Xiù, to put an end to it.
-Along the way, Liú Xiù was joined by a former colleague, Dèng Yǔ.
-Dèng Yǔ believed that Liú Xiù was a great man destined for greatness and all that and that he should keep his options open for when the Gēngshǐ Emperor's seemingly inevitable fall from power.
-From one of these revolts eventually emerged a rebel leader named Wáng Láng, a mystical fortune-teller dude from Hándān (in modern-day Héběi Province).
-Wáng Láng claimed that his name was actually Liú Zǐyú and that he was actually a long-lost son of Emperor Chéng of the Hàn dynasty (whom by all historical accounts had actually been sterile and had thus failed to produce a biological heir (although this was also complicated because his concubines would murder each other's sons).
-Wáng Láng claimed that his mother had been a singer in the court of Emperor Chéng and that he'd survived attempts on his life as a child before escaping the capital and living as a commoner. Apparently, the people of Hándān and surrounding regions believed Wáng Láng's story and were clamoring for him to be the emperor since he was of royal blood (although so was the Gēngshǐ Emperor (AKA Liú Xuán, a member of the royal Liú clan and a descendant of Emperor Jǐng), so this particular detail doesn't make much sense to me).
-Liú Xiù and Dèng Yǔ both knew that at this point their force with them was too small to take on Wáng Láng, so they decided to head to the safety of the ancient city of Jì (in modern-day Běijīng) to figure out what to do next.
-From Jì they were able to rally local lords into a force big enough to challenge Wáng Láng's rebel army.
-24 AD- It only took a few months for Liú Xiù and his forces to quell Wáng Láng's rebellion, and Liú Xiù was recalled back to the capital (which had been moved back to Cháng'ān) in order to be rewarded handsomely for this by the Gēngshǐ Emperor.
-However, Liú Xiù refused to return, claiming that there was still some work to be done in the region in order to make sure the people stayed pacified.
-This was obviously a lie, of course- Liú Xiù just wanted to start a rebellion of his own!
-Meanwhile, the Gēngshǐ Emperor continued to be an incompetent ruler and spent all of his time partying and shit, entrusting the rule of government to a dude named Zhào Méng (who also spent much of his time partying).
-I'm not quite sure who Zhào Méng was exactly, but he'd offered up his own daughter to the Gēngshǐ Emperor as an imperial consort so I guess this was what allowed him to run the government.
-Zhào Méng (and his circle of other corrupt officials) was completely incompetent but also abused his power and was basically a thug.
-Because shit was getting so bad during this time, the Chìméi armies continued to hang around (probably waiting for a good time to once again take out yet another corrupt joke of an imperial regime).
-Finally, they decided that enough was enough, and so they decided to march on Cháng'ān, defeating any imperial forces that got in their way.
-Meanwhile, Liú Xiù waited with his forces to see how all of this would play out (although I guess technically he was probably required to defend Cháng'ān since he was still a general of the Hàn imperial army).
-25 AD- meanwhile, a rebellion broke out in the city of Línjīng (in modern-day Qìngyáng, Gānsù Province).
-The rebellion was centered around the teenager Liú Yīng (AKA Rúzi Yīng ("Infant Ying")), technically the last of the Hàn emperors before Wáng Mǎng decided to have him placed under house arrest (before abolishing the Hàn dynasty and replacing it with his own Xīn dynasty).
-I guess after Wáng Mǎng's death Liú Yīng was kidnapped by some rebels based out of Línjīng, and then these rebels used Liú Yīng's royal blood as an excuse to rally troops around him (even though he himself seemingly had nothing to do with the rebellion at all!).
-It didn't take long for the Gēngshǐ Emperor to send a force to crush the rebellion, and it was during one of these battles that Liú Yīng was killed.
-Finally, Liú Xiù declared himself emperor after hostilities broke out between his own forces and Hàn forces loyal to the Gēngshǐ Emperor.
-Liú Xiù declared that the Gēngshǐ Emperor was clearly a noob and not a "real" emperor; Liú Xiù argued that he would restore the Hàn dynasty as the rightful heir to the throne- as Emperor Guāngwǔ!
-Scholars mark this as the beginning of the "Eastern" Hàn dynasty (or "Later Hàn").
-Similar to the situation with the Zhōu dynasty (Western Zhōu and Eastern Zhōu), Western Hàn's capital was Cháng'ān (in Xī'ān, modern-day Shǎnxī Province), whereas Eastern Hàn's capital would be Luòyáng (in modern-day Hénán Province).
-Emperor Guāngwǔ then began conquering the territory north of the Yellow River.
-Anyway, so meanwhile back in Cháng'ān the Chìméi soon arrived to besiege the capital and put an end to the Gēngshǐ Emperor's reign.
-The Gēngshǐ Emperor now faced two enemy forces (the Chìméi and Emperor Guāngwǔ, respectively), and it didn't take long for his generals to either conspire against him or abandon their posts, so the emperor ended up just fleeing the capital.
-The Chìméi then quickly realized that the city had more or less fallen and the throne was open, so they took it upon themselves to name their own emperor, the teenager Liú Pénzi (descendant of Emperor Gāozǔ), to take the throne (although apparently Liú Pénzi himself wasn't very happy about this decision).
-Although Liú Pénzi was named emperor, this didn't really last and he never had any real power anyway during his brief period of "rule".
-It didn't take long for Cháng'ān to fall to the Chìméi, and soon the city was theirs.
-Liú Pénzi was enthroned as the new emperor, but he was merely a puppet ruler and the various Chìméi generals just continued to call the shots behind the scenes.
-Soon after this the Gēngshǐ Emperor came out of hiding and surrendered himself to the Chìméi.
-Although he was arrested, he was spared from execution and was instead named prince of Chángshā (kingdom in the south of the Hàn Empire).
-Although technically Liú Pénzi was now "emperor", he had no authority and the Chìméi generals continued to raid and pillage the countryside as they pleased and soon people realized that actually things were now WORSE under these guys compared to how it was previously with the Gēngshǐ Emperor!
-Fearing that the Gēngshǐ Emperor / Prince of Chángshā would rebel against him, Liú Pénzi had him killed.
-Eventually, the Chìméi armies began to raid and pillage Cháng'ān! After thoroughly ransacking the city, they moved on to the next city.
-Liú Pénzi was powerless to do shit.
-27 AD- the Chìméi armies are defeated and Emperor Guāngwǔ captures Cháng'ān.
-Liú Pénzi's life is spared, and he's given an estate to live out his days.
-However, Emperor Guāngwǔ still had to conquer the rest of the empire, as vast swathes of territory had been swallowed up by warlords during the chaos of the recent years.
-In a way it began to almost resemble the Warring States period.
-34 AD- at this point, most of these major rebel warlords had been squashed, but one foe remained- Gōngsūn Shù, who proclaimed himself emperor of the new Chéngjiā dynasty (based out of the city of Chéngdū) and whose territory included much of modern-day Sìchuān, Chóngqìng, Guìzhōu, and Yúnnán Provinces!
-So, Emperor Guāngwǔ then focused his attention on crushing the Chéngjiā dynasty by ordering an invasion of their land.
-36 AD- Hàn forces capture Chéngdū (during the siege Gōngsūn Shù is killed), thus putting an end to the short-lived Chéngjiā dynasty.
-By this point Emperor Guāngwǔ had more or less restored the empire.
-Emperor Guāngwǔ proved to be an efficient and capable ruler; he also relaxed the legal codes for the common folk.
-40 AD- a rebellion breaks out in Jiāozhǐ (AKA Giao Chỉ, a commandery in modern-day northern Vietnam) led by Trưng Trắc (Zhēng Cè) and her sister Trưng Nhị (Zhēng Èr), but was quelled after a few years by the Hàn general Mǎ Yuán (AKA "Fúbō Jiāngjūn" - "the General Who Calms the Waves" pretty cool!).
-It was through General Mǎ Yuán that the Hàn dynasty was able to keep the Nánmán ("Southern Barbarians") subjugated.
-To this day, the Trưng Sisters are reverred by Vietnamese nationalists as a symbol for anti-Chinese imperialism in Vietnam.
-Meanwhile, in the north the Hàn dynasty was still having issues keeping the borders safe from Xiōngnú raids.
-Overall, life during this time in the Hàn Empire was finally stable and peaceful (for the most part).
-57 AD- Emperor Guāngwǔ dies, replaced by his son, Crown Prince Liú Yáng (AKA Liú Zhuāng), who becomes Emperor Míng of Hàn!
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