In 214 BC, in order to resist the invasion of the Xiongnu and other foreign races, Qin Shi Huang Yingzheng did not hesitate to build the Great Wall. It can be seen that the Xiongnu is a "role" that needs to be avoided here by Qin Shi Huang.
But in the Eastern Han Dynasty, under the rule of the king who ascended to the throne at the age of 9, but the Xiongnu never invaded the Central Plains again. Because during his reign, he not only completely defeated the Xiongnu, but also made the 50 countries of the Western Regions bow down.
The emperor who ascended the throne at the age of 9 was the fourth emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Liu Zhao of Han and He. Liu Zhao was the fourth son of Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty, and because his biological mother Liang Guiren died early, he was passed on to Empress Dou as his stepson.
Queen Dou is an ambitious woman, she not only wants to be the queen of a dynasty, but also wants to be the queen mother of a dynasty. But at this time, the crown prince was Liu Qing, and his biological mother Song Guiren was still alive, so Queen Dou had the heart of abolishing the prince, and she achieved her wish by framing Song Guiren.
Empress Dou teamed up with her mother, Princess Yuyang, to lead a witch curse, said that the initiator was the Song family. Because Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty was extremely disgusted with these witchcraft, he had a dislike with the Song nobles and the crown prince Liu Qing.
In 82 AD, Empress Dou repeated her old tricks, this time she formed an alliance with the emperor's close attendant eunuch Cai Lun, and once again framed the Song nobles for witchcraft. Under the coercion of the Dou family, Song Guiren could only prove his innocence by self-determination, and Liu Qing was also implicated and deposed as the crown prince.
Then, under the planning of Empress Dou, Emperor Zhang of Han selected Liu Zhao, who was only 3 years old, as the crown prince. In 88 AD, Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty died, and 9-year-old Liu Zhao was put on the throne of emperor. However, because the new emperor was too young, Empress Dou used this as an excuse to start ruling the dynasty.
Although Liu Zhao is still young, his mind is mature, and the city government is very deep. He knew that it would take time to uproot the Dou clan from the court, and he began to wait.
Dou Xian, the main bone of the Dou family, is the elder brother of Empress Dou and a famous general in the court. Therefore, as long as he is removed, the Dou clan can be eradicated. In August 92 AD, Liu Zhao transferred Dou Xian to the capital, and threw all Dou Xian's cronies into prison that night.
Early the next morning, Liu Zhao ordered someone to go to Dou Xian's house to deliver the decree and take back his general's seal. As a result, the Dou clan declined, and 14-year-old Liu Zhao officially took over imperial power.
In fact, long before Liu Zhao came into power, he had already shown extraordinary ability to govern the country. During his reign, he completed the political achievements of completely defeating the Xiongnu and comprehensively stabilizing the Western Regions, how did Liu Zhao do it?
In 89 AD, in the second year of the reign of Emperor He, the Han Dynasty sent reinforcements to the Han army that had rebelled against the Northern Xiongnu. The cause of this war began one year agoAt that time, the Southern Xiongnu, who was attached to the Han Dynasty, sent a secret report to the Han and Emperors, saying that an internal turmoil had broken out in the Northern Xiongnu. If you can take advantage of this opportunity to go on the expedition, you will definitely be able to capture the Northern Xiongnu in one fell swoop.
Although there were many opposing voices within the Han Dynasty, such as Shangshu Song Yi, in his opinion, it was better to wait until the Northern Xiongnu were fighting each other to defeat them.
However, the Han and Emperor did not approve of this move, because the confrontation between the north and the south Xiongnu for many years could not eliminate each other, and only the injection of external forces could make it possible to defeat one side.
Sending troops together with the Southern Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty's troops will not suffer heavy losses, and it can also use the power of "razing to defeat raze" to pacify the Northern Xiongnu. But because the government at this time was in the hands of the Empress Dowager Dou, Liu Zhao also had the support of the Empress Dowager to send troops to recruit the Northern Xiongnu.
And the general who led this battle was Dou Xian, although he was a powerful minister, he also had excellent military talents. In cooperation with the Southern Xiongnu, tens of thousands of Northern Xiongnu troops were eliminated.
Seeing this, the Northern Xiongnu fled to the depths of the grassland, while the Han army pursued them fiercely. In the end, more than 100,000 people of the Northern Xiongnu surrendered to the Han Dynasty. In this battle, the Han Dynasty dealt a heavy blow to the Northern Xiongnu.
In 93 AD, the remnants of the defeated Northern Xiongnu actually tried to make a comeback. It is written in the history books that the king of the right valley of the Northern Xiongnu set himself up as Shan Yu in addition to the sheath, and set up a rebellion. After taking power, Liu Zhao immediately decided to send troops to quell the rebellion after learning about it.
And in this year, the Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu also took advantage of the opposite. Although the Xiongnu during this period all stood on the same front and declared war on the Han Dynasty, the Han and Emperor were not afraid, but met the battle with a tough style.
Since before that, the Xiongnu had already suffered heavy losses from the Han army. Therefore, even if they have the opposite intention, it is difficult to compete with the Han army. After the complete defeat of the Xiongnu, the Han army also erected a monument at Balikun Lake.
Emperor Hanhe's ambitions were not limited to the Xiongnu, he was also planning how to control the Western Regions in the process of quelling the Xiongnu rebellion.
When Dou Xian defeated the Northern Xiongnu tribes, he had already brought the Hami Basin in Xinjiang under the control of the Han Dynasty. At the same time, the Cheshi Kingdom, Qiuci and other countries in the Western Regions did not dare to be disrespectful after seeing the powerful Han Dynasty, so they surrendered to the Han Dynasty.
As a result, Emperor He of the Han Dynasty re-established the Protectorate of the Western Regions to supervise the countries of the Western Regions that had taken the initiative to show favor to the Han Dynasty. However, there are still foreign countries here that refuse to bow to the Han Dynasty, such as the Wuyi Kingdom.
Thus,In 94 AD, Emperor He of Han ordered the general Ban Chao to go to conquer Wuyi. In order to improve the winning rate of this battle, Ban Chao united with Qiuzi and other countries to go on an expedition together, and soon subdued the Wuyi Kingdom.
From this period onwards, the states of the Western Regions within Xinjiang had fallen into the arms of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, now there are only exotic countries left outside Xinjiang.
It may be because the Han Dynasty was too much of a deterrent to the Western Regions, and these countries other than Xinjiang also took the initiative to pay tribute to the Han DynastyThe 50 kingdoms of the Western Regions all bowed to the Han Dynasty.
In addition, in addition to conquering the Xiongnu and recovering the Western Regions, Emperor He single-handedly improved the economic development and people's livelihood stability of the Han Dynasty. During his reign, he formulated a series of policies that benefited the people's livelihood, such as tax reductions and edicts.
In addition,After a locust plague appeared in the capital in 96 AD, Emperor Han He first reflected on whether it was his own fault。At the same time, he also issued several orders to provide relief to the victims of the disaster, and also used the money in the treasury to provide a place for the people displaced by the disaster.
Perhaps it was Emperor Han He who had a heart that loved the people like a son, and he was loved by the people of the world and the awe of the conquered aliens. However,Emperor He of the Han Dynasty, who had created such brilliant political achievements, died early in 106 AD at the age of 27.
During the 18 years of the reign of Emperor He of the Han Dynasty, the emperor completed the remarkable achievements of stabilizing national defense, quelling foreign strife, and improving people's livelihood.
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