Liu Xin's prophecy also spread to Nanyang County unknowingly among rumors. There is a rumor all over the world: "The Wang family will be destroyed, and the Han Dynasty will rise." To the common people, it doesn't matter whoever becomes the emperor, as long as they can have a mouthful of food when they are hungry, something to wear when it is cold, and something to wear when it thunders. It is enough to have a place to take shelter when it rains. But if the world is about to change hands again, then regardless of prosperity or disgrace, it will be the common people who will suffer. Thinking about the desolation and vicissitudes of "millions of bleeding corpses drifting in the oars, thousands of miles of fertile fields without smoke" makes ordinary people shudder. People can't help but ask, openly or covertly, is the world really going to be in chaos again?
No one knows that the true emperor Liu Xin preached is hidden among the people, even he himself does not know. However, some magicians from all walks of life have deduced one after another that the destined emperor is definitely not the talented but ungrateful Liu Xin. As the saying goes: "Golden scales are just things in the pond. They turn into dragons when encountering wind and clouds; the dragon's roar in the sky changes the sky. You can swim in shallow water when the wind and clouds come together." Finally, in the visible and invisible way, someone met Liu Xiu, the Nine-Heaven Dragon.
In the early years of the Emperor's reign, brothers Liu Boxheng and Liu Xiu and their second brother-in-law Deng Chen went to Wancheng to visit a very famous warlock named Cai Shaogong from Rangcheng. This man is also a famous charlatan, famous for his proficiency in prophecies, and is very famous in Nanyang County. Before they knew it, they were talking about the luck in the world.
Cai Shaogong said: "According to the prophecies I studied, the Wang family's regime will not last long, the Han Dynasty will be restored soon, and the name of this destined emperor is Liu Xiu."
When everyone heard this, they immediately thought of the Grand Master Liu Xin who had his name changed in the palace not long ago. Someone hurriedly asked Cai Shaogong: "Are you talking about the current Grand Master Liu Xin?"
When Liu Xiu heard this, he immediately joked: "Maybe, this person will be me?"
When everyone heard this, they laughed immediately. Knowing that this was Liu Xiu's joke, no one took it seriously. However, Liu Xiu's brother Liu Boxheng was a little excited when he heard this. Of course, he did not believe that his unambitious brother Liu Xiu would become the future emperor, but he was particularly interested in the prophecy that "the Wang family will be destroyed and the Han Dynasty will rise." And Liu Xiu also found an opportunity in this prophecy.
On this day, a man named Li Tong came to see Brother Liu Xiu. Li Tong, whose courtesy name was Ciyuan, was also from Wancheng, Nanyang. The Li family has been in business for generations. His father's name is Li Shou, who is good at business. The Li family lives a very wealthy life. Although Li Shou's social status is not high, he manages his family well and is good at educating his children. Under his supervision and discipline, his son Li Tong also became a learned man.
Li Tong's father, like many wealthy people in society at that time, had no power to preserve his family status in these troubled times. Even the political power that supported this society would collapse at any time, so he could only believe in some unfounded stories. Something, that is the art of divination. Soon, his father actually got a prophecy called "Liu family will be revived, Li family will be the assistant", and told Li Tong. Li Tong got this prophecy, studied it day and night, and finally found out that maybe he was the one who assisted Shuntian Ying. The person who lives. If it succeeds, it will be a matter of course for the Three Gongs and Nine Ministers to be crowned, the title of Marquis and the title of General, and the glory of the ancestors will be a matter of course. Therefore, Li Tong resolutely decided to resign from his current position as the assistant to Wu Cheng and look for his own great future. At that time, Liu Xiu's elder brother in Nanyang was well-known for his generosity and benevolence. Li Tong's cousin Li Yi told Li Tong that Liu Boxheng and Liu Xiu brothers loved and tolerated people and could work together for great things. Li Tong smiled and said, "It's just what I wanted." It turned out that he had already had an idea. So Li Tong asked Li Yi to try to contact Liu Boxheng.
Huangtian paid off his hard work, and after several searches, the Li brothers finally found Liu Xiu. However, Liu Xiu at this time had just come out of prison. It turned out that there was a severe drought in Nanyang and people died of hunger everywhere, so Liu Xiu and his brother had the idea of rebellion and self-reliance. In order to raise military expenses, Liu Xiu took advantage of his business skills and transported all the food at home to the county town to sell it. Unexpectedly, after the officials here knew about it, they convicted him of stealing food without any verification. Officials believe that in this time when everyone is short of food and clothing, their food must not come from the right source. Liu Xiu was imprisoned in this way. Just when Liu Xiu was lamenting his bad luck and misfortune, Liu Xiu unexpectedly ran into his old friend Fan Ye. Fan Ye, courtesy name Zhonghua, was a native of Xinye County and was a minor official in the county at this time. Fan Ye gave Liu Xiu a good meal and helped him find his brother-in-law Deng Chen. Fan Ye spent some money to rescue Liu Xiu.
Although this incident was not serious, it also made Liu Xiu aware of the corruption of officials in society at that time. Officials arrest people without distinguishing right from wrong. If the court keeps such people, it will only harm the people. Liu Xiu had just been released from prison when he heard that Li Yi was coming to see him. Previously, his elder brother Liu Boxheng was dissatisfied with the arrogance of one of Li Tong's brothers, Shen Tuchen, and killed him in a rage. In this way, the Liu and Li families still have a lot of hatred. Therefore, Liu Xiu hesitated. He was worried that Li Yi came here with bad intentions. So, he went to see Li Yi, not forgetting to bring a dagger.
When Li Tong and Li Yi from Wancheng saw Liu Xiu, they hurriedly used the Hetu fortune-telling book to persuade Liu Xiu: "The Liu family is going to prosper again. The Li family is the assistant of the Liu family, and the Liu family is The real one in our family is Liu Xiu."
Liu Xiu was confused at first because he was not very clear about the purpose of their visit. Liu Xiu was worried that once word of this got out, he would not be able to clean himself up even if he jumped into the Yellow River, and he would be killed and annihilated at any time. Then Liu Xiu said tentatively: "Is this person a national counselor?"
Li Tong, Li Yi and others are so smart, knowing that Liu Xiu must not believe in them. When they saw that Liu Xiu still had a dagger in her sleeve, it must be to protect themselves. The two directly stated their intentions and persuaded Liu Xiu to raise troops to rebel. Liu Xiu secretly thought that his elder brother Liu Boxheng had always been friends with bandits, so he would definitely raise an army. Moreover, Wang Mang's defeat had been exposed and the world was in chaos, so he and Li Tong decided to prepare for an uprising, purchasing bows and arrows in the city to recruit troops.
Li Tong knew that once he raised troops to rebel, Wang Mang's regime would not let his father Li Shou go. Because Li Tong's father Li Shou was still in Chang'an at that time, Li Tong was afraid that something would happen to his father, so he quickly sent his cousin's son Li Ji to Chang'an to report the incident to Li Shou and ask him to escape quickly. However, something unexpected happened and Li Ji fell ill on the way. Fortunately, the news reached Li Shou's ears. Li Shou was shocked when he heard the news, and immediately decided to move his family and escape Chang'an.
But before Li Shou fled, he told his family friend Huang Xian this top-secret news. Huang Xian was working as a lieutenant general in the Xinmang court at this time. Hearing this, he hurriedly suggested to Li Shou: "Is it the king's land in the whole world? Is it the king's ministers who are on the shore of the land? You have outstanding appearance, how can you escape from the government's wanted What? If you can kill your relatives out of justice and take the initiative to report to Wang Mang before the incident breaks out, maybe your family can be exempted from the guilt."
When Li Shou heard this, he felt that Huang Xianyan was reasonable. Therefore, Li Shou wrote a letter of accusation and entrusted Huang Xian to write to the court, reporting that his son Li Tong and brothers Liu Boxheng and Liu Xiu were preparing to rebel.
Unfortunately, before Li Shou's letter of accusation reached Wang Mang, news of Li Tong's rebellion had been leaked, and most of the Li family members in his hometown in Nanyang had been arrested. When Wang Mang learned that Li Shou was Li Tong's father, he couldn't help but immediately ordered Li Shou to be arrested and brought to justice and thrown into a sky prison. Although Huang Xian was a court official, he was also a good friend of Li Shou. He knew that if he did not intercede this time, Li Shou would definitely be killed. So, Huang Xian risked his life to advise Wang Mang: "After Li Shou heard that his son had committed a crime of treason, he did not dare to flee. He has always been loyal and upright, and when he knew that his son had violated the law, he petitioned the court. So. I am willing to take Li Shou to the east with his son Xiao Yi. If his son still refuses to look back, Li Shou will die to apologize." Wang Mang knew that Huang Xian was a loyal man and thought that his words should not question, he agreed to take Li Shou to Nanyang to put down the rebellion.
It happened that at this time, an urgent memorial from Nanyang Governor Zhen Fu was sent to Chang'an. In the memorial, Zhen Fu described in detail the involvement of Li Shou's son Li Tong in the rebellion. Wang Mang was furious when he saw it and immediately ordered Li Shou to be killed. When Huang Xian went to plead for mercy again, he also suffered joint crimes. Li and Huang's tribesmen in Chang'an were also killed.
On the other hand, Liu Boxheng worked hard to accumulate strength, but on the other hand he also realized that if he wanted to rebel, relying solely on the children of the Chongling clan and the guests and friends he had made was not enough. The force of rebellion is still too weak to achieve great things. So, he approached Wang Kuang, Chen Mu and others, the Green Forest leaders of the Xinshi and Pinglin armies, and quickly reached an agreement with them to raise an army.
The decision was made, Liu Boxheng became the leader of the rebel army, and asked Liu Xiu to go to Wancheng to join forces with Li Tong, Li Yi and others to prepare for the uprising. He also asked his brother-in-law Deng Chen to bring his family members to join him in Xinye. He also urged Li Tong, Li Yi and others to kidnap Zhen Fu and Liang Qiuci in Wancheng on the first day of autumn in September as planned. Liu Boxheng himself led the Liu clan's descendants to prepare supplies in Chongling, waiting for the Green Forest Army to come and join.
Time passed day by day, and it was almost time for the uprising, but there was no news from Wancheng, and there was no news from Liu Xiu. Soon, the spies reported that both the Li family and the Huang Xian family had been wiped out by Wang Mang. Only three people, including Li Tong, Li Yi, and Li Song, escaped and their whereabouts were unknown. The government was looking for them. Liu Boxheng knew that the critical moment had come. Perhaps the Nanyang County Sheriff already knew about his intention to raise troops at this time and might come to arrest him at any time. Liu Boxheng made a prompt decision and the uprising continued as usual. Soon, the return of Liu Xiu and others made Liu Boxing feel relieved. However, many people in this tribe did not agree to raise the army because they were afraid that if the uprising failed, the disaster that awaited them would be the annihilation of the three tribes.
Among them, Liu Liang, whom Liu Xiu and others respected the most, also strongly opposed it. In order to prevent him from leaking the secret, Brother Liu Xiu sent people to closely guard him. At the same time, they actively planned and encouraged the clan members. Finally, after some deliberation, the whole clan united as one and decided to launch an uprising. Under the leadership of Liu Boxheng, a total of seven or eight thousand people from the Liu family in Chongling met with the leaders of the Green Forest Army Wang Kuang, Chen Mu and others.
In October of this year, brothers Liu Boxheng, Liu Xiu, Li Tong, his cousin Li Yi and others formally launched an army in Wancheng. Liu Xiu was twenty-eight years old.
