Red Eyebrows rebellion

In 17 a woman known as Mother Lü stormed the seat of Haiqu county (in modern Rizhao) and killed the magistrate to avenge her son, and in 18 Fan Chong raised his own band in the Ju and Langya area; the risings swelled amid the famine that followed the floods. So that friend could be told from foe in battle, Fan Chong and the other leaders ordered their men to colour their eyebrows red, which gave the movement its name — Chimei, the Red Eyebrows. In 22 they routed a Xin army at Chengchang, where the general Lian Dan was killed.

After Wang Mang’s death the Red Eyebrows at first submitted to the Gengshi Emperor, whom the Lülin rebels had enthroned, but soon broke with him. In 25 they set up their own figurehead emperor, the fifteen-year-old Liu Penzi of the Han clan, who went on herding cattle in the army, captured Chang’an and overthrew Gengshi. When food ran out they pillaged the capital, burned many of its palaces and marched away; in the spring of 27, worn down by Liu Xiu (Emperor Guangwu), they surrendered at Yiyang after he promised to spare Liu Penzi.