Huns called Han Emperor

In the same year that Li Xiong claimed the throne in Chengdu (304 AD), Liu Yuan, a Xiongnu nobleman in the north, also rebelled against Jin and became independent, claiming to be the king of Han.

Since the late Western Han Dynasty, some Xiongnu people lived scattered in the northern remote counties, and they spent a lot of time with the Han people and accepted the Han culture. The Xiongnu nobles believed that they had made peace with the Han Dynasty many times in previous generations, were relatives of the Han Dynasty's royal family, and later changed to using the Han Emperor's surname - Liu. After Cao Cao unified the north, he divided the 30,000 tribes of Xiongnu into five divisions, each with a divisional commander, and Liu Bao, a Xiongnu nobleman, was the divisional commander of one of them.

Liu Yuan, the son of Liu Bao, grew up reading many books of the Han Chinese and was so strong and skilled that he could draw a 300-jin bow. After the death of Liu Bao, Liu Yuan succeeded his father in his position. Later, he became a general under the ministry of Si Ma Ying, the king of Chengdu (one of the eight kings) of the Western Jin Dynasty, and stayed in Yecheng to take charge of the five Xiongnu armies.

After the eight kings' melee began, some nobles from the Xiongnu tribes met in Zuo Guo Cheng (north of Lishi in Shanxi province today) to discuss the matter. An elderly nobleman said, "We Xiongnu have been brothers with the Han since the Han Dynasty. After two dynasties, Wei and Jin, the descendants of the Xiongnu monarchs had their titles, but they did not have their size of land and were no different from the common people. Now the Jin dynasty was in civil strife and killing each other. This is a good time for us Xiongnu people to recover our status!"

Everyone thought his idea was right, but who should be called to take the lead? After some discussion, they decided that Liu Yuan had the talent and prestige to be the monarch.

The nobles sent a messenger to Yecheng to tell Liu Yuan what the group wanted and asked him to come back. Liu Yuan was very happy, so he asked Sima Ying to leave on the pretext of returning to Xiongnu to bury his father. Sima Ying did not agree, so Liu Yuan had to let the messenger go back first, and asked the five Xiongnu to gather their troops and move south.

Later, Sima Teng, the assassin of Bingzhou, and Wang Jun, the general of the Jin dynasty, combined with Xianbei nobles to attack Sima Ying, who failed and fled to Luoyang. Liu Yuan asked Sima Ying to go back and bring Xiongnu soldiers and horses to help in the war, so Sima Ying let him go.

In 304 A.D., Liu Yuan returned to the city of Zuo Guo, and the people embraced him as the great monarch. He gathered 50,000 men and horses and led them south personally to help the Jin army attack the Xianbei soldiers. Some people asked him why he did not take this opportunity to destroy the Jin Dynasty but instead went to help the Jin army.

Liu Yuan said, "It is not as easy as destroying the Jin dynasty, but the people of Jin may not turn to us. I think the Han Dynasty has been in power for the longest time and had a great influence on the people. Our predecessors were also brothers of the Han Dynasty royal family. Now that the Han Dynasty has died, we may be able to win the hearts of the people by using the name of inheriting the Han Dynasty."

When everyone heard this, they thought it was a good idea. Liu Yuan then declared himself the King of Han.

After Liu Yuan was declared the king of Han, he soon captured several counties such as Shangdang, Taiyuan, Hedong, and Plain, and his power became bigger and bigger. Some smaller anti-Jin forces of various ethnic groups also came to join Liu Yuan.

In 308 A.D., Liu Yuan became the emperor of Han. The next year, he moved his capital to Pingyang (southwest of Linfen, Shanxi) and concentrated his forces on attacking Luoyang. Although the people of Luoyang hated the corrupt Western Jin Dynasty, they did not want to be ruled by the Xiongnu aristocracy. Therefore, Liu Yuan had to retreat from his two attacks because of the fierce resistance from the people and soldiers of Luoyang.

At that time, the last of the eight kings, Si Ma Yue, the king of Donghai, was still feuding with a group of ministers. The little troops left behind by the Jin dynasty were almost depleted.

Later, Liu Yuan died and his son Liu Cong took over as the emperor of Han and sent generals Liu Yao and Shi Le to attack Luoyang. The people and soldiers of Luoyang resisted bravely, but after all, they were outnumbered. In 311 A.D., the city of Luoyang was finally captured and Emperor Huai of Jin became a prisoner.

After Liu Cong entered Luoyang, he killed a large number of Jin officials and people. Once, Liu Cong held a banquet and made Emperor Huaiyang wear the green clothes worn by his slaves to pour wine for everyone. Some of the surviving officials of the Jin dynasty couldn't help but cry out loud when they saw it. When Liu Cong saw that the surviving officials of the Jin dynasty still had such affection for Emperor Huai, he was so ruthless that he killed him.

After the death of Emperor Huai of Jin, the Jin officials in Chang'an installed the nephew of Emperor Huai, Sima Yeh, to succeed the throne, which became Emperor Jin Min (pronounced mǐn).

In 316 A.D., Liu Cong captured Chang'an. Emperor Min of Jin suffered the same fate as Emperor Huai and was killed after being humiliated. The Western Jin dynasty lasted for 52 years and finally fell.

After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, the people of the north (mainly the five minority groups of Xiongnu, Xianbei, Capricorn, Diao, and Qiang) revolted, and the upper class among them took the opportunity to rise and set up regimes like Li Xiong and Liu Yuan, and a total of sixteen separate regimes emerged, which are known in history as the "Sixteen Kingdoms" (formerly known as the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Five Hu, Hu being a general term for minority groups in ancient times). (the ancient name for ethnic minorities).