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Hello and welcome to the history of China.

Hello and welcome to the history of China.

It was October 7th, year 23, CE, and China convulsed with rebellion against the Imperial throne in Chang'an.

The Imperial Army, which less than a week prior had numbered more than 420,000 troops,

had been utterly crushed, and those who had survived, made up mostly by

this point of criminals released from prison on the condition that they fight, have fled

into the countryside to avoid death.

Three days prior, the rebel armies had breached the capital city's defensive walls,

resulting in door-to-door combat as they cut their way to the heart of the Imperial Quarter, and huddled deep within the inner

sanctum of Weyang Palace, Emperor Wang Mang of the Shin Dynasty waits for his inevitable death, surrounded by his nine wives, 27

consorts, and a thousand of his hardened loyalists making final preparations on

what would be their doomed last stand. As the rebels closed in around him on the top

floor and prepared to execute him, Emperor Wong must have wondered how it had come

to this. Today we asked the same question, looking back over the 20-year reign of the usurper

Emperor Wang Mang, and what he had hoped to accomplish and improve from the sputtering

Han he had replaced,

and how it had all gone so horribly wrong.

No, you didn't miss an episode.

You're in the right place.

This is episode 30. Han interrupted.

Last time, we left off with the death of Emperor I in 1B.C. and the seizure of power by his mother Empress Dowager Wong, away from I's powerful

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