Liu Bang

Although he lacked the martial abilities of his great rival Xiang Yu, Liu Bang possessed excellent political skills and an exceptional ability to recognize and utilize talent. He famously said that his success was due to his ability to use brilliant men like Zhang Liang, Xiao He, and Han Xin.

During the Chu-Han Contention, Liu Bang endured numerous defeats against Xiang Yu but managed to survive and gradually build a stronger coalition. He ultimately emerged victorious at the Battle of Gaixia.

As emperor, he established the foundation for the Han dynasty, which would last for over 400 years and deeply influence Chinese culture and history.

However, once his empire was secure, Liu Bang grew deeply paranoid. Rising from a mere peasant to the emperor, he harbored a deep-seated inferiority complex, constantly fearing that his brilliant generals—now practically independent warlord kings with massive private armies—might one day rebel and overthrow him. To build a robust, centralized central government and ensure his dynasty's survival, he deemed that these powerful founding contributors had to be systematically eliminated.

While Liu Bang was away suppressing rebellions, his ruthless wife, Empress Lu, actively orchestrated political traps that led to the arrest and execution of former allies, including the greatest tactical genius of the era, Han Xin. Facing his bitter and imminent death, Han Xin famously lamented, 'When the cunning hares are dead, the good hound is boiled' (the origin of the idiom 'Tosagupaeng'). This brutal massive purge demonstrated how the once-merciful rebel leader had transformed into a cold-blooded emperor utterly desperate to consolidate absolute power at any cost.