Liu Cong (Han-Zhao)
Faced with opposition from his own ministers, he greatly empowered his eunuchs and consort kins, leading to political instability which ended in a bloody purge of the Han court.Meanwhile, the Han expanded from a small state occupying modern southern Shanxi to encompassing nearly all of modern Shanxi, Shaanxi, eastern Gansu, and significant portions of Shandong, Hebei, and Henan—although the eastern half of the empire was under the control of the warlord Shi Le, who Liu Cong had little to no power to restrain.After his death, his successor and family members in the capital were slaughtered by a consort kin, Jin Zhun, and not long after, the empire was split into two between his cousin, Liu Yao in the west and Shi Le in the east.In 309, in conjunction with Shi Le, he had a major victory over the Jin general Wang Kuang (王曠) at Changping (長平, in modern Jincheng, Shanxi).Upon the victory, however, he prematurely tried to advance on Luoyang and was defeated by the Jin general Huan Yan (桓延), who tricked him by pretending to surrender.After she died, Liu Cong's favor for his brother quickly waned, although he was said to be keeping him as crown prince still because of his love for her.In spring 311, Shi Le crushed the remaining major Jin force in the central China region, previously commanded by Sima Yue, which was trying to head east after his death.In less than a month, Liu Cong began to take a large number of his high-level officials' daughters and granddaughters as concubines, including a number of them with the family name Liu—daughters and granddaughters of his official Liu Yin (劉殷) -- which Crown Prince Ai opposed due to the general prohibition against endogamy.In summer 312, the first real signs of trouble of Liu Cong's reign came, as he executed a prince in charge of river matters and a duke in charge of construction on trivial matters—the prince for failing to supply his court with sufficient fish and crabs, and the duke for failing to complete two palaces on time.While Liu Kun was able to recapture Jinyang with the assistance of the Xianbei chief Tuoba Yilu the Duke of Dai, he would not pose a serious threat to Han from that point on.Still, this move drew Liu Cong's attention, and for the next several years, Chang'an would become a major target for Han forces.Later that year, Chen Yuanda revealed to him that the Upper Empress had been committing adultery, and Liu Cong felt compelled to depose her; she committed suicide in shame, and Liu Cong, missing her beauty, greatly resented Chen for revealing her adultery.Around this time, he also became extremely trusting of the eunuchs Wang Chen (王沈), Xuan Huai (宣懷), and the servant Guo Yi (郭猗), entrusting all government matters to them and cancelling regular meetings with officials, letting Wang, Xuan, and Guo serve as communicators between him and the officials.This led to Wang, Xuan, and Guo becoming free to act at their whim, and they became greatly corrupt, in cooperation with Jin Zhun.Liu Can then further interrogated Crown Prince Ai's subordinate Di and Qiang chiefs (whom Crown Prince Ai commanded, based on his secondary title of Grand Chanyu) under torture, and the Di and Qiang chiefs were forced to falsely confess to a plot.