After Emperor Guangwu of Han, Liu Xiu, established the Eastern Han dynasty, the realm was not yet unified.
At the time, the former governor of Shu Commandery, Gongsun Shu, controlled the vast region of Yizhou, making him the most powerful local warlord. Emperor Liu Xiu sent several letters urging Gongsun Shu to submit, but Gongsun Shu, confident in his own strength, flatly refused to surrender.
In 33 AD, Emperor Wu of Han dispatched Grand Marshal Wu Han and General-in-Chief Cen Peng to lead an army against Gongsun Shu, who had declared himself emperor in the distant Shu region.
Leading his vanguard forces westward into Shu, Cen Peng swiftly captured the strategic fortress of Jingmen, held by Gongsun Shu, and then raced at breakneck speed to take Wuyang, just a short distance from Chengdu.
Unwilling to accept defeat, Gongsun Shu resorted to a treacherous scheme, secretly sending an assassin into the Han camp, who murdered Cen Peng.
Upon learning this, Wu Han led his army racing westward at breakneck speed, and after several fierce battles, they reached the outskirts of Chengdu. In another brutal clash, Gongsun Shu was gravely wounded by Wu Han during the fighting and died that very night.
The next day, Gongsun Shu's generals, seeing no hope of resistance, could only open the city gates and surrender.
After capturing Chengdu at great cost, General Wu Han and his second-in-command Liu Yu ordered the execution of the entire families of Gongsun Shu and Yan Cen, the city's main defenders, and allowed their soldiers to loot and burn, leaving the palace in ashes and the people of Chengdu in utter devastation.
When Liu Bang learned of this, he immediately sent a messenger racing to Chengdu to stop the indiscriminate killing and looting. Knowing that Wu Han had rendered great service and was weary from his labors, he could not bear to rebuke him directly. Instead, he issued an imperial decree reprimanding the deputy general Liu Yu: "After the enemy opened the city gates and surrendered, the hundreds of thousands of civilians inside were innocent. How could you allow your soldiers to set fires and plunder? Such actions will cause severe consequences and lose the people's trust. Even a worn-out broom in a household is worth a thousand gold pieces to its owner. As a member of the Han imperial clan holding such an important post, how could you bear to be so cruel to the Han people?"
Soon after, Emperor Guangwu ordered General Wu Han to lead the army back to the capital. He then sent envoys to the Ba-Shu region to pacify the people, publicly honoring a group of virtuous local gentry and appointing several capable officials who had previously served under Gongsun Shu. Only through these measures did the hearts of the Ba-Shu people gradually settle.
Later, the idiom "a worn broom in the family is worth a thousand gold" came to be used as a metaphor for something that, though humble, is still treasured by its owner.
Source: *Dongguan Hanji*, "Annals of Emperor Guangwu"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "家有敝帚，享之千金" came to describe how something that is humble is still treasured by its owner.