Wang had requisitioned the forces of Korean…

Wang, irritated with Chanyu Zhi, declares war against Xiongnu.

The strategy that he sets out is to divide the Xin forces into twelve armies to divide and conquer Xiongnu.

Under this scenario, Chanyu Zhi would be attacked and forced to retreat to the Dingling tribes (around Lake Baikal), and Xiongnu would be divided into fifteen small kingdoms to be ruled by fifteen descendants of Chanyu Huhanye, who had first established friendly relations with Han.

Under this plan, three hundred thousand men would be gathered (and would attack at the same time).

Wang does not follow his generals' recommendations to start the campaign as soon as a critical mass of men is gathered, but wants to attack with overwhelming force.

This causes the border regions to become strained with accommodating the men who had already arrived for years, while fruitlessly waiting for the full support of three hundred thousand to be gathered.

Rome regards Arminius’ destruction of the three legions as a major humiliation: Augustus (according to the historian Suetonius) laments over it, crying: "Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!"

Powerful Chinese landlords hostile to Wang Mang’s reforms support the angry and confused peasantry against the new emperor.

Eventually, with resistance to his land redistribution and anti-slavery policies, Wang is forced to repeal both in 12.

One of the local commanders kidnaps one of Chanyu Zhi's brothers, Xian, the Prince of Zuoliwu, and his sons Deng and Zhu, by trickery in the first stage of Wang Mang’s plan.

Xian and Zhu are made Chanyus—to be two of the fifteen.

An enraged Chanyu Zhi initiates massive attacks against Xin border regions, causing the border regions much distress and loss in economic and human terms.

Eventually, Xian escapes back to Xiongnu, but his sons are kept as hostages.

After Zhu dies, Deng succeeds him.

However, in 12, after hearing reports that Xian's other son Jiao had been a successful Xiongnu strategist in military actions, Wang, in anger, executes Deng and his attendants.

Vonones I of Parthia, having been educated as a Roman, is despised by the Parthian nobility as a slave of the Romans.

Artabanus II, who is living among the Dahan nomads in the east of Parthia (and who seems to have been a non-Arsacid Parthian nobleman), is invited to the throne between CE 8 and 10 by those Parthian grandees who will not acknowledge Vonones I, who proves to have too tight a control over the budget.

However, when Artabanus attempts to consolidate his position (at which he is successful in most instances), he fails to do so in the regions where the Parthian provincial rulers hold sway.

The war between the two pretenders is long and doubtful; on a coin Vonones mentions a victory over Artabanus.

The coins of Vonones I date from 8 to 12 CE and bear the inscription "King Vonones, conqueror of Artabanus", commemorating a temporary victory over his rival.

Those of Artabanus II begin in the year 10.

At last Artabanus defeats his rival completely and occupies the Parthian capital, Ctesiphon.

Vonones, deposed by Artabanus II, flees to Armenia in about the year 12, where he is acknowledged as king, under the protection of the Romans.

Chanyu Zhi dies later in 13, and the powerful official Xubu Dang and his wife Yun, the Princess Yimuo (the daughter of Chanyu Huhanye and Wang Zhaojun), who advocates peaceful relations with the Xin dynasty and who are also friendly with Xian, support Xian as the new Chanyu, but even though Xian is unaware that Wang Mang had executed his son Deng, their friendly relations do not return.

The Chinese cyclical system begins to be used for reckoning years as well as days in the early years of the first century CE. (The Chinese year, which consists of twelve lunar months, will from time to time adjusted to the solar year by the addition of an intercalary month.)

During the Han dynasty, each branch had been matched with an animal name, producing the series: rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog, and pig.

The Chinese year begins with the second new moon after the winter solstice, which occurs between January 21 and February 19.

In 13, under Emperor Wang Mang's rule, the Celestial or Heavenly Stems, a Chinese system of ordinals that first appear around 1250 BCE during the Shang dynasty as the names of the ten days of the week, are incorporated to number the years and replace the previous system, which used only the Earthly Branches, a similar cycle of twelve days.

Also in 13, perhaps related to the Wusun situation, the Xiyu kingdoms join forces, attack the Xiyu commissioner Dan, and succeed in killing him.

The Xiyu kingdoms by this point no longer pledge allegiance to the Xin dynasty.

The kingdom of Wusun, under a system set up by the Han dynasty, has two kings—the greater king is a descendant of a Han princess and her husband the king of Wusun, while the lesser king is a descendant of her brother-in-law).

The dual kingdom sends ambassadors to Chang'an in CE 13 to offer tributes.

Because Xin Emperor Wang Mang knows that the people of Wusun actually have a greater affinity for the lesser king, he places the ambassador of the lesser king in a higher position than the ambassador of the greater king, which deeply insults the greater king.