Author: Qi Yunke
One day in September of the thirteenth year of the Ming Dynasty (1448), a far-reaching prisoner escape occurred in the Ming Dynasty's Guangzhou City Prison. Hundreds of prisoners rioted en masse, not only successfully escaped from prison, but also armed with sharp blades to kill the Ming Dynasty's local ordnance bureau, seized a large number of weapons, and directly launched an armed uprising.
First, the escape passed
The mastermind of this escape was Huang Xiaoyang, the leader of a well-known local "mountain pirate".
Huang Xiaoyang, originally a barefoot doctor, practiced medicine very well, but because of his opposition to the local landlords who oppressed the poor, the relationship between the two sides was not harmonious, and a fight broke out, he killed the dog-fighting landlord Dog Leg and was arrested and imprisoned. This made Huang Xiaoyang very angry.
In prison, Huang Xiaoyang contacted hundreds of fellow prisoners like himself who had been framed by the Ming ruling class as "mountain pirates" and formed an alliance. As the saying goes, "Having money makes a ghost grind." "They bribed some of the jailers with money and asked them to help them get the weapons they needed into prison.
In addition, Huang Xiao also rescued their inmates who were in difficulty in life, sent money and gifts, and tried to help their families tide over the difficulties and make them feel at ease in prison. Huang Xiaoyang also rectified the unhealthy atmosphere in prison, strictly prohibited fighting, gang formation, gambling and money, unified organizational leadership, and united the low-level people who suffered in prison, and was deeply loved and supported by them.
After getting the weapon in prison, Huang Xiao also contacted his companions outside the prison and agreed on a time for them to respond.
One day in September of the thirteenth year of orthodoxy (1448), Huang Xiaoyang led hundreds of prisoners to launch the famous escape from Guangzhou City in history. In the evening, they, with the help of their comrades outside the prison, cut off the shackles, killed the officials guarding the prison who blocked them, rushed into the Guangzhou Ordnance Bureau, seized weapons and equipment, and staged an armed uprising.
Due to the rapid action, the rebel army quickly rushed out of the city of Guangzhou and reached the safe area, and the Ming officials did not learn of the prison riot until the next morning, and rushed to suppress it, but the rebel army had disappeared without a trace.
2. Causes of the uprising
After the Huang Xiaoyang uprising, it received a positive response from the people in the coastal areas of Guangdong, and the rebel army soon grew to more than 10,000 people, and many people joined the rebel army with their families and mouths.
As for the cause of the Huang Xiaoyang uprising, it is mainly the Sha Tin issue. In the coastal areas of Guangdong, the coastal areas have formed a kind of sand field because of the alluvial seawater, which is more fertile and suitable for farming, in addition, it is also suitable for aquaculture, and many times the seawater comes up, bringing many seafood such as fish and shrimp in the sea, and it is also a source of income for the locals.
These shamans were initially uncultivated. In coastal areas, farmers and fishermen who have no land or little land are forced to make a living by reclaiming land and cultivating land, but they can barely solve the problem of eating and drinking. Later, however, the big landlords and rich people in Guangzhou became red-eyed, and used means, including "occupying the sand" and "grabbing the cutting," to encroach on the shatin of the people at all costs, and to compete with these poor people who could hardly open the pot at home for the benefits of sha tin and to snatch food from their mouths.
When looting, landlords and rich people often lead a large group of thugs, drive large boats, carry sharp blades, and blatantly use force to solve problems, which is quite a bit of a triad nature.
The poor people dare to be angry and dare not speak, and their anger is not raised. "Where there is oppression, there is resistance." Huang Xiaoyang, who had a high reputation among the poor, stood up to fight against those rich landlords, and invisibly, in the eyes of everyone, his prestige was even higher.
Iii. The process of the uprising
After Huang Xiaoyang rushed out of guangzhou with his army, he rushed to Pancun in Nanhai County, announced the establishment of power, and proclaimed himself the Shunmin Heavenly King (Guangyang Wang), with the era name of Dongyang First Year, and vowed to compete with the Ming Dynasty. More than 100 officials at all levels were also awarded.
Soon, they divided into land and water, attacked the city of Guangzhou, and carried out the cloud ladder and the Lu bus to directly attack the provincial city of Guangzhou, but they were repeatedly defeated. Later, it was learned that Zhang An, the Ming Dynasty's Anxiang who was guarding Guangdong, had led an army to suppress the rebels, and Huang Xiaoyang led his army to meet the battle.
The Ming army, which was under the banner of suppressing bandits, was instead beaten by the rebel army and abandoned its armor and fled in a daze. On the way to escape, the Ming Dynasty Anxiang Bo Zhang An was so frightened that he hugged his head and scurried, panicked, fell into the water, and had no ability to climb up, although there were many officers and soldiers under him, but everyone only cared about their own lives, no one went to save him, and as a result, he was drowned alive.
After Wang Qing, the commander of the Ming Dynasty, learned that Zhang An led an army to suppress bandits, he quickly led the water army to help the battle. However, what he did not know was that before he arrived, Zhang An had been defeated and drowned. The peasant army disguised themselves as fleeing people and went to meet Wang Qing. When Wang Qing saw this, he did not suspect it, and went forward to inquire about Huang Xiaoyang's situation, but he was not careful for a while, and was captured alive on the spot by the rebel soldiers disguised as refugees, and the water army he led was wiped out by the peasant army.
The peasant army escorted Wang Qing to the city of Guangzhou and threatened the defenders in the city. Qian Hui of the Ming Dynasty was angry and scolded, and he shot Wang Qing to death. The rebel army shouted to declare war, but the Ming army did not dare to go out of the city to meet the enemy, so it had to hold on.
After that, the Ming army shrank in the city of Guangzhou, and did not dare to fight.
The rebel army developed rapidly, and by the fourteenth year of orthodoxy (1449), it had reached more than 100,000 people, and its strength had increased greatly. Huang Xiao lived in the palace annex built by the emperor outside Guangzhou during the Southern Han Dynasty, and was honored by his father Huang Gang as the Emperor Taishang, and the people in the coastal areas who insisted on resisting the oppression of the landlord class were subordinated to the banner.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty was in the midst of the change of Tumu Fort, and the Invasion of Vala had no time to take care of the peasant army under Huang Xiaoyang. It was not until the first year of Jingtai (1450) that the Ming court sent the capital Yushi Yang Xinmin to Guangdong to quell the rebellion of the peasant army. Yang Xinmin took advantage of Huang Xiaoyang's desire to gain an official title and preserve his glory and wealth, and on the one hand, he solicited appeasement, and on the other hand, he asked the imperial court to send a large army led by the governor Tongzhi Dongxing to encircle and suppress it.
Originally, Huang Xiaoyang and Yang Xinmin had a good talk, but unexpectedly Yang Xinmin died violently. Immediately afterward, Dong Xing led an army to kill, and Huang Xiaoyang's friend Wu Changneng was defeated by the Ming army, but failed to play a role in responding.
Seeing this, the peasant army had no choice but to engage the Ming army. In the bloody battle, Huang Xiaoyang was shot and killed by the officers, and the rest of the people fled and retreated to Huang Xiaoyang's hometown of Hejindou.
In April of that year, the Ming Dynasty officials and troops attacked Sanshan, Daliang Fort, Hejindou and other places, and the remnants of the rebel army held firm and fought a deadly battle with the incoming enemy. More than 600 warships of the rebel army met the battle, shelled each other with the Ming Dynasty water army, and after the defeat of the rebel army, they dived into the sea, stole the large ships of the officers and soldiers, paid a huge sacrifice, and vowed to die to block the enemy's advance. The officers and soldiers fired artillery again, and the rebels were shot in large ships, suffering heavy losses.
It was not until the second year of Jingtai (1451) that the Ming army was able to advance on land and water, firing artillery in unison, entering Daliang Fort and Hejin Dou, disembarking from the ship, breaking the water barrier, and fighting for several hours. The rebel army was unstoppable, defeated, annihilated more than 10,000 people, partially escaped, and only eight were captured, including the so-called Taishang Emperor Huang Gang, who was Huang Xiaoyang's father; the crown prince Yizai, who was Huang Xiaoyang's nephew; and the rest were the backbone of the rebel army who was awarded official positions before Huang Xiao's health.
These people, along with Huang Xiaoyang, who had been killed earlier, were sent to the capital for reward by the officials who tried to ask for merit, and the result was that both young and old were killed, and their blood and tears were reddened by the black gauze hats worn on the heads of the officials, and they transformed into ladders and cornerstones for their advancement. However, the remnants of Huang Xiaoyang were not wiped out by the Ming army, and after they escaped, they still continued to fight at sea, still fighting under the banner of Huang Xiaoyang's Dongyang King.
(Ming Dynasty Army)
【About the author】Qi Yunke, male, educator. In recent years, he has published more than 900,000 words in media at all levels. He is a member of the Henan Provincial Writers Association.
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