The uprising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang opened the prelude to the demise of the Qin Dynasty, and Chen Sheng's sentence "The prince will have a kind of Xiangning" has also become a classic quoted and reprinted by later generations. Regarding the cause of the Dazexiang uprising, the history books record it very clearly: 900 Lu Zuo went to Yuyang (present-day Miyun, Beijing) Shubian, only to encounter heavy rain and no roads, and according to the Qin law: "Lost time, the law is cut", so 900 people took the risk and rose up.
So we must first clarify a question: in the Qin Dynasty, was it necessary to be beheaded in the lost period of the pawn?
The "Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian" unearthed by Hubei Yunmeng records that the imperial court enlisted and sent conscription, three days to five days late, reprimanded; six days to ten days, fined one shield; more than ten days, punished one arm. In case of heavy rain, the levy is waived.
It seems that Chen Sheng fabricated a lie of "missing the deadline, the law is cut" to incite the shu pawn uprising. However, this provision of the Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian was aimed at servitude, not chen sheng's kind of servitude.
The place of service is in the interior, the time is one month, the main task is civil engineering, the service is called "more pawn"; while the place of service is mainly in the north of the Great Wall and the south of the Lingnan area, the time is one year, the service is called "pawn". Compared with the former, the latter has a military nature, so Chen Sheng and 900 other people apply military law.
It can be seen that Chen Sheng's incitement to rebel with "lost time, the law is all beheaded" actually has a certain reason, not a nonsense, after all, these 900 people found the three words "Chen ShengWang" from the belly of the fish to prove that there are literate and law-literate people among these people, and it is absolutely not Chen Sheng who can instigate these people to revolt at the risk of killing their heads with three words and two words.
But this also brings up another problem: the question of the route of Chen Sheng and others.
Where is Chen Sheng from?
The "History of Chen Shijia" records very clearly: "Chen Sheng, Yangcheng people, characters involved." "Where is Yangcheng?" There have always been many controversies, some saying that it is Henan Dengfeng, some saying that it is Nanyang, Henan, and some saying that it is Suzhou, Anhui.
If Chen Sheng is from Suzhou, Anhui, then it is most reasonable for him to depart from Suzhou to Beijing via Daze Township. But unfortunately, at the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties, there was no "Yangcheng" in Anhui. In addition, Zhao Gao also said that "the Chu thief Chen Sheng and others are the sons of Xiang Xiang County" (referring to Chen Sheng as a citizen near Shangcai). It can be seen that Chen Sheng is a native of Henan, and Wu Guang's hometown of Yangxia is also in Henan.
Since Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were from Henan, under the severe punishment of "being cut off without time", why didn't they take the short road of going directly north from Henan, but instead took a detour of thousands of miles to enter Daze Township, Anhui Province?
Perhaps some friends will say that Chen Sheng is a Yangcheng person, which does not mean that he lives in Yangcheng. Indeed, it is very common in today's society where the place of origin is in place A and the situation of living in place B. However, Chen Sheng lived in the Qin Dynasty, and according to the Qin Law, the migration of private households should be reported to officials, and the household registration should be re-registered, and the name is "change of nationality". After changing his nationality, Chen Sheng did not belong to the "Yangcheng" people. Sima Qian, who was not far from the Chen Sheng era, would not have such a record as "Chen Sheng, Yangcheng people also".
How to explain this Qin Dynasty "detour" mystery case? We still have to start with Sima Qian's record.
In the Qin Dynasty, only people with a certain identity would have "characters", such as in the early Han Dynasty, only Zhang Liang, who was born in the Korean State Minister, had a word, while Xiao He and Han Xin had no words. Chen Sheng's character is inconsistent with his identity as a Lu Zuo (poor man) from his origin.
Not only that, Chen Sheng, who was Lu Zuo, was very familiar with the political situation of the Qin Dynasty, and knew the secret story of "Fu Su was advised by a number of people, sent foreign generals to the army, and now he may not be guilty, and the second one killed him", Chen Sheng himself also said that "the people do not know that Fu Su is dead", so he falsely called "Gongzi Fu Su". After winning Chen Land, when Zhang Er and Chen Yu came to vote, Chen Sheng could easily tell the deeds of the two people.
Chen Sheng's various performances confirmed that he was by no means just a poor and lower-middle peasant who worked as a servant, but a person who had a military career, so he could be appointed as the commander of the tun who managed 50 people (Wu Guang was also one of the tun commanders), and he could command the rebel army to attack the strategically important area of Chen County along the county of Qi, Yi County, and Ku County, and had a strategic awareness that the general poor did not have, and grasped the secrets of the imperial court.
Then we need to figure out why Chen Sheng detoured to Daze Township.
At the beginning of Chen Sheng's uprising, the backbone of his army, Ge Nian, Zhu Jishi, Wu Xu, Song Liu, and Dong Shu, were all from Anhui, which showed that this team to Shubian in Beijing was requisitioned from the Huaibei area of Anhui, so their assembly area would be close to Daze Township.
However, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, who were from Henan, were dispatched by the Qin Dynasty government as "who", and "who" means punishment. There is a passage in the Book of Han that reads: "In the Qin Dynasty, who was known as who was born, who was named." First the official has a son-in-law and a Jia person, and then he has tasted the city nationality, and then the eldest parents and parents have tasted the city nationality. This shows that Chen Sheng, who had a military career, was stationed in Anhui because he made a mistake and was responsible for serving as the commander of the tun.