In the thirteenth year of Emperor Xuanzong's reign (859), Qiu Fu ignited the flames of a peasant revolt in eastern Zhejiang that lasted for twenty-five years at the end of the Tang Dynasty. Tang Xuanzong was a rare Ming Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and it was also an outlier that emerged from the internal strife of the Tang imperial family after the Anshi Rebellion. During his reign, he was known as the "Reign of the Great Middle", and he himself was also known as "Little Taizong".
So how could such a Ming Emperor trigger the chaotic situation in the twenty-five years of the late Tang Dynasty?
Tang Xuanzong admired his ancestor Tang Taizong, so his administration also imitated Tang Taizong, ending party strife, attaching importance to talent, centralizing power, strictly enforcing the law, rectifying the rule of officials, being good at receiving advice, and checking and balancing eunuchs and emissaries, he stipulated that "moderation makes guilty, and the supervising army sits continuously", while the late Tang dynasty's supervision army is mostly held by eunuchs, who often accept bribes, sit and watch the moderation make themselves stand on their own feet, and also rely on the moderation to make the army, threaten the imperial power, and assassinate heavy subjects. After the promulgation of this provision, the emissaries of Jiedu and the eunuchs and overseers will guard and restrain each other, thus strengthening the imperial power, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
However, Tang Xuanzong also learned Taizong's bad habit of taking Dan medicine in his later years, resulting in his death in March at the age of fifty, and even the age of life was the same as that of Taizong. Emperor Xuanzong died violently, and the succession of his heirs was not arranged, in fact, Emperor Xuanzong had the wisdom of his own people, so he belonged to the fourth prince Li Zi, who was "like himself", and although the eldest son Li Wen was "thick in instrument and magnificent in appearance", this was only the appearance, but in fact it was "fainting in succession". Therefore, Emperor Xuanzong secretly issued a will to three close eunuchs, and if things changed, let the three eunuchs make four sons emperor. But I have to say, this is the trick.
First of all, let's not talk about the three eunuchs changing the rules, let's say that the four princes have successfully succeeded to the throne, will the three eunuchs with meritorious service repeat the mistakes of chaotic government? I think it is very likely. Besides, how could three eunuchs, He De, be able to support a concubine to succeed to the throne? Just by an edict? Therefore, it is simply foolish to be afraid of making the youngest son of the prince a prince to harm his reputation, and to order the eunuch to support the younger son to succeed to the throne without discussion after death. The scholars, proceeding from the etiquette, naturally supported the handsome eldest son Li Wen as emperor. However, they dug a pit for themselves, and the handsome one was really not necessarily suitable to be an emperor.
Tang Yizong ascended to the throne, and after passing through the initial novice period, he was exposed in his original form, and he feasted excessively, was extravagant and lascivious, could not be allowed to do so, and welcomed the bones of the Buddha. So where did the emperor's spending on play come from? It should be known that the local financial power of the fan town is extremely great, and although the financial power of the fan town at this time is not like that of Li Keyong, Zhu Wen and other feudal lords who rose up after the Huangchao Uprising, they can completely appropriate the local wealth for themselves, but after a layer of deduction, what is sent to the central government is not enough to squander. That's right, it's from the salt tax.
Take a look at the Sui and Tang Salt Methods
Salt is a necessity in human life, so the ancient Chinese feudal dynasty also regarded it as the most important strategic material, and the contribution of salt taxes to fiscal revenue was second only to the mouth of peasant households, and sometimes even supported half of the national treasury. China's salt government has a long history, the earliest traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period Guan Zhong's first "Guan Shan Hai" policy, has been more than 2600 years, of which the "salt iron official camp" policy of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is the most strictly controlled policy, and later dynasties have levied salt taxes or complete official camps until the Sui Dynasty. Emperor Wen of Sui ended the division of nearly three hundred years, and the new unified dynasty not only weakened the political power of the family clan from the aspects of the imperial examination, but also disintegrated the economic advantages of the family clan from the perspective of the salt industry and private ownership, and some of the free circulation of the market and the frivolous endowment of agriculture enabled the people to effectively improve their lives and recuperate. This policy was also inherited by the early Tang Dynasty, so the economic easing period of nearly 130 years in Chinese history miraculously appeared, from the third year of the Sui Kai Emperor to the 130 years of the early Tang Kaiyuan, China's salt, iron, and wine were tax-free.
After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the prefectural military system collapsed, gradually became a conscription system, successive years of conquest, the division of the town, the corruption of the ruling class, so that the Tang Dynasty's finances gradually strained, in order to open up financial resources, the Tang Dynasty re-implemented the salt and iron official camp, salt adopted the "partial monopoly method", that is, "civilian system, official collection, official transportation, official sales" system. After Liu Yan reformed the salt government, the Tang Dynasty government paid taxes at the price, and the salt tax quickly exceeded 6 million yuan. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the salt tax was reduced, and the imperial government earned 3 million yuan in salt tax per year. The next thing we all know, Tang Yizong squandered and raised the salt tax again, so that the salt sellers in Zhejiang could not survive, so the salt disciples in Zhejiang rose up.
Joppo Uprising
In December of the thirteenth year of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang's reign, Qiu Fu, a native of eastern Zhejiang, gathered a crowd to revolt and captured Xiangshan. In the first month of the following year, Qiu Pu repeatedly defeated the defenders of Mingzhou City (present-day Ningbo) and forced them to the county seat of Chengxia (剡郡, in present-day Shengxian County, Zhejiang), with thousands of people. In February, the Eastern Tang army in Eastern Zhejiang defeated Yu Sanxi (in present-day southwestern Shengxian County, Zhejiang), killing three generals, and the people along the way defected, increasing the number of troops to 30,000. Qiu Fu claimed to be the capital of the world, the soldiers and horses, Jianyuan Luoping, the big gathering of grain, the purchase of good work, and the management of equipment, with the intention of the Central Plains. In March, the rebels divided their forces to attack qu, Wu, Ming, and Tai prefectures (ruled by present-day Quzhou, Jinhua, Ningbo, and Linhai, Zhejiang), capturing Tangxing and Shangyu (in present-day Tiantai, Zhejiang, and the area southeast of Shangyu), and then moving north along the southeast coast.
However, the good times did not last long, and in April, the Tang government appointed Annam Du Protector As an observer envoy to eastern Zhejiang, marched into Yuezhou, and cooperated with the Yuezhou City guard army to attack inside and outside, and the rebel army was defeated in successive battles, lost the city, and fled northwest along the Huanghan Ridge of Tiantai Mountain. In June, the rebel army retreated to Tancheng, and Wang Shi led his officers and troops to concentrate their forces to attack the city, and did not hesitate to use the herding horses of Longpijian and hundreds of riders from Tubo and Uighurs to attack in turn, and fought 83 times in three days.
The Qiupu uprising was confined to Zhejiang, like a stone falling into a lake, stirring up ripples, but in a moment, it was calm. The machine of the dynastic government is still running step by step, without the slightest delay. Similarly, Tang Yizong's harsh government was still fiercer than that of the tiger.
Pang Xun Uprising
In July of the ninth year (868) of Emperor Yizong of Tang's Xiantong Dynasty, the guards of Guizhou, Guangxi, rebelled because the government had broken the agreement and did not return to their hometowns. "Say good three years, three years and three years", the classic line in the movie "Infernal Affairs" said the voice of the soldiers who were guarding at that time.
The Tang government wanted to superficially pardon him for his crimes, and took his relatives and family members in Xuzhou as hostages, causing him to give up his weapons under the city of Xuzhou and enter the city to besiege and kill him. The leader of the rebel army, Pang Xun, saw through the Tang government's tricks and calculated, first using the government's superficial order to lift the guard of the cities along the way north, and then hiding the troops in the boat, waiting for the opportunity to annihilate the generals of the guard army and the governor of the prefecture and county, all the way to the city of Xuzhou. Then the leader of the peasant revolt committed the common problem of most of the leaders of the uprising, believing that the world was invincible, feasting excessively, and not listening to advice. The generals who raised troops with him in Guizhou were even more arrogant, taking people's property and taking women captive.
The Tang Dynasty sent Kang Chengxun to quell the rebellion with the Lingnan Western Dao Jiedu, and he used the Shatuo cavalry as the main force to destroy Pang Xun's subordinates. At the same time, the original peasants in the rebel army were pardoned, and many peasants were submissive. Pang Xun gradually became a loner and eventually was awarded the head.
Kang Chengxun was successful in suppressing the rebellion, but because the chancellor Lu Yan and Wei Baoheng impeached him for being greedy and captured, he was quite jealous of the emperor for not doing his best to suppress the rebellion, so he was not promoted, but was degraded. Those of us who are hereafter do not know whether there is really a problem.
Wang Xianzhi revolted
In the first year of emperor Qianfu of The Tang Dynasty (874), when there was a great drought in Kwantung, officials still had to collect taxes and errands, and the people were cornered, gathered around Wang Xianzhi, the head of the salt merchants, and raised troops from Puyang (濮阳, in present-day Juancheng County, Heze City, Shandong), claiming to be the general of Junping Tian, and the commander of the various heroes in the sea, leading the rebel army to conquer Cao Prefecture and Pu Prefecture. Huang Chao, a native of Caozhou, actively responded to Wang Xianzhi and led thousands of salt merchants to revolt, with great momentum. Pang Xun's old department, the people who suffered from harsh government defected to the rebel army, and the rebel army "plundered more than ten prefectures, as for Huainan, there were more than a thousand people and a few hundred people." ”
In the third year of the uprising, the rebel army conquered Ruzhou and fought from Shandong to Henan, and the Tang Dynasty was shaken for a while, quickly organized a defensive line centered on Luoyang, and tried to recruit security. Wang Xianzhi knew that even if the rebel army had reached the scale of tens of thousands of people, it was still impossible for this family to confront the imperial government, so he was moved in the face of the Tang Dynasty's recruitment. Unfortunately, the secret meeting with the eunuch was discovered by Huang Chao, who scolded Wang Xianzhi and punched Wang Xianzhi in the face, and Wang Xianzhi had to kill the eunuch under the anger of the crowd. However, this incident also made Huang Chao see Wang Xianzhi's weak and speculative side, so he led the crowd to leave and pass through Shandong.
Wang Xianzhi turned to Hubei, feeling more and more sad, thinking about Zhao'an day and night, so he sent his henchmen to hand over the surrender table, but was concealed by the greedy Tang Dynasty military generals, and Wang Xianzhi, who was ashamed and angry, fled to the south of Hubei, and after two major defeats, Wang Xianzhi was killed by Zeng Yuanyu. Its remnants defected to the Yellow Nest, making the Yellow Nest's power grow stronger and stronger.
A short conclusion
For more than 1,300 years since the fall of the Meng Dynasty, ancient Chinese society has been full of turmoil, as well as the arbitrary behavior and impulsive consciousness of redistributing social wealth. From Chen Sheng and Wu Guang to Qiu Pu, Pang Xun, and Wang Xianzhi, they killed all the rich and powerful families, believing that wealth and nobility were in danger, but due to the lack of the assistance of talented people, the limitations of their own quality, and the fact that the dynastic government was still strong, they could often share hardships, but they could not share wealth, so they destroyed the city wall and fell apart.
In the final analysis, how many Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang can there be in history?