In the last years of the Qin Dynasty, the famous Chen Sheng WuGuang Uprising can be said to be a household name. But what few people know is that after Chen Sheng's uprising, only six months later, he was defeated and killed, and finally killed by the coachman next to him.
However, if we look back at Chen Sheng's life, especially the history after his uprising, we will find that Chen Sheng's murder was actually self-inflicted. Because with his talent, he could not control the power in his hands.
Chen Shengsheng's birth year is unknown, and his early life experience is unknown. In fact, because the Qin Dynasty was too long ago and historical materials were scarce, to this day, the historical community's understanding of Chen Sheng is very limited. Most of what we know about Chen Sheng at present comes from the deeds written by Sima Qian a hundred years later. As for the contemporaneous historical materials related to Chen Sheng, they are almost blank.
That's not surprising, though. After all, according to Chen Sheng's age, Chen Sheng should have been born at the end of the Warring States period. At that time, the historian would not be bored to remember the shortness of a common man's parents. Therefore, Sima Qian could find those information about Chen Sheng later, which was actually not easy.
According to Sima Qian, when Chen Sheng was young, he used to live by working as a hired worker for others. However, as a hired worker, he was not reconciled to his fate. Once, Chen Sheng said to his friend: If anyone develops in the future, don't forget everyone. However, Chen Sheng's friend said: We are all farming, where will the wealth come from in the future? After Chen Sheng listened, he sighed and said: Yan Que placed the ambition of the Bird.
From this dialogue, the allusion of 'The Ambition of the Great Crane' was even derived later.
In Chen Sheng's early years, although there is no historical record, he experienced the changes at the end of the entire Warring States period, witnessed how the Qin Dynasty unified the world, and witnessed all the history during the reign of Qin Shi Huang. In 210 BC, Qin Shi Huang died, and Hu Hai, the second Qin Emperor, came to power. During the reign of Qin Shi Huang, he was already very seriously overdrawn in the national strength, resulting in a difficult life for the people at the bottom. After Hu Hai took the throne, instead of starting to recuperate, he even more excessively consumed the people's strength and made the people unhappy.
In addition, the old nobles of the Warring States period still exist at this time, and they are thinking about restoring the country all the time. In this way, the Qin Dynasty at that time became a powder keg, and only one Spark was left to detonate.
In July 209 BC, just a year after the death of Qin Shi Huang, Chen Sheng and nine hundred other poor people were recruited to the Miyun area of Beijing to guard the Great Wall and defend against the Xiongnu in the north. At that time, the living environment in the Miyun area was extremely harsh, and if you went there, you would basically die. Therefore, just as the group was walking to the Suzhou area of Anhui Province, Chen Sheng and another tun commander, Wu Guang, took advantage of the situation to kill two officers who were guarding them, and revolted on the spot.
This is the famous 'Osawa Township Uprising' in history.
The Dazexiang Uprising, like a spark, quickly detonated the entire Qin Dynasty. In just one month, the team around Chen Sheng had expanded to tens of thousands of people and captured a large area at the junction of Anhui and Henan. A month later, Chen Sheng captured Chen County and had his own core of rule.
Although today, Chen County is not too important a place. However, in the pre-Qin period, Chen County was a very important area. When Chen Guo was still alive, it was once the capital of Chen Guo. Later, the State of Chen was annexed by the State of Chu, and in the later period of the State of Chu, it was also used as the capital of the state. After the Qin Dynasty unified the world, it was also the county seat of Chen County, which is equivalent to today's provincial capital city.
After Chen Sheng captured Chen County, the rebel army at this time actually had a very strong strength, and did not lose to some of the weaker princely states in the Warring States period. In addition, next, Chen Sheng directly claimed the title of king.
At the same time, as Chen Sheng captured Chen County, the rebel army finally gradually stabilized. Those forces that were originally in a wait-and-see state also began to revolt against Qin. In particular, the old nobles of the Six Kingdoms directly took advantage of the situation and used their aristocratic advantages to quickly raise troops and attack the city. Liu Bang, Xiang Yu, Peng Yue, Yingbu and others actually formally revolted at this time.
At this time, the form of the uprising seems to be a good one, and everywhere responds. But in fact, under the splendid flowers, it is a hollow. Those forces that responded to Chen Sheng's rebellion were independent of each other. Although he nominally respected Chen Sheng as the main master, he did not listen to Chen Sheng's dispatches at all. When you fight a tailwind battle, you may be able to come over and help. But if there is a real crisis, it must be independent and vital. And this feature is also the main reason for Chen Shengbing's defeat.
In addition, the reason why Chen Sheng was able to go so smoothly at the beginning of the uprising was largely because the Qin Dynasty government at that time had not yet reacted. From Daze Township to Xianyang, the straight-line distance in the middle is more than 800 kilometers. With the transportation capacity at that time, the news of Chen Sheng's uprising was determined by local officials, sent to Xianyang, and then reacted to Xianyang and sent troops to suppress it, which took a long time.
After the Qin Dynasty reacted, Chen Sheng's trouble came.
After the capture of Chen County, Chen Sheng claimed himself king on the one hand, and on the other hand, he asked Wu Guang to lead his troops and attack directly in the direction of Xingyang, taking Hangu Pass and attacking Xianyang. However, at this time, the Qin Dynasty had already reacted and mobilized heavy troops to guard Xingyang, and Wu Guangjiu could not attack it. After that, Chen Sheng once again sent Zhou Wen to lead another army, taking advantage of the fact that the main force of the Qin army was pinned down in Xingyang, bypassing Xingyang and taking Hangu Pass directly.
Because the main force of the Qin army was tied down in Xingyang. So next, Zhou Wen smoothly took Hangu Pass and approached Xianyang.
But at this time, Qin II accepted the advice of the Qin general Zhang Handan and pardoned hundreds of thousands of prisoners serving sentences in Lishan. After that, Zhang Handan led this army of prisoners and fought Zhou Wen to the point of collapse in the First World War. With the defeat of Zhou Wen, Wu Guang's side became a lone army. But at this time, Chen Sheng began to suspect Wu Guang again, and finally directly sent people to kill Wu Guang, resulting in the total destruction of this peasant army.
After lifting the siege of Xingyang, Zhang Handan continued to lead his troops and attacked Chen County. Chen Sheng, who had lost his main force one after another, could not resist Zhang Handan's attack at this time, and could only flee in a hurry. However, by the time Chen Sheng retreated to the Mengcheng area of Anhui, Zhang Handan had secretly bought his coachman Zhuang Jia. In the end, Zhuang Jia found an opportunity and directly assassinated Chen Sheng.
In this way, less than six months after the Osawa Township uprising, Chen Sheng died at the hands of his own coachman.
Looking back at Chen Sheng's six-month legend, it is not difficult for us to find that the whole process of Chen Sheng from uprising to destruction is actually very magical. As the leader of the rebel army, Chen Sheng came from the bottom, resulting in his limited vision and ability. After the rebel army achieved certain victories, Chen Sheng began to be blindly proud and took the lead in claiming the throne. At the same time, in terms of governing internal affairs and marching and fighting, Chen Sheng basically knew nothing and was simply unable to lead the rebel army after the growth.
Therefore, instead of saying that Chen Sheng was killed by his own coachman, it is better to say that Chen Sheng died of his own limited ability.