The Yellow Turban Uprising, which was planned for more than ten years and gathered more than 300,000 people, failed in less than a year?
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the political situation was turbulent, the eunuchs were in power, the military service was heavy, and the people were miserable.
In 184 A.D., Zhang Jiao led his followers to tie a yellow scarf on their heads, shouting the slogan "The sky is dead, the yellow sky should stand, the age is in Jiazi, the world is auspicious", and launched a fierce attack on the feudal magnates.
After Emperor Ling of Han heard about it, he sent Lu Zhi to lead the army to crusade against Zhang Jiao, and ordered Huangfu Song and others to go south to conquer the Yellow Turban Army in Yingchuan.
In order to rescue Huangfu Song, Emperor Ling of Han ordered Cao Cao to lead the army to reinforce quickly, at this time Huangfu Song did not choose to sit still, in the evening, suddenly the wind was fierce, Huangfu Song arranged several soldiers, holding torches quietly out of the city, lurking outside the camp of the Yellow Turban Army, igniting the surrounding weeds.
In an instant, the flames soared into the sky, and at this time, Huangfu Song led the defenders in the city to rush directly into the enemy camp, killing indiscriminately, Cao Cao's reinforcements also arrived in time at this time, and the two sides worked together to defeat the Yellow Turban Army.
Since then, the tide of the battle has been reversed, and in the following battles, the Yellow Turban Army has been defeated and retreated, and the Huangfu Songfang has been advancing all the way, recovering a large number of lost territories, and Lu Zhi, who was crusading in the north, also successfully defeated Zhang Jiao and eliminated many Yellow Turban Army.
Soon after, Zhang Jiao fell ill and died, and the Yellow Turban Army, which had lost its leader, became a plate of scattered sand, and was completely annihilated in less than a year.
There are several important reasons why the Yellow Turban Army was completely wiped out so quickly.
Although the Yellow Turban Army was quite numerous, most of them were peasants with no formal training, including women and children, and their combat effectiveness was significantly inferior when faced with a well-trained army.
The rulers of the Eastern Han Dynasty were never stingy with the cost of the army, because they understood that in order to stabilize the regime, it was necessary to have a strong army, which is not difficult to explain why the Han army was able to quickly turn defeat into victory.
The original intention of the peasants to join the Yellow Turban Army was because they accepted Zhang Jiao's preaching, and Zhang Jiao used the "Taiping Dao" to win people's hearts, to put it bluntly, the Yellow Turban Army was a superstitious organization, and the people in it did not have military talents, while there were many good generals in the Han army, and they had won the first opportunity in combat command.
In the organizational structure of the army, the Yellow Turban Army also has great drawbacks, although there are many commanders in the army, they only obey Zhang Jiao's orders, and the Yellow Turban Army is relatively scattered, so after Zhang Jiao died of illness, the commanders themselves have been in chaos, and they don't know what to do, so they can only wait stupidly to be eliminated or disarmed and surrender.
The Eastern Han Dynasty was very rapid in the mobilization of the army, when the emperor was in danger, Cao Cao desperately led the troops to support, the two sides cooperated tacitly, and fought a beautiful turnaround battle, which can also be foreseen in other battlefields, the Han army cooperated closely, and each general could make corresponding judgments in combination with the battle situation at that time, and it was difficult to win.
