In 184 AD, just after the beginning of spring, Emperor Ling of Han, who was in the capital, learned a 'very explosive' news.
Not long ago, someone reported to him that the Taiping Dao, a non-governmental extraordinarily large religious organization, was plotting against him! Moreover, they had even extended their hands to the capital in an attempt to carry out a coup d'état in the capital!
Not only that, but as the case was pursued, more and more details soon came out. These details frightened Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty into a cold sweat! It turned out that these believers in the Taiping Dao had already filled most of the Han Dynasty. And here in the capital Luoyang, they even stretched out their hands to the palace! Even the Zhongchang attendants around Emperor Han Ling were rebelled by them!
It's hard to imagine what would have happened next if the case hadn't been poked out, and had been allowed to continue with the plan.
Could it be that one day when Emperor Han Ling was sleeping, he would be directly killed by the eunuchs around him. Then the officials guarding the gates of the imperial palace and the capital will directly open the city gates and let these people in? Maybe one day, the whole country will be directly changed from dynasty to generation!
In addition to being shocked, Emperor Ling of Han did not forget to order to mobilize the army as soon as possible to clean up the Taiping Dao believers in the capital. At the same time, Emperor Ling of Han also ordered to go to the local area to arrest the relevant people involved.
Emperor Han Ling thought that his reaction speed was fast enough, and he would definitely be able to solve the problem quickly.
But what no one expected was that not long after he had just acted, the Taiping Road side also began to act quickly.
After learning that the uprising plan was leaked, Zhang Jiao, the leader of Taiping Dao, directly raised troops in the Jizhou area. At the same time, Taiping Dao in other places, after learning that Zhang Jiao had raised troops, also began to respond one after another. In just one month, the uprising spread to twenty-eight counties in seven states!
In this way, the famous Yellow Turban Rebellion in history finally began.
As the most famous peasant uprising in Chinese history, the popularity of the Yellow Turban Uprising in later generations is absolutely superb. In addition to the significance of the uprising itself, the most important thing is that this uprising is the beginning of the story of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". And the existence of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" undoubtedly makes this uprising more well-known!
But what many people don't know is that this particularly famous uprising in history only lasted for more than eight months from beginning to end.
At the end of February 184, Zhang Jiao officially led the people to revolt. In November, the uprising was put down once and for all.
So, what was the real Yellow Turban Uprising in history? Why did this vigorous uprising last only eight months before it was put down? What happened in these eight months?
To understand this history, we have to start with the reasons for the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Uprising.
Like other ancient feudal dynasties in history, after the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after hundreds of years of historical development, there was a serious land annexation. A large amount of arable land is concentrated in the hands of a small number of landlords and nobles. And a large number of low-level civilians, because they have no arable land in their hands, can only be reduced to oppressed tenant farmers.
After a year of hard work, most of the fruits of their labor may be taken away by the landlords and the government. The rest of the food is simply not enough to feed itself.
The most important thing is that because the total population of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time was gradually approaching the upper limit of the population carried by the Central Plains. As a result, everyone will be able to get less and less food equally. Coupled with serious land annexation, most of the people at the bottom have gradually reached the point where they can't eat.
And when most ordinary people don't have enough to eat, rebellion becomes the only option.
In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, in fact, from the reign of Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty, small-scale uprisings have gradually broken out in various places. Especially in the border areas and remote mountainous areas, where the people at the bottom are actually more oppressed and have a more difficult life. So later, they could only fall into the grass and survive by plundering.
These people who took the lead in rebelling were later generally called 'so-and-so thieves' in the history books.
However, although these people revolted relatively early, because they were in a relatively remote position, their own strength was relatively weak. In addition, the military strength of the Eastern Han government at that time was super strong, and it was relatively easy to suppress these small-scale thieves. Therefore, during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, as Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty carried out a nationwide 'suppression' operation, these thieves who rebelled in advance were basically swept away.
In a sense, these thieves can also be seen as the prelude to the great peasant uprising in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
And this prelude leads to three outcomes. First, in the process of suppressing these 'thieves', some generals represented by the 'Three Heroes of the Late Han Dynasty' had full experience in actual combat. During the suppression of these bandits, they not only mastered the methods of dealing with the rebels, but also made a rehearsal for the next war.
Second, because of the nationwide banditry, it was temporarily suppressed in a short period of time. As a result, Emperor Ling of Han, who was reigning at the time, mistakenly thought that the world was really peaceful. So after this, Emperor Ling of Han began to lie down completely, completely indulging in pleasure. And Emperor Han Ling's lying down undoubtedly led to further uncontrollable risks at the top of the country.
Third, and most importantly, the strong repression of the Eastern Han Dynasty officials led to the discontent of the common people, which was further blocked. Before the suppression, those people who couldn't survive could still go to the grass and go to those 'thieves'. But after this large-scale crackdown, everyone knew that it was a dead end, and they could only continue to be oppressed and exploited, and continue to accumulate discontent.
As the saying goes, 'blocking is better than sparse', these repressive actions in the Eastern Han Dynasty, although in a short period of time, solved the thieves in various places, and on the surface created a peaceful situation in the world. However, there is no change in the actual contradictions at the bottom, but on the contrary, the dissatisfaction of the people at the bottom has accumulated more and more, and there is no place to vent.
And when the above conditions are sufficient, the dissatisfaction of the people everywhere accumulates more and more. The entire Eastern Han Dynasty began to gradually become a big thunder.
And in the end, it was a man named Zhang Jiao who detonated this big thunder.
The real Zhang Jiao in history was actually just a Taoist priest. He learned a lot of medical knowledge from the Taoist books he obtained. So later, Zhang Jiao began to walk in all directions and use his medical skills to treat the people. In the process, Zhang Jiao is also constantly promoting his religious beliefs and spreading religion.
In this way, a religious organization called 'Taiping Dao' gradually emerged.
But as a result, Zhang Jiao soon found that although he tried to save the people, he couldn't save them at all. No matter how hard Zhang Jiao tried, more and more people died due to oppression and exploitation.
So later, after thinking for a long time, Zhang Jiao decided that the biggest social crux at that time was the Eastern Han government. In Zhang Jiao's view, it is precisely because the Eastern Han government is too corrupt that officials are corrupt and bribe-taking, and they form parties for personal gain. They colluded with local tyrants and brutally exploited the people, which is why it would be so difficult for everyone to live.
In the face of this problem, Zhang Jiao came up with only one final answer, that is, to completely overthrow the Eastern Han government!
Poor road Zhang Jiao, please go to the death of the big man!
After clarifying this goal, Zhang Jiao began to act quickly. In the years that followed, he took advantage of the religious advantages of Taiping Dao to spread his teachings and win over more and more believers. Soon a few years later, Taiping Dao had hundreds of thousands of followers.
There were 13 states in the entire Eastern Han Dynasty, and at least eight of them had Taipingdao religious organizations. And these hundreds of thousands of Taiping Dao believers, under Zhang Jiao's division, were divided into 'thirty-six squares'. Each party has as few as six or seven thousand people, and as many as tens of thousands. And the leader of a party is called Qu Shuai.
With the rapid growth of Taiping Road, the most bizarre scene in the late Eastern Han Dynasty gradually appeared.
You must know that at that time, there were less than 60 million people in the entire Eastern Han Dynasty. With such a large-scale preaching, the number of believers alone was close to one percent of the total population of the Eastern Han Dynasty. And these believers usually carry out large-scale missionary activities to recruit believers for Taiping Dao.
It is impossible for the Eastern Han government not to know about such a large-scale operation.
But the interesting thing is that for such a large-scale religious activity, no one in the entire Eastern Han Dynasty at that time was aware of the crisis in advance. There are even many local officials, knowing that the power of the Taiping Dao is getting stronger and stronger, but they still do not restrict it in any way, and even take the initiative to help them preach the doctrine.
The reason given by these local officials is that 'after the Taiping Tao spreads, it can help the government and educate the people'.
This is obviously not normal.
Therefore, many historians in later generations speculated that the Yellow Turban Rebellion in history was actually the result of the deliberate promotion of the local scholars of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Those local scholars actually knew what Zhang Jiao was doing for a long time. But they don't want to care, and they want to indulge it. They want the world to be in chaos so that they can have a chance to get greater benefits.
Of course, this statement is only speculation at the moment, and there is no evidence to support it.
But in any case, because of the indifference of local officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time, for a long time, Emperor Ling of Han, who was far away in the capital, should not have known about this matter. Or even if he had heard of Taiping Dao, he didn't realize the threat of Taiping Dao.
In this way, Taiping Road can naturally develop more rapidly.
In this way, after developing to hundreds of thousands of believers, Zhang Jiao believes that the time is ripe at this time. So next, Zhang Jiao planned an 'extremely crazy' coup d'état!
In this plan, all parties under Zhang Jiao's command will directly attack the local government and then take over the local state apparatus as soon as possible.
At the same time, on the side of the capital, Zhang Jiao sent his henchman Ma Yuanyi to the capital to lead the uprising in the capital. According to the plan, the believers of Taiping Road will directly attack the palace. The eunuchs in the palace, as well as the officials guarding the city, have all been dealt with by the Taiping Dao. Once the uprising began, they would open the city gates and palace gates directly, and let the followers of Taiping Dao enter!
In this way, once this plan is successful, Taipingdao can directly take over the entire state apparatus at the lowest cost!
The time of the revolt was set in March 184 A.D. This year, according to the traditional sexagenary chronology, happens to be the year of Jiazi. Therefore, the slogan of Taiping Road is 'The year is in Jiazi, the world is auspicious'!
In ancient Chinese history, there were many peasant uprisings. But this kind of direct seizure of the state apparatus was really the only one time in ancient times!
If this plan can really be implemented smoothly, I am afraid that there will really be a miracle in history.
But unfortunately, when Zhang Jiao was planning the uprising, there was a person named Tang Zhou under his command, and before the uprising, he went directly to the government to report the uprising plan of Taiping Dao.
There is basically no record of this Tang Zhou in the history books. Including after he reported it, what happened later, there is no record in the history books at all. But judging from the very few records in the history books, what we can be sure of is that the report letter from Tang Zhou at that time was not sent to the local government, but directly to Emperor Ling of Han!
It was under such circumstances that Emperor Ling of Han finally received the news. And after that, following Tang Zhou's intelligence, Emperor Han Ling soon discovered that this plan was true, and Ma Yuanyi was really in the capital!
The most important thing is that Taiping Dao was in the capital at that time, and he had already contacted the two eunuchs, Feng Xu and Xu Feng! Among them, Xu Feng's position was Zhongchang Shi, that is, the eunuch with the highest status!
It's hard to imagine how history would develop once the uprising began, Xu Feng suddenly opened the palace gates, and at the same time found an opportunity to assassinate Emperor Ling of Han?
And Emperor Ling of Han, who found out the situation, naturally ordered the arrest of the two eunuchs and the believers of Taiping Road in the capital as soon as possible. At the same time, Ma Yuanyi, who ran to the capital to organize an uprising, was soon arrested, and then was split by a street car!
At the same time, after Emperor Ling of Han ordered the arrest of Taiping Dao believers, Zhang Jiao also received the news. At this time, Zhang Jiao was in Jizhou in the north, preparing for an uprising. After learning the news from the capital, Zhang Jiao didn't have time to continue to prepare, so he could only hastily lead the local believers and start an uprising on the spot!
In this way, in February 184 AD, Zhang Jiao led the Taiping Taoist believers to revolt on the spot in the Jizhou area. Because the insurgents wore yellow turbans on their heads, this uprising was later called the 'Yellow Turban Uprising'.
And when Zhang Jiao rebelled, Taiping Dao believers in many other places did not know the news for the time being. They also thought that according to the original plan, they would not revolt until March. But soon, the news of the government's order to arrest the followers of Taiping Dao and Zhang Jiao's uprising gradually spread all over the world.
So after that, Taiping believers in various places began to revolt spontaneously. In the next month, there were seven states in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there were large-scale Taiping Dao uprisings. All of a sudden, the beacon fire spread throughout most of the Eastern Han Dynasty!
At this point, the Yellow Turban Uprising officially began.
From the beginning of Zhang Jiao's uprising, until the Yellow Turban Army was completely suppressed, the uprising of more than eight months can be roughly divided into five stages.
The first stage is called the melee phase.
Because at the time of the uprising, on the side of Taiping Road, there were uprisings in various places. On the side of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the speed of order transmission was also inconsistent. As a result, at the beginning of the uprising, the situation was completely different everywhere. Whether it is the local government of the Eastern Han Dynasty or the followers of the Yellow Turban Army in various places, they are a little confused and don't know what to do.
At this stage, Taiping Dao believers in various places, after gradually figuring out the situation, began to revolt one after another. But at the same time, because they were all revolting alone, they lacked sufficient organizational capacity. The Yellow Turban Army in various places is often not very strong in connection with each other.
This gave the Eastern Han government time to react.
Originally, after Tang Zhou reported it, Emperor Han Ling didn't realize that Taiping Dao had so much influence. But in this month, as the news of uprisings in various places spread like snowflakes, Emperor Han Ling began to panic.
So next, Emperor Ling of Han immediately ordered his eldest brother He Jin to gather the Yulin Army stationed in the capital and fully enter a state of readiness to protect the capital. At the same time, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty ordered that eight important passes, including Hangu Pass, Mengjin, Yique, and Xiaopingjin, should all be mobilized to defend them!
Judging from the map, these eight passes just formed an encirclement and directly surrounded the Luoyang area. Moreover, because the main sphere of influence of Taiping Dao is east of Hangu Pass. As long as Hangu Pass is controlled, it can ensure that the Guanzhong area is not chaotic.
In the following wars, the Luoyang area and the Guanzhong area, as the basic plate of the Eastern Han Dynasty, have been closely protected, and there has never been a large-scale war. The basic market is stabilized, and the next battle is easy to fight.
In addition, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty also ordered that the 'party scum' order of that year be lifted. About 16 years before the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Emperor Ling of Han ordered a large number of scholars and officials to be sentenced to life imprisonment. After the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Emperor Ling of Han ordered these officials to be released in order to show goodwill to the nobles in various places.
Although by this time, the local scholar group of the Eastern Han Dynasty had already been completely disappointed in Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty. But Emperor Han Ling's hand still stabilized the strong warriors in various places. This laid the foundation for victory in the subsequent suppression war.
In this way, wait until more than a month after Zhang Jiao's uprising. On the side of the Yellow Turban Army, believers in basically all parts of the country have completely revolted. The few Taiping Daoists who did not revolt were basically arrested by the government, and they were unable to revolt after that. And the Eastern Han government, after more than a month of preparation, was also ready for a full-scale war.
So after that, this Yellow Turban Uprising entered the second stage.
The second stage is called war build-up.
In the first stage, although the Taiping believers in various places had revolted, their previous plan to seize the state apparatus must have failed. After the defeat, these rebel armies must be in the minority in the local area, and they can't beat the local landlords and the government troops of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
So after that, the Yellow Turban rebel armies in various places began to quickly assemble, ready to concentrate on fighting a tough battle.
After this assembly, these Yellow Turban rebels were roughly assembled into the 'two and a half' main army.
The first main corps, located in the Jizhou region. The reason why this Yellow Turban Army is in Jizhou is mainly because Zhang Jiao himself is in Jizhou. At that time, Zhang Jiao and his two younger brothers, Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang, directly commanded the Yellow Turban Army in the Jizhou region. And other Taiping Dao believers around Jizhou also came to Zhang Jiao one after another.
The second main corps of the Yellow Turban Army is located in the area of Yingchuan County and Nanyang County.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, this area centered on Nanyang County was a relatively special place. Because Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, his hometown was in Nanyang County. Moreover, when Liu Xiu raised the army, many of the founding heroes of the Eastern Han Dynasty also had their hometowns in Nanyang County.
Therefore, after the Eastern Han Dynasty unified the world, Nanyang County became the famous 'largest county in the world'. More than half of the high-level nobles of the Eastern Han Dynasty were in the area of Nanyang County and had huge industries. By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the population and economic prosperity of this area far exceeded that of other places.
As for why the Yellow Turban Army was assembling here at that time, the reason is very simple. Because when preparing for the uprising before, Ma Yuanyi, who was sent by Zhang Jiao, when he first arrived in the south, his foothold was this area.
In the area of Nanyang County and Yingchuan County, because of the large population here, there are many nobles in the Eastern Han Dynasty. This led to the exploitation of the local aristocracy by the people at the bottom more serious. It's easier to develop Taiping Road here.
According to Ma Yuanyi's previous plan, he originally planned to gather enough troops in the area of Nanyang County to directly attack the Luoyang area.
But later, after the news leaked, Ma Yuanyi was directly arrested. After Ma Yuanyi himself was arrested, the strength of Taiping Dao in the Nanyang area was still very strong. In addition, Ma Yuanyi has been active here for a long time before, and the Yellow Turban Army here is also the most organized.
As a result, after the uprising began in full swing, the area around Nanyang and Yingchuan became the concentration points of the surrounding Taiping Dao believers. So in the end, a relatively strong rebel army was formed here. And this rebel army is headed by the Yellow Turban Army generals Bo Cai and Zhang Mancheng and others.
As for the last 'half-strand' of the main force of the Yellow Turban Army, the situation is rather special. The main force of this Yellow Turban Army is located in the Sichuan region.
To put it simply, because Sichuan is relatively far away from Jizhou and Nanyang County, the local people learned the news of the Yellow Turban Uprising relatively late.
As a result, in the early stage of the uprising, there was basically no movement on the Sichuan side.
It was not until later, when the other two rebel armies had reached the third or even the fourth stage, that the uprising in Sichuan had just begun.
But at the same time, the rebel army in Sichuan is not exactly the Yellow Turban rebel army. Because in the Hanzhong area of Sichuan, there was another religious force at that time, that is, the 'Five Bucket Rice Dao'. At that time, there were also disagreements within Wudou Midao about whether to rebel together.
And in the end, within the Wudou Midao, a branch headed by Zhang Xiu directly rebelled.
In addition to Wudou Midao, in the Sichuan region, the Yellow Turban Army forces also appeared later. The forces of the Yellow Turban Army, led by Ma Xiang and others, raised troops in the Mianzhu area of Sichuan, and soon gathered tens of thousands of people. Later, they also killed the assassin history in the Yizhou area, which was very strong for a time.
However, compared with the other two main forces of the Yellow Turban Army, the Yellow Turban Army in Sichuan is much weaker, and the internal structure is also very complex. Therefore, relatively speaking, the rebel army in Sichuan can only be regarded as 'half of the main force of the rebel army'.
And then, as the main force of the Yellow Turban Army completed the assembly, the Eastern Han government finally had a clear hostile target!
In fact, for the Eastern Han government, they were not afraid of the Yellow Turban Army gathering the main army, but afraid of frequent small-scale commotions in various places. If there are frequent commotions in various places, it will make the main army of the Eastern Han Dynasty exhausted.
And when the rebel army completed the assembly, although it seemed powerful on the surface, the Eastern Han government was not afraid.
The reason is very simple, because the army in the hands of the Eastern Han government at that time was stronger!
Therefore, when the rebel army completed the assembly, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty quickly ordered to command the official army of the Eastern Han Dynasty to attack the main forces of the rebel army. After that, the rebel army entered the third phase.
The third stage is called the main decisive battle.
It was during this stage that many of the names we are particularly familiar with began to appear on the stage of history.
First of all, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty ordered Lu Zhi, one of the three heroes of the late Han Dynasty, to lead the army to attack the Yellow Turban Army in the Jizhou region, which is the area where Zhang Jiao is located.
As one of the three heroes of the late Han Dynasty, Lu Zhi's combat effectiveness is still relatively strong. So next, when Lu Zhi arrived at the Jizhou battlefield, he quickly fought Zhang Jiao and retreated, and finally retreated to Guangzong County in the area of Xingtai, Hebei Province, to hold on.
In addition, in the process of fighting, Lu Zhi also used many of his former students. Among these students, there is one person who is particularly crucial, that is, Liu Bei, who later established the Shu Han regime.
It was in this war that the young Liu Bei officially debuted and began his magnificent life.
However, as Zhang Jiao retreated to Guangzong County, Lu Zhi began to stop. In this regard, one of the most widespread speculations in later historians is that Lu Zhi wanted to reduce combat consumption through a long siege. At the same time, attract the main forces of the surrounding Yellow Turban Army to come over for reinforcements, and play the effect of encircling the point to send reinforcements.
There is still a great deal of controversy in the historiographical circles about this kind of speculation. But in any case, after Zhang Jiao retreated to Guangzong County, the war began to fall into a stalemate for a while. Zhang Jiao, the great sage and mentor who detonated the troubled times at the end of the Han Dynasty, definitely has no religious influence. But his ability to command battles does not seem to be very strong.
At the same time, in response to the Nanyang battlefield, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty mobilized two of the three heroes of the late Han Dynasty, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, each led an army and killed the Yingchuan region at the same time.
In this process, in order to make it easier for Zhu Jun to fight, he used many local officials in Jingzhou and Yangzhou. Among them, the most important one is named Sun Jian.
And then, after the two sides began to fight, the Yellow Turban Army in the Yingchuan region soon showed its fierce combat effectiveness. Compared with Zhang Jiao, Yingchuan's Bocai, who is responsible for leading the Yellow Turban Army, is obviously more capable of fighting. Under Bocai's counterattack, soon, Zhu Jun was defeated.
After that, Zhu Jun and Huangfu Song, who came to meet him, joined forces and retreated to the area of Changshe in Henan.
In this way, in the entire Yellow Turban Rebellion, the most important war, the Battle of Changshe, began.
After retreating to the Changshe area, on the surface, the rebel army surrounded Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun. But during this period, the two famous generals who regained their foothold began to plan a counterattack. During this period, Huangfu Song sent people out of the city at night and set a fire around the Yellow Turban Army camp. With this fire, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun quickly led their troops to counterattack, directly disrupting the encirclement of the Yellow Turban Army.
At this moment, the reinforcements sent from the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty also arrived at the battlefield. And the person who arrived with reinforcements at that time was Cao Cao.
In this way, with Huangfu Song, Zhu Jun, and Cao Cao, leading their troops to attack at the same time, the Yellow Turban Army, which had been in disarray, began to rout in an instant.
After a big battle, the main force of the Yellow Turban Army was directly wiped out tens of thousands of people on the spot. This battle of Changshe ended with a complete victory for the Eastern Han Dynasty official army.
However, next, although the Yellow Turban Army besieging Changshe was defeated, the Yellow Turban Army was still very strong in the entire Nanyang and Yingchuan regions. So after that, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun led the Eastern Han Dynasty officials and troops to chase Bocai all the way. In the end, the two sides fought until Yang Zhai, and the Yellow Turban Army was basically completely wiped out.
With Zhang Jiao trapped and Bocai defeated, most of the main forces of the two rebel armies have been wiped out. At this stage, in this decisive battle, the Eastern Han government has actually firmly gained the upper hand. It is only a matter of time before the final success is reached.
It was in this context that the uprising entered its fourth phase.
The fourth stage can be called the 'suppression of the uprising'.
After entering the fourth stage, on the side of the Nanyang battlefield, the remaining Yellow Turban Army began to retreat to the county seat of Nanyang County, that is, the area around Wancheng. Because the city defense of Wancheng was relatively strong, in the next two months, Zhu Jun and Huangfu Song failed to take Wancheng.
It was not until four months later, after a long siege and many attacks by the Eastern Han Dynasty official army, that Wancheng was completely taken. When capturing Wancheng, Sun Jian was extremely brave and took the lead in climbing the city. It is by virtue of this credit that Sun Jian officially debuted. Later, the Soochow group in the Three Kingdoms period started from here.
With the capture of Wancheng, so far, the main force of the Yellow Turban Army in Nanyang and Yingchuan has been completely wiped out.
On the battlefield side of the Northern Front, the situation is slightly more complicated.
Since Lu Zhi trapped Zhang Jiao, the defeat of the rebel army was actually only a matter of time. But at this time, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty sent a eunuch to supervise the army. As a result, Lu Zhi was more upright and refused to bribe this eunuch. So this eunuch sent a small report to Emperor Han Ling, saying that Lu Zhi was passive and sabotage.
So in this way, after Emperor Ling of Han received the report, he directly changed the commander and removed Lu Zhi's position. And Emperor Ling of Han reassigned to replace Lu Zhi in the past, it was the famous traitor Dong Zhuo!
And with Dong Zhuo replacing Lu Zhi, the war began to show some changes. Compared with Lu Zhi, Dong Zhuo's ability to fight is still much worse. So next, Dong Zhuo began to lose all the way. The good situation that Lu Zhi laid down before is about to collapse!
But at this time, two important changes took place.
The first change was that at this moment, Zhang Jiao, the great sage and mentor who led the Yellow Turban Army, suddenly fell ill and died.
Zhang Jiao's death directly led to the beginning of instability within the Yellow Turban Army, and the combat effectiveness dropped significantly.
The second change was the Nanyang battlefield in the south, and the Eastern Han Dynasty officials and troops began to have the absolute upper hand. So after that, Emperor Ling of Han ordered Zhu Jun to continue to besiege Wancheng, and at the same time transferred Emperor Fu Song to the north.
After Huangfu Song went north, he soon found an opportunity to raid the rebel army at dawn. After a big battle, Huangfu Song quickly and easily defeated the main force of the Yellow Turban Army, and then chased the rebel army all the way, and finally solved the problem completely.
In this way, by November of this year, the two main forces of the Yellow Turban Army had all been wiped out. Zhang Jiao, the leader, has also passed away.
At this stage, this Yellow Turban Uprising can be regarded as completely suppressed.
As for the Yellow Turban rebels in Sichuan, the situation is a little more complicated. Although in the Yizhou area at that time, the Yellow Turban Army also gathered tens of thousands of people. But at the same time, because the influence of Taiping Dao on this side is limited, and the local government also reacted quickly and began to suppress it quickly. Therefore, before the central government of the Han Dynasty sent troops over, the local government had already eliminated the main force of the rebel army led by Ma Xiang.
And the detailed process of this war is basically not recorded in the history books. We only know that at that time, there was a middle-level official named Jia Long in the Yizhou area, and he formed an army with hundreds of his family members and clansmen. After that, he recruited thousands of people in the local area to form an army.
After that, Jia Long took more than 1,000 people and directly killed the main force of the rebel army. And in the end, with the cooperation of the local officials and soldiers, Jia Long really succeeded in taking this army and killing Ma Xiang. With the killing of Ma Xiang, the rebel army in Sichuan was completely suppressed.
However, at that time, on the side of the Yizhou battlefield, several important roles that appeared were not recorded in the history books. Even Jia Long, who took the lead in the end, was only a small role later. Later, after Liu Yan entered Shu, he was directly killed by Liu Yan because of his opposition to Liu Yan. So he didn't leave any record in the history books.
In short, on the Sichuan battlefield, the influence is extremely limited. Compared with the other two major battlefields, there is basically no comparison.
The above is the entire Yellow Turban Uprising, from the uprising to the suppression. From Zhang Jiao taking the lead to the suppression of the main force of the rebel army, it only took more than eight months in total.
From the perspective of time, this Yellow Turban Uprising actually did not last long. Compared with the Huangchao Uprising and the Taiping Rebellion in later history, Zhang Jiao's tossing time is already the shortest.
But even so, this uprising still gave the crumbling Eastern Han regime the most fatal kick.
Because in this war, many local powerful began to form private armed forces in the name of suppressing the uprising. And after the uprising is over, it will be difficult for these private armed forces to be reduced.
So from this time on, this Yellow Turban Uprising, on the surface, was indeed suppressed. But in fact, the Eastern Han Dynasty has been completely divided. The arrival of a great troubled era has become an inevitability.