Preamble:
Have you ever heard the story of a young man from a family of salt merchants, who, with his talents and ambitions, eventually became the leader of a peasant uprising, only to sink into the wine and be killed by his own relatives. Isn't this story a microcosm of our society?
1. The talented teenager Huang Chao
In 835 AD, a boy named Huang Chao was born in a family of salt merchants in Caozhou, Shandong Province (present-day Cao County, Heze City, Shandong Province). Since childhood, Huang Chao has shown extraordinary talent, and at the age of 5 he was able to write beautiful and moving poems, and became famous in the local area. He not only has an outstanding talent in literature, but also excels in martial arts and archery, and can be described as a prodigy with both literature and martial arts.
Huang Chao was born into a wealthy family of salt merchants, and he never experienced poverty since he was a child, which also allowed him to develop some not-so-good personality traits, such as being self-righteous and like to show off his talents. However, this is one of the important reasons why he later became the leader of the peasant uprising.
As he grew older, Huang Chao began to take the imperial examinations, hoping to enter the official career in this way and change his fate.
However, the repeated blows made him strongly dissatisfied with the imperial examination system at that time and the entire Tang Dynasty rule. He began to reflect on his own experience, believing that his talents were not being recognized and used as they should be, and this unfair reality made him angry.
Driven by this anger and dissatisfaction, Huang Chao began his own path of resistance. He abandoned the imperial examination and devoted himself to the salt merchant trade, becoming a smuggler. In the process, he met Wang Xianzhi, who was also engaged in illicit salt trafficking, and the two soon became like-minded friends.
Second, Wang Xianzhi rebelled, and Huang Chao responded
In 874 A.D., severe floods and droughts broke out across the country, reducing grain production in various parts of the country, and the people's lives fell into difficulties. However, at that time, Tang Xizong was addicted to wine, turned a blind eye to national affairs, and even wantonly increased all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, increasing the burden on the people.
Under these circumstances, Wang Xianzhi, a smuggler in Puzhou, finally couldn't bear it anymore and launched an uprising in Puyang, Henan. He proclaimed himself the "Great General of the Heavenly Supplement" and the "Commander of the Powerful Men in the Sea", and published an article angrily denouncing the corruption of the Tang Dynasty's officials, heavy servitude, unfair rewards and punishments, and many other evils.
Wang Xianzhi's uprising soon conquered Cao County and Puzhou in Shandong Province, and the momentum was huge. This news reached Huang Chao's ears, and he was also moved. As a result, Huang Chao led his nephews Huang Cun, Huang Kui, Huang Ye and nephew Lin Yan to revolt in Shandong (now Cao County, Heze City, Shandong Province), and actively responded to Wang Xianzhi's call.
Both of them were born as smugglers and had some friendships, so they soon joined forces to attack the Tang Dynasty. At this time, the peasant uprising war at the end of the Tang Dynasty officially broke out.
3. Huang Chao is the emperor and sinks into wine
In the face of the increasingly powerful peasant rebel army, the Tang court had no choice but to recruit Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao. Soon, Tang Xizong named Wang Xianzhi as the "Left God Ce Army", and Wang Xianzhi soon turned around and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.
However, Huang Chao was not rewarded by Tang Xizong, and he was very dissatisfied. So, he attacked Wang Xianzhi on a large scale, and finally defeated him, beheading more than 50,000 people, and even Wang Xianzhi was captured.
It was at this moment that Huang Chao saw his opportunity. On January 8, 881, he led an army of 150,000 to attack Chang'an, the capital of Tang. Seeing that the situation was not good, Tang Xizong took the lead in fleeing to Chengdu, Sichuan. Huang Chao took advantage of the situation to capture Chang'an, established his own regime "Great Qi", changed the name of the era to "Jintong", and established himself as emperor.
However, after Huang Chao ascended the throne, he completely sank into wine and completely abandoned national affairs. He indulged in the slaughter of his soldiers, killing all the more than 80,000 men in Chang'an City.
At the same time, he also began to choose concubines on a large scale, and took all the female dependents of those dignitaries, royal relatives and nobles as his own and became his princess. It is said that he has twenty-four wives and more than two hundred wives.
Huang Chao's behavior completely deviated from his original intention of launching an uprising, and also made him lose the support of the general public. He ignored national affairs and only cared about his own pleasures, which also laid the groundwork for his eventual defeat.
Fourth, the Tang army counterattacked, and Huangchao was defeated
Just two years after Huang Chao became emperor, the power of the feudal town made a comeback, and the vassal kings from all walks of life who supported Tang Xizong raised troops to join King Qin's team.
On June 15, 884, Huang Chao's army was defeated all the way by the Tang army and the forces of the feudal town, and fled from Chang'an City in panic.
With the gradual loss of the main force of the Huangchao Rebels, his army also began to retreat. Huang Chao also fantasized about preserving his strength and returning to Chang'an one day, so he led the remnants of the defeated generals to continue to flee to the northeast.
In June 884, when Huang Chao and his nephew Lin Yan fled to Xiangwang Village in the Valley of the Wolf and Tiger in Taishan, Lin Yan saw that the general situation was gone, so he took the opportunity to kill Huang Chao and his brother's wife, and surrendered Huang Chao's head to the Tang Dynasty. At this point, the peasant uprising led by Huang Chao was a complete failure.
5. Tang Xizong's cruel revenge
When Huang Chao was killed, dozens of his wives and concubines were unfortunately captured by the Tang army. However, what makes people sigh is that they were subjected to the despicable inhuman abuse of Tang Xizong, and finally died.
Tang Xizong saw that Huang Chao was dead and the rebel army was destroyed, and his heart was broken, and he finally let out a bad breath. He ordered the Tang army to tie up dozens of wives and concubines of Huangchao, holding leather whips in their hands, like driving cattle, and drove all these weak women to the gate of Chang'an City.
Tang Xizong looked at the women with tears on his faces, and asked sharply: "You Cao are all noble children, what is a thief?" He believes that even if these women can't help themselves, they should rather die and die for the country, so that they can be regarded as "chaste martyrs".
At this time, I saw a concubine of Huang Chao at the head of the team, standing up calmly, and sneering at Tang Xizong: "The country has millions of people, and it has lost its hands and sowed Bashu; Now Your Majesty can't refuse to reproach a woman, where is the general of the minister?"
These words undoubtedly gave Tang Xizong a resounding slap in the face, completely satirizing his incompetence and ruthlessness. But Tang Xizong was dumbfounded by this woman, and in a fit of rage, he ordered his subordinates to tie them all up and hang them on the city gate.
This concubine who stepped forward is Huang Chao's wife Li. Before she died, she wrote a "Farewell Poem" to express her unswerving love for Huang Chao. And this poem has also become a famous sentence through the ages and has been passed down to this day.
However, Tang Xizong's cruelty did not stop there. He also ordered the people of the city to line up to see how tragic the fate of these traitors to the peasant rebel army was. These women, who once enjoyed the glory and wealth of the court, have now become the object of people's criticism and irresponsible remarks.
In the end, these women were sunburned to death and starved to death, and Tang Xizong did not understand his hatred, and ordered that they should not be put down, but continued to hang them on the city gate, and let the wind and rain blow and the sun exposed. After a few months, the bodies of the women hanging on the city wall had long since lost their human appearance, and completely became "human jerky".
Epilogue:
The Huangchao Rebellion, although ultimately defeated, became a famous peasant uprising war in mainland history, dealing a fatal blow to the corrupt Tang regime. Sadly, however, Huang Chao, a brilliant peasant leader, ended up drowning in wine and being victimized by his own relatives.
And Tang Xizong, the ruler, is even more despicable. He is not only incompetent, but also extremely cruel, and his treatment of Huang Chao's wives and concubines is simply a depravity of human nature. How can such a ruler last?
The wheels of history roll forward, but the weakness of human nature is always there. Should we draw lessons from these historical events, be vigilant not to be deceived by power and desire, uphold justice, and uphold the dignity of human nature?