Huang Chao, a legendary figure in the last years of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a glorious chapter in history with an uprising that shook the entire empire.
He is not only an ordinary peasant child in Cao County, Shandong, but also the founding emperor of Daqi, and was called "the strongest scholar in history" by later generations.
He was born in 820 A.D. in a turbulent era, half a century after the "Anshi Rebellion" was put down, but the problem of the division of feudal towns still plagued the Tang Dynasty.
It was also in this year that Tang Xianzong Li Chun was murdered by eunuchs, and "Yuan and Zhongxing" came to an abrupt end, and the Tang Empire slipped into the abyss of falling apart.
Tang Xianzong Li Chun
Fortunately, however, he grew up in a wealthy and restless family of salt sellers, which gave him an education and background far beyond his contemporaries.
Although his family was wealthy, Huang Chao was not satisfied with being a salt dealer, he was eager to pass the imperial examination, enter the official career as an official, and realize the class jump for himself and his family.
However, the imperial examination system in the Tang Dynasty was full of unfairness, corruption and cheating were rampant, and those who did not learn and did not know how to learn and did not know how to be the children of the family could easily be named on the gold list, while the scholars of the Shu clan like Huang Chao, even if they were only eight buckets high, could only fall back repeatedly.
After failing several imperial examinations, Huang Chao was disheartened and completely gave up the idea of a career.
Yellow Nest
When he left Chang'an, he wrote the famous poem "Fu Ju after Budi":
"When autumn comes, September 8, I will kill a hundred flowers after the flowers bloom.
The heavenly incense array penetrates Chang'an, and the city is full of golden armor. ”
This poem not only shows his talent for Yongdai, but also reveals the anger and spirit of rebellion that have been buried in his heart for a long time.
In 874 AD, when natural disasters and wars were frequent throughout the country, the Tang Dynasty increased the collection of taxes and severely cracked down on the sale of illicit salt, which touched the interests of salt dealers, including Huang Chao.
In the second year of Qianfu (875), Huang Chao raised troops in response to Wang Xianzhi, began to declare war on the Tang Dynasty, and became the leader of the rebel army three years later.
Due to the strength of the Tang Dynasty and various feudal towns, Huangchao was unable to establish a stable base area, so he had to adopt the method of mobile warfare, and in 6 years, he switched to the north and south, and also captured Chang'an to establish the Great Qi regime, which completely shook the foundation of the Tang Dynasty's rule.
Huangchao's uprising not only almost overthrew the Tang Dynasty, but also dug up the roots of the Shi clan.
He went on a killing spree everywhere, especially against the officials and nobles who made him resentful.
The poet Wei Zhuang once lamented: "The heavenly street has stepped on the bones of the princess, and there is no half of the Jiadi Zhumen." ”
The massacre of Huangchao and the disaster of Zhu Wen's White Horse Post completely swept away the last remnants of the traditional family magnates, ended the thousand-year rule of the Shi clan gate lords on the stage of Chinese history, and completely changed the trend of subsequent history.
The scourge of the White Horse Station
The story of Huangchao is not only a legend of personal struggle and resistance, but also a tragic song of an era.
His uprisings and conquests were both a fierce rebellion against the corrupt rule of the Tang Dynasty and a profound exposure of social injustice.
In that turbulent era, the rise and struggle of Huangchao profoundly affected the course of Chinese history and became an indelible part of the long river of history.
Let's take a look at this peasant army uprising that went down in history.
Natural disasters are rampant
Around 874 AD, northern China was hit by several years of major floods and droughts, resulting in severe failures in wheat and other crops, and a severe shortage of vegetables.
At the same time, the Tang Dynasty waged a twenty-year war with Nanzhao from 860 AD, and huge military expenditures depleted the treasury.
Even in the face of natural disasters, the Tang Dynasty was unable to provide relief, but continued to collect taxes in Shandong, Henan and other severely affected areas.
This situation is quite similar to that of the Chongzhen period in the late Ming Dynasty, and the result was a large peasant uprising, which eventually led to a large-scale peasant uprising.
In Puyang, the local people have been hit by natural disasters for several years, but the government still levies taxes that make it difficult for them to survive.
The people wanted to reduce taxes, so they approached Wang Xianzhi, a well-known local salt dealer, hoping that he would come forward to negotiate with the government.
Wang Xianzhi has a lot of prestige in the local area and often helps people solve difficulties.
However, despite Wang Xianzhi's appearance, the government still refused to budge, intensifying the contradictions.
As the conflict escalated, the anger between the two sides gradually increased, and the government even intended to kill Wang Xianzhi to intimidate the people. The people gathered around Wang Xianzhi had reached thousands, and at the instigation of his henchmen, Wang Xianzhi decided to resist.
At the beginning of 875 AD, Wang Xianzhi gathered the heroes and tax-resisting people in the surrounding mountains, and issued a letter, accusing the Tang Dynasty officials of corruption and heavy taxes, and proclaimed himself "the general of the Tianzhu Average, and the commander of all the nobles in the sea", and officially launched an uprising.
He quickly occupied Caozhou (present-day Cao County, Shandong) and Puzhou.
In order to boost morale, Wang Xianzhi also spread the phrase "Golden toads compete for their eyes, but Caozhou is against the world" to express his pursuit of fairness.
Huang Chao, who is also a hero in Cao County, heard that Wang Xianzhi had raised troops, and he was also enthusiastic, leading his family and thousands of people to defect to Wang Xianzhi.
With Wang Xianzhi raising the banner, the people of the Quartet took refuge one after another, including a large number of Pang Xun's old troops, so that the rebel army quickly grew to tens of thousands.
Wang Xianzhi waved his army eastward, attacked Yizhou after breaking through Yunzhou, and sent small forces to attack everywhere, and soon occupied more than ten prefectures and counties. The Tang Dynasty urgently appointed Song Wei, the envoy of Pinglu Jiedu, to recruit grass thieves for the Zhudao camp to fight against Wang Xianzhi's main force.
In July 876, Wang Xianzhi fought a fierce battle with the Tang army under the city of Yizhou, and then turned west into Henan, broke eight counties in a row, and occupied Yangzhai (now Yuzhou, Henan), according to Jiacheng (now Jiaxian, Henan), and the momentum was greatly boosted.
The Tang Dynasty urgently deployed defenses and sent generals to guard Luoyang and key roads. Wang Xianzhi fought bravely, broke through Ruzhou, beheaded Tang generals Dong Hanxun and Liu Chengyong, and captured and assassinated Shi Wang Shackles, shaking the world.
Luoyang hundreds of officials went out, and Tang Xizong Li Yu canceled the Chongyang banquet and sent envoys to recruit An.
While negotiating, Wang Xianzhi attacked Yangwu (present-day Yuanyang, Henan) and Zhengzhou, but was defeated by the Tang army at Zhongmu (present-day Hebixi, Henan).
He divided the army into two, led the main force south to the Jianghan Plain, and the other way invaded Huainan, quickly occupied several prefectures and counties, and the righteous army was revived, with as many as 300,000 people.
But in 877 AD, the Tang Dynasty continued to encircle and suppress the rebels, and sent spies to rebel, and the situation gradually became unfavorable.
Wang Xianzhi was once again tempted to accept Zhao'an, but the messenger he sent was robbed and beheaded.
Wang Xianzhi had no choice but to cross the Han River to capture Jiangling.
In 878 AD, Wang Xianzhi was defeated by the Tang army in many places, and was surrounded in Huangmei in February, and more than 50,000 people of the main force of the righteous army were killed. During the breakout, Wang Xianzhi was killed in battle, and some of his subordinates crossed the river to continue fighting, and some took refuge in Huangchao.
Wang Xianzhi's rebellion was eventually suppressed by the Tang Dynasty.
The Grand General
After dividing his troops with Wang Xianzhi, Huang Chao fought guerrilla warfare in Hubei and Anhui, and although he was frequent, he still failed to achieve significant results due to his weak strength, but lost a lot of soldiers and horses.
Under the encirclement and suppression of the Tang army, Huang Chao could only move around, barely maintaining the battle.
After Wang Xianzhi's death, Shang Rang led the remnants of his army to the north and joined Huang Chao, Huang Hua and other brothers and thousands of remnants.
At that time, although Wang Xianzhi had died, the Tang court still did not provide any relief to the people, and the exploitation and oppression became more serious, arousing greater resistance.
Huangchao monk Rang quickly gathered tens of thousands of horses, and in less than a month he broke through Ruzhou, captured the shackles of the assassin Shiwang, and attacked everywhere in the Kanto region, and the official army was defeated in several crusades, and the size of the army quickly expanded to more than 100,000 people.
Ruzhou
His military prowess was recognized by everyone, and he was elected as the new chief, known as the "Rushing General", and appointed a hundred officials in this name.
Compared with Wang Xianzhi's "Heavenly Supplement Average General", Huang Chao's title contains more anger and murderous aura.
Huangchao's strength increased rapidly, sweeping Henan, Shandong, and Lianghuai, and the various festivals made it difficult to fight alone.
Huang Chao often wrote essays with sharp wording, scolding Tang Ting to the point of incompleteness.
Therefore, Wang Xianzhi's old subordinates have taken refuge in Huangchao, making it even more powerful.
In 878 AD, the Tang Dynasty gathered various military towns and envoys to besiege Huangchao again, and the righteous army began to be besieged from all sides.
Huang Chao attacked Yecheng and Yangzhai and prepared to attack Luoyang, and the Tang Dynasty sent Liu Jingren, the general of Zuo Shenwu, to lead 5,000 soldiers and horses, and mobilized the Heyang garrison, Xuanwu Army, and Zhaoyi soldiers to jointly defend Luoyang.
At the same time, Huang Chao's troops in Jiangxi were defeated by Gao Yu, the envoy of Zhenhai Jiedu, and the troops attacking Xinzheng, Jiacheng, and Yangzhai were also repelled by Cui Anqian.
In western Zhejiang, Huangchao's troops were defeated by Pei Xuan and suffered heavy losses.
Faced with the siege, Huang Chao is pessimistic about the future prospects.
At the time of the stalemate, Zhao'an became a compromise plan for both sides.
Huang Chao quickly negotiated with the Tianping Army and was awarded the official post of General of the Right Guard, and the first phase of the Huang Chao Uprising came to an end for the time being.
After being recruited, Huang Chao had the opportunity to observe the operation mechanism of the central Tang Dynasty and the various feudal towns at close range, and found that the Tang Dynasty had long been rotten internally, and there were many contradictions between the Tang court and the local feudal towns, and it was impossible to form a joint force at all.
Previously, Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi were besieged by the feudal towns, mainly because the stalls were too large and offended the interests of many feudal towns. However, now Huang Chao realizes that if he concentrates his forces, none of the individual feudal towns is his opponent, and the contradictions between the various feudal towns make it impossible for them to work together.
So, Huang Chao decided to raise troops against the Tang Dynasty again.
Soaring
After learning the previous lesson, Huang Chao adjusted his strategy, concentrated his superior forces to attack a little, and no longer entangled in the Central Plains. The feudal towns in the Central Plains were relatively combative, and the people were exhausted, making it difficult to provide stable support for the rebels.
Huang Chao decided to lead his troops across the Yangtze River and move to Jiangnan.
Since the Anshi Rebellion, Jiangnan has rarely suffered from war, and the Tang court's military strength in the area is weak, and the area is rich enough to solve the problem of supply for the rebel army.
In August 878, Huang Chao led a large army south to attack Xuanzhou.
Xuanzhou
Although the generals Zhang Yan and Liang Zhang defeated the rebel army at Nanling, causing Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo to surrender to the Tang army, the main force of Huangchao had already entered Jiangxi and attacked Qianzhou, Jizhou, Raozhou, and Xinzhou all the way.
In order to avoid the pursuit of the official army, Huang Chao led the righteous army to open up a 700-mile mountain road and went straight to Jianzhou.
In Fujian, Huang Chao changed his strategy, recruited poor people and civilian scholars, established a set of administrative teams, and achieved certain governance results.
Fujian has not experienced war for many years, the local stability has been achieved, and various prefectures and counties have fallen into the hands of the rebels. Tang Ting was worried that Huang Chao would be king in the south of the Yangtze River, so he quickly sent a fierce general Gao Yu to attack Huang Chao as a whole.
In September 879, Huang Chao led his army over the Wuling Mountains to Guangzhou, besieged the city of Guangzhou, and negotiated with Li Yuan, the envoy of the Lingnan Eastern Province.
Guangzhou City
Huang Chao asked for Zhao An and hoped to be appointed as the envoy of the Tianping Army.
However, Prime Minister Lu Xi and eunuch Tian Lingzi resolutely opposed and rejected Huang Chao's request.
So Huang Chao lowered his requirements and hoped to serve as the envoy of the Protector of Annan and the Guangzhou Festival, but he was still refused.
Because Guangzhou Bosi is an important source of wealth for the Tang Dynasty, it cannot be easily ceded to Huang Chao.
Municipal Ship Commander
In the end, Tang Ting only named Huang Chao as a fictitious "rate of the government", and threatened to send Gao Yu to attack him.
Gao Yu
Enraged, Huang Chao ordered the whole army to attack the city, and the city of Guangzhou was quickly breached, and Jiedu made Li Zhen captured.
Huang Chao engraved a big seal of "Righteous Army Millions of Commanders" in the city of Guangzhou, and wrote a letter to scold the Tang Dynasty, winning the empathy of the people.
Although Tang Ting believed that the situation gradually stabilized after forcing Huang Chao to Lingnan, Huang Chao faced water and soil inadequacy and epidemic diseases in Guangzhou, and four or five out of ten soldiers died.
The rebel soldiers asked to return north, and Huang Chao decided to march north.
In 880 AD, the water level of the Xiangjiang River soared, and Huang Chao used a raft to go down the river, suddenly appeared under the city of Tanzhou, broke through Tanzhou in one go, and annihilated the 100,000 troops of the Tang army.
Shang Rang led the army to attack Jiangling in the north, and Jingnan Jiedu made Wang Duo so frightened that he fled to Xiangyang, and Jiangling City became a ghost town for a while.
Originally, he planned to pursue Wang Duo to Xiangyang, but Shannan Dongdao Jiedu made Liu Jurong ambush the righteous army with a plan and captured the twelve generals of the Volunteer Army.
Huang Chao hurriedly led the remnants of the army to flee eastward, and then captured Ezhou, attacked Jiangxi, and once again raised an army of 200,000.
The rebels swept through Zhejiang, shocking the world.
Seeing this, Tang Ting hurriedly appointed Gao Biao as the commander and recruited all military towns to fight south.
In March 880 AD, Gao Biao sent the general Zhang Lan to the south, Zhang Luan's elite department, once defeated the Southern Zhao, the Huangchao Righteous Army was defeated and retreated, retreating to Xinzhou.
There was an epidemic in Shinshu City, and a large number of soldiers died of disease.
Huang Chao sent someone to bribe Zhang Luan and ask for a delay in the war, and at the same time pretended to ask Gao Biao for Zhao'an.
Gao Biao believed it and withdrew reinforcements from the north.
During this period, Huang Chao seized the time to organize the troops, and after the northern Tang army retreated, he suddenly attacked Zhang Lan, won a complete victory, and killed Zhang Lan.
Huang Chao took advantage of the victory to capture Muzhou and Wuzhou, and once again pulled up 200,000 horses.
He took advantage of the victory to sweep the fifteen prefectures of Zhejiang, and the front of the army was directed at Yangzhou.
Tang Ting was disappointed with Gao Biao and could only send other elites south, but the Tang army was full of internal contradictions, the defense line collapsed, and it was difficult to organize effective resistance.
In the continuation of the offensive of the Huangchao army, the Huangchao through strategic adjustment, concentrated its forces to storm a little, moved to Jiangnan to avoid the strong enemy in the Central Plains, and won more support with flexible tactics and policies.
Despite the difficulties encountered by the rebel army, Huang Chao defeated the Tang army many times through stratagem and brave command.
However, the success of the rebels in Jiangnan was only temporary, and internal problems and the Tang army's continued counterattack still posed a huge challenge to Huangchao.
Winning the Yellow King, pointing directly to Chang'an
In September 880, Huang Chao decided to change his strategy, giving up the previous killing and robbery, and began to capture the strong men, and incorporated all the men he caught into the army. This move led to a rapid increase in the size of his army, and the officers and soldiers fled everywhere they went.
Huang Chao drove straight into the city, capturing Yingzhou, Songzhou, Xuzhou, and Yanzhou one after another.
Despite the growing power of the Yellow Nest, the Tang court was unable to make a decisive decision between war and peace.
By November, when Huang Chao marched into Ruzhou, he wrote a threatening letter to the government along the way, saying that his goal was Luoyang and Chang'an, and that he would not embarrass them if the government did not interfere along the way.
Luoyang's defending general, Qi Kerang, withdrew without a fight after hearing the news, and Huang Chao occupied Luoyang without a single soldier.
Due to the smooth march, Huang Chao did not carry out a massacre in Luoyang, but continued to advance westward after a little rectification.
Huang Chao's army was overwhelmed, capturing Shaanzhou and Yuzhou successively, and approaching Tongguan.
Tongguan
Tang Ting hurriedly appointed the great eunuch Tian Lingzi as the commander of the capital to be responsible for resisting Huangchao, but Tian Lingzi only dared to send Zhang Chengfan, the general of the Shence Army, to meet the enemy.
Because of their superior treatment, most of them are children of rich families and do not have actual combat effectiveness.
Sure enough, the rebels made a detour to the back of Tongguan, and easily broke through Tongguan under the front and back attacks, and the defender Boye Army fled without a fight, and began to loot Chang'an.
After hearing the news, Tang Xizong Li Yu fled to Xianyang under the escort of Tian Lingzi, leaving the hundred officials and the royal family at a loss.
Tang Xizong Li Yi
On December 5, Chai Cun, the vanguard of Huangchao, entered Chang'an without encountering resistance. Huang Chao then entered the city, and ordered Shang Rang to be the general of the Pingtang Dynasty, and Gai Hong and Fei Quangu to be the deputy generals.
Huangchao's army was draped in hair and brocade clothes, from Luoyang to Chang'an, thousands of miles apart, and the grand occasion was unprecedented.
Tang Jinwu general Zhang Zhifang led the civil and military officials to greet Huang Chao, Huang Chao took a golden car, the guards wore embroidered robes, red cloth tied their hair, and then took a bronze car, hundreds of thousands of soldiers followed each other.
Entering the Beijing Division from the Chunming Gate, ascending the Taiji Palace, the palace maid knelt down to greet him, and called Huang Chao "Yellow King".
That night, Huang Chao lived in Tian Lingzi's house and gave money to the poor to appease the people.
After Huang Chao entered and occupied Chang'an, he chose the auspicious day of the zodiac to ascend the throne and call the emperor, the country name Daqi, Bai Cui Xuan, Yang Xigu, Shang Rang, and Zhao Zhang were the prime ministers, Meng Kai and Gai Hong were the lieutenants of the left and right armies, Fei Chuangu was the privy envoy, Wang Fan was Jing Zhaoyin, Xu Jian, Zhu Shi, and Liu Tang were the military envoys, and Zhu Wen, Zhang Yan, Peng Zhu, and Ji Kui were the generals.
He also selected 500 warriors as his pro-army, commanded by his nephew Lin Yan.
After the capture of Chang'an, Huangchao's rebel army liquidated the Tang dignitaries and the princes and grandsons of the clan, arrested and tortured their hidden belongings, and almost all Tang officials were executed when they were caught.
The poet Wei Zhuang once lamented: "The heavenly street has stepped on the bones of the princess, and there is no half of the Jiadi Zhumen." ”
The rebel generals occupied the mansions, and the looting led to the burning of a large number of houses, and the family of the clan king Sun was slaughtered.
These actions reflected the profound class contradictions of the time, and the atrocities of the rebels were not only due to greed and brutality, but also to revenge for the poor people who had been oppressed for a long time.
On the other side, after Tang Xizong withdrew to Xingyuan, he called on the king of Qin.
In response, all sections of the envoys stationed troops in Weibei, Shayuan, Weiqiao, Wugong and other places to form an encirclement network for Chang'an.
However, the various sections were afraid of Huang Chao's strength, watched each other, and did not dare to take the initiative to attack, and the battle situation was stalemate for a while.
There was a food shortage inside and outside Chang'an City due to the war, and the external transportation was cut off by the Tang army, and the price of rice soared to 3,000 yuan per bucket.
Many officials and soldiers actually took the opportunity to arrest the people who had taken refuge in the mountains and sold them to the rebels for a profit, and the people were miserable for a while.
Although the Tang army surrounded Chang'an, the strange balance between the two sides made the battle inconclusive.
The people were uneasy and broke Mount Tai
In 882 AD, the Tang Dynasty appointed Tang Hongfu, the envoy of the former Shuofang Jiedu, as the Sima of the camp, and led the envoys of each section to recover Chang'an.
Fierce battles between the two sides were frequent, and although they suffered heavy losses, the Tang army as a whole had the upper hand.
Hongfu led his army across Weishui, defeated the Huangchao general Shang Rang, and captured Chang'an.
When Huang Chao learned about it, he led the army to counterattack that night and repelled the Tang army.
Enraged, Huang Chao carried out a massacre of the people who had previously assisted the Tang army, and the city of Chang'an was full of blood.
After that, the Tang army and the Qi army of Huangchao engaged in fierce tug-of-war in various parts of Guanzhong, and the two sides won and lost each other.
In September of that year, Zhu Wen, the general of the Righteous Army, chose to surrender to the Tang Dynasty due to the conflict with Meng Kai, a confidant of Huang Chao, and his pessimism about the prospects of the Righteous Army.
Zhu Wen
The Tang Dynasty was very pleased with this, gave him the name Zhu Quanzhong, and appointed him as the envoy of the Bianzhou Assassin History and the Xuanwu Army. Zhu Wen's surrender was an important military and psychological victory for the Tang Dynasty.
In November, Li Keyong led the Shatuo and Tatar cavalry into the battlefield, completely breaking the balance of power between Tang and Qi. Li Ke crossed the Yellow River in February 883 and set up camp at Qiankengdian.
Huang Chao sent Shang Rang, Lin Yan, Wang Fan, Zhao Zhang and other 150,000 troops to camp in Liangtianpo.
The next day, Li Keyong led all units of the Tang army to attack, and the Tang army won a great victory from noon to dark, with tens of thousands of dead and wounded in the Huangchao army, and the corpses were ambushed for 30 miles. This battle resulted in the loss of the elite troops of the Huangchao Army and was a turning point in the Huangchao's military power.
Li Ke used
Li Ke used the victory to advance to Chang'an, and adopted a step-by-step strategy, forcing Huangchao to retreat.
The morale of the Qi army was low, and many generals fled.
In April 883, after setting fire to Chang'an, Huang Chao took advantage of the night to lead the main army of 150,000 to evacuate Guanzhong, pretending to go to Xuzhou, and ordered the soldiers to discard the looted property along the road.
Huang Chao sent Meng Kai as the vanguard to attack Qin Zongquan's Caizhou, and Qin Zongquan surrendered to Huang Chao after being defeated. Meng Kai continued to attack Chenzhou, but was defeated and killed.
Huang Chao personally led his troops to besiege Chenzhou, and divided his troops to attack many places in the Central Plains, once again turning the Central Plains into a war zone.
At that time, there was a great famine, and in order to solve the problem of military rations, Huang Chao cruelly captured the people and crushed them into flour to make military rations, which is said to have eaten 3,000 people a day, and a total of 300,000 people during the siege of Chenzhou.
The atrocities and tragedies of Huangchao sparked widespread revolt and hatred, and the rebels were demoralized, internal contradictions intensified, and they gradually went to defeat.
In the end, Huang Chao was completely defeated by the betrayal of his generals and subordinates.
Huang Chao was forced to commit suicide in 884 when he was unable to return to heaven, and the rest of his troops were also exterminated by the Tang army.
Although the Huangchao Rebellion swept through the Central Plains and dealt a heavy blow to the Tang Dynasty's rule, it was unable to establish a solid political power due to its lack of long-term governance ability and a deep popular foundation.
Huang Chao's atrocities and internal divisions led to the rapid collapse of his regime.