On the first day of December 880, Huang Chao led an army of 600,000 men to break through Tongguan and point directly at the Capital City of Chang'an of the Tang Dynasty. After Emperor Tang heard the news, he fled in a hurry, and Huang Chao sat on his golden shoulders, surrounded by many soldiers, and entered Chang'an City in a mighty way. Huang Chao fulfilled his vow of "carrying the golden armor all over the city" and ascended the throne in Chang'an City to establish the Daqi regime. However, Huang Chao failed to overthrow the rule of the Tang Dynasty, but was defeated and killed.
First, mobile operations have no base areas
At the beginning of the Huangchao Uprising, he mainly fought in Shandong and Henan, but later he changed his strategy and adopted the method of large-scale mobile operations, successively moving to the four sides, successively fighting in Huainan, Eastern Zhejiang, Fujian, Lingnan and other places, along the way, the momentum was like a bamboo, almost invincible. It was not until 879 that Huang Chao marched north, and along the way did not establish a base, but first occupied Luoyang, and then occupied Chang'an. Although Huang Chao claimed the title of emperor, the territory he controlled was only the area around Chang'an.
The absence of a base means that there is no human, material and financial supplement. At that time, the supply of Huang Chao's army was mainly supplied by the Tang Dynasty's treasury, but he had hundreds of thousands of troops, so there was soon a food crisis. By 884, the price of rice in Chang'an City had soared to forty yuan per bucket. At the same time, in order to strengthen the defense of Chang'an City, Huang Chao hired hundreds of thousands of Dingfu to build a city and settle it with grain, which aggravated the food crisis.
Second, pride is light on the enemy, and military mistakes are made
After huang chao occupied Chang'an, he believed that the world was already in power, and neither sent troops to pursue the fleeing Tang Emperor, nor did he send a large army to attack the surrounding areas, but became emperor. Eight days after the occupation of Chang'an, Huang Chao ascended the throne at the Hanyuan Temple, with the national name of Daqi and the Jianyuan Jin Dynasty. For the Tang army in the surrounding areas, Huang Chao did not care at all, he once said: "Gao Linggong did not dare to fight against the enemy and me, what plan did Zheng Xiangguo plan to do?" During this period, Emperor Tang used the wealth of Shuzhong to recruit troops and horses, and summoned the Qin King of tianxia.
The Tang army soon launched a counterattack, and among these armies, a Shatuo cavalry from the north was the most eye-catching. In November 882, Li Keyong led the Shatuo cavalry into battle, which completely changed the entire situation of the war. In the Battle of Liangtianpi, hundreds of thousands of rebel troops were defeated miserably, and "the corpses were ambushed for thirty miles". After that, Li Ke's Shatuo cavalry completely destroyed Huang Chao and directly attacked Chang'an City with victory, and Huang Chao was forced to lead the remnants of the defeated army to withdraw from the Guanzhong area.
Third, narrow-mindedness and loss of the hearts of the people
Although Huang Chao had read books, he had a narrow vision and had achieved nothing politically! In the process of Huang Chao's transfer to the four sides, he did not recruit talents at all, especially without the support of readers. Huang Chao claimed to be empress, and most of the people around him were military generals, and although some Tang officials were appointed by him, most of them were ostracized. At that time, some people wrote poems satirizing Huang Chao, and as a result, the rebels slaughtered in the city, killing more than 3,000 readers, including many officials.
Killing the reader is not counted, he actually raised a butcher knife at the civilians! In the course of fighting the Tang army, Huang Chao led troops to support the Huazhou region, during which the Tang army briefly recaptured Chang'an. After Huang Chao heard the news, he defeated the Tang army, and he angered the people of Chang'an, believing that they were helping the Tang army, so he "slaughtered the troops and shed blood into the river." Huang Chao's slaughter of the city made him completely lose the hearts of the people, without the support of the people and Confucians, what did he do to overthrow the Tang Dynasty?
References: 1. Old Book of Tang; 2. New Book of Tang; 3. Zizhi Tongjian