In ancient China, the direct causes of the decline and fall of a dynasty were nothing more than two kinds -- internal worries and external troubles. Among the four dynasties of the Han, Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties, the Han and Tang Dynasties died of internal troubles and belonged to the disintegration, while the Song Ming died of external troubles and was destroyed.
But this is not to say that the external troubles of the Han and Tang Dynasties were not serious. In fact, the external troubles of the Tang Dynasty were all-round, in the northeast was Goguryeo, the northern desert was the Eastern Turks, the northwest was the Western Turks, the western part was Tuguhun, and the southwest was Nanzhao. At the same time, behind the Eastern Turks are Xue Yantuo and Hui, and behind Tuguhun is Tubo, which is an era in which various forces are competing to appear.
Therefore, the Tang Dynasty often needed to fight on multiple fronts, but the real worry of the Tang Dynasty was "not in the Tang Dynasty, but within the Xiao Wall".
In the nearly three hundred years of the Tang Dynasty, the most serious blow to it was neither the conquest of Goryeo nor the defeat of Daeyu, Tubo, and Nanzhao, but two civil unrests:
First, it was the anshi rebellion, to quell the chaos in anshi, in addition to Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi, there were also Hui Qi's reinforcements;
The second is the Yellow Nest Rebellion that this article will talk about.
If the Anshi Rebellion caused the Tang Dynasty to slip from its peak and withdraw from the Western Regions, then the Huangchao Rebellion laid the foundation for the division of the five dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty, just like the end of the Han Dynasty.
Tang died in Huangchao, and the disaster was based in Guilin.
"Guilin" refers to Pang Xun's mutiny before the Yellow Nest Rebellion, which occurred in 868 AD, because the 800 Xuzhou soldiers stationed in Guilin wanted to return home.
According to the Tang system, the soldiers guarding the border pass rotated once every 3 years, but for three years and three years, the soldiers in Guilin still could not go home.
Therefore, these eight hundred people returned to their hometowns privately under the leadership of Pang Xun, which was pang Xun's mutiny.
The Tang Dynasty quelled the Pang Xun Mutiny, largely thanks to the assistance of the Shatuo people, and the Shatuo cavalry had a huge advantage in the northern Jiangsu Plain.
It was also at this time that the Shatuo people officially stepped onto the historical stage of the late Tang Dynasty.
The Pang Xun mutiny was the trigger for the great uprising at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and many of the rest of the troops later joined the ranks of the Huangchao Uprising.
Huang Chao, originally a Salt Merchant in Shandong, was good at riding and shooting, had few poetic talents, and initially followed Wang Xianzhi to raise an army. Later, Wang Xianzhi was killed in battle, and Huang Chao was promoted to "Great General of the Sky" and became the leader of the rebel army in 878 AD.
As a result of mobile warfare, the Huangchao Rebellion spread throughout half of the Tang Dynasty, shaking the foundation of the Tang Empire's rule.
The reason why the Yellow Nest Rebellion can be calmed down is due to two major factors:
The first is Zhu Wen's downfall
In 882, Zhu Wen surrendered to the Tang army in Tongzhou, Shaanxi, and was appointed as the Great General of right Jinwu and given a very ironic name- Zhu Quanzhong.
Second, it was Li Ke, a Shatuo man, who used to help the soldiers
Shatuo, originally a Western Turkic division, was capricious between the Tang Dynasty and Tibet. Its leader, whose original surname was "Zhu Evil", was later given the surname "Li" for suppressing Pang Xun's mutiny.
After Huang Chao attacked Chang'an, the Tang Dynasty recruited the Tianxia army Zhenqin Wang, and Li Ke led the Shatuo army into reinforcements.
In 883, Li Keyong defeated Huang Chao, who withdrew from Chang'an, and Li Keyong was appointed as an envoy to Hedong Jiedushi.
In 884 AD, Huang Chaozhan died in the Taishan Wolf and Tiger Valley.
After quelling the Huangchao Rebellion, Li Ke, the King of Jin, used Ju hedong (Shanxi) and Zhu Wen, the King of Liang, occupied Henan, and the Tang Dynasty had no strength to suppress the two.
Compared with the generals who put down the Anshi Rebellion, Li Keyong still wanted to be Li Guangbi. Li Guangbi was a Khitan and Li Keyong was a Shatuo, but he always regarded Tang as Zhengshuo.
But Zhu Wen did not want to be Guo Ziyi, and he used his hands on Li Ke in the same year that he quelled the Yellow Nest Rebellion.
In 884, Zhu Wen rewarded Li Keyong on a heavy rainy night in Kaifeng, according to the "Old Five Dynasties History of Emperor Wu":
"In the same month, the class master passed through the Fengchan Temple, and the commander greeted the Fengchan Temple, and asked the Emperor Wu to rest in the mansion, but with three hundred subordinate officials and the supervising army envoy Chen Jingsiguan in Shangyuanyi.
It was night, Zhang Lechen feasted, and Shuai Shuai supported himself and gave out rare coins to persuade him. Emperor Wu drank heavily, played with various prostitutes, shook hands with Shuai Shuai, and took pleasure in breaking the thief's affair.
Emperor Wu was jealous of Emperor Wu, but instead conspired with Yang Yanhong to steal his hair, yanhong was strange in the lane and connected the car tree fence to block the road.
Emperor Shiwu's subordinates were all drunk, and the Russians sent out ambush troops to attack Chuanshe. Emperor Wu was drunk, the noise was moving, and more than a dozen officials were defending thieves. The attendant Guo Jingba extinguished the candle to support Emperor Wu, wrapped him in a curtain, hid under the bed, and sprinkled his face with water, Xu Yue: "Shuai plotted to kill Sikong!" Emperor Wu opened his eyes and drew his bow to resist the thief. There were fireworks and fireworks, heavy rain and electricity, and Emperor Wu had to go away from Xue Tieshan, He Huihu and several others. The rain was like a torrent, and the characters were not recognized, and with the electric light, they ascended the Wei's gate and came out of the city, and they had to return to the camp. ”
Bian Shuai was Zhu Wen; Emperor Wu, that is, Li Keyong.
On this heavy rainy night, Zhu Wen set up a "Hongmen Feast" with the intention of killing Li Keyong. The drunken Li Keyong, after the attendant splashed cold water on his face, fled back to the base camp in the rainy night.
Since then, Li Keyong and Zhu Wen have formed a feud between heaven and heaven, and the dispute between Zhu and Li has also determined the historical trend of the Tang Dynasty.
In 903, Zhu Wen defeated Li Maozhen, took Tang Zhaozong hostage to Chang'an, and ordered all the eunuchs in the dynasty to be killed, ending the dictatorship of eunuchs in the late Tang Dynasty and threatening Tianzi to order the princes.
Later, Zhu Wen moved Tang Zhaozong to his old home Luoyang, and in 905 AD created the White Horse Revolution, throwing all the Tang Dynasty's self-proclaimed Qingliu clan into the Yellow River.
At this point, the Southern and Northern Divisions that supported the Tang Dynasty no longer existed, and Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty and was left with only the process.
In 907, Zhu Wen established Later Liang, and Tang died.
At the same time, Li Ke still used the Tang Dynasty's Tianyou era name to compete with Later Liang in the name of reviving the Tang Dynasty, just like Liu Bei of the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty.
In 908, Li Keyong died of illness.
Later, his son Li Cunxun took revenge on his father and defeated Hou Liang, still taking "Tang" as the national name, known in history as "Later Tang", and the later Later Jin ~ Later Han ~ Later Zhou ~ Zhao Song were all from Li Keyong's Shatuo clique.
In summary, the Anshi rebellion beheaded the Tang Dynasty, and the Huangchao Rebellion sounded the death knell of the Tang Dynasty's demise, Zhu Wen Li Ke used not Guo Ziyi Li Guangbi, the Tang Dynasty no longer had the hope of ztexing, a chaotic era like the three kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty arrived.