Uprising of the Huang Chao

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The uprising of the Huang Chao 875–884 led to the final loss of power of the Tang Dynasty and led China almost immediately into the period of the Five Dynasties . It was initially a revolt of allied robber gangs , but due to the weak leadership of the imperial bureaucracy, it ultimately plunged the whole of society into chaos.

prehistory

Tang China faced many problems in the late 8th and 9th centuries. The class of small farmers declined due to the expansion of private and church property. Due to economic hardship, farmers were forced to leave their families (if any) or their village and become vagabonds or bandits. There are no reliable figures on this. But in Suzhou, Anhui Province , as early as 770, ninety percent of the people were hand-to-mouth.

If they formed bandit groups, they were supported by their leaders. Huang Chao, for example, put his family name on all of his people to make them feel like a brotherhood. These bandit leaders came from different backgrounds. B. Been a local candidate for the Chinese Civil Service Examination . But even if their origins differed, they had one thing in common: they were all skilled martial artists.

From 759 the state resorted to monopolies on salt, alcohol and tea to compensate for the falling tax revenues from small-scale agriculture. As a result, a considerable black market soon developed, through which many gangs earned their money. And since public administration gave ambitious people little opportunity in the 9th century, they stuck with this business.

Wang Xianzhi, Shang Junzhang, and Huang Chao

Finally in 875 a bandit confederation of about 3,000 men was formed, divided into groups of 20 to 30 men. Such a union was nothing new, only this time it was larger and territorially more widespread. Wang Xianzhi named himself the leader, Shang Junzhang and Huang Chao are named next to him. A public letter has been issued to inform all gang leaders. So it was not a peasant uprising, but that does not mean that the peasants remained passive and did not also see their opportunities.

The authorities knew about the dangerousness of these gangs - they did not underestimate them in their reports - but had no understanding of the internal structures and accordingly had no way of breaking them up. When the first prefecture cities were attacked, they overreacted and concentrated large army forces in Henan and Huai-nan , which were ineffective against the few hundred men. The Yellow River floods did the rest that year to feed the rebels who continued to plunder villages and prefecture cities.

Finally, in January 876, the governors and prefects of Fujian , Jiangxi, and Hunan also raised troops. Sung Wei, who drove the rebels outside the city of I-chou and falsely reported the death of Wang Xianzhi, was given the command of all emergency services. The court was delighted, but it turned out that they had no idea of ​​the structure and size of these bandit groups, so that they were shocked to see them reappear. In August 876 the rebels marched on the capital Luoyang and defeated an imperial force 45 miles southeast of it at Ju-chou. Amnesty offers to Wang Xianzhi and Shang Junzhang were refused. In December, the rebels overwintered on the central Yangtze .

At this point, the army command's distrust broke out. A certain Kang Cheng-hsun had put down a similar uprising several years earlier and was subsequently sidelined. The Commander-in-Chief Song Wei († 878) wanted to avoid his fate and acted accordingly idiosyncratic in order to create his own domestic power. In addition, a captured general negotiated with Wang Xianzhi and the court to get the rebel leader to act as a censor . But Huang Chao got wind of it and attacked and wounded Wang Xianzhi, so he had to continue.

The rebels now split in 877 into two groups that operated separately: 3,000 men moved with Wang Xianzhi and Shang Junzhang and 2,000 men with Huang Chao. They ransacked several cities, but this time Commander-in-Chief Song Wei did not defend I-chou, it was simply no longer in his area of ​​interest. Even more: in this ominous war situation, Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao (reunited) even succeeded in enclosing Song Wei's army near Songzhou. Relief came in the form of fresh troops under Zhang Zimian, an enemy of Song Wei who was promptly slandered by him (late year 877).

When the rebel Shang Junzhang defected to the imperial family, he was executed by Song Wei, so that there were only two rebel leaders left. Finally, the deputy Song Weis, a certain Zeng Yuanyu, triumphed over the troops of Wang Xianzhi near Shenzhou. Wang Xianzhi was persecuted and eventually killed near Huangmei (February 878). Zeng Yuanyu was appointed commander in chief and Zhang Zimian became his deputy. Both now set out to persecute Huang Chao, who as a surviving rebel leader titled himself Sky Storming General and evaded to Fujian. South China was evidently unimportant to the court, the persecution was broken off again, both generals got posts and disappeared from history (September 878).

Huang Chaos train south and its return

Huang Chao first devastated the southern provinces. In December 878 he captured Fuzhou , but was subsequently defeated and driven out by Gao Bian's army. In May 879 surrender negotiations failed again due to the demand of the governor's post and so he attacked Canton and conquered the city within a day. 120,000 deaths were recorded, most of them foreign traders.

Many malaria victims moved him to return to the north in October 879. His fused force was expected by several armies, but one by one they failed. The court-sent commander, Li Xi, was only given the post because of his background, was incapable, and lost two cities. A local military governor named Liu Jurong was able to defeat Huang Chao near Jingmen on the Yangtze, but did not pursue him. His reason for this is remarkable: “The Tang exploit the people. In times of danger there are generous rewards, and when peace comes, punishments follow. The best plan is to let the bandits go and hope for luck later. "

Then it was Gao Bian's turn on the lower Yangtze, a well-tried general (including against Nanzhao ) and governor, who was also assigned reinforcements by the court. His deputy, Zhang Lin, triumphed over Huang Chao in March 880 and two of his captains submitted to some ten thousand men. Huang Chao himself escaped and offered submission. Gao Bian agreed and dismissed his reinforcements to avoid sharing the fame. Huang Chao promptly broke his word, won on the Huai and killed Zhang Lin. After that, the way to Luoyang was open to him, because Gao Bian did not send any reinforcements there (not least because his protector was seriously ill at court and because of this he was no longer given a chanterelle. He also feared the infidelity of his subordinates, often former bandits).

The Tang troops, who had gathered on the way to Luoyang, got into armed clashes, and Huang Chao was able to enter Luoyang in November 880. He tried for the first time to prevent looting, but was unsuccessful. The palace troops then tried to defend Tongguan, but consisted only of the untested sons of rich people, who at best harassed the residents of the capital and did not even take enough food with them for this campaign. In December 880, Chang'an fell , and Emperor Xizong (ruled 874-888) fled to Chengdu .

Huang Chao called on the residents to calm down when they moved into the capital and presented himself as a liberator. But in the end, his soldiers just looted and slaughtered people in the streets. Nevertheless, Huang Chao proclaimed his own dynasty and appointed four ministers, but found that his people were simply unsuitable for civil posts. Many survivors fled the city and the surrounding area, with the result that supplies stagnated and the price of grain soared. One day, when an insulting poem was stuck on a gate, Deputy Huang Chaos, Shang Rang, had anyone who could poetry murdered - including officials and some guards, about 3,000 people.

The commander of the Fengxian Fortress upstream did not allow himself to be pulled on Huang Chaos' side. In March 881, Huang Chao sent his deputies, Shang Rang and Wang Bo, against this Zheng Tian, ​​who was considered to be a non-military scholar. They suffered a heavy defeat, so that some rebel leaders, u. a. Huang Chaos governor in Luoyang, defected again to the Imperial. A year later, the court was able to cut off supplies to Chang'an, although the imperial troops were still bound by a revolt in Sichuan (triggered by its own corruption and brutality) .

As a result, Huang Chao had to go on the offensive again, he carried out various attacks, whereby the affected military governors carefully avoided a battle with him. Finally, the court called the Shato of Li Keyong (* 856 / † 908), who had established themselves in Shensi at that time. He went to the field with his 35,000 horsemen against the 150,000 men of Huang Chaos, received reinforcements from the court and finally defeated him in February 883 in the battle of Liangdian Hill. In April 883 Huang Chaos Army left Chang'an for good, and in June 884 the last of Huang Chaos troops were also broken up. He committed suicide. In 885 the emperor returned to Chang'an and died soon after. But the fall of the Tang Dynasty was sealed.

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