"If you succeed in the future, how dare you laugh at Huang Chao for not being a husband?" Among the peasant uprisings in Chinese history, Huang Chao is definitely the number one figure, but his historical evaluation is not high. "Old Book of the Tang Dynasty" said, "Those who take advantage of danger and are lucky enough to start a military revolution immediately kill the barbarians. During this period, there was a boiling fire, and thieves broke out three times, including Anhuan Mountain, Zhu Si, and Huangchao." It was attributed to them. Rebels and thieves; and Wang Fuzhi commented in "Du Tongjian Lun" that "the Han was destroyed by the Yellow Turban, but the Yellow Turban cannot have the Han; the Sui was destroyed by the group of thieves, but the group of thieves cannot have the Sui; the Tang was destroyed by the Huang Chao, but the Huang Chao cannot There is "Tang" , so why did Huang Chao Uprising fail? Many people have analyzed its failure, and today I am here to join in the fun.
Huang Chao
The causes and consequences of Huangchao's uprising
Huang Chao, a native of Caozhou祋夯(today's Cao County, Heze, Shandong), was good at riding and shooting, liked to be a knight, was proficient in writing and ink, and had few poetic talents. He was a failed scholar in the late Tang Dynasty.
After the An-Shi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, salt and iron were state-owned. The central government established branch envoys and salt and iron envoys, and local salt supervisors, salt farms, and patrols were established to implement the official salt policy. This policy began during the Suzong period of the Tang Dynasty. Yan Zhenqing proposed using this method to raise pay for the Tang army. This means that all the salt mined is collected by the state and then put on the market for sale, and is also given the name "official salt". If you have watched the TV series " Detective Di Renjie ", you can have a rough understanding of this. The price of salt, a daily necessity like salt, has gone up after the government has taken control of it. The "Old Book of Tang Dynasty" records "The price of salt is a hundred yuan, and the price is a hundred and ten." This makes many people Joining the business of selling private salt , the Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi families are selling private salt.
In the late Tang Dynasty, the price of salt after the government took over it was even more astonishing. The cost of salt was only one-eighth of the salt profit of the year, and the official salt profit was as high as 700%. Farmers could not afford salt. "The poverty of the poor in distant villages was overestimated." , there are even light eaters" , and the price of private salt is low, so people will take the risk to buy cheap private salt, which makes the business of "private salt dealers" more popular. The government is definitely not happy. Local governments are raising taxes arbitrarily. Not only is the central government's two-tax system serious external conscription, but the penalties for smuggling salt are also becoming more severe. If someone catches smuggling salt, they will be "killed without mercy". Salt households steal and sell two stones. Salt, or people who buy two pieces of rock salt will be executed. There is also a law that makes people responsible for the illegal salt dealers who appear in the local area. This left the salt lords with no choice. At first, they organized armed salt traders to fight against the court. Later, when they could no longer survive, these salt traders simply rebelled. This is the historical background of the Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao uprisings.
html In 1875, after Wang Xianzhi's uprising, Huang Chao responded accordingly. In 878, after Wang Xianzhi died in battle, his subordinates joined Huang Chao. Huang Chao became the leader of the rebel army. He was known as the "Songtian General" and his reign title was "Wang Ba", with more than 100,000 troops. He led his troops across half of China, crossed the Yangtze River south, passed through Jiangxi, western Zhejiang, eastern Zhejiang, entered Fujian, and then attacked Guangzhou. Finally, in 880, he entered Luoyang, broke Tongguan, Enter Changan and establish Daqi. Later, he was besieged by the Tang army and had to withdraw from Chang'an. He was defeated by the Tang army's Li Keyong troops in Chenzhou (today's Huaiyang, Henan), and the main force collapsed. In 884, Huang Chao was defeated in the Langhu Valley of Mount Tai and committed suicide. His nephew Huang Hao He led the remnants to continue the struggle and was killed the following year. The peasant uprising in the late Tang Dynasty ended.
Huang Chao Uprising Picture
Failure Reason Analysis
So what is the reason for his failure?
. Wrong strategic decision-making. The Battle of Chenzhou lasted more than 300 days. Huang Chao could not be captured for a long time, but he did not try to change his thinking. He gave up his previous guerrilla warfare and went all-out to fight a tough battle. As a result, all the armies of the Tang Dynasty took the opportunity to gather and surround them, and the Qi Dynasty The army is also short of food and grass, and its morale is disorganized. How can it be invincible? The failure of the Battle of Chenzhou directly declared the failure of Huang Chao's uprising. After this battle, he was unable to fight anymore. His morale was completely lost and he was seriously injured. He had no choice but to flee for his life. This was the direct cause of Huang Chao's failure.
. There is no base. Huang Chao conquered half of China and was invincible, but did not establish a rear base. Without a base, it is like water without a source. There is no source of troops. If you win, you can still accommodate the defeated troops. If you are defeated, the troops lost cannot be replenished. Without a base, there is neither food and grass to support nor a place to retreat. All the time, troops will be established. Their own base areas, such as Li Yuan's Guanzhong and Zhu Wuzhang's Jinling, are the workers' and peasants' Red Army in modern Chinese history. They have always taken the establishment of revolutionary bases as their primary goal, and they have expanded outward from the bases. In comparison, Huang Chao was more like a guerrilla, marching here and there like a gust of wind, but without a piece of territory that belonged to him, and without support from the rear, he was doomed to fail.
Huang Chao Uprising Picture
. After the capture of Chang'an, it gave the opponent a chance to breathe. Mao Zedong said, "It is better to pursue the poor bandits with the remaining brave men, and not to be known as the academic overlord." After the victory of the three major battles, the People's Liberation Army's million-strong army crossed the Yangtze River. After capturing Nanjing, they launched attacks in all directions to hunt down the remnants of the Kuomintang. After all, Huang Chao had historical limitations. After capturing Chang'an, he sat in the palace and was so complacent that he did not take advantage of the victory to pursue Tang Xizong who fled to Sichuan. Huang Chao stayed in Chang'an for two years and did not use troops against the Tang army, thus giving the Tang Dynasty a chance to breathe. Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty mobilized soldiers and horses from all over the country to serve the king, and among them was Huang Chao's nemesis Li Keyong.
4. Lost popular support and failed to establish a broad united front. The magic weapon for the Chinese Communist Party to build a new China is to establish a broad mass base. It not only unites the broad masses of the lower classes, but also broadly unites the landlords, rich peasants, officials and gentry, democratic parties . As long as they support the Communist Party, they are all friends. This The Communist Party is invincible and can turn defeat into victory no matter how bad the situation is. Looking at Huang Chao again, he put forward the slogan of "equalization". Under this slogan, wherever he went, the local tyrants, officials and gentry were unlucky and were slaughtered. At this time, in addition to the support of the poor people, he , basically did not get the support of the official and gentry class. Whenever there was an opportunity, the officials and gentry would rise up to resist the rebel army; when Huang Chao first invaded Chang'an City , the people welcomed him in the streets. Later, he was besieged by the Tang army. After exiting Chang'an, the true colors were revealed when they entered for the second time. The army burned, killed and looted the residents of Chang'an on a large scale, turning Chang'an into a hell on earth.
When he was looting property, he also reshuffled the officials of the Tang Dynasty. All officials above the third rank were not used, and only those below the fourth rank could be restored to their original posts. This made most officials of the Tang Dynasty unwilling to join. What to do if you don’t submit? kill! Huang Chao also made a special rule: Anyone who hides Tang Dynasty officials will be killed without mercy. " New Book of Tang Dynasty " records: "Just a few days ago, due to a large plunder, the people living in Fuchui asked for their wealth, calling them 'Taowu'. The rich families all drove away with their hands hanging, and the thieves and chiefs went to the first place to fight for their wives and daughters. After that, the captured officials were beheaded, the houses were burned, and the princes and princes were slaughtered without mercy. "
Huang Chao Uprising Picture
Historical records indicate that Huang Chao killed one-tenth of the population of the Tang Dynasty. How could such a person be killed? Where is the public sentiment? Not only the officials and gentry, but also the common people complained against him. Later, when the Tang army attacked, the rebel army had no intention of fighting and was completely defeated.
Summary
The Huangchao Uprising put forward the slogan of "equalization" and eliminated a considerable number of officials and local tyrants in the Tang Dynasty. It dealt a heavy blow to the feudal landlord class, disintegrated the rule of the Tang Dynasty, and sounded the death knell of the Tang Dynasty. He accelerated the demise of the Tang Dynasty, and he also pioneered the high-level transition system and the four-phase system. This is his positive significance.However, his thoughts could never escape the shackles of feudal despotism, and he ignored the support of the people for his own selfish interests. His failure was inevitable, which ultimately led to the Tang Dynasty once again separatizing vassal towns, and wars raged for decades.
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