Chapter 4 3. Farmer Power

There have been peasant uprisings in all dynasties, and at this time, the peasant uprising becomes a signal, a warning that the contradictions in the world have accumulated to a certain extent.The peasants are weak and honest, but once the desperate peasants gather and rebel, their power can shake the sky and the earth, and they are very strong.So, don't mess with the farmers. While the declining Tang Dynasty was facing invasion from foreign enemies, its internal troubles intensified day by day. The peasant uprising was the same headache as the separatism of the feudal towns.After Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, peasant uprisings were nothing new, and the feudal courts were no strangers to peasant rebellions.However, the feudal imperial court had not yet recognized the law of peasant uprisings, let alone a mature strategy to deal with them.Peasant uprisings became an important force that promoted the change of feudal dynasties and the progress of Chinese history, and it was a force that occurred periodically.

The sixth year of Qianfu was a year full of disasters.In February, a severe earthquake occurred in Chang'an, the capital city, and the Lantian Mountain ruptured, causing groundwater to overflow.Not only that, but there has been severe drought for two or three years in a row. There has been no rain in the whole summer, smoke is coming out of the dry land, and there is only a little crops and food, and they have encountered overwhelming locust disasters.The whole country is full of sorrow, and the national power is wasted. We can only watch helplessly as the people are displaced.This has aggravated the suffering of ordinary people, and social contradictions have further accumulated rapidly.

In just three or four years, the peasant rebel forces in various places in the Tang Dynasty have changed from a dark tide to a tsunami, sweeping away from north to south, and from east to west, sweeping away the prefectures and counties of Li Tang.Among the rebel armies from all walks of life, the rebel army led by Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi was the most powerful, with tens of thousands of troops, galloping across the Jianghuai, Jingchu, and Zhejiang-Guangzhou areas, invincible.Facing this huge peasant power, the emperor and his officials were anxious and terrified all day long, feeling that disaster seemed to be imminent.

Huang Chao is an all-powerful peasant leader in Chinese history. Huang Chao not only turned the Tang Dynasty upside down, but also has some characteristics that others do not have. He has read books and has some literary skills. Kuang, Wang Feng, Fan Chong, Fang La, Liu Bang, Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Zicheng and others were more mysterious and legendary. Although Song Jiang later roared out a few lines of heroic verses, his image was severely damaged due to the late festival. Discount. Huang Chao's reputation has already made the entire Li and Tang court restless, and made the working people all over the world look forward to it.

Who is Huang Chao? There are only a few words about Huang Chao's life experience in several official histories, saying that he is a private salt dealer, has a cheerful personality and likes to make friends, loves to be chivalrous, often donates money to help others, and gathers many fierce and ruthless people around him Desperado, Huang Chao at this time belongs to the leader of many gangsters, and he is regarded as a big gangster.Later, Huang Chao took the imperial court's examination to select a scholar, but failed to pass the examination several times.Huang Chao, who failed to pass the test repeatedly, developed a rebellious psychology. His grandma's, I didn't try the half-baked bird.Huang Chao, who gave up his official career, chose another extreme way out, and he angrily revolted.

The official history is naturally biased towards the orthodox attitude of the royal family, and it is inevitable to slander Huang Chao.In fact, Huang Chao couldn't live anymore and was forced to embark on an uprising against the imperial court.Salt smugglers seem to be businessmen, they seem to be wealthy classes, but they are not.Who doesn't know that salt and iron belong to the monopoly of the imperial court?Private sale is a gangster business that licks blood at the head of a knife, and the gangster is a point of no return. Huang Chao also wanted to follow the right path, and didn't want to continue messing around in the underworld, so he determined to take the imperial examination.However, Huang Chao is not suitable for reading, or he is not good at reading textbooks, reference books, and extracurricular books designated by the royal family, and he is not used to strengthening training and learning through cram schools with various names. Therefore, after taking the exam many times in a row, he failed. Failed.This incident greatly hurt Huang Chao's feelings, so let's continue to follow the underworld. He will be frightened all day long, with no way out and no future.Determined to change the evil and return to the righteous, and devote himself to the righteous way, but the gate of the dynasty was tightly closed, and Huang Chao couldn't squeeze in.

The general situation at this time is that natural disasters and man-made disasters, grass-roots political chaos, people's livelihood, and years of famine and hardship, frequent incidents of people resisting donations and taxes in various places, people's sentiments are like dry wood, and it only takes a little spark to trigger a raging fire .But when Huang Chao was hesitating and distressed, Wang Xianzhi, a native of Henan, rebelled and led the rebel army to Cao County, Shandong, Huang Chao's hometown.Encouraged by Wang Xianzhi's uprising signal, Huang Chao felt that he was no worse than Wang Xianzhi, and he could definitely make something famous.Therefore, in a rage, Huang Chao led all kinds of desperate and needy people gathered around him to respond to Wang Xianzhi, pulled thousands of people to revolt, and embarked on the road of resisting the imperial court to overthrow Li Tang.

If Huang Chao continues to smuggle salt, he is just one of the many underworld smugglers who fend for themselves, who will make a fortune or die a catastrophe.If Huang Chao passed the imperial examination by chance—but given his family background and educational background, the probability of passing the exam is extremely small. Maybe it will last forever.Even if Huang Chao has great ambitions, his biggest possibility is nothing more than devoting his infinite enthusiasm and energy to level-by-level promotion and worrying about the country and the people. If you fight an uprising, you will not necessarily become the leader of the rebel army in the world, drive away the emperor, and become the emperor of Daqi.

The underworld was unwilling to continue, and the right path was blocked, so Huang Chao rebelled in anger. His rebellion caused the world to shake and shatter, almost destroying Li Tang's foundation that had been built for hundreds of years. At the critical juncture of life and death, the imperial court urgently recruited people from all walks of life to chase and intercept Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi. At first, Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi's rebel forces launched in Shangqiu, Henan and Cao County, Shandong, and the imperial court ordered the local feudal towns to jointly attack nearby.The Tang royal family ordered Huainan (Sunan), Zhongwu (Subei), Xuanwu (Henan), Yicheng (Hebei), and Tianping (Shandong) five military envoys to dispatch troops urgently, and Song Wei, the envoy of Pinglu, was the camp of the various roads. Recruit envoys, control the soldiers and horses of each town, and dispatch them in a unified manner, intending to complete their achievements in one battle.

What the imperial court did not expect was that the peasant rebel army had a strong mobile combat capability. If they could not defeat the powerful imperial army, they would move to other places.However, the Jiedu envoys of the feudal towns only know how to protect the safety of their own territory, and are not enthusiastic about chasing and crusading.The feudal towns have become stupid wooden piles that stay in place, while the peasant rebel army is a flood flowing around.Therefore, Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi were very handy in attacking, killing and looting during the movement.This Mr. Song Wei is basically an empty-headed idiot, neither brave nor strategic, and he is very amateurish in marching and fighting.Under his leadership, several feudal towns have been busy for several months without any achievements.Song Wei and the others worked hard to no avail, shaking their hands and sighing every day.

Seeing that the strong attack was ineffective, the imperial court changed to a strategy of suppressing and appeasement.Zhao'an, a strategy that was borrowed and used repeatedly by later imperial courts, has seen results.When Wang Xianzhi attacked Qizhou, Pei Wo, the governor of Qizhou, negotiated peace with Wang Xianzhi in the name of the court, promising high officials and rich salary.Wang Xianzhi was tempted, but Huang Chao was determined to oppose Tang.When Huang Chao heard that Wang Xianzhi wanted to negotiate a peace, he was furious, pointed at his nose and cursed Wang Xianzhi.Huang Chao has a distinctive character trait, that is, he loves to be impulsive, and when he is impulsive, he is very spectacular.Cursing to the point of excitement, Huang Chao grabbed his saber and threw it at Wang Xianzhi's head and face.Although Huang Chao's sword was not out of its sheath, it was a weapon after all.The scabbard wounded Wang Xianzhi's head, and Wang Xianzhi walked away resentfully, clutching his bleeding forehead.Why is Wang Xianzhi afraid of Huang Chao?Although Wang Xianzhi is the leading brother, there is only one reason for the revolution. He moved closer to the court, feeling guilty, and did not dare to confront Huang Chao head-on.There were differences in revolutionary positions, and the relationship between the leaders of the two peasant rebel armies broke down.Although Wang Xianzhi didn't clash with Huang Chao on the spot, after all, the leader of the team is Wang Xianzhi. After such an embarrassing scene, Wang Xianzhi will naturally not continue to treat Huang Chao kindly.The big army couldn't keep going, so Huang Chao ran away angrily, and led the direct line team to kill eastward. Not long after, when Wang Xianzhi attacked Yingzhou in Poezhou, Yang Fuguang, the deputy governor of the Tang Dynasty recruited Wang Xianzhi, to induce Wang Xianzhi to surrender.Wang Xianzhi dispatched generals Shangjunchang, Chu Yanwei and others to negotiate surrender, but Shangjunchang and others were trapped and killed by Tang Dynasty envoy Song Wei on the way.When the bad news spread to the camp of the rebel army, Wang Xianzhi was very indignant at the court's treachery. He hated himself for underestimating the court's hypocrisy, and felt ashamed of these brothers.Only then did Wang Xianzhi completely cut off the idea of ​​surrender, and launched a fierce revenge on the Tang army.Some people are born with the innate talent of "not enough success, more than failure", and they can always do a lot of tricks in this respect. Song Wei is a typical representative of this kind of people.Song Wei is incompetent in combat and has a strong sense of speculation.While Yang Fuguang was working hard to plan to appease Wang Xianzhi, Song Wei was stealthily taking advantage of it.As a result, Song Wei's stupid actions completely ruined the Tang Dynasty's plan to divide and disintegrate the rebels and defeat them one by one.In a rage, the emperor dismissed Song Wei from his post for investigation, transferred Zeng Yuanyu, a regular attendant of Zuo Sanqi, as a recruitment envoy, Zhang Zimian was appointed as a recruiting envoy for the southeast camp, and Gao Pian, the Xichuan Jiedu envoy, was appointed Jingnan Jiedu envoy. Formed an outflanking trend against the rebels. Under the circumstances of conciliation, encirclement and suppression, and alienation by the central government of the Tang Dynasty, the internal contradictions of the peasant uprising army gradually intensified, especially the irreconcilable differences between the two leaders who launched the uprising.Huang Chao parted ways with Wang Xianzhi in a rage.The consequences of the split are serious, and the most direct impact is to greatly weaken the overall combat capability of the rebel army. In the fifth year of Emperor Xizong Qianfu (877 A.D.), Wang Xianzhi's tribe was defeated by Zeng Yuanyu in Huangmei, Hubei, Wang Xianzhi was killed, and the rest went to Bozhou, Anhui to join Huangchao. Under the recommendation of everyone, Huang Chao called himself "General Chongtian" and became the spiritual and military leader of the rebel army. After major setbacks, the rebel army returned to the unified leadership.In Shandong, Henan, and Anhui, Huangchao was jointly conquered and suppressed by people from all walks of life in the Tang Dynasty, and its development momentum was hindered, so it diverted to attack south. Huang Chao led his troops into Quanzhou and Guangzhou.Both Quanzhou and Guangzhou were important trading ports of the imperial court, gathering a large number of overseas trade caravans and gold and silver treasures.Huang Chao led his men to loot all these goods and massacre the people and overseas businessmen. More than 200,000 people died.For a time, the bustling international trade port became a hell on earth.In the seventh year of Qianfu, the rebel army was unaccustomed to the climate in the south of the Five Ridges, and could not stand the hot and humid climate. A large-scale plague broke out, and a large number of soldiers died of illness one after another.Unable to gain a foothold in Lingnan, due to the situation, Huang Chao had to go north again and fight back to the Central Plains. On the way north, Huang Chao chose Huguang, where the Tang army was relatively weak, as a breakthrough point.Taking advantage of the soaring water in the Xiangjiang River, Huang Chao led his army to advance upstream on thousands of giant bamboo rafts.Huang Chao stood upright on the bow of the ship, and the elite soldiers and strong generals were lined up on the side of the ship.The drums and trumpets of the march rumbled in the river canyon for a long time.The late Tang Dynasty was really decadent and depraved, and the people were in dire straits. Although there were no large-scale peasant uprisings in the Huguang area, the people's grievances were already boiling.For more than a month, wherever the peasant rebel army went, the common people responded one after another, and the political and military defense lines of the local government were about to collapse.Huang Chao's rebel army went down several cities without fighting, and the defenders of Hengyang, Yongzhou, and Tanzhou surrendered and were defeated.The momentum of the peasant uprising shocked Jingxiang. Huang Chao held the hilt of the sword in his hand, looked far into the distance, and was full of thoughts in his chest.It has been many years since the formation of the army, winning or losing hundreds of battles, and almost traveled all over the country, but when will the rain of guns and arrows stop?Huang Chao thought to himself, instead of fighting outside, it would be better to directly attack Chang'an, the political center of Tang Dynasty.Once Chang'an is captured, the foundation of the Tang Dynasty will be shaken, and the collapse of the Tang Dynasty will be imminent.The strategy of Huangchao's war has been decided, and the army will go northward to take the imperial capital directly, intending to complete the battle and completely destroy the Li and Tang Dynasties. Thinking of this, Huang Chao ordered Shang Rang, the most powerful general under his command, to be a vanguard officer, and led a group of 100,000, claiming 500,000, to attack Jiangling, an important town on the Yangtze River.Taking Jiangling will remove a major obstacle to the capture of Luoyang, the eastern capital.Shang Rang is the younger brother of Shangjun Zhang. Since Shang Junzhang was trapped and killed by the Tang army, Shang Rang is determined to avenge his brother and vows to be irreconcilable with the court.Now it is Wang Duo who is guarding Jiangling.Wang Duo was the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty who had just left office, and Shang Rang was the prime minister of Huang Chao later.The two prime ministers meet today, it can be said that they are equal in chess.Did everyone think that there must be a fierce battle?In fact, it is not, the ending is unexpected. First of all, how did Wang Duo come to Jiangling? The court situation is becoming more and more chaotic, and it is really not a place for those who are loyal to the country to gain a foothold.The great eunuch Tian Lingzi coaxed the emperor into a trance. He pretended to be a tiger, arrogant and arrogant, and he and Lu Xie were in harmony with each other.Under the joint exclusion of Tian Lingzi and Lu Xie, Cui Yanzhao had already been dismissed from the position of prime minister, and Wang Duo replaced Cui Yanzhao as his servant.Zheng Tian, ​​the minister of the Ministry of War, had frequent disagreements with Lu Xie and others on the imperial court's military strategy.Zheng Tian looked down on Song Wei and Zeng Yuanyu, thinking that Song Wei's head was empty and without strategy. famous general.However, Lu Xie did not agree with Zheng Tian's opinion, and often obstructed it.Zheng Tian was anxious about the situation in the Kanto region, but his proposal was not accepted by the emperor, so he wanted to resign angrily, and planned to quit the job.The emperor lacked judgment, so he could only make peace with the mud, and disagreed with Zheng Tian's resignation. The conflict between Zheng Tian and Lu Xie became more and more serious. Then one day, Zheng Tian and Lu Xie argued in front of the emperor about the policy on the Nanman. gone.The official uniform of the Tang Dynasty was the Eguanbo belt, a toga with large sleeves. The sleeves were so long and wide that they could hold almost 20 catties of rice.When shaking his sleeves, Lu Xie even swept the inkstone to the ground.This made the emperor very unhappy.The emperor thought to himself, you two just pinch, why do you show my face?Also overturned the imperial artifacts.The emperor was very upset, so he dismissed both of them and left them alone.After a while, the emperor's anger almost subsided, and he felt that these two people had to be used.Use it, but "you can't tie two donkeys to the same slot", these two people can't be put together, so as not to conflict again.So Zheng Tian was sent to Fengxiang as a Jiedu envoy, and Lu Xie was appointed Minister of the Ministry of War. After mastering the military and political power, Lu Xie and Tian Lingzi became even more forgetful, holding all the affairs of the court in their hands.Wang Duo, the chief prime minister, was in such an environment, basically becoming a polished commander, looking around, with neither work to do nor anyone to help.Wang Duo felt that he had nothing to do in the court, and he was in danger of being harmed by Lu Xie and Tian Lingzi.After being prime minister for a while, Wang Duo voluntarily applied to leave the capital.However, after all, Wang Duo had a long experience in the officialdom, and he had to make up a set of high-sounding rhetoric when he resigned. He said to the emperor: "I am the head of the prime minister, and the court is not enough to worry about your majesty. Please supervise the generals to seek thieves." Emperor Xizong believed that Wang Duo understood the difficulties of the emperor and took the initiative to charge forward, which was worthy of recognition, so he happily agreed to Wang Duo's application. In order to reward him, Wang Duo was promoted to an official position and asked him to serve as the governor of Jingnan. , South camp to recruit Dutong.The Jingnan Jiedu envoy Gao Pian was transferred to Zhenhai Jiedu envoy.After repelling Nanzhao and pacifying Sanchuan, Gao Pian was transferred to Jingnan Jiedushi by the imperial court to defend against the attack of peasant rebels.Not long after, the imperial court sent General Zhou Bao of the Forbidden Army as Zhenhai Jiedu envoy, and Gao Pian as Huainan Jiedu envoy and salt and iron transfer envoy.Gao Pian, the model general, once again embarked on a new journey. Now Huang Chao has marched towards Jiangling mighty and murderous, and there are only 10,000 horses in Jiangling city, how can he be the opponent of the rebels?The isolated city of Jiangling is at stake.Wang Duo sent out the urgent call for help from Babaili a few days ago, but there was no news, and the officers and soldiers from all walks of life did not come to rescue for a long time.Where does this Lord Wang Duo know how to fight?Although he is a high-ranking official, although he is full of devotion to the country, Wang Duo has neither culture nor martial arts, and the envoys from all walks of life do not listen to him, so he has been in Jiangling for almost a year, and although he is busy, he has done nothing.In addition, the current Wang Duo is no longer the Wang Duo of the past. As he gets older and has been in the officialdom for too long, he has become cunning, greedy for life and afraid of death, and nostalgic for enjoyment.Before Huang Chao's troops arrived, old Wang Duo's fighting spirit had already collapsed. Wang Duo reckoned that the isolated city of Jiangling would be difficult to defend, so it is not suitable to stay here for a long time.He lied to the defenders and the people in the city that he first went to Xiangyang to organize forces to resist the thieves and let the people in the city stick to it.Although this excuse sounded good, it was indeed disgraceful. As such a high-ranking officer fled, only a low-ranking general named Liu Hanhong was left to guard Jiangling.Seeing that the coaches have all run away, Liu Hanhong has neither the desire to fight nor to work for the court. He led the soldiers to plunder the rich and wealthy households in Jiangling City, swept away the official private gold and silver, and then fled to the north, hiding in the mountains to become the king of the mountain up.Before Liu Hanhong left, he set fire to Jiangling City and burned it into ruins, powder and scorched earth.The poor common people are homeless, and they have nowhere to go when they pray to God, and they have nowhere to go to sue the land.Catch up with the freezing weather and heavy snowfall, there are endless streams of people begging and freezing to death along the way. Shang Rang, the future chancellor of the rebel army, frightened away the old chancellor Wang Duo and occupied Jiangling, an empty city.Although Jiangling was an empty city and the rebels didn't get any benefits, they gained momentum.Huang Chao didn't stop, and commanded the army to take advantage of the momentum to go north, planning to capture Xiangyang with a blitzkrieg.If you win Xiangyang, it will be equivalent to breaking the southern gate of Luoyang. At this time, it was Liu Jurong, the governor of Shannan Dongdao, who guarded Xiangyang.Liu Jurong is a formidable character, cunning and resourceful.He didn't take the risk to join the battle with Huang Chao, but invited Cao Quanzhang, the emissary from Jiangxi, and the two joined forces, stationed in Jingmen, and waited for work with ease.Huang Chao's hundreds of thousands of troops braved the wind and snow, covering up and killing them overwhelmingly.Seeing the dark rebel army all over the mountains and plains, integrated with the dim sky and the earth, and unable to see the edge at a glance, Tang Jun's army was a little shaken, and his timidity was beyond words.The strength of the coach can play more than half of the role in the morale of the army.Liu Jurong is well versed in this.He commanded decisively and mobilized his subordinates with confidence: "Huangchao is mostly mobs. Although there are many people, they are disorganized. We are the regular army of the imperial court. We are brave and good at fighting. With the help of Cao Shijun, we will surely defeat the enemy in Jingxiang. In addition, I heard that Master Wang Duo has gone to Chang'an to ask for help, and it will arrive soon, and the time for us to make contributions to the country has come!" After Liu Jurong's call, the 30,000 soldiers were excited, raised their arms and shouted, vowing to destroy the thief.Didn't that Lord Wang Duo come to Xiangyang from Jiangling?Why did you go to Chang'an again?In fact, Wang Duo never came to Xiangyang at all, and ran back to the capital directly after leaving Jiangling.From now on, Lord Wang would often perform this kind of trick of flashing and moving, claiming to go out to supervise the teacher when the capital was difficult, and claiming to take care of the government and return to the capital when the supervisor was blocked. Liu Jurong personally led 10,000 people to ambush in the forest outside Jingzhou City, while Cao Quanzhen fought in formation with 5,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry.Cao Quanzhen and Shang Rang only fought for one round, then they pretended to be invincible, steered their horses and fled towards the woods.Shang Rang, who was eager to fight, led his army in hot pursuit.After the rebel army entered Liu Jurong's ambush circle, Liu Jurong ordered people to wave flags and shout, and drums and cannons were fired.Tang Jun rushed out of the woods brandishing a knife and gun, and slashed fiercely.Shang Rang was caught off guard, and the army's morale was in turmoil.Liu Jurong and Cao Quanxuan led the team to cover up and kill all the way, not giving the rebels a chance to breathe. The forwards of the rebels were defeated, and the rear was swept away, and they retreated across the board.The Tang army drove the rebels back to Jiangling in one breath, and captured seven or eight of the rebels. In order to avoid Liu Jurong's sharp edge, Huang Chao and Shang ordered the remaining people to cross the river and retreat eastward.Cao Quanzhen persuaded Liu Jurong to chase after him, and wiped out Huang Chao in one go.Liu Jurong said: "The imperial court has lost all its trustworthiness, and its ministers have no sense of integrity. When the country is in catastrophe, it is only when they think of supporting the soldiers and rewarding officials and titles. Instead of killing all the thieves, it is better to keep them as the capital to preserve our title and seek wealth." Liu Jurong's views were quite representative of civil servants and generals at that time, and Cao Quanzhen did not agree with Liu Jurong's words, so he led 10,000 troops to cross the river. Jiang pursued Huang Chao.Cao Quanzhen has Cao Quanzhen's plans, Liu Jurong has his own territory, and Cao Quanzhen has no territory, so how can we talk about preservation?Only after laying down the territory can there be security and capital.Cao Quanzhen didn't chase very far, and the imperial court sent Duan Yanmo, the capital of Taining, as a recruiter.Cao Quanzhen was very angry that he won the battle but was not rewarded for his meritorious service. Only then did he understand Liu Jurong's words, so he also stopped chasing Huang Chao and became a real guerrilla general. In the blink of an eye, in the first year of Guangming (880 A.D.), Huang Chao did not make a breakthrough in the south, but went from southeast to north.This time Huang Chao made a big mistake. He met a more powerful opponent, an opponent who was more powerful than Song Wei, Zeng Yuanyu, and Liu Jurong combined—Gao Pian, Gao Pian of Megatron Longxi Sichuan. Because of Lu Xie's guarantee, the imperial court took Gao Pian as the commander of all roads, camps, soldiers and horses.Gao Pian followed the order to spread the word to the world, recruited troops from all towns to disperse his pressure, and took the opportunity to expand the recruitment and expand the army, and stepped up the training of soldiers. The number of troops soon reached 70,000, and his prestige was greatly boosted. March, the month of warm spring and blooming flowers. March is the season for farming, and it is not suitable to use troops.But at this time, the world is in chaos, and those who hold heavy soldiers no longer care about the "three rural" issues such as agriculture, farmers, and rural areas. Gao Pian sent general Zhang Lin across the river to meet Huang Chao.Huang Chao sent his general Wang Zhong to fight Zhang Lin.After ten rounds of the battle, Wang Chongba was no match for Zhang Lin, and his physical strength was gradually exhausted.At this moment, Zhang Lin swayed his gun, pulled his horse and left, Wang Chongba was stunned for a moment, feeling strange, thinking that Zhang Lin had the upper hand, why did he suddenly want to run away?At the moment when Wang Chongba was in a daze, Zhang Lin leaned down and bowed his bow to take an arrow, only heard the sound of "嗖", Zhang Lin shot Wang Chongba's right shoulder with an arrow, and Wang Chongba fell off the horse in response.Zhang Lin captured Wang Chongba alive.Seeing that Wang Chongba was defeated, Huang Chao had to temporarily avoid Zhang Lin and retreat to Baozhou.Zhang Lin took advantage of the victory and pursued him all the way to the city of Raozhou.Huang Chao sent another general Chang Hong to lead 30,000 people to meet Zhang Lin.Zhang Lin divided his troops into two groups, leading the frontal attack on Chang Hong on the one side, and lurking on the other side.Zhang Lin led 10,000 people, and Chang Hong 30,000. When the two armies lined up, Chang Hong felt like underestimating the enemy.Sure enough, when Zhang Lin and Chang Hong were fighting fiercely, suddenly the troops behind the Tang army were in chaos, and then they left Zhang Lin and fled in all directions.Zhang Lin panicked, turned his head and ran after him.Chang Hong thought that Tang Jun was timid, so he raised his sword into the air and shouted: "Chasing".The 30,000 rebels followed Chang Hong and pursued the Tang army.After running for a short time, Zhang Lin actually regrouped and came back to kill, and there were 20,000 more people, and the shouts of killing were earth-shattering.Chang Hong was confused, no matter what happened, he fought with Zhang Lin in a scuffle.The fighting power of the Tang army was very strong, so Chang Hong had no choice but to retreat while fighting, planning to retreat into Raozhou City to rest and fight again.But when Chang Hong retreated near the outside of the city, he found more than 10,000 Tang troops standing under the city gate!It turned out that at the same time Chang Hong discovered Tang Jun, Tang Jun from the city came over like an arrow from the string.Chang Hong immediately fell into a situation of front and rear attack.Tang Jun fired a volley of arrows, and a large area of ​​the rebel army fell.Seeing that the general situation was over, Chang Hong had no choice but to lead the crowd to surrender.Huang Chao lost two battles in a row, and lost most of his troops. He had to abandon the city and flee, and retreated to Xinzhou. The house leak happened to rain overnight, and Huang Chao’s rebel army who had retreated to Xinzhou encountered a disease again. They had fever, diarrhea and malaria. Many soldiers died of illness.And Zhang Lin carried forward Gao Pian's consistent style of continuous combat, not afraid of hardships or tiredness, resisting fatigue and boosting energy, attacking the city day and night.Seeing that Xinzhou City was also on the verge of collapse, Huang Chao felt great pressure, and seemed to be at the end of his rope.Unable to fight, and unable to run, Huang Chao paced back and forth in the handsome tent, his heart in a mess.At this time, Shang Rang came.Shang Rang looked at the anxious Huang Chao, and then suggested to Huang Chao in a low voice: "King Huang, although Tang Jun is arrogant now, do you know what Gao Pian is afraid of now?" Huang Chao turned his head, stared at Shang Rang suspiciously and asked, "Gao Pian has the upper hand right now, what is he worried about?" "Since King Huang raised his army, he has been invincible. All the prefectures and counties in the world have been terrified. The imperial court organized several encirclement campaigns, but they were all defeated by King Huang. Why?" Shang Rang did not directly answer Huang Chao's question. Huang Chao twirled his beard and said, "It's mainly because my rebel army is a righteous army and fought bravely. Of course, the soldiers and horses in the imperial court were distracted and had their own ghosts, and they missed a lot of things." Shang Rang nodded, and continued: "Gao Pian has always had the prestige of being able to conquer wars. He is the pillar of the army. The imperial court relies heavily on him. But the imperial court's reliance on Gao Pian is more spiritual than practical. The imperial court had its own thoughts, and repeatedly rejected Gao Pian's strategy. Although Gao Pian made great contributions, his promotion to official rank was slower than others, and there is a lot to be said for this." "How do you say that?" Huang Chao stopped and turned to face Shang Rang. Shang Rang continued: "When in Sichuan, Gao Pian suggested that the imperial court go deep into Yunnan and completely wipe out Nanzhao. However, the imperial court was afraid of war and did not agree with Gao Pian's opinion. Last year, Gao Pian wrote to the imperial court again, intending to lead the army from In the north and south expedition, Wang Duo led the army from the west to cooperate and jointly conquer Guangzhou, intending to wipe out our rebel army in Lingnan. However, there were disagreements within the imperial court, and his strategy was not adopted. Gao Pian's strategies should be said to be very clever and have A plan of strategic value for the entire army, but the bastard imperial court just doesn't adopt his suggestion." "Well, this Gao Pian is really a character. You mean, let's drive a wedge between Gao Pian and the court?" Huang Chao asked. "Yes. After several setbacks, Gao Pian should have been disappointed with the imperial court. Besides, even if we are completely defeated, it will not do him any good?" Shang Rang further analyzed. Shang Rang began to express his core opinion: "If we lose the army, this extraordinary achievement will belong to the princes of the world. Although Gao Pian contributed the most and lost the most, he had to distribute the credit to others. This is Gao Pianjue If he doesn't want to, he will definitely abandon the princes and take the great merit alone. This is one. Second, Gao Pian is not necessarily eager to eliminate us, he still needs to ask the court for officials and rewards through us, and he needs to delay for a while." "Well, it makes sense. So the most urgent thing is, how can we stop Gao Pian's attack?" Huang Chao said doubtfully. Shang Rang said: "This is not difficult, as long as Huang Wang is willing to spend money. We brought back a lot of gold and silver treasures from Guangzhou. I heard that although Zhang Lin is brave, he is greedy for money. We can bribe Zhang Lin, which can temporarily relieve the urgent need." , you can also ask him to lobby Gao Pian." Huang Chao relaxed his brows slightly, nodded and said: "That's it, give Zhang Lin a thousand taels of gold, and submit a letter of false surrender to Gao Pian. Let's get through this catastrophe before we talk about it." Zhang Lin is brave and strong, he can't blink when the knife rests on his neck, but his legs are weak in front of money.After receiving Huang Chao's gold and silver, Zhang Lin stopped attacking as expected, and returned to Gao Pian with Huang Chao's false surrender letter. After seeing Gao Pian, Zhang Lin said: "Duke Ming, Huang Chao has become a turtle in a urn. Now you restrain the soldiers of the world to suppress the bandits. If the bandits are wiped out, it will be the work of the people of the world and will not benefit Ming Gong. Moreover, the court is weak, and Ming Gong will decide Strategies for national security are often useless. The so-called 'the cunning rabbit dies, the running dog cooks', Minggong must think about the future." Gao Pian took Huang Chao's letter and laughed loudly: "Huang Chao's poor man, Qian donkey came to surrender, it is not sincere. However, to capture the thief first, capture the king. Since Huang Chao has made a condition, I can just go to the court and give him what he wants." Guanjue, on the day I am recruited, I will be able to capture the traitor without any effort. I don’t need to spend all my troops and horses, and I can avoid a bloody battle between soldiers.” It’s not that Gao Pian doesn’t care about the historical lesson of “the bird’s bow is hidden”, but he has other things. He intends to play a game between historical lessons and self-interest.The so-called self-interest is actually utilitarian and public interest. Gao Pian intends to make a fake show and take advantage of his wits to take Huang Chao. Gao Pian wrote to the imperial court, saying: "The Huangchao rebels have been chased by my ministers to a remote town, and they have suffered almost all casualties. Fee the world." Emperor Xizong was overjoyed when he received Gao Pian's report.Over the past few years, the rebel army has been fighting everywhere, and the imperial court has sent all kinds of soldiers and horses. Some of them are defeated, some are dead, some are waiting and watching, and the progress of the suppression is very poor.Only recently Gao Pian's victories have been repeated, and he has the potential to turn the tide.The emperor couldn't help but praise Gao Pian again and again. He was indeed a model worker general, utterly loyal, and saved the nation.Gao Pian once again became popular in the court and the public, and the capital was filled with the joy of victory.Lu Xie, Minister of the Ministry of War, became even more complacent, and became more important in the emperor's mind.Lu Xie, who was so powerful and powerful, couldn't move after dancing for a few days, because he had a stroke.Although Lu Xie had suffered a stroke and could not walk, the emperor felt that Lu Xie was sensible and capable of doing things, and liked him very much, so he promoted Lu Xie as prime minister.Lu Xie was fond of coveting power, and insisted on going to work even though he was seriously ill. He was accompanied by a young eunuch to go to court to discuss affairs every day.Although Lu Xie is sick and weak, his greed and desire for power are still extremely strong.In order to create an aura of taking charge of the court and pacifying the country, Lu Xie ordered the dismissal of all the soldiers and horses recruited from all over the Kanto, and announced that the bandits will be wiped out in a short time, and the world will soon restore peace.Lu Xie and Gao Pian did the same thing out of different purposes—disbanding the meeting to suppress soldiers and horses.This little cleverness completely ruined the fate of the two, and also left great troubles for the Li and Tang Dynasty. There is one person who disagrees with Lu Xie. Although this person is treacherous, his brain is very easy to use. He is Lu Xie's accomplice, this time he and Lu Xie are not in the same heart. This person is the great eunuch Tian Lingzi. Tian Lingzi is well aware that the situation in the Kanto region is in dire straits, walking on thin ice, and may collapse at any time.Lu Xie is just deceiving himself and others, whitewashing peace.While agreeing with Lu Xie on the surface, Tian Lingzi was already preparing to retreat, and laid out a terrifying conspiracy, which pushed the political situation in the late Tang Dynasty into a more difficult and turbulent situation. Huang Chao's plan of alienation and the plan of slowing down the army achieved great success.Knowing that the officers and soldiers of all the Taoists had crossed the Huaihe River in the north and returned to their respective towns, Huang Chao and Shang Rang immediately tore up the armistice alliance with Gao Pian, and took the initiative to attack by blitzkrieg. State, Wuzhou.Gao Pian didn't expect Huang Chao to change his mind and counterattack so quickly, but after thinking about it, it's not surprising that this day will happen sooner or later.Gao Pian ordered Zhang Lin to attack.Zhang Lin, who has always been brave and good at fighting, was unlucky this time. When he personally charged and stormed Xinzhou City, he was hit by a huge boulder and died on the spot.The death of Zhang Lin, a general of the Tang army, was a great loss to Gao Pian, but a great benefit to Huang Chao.Gao Pian was filled with remorse, but the dumb had no choice but to eat Coptis chinensis. At this time, he had to swallow it in his stomach when he was suffering so much.Huang Chao immediately sent troops to attack the fifteen prefectures including Rao, Xin, Chi, Xuan, She, and Hangzhou.Huang Chao and Shang Rang prohibited plagiarism wherever they passed, and only young and middle-aged men were recruited to join the rebel army.This strategy has achieved great results, and the rebel army quickly grew to 200,000.From the development speed of Huang Chao's team, we can also see the dissatisfaction and resistance of the people to the imperial government. The peasants got angry, and the consequences were serious. real.