Chapter 29 209 Zhong Xiang Yang Mo Uprising

While facing the humiliation of the Jin Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty intensified its exploitation of the people and increased taxes, causing the common people to suffer many disasters.In 1130 A.D., Jin soldiers captured Tanzhou, looted for a while and left.Then, there was Kong Yanzhou, a regimental training envoy of the Song Dynasty who was defeated by the Jin soldiers, and led a group of defeated soldiers to loot there, pressing for food and forcing rent. The local people couldn't bear it anymore and staged an uprising under the leadership of Zhong Xiang.Zhong Xiang was from Wuling, Dingzhou (now Changde, Hunan). When the Jin soldiers went south, he once organized an anti-golden militia. Without the support of the court, he went back to his hometown to organize farmers' self-defense.He used the form of religion to promote among the peasants, claiming to be "the great sage of heaven" who can relieve the suffering of the people.He said: "The current court law divides people into high and low, rich and poor. This is not a good law. The law I practice is to make everyone equal regardless of rich and poor." Why are you unhappy with these words?Everyone referred to Zhong Xiang as "Master", and more and more people asked to enter the "Fa".

When Kong Yanzhou's riots aroused public anger, Zhong Xiang announced an uprising.He proclaimed himself King of Chu and established political power.Farmers from nearby counties joined the rebel army one after another. Zhong Xiang sent the rebel army to capture the city, burn the government office, and attack the powerful households. Within a month, the rebel army occupied 19 counties around Dongting Lake. The court of the Southern Song Dynasty panicked and appointed Kong Yanzhou as envoy to capture and kill the rebels.Kong Yanzhou knew that a frontal attack was no match for Zhongxiang, so he first sent a group of spies, pretending to be poor people, to sneak into Zhongxiang's rebel army.In March 1130, Kong Yanzhou launched an attack, and the spies in ambush joined forces with the outside. The rebel army was caught off guard and lost the battle. Zhong Xiang and his son Zhong Ziang were arrested and killed.

After Zhong Xiang was killed, the rebel army promoted Yang Mo as the leader and continued to fight against the official army.Yang Mo's original name was Mrs. Yang, because he was young, and the local people affectionately called him Yang Mo (yao, meaning "young").Under the leadership of Yang Me, the rebel army established camps along the coast of Dongting Lake, and concentrated a large number of ships in the lake and various ports. They produced in peacetime and fought in wartime. The team grew stronger and stronger. The Southern Song Dynasty also sent Cheng Changyu (sound yu) as an envoy to suppress the uprising.When Cheng Chang lived in Dingzhou, he spared no expense to build a large number of vehicles and boats, each of which could carry 1,000 sailors, and the boat could be moved forward and backward by people pedaling.Once, Cheng Changyu commanded the water army to use vehicles and boats to attack the rebel water village. The beach of the water village was shallow.The rebel army took advantage of the situation to launch an attack. The officers, soldiers and soldiers lost their vehicles and boats and fled, and all the vehicles and boats fell into the hands of the rebel army.

Yang Me's rebel army established a stronghold in Dongting Lake, the team grew to 200,000 people, and the occupied area became wider and wider.In April 1133, Yang Me supported Zhong Ziyi, the son of Zhongxiang, as the crown prince. Yang Me called himself the Great Sage King, and announced that the people would be exempted from all labor and taxes in the places occupied by the rebel army, and the people's life appeared prosperous. The Southern Song Dynasty regarded Yang Mo's uprising army as a serious threat, and would not stop until they were suppressed.Song Gaozong sent Wang Bing (sound xie) to attack with 60,000 troops.Wang Bi didn't dare to use big boats anymore, and instead used small boats to attack.The uprising army used vehicles and boats to meet the battle. The vehicles and boats were several feet high, and they traveled like flying.They also installed poles on the front, rear, left, and right sides of the hull, and big stones were tied to the poles.As soon as the small boats of the officers and soldiers approached, they would shake their sticks and send out big stones to sink the enemy boats.The "wooden crows" sharpened with hardwood were also issued on the vehicles and boats, and they were fired together with bows and arrows, which caused the officers and soldiers to complain.

One day, several large chariots and boats suddenly appeared on the river beside Dongting Lake. There were no flags, guns or soldiers on board.When Wang Bai's sailors saw it, they thought that the rebel army was defeated by the official army upstream and that the boats had drifted down the current, so they ordered the boats to approach the empty boats.The soldiers scrambled to pole and pull the fiber, and drove the empty boat upstream.Unexpectedly, at a place with a wide lake, there was a sudden sound of beating drums and shouts from several large boats, and the rebel soldiers who emerged from the cabins stepped on their vehicles and boats, smashed all the hundreds of small boats of the government army and sank in the water. Here, two generals fell into the water and lost their lives.The rest of the officer infantry who remained on the beach were also attacked and killed by the rebels.On this day, 10,000 officers and soldiers were wiped out, and a large number of weapons and armor were seized.

At this time, Wang Bi was waiting for the news in the big camp. Suddenly, more than a hundred peasant troops in new clothes came. As they walked, they beat drums, flutes, and balloons. A volume of documents.The officers and soldiers thought that the insurgents must have accepted the call for security, and sent the letter of surrender. They hurriedly ordered the soldiers not to shoot arrows, and sent someone to take the letter.General Song opened the document and saw that inside were official notices and seals captured by the rebel army.Seeing that they had been fooled, the rebel soldiers in new clothes laughed and said:

"Your 10,000 sailors were wiped out by us the night before yesterday. The clothes, armor, swords, banners, money and food are all ours!" As they spoke, they all left happily playing flutes and drums.Wang Bi knew and rolled his eyes angrily. Li Cheng, an official of Liu Yu's puppet Qi regime in Xiangyang, heard the news that the rebel army was victorious, and sent people to Yangma Dazhai with gold and silk documents to lobby for the rebel army to jointly attack the Song Dynasty. , They were appointed as magistrates of prefectures and counties, but they were rejected by the rebel army.Li Cheng sent another thirty-five people to lure them to surrender with official letters, gold belts, and brocade robes. The rebel army refused to forgive them, and killed all thirty-five pseudo-Qi envoys after getting drunk.

The "encirclement and suppression" induced surrender by the Southern Song Dynasty and the puppet Qi regime did not make Yang Mo succumb. In 1135 AD, which was the sixth year of the uprising, Song Gaozong sent Prime Minister Zhang Jun to personally supervise the battle and withdrew from the anti-golden front. Yue Fei's army.Because some generals of the rebel army wavered and rebelled, Yang Mo's Dazhai was broken by the army, and Yang Mo was killed after being captured. The six-year uprising finally failed.