In Pingxiang County, Hebei Province, there is a story that Zhang Jiao, the leader of the Yellow Scarf Uprising in the Eastern Han Dynasty, settled in Julu. According to legend, Zhang Jiao's hometown is in Shandong. Due to years of famine, he and his two younger brothers fled to Julu. Zhang Jiao is good at martial arts, upright, daring to uphold justice for the people, and is deeply loved by the masses. Later, he began to accept disciples in Julu, teach martial arts and settle here. On the one hand, this legend reflects that the leaders of the Yellow turban insurrectionary were respected and loved by the people, on the other hand, it also shows that the peasant uprising in the Eastern Han Dynasty was linked with natural and man-made disasters.
Since the mid-Eastern Han Dynasty, due to a large number of land annexation by landlords, consorts and eunuchs took turns to monopolize power, political corruption was extremely dark, and natural disasters continued, resulting in the death of farmers. Therefore, from the reign of Emperor Han 'an to the eve of the Yellow Scarf Uprising, the agricultural insurance uprising has been almost continuous for more than 70 years. Only thirty years before the Yellow Scarf Uprising, there were more than twenty peasant uprisings recorded in historical books. The general upsurge of peasant uprisings all over the country indicates that a bigger and nationwide revolutionary storm is coming. This is the Yellow Scarf Uprising led by Zhang Jiao.
Zhang Jiao was originally the leader of the Taiping Island School of Taoism. He called himself "Teacher Dade" and secretly organized an uprising among farmers in the name of spreading Taiping Dao and by practicing medicine. At first, the government of the Eastern Han Dynasty thought that Taiping Dao was a "good way" to persuade people to do good, but it did not pay attention to it, so that Taiping Dao could develop smoothly.
Zhang Jiao continued to expand the scope of the organization and sent eight disciples to preach in various places. After more than ten years' efforts, more and more people take part in Taiping Road, covering eight states (including Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Anhui, Hubei and Jiangsu), with hundreds of thousands of people. In order to organize the scattered forces, they organized the humanitarian masses into 36 parties, with more than 10,000 senior officials and six or seven thousand small parties, each with a "Qu Shuai" under the unified command of Zhang Jiao.
Seeing that the time was ripe, they decided to launch an uprising in the year of "Jiazi" (that is, AD 184) and issued four slogans, namely, "Heaven dies, Huang Tian should stand, the year is in Jiazi, and the world is peaceful." "Heaven" refers to the Eastern Han Dynasty, and "Yellow Heaven" refers to the statement of opening angle. At the same time, they sent people to write the word "Jia Zi" in clay on the temple gate of Luoyang, the capital, and on the walls of state and county officials, as a sign and symbol of the uprising.
In A.D. 184, Ma Yuanyi, a generous city, first mobilized and promoted tens of thousands of uprising people in two states and rushed to Yexian County (now Linzhang County, Hebei Province) to prepare for the uprising in Beijing and other places. Ma Yuanyi sent many missions to Luoyang and organized eunuchs to appoint Xu Xu and Xu Feng. And agreed to rise together on March 5 this year. But in February, the traitor Tang Zhou leaked Ma Yuanyi's uprising plan to the Eastern Han government. The Eastern Han government immediately took measures. First, a large-scale raid was carried out in Luoyang to brutally suppress the uprising. As a result, Ma Yuanyi was arrested and sacrificed in Luoyang; /kloc-more than 0/000 soldiers and civilians who believed in Taiping Road were also massacred. At the same time, the Eastern Han government ordered the Jizhou government to search for Zhang Jiao and others.
Knowing that things were exposed, Zhang Jiao sent someone to inform all parties overnight and immediately held an uprising. The insurgents are all wrapped in yellow turbans as symbols, so they are called the "Yellow Scarf Army". This organized and prepared peasant uprising finally broke out in February ahead of schedule.
After the Yellow turban insurrectionary uprising broke out, Zhang Jiao called himself "General Heaven", Zhang Bao, his younger brother, "General Earth" and Sean, "General Man", and commanded the battle in a unified way. They led the rebels to attack counties, burned the government and confiscated the property of aristocratic families. Many local officials fled after hearing the news. In less than ten days, all parts of the country responded in succession, and the capital was shocked.
The yellow turban insurrectionary army fought bravely and achieved brilliant results, which dealt a heavy blow to the Eastern Han Dynasty. The Yellow Scarf Army of Nanyang County led by Zhang Mancheng attacked and killed the chief Chu Gong Chu; The Yellow Scarf Army of Yingchuan County led by Cai Bo defeated the loyalist in Yingchuan (now Yuxian County, Henan Province), and the Yellow Scarf Army of runan county defeated the satrap Zhao Qian in Shaoling (now eastern Henan Province). The Yellow Scarf Army attacked and killed Guo Xun and Liu Wei, senior officials in charge of the country's military and political power, in Yangguang County (now Beijing). The successive victories of the Yellow Scarf Army frightened the Eastern Han government. They hastily dispatched troops and deployed military defense against Luoyang. First of all, he sent his consort He Jin as a general to command the Yulin army and defend the capital. At the important pass outside Luoyang, heavy troops are arranged to strengthen defense. So, he sent, Huang Fusong and Zhu to lead the loyalist to attack the main force of the Yellow Scarf Army.
In April of the same year, Huang Fusong and Zhu led more than 40,000 loyalists and took the lead in pouncing on Yingchuan. Under the leadership of Liu, the Yellow Scarf Army in Yingchuan took the initiative to attack and defeated Zhu's cronies in one fell swoop. Seeing that the situation was not good, Huang Fusong led the troops to retreat to Changshe (now northeast of Changge County, Henan Province), and the Yellow Scarf Army pursued the victory and besieged Huang Fusong in Changshe. Originally, the development of the situation was beneficial to the insurgents. However, due to their lack of combat experience, they gave the enemy an opportunity according to the revolutionary "camp building". Huangfusong took advantage of the wind and set fire to launch a surprise attack on the insurgents, and Emperor Han Ling sent reinforcements to the army. As a result, the insurgents failed, and tens of thousands of yellow towel insurgents were slaughtered. Huang Fusong and Zhu attacked the Yellow Scarf Army in Runan (now Pingyu North, Henan Province) and Huaiyang, Henan Province, and both the remaining troops led by Peng Tuo and the Yellow Scarf Army suffered setbacks.
On the battlefield in Nanyang, the Yellow Scarf Army fought bravely. Because Zhang Mancheng killed Gong Chu, the county magistrate, in June of the same year, the Eastern Han government sent Qin Jie to fight back against the insurgents, and Zhang Mancheng died unfortunately. As a result, the insurgents promoted Zhao Hong as the leader, and the ranks grew to several hundred thousand people. Soon, it occupied Wancheng and drove away the new satrap Qin Jie. The rebel army was huge, and the Eastern Han government decided to unite the forces of Zhu and Jingzhou secretariat Xu Ying (Qiu Qiu) and join the rebel army in besieging Wancheng. From June to August, after many fierce battles between rebels and loyalists, Zhao Hong and Han Zhong, who were pushed as leaders, died one after another, but Wancheng was always defended by rebels. At this time, the insurgents elected Sun Xia as their leader. Later, the enemy kept sending more troops, and the rebels had no backup, so they had to move to Jingshan in Xi 'e County (now the north of Nanyang, Henan Province) in November of this year. Zhu took this opportunity to pursue the insurgents. As a result, Sun Xia died, and so did more than 10,000 rebels. Nanyang's main yellow turban insurrectionary army also suffered setbacks.
During the fierce battle in Wancheng, loyal officials in the Eastern Han Dynasty intensified their attack on the Hebei Rebels. The Yellow Scarf Army in Hebei was led by Zhang Jiao himself. After the uprising broke out, Zhang Jiao first led the rebels to capture Guangzong (now east of Wei County, Hebei Province) and Xiaquyang (now west of Jinxian County, Hebei Province), and the Eastern Han government sent Lu Zhi to suppress it. Lu Zhi began to be aggressive and put some pressure on Zhang Jiao. However, he is an incompetent person after all. After several changes in siege methods, Guangzong City was never captured. The Eastern Han government had no choice but to dismiss him and send Dong Zhuo to Hebei to suppress him. I didn't expect Dong Zhuo to meet the insurgents in Xiaquyang as soon as he took office. After a contest, he also became a loser under Zhang Jiao. Dong Zhuo besieged Guangzong for two or three months, but Guangzong stood still. At the end of August, the Eastern Han government transferred troops again, dismissed Dong Zhuo, and turned to the north to suppress the veteran rebel Huang Fusong.
When Huang Fusong arrived in Guangzong, it happened that the main force of the Yellow Scarf in Henan failed one after another, or was in a passive position in the military. At this time, Zhang Jiao died unfortunately, and the situation developed in favor of loyalists. Nevertheless, the Guangzong Rebel under the command of Sean at that time was still brave and skillful, and the enemy was helpless, so that Huang Fusong had to close the camp door and wait for an opportunity. In October, due to the negligence of the insurgents, Huang Fusong used midnight to send troops and suddenly attacked the rebel camp. The insurgents rushed into battle. As a result, Sean died in front of the battle, more than 30,000 nominal troops died, and more than 50,000 nominal troops died in the river rather than surrender. In the same year 1 1 month, Huang Fusong attacked Xiaquyang, and more than 100,000 insurgents led by Zhang Bao were also slaughtered.
Although the Yellow Scarf Uprising failed, it accelerated the demise of feudal rule in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The indomitable fighting spirit of the yellow turban insurrectionary soldiers has become an inspiring force to inspire the revolutionary struggle of farmers in past dynasties.