At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Jiao led an organized and prepared national peasant uprising. Because historically, wearing a yellow turban insurrectionary is a sign of uprising.

■

The yellow turban insurrectionary.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, land annexation was very serious, and the powerful landlords expanded rapidly. They have "houses and buildings in counties, fields and acres in the countryside" and thousands of handmaiden apprentices. After the peasants lost their land, most of them became dependent peasants of powerful landlords. In addition to paying high land rent and corvee, they are also dominated by landlords, such as serving as domestic soldiers and even migrating with their owners. The peasants and the landlord class are in sharp opposition.

Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the emperor ascended the throne when he was young, and consorts and eunuchs took turns in charge of state affairs. Politics is declining. Liu Hong, the spiritual emperor, openly sold titles and titles in the West Park. State and county officials sometimes rotate several times a month, and they collect money when they arrive. Since Emperor An 'di, the imperial court has used troops against Qiang people for a long time, costing more than 40 billion yuan, and this heavy burden has all fallen on farmers. Coupled with various natural disasters, there has been a serious situation of "empty fields, empty yards and empty warehouses". A large number of peasants are in exile and starving everywhere, and even Luoyang, the capital of Beijing, is littered with corpses.

Due to the deepening of the social crisis, farmers were forced to revolt. During the more than 80 years from Andi to Lingdi, there were nearly 100 peasant uprisings recorded. Among them, for example, the refugee uprising led by Jaco Road in Qingzhou during the Andi period spread to nine coastal counties; During the period, more than 10,000 Guangling insurgents led by them lived in Xu and Yang areas for more than ten years. During the reign of Emperor Huan, Gongsun Sheng, Taishan Mountain, led the rebel army and fought in Qing, Yan and Xu, which dealt a heavy blow to the loyalists. In the south and northwest, there has also been a joint uprising of the Han nationality and ethnic minorities. Many leaders of peasant uprisings call themselves "emperors", "Hei Di", "supreme generals" and "real people", or set titles and officials, or take religion as the organizational form. One after another, increasingly frequent. At that time, there was a popular folk song: "Wang's hair is like a leek, cut back and resurrected;" The head is like a chicken, it will ring when it is cut. Don't be afraid of officials, and people don't have to be light! "The Yellow Scarf Uprising broke out on the basis of vigorous peasant struggle.

The leader of the yellow turban insurrectionary, Zhang Jiao (? ~ 184), born in Julu, Jizhou (now southwest of Pingxiang, Hebei Province), is the leader of Taiping Road and calls himself "Teacher Dade". Taiping Dao is a branch of Taoism, with Huangdi and Laozi as godfathers. In the name of preaching and curing diseases, Zhang Jiao preached and taught among farmers and conducted secret activities. Over the past ten years, there have been hundreds of thousands of disciples all over Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan and Yu. They are divided into 36 parties, with more than 10,000 senior officials and six or seven thousand small parties. Each party has a handsome channel under his unified command. In the fifth year of Xiping (176), Situ Yangci wrote to Emperor Lingdi, requesting that Qu Shuai of Taiping Road be killed to avoid future troubles. It can be seen that Taiping Road has attracted the serious attention of the ruling class. Later, Zhang Jiao stepped up the deployment of the uprising, widely spread the prediction that "Heaven will die, Huang Tianli will prosper when Jiazi is old", and encouraged farmers to rise up and overthrow the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

In addition, the words "Jia Zi" were scrawled on the doors of various government offices as a signal to launch an uprising. Ma Yuanyi, who was generous to Taiping Road, visited the capital for many times, looking for eunuchs to appoint Xu Feng and Xu Feng as office workers. At the beginning of the first year of Zhong Ping (184, Jiazi year), Zhang Jiao ordered tens of thousands of people from Jing and Yang to gather in Ye, and agreed to revolt at the same time on March 5th. However, in January before the scheduled date, Tang Zhou, a disciple of Zhang Jiao, wrote a letter to inform against Ma Yuanyi, who was arrested and suffered a car crack. More than a thousand Taoists in Luoyang and Taiping were killed. Emperor Ling immediately ordered Jizhou government to search for Zhang Jiao and other uprising leaders. Zhang Jiao sent someone to inform all parties in advance to rebel. So the thirty-six parties "jumped together" and the number reached several hundred thousand. Zhang Jiao called himself "General Heaven", his younger brother Zhang Bao "General Earth" and Sean "General Man". In ten days, the world responded and the capital shook. Spirit emperor hurriedly ordered states and counties to repair weapons and reinforce the Yugoslav capital. He sent He Jin to lead Yulin and five generals to guard Luoyang, and set up eight generals near Luoyang. He also sent Huangfusong, Zhu■, and other elite soldiers from all over the country to suppress the Yellow Scarf Army. And get rid of partisan strife, pardon partisans, and ease contradictions within the ruling class. Local strongmen and landlords also rose up in succession to cooperate with the loyalist to suppress the uprising. Among them, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Gongsun Zan, Cao Cao (see Wei Wudi Cao Cao), Sun Jian and Liu Bei (see Han Zhaolie and Liu Bei) are famous.

The yellow turban insurrectionary army is numerous and powerful, and the ruling class mistakenly calls it an "ant thief". At the beginning of the uprising, the main force of the Yellow Scarf Army was scattered in Julu, Yingchuan and Nanyang. They fought in their own way, attacked the city and captured it, burned the yamen, and swept the dock of the powerful landlord, and won a great victory. Nanyang Yellow Scarf Uprising led by Zhang Mancheng occupied Nanyang and killed Gong Chu, the prefect of Nanyang. Yingchuan Yellow Scarf defeated Zhu■, the right corps commander, and besieged Huangfusong, the left corps commander, in Changshe (now northeast of Changge, Henan). Runan Yellow Scarf defeated Zhao Qian. Yang Guang Huang Jin killed Guo Xun, the secretariat of Youzhou, and Liu Wei, the satrap. Farmers near Julu occupied Liu Xu in Wang Anping and Wang Liuzhong in Ganling. Zhang Jiao led the yellow turban insurrectionary of Jizhou to capture Guangzong (now the east of Weixian County, Hebei Province),

■

Lu Zhi, commander of the Northern Corps, led his troops to fight back, but failed. The spirit emperor reassigned Dong Zhuo, commander-in-chief of the East Army, to attack the opening angle, which also failed. At the same time, inspired by the Yellow Scarf Army, many independent peasant armed forces appeared in various places. Some of them are under the banner of the Yellow Scarf Army, while others are self-reliant. For example, the uprising led by Zhang Xiu, the leader of Wudou Mi Road in Hanzhong, was falsely accused by the ruling class as a "rice thief". In Jizhou area, the scattered peasant army is a dime a dozen. Ethnic minorities such as Qianling Qiang, Hu Cong, Wuling Man and Ban■ Man also revolted one after another and merged with the Han people, forming a torrent of resistance to feudal rule.

While the Yellow Scarf Army has won a series of victories, it has also exposed many weaknesses, such as the rebels fighting in their own way and unable to cooperate; Although there were many people, they lacked combat experience, which enabled the Eastern Han Dynasty to concentrate its forces and conquer them one by one. Powerful landlords from all over the country used clan relations to organize landlords' armed forces to be enemies of the uprising peasants, which also added many difficulties to the Yellow Scarf Army. In order to ensure the safety of Luoyang, the capital, the Eastern Han Dynasty first attacked the Yellow Scarf in Yingchuan. Due to the lack of combat experience, the Yellow Scarf Army led by Huang Fusong was attacked by arson at night, and attacked together with Cao Cao and Zhu■, killing tens of thousands of uprising farmers. Chen, Runan, and the Yellow Scarf Army also failed one after another. After that, Zhu■ led the troops to attack the Nanyang Yellow Scarf Army. The two sides fought for Wancheng and the situation was fierce. The Yellow Scarf Army recovered three times, which dealt a great blow to the enemy. However, due to the failure to take the initiative to attack, many favorable soldiers were lost and the leader Han Zhong was shaken, so that Wancheng finally fell. The yellow turban insurrectionary army that broke through moved to Jingshan (now Nanyang North, Henan Province) and was pursued by loyalists, most of whom died. After the death of Zhang Jiao, the Yellow Scarf in Jizhou was led by Sean, who adhered to Guangzong. In October of that year, Huang Fusong led loyalist to sneak attack the Yellow Scarf Army camp, and Sean was killed. More than 30,000 yellow turban insurrectionary troops were killed, more than 50,000 people threw themselves into the river and died heroically, and the opening angle was cut open and slaughtered. Zhang Bao was immediately defeated by Xiaquyang and killed, and more than 100,000 yellow turban insurrectionary troops were killed.

After the main force of the Yellow Scarf Army, headed by Zhang Jiao, was suppressed, the rest of the Yellow Scarf Army and the peasant armed forces around the country continued to struggle. In the fifth year of Zhong Ping, Guo Da, the remnant of the Yellow turban insurrectionary, gathered in Baibo Valley (now Xiangfen, Shanxi Province) and attacked Taiyuan, Hedong and other counties. In the same year, the Qing army and the rest of Xu's yellow turban insurrectionary uprising revived; Yizhou Ma Xiang and Zhao led the peasant uprising, also calling themselves the Yellow Scarf. In October, he attacked Guanghan, Ba and Qianwei counties and killed Yizhou Secretariat. Qingzhou yellow turban insurrectionary once developed to a million, and its fighting capacity was also very strong. They fought in Qing, Xu, Yan and Hebei for a long time, which dealt a heavy blow to the local feudal separatist forces and landlords. Later, although Qingzhou Yellow Scarf was forced to accept Cao Cao's incorporation, the Yellow Scarf Army led by He, Sima Ju and Guan Cheng was still active in Jinan, Le 'an and Changguang respectively. The Yellow Scarf in Jinan persisted until the 12th year of Jian 'an (207), and it also killed Liu Wang in Jinan. The peasant armies in Jizhou are Zhang in Boling, Chu (Zhang Yan) in Changshan, Huanglong, Zuo Jiao, Yu Biangen, Zhang Baiqi, Liu Shi, Zuo Biao, Zhang Ba, Ping Han, Da Hong, Yuan Cheng, Luo Shi, Lei Gong, Bai Que, Yang Feng, Du Yu and Lu Wu. Most of these names reflect some characteristics of uprising leaders. Often live in Changshan, Zhao, Zhongshan, Shangdang, Hanoi and other places, ranging from 20 thousand to 30 thousand people. Later, Zhang Yan contacted all the millions of peasant troops, namely the Black Mountain Army. The Eastern Han Dynasty imperial court could not forcibly remove it. So in order to disintegrate the insurgents, Zhang Yan was appointed as a corps commander. When Cao Cao pacified Jizhou, Zhang Yan led the crowd to surrender. Before that, the rest were suppressed by Cao Cao and Yuan Shao.

From the first year of Zhong Ping to the middle period of Di Xian Jian 'an, the Yellow Scarf Uprising and the people's uprisings of all ethnic groups under its influence lasted for more than 20 years. The yellow turban insurrectionary uprising was well organized after long-term preparation in advance. Compared with previous peasant uprisings, it is a remarkable progress to publicly announce the overthrow of the Eastern Han regime and establish the peasants' own regime. Because of their own weaknesses, the uprising peasants were brutally suppressed one after another. However, under the heavy blow of the peasant uprising, the decadent Eastern Han Dynasty existed in name only.