Among my country’s feudal dynasties, many dynasties were overthrown by peasant uprisings, and many dynasties were founded from peasant uprisings. The continuous occurrence of peasant uprisings confirms the great man’s famous saying:

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“The people, and only the people, are the driving force for creating world history”!

However, we have also seen that in history, peasant uprisings mostly played the role of making wedding dresses for others. For example, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rose up, and finally Liu Bang took over the world, and Li Zicheng achieved success after repeated defeats. In the end, the Manchus picked the fruit. Historically, there have been many peasant uprisings, but few have succeeded!

So, why is this?

In fact, if you want to understand why peasant uprisings rarely succeed, you only need to look at how peasant uprisings occur to get a glimpse:

How do peasant uprisings occur?

Because there is no way out?

Why is there no way out?

Because the land is occupied by the landlord class, they lose their source of livelihood and at the same time have to endure exploitation by the government and others. It is impossible to survive!

Why are you being exploited?

Because you are at the bottom of society and are the targets of exploitation by the landlord class!

Okay, among these factors that lead to peasant uprisings, we can come to the reasons why it is difficult for peasant uprisings to achieve anything:

1. Low background, easy to go astray

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Because we are at the bottom, it is difficult to have a long-term vision, which leads to two serious consequences:

First, it is easy to be satisfied. For example, Chen Sheng and Hong Xiuquan start to show off when they have some power, and they are seriously out of touch with the masses. , forgetting the original intention;

Second, it is easy to be exploited by landlords, warlords and other forces. Many peasant uprisings pave the way for warlord separatism;

Because they live at the bottom of society, they usually face The right ones are loess and sky. The only people who communicate with each other every day, besides wives and children, are the farmer brothers who work together, so it is naturally difficult for them to have contact with the outside world. Because it is difficult to contact the external environment, the mind is closed and prone to arrogance.

Once you are desperate and embark on the road of rebellion and rally a team, you will immediately lose yourself in this huge contrast. For example, when Hong Xiuquan was established in Yongan, he already had at least 4 wives.

So we can see that the leadership of peasant uprisings in history has been corrupted quite quickly, and to achieve great things, they must exercise restraint, which is obviously beyond the reach of most peasant uprisings!

2. The revolution is too thorough and it is difficult to unite other classes.

This is easy to understand. Compared with the peasant class, the landlord class is relatively united. Because if you want to be dominant and prosperous from generation to generation, you must formulate a complete system of governance.

Since Qin Shihuang established a unified empire, our country has gradually formed a situation of independent rule by the emperor and the landlord class. What does it mean? That is, the emperor manages the central government and dispatches officials to local areas, while the local landlord class cooperates with the officials to manage local security.

The landowning class in these places are not rich people, but country gentry.

From the emperor to the local landlord class, a strict ruling framework was formed, which made the peasants breathless!

Once the peasants are desperate and rise up, the landlord class in these places will first confront the peasants, because the first thing a peasant uprising will do is to kill the landlords and divide the fields!

Because the peasant class is at the bottom and has little access to information, they prefer to go straight when doing things. Strategies such as uniting the landlord class are generally ignored. When they see the landlord, they kill them first. This led to the landlord class uniting to fight against the peasant uprising army!

Because the methods of the peasant rebel army were too radical, it was impossible to unite the landlord class except the peasants. In ancient times, there were basically two principles for everyone's identity: one was a farmer, and the other was a landlord. The ultimate goal of the peasant uprising is to establish a new dynasty and become a new landlord. Now that even the landlord class cannot unite, how difficult will the road ahead be?

3. Forced by life, the will is not firm

The reason why the peasant uprising started was not because the farmers wanted to improve their living standards, but because they wanted to survive. Simply put, it is not for life, but for survival!

As a result, many farmers are not firm enough in their ideals.

What does it mean?

When desperate, farmers will rebel. And once food becomes abundant, or the landlord class takes the initiative to give up food, can this prairie fire still burn?

It’s difficult!

So, this is also the reason why peasant uprisings failed one after another. Not having a clear goal is one aspect, and lack of willpower is a more important factor.

Because the will is not firm, many external bad factors can easily disintegrate this peasant uprising army! For example, the landlord class granted official status and made wishes.

Regarding this issue, Hong Xiuquan once tried to replace the ideals of the peasant rebels with the God-worshipping religion, but the Tianjing Incident exposed the essence of the God-worshipping religion!