Uprising Comparison of the scale and influence of the uprisings of Song Jiang and Fangla
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were uprisings all over the country, the most famous of which were the Songjiang Uprising and the Fangla Uprising. However, due to the influence of "Water Margin", most people are more familiar with the Songjiang Uprising, and even think that the Songjiang Uprising had a greater impact than the Fang Lao Uprising, but is this really the case?
Songjiang Uprising: From the first year of Xuanhe (1119) to the third year of Xuanhe (1121).
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, in order to solve the financial problems of the imperial court, all the 800 miles of water area of Liangshanbo were returned"People"The people began to fish in the lake, pick lotus roots, cut down bushes the size of boats, levy heavy taxes, and punish thieves who broke the ban. However, people who were already too poor to pay taxes, people who relied on water for food, and people who had no life began to be extremely dissatisfied with the imperial court.
In the first year of Xuanhe (1119), Song Jiang and other 36 people attacked Liangshanbo, gathered the righteous army, officially declared an uprising, and then led troops to attack Heshuo and Beijing East Road"Heshuo, Tokyo Road, 10,000 officers and soldiers, dare not resist", and then returned to the Qing army to fight, Qi captured more than ten counties in the Puzhou area, punished the best filthy officials, killed the rich and helped the poor, and the prestige was growing. His fame grew by the day.
On the second day of December of the same year, Song Huizong received the news of Zhao Ji's rebellion, and at the suggestion of Hou Meng, the governor of Bozhou, took it"Let the front please descend"sent people to Zhao'an, but failed, so he sent Zeng Xiaoyun, the governor of Shezhou, to lead the troops to attack the city. Song Jiang avoided the enemy camp and led the righteous army from Qingzhou to Yizhou, where he walked with the official army for more than a year.
In February of the third year of Xuanhe (1121), after Song Jiang led his army to conquer Huaiyang, he arrived in Haizhou (now Lianyungang) by boat from Shuyang. Zhang Shuye, the governor of Haizhou, sent scouts to inquire about the movements of the right army, and learned that Song Jiang led more than ten large ships to the sea, so he summoned more than 1,000 elite soldiers to set up an ambush near the city, and sent a small team of men and horses to persuade him to surrender.
In May of the same year, Song Jiang actually landed and left, but Uncle Zhang was ambushed at night and was also defeated, his ship was burned, the retreat was cut off, Song Jiang and others were defeated and captured, and the rebellion was crushed. After the defeat of Song Jiang and the adoption of the edict, whether he participated in the war to suppress the Fangla uprising is still debated in the historiography.
In fact, during the Song Dynasty, hundreds of peasant uprisings broke out, and the Songjiang Uprising was actually only one of the smaller and more influential ones.
Fangla Uprising: 2nd year of Xuanhe (1120) - 4th year of Xuanhe (1122).
Beginning in the first year of Seiwa (1111), the southeastern region suffered"Anthophylla"The people were deeply exploited and oppressed, and the resistance was rising day by day, Fang La seized the opportunity to secretly organize forces to develop.
On the ninth day of October in the second year of Xuanhe (1120), Fang Layi"Get the Immortal Talisman"In this name, he led the peasant army to revolt, proclaimed himself the Holy Father, established Yuan Yongle, appointed officials and generals, divided the troops according to the turban, and established a peasant regime marked by red turbans and other colored turbans. In less than ten days, the army had expanded to tens of thousands.
On November 22 of the same year, Fang Layi's army annihilated more than 5,000 officers and soldiers stationed on Liangzhe Road in Xixue, Qingxi County, and the soldiers and horses were supervised by Yan Tan, and then won the victory in Qingxi County and were captured by the district lieutenant Weng Kai. Then conquered Muzhou, Shouchang, Su, Tonglu, Sui'an, Shezhou, Fuyang, Xincheng and other places, and approached Hangzhou.
On December 29 of the same year, the rebel army invaded Hangzhou, killed Chen Jian and Lian Shizhao of Zhejiang Road, and Zhao Ting, the governor of the left and right, fled. At the same time, Shi Sheng of Suzhou, Lu Xing'er of Gui'an County of Huzhou, Zhu Yan and Wu Bang of Lanxi County of Wuzhou, Chen Shishi of Yongkang County, Huo Chengfu and Chen Hoopou of Jinyun County led local villagers to participate in the uprising. Lu Shisheng of Xianju County in Taizhou, Qiu Rixin of Heping County in Yuezhou, and Zheng Maowang of Quzhou also led the local Manichaean secret uprising. Farmers from Hu, Chang and Xiu counties are also there"Gathering disciples", preparing to attack Fu County.
Seeing that the scale of the uprising was getting bigger and bigger, the Song court stopped sending flowers and stones on the one hand, and removed the Zhu Shiwei brothers from their official positions to calm the people's anger; On the other hand, Tong Guan was sent to Jiang, Huai, Jing, Zhejiang and other roads, Tan Zhen to Liangzhejiang Road, the forbidden army and the six towns of Shaanxi Road, and mobilized 150,000 Han troops to the south to suppress the uprising. The Wan Han army marched south to defeat the uprising.
In February of the third year of Xuanhe (1121), after the failure of Fangla's Northern Expedition, the Song army besieged Hangzhou, and the righteous army had to retreat from Hangzhou after fierce fighting and lack of food and grass. On the 24th of the same month, the Song army launched a general attack, and more than 70,000 righteous soldiers died heroically, and more than 30 people, including Fang La, his wife Shao Shi, Zi Fang Bo, and Prime Minister Fang Chou, were captured, and were escorted to Bianjing after being killed. After Fang La was captured, the rebel army resisted until March of the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122), when it was completely suppressed by the Song army.
As mentioned above, although both the Songjiang Uprising and the Fangla Uprising lasted for about three years, the scale and impact of the Fangla Uprising were undoubtedly greater. Song Jiang's rebellion, although more extensive, failed to establish a solid foundation and was more akin to the Liukou, which was eventually suppressed by local forces; Fang Lao's rebellion reached its peak, and the regime he established covered 52 counties in the six provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi, posing a major threat to the Song court, which had to send 150,000 troops to suppress the rebellion.