The Yellow Turban Rebellion was vigorous, why did it fail in less than a year?

Mondo History Updated on 2024-02-01

In thousands of years of history, the rise and fall of dynasties is a topic that can never be avoided in history books.

In the long river of history, at the end of the dynasty, the peasant uprisings one after another became the beginning of the struggle for hegemony. But among these peasant uprisings, there was one that swept the world and was different from the others, and their uprisings were more religious in later generations.

This uprising was the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. This uprising was led by the Zhang Jiao brothers, the religious leaders of Taiping Dao at that time, and planned for more than ten years, swept through the seven of Kyushu, roaring more than 300,000, and called "The sky is dead, and the yellow sky should stand".

But the menacing but also the menacing, this uprising, which has been planned for more than ten years, failed in just one year, leaving only a mess, so that the later heroes picked up the cheap, its rise and fall, its death is also vigorous, why did the Yellow Turban Uprising fail?

Yellow Turban Revolt. The history of the Han Dynasty is divided into two lines, the Western Han Dynasty began with Liu Bang, and the Eastern Han Dynasty began with Liu Xiu's restoration of the Han Dynasty.

In the process of the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, most of Liu Xiu's subordinates were local landlords Haoqiang, and after the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, these landlords Haoqiang naturally had absolute power in the local area by virtue of their dragon skills, and even could erect the county order and county guard.

The rise and fall of ancient dynasties were essentially the reasons for land annexation, and for these meritorious and powerful landlords, they established the Eastern Han Dynasty, but their desire for land eventually destroyed the Eastern Han Dynasty.

With the evolution of the times, the powerful landlords colluded with the **, intensified the land annexation, and when Emperor Han Ling and Emperor Han Xian, the land annexation had reached the most acute point, the rich were thousands of miles away, and the poor had no place to stand.

In addition, at that time, it began to enter the Xiaoice River period, the weather changed drastically, and the Li people had no way out, and most of them threw themselves into the mountains and forests to steal or pin their hopes on religion. The small religion of Taiping Dao thrives in it.

Liu Xiu. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism had not yet been introduced to the Central Plains, so most of the local religions were born from Taoism, and although Taiping Taoism was not the largest one, it seized the opportunity of the times.

According to the records of the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", the typhoid plague epidemic in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the most serious ten rooms and five empty, almost every family is plain, the famous miracle doctor Zhang Zhongjing, his family died in the plague of this epidemic, which led to his lifelong efforts to solve typhoid fever.

Zhang Jiao, who was thousands of miles away, used his medical skills to travel all over the country to save many patients, and successfully created an image of a savior with exquisite skills, and Taiping Dao also took this opportunity to spread in various states and began to widely publicize the idea of opposing the Han Dynasty.

At the same time, Zhang Jiao also took advantage of the feudal idea of worshipping gods at that time, pretending that he had obtained the true inheritance of the old immortals of Nanhua, and began to lay a good foundation for his uprising, preparing to rise up and stand on behalf of the Han Dynasty. After more than ten years, Taiping Dao has become the largest religion in the world, with more than 300,000 believers in seven states, and there are various commanders in charge of command.

It's a pity that on the eve of the uprising, there was an apprentice with Zhang Jiao who couldn't resist the pressure, and finally chose to report the Taiping Dao rebellion to the official, which led to this vigorous peasant uprising, which could only start hastily.

Zhang Jiao. This seemingly massive uprising swept the world, but in the end it was put down in less than a year. The first reason is that the original plan for the uprising was betrayed by the inner ghosts.

Since ancient times, there have been many peasant uprisings that have set off a war with their arms raised, but not many have left their names, and most of them are due to the wrong timing, and the same is true of the Yellow Turban Uprising.

The uprising was first betrayed to the government by the traitor Tang Zhou, which led to the Taiping Dao's Neiying Qu Shuai in Luoyang being split by the government, Luoyang uprising, and the plan to attack inside and outside was declared bankrupt.

As the capital of the Han Dynasty, Luoyang's own status has great political significance, if the Yellow Turban Army was not betrayed and the Luoyang Uprising could be held smoothly, according to the situation at that time, Luoyang still has a certain possibility of being breached.

Yellow Turban Revolt. Once Luoyang is breached, it will naturally make the authority of the Han Dynasty lose its authority, and the rebel army will also receive more support, and eventually become a stable regime.

However, after being betrayed by the traitors, the Yellow Turban Uprising had to be advanced.

According to the traffic situation at that time, once this kind of thing was not agreed, there would inevitably be a situation where the battle was already in full swing on one side, but the Taiping Road on the other side was still waiting for the agreed date, which led to the dispersion of the Yellow Turban Army's forces and gave the officers and troops in various places a chance to break through.

Secondly, although the Eastern Han Dynasty was already in decline at that time, the tiger fell to Pingyang and was still a tiger, let alone the Han Dynasty, which had ruled for hundreds of years.

At that time, although the Han Dynasty had no foreign wars for a long time and could not afford to raise so many troops economically, it still had many excellent generals in the imperial court.

Yellow Turban Revolt. For example, Huangfu Song, Zhu Jun and others shined in the process of suppressing the Yellow Turban. And a well-fed, well-equipped, well-equipped army is far superior to the Yellow Turban Army, which is yellow-skinned, fights on its own, and can only rely on hoes and forks.

But this is not enough to completely destroy the Yellow Turbans, after all, 300,000 people, just fighting guerrillas everywhere is enough for the officials and soldiers to take care of one or the other. What made the Yellow Turbans lose their foothold was their attack on the local landlords.

As the main component of the Yellow Turban Army, the poor were born with class contradictions against the powerful landlords, but the social situation at that time was that the powerful landlords occupied a large number of fields and raised countless private soldiers and soldiers.

After the uprising, the Yellow Turban Army failed to pull a group to fight a group, but regarded all the powerful landlords and clans as their enemies and plundered everywhere. Although it cannot be said wrong in the face of class contradictions, on the road of the uprising, this kind of looting and even exterminating the clan was naturally resisted by these two groups of people, and they stood together.

Yellow Turban Revolt. However, it was difficult for the Yellow Turban Army to defeat the Han army on the frontal battlefield, and if it fought guerrilla warfare and broke it into pieces, it was difficult to get the support of local powerful landlords and clans, so it could only occupy the countryside around the big cities to protect itself.

If the Yellow Turban Army at this time still had hope of victory, then Zhang Jiao's death was their mortal wound.

As the largest religious uprising in Chinese history, the Yellow Turban Uprising is characterized by the word religion. Religion comes from faith, and the belief of Taiping Dao, by coincidence or intention, is concentrated in the three Zhang Jiao brothers, of which Zhang Jiao is the most central figure.

However, this core figure died of illness under the continuous failure of the Yellow Turbans, and his brother was temporarily unable to control all the hearts of the Yellow Turban army and people, resulting in the later stage of the Yellow Turban Uprising being leaderless.

The Yellow Turbans are also constantly divided, some of them choose to surrender or leave incognito and pretend to be refugees without the intention of fighting again, some of them go into the mountains to become cowards, and some want to establish themselves as kings and fight again with the court. The Yellow Turban Rebellion was naturally defeated in the midst of division.

Yellow Turban Revolt. The rafters that came out first rotted first, and although the Yellow Turban Army, which started the first battle of the peasant uprising in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was powerful, it was quickly suppressed by the imperial court under various factors.

But it is undeniable that although the Yellow Turban Army failed, he also shook the authority of the Han Dynasty, allowing countless heroes and heroes to see the decline of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which eventually led to the division of warlords in various places, the imperial court became a symbol, and the era of hegemony officially arrived.

Related Pages