There is oppression, and there is friendly resistance. The desperate populace raised hoes and sickles. Swinging and stabbing at the heart of the Sui Dynasty. Under the sweep of the great wave of uprisings across the country, the dynastic edifice that had just been established for decades collapsed in an instant.
Historically, whenever oppression and injustice pervaded every corner of society, the spark of resistance would burn, stirring up anger and determination to resist. In the Sui Dynasty of ancient China, this situation was vividly expressed.
The Sui Dynasty, a dynasty that had been briefly glorious in Chinese history, gradually lost the support of the people because of its ** and excessive taxes. In those turbulent times, the people were oppressed by heavy taxes and hard labor, and lived in misery. And the inaction and corruption of the Sui Dynasty made the people feel hopeless and helpless.
Against this backdrop, the flame of revolt began to spread throughout the country. The peasants picked up hoes and sickles, these farming tools used for farming on weekdays, but now they have become their rebellion. They brandished these farm tools and stabbed violently at the heart of the Sui Dynasty.
The wave of the uprising swept across the country like a storm, and people everywhere responded and joined the ranks of the revolt. Some of them occupied the mountains and forests, and some occupied the cities, and launched a desperate struggle with the Sui Dynasty. Under the impact of these rebel armies, the rule of the Great Sui Dynasty gradually collapsed, and the ** everywhere surrendered or fled, and the entire dynasty mansion collapsed in an instant.
In the seventh year of the Great Cause of the Sui Dynasty (611), Emperor Yang did not hesitate to mobilize millions of soldiers and civilians across the country in order to conquer Goguryeo, resulting in "the death of the world in war, the destruction of families, and heavy property losses". Shandong and Hebei regions were particularly badly damaged because they were located near Liaodong. In addition, floods and droughts are frequent, and the people's lives are extremely difficult. It was in this context that Wang Bo led the people to revolt in Changbai Mountain, Shandong, and called himself "Zhishilang". He composed "The Song of Death in Liaodong Waves", calling on the people to rebel against the conscription in Liaodong. Within a period of time, there were many responders, and peasant uprisings in Shandong and Hebei sprung up one after another, echoing each other.
In 613, Yang Xuangan, the son of Yang Su, who had a long-standing grudge against Emperor Yang, finally joined the tide of rebellion. Although the rebellion was quickly put down, it marked the beginning of the struggle within the ruling group. By the tenth year of the Great Cause (614), rebel armies had sprung up all over the country, numbering more than 100, and the number of uprisings had reached an astonishing million. Among these rebel armies, the Wagang Army in Henan, the Dou Jiande Army in Hebei, and the Du Fuwei and Fugong Yi Armies in Jianghuai gradually emerged, forming three powerful rebel forces. These rebel armies clashed with the counterinsurgency forces of the Sui Dynasty many times, winning and losing each other, and the battle situation became more and more confusing. And in this turbulent period, the bureaucrats, generals, and landlords of the Sui Dynasty also took the opportunity to divide one side, secretly observe, and wait for the opportunity. In the thirteenth year of the Great Cause (617), Li Yuan, who was left behind in Taiyuan, resolutely raised troops, quickly swept through Guanzhong, conquered Chang'an in only one month, and took Guanzhong as the foundation to defeat other rebel forces, and finally unified the country.
Eighteen roads against the king"This statement comes from the "Saying Tang" and other ** commentaries, these eighteen anti-kings are: Li Mi, King of Western Wei, Wang Bo, King of Zhishi, King Tang Bi of Jinan, Liu Wuzhou, King of Dingyang, Li Zitong, King of Fengming, Zhu Can, King of Nanyang, Gao Tansheng, King Gao Tansheng of Baiyu, King Meng Haigong of Songyi, King Xiao Milling of Liang, King Li Liang of Daliang, King Zhang Jincheng of Qi, King Xu Yuanlang of Lu, King Shen Faxing of Shangliang, King Gao Shida of Jizhou, King Lei Dapeng of Chu, King Shichong of Luoyang, King Dou Jiande of Xia Ming and King Huluo of Turkic.
However, this is only a word of the ** and cannot be fully trusted. From a historical point of view, the real anti-kings of the Eighteen Roads (or the princes of the Eighteen Roads are more appropriate) should be those princes who have the strength and influence to truly claim the title of king and emperor. The deeds of these historical figures are more fascinating and historical than the fictional characters in **.
Speaking of the eighteen anti-kings at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the first thing that comes to everyone's mind must be Zhishilang Wang Bo. Because it was this marshal who first raised the banner of the uprising and opened the curtain of the uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty.
Wang Bo, an ordinary person in Zouping County, Qi County, Sui Dynasty, could not bear the heavy oppression of military service, and in December of the seventh year of the Great Cause (611), he and Meng Rang of the same county rose up together to resist the rule of the Sui Dynasty. They chose Changbai Mountain (now the junction of Zouping and Zhangqiu in Shandong) as their base and launched heroic raids near Qi County and Jibei County (now Pingyin and Dong'e in Shandong). Wang Bo calls himself "Zhishilang", implying that he can gain insight into the changes in the general trend of the world. At the same time, he composed the "Song of the Death of the Waves of the Liaodong Wave" to call on the people to refuse to go to Goguryeo for the Sui Dynasty and instead join his uprising. Many people who had escaped conscription defected to Wang Bo, and his ranks grew stronger and stronger.
In the eighth year of the Great Cause (612), Wang Bo's rebel army had grown to tens of thousands, and the momentum was huge, and it was stationed at the foot of Mount Tai. However, in the ninth year of the Great Cause (613), the Sui Dynasty general Zhang Xutuo led his troops to attack and launched a fierce attack on Wang Bo under Mount Tai. Because Wang Bo relied too much on his previous victories and neglected to take precautions, the rebel army suffered heavy losses under Zhang Xutuo's cover-up. Wang Bo collected the remnants and crossed the Yellow River north, but was again defeated by Zhang Xutuo at Linyi. Faced with the predicament, Wang Bo went north to join up with Sun Xuanya, Hao Xiaode and other rebel armies, and the number of soldiers reached more than 100,000. They again marched south to attack Zhangqiu, but were again defeated by reinforcements led by Zhang Xutuo.
In the second year of Tang Wude (619), in the second month of leap February, Wang Bo led his troops to defect to Yu Wenhua, a general who had raised an army against Sui and killed Emperor Yang of Sui. They guarded Liaocheng together, but in the confrontation with Dou Jiande, Yu Wenhua was defeated and retreated to Liaocheng. Dou Jiande's army besieged Liaocheng, and Wang Bo took the opportunity to take refuge in Dou Jiande, surrendered the city to the enemy, and captured Yu culture alive. On March 11 of the same year, Wang Bo chose to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. In April, Tang Gaozu appointed him governor of Qizhou and had high hopes for him.
In September of the fourth year of Wude (621), Wang Bo persuaded Qing, Lai, Mi and other prefectures to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. In March of the fifth year of Wude (622), Wang Bo followed Sheng Yanshi, the governor of Songzhou in the Tang Dynasty, to attack Xuchang and requisition military rations from Tanzhou. However, Li Yiman, the assassin of Tanzhou, refused to provide military rations because of his disagreement with Wang Bo. After Xu Chang surrendered, Sheng Yanshi arrested Li Yiman and imprisoned him in Qizhou Prison. Tang Gaozu ordered the release of Li Yiman, but the envoy had not yet arrived in Qizhou, and Li Yiman had already died in prison due to grief. When Wang Bo passed through Tanzhou on his way back to his division, he was ambushed and killed by Li Yiman's nephew Li Wuyi on the night of March 17.
Objectively speaking, Wang Bo, the initiator of the uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty, had a great name, limited talent, repeated defeats, and no record of taking a shot. But unfortunately, before he could share the fruits of victory, he died of personal vendettas. Thanks to his rebellion among many forces, he speculated in many ways, but in the end he ended up like this.
In addition to the common people, the forces of the uprising also included Yang Xuangan, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites within the ruling group. Of course, the reason why Yang Xuangan rebelled was largely because he was suspicious of Emperor Yang of Sui and had to rebel.
Yang Xuangan rose up, and Liu Yuanjin and others in Yuhang also responded, and this action had a huge impact on the ruling group of the Sui Dynasty. The children of nobles and bureaucrats, such as Yang Gongdao, the son of Yang Xiong, the king of Guan, Han Shige, the son of Han Baohu, and Li Mi, and more than 40 people joined Yang Xuangan's army, and Zhao Yuanshu, the doctor of Guanglu, Hu Sizheng, the squire of the military department, and others also colluded with him. The Sui Dynasty was thus plunged into chaos, and Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty hurriedly withdrew his troops from Liaodong and went south after learning the news.
Yang Xuangan's garrison was under the city of Luoyang, and although he fought many times, he failed to conquer it. When the Sui Dynasty's reinforcements arrived, Yang Xuangan fell into the predicament of being attacked by the enemy on his back and was forced to retreat westward. However, he was overtaken by his pursuers and suffered a great defeat, eventually fleeing to Shangluo (present-day Shang County, Shaanxi). Then, on the first day of the eighth month (August 21), he was killed in Jialushu.
Although Yang Xuangan's uprising was short-lived, it symbolized the ** of the ruling class of the Sui Dynasty, seriously weakened the ruling power of the Sui Dynasty, and at the same time created conditions for the rise of the peasant uprising. After Yang Xuangan failed, he participated in Yang Xuangan's rebellion against Sui, and the army was defeated**, escaped on the way to escort, hid the people, and finally tossed and turned, and threw himself into the account of Wagang Zhai.
In the great turmoil at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the most eye-catching, undoubtedly dominating the side was the Wagang Army. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that most of the characters in the heroes of the Sui and Tang dynasties gathered in Wagang, and on the other hand, it is also because the rise and fall of the Wagang army are very grassy and legendary.
In the seventh year of the Great Cause (611), a minor official named Zhai Rang fled from Dongjun (present-day Puyang, Henan) for committing a crime. He chose Wagang (in present-day Huaxian County, Henan) as his hiding place, where he gathered a group of like-minded people to plot an uprising. Zhai Rang's righteous deeds soon attracted Shan Xiongxin, Xu Shiyun and others to join, and the uprising team gradually grew. With its strict discipline and broad popular support, the Wagang Army soon became a force to be reckoned with in the peasant uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty.
In the twelfth year of the Great Cause (616), Yang Xuangan's uprising failed, and his subordinate strategist Li Mi began to flee. After going through hardships and dangers, Li Mi finally chose to defect to Zhai Rang's Wagang army. The arrival of Li Mi injected new vitality into the Wagang army, and he and Zhai Rang joined hands to fight against the ** of the Sui Dynasty. Under the wisdom of Li Mi and the heroic leadership of Zhai Rang, the Wagang army won many battles, successively defeated Zhang Xutuo, the general of the Sui Dynasty who came to suppress him, captured Luokoucang, and relieved countless poor people. In addition, the Wagang army also defeated Liu Changgong, a tiger general sent by Yang Tong, the king of Yue, in a battle, so that his sphere of influence continued to expand, and even approached the outskirts of the eastern capital Luoyang for a time.
However, just when the Wagang Army was gaining momentum, there was a ** inside. Due to the disagreement between Li Mi and Zhai Rang on strategy and power distribution, it eventually led to the tragedy. Li Mi killed Zhai Rang in desperation, which greatly damaged the vitality of the Wagang army. In the first year of Huangtai (618), Yang Tong, the king of Yue, descended to the eastern capital, and was crowned the Duke of Wei. Houyu Wenhua led the army to conquer the Wagang army, and the two sides fought fiercely for many days, both of which suffered heavy losses. Faced with internal and external difficulties, Li Mi finally chose to surrender to the newly established Tang Dynasty.
The rise and fall of the Wagang Army fully demonstrated the bravery, wisdom, betrayal and helplessness of the peasant uprising. The story of the Wagang Army is not only a piece of history, but also a mirror. Through this history, we can realize more deeply how true the saying "fortresses are often breached from within".
In the last years of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the people who rebelled all over the world were scattered, and according to statistics, there were more than 200 rebel armies that could be confirmed against the Sui Dynasty. After the merger and convergence of various forces, the three most influential forces gradually formed: the Hebei Rebel Army led by Dou Jiande, the Wagang Rebel Army led by Li Mi and Zhai Rang, and the Jiangzhun Rebel Army led by Du Fuwei and Fu Gongyi.
In the seventh year of the Great Cause (611), Sun Anzu, a farmer from Qinghe County, Hebei Province, was selected to participate in the army of the expedition to Goguryeo, but at this time, Sun Anzu was suffering from natural and man-made disasters, his fields and houses were flooded, and his wife was starving to death, so he resisted vigorously and finally assassinated the county commander. Sun Anzu found his fellow villager friend Dou Jiande, and Dou Jiande suggested that he might as well gather a crowd to revolt, where Dou Jiande recruited hundreds of strong men and handed them over to Sun Anzu. Later, the imperial court sent troops to search for the people related to the uprising, suspecting that Dou Jiande and the rebels were colluding with each other, so they took his family into custody and killed all the elders and children, which made Dou Jiande resentful, and in a fit of anger, he led the people into the rebel army Gao Shida.
Dou Jiande was quite prestigious in the rebel army, and when Sun Anzu was killed, the rest of the people followed him, and the number exceeded 10,000. He treats people with great grace and shares weal and woe with ordinary soldiers, so his subordinates swear allegiance to the death. In the twelfth year of the Great Cause (616), Guo Xuan, the general guard of Zhuo County, led an army of more than 10,000 people to conquer Gao Shida, who thought that he was inferior to Dou Jiande in terms of strategy, so he stayed behind and let Dou Jiande lead the army to meet the battle. Facts have proved that Dou Jiande is indeed a general with outstanding military talent and leadership ability.
He made a plan with Gao Shida, pretending that the relationship between the two was not harmonious, and let people spread the false news that Dou Jiande was going to rebel against Gao Shida. Gao Shida also declared that Dou Jiande was about to betray him, and this series of illusions was nothing more than to deceive the Sui army led by Guo Xuan. At this time, Dou Jiande led the army to pretend to surrender and became the vanguard of Guo Xuan's army. The careless Guo Xuan easily believed it and began to become slack, Dou Jiande saw the right time to launch an attack and broke the Sui army in one fell swoop.
Later, the Sui Dynasty sent Yang Yichen, the imperial servant, to pacify the Gao Shida rebel army, and in this battle, Gao Shida was unfortunately killed, so Dou Jiande became the new leader of the rebel army. After several sieges, Dou Jiande's army had grown to more than 100,000 people. In the thirteenth year of the Great Cause (617), Dou Jiande established a local government in Hejian Leshou, known as the King of Changle, and the year name was Ding Chou. After that, he defeated the army of Xue Shixiong, the general of the Sui Right Yiwei, killed Yu Wenhua and the remainder, and captured and beheaded Yu Wenhua.
Dou Jiande was in Hebei, and his generals were like clouds, and it stands to reason that his strength was not weaker than Li Tang at that time. And Dou Jiande is quite tolerant and kind, and obeys the advice, in the hearts of the people of Hebei is very prestigious, but it is a pity that in the fourth year of Wude (621), when Li Shimin, the king of Qin, attacked Luoyang, Dou Jiande led the army to rescue Wang Shichong. In the Battle of Tiger Pass, Dou Jiande was defeated and captured, and was killed in Chang'an at the age of forty-nine.
The Hebei Righteous Army led by Dou Jiande and Liu Heimin carried out a 12-year anti-Sui and anti-Tang struggle in the vast areas of Shandong and Hebei, becoming an important force in overthrowing Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and leaving a glorious page in history. Although Dou Jiande made some serious mistakes due to his lack of political foresight, he was still an outstanding leader of the peasant army.
The rebel army in the Jianghuai region, led by Du Fuwei and Fu Gongyi, was undoubtedly the most eye-catching. Du Fuwei, a heroic uprising leader from Shandong, first ignited the flames of the uprising in Changbai Mountain in Zhangqiu, then moved to the Junnan region, and successfully annexed several other peasant rebel armies, gradually forming a force to be reckoned with.
The Sui Dynasty was deeply worried about this, and twice sent large armies to suppress it, but both suffered heavy defeats. This made Du Fuwei's army famous, attracting more rebel forces to join him, making him the most powerful rebel leader in the Jianghuai region. Although Du Fuwei was strong and strong, he did not have the heart to be emperor, which shows his outstanding political wisdom and foresight. So in the second year of Tang Wude (619), he wisely chose to surrender to the Tang Dynasty and was appointed as the governor of Yangzhou, realizing a gorgeous turn from the leader of the uprising to the local **.
At the same time, under Du Fuwei's command, there is also a famous general - Fu Gongyi. He came from Linji, Qizhou (northwest of present-day Zhangqiu, Shandong) and fought alongside Du Fuwei for many years. However, in the sixth year of Wude (623), four years after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, Fu Gongqi raised troops against the Tang Dynasty in Danyang (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu). It turned out that before the Tang Dynasty, the seeds of contradiction had been planted between Du and Fu. When Du Fuwei became an official in the Tang Dynasty, the dissatisfaction and ambition in Fu Gongyi's heart swelled rapidly. He decided to rebel against the Tang Dynasty and set himself up as emperor, naming the country Song, and using the palace of Chen in the Southern Dynasty as a sign of connection with tradition.
However, the situation has changed dramatically by this time. As the tide of great uprisings in various places gradually receded, Fugongyi's rebellion was doomed to failure. The following year, the Tang Dynasty sent heavy troops to Huainan to suppress the rebellion. After a fierce battle, the Tang army broke through the city of Danyang, and Fugong Qi was also captured. This event marked the end of the wave of great uprisings in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties. During the rebellion, Du Fuwei, who was in Chang'an, was suspicious and died in fear at the age of forty-one.
Looking back on this history, we can't help but sigh. Although Du and Fu were both leaders of the uprising, they had very different fates. Du Fuwei judged the situation and wisely chose to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, which was very courageous to retreat; And Fu Gongyi failed because of his ambition and deviation from his original intention, and finally affected Du Fuwei, but he really fulfilled the oath of good brothers to live and die together.
Li Tang unified the world, and the ending of the rest of the anti-kings was naturally not much better.
Wang Shichong, born in a family of Hu people in the Western Regions (formerly surnamed Zhi), has been obsessed with the art of war since he was a child, and with his outstanding intelligence and unique insights, he has emerged in the quelling of Yang Xuangan's rebellion and the Henan people's uprising. Later, he successfully entered Luoyang, supported Yang Tong, the king of Yue, as the emperor, and monopolized power. Under his wise leadership, he soon defeated Li Mi and surrendered the generals of Wagang, which shocked all directions. In 619, Wang Shichong decisively deposed Yang Dong, established himself as emperor, and named the country Zheng, opening a new glorious history. However, in 621, fate reversed, and he was defeated by Li Shimin, the king of Qin, and finally fell into the hands of his enemies, where he was brutally killed.
Liu Wuzhou, a native of Hejian Jingcheng (now Jiaohe County, Hebei Province), was one of the many local separatists in the last years of the Sui Dynasty. He was brave and good at shooting, made many friends, once defected to Yang Yichen, the servant of Sui, and followed Emperor Yang of Sui to attack Goryeo. In the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, he rebelled against the Sui Dynasty, attached himself to the Turkic tribes, and proclaimed himself "Dingyang Khan", intending to go south to fight for the world. He occupied Jinyang, which was rich in reserves, and captured most of Hedong, posing a great threat to Guanzhong. He proclaimed himself emperor with the era name Tianxing, but due to the lack of supplies for the army, he had to rely on plunder to maintain military supplies. He once broke Pei Lin and Li Yuanji, the king of Qi, and swept Shanxi. However, in the third year of Wude (620), he was finally defeated by Li Shimin, the king of Qin, and was forced to abandon the city and flee, and was finally killed by the Turks, and a generation of heroes came to an end.
Xiao Miao, originally from Lanling County, South Lanling County (now Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province), is related to Emperor Xuan of Liang and is his great-grandson. During the period of Emperor Yang, he served as Luo Chuanling as a relative and took charge of one party. When the thirteenth year of the Great Cause (617) arrived, Dong Jingzhen, the captain of Yuezhou, Zhang Xiu, and others held high the anti-Sui banner, and they unanimously elected Xiao Mo as the leader. He quickly marched to Baling, and later proclaimed himself King of Liang, and set up Mingfeng as the era name. The following year, he was officially proclaimed emperor and moved the capital to Gangneung, with a mighty army of 400,000 under his command. His sphere of influence is extensive, extending to the Three Gorges in the west, Cochin in the south, the Han River in the north, and Yuzhang in the east. However, although Xiao Mo is tolerant on the outside, he is full of jealousy on the inside, and he kills the ministers, causing internal detachment.
In the autumn of the fourth year of Wude (621), Xiao Mo could not escape the fate of defeat after all, and was defeated and captured by the Tang army. Tang Gaozu severely reprimanded him, but Xiao Mo did not hesitate at all, and replied with an awe-inspiring and unyielding attitude: "The Sui Dynasty lost the Mandate of Heaven, like losing the deer in the palm of its hand, making the heroes compete to chase after it. Although I Xiao Mo had the intention of chasing the deer, I failed to get the protection of the mandate of heaven, so I was captured by His Majesty. This is just like Tian Heng claiming the king in the south, is he sorry for the Han Dynasty? Tang Gaozu was greatly angered by the unyielding and unruly recklessness of these words. In the end, he ordered Xiao Mo to be beheaded in the city, and the former king ended his life at the age of thirty-nine.
The rest of the small characters such as Li Rail, Lin Shihong, Zhu Cang, Shen Faxing, Liang Shidu, Gao Kaidao, Meng Haigong and other small characters were also annihilated under the iron hooves of Li Tang's army under the oppression of the general trend of history, and the smoke was dispersed, and the world was finally unified!
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