In the first year of Qianfu (874), Tang Xizong received a new treasure. At the end of the year, there was a civil uprising in Changyuan (now Gaoguanyuan County, Henan), and the leader of the uprising was Wang Xianzhi. This civil uprising developed at an alarming speed. Like the "Yellow Turban Uprising" in the late Han Dynasty, it brought the Tang Dynasty into the grave.
This civil uprising lasted for ten years and affected half of the empire. It was one of the most famous peasant uprisings in Chinese history.
Looking at the uprising from beginning to end, the wisdom of its leaders was not necessarily that profound, and their "success" came more from the enemy's foil. They were chosen by the times and created by the current situation.
Similar to the mass base of other civil convulsions and uprisings, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui have suffered from natural disasters in successive years, with floods, droughts, and locust plagues occurring one after another. This is an objective reason that must be admitted;
In order to whitewash their political achievements and conceal disasters, local officials also increased taxes and fabricated scenes of great times and prosperity as achievements for their promotions, thus driving farmers to a dead end;
From the "Silver Knife Soldiers" to the "Pang Xun Rebellion", their remaining forces have never been completely wiped out. They have always played the role of a group of thieves and bandits, operating in this area;
Before Wang Xianzhi's uprising, there were already groups of bandits plundering private property in the Xuzhou area, but the prefectures and counties were unable to subdue them;
The above are the main social factors that enable the civil uprising to grow rapidly. Accounted for "people and".
The place where the civil uprising broke out and the scope of its early activities was the Changyuan, Puzhou, and Caozhou areas, which is the area at the junction of today's Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces. At that time, it was also the area where the Tianping Army and the Reform Army (formerly Wuning) The "Three No Matters" zone is located at the border junction of the jurisdictions of the Xuanwu Army, Xuanwu Army, Yicheng Army, and Wei Bojun. This is the geographical factor for the rapid growth of the insurgent army. Taking advantage of the "geographical advantage".
Another reason is the very important "timing": Nanzhao invaded Xichuan for the second time.
At first glance, this reason seems to be inseparable. One is in today's Sichuan and the other is in today's Shandong, spanning most of China.
That's right, precisely because of the distance.
Nanzhao invaded Xichuan for the second time and approached Chengdu. The imperial court urgently transferred Gao Pian, the "nemesis of Nanzhao", to Xichuan. Gao Pian was the governor of the Tianping Army at that time. The headquarters of the Tianping Army was in Yunzhou, today's Dongping County, Shandong Province.
The elite soldiers and brave generals of the Tianping Army were ordered to follow Gao Pian into Sichuan. There was a vacuum of armed forces in the territory under the jurisdiction of the Tianping Army, which became an important reason for the rapid development of the civil uprising in its early stages.
History is always so witty and naughty. The direct trigger of this civil uprising was really not "officials forcing people to rebel". On the contrary, it was a legal and just law enforcement operation - anti-smuggling.
Since Guan Zhong of Qi State carried out reforms and implemented the "Guan Shan Hai" in the Spring and Autumn Period, successive dynasties have carried out state monopoly operations on important strategic materials such as salt and iron, which have become an important part of the government's fiscal revenue. Throughout the ages, there have been institutions and officials similar to the "salt and iron monopoly" to ensure the government's absolute monopoly on the salt and iron trade.
The Tang Dynasty was no exception. Especially in the late Tang Dynasty, the profits from the salt and iron monopoly supported almost half of the country's fiscal revenue and became the lifeblood of the Tang Empire.
The mining, smelting and forging of iron ore are not something ordinary people can do. But salt is different. There are almost no technical and equipment barriers, or even financial requirements. You can scoop up a ladle of seawater, dry it in the sun, and sell it for money.
The threshold is low, the operation is simple, and the huge profits are really eye-catching. At that time, the court's salt profit was about 900%. The cost of salt was one yuan, and it was sold for ten yuan. There were no competitors yet.
"As long as there is 10% profit, it will be used by people everywhere; with 20%, it will become lively; with 50%, it will cause active risk-taking; with 100%, it will make people disregard all laws; with 300 %, people will not be afraid of committing crimes, or even the danger of hanging their heads." - "Das Kapital" Volume 1
Three times the profit would be enough to avoid the death penalty, let alone nine times the profit.
Under the system of "salt and iron monopoly" in the feudal period, an ancient profession has always been around - smuggling salt.
For private salt dealers who dared to mess with the lifeblood of the "salt and iron monopoly," the court would naturally impose the most severe punishment--death. It is even necessary to practice "sitting together".
Take the laws of the Tang Dynasty as an example: Those who steal and sell more than one bucket without permission will be punished with a stick; those who steal one stone will be executed; the carriages and horses used for trafficking will be confiscated; those who provide venue support (warehouse landlords) for their criminal and illegal activities will also be punished. Local officials have the obligation to inspect illegal salt within the territory. If more than one stone is missed, they will be fined a salary. If one bucket is found, they will be rewarded with a thousand coins. If two smuggling salt cases occur within one month within the jurisdiction, the county magistrate will be dismissed; if the case occurs ten times, the governor will be fined; if more than ten cases occur, the magistrate will be punished.
Even if they face severe penalties, in the face of huge profits, people in all dynasties have committed crimes. For example, the well-known figure of the late Sui Dynasty and early Tang Dynasty - Cheng Yaojin.
The characteristics of "smuggling salt" are low threshold, high profit, and high risk... Therefore, if you want to engage in this industry, you cannot do it alone. Generally speaking, it is an organized crime group-the salt gang. On the one hand, they had to avoid inspections and raids by the imperial court, and on the other hand, they had to compete with other private salt dealers for territory and fight, which was "the black and the black".
All aspects are highly consistent with today's drug cartels.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, private capital also legally participated in the government's salt and iron monopoly. The model is that the government wholesales official salt to subcontractors, who then retail it to end customers. The government eats meat, and the subcontractors drink soup.
For example, Huang Chao's family has been engaged in the official salt subcontracting business for generations.
The profit of this kind of subcontracting business itself is very low. Usually, subcontractors borrow the business license issued by the government to engage in the business of selling private salt, passing the private salt as official salt and selling it to make huge profits. The legalization of "smuggling salt" is essentially smuggling plus tax evasion.
This is an open secret within the industry. The government basically turned a blind eye, because the salt merchants would use part of the profits to "mean", and everyone would benefit and the cooperation would be happy.
Over time, subcontractors have become the legal cover of the "Salt Gang". They are often numerous, well-organized, have private armed forces, and secretly collude with the government to take advantage of both black and white.
Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao were like this, the leader of the "Salt Gang", the big salt owl.
Due to the long-term war and the emperor's extravagant spending, the fiscal deficit increased year by year, forcing the government to find ways to increase revenue. One of them was to increase the profits of the "salt and iron franchise."
As a result, the government began to compete with the salt owl for interests. The specific approach is to intensify the crackdown on "private salt" and compress the living space of subcontractors.
This move directly tightened the financial resources of the salt lords, and the conflict between them and the government became irreconcilable.
Finally, at the end of the year, the private salt warehouse of Wang Xianzhi, a big salt lord in Puzhou, was raided by the government. The private salt inventory, carriages and horses were confiscated, and several horse boys who guarded the warehouse were also captured. The younger brothers were very loyal and immediately revealed the leader of the gang - Wang Xianzhi.
Wang Xianzhi heard the news and fled overnight.
Subsequently, the government listed Wang Xianzhi as a Class A wanted criminal and posted a reward notice.
Anxiety is like a bereaved dog, panic is like a fish slipping through the net. Wang Xianzhi took several of his cronies and fled from Shandong to Henan overnight, and went to Changyuan County to join one of his best buddies, another big salt owl - Shang Junchang.
