【Langhu Valley】
The Cao army built a majestic palace five miles north of Chenzhou, named it "Eight Immortals Camp". As the palace of the "Emperor of Da Qi", it also housed hundreds of civil and military officials. It was like the temporary office of Huang Qi's government in exile. , to show determination to fight a protracted war.
What is even more shocking is the "Chung Mo Village" under Chenzhou City. It is also the most controversial place in Huangchao's history.
The official history is clearly written in black and white, saying that Huang Chao built hundreds of giant stone mortars outside Chenzhou City, put living people in them, pounded them like garlic, and then used them as military food.
The positive view is that this is ironclad evidence that the Huangchao bandits cannibalize people. It is clearly recorded in "Old Book of Tang", "New Book of Tang", and "Zi Zhi Tong Jian". It is difficult and inconsistent with common sense. It is a slander against the Huangchao Group and calls into question the authoritative history books.
Let us put aside the disputes, put aside commonalities while reserving differences, and take a long-term view. After comprehensive analysis, we will find that the two views are not actually contradictory.
At that time, the Cao Army was facing a severe shortage of food. Cannibalism is no longer a phenomenon that only appeared under Chenzhou City, nor is it original and exclusive to Huangchao Group. The Huangchao bandit gang had already listed living people as a menu when they were in Chang'an, so it is credible to say that the Cao army was eating people under the city of Chenzhou.
The key is: "Chung Mo Village" is obviously not Caojun's food processing line. It is a torture instrument whose main function is to intimidate the soldiers and civilians of Chenzhou.
Fighting a protracted war in Chenzhou was a major strategic mistake made by Huang Chao.
Zhao Yan had the foresight to create a "food-free zone" with a radius of 60 miles for Huang Chao, which would undoubtedly make things worse for the grass army who were short of food.
In order to supplement the military rations, Huang Chao could only extend his claws to the surrounding areas and plunder dozens of states including Xu, Deng, Ru, Bian, Tang, Meng, Zheng, Cao, Yan, Pu, Xu, etc. As a result, the Cao Cao Army's forces were severely dispersed, providing opportunities for government forces to defeat them one by one.
Zhao Jian sent people to search for help from neighboring vassals through small roads and reported to the imperial court.
The imperial court then issued an order to send troops from the three towns of Xuzhou Zhongwu Army (Zhou Wei), Bianzhou Xuanwu Army (Zhu Wen), and Xuzhou Guanghua Army (Shi Pu) to support the war in Chenzhou.
Zhou Qi came to power through the "Xuzhou Mutiny", and then the main force of the army was annexed by Yang Fuguang and formed the "Eight Zhongwu Capitals". After Yang Fuguang's death, the "Eight Zhongwu Capitals" fled and went their separate ways. Under his rule, Caizhou was first divided and promoted to the Fengguo Army, and then defected and surrendered to Qi. Therefore, Zhou Ji could recruit very few troops;
Zhu Wen had just arrived at the town and had only a few hundred men in his hands;
Shi Pu followed the "Xuzhou Mutiny" and launched the "Xuzhou Mutiny" to take power. He had the largest number of troops but the longest distance.
Therefore, the imperial court's appointment certificate is particularly interesting: Shi Pu was appointed commander-in-chief of the Zhengdong Front Army (commander of the Eastern Front Army). If you can't afford to go to bed early without any profit, and if you don't have a high-ranking official and a generous salary, who is willing to help others clean the snow in front of them?
The three-town coalition forces won repeated battles in the periphery, but due to the disparity in strength, they were unable to deal a fatal blow to the main force of the Cao Army and were unable to approach Chenzhou.
After Chenzhou was besieged for nearly half a year, in February of the fourth year of Zhonghe (884), the imperial court issued an edict to recruit Shatuo Li Keyong.
Li Keyong led an army of 50,000 people and set out from Taiyuan to join forces with the troops from the three towns in Ruzhou.
The Shatuo Cavalry is the last trump card of the Tang Dynasty, and it is also a trump card that has been tried and tested repeatedly.
Li Keyong lived up to everyone's expectations of him, breaking the deadlock in one fell swoop and advancing on Chenzhou with overwhelming force.
In April, Huang Chao was forced to lift the siege of Chenzhou and led his troops to flee north.
In May, the main force of the Cao army approached Bianzhou and massacred the city of Weishi (now Weishi County, Henan Province). Xuanwu Army generals Zhu Zhen and Pang Shigu fought hard and repelled Shang Rang's first wave of attacks. Zhu Wen returned to Bianzhou urgently and asked Li Keyong for help.
Taking advantage of their numerical advantage, the Cao army set aside some soldiers and horses to confront Zhu Wen across the Bian River, while the main force detoured northwest along the Bian River, preparing to secretly attack Chencang in the upper reaches, and detour behind Bianzhou to make dumplings for Zhu Wen.
Bianzhou is in danger, Zhu Wen is in danger.
At the critical moment, Li Keyong arrived in time and caught up with the Cao army crossing the river at Wangmandu (Bianhe River Ferry). Seizing the opportunity, Li Keyong attacked the thieves halfway across the river and killed more than 10,000 people. The remaining Cao army immediately collapsed and fled for their lives.
Huang Chao's roundabout plan failed and he had to abandon Bianzhou and continue to flee north.
This was the famous "Battle of Wangmandu", and Huang Chao's main force suffered heavy losses. The second-in-command, Shang Rang, surrendered to Shi Pu of Xuzhou Reformation Army; the remaining generals surrendered to Zhu Wen of Bianzhou Xuanwu Army.
House seemingly endless rain.
Huang Chao wanted to make camp step by step, but unexpectedly a heavy rain destroyed all his temporary camps.
And Li Keyong was Huang Chao's enemy in his previous life and his enemy in this life. The Shatuo cavalry clung to Huang Chao and pursued him, killing him all the way, vowing to destroy Huang Chao.
When Huang Chao fled to the ground in Shandong, he gathered the remaining defeated soldiers and took stock. He found that there were only about a thousand people left in the "hundreds of thousands" grass army. Taking these thousands of people with them, they continued to flee eastward and entered Yanzhou.
Li Keyong was worthy of being brave and good at fighting. He led the Shatuo cavalry and stayed on the line 24 hours a day. He chased Huang Chao to his hometown, captured Huang Chao's youngest son and a group of concubines, and seized the secrets of Huang Qi's regime. Fake yellow robes, fake ceremonial guards and countless baggage.
At this time, there were only a few hundred cavalry who could keep up with Li Keyong's pace. They were exhausted physically and mentally and had reached their limit. More importantly, the food and grass they carried with them had also been exhausted.
At the end of his battle, Li Keyong decided to stop the pursuit and return to the army to reorganize.
Li Keyong left, and Huang Chao just breathed a sigh of relief, but got another piece of bad news: Shang Rang, who had rebelled and surrendered to the enemy, led more than 10,000 Xuzhou reformed troops to pursue him.
Huang Chao was already frightened and hurriedly fled into the Langhu Valley southeast of Mount Tai (today's Jinan City, Shandong Province).
Langhu Valley has complex terrain and is inaccessible. It is often visited by jackals, tigers, leopards and other wild animals. It is an undeveloped original ecological scenic spot with beautiful scenery and sweet air.
Shang Rang's betrayal and surrender to the enemy caused Huang Chao to lose his last trust in the people around him, and he frantically massacred generals who were not related by blood. Now, he only has his wife, children, brothers, nephews and other "own people" around him.
Huang Chao was desperate. He gathered his family together and arranged the funeral arrangements. He asked his nephew Lin Yan to take his head to ask for merit and receive the reward. Since he would die no matter what, he should not let outsiders get the "merit of defeating the thief", and the wealth would not flow away. Outsider field.
Lin Yan couldn't help but knelt on the ground and cried bitterly, expressing his loyalty to His Majesty and Da Qi, and vowed to fight the Tang Dynasty to the end.
Huang Chao waved his hand, "Forget it, forget it..." He pulled out his sword and killed himself.
Several of his brothers, such as Huang Kui and Huang Ye, also committed suicide by cutting their necks.
Lin Yan cried bitterly and kowtowed to the bodies of several people. After that, he killed Huang Chao's wife and children with his sword, cut off the heads, put them in wooden boxes, and set off for Xuzhou, intending to sacrifice them to Huang Chao according to Huang Chao's will. He was appointed as the military envoy to Xuzhou Reformatory Army, Shi Pu.
Before walking out of the mountains, they met Li Shiyue and Shang Rang, generals of the reform army who came to search the mountains.
Lin Yan knelt down and told the story one by one.
Li Shiyue sat on the tall horse, glanced sideways at Lin Yan on the ground, smiled coldly, and asked in a dark voice: "What's the matter, do you still want to be a hero?"
Later, Li Shiyue killed Lin Yan, put his head in a wooden box, and sent it back to Xuzhou.
Shi Pu immediately sent the heads of Huang Chao and others to Chengdu to report their merits and reward them.
Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty was very happy. He first had the heads of Huang Chao and others hung high at the city gate for public display, and then held a capture ceremony at the south gate of the outer city of Chengdu to personally interrogate Huang Chao's concubines.
More than 20 young women with pale faces were kneeling downstairs, basically shaking into a ball, crying so hard that it was very pitiful.
Tang Xizong faced south and north, looked at them, and reprimanded: "You have received the favor of the country in this life, why did you lose your virginity and become a thief?"
A woman kneeling at the front showed no fear on her face and replied with enthusiasm: "The country has mobilized hundreds of thousands of royal masters, but it can't resist the thieves. What can I, a weak woman, do?"
One sentence made Tang Xizong choked and speechless.
The woman continued to ask: "The bandits were rampant and the government was incompetent. The emperor was forced to go into exile in Shu. Even the royal ancestral graves were dug up. However, His Majesty blamed us weak women for not being able to resist the bandits and asked us why we could not refuse." Thief, okay, we admit that if you lose your virginity and become a thief, you will be punished with death, so what should we do with the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty?"
Tang Xizong was stunned and didn't say anything for a long time. The atmosphere was very embarrassing.
Finally, Tang Xizong shook his sleeves, stood up, and said, "Kill them all!" He turned around and patted his butt and left.
The sergeants escorted them to the execution ground. The people of Chengdu spontaneously offered wine and food along the way and advised them to drink more, so that they would not feel the pain when they were drunk.
Most of the women fainted due to excessive fright, or were paralyzed and unable to move. Some of them cried and drank wildly, but the woman who was angry at Xizong neither drank nor cried. .
