History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 33 The Roar of the Salt Smuggler
In the first year of Qianfu (874), Emperor Xizong of Tang ascended the throne. At the end of the year, a popular uprising broke out in Changyuan (now Gaoguanyuan County, Henan Province), led by Wang Xianzhi. This popular uprising grew at an alarming speed, and like the "Yellow Turban Rebellion" at the end of the Han Dynasty, it brought the Tang Dynasty to its grave.

This civil uprising lasted for ten years and affected half of the empire. It is one of the most famous peasant uprisings in Chinese history.

Looking at the uprising from beginning to end, its leaders were not necessarily very wise, and their "success" came more from the contrast with their enemies. They were chosen by the times and shaped by the times.

Similar to the mass base of other civil uprisings, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui suffered from natural disasters year after year, with floods, droughts, and locust plagues occurring one after another. This is an objective reason and must be acknowledged;

In order to whitewash their political achievements, local officials concealed the disaster, increased taxes, and fabricated a prosperous scene as their own achievements for promotion, thus forcing the farmers into desperate situations.

From the "Silver Knife Soldiers" to the "Pang Xun Rebellion", the remnants of the group have never been completely eliminated. They have always played the role of bandits and vagrants, and have been active in this area.
Before Wang Xianzhi's uprising, there were already groups of bandits in the Xuzhou area who plundered civilian property, and the prefecture and county were unable to subdue them;
The above are the main social factors that enabled the rapid growth of civil unrest.

The place where the uprising broke out and the scope of its early activities were Changyuan, Puzhou and Caozhou, which is the junction of today's Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. At that time, it was also the border junction of the Tianping Army, Ganhua Army (formerly Wuning Army), Xuanwu Army, Yicheng Army and Wei Bo Army, a "no man's land" that was the geographical factor that led to the rapid growth of the uprising army.

There is another very important reason: the "right time": Nanzhao invaded Xichuan for the second time.

At first glance, these two reasons seem to have nothing to do with each other. 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 long distance.

Nanzhao invaded Xichuan for the second time and approached Chengdu. The court urgently transferred Gao Pian, the "Nanzhao nemesis", to Xichuan. Gao Pian was the governor of Tianping Army, whose headquarters was in Yunzhou, today's Dongping County, Shandong Province.

The elite soldiers and brave generals of the Tianping Army followed Gao Pian into Sichuan under the imperial order. A vacuum of armed forces appeared in the territory under the jurisdiction of the Tianping Army, which became an important reason for the rapid development of the civil uprising in the early stage.

History is always so humorous and playful. The direct fuse of this civil unrest was not "officials forcing the people to rebel". On the contrary, it was a legal and just law enforcement action - anti-smuggling.

Since the Spring and Autumn Period, when Guan Zhong of Qi State carried out reforms and implemented the "official mountain and sea", successive dynasties have monopolized the operation of important strategic materials such as salt and iron, which have become an important part of government fiscal revenue. Institutions and officials similar to the "salt and iron monopoly" have existed in all dynasties 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, when the profits from the salt and iron monopolies 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 that ordinary people can handle. But salt is different. There is almost no threshold in terms of technology and equipment, and even no capital requirements. You can just scoop up a bucket of sea water, dry it, and sell it for money.

The threshold is low, the operation is simple, and the huge profits are really tempting. At that time, the salt profit of the imperial court was about 900%, with a cost of one yuan and a selling price of ten yuan. There was no competitor.

"If there is a 10% profit, it will be used everywhere; if it is 20%, it will become lively; if it is 50%, it will lead to active adventures; if it is 100%, it will make people disregard all laws; if it is 300%, people will not fear crime or even the risk of being hanged." - Capital, Volume

Three times the profit is enough to ignore the death penalty, let alone nine times.

Under the "salt and iron monopoly" system in the feudal period, an ancient profession has always been present - smuggling salt.

The imperial court would naturally impose the most severe punishment on private salt dealers who dared to mess with the lifeline of the "salt and iron monopoly" - the death penalty. They would even implement "collective responsibility". Take the Tang Dynasty law as an example: those who privately sold more than one dou of salt would be beaten on the back; those who sold more than one shi of salt would be executed; the carriages and horses used for trafficking would be confiscated; those who provided venue support for their criminal and illegal behavior (warehouse landlords) would also be punished. Local officials have the obligation to inspect private salt in the territory. If they miss more than one shi of salt, they will be fined. If they find one dou, they will be rewarded with a thousand coins. If there are two cases of private salt trafficking in the jurisdiction within a month, the county magistrate will be dismissed; if it happens ten times, the governor will be fined; if it happens more than ten times, the observation envoy will be punished.

Even though they faced severe punishment, in the face of huge profits, there were always people who committed crimes in every dynasty, such as Cheng Yaojin, a well-known figure in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties.

The characteristics of "selling salt illegally" are low threshold, high profit and high risk...So if you want to engage in this industry, you can't fight alone. Generally speaking, it is an organized crime group - the salt gang. On the one hand, you have to avoid the inspection and arrest of the court, and on the other hand, you have to fight for territory with other illegal salt dealers, which is also called "black eating black".

All aspects are highly consistent with today's drug trafficking gangs.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, private capital also legally participated in the government's salt and iron monopoly. The model was that the government wholesaled official salt to subcontractors, who then sold it to end customers. The government ate meat, and the subcontractors drank soup.

For example, Huang Chao’s family had been engaged in the official salt subcontracting business for generations.

The profit of this subcontracting business itself is very low. Usually, subcontractors use the business license issued by the government to engage in the business of private salt trafficking, selling private salt as official salt to make huge profits, which is to legalize the "private salt trafficking", the essence of which is smuggling and tax evasion.

This is an open secret within the industry. The government basically turns a blind eye, because the salt merchants will give a portion of their profits as a "gift", and everyone benefits and the cooperation is pleasant.

Over time, subcontractors became the legal cover for the "Salt Gang". They often had a large number of people, were well organized, had private armed forces, and secretly colluded with the government, doing both black and white.

Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao were genuine "Salt Gang" leaders and big salt smugglers.

Due to long-term wars and the emperor's excessive extravagance, the fiscal deficit increased year by year, forcing the government to find every possible way to increase revenue. One of them was to increase the profits from the "salt and iron monopoly."

As a result, the government began to compete with the salt smugglers for profits. The specific approach was to intensify the crackdown on "private salt" and reduce the living space of subcontractors.

This move directly tightened the economic sources of the salt smugglers, 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 and vehicles were confiscated, and several henchmen who were guarding the warehouse were also arrested. The younger brothers were very loyal and immediately gave up the gang leader - 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.

As anxious as a lost dog and as terrified as a fish that has escaped the net, Wang Xianzhi, along with a few of his trusted men, fled from Shandong to Henan overnight and went to Changyuan County to seek refuge with one of his best friends, another big salt smuggler, Shang Junchang.

(End of this chapter)