History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 39: Literary Youth Huang Chao
【Literary Youth Huang Chao】

If you pass the exam, you have to write a poem to celebrate; if you fail, you have to write a poem to express your feelings. If you are promoted or demoted, you have to express your aspirations through objects; if you send a friend off, you have to give him a poem; if you have nothing to do, you have to drink tea and wine to accompany your poems.

The material basis determines the superstructure. The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty provided the material basis for the development of literature.

The heyday of Tang poetry, apart from the arrogance and elegance of the literati, had another more important reason: poetry and prose were compulsory subjects in examinations.

The Sui Dynasty created the imperial examination system, which selected civil servants through open, fair and just examinations. The Tang Dynasty inherited and improved it.

In the early Tang Dynasty, there were examinations such as Xiucai, Mingjing, and Jinshi, among which the Xiucai examination was the highest level. By the time of Emperor Taizong, the Xiucai examination was almost abolished because it was too difficult.

It should be emphasized that the "Xiucai" here is not the same as the "Xiucai" we often talk about in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In later generations, "Xiucai" often refers to Jinshi; while in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it refers to Tongsheng (students) who passed the Tongshi. In short, it is becoming more and more rampant and less and less valuable. You only need to know that the value of "Xiucai" in the late Qing Dynasty is far different from that of "Xiucai" in the early Tang Dynasty.

During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, the Jinshi examination was supplemented with essays (i.e., poems and fu). During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the examination for Jinshi had changed to focus on poems and fu. The Jinshi examination was the most prestigious and the most prestigious of all subjects. Those who passed the examination were often able to achieve great success. This is why Tang Dynasty scholars studied poems and fu painstakingly, leaving behind the "Three Hundred Tang Poems" for us.

Therefore, the poets of the Tang Dynasty were not the arrogant literary youths who "despised the former marquis as dirt", but secular people who "laughed at the sky and went out, how could we be the weeds". The main purpose of studying poetry was to squeeze into the system and get a stable job.

The level of poetry of today's Chinese people is not as good as that of the ancients. The main reason is that the focus of today's exams is on mathematics, physics, chemistry and English rather than poetry.

Looking back at Huang Chao’s poems…it’s mainly about his temperament.

No matter what, Huang Chao was the person with the highest cultural level and the most profound artistic accomplishment in the Cao army, so he naturally took on the important task of naming the reign title.

Huang Chao, who considered himself to be well-educated and talented, lived up to everyone's expectations and gave a loud and highly recognizable reign title - Wang Ba!
The style of a king and the power of a hegemon.

From now on, any area controlled by Cao Army will no longer be the "fifth year of Qianfu" but the "first year of Wangba".

The homonym of "Wangba" is "Wangba". Especially since the main force of the Cao army is composed of people from Shandong and Henan, if you try to pronounce "Wangba" and "Wangba" in Shandong dialect or Henan dialect, you will not be able to tell them apart.

So in the Cao army, everyone always felt that something was strange.

Huang Chao was helpless too. He was uneducated and terrible. Let me explain it to you slowly: "Ba is the Ba of overlord, and Wang is the Wang of turtle. What does it mean? Do you understand? What does it mean!"

His subordinates finally understood it and thought it meant living a thousand years or even a hundred years old, which was good. So they left it at that.

There is naturally no need to go into details about the appointment of "civil and military officials".

Just as Song Jiang carried forward the Liangshan Marsh after Chao Gai's death, Huang Chao also expanded the Grass Army after Wang Xianzhi was killed, and the momentum far exceeded the past, and the uprising reached a new height.

Huang Chao merged Wang Xianzhi's main force, reorganized the Cao army, and established the Wang Ba era, which enhanced his reputation and boosted morale.

This rejuvenated team once again conquered Yizhou and Puzhou... It was still the same recipe, the same taste, and such familiar place names. What Brother fought for was not territory, but feelings.

The southwestern part of Shandong was where the banditry started, and was ravaged by Wang Huangcao's army. It was also the first place where the government troops gathered to suppress the bandits. Although the Cao army swallowed up the entire territory of the Tianping army (Yunzhou, Puzhou, Caozhou) in one go when it first emerged, it was mostly because it caught the government troops by surprise. Now the government troops were already on high alert, and Huang Chao lost his advantage.

Moreover, the imperial court also made drastic personnel changes to the bandit-suppression forces. Song Wei was dismissed from his post, and a group of capable and battle-hardened "war faction" generals such as Zeng Yuanyu and Zhang Zimian took over as commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief.

It was obviously not a wise move for Huang Chao to rehash his old tricks here, so he soon suffered a disastrous defeat and was forced to flee into Henan.

Zeng Yuanyu would not let him go. In Shenzhou, Zeng Yuanyu had pursued Wang Xianzhi relentlessly and eventually killed him. Now, he would pursue Huang Chao relentlessly and kill him.

At the critical moment of life and death, Huang Chao suddenly wrote a letter to Zhang Yi, the newly appointed governor of Tianping Army, asking him to submit a petition to the emperor on his behalf, requesting for amnesty. Zhang Yi, also a victim of the "Yu Cong case", was expelled from the court by Wei Baoheng on the grounds that he had "close contacts with Yu Cong".

At this time, Comrade Zhang Yi had just been rehabilitated and had been reinstated. Although he held the high position of Jiedushi, he was an "outsider" and had not entered the court or the core power circle. Huang Chao's initiative to surrender to him was like a great gift to him. The first merit of recruiting Huang Chao would be the stepping stone for Zhang Yi to re-enter the central government.

Zhang Fei immediately sent a letter to the emperor, saying that the leader of the Cao army, Huang Chao, was willing to accept the amnesty.

The imperial court was just waiting for this, so it immediately issued an edict appointing Huang Chao as the General of the Right Guard. He was ordered to go to Yunzhou first to disarm and disperse his troops according to the law, and then report to Chang'an to take up his post.

Correspondingly, Zeng Yuanyu and others' troops should also suspend all military operations.

Zhang Yu in Yunzhou city was eagerly waiting for the lovely Huang Chao, with "Waiting for My Lover" playing in the background.

No matter how hard you try, it won’t come.

The imperial court did not know Huang Chao, but Huang Chao knew the imperial court very well.

In the eyes of the imperial court, Wang Xianzhi, Huang Chao, and other bandits all had the same face, causing trouble in the Dragon Palace, the underworld, and the Heavenly Palace... They were just trying to get a job, so they would be quieted down if they were given a Bi Ma Wen. If that didn't work, they could just give them an extra-job title like "The Great Sage Equaling Heaven" to appease them.

However, "Yunzhou's request for surrender" is fundamentally different from "Qizhou's offer of amnesty" and "Dengzhou's request for surrender". Qizhou and Dengzhou's requests for surrender are genuine, while Yunzhou's request for surrender is fake.

Huang Chao was, after all, "somewhat literate", and being somewhat literate is better than being completely unaware. He knew the pulse of the imperial court, which was eager to seek peace and surrender. So whenever he was cornered by the imperial army, he would accept the surrender as a delaying tactic, which worked every time.

Zeng Yuanyu and other government troops were ordered to stop the pursuit, and saw their plan fail.

Huang Chao once again escaped a fatal blow and resurrected with full health and full buffs. He led the Cao army to attack Henan.

Huang Chao was a smart man. During his more than three years of rebellion, he learned the two most important experiences: do not engage in a head-on battle with the government troops; and recruiting the government troops was the imperial court's only hope.

But he was not careful enough, and he overlooked a seemingly unimportant lesson: feelings!

Small emotions please the mind, big emotions hurt the body, and stubborn emotions will be wiped out.

With the first two experiences, Huang Chao gradually became more powerful and eventually entered Chang'an, facing south and back to the north, claiming to be the "Son of Heaven". However, the last lesson ruined his reputation.

The imperial court was overjoyed for nothing, as it was fooled by the bandit Huang Chao, so it redeployed its troops and continued to encircle and suppress Huang Chao's army.

Under the pressure of the huge anti-bandit force, Huang Chao followed the first experience, avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, led his troops south, and ran from Henan to Jiangxi in one breath.

When they arrived at the virgin land of Jiangxi, Huang Chao's army plundered extensively, made strategic replenishment, and quickly recovered their vitality.

At this time, Zeng Yuanyu, the old enemy of the Cao army, was transferred back to Luoyang, the eastern capital, to guard against the threat of the Cao army. The task forces of various war zones also formed several lines of defense in Henan. The anti-bandit forces were in a passive defensive posture as a whole.

Huang Chao could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

But he got complacent too early. Before he could relax, he heard a bolt from the blue: the court recalled Gao Pian, a fierce general stationed in Xichuan, and appointed him as the governor of Zhenhai, with his troops heading straight for Huang Chao's army!

Zeng Yuanyu was in the north, Gao Pian was in the east, and Zhang Zimian was chasing Huang Chao... He was facing a tight net of the anti-bandit troops, and the survival of Cao's army was hanging in the balance.

(End of this chapter)