But what no one expected was that the massive Yellow Turban Rebellion was put down in less than a year.

【Prelude】

In fact, before the Yellow Turban Uprising, many people of insight in the imperial court were already aware of the intentions of the Taiping Dao.

Taiwei Yang Ci, who was serving as Situ at the time, wrote: "Zhang Jiao deceived the people, and although he received a pardon to exempt him from responsibility, he did not repent, but gradually spread and expanded. Now, if the state and county are ordered to suppress it, I am afraid that it will increase the chaos of the situation and prompt them to rebel in advance. The Assassin and the county guard should be ordered to check the exiles and escort them back to their respective counties to weaken the forces of the Zhangjiao Gang before killing the leaders. In this way, there is no need to mobilize the people to calm the situation. ”

At this time, Yang Ci was resigned, and his recital remained in the palace and could not be implemented. Ma Tupeng Liu Tao wrote again, reiterating Yang Ci's suggestion, saying: "Zhang Jiao and others are stepping up their plots, and there are secret rumors from all sides: 'Zhang Jiao and others secretly sneaked into the capital Luoyang to spy on the movements of the imperial court. Its party members everywhere secretly echoed each other from afar. Fearing that they would be punished by the imperial court for reporting truthfully, the state and county officials were reluctant to go to the court, but only notified each other privately, and refused to report in the form of official documents. For this reason, it is recommended that His Majesty publicly issue an edict and offer a heavy reward for the arrest of Zhang Jiao and others, and use the marquis as a reward. If there are those who are cowardly evasive among the officials, they will be punished with Zhang Jiao and others. ”

But it's a pity that Emperor Ling didn't care about this matter, and instead issued an edict to Liu Tao to sort out the "Spring and Autumn Regulations".

The above is the case, not to mention those officials in the county and county, they really don't understand or pretend not to understand Zhang Jiao's true intentions, but instead talk about Zhang Jiao's teaching the people to be good, so that Taiping Dao is greatly supported by the people, and some believers even sell their property and have to go to Jizhou to join Zhang Jiao.

[Unexpected Betrayal]

Just when Emperor Han Ling didn't feel anything, and everyone in the yellow scarf was gearing up, waiting for March 5, no one thought that it would be the imperial court that would do it first.

And all this was just because of the betrayal of a small person, Zhang Jiaoju sent his next cronie Tang Zhou to Luoyang to contact Ma Yuanyi to communicate the uprising plan out of prudence. Unexpectedly, Tang Zhou was gone forever, and he also reported Zhang Jiao's rebellion to the imperial court, making everything known to the world.

Around February 15, the imperial court urgently captured the generous Qu Marshal Ma Yuanyi and split his car, and later the regular servants of Neiyingzhong Feng Zhen and Xu Feng were also killed. It was also an urgent mobilization of national forces to capture and kill many Taiping Dao believers, and at that time, Jizhou also officially announced the arrest of Zhang Jiao and others.

Tang Zhou's betrayal basically eradicated the Taiping Dao forces in Luoyang, and Taiping Dao also lost its opportunity, and then had to revolt immediately in a hurry.

【Smooth start】

After Zhang Jiao found out that the matter was exposed, he immediately used various methods to notify Taiping Dao all over the country and immediately revolted. Zhang Jiao also named their three brothers "General of Heaven", "General of Earth" and "General of Rengong" according to the theory of "there is the rule of heaven, the rule of the earth, the rule of man, the three extremes, and then the rule of all things". 因为太平道自认为是土德，土德为黄色，所以太平军都头裹黄巾，人们也称为“黄巾军”，这场起义也在历史上被叫做“黄巾起义”。

In the early days of the Yellow Turban Uprising, after conquering the towns, the Yellow Turban Army often burned down the official mansions, killed all the corrupt officials, and distributed their ill-gotten wealth to the common people. State and county officials were powerless to resist in the face of the Yellow Turban tide, and most of them abandoned their posts and fled.

After Zhang Jiao's uprising in Jizhou, within a month, there were seven states and 28 counties in the country in addition to Jizhou, and at that time there were only thirteen states in the entire Eastern Han Dynasty, and the people of Anping and Ganling even captured the King of Anping and Ganling respectively to respond to the Yellow Turban Army, and the capital Luoyang was shaken. Soon, the main force of the Yellow Turbans, led by the three Zhang Jiao brothers, swept through most of Jizhou and became the center of the uprising; Bocai and Peng Tuo led the Yellow Turban Army in the east and controlled the front line of Yingchuan, Runan, and Chenguo; Zhang Mancheng led the Yellow Turban Army in the south, killed Chu Gong, the Shou of Nanyang County, occupied Wancheng, and used it as the center to confront the official army.

【Deployment of the Government】

The rapid development of the Yellow Turban Army seriously threatened the ruling class of the Han Dynasty, not only the local tycoons, the clansmen, and the big landowners, but even the emperor could not sit still. In March of the first year of Zhongping (184), Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty took Yin Hejin of Henan as the general, sealed the Marquis of Shen, led the left and right Yulin, the five battalions of the battalion Shitun Duting, repaired the equipment, and took the town of Jingshi; He set up the eight passes of Hangu, Taigu, Guangcheng, Yique, Yuan, Xuanmen, Mengjin, and Xiaopingjin, and strictly defended these eight important passes, and at the same time ordered all prefectures and counties to prepare for battle, train soldiers, order weapons, and gather rebels.

After the uprising broke out, Emperor Ling summoned his ministers to discuss countermeasures. Emperor Fu Song, the Taishou Emperor of the North, believed that the ban on party members should be lifted, and the emperor's private money from the Zhongzang Mansion and the good horses in the Xiyuan Ji stable should be given to the soldiers who went on the expedition. Emperor Ling asked the opinion of Lu Qiang, who said: "The ban on the party has been very long, and the people are resentful and angry, if they are not pardoned, if they act rashly and unite with Zhang Jiao, the rebellion will expand even more, and it will be too late to regret it then." Now, please first put to death the corrupt officials on His Majesty's left and right, grant amnesty to all party members, and examine the ability of assassins and county guards in various places. If this had been done, the rebellion would not have gone unquelled. ”

Emperor Ling was frightened by the power of the Yellow Turban Army and accepted the advice of Lü Qiang and Huangfu Song. As a result, an amnesty was granted to the party members of the world, and the party members who had been exiled to the border areas and their families could return to their hometowns, but only Zhang Jiao was not within the scope of the amnesty.

At that time, in the north, Lu Zhi and the sect members used the five colonels of the Northern Army as the main force and the three brothers Zhang Jiao; In the east, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun (also known as Zhu Jun and Zhu Jun) each led an army, and Zhu Jun also recruited Sun Jian of Xiapi as the assistant army Sima, with a total of more than 40,000 people in the two armies, crusading against Bocai and Peng Tuo in the Yingchuan area; In the south, Nanyang Taishou Qin Jie confronted Wancheng Zhang Mancheng.

At this time, the Yellow Turban Army can be said to be huge, and it can already compete with the government, but at the same time, the imperial court, which was once beaten in the early stage, has now gradually reacted, facing the crusade army of the imperial court, and the local righteous armies, although the Yellow Turban Army is outnumbered, but the quantity is invincible, and it is gradually defeated in the confrontation again and again.