Chen Shuozhen's uprising also has the shadow of Taoism

Chen Shuozhen's uprising is Chen Shuozhen's peasant uprising.

Chen Shuozhen, also known as Chen Shuozhen, was born in Zitongyuan Tianzhuang, Pheasant County, Muzhou County, Tang Dynasty (now Zitong Town, Chun'an, Zhejiang Province), and was a heroine. In October of the fourth year of Yonghui of Tang Gaozong (653 AD), he led the people to revolt and proclaimed himself "Emperor Wenjia". Widowed at an early age, she was the female leader of the rebel army in the fourth year of Yonghui in the Tang Dynasty (653 AD). Chen Shuozhen during the Gaozong period of the Tang Dynasty called himself Emperor Wenjia, but her army lasted for a month and was suppressed.

Chen Shuozhen, also known as Chen Shuozhen, was born in Zitongyuan Tianzhuang, Pheasant County, Muzhou County, Tang Dynasty (now Zitong Town, Chun'an, Zhejiang Province), and was a heroine. In October of the fourth year of Yonghui of Tang Gaozong (653 AD), he led the people to revolt and proclaimed himself "Emperor Wenjia". Widowed at an early age, she was the female leader of the rebel army in the fourth year of Yonghui in the Tang Dynasty (653 AD). Chen Shuozhen during the Gaozong period of the Tang Dynasty called himself Emperor Wenjia, but her army lasted for a month and was suppressed. Chen Shuozhen's parents died when she was a child, and she and a younger sister depended on each other. The sisters have gone through the wind, frost, rain and snow in the world, and tasted the bitterness and bitterness of the world, and the sisters stayed up until their sister was adopted by their neighbors, and Chen Shuozhen went to a village eunuch to help, so that they could have a full meal. Qingxi Mountain is high and deep, the rivers are staggered, and the products are very rich, because of this, the imperial court also levied a lot of taxes here, and the burden of searching for the local people is very heavy. During the period of recuperation, Chen Shuozhen felt that only by overthrowing the imperial court could everyone live a good life. Chen Shuozhen decided to use Taoism to develop followers as a force for future uprisings. She first spread some news, saying that she had met Taishang Laojun in the mountains. And was accepted as a disciple, and showed everyone the various spells she had learned, because the villagers hoped that she would be able to benefit the people more after becoming an immortal, and believed in Chen Shuozhen's statement that "ascending to the immortal mountain and receiving the immortal law", after a while, she declared that she had obtained the oracle of Taishang Laojun, and was about to become an immortal. But at this time, someone told the government that Chen Shuozhen's ascension to heaven as an immortal was fake, and the plot was true. So the government sent people to search. Arrested Chen Shuozhen. and reported the case to his boss on charges such as misleading the public with evil words, but fortunately, many villagers actively raised funds and opened up the joints, which made Chen Shuozhen acquitted. After this turmoil. Chen Shuozhen felt that the government had noticed her actions. If you don't revolt as soon as possible. I'm afraid I won't have a chance in the future. When the tiger returns to the mountain and the dragon enters the sea, it will naturally set off a storm. Chen Shuozhen has a relative named Zhang Shuyin. He actively supported Chen Shuozhen's uprising plan and did a lot of propaganda and organization work. Zhang Shuyin publicized that Chen Shuozhen had returned to Qingxi from the sky, and her magic power was boundless and unpredictable, and she could summon gods and generals to serve ghosts. This saying is spread ten, ten is spread to hundreds, and the more it spreads, the more mysterious it is, the people within a radius of hundreds of miles all bow to Chen Shuozhen, and every word of Chen Shuozhen is a fairy sound, which is enough to make believers go to the soup without giving up. Seeing that the number of believers was almost over, in early October of the fourth year of Yonghui (653 AD), Chen Shuozhen officially announced an uprising and confronted the government. She modeled on the official system of the Tang Dynasty and established a regime, appointing Zhang Shuyin as a servant to take charge of various affairs, and she herself was called "Emperor Wenjia". In Chinese history, there are countless women who participated in the peasant uprising, but there are very few women who are leaders, and Chen Shuozhen is the only woman who is the leader and also known as the emperor. After Chen Shuozhen launched an uprising, it was widely supported by the local people, Qingxi Tong Wenbao first led the public to respond, in a short period of time, the righteous army developed to several thousand people, in order to strengthen the force, Chen Shuozhen and Zhang Shuyin's soldiers were divided into two roads, Zhang Shuyin led the troops to capture Tonglu, Chen Shuozhen himself led an army of 2,000 to capture Muzhou and Yuqian (now southeast of Changhua, Zhejiang). The people of Muzhou responded en masse, and the rebel army soon grew to tens of thousands. Chen Shuozhen was able to capture the capital of Muzhou and its counties with only 2,000 men, and suddenly the government and the opposition were shaken, in order to exterminate the rebel army, the imperial court imposed a blockade on the uprising area, strictly controlled the population flow into the rebel army, and all personnel who entered the Muzhou area were interrogated, even the monks were not spared. In order to open up the situation and develop strength, Chen Shuozhen took advantage of the victory to attack Anhui and attack Shezhou (now Shexian County, Anhui Province). However, due to the tight defense and stubborn resistance of the Shezhou garrison, although Chen Shuozhen had tens of thousands of people, most of them were ordinary people who had no military training, and there were no siege equipment, so Shezhou could not be attacked for a long time. As a last resort, Chen Shuozhen withdrew from Shezhou, changed the original method of concentrating forces to attack, formulated a separate attack, and adopted the principle of combining mobile warfare with assault warfare to attack the enemy and expand the scope of his forces. The Tang government sent the governor of Yangzhou, Shi Fang Renyu, to send troops to conscript. Under this policy, Chen Shuozhen ordered Tong Wenbao to command 4,000 troops to cover the attack on Wuzhou (now Jinhua, Zhejiang Province). After Tong Wenbao led his troops into Wuzhou, he encountered the official army and turned into a strong attack. At this time, it was Cui Yixuan who served as the assassin of Wuzhou, who had experienced a hundred battles and was quite resourceful. Cui Yixuan heard the alarm in the city, and immediately summoned the civil and military generals, ready to send troops to resist, but the officials were afraid of the prestige of the righteous army, and said: "Chen Shuozhen is guarded by gods, and those who dare to confront his soldiers will all be killed, or they should be avoided." The vast majority of people are reluctant to go. When Cui Yixuan heard this, he was overjoyed, and immediately ordered Cui Xuanji to be the vanguard officer, and he himself led the soldiers to follow up. Chen Shuozhen heard that Tong Wenbao was blocked in Wuzhou, and led the main force to Wuzhou to support, and the rebel army participated in the war amounted to tens of thousands. Although the rebels had an advantage in numbers, the uprising had only been a month, the soldiers were untrained, and their combat effectiveness was limited. The two armies were in a stalemate in Wuzhou, and in order to break the deadlock and change the unfavorable conditions such as fighting in the guest place and being unfamiliar with the enemy, Chen Shuozhen constantly sent spies to spy on the enemy, and once the spies captured by Tang soldiers alone amounted to dozens of people. And Cui Yixuan was not idle here, and sent a request for help to the Quartet. Just when the two armies were at a stalemate, one night, a meteorite suddenly fell into Chen Shuozhen's camp. Cui Yixuan immediately created public opinion, saying that this is Chen Shuozhen's general star falling, and Chen Shuozhen will definitely die. The army commanded by Cui Yixuan was suddenly greatly boosted, while the morale of Chen Shuozhen's side was greatly reduced. In Xia Huai. The Great War of the Two Armies. The Tang army used a big shield to protect the assassin Shi Cui Yixuan, and Cui Yixuan said: "The assassin Shi dodges the arrows, who else fights to the death!" ordered the shield to be removed. The Tang soldiers were motivated, and Chen Shuozhen's army was defeated and hundreds of people were beheaded. The Tang army allowed Chen's army to surrender, and when the pursuit entered the territory of Muzhou, the surrender reached 10,000. At the end of November 653, the reinforcements of Yangzhou Governor Shi Fang Renyu arrived in Wuzhou and attacked the rebels with Cui Yixuan. The fighting situation was quite tragic, and tens of thousands of rebels participated in the battle. In addition to more than 10,000 prisoners. Most of the rest were killed in battle. "Emperor Wenjia" Chen Shuozhen and his servant Zhang Shuyin were captured in the battle, and they died heroically after the most martyrdom.

The name Chen Shuozhen is also written as Chen Shuozhen. She was a native of Qingxi, Muzhou (now Chun'an, Zhejiang). The original occupation may be a local witch maiden, a Taoist aunt and the like. It is said that before the uprising, in order to expand her influence, she once claimed that she was about to become a feathere. Say goodbye to your neighbors. Prepare to live in seclusion for a while and then appear as a "god". Her luck wasn't so good, though. Not long after he hid, he was denounced and arrested by the government.

This year, Qingxi experienced a flood that had not been seen in a century. The imperial court not only did not open warehouses to provide grain, but also collected various taxes, resulting in the people having no livelihood, selling their children and daughters, being displaced, and starving. Chen Shuozhen saw the suffering of the villagers, thinking that he had also been helped by the villagers, so regardless of his own safety, secretly opened the granary of the owner to relieve the victims, but was found by the owner, tied up, beaten all over the body, dead and alive, the villagers saw in the eyes, anxious in their hearts, that night, many villagers personally organized, rushed into the firewood room where Chen Shuozhen was held, rescued him, in order to escape the search of the officers and soldiers, Chen Shuozhen fled into the deep mountains and hidden, dressed as a Taoist aunt, recuperating his body. But that's when a miracle happened. Originally, Chen Shuo really practiced this kind of charlatanism, and there was a bitter lord who denounced it, which belonged to the category of conclusive evidence, and he would inevitably be imprisoned. However, according to historical records, the government immediately released him on the grounds that he could not confess and the evidence was insufficient. This makes one wonder what kind of means she used to escape. One situation, of course, is that she ran into a blue sky master. However, judging from the response of the masses who raised her troops soon after, the local officials will definitely not be some of the high-hanging figures. Another possibility is that her accomplices bribed the officials to rescue her. But it's not right in terms of timing. Because Chen Shuozhen was arrested for a short time, he was released without suffering much. The third possibility is that Chen Shuo is really a great beauty. Big beauties always have their own advantages against big men, including the use of the most primitive "weapons". Whether Chen Shuozhen used her most primitive "weapon" or not, the history books do not say, and it is inconvenient for us to guess, but we will see the detailed application and effect in the story of Akou of the Qing Dynasty to be introduced later. This is a later story, so I won't show it for the time being.

After Chen Shuozhen was released, her in-law Zhang Shuyin immediately went around to publicize that Chen Shuozhen had returned to the human world from the heavenly realm from becoming an immortal, and that his magic power was boundless and unpredictable, capable of driving ghosts and gods, and showing all kinds of miracles. This propaganda was very effective, and a large number of believers quickly gathered around Chen Shuozhen. Originally, the use of superstition to incite the masses to rise up was not Chen Shuozhen's first initiative. Zhang Jiao, the leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the late Han Dynasty, used the "Taiping Dao" to organize the masses. Most of the so-called "miracles" are deception and magic. But Chen Shuo's real problem is that this charlatan trick she practiced has been exposed once, and the bitter master is in the local area. Chen Shuo really wanted to continue his mission in the local area, and this was a difficulty that must be overcome. We don't know what method Chen Shuo really used, judging from the fact that even the officials and soldiers later thought that she did have divine power, the method she used must have been very successful, so that the enemy firmly believed in it. Probably beautiful women are much more persuasive than stinky men. In short, although Chen Shuozhen was not the first leader of a peasant uprising who started as a missionary, he was the first female leader to rebel. This had a great impact on future generations. Later generations of Tang Sai'er, Wang Cong'er, Wang Nangxian, Lin Hei'er, etc. all started in this way.

Chen Shuo's influence spread quickly, and soon the people within a radius of 100 miles rushed to bow to her. So Chen Shuozhen thought that the time was ripe, and at the beginning of October in the fourth year of Yonghui (653 AD), Chen Shuo really raised troops. Immediately after she raised the army, she established a government organization, proclaimed herself "Emperor Wenjia", and appointed Zhang Shuyin as the prime minister (servant shooting) and Tong Wenbao as the general. We don't know what "Wenjia" means. It may be the name of the country, or it may be an honorific title in the Taoist system to which Chen Shuozhen belongs.

Chen Shuozhen and Zhang Shuyin's soldiers were divided into two roads, Zhang Shuyin led the troops to capture Tonglu, and Chen Shuozhen himself led an army of 2,000 to capture Muzhou and Yuqian County. Chen Shuozhen was able to capture the capital of Muzhou and its subordinate counties with only 2,000 men, which immediately shook the government and the opposition. The people of Muzhou responded en masse, and the rebel army soon grew to tens of thousands. So Chen Shuozhen took advantage of the victory to attack Anhui and attacked Shezhou (now Shexian County, Anhui). Shezhou was well defended, and although Chen Shuozhen gathered tens of thousands of people, most of them were rabbles without military training, and there were no siege equipment, so Shezhou could not be attacked for a long time.

At this time, the news of the uprising finally reached Chang'an, and Tang Gaozong Li Zhi ordered Yangzhou Assassin Fang Renyu to lead troops to encircle and suppress. However, at this time, the main battlefield of the uprising was no longer in Anhui and had moved to Wuzhou (now Jinhua, Zhejiang). It turned out that after Chen Shuozhen occupied Muzhou, he ordered the general Tong Wenbao to lead 4,000 troops to attack Wuzhou. Unexpectedly, Wuzhou is also a difficult bone to gnaw.

At that time, it was Cui Yixuan who was the assassin of Wuzhou, and this person was one of the heroes of the late Sui Dynasty. First defected to Li Mi, was not reused, and switched to Li Yuan, the history books say that Li Yuan adopted his strategy many times, and he was a wise general who had experienced a hundred battles. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the accumulation of officials to Wuzhou assassinated the history. He received an alarm from Tong Wenbao coming, and immediately gathered his troops to prepare to resist. Unexpectedly, the generals under his command were intimidated by Chen Shuo's prestige, and persuaded him to give up resistance, saying: "Chen Shuo really has a divine protective body, and those who dare to fight against him will definitely be exterminated." "No one dared to send troops. At this time, Cui Xuanji, the attendance staff officer (Si Gong joined the army) under Cui Yixuan, said: "The army that is in line with the will of the people is fashionable and cannot succeed, Chen Shuozhen is just a woman with a bit of magic, and she must not be able to hold on for a long time." Cui Yixuan was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately appointed Cui Xuanji as the vanguard, and personally commanded the army to resist Tong Wenbao. Chen Shuozhen heard that the battle situation in Wuzhou was unfavorable, so he withdrew from Shezhou and led the main force to reinforce Tong Wenbao. The main forces of the two sides met in Xiahuaishu (25 kilometers east of Tonglu County) and fell into a stalemate. In ancient times, the most important thing in warfare was morale. The story of the "Cao Di Controversy" must be known to everyone. The side with high morale is often able to easily defeat the side with low morale. Although most of Chen Shuozhen's troops are rabble, because everyone is convinced of Chen Shuozhen's "divine power", although they have no military training, their morale is high, and they are not afraid of death in battle. And most people in the government army also believed that Chen Shuo really had "divine powers", so although he was well-equipped, his morale was low. Under the advantages of one and the other, it will naturally become a tie.

But God didn't seem to be willing to help Chen Shuozhen, and after holding each other for a few days, a meteorite suddenly fell into Chen Shuozhen's camp. Cui Yixuan deserves to be a wise general, and immediately created public opinion that this is Chen Shuo's real star fall, and Chen Shuo will really perish. The masses, organized by one superstition, are easily deceived by another. We don't know what kind of explanation Chen Shuozhen gave to his subordinates about this meteorite. But the morale of the government army under the command of Choi Eui-hyun is certain. The rebels apparently did not take the meteorite as a good omen. In the decisive battle that followed, the rebel army collapsed, thousands were killed, and tens of thousands surrendered. Chen Shuozhen withdrew to Muzhou. Cui Yixuan took advantage of the victory to pursue. When they caught up with Muzhou, Fang Renyu's army also arrived. So Chen Shuozhen was flanked from front to back, and after a hard battle, the whole army was annihilated.

As for Chen Shuo's real death, there is also a legend. When the rebel army was besieged on a hill at its peak, Chen Shuozhen immediately climbed the mountain, looking back left and right, there was not much left of the rebel army. She swung her twin swords, ready to rush down the hill again. Fang Renyu and Cui Yixuan commanded the soldiers to fire thousands of arrows together, and the arrows rained down on the mountain for a while, Chen Shuozhen danced his double swords, and only saw two white lights from a distance, protecting his whole body. Fang Renyu and Cui Yixuan saw that the random arrows could not hit Chen Shuozhen, so they ordered the officers and soldiers to take turns shooting at the two white lights without stopping. Chen Shuozhen was hit by several arrows in his chest and abdomen, and the two white lights on the top of the mountain gradually converged. Suddenly, the sky was shining, and a huge phoenix flew in, and Chen Shuozhen rode on the phoenix and took off. Therefore, the mountain is called "Luofeng Mountain". This legend, of course, is fictional and has a large component. Chen Shuozhen was wounded by an arrow in the process of breaking through, but he was not killed in battle, but was captured. Chen Shuozhen was defeated and killed from the beginning of the army, but it took more than a month, but the southeast shook and had a great impact. (To be continued......)