Chapter 6 186 Wang Xiaobo Uprising

Song Taizong's conquest of the Liao Dynasty ended in a disastrous defeat, and he lost brave generals like Yang Ye, so he did not have the courage to fight against the Liao Dynasty.Besides, the domestic situation is also very unstable, especially the peasant uprisings broke out one after another in the Sichuan and Shu regions, which made the Song Dynasty in a hurry and found it difficult to deal with it. During the Five Dynasties, the Sichuan-Shu area had successively established two regimes, the Former Shu and the Later Shu, and had not been destroyed by war for a long time. Therefore, during the Later Shu period, the national treasury was full. After Song Taizu destroyed the Later Shu, he indulged the soldiers in Chengdu. Looting and transporting the wealth accumulated in Houshu to Tokyo aroused the resentment of the people.When Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty arrived, he set up a yamen there again to monopolize business.The tea and silk produced in Shu were all monopolized by the government.Some landlords and big businessmen took the opportunity to speculate, buying cheap and selling expensive.The life of the people in Shu is even more difficult.

In Qingcheng County (now southwest of Guanxian County, Sichuan Province), there was a farmer named Wang Xiaobo, and his wife's younger brother Li Shun, both made a living by selling tea.After the government banned the private sale of tea, Wang Xiaobo cut off his livelihood and decided to revolt.In 993 AD, Wang Xiaobo gathered more than a hundred tea farmers and poor people, and said to them: "In this world, the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. It's really unfair. Now, let's eliminate this An uneven phenomenon, what do you think?" These tea farmers and poor people are usually enough to be exploited by the government and the rich. After listening to Wang Xiaobo's words, they all enthusiastically support him.As soon as the news spread, poor people from all over the country came to join Wang Xiaobo's uprising army.Within ten days, tens of thousands of people gathered.

Wang Xiaobo had his troops, and took down Qingcheng first.Then, he took advantage of the victory to attack Pengshan (now Pengshan, Sichuan). Qi Yuanzhen, the magistrate of Pengshan County, is a cunning and vicious corrupt official.Song Taizong prohibited local officials from embezzling. Once, he sent imperial envoys to Shu to investigate.When Qi Yuanzhen heard that the imperial envoy was coming, he first scattered and hid the embezzled property in the rich merchant's home.When the imperial envoy arrived in Pengshan County, he couldn't find any corruption among the officials there. When he returned to report to the court, the court ordered Qi Yuanzhen to be rewarded for his innocence and competence.

Qi Yuanzhen tricked the court and searched even harder.Wang Xiaobo knew that the people of Pengshan hated Qi Yuanzhen the most, so he led the rebel army to attack Pengshan.With the response of the people in Pengshan, the rebel army quickly occupied the county seat, killed Qi Yuanzhen, a corrupt official, and distributed the money he usually collected from the people to the poor people there.Wang Xiaobo led his troops north again to attack Jiangyuan (now southeast of Chongqing, Sichuan).Song general Zhang Qi (sound qi) stationed in Jiangyuan sent troops to counterattack, and the two sides fought a big battle outside Jiangyuan city.

Wang Xiaobo's rebel army fought very bravely and tenaciously. Zhang Qi couldn't resist, so he shot cold arrows.Wang Xiaobo was caught off guard and was shot in the forehead by a cold arrow.Regardless of the blood on his face, Wang Xiaobo continued to attack, and finally defeated the Song army and killed the vicious Zhang Qi. The uprising team occupied Jiangyuan, but Wang Xiaobo died of his injuries. After Wang Xiaobo died, the uprising soldiers elected Li Shun as the leader and continued to lead everyone to resist the government army. Under the command of Li Shun, the rebel army gathered more and more, successively captured many cities, killed a group of corrupt officials, and finally captured Chengdu, the center of Shu.The civil and military officials in Chengdu couldn't resist and all fled.

In the first month of 994 AD, Li Shun established the Dashu regime with the support of the army and the people.Li Shun became the king of the Great Shu. While rectifying the troops, he continued to send troops to attack prefectures and counties.From Jiange in the north to Wu Gorge in the east, there are rebel forces everywhere.When the news reached Tokyo, Song Taizong was taken aback. He quickly summoned the prime minister to discuss and said: "I didn't expect Li Shun to be so powerful. We must send troops to bring him down." Song Taizong sent the eunuch Wang Jien as the security envoy of Xichuan in Jiannan to suppress it.Wang Jien divided his troops into two groups, sent people to block the rebel army in Wu Gorge from the east, and led the army to march towards Jianmen.

Jianmen is the main road from Xichuan to Guanzhong.After Li Shun occupied Chengdu, he also sent generals to attack Jianmen, but unfortunately they were blocked by the officers and soldiers and lost the battle. Wang Jien passed Jianmen smoothly, gathered Song troops from all over the country, and attacked Chengdu.At that time, there were hundreds of thousands of rebel troops stationed in Chengdu, but surrounded by the enemy, after a heroic battle, 30,000 people died in battle.Chengdu City was finally breached, and Li Shun died in the battle. Later, according to folklore, when Chengdu fell, Li Shun did not die. He disguised himself as a monk, escaped from Chengdu secretly, and continued to lead the peasant army to fight.When Song Jun entered the city, he caught a man with a long beard who looked like Li Shun, so he killed him as Li Shun.Forty years later, an old man appeared on the streets of Guangzhou. Someone recognized him as Li Shun. The government arrested him and secretly killed him in prison.Although these legends are not necessarily reliable, they show that Li Shun has a great influence among the masses.