In 2 10 BC, Qin Shihuang swam eastward to the sand dunes (now Pingxiang and Guangzong in Hebei Province) and suddenly died of illness. Zhao Gao forged the testament of Qin Shihuang, forcing Prince Fu Su to die, and made Hu Hai, the youngest son of Qin Shihuang, emperor. This is Qin Ershi.
Qin Ershi was a fatuous and cruel emperor. When Qin Shihuang was buried, he ordered all craftsmen to be sealed in the mausoleum. He continued to build Epang Palace and raised a large number of dogs, horses and animals for hunting. The corvee tax burden of ordinary people is heavier, and the criminal law is more and more harsh. At that time, there was a phenomenon in society that "criminals were half in the road and the dead were in the city". Working people are struggling with hunger and death. Large-scale peasant uprising has reached the point of explosive.
When the peasants were brewing anti-Qin, the latent remnants of the old nobles in the six countries also took the opportunity to carry out separatist activities. In the thirty-sixth year of the first emperor (2 1 1 years ago), the inscription "The first emperor died and ceded territory" appeared in Dong Jun, which was the symbol of this separatist activity.
In 209 BC, Qin Ershi ordered the recruitment of 900 poor farmers in the Huaihe River basin to defend Yuyang (now Miyun, Beijing). Among them, Chen Sheng from a peasant family and Guangwu from a poor peasant family were appointed as village heads. July is the rainy season. When they arrived in osawa Township, Qixian County (southwest of Suxian County, Anhui Province), the continuous rain stopped them here, and they could not reach Yuyang garrison as scheduled. Qin law "lost time when cutting", these 900 guards face the threat of death.
They were escorted by two county commanders. These two county commanders are cruel to everyone. When they hit people, Chen Sheng and Guangwu took the opportunity to kill the county commandant. Then I say to you: In case of rainstorm, you are all late, and if you are late, you will be beheaded. Even if they don't kill us, 7C 10 will die in the frontier. Besides, if a strong man dies, he will do something vigorous! His words inspired the soldiers to fight. These 900 garrisons "cut firewood for soldiers and uncover poles for flags". Everyone elected Chen Sheng as a general and Guangwu as a surname, and put forward the slogan of "No way to attack Qin" to form a peasant uprising army. In osawa Township, the banner of the first large-scale peasant uprising in the history of China was raised.
Chen Sheng, that is, Chen She, Yangcheng (now southwest of Henan Shangshui), was born in a farmhouse; Guangwu, a native of Yang Xia (now Taikang), is also a farmer. In order to expand their influence, they lit a bonfire in the temple next to the station at night, making a fox sound and making a sound of "Great Chu Xing, Chen", which was passed down as a myth by the people. Chen Sheng, led the peasant uprising army, first occupied osawa Township, then captured Qixian County, and soon captured five or six counties. Wherever the rebels went, poor farmers responded in succession. When the insurgents approached Chen County (now Huaiyang, Henan Province), there were six or seven hundred chariots, more than a thousand cavalry and tens of thousands of infantry.
Under the influence of the insurgents, farmers in many counties killed and defended the mausoleum, responding to Chen Sheng; Especially in the old Chu state, thousands of people gathered everywhere. Some old nobles, tourists and Confucian scholars from the six countries who were hiding among the people also took the opportunity to return to China and exerted influence in the peasant army by virtue of their old identities. You's Zhang Er and Chen Yu even advised Chen Sheng to send people to "establish six countries", but Chen Sheng flatly refused. Chen county is a strategic place, where Chu established its capital in the later period. After Chen Sheng and the rebels led by him captured Chen County, the "Zhang Chu" regime was established, with Chen Sheng as king. This is the first peasant revolutionary regime in the history of China.
Chen county became the center of the national peasant uprising. The rebel army advanced with victory and attacked the state of Qin in three ways. Guangwu is a "fake king", attacking Xingyang in the west; Chen Wu went north to Zhao Di and attacked Wei Chi of Ren Wei Zhou. Wu Guangwei Xingyang has been unable to attack for a long time. Chen Sheng ordered General Zhou Wei to lead the way around Xingyang. In tackling key problems, he broke the letter valley. At this time, the insurgents have grown to hundreds of thousands of people and have thousands of personnel carriers.
At this time, Zhang Er and Chen Yu, representatives of the old aristocratic forces who infiltrated into the uprising army, plotted to split the uprising army. They demanded that the north should be slightly in the land of Zhao. Chen Sheng didn't see through the plot, so he took Chen Wu as the general, Zhang Er and Chen Yu as the left and right captains, and led the troops across the Yellow River in 2000. Zhang Er and Chen Yu occupied more than 30 cities by surrendering and reusing Qin officials.
Zhou Wenjun quickly developed into a city with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, who entered the war zone in Guanzhong (now Lintong, Shaanxi) and approached Xianyang. Qin Ershi was very alarmed when he saw that the rebels had captured the capital. He quickly sent Shaofu Zhang Han to lead hundreds of thousands of torturers who built a tomb in Lishan Mountain to meet the rebels. At the same time, Wang Li's 300,000 troops came back from the frontier fortress to fight the rebels. Although the peasant army led by Zhou Wen fought bravely, it lacked training and combat experience because it fought alone. Suddenly attacked by Qin Jun, he was forced to quit Hangu Pass after defeat, and was stationed in Cao Yang (Lingbao East, Henan Province), waiting for reinforcements.
After Chen Wu occupied Handan, the ancient capital of Zhao, he became the king of Zhao with the encouragement of Zhang Er and Chen Yu. Chen Sheng reluctantly admitted to the tail from wagging the dog, and ordered him to lead an army to the west to support Zhou Wen. Zhang Er and Chen Yu not only failed to rescue the peasant army in Zhou Wen, but set up their own businesses, taking Chen Wu as the prince of Zhao, Chen Yu as the general, and Zhang Er as the right prime minister, not listening to Chen Sheng's command. Then, the old nobles of the six countries successively ceded territory to become kings, Hanbitsoft became kings, Wei blamed Wang Wei, and Tian Xian became the king of Qi. In this way, the insurgents led by Chen Sheng and Guangwu were caught between Scylla and Charybdis. Zhou Wen led the army to persist in the struggle in Cao Yang for three months. After many defeats, he retreated to Mianchi. Because the rebels were outnumbered and had no backup, the losses were too great, and Zhou Wen finally committed suicide.
Soon, Guangwu, who besieged Xingyang, was killed by Tian Cang. After Guangwu's death, the morale of the army collapsed. Zhang Han, the general of Qin, led the army to attack, and Tian Cang was defeated and killed. Several other insurgents were carved up by Qin Jun one after another. In 209 BC, in 65438+ February, they led troops to Chen County, and Chen Sheng personally led the insurgents to fight against them. Unfortunately, there were too few troops, and they lost to their father in the lower town (now southeast of Yang Guo, Anhui). At this point, his driver Zhuang Jia assassinated Chen Sheng and surrendered to Qin Jun. Chen Sheng's men, such as Lv Chen, persisted in their struggle. The "Cangtou Army" led by Lv Chen counterattacked, recovered Chen County twice and executed the traitors. This insurrectionary army later joined the insurrectionary army led by Xiang Yu, Liu Bang and others, and continued to fight against Qin Jun. In 206 BC, the Qin Dynasty was destroyed under the heavy blow of the peasant insurrectionary army.
Although the peasant uprising led by Chen Sheng and Guangwu failed, it left a glorious page in the history of China. The peasant army overthrew the Qin Dynasty, dealt a blow to the landlord class, promoted social progress, and opened up the revolutionary road for the peasants in ancient China to resist feudal rule. The peasant army established a revolutionary regime in the struggle, created an unprecedented historical miracle, and set a shining example for the peasant uprising in later generations.