Wang Xianzhi

Wang Xianzhi (died 878) was a Chinese military general and rebel. He was a major agrarian rebel during the reign of Emperor Xizong of Tang, whose rebellion (Huang Chao Rebellion), while failing, along with those of his one-time ally Huang Chao, began a series of rebellions that led to the Tang dynasty's disintegration.

Life Early life Wang Xianzhi was from Pu Prefecture (濮州, in modern Puyang, Henan), and like his eventual ally Huang Chao was a salt bootlegger (i.e., selling salt that was not part of the Tang state monopoly).

Rebellion

He started his rebellion in 874 at Changyuan (長垣, in modern Xinxiang, Henan), in the midst of serious natural disasters—alternate floods and droughts—that severely affected the part of the empire east of the Hangu Pass (i.e., modern Henan, Hebei, and Shandong) that the imperial government was taking little action to relieve the people from the effects of. His rebellion began with a thousand men, but quickly, after he and his ally Shang Junzhang captured Pu and Cao (曹州, in modern Heze, Shandong), their forces increased to tens of thousands, and when the military governor (jiedushi) of Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong), Xue Chong , tried to intercept Wang's forces, Wang defeated him. Meanwhile, Huang, who was from Yuanqu (also within modern Heze), also started a rebellion, and they were loosely aligned at this point with each other. Late in 875, Wang attacked Yi Prefecture (沂州, in modern Linyi, Shandong). Song Wei the military governor of Pinglu Circuit (平盧, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong) then volunteered to attack Wang. Then-reigning Emperor Xizong approved the suggestion, and put Song in overall command of the operation, putting Song in command of not only troops from his own circuit but troops from many others.

In summer 876, Song attacked Wang at Yi Prefecture and defeated Wang. Song submitted a report claiming that Wang had been killed in battle. In response, Emperor Xizong demobilized the troops and allowed them to go home. However, several days later, reports arrived that Wang was not killed, and the troops were again mobilized, much to the soldiers' distress and anger. Wang then headed toward Ru Prefecture (汝州, in modern Zhumadian, Henan). Emperor Xizong ordered the generals Cui Anqian, Zeng Yuanyu , Cao Xiang , and Li Fu to intercept Wang, but Wang quickly captured Ru Prefecture and took its prefect Wang Liao , a younger brother of then lead-chancellor Wang Duo, prisoner. Wang Liao's being captured greatly shocked the people, and people were fleeing the eastern capital Luoyang in droves. Emperor Xizong tried to placate Wang and Shang by offering them imperial commissions, but they did not respond at this point. They attacked Zheng Prefecture (鄭州, in modern Zhengzhou, Henan), but after being repelled by the eunuch monitor Lei Yinfu , headed south and attacked Tang (唐州, in modern Zhumadian) and Deng (鄧州, in modern Nanyang, Henan) Prefectures. He then raided the various prefectures of Shannan East Circuit (山南東道, headquartered in modern Xiangfan, Hubei) and Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu).

However, negotiations between Wang Xianzhi and the imperial forces soon resumed, as the eunuch monitor of Zeng Yuanyu's army, Yang Fuguang, again offered to seek an imperial commission for Wang Xianzhi if he submitted. The negotiations reached such a stage that Wang Xianzhi sent Shang Junzhang to personally meet with Yang to settle on details. When Shang was on the way to Yang's camp, however, Song ambushed Shang and captured him, and then submitted a report claiming to have captured Shang in battle. Despite Yang's report explaining that Shang was negotiating Wang Xianzhi's submission and had not been captured by Song, Shang was executed, ending the negotiations between the imperial government and Wang Xianzhi.

Defeat Late in 877, Wang Xianzhi marched south and put Jiangling, the capital of Jingnan Circuit under siege. He caught the military governor of Jingnan, Yang Zhiwen , surprised, and nearly captured the city. Li Fu, then the military governor of nearby Shannan East Circuit, however, sent forces to aid Yang, and Wang abandoned the siege on Jiangling.

Soon thereafter, Zeng Yuanyu had a major victory over Wang just east of Shen Prefecture (申州, in modern Xinyang, Henan), a victory that apparently convinced the imperial government to relieve Song Wei of his post as the commander of the operations and confer the post on Zeng instead, with Zhang Jimian serving as Zeng's deputy. Later in spring 878, Zeng again defeated Wang at Huangmei (黃梅, in modern Huanggang), and he killed Wang in battle. Wang's head was delivered to Chang'an and presented to Emperor Xizong. Wang's follower Shang Rang (Shang Junzhang's brother) took the remainder of Wang's followers and joined Huang Chao.