In the most prosperous period of the Ming Dynasty, a peasant uprising broke out in Tang Saier.

Judy's era can be called the "promising" era of the Ming Dynasty: conquering Mongolia, communicating with the western regions, going to the western seas, opening canals, moving the capital and repairing rituals. Countless achievements have so far made China people proud. But there is one problem that cannot be avoided-it costs a lot. Although assisted by Xia Yuanji, the first finance minister of Yongle Dynasty, it was carefully maintained for several years, but it was inevitable to waste manpower and material resources. While Yongle worked hard to create "immortal feats", the first peasant uprising after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Tang Saier Uprising in Qingzhou, Shandong Province, broke out in Shandong in February of the 18th year of Yongle (A.D. 1420). The uprising lasted for three months, which not only shocked the Ming Dynasty, but also became a "heart disease" that Judy could not let go of until her death.

There are different opinions about Tang Saier, a woman from Putai, Shandong Province, the leader of this uprising. Historians in Ming and Qing Dynasties called her "traitor" and "witch". In Feng Menglong's Collection of Novels in the Late Ming Dynasty, there is an article "He Daoshi became a traitor because of his skill, and Zhou experienced the enemy because of his rape", which was rewritten based on this uprising. However, Tang Saier is portrayed in the novel as a "bohemian and murderous" devil incarnate, which can only be described as "artistic processing". Most modern historians praised her as "the great leader of the anti-feudal peasant uprising", but she kept "arrogant", slandered and arrogant, and the protagonist of the uprising had no idea of the final outcome, which made this riot movement that was noisy for a while 600 years ago shrouded in various historical fog.

To solve this historical fog, let's focus on Shandong, where the uprising took place.

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To say that the Tang Saier Uprising broke out in Shandong, let's first look at a map of Shandong from the last years of Hongwu to the last years of Jingnan.

From June of the thirty-first year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1398), Zhu Yuanzhang died, and Shandong fell into a terrible "serial natural disaster". In June of the thirty-first year of Hongwu, the Zhangqiu River in Shandong burst, and then seized the Xiaoqing River waterway, which led to massive flooding, affecting Jinan, Laiwu and even Weifang in Shandong. There are 200,000 refugees in history. The flood has not subsided, and a strong earthquake occurred in Jiaodong, which triggered a large-scale flood and tsunami and destroyed "Dengzhou, Penglai and Weihai, and the military camp fell in ten years". As soon as the flood receded, a large-scale plague broke out again In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court "recommended good doctors all over the country, applied drugs for diagnosis and treatment", and the iron and blood sages who were known for their "kindness and safety" participated in the discussion. It was not until September that the epidemic was brought under control. Unexpectedly, less than two months later, from 1 1, heavy snow fell in central Shandong and southern Shandong, recording a history of "sudden cold overnight" and almost committing suicide.

However, the blow is not over. From the beginning of the following year to July, there was not a drop of rain in Shandong Province, and all the new dealers died in the sun, and all the local official grain was eaten up. Huang Chun, Minister of Finance, suggested that the grain reserves of the imperial court in northern and southern Jiangsu should be sent to Shandong for disaster relief, which should be played by Emperor Wen Jian, and ordered assistant minister Xia Yuanji to calculate the figures quickly. At this time, a cannon shot rang out in the distance of Beiping-Judy, the prince of Yan, rose up and the battle of Jingnan broke out.

If the sufferings of Shandong people were natural disasters before, they were man-made disasters, which were related to the five great achievements of Judy's life-the battle of Jingnan, the northern expedition to Mongolia, the voyage to the West and the move of the capital to Beijing.

Let's start with the battle of Jingnan and the rebellion of Judy, which not only stranded the government's plan to relieve the famine in Shandong, but also wanted to recruit tens of thousands of Shandong civilian workers to participate in the war. In the next three years, the main battlefield of the Jingnan campaign was in Shandong, and the people of Shandong had just experienced famine and were immediately attacked by soldiers. Judy attacked the fortified city of Jinan, fought in Dongchang and made many army expeditions. The places he passed were covered with bones and thousands of miles of bare land. This continuous military disaster didn't come to an end until Judy usurped the great cause of rebellion and became the "Yongle Emperor" three years later.

Later, Xia Yuanji advocated giving Shandong special care and a lot of relief, and the captaincy of King Qi and King Lu distributed it to farmers for farming, which made the people's life stable for several years, but the people's strength has not been restored. Since the eighth year of Yongle, Judy began to plan to explore Mongolia in the north. In addition to dispatching elite troops from all over the country, he also recruited 100 thousand civilian workers from Shandong to transport the trench. In the following years, a large number of Shandong farmers left their homes. Judy's brilliant martial arts, which defeated Tatar and Vala one after another, was precisely "pushed out by Shandong people with wheelbarrows".

Then came Chen Chengtong's voyage to the Western Ocean and Zheng He's voyage to the Western Ocean, which led to "all nations coming to Korea". Judy is warm and hospitable, and welcomes envoys from all countries to visit China.

Shandong, which has always been the "hometown of Confucius and Mencius", is naturally the first choice. Groups of foreign missions came here to "promote Wade in China" and show the prosperity of Shandong with extremely high natural specifications. Therefore, all counties in Shandong have engaged in "image projects", built roads, palaces and castles, and countless laborers. The expenses of envoys along the way are naturally shared by local people. King Sulu died in China and was buried in Dezhou. His children and his entourage stayed in the local area to sweep graves, and naturally they had to allocate funds to "support". This burden will eventually fall on the people of Shandong Province.

Frequent "big moves" put a heavy burden on the people, so moving the capital to Beijing was put on the agenda again at this time. If you want to move the capital, you must build Beijing. Migrant workers naturally moved from Shandong, which is near Beijing. After the capital was moved, the grain of Beijing was transported from the south, but the water transportation was blocked and the river was dredged. In the ninth year of Yongle, Song Li, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, presided over the reopening of the canal, mainly targeting the Huitong River from Dongping to Linqing in Shandong, and also conquering laborers, only in Shandong. Needless to say, the project is huge, and countless fertile fields will be stripped along the way. It stands to reason that the state should have subsidies, but the state spends too much money and has financial difficulties. The so-called "subsidy" is just a drop in the bucket for ordinary people.

After several years, Huitong River was finally built, but at the cost of countless farmers' homes in Shandong, they were ruined and displaced.

After several years' resignation, a massive rebellion storm was brewing in Shandong. In the eighteenth year of Yongle, a woman named Tang Saier, Putai (now Binzhou City, Shandong Province), finally made this storm come true.

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As for Tang Saier's life experience, historical records of past dynasties are quite different. In the notes of Ming and Qing literati, she is often described as a "wicked woman" who is proficient in witchcraft, which is really hearsay and even fabrication. However, many modern historical materials and even film and television works describe her as an honest "common people", but she rebelled angrily because her husband was kidnapped by the government. In fact, it is not that simple. Let's have a rough look: According to the relevant records of Binzhou local chronicles, Tang Saier was born in Binzhou, Shandong Province, and was in the first year of Ming Dynasty (1399). He has read widely since he was a child, is proficient in martial arts and is outstanding in appearance. As an adult, he married Lin San, a farmer in the same county. Shortly after the marriage, his husband died of illness. During this period, she took Yidu, Shandong Province (now Qingzhou, Shandong Province) as the center, recruited "righteous men" in neighboring cities, Jimo, Anqiu and other places, developed her power, and finally launched an anti-Ming war in February of the eighteenth year of Yongle. However, in this simple resume, she has another complicated identity-"White Lotus Sect" Buddha mother.

Anbailism originated in the Northern Song Dynasty and is a folk religious organization with a long history. Its doctrine mainly preaches that "Wang Mingsheng was born to save the people". Liu Futong, the leader of the peasant uprising at the end of Yuan Dynasty, took this as a call and set off a vigorous peasant uprising at the end of Yuan Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he strictly ordered "banning witchcraft cults" in Daming Law. Bailian religion was also among them, but it did not die out from now on. Instead, it became an undercurrent and spread widely among the middle and lower classes. However, compared with the unification of worshipping Wang Ming as a god at the end of Yuan Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect at this time has undergone great changes, and it has been divided into many factions such as Golden Cicada, Luodao, Wenxiang, Rebecca and Jade Emperor due to regional differences.

What is even more unavoidable is that Anbailism has been widely influenced among the middle and lower classes for a long time, not because of its "ideological progress", on the contrary, it is precisely because its thoughts contain a lot of "feudal dross", and its means of attracting believers are mostly all kinds of deceptive tricks, such as "ghost painting", "jumping into the sky", "drinking spiritual water" and "inviting heavenly soldiers", which still exist today. Therefore, Cai Dongfan, a scholar in the Republic of China, said, "The more troubled times, the more followers." .

As a believer of Ambry, Tang Saier is no exception. As far as the motivation of the uprising is concerned, his family background is not clearly recorded in various historical materials, but it can be inferred that he married a farmer, Lin San, and he was born in a peasant family. However, the detail of "reading widely and mastering martial arts" since childhood shows that he is not from a poor family. The theory that "the husband was kidnapped to death and caused an uprising" mostly exists in folk stories, but there is still a lack of detailed records in the official history. Zhang Qiyun, a Taiwanese historian, believes that Tang Saier's father was the head teacher of Anbalism, and her husband was also a believer of Anbalism. This uprising was also planned by generations for decades.

Xiao Yishan, another Taiwanese historian, believes that Tang Saier joined the White Lotus Sect during the widowed period after her husband died of illness, and soon became the leader of the White Lotus Sect. And then start an uprising. At present, these two statements are still "hypotheses" without conclusive evidence. The only thing we can know is that Tang Saier has faithfully converted to a religion, and its responsibility is to resist the "feudal dynasty" from generation to generation.

Different from what many contemporary historians called "spreading progressive thoughts" before the Tang Saier Uprising, in the process of planning the Uprising and recruiting believers, Tang Saier always publicized that he was the reincarnation of the "Buddha Mother" of Anbalism, and claimed that he had the method of "paper-cutting the heavenly soldiers" to live forever. The so-called "recruiting talents" in the surrounding areas of Qingzhou is actually spreading the teachings of An Baili that "the Buddha mother descended to earth". Compared with the previous Anbaili religious uprising, there are many "feudal dross", and its "progressive significance" is hard to find. The program of the uprising is "if you want food, clothing, wealth and goods, you need to use technology to transport them." It is also a replica of the previous peasant uprising program. However, the result is "raising tens of thousands of believers" in the local area. On the reason, it is still a sentence by Zheng Chen, a judge of Shandong Province after the incident-"People just suffer."

In February of the 18th year of Yongle (AD 1420), Tang Saier led thousands of Christians to revolt in Xieshizhai village in the southwest of Qingzhou. In March, the official troops who commanded the peak of Qingzhou Wei were wiped out, and the Bailian congregation in the surrounding counties such as Jimo, Juxian, Zhucheng, Rizhao, Shouguang and Anqiu responded in succession. Within a few days, his army grew to tens of thousands of people, and wherever the army went, it burned officials. The Record of Criminal Evidence only records the uprising: "The thief army (Tang Saier) was arrogant, and the unruly people took advantage of the situation to bully fools, destroy the learning palace, kill officials and plunder the village. Scholars and good people are not far from it. " However, Ming Shi had to admit: "Ximin readily obeyed. "

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When the news of Shandong loyalist defeat reached the capital, Judy heard it as a bolt from the blue. At the court, he even called Tang Saier a "witch". But after all, plans are being made to conquer the Mongolian Tatar. After the Tang Saier Uprising, many insurgents appeared in Taian, Yanzhou, Wenshang, Linqing and other places in Shandong Province, so they had to accept the advice of Yang Rong, the great scholar, and sent messengers to Shandong to "woo" Tang Saier, but they didn't want Tang Saier to kill the messengers, saying that they would "fight to the end".

In a rage, Judy sent Anyuan Hou Liusheng to send troops to suppress it. In addition to mobilizing elites from all over the country, he also transferred 2,000 elites from his own ace camp. In April, Liu Sheng arrived at the gates of Qingzhou, with a huge force, and even set up a prison car before the camp, vowing to win the battle.

Tang Saier made a pretence to surrender first, and Liu Sheng relaxed his vigilance and was robbed by Tang Saier. "A lot of people died." Liu Zhong, his ministry, died. Tang Saier rushed out of Liu Sheng's encirclement and came to Qingzhou. Then Tang Saier dispatched troops to join Dong Yansheng and Hong Bin who attacked Anqiu to jointly attack Anqiu. Anqiu fortified city, Tang Saier attack frustrated. Then he turned to Zhucheng and suffered heavy losses. At this time, Liu Sheng, who rallied, followed closely. Relying on the support of local villagers, Tang Saier wandered back and forth between Zhucheng, Qingzhou and Anqiu, and broke the siege of loyalists several times. The war lasted for three months, but there was no progress. By May, Judy transferred Shandong to command Wei Qing to lead the Japanese cavalry attack along the coast, and finally played the role of "cavalry maneuver", capturing the main force of the Tang Saier army in the suburbs of Anqiu, and the last charge washed away Tang Saier.

Tang Saier will patrol with Liu Jun and Wang Xuan, defeated and captured. In Tang Saier, more than 8,000 people were beheaded and 4,000 people were captured. However, Tang Saier, Hong Bin, Dong Yansheng and others succeeded in breaking through. Later, this "thief army" defeated the Ming army several times in three months and even killed two famous soldiers, which frightened the Ming court and disappeared mysteriously from now on. The vigorous Shandong uprising was put down.

However, Judy is very anxious. Although Wei Qing and others reported that Tang Saier, the "witch", died in the army, he was "come to a bad end". Upon hearing the rumor that Tang Saier might become a monk, Judy immediately ordered the arrest of 10,000 nuns and Taoist priests nationwide to Beijing in the 20th year (1422) and 21st year (1423) of Yongle.

Later, Judy sent Dongchang and Jinyiwei to "gather thousands of fine artists" and went deep into the folk "make-up reconnaissance" to make unannounced visits all over the country, still in vain. Local villagers in Shandong are rumored that the "Buddha Mother" has become an immortal. From time to time, hundreds of people have been put into prison by the government for "respecting the Buddha's mother".

Tang Saier's whereabouts became Judy's most lingering worry in her later years. Even in the 22nd year of Yongle (A.D. 1424), on the way back from the Northern Expedition in July, he was terminally ill and accidentally conscious. He also asked Yang Rong: "Was Shandong arrested for disobeying the chief?" A few days later, with the regret of not finding the answer all her life, Judy died. The tenacious organization of "White Lotus Sect" was still surging at the bottom of society in the Ming Dynasty. A few decades later, a bigger white lotus riot broke out.