The Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprisings were the first large-scale peasant uprisings that broke out in ancient Chinese feudal dynasties, which can be regarded as subverting the former feudal hierarchical thinking. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang also put forward the famous "princely general Xiangning has a kind of" and "the bird's nest knows the ambition of the bird".
After the Qin Dynasty swept away the Six Kingdoms and unified the whole country, it was worried that the vassal states would support troops to resist, so they created the county system to rule the whole country. Among them, the large vassal states were set up as counties, and the small vassal states were set up as counties, so that the local officials could not have the capital to fight against the imperial court. Qin Shi Huang wanted to use such a system to pass on the throne to thousands of generations.
Qin Shi Huang's idea was good, but he ignored a key factor, and that was the power of the people. Although the implementation of the county system can well restrict the development of these former princes, it cannot prevent the hungry people from rising up to resist. Once these defenseless people unite because they can't have enough to eat, their power is a hundred times stronger than that of the vassal states.
So in 209 BC, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were recruited to go to Yuyang Shubian, and they were delayed by heavy rain on the road, and they could not reach the place on time. According to the harsh criminal law of the Qin State at that time, they would be beheaded even if they arrived, so they led 900 poor people to launch an uprising in Daze Township. Under the call of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, more and more people joined in. Chen Sheng called himself King Chen, and his country name was Zhang Chu, and their troops attacked Xianyang in three ways. Qin II hurriedly mobilized the Qin generals led by Zhang Han to counterattack the rebel army, and it was not long before Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were defeated, and both were killed by their subordinates.
Why was the first peasant uprising so quickly defeated? It stands to reason that the Qin Dynasty at that time was already rotten and could easily be defeated. From a historical point of view, the main thing is that Chen Sheng and Wu Guang did three major things wrong, each of which was enough to bury the peasant rebel with a good future.
First, the king fell apart too quickly
Chen Sheng's entire time from peak to demise was actually very short, only 6 months. But this peasant did not send a leader at all, he named himself King Chen, and also called the country name Zhang Chu, vigorously built the palace, and rewarded hundreds of officials, as if he had won the world. In the end, due to his own haste, many powerful opponents saw Chen Sheng's ambition and abandoned him one after another. In the end, Chen Sheng's side was left with some people who tended to be inflammatory.
Second, there have been major mistakes in strategic decision-making
At the time of Chen Sheng's uprising, a large number of Qin's troops were in other places, and it was too late to return to Xianyang. Later, he pardoned many prisoners to help conquer Chen Sheng and Wu Guangcai to save his position, if Chen Sheng had the vision to directly lead his troops to Xianyang, then it is still unknown who will kill the deer. Later, he sent his feng shui master Zhou Wen as the former army commander to attack the land of Guanzhong, but the result was to rob the house all the way, and met the prisoners led by Zhang Han on the way, and the team of the feng shui master collapsed instantly as soon as the two sides fought. Later, he sent troops to the north to fight against the Qin State, but the result was still unsurprising, and the men and horses sent out successively broke away from Chen Sheng and proclaimed himself King of Zhao and King Yan, completely dispersing the strength of the rebel army.
Third, biased listening and trusting, using villains to dissipate the morale of the military
After Chen Sheng became the king, he also appointed his henchmen, but these henchmen did not have much real ability, but they were all villains who brutalized the generals. Because Chen Sheng was born as a peasant, his heart was relatively fragile, and he was always afraid that his generals would leave him, so he sent his henchmen Hu Wu and Zhu Fang to supervise the generals. Once they found anything unusual, they reported it directly to Chen Sheng, and they were imprisoned and executed at his behest. As a result, the two of them used the power in their hands to do evil, wantonly excluded dissidents, and as a result, they aroused the anger of the public and greatly lost everyone's confidence in uniting to fight against the tyrannical Qin.
Chen Sheng and Wu Guang did play an important role in the fight against the rule of the Qin Dynasty, but it was surprising that their revolt was put down so quickly. Even the later Xiang Yu and Liu Bang were actually the incarnations of Chen Sheng. The reason why Chen Sheng was so completely defeated was that he still could not get rid of the limitations of the peasants.