Emperor Xizong of Tang - Early Reign: Rebellions Led By Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao

Early Reign: Rebellions Led By Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao

Almost immediately thereafter, Wei Baoheng, who had been exceedingly powerful late in Emperor Yizong's reign, was exiled and later forced to commit suicide in exile. Meanwhile, Tian Lingzi became very influential, and was described as the actual decision-maker for most of the important decisions of state, as Emperor Xizong was young and trusting of him.

Early in Emperor Xizong's reign, a terrible drought-driven famine took over the heart of the Tang realm. As described by the imperial scholar Lu Xi, who would become chancellor in late 874:

I personally saw the devastation of the drought last year. As far west at Guo Prefecture and as far as the Great Sea, the spring wheat only yielded half as much as it should; the various food crops of the fall yielded very little, and even less of an yield did the winter vegetables have. The poor people ground the seeds of the spatterdock into powder, and ate it with the leaves of the pagoda tree as they were vegetables. Some people suffered even worse, indescribable fates. For several years now, year by year there were poor harvests, and the people fled to other prefectures, leaving just the helpless people with nowhere to go, sitting in the ruins of their villages awaiting starvation.

Lu urged that Emperor Xizong waive all taxation on the prefectures affected by the famine and immediately start disaster relief efforts. Emperor Xizong issued an edict agreeing with Lu's suggestions, but it was said that no actual disaster relief was actually carried out. Meanwhile, the southwestern regions of the empire, largely unaffected by the famine, was instead embroiled in the wars with Dali.

As the famine continued, the people who were displaced by the famine began to lose hope in the imperial government, and they gathered in roving bands, pillaging for food. By 874-875, a large group had gathered under the leadership of Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao. Within a few months, Wang and Huang had gathered tens of thousands of men in their army. Meanwhile, the army officer Wang Ying also rebelled and led his band of rebels to pillage the southeast coast. There were numerous smaller bands of rebels roving around the realm.

The imperial administration tried to deal with the Wang/Huang rebellion by initially having the military governors (Jiedushi) of the five most-affected circuits — Huainan (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu), Zhongwu (忠武, headquartered in modern Xuchang, Henan), Xuanwu (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan), Yicheng (義成, headquartered in modern Anyang, Henan), and Tianping (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong) mobilize their local troops to either destroy the rebels or encourage them to surrender. This strategy was ineffective, and at the suggestion of Song Wei (宋威) the military governor of Pinglu Circuit (平盧, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong), Emperor Xizong put Song in command of a special task force concentrating on eliminating the rebels. Song had some early successes, but soon showed himself to be unable to follow up on his successes, as he was unable to contain Wang's roving army. In late 876, the chancellor Wang Duo tried to end Wang Xianzhi's rebellion by promising to make him an army officer — an offer that Wang Xianzhi was initially entice by — but after Huang opposed the proposal, the war continued, with Wang Xianzhi and Huang dividing their armies into two separate bands.

However, Wang Xianzhi again made a peace overture in 877, sending his deputy Shang Junzhang (尚君長) to meet the eunuch general Yang Fuguang to negotiate a surrender. However, Song, who opposed a peace with Wang, captured Shang as Shang was on his way to meet with Yang, and falsely claimed that he had claimed Shang in battle. He delivered Shang to Chang'an to be executed, despite Yang's repeated attempts to have Shang spared. Shang's death ended hopes for a negotiated peace. (Meanwhile, though, Wang Ying's rebellion ended when he was killed in battle.)

Soon thereafter, Song was relieved of his command of the task force, and Zeng Yuanyu (曾元裕) took over. Zeng soon defeated Wang Xianzhi in battle and killed him. However, Wang's followers, including Shang Junzhang's brother Shang Rang, gathered their troops and submitted to Huang. Huang continued the roving campaign, and marched south, capturing and for some time holding Guang Prefecture (廣州, in modern Guangzhou, Guangdong) as his headquarters. Meanwhile, the Shatuo chieftain Li Guochang and Li Guochang's son Li Keyong rebelled to the north, and they made an attempt to take over the modern Shanxi region, but soon they were defeated and forced to flee to the Dada (達靼, then in the Yin Mountains) tribe.