The Yellow Turban Rebellion

In the year of AD184, in a small town, a hermit named ZhangJiao was walking past a farm when he saw many people suffering from hunger. His brothers, ZhangBao and ZhangLiang, came and told him that the people were eager to rebel if they have a chance to. They made a few revolts but were all beaten by the Han imperial troops. ZhangJiao grabbed the chance to form a rebellion. Since ZhangJiao was a famous hermit and sorcerer, people from all over the province start to join him in his rebellion. At the same time, the Han court was corrupt and farmines struck all the provinces. The Emperor became weak and the eunuchs became more and more powerful controlling the emperor in state affairs. The whole empire fell into a chaos. Lords and warlords soon fought each other as the empire started to crumble. The taxes rised and the people could not afford clothes, food and houses. The court officials divided the imperial army and fought each other. HeJin was the victor after many years of war with the other imperial officials. The eunuchs hated him and dropped his rank to a marshal. HeJIn still commanded the imperial troops who followed him. After four weeks of forming, the Yellow Turbans were strong enough to start the rebellion. At the beginning of the rebellion, ZhangJiao spoke to the rebels, "my brothers, the Han is crumbling and more troubles rising, the imperial court is weak and the eunuchs took over, we must stop the chaos of the Han and live in peace, this time, let us charge the way to LuoYang and destroy the chaos together!" Soon, ZhangJiao, ZhangBao and ZhangLiang drew their swords and charged the rebels followed. On the way, the rebels burnd and destroyed forts, imperial buildings and palaces. HeJin and YuanShao were the commandes of the imperial forces to put down the rebellion. But they lost battle after battle and soon the imperial and goverment troops fled. More than 456,345 imperial and goverment troops were killed in 19 days. While attacking the city of XiangYang, a rebel general, GongZhecheng found an imperial pot buried in the sand. It was the pot Prince Jing buried in haste as he fled the city after the rebels came. GongZhecheng was overjoyed as he will turn rich after selling it. He decided to dessert the rebels and made his way out of the city. He was later surrounded by the Han forces. He tried to break out of the encirclement with his long spear but was slained by KongPei commander of the XiangYang army division who followed YuanShao since last year. KongPei took the pot and returned it to the emperor. The Prime Minister was worried and surrended to the Yellow Turbans. His son became Prime Minister and led the army to fight the rebels but was defeated after a fierce battle near FanCheng. The Prime Minister had no choice but to return to the capital LuoYang and was excecuted by a eunuch. HeJin suffered more and more defeats by the the rebels and was forced to retreat to ChangSha where the governer, SunJian, joined him.