1. Huang Chao was a wealthy Han Chinese salt trader, soldier, rebel and is most well known for being the first and only Emperor of his own country of the Kingdom of Qi that fought against the Tang dynasty military and severely weakened and almost defeated the Tang dynasty had Huang Chao not been betrayed and assassinated by one of his own trusted nephews who had been bribed with money and positions of power by the Tang Dynasty government.
Huang Chao had worked many years as a salt trader before joining Wang Xianzhi's rebellion against the Tang Dynasty in the mid-870s.
Huang Chao proclaimed himself the Emperor of the Kingdom of Qi and reigned on the imperial dragon throne for almost four years but was eventually defeated in battle by the rival Tang dynasty army led by the Shatuo chieftain Li Keyong in 883 and forced to desert and escape Chang'an.
Some other sources state that Huang Chao had escaped to safety with his family, servants, bodyguards and his royal staff.
Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao were two of the important rebel leaders during this era.
Huang Chao's family had been salt privateers for generations, and the Huang family became wealthy from smuggling.
Huang Chao used his wealth to take in desperate men who then served under him.
Huang Chao had at least one older brother, Huang Cun, and at least six younger brothers, Huang Ye or Huang Siye, Huang Kui, Huang Qin, Huang Bing, Huang Wantong, and Huang Sihou.
Huang Chao repeatedly participated in the imperial examinations, but was not able to pass them, and thereafter resolved to rebel against Tang rule.
Huang Chao had by this point raised several thousand men, and joined forces with Wang's now veteran troops.
However, Huang Chao, who did not receive a commission as part of this arrangement, angrily stated:.
Huang Chao battered Wang Xianzhi on the head, and the rebel soldiers clamored against the arrangement.
Huang Chao subsequently roamed throughout central China, and his campaign took him into many engagements with Tang forces:.
Huang Chao then captured Yi and Pu Prefectures again, but then suffered several defeats by Tang forces.
Huang Chao thus wrote the new military governor of Tianping, Zhang Xi, asking Zhang to ask for a Tang commission on his behalf.
Meanwhile, Huang Chao wrote Cui Qiu, the governor of Zhedong Circuit, and Li Tiao, the military governor of Lingnan East Circuit, to ask them to intercede for him, offering to submit to Tang imperial authority if he were made the military governor of Tianping.
Huang Chao, receiving the offer, was incensed by what he perceived to be an insult.
Huang Chao ordered Li Tiao to submit a petition to Emperor Xizong on his behalf again, but this time, Li Tiao refused, so he executed Li Tiao.
Huang Chao thus made rafts at Gui Prefecture and took them down the Xiang River, reaching Hunan's capital Tan Prefecture in winter 879.
Huang Chao attacked Tan Prefecture and captured it in a day, and Li Xi fled to Lang Prefecture.
Huang Chao himself followed Xiang's advance and went through Jiangling to attack Xiangyang, the capital of Shannan East Circuit.
Huang Chao was defeated by the joint forces of Shannan East's military governor Liu Jurong and the imperial general Cao Quanzhen, who further pursued him all the way to Jiangling.
Huang Chao then headed east and attacked E Prefecture, and pillaged the 15 surrounding prefectures.
Huang Chao thus submitted much gold to Zhang and wrote letters to plead with Gao, offering to submit to Tang imperial authority.
Gao, who wanted to use trickery himself to capture Huang Chao, offered to recommend Huang Chao as a military governor.
Gao, in anger, ordered Zhang to engage, but this time, Huang Chao decisively defeated Zhang in spring 880 and killed him in battle, throwing Gao into a panic.
Huang Chao, after defeating Zhang, then captured Xuan Prefecture, then, in summer 880, crossed the Yangtze River north at Caishi, and put the Huainan defense outposts Tianchang and Liuhe under siege, not far from Gao's headquarters at Yang Prefecture.
The imperial government, which had hoped that Gao would be successful in stopping Huang Chao, was very disappointed and thrown into a panic itself.
Huang Chao thus crossed the Huai River north, and it was said that starting from this point, Huang Chao's army stopped pillaging for wealth, but forced more young men into the army to increase its strength.
Qi Kerang was put in charge of making a final attempt to stop Huang Chao from reaching Luoyang.
Meanwhile, though, the chancellors Doulu Zhuan and Cui Hang, believing that imperial forces would not be able to stop Huang Chao from reaching Luoyang and Chang'an, suggested that Emperor Xizong prepare to flee to Xichuan Circuit, where Chen Jingxuan, the brother of the powerful eunuch Tian Lingzi, was military governor.
Huang Chao ordered that Tang's imperial clan members be slaughtered.
Huang Chao then moved into the Tang palace and declared himself the emperor of a new state of Qi.
Huang Chao made his wife, Lady Cao, empress, while making Shang Rang, Zhao Zhang, and the Tang officials Cui Qiu and Yang Xigu chancellors.
Huang Chao initially tried to simply take over the Tang imperial mandate, as he ordered that the Tang imperial officials of the fourth rank or lower continue to remain in office, as long as they showed submission by registering with Zhao, removing only the third-rank or above officials.
Huang Chao tried to persuade the former Tang chancellor Zheng Tian, the military governor of nearby Fengxiang Circuit, to submit, but Zheng resisted, and when he sent Shang and Wang Bo to try to capture Fengxiang, Zheng defeated Qi forces that he sent in spring 881.
Huang Chao reentered Chang'an and, angry at the people of Chang'an for aiding Tang forces, carried out massacres against the population.
In summer 883, Li Keyong entered Chang'an, and Huang Chao was unable to resist him, and so abandoned Chang'an to flee east.
Huang Chao headed toward Fengguo Circuit and had his general Meng Kai attack Fengguo's capital Cai Prefecture.
The military governor of Fengguo, Qin Zongquan, was defeated by Meng, and reacted by opening the city gates, submitting to Huang Chao, and joining Huang Chao's forces.
Legends popular during the ensuing Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period claim that Huang Chao became a Buddhist monk following his escape.
Huang Chao wrote a few poems that were lyrical even when expressing anger and violence.