Huangchao (?~ 884.7.13) at the end of the Tang Dynasty. Cao Zhou (now the northwest of Cao County, Shandong Province) people. Slightly pass the secretary, repeatedly into the first, to sell private salt for business. The family is rich in wealth, good fencing riding and shooting.

Huang Chao came from a salt merchant family. He was good at riding and shooting, and had a rough understanding of pen and ink. He failed to pass the Jinshi. He once organized a salt gang and had many armed conflicts with the court to investigate illegal salt. In the second year of Qianfu (875), Wang Xianzhi, Shang Rang and others raised an army in Changyuan (now northeast of Changyuan, Henan). Huang Chao and his nephews Huang Kui and Huang Enye raised an army in Yuan Ju (now southwest of Heze City, Shandong) to respond to Wang Xianzhi.

The Huang Chao army initially attacked Yizhou (now Linyi, Shandong) eastward but failed; it turned to Shandong, Henan and other places, capturing eight counties including Yangzhai (now Yu County, Henan) and Jiacheng (now Jia County, Henan); and advanced to Ruzhou (now Linru, Henan).

In the first year of Zhonghe (881), the Huangchao army entered Chang'an. Zhang Zhifang, the general of Jinwu, led the crowd to welcome the Huangchao army into the city. "The whole crowd walked, not plundering wealth and goods". The crowd reached one million troops. After entering the city, the army was strictly disciplined.

The following year, the Tang army once invaded Chang'an, the Qi army temporarily withdrew, and the garrison overran. After the Tang army entered the city, it burned, killed and looted, which was not popular. The Qi army counterattacked that night and expelled the Tang army from the city. This time, Huang Chao hated the townspeople for assisting the officers and army, so he slaughtered the troops and bled into rivers, which was called "washing the city". Huang Chao did not send an army to pursue Tang Xizong, so that the Tang army had a chance to breathe. In the end, Huang Chao was just a general raider's breath. The land where the army passed only cared about food, and there was very little construction. The people were clean and the land was thousands of miles away.

In the second year of Zhonghe (882), Tang Xizong in Sichuan counterattacked. In September, Zhu Wen, the general of the Qi army, surrendered to the Tang army during the battle with Wang Chongrong in Tongzhou (now Dali, Shaanxi) and was appointed General Youjinwu, given the name Quan Zhong.

On June 17 (July 13), 884, Huang Chao was killed by his subordinate Lin Yan in Langhu Valley (present-day Laiwu, Shandong). Nie Jianguang, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, wrote in "The Story of Taishan Road":"Huang Chao died in Taishan... There is a large tomb in the south of Jiuding Mountain, commonly known as the Huang Chao Tomb.¡»

Huang Chao was brutal and cruel, with a narrow concept and a penchant for killing innocent people. After conquering Changan, he did not think about making progress. He did not eliminate the Tang Dynasty imperial guards in the sub-town Guanzhong, and lacked economic policies. Finally, he was defeated by the Tang army. Huang Chao led the remnants of his son Huang Hao to flee and was called "The Swingers". In the early years of Zhaozong's reign, when he attacked Hunan, he was killed by the Xiangyin local tyrant Deng Jinsi. So far, the peasant war ended in the late Tang Dynasty.

Comments: Those who win are princes and those who lose are bandits. Huang Chao will not become a great weapon after all.