Everything about Wu Guang totally explained
Wu Guang (
Traditional Chinese: 吳廣) (d.
209 BC or
208 BC (around the new year)) was a leader of the first rebellion against
Qin Dynasty during the reign of
Qin Er Shi, following the death of
Qin Shi Huang. Less is known about him than
Chen Sheng.
Biography
Wu Guang was born in Yangxia (陽夏, in modern
Zhoukou,
Henan). In
209 BC, he was a military captain along with
Chen Sheng when the two of them were ordered to lead 900 soldiers to Yuyang (漁陽, in modern
Beijing) to help defend the northern border against
Xiongnu. Due to storms, it became clear that they couldn't get to Yuyang by the deadline, and according to law, if soldiers couldn't get to their posts on time, they'd be executed. Chen and Wu, believing that they were doomed, led their soldiers to start a rebellion. They (falsely) announced that
Ying Fusu (嬴扶蘇), the beloved elder son of
Qin Shi Huang and elder brother of
Qin Er Shi, who had wrongly been forced to commit suicide, and
Xiang Yan (項燕), a beloved general of
Chu, hadn't died and were joining their cause. They also declared the reestablishment of Chu.
Using 900 men to resist an empire seemed to be a suicidal move, but the people, who had felt deeply oppressed by the Qin regime, joined Chen and Wu's cause quickly. Soon, there were people asking Chen to declare himself the Prince of
Chu. Against the advice of
Zhang Er (張耳) and
Chen Yu (陳餘), Chen declared himself as such, rather than, as according to their advice, seek out a descendant of Chu's royal house to be the prince.
After Chen set his capitall at Chenqiu (陳丘, in modern
Zhoukou,
Henan), he created Wu Guang Acting Prince (假王) of Chu and ordered Wu to head west toward Qin proper. Wu's forces, however, became bogged down while sieging Yingyang (滎陽, in modern
Zhengzhou,
Henan). Wu's generals became concerned that Qin reinforcements under
Zhang Han (章邯) would soon arrive and attack them on two sides. They wanted to change Wu's plans, end the siege of Yingyang, and face Zhang's forces directly. Unconvinced that Wu would change his plans, they assassinated Wu and took over the army.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Wu Guang'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://wu_guang.totallyexplained.com">Wu Guang Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
