structural:scholar_edition, structural:summarization
Return to the North

However, as Huang Chao's army was in the Lingnan region, his soldiers were stricken by illnesses, and some 3–40% died. His key subordinates suggested that he march back north, and he agreed. He thus made rafts at Gui Prefecture (桂州, in modern Guilin, Guangxi) and took them down the Xiang River, reaching Hunan's capital Tan Prefecture (in modern Changsha, Hunan) in winter 879. He attacked Tan Prefecture and captured it in a day, and Li Xi fled to Lang Prefecture (朗州, in modern Changde, Hunan). Shang Rang then attacked Jingnan's capital Jiangling Municipality, where Wang Duo was. Wang panicked and fled as well, leaving the city to be defended by his officer Liu Hanhong, but as soon as Wang left the city, Liu mutinied, pillaged the city, and took his soldiers to become bandits.

Huang himself followed Xiang's advance and went through Jiangling to attack Xiangyang, the capital of Shannan East Circuit (山南東道). He was, however, defeated by the joint forces of Shannan East's military governor Liu Jurong (劉巨容) and the imperial general Cao Quanzhen (曹全晸), who further pursued him all the way to Jiangling. However, Liu, concerned that if he captured Huang, the imperial government would no longer value him, called off the pursuit, and Cao also broke off his pursuit. Huang then headed east and attacked E Prefecture (鄂州, in modern Wuhan), and pillaged the 15 surrounding prefectures. As he did so, however, he was repeatedly repelled by Zhang Lin. As a result of Zhang's successes, the imperial government put Zhang's superior Gao Pian, who had by that point been transferred to Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu), in charge of the overall operations against Huang, replacing Wang. Many circuits thus sent troops to Huainan

With his forces repeatedly defeated by Zhang and also suffering from plagues, Huang, then stationed at Xin Prefecture (信州, in modern Shangrao), decided to try to bribe his way out of his predicament. He thus submitted much gold to Zhang and wrote letters to plead with Gao, offering to submit to Tang imperial authority. Gao, who also wanted to use trickery himself to capture Huang, offered to recommend Huang as a military governor. Further, Gao, in order to monopolize the achievement, decided to return the supplementary troops from Zhaoyi (昭義, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi), Ganhua (感化, headquartered in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu), and Yiwu (義武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei) Circuits. As soon as he returned those troops, however, Huang broke off negotiations and challenged Zhang to a battle. Gao, in anger, ordered Zhang to engage, but this time, Huang decisively defeated Zhang in spring 880 and killed him in battle, throwing Gao into a panic.

Huang, after defeating Zhang, then captured Xuan Prefecture, then, in summer 880, crossed the Yangtze River north at Caishi (采石, in modern Ma'anshan, Anhui), and put the Huainan defense outposts Tianchang (天長, in modern Chuzhou, Anhui) and Liuhe (六合, in modern Nanjing, Jiangsu) under siege, not far from Gao's headquarters at Yang Prefecture (揚州). Bi Shiduo, who was then serving as an officer under Gao, suggested that Gao engage Huang, but Gao was terrified of engaging Huang after Zhang's death, and instead sent urgent requests for aid to the imperial government. The imperial government, which had hoped that Gao would be successful in stopping Huang, was very disappointed and thrown into a panic itself. Emperor Xizong ordered the circuits south of the Yellow River to send troops to Yin River (溵水, a major branch of the Shaying River) to block off Huang's further advance, and also sent Cao and Qi Kerang, the military governor of Taining Circuit (泰寧, headquartered in modern Jining, Shandong), to intercept Huang. However, Cao was only given 6,000 men, and although he fought hard, he was ultimately unable to stop Huang's 150,000 men.

At this point, a mutiny among the imperial armies further ended any imperial resistance at Yin River. This occurred as some 3,000 Ganhua soldiers were heading to Yin River to participate in the defense operations there, and they went through Xu Prefecture (許州, in modern Xuchang), the capital of Zhongwu Circuit (忠武). Despite the Ganhua soldiers' reputation for lack of discipline, Xue Neng (薛能) the military governor of Zhongwu, because he had been Ganhua's military governor before, believed that they would be obedient to him, so he allowed them to stay in the city. But that night, the Ganhua soldiers rioted over what they perceived to be the lack of supplies given to them. Xue met them and calmed them down, but this in turn caused the Zhongwu soldiers and the populace of Xu Prefecture to be angry at his lenient treatment of them. The Zhongwu officer Zhou Ji, himself then taking Zhongwu soldiers toward Yin River, thus turned his army around and attacked and slaughtered the Ganhua soldiers. His soldiers also killed Xue and Xue's family. Zhou then declared himself military governor. Qi, concerned that Zhou would attack him, withdrew from the area and returned to Taining Circuit. In response, the troops that other circuits had stationed at Yin River scattered, leaving the path wide open for Huang. Huang thus crossed the Huai River north, and it was said that starting from this point, Huang's army stopped pillaging for wealth, but forced more young men into the army to increase its strength.