Rebellion in Southern Jing Province

The Rebellion in southern Jing Province, in the commanderies of Changsha, Lingling and Guiyang, was fought against by Sun Jian 孫堅 shortly after he returned from his campaign against the Liang Province Rebels. The rebelgroup was rather large for such a local rising, but Sun Jian dealt with it swiftly.

The Battle
After the initial Liang Province Rebellion, Sun Jian returned to the capital in 186 AD. There, he was appointed as Gentleman-Consultant in the civil administration. With this title Sun Jian held position as an adviser at the imperial court.

In 187 AD, after only a few months of rest since the campaign against the Liang Province Rebels, Sun Jian was appointed as Grand Administrator of Changsha commandery. The territory of Changsha commandery, however, appeared to be one with rebel activity and perhaps for this reason Sun Jian was appointed as the commanderies’ Grand Administrator. The imperial court must have been impressed with Sun Jian’s achievements against the Yellow Turban rebels and Liang rebels, or at least impressed enough to sent him against the rebels in southern Jing.

Local Rising in Changsha
In the winter of 187 AD, during the tenth month (17 November ~ 16 December), the rebel leader of Changsha, one Ou Xing 區星, gave himself the title of General and was attacking and besieging cities with an army consisting of over 10.000 men. Then, Sun Jian was sent to Changsha commandery as its Grand Administrator. He worked out a plan and defeated and destroyed Ou Xing and his followers within only one month since his arrival.

The Bandits in Lingling and Guiyang
About what happened after Ou Xing’s rising was dealt with there exists some slight confusion. We are given three names for the rebels in the neighbouring commanderies of Lingling and Guiyang, who were supposed to have a loose alliance with Ou Xing, however these names are not always the same.

The three most common names are Guan Gu 觀鵠, Guo Shi 郭石 and Zhou Chao 周朝. We are told that the rebel Guan Gu was a religious one and he gave himself the title of General Who Pacifies Heaven and was ravaging Guiyang commandery. Sun Jian supposedly attacked him too in the tenth month of 187 and destroyed the rebels swiftly, beheading Guan Gu in the process.

The remainder of Guan Gu’s troops, however, were shortly thereafter under the leadership of the bandits Guo Shi and Zhou Chao, who were supposedly Guan Gu’s successors. Together they ravaged the three commanderies Lingling, Guiyang and Changsha. Sun Jian attacked them and went outside the borders of his Changsha commandery to pursue and destroy them.