Qin Yan

Qin Yan (秦彥) (died March 2, 888), né Qin Li (秦立), was a warlord of the late Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty, who seized control of Xuanshe Circuit (宣歙, headquartered in modern Xuancheng, Anhui), and thereafter briefly seized control of Yang Prefecture (揚州, in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu), the capital of Huainan Circuit (淮南), before being defeated by Yang Xingmi. He joined forced with Sun Ru thereafter against Yang, but was killed by Sun.

It is not known when Qin Yan was born, but it is known that he was from Xu Prefecture (徐州, in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu), where he served as a soldier, and that he was originally named Qin Li. During the Qianfu era (874-879) of Emperor Xizong, there was an occasion when he was accused of theft and imprisoned, set to be sentenced to death. One night, he dreamed of someone telling him, "You may follow me." Once he woke up, he broke out of jail. He changed his name to Qin Yan, and he gathered a group of 100 men. With these men, he surprised and killed the magistrate of Xiapei County (下邳, in modern Xuzhou), seizing the supplies of the county government. He then took these men and joined the army of the agrarian rebel Huang Chao.

In 879, the Tang military governor (Jiedushi) of Zhenhai Circuit (鎮海, headquartered in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu), Gao Pian, sent his officers Zhang Lin (張璘) and Liang Zan (梁瓚) to attack Huang, and they repeatedly defeated Huang. Qin, along with several other key Huang followers, including Bi Shiduo, Li Hanzhi, and Xu Qing (許勍), surrendered to Gao. Gao made him the prefect of He Prefecture (和州, in modern Chaohu, Anhui).

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