Wang Xianzhi, through the Tang official Wang Liao, the cousin or brother of the chancellor Wang Duo, and Pei Wo, the prefect of Qi Prefecture (in modern Huanggang, Hubei), is negotiating a peaceful submission to Tang authority late in 876.

Under Wang Duo's insistence, Emperor Xizong commissions Wang Xianzhi an officer of the imperial Left Shence Arm and delivers the commission to Qi Prefecture.

However, Huang, who does not receive a commission as part of this arrangement, grows angry at Wabng’s perceived sellout.

He batters Wang Xianzhi on the head, and the rebel soldiers also clamor against the arrangement.

Wan, fearing the wrath of his own army, turns against Pei and pillages Qi Prefecture.

However, the rebel army afterwards breaks up into two groups, with one group following Wang Xianzhi and Shang Junzhang, and one group following Huang Chao.

An inscription made in 876 at Gwalior, India, contains a symbol indicating the absence of a number, but the Indians, like the contemporary Mayans and the classical Greeks and Romans, do not make mathematical use of such symbols.

Thus, the introduction of zero into Arabic and Hindu mathematics as an actual working tool is a revolutionary development.

Louis is preparing for war when he dies at Frankfurt on August 28, 876.

He is buried at the abbey of Lorsch, leaving three sons and three daughters.

His sons, unusually for the times, respect the division made a decade earlier and each contents himself with his own kingdom.

Considered by many to be the most competent of the grandsons of Charlemagne, Louis in the face of the attacks of Vikings, Slavs, and others had obtained for his kingdom a certain degree of security.

He lived in close alliance with the Church, to which he was very generous, and entered eagerly into schemes for the conversion of his heathen neighbors.

Halfdan moves north to attack the Picts, while Guthrum emerges as the war leader in the south; joined in 876 by additional forces, they win the Battle of Wareham.

The town of Swanage, first mentioned in historical texts in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 877, is stated as being the scene of a great naval victory by King Alfred over the Danes: "This year came the Danish army into Exeter from Wareham; whilst the navy sailed west about, until they met with a great mist at sea, and there perished one hundred and twenty ships at Swanwich."

A hundred Danish ships that had survived the battle are driven by a storm onto Peveril Point, a shallow rocky reef outcropping from the southern end of Swanage Bay.

Svatopluk distinguishes himself in the conduct of political affairs.

After the death of Louis the German in 876, Svatopluk acquires large territories with Slavic populations.

The Great Moravia that he creates includes all of Bohemia, the southern part of modern Poland, and the western part of modern Hungary.

He annexes some territories and leaves local princes who recognize his suzerainty in others.

Such is apparently the case of the Czech prince Borivoj I. Propagation of Christianity follows Svatopluk's advances.

According to legends, Borivoj is baptized by Methodius and then admits clerics of the Slavic rite to his principality.

While the archbishop is engaged in missionary work in the annexed territories, however, advocates of the Latin rite, headed by a Frankish cleric, Wiching, bishop of Nitra, strengthen their position in Moravia.

Huang Chao subsequently roams throughout central China, and his campaign takes him into many engagements with Tang forces.

In spring 877, Huang captures Tianping's capital Yun Prefecture, killing Xue Chong, then captures Yi Prefecture (in modern Linyi, Shandong).

Huang joins forces with Shang Junzhang's brother Shang Rang at Mount Chaya (in modern Zhumadian, Henan) in summer 877.

He and Wang Xianzhi then briefly join forces again and put the Tang general Song Wei under siege at Song Prefecture (in modern Shangqiu, Henan).

However, the Tang general Zhang Zimian then arrives and defeats them, and they lift the siege on Song Prefecture and scatter.

Huang pillages Qi and Huang (in modern Wuhan, Hubei) Prefectures in winter 877, but flees after the Tang general Zeng Yuanyu defeats him.

Huang soon captures Kuangcheng (in modern Xinxiang) and …