In December 755, the three towns of Fanyang, Pinglu and Hedong of the Tang Dynasty made An Lushan rise up against the Tang Dynasty, and "Yuyang Nai agitated to come and break the neon dress feather song", and a "Anshi Rebellion" that almost led to the destruction of the Tang Dynasty was on the stage of history.
Later generations often mention one person when referring to the "Anshi Rebellion", that is, Li Linfu, the prime minister who had previously actively promoted the appointment of non-Han generals as envoys to the feudal town. It was precisely because of this policy advocated by Li Linfu that An Lushan and other Hu generals took the opportunity to become a big force and eventually launched a rebellion. Therefore, many people have put the "black cauldron" of the "Anshi Chaos" on Li Linfu's head, believing that he is the root cause of all disasters. So the question is, why did Li Linfu entrust all the frontier towns of the Tang Dynasty to foreign generals to guard? Did he not foresee the possibility of rebellion of these generals at all? To explain this problem, we must start with two so-called "conspiracies" that occurred during the years of Tianbao (Tang Xuanzong's era name, the first month of 742 to July 756).
During Li Linfu's tenure as chancellor, Tang Xuanzong was already more and more neglectful of government affairs, and most of the affairs of the state were decided by Li Linfu. In a sense, Li Linfu was the real trader of the Tang Empire at that time. However, although Tang Xuanzong did not want to take care of things, there were people who wanted to take care of things, that is, Tang Xuanzong's son, Crown Prince Li Heng. Thus began the power struggle between the prince and the prime minister.
At that time, Li Linfu's clique was undoubtedly the most powerful faction in the imperial court, but the prince clique was not weak, and the backbone members were Li Shizhi, who was also in charge of the military department Shangshu Li Shizhi, Wei Jian (the crown prince's brother-in-law), Hubu Shangshu Pei Kuan, Shangshu Pei Dunfu of the Punishment Department, and Longyou and Hexi Jiedushi Envoy Emperor Weiming (a close friend of the crown prince). Since both groups regarded each other as mortal enemies, the two sides soon started a "ring" at the imperial court.
In 746, Li Linfu arranged for his close associate Yang Shenyun to report to the emperor that the crown prince, Wei Jian, Emperor Fu Weiming, and others were planning a coup d'état. When the emperor heard about it, he immediately sent someone to investigate. What the conclusion of the investigation is still unknown, but the results of the treatment are quite intriguing, the prince Li Heng himself has not been punished in any way, and the other members of the prince group have been severely damaged. The chancellor Li Shizhi took the initiative to resign, and Wei Jian and Emperor Fu Weiming were both demoted to other places.
However, the incident was still not over, and soon after, Li Linfu accused Li Shizhi, Wei Jian, HuangFu Weiming, and others of forming a party for personal gain and plotting against them. Tang Xuanzong listened to Li Linfu's one-sided words and ordered wei jian and emperor Weiming to be killed, Li Shizhi committed suicide by taking poison, and a large number of followers were demoted and exiled. The only person in the backbone of the princely clique who did not suffer bad luck was Pei Kuan, but after experiencing these twists and turns, he decided to stay away from the officialdom and dedicate himself to religion. The duel between Li Linfu and the crown prince ended with Li Linfu winning an all-out victory.
In 747, Li Linfu set a new target on a feudal envoy named Wang Zhongsi. Wang Zhongsi was a shogun, his father died in battle at an early age, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang adopted him and raised him in the palace. Wang Zhongsi has always maintained a close personal relationship with the princes, especially the crown prince. From 742 to 746, Wang Zhongsi served as the envoy of Shuofang and Hedong, and later after Emperor Weiming was overthrown by Li Linfu, Wang Zhongsi took over as the envoy of Longyou and Hexi.
Wang Zhongsi's achievements in guarding the border pass, coupled with the fact that he was also a person in the imperial court who was partial to the side of the prince, made Li Linfu feel uneasy about sleeping and eating. Therefore, he took advantage of Tang Xuanzong's dissatisfaction with his son to accuse Wang Zhongsi of having privately promised the crown prince to help him ascend to the throne. When Tang Xuanzong heard the news, he was furious and immediately ordered the arrest of Wang Zhongsi. After some interrogation, Tang Xuanzong believed that the accusations against Wang Zhongsi were unfounded, but still demoted him to hanyang taishou.
After experiencing two "conspiracy" incidents, Li Linfu believed that it was a very dangerous thing to let those generals with roots in the imperial court control the border towns, because they could completely rely on the strength of the troops in their hands to achieve internal and external cooperation. So he told Emperor Xuanzong of Tang about the dangers of this situation and offered the advantages of having non-Han generals serve as envoys to the feudal towns, because Li Linfu believed that the ambitions of those foreign generals were only military and not political. As for whether the emissaries of Jiedu would support themselves and even launch rebellions, this was not a question that needed to be carefully considered at that time, because it was impossible for all jiedushi envoys to rebel at the same time, and if they only launched rebellions in one place, then the imperial court naturally had enough strength to suppress them.
After some deliberation, Tang Xuanzong thought that Li Linfu's suggestion was very reasonable, so the Tang Dynasty's Fanzhen Jiedushi began to "change blood". In the years that followed, Li Linfu still had a very good ability to control these foreign emissaries with heavy troops, and even a powerful emissary like An Lushan was also very afraid of Li Linfu.
In 753, Li Linfu died of illness. His border policy was not effectively implemented and implemented in the hands of his successor, Yang Guozhong, which led to the gradual loss of control of the imperial court over those foreign tribes. On December 16, 755 (the ninth day of the first month of the eleventh lunar month), An Lushan rebelled, and the "Anshi Rebellion" broke out.
References: Old Book of Tang, New Book of Tang, Zizhi Tongjian