What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
With 150,000 horses, half a line in the night, flat eclipse, and sixty miles a day. - Old Book of Tang, Liechuan, Volume 150
This is the record in the Old Book of Tang about An Lushan's launch of the An Shi Rebellion.
An Lu Shan
Yang Guozhong continued to make rumors in front of Tang Xuanzong, saying that An Lushan would rebel, and Tang Xuanzong did not believe it. However, after that, Tang Xuanzong summoned An Lushan several times, and An Lushan did not dare to go to the capital for fear that Yang Guozhong was plotting to kill him. Tang Xuanzong gradually became suspicious of An Lushan and harshly rebuked him many times, and An Lushan had a reaction in his heart.
On December 16, 755, An Lushan launched a rebellion on the grounds of "Qing Jun's side", and the An Shi Rebellion officially broke out. The rebellion lasted for 8 years before it was finally put down by the Tang army. Yang Guifei and Yang Guozhong were killed at Ma Songpo, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang also lost his throne and became the Taishang Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
The wealth accumulated throughout the "Kaiyuan Prosperous Era" was destroyed in the Anshi Rebellion, and the national strength of the Tang Dynasty went to decline. Various warlord forces took the opportunity to rise up and began to seize the territory and divide the power of the Tang Dynasty. The emperors of the Tang Dynasty gradually became puppets, and the various knots became the emperors of the earth and did not obey the orders of the Tang Dynasty.
Tang Xuanzong
And just when the Tang Dynasty was divided, it also eliminated three powerful opponents. The three enemies were Tubo, Uighur, and Nanzhao, and Tubo saw that the Tang Dynasty was in chaos and was anxious to get a piece of the pie; the Uighurs were even more despicable and shameless, and they exchanged inferior horses for the tang Dynasty's high-quality silk, threatening to invade the Tang Dynasty without exchange; Nanzhao colluded with Tubo at this time, and the first rats attacked Chengdu.
In this case, there are still warriors who stand up, first against the Uighurs in the northwest. After Zhang Zhongwu was appointed as an envoy of LuLongjiedu, the Uighurs sent their armies south to plunder, and Zhang Zhongwu sent an army to counterattack. In one fell swoop, Lu Long's army crushed the invading Uighur army, killing countless people and capturing more than 10,000 people.
Uighur invasion
In 842, Lu Long's army set out in three ways, with the Northern Expedition against the Uighurs, with Zhang Zhongwu as the main general. During several months of fighting, Zhang Zhongwu methodically commanded the army and defeated the main Uighur forces at Shixiong. Lu Long's army won a great victory, beheading 20,000 Uighur soldiers and capturing 20,000 Uighur soldiers.
Uighur Usuke Khan escaped wounded, and most of the Uighur army surrendered, in the records:
"The Uighur Usuke Khan was defeated and did not dare to go near the side, but he lived according to Kangju and did his best to migrate the remaining seeds and pin his trust in the black car department."
Under the leadership of Zhang Zhongwu, the Uighurs who constantly invaded the northwest frontier of the Tang Dynasty were eliminated, and the Tang Dynasty regained the land of the Western Regions. After the recovery of the western region, another hero appeared in the sandbar area occupied by Tibet. This person's name was Zhang Yichao, a former Tang Dynasty official in Shazhou, who was forced to surrender to Tubo.
Zhang Zhongwu defeats the Uighurs
Zhang Yichao saw that Tubo was committing evil deeds, so he contacted the local Haojie and prepared to destroy Tubo and return to Tang. In 848, Zhang Yichao saw that Tubo's defenses were empty, so he launched an uprising. Zhang Yichao shouted, and the oppressed people took up arms one after another, and finally drove the Tubo army out of the city.
Zhang Yichao sent emissaries to Chang'an to prepare for victory for the emperor. Unfortunately, Liangzhou was still in the hands of Tubo, and the road was blocked, and it was impossible to go to Chang'an. Zhang Yichao had no choice but to fight alone, and under his command, he successively recovered eleven prefectures from Tubo, including Guazhou, Yizhou, Xizhou, Ganzhou, and Suzhou. In the records:
"Tuoba Huaiguang rode into Kuo Prefecture with five hundred, and was afraid of heat, first cut off his feet, beheaded them in numbers, and passed on the first capital division."
The prefectures and counties that Tubo had occupied for many years were returned to the hands of the Tang Dynasty. When Tang Xuanzong learned the news, he praised the feats of Zhang Yichao and others and made him an envoy of Jiedushi.
Zhang Yichao regained eleven states
Nanzhao, who was following Tubo in the wind and waves, also ushered in their opponents. In 864, on the recommendation of the chancellor Xiahou Zi, Emperor Yizong of Tang appointed the Xiaowei general Gao Biao (高骈) as the protector of Annam. At this time, Gao Biao grasped the military and political power of the Annam Duhu, and the main target was Nanzhao, which is recorded in the record:
"Xiahou Zi recommended that the Xiaowei general Gao Biao take his place, but he took the place of Gao Biao as the protector of The Annam, and the ben guan was slightly invited to make envoys, and the generals of the Yin Institute were given to him."
After Gao Biao took up his post in Annam, he recruited soldiers and trained troops in the local area. For the local ethnic minorities, Gao Biao gave preferential treatment to protect their safety. As for the rebels who committed wrongdoing, Gao Biao was by no means merciful and resolutely suppressed them. In two years, Gao Biao defeated the Nanzhao army and stabilized the situation in Annam.
During the conquest, Gao Biao did not forget to benefit the local people. He saw that the waterway from Jiaozhou to Guangzhou was full of big rocks blocking the road, so he hired workers at his own expense to clean up the dangerous boulders. Since then, the waterway from Jiaozhou to Guangzhou has been unimpeded, and the people have praised it.
Gao Biao defeated Nanzhao
After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty fell into disarray, but the Tang army was still brave. The three foreign enemy countries saw that the Tang Dynasty was weak and wanted to bully and humiliate it and divide the territory. The Tang Dynasty went out three times to defeat the three enemies, recover the lost land, and let the foreign enemies know the Shengwei of the Tang Dynasty.