The first thing to tell everyone is that Li Heng did not want to usurp the throne of Tang Xuanzong at that time, but to accept the expectations of the people. In fact, before that, Tang Xuanzong had proposed that Li Heng give way to Li Heng, and it was Li Heng who insisted on not resigning.
The course of events begins with the Anshi Chaos. Because Tang Xuanzong favored Yang Guifei too much, Yang Guifei was so oblivious that she absurdly accepted An Lushan as her son. You must know that An Lushan's age can be older than Yang Guifei. An Lushan recognized Yang Guifei as a dry lady, and Qingyun went straight up and served as the emissary of Pinglu (present-day Chaoyang, Liaoning), Fanyang (present-day Beijing), and Hedong (present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi). At that time, the emissaries administered several states, and the treatment was not under the prime minister. And the three towns and festivals are a big warlord with huge power. If you look at the location of the three towns, you will know how big the territory controlled by An Lushan is.
"The human heart is not enough for the snake to swallow the elephant."
This nonsense looks like it was tailor-made for An Lushan. An Lushan served as the envoy of the Three Towns Festival, deceived Xuanzong's trust, and controlled the border areas in the north of the Tang Dynasty, and began to secretly recruit troops and horses, preparing for rebellion. This is done by:
Li Bing, horses, hoarding grain and grass, and replacing thirty-two people with Hu people as officials, did not come out of illness and did not see the emperor. And so on: An Lushan was about to rebel.
After some careful preparations, in October 755, An Lushan gathered a large army of 150,000 and launched an attack on Chang'an in the name of "The Qing Emperor's Side, Crusade against the traitor Yang Guozhong".
An Lushan's army was as strong as a bamboo, and it fought until it reached Tongguan, the gateway to Chang'an. Tongguan is a dangerous terrain with narrow roads and guarded by the Tang Dynasty general Ge Shuhan. The rebels were stationed outside Guanwai for half a year without any progress. The defenders of Tongguan set a fire at the beacon every night as a code word for peace. The beacon tower in Guanli received the signal, and one by one, the "peace fire" was fired, which could be transmitted to Chang'an.
The rebels could not attack Tong for a long time, and Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi wanted to take the opportunity to lead their troops north and attack Fanyang, the old lair of An Lushan; They hoped that tongguan would stick to tongguan and never leave the customs. Ge Shuhan also advocated sticking to Tongguan. However, Yang Guozhong opposed the insistence and suggested that Emperor Xuanzong order Ge Shuhan to fight. Either that the traitors misled the country, yang Guozhong, for his own selfishness, feared that Ge Shuhan would win the battle and his position as prime minister would not be guaranteed, so he violated military common sense and instigated Emperor Xuanzong to force Ge Shuhan to go to war.
Why is it that if Goshuhan goes to war, it is against military common sense? The Tenth "Terrain" cloud of Sun Tzu's Art of War:"
He who is reclusive, I dwell first, and I will reap the rewards of the enemy; If the enemy is the first to live, do not follow the surplus, and do not follow it without the profit. ”
What does that mean? That is: in the "pass-shaped" area, if I occupy it first, I will block the pass with heavy troops and wait for the enemy to attack; If the enemy has occupied the pass first and is defended with heavy troops, do not attack, and if the enemy does not hold the pass, quickly capture it.
Outside Tongguan Pass is a narrow mountain road of tens of miles, which belongs to the typical pass-shaped area, which has been occupied by the rebel general Cui Qianhu for a long time. Therefore, at this time, it was impossible to hold out, the walls of Tongguan were thick and easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the rebels had no choice.
Yang Guozhong violated military common sense and deliberately let Ge Shuhan lose the battle. Yang Guozhong said to Xuanzong: "The rebels outside Guanwai are vulnerable, and if Ge Shuhan does not move, he will lose the opportunity to destroy the rebels." The faint-hearted Xuanzong actually believed Yang Guozhong's lies and ordered Ge Shuhan to come out of the battle.
So the pass-shaped intersection, the enemy has been heavily occupied, why can't it attack? Then this battle of Ge Shuhan gave a perfect explanation of Sun Tzu's Art of War.
The rebel general Cui Qianhu recuperated and only waited for the Tang army to leave the customs. Cui Qianhu's elite troops were ambushed in the valley of Lingbao (in present-day southwestern Henan Province), and as soon as Ge Shuhan's 200,000 troops left the pass, they were ambushed and almost completely destroyed. Only eight thousand of the 200,000 horses remained. Goshuhan himself was captured by the rebels. You can meditate in your mind: a narrow valley with soldiers lurking in the woods or hills on both sides, and no matter how many people pass below, can they unfold? The ambusher can simply shoot arrows or throw stones, and the people below can be beaten to the head and bleed.
In the narrow valley, isn't Goshuhan's army of 200,000 like 200,000 goats to be slaughtered?
The defeat of this great war Xuanzong and Yang Guozhong seemed to be unforgivable, so what responsibility should the main general Ge Shuhan bear? He is the most responsible, therefore. We are all very familiar with a sentence:
"There will be no orders from the foreign king!"
What this sentence means, I don't need to explain it. In addition, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" cloud:
"The way of battle will be victorious, and the Lord knows that there is no war, and there will be no war; if the road of war is not won, the Lord knows that there is no war."
That is to say, according to the actual situation of the march, if there is a way to win the battle, the monarch can order not to fight, but also to fight resolutely; according to the actual situation of the march, if it is impossible to win, the monarch orders to fight, and resolutely does not fight.
Therefore, a generation of famous generals should do: enter without greed, and retreat without avoiding crime.
Knowing that he would be defeated, Goshuhan still submitted to the emperor's orders, and it should be said that he was not a qualified general.
If Tongguan is lost, there is no danger to defend in Guannei. As a result, officers and soldiers from Tongguan to Chang'an abandoned the city and fled. Yang Guozhong knew that once An Lushan hit Chang'an, he would be the first to be killed by An Lushan. Yang Guozhong persuaded Emperor Xuanzong to flee to Shu to take refuge.
That night, Tang Xuanzong, escorted by the general Chen Xuanli and the Janissaries, took Yang Guifei, Yang Guozhong, and the Crown Prince, quietly opened the palace gate and escaped from Chang'an.
On the way to escape, Xuanzong and the imperial family and the generals suffered a lot of hardships, and they all felt that the disaster stemmed from Yang Guozhong's dictatorship and misguided the country. In addition, some of the compatriots rushed to Xuanzong's car to complain to the emperor, saying that An Lushan's reverse traces had been revealed for a long time, why was the imperial court unprepared? The fellows also said:
"We ordinary people have long known that An Lushan is going to rebel, and some people have reported it to the imperial court, but they have been wrongfully killed. The ministers around His Majesty will only clap their horses and whiskers, and they will not report what they know, which has brought His Majesty to this point. ”
In this way, Xuanzong reviewed himself as he walked, and when he reached Ma Songyi, the generals really could not suppress the anger in their hearts, so they mutinied and killed Yang Guozhong.
The soldiers were in a state of emotion and surrounded Xuanzong's residence, and Xuanzong comforted the soldiers, saying that Yang Guozhong was a traitor and should be killed. However, the generals still refused to leave, and they demanded that Yang Guifei be killed. If they didn't kill Yang Guifei, they would be uneasy in their hearts. Cut the grass without removing the roots, and the spring wind blows away the raw ah! Yang Guifei was Yang Guozhong's brother, and if she didn't kill her, who could guarantee that she wouldn't blow a "pillow wind" or something in the emperor's ear in the future?
Emperor Xuanzong could not react to this, and the general Chen Xuanli had no choice but to represent the generals and clearly stated that Yang Guozhong was plotting rebellion and would also kill Yang Guifei. Tang Xuanzong reluctantly said, "Yang Guozhong plotted rebellion, and the noble concubines living deep in the inner palace did not know." As the saying goes, it's not good:
"Isn't it sinned to not know?"
As the saying goes, it's a good thing to say, but today it can't be left behind. The generals stood at the door of Xuanzong and resolutely refused to disperse. The general manager Gao Lishi knew that he could not appease the resentment of the soldiers without killing Yang Guifei, so he said to Xuanzong:
"Guifei is not guilty, but the generals have already killed Yang Guozhong, if yang Guifei is kept, how can the soldiers feel at ease?" I hope that His Majesty will carefully consider that his majesty's safety can only be guaranteed if the soldiers are at ease. ”
Emperor Xuanzong killed Yang Guifei. Left behind:
Lishan language strikes midnight, tears rain ring bells do not complain!
A timeless regret. After killing the Yang brothers and sisters, Xuanzong prepared to continue to flee west. The generals were reluctant, and the common people also hoped that Xuanzong would stay and lead the people to fight against the rebels at An Lushan.
Emperor Xuanzong planned to leave the crown prince Li Heng to appease the people. Li Heng began to want to accompany Xuanzong in order to fulfill his filial piety, so he did not want to stay. Thousands of ordinary people came to petition, hoping that the prince would stay and lead everyone to defeat the rebels, recover Chang'an, and make decisions for the people. Li Heng was still hesitant.
Li Zhao, the King of Jianning, and the eunuch Li Fuguo pulled Li Heng's horse cage head and advised:
"Rebellion against Hu, invasion of Chang'an, the country fell apart, the people fell into water and fire, if you do not obey the will of the people, how can you restore the Tang Dynasty?" By the time the rebels burned down the boardwalk, it was too late. We might as well take back the army in the northwest, recruit Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi, and join forces to deal with An Lushan. After recovering the capital and then welcoming back to the Supreme Being, this is greater filial piety, so why stay by the side of your parents like the children of ordinary people? ”
Emperor Xuanzong waited for the left and the right, and did not wait for Li Heng's arrival, so he sent someone to inquire. The people who were sent reported Li Heng's situation to Xuanzong. Xuanzong sighed, "This is really Providence!" Therefore, Emperor Xuanzong gave Li Heng another two thousand elite soldiers and gave one of his favorite HORSES to Li Heng. Emperor Xuanzong confessed to the soldiers who remained:
"Crown Prince Renxiao will certainly be able to inherit the imperial inheritance of the Tang Dynasty, and I hope that you will assist him well."
Emperor Xuanzong sent someone to pass on the message to Cede the throne to Li Heng, but Li Heng resolutely refused to accept it. At the suggestion of his ministers, Li Heng prepared to go to Shuofang to stop the resistance against the rebels. Along the way, Li Heng collected many remnants of soldiers who had been defeated from the front line, and arrived in Lingwu on the ninth day of July.
The ministers believed that the troops of the counties could be gathered to the north of Lingwu; the elite cavalry of Hexi and Longyou could be recruited to the west; and then the division could be sent south to pacify the Central Plains, and the work would be completed. Lingwu was a good strategic place, and in order to make Li Heng more appealing, the ministers unanimously asked Li Heng to succeed him as emperor.
Li Heng was adamantly unwilling. Minister Pei Mian exhorted:
"Why did the generals work so hard to follow His Highness to this desolate land?" Of course, I hope to follow His Highness's meritorious career and assist His Highness in ascending the throne. Once they were disappointed and separated, they were out of control. I hope that His Highness will conform to the hearts and minds of the military and the people and make long-term plans for jiangshan sheji! ”
Pei Mian and the others wrote five times in a row, and Li Heng finally agreed to succeed to the throne. On July 12, 756, Li Heng succeeded to the throne as emperor at the South Tower of Lingwu City, and when Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji was made "Emperor Taishang", he changed his era name to "Zhide" and granted amnesty to the world. Li Heng was Tang Suzong.
Through the whole process, we can see that Li Heng's succession is in line with the will of the people and the hearts of the military; It is also the advice and persecution of the ministers; It is also necessary for the situation; At the same time, he also gained the understanding and support of Tang Xuanzong. His succession is not at all a usurpation.