The year 755 was a very important year in the history of the Tang Empire and even China.
It was in this year that the three towns of Dongping Commandery, Pinglu, Fanyang (Youzhou), and Hedong, which controlled the entire northeastern region, made An Lushan command a 150,000-strong army in the name of killing yang Guozhong, the prime minister, and brazenly launched the AnShi Rebellion, all the way south like a broken bamboo, attacked the two capitals, and established a puppet Yan regime.
Just when the "grand plan was unfolding", what people did not expect was that only two years later, in 757, he was killed by the eunuch Li Pig'er, the second son of the concubine An Qingxu, and in this way, an influential figure of a generation, An Lushan, completed his life with such a nest of death methods.
Behind the seemingly accidental is a series of inevitability.
The first and most important reason was An Lushan's poor physical condition.
An Lushan was born in 703, when he rebelled, he was fifty-one years old, you should know that in ancient times more than fifty years old was considered an old man, and An Lushan was a Hu person, usually liked to eat meat and drink, private life indulgence, and did not know moderation, when he was young, he was physically strong, and when he was old, he found faults.
However, An Lushan still overeated, and it is said that in an old age An Lushan was even more obese, his stomach fell to the bottom of his knees, he weighed three hundred and thirty pounds, and whenever he walked, he could only move his feet if he lifted his body upwards with two shoulders.
And
Due to his obesity, An Lushan had long-term sores on his body, and after the rebellion, his vision gradually blurred until he became completely blind, and his whole body was covered with lumpy poisonous sores.
So that in the first month of 757, when An Lushan accepted the worship of his courtiers, the sore attack led to the end of the middle.
An Lushan became more irritable and irritable due to his illness, and he often used punishment, and even yan Zhuang, who was the mastermind, was also whipped and beaten, causing the surrounding ministers to gradually alienate himself, especially Yan Zhuang was tortured and planned to kill An Lushan.
Yan Zhuang's idea coincided with An Qingxu's, and An Qingxu was dissatisfied because An Lushan's petted young son An Qing'en, and he was even more afraid of being replaced one day, so he hit it off with Yan Zhuang.
On the night of the fifth night of the first lunar month in 757, Yan Zhuang asked An Qingxu to stand outside the door, holding a knife and taking the eunuch Li Pig'er into An Lushan's tent together, and Li Pig'er swung a large knife and slashed at An Lushan's abdomen.
An Lushan was blind in both eyes, and there was often a knife hanging at the head of the bed, and by the time he found out about the assassin, it was difficult to get up, and the knife on the head of the bed could not be held in his hand, but he just shook the curtain and shouted, "This man is my family thief!" After shouting, the body was buried by the three people in a cave several feet deep under the bed, and the generation of tyrants An Lushan ended in such an undignified way.
And the assassin Li Pig'er has followed An Lushan since he was a teenager, An Lushan is very fond of him, the most trusted and reused, An Lushan has a big belly, every time he wears clothes and ties, he needs three or four people to help, two people lift their stomachs, Li Pig'er uses his head to hold it, only to tie it with a culottes belt, when Tang Xuanzong favored An Lushan and gave him a bath in the hot springs of Huaqing Palace, he allowed Li Pig'er and others to go in to help undress, but in the end, it was this Li Pig'er who killed him.
Second, An Lushan was emptied and had become a lonely man.
Just now, it was mentioned that An Lushan was plagued by illness in his later years, blind in both eyes, and originally An Lushan's rebellion was unjustified and his ruling foundation was weak, and such a physical condition was simply unable to control these hundreds of thousands of fierce troops.
Coupled with his short temper, he often scolded his close subjects, causing An Lushan to deviate from the management.
This is not to mention, An Lushan favored his younger son An Qingen in his later years, which made an qingxu, the second son of the long-lived army, very uneasy, An Qingxu had made many meritorious achievements before the rebellion, and was awarded the title of Hongxu Qingqing, Guangyang Taishou, and the relocation of the Lu army to know the soldiers and horses.
After the An Shi Rebellion, An Qingxu attacked the eastern capital Luoyang, and after An Lushan established the Great Yan regime, he was crowned king of Jin, and had a deep political foundation in the An Lushan clique.
After An Lushan's eldest son An Qingzong was killed by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, An Qingxu almost became the first successor, but at this time, An Lushan wanted to use his son An Qing'en as his heir because he loved the Duan clan.
An Qing'en's date of birth and life are not recorded in the history books, and we can roughly infer that An Qing'en should be in a young age and no more trouble.
Therefore, we can imagine that in the later years of An Lushan, due to physical reasons, the power was basically emptied, and An Qing'en's mother and son could not compete with An Qingxu, so An Qingxu could go straight to An Lushan's tent, such as entering the no-man's land, it is not surprising that only a eunuch can produce An Lushan.