If there is a spirit under the spring, the poet Du Fu must not have imagined that he, who was once lonely and nameless, would be revered as a "poetic saint" in later generations, and all this stemmed from a turmoil that lasted for 8 years - the Anshi Rebellion. Describing him as withered, in the constant escape, with his pen dipped in Confucian compassion, he wrote down sentence by sentence how the Sheng Tang Dynasty was in decline step by step, ten rooms and nine empty, and thousands of villages fell into the hell of the thorns. It is precisely because his poems were written for an era, the country was unfortunate that poets were fortunate, he was revered as a generation of poets, and those poems of blood and tears always warned us to constantly reflect, why is all this?
An Lushan wanted to rebel and do this great rebellion against the world, but why did he ascend to a high place, and the 200,000 elite iron horses in the land of Youyan actually walked in the shadows of the clouds, willingly following him to rebel? You must know that these people, once all of them were still the Imperial Border Guards, guarding the border for many years, fighting bloody battles again and again, and witnessing their infinite glory with great military achievements, how could they collectively follow An Lushan and turn the muzzle of the gun in an instant?
It is only because An Lushan is also the envoy of the three towns, and under the system of moderation, the concentration of various systems leads to a lack of checks and balances and constraints, so that he can monopolize the administrative, personnel, logistics, judicial, military and many other rights, and hold more than 40 positions, so everyone listens to him? Maybe everyone can listen to him usually, but the rebellion is a big thing, but it is difficult to achieve such an effect through the call of the official position, even if it is the heroic and brilliant Emperor Wu of Han, his large-scale crusade against the Xiongnu such a feat, many people are quite critical, let alone An Lushan? He did not have that kind of prestige and ability, and still less did he lack the foundation of traditional morality, and simply relied on the strict punishment law of the Fa. I am afraid that this can only be used as a conventional auxiliary strategy, not a basis for mobilization.
How did An Lushan mobilize them? His public claim that "on the side of the Qing Emperor, except for the traitorous minister Yang Guozhong" is of course a very strategic Yang conspiracy, but it seems that it is also possible for the soldiers under An Lushan," but it is definitely far from sufficient, who is Yang Guozhong? How many yarns do they have to do with them? Most people may also scold a traitor who is too far away from everyone and does not directly endanger himself, but you say that you want them to take up arms, put on their armor, swoop down a thousand kilometers, and go to arrest him and crush his corpse into ten thousand pieces, so as to eliminate harm to the country, but I am afraid that not many people will respond.
To mobilize so many people, it must be that the grass-roots soldiers have a broad consensus on certain issues, so what is this consensus? Is it to preach to the soldiers that the Li Tang Dynasty is rotten, you see, the dim-witted Xuanzong and Yang Guifei, look at the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu headed by Yang Guozhong, what kind of virtue are they? Follow me to do great things, have ideals, prospects and hopes? Although these are also facts, they cannot be the ideological basis for mobilization. The soldiers are really not so good at fooling around!
What is that? Let's first look at another piece of history, that is, the fourth year of Jianzhong (783), it has been twenty years since the end of the Anshi Rebellion, Chang'an City, which was devastated in the Anshi Rebellion, is also slowly recovering from injuries, after an autumn rain, the weather is cold, a strong brigade is rushing to Chang'an City, they are the glory of the empire, a dashing swordsman in the Kaiyuan year- Ma Phosphorus founded jingyuan soldiers, this army is not good, bent on invading the powerful Tufan iron horse, in their hands, they can only dry their eyes, They had made outstanding contributions to the defense of the frontiers of the empire, and at this moment they would go to the battlefield to support Ge Shuyao on the front line of Bizhou, who was the son of Ge Shuhan and was now engaged in a tug-of-war with the rebel general Li Yaoling of Bianzhou to fight for Bizhou.
However, when passing through Chang'an, the army that was supposed to be supported suddenly launched a rebellion, capturing Chang'an, Emperor Tang Dezong fled in a hurry, and 77 members of the imperial family were killed, resulting in a "Four Kings and Two Emperors" incident that was even more serious than the Anshi Rebellion. The question is, why did this veteran team suddenly rebel? This rebellion turned out to be a temporary uprising, and there was not even a mastermind behind the scenes, but the form was later used. How could it be? This army, which was about to go to the front line to quell the rebellion, passed through Chang'an, and in the bitter wind and rain of autumn, Jing Zhaoyin entertained them for a meal, cold and hard, and did not even have a meat, as if calling Hanako. But when they came to the imperial capital, they saw with their own eyes, what is called the rich and gentle township, they are about to die generously for the country, after a long journey, they are cold and hungry, and they have no money on them, but those high-ranking officials and dignitaries have food and drink and play, three wives and four concubines, seven meats and eight vegetarian dishes are not common, what about them? I have suffered a lot on the frontier for many years, but what kind of life can I live? Their parents, wives and children are also like themselves, and this strong contrast surges into their hearts, and someone kicks the rice bowl and angrily clasps it in the face of the person who delivers the meal, roaring angrily, and immediately reversing.
"The first half of the generals were killed and died, and the beauties sang and danced under the tent." This is the true description of the great poet Gao Shi in "Yan Song Xing". The lives of those ordinary soldiers who fight for the country are actually extremely miserable, this is the weakest string in their hearts, and if they are gently plucked, they can arouse a wide range of resonance in their hearts, but who cares who will love? Are the emperors of Chang'an City who are quietly reveling in the prosperous world, singing at night and singing, and having a short spring supper? Are those warriors who are desperately trying to make money and do their best to be luxurious? The many weathers of the "prosperous world", the daily life of the dignitaries and nobles, constantly through various songs, passages, and narrations, the ears of the soldiers on the side of the road ring like a morning bell and a twilight drum, listening to the stories of those people, thinking about the embarrassment of their own reality, what will those people think?
This kind of anger will only accumulate deeper and deeper, and become the broad consensus of the vast number of officers and men! Look at the Western Chu overlord Xiang Yu who fought back and killed the general Song Yi to seize the military power? That is, our non-commissioned officers are short of clothes and food, yellow-faced and thin, relying on eating small potatoes, do you look at Song Yi? But every day we sing, eat fragrant, drink spicy, do not treat us as people, brothers, follow me, I will be your protector, kill these people, let's eat fragrant, drink spicy. Only these can the soldiers be mobilized extensively. Therefore, we can see that the later Xiang Yu was particularly civilian to the soldiers, and all kinds of booing and greetings were warm, and sharing happiness and hardships with them, because the image he positioned was the guardian spirit of the soldiers.
An Lushan was definitely not comparable to Xiang Yu, but in terms of inciting soldiers, the methods were absolutely the same. To be fair, An Lushan and many of his generals who could fight well were fairer in their treatment of soldiers. Therefore, we can see that although he presided over the affairs of the three towns, An Lushan was willing to spend a lot of money to win over the soldiers under his command, which also made the soldiers believe that he could really lead everyone to fight unremittingly to improve the social status of the warriors. After occupying Chang'an and Luoyang, he obtained countless rare treasures, all of which he transported back to his rear area, Fanyang.
When a general leads a soldier to fight, you can be harsh or even cruel, but you must not be stingy! In fact, we find that after the Anshi Rebellion, Datang entered the era of feudal division, and one of the most important changes was that the social status of the wu people was greatly improved and improved, and they became the dominant force in society, whether it was social class, economic status, or respect, and anyone who tried to weaken their position, no way was the central Tang Dynasty, or the local moderation, were attacked head-on by them, and by virtue of the status obtained by force, they were defended by a group for generations.
An Lushan, however, used this trend of thought to integrate into his own ambitions, thus giving birth to a historical freak- the AnShi Rebellion.
Author: Xiao Yunan, our special guest author