In his later years, Tang Xuanzong Li Longji and his favorite concubine Yang Guifei committed various deaths, and as a result, An Lushan was exploited, and most of the country fell, and later his son Li Heng declared himself emperor and actively organized a counterattack, which restored the Tang Dynasty, which can be called a force to turn the tide.
In the early days of Tang Xuanzong's reign, under his strategizing, the Tang Dynasty's national strength reached its peak, so he was very complacent and began to indulge in eroticism, especially after he got his son Li Mao's wife Yang Yuhuan, he became very dimwitted in pursuit of love.
Take An Lushan, for example, he was originally a Hu person and was not welcomed, but he very cleverly recognized Yang Yuhuan, who was more than ten years younger than himself, as his adoptive mother, so he won the trust of Tang Xuanzong, not only became the envoy of the Three Towns Festival, but also mastered the right to trade tea horses and weapons on the border, which was of course very dangerous for the rule of the dynasty.
Around the tenth year of Tianbao, An Lushan began to plot rebellions, on the one hand, he courted Tang Xuanzong and Yang Yuhuan, on the other hand, he secretly recruited troops to buy horses and build weapons, which lasted for several years.
For example, Yang Guozhong (Yang Guifei's cousin), the prime minister at the time, repeatedly played Tang Xuanzong, saying that An Lushan had signs of rebellion and should take measures as soon as possible.
Tang Xuanzong still believed it at first, but then An Lushan ran to Chang'an to worship Tang Xuanzong, snot and tearfully told him that he had been wronged, and also talked to Yang Guifei for good words, Tang Xuanzong did not doubt An Lushan anymore, but instead trusted him more and more, and the demands he made were all right, which can be said to help him create conditions for rebellion.
In November of the fourteenth year of Tianbao (755), After everything was prepared, An Lushan immediately rebelled, and because Tang Xuanzong had no defenses, he was caught off guard, and by May of the fifteenth year of Tianbao, An Lushan had conquered Tongguan, and Geshuhan's 200,000 troops were wiped out, and Chang'an was shaken.
When Emperor Xuanzong of Tang saw that Chang'an had lost its barrier, he left Chang'an with Yang Guifei and others and prepared to take refuge in Shuzhong, but before leaving, he left the crown prince Li Heng to stabilize people's hearts in Chang'an and come to join him at the right time.
Tang Xuanzong's approach was undoubtedly very hurtful, he did not say that he ran away, and let Li Heng stay as a cushion, but Li Heng was not a fool, he had already thought of a plan to protect himself.
Although Li Heng was the crown prince at that time, his life was not good, because in reality Li Linfu did not deal with him, and after Li Linfu's death, Yang Guozhong also had a bad relationship with him, and often said bad things about him in front of Tang Xuanzong, causing Tang Xuanzong to consider whether to replace the prince.
After the outbreak of the An Shi Rebellion, An Lushan raised an army in the name of The Qing Emperor 's side (Yang Guozhong), which made Li Heng feel that he had a chance to take advantage of this opportunity to eliminate Yang Guozhong, but there was no good chance at that time, so he chose to be patient until Chang'an was about to fall, and he finally found the opportunity.
At that time, the situation was like this, Li Heng, as a retainer, had a powerful elite forbidden army in his hands, called the Flying Dragon Forbidden Army, although the number was only more than three thousand people, but the combat effectiveness was extremely fierce, plus at that time Li Heng's sons and his own troops were also by his side, which created excellent conditions for him to put forward a coup.
Before leaving Chang'an, Li Heng sent his confidant eunuch Li Fuguo to woo Tang Xuanzong's loyal general Zuo Longwu (左龙武) General Chen Xuanli (陈玄礼), who finally agreed to work with Li Heng to eliminate Yang Guozhong.
After Li Heng left Chang'an, he pursued Tang Xuanzong's large army all the way, and finally caught up with him at Ma Songyi, where he first led an army to kill Yang Guozhong and Yang Guifei's sister Lady Han, and then, with the help of Chen Xuanli, successfully forced Tang Xuanzong to kill Yang Guifei.
As for how to deal with Tang Xuanzong, Li Heng meant that since Tang Xuanzong insisted on escaping, then he should give way to himself and lead the Tang army to counterattack An Lushan, but because Chen Xuanli was only willing to eliminate Yang Guozhong, a national thief, and did not want to be captured and disloyal, he refused to cooperate with Li Heng in taking action against Tang Xuanzong, and Li Heng had no choice but to divide his troops.
This made Li Heng very embarrassed, after half a day, after the coup d'état, the situation actually did not change, the country still did not have a strong leader to organize the army to counterattack, and An Lushan's army was like a bamboo, Chang'an and Luoyang had already fallen, seeing that the country was about to perish, what to do?
At this time, a figure appeared, his name was Du Hongwei, he was the deputy envoy of the Shuofang Military Department, and after he learned of Li Heng's actions, he praised him greatly, so he wrote a letter to Li Heng:
The Shuo Fang Army is a powerful force in the world, and Lingwu is a place of use. Now Hui Hui asked for peace, Tubo was annexed, and various counties refused to be thieves. Although some counties were occupied by rebels, they all hoped to return to the imperial court. His Highness reorganized his armaments in Shuofang, and then marched his army south, which will surely be able to suppress the rebels...
The letter roughly means that at that time, only the Shuofang army in the whole country was the most powerful, and shuofang had geographical advantages and could contact other clan troops to jointly resist An Lushan, so Du Hong gradually asked Li Heng to come to Shuofang and lead everyone to defend the country together.
Li Heng was very depressed at that time, and was very happy after seeing Du Hongwei's letter, so he rushed to Lingwu.
After Li Heng arrived in Lingwu, he appeased the generals of the three armies and preached to them his strategy to meet the enemy, and the morale of the Shuofang army was greatly shaken.
Although Li Heng had gained a foothold, he was facing a big problem, that is, he was only a prince, and in terms of status, he was not enough to command the world, so how could he make the armies of other clan towns obey him?
In a hurry to take power, Li Heng decided to do a bold thing, that is, to ascend the throne without passing on the throne, and to oust Tang Xuanzong from the throne, so that he could show his fists.
However, from the perspective of the ancients, Li Heng's move was a rebellious move, but the reason why he dared to do so was because his father Tang Xuanzong did too much, which triggered the Anshi Rebellion and caused the people of Li to suffer from the chaos of war, which was already unpopular, and the country needed a new emperor to lead everyone out of the predicament, and Li Heng was the most suitable person.
Therefore, with the support of everyone, Li Heng finally declared himself emperor at Lingwu and honored Tang Xuanzong as emperor.
With the title of emperor, Li Heng did a lot of things with ease, he first transferred more than 10,000 elite soldiers from Hexi and Anxi, and then let Shuofang Jiedu, who was on the Hebei front, make Guo Ziyi and Hebei Jiedu make Li Guangbi lead more than 50,000 elite troops back to Lingwu station, so Shuofang became the strongest military town at that time.
However, this army alone was not enough to defeat An Lushan, what to do?
Soon, Li Heng sent people to contact Hui and the Western Regions, and Xu Zhi made heavy profits and asked him to send troops to assist in the battle, which received a positive response.
In order to win over Hui and the western regions, Li Heng can be said to be racking his brains, let's take Hui Hui, li Heng in order to get Hui's elite cavalry, let his son Li Yu the Prince of Guangping and Ye Hu, the prince of Hui, become brothers, which made Ye Hu greatly moved, and immediately sent tens of thousands of troops to Shuofang.
In the end, Li Heng received a total of 150,000 elite cavalry from Hui and the Western Regions, which greatly enhanced the strength of the Tang army, and from this point of view alone, Li Heng's talent was still very prominent.
After having soldiers, it is necessary to see how to use the troops and who will lead the troops, and Li Heng has done a very good job at this point, and he has reused Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi, Li Siye, Wang Sili and others, giving them a lot of authority, letting them divide the troops to attack, and himself to dispatch in the middle and adjust the relations between all parties.
And Li Heng did this very well, the first battle fought by the Tang army, on the Xiangji Temple to eliminate sixty thousand rebels, which shocked the whole country, and then Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi and others continued to work hard, in one breath to recover Chang'an and Luoyang, by this time, the Tang army's all-round counterattack horn was blown.
However, at this time, the strength of the rebel army was still very strong, and the ethnic minority generals in the Tang army also became less controllable because of their pride in their achievements, and many times caused secondary damage to the Tang.
Take Hui Hui, for example, when Li Heng, in order to win over Ye Hu, the prince of Hui, promised him to recover Chang'an, "the land, the soldiers and the tang, the gold and children all returned to Hui", which was actually a helpless move, although later under the persuasion of Li Yu, Ye Hu gave up the idea of plundering Chang'an, but after the recovery of Luoyang, the Hui army still plundered everywhere, causing the people of Luoyang to scatter and take refuge.
Faced with this situation, Li Heng was very remorseful on the one hand, and on the other hand, he sent someone to send Luo Jin 10,000 horses to Hui Hui, and Hui Hui stopped looting.
Therefore, during the entire Anshi Rebellion, the problems faced by Li Heng were never simple military problems, and he also needed to think about how to twist the coalition army composed of various national armies into a rope, so as to maximize the combat effectiveness.
After Luoyang was recaptured, in order to further win over Hui, Li Heng married his daughter Princess Ningguo to Yingwu Khan as Kedun (queen, wife of Huiqi Khan), and let Li Chengyu, the king of Dunhuang, marry the concubine of Yingwu Khan, which greatly enhanced the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and Hui.
Later, Shi Chaoyi attacked Luoyang again, and in order to win reinforcements, Li Heng repeatedly sent Guo Ziyi's subordinates, who were also the great heroes of the Anshi Rebellion, the servant of the Tiele clan, Gu Huai'en, to send envoys to Huilu, and let several daughters of Huigu Huai'en marry Hui nobles, and finally successfully won reinforcements from Huiyi, and later with the help of Huilu troops, the Tang Dynasty once again recaptured Luoyang.
Of course, Li Heng was actually a person with obvious shortcomings, that is, in view of The example of An Lushan, he was very wary of the military generals, and he never gave the position of Grand Marshal of The Terracotta Army to the military generals (concurrently held by his son Li Yu, who was the nominal military commander- and Guo Ziyi was only a deputy marshal), but let the grand eunuch Yu Zhao'en serve as a supervisor of the army and monitor the military actions of Guo Ziyi and others.
However, Yu Chao'en was a narrow-minded person with no military talent, but liked to interfere with Guo Ziyi's use of troops, which led to the defeat of Xiangzhou, and he pushed the blame on Guo Ziyi's head, and Li Heng did not know it, and finally deposed Guo Ziyi.
In addition to Yu Chao'en, Li Heng also favored eunuchs such as Li Fuguo and Cheng Yuanzhen, who controlled military and political power and vigorously suppressed the civilian generals, which was one of the main reasons why the rebels could not be eliminated after An Lushan's death.
In 761, due to the defeat of Li Guangbi and his servant Gu Huai'en at Mount Yao, Luoyang was conquered by Shi Chaoyi, and the situation reached a very critical moment.
At that time, Li Heng was already seriously ill, and on the one hand, he sent the servant Gu Huai'en to return to Huila for reinforcements, and on the other hand, he reactivated Guo Ziyi and others.
Guo Ziyi was angry in his heart at that time, and Li Heng also knew this, so he appointed him as the deputy marshal of the Terracotta Army and made him the king of Fenyang County, in order to appease his emotions.
Guo Ziyi was also very impressed with Li Heng's move, and he began to fight fiercely, preparing for a decisive battle with the rebels.
At the end of 761, Li Heng was seriously ill and would soon die, and he did not want to see anyone, but he only called Guo Ziyi to the bedroom, took him by the hand and told him, "Everything in Hedong is up to you, and reward him with royal horses and other things."
At that time, there were still more than 300,000 rebels, and Li Heng knew that only Guo Ziyi could help him suppress the rebels, so he received Guo Ziyi alone before his death.
After Li Heng's death, Guo Ziyi did his best, he spent more than two years to suppress the rebels, and can be said to be the biggest contributor in the Anshi Rebellion.
Speaking of this, we have to say that although Li Heng reigned for only a few years, he was an emperor who turned the tide of the tide, mainly for the following reasons:
First, Li Heng staged a coup d'état and killed Yang Guozhong and other traitors, and the rebels lost their excuse to raise troops, which was morally untenable;
Second, Li Heng did not learn from Tang Xuanzong as a coward, but ascended the throne at a critical moment to become emperor, so that the Tang soldiers and civilians had the backbone and were willing to follow him to suppress the rebels, which was a very crucial step;
Third, Li Heng's talent is still very good, he used the ShuoFang Army as a team, actively co-opted other clan forces, and with the help of the strength of ethnic minorities, eventually had a strong army, thus laying a solid foundation for the suppression of the rebels;
Fourth, Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi, and others appointed by Li Heng proved to be very correct, although he had suppressed the military generals under the interference of the eunuchs, but fortunately he woke up in time and rewarded the military generals so that they could be single-minded towards the imperial court, which was also one of the key factors in suppressing the rebels;
Fifth, there is another very important point, that is, Li Heng's restrictions on Tang Xuanzong.
After Li Heng became emperor, Tang Xuanzong did not abdicate immediately, so at that time, the imperial court was actually a dualistic pattern, and the edicts of the two emperors were issued together, which was very chaotic, which was very unfavorable to the smooth progress of the war.
After Tang Xuanzong was forced to become emperor taishang, he was actually not willing, and had been infiltrating and interfering in Li Heng's rule by issuing edicts and appointing prime ministers, which made Li Heng miserable.
After Tang Xuanzong returned to Beijing, Li Heng began to fight back, he deposed all the prime ministers and officials promoted by Tang Xuanzong, forced Tang Xuanzong to move to Xinei, and dismissed Tang Xuanzong's cronies, thus greatly weakening Tang Xuanzong's influence, and Li Heng's status was greatly improved, which provided a strong political guarantee for the ongoing war.
Finally, it should be said that when Li Heng died, although the Anshi Rebellion was not settled, because Li Heng's previous strategizing had laid a solid foundation for the Tang army, Li Yu, who succeeded to the throne, with the help of Guo Ziyi and others, quickly ended the war.
Therefore, there is a certain basis for describing Li Heng as the emperor who turned the tide when the country was about to perish.