755 AD
Fan Yang:An Lushan's ambitions
On November 9, 755, the three towns of Fanyang, Pinglu, and Hedong sent An Lushan to raise an army at Fanyang (present-day Zhuozhou, Hebei).
When the news reached Chang'an, Xuanzong could not believe it for a long time. Xuanzong's shock also reflected the mentality of the imperial court to some extent. Why would the rebels of Datang be so caught off guard in the face of the Anshi Rebellion? Because in the eyes of the supreme ruler Xuanzong, An Lushan has always been a "loyal subject".
When Emperor Xuanzong had not yet met An Lushan, he often heard An Lushan's name from the war reports at the border pass and knew the story of his brave killing of the enemy for the country. However, An Lushan openly courted Xuanzong and won his trust, but secretly prepared for rebellion. Before the uprising, An Lushan had been raising war horses, and eventually even reached the scale of tens of thousands. In addition, he was also concerned with stockpiling a large number of military equipment and grain and grass. Of course, it was difficult not to be discovered for such a big move, but whenever someone reported An Lushan's rebellion, Xuanzong turned a deaf ear. In addition, from the beginning of his promotion to the post of envoy of Pinglu Jiedushi, An Lushan began to recruit henchmen, and gradually formed a group with himself as the core and General Shi Siming and other generals as the backbone. At the same time, he also took advantage of his proficiency in the Nine Chinese dialect and his familiarity with the multi-ethnic environment on the frontier to raise people from the Tongluo, Xi, Khitan and other ethnic groups who came to surrender, and strictly selected these people to form a pro-army, known as "Dragging River" (meaning a strong soldier).
After making preparations for grain and grass armaments and personnel, An Lushan also made strategic preparations. An Lushan's advisers had offered him two tricks. First, pretending to present horses to the imperial court, and then unexpectedly sneaking into the two capitals. However, this plan was discovered by Yin of Henan and reported to the imperial court. Although Emperor Xuanzong did not believe it, he also decreed that there was no need to sacrifice horses. This plan failed, and another general of An Lushan offered another plan, suggesting that the troops be divided into four ways and go south, and finally they would be in Chang'an. However, An Lushan believed that the division of troops in four ways would lead to too dispersed troops and was not adopted.
After the two plans, An Lushan had also been trying different battle plans for attacking Chang'an and Luoyang. However, although An Lushan was prepared, he did not make up his mind to rebel in the end. At that time, yang Guozhong, the chancellor, felt that An Lushan would rebel sooner or later, so he demoted all the ministers who were dependent on An Lushan from the capital. He even sent people to raid An Lushan's home in Chang'an. An Lushan, who was far away in Youzhou, was stimulated and simply raised an army, under the banner of "Killing Yang Guozhong, Qing Jun's Side".
Therefore, in 755, An Lushan guarded Fanyang with Jia Xun, the deputy envoy of Fanyang Jiedu, and Lü Zhizhi, the deputy envoy of Pinglu Jiedu, and Gao Xiuyan to Guard Datong (大同, in present-day northeast shuo county, Shanxi) to consolidate the rear base. According to his own strategy, he marched south from Jicheng (southwest of present-day Beijing) to Luoyang and Chang'an.
In the face of An Shi's army, what did Tang Xuanzong do? While Fan Yang's rebels were moving south, Tang Xuanzong, who was far away at Huaqing Palace on the eastern outskirts of Chang'an (in present-day Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province), was soaking in hot springs with his concubine Yang Yuhuan.
Although soon after An Lushan's rebellion, Emperor Xuanzong had already received news of An Lushan's rebellion. However, in his opinion, it was not once or twice that An Lushan was reported for rebellion, but each time it was "untrue", so Xuanzong believed that this time it was just a false accusation by someone who was at odds with An Lushan. It wasn't until Pingyuan Commandery Taishou Yan Zhenqing sent someone to send information, and Emperor Xuanzong woke up from a big dream and urgently summoned the Minister of Culture and Military Affairs to discuss countermeasures.
After hearing this news, Yang Guozhong, An Lushan's sworn enemy, secretly sneered and said, Sure enough, I did not expect it, and told Xuanzong not to take these small fights and small wars to heart. After Xuanzong hesitated, he laid down three lines of defense to block the rebels' westward advance. He first appointed Feng Changqing as the envoy of Fanyang and Pinglu (present-day Chaoyang, Liaoning) to prepare for the defense; then he appointed The Sixth Son of the Emperor, Li Huan (李琬) the Prince of Rong, as a marshal, and Gao Xianzhi (高仙芝), the general of the Right Jin Dynasty, as a deputy marshal of the Eastern Expedition; and finally had the general Bi Sichen recruit troops to Luoyang to defend.
However, when the Tang Dynasty's officials and troops actually fought against the An Lushan rebels, the Tang Dynasty immediately found that in the face of the rebels who were experienced in actual combat, the officers and soldiers had almost no strength to resist. The officers and soldiers were gradually defeated, and it was not easy to stabilize their positions at Tongguan and stop the rebels' attack. But then, the Fan general Ge Shuhan, who was responsible for guarding Tongguan, was forced by Yang Guozhong to fight at Tongguan. However, because the 200,000 officers led by Ge Shuhan were all formed from temporarily recruited soldiers, there was almost no combat effectiveness, and in the face of An Lushan's army, it was about to collapse.
Conclusion: Fan Yang's rise was the first major battle of the Anshi Rebellion. Since then, the eight-year-long Anshi Rebellion, which has caused Tang to flourish and decline, and the lives of people has begun.
An Lushan rebelled against Fan Yang
Yan Zhenqing Shou Pingyuan County: An isolated island in the midst of war
In 755, the An Shi Rebellion broke out, and Pingyuan (平原, in present-day Ling County, Shandong) taishou Yan Zhenqing refused to ally with Jiedu's envoy An Lushan and led his troops to defend Pingyuan County.
Yan Zhenqing was originally a Beijing official, but because of his honesty, he offended Yang Guozhong, the current chancellor, and was transferred to Pingyuan County as a taishou. Pingyuan Commandery was under the jurisdiction of the three towns at that time (i.e., the three towns of Pinglu, Fanyang, and Hedong), and Yan Zhenqing heard that the three towns had made An Lushan plan to oppose the Tang And gradually fortified An Lushan. Yan Zhenqing pretended to drink and have fun, while taking advantage of the rainy weather to build a city wall and secretly train troops. Although these things were transmitted to An Lushan's ears, An Lushan was indifferent, and he thought that Yan Zhenqing was just a scribe and was not afraid.
Later, An Lushan officially rebelled, and sent a letter to Yan Zhenqing, ordering Yan Zhenqing to lead the troops from Pingyuan and Boping (present-day Liaocheng, Shandong) to support. Yan Zhenqing did not agree, but secretly sent his subordinate Li Ping to Chang'an to tell Tang Xuanzong about An Lushan's rebellion.
Since the taishou of the counties had been subdued by An Lushan at that time, this was the first time that Tang Xuanzong had received news of An Lushan's rebellion. In this regard, Tang Xuanzong lamented that none of the twenty-four counties of Hebei Province were righteous. On the contrary, this Yan Zhenqing, whom I had never met, did things so well. Subsequently, Li Ping returned to Pingyuan County with a message from the imperial court to capture the rebels, and Yan Zhenqing had the notices posted all over the city, and even distributed them to the Taishou of other counties.
In the face of An Lushan's attack, the area north of the Yellow River was not prepared, and only Yan Zhenqing's Pingyuan County resisted the rebel attack. In order to regain morale and resist the rebels, Yan Zhenqing expanded his strength from three thousand to ten thousand in one breath, and organized a banquet, with impassioned words, touched all the soldiers below, so all the soldiers of Pingyuan County united together and decided to stick to Pingyuan County and make enemies with the Rebels of An Lushan.
Yan Zhenqing's courageous killing of the enemy caused responses from all over the place, such as Raoyang Taishou Lu Quancheng, Jinan Taishou Li Sui, and Yi County Taishou Wang Tao joined Yan Zhenqing's town camp, and Yan Zhenqing was elected as the leader of the coalition army and became the history of Hebei's recruitment, with a total strength of 300,000 troops. An Lushan then gave up the rapid attack on Tongguan and changed the route of the attack. Unfortunately, later the rebels launched a fierce attack on Hebei, breaking the Tang Dynasty alliance army, and although Pingyuan County was successfully preserved under Yan Zhenqing's death, the rest of hebei counties fell.
In addition, during the war with the rebels, Yan Zhenqing not only defended Pingyuan County, but also came forward to support other Tang troops. First of all, Qinghe Commandery (清河郡, in modern Qinghe, Hebei) was in danger, and sent emissaries to Yan Zhenqing to ask for help, and Yan Zhenqing agreed to send thousands of troops to fight against 20,000 rebels, winning more with less and beheading the heads of 10,000 rebels. Secondly, Helan Jinming, the Taishou of Beihai (present-day Weifang, Shandong), also joined Yan Zhenqing in fighting the rebels, defeating the rebel general Yuan Zhitai at the Battle of Tangyi, and afterwards the imperial court rewarded him for his merits, and Yan Zhenqing did not take credit and gave the credit to Helan Jinming. Third, liu Zhengchen, a general at Pinglu (present-day Chaoyang, Liaoning Province), raised an army against the rebels, and Yan Zhenqing, in order to encourage him, sent him more than 100,000 military expenses, and in order to show his determination to fight against the rebels, he sent his ten-year-old son to Liu Zhengchen in spite of the opposition of the left and right, so that Liu Zhengchen believed that Yan Zhenqing belonged to a friendly army and could have no worries about fighting the rebels.
Yan Zhenqing supported other armies, but he was almost unable to resist the invasion of the rebels. So Yan Zhenqing was faced with a difficult choice, whether to continue to defend the county or abandon the county? Although Yan Zhenqing wanted to defend the county, he believed that there was always a time when the defensive line collapsed, and these generals would not only die in vain, but even hurt more innocent people. If you abandon the county, you will violate the Tang law, and the crime of losing land is quite serious, and the crime can lead to death. To this end, Yan Zhenqing decided to consult with several trusted generals, and after consultation, reached a consensus on abandoning the county.
Why did Yan Zhenqing abandon the county in the end? Because Yan Zhenqing originally held Pingyuan County, in order to prevent the rebels from entering Tongguan (潼關, in modern Tongguan, Shaanxi). But now tongguan and Chang'an are lost, and it is no longer useful to hold Pingyuan County. Again, after Hebei suffered many defeats, the people were panicked, leading such an army to continue to fight, and Pingyuan County would soon be lost. The bigger reason was that Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was already powerless in the face of the war and fled to Chengdu, while Emperor Suzong of Tang ascended the throne at Lingwu (present-day Lingwu, Ningxia) and continued to send troops against the rebels. Therefore, Yan Zhenqing wanted to abandon his stubbornness and defect to Tang Suzong to reorganize the war strategy. Therefore, Yan Zhenqing finally abandoned Pingyuan County and went to see Tang Suzong Li Heng.
Conclusion: Yan Zhenqing defended the city and resisted the rebel invasion in the early stage of the Anshi Rebellion, which not only exchanged effective time for the Tang Dynasty Guozuo, but also ensured the smooth flow of the Grand Canal at that time, transporting southeast grain to the Central Plains through the Grand Canal, and helping the imperial court to quell the Anshi Rebellion.
