The turning point of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline, the rebellion that changed the course of history, and the Anshi Rebellion (Part I)

In 754, in order to buy people's hearts, An Lushan submitted to Tang Xuanzong a list of more than 500 generals and more than 2,000 zhonglang generals. After the news spread, everyone in Chang'an City, from the prime minister down to the people, thought that An Lushan would definitely rebel, but they were not sure when he would rebel. However, Tang Xuanzong, as the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, did not care about this, believing that the rumors were all rumors and could not be believed.

In February 755, An Lushan sent his own Fuji and Qiannian to Chang'an to report for duty. On behalf of An Lushan, He Qiannian submitted a list of personnel transfers to Tang Xuanzong on behalf of An Lushan. An Lushan replaced all of Fan Yangjun's more than 30 generals with Fan Generals. In the face of Such a rude request from An Lushan, the governors of the three provinces collectively expressed their opposition. Everyone believes that An Lushan's ambitions are clear, and once his demands are met, this person will rebel. However, Tang Xuanzong continued to take this seriously, and while approving An Lushan's request, he refuted the courtiers, saying that An Lushan had never shown disloyalty to himself, and you Beijing officials said all day that he would rebel, was it because of jealousy? Seeing Tang Xuanzong's attitude towards An Lushan, the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu, including Yang Guozhong, was speechless for a while. Afterwards, Yang Guozhong, who had always had a personal grudge with An Lushan, in order to force An Lushan to take the initiative to show his horse's feet, asked Jing Zhaoyin to send people to forcibly search An Lushan's private residence in Chang'an without Emperor Xuanzong's knowledge. After this matter reached Fan Yang, An Lushan panicked, and he couldn't figure out whether this was Yang Guozhong's private action or Tang Xuanzong's benefit from Yang Guozhong's doing. So he had the idea of rebellion, and after a few months turned his ideas into practical actions.

In November 755, An Lushan rebelled under the pretext that the Qing emperor had killed Yang Guozhong. After the rebellion, An Lushan did not follow the successful plan of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan to attack Taiyuan first and then cross the Yellow River to take Chang'an directly, but chose to go south from Hebei, first taking the eastern capital Luoyang, and then attacking Chang'an. Why is this an insurance plan for An Lushan? Because although An Lushan was also the emissary of Hedong Jiedushi, the border army of Hedong An Lushan could not be moved, and Shanxi was in a commanding position in Hebei, and it was relatively easy to attack from Shanxi to Hebei, and on the contrary, it was more difficult to attack Shanxi from Hebei. If An Lushan chooses to attack Hedong xian and then enters The Pass from Hedong after he takes it, he may fall into a bitter battle in the early stage, thus losing the initiative to attack first. Compared with Hedong, which was strong and strong, Hebei at that time, Henan did not have elite troops stationed, which can be described as an undefended state, so from Hebei to the south, first attack Henan, take Luoyang, and then Ke Chang'an, for An Lushan, it is obviously the safest plan. From the perspective of future development, An Lushan's plan is really a safe plan. After the rebels rebelled, they went all the way south, destroying the decay, and easily killed the Yellow River along the way without encountering any resistance. While the rebels swept through Hebei, what was Tang Xuanzong doing? At first, in the face of military reports from Hebei, Emperor Xuanzong believed that wulushan had deceived people and did not believe that An Lushan would rebel. Later, when more and more reports flew like snowflakes, Xuanzong finally realized that An Lushan was really rebelling. Seeing that the situation was critical, Tang Xuanzong immediately summoned Yang Guozhong and a group of courtiers to discuss the matter, but at the imperial meeting, a group of ministers looked at each other and could not come up with ideas. In fact, everyone is not unable to think of an idea, because the response plan is obvious, that is, to send a capable general to Luoyang with elite troops to resist the rebels, but the Central Army at that time has been abolished, the generals have basically not fought, and the soldiers are all waste wood for the honor guard, expecting these people to resist the rebels is impossible, it is difficult to cook without rice in their hands, so everyone will be helpless. Although we know that just as Tang Xuanzong was nervous, Anxi Jiedu made Feng Changqing just enter the court, he took the initiative to ask Emperor Xuanzong to solve the problem of no one leading troops to suppress the rebellion. However, the quality of the Tang Army's soldiers was poor, and this was not something that Feng Changqing could solve in a short period of time. Is it like a tiger carrying a flock of sheep and beating a tiger with a pack of wolves? Obviously, it can't be beaten. Therefore, after Feng Changqing reached the front line, he was quickly defeated by the rebels, and Luoyang also fell. At the same time as the fall of Luoyang, the rebels also destroyed ChenLiu, Xingyang and other places. At this time, it had only been a month since the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion. Hearing the reports from the front, the Manchu Dynasty was in an uproar, and Xuanzong was also terrified, this was an avalanche defeat, and it could not be defeated again, otherwise it would inevitably be a mountain of defeat. In order to boost the morale of the Tang army, Emperor Xuanzong issued an edict to Feng Changqing, demoted him to a white robe, and sent him to serve in gaoxian in Shaanzhou, while at the same time announcing in a high-profile manner that he was preparing to march in person and personally supervise the battle at the front line in Shaanzhou. However, as soon as Emperor Xuanzong finished his attitude in Chang'an, Gao Xianzhi, under the persuasion of Feng Changqing, took the initiative to abandon Shaanzhou and led his army to retreat westward, directly retreating to Tongguan. Realistically speaking, the rebels were mostly cavalry, and most of them were veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles, while Gao Xianzhi's troops were mostly infantry, and most of them were newly recruited civilians. With a huge gap in the quality of soldiers and a gap in equipment between the two sides, Gao Xianzhi chose to retreat to Tongguan and avoid field battles with the rebels, which was undoubtedly the wisest move. However, Gao Xianzhi's wise move was unacceptable to Tang Xuanzong. At that time, Xuanzong was most afraid of the defeat of the army, which would then affect his image of the wise divine martial arts, and as a result, Gao Xianzhi directly gave him a Qi shou Shaanzhou. If you think about it, if this were to spread out, how bad the impact would be, wouldn't that be equivalent to punching Xuanzong in the face? Therefore, Emperor Xuanzong's attitude toward this matter was extremely angry, and in a fit of rage, he ordered the eunuch Bian Lingcheng to kill Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing on the front line of Tongguan. After killing Gao Xianzhi and sealing Changqing, Emperor Xuanzong immediately issued another holy decree in order to stabilize people's hearts, once again stressing that he would personally drive the imperial conquest and personally slaughter An Lushan. But at this time, there were no generals on the front line. Wouldn't the general have allowed Xuanzong, who was now 71 years old, to lead a large army to fight the rebels? This was obviously impossible, not to mention that Tang Xuanzong's brain power could not keep up, even if his brain power could keep up, his old body could not withstand the toss. Therefore, after Emperor Xuanzong made a second statement that he wanted to march in person, Wenwu of the Manchu Dynasty set his sights on Ge Shuhan, the right envoy of Hexi Long, who was living idly in Chang'an at that time. Hearing that the emperor might want to recruit himself, Ge Shuhan felt that this was a death errand and insisted on not accepting it. When Emperor Xuanzong heard that Ge Shuhan was unwilling to go, he was dissatisfied, do you and the old boy really expect to let the widows personally enlist? In order to let Ge Shuhan immediately take command and go out on the expedition, Tang Xuanzong asked Yang Guozhong to persuade him. Later, Ge Shuhan could not withstand the persuasion of everyone, so he reluctantly agreed. However, before the expedition, Ge Shuhan also put forward the condition, that is, the affairs of the front line were decided by himself, and Tang Xuanzong and the imperial court could not interfere. In order to let Ge Shuhan go out as soon as possible, Emperor Xuanzong agreed to it all at that time.

At the end of 755, Ge Shuhan dragged a half-body and rushed to Tongguan with 80,000 Tang troops transferred from Hexi and Longyou, where he met with the 100,000 Tang troops left by Gao Xianzhi and relied on Tongguan to engage in a six-month-long confrontation with more than 100,000 rebels. During the confrontation between Goshuhan and the main rebel force, An Lushan's backyard caught fire. Because the early progress was too fast, many prefectures and counties in Hebei, An Lushan, were too late to send their own henchmen to take over, which led to the main force of the rebel army going south, and many officials of Hebei Prefecture and County re-raised the banner of the Tang Dynasty. For example, the famous calligrapher Yan Zhenqing, who was the Taishou of the Plains at that time, and his cousin Yan Gaoqing first pretended to surrender, and immediately announced the uprising after the main force of the rebel army went south. Later, Yan Zhenqing, with the support of officials from surrounding prefectures and counties, also served as the leader of the anti-An-Tang army in Hebei, and when the power was at its largest, the anti-An-Tang army in Hebei was as many as 200,000, and the territory that An Lushan could control at this time, that is, Fanyang, Lulong, Miyun, Yuyang, Ji county and Yecheng base, and even Fanyang, the base camp of An Lushan, once surrendered due to military instability. In view of the extremely unfavorable situation for himself, An Lushan decided to suspend the attack on Tongguan and first solve the problem of unsteadiness. How to solve it? It is to be called emperor.

On the first day of the first lunar month in 756, An Lushan was proclaimed emperor in Luoyang. After becoming emperor, An Lushan sent Shi Siming back to Hebei to suppress the rebellion in the rear. After Shi Siming led his troops back to the division, it was relatively smooth at first, and the rebel army was beaten to the end, Yan Gaoqing was captured alive by the rebels during this period, and later the family was taken to Luoyang for execution. After Yan Zhenqing learned of the bad news, in order to commemorate Yan Gaoqing's son Yan Chunming, he also wrote a special manuscript of sacrifice to future generations. However, it was not long before Shuofang Jiedushi led Guo Ziyi to lead the Shuofang army from Lingwu and marched along the north bank of the Yellow River, and Lian Kejing's border army, Yunzhong, Mayi and other places opened the passage to attack Fanyang, the old nest of An Lu Mountain. Moreover, Guo Ziyi also recommended Li Guangbi to Emperor Xuanzong, who appointed Li Guangbi as the deputy envoy of Hedong Jiedu and led 10,000 Shuo Fang troops to fight Against Shi Siming. With the participation of Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi in the war, for a time the war situation in Hebei developed in favor of the Tang Dynasty.

By May 756, the main rebel force of An Lushan was confronting Ge Shuhan at Tongguan, and Shi Siming was beaten to tears by Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi in Hebei, at the same time, the rebels sent by An Lushan to attack Yingchuan, Nanyang, and Yongqiu were also defeated by the Tang army. At this time, from the general environment, An Lushan had been surrounded by Tang legions, and the morale of the rebels had fallen to the bottom, and An Lushan even wanted to abandon Luoyang for a while and lead the army back to Fanyang, choosing an opportunity to act. However, just when An Lushan was in a desperate situation and the An Shi Rebellion should have ended like this, Tang Xuanzong sent a big gift to An Lushan in Chang'an. Just when Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi, Yan Zhenqing and others were stirring up the rear of An Lushan, the central government of the Tang Dynasty, the aristocratic forces led by Yang Guozhong and the warlord forces led by Ge Shuhan were internally attrition. In this infighting, Emperor Xuanzong feared that he would force his rebellion against Ge Shuhan, so he repeatedly accommodated Ge Shuhan. For example, in order to balance Ge Shuhan, Yang Guozhong once asked his confidant Du Qianyun to form a force of more than 10,000 people and stationed it on the dam east of Chang'an City. When Ge Shuhan found out, he not only took command of this force from Yang Guozhong, but also killed Du Qianyun. Xuanzong did not punish Ge Shuhan afterwards, but Xuanzong was still very dissatisfied with Ge Shuhan in his heart. You are an old boy, in the face of the rebels you only promise, in the face of Shuo and Yang Guozhong you are aggressive, what do you want to do? Do you still have me in your heart, the Tang Dynasty Heavenly Son? Based on this, Emperor Xuanzong constantly urged Ge Shuhan to go out of Tongguan to fight the rebels, thinking of recovering the military power from Ge Shuhan after solving An Lushan as soon as possible. In the face of Xuanzong's urging, Ge Shuhan initially argued on the basis of reason, saying that it was not yet time for a decisive battle. But later, Emperor Xuanzong's attitude was very firm, saying that The defeat of An Lushan had been decided, the main force had withdrawn to Hebei, and there were only a few thousand rebels outside Tongguan. In order to force Ge Shuhan to march, Xuanzong also asked Yang Guozhong to go to the front line to bring words, until the capital punishment, can not be prefaced, Ge Shuhan did not dare to resist, so he had to go to war, the result was a fiasco. Regarding this Battle of lingbao, realistically speaking, Goshuhan bears a great responsibility. Because on the one hand, the Tang army in Tongguan was not without elite soldiers, before the war, Tang Xuanzong successively transferred 80,000 elite soldiers from Hexi and Longyou Second Town, holding 80,000 of the most elite Tang troops, and the gap between the strength of Ge Shuhan and the rebels was actually not as large as imagined. On the other hand, Goshuhan's command was also very problematic, he knew in advance that the rebels would fight his own ambush, which he had said when he argued with Xuanzong before going to war. However, in the course of the war, out of selfishness, Goshuhan took the enemy lightly and did not fight steadily, resulting in the final fiasco. So, why did Goshuhan take the enemy lightly? What was going on in his mind? Goshuhan's personal real thoughts, we are not the roundworms in his stomach do not know, but from the background at that time, Goshuhan's light enemy ventured in, and the reason for the command error can also be guessed. The reason is probably that Goshuhan did not dare to fight steadily, because once Goshuhan led his army out of the customs, it meant that he was getting farther and farther away from the center of the empire. And what kind of person Xuanzong is, Ge Shuhan is very clear in his heart, suspicious, and the old eyes are dizzy, serving such an emperor, you are useful to him, once it is useless, plus Yang Guozhong blows a little ear wind on the side, you will undoubtedly die. Therefore, for Ge Shuhan, if you do not attack, once it is determined to attack, it is necessary to fight quickly and solve the problem in a short period of time, if you fight steadily, drag and pull, and even because you feel that there is an ambush in front of you and order to return to Tongguan, then Ge Shuhan's end is the second Gao Xianzhi. How to say it, this is the typical monarch and courtiers do not have the same heart, the emperor is suspicious of the ghost all day, the courtier is worried about his head moving all day, you guard against me, I guard against you, if this battle can be fought well, it is really a ghost. After the Battle of Lingbao, GeShuhan fled back to Tongguan, and he knew that his responsibility was great, so he posted a notice at the Kansai Station, hoping to gather deserters and resist the rebels' westward advance. But at this moment, Goshuhan's subordinate Huoba Guiren led 100 soldiers to the station, tied up Geshuhan, and gave it to An Lushan. With Ge Shuhan captured alive, Tongguan was also lost. After Emperor Xuanzong learned of this, his mouth was still tough, saying that he wanted to personally conquer An Lushan, whether it was a soldier or a commoner, he would raise his spirits for me. But behind his back, Tang Xuanzong fled Chang'an overnight with his wife and children and several large boxes of gold and silver jewelry. By the next morning, when the officials were lining up to go to the court, they realized that the emperor had already run away. Hearing that the emperor had run away, Chang'an City exploded for a time and quickly fell into chaos. Hundreds of civil and military officials, merchants and rich people have packed up gold and silver and run softly, seeing that the dignitaries and dignitaries rushed to run, and the officers and soldiers also ran away, and the huge Chang'an City instantly became an undefended city. In June 756, the rebels captured Chang'an.