In 755, An Lushan, the "evil wolf" who had been raised by Li Longji for many years, finally showed his fangs. 150,000 rebels, beating the emperor "face pain". Looking at this "Anshi Rebellion", Tang Jun had several good opportunities to turn the tables, but at the critical moment, he was disturbed by this "incompetent" emperor, and in the end, it took eight years to quell the war.
So why did this battle break out?
At that time, the big banner that An Lushan pulled was "Qing Jun's side, kill Yang Guozhong". But how did Yang Guozhong offend him? Yang Zaixiang and he "did not like each other", and later, the relationship became worse and worse. Because, Yang Zaixiang fanned the wind in the emperor's ear every day: "This festival makes us not take it lightly, this person will rebel sooner or later." "The emperor was happy all day, and he took this seriously."
To say that An Lushan has no ambition is false.
In the end, he "rebelled" unexpectedly, because he had a "ghost" in his heart, he felt threatened, and some of the people who had a good friendship with him were either degraded or killed. "Li Chao, An Dai, Li Fanglai, and Wang Min, who were good at capturing Lushan, killed them and degraded their party Jiwen and Hepu." At this point, he felt that if he did not resist, this head would fall sooner or later.
The fact that a three-town emissary was able to mobilize so many soldiers and horses also exposed the problem of the "army system" at that time. Before that, Li Longji had always believed that national strength was the most important, so he had been expanding his borders outward. Powerful soldiers are stationed on the frontier, resulting in their growing strength.
However, due to the lack of attention paid to the troops in Guanzhong and the Beijing Division, they were far inferior in quantity and quality to the local troops. At that time, An Lushan was not only a favorite of Emperor Li Longji, but also a general who could fight a good war. When he was fine, he had a good time with the Khitan and Xi Qi, and those Tang troops who had not fought for many years could compare with him?
In particular, later with the addition of the Eastern Turk Abu Sibu, An Lushan was even more helpful. At this time, the emperor finally understood and raised a wolf himself. However, this wolf has captured a large area of land and cities north of the Yellow River. The emperor could only post a "hero list", and Feng Changqing, the envoy of the Anxi Festival, was recalled, and the emperor personally asked him: How to resist the rebels?
Feng Changqing had always been stationed at the border pass and was extremely loyal to the imperial court, so he replied very objectively: "The enemy seems to be powerful, and that is because the interior has not fought for a long time." But the situation is subject to change at any time, and it should not take long for me to go to Tokyo, that is, Luoyang, to recruit warriors, and it should not take long to take the heads of the rebels. ”
As soon as Li Longji heard this, his spirit immediately improved. For such a long time, the Tang army had been losing battles, and it was rare that this general said that he could take the head of the other side, and immediately named him an envoy of Fanyang Jiedushi.
However, the reality was not as "simple" as Feng Changqing imagined, he had been staying in the western region and knew very little about the situation in the interior. In particular, when he learned that the combat level of the local troops was so "vulnerable", he regretted the big words he had said. Because this unit is not simply low in combat effectiveness, but does not know how to fight at all.
However, this old man who has been in the battlefield for a long time did not give up, and still completed the recruitment as planned, and most of the recruits were "the flow of the city", not to mention archery, many people could not even ride a horse. However, the training still has to continue, but it is too late. The rebels crossed the Yellow River, captured Chen Liu, and then went straight to Kwai Garden.
Feng Changqing was worthy of being a professional soldier, and in the face of a fierce enemy, he personally led a cavalry with strong combat effectiveness and directly engaged the rebels head-on. But after all, the enemy was outnumbered, and he could only retreat to the east gate. In the end, the recruits were defeated by the rebel iron horse, and the city gate was lost. After that, Feng Changqing retreated to Dutingyi to fight again, but still failed.
After several exchanges, they did not have the upper hand, and Feng Changqing retreated all the way to Shaanxi County, where he joined Gao Xianzhi. However, the situation of the two is similar, the recruits can not fight, and if this continues, everyone will finish playing. Therefore, the two of them combined and withdrew to Tongguan. On the way, they were also ambushed by the rebels, suffering heavy losses and casualties.
But fortunately, the two still saved the main force and safely withdrew to Tongguan. This is known as the world's first Xiongguan, combined with the Yellow River ferry and the Kunshan Mountain, has always been the gateway to Guanzhong, easy to defend and difficult to attack. In fact, this step has already won Tang Jun a key opportunity for "repair". If it can be grasped well, this eight-year campaign can be completely ended early.
However, at this time, Emperor Li Longji made a "faint move".
When Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing sent troops, the marshal was Li Huan the Prince of Rong, and the overseer was the eunuch Bian Lingcheng. However, Marshal Li died of illness shortly after taking office, so that the supervision army began to use his own identity to "point fingers" at military affairs. After being rejected by Gao Xianzhi many times, he began to make small reports to the emperor.
And the emperor is also brainless, such a special moment, should be the "war situation" as the most important, but he is disturbed by "chores" overwhelmed. Li Longji actually believed what the eunuch said: "Feng Changqing is bragging, in fact, he is very afraid of the enemy and always exaggerates the strength of the enemy." Gao Xianzhi was even more excessive, withholding military salaries, and the two repeatedly suffered defeats. ”
At that time, the emperor should learn from the old ancestors and personally experience the hardships of leading new soldiers to fight. After listening to the eunuch's words, Li Longji immediately fired a fire and waved a large stroke of "chop", as if this had solved the problem. It seems that the relationship with the adulterous people must also be good, although the defeat of the army is a big thing, but if you lose your head, then there will be no chance.
However, the war continued, so the emperor remembered Goshuhan. People don't want to take this job, and they are very pitiful to say that they are "sick." What about the Emperor? Don't be afraid to be sick, as long as you are alive. Ge Shuhan had no choice but to go out on a campaign, taking Gao Xianzhi's old troops and other troops to defend the town of Tongguan. His strategy is still the same, that is, to "stick" and not fight.
However, the imperial court was not happy, and I sent you to "destroy" the enemy, not to hide there, that is not something that anyone can do? Yang Zaixiang was originally a "careful eye", and he was very dissatisfied to see that he had not taken his words seriously. At this time, another person jumped out and said that this person had a heavy army in his hand, and if he "rebelled", the first person who was unlucky was you.
When Yang Zaixiang heard this, what he said was too reasonable, and he quickly ran to the emperor and asked him to agree to recruit ten thousand people to be stationed in the rear and let his close confidant Du Qianyun take charge. Although he plays the chess piece of "anti-rebel", but it is to prevent Ge Shuhan, how can Ge Shuhan not notice it? Not only did the emperor hand over these newcomers to himself, but he also took the opportunity to get rid of Du Qianyun.
This completely offended Yang Zaixiang, and he began to advocate that "Ge Shuhan is estimated to be the opposite." The people in the Goshuhan camp over there, dissatisfied with this prime minister for a long time, also proposed to take the opportunity to get rid of him, but they were rejected. When Yang Zaixiang heard the sound of the wind, he was murderous and, under the banner of the emperor, ordered Ge Shuhan to send troops to retake Luoyang.
It is estimated that the old emperor at this time was brain-pumping, or he regretted that he did not listen to the prime minister's previous words and killed An Lushan, so that he was so passive. Therefore, now yang zaixiang's words, he is obedient. Therefore, despite the suggestions of Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi, he forced Ge Shuhan to send troops. In the end, only 8,000 of the 180,000 fled back, and Goshuhan was captured.
Just think, how can these people stand up to the well-trained rebels?
Since then, Tongguan has been lost.
Originally a very good game of chess, there was no "gas number" under Emperor Li Longji.
In 756, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi defeated Shi Siming's rebels, annihilating more than 40,000 enemy troops, and Li Guangbi besieged Boling. Since then, the Tang army has played its own military prestige, and more than ten counties in Hebei have surrendered, and even the common people have resisted one after another. This was the base camp of An Lushan, and how to see how this situation was beneficial to the Tang Dynasty. It's just that history makes a joke from time to time.
After the fall of Tongguan, the Guanzhong army was equal to no one, the beijing division was useless, and poor Li Longji had to abandon the city and flee to Sichuan. From this moment on, the Tang Dynasty ceased to flourish, local forces began to rise, and eunuchs began to meddle in the imperial court. History is always so similar at times, is it useful to kill the minister in battle? It is only to help each other and accelerate their own "demise".
Li Longji fled from Yanqiu Gate with his noble concubines, princesses, imperial grandsons, princesses, concubines, Yang Guozhong, Wei Jiansu, Wei Fangjin, Chen Xuanli, and close attendants. Later, when they reached Ma Songpo, the generals of the Sixth Army finally couldn't bear it anymore and launched a mutiny to kill Yang Guozhong and others, and Gao Lishi and others hanged yang Guifei, and then the crown prince Li Heng took the throne on his own in Lingwu and honored Li Longji as emperor taishang.
Resources:
[Old Book of Tang, Ninth Book of Benji, Old Book of Tang, Biography of Yang Guozhong, New Book of Tang, Biography of Guo Ziyi, Zizhi Tongjian, Tang Dynasty]