From the time Emperor Suzong of Tang ascended the throne at Lingwu, the war situation of the Anshi Rebellion began to shift towards the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang army gradually reversed the decline of being suppressed by the rebels. First, Li Guangbi defeated Shi Siming's army of more than 100,000 in the defense of Taiyuan, forcing him to flee to Boling to hide. Then Guo Ziyi led the army to open the passage to Hedong, recovered the Tang capital Chang'an, and forced An Qingxu to abandon Luoyang and retreat east. At this time, the rebel army can be described as falling apart, and the various generals of the rebel army are constantly routing, and even An Qingxu, who is the leader of the rebel army, has only a few thousand people around him. It can be said that this time was the most favorable situation for the Tang army since the outbreak of the AnShi Rebellion, and as long as we seized the opportunity to eliminate An Qingxu in one fell swoop, we could completely quell this civil unrest.
However, what is more surprising is that in such a dangerous situation, the rebels actually created an opportunity to turn the tide of the war and re-entered a state of stalemate. It was no one else who helped the rebels turn the tide, it was An Lushan's deputy Shi Siming. When An Qingxu abandoned Luoyang and fled, almost all the generals of the rebel army believed that the defeat was decided and that the Tang army was bound to win. As a result, the various rebel armies fell apart, and the generals led the army to find their own way out. Some chose to return to their hometown of Fanyang, while others chose to surrender to the Tang army. Shi Siming first returned to his hometown of Fanyang, and then surrendered to the Tang army, becoming the highest-ranking general among the rebels who surrendered at that time. Half a year later, Shi Siming surrendered and rebelled, and suddenly sent troops to rescue An Qingxu, who was besieged by the Tang army in Yecheng, kicking off the prelude to the rebel counterattack.
This attack on Shi Siming was out of control, first conquering the strategic wei prefecture, and then defeating 200,000 Tang troops in Yicheng, allowing the Tang army to suffer the biggest fiasco after Li Heng took the throne. After that, Shi Siming annexed An Qingxu's army and established himself as emperor as the leader of the rebel army. Then it repeatedly fought with the Tang army in Luoyang, Heyang and other places, causing the rebels to reoccupy Luoyang and once again plunging the Tang army into the passive of strategic defense.
Shi Siming was not brilliant in the early days of the Anshi Rebellion, and was defeated again and again in the face of Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi's large army, and the second leader of the rebel army at that time was not worthy of the name. However, after An Qingxu abandoned Luoyang, Shi Siming reversed his previous state of repeated defeats, defeated hundreds of thousands of Tang troops, occupied the hinterland of the Central Plains, and became the biggest threat to the Tang Dynasty. This change of Shi Siming surprised people and puzzled many people who read history books.
From the perspective of military ability, Shi Siming was definitely inferior to Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi, and even An Lushan was superior. However, in the second half of the Anshi Rebellion, Shi Siming was worthy of the name of the second leader of the rebels, and almost completely reversed the defeat of the rebels, and even Li Guangbi was repelled by him. If it were not for the rebellion of the eldest son Shi Chaoyi, the Tongguan occupied by the Tang army would probably once again face the situation under the city of The Army. Such a huge difference between before and after has made many history lovers speculate. Some people even believe that Shi Siming deliberately hid his clumsiness in the early days to avoid being suspected by An Lushan, so he could not help when facing Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi. After An Lushan was killed by An Qingxu, Shi Siming had no scruples, and his ambition to fight for the world was revealed.
This statement is actually very absurd and has no historical basis at all. The war on the battlefield is not a struggle of the court, and if you are not careful, you are likely to die on the battlefield. Therefore, anyone with a little military knowledge will not engage in such a small trick as hiding in war, and this kind of thing will play with fire and self-immolation if you are not careful. And Shi Siming is a veteran general for many years, facing famous generals such as Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi, if he hides in the war, the result will only be a dead end. In fact, when he faced two famous players, even if he fought a draw, he had to rely on God's help, and what chance did he have to hide his clumsiness? Therefore, the statement of hiding clumsiness is only the brain-opening idea of netizens, and can only exist in the storyline of some stall literature.
From the analysis of the records of historical documents, Shi Siming's military ability is not bad, at least above the average level of the Tang Army. Most of his defeats were in the face of famous generals such as Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi, but he still had a high winning rate for most of the Tang generals. In the tangled battle in the Hebei battlefield, he was crushed by the large armies of Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi, but as soon as the two men withdrew to Lingwu to see Li Heng, he immediately reversed the defeat. Not only was Yan Gaoqing, who had rebelled against the rebels, but also the army of Helan Jinming, the Taishou of Beihai, was also repelled, and Yan Zhenqing was forced to abandon the plains and flee. From these achievements, it can be seen that Shi Siming is an extremely good general. His previous failures were not due to his incompetence, but because his opponents were too strong.
Although Shi Siming is not a top general militarily, he does have an extremely keen sense of smell in politics. From the analysis of historical documents, the biggest reason why Shi Siming was able to reverse the defeat of the rebels in the late anshi rebellion was his prophetic foresight in Tang Dynasty politics. And this kind of prophetic foresight gave him the upper hand in the war, and even Li Guangbi felt a lot of headaches when he faced him.
In fact, from the moment An Qingxu killed An Lushan, Shi Siming discovered the changes in the political situation in advance and began to plan for his future. At that time, in order to consolidate his position of power, An Qingxu rewarded the generals in the rebel army, and Shi Siming, as the second in command, had a high reward. An Qingxu made him the Prince of Yanchuan Commandery and the Envoy of Fanyang Jiedushi, and also commanded the Hengyang Military, giving him the name An Rongguo.
Shi Siming keenly discovered that An Qingxu could not fully control the rebels, and had to rely on various generals to control Luoyang and all parts of the Central Plains. So he decisively gave up the battle with Li Guangbi for Taiyuan and Hebei, and led his troops back to fanyang, the rebel hometown. Unlike An Lushan, who valued the major cities in Central Plains Such as Chang'an and Luoyang, Shi Siming paid more attention to the foundation in strategy, and Fan Yang was his fundamental.
The rebels of the An Shi Rebellion originated from the old departments of An Lushan in Lulong, Fanyang and Hedong, of which Fanyang was the most important and the old nest of the rebels. After An Lushan captured Luoyang and Chang'an, he politically alienated Fanyang, but the rebels' hometown remained in Fanyang. At that time, the rebels were very strong against the Tang army, plundering a lot of wealth along the way, and many rebel generals transported their harvest back to FanYang's hometown.
Therefore, Shi Siming took the opportunity of An Qingxu to gather all the troops to return to Fanyang, controlling the foundation of the rebel army and taking the political advantage. After An Qingxu's army was defeated and withdrew from Luoyang, the various rebels fell apart, and many rebels went straight to Fanyang. Shi Siming took advantage of the opportunity to control Fan Yang to recruit rebels, and soon became the most powerful part of the rebel army. He was most clever in taking advantage of this opportunity to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, not only getting rid of the situation of being besieged by the Tang army, but also creating convenient conditions for him to absorb the various forces of the rebel army. According to the analysis of historical data, his surrender was not a simple surrender, but a premeditated political operation. This operation laid the foundation for his later counterattack on the Tang army and the annexation of An Qingxu, and also caused the decline of the rebel army to begin to be reversed.
Many people read the records in the history books that Li Guangbi opposed Li Heng's acceptance of Shi Siming's surrender, believing that Shi Siming was a simple surrender, and that it was a strategy to slow down his rebellion again half a year later. In fact, this view is very superficial, and Shi Siming's deception has a deep consideration. These considerations not only reflect the level of Lee Guangbi, but even include Lee Heng's political intentions, revealing an extremely clever political vision.
From a military point of view, Shi Siming is indeed a fraudulent surrender, but it is not only a strategy to delay the army, but more to attract rebellion. Li Guangbi opposed the surrender of Shi Siming, on the one hand, to slow down the army, on the other hand, to contend with Guo Ziyi. During the Anshi Rebellion, Guo Ziyi was distinguished in battle, most notably the reconquest of Chang'an and Luoyang. This was of great political significance, and it also established the status of the first general at that time.
Li Guangbi was no worse than Guo Ziyi in terms of military ability and prestige, but he was a little worse in battle merit. Although he held the northern capital Taiyuan, he was still incomparable with the honor of recovering the two capitals. Therefore, he urgently needs solid records to compete with Guo Ziyi, and Fan Yang, as the old lair of the rebels, is the main target. In Li Guangbi's view, as long as he had the merit of recovering Fan Yang, he would be comparable to Guo Ziyi in military and political status.
However, this kind of thinking is very dangerous for Li Heng and he is unwilling to accept it. After Li Heng took the throne, he constantly adjusted and consolidated his military power, with the aim of controlling the overall situation of the war and reducing Tang Xuanzong's Li Longji's control over the war situation. In order to achieve this goal, Li Heng used many close associates and eunuchs, the purpose of which was to restrain and monitor the generals with heavy troops, and Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi were the objects of key surveillance.
If fan yang was sent directly, then Li Heng would inevitably entrust the heavy troops to Li Guangbi, which made him very uneasy. At first, he was willing to entrust his heavy troops to Guo Ziyi and let him retake Luoyang and Chang'an. This is because the political significance of the two capitals is also related to whether his position as emperor is stable. But although Fan Yang was militarily important, he was not a political place that Li Heng valued. Li Heng valued the throne, and all the arrangements revolved around the struggle for the throne and imperial power from Li Longji's hands, and it was a secondary position for whether Fan Yang was captured. Therefore, Li Heng did not take Li Guangbi's suggestion to directly attack Fan Yang, and even accepted Shi Siming's surrender despite Li Guangbi's objections. Although this approach is a military defeat, it is very politically advantageous.
In fact, it was precisely because Shi Siming saw this mentality of Li Guangbi and Li Heng that he took the initiative to express his willingness to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. Because after the recapture of liangjing, Li Heng needed to adjust his arrangement politically to prevent Li Longji, who had returned to Chang'an, from regaining power. This requires enough leverage in politics, and the chip to recruit Shi Siming is big enough. In this way, the Tang army did not have to send troops to attack Fan Yang, and Li Heng did not have to divide the troops to Li Guangbi, and in terms of military power, he could maintain the state of balance between Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi. In order to strengthen his political chips, Li Heng will naturally give Shi Siming great convenience. Shi Siming took advantage of this opportunity to get rid of Shi Siming's siege, and also recruited all the rebel troops that surrendered to the Tang Dynasty to continuously strengthen his strength.
It can be said that Shi Siming's move is a typical tactic of concealing the sky and crossing the sea, which seems to be a strategy to slow down the army, but in fact it makes full use of the political contradictions between Li Guangbi and Li Heng. Li Heng was confused by the political interests of Shi Siming's surrender, while Li Guangbi only saw the level of the strategy of delaying the army, giving Shi Siming a great opportunity. In addition, Li Heng was not very reassured about Li Guangbi, and he was very suspicious of his suggestions and did not accept them decisively. Therefore, when Li Heng was busy fighting with Li Longji for power in Chang'an, Shi Siming took the opportunity to reorganize the various departments of the rebel army and lay a good foundation for his counterattack. By the time Li Heng reacted and sent someone to Fanyang to solve Shi Siming, Shi Siming had already completed his operation, and his military strength was no longer under the control of the Tang Dynasty.
Judging from these operations of Shi Siming, his strategy is typical of political guidance of military direction, first having political goals, and then implementing them militarily. This strategy was much more advanced than An Lushan's fierce attack, and Li Guangbi's concept of focusing only on the military was much more advanced. Shi Siming saw Li Heng's intentions in advance politically, and then responded militarily, and every move was set ahead of the opportunity. He made full use of Li Heng's weakness in the struggle for power with Li Longji and his suspicion of the generals of the army, so that Li Guangbi's military ability could not be fully exerted. Although Li Guangbi achieved many military victories, he could not shake Shi Siming's foundation. Therefore, Shi Siming was able to start the counterattack from the Battle of Yecheng, annexed An Qingxu's army, and regained the initiative in the war.