Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, there has never been a shortage of generals who can fight good battles. Li Jing and Li Shixun, Qin Qiong and Wei Chi Jingde, Xue Rengui and Black Tooth Changzhi, each of them is a fierce general on his own. However, the wheel of history has reached the fourteenth year of Tianbao, and the top celebrities of the prosperous Tang Dynasty have fallen from the palace to the bottom.
In the fourteenth year of Tianbao, An Lushan had just raised an army in Fanyang, and although the government and the public were shocked by the rebellion of An Lushan, no one expected that the situation would deteriorate to an uncontrollable point, and no one expected that the elite troops of the prosperous Tang Dynasty would be so vulnerable in front of An Lushan, let alone that the three most prominent generals of the famous Central Asia and the Tang Dynasty, Gao Xianzhi, Ge Shuhan, and Feng Changqing, could not defeat a sheep-herding slave.
What made the Tang soldiers and people even more sad and angry was that Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing and Ge Shuhan did not die under the iron hooves of An Lushan, but fell into the rumors of eunuchs and prime ministers.
Wang Jueren analyzed in detail the causes and consequences of Gao Xianzhi's murder in "Bloody Sheng Tang" and clearly pointed out that Tang Xuanzong was the mastermind behind this tragedy. An Lushan's rebellion was a sudden rebellion, but in a very short period of time, the beautiful veil of the prosperous Tang Dynasty was burned to ashes, the people were displaced, the mountains and rivers were broken instead of singing and dancing, and the terrified, wandering but angry Tang Xuanzong was bound to hold this black cauldron on others.
And Gao Xianzhi was unfortunate, at the wrong time and place, becoming the only Tang commander in front of Tang Xuanzong who was qualified to carry this black cauldron. So what kind of person was Gao Xianzhi, and what qualifications did he have to carry the black cauldron for Tang Xuanzong?
Famous player Gao Xianzhi
A native of Goryeo, Gao Xianzhi traveled to Ansi with his father at an early age and became a general at a young age. However, it was not until Fu Meng Lingzhi sat in the anshi jiedushi envoy that Gao Xianzhi received a heavy responsibility and rose all the way up to become the deputy capital of Anxi and concurrently served as the deputy envoy of jiedushi.
In the sixth year of Tianbao, Xiao Bolu, who was in the middle of the four towns of Tubo, Central Asia and Anxi, seriously affected the Tang's rule over the Western Regions, and under the recommendation of Fu Mengling, Gao Xianzhi led 10,000 cavalry on an expedition to Xiao Bolu as an envoy to the camp.
Gao Xianzhi spent three months bypassing the Taklamakan Desert, crossing the Pamir Plateau, crossing the swollen Bale River, and reaching Lianyun Fort, a military town controlled by the Tubo people.
There were more than 10,000 troops stationed at Lianyunbao, and if they had received news in advance, they would have an absolute advantage over the Tang army, which had traveled for three months. However, Gao Xianzhi's 10,000 cavalry, which was descended from heaven by divine soldiers, suddenly appeared at Lianyun Fort and caught the Tubo soldiers by surprise, especially Li Siye, who was under Gao Xianzhi's command, led the most elite strange knife team of the Tang Dynasty to detour behind Lianyun Fort, attacked back and forth, won a great victory, and captured Lianyun Fort.
Gao Xianzhi raided Lianyun Fort
However, the Tang army, which had won the first battle, was stagnant, and the Gao Xianzhi expeditionary army that had already alarmed Tubo was bound to go deep alone if it wanted to complete the strategic policy of occupying Xiao Bolu, and the eunuchs sent by Tang Xuanzong, the eunuch Bian Lingcheng was unwilling to continue to advance, Gao Xianzhi had no choice but to leave three thousand soldiers and horses to Bian LingCheng, and personally led six thousand people to continue to advance towards Xiao Bolu.
However, when they reached Tanju Ridge, the dissatisfaction of the generals finally broke out, and the marching army for several days did not walk through an inch of normal land, and the extremely harsh natural environment made the remaining six thousand people also afraid, and what worried them even more was that forty miles ahead of Tanjuli, there was a city city close to Tubo, Ah Yue, and once Ah Yue started a war against the Tang army, the Anxi army, which was poor and poor, was bound to suffer heavy losses.
Fortunately, just as Gao Xianzhi was trying to comfort the soldiers, more than twenty Hu knights who came from the direction of ah crossbow brought good news:
"When I heard that the Tang army was coming, the lord of The City of Ah Yue specially ordered me to wait to greet him, and the lord of the city had already cut off the vine bridge on the Boyi River and severed relations with Tubo."
For the disgruntled Tang soldiers, this is undoubtedly a great piece of good news. But what they didn't know was that these crossbow riders who came to tell the good news were actually secretly arranged by Gao Xianzhi. Gao Xianzhi, who had already traveled most of the way, would never give up this last chance, he could only deceive his soldiers and take them to Ah Yue, as to whether the lord of Ah Yue Yue Would choose to surrender when the soldiers approached the city, it could only depend on Providence.
Fortunately, Providence stood on Gao Xianzhi's side, and after hearing that the Tang army had crossed the Tanju, the lord of The City of Ah Yue immediately opened the city to greet him. The little king and queen of Buru, who were not far from the crossbow, fled into the mountains.
Expedition to Little Bolu
The capture of Xiao Bolu made Gao Xianzhi ecstatic, and on the way back to the army, he bypassed Fu Meng Lingzhi and directly submitted a good report to Tang Xuanzong, which made Fu Meng Lingzhi very dissatisfied, and when Gao Xianzhi returned to Anxi, he spoke coldly to him all day, and even threatened his life and safety.
However, the eunuch Bian Lingcheng, who accompanied Gao Xianzhi on the expedition, tried his best to curry favor with Gao Xianzhi, and he collected the misdeeds of Fu Meng Lingzhi and secretly played Tang Xuanzong. In his later years, Tang Xuanzong favored Gao Xianzhi, who had made the Tang Dynasty famous in Central Asia, and it was not long before he transferred Fu Meng Lingzhi and appointed Gao Xianzhi as an envoy to anxi festival.
Gao Xianzhi also did not live up to the trust of Tang Xuanzong, and in the ninth year of Tianbao, Gao Xianzhi attacked the Shushi state in northern India, extending the tentacles of the Tang Dynasty to every inch of Central Asia.
However, the good times did not last long, and as Gao Xianzhi's power grew, his greedy desire also increased day by day. The Shi kingdom in the Syr Darya River valley in Central Asia feared the Tang's soldiers, and after signing a peace agreement with Gao Xianzhi, it was suddenly attacked by Gao Xianzhi, the country was destroyed, countless treasures were collected by Gao Xianzhi, and the people of the Shi state were bloodily slaughtered.
Gao Xianzhi slaughtered Shi Guo
The fall of the Shi state undoubtedly pushed the Tang Dynasty, which had just established its hegemonic position in Central Asia, into the abyss, and the shi prince who had escaped by chance went around accusing Gao Xianzhi of atrocities in Central Asia, and formed an alliance against the Tang with other Central Asian countries, and even invited the black-clad big food that had just undergone a coup d'état and was expanding and diverting domestic contradictions to attack the four towns of Anxi.
However, Gao Xianzhi, who had already heard the news, showed his housekeeping skills and personally led 60,000 heavy troops to attack the black-clad food for a long time, which lasted several months to reach the ancient city of Qiluos in Central Asia.
But the black-clad big food is not a small bolu, and Qiluo is not Lianyun Castle. As many as 100,000 soldiers and horses were stationed around Qiluo, and the black-clad governor of the East, Abu Muslim, had already known in advance of Gao Xianzhi's military deployment to raid Qiros. The opportunity was lost, and Gao Xianzhi, who was not superior in troops, fell into an endless siege battle.
With the continuous arrival of the Great Eaters, Gao Xianzhi and the Black-clad Great Eaters fought a decisive battle on the Qiluo River. However, at the critical moment of the battle, the 20,000 Gelulu tribes under Gao Xianzhi suddenly turned back and gave the Tang army a blow from behind, directly causing the tang army to completely rout.
Gao Xianzhi defeated Rose
The most direct impact of the defeat of the soldiers was the complete withdrawal of Chinese civilization from the Stage of Central Asia, and the most important factor that prevented the Tang army from looking west was the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion.
After the defeat of the Qing Rus, Gao Xianzhi's role in the Western Regions was gradually replaced by the newly rising Feng Changqing. However, An Lushan raised an army at Fanyang, and the blind and arrogant Feng Changqing rushed to Tiger Prison Pass with urgently recruited fighters, but suffered continuous defeats and had to retreat to Shaanxi County, where Gao Xianzhi was stationed, but Feng Changqing had not yet gained a firm foothold in Shaanxi County, and An Lushan's soldiers and horses launched a fierce attack on Shaanxi County, and Gao Xianzhi and the two were defeated, and without seeking Tang Xuanzong's consent, they retreated to Tongguan.
The retreat to Tongguan was the result of Gao Xianzhi's careful consideration, at this time, the Baotang movement of Yan Gaoqing and Yan Zhenqing in Hebei was in full swing, and Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi would soon enter Hebei and completely cut off An Lushan's retreat route, so that it would only take a few months to quell the An Lushan rebellion.
Tang Xuanzong was eager to make quick gains
However, his idea went against Tang Xuanzong's original intention, in the face of An Lushan's rebellion, Tang Xuanzong needed elite Tang warriors to defeat An Lushan head-on, to regain the prestige of the Tang army in the hearts of the people, as well as his majesty, so he constantly urged Gao Xianzhi of Shaanxi County and Feng Changqing of Tiger Prison Pass to take an offensive.
However, Gao Xianzhi not only did not defeat An Lushan head-on, but was compressed to Tongguan. This made Tang Xuanzong very annoyed, and the eunuch Bian Lingcheng, who had always been afraid of his head and tail, fanned the flames at this moment, completely pushing Gao Xianzhi to the brink of death.
On December 18, 14th year of Tianbao, the eunuch Bian Lingcheng rushed back to Tongguan with Tang Xuanzong's holy will, and after quietly killing Feng Changqing, even after ordering a hundred strange knifemen to raid Gao Xianzhi, Gao Xianzhi, who suddenly heard the holy will, did not have time to make any resistance, and was escorted to the execution ground.
Even if the generals of the three armies stationed at Tongguan shouted through their throats, they could not save Gao Xianzhi's life, and Gao Xianzhi, who was more than 40 years old, just shouted "wrong" in the direction of Chang'an before he died, and the head rolled down next to Feng Changqing's body.
Half a year later, Ge Shuhan, who succeeded Gao Xianzhi in guarding Tongguan, was forced by Tang Xuanzong to go out of the pass to fight a decisive battle with the army of An Lushan, and the result was that the entire army was destroyed, and the victorious offensive on the Battlefield of Hebei was also turned into defense with the loss of Tongguan, and the Anshi rebellion that could have been put down within a year was also dragged into a protracted war, and the culprit of this situation, Tang Xuanzong, quietly fled Chang'an and abandoned the people of Datang.
Tang Xuanzong fled
Wang Jueren was extremely sympathetic to the unjustly killed Gao Xianzhi, and in "The Bloody Tang Dynasty", he spent a lot of time describing the merits and military ability of Gao Xianzhi, a famous expeditionary general, and also unceremoniously criticized his fatal flaws, when personal morality and military ability are not linked, bad luck will follow.
However, the people who really paid for the rapid decline of the Tang Empire were not only Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing.
At its peak, the Tang Dynasty accounted for 60% of the world's total economy, twice the size of today's China, more than 300 countries poured into Chang'an with reverence, and more than 2,300 poets created a cultural prosperity. However, behind the prosperity is endless vicissitudes, civil war, gun smoke, no chicken chirping, no dog barking, all of which are in "Bloody Tang Dynasty".