In every turbulent historical period, many heroes will emerge, some of whom have returned home after their achievements and fame, and some of whom have returned to a pile of loess.
In the fourteenth year of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (755), the dust of the Anshi Rebellion broke the scene of the Tang Dynasty, and from then on, the Tang Dynasty began to decline. At the beginning of the Anshi Rebellion, due to the dim-witted leadership of Tang Xuanzong and the fact that the Tang army had not experienced a war for a long time, the Tang army was gradually defeated in the course of the battle, while the rebel army was so strong that it captured the capital Chang'an in only half a year. Tang Xuanzong had no choice but to flee to Shudi in a hurry.
However, just when the Anshi rebels were invincible all the way and the Tang Dynasty was in danger, an inconspicuous small city blocked the way of the rebels and also bought a precious ten months for the Tang to recover.
First, the other side of the Anshi Rebellion
Everyone knows that the Anshi Rebellion was a rebellion of courtiers, but in addition to a civil unrest, it was also a Battle of Huhan.
First of all, let's talk about the identities of An and Shi, the ancestors of An Lushan were Sogdian nobles in the Western Regions, who were rewarded by the Tang Dynasty for their merits and given the surname "An"; Shi Siming and An Lushan were fellow townspeople. In this way, these two people are Hu people. In other words, the leader of this civil unrest is the Hu people.
Historians often attribute the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion to the intensification of social contradictions, and it is clear that the Hu-Han contradiction became one of the main contradictions in many contradictions: the Anshi Rebellion and the Wuhu Chaohua were only three or four hundred years apart, and the Sui Dynasty only ended three hundred years of turmoil and division, and the Han-Hu contradictions in the early Tang Dynasty were not completely eliminated. At that time, the northern region lived a large number of Turkic, Khitan, Xi, Tongluo and other Hu people, who discriminated against each other and the Han people, and the contradictions became increasingly prominent.
The scene of the Tang Dynasty's prosperity covered up this contradiction, and did not want An Lushan to turn this contradiction into his own use. Long before the rebellion, he attached great importance to uniting the Hu people, and at the same time used the Hu-Han contradiction to expand his own power and prepare for future rebellions. In the end, most of the 150,000 troops who rebelled in An Lushan were Hu people such as Tongluo, Khitan, Turkic, and Murong Wei. In some ways, the "Anshi Rebellion" was a Hu-Han war, another life-and-death moment for the Han people after the Wuhu Chaos, not just a "infighting among the ruling class."
So it is self-evident how important it is to win this battle. Fortunately, Zhang Patrol defended Suiyang City, dragged down the An Shi rebels, and won the opportunity for Datang to regenerate.
Second, Suiyang Blood War
As an army was marching south, a small city blocked their way. You can imagine what a tragic war this small city has witnessed.
In 757, Emperor Suzong of Tang sent An Qingxu, son of An Lushan, to lead an army of 180,000 men to attack Suiyang.
In the face of the menacing rebels, the soldiers and civilians of Suiyang City worked together to resist more than 400 enemy attacks with less than 10,000 troops in ten months, eliminating about 120,000 enemy troops and beheading more than 300 enemy generals. Whenever there was a war, Suiyang Shou's general Zhang Tour was "shouting, the blood flowed from the cracks, and the teeth and teeth were broken." Later, Wen Tianxiang also wrote in the "Song of Righteous Qi" that he "expressed his loyalty for Zhang Suiyang".
Ten months later, most of the soldiers in Suiyang City were seriously wounded, and with no surplus grain in the city, the imperial court did not send reinforcements to rescue them, and finally they could no longer resist the enemy's offensive, and Suiyang City fell. The guards Zhang Tour, Nan Jiyun, Xu Yuan, and others were all captured, while the enemy general Yin Ziqi heard that Zhang Tour's eyes were broken and his teeth were shattered every time he shouted, so he pried open his mouth with a knife, and there were only three or four teeth in his mouth. Yin Ziqi was horrified, moved by Zhang Tour's integrity, and wanted to summon them. However, in the face of the persuasion of the enemy general Yin Ziqi, Zhang Tour angrily said, "I died for the king's father, and the thief, the inuyasha, is an endurance!" "So the bravery is righteous.
However, during the ten months that Zhang Patrol was firmly defending Suiyang, the imperial court also received financial and military assistance from the Jianghuai region, and gradually completed the recovery of vitality and began to prepare for a counter-offensive. A month before the fall of Suiyang, Chang'an had already been recaptured; 10 days after the fall, the Tang army recaptured Luoyang. Since then, the rebels have no longer been able to move south, and the Tang Dynasty has been saved. Later, Han Yu lamented in "Zhang Zhongcheng's Biography Afterword": "Defend a city, defend the world, with a thousand pawns, fight a million daily masters, cover the River Huai, and discourage its momentum." If the world does not die, whose contribution is it? ”
Third, heroes or demons
Although Zhang Tour bought valuable time for the rebirth of the Tang Dynasty, he was very controversial in history, only because of one thing: cannibalism.
During the ten months that Suiyang was trapped, Zhang Tour had not received food supplies, and the reason why they had lasted so long was because of cannibalism. The Old Book of Tang records that "the state was strong and oppressive, besieged for half a year, exhausted and exhausted, and there was no way out of the plan." On the day of the first siege of the city, tens of thousands of people in the city, now women, old and young, cannibalized each other, Zhang Zhongcheng (Zhang Patrol) killed his concubines to eat soldiers." In the most difficult ten months, nearly 30,000 old and weak women and children became food, and Zhang Tour even killed his own concubines to fill the stomachs of the soldiers. Such cruel means have also become a stain that he can never wash white.
For thousands of years, the controversy over Zhang Tour has not stopped, some people think he is a national hero, some people say he is a man-eating demon. But as far as Zhang Tour was concerned, if there was a good path to follow, why did he make this choice, which was criticized by the world. It was not that he had not asked for help from outside, but the people he asked for help were jealous of his high reputation and prestige and were reluctant to lend a helping hand to him, and even Nan Jiyun, who was angry and went to ask for help, preferred to cut off his finger rather than enjoy a delicious feast.
In the end, Tang Xuanzong and an Shi rebels gave Zhang Zhu a dilemma: surrender? Then you can enjoy a good life, but Datang has never existed since then, and even the disaster of the Five Hu Chaos of that year has reappeared; resistance? There is no food in the city, only people to feed, and everything is criticized. If Tang Xuanzong had always adhered to enlightened rule, then the Anshi Rebellion would not have happened; and even if Tang Xuanzong had given the correct command in the early days of the Anshi Rebellion, how could the Tang Dynasty and its people have come to where they are today. But fortunately, even if Zhang Patrol and his generals ate 30,000 people, the people of Suiyang City would not abandon him, which was the true unity of the military and the people.
In the long course of five thousand years of history, not everyone has a clear distinction between good and bad in the minds of future generations. Too many people, too many things are controversial. Just like when Bai Qi pit killed 200,000 soldiers of the Zhao State, posterity criticized him for being cruel, but he did not know that in the year of the Battle of Changping, the Qin army did not have enough food, and the Qin state's own soldiers also had to eat. This move can be regarded as a last resort. Although the standard of right and wrong in everyone's mind is different, when judging the right and wrong of a thing, we should understand the matter from many aspects and then make a conclusion.