In the ninth day of November of the fourteenth year of the Tang Dynasty (755 AD), a rebel group led by the Tang Dynasty general An Lushan and Shi Siming gathered 150,000 troops in Fanyang (Hebei Prefecture) to rebel, which was called "The An Shi Rebellion"
Wherever the rebels went, the defenders responded one after another, surrendering the city, and the rebels attacked the city and plundered the land with the momentum of reaching the fire, which was unstoppable. Luoyang was captured on December 12 of the same year, and only six months later, the capital Chang'an was also lost.
In 757, An Lushan, a bianzhen general who had rebelled against the Tang Dynasty for more than a year, was killed by his son An Qingxu and replaced. The Area around Jianghuai has always been a tax center for the imperial court, and in order to expand in the direction of Jianghuai, the rebels cut off the source of food and resources for the Tang army, and led 130,000 troops south with the general Yin Ziqi to attack Suiyang, which was located in the north of Jianghuai' material transportation.
At that time, Suiyang Taishou Xuyuan told Zhang Tour, who had served as a county commander in Zhenyuan (真源, in modern Luyi, Henan). This man was talented, courageous and strategic, and organized people and horses to fight against the rebels in Yongqiu during the Anshi Rebellion.
Zhang Zhu received a letter of request for help, recognized the importance of Suiyang's strategic position, and voluntarily abandoned Yongqiu to lead 3,000 troops from Ningling (present-day Henan) to join in reinforcements, and Xu's 6,800 men jointly guarded Suiyang. This opened the prelude to the most tragic defensive battle——— the Suiyang Defense War.
At Suiyang, Zhang patrolled them to take the initiative to attack, sent his generals Lei Wanchun, Nan Jiyun and other troops to the north to resist the rebels, and defeated Yang Chaozong in the north of Ningling, beheading 20 rebel generals, killing more than 10,000 enemy people, and throwing enemy corpses into the Suiyang Canal, where the water did not flow.
Leading Lei Wanchun, Nan Jiyun and other leading soldiers fought with the thieves in the north of Ningling, beheading twenty thieves, killing more than 10,000 thieves, throwing their bodies into the water, and the river was blocked.
The general Yin Ziqi led his troops to surround Suiyang in the first month, March, and July, and the first two times were repelled by Zhang Patrol, the battle was fierce, the defenders suffered most of the casualties, this time they did not fight, ready to trap Suiyang and let the defenders starve to death.
Initially, Suiyang's grain was enough for a year, but half of it was sent to Puyang and Jiyin, and Jiyin rebelled after receiving grain. At this point, when the grain ran out, only a handful of rice could be distributed to the soldiers every day, and they had to nibble on the bark of the trees and cook paper to fill their hunger.
In the beginning, Suiyang Valley's sixty thousand Hu could support one year old, while the giant hair of its half-fed Puyang and Jiyin, far from stubborn, did not listen. When the yin gets the grain, it will rebel, and it will be eaten up.
In the more than half a year of fighting with Yin Ziqi, the soldiers were tired, malnourished for a long time, and it was difficult to stand, talking about defending the city, everything in the city could be eaten, and finally Zhang Tour thought of a way to eat people, and killed his own concubine, ordered the soldiers to eat, Xu Yuan also dedicated the family slaves, and became the mouth food of the hungry soldiers. The old and weak women and children in the city were eaten by more than 30,000 people.
The rebels, aware of the predicament in the city, resumed their offensive in November. The city fell, and the whole army was martyred. In the Battle of Suiyang, more than 400 battles were fought, and the Tang army killed 120,000 enemies with less than 10,000 people, blocking the rebels' southward advance and greatly enhancing the prestige of the Tang army.
Patrol out the concubines: "The kings have been starving for many years, and the loyalty and righteousness have declined a lot, I hate not cutting my muscles to eat the masses, and I would rather cherish a concubine and sit back and watch the soldiers be hungry?" "But to kill with great bread, and to weep for those who sit." Patrolling and ordering food, far away from killing slaves to feed the pawns.
Surrounded for a long time, the first slaughter of horses to eat, exhausted, and the woman old and weak who eat thirty thousand mouthfuls. People know that they will die, but there is no one who is at the mercy. The city was destroyed, and the people were sent to stop at four hundred.
The rebels, aware of the predicament in the city, resumed their offensive in November. The city fell, and the whole army was martyred. In the Battle of Suiyang, more than 400 battles were fought, and the Tang army killed 120,000 enemies with less than 10,000 people, blocking the rebels' southward advance and greatly enhancing the prestige of the Tang army. Zhang Tour, Xu Yuan, Nan Jiyun and 36 others died unyieldingly.
From January of the second year of Tang Zhide (757) to the fall of October, it lasted for ten months, and the barrier of half of jianghuai was blocked for ten months, the Tang court continued to receive assistance from Jianghuai's wealth and completed the recovery of military strength, Guo Ziyi recovered the western capital Chang'an before the fall of Suiyang, and recaptured Luoyang in Tokyo 10 days after the fall of Suiyang, and the rebels could no longer go south.
If they abandon it, the thief will ride on the victory drum and go south, and the river and Huai will perish.
In the "History of Song", Zhang Tour is described as "Zhuoran crowned for a while and hanging on to future generations". The rest of the historical records also have similar accounts of Zhang Tour, and the praise is extremely high.