However, the Tang Dynasty could not escape the fate of ups and downs. In the later years of the Tang Dynasty, the feudal lords separated themselves, the eunuchs monopolized power, and the parties fought constantly, and the huge empire, which was in full swing, gradually went into recession. The turning point of all this is the "An Shi Rebellion".
Li Biyan, Ph.D., Department of History, Fudan University, is engaged in the study of political history, historical and political geography of the Tang Dynasty, and adapted his doctoral thesis into a book "Crisis and Reconstruction: Tang Empire and Its Local Governors". From the military and geographical perspectives, this book reinterprets the major historical events in the Anshi Rebellion with the help of the analysis of handed down documents and geographical data, which is refreshing.
In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the soldiers were stronger than Ma Zhuang, and the stars were like clouds. In order to resist the invasion of border minorities, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty appointed nine provincial envoys and one economic envoy to guard the border, which was called Tianbao Ten Festival in history. These festivals make the military towns in charge have the responsibility to defend the Tang Dynasty, which is also called the buffer region. An Lushan, favored by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, was also our envoy in Fanyang, Pinglu and Hedong, and his control scope was equivalent to that of Hebei, Shandong and Shanxi provinces, with great power. In 755 AD, An Lushan and the Ministry of Peace mobilized Shi Siming's subordinate sergeants, with an army of 1.5 million, and raised the anti-Tang banner, which started the Anshi Rebellion that lasted for more than seven years.
At this time, the Tang Dynasty faced four major crises: the Anshi Rebellion itself, the looting of Tubo, the arrogance of local troops and the political struggle between Xuanzong and Tang Suzong. From a military and geographical point of view, this book selects the four most important areas in the Anshi Rebellion: Henan, Guanzhong, Hebei and Jianghuai, and carefully combs the political trend of this huge empire after the Anshi Rebellion.
First, Henan Province, the main battlefield in the early period of An Shi Rebellion.
When the Anshi Rebellion broke out, the Tang Dynasty had been peaceful for decades, and the drums shook the Tang Dynasty to fly songs. Wherever the rebels went, the defenders would yield, and Tang Xuanzong was forced to flee to the south. The rebels soon took control of Hebei and sent troops to attack Henan.
The situation forced Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty to go south to Sichuan, while Prince Hengli, later Tang Suzong, went north to claim the title of Emperor Lingwu, which led to the emergence of two emperors in the Tang Dynasty and fierce infighting between the two factions. A year later, Tang Suzong regained Chang 'an and won the political struggle before the situation stabilized.
In this process, the two emperors successively appointed seven envoys from Henan Province, four from Xuanzong in the early stage and three from Tang Suzong in the later stage. When An Shi's army attacked Henan, although the enemy was very big at present, the successive governors of Henan were busy taking sides between the two emperors, which led to the fact that local generals Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan had small official positions, but they dared to lay down their lives for justice.
Suiyang is the gateway to Henan. Once lost, the rebels can go south in a big way. In the process of defending Suiyang, local generals such as Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan led thousands of defenders against hundreds of thousands of rebels for ten months. The city ran out of ammunition and food, and the soldiers killed horses to satisfy their hunger. When all the horses were killed, they ate sparrows and mice. Eventually the rebels attacked the city, Suiyang fell, and Zhang Xun and others were killed by the rebels. Three days later, Zhang Gaocai, then the governor of Henan, led the army to recapture Suiyang.
Second, the Guanzhong area defends Tubo in eight towns in northwest Beijing.
Guanzhong area is the center of the Tang Dynasty, located in the Weihe River valley in central Shaanxi. In order to guard against the greedy neighbor Tubo, the Tang Dynasty deployed a powerful military force in this area. After the rebellion broke out, the court was forced to deploy border guards to counter the rebellion, which opened the door for Tubo's eastward invasion. Tubo invaded Hexi and Longyou areas successively and sent troops to Chang 'an. In 7631February, Tubo captured Chang 'an.
At the critical moment, Guo Ziyi, a generation famous soldier, was on the verge of death. Because he has surrendered the military power, he recruited soldiers from his own pocket. First, he sent his grandson to invade the Tubo army, and then sent someone to sneak into Chang 'an to spread the news that Guo Ziyi was leading the army forward. Under the shock of its military strategy, the Tibetan army was frightened and retreated without fighting, and all of them withdrew from Chang 'an. But at this time, the border defense system in northwest Beijing, which was painstakingly built by several generations in the Tang Dynasty, has completely collapsed.
In the confrontation with Tubo, the Tang government fought and set up eight buffer towns along important rivers and traffic arteries, which were horns with each other and became a barrier between the aliens and Chang 'an. Initially, the northern army, the northern court army in four western towns and the Youzhou army from Anshi were used to rebuild the buffer region in northwest Beijing.
After the threat of alien gradually weakened, the Tang government feared that the military commander Gao Zhen would take the lead, suppressed the old army in Guanzhong buffer region, and cultivated its own force-Shence Army. In the later period of An Shi Rebellion, Shence Army began to enter the northwest of Beijing, and then gradually spread all over Guanzhong.
Third, Hebei, the birthplace of Anshi Rebellion
Hebei in Tang Dynasty was equivalent to today's Hebei, Henan and Shandong provinces. An Lushan made his fortune in Hebei, where he was provided with sufficient salaries and soldiers.
However, An Lushan's control over Hebei is not comprehensive and stable.
The troops stationed in the northern Youzhou area are mainly cavalry. This unit can cope with the harassment of nomadic people such as Khitan all the year round and is good at fighting. An Lushan's control over it was very firm, and the generals and troops here became the backbone of his rebellion.
Seven southern coastal counties belong to the inland plain, and the defenders are mainly militia, which An Lushan doesn't attach importance to. At the beginning of the rebellion, the southern region changed its position many times between the central government and the rebels. Later, under the leadership of Yan Zhenqing and others, it became the most active area for local loyalists, constantly creating troubles for An Lushan.
Yan Zhenqing was a famous politician and calligrapher in Tang Dynasty. When the Anshi Rebellion broke out, he was appointed as the county magistrate of Pingyuan. Twenty-four counties in Hebei, except Pingyuan County, were occupied by rebels. Just as the Anshi Rebellion was preparing to attack Chang 'an, Yan Zhenqing successfully persuaded the seventeen counties in Hebei to submit to the imperial court and set fire to the backyard of the Anshi Rebellion.
Fourth, the rich Jianghuai region.
When the war in the north was in full swing, there was also turmoil in the south, which was called "the rebellion of the kings through the ages" in history.
Li Lin, Emperor Yongli, was the sixteenth son of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. He lost his mother and was raised by his brother Hengli, later Tang Suzong. On his way to Sichuan, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty moved step by step. On the one hand, he lets people he trusts serve as military and political officials in strategic locations. On the other hand, he issued imperial edicts to let his three sons organize military and political forces, and put down the rebellion together with the prince and later Tang Suzong.
This road is obviously used to contain the imperial edict of the prince, which has aroused strong dissatisfaction from Hengli and some ministers. Among the three sons named, only Wang Yong should be summoned, and Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty immediately appointed him as the four ambassadors of Shannan, Jiangxi, Lingnan and Qianzhong. He first went out of Jiangling, then traveled eastward along the Yangtze River and traveled around Jianghuai.
With the eastward travel, the contradiction between Xuanzong, Tang Suzong and Wang Yong gradually intensified. In 756 AD1February, the court decided to rebel on the grounds that Li Lin, the navy commander led by Emperor Yongli, had not received an order, and later sent him to Shu Ren by imperial edict.
During his trip, the poet Li Bai joined the camp and wrote the poem "The south wind sweeps away the hiss, and the sun looks west at Chang 'an" to express his desire to recover Chang 'an. After Wang Yong was demoted, Li Bai was exiled.
Although this book is a historical theory, it feels like a mystery novel. In the author's combing of history, we can feel the stormy waves hidden under the words. The Tang Dynasty, which suffered an Anshi Rebellion, seemed to be politically unstable and divided into provinces, but the superficial division could not hide its political glory and value of the times. The positive response of the Tang Dynasty not only made the empire last for more than one hundred years after the Anshi Rebellion, but also had a far-reaching impact on the subsequent historical process of China.