Chapter 307, the six armies are helpless and die in front of the horse without a fight

When the Eight Immortals crossed the sea, I didn’t know that the world was in chaos.

Mei Zhenyi took Yang Yuhuan away, and Li Longji took Princess Shou and Yang Yunu into the palace to be named a concubine. He loved him very much and was addicted to the entertainment of music and sex and was lazy in political affairs. He used powerful ministers Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong and let An Lushan become bigger. However, An Lushan and Yang Guozhong were incompatible and had suspicions.

Yang Guozhong is Yang Guifei's cousin, and the name of Yang Guifei in history is not clear. There is no record in the two historical materials "New Book of Tang" and "Old Book of Tang", and it is not mentioned in "Zizhi Tongjian" compiled by Sima Guang of the Song Dynasty. It is only a hundred years after she was sentenced to death, the literati's unofficial history miscellaneous notes "Yang Guifei's small-character Yuhuan" was fabricated in later generations. What Mei Zhenyi heard before traveling through time was naturally the name of Yang Yuhuan.

There were also literati in the Tang Dynasty who recorded "Yu Nu, Tai Zhen's small character". Perhaps because the name Yu Nu was not as nice as Yu Huan, later literati would rather quote Yang Yu Huan's name. What happened to be spread for thousands of years? I'm afraid even Mei Zhenyi, who had experienced that era, could not be clearly explained.

The territory of the Tang Dynasty was vast, and all ethnic groups lived and merged, showing their heartfelt spirit in the prosperous era. In the early Tang Dynasty, due to years of wars, the government and military system was implemented in various places, and the capital and governments were highly valued. During the Kaiyuan period, there was no trouble in the country for a long time, and only the frontiers were attacked from time to time. The Tang Dynasty set up ten military towns on the border areas. Each town's Jiedu or Martial Commander was also in charge of the administration, finance, taxation, household registration, land, and military power of several states gradually formed a pattern of solidity on the outside and empty inside, becoming a hidden danger to the central government.

The relationship between Yang Guifei and An Lushan was extremely intimate and a little chaotic. Xuanzong also valued and trusted An Lushan who was good at fighting, and appointed him as the governor of Pinglu, Fanyang and Hedong towns. Among the 500,000 border troops in the Tang Dynasty, 200,000 were commanded by An Lushan, and they were the most elite troops that had been tempered by the battle formation. At the same time, the defenders of the capital in Chang'an area were less than 100,000.

Under such circumstances, people with a little ambition may have other ideas. An Lushan has been recruiting troops to strengthen his trustworthy power.

The Hexi Jiedushi Wang Zhongsi and Prime Minister Yang Guozhong successively sued An Lushan for rebellion. Li Longji only said that he did not believe it. It is true that Li Longji was foolish when he was late. But as a promising hero of a generation, Li Longji was really so completely confused? Li Longji had already seen that the situation was wrong at this time. However, raising a tiger has become a problem and it is very difficult to deal with it.

Li Longji is a man with great joy. An Lushan is indeed a great military achievement. He was promoted by the emperor's favor. If it were not said that this person was treason, wouldn't he beating Li Longji in the face? On the other hand, the general has a lot of troops outside, and it is easy for others to talk about it. If someone sued the border general for rebellion, the emperor would nod directly and say "I believe". As long as the news came out, he would be forced to rebel.

Crown Prince Li Heng also reported that An Lushan had a devilish sign and that he was the future monarch. Li Longji also considered dealing with this matter, followed the advice of Prime Minister Yang Guozhong, and invited An Lushan to come to the court for a visit.

If you are leading the army and have the ability to compete with the central government. Someone in the court impeached you with a desire to rebel, what choice do you have? There are only two ways to go. One is to show your innocence through practical actions, and the other is to immediately rebel and protect yourself. The results of these two ways are difficult to predict. An Lushan first chose the first way. After receiving the edict, he immediately rushed to Beijing.

Yang Guozhong once told the emperor that if An Lushan wanted to rebel, he would not dare to come. As a result, An Lushan really came, which made him very embarrassed. In the first month of the thirteenth year of Tianbao (754 AD), An Lushan went to Beijing to pay homage to the emperor and cried: "I am a Hu man, but Your Majesty is not promoted, and he is in a state of restraint. He has kindness from ordinary people. Yang Guozhong is jealous and wants to murder me, but I will die for no more than a day."

Li Longji comforted him with kind words and rewarded him more. He was appointed as the Minister of Shangshu Zuo Pushe, and his son was also granted many houses, land, and slaves, and his favor remained the same. When An Lushan left Beijing and returned to Fanyang in March of that year, Li Longji personally sent him off. Before leaving, he took off his imperial clothes and put them on his body, which was a touching scene of a benevolent king and respectful ministers!

History has turned to this page, and some people may ask, if An Lushan was killed or an excuse to detain him in Chang'an, would it be possible to stop the Anshi Rebellion? Li Longji had no idea. Did Prime Minister Yang Guozhong and Crown Prince Li Heng have any plans? It is unknown.

But based on the situation at that time, if An Lushan was really killed or locked up, the biggest possibility would be another result - this rebellion would come early. An Lushan's son An Qingxu and his general Shi Siming and others had their own ambitions and were not a good deal. If An Lushan was trapped in Chang'an, these people would most likely start an army immediately. After all, An Lushan did not rebel and there was no direct evidence of rebellion.

Li Longji chose to appease An Lushan in order to delay the army. This was a helpless and wise move, but it was absolutely not wise. Xuanzong was indeed lazy and stupid in his later years, otherwise it would not have caused such a situation that it was difficult to get rid of the tiger. He was hesitant to Yang Guozhong and An Lushan and had improper appointment. However, these two people were in power and were related to Yang Guifei.

An Lushan left Chang'an like a frightened bird. He rushed to the bank of the Yellow River without stopping, changed his horse and took a boat to go down the river day and night, and rushed back to his old nest Fanyang.

In the first month of the following year, An Lushan submitted a letter to the court and requested the promotion of 32 foreign generals to replace the original Han generals in the border town. Li Longji, who was hesitant, finally began to consider how to deal with An Lushan. When An Lushan came to Chang'an last year, Li Longji planned to give him the title of Tongpingzhang and leave him in Chang'an to worship prime minister, both with honorable status and far away from the border town army.

At that time, Yang Guozhong reported: "Although Lushan has military achievements and is not aware of books, how can he be the prime minister? If the book is made, he is afraid that the four barbarians will be inferior to the Tang Dynasty." Li Longji gave up his plan. At this time, Li Longji once again prepared to issue an edict to let An Lushan enter the prefecture. Yang Guozhong was deeply jealous of An Lushan, so how could he let him enter the court to decentralize power and incite the ministers to dissuade him, and once again he had not decided.

Yang Guozhong naively thought that as long as the imperial edict was issued by the court, An Lushan could be eliminated. He did another thing in Chang'an, instructing the Jingzhao Yin Yamen to send someone to copy An Lushan's mansion in Chang'an, arrested An's mansion Li Chao and others, and sent him to the Censorate to question him. When An Lushan heard this news, he knew something was wrong, and he said he had no choice but to see the guests and refused to return to Chang'an again. The rebellion was already difficult to get rid of.

In June of this year, Princess Rongyi married An Qingzong, the son of An Lushan, in Chang'an. Li Longji ordered An Lushan to attend the wedding in Beijing. An Lushan refused to be sick. In November of this year, the emperor sent an envoy to Fanyang to check the facts of An Lushan's illness. An Lushan took the opportunity to forge the edict and said to his subordinates: "The emperor has a secret order to order Lushan to join the court to attack Yang Guozhong. You should join the army immediately." Then he raised an army to rebel.

From the beginning, An Lushan might not have the intention to rebel. On the one hand, Li Longji pushed him to the forefront and was in a dilemma; on the other hand, the occurrence of a series of events in the court forced An Lushan to rebel. On the other hand, which factor is more important, I'm afraid even An Lushan himself can't explain clearly. In short, the Anshi Rebellion began.

At that time, the world was peaceful for a hundred years, and the people did not know the war, so the local garrison troops went to the battlefield. I had never seen any fighting scenes in my life, so how could I stop An Lushan's army who was raising energy and the tigers and wolves? An Lushan rushed forward and captured the eastern capital Luoyang in just thirty-five days. The next year, he proclaimed himself emperor in Luoyang and established the country's name Dayan.

The Tang Dynasty court mobilized troops and horses. Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing were sent to guard Tongguan. They ordered various military troops to rush to the capital. Generals Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi marched from Hebei to attack the rear of the rebels, which temporarily curbed the momentum of the rebels.

The Tang Dynasty had accumulated power for a hundred years. Li Longji was still living in the fantasy of a prosperous era at this time, and did not take An Lushan seriously. He wanted to fight and decide quickly and quickly quell the rebellion. The eunuch of the army supervisor Bian Lingcheng failed to ask for bribes in the Tongguan army. He returned to Chang'an to sue the emperor for Feng Changqing, the guard of Tongguan. Gao Xianzhi blundered the thief, feared the enemy to avoid the battle, abandoned Shaanxi for hundreds of miles, and shook the morale of the army.

Li Longji had long been dissatisfied with the war. He believed this and issued an edict to kill Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi, and ordered Ge Shuhan to be the commander of the disease in Chang'an. He led a temporary mobilized army of 200,000 to go out to Tongguan to fight An Lushan. As a result, the Tang army was defeated, Ge Shuhan was captured and surrendered, and An Lushan took advantage of the situation to capture Tongguan.

When Tongguan was lost, there were no troops to the east of Chang'an City and there was no danger to defend. Li Longji, with Yang Guifei, Prince Li Heng, Prime Minister Yang Guozhong, etc., hurriedly fled from Chang'an under the escort of the Yulin Imperial Army and headed south. Ten days later, An Lushan's rebels occupied Chang'an. The momentum reached its peak.

An Lushan proclaimed himself emperor. He occupied the capital again and thought he had done his job. He did not pursue the southwest, and he was drunk and entertained day and night. Moreover, at this time, An Lushan's body was not good at all. He was always too obese. In today's words, he might have suffered from diabetes, hypertension and a series of complications in his later years. After indulgence, his body became weaker and more irritable, his eyesight gradually decreased, and he could not even see things.

Not to mention the Emperor An Lushan of the Great Yan, I only said that Emperor Li Longji of the Tang Dynasty fled south in a panic. Two days later, he arrived at Mawei Post, where another confusing palace coup occurred. It is known in history as the Mawei Mutiny. The envoy behind the scenes was suspected to be the Crown Prince Li Heng.

Li Heng is 45 years old this year and has been appointed as the crown prince for eighteen years, so he has been unable to wait. In his early years, Li Longji favored Concubine Wu Hui and killed three biological sons by obeying slander. The former Zhong King Li Heng almost suffered. After Concubine Wu Hui's death, he was appointed as the crown prince. After so many years of fear, he was dissatisfied with his father and the powerful ministers in the court.

Li Heng thought that he had reminded his father for a long time, but his father failed to stop him. He was no longer suitable to take power. He was time to take office. He knew that there were many people in the imperial guards who hated Yang Guozhong deeply, and this was a military morale. After escaping from Chang'an, on that night, Li Heng ordered the eunuch of the Eastern Palace, Li Fuguo, to secretly recruit the commander of the imperial guards, Chen Xuanli, to plan to launch a mutiny under the pretext of eliminating Yang Guozhong. At this time, Li Longji was still in the dark.

This time, the place where he fled south was not only the imperial guards and ministers, but also the envoys of various vassal states. The next morning, more than 20 Tubo envoys went to find Chen Xuanli to ask for food, but Chen Xuanli said that there was no, and asked them to find Prime Minister Yang Guozhong.

There is a Chenyu Temple next to Mawei Post, which is the palace where Xuanzong temporarily settled. On that day, Yang Guozhong had just walked out of the Buddhist temple to get on his horse when he was stopped by a group of Tubo envoys and surrounded him for food. In desperation, he spoke in a mixed manner. Before Yang Guozhong could answer, the imperial guards guarding outside the temple shouted: "Yang Guozhong colluded with Hu Fan to rebel!" An arrow shot into the saddle.

Yang Guozhong was frightened and fell off the horse. He hurriedly fled into Mawei Post. He was chased by the Yulin Army and killed with a knife. The soldiers then killed Yang Guozhong's sister, Mrs. Han, sister, Mrs. Qin, and his wife's family. The Censor Wei Fang drank the imperial guards and was also killed. Seeing that Su was beaten and blood was flowing, Chen Xuanli appeared in time to restrain the soldiers and saved his life.

Killing Yang Guozhong is only the first step to test. Once the army is successful, Chen Xuanli began the second step to force the palace and led his army to surround Chenyu Temple. The noise alarmed Li Longji and asked what happened to him. Someone outside the door reported that Yang Guozhong was executed for rebellion. The emperor was shocked but had no choice but to send an eunuch Gao Lishi to issue an order to ask the soldiers to retreat. The Yulin Army did not retreat, so Li Longji had to go out to comfort him personally.

Seeing the emperor coming, Chen Xuanli got off the horse and knelt down and said, "Yang Guozhong has been killed in rebellion. His sister, Concubine Yang, should not serve His Majesty anymore. I hope that His Majesty will give up and execute Concubine Yang."

Li Longji shook. If Gao Lishi hadn't helped him, he would have almost fallen to the ground. In just a few days, the dignified Emperor Wancheng had fallen to such a state, and everyone was betrayed by his relatives. Even his beloved woman could not be saved. Li Longji did not answer for a long time, and Chen Xuanli knelt down and couldn't get up. The scene was so stalemate.

Li Longji also wanted to safeguard the dignity of the emperor, so he finally said with a stick, "I will deal with it!" He turned around and walked into Chenyu Temple, while the army was still surrounded outside the temple and did not retreat. The onlookers also saw the situation clearly. Wei Yan, the army of Jingzhao, followed him into the temple and persuaded him, "There are people who are angry and unrest, and the safety is only in the evening. I hope Your Majesty will make a decision early." He said that, kneeling on the ground and kowtowed to Li Longji.

When Wei Yan raised his head, he saw that the gray-haired emperor had already burst into tears. He murmured to himself: "The imperial concubine always lives in the deep palace, how can he Zhiguozhong rebellion?"

Li Longji knew very well that Yang Guozhong had no military power, and it was impossible to rebel in this situation. At the same time, he also understood that some people hated Yang Guozhong and must kill him quickly, but unfortunately he couldn't say these words. Forced by the situation, the soldiers did not obey their orders, and he had to admit that Yang Guozhong was treasoned. Since this was the case, he could only defend Yang Guifei and was not aware of it.

Gao Lishi advised: "The imperial concubine is innocent, but since Yang Guozhong was killed, how could the soldiers let her serve His Majesty with peace of mind? Only when the soldiers were peaceful can they have peace of mind." This was already very explicit. The soldiers who committed suicide by Yang Guozhong without authorization, how could they leave Yang Guifei? Are they still waiting for her to take revenge in the future? Li Longji wanted to protect himself. He could only follow the wishes of everyone.

Li Longji was helpless and ordered Gao Lishi to lead Yang Guifei to a pear tree in the backyard of Chenyu Temple and gave her a white silk to hang herself. Yang Yunu was 38 years old at the time. He was still beautiful in the deep palace for many years. Xuanzong fled in a panic and still took her with her, which shows that her favor has not diminished.

Poor Concubine Yang didn't know what was going on until Gao Lishi came with the white silk. Tears were like pearls with broken threads, and her whole body was trembling. She helped the desk and asked, "Where is the emperor?"

Gao Lishi did not dare to look up and replied in a low voice: "The mountains and rivers are broken, and the emperor has no power. The six armies force the palace outside the gate, don't blame the imperial concubine."

While he was talking, a thin but clear voice suddenly came from Gao Lishi's ears: "Gao Lishi, you will hang Concubine Yang with your own hands, please listen to me." He was shocked, looked up and looked around, and the voice said again: "Don't look around, I'm not something you can see, just do what I say!"

Gao Lishi hangs Yang Guifei, and Xuanzong ordered the body to be carried into the Buddhist temple and let Chen Xuanli and other generals come to check. Chen Xuanli and others took off their armor and kowtowed and said, "I have killed Yang Ni for the sake of the country, but have not respected the imperial edict. Please give me the crime of correcting the punishment."

Li Longji could only comfort him: "I don't know the people, and even in today's rebellion, I want to go to Shu to reorganize my troops and horses to quell the rebellion. You all have the patriots of the country. You should be rewarded with titles. What crimes are there?"

The soldiers bowed down and shouted long live. The emperor ordered Gao Lishi to bury Yang Guifei, silently shed tears. The soldiers rectified the army and continued to protect the carriage, and the mutiny came to an end. However, not far from Mawei Post, a group of local gentry knelt on the ground to stop the carriage, and asked on behalf of the "people", asking the Crown Prince Li Heng to lead the army to quell the rebellion. The soldiers of the Yulin Army also knelt on the ground and asked His Majesty to follow the people's request.

When Li Longji saw this scene, he knew it clearly that it was clearly the arrangement of the prince, to seize power and kick him away. But now the heart of the soldiers has followed the prince, and it is impossible for him to listen to Li Longji's orders again. If Li Longji continues to take power and turn himself over to pacify the world in the future, these people will be worried about their safety. Only by holding the prince to the throne can they keep their wealth.

Li Longji had no choice but to leave the prince and appointed him as the Grand Marshal of the World to suppress the rebellion. Li Heng led most of the Yulin Army to part ways with his father and went north to Lingzhou to collect the army and horses in the northwest border town. Li Longji, under the escort of a team of imperial guards, continued to travel south into Shu and arrived in Chengdu on July 28th.

Li Longji fled Chang'an on June 12th in the 15th year of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty (756 AD). On June 14th, he encountered a mutiny and hanged Yang Guifei to death. He was immediately seized by the prince. As a prosperous emperor, Li Longji was not at mercy by his son. On July 15th on the way south, he made his last struggle and issued an edict, known in history as the "separation of edicts."

The prince Li Heng was appointed as the marshal of the world's military and horses, and led the commander of Shuofang, Hedong and Pinglu Jiedu, and went to Lingzhou to convene the army and horses in the northwest border town, and to take Chang'an and Luoyang in the south.

King Yong Li Lin was appointed as the governor of Shannan East Road, Lingnan, Qianzhong, and Jiangnan West Road. He went down the Yangtze River and recruited soldiers, soldiers, horses, and food, and went north to quell the rebellion.

This is a strategy of dividing troops from two groups. Judging from the situation at that time, the war in the north and the stability in the south, and the dispatch of Yongwang to operate the Yangtze River Basin was also a long-term plan to prevent the war in the Yellow River Basin from being unfavorable. Li Longji was still a little unwilling to leave the highest peak of the historical stage so soon, and wanted to play the imperial technique of checking and balancing the generals.
Chapter completed!