The rise of the Tian family began with Tian Ji'an's grandfather, Tian Chenghei. The Tian family originally lived in Lulong, Pingzhou, on the northeastern border, and served as officers in the Lulong army for generations, responsible for defending the northeast defense line of Chang'an. Lulong is a dangerous terrain, named after the mountain like a dragon, it is the northeast gate of the Central Plains, and it has always been a place where soldiers must fight. Due to its proximity to the border, the people here are resolute and good at riding and shooting, and have always produced excellent soldiers. Tian Chenghe's grandfather and father are both well-known local heroes, Tian Chengsi inherited such family genes, he liked fencing when he was a child, and he was known as a hero when he grew up.
As an adult, Tian Chengsi followed in the footsteps of his father and grandparents, joined the Lu Long Army to serve, and fought hard for his future in the fierce battle. Because Tian Chengsi had both courage and resourcefulness, he was able to judge the strength of the enemy according to the terrain of mountains and rivers and formulate corresponding strategies, so he started from the small school to be the vanguard and became an important general in Lu Long's army.
Since then, Tian Chengsi has repeatedly made military exploits in the border wars of the Tang Dynasty against the Khitan and Xi people. He had won three great victories in a month, and was promoted to General Zuo Wuwei by virtue of his accumulated merits.
Tian Chengsi is not only brave and martial, but also strictly manages the army and has the style of a famous general. One day it snowed heavily, An Lushan inspected the various military camps under his subordinates, and when he came to Tian Chenghe's headquarters, he saw that the camp was full of heavy snow, and it was silent inside. An Lushan was impressed by such strict military discipline. An Lushan attaches great importance to Tian Chenghei and cultivates him as a powerful minion. Tian Chengsi also lived up to his expectations and actively participated in various plans for An Lushan's rebellion.
After An Lushan raised his troops, Tian Chenghei was often entrusted with important tasks, serving as the vanguard of the rebels, destroying cities and villages, and making many military exploits, and he was active on various battlefields. For example, he once broke the seal of Changqing in Luoyang, Klujiong in Nanyang, and surrounded Yingchuan. In the first year of Qianyuan (758), An Qingxu and Guo Ziyi led the imperial court to defeat the army in Weizhou, An Qingxu led the Chinese army, Cui Qianyou and Tian Chengsi led the upper and lower armies, it can be seen that Tian Chengsi has become one of the most important generals in the rebel army at this time. After An Qingxu's death, Tian Chengsi fought under the command of Shi Siming and Shi Chaoyi's father and son, and once again led the army to break through Luoyang, and awarded the history of Weizhou for his merits. Later, he was ordered by Shi Siming to be responsible for attacking Huaixi, capturing Suiyang, and being envoyed by Suiyang.
In October of the first year of Baoying (762), the Tang army regained Luoyang again with the support of the Hui cavalry. But at that time, the rebels had fallen apart, and Tian Chengsi had no power to return to heaven, and finally the rebels were defeated all the way to Mozhou. Tian Chengsi saw that the rebels were gone, so he tricked Shi Chaoyi into leaving the city, saying that he would stick to the city, and asked Shi Chaoyi to go to Youzhou to ask Yanjing to stay behind Li Huaixian to send troops to rescue, and then attack the Tang army inside and outside. As a result, as soon as Shi Chaoyi left the city, Tian Chenghei surrendered the city and sacrificed Shi Chaoyi's mother and wife. Shi Chaoyi came to Youzhou City, and Li Huaixian closed the door again. Shi Chaoyi was cornered, and finally had to go from the hanging forest, and was later rumored to be the head of Chang'an. And Tian Chengsi was awarded the title of Wei Bojie envoy for this merit. It can be said that in the Anshi Rebellion, Tian Chengsi soared to the sky with his resourcefulness and military strategy, and completed the life transformation from a border general loyal to the imperial court to a vassal commander on one side.
As we all know, the Anshi Rebellion was a watershed in the Tang Dynasty to the middle and late Tang Dynasty. Since then, the situation of great unification has ceased to exist, and the local area has formed a situation of division with many feudal towns. The imperial court attempted to restructure its power structure, while the feudal towns sought to maintain relative independence. In the process of reconstructing power, the imperial court and the feudal towns played with each other, and there were contradictions and interdependence, forming a delicate balance relationship. This system existed for nearly a century and a half until it was broken by the Yellow Nest Rebellion.
Among the feudal towns, the most domineering is undoubtedly the Heshuo feudal town group that was born from the Anshi rebels. Although the counterinsurgency army of the imperial court won the final victory of the eight-year counterinsurgency war with the assistance of the Hui cavalry, it lacked the determination to calm Hebei in one go. At the same time, due to the large number of Hexi, Longyou and other armies were transferred to aid the imperial court, the air defense in the northwest was weak, and the Tubo and Dangxiang took the opportunity to invade, which further dispersed the power of the imperial court. So the imperial court had to issue an edict: "The eastern capital of Hebei should be coerced by thieves to obey the puppet official and be born in a false manner, and he will be guilty of it, and he will not ask about anything." Under such circumstances, Li Huaixian, Tian Chengsi, Xue Song, Zhang Zhongzhi (later renamed Li Baochen) and others of the remnants of the Anshi rebel army were able to "recruit and return the scattered, govern the city and the first soldiers, and appoint their own civil and military generals, pay private tribute, and the Son of Heaven cannot be controlled." After that, the imperial court had to admit the reality that they ceded the land and became dominant, and in the first year of Guangde (763), the official edict was issued to divide the Hebei prefectures, and successively took Zhang Zhongzhi as the envoy of the Chengde Festival, and governed Hengzhou, Hebei, Shenzhen, Ding, Yi, Zhao and other prefectures, and governed Hengzhou;Tian Chengsi was the envoy of Wei Bojie, and he governed Wei, Bo, Bei, Cang, Ying and other prefectures, and governed Wei Prefecture;With Li Huaixian as the envoy of Youzhou, he governed Youzhou, Ji, Ying, Ping, Fu, Tan, Di and other prefectures, and governed Youzhou;With Xue Song as the envoy of the Xiangwei Festival, he governed the Xiangxiang, Wei, Xing, Wei and other states, and governed the Xiangzhou. This is the so-called "Heshuo Story" in history.
Since Heshuo is powerful and unruly, if there is no rival in the mainland, there will be an imbalance between the internal and external priorities, and a new Anshi Rebellion will inevitably be formed. As a result, the imperial court had to set up a wide range of towns around Heshuo to re-establish a defensive line. Since the purpose of setting up these Central Plains towns is to use the imperial towns of Yifang, then such feudal towns must also maintain a fairly strong force to control the Heshuo, barrier Guanzhong, and communicate with the Jianghuai tribute. Due to the mutual restraint between the feudal towns and the feudal towns, there were both conflicts of interest and mutual cooperation with the imperial court, and finally formed the "weak Tang people, the princes also." Tang is weak, and those who do not die for a long time, the princes are also in the balance of power.
Among them, Weibo Town is undoubtedly the most powerful among the various feudal towns. Wang Fuzhi commented in his book "Reading through the Jian, Volume 27, Emperor Zhaoxuan": "The Qi (Tongqiang) of the feudal town began in Hebei, and Wei Bo is especially, Wei Bo, and the world is also a fierce district. ”
The core of Weibo Town is undoubtedly Weizhou. Weizhou was an important metropolis of Hebei at that time. In the year of the Northern Weekend, after Yang Jian broke the resistance of Wei Chi Yuan, the governor of Xiangzhou, in order to prevent the resurgence of the opposition forces, he burned Yecheng, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties since Cao Wei, into ruins. After that, Yang Jian moved to Xiangzhou in Anyang, and divided Changli County into Weizhou. Since then, Weizhou has replaced Yecheng as the political and economic center of Hebei. By the end of the Sui Dynasty, Wuyang County in Weizhou had more than 213,000 household registrations, second only to Jingzhao and Qinghe Counties, becoming the largest county in the world.
Weizhou is located between Zhangshui and Huanshui, the terrain is flat, the soil is fertile, has always been an important agricultural area, the agricultural economy is very prosperous and developed. Since the beginning of Ximen Leopard's reign, there have been developed water conservancy and irrigation facilities in the local area, and the "Historical Records: Funny Biography" said: "The people are rich enough". The famous writer Zuo Si of the Western Jin Dynasty wrote "Wei Dufu", which once described the agricultural production scene in this area:
Twelve flows, homologous and different mouths. The animal is the cloud, and the discharge is the rain. Water and japonica rice, land and millet. Swarthy mulberry, oily and numb. Juntian painted domains, and Fanlu was staggered. Ginger taro is abundant, peach and plum shade. ”
In the Kaiyuan period of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Lu Hui, the assassin of Weizhou, renovated the Yongji Canal and diverted water to the west of the city, "to pass the goods of Jianghuai". Since then, Weizhou has become more prosperous with the advantages of water transportation along the Grand Canal, and has become an important commercial hub connecting the north and the south. At the same time, due to the excavation of the Yongji Canal, it has become an important grain transportation base for the imperial court, and the grain produced can be transported by water to the Guanzhong area to support the imperial court expenditure. At the same time, Weizhou was also the most important textile industry center at that time, producing silk, cotton, silk, silk and other silk fabrics.
Weizhou is not only economically developed and populous, but its geographical location is also very important. The topography of the place is pillow with mountains and water, and it is the important town of Heshuo and the key to the north gate. After Li Mi captured Weizhou that year, his power reached its peak and he could win the world. Liu Heimin raised troops and also fought for Weizhou many times in order to conquer Henan. It is precisely because of the important strategic position of Weizhou that in the second year of Longshuo (622) of Tang Gaozong, Weizhou was used as the residence of the metropolitan governor's office to control the Hebei region.
Hebei has always been a gathering place of scholars before, but in the Sui and Tang dynasties, Hebei scholars such as Qinghe Cui, Boling Cui, Fanyang Lu, Zhaojun Li and other families have a tendency to migrate to Chang'an and Luoyang. From the unearthed epitaphs, it can be found that these scholars who migrated to Chang'an and Luoyang not only lived there, but also buried nearby after their deaths, and formed the county surname Xinguan. These clans left their origins and moved to Liangjing because of the attraction of the imperial examination system. If they want to enter the bureaucratic class, it is undoubtedly more convenient to live in Liangjing. This change gradually weakened, dispersed and moved southward as the social power of the Shi clan in Hebei gradually weakened, dispersed and moved southward, so the military group took the opportunity to fill the vacancy and became a powerful social force in the Heshuo area.
At the same time, the folk customs in Hebei have always been fierce and difficult to govern. In the Han Dynasty, there was a record of "people suffering from plagiarism", and there was a proverb: "Wei County, Qinghe, Tiangong is helpless!"."At that time, they all saw that these places were daunting to be officials. After that, in order to suppress the local tyrants, the imperial court also had to let the local ** "engage in cheap and killing". Although later under the baptism of Confucianism, Hebei customs have gradually changed, among which the three surnames of Heshuo Cui, Lu and Li are known for paying attention to scriptures and etiquette, and have become the crown of the northern scholars, but the genes of the good spirit and chivalrous style in the Heshuo folk style still exist. An Shiyu led by Tian Chengji originally came from the Northeast Frontier Army, mixed with a large number of clan soldiers, these people were originally "strong in human nature and Xi to fighting horses". After Tian Chengsi became the owner of Weibo, the local heroes combined with this armed group, and the custom of "vulgar and heavy-minded heroes, good friends and parties" in the Weizhou area was stimulated again, which was also the social foundation of Heshuo's secession.
At the same time, the feudal town also attaches great importance to recruiting talents. Many scholars who were frustrated in the officialdom, sunk into subordinates, or stumbled on the imperial examination went north to enter the shogunate and serve it.
In such a historical background, Tian Chengsi is undoubtedly like a fish in water after getting Wei Bo. On the one hand, he united Chengde, Youzhou and other feudal towns to form an offensive and defensive alliance;On the other hand, he vigorously developed the army and single-handedly created the Wei Boya Army, which directly affected the political situation for nearly 200 years in the future.
In fact, the problem of feudal towns was not a problem when Guo Wei and Chai Rong of the Later Zhou Dynasty were in power, and the problem of feudal towns had been basically solved, and it was solved very well. Generally, the disobedient feudal towns are moved and canonized, and the disobedient ones are directly exterminated!(Since the hundreds of thousands of brave and warlike forbidden troops established by Taizu Guo Wei and Shizong Chai Rong are not ornaments), if it were not for the sudden death of the eloquent Zhou Shizong (the cause of death is unknown), it would be a prosperous Han and Tang Dynasty after the unification of the whole country.