On July 13, 756 AD, when Suzong was proclaimed emperor in Lingwu, Xuanzong and his entourage arrived in Pu'an County, Jianzhou.
Four days later, Xuanzong issued an edict to divide the princes into the world, appointing the crown prince Li Heng as the marshal of the world's soldiers and horses, and commanding Shuofang, Hedong, Hebei, and Pinglu Jiedu envoys to recover the two capitals.
Yongwang Li Lan was the governor of Jiangling, and the ambassador of Tongshan South East Road, Qianzhong, Jiangnan West Road and other festivals; Li Qi, the king of Sheng, was the governor of Guangling County, and the ambassador of the Jiedu of Jiangnan East Road, Huainan, Henan and other roads; Fengwang Li Heng was the governor of Wuwei and led the ambassadors of Hexi, Longyou, Anxi, and Beiting Jiedu. "
On the surface, this edict looks like Xuanzong's redeployment of military affairs, but in fact it is not his original intention, but ulterior motives. Although this edict was promulgated without Xuanzong knowing that Li Heng had ascended the throne as emperor. "
Wang Fuzhi once pointed out that after Xuanzong learned that Tokyo was captured, he originally wanted to let the prince supervise the country, and then when he sent troops, he had already sent a decree to let the prince supervise the country. However, soon after, Xuanzong appointed the crown prince as the marshal, and the kings divided the whole world to control the power, weakening the prince's power.
This is undoubtedly a serious mistake, which greatly weakens the power and authority of the crown prince, and may even cause a ** situation. Soon after, King Yong intended to divide Jiangnan, which was the result of Xuanzong's wrong decision.
Li Heng's proclamation as emperor in Lingwu can be said to be a continuation of the Ma Weiyi Rebellion, which was essentially a bloodless coup d'état for the supreme ruling power. However, at that time, Xuanzong ignored the national society, abandoned the capital and fled in a hurry, and the world was in a critical moment when the dragons were leaderless and falling apart, Li Heng shouldered the important task of quelling the rebellion, recovering the lost territory, and reviving the majesty of the Tang Dynasty, commanding the world as the monarch, which politically had a great role in unifying the leadership and command of the national war of resistance and inspiring the fighting spirit of the Tang Dynasty soldiers and civilians who insisted on resisting the war in the area occupied by the An Lushan rebels.
Li Xiang ascended the throne in Lingwu and became self-reliant, although it was a little unfilial for the son to seize the throne of his father, but at the critical moment of the country's life and death, what people needed more was a monarch who had the courage to take on the important task of quelling the rebellion, recovering the lost land, and saving the people from fire and water.
It was also legal and reasonable for Li Heng to ascend the throne as the crown prince, because Xuanzong had already made a decision when he was in Ma Weiyi. His accession to the throne has been supported and embraced by the whole people, such as Yan Zhenqing heard that after Suzong ascended the throne, he used wax pills to convey his loyal expression.
In addition, the heroes of the Gyeonggi region have also joined the struggle against the rebels. After everything was on the right track, Su Zong** immediately began a new military deployment and mobilized a large number of elite troops to Lingwu.
All these indications show that Li Xiang's ascension to the throne is in line with the national conditions and the will of the people.
After Suzong ascended the throne, he immediately began to put down the rebellion, regain the lost territory, and reorganize the rivers and mountains. However, this could not be achieved with the strength of the Tang army alone. For this reason, Su Zong thought of using the strong troops of the ethnic minorities in the northwest to enhance his military strength.
He named Li Shouli's son Li Chengyu as the king of Dunhuang, and went to borrow troops from Hui with Gu Huaien, the general of the Shuofang army. At the same time, he conscripted the soldiers of Bakhana and asked them to convey to the countries of the Western Regions, promising them a heavy reward and asking them to join the Anxi soldiers to come to their aid.
Li Mi also suggested that Suzong go to Pengyuan first, wait for the arrival of the northwest generals, and then go to Fufeng, so as to meet the needs of the army. After hearing this, Su Zong felt that it made sense, so he gladly accepted the suggestion.
After holding a grand military parade, Su Zong led the exile ** to set out from Lingwu, and finally met Fang Xuan, Wei Jiansu and others who shouldered the mission in Hue.
Xuanzong was irreparable because of the incident, so he could only admit the reality and say with a smile: "My son Ying Tianshun people, what else do I have to worry about?" But after four days of painful ideological struggle, he finally made up his mind, and on the 16th he ordered it to be changed to an edict, and he was called the emperor.
The four naval affairs must first take the emperor's (referring to Suzong) advance, and then report to him to know; After resuming Beijing, he will no longer be involved in any affairs. In addition, he also sent Wei Jiansu, Fang Xuan, and Cui Jian to Lingwu to preside over the succession ceremony with the treasure jade book of the country, and asked them to assist Suzong.
After Wei Jiansu and others set off from Chengdu, they traveled day and night, and walked for more than a month before they saw Suzong. After the monarch and the ministers met, Su Zong's attitude towards Wei Jiansu was very cold, because he had curry favor with Yang Guozhong; However, his attitude towards Fang Xuan was like that of the two of them, because he was not only a famous person at home at that time, but also had a close relationship with Li Shizhi and Wei Jian, and was later demoted because of the involvement of the prince's private party case.
Therefore, Su Zong admired him very much and valued him, and discussed with Fang Xuan on all major military affairs, and Fang Xuan also took it as his responsibility to pacify the world, knew everything, said everything, and practiced more, and other prime ministers could only give up their positions when they saw this.
Fang Xuan is a weak scholar who talks on paper, likes to talk loudly, knows nothing about military affairs, and has never been in the battle in person, wearing perseverance and leading soldiers to fight. In addition, Guo Ziyi was leading troops to suppress Tongluo Zhuhu, who was seeking provocation and harassing Shuofang, and did not go south to Pengyuan with Suzong; The messengers who went to Hui Hui to ask for reinforcements were not heard from; The water transport in the Jianghuai region has not yet reached Fufeng.
In short, in any respect, the conditions for a large-scale head-on decisive battle against the unstoppable Anshi rebels are not yet in place. Su Zong is not ignorant of this.
Su Zong was anxious to recover Chang'an, and trusted Fang Xuan, who lacked actual combat experience, hoping that he would be able to lead the counterinsurgency war. Fang Xuan's self-selected wingmen are all weak scholars who talk on paper, but he himself thinks that they are rare geniuses.
In the battle of Chen Taoxian, Fang Xuan mechanically copied the chariot combat method in the ancient soldier's book, and as a result, the cattle were frightened by the sound of the rebels' drums and torches, and the Tang army was defeated and suffered heavy casualties.
Fang Xuan was deeply remorseful and angry during the battle, and he wanted to lead the army to fight again to wash away the shame. However, the result of the battle put the Tang army in the heavy encirclement of the rebels, and the main generals Li Yi, Liu Zhi and others all showed no courage and no strategy, and were ready to be killed.
At this critical moment, Li Guangjin, the commander of the Northern Army, led the remnants to fight desperately into the encirclement, and after a bloody battle, finally helped Fang Xuan and others successfully break through. However, Fang Xuan's defeat caused Suzong to be extremely dissatisfied with him, but due to Li Mi's mediation, he was eventually pardoned.
This defeat not only caused a lot of losses, but also cast a shadow on the Suzong court, which had a serious impact on the situation. After the victory, the rebels celebrated their victory, much to the great disappointment of the people of Chang'an.
Du Fu witnessed all this and wrote two famous poems, "Sadness Chen Tao" and "Sadness Qingsaka", expressing his grief and indignation.
In the poem "Sadness Chen Tao", he depicted the tragic situation of the outstanding children of the ten counties who sacrificed their lives for the country in the Mengdong Festival. The field was empty, the sky was clear, and there were no war drums, but 40,000 volunteers died heroically on the same day.
The remnants of the enemy returned, washed the arrows in blood, and still sang alien songs and feasted in the city.