From Li Shimin's Xuanwumen change to the creation of Zhenguan Shengshi, the Tang Dynasty experienced 23 years of prosperity, and then the rule of Yonghui and Kaiyuan pushed the Tang Dynasty's national strength to its peak.
After Tang Xuanzong Li Longji created the prosperous era of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, he lay on the previous merit book and did not want to forge ahead, began to be lazy and lazy, and mixed with the harem concubines all day long.
After learning the news of An Lushan's rebellion, Tang Xuanzong was reluctant to believe it for a long time, because An Lushan was his most trusted general.
In fact, more than a year after the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, An Lushan was killed by his son An Qingxu, it stands to reason that the mastermind was killed, and the war should be over, but why did the Anshi Rebellion still last for 8 years?
The Anshi Rebellion was a power struggle within the Tang DynastyAn Lushan is the three major military towns of Fanyang, Pinglu and Hedong, and holds 150,000 elite border troopsDriven by ambition, he rebelled against the Tang Dynasty under the pretext of crusading against Prime Minister Yang Guozhong.
An Lushan won the favor of Tang Xuanzong, which caused the dissatisfaction of Prime Minister Yang Guozhong, and the two became enemies, but Tang Xuanzong turned a blind eye to this and let the two fight.
Because the Tang Dynasty has been peaceful for a long time, most of the forbidden troops of the imperial court are negligent in the battle array, and An Lushan's subordinates are all elite border troops guarding the frontier for the Tang Dynasty, and their combat effectiveness is much higher than that of the imperial court, so in the early stage of the rebellion, An Lushan won one after another, and soon controlled the entire territory of Hebei, and soon marched to Chang'an.
After Tang Xuanzong received the news of An Lushan's rebellion, he didn't want to believe that his humerus minister would betray him, and still thought that this was a lie made up by people who hated An Lushan.
It wasn't until 7 days after An Lushan raised troops that Tang Xuanzong believed that An Lushan really rebelled, so he asked Prime Minister Yang Guozhong to discuss countermeasures, which shows that Tang Xuanzong had become a little "delirious" at the end of his reign.
If you want to say how stupid Tang Xuanzong was in his later years, there are many examples, such as the degree of favor for Yang Yuhuan has reached a point where ordinary people can't understand.
According to the records in the "Zizhi Tongjian", An Lushan can ignore the palace ban and enter and leave the concubine's dormitory freely, and even stay in the concubine's dormitory all night.
A normal man knows what An Lushan and Yang Guifei are doing, but Tang Xuanzong ignores it, which is really incredible.
Another example is the degree of perception of danger. When Tang Xuanzong was young, he had a very keen perception of danger, because he himself came to power through a coup d'étatSo just suspecting that the prince was rebelling, Tang Xuanzong ruthlessly killed three sons in one day.
And in his later years, Tang Xuanzong blindly trusted An Lushan, and made him a town festival envoy, Tang Xuanzong actually handed over all the three northern towns to An Lushan, and hundreds of thousands of elite border troops were all handed over to one person, who can not swell?
After the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, only one month, the rebels broke through the eastern capital Luoyang, and then the rebels continued to advance westward, and the front of the army pointed directly at Chang'an, and between Luoyang and Chang'an is separated by Tongguan, if Tongguan is lost, the rebels can drive straight into Chang'an.
It was Gao Xianzhi, a famous general of the Tang Dynasty, who was guarding Chang'an, and Feng Changqing, who was defeated from Luoyang, assisted Gao Xianzhi in guarding Tongguan, both of whom thought that the rebels were too strong to confront head-on, so they decided to stick to Tongguan and not go out.
This trick is indeed effective, the invincible rebels hit a nail in front of Tongguan and could not move forward, the imperial army was considered to have stabilized its position, but Tang Xuanzong was not satisfied with this, he had always praised himself as a Ming Jun, and now someone dared to rebel and challenge his majesty, how could he bear it?
Tang Xuanzong wanted to attack and destroy the rebels, not to defend the passSeeing that Gao Xianzhi and others refused to go out of Guan to quell the rebellion, he actually ordered Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing to be beheaded, and even an ordinary person knew that changing people before war would be a taboo for soldiers, but Tang Xuanzong didn't care, and used the veteran Ge Shuhan, who was recuperating at home due to a stroke.
At this time, Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi and others were attacking An Lushan's old nest Hebei, and the forward attack could not break through Tongguan, and the old nest was in danger of being destroyed again, and An Lushan, who had already claimed the emperor in Luoyang, was in a hurry.
Although the situation is very good, Tang Xuanzong is still not satisfied with thisHe insisted that Ge Shuhan take the initiative to attack with the guards and recover Luoyang from the rebels, although Ge Shuhan was unwilling, but he could not disobey.
Geshuhan's army gave up the geographical advantages of Tongguan and went out of the pass to fight head-on with the rebels, but the result was a complete defeat, Tongguan was lost, and the door of Chang'an was wide open.
Tang Xuanzong was shrewd when he was young, even if he was old and mediocre, he was so intellectual, the only explanation was that Tang Xuanzong cared about his political achievements and reputation, and An Lushan's rebellion would ruin his historical positioning as an emperor through the agesThe involvement of political demands in military decision-making deprived the Tang Dynasty of its best chance to quell the Anshi Rebellion.
After the loss of Tongguan, Chang'an was in chaos, and the civil and military officials couldn't even go to the court, so they just tried to find a way to escapeHe made a letter saying that he would drive the expedition in person, but he secretly ran away with a part of the forbidden army that night.
Even the emperor ran away, the ministers of civil and military affairs and the common people also fled, Chang'an almost became an empty city, and the rebels took Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, almost effortlessly.
Due to the defeat of Tang Xuanzong's blind command, coupled with the loss of people's hearts by abandoning Chang'an and fleeing, when Tang Xuanzong and his party fled to Maweipo, the forbidden army launched a mutiny, executed Yang Guozhong and his family, and forced Tang Xuanzong to order the death of Yang Guifei.
The crown prince Li Heng also took this opportunity to part ways with Tang Xuanzong and went to Lingwu to ascend the throne and claim the emperor, which was for Tang Suzong and respected Tang Xuanzong as the emperor.
Although the Tang Dynasty suffered a crushing defeat in the early stage, it lost Luoyang and Chang'an one after anotherBut the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, and in terms of military strength and resources, the imperial court still has a great advantageIf you take advantage of the disadvantage of the rebels' lack of strength and concentrate on attacking the rebels' lair and forcing the rebels to retreat, then the imperial court can easily recover Chang'an and Luoyang.
However, Tang Suzong did not adopt this strategy, but insisted on attacking Chang'an first, which also made the Tang Dynasty miss the opportunity to quell the rebellion again.
Later, An Lushan was killed by his son An Qingxu, the army was unstable, and Shi Siming, one of the main minds of the rebels, also surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.
Perhaps because the war was too smooth, Tang Suzong began to operate againfirst transferred back Li Jiao, the son of the generalissimo on the front line, and then removed Guo Ziyi from the post of deputy marshal, and what is even more strange is that Tang Suzong also canceled the commander-in-chief of the front line, and only sent a eunuch to the front line as a supervisor.
As a result, Shi Siming rebelled, and the Tang army was chaotic due to the lack of unified command, so even though An Lushan had died, the Anshi Rebellion still lasted for eight years.