Where did so many soldiers and horses from An Lushan come from? Interested readers and history encyclopedia editors, let’s take a look together!
The outbreak of the An Lushan Rebellion marked the decline of the Tang Dynasty. Today, let’s talk about why the An Lushan Rebellion broke out? Why did An Lushan have so many soldiers to cause chaos?
During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, in order to protect the border areas, he established military garrisons, also known as fiefdoms, in ten important regions. The officials of the fiefdoms are called military governors, who have great power. They not only hold military power, but also administrative and financial power, making them truly a vassal state.
In the early days of Emperor Xuanzong, such a setup was not a problem as he was confident in balancing these military governors. But after becoming prime minister, Li Linfu was different. He greatly excluded talented military governors such as Wang Zhongsi, who had outstanding military achievements and was under the command of famous generals Ge Shuhan and Li Guangbi.
So why did Li Linfu exclude these generals? That’s because the Tang Dynasty had a tradition of appointing military governors as prime ministers, and Li Linfu did all of these things to preserve his position.
Li Linfu was interested in the uneducated Hu generals, so he liked to promote Hu people to military governors. An Lushan, the military governor of Pinglu, rose to power at this time. An Lushan was smooth and often searched for exotic birds, beasts, pearls, and treasures in border areas to present to the emperor.
An Lushan often seized the opportunity to please Emperor Xuanzong during court meetings. An Lushan was very overweight, so he pretended to be silly. Emperor Xuanzong was very happy after seeing this and felt that An Lushan was very loyal.
Later, Li Linfu died of illness, and Yang Guozhong, the brother of Yang Guifei, became the prime minister. Yang Guozhong and An Lushan are both young people who have achieved great success, and their relationship is very strained. Yang Guozhong often speaks ill of An Lushan in front of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, and An Lushan is very nervous.
So in October of 755 AD, An Lushan rebelled and used the excuse that the emperor had ordered him to attack Yang Guozhong, and his soldiers dared not disobey the orders.
Subsequently, An Lushan led the rebels southward and advanced along the Hebei Plain. Due to the fact that there had been no war in the Central Plains for a hundred years at that time, the officials and defenders along the way ran and surrendered, and An Lushan’s army encountered almost no strong resistance.
When the news of the rebellion reached Chang’an, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang couldn’t believe it. Later, with more and more memorials, he had to believe it. At this moment, Yang Guozhong had no idea and could only deceive himself by telling Emperor Xuanzong that his soldiers would not rebel with him. A few days later, An Lushan’s army crossed the Yellow River and occupied Luoyang.
