For those who are interested in the rebellion of An Lushan, the History Encyclopedia editor brings a detailed article for your reference. As a small military governor, why did An Lushan rebel during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty? Who gave An Lushan the courage?
After Emperor Ming of Tang succeeded to the throne, the chaos of internal affairs in the Tang Dynasty came to an end. However, this iron fisted king was very incompetent in his later years. He favored Yang Guifei and Yang Guozhong, and the An Lushan Rebellion broke out. The An Lushan Rebellion led to the decline of the entire Tang royal family. In fact, compared to the late Ming Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty was still relatively strong in the middle and later periods. So why did An Lushan dare to rebel?
In 756 AD, Luoyang was almost in the possession of An Lushan, who once ascended the throne in Luoyang and was known as the Great Yan Kingdom. But just as An Lushan was dreaming of becoming an emperor, Li Guangbi’s army rushed straight to An Lushan’s lair. At this moment, An Lushan was so scared that his legs trembled and he kept muttering, “Didn’t you say that rebellion is the only way out? Why did this lead to the current situation? You are trying to harm me!
Seeing that An Lushan lacked courage at this moment, why did he dare to confront the Tang Dynasty in the first place? In fact, the success of An Lushan’s uprising back then was entirely due to internal problems within the Tang Dynasty. An Lushan was only able to exploit loopholes due to command errors within the dynasty. An Lushan’s preparation was not very sufficient, but rather very fragile.
An important reason why An Lushan was able to launch such a high-profile rebellion was that the military deployment of the Tang Dynasty at that time was heavy on the outside and light on the inside. Moreover, before entering the palace, An Lushan was able to have a detailed understanding of the military deployment of the Tang Dynasty. After more than ten years of management, he could almost achieve a situation where he knew it like the back of his hand.
At that time, the military system of the Tang Dynasty had almost disappeared. After decades of invasion, the generals who had made great contributions to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty were almost subjected to discrimination from the nobility. The generals who used to be stationed at the border have already broken free from the control of the prefectural military system and become the private forces of the local military governors.
So at that time, under the banner of An Lushan, the 180000 soldiers almost regarded him as their breadwinner and completely obeyed his deployment and orders. Even after the An Lushan Rebellion had been overthrown for many years, An Lushan’s tablet was still enshrined in the temple by rebellious generals who had surrendered to the Tang army. He still enjoyed the incense bestowed upon him by these former subordinates for nearly twenty years.
From this, it can be seen that An Lushan holds a very high position in the hearts of these generals. It is precisely because these generals wholeheartedly followed him that An Lushan had enough courage and confidence to compare with the Tang Dynasty. But having courage alone is not enough to accomplish something. Another very important reason for the victory of the An Lushan Rebellion was the assistance provided by the rulers and officials of the Tang Dynasty to An Lushan, commonly known as the “pig teammates”.
Although many drawbacks had already emerged in the Tang Dynasty at that time, it had not yet reached a point of decline. At that time, the Tang Dynasty already had 240000 elite soldiers in the Hexi region alone. If An Lushan dared to go south, Guo Ziyi’s army could directly attack An Lushan’s stronghold. In fact, at this point, An Lushan had no chance of winning.
However, due to Li Linfu’s protection and indulgence, coupled with Yang Guozhong who once stepped on Li Linfu’s rise to power, he kept sending heads to An Lushan in order to seize political achievements and credit. Under his wrong command, the Tang Dynasty directly lost tens of thousands of elite soldiers. It was precisely because of Yang Guozhong’s actions that An Lushan’s courage grew stronger, so he launched a rebellion openly under the banner of attacking Yang Guozhong.
The saddest thing is that in the face of such a situation, Yang Guozhong is still reporting to Emperor Ming of Tang that he will be able to defeat the rebel army of An Lushan within a few days. Please rest assured, Emperor. But Tang Minghuang believed Yang Guozhong’s words. The steady growth of An Lushan is actually closely related to the incompetence and inaction of Emperor Ming of Tang.
Seeing the situation take a sharp turn for the worse, the awakened Emperor Ming of Tang quickly commanded his army to confront the rebel forces of An Lushan, which indeed reversed the situation of the Tang Dynasty at that time. As Guo Ziyi was heading towards An Lushan’s lair, Emperor Ming of Tang was acting out of selfishness.
He believed that Ge Shuhan stationed at Tongguan was an unfaithful and unjust person, so he completely disregarded the situation on the battlefield and desperately urged Ge Shuhan to fight to the death with the enemy. Under the command of Emperor Ming of Tang, he directly sent the Tang Tongguan to An Lushan’s pocket.
Conclusion: Emperor Ming of Tang saw that the situation was not good, so he fled hastily with Yang Guozhong, Yang Guifei, and a group of royal children. Although the rebellion was eventually suppressed by the Tang Dynasty, its fortunes also changed from here, gradually leading it to desolation and being crushed by the wheels of history.
