Why didn’t Li Longji save Yang Guifei during the Ma Weiyi Mutiny? Below, the History Encyclopedia editor will bring you a detailed article introduction.
According to various official historical records, Yang Guifei did indeed die at Mawei Post. However, Tang Xuanzong could not and could not save her. From the situation at that time, the death of Yang Guifei was a helpless act for Li Longji to “abandon the carriage and protect the commander”: his own life was in danger, but he still wanted to protect his beloved concubine?
The background of the Ma Weiyi Mutiny: Blind command led to the defeat of Tongguan, and Li Longji fled west in panic
In 756 AD, the rebel army of An Lushan was blocked by the imperial army outside Tongguan during their westward advance to Chang’an; In the southeast direction, it was firmly held back by Zhang Xun, who fought to the death; In the north, under the leadership of famous generals Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi, the Tang army defeated Shi Siming and caused him to collapse. More than ten counties north of the Yellow River, which were originally occupied by rebels, were killed and surrendered to the court. Under the pincer attack from multiple sides, the rebel forces in the Central Plains were in a state of being surrounded from front to back. An Lushan even considered abandoning the already occupied Luoyang and fleeing north back to his lair, Fanyang.
But Li Longji provided a divine assist for An Lushan.
At that time, the commander of the Tang army in Tongguan was the famous general Ge Shuhan. He considered that although there were many troops under his command, many of them were temporary recruits; And those veterans who were transferred from various fiefdoms, although experienced in battle, were temporarily mobilized, causing mutual dissatisfaction and lack of integration among the commanders, and their combat effectiveness was worrying; The rebels, on the other hand, are in a state of trapped animal warfare. Although their numbers are small, their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated. Therefore, he advised Li Longji:
Thieves come from afar, but the advantage lies in swift battles; The official army seized the danger to restrain it, and the advantage lies in holding on. The situation of bandits suffering and losing the masses, the military situation is deteriorating day by day, and there will be internal changes; Therefore, taking it can be captured without fighting. To succeed, there’s no need to rush! There are still many conscripts in various provinces that have not been gathered yet, please wait for them.
The enemy’s situation is dangerous and they are eager to fight quickly; If the imperial army defends against danger, the rebels will naturally cause internal strife in a critical situation; Moreover, most of the elite garrison troops in the northwest have not yet arrived, so there is no need to rush for battle.
In addition, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi also wrote a letter stating that if they lead their army directly to attack Fan Yang’s lair in An Lushan and capture the families of rebel officers and soldiers, the rebel army will surely collapse. “The Tongguan army should be defended to harm them and not lightly deployed
However, the advice of professional generals cannot withstand the self-interest of politicians. An Lushan rose up in the name of killing the treacherous minister Yang Guozhong; In addition, Yang Guozhong did indeed do many unethical things, which made him feel extremely anxious at that time. On the other hand, there were also generals on the front line of Tongguan who hoped to eliminate Yang Guozhong and eliminate harm for the people, but Ge Shuhan did not agree.
But Yang Guozhong felt guilty as a thief, watching as Ge Shuhan remained inactive, thinking that the other party was really going to deal with him, so he urged Li Longji to force him to leave and face the enemy. Until this time, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang still regarded Yang Guozhong as a confidant, so he sent waves of envoys to Tongguan and ordered Ge Shuhan to immediately go to battle.
Knowing that this trip was bound to fail, Ge Shuhan cried loudly and led 200000 disorganized people out of the border. In Lingbao Xiyuan, facing the trap set by the fierce general Cui Qianyou of An Lushan, the imperial army collapsed instantly. A large number of soldiers threw away their weapons and took off their equipment to escape into the deep mountains, and some were crowded and forced into the river to drown. Only more than 8000 people withdrew to Tongguan, and even Ge Shuhan surrendered to the enemy.
The defeat at Tongguan revived the army of An Lushan and directly opened up the way to Chang’an. The news came that the imperial court was panicked. At the suggestion of Yang Guozhong, Li Longji ordered Chen Xuanli, the general of Longwu, to lead the imperial guard to escort himself and his sisters, the prince and grandson, the princess, as well as Yang Guozhong, Wei Jiansu, Wei Fangjin, and the eunuchs and maids in front of him, to escape secretly and plan to escape to the southwest Shu.
The essence of the Ma Weiyi Mutiny: In order to appease the dissatisfaction of the imperial guards, Chen Xuanli diverted the water of trouble to Yang Guozhong and his followers
Because the incident happened suddenly, the refugee team did not have enough logistics materials to prepare. When passing Xianyang, the team was hungry. Some people offered coarse food on their own initiative, but there were too many monks and too few porridge, which was snatched away by the emperor’s sons and grandchildren; After a long time, the imperial meals prepared by the relevant departments were finally delivered, and Li Longji shared them with those officials and nobles; The soldiers of the Forbidden Army, on the other hand, had to go hungry and search for food in nearby villages on their own.
Li Longji’s downfall to such an extent is truly self inflicted: any emperor of a dynasty will face women and treacherous ministers, but flies do not bite the seamless eggs, and the ultimate decision-making power lies with the emperor himself; The common people who offered food in Xianyang expressed their dissatisfaction with Li Longji in person:
Lushan harbors malevolent intentions that never last a day; There are also those who report their schemes to the imperial court, and His Majesty often punishes them, allowing them to succeed in their rebellion and causing His Majesty to spread rumors.
Everyone knows that An Lushan has ulterior motives, but when faced with those whistleblowers, Li Longji has always indiscriminately executed them, thus raising tigers as a threat.
What’s even funnier is that before escaping from Chang’an City, one of the culprits, Yang Guozhong, also blamed Li Longji: “It has been ten years since people accused Lushan of rebellion, and everyone believes it. Today’s incident is not the fault of the prime minister.” Of course, the prime minister is himself.
It can be said that almost everyone knows how the An Lushan Rebellion was formed, except for Li Longji (of course, he may have been pretending to be ignorant), and the accompanying forbidden soldiers naturally understand as well.
At the Mawei Post, the tired and hungry soldiers of the Imperial Guard were on the brink of erupting:
At the Mawei Post, the soldiers were hungry, exhausted, and angry.
The history books do not write about the reason for anger, but we can mentally supplement it: although the rebels could have been blocked outside Tongguan, the emperor and prime minister insisted on blindly commanding, leading to their current situation of decline; Even though you are running for your lives, you royal relatives and nobles still put on airs, riding horses and eating big brains and intestines, while we are starving and paying for the mistakes you have made?
Under the intense emotions of the crowd, if not promptly guided, it is easy to lead to a mutiny. Chen Xuanli, the commander of the Forbidden Army and the Grand General of Longwu, had a brilliant idea:
Chen Xuanli wanted to punish Yang Guozhong for causing trouble.
So he proposed his idea to Crown Prince Li Heng, but ‘the Crown Prince is undecided’. Coincidentally, the accompanying Tibetan envoy was complaining to Yang Guozhong about not having anything to eat, and some soldiers took the opportunity to shout: Yang Guozhong colluded with the Hu people to cause chaos! The emotions of the soldiers were instantly ignited. They killed Yang Guozhong and displayed his head on the tip of their guns. Other noble relatives of the Yang family were also executed, including the Grand Censor Wei Fangjin who was killed and the Prime Minister Wei Jiansu who was injured. Later, the rebel army took advantage of the situation and directly surrounded Li Longji and others inside the post station building.
The next situation was quite delicate: Li Longji personally walked out the door and ordered the soldiers to withdraw, but no one paid attention to him; He had no choice but to ask Gao Lishi to come out and negotiate, and Chen Xuanli’s answer was: “The loyalty of the country is plotting rebellion, and it is not appropriate to worship the Noble Consort. May Your Majesty bestow grace and righteousness upon her
As Li Longji hesitated, the Jingzhao Si Lu Wei E said, “The anger of the people is difficult to overcome today, and safety is at the hour of the clock. May Your Majesty make a quick decision!” Afterwards, he became so anxious that he fell down and kowtowed, even with blood all over his head.
No wonder he is so anxious: public anger is difficult to overcome, and the danger is imminent. If you don’t make up your mind, no one can survive!
The following plot is well-known to everyone. Li Longji had Gao Lishi hang Yang Guifei and had Chen Xuanli and others come in for autopsy; Long live Chen Xuanli and others, the team was successfully reorganized and marched westward.
The Ma Weiyi Mutiny seems to have been led by Chen Xuanli, but we need to clarify his identity: he was an old subordinate who grew up with Li Longji. More than 40 years ago, he accompanied Li Longji to launch a coup and seize power; After Li Longji declared himself emperor, he immediately appointed Chen Xuanli as the Grand General of Longwu, in charge of the six armies of the Forbidden Army and responsible for the security and protection of the entire palace. It can be said that Chen Xuanli is one of Li Longji’s confidants.
Such a person cannot betray Li Longji; There is only one possibility: he acted as a military commander, standing in the shoes of the soldiers, using the Yang clan as scapegoats to help Li Longji resolve the crisis of mutiny. If he were not in charge of the Forbidden Army, or if his reaction was too slow, Li Longji’s chances of success at Mawei Post were likely to be bleak. After all, at that time, Li Heng, who had been the crown prince for decades, had already set his sights on it and seized power through a mutiny, which was like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him. Why else did Li Heng remain silent when Chen Xuanli proposed to kill Yang Guozhong
This is also the reason why Chen Xuanli still held a high position after the Ma Weiyi Mutiny.
So, it is impossible for Li Longji to keep Yang Guifei; If he insists on not releasing the person, the result may be that even he himself has to finish it together.
