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Chapter 393: Yuhuan's Favor, Anshi Rebellion (Tang Dynasty History)

Xuanzong was so shameless. Even if Yang Yuhuan was indeed very beautiful, she was still his daughter-in-law, and his son Prince Shou was still alive. How could he have the nerve to do this?
Li Heng was really unlucky. He had a father like Xuanzong who was always trying to do him harm.

Li Nian continued, "It is said that Shou Prince Li Heng and Yang Yuhuan have a good relationship, but what good is a good relationship? Can it resist Emperor Xuanzong? His brothers died not long ago. If he really angers Emperor Xuanzong, he might send him away."

In history, it is not uncommon for people to kill their sons, but there are not many ruthless people like Xuanzong who can complete three KPIs in one day.

"Even if Shou Wang Li Heng felt humiliated and unwilling, how could he dare to refuse? Under Xuanzong's deliberate arrangement, Yang Yuhuan was ordained as a nun in the name of praying for the blessing of his mother, Empress Dowager Dou, and was given the Taoist name 'Taizhen'."

"After Yang Yuhuan was ordered by Emperor Xuanzong to become a nun, Emperor Xuanzong appointed a princess named Shou Wangfei for Li Ying, which severed the relationship between Yang Yuhuan and Li Ying and freed Yang Yuhuan from the status of his daughter-in-law."

Wang Jian laughed and said, "It seems that Xuanzong still has some sense of shame. At least he did not directly snatch Yang Yuhuan away as his daughter-in-law. His grandfather married Wu Mei, who became a nun in Ganye Temple. Now he married Yang Yuhuan and asked her to become a nun. They are really not from the same family!"

Meng Tian said disdainfully: "It's just an act of covering one's ears and stealing the bell, deceiving oneself and others. Who doesn't know that Emperor Xuanzong robbed his own daughter-in-law? The Tang Dynasty is really a shaky top and crooked bottom."

Li Nian also laughed and said, "Although everyone knows what Xuanzong wants to do, after this incident, it has been covered up a little bit!"

"After Li Ying got a new wife, Emperor Xuanzong quickly conferred the title of Imperial Concubine to Yang Yuhuan, who later became the famous Concubine Yang."

"Yang Yuhuan was extremely favored by Emperor Xuanzong. Because of her favor, her whole family rose to prominence. Her sisters were all given the title of Madam, and her brothers were all granted high positions. Her distant cousin Yang Zhao was originally an unlearned and unruly person, but because of Yang Yuhuan, Emperor Xuanzong gave him the name 'Guo Zhong'. He held several positions and was powerful in the court. He was even promoted to prime minister by Emperor Xuanzong."

"Xuanzong's love for Yang Guifei was described by Bai Juyi in his "Song of Everlasting Regret": 'There are three thousand beauties in the harem, and all three of them are favored by the emperor. The golden house is decorated with beautiful women to serve the night, and the jade tower is drunk and spring after the banquet. Sisters and brothers are all given lands, but it is a pity that the glory is born in the family. Therefore, parents all over the world would rather have a daughter than a son.' Du Mu, also a poet in the Tang Dynasty, also wrote: 'Looking back at Chang'an, I see piles of embroidery, and the front doors on the top of the mountain are opened one after another. A red-dusted horseman makes the concubine smile, but no one knows that it is the lychees coming.'"

"It is said that Yang Yuhuan loved to eat lychees, and during the Tang Dynasty, the best lychees were those produced in Lingnan. Lychees ripen in the hot summer and will spoil if left overnight, so after being picked, they must be transported to Chang'an as quickly as possible for the imperial concubine to eat, and they must not be allowed to spoil."

Hearing this, Wang Jian shook his head and said, "Expeditionary horses can only be used for important national affairs, but Xuanzong used them to favor Yang Yuhuan."

Li Nian smiled and said, "According to some people's later research, what Du Mu said in the poem may not be true, but it also shows the Tang people's views on Xuanzong and Yang Yuhuan."

"In fact, Xuanzong stole his daughter-in-law, and Yang Yuhuan was favored by him. Although it was not a matter of honor, as long as the degree was controlled, it would be fine. But someone took advantage of Xuanzong's favor for Yang Yuhuan to quickly rise to power, and one of them was the governor at the time, so the problem was serious!"

"The position of Jiedushi, according to the situation when Emperor Xuanzong established it, was not a problem. But what if the Jiedushi's power expanded unprecedentedly, and he not only controlled the military power, but also the local financial power and political power?"

The First Emperor answered this question: "They will become vassal states that rule their own territories and become a great threat to the central government. If they have the intention of being disloyal, the country will fall into chaos!"

Li Nian nodded and said, "It is just as your majesty said. The governor who caused the chaos in the Tang Dynasty and brought the Tang Dynasty down from its prosperity was named 'An Lushan'."

"An Lushan was not a Han Chinese, but a Hu Chinese. His mother, Ashide, was a Turkic Chinese, and his father's origins were unknown. Therefore, the Old Book of Tang records that he was a mixed Hu Chinese from Liucheng, Yingzhou."

"In the Tang Dynasty, the defense between the Chinese and the barbarians was not that strong, and the Hu people could also be valued and held important positions. An Lushan was such a Hu person. He was very smart and shameless. When a person is both smart and shameless, and can meet a noble person, he will often succeed."

"In the 20th year of Kaiyuan, An Lushan met a nobleman who was the most crucial to his life turning point, Youzhou Jiedushi Zhang Shougui. At that time, An Lushan was caught by Zhang Shougui for stealing sheep and wanted to beat him to death. An Lushan shouted: 'Do you want to destroy the two tribes? Why do you want to kill An Lushan!'"

"Zhang Shougui saw that An Lushan was fat and white, so he encouraged his words and released him. He also ordered An Lushan and his fellow villager Shi Siming to capture the general alive. An Lushan was brave and intelligent, and he was always victorious. He was soon promoted to a lieutenant general, and later he was adopted by Zhang Shougui. This was the most important turning point in An Lushan's life."

"By the 28th year of Kaiyuan, An Lushan had become the military commander of Pinglu. He bribed officials he met with and asked them to speak well of him in the court. With this trick, An Lushan's career was rapidly promoted and he was appointed as the governor of Yingzhou and the military commander of Pinglu."

"Because many officials praised An Lushan, Xuanzong also trusted and loved him more, thinking that he was a capable minister of the Tang Dynasty. In the first year of Tianbao, Xuanzong established the Pinglu Jiedushi and appointed An Lushan as the acting Zhongcheng. That is, while An Lushan was the local Jiedushi, he could also attend court meetings."

Being able to attend court to report on matters and discuss them means being able to come into contact with the emperor and important court officials. This is much better than those military governors who are confined to local areas, and they can gain greater power more quickly.

"In the third year of Tianbao, An Lushan replaced Pei Kuan as the governor of Fanyang, but his original posts as governor of Hebei and governor of Pinglu remained unchanged."

Meng Tian frowned and said, "If you do this, it shouldn't cause any trouble, but it will. Xuanzong is also foolish. He actually let An Lushan become the governor of another town when he was already the governor of one town. Isn't this encouraging An Lushan's ambition?"

When An Lushan was allowed to take over as the Jiedushi of a town, the power of the Jiedushi of another town should have been taken away from him to prevent him from becoming too powerful. However, not only did Xuanzong not take it away, but everything remained the same.

Li Nian smiled and said, "Although this is true, how could Xuanzong think of this at the time? At that time, Xuanzong's love for Yang Yuhuan was known to everyone in the court, so An Lushan would certainly know it."

"So, he did something extremely shameless. He was almost a generation older than Yang Yuhuan and was her uncle, but he took the initiative to regard Yang Yuhuan as his mother and asked to be her adopted son. An Lushan was sixteen years older than Yang Yuhuan!"

Wang Ben commented: "He is not worshipping Yang Yuhuan as his mother, but worshipping Xuanzong as his father. He wants to use Yang Yuhuan to gain Xuanzong's trust!"

Li Nian smiled and said, "I don't know what Yang Yuhuan was thinking. Maybe she thought it was novel to accept this fat son who could be her uncle. Or maybe she thought she could use An Lushan as a helper. So Yang Yuhuan accepted An Lushan's fat son."

"An Lushan knew how much Xuanzong loved Yang Yuhuan, so every time he entered the palace to pay his respects, he would pay his respects to Yang Yuhuan first, then Xuanzong. Xuanzong was very surprised by this, so he asked him about it. An Lushan replied, 'I am a foreigner, and foreigners pay their respects to their mother first and then their father.'" "This answer not only did not make Xuanzong angry, but made him very happy, and he ordered Yang Yu and other members of the Yang family to become brothers and sisters with An Lushan."

This Xuanzong was also a weirdo. An Lushan obviously understood Xuanzong's temperament and successfully hit his sweet spot.

"After that, An Lushan's status in Xuanzong's eyes became even higher. In the tenth year of Tianbao, An Lushan wanted to be the governor of Hedong, and Xuanzong really granted him the title, allowing An Lushan to become the governor of three towns. Xuanzong established ten governors, and An Lushan occupied three of them, and all of them were important towns!"

"At that time, the Tang Dynasty had a large number of border troops, reaching more than 500,000, accounting for more than 80% of the total number of troops. Most of them were concentrated in the northeastern and northwest borders. The three towns of Pinglu, Fanyang and Hedong under An Lushan had a total of 180,000 troops, and they were elite troops."

With an army of this size, it would be difficult for An Lushan not to think of rebellion. And how could Xuanzong sleep well when he had so many elite soldiers under An Lushan's command and did not restrain him?

Feng Quji asked, "Is there no one in the Tang court who is suspicious of An Lushan?"

Li Nian smiled and said, "Of course some people have doubts. For example, Yang Guozhong has repeatedly reminded Emperor Xuanzong that An Lushan will rebel."

Yang Guozhong reminded Xuanzong that An Lushan would rebel. Could it be that Yang Guozhong was still a loyal minister, worthy of the name "Guozhong" given to him by Xuanzong?
The First Emperor and others immediately understood that Yang Guozhong must have seen that An Lushan was favored by Xuanzong and Yang Yuhuan and felt the crisis, so he wanted to squeeze An Lushan out, not because of his true loyalty to Xuanzong.

After all, as a favorite minister, everyone wants to be the most favored. If there is one more person, the emperor will favor them less.

Li Nian continued: "However, Yang Guozhong's remonstrance did not work, and even had a negative effect. In the twelfth year of Tianbao, Xuanzong sent the eunuch Fu Qiulin to inspect An Lushan to see if he really had the intention of rebelling. However, he was bribed by An Lushan. After returning to Chang'an, Fu Qiulin praised An Lushan for his loyalty."

"Yang Guozhong told Emperor Xuanzong again that he would not come if summoned. But after Emperor Xuanzong issued the edict, An Lushan came. When he met Emperor Xuanzong at Huaqing Palace, he said to Emperor Xuanzong: 'I am a barbarian and I cannot read. Your Majesty promoted me at an inappropriate level, and Yang Guozhong wanted to kill me.'"

Wang Wan sighed, "After this, Xuanzong will no longer believe what others say about An Lushan's rebellion. Instead, he will believe An Lushan even more, making his power even worse. Disaster is not far away!"

Li Nian nodded and said, "It is just as the Prime Minister said. Xuanzong no longer believes those who say An Lushan is rebelling. If anyone says that An Lushan is rebelling, Xuanzong will be furious and tie them up and send them to the emperor. With Xuanzong's connivance, An Lushan's rebellion plan continues. He secretly stores weapons and food, prepares horses and cattle, and dispatches his confidants to his side to entrust them with important tasks, and arranges personnel to lurk in Chang'an."

"In fact, if Xuanzong wanted to know whether An Lushan would really rebel, he would know. The local people and many ministers knew it, but Xuanzong didn't know it! Xuanzong probably thought that he had been in power for many years, and under his rule, the Tang Dynasty was peaceful and prosperous, so An Lushan would not dare to rebel."

"However, in the 14th year of Tianbao, when Emperor Xuanzong summoned An Lushan to the capital again, An Lushan did not obey the order. He used illness as an excuse to decline. Even when Emperor Xuanzong granted his son An Qingzong a marriage and ordered him to attend the ceremony, he also refused on the grounds of illness. In November, An Lushan raised an army in Fanyang, setting off a great chaos that shocked the Tang Dynasty!"

"This great rebellion is known in history as the 'An Lushan Rebellion'. 'An' refers to An Lushan, and 'Shi' refers to Shi Siming. The An Lushan Rebellion caused the Tang Dynasty to decline from its peak, severely damaging its vitality and making it difficult to recover!"

The First Emperor and others recalled that this "Shi Siming", who was mentioned by Li Nian earlier, was a fellow villager of An Lushan and was also appointed by Zhang Shougui to capture the general alive.

"After the uprising, An Lushan's army was quite elite. Although they occasionally encountered obstacles and failures, they were generally victorious. Feng Changqing, Gao Xianzhi, and Geshu Han were all defeated."

"This is also related to Xuanzong. He appointed the eunuch Bian Lingcheng as the military supervisor. However, this person did not know military affairs, but was very greedy for money. He often asked for bribes from Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing. When the bribes were unsuccessful, he slandered them to Xuanzong, causing Xuanzong to execute the two generals. Both of them had a great reputation in the outside world, but when they were dealing with the internal affairs, they did not die in the rebellion, but died because of slander."

Wang Jian said: "Those who supervise the army without knowing anything about military affairs are harmful in themselves. If they also ask for bribes and spread slander, they will cause even greater harm. If Xuanzong listens to slander, he will become a pillar of state and will not be well off!"

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was so foolish. Was he the same person as Li Longji who launched the Tanglong Rebellion and the Xiantian coup?

At this moment, Qin Shihuang and others finally understood why Li Nian said that Xuanzong lived too long and died too late, which created the most prosperous era of the Tang Dynasty, but also led to its decline.

If Xuanzong had died a few years earlier, the situation in the Tang Dynasty would have been very different!

The First Emperor also had an idea in his mind: are all emperors prone to becoming foolish when they get old, even those who were very wise in their early years? Emperor Wu of Han was an example, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was another example.

Li Nian said: "Tongguan is not far from Chang'an. Seeing the rebels coming, Xuanzong fled to Western Shu for refuge. Although the Tang Dynasty is a very prestigious dynasty in Chinese history, it also has many indelible stains, such as 'the capital was captured six times and the emperor moved nine times'. The first capture and the first move were contributed by Xuanzong."

"In the fifteenth year of Tianbao, Geshu Han was forced by Xuanzong and Yang Guozhong to send troops. As a result, he was defeated by the rebels in Lingbao, and his entire army was annihilated. Even Geshu Han himself was captured."

"Xuanzong and Yang Guozhong are also confused. The rebels are the real elite troops of the Tang Dynasty, but the troops under Geshu Han are really put together at short notice. How can they fight against the elite troops of the border? They should hold the pass and wait for reinforcements from all over the place, but they force Geshu Han to fight!"

"After Geshu Han was defeated, Chang'an could no longer resist the rebels, so the rebels captured Chang'an. Before Chang'an fell, Xuanzong had already fled. When he arrived at Mawei Slope, the imperial guards general Chen Xuanli conspired with the crown prince Li Heng and others to instigate a mutiny in the imperial guards, asking for the execution of Prime Minister Yang Guozhong, Imperial Censor Wei Fangjin, Minister of Rites Yang Xuan, and Imperial Concubine Yang Yuhuan!"

Wang Jian twirled his beard and said, "Take advantage of this difficult time to force Emperor Xuanzong to kill the treacherous officials in the court to reassure the soldiers. Once the traitors are removed, the soldiers will think that the situation will turn from bad to good in the future."

Wang Jian did not say that launching a mutiny at this time was also to eliminate political enemies and undermine Xuanzong's prestige. After this, Xuanzong would probably find it difficult to hold on to the throne of emperor.

(End of this chapter)