A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

History is the result of the entanglement of necessity and chance.

Why did the Tang Dynasty, a world empire, collapse in such a farcical way?

Based on our previous analysis of several potential problems, the An Lushan Rebellion was inevitable. It was a final reckoning of the inherent contradictions within the prosperous Tang Dynasty model: the collapse of the Fubing system, the decentralization of military power, land annexation, and the widening gap between rich and poor. These contradictions had been accumulating for over a century, and even without An Lushan, the problem of the powerful military governors would have inevitably erupted in other forms sooner or later.

"However," she continued, her tone shifting as she spoke.

Why are we so angry about the An Lushan Rebellion?

What if Yang Guozhong wasn't so foolish? Historians like Sima Guang have repeatedly emphasized that An Lushan originally planned to rebel after Emperor Xuanzong's death.

Driven by his own desire for the "prophecy to come true," Yang Guozhong repeatedly provoked the situation, turning a potential risk into an imminent rebellion.

Isn't it ridiculous enough to hand the spark of an imperial rebellion to a gambler to ignite it?

What if Emperor Xuanzong hadn't killed Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing?

In the early stages of the rebellion, renowned generals Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing suffered initial setbacks in Luoyang and decided to retreat to Tongguan, which was the safest strategy.

However, Emperor Xuanzong listened to the slander of the supervising eunuch Bian Lingcheng and beheaded these two pillars of the empire in a single day on the charge of "losing discipline and causing the loss of the army".

Destroying one's own Great Wall will only cause pain to loved ones and joy to enemies. Is there anything more foolish than this?

What if Geshuhan hadn't gone out into the field for battle?

After the renowned general Geshu Han took over, he also held Tongguan Pass firmly and did not venture out, which was the only correct tactic to cut off the rebels' lifeline.

However, Yang Guozhong was worried that Geshu Han's military power would threaten him, so he kept slandering him to Emperor Xuanzong, forcing him to leave the pass for a decisive battle.

Geshu Han wept as he left the pass, and his 200,000-strong army was annihilated in a single day. Tongguan fell, and the gates of Chang'an were wide open.

A prime minister, out of fear of his political enemies, forces the nation's last field army to its death. This is not a tragedy, but pure black humor.

What if Lingwu's ascension to the throne had not occurred?

During the Mawei Mutiny, Crown Prince Li Heng went north to Lingwu and declared himself emperor without waiting for Emperor Xuanzong's approval.

While this move objectively organized forces to quell the rebellion, it also caused a de facto split in the central court and set a bad precedent for the reign of Emperor Suzong, which relied heavily on eunuchs and appeased regional military governors.

This laid the groundwork for the later eunuch-dominated power and regional warlordism of the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty, and he himself died at the hands of eunuchs.

He hesitated for a moment, then said coldly, "Jealousy, suspicion, fear, greed—these ridiculous, despicable, and pathetic aspects of human nature ultimately and by chance transformed the An Lushan Rebellion into a monstrous wave."

Those who were supposed to protect the empire, at every crucial crossroads, precisely and in concert, chose the fastest path to the precipice.

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, in particular, was the most divided emperor in Chinese history.

His first and second halves of life can almost be viewed as two separate individuals.

In the first half of his life, he rectified the court and reformed the bureaucracy, creating the prosperous Kaiyuan era in which all nations paid tribute to him. He is a model of a wise ruler throughout history.

In the latter half of his life, he neglected governance, indulged in pleasure, and blindly trusted treacherous officials, personally destroying the prosperous era he had created. He became another template of a tyrannical ruler throughout history, killing three sons in a single day, forcibly taking his daughter-in-law, and committing all sorts of absurd acts.

He stopped speaking, and the scene in the sky gradually changed.

"The Tang Dynasty survived the catastrophe of the An Lushan Rebellion not because of a corrupt court, but because of what?"

"Six faces appeared simultaneously in the image: Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi, Zhang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, Yan Gaoqing, and Liu Yan."

"None of these people stood up because of the court's wise decision-making."

When they stepped forward, the emperor had fled, the prime minister was dead, the elite army had been wiped out, and the rebel flags had already been raised atop Chang'an.

They stood up because they still recognized the Tang Dynasty and this country.

Guo Ziyi "rebuilt the royal family and made outstanding contributions to the next generation." He rallied the remaining troops amidst the chaos and rebellion, and recovered the two capitals, making him the core pillar supporting the overall suppression of the rebellion.

Li Guangbi held the isolated city of Taiyuan, using 10,000 troops to withstand the main force of 100,000 rebel troops and preserve the defense line east of the river.

Zhang Xun was besieged in Suiyang. When the city ran out of food, people resorted to cannibalism, yet he still held the strategic throat of the Yangtze and Huai Rivers, blocking the rebel army from plundering the wealth of Jiangnan. He used his own life, the life of the city, to save the life of the Tang Dynasty.

The brothers Yan Zhenqing and Yan Gaoqing took the lead in raising an uprising in the heart of the rebel army, which tied down the enemy's forces. In the end, the city fell, their family was massacred, and the entire family died for their country.

Liu Yan avoided the heart of the war, dredged the Grand Canal between the north and south, reformed the grain transport system, and rebuilt the salt administration. In the midst of chaos, he reorganized the nation's logistics and economic lifeline, providing funds and provisions for the eight-year-long war to quell the rebellion.

People say that the Tang Dynasty had a good foundation, and that its strength lay in the fact that it nurtured a group of people like this.

The foundation built over a century of the Tang Dynasty—its systems, talent, popular support, and culture—was so solid that it survived countless setbacks without being instantly destroyed.

The camera pans to a vast, desolate wilderness.

In the wilderness, a hunchbacked old farmer was picking up broken bricks from the ruins and rebuilding the wall.

A woman squatted on the edge of an abandoned field, digging open the hardened soil with her hands and scattering seeds.

A child carries a load of firewood that is taller than his head.

They were dressed in tattered brown clothes, their faces still bearing traces of smoke, with charred trees behind them and broken tiles still scattered on the ground.

But they were bending over, doing the same thing: putting the broken things back together.

No matter what, if the land is abandoned, it must be replanted.

If a house collapses, it must be rebuilt.

When a person dies, they must be reborn.

The war is over, but life goes on.

The land of China has never been barren.

-

In 763 AD, Shi Chaoyi was defeated and hanged himself, ending the An Lushan Rebellion.

"The eight-year war has ended. Before the war, the population of the Tang Dynasty was about 53 million, but after the war, the registered population was less than 17 million."

Two-thirds of the population has disappeared from the country's household register.

East of Tongguan Pass and north of the Yellow River, white bones lie exposed in the wilderness, and for a thousand miles, not a rooster crows.

He hesitated for a few seconds, wanting to say something but unable to.

"But did the An Lushan Rebellion truly end? No."

The end of the An Lushan Rebellion was only the end of the battlefield.

The era of regional warlordism it ushered in would last for 150 years.

The resulting collapse of the fiscal and taxation system forced the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty into an endless cycle of tax increases and popular uprisings.

The cultural and psychological trauma it caused led China to shift from openness and confidence to introversion and conservatism.

It was like a fire that burned for eight years; the fire is out, but the scars remain forever.