When An Lushan raised his army, he united with the Luo, Xi, Khitan, Murowei, Turkic and other ethnic groups to form a total of 150,000 soldiers, plus some Han soldiers, less than 200,000. In the first month of the second year of Tang Suzong Zhide (757), An Qingxu colluded with Yan Zhuang and Li Zhu'er to kill his father An Lushan and establish himself as the emperor. Ordered Shi Siming to return to Fanyang, leaving Cai Xide and others to continue to besiege Taiyuan. In the same year, Chang'an was recovered by the Tang army, and An Qingxu fled from Luoyang to Ye (now Linzhang, Hebei), and his general Li Guiren led tens of thousands of elite and Hu soldiers to Fanyang Shi Siming. Shi Siming later killed An Qingxu and his troops reached 20-300,000.

The Tang Dynasty's encirclement and suppression of An Lushan was first 100,000 and then 200,000. An Qingxu was besieged by more than 200,000 troops such as Guo Ziyi, and later increased to 600,000, but due to Suzong's weakness and suspicion, the armies did not have a commander, so that the war could not drag on for a long time, and in the spring of the following year, the rebels were helped by Shi Siming, and defeated Tang Jiujiedu to make its 600,000 army, and its siege was resolved. The eunuch Yu Chaoen was slandered, Ziyi was recalled to Chang'an, relieved of military power, and was in an idle position. Soon An Qingxu was killed by Shi Siming, who took over An Qingxu's troops and returned to Fanyang, called "Emperor Dayan".

The casualties were about 400,000 on both sides.

At the beginning of the war, the rebels were quite cohesive. An Lushan has been operating in the Northeast for more than ten years, and the generals of the Northeast Army have been trained by him, and the soldiers have been recruited and trained by him. In some ways, An Lushan inevitably reminds people of the later Yuan Shikai. An Lushan, like Yuan Shikai, did not have a particularly outstanding performance in commanding operations, but he had super-first-class ability in military training. The "Deeds of An Lushan" written by the Tang people said that An Lushan "bowed to comfort himself, and proclaimed his prestige", and his soldiers "were not happy to lose the festival of death". In this regard, Guo Ziyi has his favor but not his harshness, Li Guangbi has his harshness but not his favor, and there is no general in Shuofang's army who can compare with him.

An Lushan's army is mainly composed of Khitans and Xi, and almost all of his generals are generals, readers should not be confused by the names of these people, such as Shi Siming is Turkic, Sun Xiaozhe and Wang Wujun are Khitans, Li Baochen and Zhang Xiaozhong are Xi, and Li Huaixian is Hu. From this point of view, the Anshi Rebellion was indeed an attack on the Han dynasty by a foreign military group. But on the other hand, nearly half of the soldiers in the Shuofang army are Fanbing, and among the generals, Li Guangbi is a Khitan, Fugu Huaien is a Tiele person, but Guo Ziyi is a genuine Han Chinese. Therefore, it is also difficult to say the national character of this war.

1- Tang Dynasty archers, due to the pursuit of high mobility to defeat the opponent, armor is a burden for archers, and generally archers only wear a small amount of armor, or even no armor; 2- Tang Dynasty armored cavalry

In this rebellion, there was little hope of winning. An Lushan's Northeast Army and the Imperial Court's Northwest Army were already close in strength, but An Lushan was a rebel army, and the places where they were defeated had to be garrisoned, and the places that were not satisfied had to be suppressed by troops. An Lushan was in trouble for a time and complained: "You all persuaded me to rebel, saying that it was foolproof." Where is it now? But a large pie of more than 2,000 catties suddenly fell from the sky. In the first battle of Lingbao, the situation completely changed. The main forces of the Northwest Army were annihilated, and the rebels completely gained the upper hand. In the entire Anshi Rebellion, the rebels came closest to victory twice, and this time was the first.

It turned out to be an accident. The matter is with An Lushan. An Lushan is really strange. He is capable and ambitious, but he doesn't seem to have a very persistent sense of destiny, which is often needed by people who achieve great things. An Lushan is more of a speculator. After he conquered Luoyang, he roared and proclaimed himself emperor, and the country was called Dayan. But as soon as the situation deteriorated, he almost lost faith, feeling that he was doomed and was going to lose. And how can his subordinates relieve him? The subordinate said: "If you can't do anything, you will collect tens of thousands of people, run rampant all over the world, and you will be ten years and five years old for a thief", An Lushan was overjoyed after hearing this: "You can still make my heart bright!" As soon as he became the emperor, he planned to be a bandit leader in the rivers and lakes, and he survived for ten or five years, and he was "very happy" about this prospect, no matter how he looked at it, he didn't look like a hero with grand plans. This is not just his personal character, but the entire Anshi Group generally has this problem. The rebels' favorite thing to do was to grab things, and then transport the looted things back to Fan Yang's hometown, behaving like a mountain carving instead of Huang Taiji. This is in stark contrast to the Tang government, the Anshi group is more efficient militarily, but the political aspect is extremely lacking in planning, and it looks like it can get by, while the Tang government is highly sensitive in politics, and even does not hesitate to sacrifice military efficiency for this.

And An Lushan is still sick. He had a very serious disease, very severe sores on his body, and he was blind in his eyes. It is indeed too much of a coincidence that the rebellion has only been in good health for more than a year, and some historians have speculated on it in the form of conspiracy theories. In fact, it may not be, because An Lushan is too fat. He is said to weigh 350 catties, and the "catty" of the Tang Dynasty is heavier than the current catty, so An Lushan's weight is almost 400 catties. He couldn't get dressed and undressed himself when he was in the shower, so he had to be supported by two people on his stomach first, and then one of them knelt on the ground, holding his head against his stomach while tying his belt. Therefore, Tang Xuanzong also specially approved him to take his entourage into Huaqing Pool to bathe. By the way, just for this description, I don't believe that Yang Guifei can have an affair with him. You can't get to the point where you can't be heavy on heavy taste. Fat enough to be unable to take care of himself in this state, it is not surprising that An Lushan has any illness, but it is strange how he did not get sick until he was in his fifties. After An Lushan fell ill, his temperament changed greatly, he was extremely harsh on his subordinates, and his mood was very irritable. This irritability is of course due to physical pain on the one hand, and on the other hand it is also related to the situation. At the most critical moment of the rebellion, he was unable to act and his eyes were still blind, which most likely forced him to reconsider the question of his successor. An Qingxu is the legal successor, but he has a cowardly personality and a stupid mouth, and it is said that he can't speak well. An Lushan didn't look down on him in the first place, it turned out that this problem was not urgent, but now that he has become like this, it is inevitable that he will be moved.

As a result, An Qingxu started in advance. This is a rebel version of the "Ma Weipo Incident", but it is more brutal. The imperial family of the Tang Dynasty still had a set of political traditions, and political influences had to be considered in doing things, so the Ma Weipo change ended in a compromise. But An Lushan led a murderous Hu military group, and there was no way for both sides to retreat, so An Qingxu could only kill An Lushan. The scene of An Lushan's death was very bloody, he held the tent in his hand and screamed, and his intestines flowed into the bed.

The struggle between the father and son of Xuanzong and Suzong ended with a peaceful transition of power, and the army was not chaotic and the people's hearts were not scattered. But An Lushan's death led to extremely serious consequences, An Qingxu killed his father and usurped power, which was untenable in the legal system, and he was far from his father's ability to control the army. The cohesion of the army clearly began to decline. From the perspective of those rebel generals, we are loyal to the marshal, but why should we be loyal to this rebel son of the marshal? Why did he charge for this mediocre and cowardly An Qingxu? What's more, the big handsome was killed by him. Their reluctance to be loyal to An Qingxu is nothing more than because the current enemy must have a leader in the group. But that's how the seeds of division fell. If you still take Yuan Shikai as an analogy, the rebel group after An Lushan's death is like entering the "Beiyang era" from the "Yuan Shikai era".

At the same time, An Qingxu made an important decision, when several generals were besieging Li Guangbi in Taiyuan, An Qingxu ordered other generals to continue the siege, and removed Shi Siming to return to Fanyang to stabilize the rear. At the time he didn't realize the importance of it, but soon he understood how deadly it was for him.

1- The building is on fire, and a Tang Dynasty official walks out in a hurry; 2- The imperial forbidden army of the Tang Dynasty wore armor, and the horses they rode were also covered with elaborate armor (horse armor). Although the equipment protects the safety of the horse, it limits the flexibility, so the horse on the battlefield usually does not dress this way; 3- Tang Dynasty Forbidden Army

The split of the two blocs

Shi Siming may be the most capable general under An Lushan. But at the beginning of the rebellion, An Lushan did not reuse Shi Siming too much, and Shi Siming was not the No. 2 person at all. In fact, the relationship between An Lushan and Shi Siming is not very good. Once, An Lushan was defeated when he was fighting with the Khitans, and he wanted to find a scapegoat, so he fell in love with Shi Siming. Shi Siming was very cunning, hiding in the mountains and not coming out, and only came out to see An Lushan when the matter had calmed down. At this time, An Lushan no longer needed a scapegoat, held his hand and said excitedly: "You are still alive, what am I worried about?" "When An Lushan raised his troops, he did not take Shi Siming south; The few family members he left in the north to take care of, and there was no Shi Siming in them. The job he assigned to Shi Siming was to carry out sweeping work in Hebei. In the beginning, the position was not too important. Who knew that Li Guangbi of Shuofang's army came in with the army, and the status of the Hebei Theater became very important, and Shi Siming's status was rising day by day. Of course, he was often defeated by Li Guangbi, but other generals were also defeated by Li Guangbi, who can beat Li Guangbi? In comparison, Shi Siming performed quite well. It was during this period that Shi Siming gained room for independent growth. On the contrary, several more conspicuous generals in the early days of the rebellion, such as Cui Qianyou and Sun Xiaozhe, failed to grow up because they were on the front line and were too closely tied to the top leaders. An Lushan later hesitated to make Shi Siming the nominal Fan Yang Queen, but did not let him return to Fan Yang, but still let him stay and continue to fight with Li Guangbi.

An Qingxu asked Shi Siming to return to Fanyang to look after his family, which gave him the best opportunity. The rebel group has a great weakness, that is, its front is too long, and it can easily be divided into two axes, one is the Fanyang axis, and the other is the Luoyang-Chang'an front axis. After Shi Siming returned north, the split between the two axes began to surface. The rebels have never regarded Henan and Guanzhong as their own land, where they have always maintained the mentality of passers-by, robbing and killing if they can, which is extremely brutal. The local population is very hostile to the rebels, and it is difficult for such an occupied area to provide strong support to the rebels. The treasures looted by the rebels were all transported to Fanyang, and as a result, Fanyang hoarded a large amount of supplies, and it was more convenient to replenish troops there, and at the same time it was far away from the main battlefield, so as time passed, the power of Fanyang's group slowly gained the upper hand.

An Qingxu has a strong opponent in front of him, but there is no strong reinforcement in the back, and he is said to be the emperor of the Great Yan Kingdom, but in fact, he is in an extremely embarrassing situation. In 758 AD, the Tang Dynasty gathered forces and launched an attack on the Anqingxu group, completely crippling it. An Qingxu fled to Yecheng and was surrounded by regiments. Shi Siming raised troops to rescue, and the result was the aforementioned Battle of Xiangzhou. After An Qingxu was saved, what relationship should Shi Siming maintain with him? Shi Siming simply got him over and killed him, and slaughtered An Lushan's other four sons together, and became the Emperor of Dayan himself. From this incident, you can see what kind of group the rebels are. According to the practice of history, Shi Siming should offer An Qingxu as a puppet, even if you kill him for the crime of "killing his father", you should also set up an An Lushan's son as a puppet emperor, and then slowly usurp the throne. At least you have to go through a process, how can you say that you can kill it? There is no political legitimacy at all, it is just a naked jungle rule. If this were to be left in the Tang Dynasty opposite, it would be almost inconceivable. This shows that the rebels have never had much political color, nor have they had any ideology, and they are just an undisguised group of military violence. Such a group that is entirely interested in profit will split when there is a stir. From a political point of view, the rebels were always much more fragile than the Tang government.

But from a military point of view, Shi Siming is still very powerful. He not only routed the Tang army, but also annexed the remnants of An Qingxu's army. The Fanyang Group and the Frontline Group were unified. Shi Siming led this army all the way west, defeated Li Guangbi at Pishan, and fought all the way to the city of Shaanzhou. The Cambridge History of the Sui and Tang Dynasties says that "if it had not been for the murder of his son Shi Chaoyi in the spring of 761 by conspiring with others, he would probably have overthrown the Tang dynasty." This statement may have overestimated Shi Siming's ability, but this was indeed the closest the rebels came to victory except for the peak period after the Battle of Lingbao.

It turned out to be another accident. It's still the same old problem, the father-son relationship. Shi Siming's son, Shi Chaoyi, is not sinister and cunning. According to historical records, he was a modest and generous man, who was very kind to his subordinates and was quite popular in the army. But perhaps because he is so popular, he may have aroused his father's suspicions. Shi Siming was very brutal, slaughtering the city at every turn, and killing his subordinates. Such a person may be a little uncomfortable to see his son loved by the army. But their father-son relationship hasn't always been tense. "The Deeds of An Lushan" recorded a story that Shi Siming was not very literate, but he didn't know what was going on, and he suddenly liked to compose poetry for a while. Shi Chaoyi was named King Huai at that time, and was fighting on the front line with the general Zhou Zhen, Shi Siming wanted to condole, so he gave them both a basket of cherries, looked at the cherries and chanted a poem: "A cage of cherries, half red and half yellow." Half with King Huai, half with Zhou Zhen. One of his subordinates interjected: "It's better to change it to half with Zhou Zhen and half with King Huai, so it rhymes." The poet Shi Siming was unhappy: "I don't know what rhyme is!" How can I let my son bow his head in Zhou Zhen! But later, the relationship between the two became worse and worse, and Shi Siming, like An Lushan back then, felt that his son was incapable, so he moved the idea of changing his successor. Shi Siming wants to replace his successor with his youngest son Shi Chaoqing. During this period, Shi Chaoqing has been in the rear, and Shi Chaoyi has led troops to fight hard in the front. Human psychology is often so strange, there are many mistakes in doing too much, the more Shi Chaoyi fights, the more his father thinks he is not fighting well; The more Shi Chaoqing was in the rear, the more his father felt that he would definitely be good once he showed it. Shi Siming kept finding fault with his son, and once said viciously: "I will kill this thief in Shaanzhou!" Shi Chaoyi was scared, and at the instigation of others, he took the lead. Before Shi Siming was hanged, he said: "You killed me too early!" Why don't you wait for me to conquer Chang'an? Now it's not a big deal! ”

The big thing really didn't happen. This is almost a copy of An Qingxu's murder of his father 4 years ago. It had the same consequences, and the new Fanyang-North China bloc and the new front bloc began to split. The rebel group reluctantly accepted him as the new Emperor of Dayan, but several generals in Hebei began to go their separate ways and refused to obey orders. At this time, the strength of the rebels actually surpassed that of the Tang army, but they lost their offensive ability. In the previous article, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty gave the impression of being quite annoying, playing political tricks all day long, dragging the front line. But if we look at the rebel group, we will know how important and precious an emperor with political legitimacy and charisma is.

Soldiers' Chariots, painted by Xu Yansun in 1956, is now in the collection of the National Art Museum of China. It depicts the scene of Xuanzong's continuous campaign, and the soldiers said goodbye to their families when they went out to fight

The two capitals are easy to take, but Hebei is difficult to receive

After the battle of Zhaojue Temple, Shi Chaoyi fled all the way, and Fugu Huaien pursued him relentlessly. Shi Chaoyi has been defeated in successive battles, becoming more and more like a water dog. The policy of the Tang Dynasty was "the first evil must be dealt with, and the threat will never be investigated", so it aimed at Shi Chaoyi and pursued and attacked him alone. So most of the generals in Hebei stood by and watched the water dog struggle in the water. When Shi Chaoyi finally ran back to Fan Yang's lair, this lair could no longer accommodate him. The Great Yan Emperor, who was abandoned by everyone, had no choice but to hang himself.

The Tang Dynasty and the Hebei rebels reached a rapprochement. They pledged allegiance to the Tang government while retaining their territory in Heshuo, free from the control of the central government. In fact, neither side of the war won nor lost. The Tang Dynasty secured the country, and the rebels were given a large piece of land. After fighting for 8 years, and finally getting such a wretched ending, it is no wonder that many historians lament the short-sightedness of the Tang government, which led to endless troubles. yes, why not push harder? Why don't you take advantage of the good situation to fight again? Some people say that this is all to blame on the servant Gu Huaien, who has obviously been able to conquer Hebei, but he has to raise his own respect, so he came up with such a reconciliation plan.

This kind of thinking actually overestimates the strength of the Tang army. Speaking of which, first of all, a question is involved: Why did the Anshi Rebellion last for 8 years? When An Lushan first raised his army, this war really didn't need to be fought for 8 years. At that time, the Tang Dynasty had the upper hand. The Hexi and Longyou armies can compete with An Lushan's main force, and the Heshuo army can still send troops to Hebei, and if it is dealt with properly, the Tang army may indeed end the rebellion within a year or two. But after the Lingbao War, the question is not how many years can end the rebellion, but whether it can end the rebellion.

The Hexi and Longyou armies were annihilated, and this loss was not made up until the end. Although the Tang government occupied a large area, the entire south of the Yangtze River was not really militarized, and could only provide financial support, and on the military side, it was more than capable of attacking the rebels. The main force of the Tang Army can be roughly divided into three parts: the main force of the Shuofang Army, a branch of the Shuofang Army, the Hedong Army, plus a Pinglu Army that fled from the enemy, this force is not too strong. In the Eight-Year War, although the strength of the two sides has decreased, but in general, as long as the rebels are united, the Tang Army cannot win. Shi Siming integrated the two groups of rebels, and he was able to sweep the Tang army and go straight to Guanzhong. As long as the rebels split into the Hebei group and the frontline group, and the Tang army only stared at the frontline group, it could win. In other words, after the Lingbao War, the Tang army was always a relatively weak side, and the rebels were always plagued by the problem of division. After the Battle of Zhaojue Temple, the rebels' front-line group suffered great losses and was close to extinction, and the enemy army was left with only one group, at which time the Tang army regained its advantage. But even so, Hebei Group is not the end of the strong crossbow that everyone imagined. Its strength is still relatively close to that of the Tang Army.

Hebei, especially the northern part of Hebei, is a very special region. Mr. Chen Yinke has done a special study on it, pointing out that there is a strong tendency to "Huhua", which is completely different from the mainland of the Tang Dynasty. It is a region with mixed races, fierce customs, women and children who can bend bows and shoot arrows, and it can be said that it is one of the regions with the greatest military potential in the Tang Empire. If you look at the later history of the Tang Dynasty, you will be deeply impressed by the combat effectiveness of the Heshuo area. The soldiers here were often able to confront the entire Tang Dynasty government in a few states. And the Khitan Empire in the future was so strong that a Youzhou feudal town could block it from the border alone. And this area is quite supportive of the rebels. We may feel that the rebels are perverse, where will there be the support of the people? The rebels are indeed extremely brutal and beast-like in the occupied areas, much worse than the government army, and the local population must hate them. However, in the nest of the Anshi Group, people often respect An Lushan and others, and even close to religious worship. Until long after the end of the rebellion, there were still many people in Hebei who called An Lushan and Shi Siming "two saints", and Tian Chenghe, the old general of An Shi and the first Wei Bojiedu, in order to curry favor with the military and public opinion, even added An Qingxu and Shi Chaoyi to it, making a "four saints". The hostility towards the central government in the Heshuo region can also be seen from this.

As Mr. Huang Yongnian said in "The Political History of China from the Sixth to the Ninth Centuries": "The two capitals are easy to take, but the Hebei is difficult to collect." Where is it easy to pacify such an area? What's more, the strength of the Tang Army is far from being strong. The battle of Zhaojue Temple has been narrowly won, how easy is it to sweep away the river in one go? At that time, Li Huaixian of Fan Yang alone had an army of 50,000, and together with other warlords, he could make up an army of more than 100,000. When Fugu Huaien invaded Hebei, the army in his hands was only one or two thousand, how could he really have the strength to suppress the rebels? Even if the main force of the Tang Army moves north, I am afraid that it will not be able to succeed in one or two years. It is true that Fugu Huaien wants to make meritorious contributions too much, and the Tang government does compromise too happily, but this ending is not caused by someone's stupidity or insidiousness, it is mainly the result of the comparison of strength. The rebels sacrificed the heads of their leaders, and the Tang Dynasty sacrificed the land of Heshuo, and the two sides barely coexisted.