It is an indisputable fact that Tang Xuanzong turned a blind eye to An Lushan's possible rebellion, but why didn't he watch out for An Lushan's hidden threat?

The world thinks it's a mystery!

If An Lushan is blocked by a boulder on the road of rebellion, then this boulder is Tang Xuanzong himself. The boulder did not play a role in hindering, but allowed An Lushan to obtain a supreme protection.

Historically, Tang Xuanzong was one of the few emperors who made great efforts to make a difference, and was one of the emperors whose extravagant pleasures led to the collapse of the country. Two important historical terms associated with his name are "Kaiyuan Shengshi" and the other "Tianbao Rebellion". Positive and negative correspond, heaven and earth are very different, but his political achievements cannot be judged by the mathematical offset of positive and negative equals zero, and his positive and negative effects have also left indelible consequences for future generations.

Whether An Lushan could be prevented or avoided from rebelling, the most critical figure has always been the supreme ruler Tang Xuanzong. Until An Lushan raised troops, Xuanzong had always held the power of the imperial court, whether it was Li Linfu or Yang Guozhong, no one could replace his position. Although he is old, he does not nod his head, and nothing can be advanced. Regarding An Lushan's rebellion, it was not that he was unable to stop it, in fact, he never believed that An Lushan would rebel.

There is an inevitability for any event to occur, but not everything that happens is inevitable. Handled properly, many things could have been averted. Even if there was a crisis at that time, pressing the gourd to float the scoop, the east was not bright and the west was bright, and turmoil was bound to occur, but there may be cracks in other aspects, not in Fanyang.

It is impossible for an earth-shattering event to occur without any signs to follow. An event that shocks the world can be hidden from one person or some people, but it is impossible to hide from all the people in the world.

Regarding An Lushan's rebellion, some people have long been aware of it, and some people have told Tang Xuanzong openly and secretly, but Tang Xuanzong refused to believe it. An Lushan's rebellion plots were not all covered up very successfully, and at least An Lushan, as the envoy of the Three Towns Festival, had strong troops under his command, and there was a serious danger of launching a rebellion, so why could he never arouse Xuanzong's vigilance?

An Lushan's level of sycophancy is not very high, what he says is extremely superficial, and the hypocrisy in it is very easy to see through. But how could Xuanzong be convinced?

When Li Linfu was alive, An Lushan felt that he was not as cunning as Li Linfu, so he admired and feared Li Linfu and did not dare to act rashly. He could only make some preparations quietly, Xiongwu City stored some weapons, which had already been seen through by Wang Zhonghe, Wang Zhongsi had given An Lushan eye medicine more than once, and Tang Xuanzong didn't mind. As for Yang Guozhong as the prime minister, An Lushan looked down on him, after a long period of preparation, the conditions for An Lushan's rebellion were ripe, and he did not take Yang Guozhong seriously, so there was a rift between the phases.

Yang Guozhong repeatedly said that An Lushan might rebel, but Xuanzong didn't listen, of course, there was the selfish intention of Yang Guozhong and An Lushan to discord.

The crown prince Li Heng also sensed the signs of An Lushan's rebellion and told Tang Xuanzong, who did not believe it either.

Later, many people warned Tang Xuanzong that An Lushan had the possibility of rebellion, but they could not shake Tang Xuanzong's trust in An Lushan, and Tang Xuanzong even kidnapped the person who denounced An Lushan to An Lushan for processing, and his trust in An Lushan almost reached a perverted level.

What is the reason for this?

It can be considered that Xuanzong has always been unguarded against An Lushan's rebellion, except that An Lushan's pretending to be foolish and creating a false impression for Tang Xuanzong, we should understand Tang Xuanzong's psychology from the political struggle since the founding of the Tang Dynasty.

For more than 100 years, the political struggles of the Tang Dynasty were mainly manifested in palace coups. Tang Taizong launched the Xuanwumen Mutiny, killed his elder brother Li Jiancheng and younger brother Li Yuanji, and forced his father to step down; Wu Zetian killed his own son and let him go, and finally usurped the throne and seized power, and then killed the Li clan. Zhang Cambodia and others staged a coup d'état, forced Empress Wu to abdicate, and supported the restoration of Zhongzong; The crown prince Li Chongjun staged a coup d'état, killed Wu Sansi, and led his troops into the inner palace, which ended in failure; Empress Wei conspired with Princess Anle to poison Zhongzong, the sixteen-year-old prince Li Chongmao ascended the throne, and Empress Wei came to the throne; Princess Taiping and Li Longji teamed up with the Xuwuwei Group to support Ruizong to come to power. Zhongzong's second son, Li Chongfu, conspired to rebel in the eastern capital of Luoyang, established himself as emperor, and was pacified by Luo Governor Shi Cui Rizhi; Princess Taiping planned to depose the crown prince Li Longji, but Li Longji cleaned up Princess Taiping and succeeded to the throne.

For a long time, the political struggle in the Tang Dynasty, or the struggle for supreme power, was mainly within the imperial family, and one bloody and bloodless coup d'état after another was shocking. When Tang Xuanzong was young, he witnessed or experienced a series of palace coups in person, which had a profound psychological impact on him.

Therefore, it can be speculated that after Tang Xuanzong ascended the throne, the threat to the imperial power felt was still at the top of the court and within the imperial family. Tang Xuanzong and his prime ministers such as Yao Chong and others conscientiously summed up the causes of the "repeated catastrophes" and tried their best to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past in order to stabilize the throne.

The important measures taken are as follows: first, there is no need for meritorious heroes; the second is the king's foreign appointment and serving; The third is to rectify the forbidden army.

It should be noted that in all coups d'état, it was often those who had meritorious service who were too powerful and supported a certain prince to plot to seize power, and the Janissaries often became their tools for carrying out coups. Those heroes have a special status and appeal, and can influence or even shake the status of the emperor.

Tang Xuanzong adopted Yao Chong's suggestion, and dismissed the heroes who supported himself as emperor one by one, or transferred to other places to serve, or relieved of real power, and vacant positions, such as Guo Yuanzhen, Zhang Shuo, Liu Youqiu, Zhong Shaojing, Wang Ju, Cui Riyong, Wei Zhigu and others, all of whom made great contributions in the struggle for Tang Xuanzong's seizure of power.

The prime ministers appointed by Tang Xuanzong during his reign, if you examine their origins, there are roughly two types, one is the border marshal, and the general enters the prime minister, which was later put an end to by Li Linfu; The second is that the family is not high, and there is not much political capital, such as Zhang Jiuling, Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong, etc., it is impossible for them to form a big force in the imperial court, and it is okay to form a small group, but it is not possible to form a partisan force that transcends the imperial power.

Therefore, although Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong and others later became autocratic and self-indulgent, they still had to curry favor with Xuanzong, and they all had to act according to Tang Xuanzong's eyes.

The Li kings were also often a source of trouble, as they were the only ones who could be proclaimed emperor in a coup d'état and become a direct threat to imperial power. Soon after Tang Xuanzong ascended the throne, according to Yao Chong's suggestion, he ordered the kings to be assassinated. For example, in June of the second year of Kaiyuan, the Song King Li Chengqi and the Qizhou Thorn History, the Shen King Li Chengyi and the Youzhou Thorn History, and the King Li Shouli and the Yuzhou Thorn History.

Tang Xuanzong put the daily life and actions of the princes under close supervision. This kind of three chapters of the covenant is very inhumane, and under such a system, everyone who is a royal family is like a prisoner. As for Xuanzong's sometimes personal visits to the kings' residences and the sharing of gold and silk, they are just a veil to cover up his suspicion of suspicion. Since Li Shimin launched the Xuanwumen seizure of the throne in the early Tang Dynasty, a series of palace coups in the Tang Dynasty have often been related to the Beimen Forbidden Army.

Tang Xuanzong paid great attention to the control of the North Gate Forbidden Army. He first put his henchman Wang Mao Zhong in charge of the forbidden army, and when Wang Mao Zhong's power was too high, he promptly revoked his military power and exiled him. Then appointed the "simple and self-thrifty" Chen Xuanli as the general of the forbidden army. Chen Xuanli was loyal to Tang Xuanzong, and until the Anshi Rebellion, the Praetorian Guards did not take any actions similar to their participation in palace coups in the past.

In terms of preventing a coup d'état, Tang Xuanzong was extremely careful. He noted that in previous coups, monks and Taoists were often involved. These people colluded with the court officials, and also used religious superstition to falsely say that the heavens were auspicious and evil, and created public opinion for some people to rebel against usurpation of the throne, and also used their special status to enter and leave the homes of high-ranking officials and nobles to pass on information and information.

Therefore, soon after he ascended the throne, he issued an edict prohibiting hundreds of officials from interacting with monks. The edict accused those monks and Taoist priests of "treacherous meditation, vain fortune and misfortune, involving the left way, deep (corrupt) Dayou (Taoism)" Therefore, "hundreds of officials and families must not tolerate monks, nuns, Taoists, etc., to the family fortune and evil, it is necessary to set up fasting, all in the state and county Chen Mu Temple view, and then listen to the number, still order the imperial history, Jinwu, Mingjia to catch it." ”

It is said that whose family has a wedding or funeral, and it is necessary to ask monks and Taoists to set up fasting and chant Buddha, and they must report to the state and county and specify the number of people. Violators, Goshitai and Jin Wuwei can arrest people at any time.

After all kinds of measures to prevent coups and consolidate imperial power achieved good results, Tang Xuanzong had a strong sense of security in his heart. Since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, there has never been a serious incident of a general commanding the army launching a rebellion.

Not only this dynasty, but also looking back at the history before the Tang Dynasty, there are very few successful examples of rebellions launched by border generals, and the change of dynasty is either a peasant war, or a usurpation of the throne by the prime minister, or those nomads in the north are flocking into the Central Plains, and there are almost no successful examples of a border general raising troops, which may be one of the reasons why he relaxed his vigilance against An Lushan. Not only him, but Prime Minister Li Linfu didn't realize this, so he dared to let those generals stay in office for a long time and have strong troops to defend the borders of the empire.

This is the internal reason why Tang Xuanzong has always trusted An Lushan unconditionally, what has not happened does not mean that it will never happen, after the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, Tang Xuanzong only realized this clearly, but it was too late.

In his later years, Tang Xuanzong was so happy, his heart was extremely inflated, Sima Zhao's heart was known to everyone, but Tang Xuanzong's selective blindness was sad! Alas!