The Tang Dynasty, a powerful dynasty that created the prosperous era of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, a powerful empire that gave birth to the Heavenly Khan. The sudden invasion of the Anshi Rebellion plunged the Tang Empire into the abyss of pain in an instant.

The glory of the past has become a fragment of memory in the wind and rain that remains. The Daming Palace, which once remembered the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, has long been submerged in the rolling red dust, and the prosperous East and West Markets that once recorded the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty have long disappeared in the depths of history. Only the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which has experienced many vicissitudes, still seems to be a dying old man, silently telling the glory of the past.

In order to fully understand the thrilling turmoil that ended the prosperous era of the Tang Dynasty, let us peel off the veil of time, shake off the dust of history, and walk into the fat Hu man An Lushan!

The prosperity of the Tibetan crisis

The crooked path to joining the army

No one would have thought that the fate of the prosperous Tang Empire would be in the hands of a Turkic woman named Asid.

The only difference between her and the other women is that she is a Turkic shaman. Turkic witches are not the witches who many people have the impression of wandering the streets and pretending to be ghosts.

Since Zoroastrianism plays an irreplaceable and important role in the social life of the Turkic people, shamans are the messengers of the gods revered by the Turkic people.

Although Asid is a mysterious and supernatural woman in the hearts of the tribesmen, she also has the joys, sorrows, loves, hatreds, and hatreds of ordinary people.

Although the profession of a wizard has made her live a worry-free and respectable life, this qiē has to pay a price!

Asid must remain a virgin, because her body does not belong to herself but to God, so she will not allow any secular man to defile and desecrate, but what girl does not have a spring?

Although the spring-hearted Ashid could not bear the loneliness of staying alone in the empty room, her reason told her that she had to suppress the ** fire that was burning deeper and stronger in her heart until she met the man who made her fascinated.

Driven by passion, she left all the rules and precepts behind her, and spent time with that man, indulging in it and unable to extricate herself.

In order to keep the man she loves by her side forever, she decided to give birth to a son for him, but the delay in having children has become an unspeakable secret that makes Ashid anxious and unspeakable.

"There are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is great." The inability to continue the incense is a high-sounding reason why a man can abandon a woman at will.

In order to solve this unspeakable secret, she prayed silently to the god of war, the god of war, with a pious and apprehensive heart. The god of war held a high place in the hearts of the martial Turkic peoples.

She had been disappointed countless times before, and this time she really moved the heavens. "Unspeakable hidden" actually "sought".

I wonder if it's a coincidence? Coincidence? Or is it a coincidence? Shortly thereafter, she miraculously became pregnant.

The first day of the first month of the third year of Chang'an (703 AD) was just a short moment in the long history, but it was this short moment that affected the fate of the Tang Empire for nearly 200 years.

At this moment, the supreme female emperor Wu Zetian, who was in the bustling palace of the imperial capital, would not have imagined that she would have some kind of wonderful connection with an ordinary and strange Turkic woman in a dilapidated tent in Liucheng County, Yingzhou (now Chaoyang City, Liaoning), thousands of miles away.

Yingzhou had broken away from the embrace of the Tang Empire at this time. The Khitan chieftain Li Quanzhong captured the city of Yingzhou in the first year of Long Live Tongtian (696 AD). The officials of Yingzhou were forced to live in Youzhou (present-day downtown Beijing).

In the shouts of the ministers who shouted long live, Wu Zetian felt the pleasure of power.

Under the continuous invasion of pain, Asid endured the pain of childbirth.

With the eunuch's lengthy "retreat", Wu Zetian could finally get rid of the shackles of etiquette and run to live a free life as he pleased.

With a crisp cry of a baby, Asid can finally get rid of the pain of childbirth and start the long-awaited career as a mother.

Ashid didn't expect that his son would leave a strong mark in the history of the Tang Empire, and Wu Zetian didn't expect that this innocent child would bring such a huge catastrophe to her descendants.

This baby is the famous An Lushan in the future. He would profoundly influence the historical trajectory of the Tang Empire. Every big man will have a strange phenomenon when he is born, and An Lushan is naturally no exception.

When he was born, "the light of the dome and the roar of the beasts" (New Tang Dynasty Book. Rebel Ministers").

As early as the Northern Dynasties, this legend of "being pregnant by light" was quietly popular among the ethnic minorities in the north.

During the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the mother of Liu Cong, the monarch of the Han Kingdom, the Huns, gave birth to him, "dreaming of the sun" ("Book of Jin"). After the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Shi Le, the founding emperor of the Zhao Dynasty, was born with "a room full of red light". (Book of Jin)

When the founding emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Tuoba Jue, was born, "there was light again in his night" ("Book of Wei. Taizu Benji). If this account is not made up, there are only two possibilities: either the polar day or a meteor. Since the place where Tuoba was born is still far away from the Arctic Circle, there will definitely be no polar day, so there is only one possibility, that is, a meteor piercing the night sky, just like day.

In the early years of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, the Tang Empire was at its most prosperous and prosperous, while the Turkic tribes were caught in endless bloody raids.

An Lushan's tribe was torn apart in tribal strife. The once familiar and intimate prairie is now too much for him to stay.

This sudden upheaval made the teenage An Lushan mature a lot in an instant. At the crossroads of his life, he had to think about where he would go in the future, and this decision undoubtedly determined the trajectory of his future life.

An Lushan and his cousins An Sishun and An Wenzhen (both of whom are the sons of An Bozhu) decided to flee to the Tang Empire after some deliberation, because they felt that the open Tang Empire could open its arms and accept people of all races and even countries, but the unfamiliar Tang Empire also made them feel an inexplicable unease, so they specially invited another person to accompany them on this trip.

This person is An Xiaojie, the eldest son of General Adaomai, who has been missing for many years. An Xiaojie's younger brother An Zhenjie was serving as the commander of Lanzhou in the Tang Empire at this time. An Zhenjie couldn't help but cry with joy after reuniting with her long-lost brother.

An Zhenjie was naturally grateful to An Lushan and others, so he took in the homeless An Lushan, An Sishun and An Wenzhen.

The three cousins, who are not actually related by blood, are brought close together by their common fugitive life, but in the end, these three people choose different paths in life.

As he grew older, An Lushan began to find his own job, and his eyes were set on the increasingly prosperous border trade.

Although the people of the Tang Dynasty were not as eager for foreign languages as they are now, mastering a few foreign languages could still stand out when they took office.

An Lushan, who is fluent in six minority languages, served as the Yalang of the mutual market. The Tang Empire set up a mutual market on the border for international trade, and the mutual market Yalang was a middleman who used the language advantage to match the two sides.

An Lushan is busy for his livelihood. I don't know if I was forced to take risks for my livelihood, or I couldn't resist the temptation to make a temporary move. An Lushan, who was thirty years old, almost suffered a catastrophe because of a theft.

Regarding the time when this turmoil occurred, many people believe the "Old Tang Book. According to the records of An Lushan's biography, it is believed that it occurred in the twentieth year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty (732 AD).

But as long as we look through the history books, we will raise objections to this, because Zhang Shouqi was not transferred from Shanzhou in the northwest to Youzhou to work until the twenty-first year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty. This is recorded in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty, the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty and the Book of Yuan Turtle.

There is such a record in "Li Yongding's Epitaph": "In the twenty-first year of (Kaiyuan), Jiedu made Xue Chuyu send Gong (that is, Li Yongding) to lead the horse step. ”

Zhang Shoujue's predecessor Xue Chuyu had not left office in the twenty-first year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, so Zhang Shoujue's transfer to Youzhou would never be earlier than the twenty-first year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty. The record of An Lushan is incorrect. It is likely that Ouyang Xiu, a historian of the Northern Song Dynasty, discovered this error, so he did not record the specific time when he wrote the New Tang Dynasty.

The "An Lushan sheep stealing incident" should have occurred in the twenty-first year of Kaiyuan or a year after.

At that time, the two most powerful ethnic minorities in the northeast, the Khitan and Xi, posed a great military threat to the northeastern frontier of the Tang Empire. Zhang Shouqi's predecessor, Xue Chuyu, was dismissed for incompetence. After some searching, the imperial court transferred Zhang Shouqi, who was accustomed to war, to Youzhou as the envoy of the festival. However, he came to a new work environment with unprecedented pressure.

After Zhang Shouqi took office, he governed Youzhou with an iron fist. As the saying goes, "there are three fires when a new official takes office", and An Lushan was unfortunately burned by the raging fire ignited by Zhang Shouqi!

An Lushan was arrested for stealing someone else's sheep. The frightened An Lushan quietly waited for the judgment of fate.

Fate magically allowed An Lushan and Zhang Shouqi, two people who had never known each other, to meet. One is a majestic feudal official, and the other is a criminal criminal with a lowly status. From the moment the eyes of the two collided, An Lushan's fate quietly changed.

After a simple trial, the facts of An Lushan's crime of stealing sheep were clear, and the suspect An Lushan confessed to the crime.

Zhang Shouqi's tightly closed lips popped out two cold words: "Stick kill".

An Lushan, who knelt on the ground, was suddenly frightened. A living person would have died for stealing a sheep. The sentencing is indeed a bit excessive, but who let An Lushan catch up with the "strike hard" action of severely cracking down on criminal offenses? The hapless An Lushan could neither appeal nor undergo a death penalty review.

The executioners walked up to him and prepared to drag him down the lobby and towards the place of execution.

When the stick wielded in the hand of the official falls, a young life will fall prematurely because of this small mistake. More than 20 years later, the protracted rebellion will be nipped in the bud, but small accidents can often change the course of history.

At the critical moment of life and death, An Lushan showed his superiority. He knew that by throwing himself into disarray, he would only lose the last shred of hope of saving himself.

"Doesn't the doctor (Zhang Shouqi is also the imperial doctor) want to eliminate twice? Then why do you want to kill strong men? ”

This powerful sentence actually made An Lushan miraculously turn the danger into a disaster, because this sentence touched Zhang Shouqi's most sensitive nerve.

There are not many words, as long as they shock the heart, they will become powerful and powerful.

At this time, whether it was Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji in the capital or Zhang Shouqi who was far away on the border, they were all at a loss for how to subdue the unruly Khitan and Xi tribes.

As soon as these words came out, Zhang Shouqi had to re-examine the Hu criminal in front of him who could say such bold words.

Although the emphasis on connotation and inner beauty is often on the lips of many people, no one can deny the importance of appearance.

In "Water Margin", when Chao Gai Qixing Juyi wanted to rob the Birth Gang, the reason why he invited Bai Sheng to join was because of his unique appearance. His obscene appearance was not easy to arouse the suspicion and vigilance of Yang Zhi, the officer in charge of escorting the birth gang.

If An Lushan was mediocre or ugly like Bai Sheng, Zhang Shouqi would naturally think that he was just talking big, but An Lushan was burly and athletic. The combination of tough appearance and heroic words brings a powerful spiritual shock. This made Zhang Shouqi, who was eager to seek talents, moved.

Zhang Shouqi not only released An Lushan, but also kept him in the army to serve.

In the Tang Dynasty, the shadow of the door, the imperial examination, the recommendation, the entry and the military merit were undoubtedly the five most important ways to enter the official career.

The door shade is the political privilege of the "second generation of officials" and even the "N generation of officials". ** Official positions can be obtained directly based on the rank and contribution of the father or grandfather. The road of "Menyin" is just an unattainable luxury for An Lushan, who came from a humble background.

The imperial examination is undoubtedly the most precious opportunity for the vast number of Han people to realize their political ideals. Of course, this road is a fantasy for the illiterate An Lushan.

Even if he was well-read and well-educated, it was an extremely difficult road to get through the imperial examination, because the competition in the imperial examination was not only about talent.

There are countless unspoken rules about the imperial examination, and the shade of the door is a naked "spelling game", while the imperial examination is a "spelling game" with an undercurrent.

An incident recorded in "Tang Jiayan" makes us marvel at the shady scenes behind the imperial examinations that are advertised as fair, just, and open.

In the second year of Yamato (828 AD), Wu Wuling, a doctor of Taixue, recommended the talented Du Mu to Cui Yun, the chief examiner, and presented the popular "A Fang Gong Fu" written by Du Mu.

According to the description of his predecessors and his own imagination, Du Mu used majestic language to outline the magnificent picture of Afang Palace.

Such a majestic Afang Palace was finally burned down by Xiang Yu (Chu people burned, poor scorched earth). This made many people sigh.

However, through modern archaeological excavations, there is no Qin Dynasty accumulation layer including Wadang on the rammed earth layer of Afang Palace, and there is no trace of fire at all. (To be continued.) )