[Lightscreen]
[Faced with two primary routes to launch his rebellion, An Lushan didn't agonize over the map. He picked Easy Mode and never looked back.
From the moment he raised his banners to the day he smashed through the gates of Luoyang, it took only a single month. God-like speed.
The staging ground for An Lushan's rebellion was Fanyang, also historically known as Zhuozhou. Geographically speaking, this city possesses a rather cursed aura in the annals of Chinese history.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, it was from this exact city that a humble sandal-weaver named Liu Bei and a butcher named Zhang Fei first set out to challenge the world.
In the mid-Tang Dynasty, it served as An Lushan's springboard for imperial devastation. Ironically, the rebel warlord would eventually meet an end strikingly similar to Zhang Fei's: assassinated by his own inner circle after years of brutality toward his subordinates.
Fast forward to the Northern Song Dynasty, and this exact location would become the glorious finish line for the infamous Gaoliang River Drag Race.
It was here that the legendary Donkey Cart Emperor barely escaped capture. In fact, modern netizens have even composed a satirical poem in honor of his driving mechanics:
"Battle cries surge outside the western gates,
As Song and Liao clash to decide their fates.
Yelü's iron cavalry is fierce and swift,
But they can't match the Donkey Cart's masterclass drift!"
Ah... we are getting slightly off-topic. The point is, An Lushan chose the most direct path possible: drive south, cross the Yellow River, turn west, and go straight into Luoyang. The entire campaign unfolded with terrifying smoothness.
While An Lushan was out there racking up a legendary killstreak, Emperor Xuanzong was essentially AFK at the spawn fountain.
When the eight-hundred-li emergency military dispatches from Hebei were first slammed onto the imperial desk, Li Longji merely chuckled and waved the couriers away. "Ah, you people. Those who hate An Lushan are simply inventing stories. You officials shouldn't spread rumors out of jealousy. And please, stop lying through your teeth. Lushan has spent years suffering on the frontier for the empire."
"Instead of slandering him, perhaps you should reflect on yourselves. Ask yourselves why you haven't been promoted in years, have you truly put effort into serving the Emperor?"
It was only after desperate, blood-stained reports began flooding into Chang'an that Li Longji was finally forced to accept reality: An Lushan had actually rebelled.
The question looming over the throne room was simple. Who was going to stop him?
The high-ranking aristocrats and civil ministers immediately began playing a frantic game of hot potato, pushing each other forward while avoiding eye contact with the Emperor. Not a single man dared to volunteer.
As fate would have it, General Feng Changqing happened to be in the capital for a routine debriefing. This fiercely loyal veteran, a man who had clawed his way up from a starving refugee to a Military Governor, stepped out from the ranks and personally requested command to suppress the rebellion.
Xuanzong was overjoyed. He immediately handed Feng Changqing the imperial seal and ordered him to mobilize the Central Army.
But the moment Feng Changqing led his troops out of Tongguan Pass, the veteran commander realized something was deeply wrong.
By this point in history, the Central Army consisted primarily of two branches: the Guoqi cavalry and the Northern Palace Guards.
After decades stationed in the peaceful, wealthy capital of Chang'an with no real threat of war, these prestigious units had long since degenerated into little more than aristocratic country clubs, the perfect place for noble sons to pad their resumes.
Once Xuanzong abolished the traditional militia system in favor of mercenary recruitment, any soldier in the capital with genuine combat ability immediately transferred to the frontier armies to pursue real military merit and escape the pampered culture of these trust-fund battalions.
The Central Army deteriorated at astonishing speed.
The historical records regarding the Guoqi cavalry are almost depressing to read. Their official roster dropped from 120.000 men to barely 80.000. Worse still, nearly every soldier maintained a full-time side job.
The wealthy soldiers spent their days running merchant businesses. The poorer ones performed street sumo, joined tug-of-war contests, or lifted iron anvils in city squares for spare coins.
Handing a theatrical troupe of merchants and street performers over to a master tactician like Feng Changqing did not magically transform them into elite soldiers.
The outcome was inevitable, the Tang forces suffered repeated defeats, and Luoyang rapidly fell to the rebels.
The loss of the Eastern Capital sent shockwaves through the imperial court. Realizing that the empire was now standing at the edge of disaster, Li Longji immediately issued two rapid-fire edicts:
Edict Number One: The disaster loss of Luoyang rests entirely on Feng Changqing. He is hereby stripped of all military titles, reduced to a commoner, and reassigned to Shanzhou as a foot soldier under General Gao Xianzhi.
Edict Number Two: The situation demands imperial majesty. We shall personally take the field! The Emperor will ride to the Shanzhou frontlines and direct the war effort himself!
In other words: "You screwed up, Feng Changqing. Now step aside and watch a real commander work. I, Li Longji, shall personally hold up the heavens." ]
[Server Chat Log]
[Zhao Kuangyin: Hold on. Who exactly is the Donkey Cart Emperor? And why did the narrator call the Song Dynasty the 'Northern' Song?
Zhuge Liang: Ah. So you are unaware of the Humiliation of Jingkang? The collapse of the north, the southern flight of your court, and the eventual change in your imperial bloodline? Fascinating.]
Watching the two lines drift across the light screen, Li Shimin was left speechless. Zhuge Liang was clearly weaponizing historical knowledge for maximum psychological damage.
Li Shimin chose not to involve himself in that particular exchange. Although the Song Dynasty technically inherited the mandate from the Tang, the Tang Emperor found it difficult to respect their military record.
Still, after witnessing his own descendant's actions, Li Shimin felt the slightest trace of relief.
"At the very least, Li Longji possesses the backbone to declare he will lead the campaign in person."
Compared to the hesitant emperors of the Song, or the humiliation of the so-called Donkey Cart Emperor, Li Longji at least retained a fragment of warrior spirit.
But the thought lasted only a moment.
From a strategic perspective, Li Shimin knew the best opportunity to crush the rebellion had already slipped away.
General Li Jing's assessment matched his sovereign's.
"The two branches of the Central Army, at full strength, should have fielded nearly two hundred thousand men. Against a rebel force exhausting itself in a massive southward advance from Hebei, the strategy should have been straightforward."
"Trade space for time. Bleed their momentum against defensive positions. Once their advance slows and their supply lines stretch thin, panic will spread through their ranks. Then the frontier armies close the net."
Li Jing paused and slowly shook his head.
"A sound strategy, provided one actually possesses an army."
Hou Junji spoke next, his tone grim.
"Even after a forced march, An Lushan's veterans remain the finest border troops in the empire. The Central Army, meanwhile..." He exhaled quietly. "Calling them soldiers insults the profession."
For once, Hou Junji set aside his usual scheming. Even he felt genuine sympathy for Feng Changqing.
"A commander may possess a thousand brilliant tactics, but he cannot turn merchants and acrobats into hardened veterans overnight."
Privately, Hou Junji believed Feng Changqing had been grievously wronged by the imperial decree, though he wisely kept that thought to himself.
Du Ruhui, however, remained focused on the strategic map with growing confusion.
"The future generations explicitly stated that An Lushan dies at the hands of his own subordinates. The court has suffered an initial defeat, yes. But the Emperor is personally riding out to stabilize morale. Tongguan Pass remains the strongest defensive choke-point in the empire. The western frontier armies are already mobilizing."
He frowned deeply.
"How does this still become an eight-year catastrophe?"
Before anyone answered, Du Ruhui suddenly remembered two off-hand remarks from an earlier broadcast.
'You could tie a literal dog to the throne, and it wouldn't have resulted in an eight-year civil war.'
'We don't fear the rebels of Hebei; we fear the tactical edicts of the Emperor.'
The narrator had also mentioned that An Lushan was already gravely ill when he launched the rebellion, yet the war still consumed the empire for nearly a decade.
Du Ruhui slowly fell silent.
Fang Xuanling turned toward Li Jing.
"Yaoshi, in your professional estimation, after Feng Changqing's defeat, what is the correct move to stabilize the situation?"
Li Jing stroked his beard without answering.
Hou Junji glanced around the hall and quietly kept his mouth shut.
Li Shimin finally let out a cold scoff.
"From Luoyang to Tongguan Pass, the Wei River valley is practically a flat plain. Perfect terrain for cavalry warfare. The rebels possess overwhelming superiority in elite cavalry. The Central Army is brittle and incompetent. What fool would seek a field battle under those conditions?"
"There is only one sensible move. Retreat behind Tongguan Pass. Use the fortress walls to nullify their cavalry advantage. Hold the line and wait for the armies of Longxi, Hexi, and Shuofang to arrive."
To Li Shimin, this was not advanced strategy. It was basic military common sense.
If your hand is full of merchants and street performers, then you lock the heaviest gate you can find and wait for the real soldiers to arrive.
Yes, abandoning Luoyang would be humiliating. But humiliation was far preferable to losing the empire itself.
Meanwhile, within the government offices of Chengdu, Zhuge Liang quietly slipped a small note into the transmission array.
Small states have no sovereignty. Weak states have no diplomacy.
When applied to Shu-Han's own struggles, the words carried painful weight. Fortunately, the miraculous existence of the viewing screen had already begun changing their fate.
Beside him, Liu Bei was enthusiastically patting a visibly sulking Zhang Fei on the shoulder.
"Yide, Yide! Take it in stride. Use this future knowledge to temper your behavior."
Zhang Fei looked deeply aggrieved.
"I already promoted Fan Jiang and rewarded him! What more do they want from me?"
Fa Zheng immediately leaned forward with a cheerful smile.
"Oh, I can personally testify to General Zhang's benevolence. During the Hanzhong campaign, when Fan Jiang and Zhang Da were nearly cut down by enemy troops, it was General Zhang who personally rushed in to save them."
Liu Bei's face brightened.
"See? My third brother truly is learning the bearing of a great commander!"
Fa Zheng's smile widened slightly.
"Indeed. He swept away the enemy with a single strike of his spear... which also caught Fan Jiang and Zhang Da in the ribs and launched them twenty feet through the air. Both men spent three months bedridden before they could walk again."
Liu Bei's smile instantly froze.
He stared silently at Zhang Fei for a long moment before slowly patting his shoulder again.
Sometimes, silence was the only possible response.
Xu Shu, meanwhile, remained fixated on Xuanzong's decrees.
"The defeat outside Luoyang happened because the Central Army had already rotted away. How can any rational ruler place the blame entirely upon the field commander?"
He gave a sharp laugh.
"The cowards who remained in the capital suffer no punishment. The loyal general who volunteers to save the state is stripped of rank and disgraced instead. What kind of logic is this?"
"It seems the Tang's famed martial spirit survives only among its frontier soldiers and border generals, while the court officials are little more than parasites."
The emotional whiplash inside the Shu-Han court was severe.
Only moments earlier, they had been praising Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing for their ferocity at Talas. Feng Changqing in particular had impressed them deeply, a man who once marched to the gates of a foreign kingdom and forced its ruler into submission through sheer military pressure.
And now, in the blink of an eye, that same hero had been reduced to a disgraced commoner and dragged into the nightmare of the An Lushan Rebellion.
[Lightscreen]
[Shortly after Li Longji made his grand declaration in Chang'an, another emergency dispatch arrived from the frontlines.
General Gao Xianzhi had completely abandoned the strategic garrison of Shanzhou, actively pulling his entire army back to the defensive choke-point of Tongguan Pass.
This tactical retreat was executed on the direct, urgent advice of the recently demoted Feng Changqing. From a purely military perspective, the decision made by these two commanders was flawlessly logical.
First, the 'Tianwu Army' currently under Gao Xianzhi's command was scraped from the exact same bottom of the barrel as the forces that had just been routed.
According to official historical records, the recruits were so inexperienced that they "did not even know how to properly strap on their armor." Gao Xianzhi was already losing his mind trying to drill basic discipline into a mob.
Second, while Tongguan Pass was an unparalleled natural fortress, it was currently completely undefended. If Gao Xianzhi foolishly engaged An Lushan's elite veterans in the open field at Shanzhou and his fragile army broke, there would be absolutely nothing standing between the rebel cavalry and the gates of Chang'an. The capital would fall in days.
Therefore, the moment Feng Changqing arrived at the camp, the two veterans took one look at the tactical board and made the only reasonable choice: fall back, lock the gates of Tongguan Pass and hold the line until the frontier armies arrived.
They really understood the terrifying combat capacity of the Tang border armies. An Lushan's northern mercenaries were brutal, yes, but the veterans of the Longxi and Hexi commands spent their entire lives locked in survival wars against the Tibetan Empire. When the western armies arrived, they would crush the rebels.
To borrow a phrase from modern military analysts regarding the generals' decision:
flawless in military execution; disastrous in political optics.
Let us examine the timeline of 755 AD.
December 1st: Gao Xianzhi is officially ordered to suppress the rebellion. He hastily recruits a mob in Chang'an and marches out.
December 12th: Recognizing the reality of the board, Gao Xianzhi executes a tactical retreat to Tongguan Pass.
December 20th: Bian Lingcheng, a high-ranking palace eunuch acting as the army's political supervisor, files a secret, fabricated report to the Emperor, accusing Gao Xianzhi of selling military rations for personal profit.
December 21st: Armed with an imperial death warrant directly from Xuanzong, the eunuch Bian Lingcheng executes both Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing on the cold stones of Tongguan Pass.
The historical texts offer two primary reasons for the lethal friction between the eunuch and the general. The Old Book of Tang suggests Bian Lingcheng attempted to aggressively insert himself into tactical command decisions. The New Book of Tang claims the eunuch demanded massive personal bribes.
In either scenario, Gao Xianzhi, a man who prioritized the survival of the empire above court politics, publicly told the eunuch to get lost. The resulting grudge was fatal.
Following An Lushan's betrayal, Emperor Xuanzong's psychological state had inverted. His blind trust in his military commanders had metastasized into paranoid suspicion.
The eunuch Bian Lingcheng diagnosed the Emperor's fragile mental state immediately. He weaponized the authority of the throne as a personalized butcher's knife, decapitating two of the Tang Dynasty's finest commanders
To calm the spreading panic in Chang'an, Li Longji promptly issued another dramatic edict:
I will truly lead the campaign myself. I will personally kill the rebel An Lushan!]
To hack off your own right arm in the middle of a knife fight was already madness.
And somehow, this Li Longji managed to hack off both arms in a single swing.
Li Shimin suddenly felt the urge to laugh. Not from amusement, but from sheer disbelief at the absurdity unfolding before him. This Li Longji was engineering his own doom, actively tearing the Great Tang apart with his own two hands.
Yet at the same time, grief tightened in his chest. He grieved for the loyal generals butchered like criminals, and for the countless Tang civilians who would soon be dragged into a catastrophic war because of one ruler's paranoia.
In the end, the Emperor of Tang simply gave up resisting his emotions.
Ignoring Sun Simiao's anxious warnings, Li Shimin seized a silver flagon and poured himself a full cup of grape wine. He drained it in a single swallow and hurled the cup onto the floor with a sharp crack.
"Fine."
"Then let me see exactly how this rebel army intends to break through the greatest fortress under heaven."
"Let me witness the brilliance of my 'good descendant' personally commanding this war."
Every word dripped with cold fury.
At this point, Li Shimin had already connected all the pieces.
If Wang Zhongsi had been left alive and in command, would An Lushan have ever dared to breathe the word 'rebellion'? Absolutely not.
And now, with Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi dead, could Tongguan Pass still truly be called impregnable?
Li Longji had systematically purged his own finest defenders, chilling the blood of every loyal soldier in the empire.
He wanted to see exactly how this 'good son' of the Li clan managed to single-handedly drive the greatest empire on earth straight into the dirt, and exactly how he ended up fleeing for his life to the distant mountains of Chengdu.
Back in the Shu-Han court, Zhang Fei stared at the screen with genuine confusion.
"Honestly... are we absolutely sure An Lushan isn't Li Longji's actual biological son?"