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Chapter 295 The tough guy An Lushan?

When Li Yuan first started his army, he was in urgent need of recruiting soldiers and even more so of logistical support, especially food and weapons, all of which were in very short supply.

In order to support Li Yuan's uprising, Pei Ji opened the warehouse of Jinyang Palace and transferred all the 40 pieces of armor and 9 households' grain (about 500 million dan) from the palace. In addition, he also donated all his property to Li Yuan.

It can be said that Pei Ji was not only the mastermind of Li Yuan's uprising, but also the most powerful supporter behind Li Yuan. After Li Yuan occupied Chang'an, Yang You was established as emperor and Li Yuan appointed himself as prime minister.

Pei Ji was also appointed as an important official in the Prime Minister's Office, and was promoted to Duke of Wei, becoming Li Yuan's most trusted person. However, everyone with a discerning eye knew that Yang You was just a puppet.

Later, under the pressure of Li Yuan, Yang You had to abdicate to Li Yuan. But according to the ancient etiquette, before accepting the abdication, Li Yuan had to perform the "three relinquishements" ceremony to show that he had no intention of becoming emperor.

This behavior is of course a typical formalism. But the problem is that if this process is not carried out, some people will say that he is a traitor and his name is not right.

Therefore, no matter how anxious Li Yuan was, he had to complete the ceremony honestly. During this process, it was Pei Ji who was responsible for leading all the officials to persuade him to ascend the throne.

When Li Yuan ascended the throne, Pei Ji was appointed as the head of the Shangshu Province and became the first prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, Li Yuan also praised his old friend Pei Ji many times as the first meritorious official in the establishment of the Tang Dynasty.

The "Book of Tang" records that when Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan went to court, Pei Ji was allowed to sit with him, and Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan listened to Pei Ji's words and affectionately called him "Pei Jian".

No other founding heroes could compare with Pei Ji. Therefore, Pei Ji became the most popular person in the early Tang Dynasty due to his close relationship with Li Yuan.

However, looking at Pei Ji's achievements, although he is undoubtedly a founding hero, it is obviously not enough for him to be the first hero of the Tang Dynasty, because he did not participate in almost all the important battles in the founding of the Tang Dynasty.

He spent most of his time with Li Yuan at the center. Pei Ji's only advantage was his close relationship with his leader Li Yuan. Initially, Pei Ji knew that he would not be able to save face without any merit.

In the second year of Wude, Liu Wuzhou invaded Taiyuan, so Pei Ji volunteered to lead his army to fight against Liu Wuzhou. However, due to his lack of ability, Pei Ji's army was completely wiped out in the Battle of Jiexiu.

After Pei Ji returned to Chang'an, the officials were furious. In order to give everyone an explanation, Li Yuan immediately imprisoned Pei Ji and questioned him. But soon Pei Ji was reinstated and returned to Li Yuan's side. Li Yuan also knew that he was not suitable for being a soldier and fighting, so he did not let him lead troops to fight again.

As prime minister, Pei Ji was ineffective in government affairs, which often caused dissatisfaction among his colleagues. For example, Liu Wenjing, the Minister of Finance, was very dissatisfied with Pei Ji.

When Li Yuan started his rebellion, it was Li Shimin and Liu Wenjing who first planned it, and later invited Pei Ji to set a trap to induce Li Yuan to rebel. Pei Ji and Liu Wenjing were once a pair of good brothers, but in terms of ability and achievements, Liu Wenjing was far better than Pei Ji.

After Li Yuan became emperor, Pei Ji's official position, treatment and rewards all surpassed Liu Wenjing's, which caused Liu Wenjing's dissatisfaction. One day, Liu Wenjing got drunk at home, drew his sword and chopped at the pillar, claiming that he would cut Pei Ji into pieces.

This matter was reported by a concubine of Liu Wenjing who had fallen out of favor, saying that Liu Wenjing was going to rebel. When Li Yuan learned about it, he immediately arrested Liu Wenjing and sent Pei Ji, Li Gang and Xiao Yu to interrogate Liu Wenjing together.

Li Gang and Xiao Yu both believed that Liu Wenjing had no signs of rebellion, and even Li Shimin came forward to protect Liu Wenjing. But when Pei Ji found out, he slandered Liu Wenjing to Li Yuan. Finally, Li Yuan listened to Pei Ji and decisively confiscated Liu Wenjing's property and executed him.

Pei Ji persuaded Li Yuan to rebel, and he was an opportunist. Then, he used all means to eliminate dissidents through Li Yuan, and Liu Wenjing died because of this.

The good times did not last long. After the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Li Shimin ascended the throne. As the saying goes, "a new emperor appoints new ministers." Pei Ji was biased towards Li Jiancheng on the issue of succession, and he also killed Li Shimin's confidant Liu Wenjing. At this time, his good days were over.

However, Li Shimin, who had just ascended the throne, still attached great importance to Pei Ji and even took the initiative to increase Pei Ji's fiefdom. This was not because Li Shimin was generous, but he had no choice.

Because Li Shimin ascended the throne by illegal means, there were actually many people in the Tang Dynasty who did not obey him. In order to consolidate his throne, Li Shimin had to win over the old ministers headed by Pei Ji.

But in the third year of Zhenguan, as Li Shimin had firmly established himself on the throne and had firmly grasped all power, he urgently needed to get rid of Pei Ji and put his own people in power.

Not long after, Pei Ji was involved in the case of the evil monk Faya, and Li Shimin asked Pei Ji to pack up and return to his hometown. Thinking back to the past, Pei Ji was a favorite of Emperor Gaozu of Tang, but now he has become an abandoned son of Emperor Taizong. How can he put his face back in his hometown?

He begged Li Shimin to stay in Chang'an, but Li Shimin directly retorted: "Look at your own achievements, how can you deserve your current status? You are ranked first only because of the favor of the new emperor." So Pei Ji had to return to his hometown in shame.

However, Pei Ji did not completely rest after returning home. This time, Pei Ji's question was even more speechless. At that time, a madman came to his house and said that he could become an emperor in the future. Pei Ji was naturally shocked and wanted to kill the servant who knew about this.

As a result, the person sent to kill the boy was merciful and let him go. Later, this person was caught by Pei Ji for corruption, and in order to save his life, he bit back and revealed the matter.

Li Shimin, who knew about this, immediately decided to exile Pei Ji to the Wangcang area of ​​Sichuan today. This place was the so-called barbarian land during the Tang Dynasty and was a real place of exile.

After Pei Ji was exiled to the frontier, the local natives rebelled, and some people said that the natives had already accepted Pei Ji as their leader. However, Li Shimin decided that Pei Ji was fine.

Sure enough, after the news came back, everyone discovered that Pei Ji not only had no problems, but had also made a lot of efforts in quelling the rebellion in the local area.

At this time, Li Shimin planned to pardon Pei Ji and let him return to Chang'an. However, Pei Ji died of illness in the local area before the news was sent.

In the end, the first prime minister of the Tang Dynasty fell. Looking back on Pei Ji's life, he actually had neither great achievements nor great talents. He was able to sit in the position of the first prime minister of the Tang Dynasty only because he knew how to stand in line and always followed Li Yuan.

Later, he was exiled to the frontier simply because he blocked Li Shimin's way and was kicked away by Li Shimin.

In short, Pei Ji was just an ordinary person with good luck. Luck pushed him to a high position, but his own talents meant that he would not do anything too important. This is probably why he was not well-known in later generations despite being in an important position.

[Did people north of the Yellow River support An Lushan's rebellion? A little historical knowledge]

The An Lushan Rebellion, which lasted for eight years, directly led to the death of about 8 million people in the Tang Dynasty, and the fall of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. However, An Lushan, the initiator, has now become the "man who came from heaven to save Hebei" in the eyes of some people.

For a long time, rumors on the Internet about "Hebei supporting An Lushan's rebellion" have gradually taken root in people's minds, and even the An Lushan Rebellion is regarded by some people as "a righteous act of the people of Hebei to resist tyranny."

However, when we delve deeper into history, we will find that this statement is completely absurd.

First, let’s take a look at what An Lushan, who is called by some people as “the tough guy who saved Hebei”, did to Hebei during the Anshi Rebellion.

In December 755, An Lushan launched a rebellion in Fanyang, marking the beginning of the An-Shi Rebellion. The rebels marched south from Fanyang, and in just 12 days they reached from Hebei to Henan, and captured Luoyang, the eastern capital of the Tang Dynasty.

According to historical records, the rebels committed all kinds of atrocities, such as burning, killing, looting and other crimes wherever they went, and their atrocities were comparable to those of the "Japanese devils". They captured strong men to work as laborers, raped women, killed the old, weak, sick and young, and even put corpses on the tip of their guns for fun.

An Lushan's general Tian Chengsi also described the atrocities of the rebels, saying that they "conquered more than 150 cities in Hebei, dug up graves, burned, killed, looted, and committed all kinds of evil." Among the rebels, Shi Siming was particularly brutal. He had a habit of massacring cities.

During the early years of the An-Shi Rebellion and after he became the leader of the rebels, Shi Siming fought in Hebei for a long time. According to historical records, when he was in charge of Hebei, whenever he captured a county town, he killed all the able-bodied men in the town, set it on fire, looted everything, and committed all kinds of atrocities.

In the end, after the destruction caused by An Lushan and Shi Siming, the people of Hebei were displaced, their families broken up and their loved ones killed.

From this we can see that the statement that some people imagined, "An Lushan rose up in rebellion to safeguard the interests of Hebei, and therefore won the hearts of the people of Hebei, and the people welcomed him as the 'true king'," is pure nonsense.

On the contrary, the An Lushan rebels massacred the most people in Hebei. Who would have thought that the An Lushan rebels who slaughtered the people of Hebei in the past would now become the "representatives of the people of Hebei" in the eyes of some people. This is really absurd.

Secondly, it was precisely because of the brutality and unpopularity of the Anshi rebels that the resistance of the people of Hebei was particularly fierce among the forces resisting the rebels.

According to historical records, when An Lushan first started his rebellion, the counties and prefectures of Hebei surrendered. Upon hearing this news, even Emperor Xuanzong of Tang could not help but sigh: "Is there not a single loyal official or righteous man in the 24 counties of Hebei?"

Based on this, some people believe that An Lushan successfully conquered Hebei because of the support of Hebei people. However, after a thorough understanding of historical materials, it is found that this statement is unfounded.

In his "Zizhi Tongjian", Sima Guang attributed the situation in Hebei that surrendered in the first month after An Lushan's rebellion to "there had been no war in Hebei for a long time, and the people had lived in peace for too long, and before the officials and ordinary people in the counties and prefectures of Hebei understood the situation, An Lushan had already controlled Hebei."

This obviously cannot be equated with the fact that the people of Hebei supported An Lushan's rebellion. Moreover, during the one year or so of An Lushan's rebellion, he never fully controlled Hebei.

So, is there really no one in Hebei who is loyal to the Tang Dynasty? Obviously not. Among them, Yan Zhenqing and Yan Gaoqing, known as the "Yan Family Twins", are the best representatives.

Yan Zhenqing, the governor of Pingyuan County, was the first to raise the banner of resistance against the rebels after An Lushan's rebellion and was elected as the leader of the alliance. Later, he and his cousin Yan Gaoqing led the Hebei Volunteer Army to fight against the rebels and even recovered Hebei for a time.

The Yan brothers led the people of Hebei to resist, which posed a huge threat to An Lushan, who was advancing with great momentum. Although they were later suppressed by Shi Siming because of their large numbers, it was the heroic resistance of the Hebei righteous army that gave the Tang army enough time to counterattack.

With Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi defeating the rebels in the Battle of Jingxing, the Tang army had a crushing advantage over the rebels. Originally, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang only needed to continue bathing and taking sauna in Huaqing Pool, and wait for a few more days, and the whole of Hebei would be named Li again.

However, the foolish decision of Emperor Xuanzong led to a sharp deterioration of the situation. Tongguan was lost, the Hebei rebels failed, and Guo Ziyi and others were forced to retreat. In order to retaliate against the people of Hebei for helping the government troops, the An Lushan rebels carried out several massacres in Hebei.

Although An Lushan used atrocities and massacres to control the people of Hebei, forcing them to cooperate with him or be forced to participate in the rebellion, the Hebei region did not have any firm centripetal force towards the An Lushan rebels.

Finally, let’s talk about the concept of “Hebei”.

Hebei is commonly known as Yanzhao, and in people's minds, Yanzhao is often another name for HEB Province. However, although An Lushan was nominally the governor of Hedong, Fanyang, and Pinglu, he actually controlled only the Fanyang area.

Hedong, as the core area of ​​the Tang Dynasty, has always been under the control of the Tang army, and Pinglu rose up to fight against the rebels after An Lushan's rebellion.

Therefore, the "Hebei region" that followed An Lushan actually only included the Youzhou area, while the central and southern Hebei were the victims.

If we really want to say that "people in Hebei supported An Lushan", it would be much more reliable to say that some people in Youzhou supported the rebels, or even some people in the central Hebei region supported the rebels than to say that the entire Hebei supported the rebels.

Even in Youzhou, An Lushan's old nest, ordinary people did not support An Lushan's rebellion at the time, and even hoped that he would fail. An Lushan's real supporters were mainly the Hu people in Youzhou.

Since the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, as the Hu people migrated, the Tang Dynasty set up a large number of vassal states in Youyan and employed the Hu people to guard the border. At the beginning of An Lushan's rebellion, Fan Yang led more than 10 troops to the south, so the Youzhou area was the earliest and most important source of troops for the rebels.

Others, centered around the Hu tribes in the羈縱州 and relying mainly on soldiers from the 藩州, launched a rebellion, while the central and southern Hebei regions, which were not taken seriously, became the force of the Tang army.

Therefore, Hebei cannot be viewed as a whole, as An Lushan's influence was more focused on the Youzhou region. In addition, many people also believe that some of the Han soldiers and generals in An Lushan's rebel army were supported by local Han people.

However, when An Lushan started his rebellion, he used 32 foreign generals to replace the Han generals. As a result, not only were there more foreign generals than Han generals among the rebels, but even the core army of the rebels was composed of Hu soldiers, which outnumbered Han soldiers.