990 Guts That Were Castrated (1/2)

Chapter 990 – Guts That Were Castrated

The difference between the An Lushan Rebellion and the previous seven Battle Maps was that this was an internal rebellion raised by a border general. It was not a faceoff between two sides.

Talking about this battle, one had to briefly mention the Provincial Governor system of the Tang Dynasty.

Tang Taizong, Tang Gaozong first took down Liaodong, then the west Turks, Tuyuhun, and other nearby regions, causing the Tang Dynasty to be an empire with a vast border.

To strengthen their control of the border regions, the border defenses, and their control of the minority races, Tang Xuanzong set up 10 garrisons, appointing 9 Jiedushi and one military commander.

What was a Jiedushi?

Based on the history of the later Tang Dynasties, it was someone with power over land, over people, over finances, and over troops. As such, the Jiedushi ruled a region and became a problem for the Tang royal family.

Tang Xuanzong removed the conscription system, causing their military strength to be strong externally but weak internally. At that moment, there were 500 thousand soldiers at the border and less than 80 thousand soldiers in the Imperial Court. The Jiedushi's could already threaten the safety of the Imperial Court. Just An Lushan alone, who was the Pinglu Jiedushi, Fanyang Jiedushi, and Hedong Jiedushi had 150 thousand troops.

To the emperor, to decide whether a person rebels or not was not related to the heart to rebel but rather if the person in question had the ability to. Without a doubt, An Lushan had the ability to.

There were many people who tried to tell Tang Xuanzong that An Lushan might rebe,l but Tang Xuanzong did not listen. The one whose attitude was most the adamant was the prime minister at that time, the brother of Yang Guifei - Yang Guozhong.

Yang Guozhong and An Lushan had a bad relationship, and they had a long history of bad blood. However, Fan Xuanzong did not interfere in this. An Lushan held onto his ambitions and had many troops in hand, which gave him a chance to betray Tang.

This gave rise to the rebellion that lasted for eight years. Until the war ended, there was no real winner.

Yang Guozhong was murdered by furious soldiers in the mutiny of Maweiyi, Yang Guifei was forced to kill herself, while Tang Xuanzong and his son Li Heng went their separate ways.

The rebels did not have a good ending either.

The ironic thing was that the two rebel leaders did not die on the battlefield but died from the hands of their own sons. An Lushan was killed by his son, An Qingxu, while Shi Siming was killed by his son, Shi Chaoyi.

Their personal fates were secondary. Most crucially, the An Lushan Rebellion affected the fate of the Tang Dynasty, which affected the fate of the entire Chinese race.

The An Lushan Rebellion destroyed the ruling foundations of the Tang Dynasty, weakening the centralization of power and creating the necessary conditions for feudalism.

When the Huangchao Rebellion at the end of Tang Dynasty occurred, Chinese history welcomed a hugely chaotic time - five dynasties and 10 kingdoms.

During the five dynasties and 10 kingdoms period, many mutinies occurred with the rulers changing frequently.

To prevent similar situations from occurring, Zhao Kuangyin executed his policy to focus on civil servants and not military, prohibiting generals from interfering in politics. He also used the cheerful opportunity while drinking to remove old generals from their positions.

Although his actions successfully weakened local powers and prolonged the Song Dynasty, it caused the dynasty to be weak and poor with a heavy outside problem.

At the end of the two Song Dynasties, the situation did not change.

Ever since the Tang Dynasty ended, generals becoming ministers was a dream and civil servants ruling generals became a tradition. Some people said that the guts of the Chinese people were castrated at this moment, and they were unable to be as majestic as the Han and Tang Dynasties.

...

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

The moment the notification ended, Feng Qiuhuang came over to Shanhai City to discuss matters with Ouyang Shuo.

There were only the two of them left in the Shanhai Alliance.

There were many officials and generals from Great Xia that were born in the Tang Dynasty. Hence, no matter what choices Di Chen and the others make, Ouyang Shuo would still choose the Tang Dynasty camp.

If they also choose the same side, this battle would be pointless.

However, with Di Chen's arrogance, he would want to fight with Ouyang Shuo. The reason being that in terms of soldier numbers, Yanhuang Alliance held the advantage.

Although Ouyang Shuo was a prince, he could only bring 100 thousand troops. Feng Qiuhuang was a 1st class Marquis and could bring 50 thousand troops, so they could bring a total of 150 thousand soldiers.

The members of the Yanhuang Alliance were all 1st class Marquis and could bring 300 thousand troops in total, double that of the Shanhai Alliance. The Battle Map also allowed them to use contribution points to revive dead soldiers, so Di Chen and the others had little to worry about.

Toward this matter, Ouyang Shuo was still a little optimistic.