An Lushan Rebellion - One of the Bloodiest Conflicts in History

The middle of the 8th century was a period of profound turmoil across Eurasia, from the Carolingian unrest in 751 to the Abbasid Revolution of 746 and the Tibetan Rebellion of 755. However, the most devastating of these upheavals was undoubtedly the An Lushan Rebellion in Tang China. This cataclysmic but lesser known conflict ended the High Tang Golden Age and resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people. Welcome to our video on the An Lushan Rebellion. But before we jump to the video, allow us to say thanks to the sponsor of this video World of Warships Blitz. This free-to-play game available on Google Play and the App Store allows you to conquer the seas, commanding some of the most iconic warships in exciting tactical combat. And there are always new ships being added to the roster. So enter the intense PvP battles and experience fantastic 3D graphics. Install World of Warships Blitz now using our link in the description below, reach level 3 and get a free ship – a tier 3 battleship USS South Carolina. Installing the game from our link is the only way to get this bonus. After a period of disunity lasting over two centuries, China finally began its reunification in 581 when the Sui Dynasty overthrew the Northern Zhou. By 587, Sui had easily crushed and subjugated the smaller Western Liang. Afterward, they struck south, invading the Southern Chen Dynasty. By 589, China had been reunified for the first time in centuries since the fall of the Han. Though the dynasty's reign was short, a number of key aspects of future Chinese civilization were instituted during it, including the Grand Canal, rebuilding the Great Wall, and the construction of more public works. However, the strain of unification and these momentous achievements also caused discontent to grow. The final straw was a series of costly and unsuccessful military expeditions into Korea, which finally broke Sui power. Despite this, it has been said that the Sui laid the foundation for the greatness of their eventual Tang successors. Rebellion finally broke out against the Sui in 613, and one of their most experienced generals, Li Yuan, was dispatched to modern Shanxi with an army in order to defend the capital. In 615 and 616, he moved north and destroyed some local bandit groups, as well as repelling a Turkic incursion. Despite his efforts, rebellion soon spread across the country, and as reports of the mounting anarchy reached Taiwan, Li Yuan's advisors encouraged him to seize power. In 617 he marched south and successfully besieged the capital at Chang'an, installing a puppet emperor for a few months, but then elevating himself to the position after popular acclaim, finally establishing the Tang dynasty in 618. Over the next century, China attained its highest territorial, political and cultural position yet, and many scholars consider this period of the High Tang to be a golden age, during which China was probably the most powerful and wealthy state in the world. The eastern Turkic Khaganate was subjugated in 630, followed by its western counterpart in 642. With these victories, the Tang gained unquestioned hegemony over Central Asia and the prosperous Silk Road caravan cities in the Tarim Basin. It also successfully expanded into Vietnam and Korea, rising above the failures of previous dynasties. In the bustling cities of China, writers such as Li Bai and Du Fu created some of the most revered poetry in the ancient Chinese lyrical tradition, while beautiful paintings and expertly crafted pottery were created and even exported throughout the world. To do this, a quasi-modern export industry was developed, where Tang craftsmen would produce goods for specific markets, such as bowls inscribed with Islamic symbology for sale in the Muslim Caliphate to the west. In the bustling markets and streets of the imperial capital of Chang'an and other large Tang cities, Indians, Persians, Arabs, Koreans, Syrians, Sogdians and others functioned as merchants and worshipped in their own manner, tolerated and encouraged by the high Tang aristocracy and monarchy. It truly was an age of gold, but it was not to last. As Emperor Xuanzong came to the throne in 712, the Tang Golden Age reached its apex. The early part of his reign was the period of greatest creativity of the dynasty, and many of the greatest aforementioned works of the period were created in it. This all changed in 736, when Li Linfu was appointed the chief minister. At the same time, Xuanzong was influenced by religion and his favourite courtesan, and became less interested in ruling. In 742, Li Linfu conducted a series of purges, getting rid of the most talented potential adversaries at court. By 747, he was the de facto dictator. Arguably the most damaging of Li Linfu's policies was that of exclusively employing non-Chinese generals as military governors. By entrusting armies to men with no political ties to the court, he hoped to prevent rivals from rising to power, however, this also meant that the army commanders were less loyal to the central government. One of them was An Lushan, a general of Sogdian and Goturg origin. As one of the most powerful frontier commanders, he commanded a 164,000-strong army in the northeast, and had his headquarters near modern-day Beijing. He was responsible for controlling the nomadic Khitan people and other nomadic tribes in the Manchurian region. In addition, Xuanzong and Li Linfu gave him unprecedented favour, appointing him to high-ranking offices, giving him the rank of prince and the right to mint coins. Meanwhile, Emperor Xuanzong's favourite mistress influenced him to appoint several of her kin to important government positions. As the late 740s progressed, one of these family members, Yang Guozhong, began to make alliances with the enemies of Li Linfu, challenging his power. He also began conspiring to remove his courtly rival's ally, An Lushan, from his command. The situation became even more dangerous in 752, as Li Linfu passed away. Yang Guozhong took control of the imperial court and sought to eliminate An Lushan. The reasoning for what occurred next is debated. It could be that An Lushan felt threatened in his position by the fickle court in Chang'an, or that he simply desired to usurp the Tang dynasty, or even that he began to fear that he was losing the Emperor's favour. Whatever the case may be, after continuous escalations between An Lushan and his enemies, he set off from Fanyang in early 755 with around 150,000 soldiers marching south in the direction of Luoyang, the eastern Tang capital. At this point in the dynasty, the majority of experienced forces were on guard at the various frontiers, so there were no adequate forces to initially oppose the rebels. Although the Emperor began to recall his loyal generals and armies from the western regions, it would take time to gather enough forces. A long-term consequence of this withdrawal would be the loss of Shiyu, the western regions, for almost a millennia. One of the generals who had returned with haste from the Tarim basin, Feng Changqing, quickly assembled a 60,000-strong levy force and moved to confront An Lushan. In a series of encounters in the eastern capital's outlying regions, the untested and raw forces of Feng proved no match for the battle-hardened rebel army and was defeated, with the beaten commander withdrawing west to the impenetrable Tong mountain pass with what remained of his army. Feng Changqing was then joined here by another experienced general, Gao Shanji, who had recently returned from Central Asia after being defeated at the Battle of Talas. A few months later, Luo Yang surrendered to An Lushan. He entered the city and treated the surrendered Tang officials there with respect and dignity, an act which caused many of them to come over to him. At the dawn of the year 756, An Lushan declared himself Emperor of a new Yan Dynasty, with Luo Yang as its capital. As the main rebel army prepared to march on the Tong pass, where the loyalists had entrenched themselves, An Lushan dispatched other prongs of his army to the northwest and northeast. His northwestern advance thrust towards the bend of the Yellow River in order to secure strategic territories in the region. His eastern deployment was far more critical. As his army had initially dashed south to capture Luo Yang, he had not secured the marching path with garrisons or pledges of loyalty. Due to this, pockets of Tang loyalist resistance began to spring up on the path from Fanyang to Luo Yang, cutting An Lushan's connection to his home base in the north and consequently delaying his attack on the Tong pass. By the summer of 756, An Lushan had regained control of his home territory and turned in Chang'an's direction once again. Concurrently, Emperor Xuanzong made two catastrophic tactical errors. Furious at Feng Changqing and Gao Xuanzhi for their inability to defeat the rebels, he had them executed and replaced by a sycophantic subordinate. He then ordered this new commander to abandon their strong defensive position and attack An Lushan's force immediately. The attempted frontal assault turned into a disaster when the army was led into an ambush and destroyed on July 9th after marching through a narrow pass. The way to Chang'an and the imperial capital was open and there was now nothing to defend it. It seemed as though the new Yan Dynasty had won. The few survivors of the massacre in the mountain pass fled to the west and reported what had happened to the emperor. Alarmed at the news, Xuanzong and his heir Suzong fled the grandeur of the imperial capital. Two weeks later, as they reached a relay station, the royal entourage was turned on by their soldier escort and Xuanzong was forced to execute many of his bureaucrats who the soldiers blamed, probably correctly, for the disaster at Tong Pass. After placating his warriors, Xuanzong fled south and eventually reached the city of modern Chengdu in Sichuan province, while his heir advanced north and approached Lingzhou in the autumn of 756. Three days after his arrival, Suzong was persuaded to usurp the throne from his exiled father, who was granted the title Shang Huang or Retired Emperor. The Tang's longest and most glorious reign was at an end. Meanwhile, An Lushan's main rebel army entered and occupied the capital at Chang'an, reportedly massively depopulating the city in the process. It is not known if he massacred a great portion of the city's population or if the disruption simply caused many to flee, but the formerly glorious city was greatly diminished by this part of the war. From his new base in the northwest, Suzong began to gather forces to him. In 757 he decided to borrow troops from both the Abbasid Caliphate in the west and the newly ascendant Uyghur Khaganate in the north, who likely prospered from Chinese trade and did not want it to be damaged or were promised privileges after the rebellion had been quelled. At the same time, perhaps frustrated by the inability of An Lushan to successfully advance either west to the Tarim Basin or south to the Yangtze in the face of increasingly stubborn resistance, a group of his immediate followers assassinated him and installed his son, An Qingxu in his place. However, this coup led to the weakening and implosion of the burgeoning Yang Dynasty, enabling the Tang to strike back. With the assistance of newly gathered frontier forces and their new allies, the newly enthroned Emperor Suzong marched south once again and regained the twin capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang from the rebels. The existential threat to the Tang Dynasty was over, but the victory had been won at great consequence. The effect of the rebellion on China had been utterly devastating. It is not known how many Tang subjects perished as a result, but the death toll is widely estimated to range from 15 million to 40 million. As the loyalists had been forced to withdraw both their generals and armies from the frontiers to fight the rebels, their border defences also collapsed, with armies from Vietnam and the surrounding region attacking the undefended Canton region, maintaining control over it for half a decade. In 763, the Tang's long-standing Tibetan rivals took advantage of their weakness and briefly occupied Chang'an before they were forced to retreat. The Tarim Basin and northwest was permanently lost, along with its rich horse-rearing pastures and wealthy oasis cities. During the rebellion, An Lushan had also seized the Grand Canal, cutting off the flow of grain, cloth and money to Chang'an. Furthermore, after he had seized the capitals, the imperial government lost all of the granary contents and the wealth in its treasuries. As a result, the previously prosperous realm was now in dire need of funds and began selling titles and positions, which had before been occupied by skilled and examined bureaucrats. This situation was not helped by the fact that the old taxation and land system completely collapsed in the rebellion, as many tax rolls were destroyed or became obsolete due to the massive casualties and amounts of civilian displacement. The last embers of Yan rebellion were not extinguished for another decade, and the impacts of this conflict would plague the Tang dynasty for the rest of their reign. They would rule for another 150 years before the unified China once again fragmented, but would never again reach the heights they had achieved before the rebellion of An Lushan. We have many interesting stories to tell, so make sure you are subscribed to our channel and have pressed the bell button. 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