Heirs of Heraclius, a no Islam timeline

[Silver01]

After Gu left Ciu quickly moved to take as much land as possible so that the reinforcements when they would come he could use them to finally end the campaign, but the city of Qingzhou stood against him he had no time to waste for a siege but he knew the city had no supplies of food, so he ordered to his men to not assault the walls but get close and do lots of noise in one area of the wall while he told another part to wait and do the same, this continued to the night as he ordered his men to scout constantly if tang reinforcements would to arrive as these had left to attack Minzhou.

After two days the tang who were sleep deprivation and lack of food the scouts reported that many reinforcements were arriving in reality they were part of the garrison of Chang'an who he ordered that they would arrive in in sets of ten to make it seem like large army, with these news the garrisons of Qingzhou with no prospect of help they left the city in the darkness of night, with this victory Ciu left a small garrison and quickly moved to take Pingliang.

Here the book of tang said he used the same tactics as in Qingzhou and took the city in 3 days with no casualties while Du Shenyan wrote that on the night they arrived Ciu ordered his men to light 4 camp fires per each person and the scouts reported the massive army of the Qi ,this caused many to desert with that the Qi general sent an attack the next day and took with city with minimal casualties whatever the case might be he took both cities in a week and news had just arrived to the Tang army who had just arrived to lay siege to Minzhou,the army debated whether to go back and help or go north and they decided that Yuanzhou was a lost cause .

As the events went in the northeast the situation had been going well once the emperors decree had arrived they had all agreed and went to resolve other issues since the emperor’s letter arrived when other episodes of violence had occurred between the Qi and their nomadic vassals and some of the high ranking nobles pressured their leaders to demand more from what the emperors resolution offered them which many of them refused among them leader of the khitans which nephew saw as an act of cowardice , so the general invited them to a friendly meeting to settle the matters , both men agreed and the meeting turned in to a celebration were many men became drunk.

Here the two leaders the nomadic vassals were assassinated as well as well as the Qi general quickly their respective successors blamed each other and violence erupted all around the area with some even joining the Uyghurs and moved to attack but some switched side and kept their loyalty but another accident made it so that one tribe that wanted betray their leaders but were killed by a force in the border who didn’t know about it or though they would betray them, making many tribes that doubted their loyalty to join the Uyghurs , the tribes attacked raiding the cities and towns of the north the Uyghurs with the help of the tribes went and attacked pushing as far as Yingzhou were they met the Qi army.

The battle began with extensive exchange of arrow shots but as the wind was favorable to the nomads these inflicted heavy casualties after this the Uyghurs then attacked the center as the wind were still favorable to them their volleys caused massive casualties to the center which retreated, seen the hole left by the retreat of the Qi the latter quickly moved to fill the gap as the Uyghur’s had entered and attacked them from the flank and rear however the Qi general with his reserve and men who had retreated pushed them back seeing this the rest of the nomadic groups that were not engaged in hit and run tactics against the Qi sides charged as the Uyghurs redeployed some of his cavalry to his left wing without the Qi general noticing it .

With this extra pressure the left routed, this exposed the center right of the Qi army and despite some resistance they were cut to pieces, as the rest of the Qi army fled and the Qi general failed to reform his line, Du Shenyan stated that the generals was killed with other commanders in the hail of arrows trying to reform the lines while the book of tang stated that he died attempting to flee , whatever the case the Qi army fell in to full route and the horse archers pounced for easy kills.

By the end of the day of the 45 000 Qi men that took the field 1/3 of them died while the nomadic armies 28 000 took minimal casualties, the khagan son who led the battle found the Qi general and order his head to be cut off and put on pike then to be showed to the terrified defenders of Yingzhou the siege didn’t last long where the population was killed and the survivors been enslaved, while the many buildings were razed, with the defeat of the Qi army and the taking of the city the kingdom of Balhae also joined the raids to the Qi provinces ,in a matter a month and a half the situation which seemed stable had crashed ,the Qi emperor smiled in his palace as news came that the army he sent to the west had arrived and joined Ciu , he began to think that soon all of china would be his and he even began to think that once this was over he would punish the Uyghurs just as the tang had done with the eastern Turks , but a messenger arrived he quickly asked for paper and pen his dream of uniting china faded as he was now a man trying to understand what happened.

 

[Silver01]

After the disaster at Yingzhou the news arrived relativity fast in just 19 days the emperor by that time the 20 000 reinforcements had sent 40 days earlier arrived to Lanzhou to join Cui as he then marched north , the messengers who were enunchs were given the best horses and a small guard and told them to arrive were Ciu was as soon as possible .

The general had like before forced marched his troops and had arrived to Lingzhou in a matter of twelve days and began to prepare for the final siege ordering his troops to build their camp and wall like the city siege of Youzhou ,the next day the enunchs arrived , he asked them why they were there they told him about the war in the east and that he was need there , he quickly took the letter and began to read it

His annoyed expression turned into shock then anger every line he read filled him with rage by the time he was done , he threw the letter he said to them clearly that he didn't believe that it was from his emperor .

That this was who ever made this request was at best a coward who couldn't deal with the issue and at worse commtimg borderline treason to ask him of all people such a thing , he had not wasted years of his life , defeated tang armies, battled the mighty tong pass , risked the life of many brave men and fought against Gu and brought the light of victory were he was on the grasp of defeat just to give it all up not now , not when he assured them that at most he was weeks if not less from ending this war , he told the enunchs that :

I do not think in his wisdom , the son the my friend and the Tianzi would ask such a preposterous order so long as his signature and assurance that he himself wrote this i shall not touch that letter .

However the other comanders questioned him for disobeying an imperial order he tried to convince them

(the speech has been subject to much interpolation as the original source was lost and quotes survived whole later sources added to these the most would be reconstruction) :

through the will of the heavens and your courage we have gained Pinglu ,Hedong the lands of the treacherous barberians , both capitals and the vast cities of the south , so why do you hesitate to extend the power of Qi to all of china unto this city Are you afraid of orders that the Huangdi has not sent for we know his wisdom and these words lack them .

I say Come and who so ever does claim the glory that I will share with you and no other man so that they shall speak of your deeds for centuries for the truth is

These "defenders" either surrender without a single bolt fired or are they will be as incest crushed under the soles of your feet ,but if you desire to leave so be it I assure you that your ancestors will look with shame , your children with distain and the heavens will make sure will make those who leaven envious of those who left .

Despite his words most generals agreed that they need to return and this the greatest general was forced to sing a temporary peace of two months with the tang forces agreed and in that sumer Cui left his siege and began to march he sent 2000 men to garrison Lanzhou as he marched south west to the three cities he had captured some weeks ago he again forced marched his army making it to Qingyang and leaving 6500 men to garrison the three cities he captured .

By the time he arrived at Baoji a week later news arrived to him about the situation the nomads began to raid with impunity sacking many towns and some cities , their armies then decided to march south towards Youzhou, the relive army sent by the Qi was destroyed when the nomads noticed an ambush planed by them and then feint a retreat drawing much of the cavarly who was then encircled and destroyed , the survivors then fled to garrison the other cities how ever Yuyang didn't surrender , despite the threats of the nomads their morale was high as they were told that general Cui was coming .

Once he heard the news the force marches became even worse as he began to loose some several hundred , but due to this he arrived in Chang'an in five days then he crosses the tong pass a site that most of his soldiers crossed with bad memories but also the pride of the greatest victory they had , how ever their general looked at it with disappointment he was supposed to cross the pass to end the war and return to Louyang in triumph not to save them, once he arrived to the capital he ordered his exhausted troops to rest as he even before he was ordered to quickly moved to the palace and talked with the emperor who reprimanded him for disobeying his orders, the conversation was short as the emperor didn't want to deal with his general and immediately told him to go north and gave him some 8000 troops .

However the words of Cui had reached the court , those who were in favour of him or were just simply against the emperor began to doubt if the most honorable of their leaders doubted the emperor orders and even called it treasonous then it called to question his actions and worse his loyalty after all he was the biological son of the emperor they hated , equally on the other side men of the court accused Cui of seeking power and Glory at the cost of the empire and it's people using his example of the forced marches showing that he didn't care about them and then denying an ordering so that he might conquer the tang.

 

[Silver01]

When Cui left Louyang on the last days of august the forced march to the north , the garrison of Youzhou was already facing trouble even though the siege which had began on the 4th of july after Pingzhou and Jizhou surrender as soon as news of the nomads arrived and the terror they felt was the same that the inhabitants of Youzhou felt as the siege was seemingly almost over , the garrison was staring to run out of food the nomads knew this and decided not ceased their attacks some two weeks prior as they had defeated the earlier relive force and were confident they could deal with another one , as September arrived and the month slowly passed there was no sing of him and his army came to save them in mid September the garrison began negotiations to spare the civilians , but they quickly failed as the nomads didn't hide their intentions on what they were going to do to the soldiers , the citizens and their wife's .



But then a few days later the scouts told them that Cui was about a week march from the city a great debate then broke out on whether to take the city by strom or prepare for a battle against the Chinese general it was decided that if they could defeat the greatest general the city would surrender as the days passed word spread to the great general was arriving, great cheers could be heard from the city for many days the men celebrated convinced that they had won ,about 8 days later the general arrived he had rested he forced marched his troops a lot so he decided to rest about 100km south of the city instead of directly going to relive it


On the next day when he arrived the nomads left moving to flatter ground of their choosing and to their surprise Cui followed them , after some time they arrived in to an open field, due to his disadvantage he put his most armored units in the front and behind them crossbowmen and archers , while in the wings light cavalry , quickly deployed his forces with he himself with the heavy cavalry and spearmen in the center and the best of his cavalry in the reserve behind the center, the nomadic horse archers moved galloping towards the whole line loosing their arrows killing many but the line held as the better armored took their attacks and the missile units fired back killing many unarmored or lightly armored nomads.


These continued to attack and then sent their heavier cavalry to hit the enemy lines and then commit various feint retreats yet Cui firm commanded undermined the efforts, every time they tried to outflank the cavalry in the wings would response and push them back only to a certain point were then they had to return and this was the course of the battle for four hours on which the sun began to set, with this the Chinese general who at this point his troops had been slowly advancing ordered a full charge , he was trying to get in to a battle as the nomads made a crescent retreating using hit and run , in a mere 30 minutes he captured the enemy camp but he ordered a retreat , with this confusion the Son of the khagan ordered half of his nomads and these pounced the Chinese left and began to surround it .



The Chinese general attempt to strike but was met by the Khagan son as he saw his left was been massacred it seemed that the legendary general first defeat was at hand but the nomads but as the Du Shenyan wrote : At the time were the barbarians had victory in their grasp they heard the sound of thunder but it was not Tia (tengri) rather the hooves of the reserve cavalry that in the lust of victory the barbarians had ignored they came as a great typhoon against ships for they filed the barberians with fear and drove them off , as they went the field turned in to blood and the lust of victory was replaced with the anger of men and the glee of their death .


In mere minutes the lines collapsed and the nomads went out in a full route but Cui didn't pursuit as his own forces were bloodied of his 40 000 aprox men that he had over 9000 died but the nomads army nearly a third of them had been killed and others had been taken prisoner among them leaders of some tribes, the sources conflict as the book of tang said he gave his word for that no harm would come to them and immediately asked for a ransom and once he got it, the prisoners were quickly executed while Du Shenyan and other writters mention that he did give his word and once he was paid he was to return them but rumors spread that they were plotting trying to bribe the soldiers to either kill their general or give information about the army , due to this he had them killed what ever the case the men were dead and many of these tribes simply abandoned the Uyghurs.

Back in the city a great celebration was held for the victory for the scourge had been beaten but here some men due to his victories began to idolize the great general and the murmurs against the emperor grew in to cheers for their "new emperor" that soon they would crush the tang and the traitor that was their emperor for all the tang had lost the mandate of heaven including him , Cui tired to talk to his troops but to no avail but once they began to shout their death wishes upon the emperor , Cui despite his difference with him got furrious and with a mighty cried silenced them, he also threatened to commit suicide if the troops ever spoke like that again, the men quickly retuned to their celebrations in fear and shame .

 

[Silver01]

After his victory Cui began to push back the nomads but as he did three weeks later the news of the victory and the incident at the feast , despite the eunuchs and courtiers murmuring lies to his ears he dismissed him and told the messenger to congratulate him and sent gifts he told them to winter there and come back so that he might receive the honor to march with him to destroy the last of the tang , by this time Gu had arrived to the south giving the besiegers desperately need boost in morale despite this his arrival in mid September didn't change much, how ever the departure of Cui helped the tang but they didn't make any move yet but made massive preparations in case of a siege while they prepared for an offensive as the tang sent even more gold and promises to Uyghurs so that they didn't leave the war , as for the Qi the eunuchs and courtiers continued to spread lies about his greatest general, still the rumors of Cui possible betrayal spread like wildfire mostly by the court convinced the emperor to sent two eunuchs two Zhang Jingmei and Song Lingzi.

These also arrived some 18 days later to Youzhou , these immediately began to "question" him about what he planed after the winter was over and he answered what the emperor asked of him , so then these began to complain about his broken oath to the nomads that these were not actions that would win them allies , they also complained about what they called excessive cruelty , as the general did punish his subordinates for minor failures especially those who failed at scouting , those whos incompetency made the men uneasy or failed his preparations by not meeting deadlines , for himself Cui detested the eunuchs and some courtiers he had already a bad experience with them with Gu, but at least that man cared for his subordinates and their well been he was also fiercely loyal , he also some times gave good advice in matters of war, but these two didn't care about no one rather then themselves and the were as he put it a constant annoyance to him in all matters .

In one instance as Du Shenyan records that the general punished a man for lying about the spoils that he took when one nomadic tribe and he planed to punish him , but the eunuchs prevented him and began to argue then debate turned in to a.. shouting match finally the general tired made reduced his punishment to be more acceptable to them and told him to leave his sight , in another case one man failed to scout that led to a failed raid were 300 of the 500 men died and he ordered the scout execution and the commander of the raid to be punished , the eunuchs got note of this and another heated debate broke out and these was just one episode of the 22 recorded ones , the debates were so heated and personally to the general as waste of time that he prohibited them to join maters in council of war on which they confronted him about it and he promptly ignored them.

By December there was another case of his secretary was caught in the act of corruption but this was not yet reported to the general due to this he sent a list to the eunuchs of an execution list , angered the men went to the feast that was held during the Dongzhi Festival ( winter solstice) , during the feast as they celebrated drank and ate the men began to question the general before he responded , Song Lingzi leaped from his seat and declared that the army and the emperor would no longer be the victim of Cui depravities, both men accused Cui responsible for the empire's troubles, accusing him of breaking oath, putting his glory above that of the benefit of the empire and even accused him of trying to steal the empire for himself.

The general stood silent with a defiant look and told them that if they were doing wasting their time brining false accusations and unimportant events to the feast which they responded that his biggest crime was indeed treason to the emperor , when Cui attempted to defend himself from the charges, he stood up but when he did both men drew their daggers, striking him but he responded grabbing one of the daggers of his assassins stabbing him killing him instantly, but Song managed to stab him in the liver, the other men reacted and pinned him then killed him , the death of the general would be what historians would call the beginning of the end .

The rumors that the emperor sent the men to assassinate him became widespread by January the news of his death and the evidence of Cui secretary treachery reached him and his anger reached a limit he ordered for his secretary to be torture him but he didn't need to as the men loyal to the late general already did and once they received the orders from the emperor they gladly accepted the order of his execution, as winter came to an end the tang hearing of the death of the great general now struck in late February by mid march they captured Yuanzhou and Pingliang in quick succession while laying siege to Qingzhou.

So he sent a force of 20 000 men to relive the cities it was then when his adoptive fathers brother asked if he could take the position of Cui and he immediately rejected him , he knew the reason why the late emperor didn't even consider him to be his successor , insulted he took advantage of the situation of the rumors and found men loyal to the general and he told them to "guard" the emperor they hesitated but been feed his lies and some bribes , in the 1st of April as the emperor went to ride in his few days were he took a break as he saw the fields the four men attacked killing him .

 

[Silver01]

Some weeks after the death of the great general Quanzhou finally had fallen to Gu but he could not push more as his troops were exhausted from one of the longest sieges of the war by the time the news arrive the emperor received one the last good news of his life , With his came the period that historians called the implosion , the late emperor brother Tan Sian took power , he immediately abolished the last emperors laws and proposed laws to take more wealth from them to help but he did keep the favors he was also planning for them , these were to be given once they the tang had been defeated and the economy had fully established , when the couturiers heard this they acclaimed him his emperor , however those who were against him used the argument that the great emperor not only didn't choose him but rejected him and they acclaimed his son as emperor , successfully evacuating him from Louyang along with the younger brother of the recently dead emperor Li Zu .

The courtiers fueled his anger and his thirst for power he decreed that they were to return to Louyang , in this chaos the nomadic tribes attacked again with Tan not doing much to stop them as the locals pleaded for help as rumors said that his nephew was there trying to gain the loyalty of the people , due to this Gu himself send 8000 men to reunite more men as they marched north , as the book of tang and other sources all agreed that despite his disagreement with Cui he admired his fierce loyalty to the emperor and his dream to end the war , he would respect that how ever people who were against the new emperor spread the rumor that it was the new emperors nephew ordered Gu to send his force and sent a letter to the general explaining his " treason" which he sent a letter in a formal way telling the emperor that he did nothing to relive the situation in the east and was not doing much to deal with the east and was not doing much to deal with the situation in the west, this was true as he was contempt with taking bribes for them .

Insulted by this he demanded that he return to Louyang immediately, but he refused he knew that he at best would receive a light punishment and at worst a death sentence but he been a courtier himself realized that Tan squabbles was to much even for him , there was clearly influence for the court for his growing punishment for certain members in the military it was clear to him that it was a purge , so to honor his late emperor and colleague he gave his full support to Juhan Sian and sent a smaller army to deal with him as he moved against the tang, while the tang emperor moved to siege Lanzhou , Tan sent an army to relieve it but the tang emperor bribed the general and then struck capturing many , by mid July the smaller army came to demand the resignation of the emperor but the he refused to battle them knowing this small army was trying to have a battle as they could not siege Louyang with this and some bribes the commander have to leave.

About 100 kilometers from Louyang the men were ambushed and the commander was captured which he ordered him to sent word to Gu to ransom him and once he sent it and was assured he would have the money he killed him , by that time as well the city of Lanzhou was on the verge of collapse but at least the north situation was becoming more stable , once the news reached the south Gu left the south to attack Tan with 30 000 men to the north leaving his best men which totaled 40 000 men as his primary objective was to defeat the tang while his forces were from professionals and some conscripts, by that time Lanzhou had just fallen to the tang, when he marched out in mid August as he moved north the city of the Qingzhou had fallen , as Gu moved he met no opposition till he reached Ezhou taking the city with east a few days later he met an army there which Gu discovered an ambush using a feint retreat to lure them from their positions then attacking destroying the army , the survivors fled to Xianyang which they refused to accept them and after Gu sent men which they gladly accepted with this many towns and cities just surrendered to him been tired of the abuses of Tan , after that he marched north hailed as liberator by the city of Ciazhou.

Were there he faced an army which he defeated by all sources by tricking them in to attacking the center were they believed he was and getting enveloped and defeated with this show of force the city of Yingzhou and Bian surrendered with this Tan panicked and the the courtiers debated if they should flee or stand their ground , Tan chose the latter hoping the walls would save him as the city cheered Gu and Juhan names as the general wanted to set the true emperor to the throne , the tang took this opportunity and by the time Gu arrived at Louyang the tang were laying siege Tianshui , when Gu arrived by late October he pleaded with Tan for the last time that they could resolve this but the "emperor" didn't bother to respond this made the general criticize him on how the men he killed were men who served under him in the past , that he forced him to kill them and that he chose to stop him instead of facing the tang armies and yet he had the nerve to accuse him , the general issued an ultimatum, for him to surrender or prepare for torture or death which Tan refused and the preparations for the siege of the capital began .

 

[Silver01]

As the preparations for the siege began the rumor spread that general Gu had fallen ill along with some of his troops most likely due to the long march towards the capital , these rumors were confirmed with the scouts reporting that the army was leaving with these retreating to Bian when news reached the 30 000 troops of Tan the chase then continued until the troops of Gu crossed the river which the army of Tan crossed to fight the 25 000 men of Gu , they formed at plain after they crossed the river meeting at the bend of the Yellow river .

As a show of a last stand the forces of Gu put their forces with the bend of the river behind them here the army put the elite spearman in the center with infantry in the flanks with light cavalry in the right while the elite and heavy cavalry were on the left with a reverse of heavy cavalry in the center , while the forces of Tan were in two infantry lines with part of their cavalry in their right and the best cavalry in their left , the battle started with the Tan cavalry charging the Gu light cavalry routing it almost completely as they clashed with the as the infantry met them and were pushed back , then the right cavalry then charged the counterparts but they pushed them back , then the center first line crashed against the spearmen of Gu's army , the elite infantry veterans of Gu held the line despite their number disadvtanges but as time passed the weight of numbers dislodged them , by this point in the battle it seemed that soon the rights of the army of Gu would soon collapse it was at this moment were the reserve cavalry of Gu's forces moved to their right with Gu himself leading the attack .

The charge was enough and they soon broke and routed their counterparts , seeing this Tan desperately tried to make a second front but it was to late as Gu's cavalry plowed the second line forcing to commit a hasty retreat this caused the Tan cavalry in their left to flee as this occurred their counterparts charged seen that the battle was lost the engaged center of Tans forces began to retreat but were soon encircled , while Tan along with his cavalry and second line were chased to the river were with the weight of their amour and the panic many with many more been captured or killed at the shores of the river , the center of Tans forces made a last stand but after a few minutes the fighting stopped as Gu valued their bravery telling them about how he could use their strength against the tang and offered them to join his army which many did, the battle lasted less then two hours with the army of Gu suffered light casualties while the army of Tan was utterly devastated , he had successfully tricked him.

With the victory Gu marched to Luoyang and told the men to find the corpse of Tan which they never did as he managed to successfully cross the river then went west to flee to the north , the general sent men to hunt them down as he marched to the capital , once he entered in the 28th of October the courtiers begged him for mercy which he granted as he managed or more accurately forced Juhan Sian to be emperor ,the situation in the other parts of the Qi empire were fine the north was holding out and the south made some gains against the tang , how ever the distraction the short civil war made the tang take Tianshui and they moved to take Baoji here a debate broke out whether to relive to siege or wait winter in Luoyang and then move to fight the tang, one proposed moving to Chang'an and then decide to what to do , so he left a few days after the coronation of Juhan Sian and arrived in mid November.

Once he arrived he received word that the Tang were now doing many assaults to take the city so after a short debate Gu moved to the west arriving a week later were they met the tang force entrenched south of the Wei river near some hills , with a 40 000 strong tang force against the 30 000 of Gu , the two armies remained in position for a number of days when Gu left a contingent of men to distract them as he went to cross the river , the men attempting to cross the river were met by archers and crossbow men ,as they moved with his cavalry and some crossbowmen he crossed the river and attacked the Tang forces with the attack been a total surprise it routed the tang allowing the main force to cross and decimate the tang forces the Tang emperor attempted to use his defensive position to withdraw in good order but to no avail

What followed next in the words of the great poet was "a great massacre" he said of the 40 000 who took the field only 6000 survived , how ever this is considered to be an exaggeration by modern historians who say at max only 1/4 of the tang army was dead after the battle , the king of Chinese poetry also mentioned that tragedy struck the Qi in the cusp of total victory, as he commanded the cavalry to victory an arrow was loosen landing on the general and kicking them off his horse with his armor saving his life, how ever this event demoralized some of his men while other charged with anger to avenge him ,but after the battle was over they discovered that he was still alive , how ever as they made their way to Baoji after the victory he cough a fever as his 63 year old body was loosing the battle against the fever he told his closes followers to find and murder Tan for he knew what was to become true if they didn't, a few days later by December of 832 Gu died and with him the death of the Qi dynasty was to follow.

 

[Silver01]

Mere weeks after the death of Gu the situation was getting worse as Juhan Sian was really by all intents and purposes a puppet and his disinterest combined with his fears made the courtiers pounce at him for his weakness making them hold more power which they fearing that the army would challenge them sent courtiers to watch the army and report in some cases make them weaker by replacing generals with their family members or allies , this was to occur were the rebellion began but the men there resisted and then Tan came back as he was hiding in the area he told the troops that he lamented that Gu was deceived by the men and with his death now the courtiers were showing the true colors against them with this he got support and took a 20 000 strong army to the capital, here he made a deal with the court and these betrayed Juhan who was blamed for the instability and had him kill after some failed attempt when he sent some assassins to kill him.

When he retook power any hope of change in his time exile quickly faded he tracked down those who gave the city to Gu capturing them and murdering them along side anyone in Gus inner circle who were in the city or nearby , the new emperor ruled as tyrant pushing his boundaries with the court these persecutions allow him to consolidate power and prevent rebellions by giving their wealth and power to his cronies and those who remained loyal , He also began a persecution against the many religions recognized by the tang and respected by the first Qi emperor older historians used this a prove of him as intolerant emperor ,but most modern historians agree it had more to due extrusion of their temple funds rather then his religious intolerance , he targeted Buddhism ,Zoroastrianism, Nestorian and Chalcedonians and Manicheism, he also was afraid of the military especially the south were they held Gu in high regard due to this he charged some generals there of treason and quickly had them deposed proceeding to install his allies to these positions were these disbanded men or sent them to irrelevant areas near the coast or the lucky ones moved to the north or the bend of the yellow river , in total in just 9 months 15 000 soldiers were moved .

In the south were disbanded due to the new emperors fear but also monetary problems as the spending of a bigger army was to much for him to pay , since the rebellion started trade began to froze and that lowered the revenue of the state this was not a problem in earlier times especially when the first emperor tried to compensate with other the salt industry and making farmers produce more and found ways to tax the courtiers and the nobility, which he abolished .

Du Shenyan writes of him : his rule was unmitigated disaster, he would grant any concession, even with his parties and extravagant life failed to win him "friends" which he could only purchase with gold and tittles , but not even these "friends" were safe from them as any hint of conspiracy you would be found dead " the historian compared been friends with him to the lottery and even went on to say: he was Devoid of any semblance of moral fiber, as we do not wonder why they had lost the mandate of heaven.

Despite the sheer trouble the new emperor was making the emperor of the tang could not take advantage they were still licking their wounds from the defeat at the hands of Gu near Baoji , how ever the decision as the tang began to recover in that front and in the north the situation was still stable , by the early 834 as the rebellion entered its that year was particularly in all fronts with raids and counter raids with the Qi emperor running the economy and continuing to deprive the south of soldiers an extra 15 000 in that year, finally in march 835
the city Gu captured was recaptured by the tang as they kept pushing till they reconquered Xinzhou been stopped at the Xianxia rage, as for the west for about two years the new Qi emperor wanted to end the tang hold out to legitimize his rule as he had gained the hate of many , but the emperor only had minor victories, how ever these resulted in a treaty favorable to the Qi putting an end to the raids, as the tang emperor died , so with the peace the Qi emperor ignored the south and focused more on the north .

Successfully countering the raids of the nomads and the kingdom of Balhae , still every time his cruelty and the rebellion dragging on with minor victories and looses in the south the emperor was still convinced that a major victory would fix this , destroying the tang , taking reviving the trade and earning the prestige to solidify his rule , to this endeavor , he would not only spare no expense but he would lead them himself and gather the biggest army he could some 45 000 men professionals he got from the south and conscripts with generals from and troops of the Qi empire , with some nomadic troops , archers , crossbowmen , heavy cavalry but most of the forces were infantry.

But it was a late response since there was a minor succession crisis as the tang emperor died until his second son come on top and used the year and half to consolidate his position , with this the new tang emperor after preparations in this year took a gamble with a 30 000 strong army comprised of the survivors and conscripts were sent to Baoji , As he marched towards towards the west the tang marched towards the east ,passing the city of Baoji undetected and then been spotted by the some scouts of Chang'an but the governor of the city who disliked the emperor accepted their bribe and didn't report this to the Qi emperor as he moved closer to the tong pass.

 

[Silver01]

As the Qi emperor force moved in to the tang pass , The Qi vanguard was the first to encounter the tang troops, fighting them and then routing them , the vanguard told then the Qi emperor of their victory against a possible trap and he continued . but Tan sent some divisions of infantry to find and dislodge the tang if they found them but after an hour of searching they didn't find anything they reported this to Tan who assumed the force was routed , with this he neglected maintaining a defensive formation or preparing his missle units, By the time the first 3 divisions crossed and the other ones were still on the pass the Tang attacked from the same entrance Cui had used against them years prior ,Tan tried to form last minute defenses but it was to late , as that division lost its cohesion and the fleeing soldiers spread their panic by running in to each other as the tang pushed them or showered them with their own missle units , in the chaos one of the Qi generals was killed .

The tang were concentrated on killing Tan while at the same time destroying the siege engines of the Qi which the latter they did with ease as many men just abandoned it as the panic spread the front finally realized what was happening but could do nothing as many began to flee pushed them to the exit , it is said at this point of the battle Tan suffered a panic attack, after rambling and attempting to flee he just stayed there accepting his fate , how ever the remanding commanders established some form of order and led part of the troops to a defensive position which managed to turn to face them as they slowly retreated back the stand off lasted nearly a quarter of an hour until they approached the exit

Half an hour after the battle commended the rearguard finally made it out as the front had already made a fortified camp just in case , the action turned out to be correct one as they spent the night fighting off attacks from the tang infantry or missle units , Du Shenyan and the book of tang both record that Tan considered abandoning the troops and fleeing back to Luoyang but his commanders disproved of it , how ever modern historians say this an exaggeration as both these sources didn't exactly paint him in a positive light, for the next days the tang would encircle the camp but be driven out in their attempts to take out and on the third day they were attacked via a cavalry charge that killed many and the battle finally was over, still 1/3 of Tans army became a casualty , while the tang lost some couple of thousands , it was a defeat the Qi in terms of military could recover but not politicly.

As soon of news of the defeat spread for many it was the final straw as it destroyed what ever prestige he had left ,rebellions broke off in the south and north , while the victorious tang went to take Baoji , Tan went to crush the rebellion in Taiyuan here the general and Tan fought near Luzhou were Tan was defeated and he was forced to flee south as the tang took Baoji and moved to take the western capital , by the end of the year the situation seemed like it was to collapse in the north the rebellious generals was de facto independent , while to the east they pushed as far as Hangzhou , as the in the other parts of the south they took Jiangling and Ezhou, as the tang were laying siege to the western capital.

These collapse of the Qi also led to a total collapse of the economy finally in November 835 he was deposed and killed and put one of his sons as emperor , by 836 while in the north the rebels invited the nomads against the Qi , while in the south the generals ignoring the new emperor as they became defacto leaders and began to fight with each other for supremacy as the tang advanced and in some cases some of these sided with them , by may 836 Chang'an had fallen to the tang forces in panic the new emperor sent what forces he had to stop them in the tong pass but this force was ambushed utterly defeated by the tang , the way to Luoyang now stood open , this defeat ensured the end of the Qi dynasty as modern historians says it was the last chance tried to stop the tang and influence both fronts with their defeat the conquest of the Qi was now inventible.

When news came the new emperor abandoned Luoyang to Taiyuan were they accepted him as the tang forces laid siege to the city just a couple of weeks later , while in the north the rebellion spread and they moved to take Dingzhou here the governor of Taiyuan moved to fight him and won the battle after the nomads betrayed the rebel abandoning him during the battle, despite this victory, he had to deal with the numbers of refugees that were fleeing the north and were now in his territory, some were accepted others not there was not enough recourses for all of them , some left peacefully while other revolted, if there was no sanctuary there was force.

as the tang kept pushing as by the coast the push to the Yangtzer river was a bloody one as both tang and rebel soldiers mascaraed people for fear that they were siding with the other or simply to steal supplies from them , forcing many more to flee , while the Tang took Xianyang moving to the north , then by July the order to evacuation of Luoyang taking as many weapons and gold with them while some others are hidden plans are made to return and take them back but no one will return , while the warlords send word for help but will not receive any, the chaos makes economy and the trade crash , by autumn the grain stores are burned or looted by many sides, the great canal was damaged spreading famine and disease sweeps the most affected areas finally in December 836 the governor of Taiyuan was defeated by the tang emperor near Luzhou .

After 9 years, one month and two days the red turban rebellion of the Qi dynasty was finally snuffed out.

 

[Silver01]

While the rebellion had been crushed remnants of it would last of it would last for many years to come , emperor Xizong tried to rebuild his broken realm he having no option he gave clemency to some rebel governors even giving them their own garrisons to command , he also prevented that any harm be done to his brother, Li Zu who was now 14 , the 27 year old emperor first course of action was to commit a purge and deal with any one that could make a potential rebellion while making more of his family members take important positions , how ever crisis soon filled his reign the Uyghurs came to take all the promises that his predecessor made, the emperor tried any way to get funds to pay them giving them many tittles and selling others to them and any citizen of his empire who could afford it , he was so disparate that he kept Tan's policies on religion raiding their temples for money.

These roles were used to be occupied by skilled and examined bureaucrats this combined with the collapse of the old taxation and land system due to the massive casualties , displacements and looses of census that made many tax roles obsolete , still despite his efforts the new emperor could not paid the Uyghurs as they demanded more due to the high looses they had to suffered with no way to pay them they annexed the areas of the tribes who were tang subjects and raided the north with impunity causing a migration to the south making the mentioned problems even worse, and this was not only a problem to the north but also the south the governor there managed to pay part of the debt he had to the kingdom of nanzhao, but the souther tribes had invaded and took the whole of Lingnan while champa pirates attacked the south as well .

The only major attack they didn't receive from the west and south west, Tibetan empire as the 5 year long civil war following Muné Tsenpo death left them in a bad situation as well and the Dabuyid empire didn't attack still recovering from the war with the roman empire , still chaos continued as the emperor tried to make a new censuses based on these historians calculated that the death toll of the rebellion is estimated been 9 to 15 million, but more deaths continued due to the famine as in some areas in china not only had economic capacity had nose dived and while in name been emperor of all of china the first 3 years made it clear that the fear of his predecessors were made true, as the emperor had little power outside with some Jiedushi becoming in many ways independent , in some Jiedushi like Shoufang with out the central authority to keep them in check they used their military to commit abuses to their subjects despite this they preferred them since at least the Jiedushi could do something against outsiders and keep order against other citizens.

While in some other areas of certain Jiedushi production and trade come to a grinding halt like in areas of Fangyang, how ever it was a blessing as the trade was in some areas non existent it affected the kingdom of Balhae who threaten war against the Uyghur khagante , the Khagan knowing that he could not risk another war relented from his raids and accepted the emperors offers , with this Xizong then dealt with the south finally expulsing the forces of the kingdom of nanzhao five years after the rebellion ended , but he or the governor could do very little to stop the raids of them or the pirates , with these dealt the emperor made massive reforms, the government withdrew managing the economy and this had the unintended effect of stimulating trade, as more markets with less bureaucratic restrictions were opened up , he also began to reconstruct the grand canal .

By 845 the emperor took a page from the one Niu Sian concept of the reform of the tax on grain and the labor tax and changed it again these were replaced with a semiannual tax paid in cash, as the Tang saw a boost due to the trade and new markers propping up , he also took Niu's idea of the Salt Commission and implemented to the state which became an important source of revenues for the weakened stat the indirect tax, was in this case better than tribute, levies helped the recovery , how ever there were still problems as many provinces didn't implement or listen to imperial decrees with some offenders been the Jiedushi whos position had become defacto hereditary by then , that and the last embers of the Qi rebellion still attacking trade routes and minor outpost , still since 845 with no impeding crisis and a slow recovery the emperor began to finally get rid of family members or incompetent courtiers whom he slowly but surely began to replace with more competent bureaucrats.

By 844 he received news that the Tibetan emperor Murug Detsen who won the civil war died and his 3 son began to fight for the throne and all of them asked help from the Tang emperor who didn't help them as he saw them as minor issue , unknow to him this was the death of the once mighty Tibetan empire and in time to help the tang as with no Tibetan empire the forces in Anxi and the west in general fully concentrated on defending the area from the nomads and the Dabuyid raids who began to increase in intensity in the previous years , still Xizong did began to think what would happen after his death for despite been just 37 the stress of dealing with the aftermath of the rebellion made his physical and mental health deteriorate , that winter he fell ill and with son been just 5 year old he decided to give the throne to Li Zu in 845.

 

[Silver01]

As the rebellion was over Du Shenyan mentions the utter destruction about how in certain cities they would just collect the dead in carts to be thrown in mass graves especially in near the coast south of the yellow and north of the Yangtze rivers , as this area suffered the most when the emperor died unlike other areas there was no strong general to take power so the war devolved in to a civil war in the midst of the rebellion , the tang desperate to see it end accepted request of aid from powerful commanders .

One of the most influential Yuan Wujun , the rebel leader that led some victories against the tang south of the yellow river , he joined the tang in return from clemency around 833 when he was 44, after the rebellion was crushed he managed to hang on in been a commander but was really prohibited to get any high position in court , other smaller rebell leaders were nearly fully pardoned and slowly but surely got better positions.

By the time of the Li Zu took power and become emperor Yizong most were not worried in fact some especially the ex rebel leaders were happy , after all was he not an adoptive son of the Qi emperor and therefore he must have compasion and help them , this was not to be like his adoptive father he hated what he saw as the oportunist of the empire .

Among them the worst offenders were the jiedushi of the 13 around half were loyal but 4 of them mainly the ones in the north and west were not , to deal with this he knew that first he need to get rid of the enemies at court so he gathered his most loyal eunuchs and courtiers to not anger the less loyal courtiers he payed them , gave them some tittles and minor responsibilities , he also continued many of his predocessors and adoptive father's reforms
among them the upgrade of the grand canal , he like his adoptive sent irrigational square-pallet chain pumps in the country and even managed to standardize this and how much money and time was wasted on these irrigation and land reclamation projects.

With this stable taxes due to the censuses of his predocesor , the salt commission and other reforms he could start his change of making an army which he began to build in late 845.

As he kept pushing his reforms ,in just two years he managed to reunite a massive 80 000 strong professional army led with his most loyal courtiers and eunuchs with this he himself moved to deal with the unruly and unloyal military comanders, he led his first in campaing in 846 against the northern and southern Jiannan who taking advantage of the civil war in tibet raided with impunity , the emperor did not want this as he believed it would create tensions between the tang and tibetan empire once the later recovered of course the emperor didn't know that it never would .

Still as he marched he sent word to the governors to cease all hostiles to tibet but we're ignored and the jiedushi combined their armies and met near the capital at Yizhou and here the jiedushi were crushed and these were immediately replaced with generals hand picked by the emperor himself , with that he next year he led a campaign against the Jeidushi of weibo and luzhou and like the other campaing he succeed replacing the men with more loyal courtiers , how ever he in 848 sent his generals to take care of the jiedushi of Pinglu failing at this since the later had some support from the kingdom of balhae after he in his domain have preferential treatment to it's merchants.

The same year the made the jiedushi after the other died the same tang general that made the deal with the kingdom of nanzhao in the rebellion , later that year knew also came from bardas the userper seeking help from him for a potential invasion of transoxiana , for this he placed a courier/ general Yu Zhu protector general of the west ,
As he in 849 sent another campaing against the Jeidushi of Pinglu failing to defeat him for a second time .

Despite some protest from his court he agreed to send help to the romans in 850 his courtiers said it was to soon to attack the persians but the emperor planed 2 years for this , for if he conquered transoxiana quickly enough he could use the wealth to deal with the courtiers , pay for a bigger army and help pay for projects
For the recovery, so in 850 when Heraclonas had taken power was when the tang attacked with Yu Zhu but history would not be kind to the tang emperor as by 851 the general was defeated .

The emperor sent another army to contain the expansion of the persians how ever the biggest blow was to his popularity been the adoptive son of the previous rebel leader was something not everyone was keen on forgetting so the accusations of him not been a good emperor or some how letting the persians win became common and as the historian Du Shenyan mentions that the courtiers committed their worse crime as in 854 they had him assainated , with his death some of the Jeidushi he appointed plotted revolts fearing for their own lives .

The new emperor Li Yun now wuzong was bearly 13 , so power went to the courtiers which some of them quickly purged the previous emperors allies or any who protested , due to this Yuan Wujun being an
ex rebel leader allied quickly himself with nanzhao and rebel alongside with the Jeidushi of fangyang rebelled with this excuse the courtiers quickly dropped the war in persia and went to deal with the rebellions, knowing this the Uyghur khaganate moved with the khagan army going to attack china proper while he sent his son at the head of a massive army to the now weakend tarrim basin

 

[Silver01]

As the khagan moved against china he sent his son at the head of a 28 000 strong army against the tarrim basin the governor general at the time was Feng Xingmi the second in command of the late general Yu Zhu second in command he was left with a mere 10 000 tang soldiers and 7000 turks from the various groups still loyal to him but he knew the sogdians and other groups along with the chinese who had moved could be of help so he conscripted them bolstering his number to about 21 000 troops which he spent what little time he had training them and marched out to meet the invading Uyghur force .

The battle would be set near Tingzhou , the Uyghur who has raided with impunity were eager to destroy this force as ifthe army was crushed the four garrisons would fall in their destruction would allow for unlimited raids or a partial annexation of the rich basin , so in March 6th 856 both armies met the Uyghur force was mostly cavarly with the wings having two lines of cavarly while the center had just one with the khagan son in the reserve of the center with some sogdian infantry as guards and as reserve.

While the tang forces were more infantry heavy after leaving their fortified camp Feng set up his army the heavy elite infantry the light cavarly in both flanks and himself as a reserve in the third line in the center as archers and crossbowmen covered the second line .

The battle began with the Uyghur left attacking the tang forces right after some minutes they retreated and were partially chased till a certain point , this continued five times till the order was given for all the army to move in both sides , here the Uyghur left and tang right clashed again with the latter dealing significant casualties and forcing the enemy to flee seeing this the comander of the karluk turks moved to destroy them , unknown to him he had fallen for a feint retreat how ever he noticed in time and began to retreat how ever the Uyghurs countered charge forcing the karluks back and puting the line in danger .

Soon it seemed like the like was going to collapse but the karluk commander quickly ordered large shields to be planted shields and other materials all of this forced the Uyghurs to stop in their tracks as the karluks dismounted shot at the paralyzed Uyghurs seen this Feng quickly sent a contingent of missle units to reinforce them and part of his reserve heavy cavarly to attack the Uyghurs from the side , how ever they saw it coming and quickly retreated before any further engagement but with heavy casualties as the fighting in all fronts continued as night came ever closer both armies disengaged and moved back to their camps.

The book of tang mentions that the tang forces did not sleep well , the battle was nearly lost had it not been for the karluks quick thinking it was said that some men even pissed themselves from sheer dread this was not helped by the fact that the Uyghurs playing instruments and shouting to keep them awake with expections of battle and in some cases the karluks and some crossbowmen skirmished with the Uyghurs, after these short skirmishes they retreated as in dawn feng moved his troops in the same formation as the last day .

The Uyghurs ordered an assult in the whole front with them putting more forces in the right hoping to break the weakened left which retreated upon impact the center this time could do little to help as it was been pushed back by the Uyghurs center as in the tang right these to were engaged as the situation was deteriorating they retreated back to the camp here feng order his archers to reinforce the left but as he had moved his reserve of heavy cavarly to the his left with this they charged , in the chaos the Uyghurs retreated as the khagan son sent reinforcements trying in vain to save his right and prevent encirclement as the whole tang line pushed back , finally near dusk the resolve of the Uyghurs collapsed as the khagan son received an arrow in the throat killing him instantly.

Soon the whole line collapsed and the Uyghurs were chased for kilometers , the victory was not a light one as feng suffered 6000 casautlies how ever the casualties inflicted upon the Uyghurs were devasting as only a couple thousands survived the battle, a later chinse historian would say while the immediate effect would have a massive impact the later ripples would change forever history of Central asia and the world, rightfully so the immediate effects were clear the biggest casualty was the khagan son , when the khagan learned of this he abandoned his campaign and moved back.

Baoyi khagan would soon die of old age some months later with the book of tang and Du Shenyan mentioning him going in a deep depression some times even refusing to eat and not sleeping , with his death a couple of months later His son began to figth for the throne , one of the reasons why the khagan wanted to invade china and the tarrim basin was thar the prestige of the khagante and it's old and new subjects was deteriorating due to the high casautlies they had due to supporting the tang in the red turban rebelion ,combined that the famine caused by the deaths of their livestock created a great problem that the old khagan did not deal well with .

So with Baoyi khagan death in the 9th year of his rule, with his campaign a failure and now his son's figthing it was the perfect time for some as the khitans and xi rebelled against Uyghur rule while other groups like the Shatuo supported their candidates in the civil war , it was the begining of the end for the great empire of the Uyghurs.

 

[Silver01]

As the Uyghur khaganate descended in to chaos the tang dealt with the other rebellions Yuan quickly moved to the north having some success, but it was the northern jiedushi of fangyang Wang Chao was the one with most success he sent part of his forces against the jiedushi of Pinglu still centered in Yingzhou , the jiedushi who had to deal with massive raids due to the Uyghurs attack just a few months prior made it an easy target for him but Wang was inteligent enough to recognize that the kingdom of balhae would not help.

After Seon death in 832 his successor Dae Gan took power and ruled till 838 it is after his death were sources on balhae become rare but the book of tang mentions the existing ethnic conflicts between the ruling Goguryeos and underclass Mohe that modern historians belive severly weaned the state it was not helped by the fact that king Dae Wihae from the few records that have survived and from chinese records was not seen as good king , with the surviving text mentioning he raised taxes to maintain his lavish life style while failing to contain the new set of raids of the nomadic tribes .

With this in mere months was Wang Chaos forces were able to conquer the other Jiedushi with he himself moving agianst the jiedushi of weibo and defeating him near his capital taking it quickly as he sent a smaller force to deal with the two other Jiedushi it was clear that wang went to attack the south quickly and it worked as he took Louyang in January 855 declaring himself emperor of the Qi dynasty saying that he was going to succeed once the later had been so close with Niu Sian , how ever his race from fangyang to Louyang was hasty and failed to take garrisons or secure their loyalty combined with the still standing jiedushi of Hedong meant that the connections to Louyang were disrupted and rebels had to spent time consolidating.

In this time there was a debate of the western jiedushi to join him or not but after some small conflicts it was agreed that the jiedushis of Jiannan would stay with the tang while In the south Yuan armies had taken Yongzhou and marched his armies to lay siege to lay siege to Chaozhou as his other force moved to Wuzhou , by summer of 855 Wang had stabilized the situation so much so that the khagan Qasar one of the sons of the later khagan was asking for his help due to in 855 his brother recruited a force of a nomadic people called the Yenisei Kyrgyz , which betrayed him killed him and then destroyed the Uyghurs capital , how ever Wang did not care for the Uyghurs as he was looking for a way to attack the tong pass his first attack on it in July of 855 turned into a massive defeat for him .

He then also sent a force to siege Yongqiu believing it would take a couple of weeks if not less for victory yet the 8000 strong tang forces resisted his 28 000 men for 36 days Wang sent another 6000 reinforcements yet it continued to resist by September the tang had managed to slowly attack in the nights attacking some nights and in other not making the rebels paranoid and tired with these all assults on the city were repulsed , finally in October a rumor began that a tang relieve army was coming this was confirmed these black figures were clearly tang soldiers based on their armour .

They also manged to intercept a messenger who quickly gave them the information in the condition that his life be spared and he be given a reward as he told them that there was a 10 000 strong tang force near by and what they saw were scouts or the vanguard and he told them the date they would most likely arrive
Due to this the rebels sent 12 000 of men to deal with them in the darkness , once they arrived the rebels met them a few kilometers from the city in the night, hearing war drums as they chased them they clashed with them and managed to make them retreat but as they did the rebels heard the drums to the right and moved to intercept them and then they were attacked by the tang archers in the left , as the infantry in the center continued to retreat as it seemed the rebels had dealt with the tang in their left as the drums had stoped .

Still the rebel cavarly was coming to reinforce the infantry , here the drums were heard again the rebels in a quickly formed a second line to deal with them while the tang cavarly attacked them from their right , believing that the tang had set a trap and now had been surrounded from three sides and panicked in the retreat the tang horsemen cut them down to pieces , it was a great victory especially when the 10 000 reinforcements did not exist been in reality 3000 strong force 2000 of them reinforcements from the local forces and the rest been the defenders who got out the previous nights .

Still the tang had suffered 1200 casualties, but their clever tactics managing to inflict 10 000 casualties and killing most of their prisioners so that the rebels still might believe that this was an action of a reinforcement army with more than 1/3 of their forces destroyed the siege was basically over despite Smaller scale sieges and battles around the Yongqiu area continued well into November, they didn't lay siege to the fortress, so the rebels needed to pass through this area they tried to go around the fortress instead of besieging it , with mild success as the tang commander and other fortresses sent constant sallies to undermine these efforts in of them in February 856 a 15 000 tang force was destroyed by an ambush .

 

[Silver01]

By March 856 Yuan's forces had taken Chaozhou and with their navy supplying them they moved to Quanzhou and since last years he had been laying siege to Wuzhou but the mountainous area and the river made the area easy to defend the siege was now on its fourth month , Yuan managed to defeat two separate relive armies in the first two months of the siege , while to the north smaller raids Yongqiu continued trough the winter once the winter passed Wang Chao sent a 18 000 strong force to deal with the city of Yongqiu but they were ambushed by the leader of the defenders Jia Chaozong inflicting 9000 casualties .

How ever Wang could do little but sent more forces to raid as the Jiedushi of Shoufang Nan Ziqi attacked and defeated an army once he crossed the Yellow river as he marched to take Taiyuan after the defeat the rebels only could respond with guerrilla tactics as the tang loyalist rebelled joining Nan bolstering his armies number to 50 000 , Wang 28 000 left Louyang he only took a portion of his army as he feared if he took a greater number the tang might cross the tong pass and lay siege to his capital ,so in mid march with the men loyal to him joined bolstering his number to 35 000 , after two weeks of marching he met Nan's forces 15 kilometres defeating and killing him with ease after his victory he pushed as far as to the Yellow river bend considering to cross it but he belived destroying the army of Shoufang and using the yellow river as their "border" was enough for now .

Even if he had not taken much of his forces the tang sent a 25 000 strong force to deal with tang raiding deep and defeating forces of the tang, they met crossing the tong pass defeating a 20 000 strong force send to stop him , all forces then left the tang then proceeded to lay siege to Louyang, Wang quickly marched and arrived on mid April defeating the tang , pushing them back to the tong pass , how ever he could not go further as when he attempted he suffered many casualties and retreated it is here the news came , when the rebel leader left and the tang attacked the defenders at Yongqiu and the surrounding region went and committed many raids and even took some forts the rebels sent 10 000 men to deal with it but Jia managed to defeat them .


This was the last straw and Wang gather a 30 000 strong army to march against Jia who despite his pleas was not going to receive help from those beyond the tong pass how ever despite the advantages the rebel leader met stiff resistance as he laid siege to the city which began in early may , the rebel leader offered the defenders clemency and better yet rewards to them if they did , but they responded by killing their envoys, to this Wang ordered his siege engines to bombard the city , still after a month of siege Wang made little progress, here the tang forces to the west of the tong pass finally agreed to attack , but these promises did not manifest themselves.

During this time Wang also sent to attack the forts in the near be area taking many still , every assault ended in failure Jia managed to slip out and go to the city of Suiyang he knew that the governor would not accept giving him much forces and he didn't he at max gave him 5000 men , while for him with his 1500 men were waiting in the surrendering region back in Yongqiu , once he returned he began to plan the attack on the fortified camp of earthworks and palisades , as the days passed another failed assault had occurred as they went to sleep by pm , here the infantry attacked from the right and despite some success they were pushed back , how ever these distraction worked to perfection as Jia attacked with his cavalry entered from the other side were some men were still sleeping not worried as news had not reached yet ,so Jia caught many men sleeping , cavalry still on foot or men that didn't even have time to put their armor.

As Jia cut men and tents chaos spread this was not helped by the fact that in the dark that rebels troops in their panic fought each other however as Jia moved to the tent of Wang his guard managed to regroup , despite the cavalry pushed them back they held the line as the cavalry momentum died the weight of numbers began to set in as they began to reform knowing that soon they will be encircled Jia moved quickly to get of the camp as the rebels began showering them with arrows and bolts as they fled along with some attacks, by the time he moved out and the sun began to rise 3000 of Jia's force and 8500 of Wang's force laid dead .

The attack was the last straw having no option Jia ordered the retreat of the fortress , they did so as he and his cavalry moved close to the camp for four in the days making Wang's force to stay put for another night attack giving them enough time to flee , finally after nearly a year of resisting the city of Yongqiu finally fell , with this news reached Wang that a possible attack from the west could occur while he left the 7000 men to guard Yongqiu and soon he would sent reinforcements , this caused a debate in Suiyang as the governor of the city denied to send more forces but Jia argued that it was now the time to strike as Wang left , the book of tang even said that the men nearly came to blows , so Jia tried to get the help from other nearby forts and some said he would but it was not enough men so he called of the attack.

 

[Silver01]

By June of 856 as Heraclonas rebuilt his realm , more than 7000 kilometres away Yuan had prepare to create his own by this point he had taken Wuzhou and move to take Tanzhou as the siege of Quanzhou raged on with failed assaults and naval skirmishes , they would receive no support as rumors began that Wang Chao planned another attack on the tong pass and he was considering it but he consider it to early so he concentrated on the cities that would allow him to pivot south , he had already taken Caozhou, Yongqiu and other minor towns and cities and then attack the tong pass he sent one of his generals to deal with Suiyang which fell in less than 3 weeks and now moved to take Chenzhou were Jia moved to defend , merely a week after the conquest of Suiyang the armies of the rebels arrived in mid July and promptly laid siege to it .

Jia had 13 000 men but had sent 4000 out , with 9000 to defend from the 24 000 men that were laying siege to it however the rebels had no intention to waste lives with assaults and waited for the tang to starve as they kept guard especially due to some minor night attacks,Jia tried to repeat his tactics of keeping the besiegers on high alter of a sortie keeping them awake and tired and after the 12th day he did with the 4000 outside the walls the night attack was fairly successful however the rebel general had prepared and managed to repulse them with substantial casualties, however of the 4000 nearly all of them were killed , captured than later executed and the few hundred survivors fled .


How ever the rebels could take advantage of this victory as they suffered 6000 casualties and he ordered more reinforcements to finally end the siege , these arrived two weeks later still the attack on the city was a failure and a great number of their siege engines were burned by Jia and his well-placed traps and the siege dragged on .

To the south Quanzhou had finally fallen on late June while Yuan moved to take Tanzhou, the other army moved to Fuzhou where the great poet lived he had a chance to flee but didn't as for his own words he was to old to flee, yet he helped his family, friends flee but not only them but also other families to the anger of the authorities as they were convinced with the stalemate to the north and the promises of rescue that an army was marching towards them would come to save them and they need it as many men as they could to hold out, they even accused the great poet of being a coward and sentenced him to house arrest.


A heated debate occurred with the governor trying to make the men stay while the great poet told them to choose their fate many did leave ,on the 29th of June the army soon arrived and the navy soon came , the siege continued no assaults were carried out for the first month of the siege as the intention was to starve them out how ever they soon got word that they had massive amounts of supplies so the first assaults began morale was still high that soon the imperial army would arrive the great poet says :

Singing and dancing are heard , they tended the silkworms
The wind is strong it carries with it the cheers and then sound of hope
Atop the wall, the wind is stronger it carries with it the sound of drums
The weapons and smiths are heard to clank.
Deep in the night the lingering sound echos round my chamber.
My mind clear on my sleeplessness.

As the siege in the south continued to the north one sortie made by Jia was successful enough that it forced the rebels to bring 5000 more reinforcements to the city yet Jia was not to give up, he again tried to sent word to Chang'an but this time they didn't even bother with a response but he still would not give up despite that the sorties had left him with just 4000 men to defend the city with supplies began to dwindle quickly , so he sent word to the other cities but they gave only 2000 men .

So they divided 1000 went to distract them these lit many fires to make it seems like a larger army these distracted them as the other 1000 also divided one went move supplies as the other attacked , this charge was a total surprise as the men started to fight their way to the city, while the other 1000 moved to attack creating confusion , there was a debate if the 4000 should sally Jia wanted to but the commanders convinced not to do so as the soldiers were not in the condition to do so, the weight of numbers took toll as the men fought their way to the city but only half of them made it as the other 1000 were all but killed these both inflicted many casualties but more importantly they brought badly need supplies , as hunger was beginning to spread to the point the soldiers began to at first the dead horse and then killed the weakened starving ones , the supplies were not much but anything was better .


When news of this reached Wang he wrote an ultimatum to his general to take the fortress in two months or face punishment , he made it clear that he would not be sending any reinforcements as he did not want anymore casualties, he also was not going to assist the siege small skirmishes occurred near the tong pass , he knew of he left there was a real threat that his new kingdom was to be crushed for a tang counter attack , patience was the road to victory wang was to reunite a larger army and cross the tong pass as the Qi did .

 

[Silver01]

August was nearly gone by this point Yuan had taken Tanzhou but he did not move north instead he moved to the east to help in the siege of Fuzhou as he need to secure the coast in case something went wrong in his march north, control of the coast would mean that even if he lost in the rivers he would still be able to use his navy effectively, by the time he arrived the defenders were still with high morale as they news from the north arrived that the army would arrive in few weeks, however, some others visited the temples in fear others went to the great poet to seek his wisdom he was not shy he told them the city was doomed some of them understood some blamed him and others of lowering the morale and if the city fell it was going to be their fault.

One reason why the moral was still high was the lack of massive assaults, when Yuan arrived he simply also continued to wait near the river the city was hard to attack but easy to surround so he waited till they suffered hunger or destroy the long-awaited the arrival army.

To the north the siege also continued the men by mid-August despite rationing the supplies had all but disappeared nearly all the horses had been eaten and the civilians were eating the cats, dogs some even insects, by this time the general had reluctantly received reinforcements from Wang, he told him that not to contact him less he was sending news of the fall of the city, these troops badly needed it as the many assaults with siege ladders, but despite their hunger, the defenders repelled all attacks even burning one of their siege towers, alongside other siege engines that could have done intense damage the walls.

Jia by this time gave word to anyone who could help but aside from empty promises he would not be having any help his men and the rebels implored him to surrender, the rebel general offered clemency but also a position in the rebel ranks, but Jia refused and told his men that there was no fleeing as how the men were starving and could not even flee if they even tried, they held on.

the old book of tang mentions how during the mid-august the soldiers moved to attack as they moved to the walls and the instead of receiving siege engines , arrows and bolts rather some stick and thatch’s , the rebels were surprised as they picked them they looked at each other and soon laughed , some others began to taunt the tang it was obvious that they had run out of arrows .

The news communicated and soon the general Li Chengsi order a massive assault with he himself leading the attack as he moved closer to the wall an arrow threw him his horse as he was dragged away the other man were not as lucky dying in mass from the surprise, the rouse had worked so much so that they fled had the troops were not utterly exhausted and in their desperation having eaten their horses they could have sallied out and maybe lifted the siege, there was celebration and Jia gave them more rice than usual he wanted this to be their best meal and probably the last “decent one” what he knew became true the assaults to add to their suffering sleep deprivation spread ,as the siege dragged on the tang were now eating insects, tree roots some others a mixture of the few rice that was left , tea leaves, paper, and bark.

By September soon even the insects and flows of the city were eaten sickness spread and with nothing left the corpses were striped of everything and spread first to the soldiers some did not want to eat but hunger won out, while the civilians ate family members, they didn’t revolt due to their loyalty and false rumors that they would all be killed if they surrender, by mid-September only 200 fighting men were still there as most soldiers and civilians died, the men could not even shoot arrows despite their attempts the city finally fell , Li Chengsi quickly sent word to Wang and captured Jia and quickly ordered him to be given food and a good place to rest as the book of tang tells him that even the sickliest of the rebel camp looked better than the tang general , Li also sent word on to Wang on what do about him Wang hated him due to the severe delays he caused but Li did make a good argument that his loyalty , bravery and abilities as a commander.

During this time the general refused to talk to the rebels and wrote why they had not killed him, once he learned about why he flat out refused Li begged him to not let his bravery and talents not to go to waste with his death Jia replied that all men died, his men face death, you know me well for their sake and mine how dare I not die.

No matter how hard he tried Li could not convince him, reluctantly he ordered his execution finally the push to the south could continue or could have the siege was pyrrhic victory of the rebels, not only did Jia slowed them down the rebel loses were 25 000 to 30 000, the campaign reduced the number of soldiers for Wang who know had to contend whether or not to concentrate most of his force and take the tong pass, recruit more soldiers and move south and east the war in the north was about to reach its bloody conclusion.

 

[Silver01]

In the south the siege dragged few assaults were launched until a smaller relive army went to “save” the city in late September, this inspired some inside the city to sortie and attack, while the details are not known the tang force got all but got annihilated the few survivors were arrested and according to the old book of tang condemned to be a show of terror to those who still resisted here the book of tang said that the great poet begged the rulers of the city to let him plead for their lives which they allowed in hopes that he would get killed.


Unknown to them Yuan and the great poet knew each other since the rule of the Qi , as he entered the camp the prisoners had different reactions some saw him with disgust for the coward he was other with the ray of hope in their eyes , as he went to Yuan he greeted him and wonder why he was here, the poet begged him for the lives of the men which Yuan responded that these men were fighting for a corrupt state, causing so much suffering

Yuan answered that he knew all of this and I know what makes a great ruler for do they not claim me as one? He said as he pointed to his inner circle

No, you are not better than thief you have lost your vision you gained power because they hate those who caused the corruption not because they love you, they love the wealth you have given them, the wealth you plundered from those you seek to save from others corruption and like barbarians you kill them but you are worse than them for they are at least honest and make clear their intentions in their heart said the poet


Yuan stood up in anger the poet replied: we knew what a great ruler for he had the fury of the barbarians in destruction but had the vision to construct as much as his furry destroyed you knew this more than most for you seen his actions and know corrupt them what would your children remember you

Yuan sat down his anger turned into a lost gaze at the poet, some of the men demanded that the poet be removed and whispered lies to stroke his anger, but as he was been removed he told him to think of his legacy, Yuan then told his inner circle to leave. A few hours later cheers could be heard inside of the walls as the great poet entered the city with the prisoners, their families came to greet them as a sea of emotion filled the place the local officials could nothing but cheer but others just pretended angry that the poet had not died,still, it was good morale boost as some people had begun to waver but now believed that this good fortune would lead to more , but as October came as the leave began to fell so to did the morale, the poet talked with Yuan to make a peace with him .


He went to announce to the people that Yuan would not harm them nor like in other cities even plunder them he would take what he needs to pay his army to settle there for winter and leave, the poet even announced that he was close to convincing him in their stay his men would pay for their supplies, however when he publicly announced it the officials of the city again chastised him for even daring to propose such a thing.

To give up now when they had resisted and why trust Yuan or worse yet why trust the poet? After all was he not sympathetic to the Qi cause? Yuan was too and yet he became no better than a bandit lord , who's to say that the poet's old sympathies were prevailing and that he was handing the city to the bandit? These questions posed by the officials created a rift between those who believed that the city was to fall and those who still lingered for hope.

Good news had arrived a tang army and the navy was close by but still, the poet mentioned how he would give safe passage to anyone that fled but if he saw a hint of plotting against him for this kindness he would reduce the city to ash, many did take the opportunity to flee and there were no attempt's of breaking the truce as the men defending were confident that soon they would be saved, the poet under the hand wrote :

They say we can't be defeated, they say they are to shatter yet in here were the field are abandoned.

It is in this prison where conscription still continues without end, it is where were children campaign.
It is in this doomed city where the officer shouts and the wife weeps at the sound of youth marching.

The times are hard yet you heard how angrily the officer shouted, to those not ashamed of their feelings of this doomed city, yet I
seem to hear the whisper of hope , they will not last fade with the sun .

The poet was correct merely 5 days he wrote this on the 4th of November the scouts reported that army camp had been destroyed, n night the horror of the officials it was the tang army with no hope morale broke as many just as the sun was setting moved to flee the doomed city .

 

[Silver01]

despite Yuan's attempts fire began to spread it was here when the most senior high official took his life and others did as well, as the poet was seen wondering walking calmly according to the book of tang he for a while helped people flee, and then he entered to a burning building to help a family while other sources saying he also helped but fallen debris fell on his head killing him.

Whatever the case the great poet perished in the fire but he would become immortalized as Yuan with his guard himself asked people were he lived and moved quickly to it he found it but not him he ordered the guards to stay there and stop anyone who tried to enter even if it was other soldiers as he went to find him he also appointed men to arrest the officials and to help fight the fire, as dawn broke by that time Yuan had found the burnt body of the great poet he quickly sent word to his reaming family while he waited for the arrival , he raided the treasury of the city and unlike his previous sieges he gave a bigger part to the men of the city 1/3 to his army 1/3 to his higher officials and the rest spread to the city.

He would spend winter in the city here the son and wife of the poet came with this he great burial began with the ceremony gone his resting place was a lavish one with many tomb figures and all forms of lavish decorations, but Yuan biggest gift to him was the saving of his library it said that we would have lost 15 to 30% of the works the historian reunited had they raided or if the fire consumed the library so as the waited in the winter to the north the situation was not getting any better, Jia had slowed him down so he used winter to prepare his forces to finally break the tong pass.


But the time lost gave one an ally one more chance Feng Xingmi reunited a bigger army and even hired tribes of the north and some Tibetan mercenaries of the now divided Tibetan empire , but he did not march most of his army the other tribes were to raid but worse yet he did not trust the Dabuyid empire still he left his central Asian holdings and knew that time was short to mainland china

In a mere 107 days he arrived with more troops as he hired more turkick mercenaries from the destroyed Uyghur khagante arriving with a total of 20 000 troops to Chang'an had more information survived about his march it would have become one of the biggest achievements of military history rivaling that of hannibal crossing the alps.

The tang forces also had prepared their forces in total they numbered about 60 000 strong but then a debate grew whether to defend the tong pass or with the superior numbers to crush Wang in the open field a debate occurred for days but it was decided that they would march to meet Wang , by early spring both the rebel and tang armies moved to fight .

Here in early spring the 40 000 strong army on both sides met with east of the tong pass the book of tang said that he had a great smile the fools has save him time he could crush them here take the fortress and in their panic and fear they would not even attempt an ambush inside of the pass both sides had similar formation the lighter infantry were to the sides in the case of the tang force to their center right and left their hexagonal and pentagonal shield with their Weapons ready for a charge while the light cavarly were on the wings
Both armies also had their elite spearman in the center while the crossbowmen and archers were on the second line and heavy cavarly in reserve

The men shook some reports said they pissed themselves out of fear but others mainly the elite and those of the west remained calm

Feng moved to the front been smaller than the and gave a speech:

loyal men do not serve two lords and loyal men do not flee when the heavens support them .

Iam the smallest of you yet i shall fuffill this task until my body breaks and stop only after I died or we have conquered , we see the banner of the enemy death stares at us, be of noble character for its better to face death here than have a shameful death or a long death in slavery

For How could a man hide himself from death in the bushes? How can a man hope to flee slavery in the mountains ? Consider why you are fighting for and the heavens will reward your sons .

On the other side Wang also address his troops : do not be intimidated by this rabble we have seen them flee before and when they see the see our strength and feel the strength of our soldiers they shall flee again .

After this Both generals returned to their positions and sent their missle units to the front the battle was about to commence .

 

[Silver01]

The missile units moved to their positions as the rebel moved their waved banners, taunting their enemy, but when they arrived at their position all around nothing was heard but the movement of troops and the words loose were heard, silence again filled the plain only surpassed by the whistling and buzzing in the sky were into the sky where the sun was blocked. The screams of men were intermixed with the cries of the injured and the thudding of the dead were heard on both sides, yet the orders were given again, and these were repeated nine times till the rebels retreated, With the tang sent the horse archers who pounced for a quick kill.


Yet despite the rain of arrows their will was stronger than their armor they quickly got behind the infantry and shot back, with the tang sent the combination of heavy but mostly light cavalry three times in they charged three times and three times the rebel line held, with this the tang sent part of their heavy cavalry commanded by Xue Li took the field and charged ,the book of tang stated: the forces of emperor charged they look like a mountain of iron hooves thundered the plain towards the enemy endeavoring to destroy the pretender.

Despite the prospect of impact, the forces they held their nerve and stood their ground however the cavalry split in two and charged, Lances and shield shattered and most infuriate frenzy began and they painted a path of blood through the battlefield, slicing through weak and cowardly as if they had brittle armor as others were trampled, their screams filled the insatiable thirst for blood and destruction of the tang.

Yet despite been pushed back the line did not shatter and kept retreating as the rebel cavalry moved Xue Li understood the danger and quickly retreated but the other commander kept plowing through the infantry until he realized that the enemy cavalry had surrender them what came next was nothing short of a massacre the book of tang describes:

Here and there amidst the slain those who yet still lived there alive and injured were seen slashing their necks and throats to draw out the remnant of their blood, while other had made if so, the horses killed them in the panic and those who was dragged out alive from under the dead, as the rebels were in frenzy of rage.


Seeing this Feng ordered for his infantry to advance with he himself leading it, the ground shook as the tang elite marched in unisons behind them the light cavalry in support, Wang then ordered his infantry forward under the command of Li Chengsi , the earth groaned as both armies marched to each other as the gap was getting shorter , the troops gripped their weapon and braced for impact faster and faster they went soon the sound of shouts and the clashing of metal against metal , the rebels pushed back and then the tang did so each counterattack had to pass over the mounting corpses, there was a howl of anger both sides as the tang got pushed back they gnashed their teeth and yelled as they thrusted with their spears as the ground became crimson the tang forces were scattering with the commanders specially Feng doing their best to rally their troops and they held for a while they were like a wall against the waves of the rebels who crashed and retreated.

But after an hour there was nothing but a whirlwind of disorder and violence as they pushed to finally destroy the tang dynasty, some sources say the guards of the emperor and the forces near him cried a great din and went to charge the enemy how ever the emperor himself said to stand down with many pleading them on how are they not to do anything, as the tong pass became closer Feng smiled for he heard the thundering of hooves the book of tang stated:

The tang had already been overwhelmed; despite their courage and determination, the rebels were already beginning to sing the hymns of victory, when the rebel rear faced an attack from the north from the karluk and tang cavarly who threw themselves on the "victors" , these fell in to the greatest disorder and confusion mixed with their expression of utter terror . Joining them was that mass of iron ( the Cavarly reserve of the emperor) that was in perfect formation they fell on the scattered rebels stabbed them horribly, forced them to retreat and snatched victory from their grasp.


The rebels tried to turn and form another line but all attempts failed as the Karluk /tang cavalry kept plowing as Feng and other commanders ordered a counter charge with their reinvigorated troops , soon it was all over but the slaughter was not over as the tang sent their cavalry and horse archers to pounce on quick kills ,by the afternoon the dreams of a new dynasty were destroyed, the battle had lasted five hours and the tang lost about 1/3 of their force while the rebels were utterly devastated .


Wang who never joined the battle was hit in the shoulder with an arrow and knocked From his horse and he was trampled to death by his own troops Li Chengsi managed not survive and quickly reached Louyang Which were filled with riots, as the news of the defeat spread other commanders and courtiers took what ever force they had and declared themselves to be the ruler.

In a mere three weeks Louyang was recaptured, Li Chengsi had cracked down citizens but they rose three times he knew unless he massacred a great portion of the city he would not be able to supress them posible betrayal was not an option , so gathering his forces he went east to were he had attacked Jai a year ago .


Authors note : well this was fun as you can Hopefully see ( and like ) this battle scene how ever it's not going to become the norm since it's not a high fantasy timeline iam after all imitating a alt histórical record and we all know how the histórical record is not always the best

 

[Silver01]

As the tang recovered their western capital there was a massive celebration finally free from the high “tribute” of his secret police was soon hunted down and killed , while these events occurred to the southern rebels were still moving north while they were besieging Xinzhou he marched quickly as he feared that he need to secure his position before the tang arrived and Yuan was moving Jiangling however he would never reach it , in April 857 the 69 year old would die however unlike Wang he had assigned his 36 year old son Yuan You to be his successor , however he still faced some rebellions that he crushed , after this there was debate attack Jiangling as the tang sieged Chenzhou so he quickly went to starve out the city as he had no intention to waste lives in assaults.



By June, the tang had taken the Suiyang and planned to move north at the same time they sent reinforcements to the south against the siege the first tang southern rebel engagements were indecisive however the first major one would be near Jiangling were Yuan won but he knew that this was not a major victory by early July a bigger army came the engagement lasted three days and resulted in Yuan fleeing to the south , by early August the tang army met the armies of Yuan little is known about the battle but it lasted four days and resulted with Yuan routing the tang .

By this time, the other forces were still laying siege to Xinzhou and news that a tang army was coming a debate broke out on to stay and defeat the tang army in the mountain ranges or retreat when they had the chance the news of the victory of Yuan reached them and so they decided to stay by late august they met but not very near Xinzhou , the city kept sending news that the army was marching in the Xianxia Pass here they were set upon by the rebels , the surprise was total thousands began to rain down their missile units as many charged the baffled tang , these hastily made a defense but many had already fallen soon composure broke and the slaughter began , almost of half tang army was wiped out.



The deception worked flawlessly as half of the army moved in the night while the other rebels light many fires and did some small attacks and hoped the defenders would not notice with the victory they hoped for the city to surrender but they resisted while the west another tang army faced Yuan who the few sources on the battle tells that it was his overconfidence that nearly cost him the battle just sending the battle while the new book of tang mentions a completely contradictory statement that it was fault of his Cavalry commander for not attacking when the infantry clashed.



Whatever the case Yuan army fled but the tang were convinced of their victory and broke formation to early the rebels regrouped and countered attack taking the field but at the cost of many by winter a stalemate had occurred , however by that same winter the campaign on the north was drawing ever closer to shorten the conflict any commander who surrendered would get to keep a strong position in the tang government and so many did just that and by spring 858 two tang armies marched south one against Yuan led by sun fai and Tun Bilge Kul whose chinese tittle was Zhongzhen the fourth cousin of the current Yabgu and the commander that saved the flank of Feng’s army in their battle from the Uyghurs In his march south the Karluk royal managed to trick the rebels by sending a force that lured them and he defeated them.



While Sun Fai faced Yuan and also defeating him both rebel forces retreated to Luling however here Sun fai was pushed by some of his commanders to not wait and destroy the rebel force the armies by late may the armies met some 10 kilometers north of Luling and were utterly destroyed , by June the court told the young emperor that it would be wiser to negotiate as this occurred Feng and Zhongzhen left as news reached that a possible Dabuyid attack the emperor gave Feng the tittle and responsbitlies Grand protectorate of Anxi not only that but he was also awarded the mostly ceremonial tittle of hou ( marquis) of the area ,by the time he returned peace was assured as Yuan kept control of part of the south from Guizhou he quickly went to the south to deal with the kingdom of Nanzhao the son of Meng Xungequan died in 853 his son the 34 year old Meng Shilong took power when the rebellion broke he did not attack the southern rebels.



But when Yuan forces were to the north he began to send small raids after he sent a 8000 strong army to invade that forced that made some tribes submit to him and some tang commanders even joined them some of the tribes moved to the capital to ask for men however the tang commanders due to malice , not having enough men and recourses to control them and sheer incompetence led to a 7000 strong force killing members and leaders of the tribes near Songping, the accident would be called by the old and new book of tang as : here is the blood that sowed the seed of disaster.

This resulted in the defection of prominent local leaders to Nanzhao and with their help they sacked many towns in the heartland of the protectorate at this time Lou Honfgu was sent with an 5000 infantry and 3000 elite cavalry as the tang and Yuan were steal in negotiations the Nanzhao won pyrrhic victory this gave time for Songping to prepare in just two weeks later their defense and the siege began.

 

[Silver01]

This was not the first time the kingdom of Nanzhao and tang supported the southern rebels during the Qi rebellion after it was clear that the ones that claimed the mandate of heaven were about to collapse that King Meng Xungequan began to ask for what the tang commander promised and he also helped more the rebellions in Annan , this was not the first time In 687, the new governor of Annan, Liu Yanyou doubled the taxes. The indigenous peasants under chief Lý Tự Tiên resisted, this rebellion lasted a year before it was put down.

There was also a revolt in 694,the biggest revolt was in 722 were Mai Thúc Loan rebelled in proclaiming himself the Black Emperor, allying himself with other kingdoms and had by some sources some 400 000 followers, the tang with the tribes who remained loyal with 100 000 strong force destroyed the rebellion in a year , there were minor revolts in 759 , 782 due to high taxes , revolts only got worse at after the ascension of Xianzong , 3 revolts occurred from 808 to 827 were two protectors general were killed the kingdom of Nanzhao indirectly supported these as this would aid their expansion as during this time the kingdom destroyed the Pyu city states and attacked the tibetan empire , so during the rebellion of Niu Sian the king not only sent forces against the chinese rebels but also supported the crushing of Annan rebels but at the same time they raided the towns .

By the ending of the Qi rebellion another the Nung people with support of champa pirates took the southern portions they sought aid from Meng but he played both sides when the tang paid him he left raiding Annan again as he retreated knowing the Tang would not retaliate , the nazhao raids continued , there were some other minor rebellions in Annan, the king from 848 he prepare a massive army , by 851 the protector general Zhao Xingli he had proclaimed his loyalty to the rebels at least in name to not deal with another front as he had to deal with rebellions , the news of the ammasing of an army by Nazhao made him paranoid and in 852 he in his paranoia that the tribes join the Nazhao integoragated the chief of the Đỗ tribe to rebel, killing Zhao thus the chinese then sent Lou Honfgu.

Lou Honfgu after his defeat returned north as the siege of Songping continued with that victory and with the rebellion continuing the kingdom of Nanzhao and other locals reunited a 40 000 strong army , the siege of Songping began the city had strong defenses the Tang garrisons during this time was upgraded with heavy-armored cavalry and infantry , the siege began in June in the heat of summer the defenders resisted , the breaches were met with cavalry charges killing many of those who dared to attack , the commander Gu Wei led a sally which surprised many but more importantly he captured some Nanzhao and local commanders which he tortured for information, with that he assault in the 6th of July began with assault the defenders waited and convinced them that a plague had broken out when the forces came thinking of an easy victory were met by a hail of bolts and arrows killing 2000 men and 300 horses.

As they retreated he sent his cavalry to attack they killed another 2000 men the siege dragged on for months in November the nanzhao managed to breach the city but due to an ambush the commander was killed the force only survived by starting a fire that covered their retreat , during this time Gu Wei tried desperately to sent word to the rebels and even the tang to support him but to no avail , by 854 most of the defenders had died and many began to flee finally in February there was a massive breach many took boats to flee as some others made a last stand killing some 4000 in the inner city .

finally in february 854 Songping fell then they laid siege to Junzhou but the tang navy managed to win a victory against a Nanzhao fleet of 5000 men which they destroyed nearly ¼ of their navy, Lou Honfgu was sent with a 8000 strong army however he managed to ambush the nanzhao army and lift the siege , how ever he had ¼ of his force became casualties limiting the reconquest of Annan limiting to capture towns and amassing a larger force this lasted for 2 years with many minor victories for both sides as Lou Honfgu avoided any major confrontation , finally after the peace talks began Yuan sent more forces to An Bang bay and by 858 Lou Honfgu had an army of 15 000 and a fleet of 250 ships their enemy again went for a third siege of Junzhou and here failed destroying a large part of their force, by this time the king of nanzhao had went to attack Qiongzhou to distract them but this took many casualties and was forced to retreat

with this Lou Honfgu went and laid siege to Songping and took it in two months and began its reconstruction he then retaliated against the tribes many of them summited to him with this he implored Yuan for a counterattack which the now new Jeidushi agreed to sending concentrating forces on Jiannan with 30 000 men he invaded south defeating the king at Bozhou expelling them not content he against orders he entered the kingdom sacking the northeastern towns and cities avoiding strongholds just burning and sacking avoiding the armies of the kingdom only attacking small forces , but knowing that he did not have more forces to conquer or destroy the kingdom he retreated how ever for disobeying orders and seeking personal glory the new book of tang tells us that Yuan invited him for a feast only to have him killed.

After the defeats peace returned but both kingdoms were left weakened the king was soon killed and a civil war followed furthering weakening his realm the tang were no better not only Yuan but many other kept their military post Yizong realm was left a ruin having not fully recovered from the previous rebellion central authority had now fully collapsed even though he tried his best and did not know it his dynasty was on borrowed time.