Chapter 17 An Lushan: The Blessed Life of a Sheep Thief

An Lushan, born in the third year of Chang'an (703 A.D.) in the Wu Zhou Dynasty, was a mongrel barbarian from Liucheng, Yingzhou (now Chaoyang City, Liaoning).Calling him a bastard is not an attack on him personally, it's a fact.Because his father was from the Kang country in the Western Regions, known as Sogdian in history, this ethnic group is good at doing business, and it is probably because of doing business that they came to Yingzhou;Since An Lushan was a mixed race of two ethnic minorities, the "Old Tang Book" called him a "hybrid barbarian". It is said that his mother had not given birth for a long time after marriage, so she went to pray at the foot of Luo Mountain. Later, she gave birth to a fat and white baby boy, and named him Luo Mountain.In Turkic, "Aluo Mountain" means God of War.At this time, of course, Witch Astad would not know that many years later, this child named after the Turkic god of war would bring a disaster of war and disaster to the Tang Empire.

Aluoshan's father died early, and his mother took him to remarry Turkic general An Yanyan. From then on, Aluoshan took "An" as his surname and changed his name to "Lushan" according to the homonym of "Luoshan".Later, An Yanyan's tribe was dispersed, and An Lushan fled to Youzhou, and became a "mutual market Yalang" in the border trade market.The so-called Hushi Yalang is a broker who provides translation and intermediary services for Hu and Han merchants. The reason why An Lushan chose to work as a broker was because he had three advantages: 1. His father was a Sogdian who was good at doing business, so of course he also inherited some business genes; 2. He was naturally cunning and good at guessing others. Psychology; Third, the language ability is super strong, it is said that he is proficient in six kinds of Tibetan languages ​​(some say nine kinds).

Although An Lushan has so many advantages, his luck in doing business is very bad. After working as an intermediary for more than ten years, he still hasn't made any money.In the 20th year of Kaiyuan (732 A.D.), Anlu Mountain was established at the end of the year, but it was still empty-handed and nothing had been accomplished.In order to get rich early, he decided to take another part-time job outside the intermediary. What part-time job? Steal sheep. Anyway, An Lushan has a lot of clients on hand, so he doesn't have to worry about selling stolen goods.Steal a sheep at night and sell it during the day.If this part-time job is done well, it will definitely be much better than simply being an intermediary.

It's a pity that An Lushan is neither a business material nor a thief material.One dark and stormy night, when he was concentrating on his work, he was suddenly covered by a sack, knocked down to the ground, and then he was beaten in pain.Early the next morning, the sheep thief, who was covered in bruises and bruises, was bound and taken to the court of Zhang Shougui, the governor of Youzhou. This was the first catastrophe in An Lushan's life. If there is no accident, An Lushan's life experience will only have such a short sentence: young orphans, poor family, living in the market, being a trader, later stealing sheep, killing, and ending.

But no one expected that An Lushan, the sheep thief, not only did not end, but turned misfortune into blessing, and ushered in a brand new life from then on. That day in the majestic courtroom, after Zhang Shougui, the envoy of Youzhou Jiedu, asked about the case, without further ado, he ordered the sheep thief to be killed with a club on the spot.At the moment when the execution stick was swung high, An Lushan suddenly mustered up his courage and shouted sharply: "Don't you want to destroy Xi and Khitan? How can you kill the strong man?" An Lushan was tall and burly, and his dantian was full of qi, coupled with the despair and fear of dying, this scream was really deafening and soul-stirring.

The executioner was stunned for a moment, even Zhang Shougui was quite surprised.With a thought in his mind, he immediately walked forward with great interest, and sized up this mighty sheep thief from head to toe. The boy in front of him was fat and fat, with big arms and a round waist, and he seemed to have a bit of courage, he should be a soldier for war. At that time, Xi people and Khitan people invaded the northeast border of the Tang Dynasty all the year round, which was a big problem for the empire.The reason why the brave general Zhang Shougui was sent to Youzhou by the imperial court was to deal with these two fierce alien races.On the occasion of employing people, An Lushan's shout really reminded Zhang Shougui.

Yes, instead of killing a strong man, it is better to let him go into battle to kill the enemy and make meritorious deeds to atone for his sins. In this way, Zhang Shougui pardoned An Lushan and kept him under his command. One foot has stepped into the Anlu Mountain, which is the gate of hell, and just like this, he has recovered his life, and has since embarked on a life path that is completely different from the past. Afterwards, An Lushan became a general in Zhang Shougui's army. The so-called catching generals, as the name suggests, are scouts who specialize in catching alive mouths and tongues.An Lushan's position is likely to be a reconnaissance platoon leader or a special agent company commander.

It has to be said that Zhang Shougui has a good eye for discerning people and employing them. He made An Lushan a scout, and he really used good steel to the blade.An Lushan's advantages in working as an intermediary in his early years and his accumulated experience have all come in handy now.He is proficient in many kinds of Tibetan languages, has dealt with all kinds of people, is familiar with the local customs of various ethnic groups, and knows everything about mountains, rivers, roads, terrain, etc., so sending such a person out to catch tongues is of course a good idea. Every time An Lushan went out to perform missions, he usually only brought a few riders with him. When he came back, he always tied dozens of Xi people or Khitan people behind him.No matter what kind of captives Zhang Shougui needs to capture or what aspect of the enemy's situation he needs to know, An Lushan can always capture them with his hands and successfully complete the task.It didn't take long for An Lushan to be appreciated by Zhang Shougui, and he was promoted to be a side general.Because he was cunning by nature and good at flattering and sycophanting, he knew that Zhang Shougui always thought he was fat, so he secretly lost weight and didn't even dare to eat enough.Soon, his weight loss plan achieved remarkable results, and he lost a lot of fat all over his body. Zhang Shougui liked him even more, and he was immediately recognized as his adopted son.

In the twenty-fourth year of Kaiyuan (736 A.D.), An Lushan was promoted to Pinglu's strike envoy and general Zuo Xiaowei because of his bravery and skill in combat and his repeated military exploits. That messy middleman back then, the sheep thief who was almost beaten to death, has finally turned around, and has become one of the few leading figures in Youzhou. This is called surviving a catastrophe, there must be future blessings! However, the ancients also often said a word - misfortune comes with blessings, and blessings come with misfortunes. Just when Anlu Mountain was booming and full of ambitions, another fatal disaster fell from the sky.

When people encounter difficulties, their heads are usually clearer, but once they are proud, they can easily get carried away.This is a common weakness of human nature, and An Lushan is no exception. Not long after he was promoted to Pinglu's strike envoy, An Lushan was ordered by Zhang Shougui to attack Xi and Khitan. Because he had never lost a battle in these years, he was proud and underestimated the enemy, greedy for meritorious deeds, and was beaten to the ground. Return in defeat.Zhang Shougui thought of his bravery and couldn't bear to kill him, so he was sent to the Eastern Capital (Xuanzong lived in Luoyang, the eastern capital at that time) and handed over to the imperial court.

This is the second catastrophe of Anlu Mountain. Under normal circumstances, if a general goes on an expedition and suffers a major defeat due to subjective reasons, he must be dealt with according to military law, and the result can only be two words - beheading. However, An Lushan's fate is strange - whenever a catastrophe is imminent and he is in a desperate situation, someone will always snatch him back from the hands of King Yama and push his life to a new level. The nobleman last time was Zhang Shougui. And this time the nobleman is Tang Xuanzong Li Longji. After An Lushan was taken to Dongdu, the Prime Minister Zhang Jiuling interrogated him personally.The two talked for a long time, and Zhang Jiuling felt that this person was definitely not a kind person, so he wrote a comment on his case file: "If the Shougui military order is followed, Lushan should not be spared death." (214) It means that according to the military law, Zhang Shougui was originally An Lushan should be executed on the spot. Even if he is sent to the court now, it is impossible to give him a lighter punishment. It is still a word-death. At the critical moment, Xuanzong spoke. He believes that An Lushan deserves an amnesty because he fought bravely and made military exploits. All he needs to do is to be removed from office and let him return to serve in the army in "white clothes" and make meritorious deeds. Zhang Jiuling resolutely opposed it, saying: "The Lushan wolf is ambitious and has a rebellious face. I ask you to kill him for his crimes, so as to avoid future troubles." Zhang Jiuling is not a god, and of course he couldn't have foreseen the Anshi Rebellion nineteen years later.However, as a prime minister who has read countless people, he can intuitively see An Lushan's nature of "straight on the outside, but cunning on the inside", and he has a premonition that he may endanger the country in the future, which is also reasonable.What's more, An Lushan has already committed a capital crime. Even if he doesn't rebel in the future, killing him now can't be wrong.If Xuanzong could adopt Zhang Jiuling's words and remove Anlu Mountain at that time, then the history of the later Tang Dynasty, and even the entire history of China, might be rewritten accordingly. However, there are no assumptions in history-Xuanzong finally released Anlu Mountain. An Lushan narrowly escaped death again, and got a blessing in disguise. Why do you say a blessing in disguise? Because he got the attention of the emperor. In such a huge empire, there are not many generals of his level, how can the emperor recognize him?However, An Lushan received the emperor's attention and care for committing a capital crime. Isn't it a blessing in disguise? After escaping from the ghost gate again, An Lushan finally realized a truth. He realized that it was useless to just work hard on the battlefield, even if he sacrificed his life for an official job, if he was not careful, all his previous efforts would be wasted and he would lose everything.In other words, if you want to stand out, you must not only know how to fight, but also how to behave. How can you be a human being? There is only one answer: money. Specifically, four words: learn to spend money. Everyone loves money, and those with power love it even more.Therefore, as long as you learn to give money to powerful people, they will naturally like you, and they will be willing to exchange their power with you, making you more powerful. From ancient times to the present, the society has been changing and the system has been changing, but this truth is always there, it will never be out of date, and it will always dominate this materialistic and power-oriented world... From then on, An Lushan spared no effort to bribe every court envoy who came to inspect while fighting. "From the left and right of Shang (Xuanzong) to Pinglu (Yingzhou), Lushan bribed them generously. Therefore, Shangyi considered them worthy." (Volume 214) In the twenty-eighth year of Kaiyuan (740 A.D.), An Lushan was promoted to be the military envoy of Pinglu.In the following year, Yushi Zhongcheng Zhang Lizhen served as an interview envoy in Hebei and went to Pinglu to inspect the military situation. ) After Zhang Lizhen returned to the court, he desperately spoke good words for An Lushan. Xuanzong's impression of him became better and better, and he was immediately promoted to the governor of Yingzhou, the military envoy of Pinglu, and the administrator of the four prefectures of Xi, Khitan, Bohai, and Heishui Make. In the first month of the first year of Tianbao (742 A.D.), the Tang court divided the entire border of the empire into ten feudal towns from west to east and from north to south, setting up Anxi, Beiting, Hexi, Shuofang, Hedong, Fanyang, Pinglu and Long On the right, there are nine Jiedu envoys in Jiannan, plus an economic envoy from the five Lingnan prefectures.Among them, An Lushan officially served as the Pinglu Jiedu envoy, responsible for the township of the two major tribes of Shiwei and Mohe, and governed the Pinglu Army, Lu Long Army, Yuguan Garrison Area (Yuguan Shouzhuo), Andong Duhu Mansion, and the army garrison. Yingzhou (now Chaoyang City, Liaoning) and Pingzhou (now Lulong County, Hebei), headquartered in Yingzhou, have a total force of 37,500. As a result, An Lushan rose strongly and became a feudal official holding a heavy army and sitting in one side. This year, he was just forty years old. At this time, there were still thirteen years before the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion.