Gao Xianzhi.
This man is not very interesting, but there is a series of very interesting strange things in him.
To sum up, just such a sentence: victory becomes fame, defeat also becomes fame, and how to die is rarely paid attention to.
When Gao Xianzhi was a teenager, he accompanied his father Gao Sheji to Anxi (Guizi, the old city of Pilang in present-day Kuqa, Xinjiang), and was awarded a guerrilla general for his father's meritorious service. When he was more than 20 years old, he became a general and was the same rank as his father Ban Zhi (an official's rank). This matter itself is a bit strange, the same as his father's official character, which shows that Gao Xianzhi may be a military genius, but he cannot be reused, and he has successively served under Tian Renhuan and Gai Jiayun in the four towns of Anxi, and no one takes him seriously. Later, when Fu Menglingcha served as an envoy to Jiedushi, he discovered his talent and repeatedly promoted him and reused him, and by the end of the new century, he had been appointed to the deputy capital of Anxi and the four towns. That is to say, if a moderation makes it possible to promote a person to his deputy if he likes him, and he is a little bit away from himself, which is also a little strange.
Gao Xianzhi, who grew up in a strange environment, became famous in one battle.
During the Kaiyuan period, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty was unprecedentedly strong, and history called it "Kaiyuan Prosperous Era". At that time, there were two states on the Green Ridge (present-day Pamir Plateau), namely Xiaobolu (in present-day northwestern Kashmir, the capital city of Sindo, present-day Gilgit) and Dabolu (in present-day central Kashmir, the capital of Baaltistan). Originally a Tang vassal state, Xiao Bolu was the main transportation route from Tubo (present-day Qinghai-Tibet Plateau) to the four towns of Anxi. Tubo Zampu married the princess to the xiaobolu king Su Lost as his wife, and the xiaobolu state was attached to Tubo, and Tubo then controlled the northwestern countries, so "more than twenty countries in the northwest were subject to Tubo", interrupting the tribute to the Tang Dynasty, and Tang Several Anxi Jiedu made Tian Renhuan, Gai Jiayun, and Fu Menglingcha send troops to fight several times, because of the dangerous terrain, coupled with Tubo's assistance, all of which returned without success.
In 747, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang ordered Gao Xianzhi to be the emissary of the camp and lead 10,000 infantry and cavalry to conquest Xiao Bolu.
The Pamir Plateau is five or six thousand meters above sea level, even if it is passed by the valley pass, there are three or four thousand meters, according to the experience of modern mountaineers, at this altitude, the average normal person will have more or less breathing difficulties, physical decline and other phenomena, but also to prevent bad weather and landslides and other natural disasters that may be encountered at any time. Today's people have a hard time knowing what kind of arduous march the army of ten thousand people led by Gao Xianzhi has experienced, but they have always known that it was through this war that the Tang Dynasty destroyed Xiao Bolu.
In this regard, The famous contemporary historian Hu Qiuyuan commented: "A large number of troops, passing through the Pamir and Hindu Kush, took this as the first time in history, and the mountains were planted in the sky, and they lacked supplies, and they did not know how to maintain the supply of the army at that time. Even the modern staff headquarters will be helpless... This brave General of China, the march, the thrilling difficulties, compared with the famous European generals, from Hannibal, to Napoleon, to Suvorov, they have crossed the Alps, I really do not know more than several times. ”
Therefore, Gao Xianzhi became famous in the First World War, and his position was not only corrected, but also praised by later generations as an "expert in mountain sports warfare" and had "superb mountain marching art".
Due to a series of wrongdoings, Gao Xianzhi, who was straightened out, greatly reduced the prestige of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions, and "the Western Regions were dissatisfied." Prince Shi fled to the Zhuhu tribe and told Hu Zhaowu of his deception and greed. The Zhuhu tribe was furious and secretly joined forces with the Great Eater to jointly attack the four towns of Anxi. The Great Eclipse used this as an excuse to implement its expansion plan. The famous Battle of Theros broke out.
The Zizhi Tongjian Volume 216 records that after Gao Xianzhi learned of this, he was uneasy in his heart and decided to preemptively attack. In April 751, he personally led 30,000 Han soldiers to attack Dashi. The Tang army penetrated more than 700 miles into the border of the Great Food Andi, and encountered the Great Food Army at the city of Tsuiros (also known as Tsui Luosi, that is, the city of Jiangbul in the southeast of the Republic of Kazakhstan).
Gao Xianzhi also crossed the Pamir Plateau this time, crossed the desert, and after several months of long journeys, it was still a difficult march. However, the Tang army and the Arab army fought for five days, and the Gelulu people suddenly rebelled, and the Arab army attacked the Tang army, resulting in the defeat of the Tang army, and Gao Xianzhi had to lead only a few thousand people to return. From the perspective of war command alone, Gao Xianzhi did not make any mistakes, and the defeat of the war depended on the sudden rebellion of The Gelug people.
However, afterwards, the Arabs began to brag, in order to show their ability to defeat the powerful Tang Dynasty, increased the number of People Participating in the Tang Army, from 30,000 to 40,000 "up" to 50,000 or 60,000, and some history books even said that it was 100,000, saying that the rebellious Grolu people and the big food attacked the Tang army, and Gao Xianzhi fled overnight. As a result, the road was blocked, but thanks to the Right Wei wei general Li Siye who killed a bloody road for him, he was able to escape. In the end, "the death of the soldiers was slightly exhausted, and there were only more than a thousand people left."
Bragging is actually nothing, the strange thing is that Gao Xianzhi is more famous in history because of this defeat, that is, in the army of the Tang Dynasty, some people are craftsmen, after being captured by the big food, the papermaking technology was introduced to the West, and the history of the West has since had paper, and the promotion of Western history and culture is obvious. And Gao Xianzhi himself was not held accountable by the imperial court for this defeat, and actually entered the capital as the right jinwu general, became the emperor's sidekick, was trusted by the emperor, and was in charge of the emperor's janissaries, subordinates and other pro-army. Even in 755, he was given the title of Duke of Fengmiyun County.
This is Gao Xianzhi, winning or losing is famous, winning or losing can make his life better. It's weird.
In December 755, An Lushan, in the name of rebelling against Yang Guozhong, sent 150,000 troops from Fanyang (in present-day southwest of Beijing), claiming to be 200,000, and went south to oppose the Tang and attack Luoyang and Chang'an (present-day Xi'an). The rebels marched straight in, met with little resistance, and some local officials even surrendered, and the rebels soon occupied most of the area north of the Yellow River. Tang Xuanzong panicked, thought of Gao Xianzhi, gave him the title of "deputy marshal", and spent money to recruit some idle members of society to form an army of 50,000 people and let him enter Tunshan County (屯陕郡, in modern Sanmenxia, Henan).
Raising troops for a thousand days, using soldiers for a while, the general will not be an exception. Gao Xianzhi was used on the battlefield, which should have been very normal, but Tang Xuanzong handled this matter very strangely: Gao Xianzhi set out from Chang'an, and he personally held a banquet for Gao Xianzhi in the Qinzheng Building, and then went to Wangchun Pavilion to send him off, but sent a supervisor to Gao Xianzhi. The supervising army was called Bian Lingcheng, who was Gao Xianzhi's comrade-in-arms and subordinate in the Western Regions, and the inspector of soldiers and horses, also known as the capital supervisor. It is said that there is no doubt about the use of people, but here, Tang Xuanzong clearly distrusted Gao Xianzhi, and also set a precedent for the Tang Dynasty eunuchs to supervise the army.
After Gao Xianzhi arrived in Shaanxi County, An Lushan attacked Luoyang, and Gao Xianzhi's old subordinate Feng Changqing led the remnants of the defeated army to meet Gao Xianzhi. Feng Changqing said to Gao Xianzhi: "Changqing has been fighting bloody battles for days, the thieves cannot be taken seriously, moreover, there are no soldiers in Tongguan, if the rebels break through Tongguan, then Chang'an will be dangerous, and the land of Guanshan will not be able to defend, so it is better to lead troops to Tongguan to confront the rebels." Gao Xianzhi felt that Feng Changqing's words were reasonable, accepted Feng Changqing's advice, opened the warehouse, gave all the cloth in the warehouse to the soldiers, set the rest on fire, and led the troops to retreat to Tongguan.
On the way, Gao Xianzhi's troops were pursued by the rebels and collapsed at the first touch, "the armor battle was entrusted to the road, hundreds of miles." For this reason, Gao Xianzhi lamented with sorrow that the Tang Dynasty had been peaceful for too long, and those who were soldiers would no longer fight. After retreating to Tongguan, Gao Xianzhi immediately reorganized his troops, repaired the garrison, and resisted according to danger, and his morale gradually rose. An Lushan's army arrived, but could not be captured for a while, so he had to retreat to Shaanxi County. It should be said that the war situation at this time began to develop in a good direction, but unfortunately, the villain destroyed everything.
Who is the villain? It was the overseer Bian Lingcheng sent by Tang Xuanzong. When he was in the Western Regions with Gao Xianzhi, Gao Xianzhi fought the victory of Xiao Bolu, and Fu Menglingcha, as a jiedushi, was not happy, thinking that Gao Xianzhi had been cultivated by himself, and the merit was greater than his own, which made Gao Xianzhi's life very difficult. Bian Lingcheng could not bear to see it, so he made a small report to the emperor, saying that if all the people who had made great contributions to the imperial court ended up like Gao Xianzhi, I am afraid that no one would be willing to sell their lives for the imperial court in the future (Xianzhi made meritorious contributions and died of fear, and the latter was used by the imperial court). This small report had an immediate effect, so that Fu Meng Lingcha was internally adjusted, gao Xianzhi was in the western region, and Gao Xianzhi's life reached its peak.
After becoming a supervisor, Bian Lingcheng changed, and it is said that he repeatedly asked Gao Xianzhi for bribes but did not succeed, and rumored to Tang Xuanzong: "Changqing shook the people with thieves, and Xianzhi abandoned Shaanxi for hundreds of miles, and stole the grain of the soldiers." As a result, both Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing were killed. According to the Old Book of Tang, Bian Lingcheng first called Feng Changqing out of the barracks, declared the edict to him, beheaded him, and violently died on the reeds. After Gao Xianzhi returned to the official office, he took 100 strange swordsmen and said to Gao Xianzhi: "The Imperial Master also has an edict to execute. Gao Xianzhi hurriedly dismounted and said, "I am guilty of retiring from the army, and I dare not deny the death penalty." But to think that I secretly withheld rewards and military food was a false accusation. ”
Bian Lingcheng did not listen to Gao Xianzhi's defense, and Gao Xianzhi said: "There is heaven above and earth below, and the soldiers and generals are all here, don't you know?" Bian Lingcheng still did not listen, and Gao Xianzhi turned back to his subordinates and said, "Of course, I recruited you, of course, to defeat the rebels and get a lot of rewards, but the rebels are strong, so retreating here is also to strengthen the defense of Tongguan." If I am guilty, you can say, and if there is no sin, you will cry out injustice. ”
The generals shouted "wronged" in unison, shouting loudly, but Bian Lingcheng was still vicious and ugly. Therefore, Gao Xianzhi looked at Feng Changqing's corpse and said, "You were promoted by me, and then you took over as an emissary of Jiedushi, and I am now dying with you, is it fate?" "Say it and die." Historians' evaluation of this is that Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing were famous generals at that time, and their unjust killing caused the hearts of the military to waver, and also caused the Tang court to lose two generals with combat experience, which caused a serious adverse impact on the pacification of the Anshi Rebellion. The Anshi Rebellion also became a turning point in the prosperity and decline of the Tang Dynasty, causing the Tang Dynasty to lose a large number of people and sharply reduce its national strength, and then entered an extremely dim period.
The two generals were killed by a villain, which is very strange in itself, but what is even more strange is that to this day, not many people have paid attention to Gao Xianzhi's death in the "wrongdoing", but have been paying attention to Tang Xuanzong's play with Yang Yuhuan and the scandal between An Lushan and Yang Yuhuan, and have regarded these as after-dinner fun. At the time of writing this passage, we find an interesting phenomenon, peace is long gone, and some strange things have emerged, not only that soldiers cannot fight. For example, a general who is a commander will be promoted if he loses a battle, the emperor who is a decision-maker will have a soft ear, listen to rumors, doubt people in the psychology of not being able to lose, and cannot face reality directly. I wonder if this can be called a "peace disease"?
Finally, I would like to say weakly: Near the Hongqirafu Port in the tajik autonomous county of Tashkurgan in the kashgar region of present-day Xinjiang, there is a huge stone with the inscription "Tang General Gaozhi Passing Place". It was through here that Gao Xianzhi drove his troops to Xiao Bolu and won the victory. And what we want to say seems to have been said many times in the history books: the world has been in peace for a long time, and people do not know war. Peace is sometimes beaten, and of course it is good that peace is too long, but in those strange things that happened to Gao Xianzhi, this good thing may have to be put in quotation marks.
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