During this period, Jingyuan mutiny, Tubo invasion, and even the fall of Chang 'an, the emperor had to flee for refuge. Then, under such circumstances, why was the Tang Dynasty strong enough to rise up against Huang Chao until 907 AD?
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, Yuanhe Zhongxing and Huichang Centers appeared. Emperors made great efforts to regain imperial power, and a large number of loyal heroes emerged to guard the capital and resist foreign invasion.
In addition, the standing armed forces stationed in Gyeonggi Province can not be ignored. It is precisely because of its existence that Guanzhong was peaceful and the Tang Dynasty was strong for a hundred years. It was the imperial army of the Tang Dynasty.
First, the source: Xuanzong Su Zong.
The planning of God Army originated from the eve of An Shi Rebellion. In 754 AD, General Ge defeated Tubo and recovered the Nine Songs of the Yellow River, requesting the establishment of Shangbiao County. Cheng Ruxuan is a satrap and commander of the army. This is the earliest Shence Army.
At this time, the Shence Army appeared as a border guard against Tubo, with about 2,000 troops. Just an ordinary border guard, far from the imperial army of the Tang Dynasty in the future, and did not even enter the Central Plains War of the separatist forces in the Tang Dynasty. Until the Anshi Rebellion, the court recruited a large number of border troops to quell the rebellion, and the Shence Army was among them, and went to the Central Plains.
In 759 AD, Wei, commander-in-chief of Shence Army, led more than a thousand Shence Army to participate in the battle of Xiangzhou.
In this war, Tang Suzong was led by eunuch Yu Chaoen, and generals Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi fought independently. As a result, Tang Jun was defeated, so Wei had to flee to Shaanxi with his headquarters. However, Wei found that the original station of Shence Army had fallen into the hands of Tubo, and Shence Army was suddenly homeless, so he had to stay in Shanzhou and stand in the forefront of resisting Shi Siming's attack.
At this time, Yu Chaoen, who happened to be trusted by Su Zong, was also in Shaanxi Province and naturally became the supervisor of the Shence Army. With Wei's efforts, they repelled the attack of Shi Siming's 3,000 troops. This battle also gave praise to General Su, the mastermind of the army. Together with Guo Yingai, commander of our army in Shaanxi, they guarded Shaanxi and completed the transformation from border guards to buffer troops.
Later, Wei and Guo Yingai were successively recruited into the DPRK, and Yu Chaoen became the commander-in-chief of the Shence Army. From then on, the Shence Army led by the powerful official Yu Chaoen soon became the imperial army of Tang Gaozong.
In 763 AD, Tubo captured Chang 'an and lived in Shaanxi. Yu Chaoen led the Shence Army to escort. After the Tubo retreat, the Ce Shen army escorted Daizong to Chang 'an; Later, Pugu Wynn lured Tubo to Beijing, and Yu Chaoen led the Shence Army to guard the capital. After the Tubo retreat, the Shence Army officially became the Central Imperial Army.
Second, the rise: Daizong Xianzong
Due to the repeated attacks by the Tubo army and Yu Chaoen, the commander trusted by the emperor, the Ce Shen army gradually became the emperor's own troops during the escort. In addition, the Ce Shen Army gradually developed from the border guards to resist Shi Siming, and its fighting capacity was unmatched by other imperial armies. Therefore, Daizong and later emperors attached great importance to the Shence Army. After Shence Army became an imperial army, Yu Chaoen expanded his army.
The main sources of military expansion are the trilogy of Xing Junya, Gu, Hao, Yang Huiyuan and Hou Zhongzhuang. These trilogy are experienced elites with real strength. Their participation has greatly enhanced the strength of the Shence Army. On the other hand, at the request of Chao En, Dai Zong classified Haoshu, Purun, Xingping and Wudu.
During this period, the Shence Army was able to fight well and defeat Tubo with Li Sheng. "Crossing the sky, pulling it over, clearing the three cities of Suning, not crossing the Dadu River, winning a thousand in Shandong, etc."; Strict military discipline, Dezong recruited troops to prevent autumn, and when he left, the emperor and his ministers held a banquet to practice. Other troops were ordered to drink, and they decided not to drink alone. "I deeply sigh the beauty and give books and labor."
It can be said that Shence Army is the most trustworthy and fighting force in Guanzhong area.
However, the following difficulties made Ce Shen's army controlled by eunuchs. Many civil servants and military commanders defected in succession in the Fengtian disaster. In contrast, none of the eunuchs around Dezong were spared. At the same time, the Shence Army was outstanding in this rebellion and was the main force in counterinsurgency.
So, after putting down the rebellion, Dezong combined the people he trusted the most with the army that could fight the most, made eunuchs the commander of Shence Army, appointed Dou Wenchang and Huo Xianming as the captains of Ce Shen, and set up several military posts for eunuchs. At this time, the eunuch commander-in-chief is different from Chao En. Their control over the Shence Army has become an established system. After the downfall of a eunuch, there will surely be thousands of eunuchs in Qian Qian to stand up again and lead the Shence Army.
Since then, Ce Shen's army has been closely combined with eunuchs, sharing weal and woe.
Three. Decline and Fall: After Xianzong
The imperial army of the constitutional dynasty has undergone fundamental changes.
During the Dezong period, the Shence Army "reached 6.5438+0.5 million". As the capital of the imperial army, it is also an elite army guarding the two capitals. Ce Shen's army sent many missions to the Western Regions, which was the most direct force for the imperial court to suppress the buffer regions. At the beginning of Xian Zong's accession to the throne, Shence Army followed Li Sheng to defeat warlord Liu Pi and captured him alive. However, in the next expedition, the Shence Army suffered a lot.
In 809, Wang Shizhen died in Chengde. In order to change the tradition of father's death and son's succession in Hebei Province, Xianzong decided to launch a crusade against Wang Shizhen's disobedient son Wang Chengzhong. However, this time, the commander-in-chief Tucao Cheng Cui suffered repeated defeats and the war dragged on for a long time. In the end, Wang Chengzong made the above apology, and Ce Shen troops withdrew from the capital, which ended in a hurry. This war is essentially the failure of imperial power in the struggle with the buffer region.
After this war, the Shence Army was discredited. In the following days, it rarely sent troops to conquer places on a large scale, but stayed in Guanzhong to guard the capital and gradually declined.
The decline of the imperial army was caused by many factors. For example, after Xianzong, the Shence Army rarely participated in the war, which led to a decline in combat effectiveness. However, the various preferential policies given by the imperial court contributed to his decline: Ce Shen's army paid a lot of money and its supply was three times that of other troops; Every time after Dai Zong's amnesty, Shence Army received the most generous treatment in the world. Legally speaking, the imperial army is not subject to the supervision of imperial history. Priority can be given to promotion and transfer in personnel, and priority can be given to independent management in economy.
A series of favorable policies have made Shence Army a hot commodity, and countless rich children want to squeeze in, but they can't fight. In the late Tang Dynasty, they mainly followed the emperor to hunt and play, build palaces and learn acrobatic fighting. During the war, they spent money to get the old, the weak and the sick who could not fight, not themselves.
Therefore, during the Huang Chao Uprising, eunuch Tian led tens of thousands of troops to guard Tongguan, and the rebels conquered Tongguan in just one day, but the army did not have the strength of World War I. ..
After the war, Ce Shen suffered heavy casualties. Since then, although Tian He Zhaozong recruited soldiers and established a new army, he was still led by eunuchs. However, Ce Shen's new army was tied up with eunuchs and was involved in the struggle with courtiers. At the same time, he and Li were also involved. Finally, Zhu Quanzhong, who was possessed by courtiers, won, eunuchs were slaughtered and Ce Shen's army was formally abolished.
The once powerful Shence Army was submerged in the long river of history. The distinctive features of the imperial army determine the rise and fall of the imperial army in 1920.
However, the existence of the Shence Army played a positive role in the continuation of the Tang Dynasty. Shen Jun's army has made many contributions in resisting Tubo and putting down the rebellion. Since Shen Junjun guarded Guanzhong, there has been peace in Guanzhong for nearly a hundred years, which is very rare in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. It is no wonder that Ren Yuan, a Japanese monk who entered the Tang Dynasty to seek dharma, once said, "Since ancient times, there have been many disturbances between monarch and minister. Since the establishment of this army, no one has dared to seize the national treasure. "