After the Anshi Rebellion subsided, the number of buffer regions surged. At that time, many generals who had meritorious military service in the counter-insurgency process needed awards, so the court appointed a group of our envoys. There are so many agreements that "the square town is against the mainland." At the same time, some surrendered Anshi veterans need to be resettled. The imperial court was worried that they would defect and restart the war, so it adopted a policy of appeasement to them, and took out three towns of Heshuo (that is, three towns north of the Yellow River, including Weibo, Chengde and Youzhou) to settle them and let them be our times. Putting these rebellious ministers and experts in the three towns of Heshuo, which are beyond the reach of the imperial court, entrusted us with the heavy responsibility of our time, and the future troubles will be endless, laying the foundation for long-term turmoil in the future.
The problem of the buffer region is that the power is too heavy, there is no restriction and the court is out of control. In the early Tang Dynasty, the vassal areas were only in charge of the local army (not all). The imperial court appointed the secretariat to be in charge of administration and part of the army; At the same time, the governor is appointed to appease, support, plow and transport grain, and is responsible for inspecting officials, inspecting war-torn or disaster-stricken areas, managing finances, presiding over land reclamation and dispatching grain respectively. Soon, the ambassadors for inspection, appeasement, support, farming and transshipment were all concurrently appointed by our ambassador; Not only that, our times also dominate the secretariats of every country. In this way, all the troops in the territory are under the control of our army and hold various powers such as political power and financial power. They arbitrarily expand their troops in the territory, appoint officials and collect taxes. Don't report your household registration to the court, and don't let the court appoint officials in the jurisdiction to collect taxes. The three towns of Heshuo grew rapidly and had the strength to compete with the imperial court.
Under the appointment of our time, Tian recruited soldiers' children as bodyguards, known as "tooth soldiers" or "tooth army", which was well paid and loved. With a long history, father and son attacked each other, forming a complicated force. The tooth soldiers were originally private forces used by the buffer region to protect themselves and take the lead. Later, due to the expansion of their power, they became a terrible force to seize the buffer region. They "changed commanders and played with each other." The same is true of towns such as Chengde and Youzhou. The pursuit of handsome soldiers has been going on for 200 years. In the Five Dynasties, the wind was still very strong.
We abolished the dental army in the first year of Tang Suzong Gan Yuan (758). When Wang Xuan died in Pinglu, the Ministry will kill the son of Wang Xuan and make his relatives Pinglu envoys. The imperial court made a compromise, acknowledged the fait accompli and chose Hou as our deputy. Sima Guang commented on this matter in "Learning from Our Fathers": In a national event such as appointing an envoy, the court only sent a eunuch to the relevant town and asked him to inspect the mood of the sergeant. It is really an era of indulgence, when the court appointed the sergeant to be whoever he wanted. "Naturally, since then, the habits have been common, and the monarch and the minister have followed suit, thinking that there is a strategy, which is called the beginning of profit." "If the foot soldiers can get the ling pet, they will get the ling pet, and the general will be the son of heaven, which is a natural trend." "Because of the disaster, the military revolution continued, and the people fell into a sea of fire without complaint, which lasted for more than 200 years." It was later established by Pinglu Tooth Army, which made a very bad start. The imperial court didn't stop him, and there was nothing to hide from the tooth army in other buffer regions, so they all followed suit.
I once discussed the buffer zone with Prime Minister Du. Du said: "Dezong experienced hardships and played a palliative role. He won't give birth to a handsome man. If he has anything, as long as he asks the military for advice in advance, he will be granted it. If China's envoys or private generals take bribes, they will praise them, that is, demote them, and there is no intention of the court. "
The general idea is that Tang Dezong indulges in the buffer region, and our time is alive, so he dare not dismiss it. After the death of our time, we dare to send eunuchs to "examine the military situation." The eunuch was bribed and returned to the imperial court. When he spoke well of this man, the imperial court awarded him the symbol "Jiecheng", which represents the strength of our times. At that time, the imperial court could not appoint our envoys according to its own wishes.
Emperors such as Tang Dezong carried out the policy of appeasement to the buffer region, leaving the burdens and contradictions to future generations, so that problems piled up and it was difficult to return.
The Book of the New Tang Dynasty, edited by Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi in the Song Dynasty, holds that the growing strength of the buffer region and the decline of the Tang Dynasty are the inevitable results of the court's major decision-making mistakes and the corruption of the military system in the Tang Dynasty. The Book of the New Tang Dynasty: After the middle Tang Dynasty, "powerful ministers and fierce generals spread all over the world, and the son of heaven also stationed troops in the capital, which was called the imperial army. After that, the emperor was weak, Fang Zhenqiang and Sui Tang were destroyed, which was also due to the situation. "
The history of the demise of the Tang Dynasty caused by the separatist regime in the Tang Dynasty has at least left the following lessons for future generations:
First, the army should be directly and firmly controlled by the central government, and should not be the general's private army or the general's private soldiers.
Second, the general's power should not be too great, nor should it be so great that the court is out of control. We can't hand over all administrative and financial powers except military power to the generals, let them appoint and dismiss civil and military officials privately, and collect taxes and expand the army at will. If all these powers are given to them, they will have the capital to establish an independent kingdom. When the court wants to limit them, there is nothing they can do. "New Tang Book" puts it well: Fan Zhen "has its place, its people, its armour and its wealth, depending on the risks"; The result is that "Fang Zhen is strong and Shi Jing is weak", and the improper behavior of the imperial court will inevitably lead to such a result.
Third, the general and the army should be combined and divided. Don't always have an army under the command of a general. A general always has that army. The general can't stay in one place for long. The generals of the Iron Battalion should move between different regions and different troops according to a certain number of years. It is impossible for them to support their troops and respect themselves. It is impossible for them to combine with the army for their own selfish interests and turn the army into a tool to achieve their personal goals.
Fourth, we should carefully choose generals. On the issue of appointing generals, we should implement the principle of "suspecting people without using them". You can't appoint unreliable people to defend one side and fight alone. The Tang Dynasty used the old general An Shi as our envoy, and the three towns in Hebei were no longer owned by the imperial court. This lesson is too painful.
Fifth, the imperial court should have the power to appoint and dismiss military generals, not in name only, and not stand aside. No matter who he is, whether he is an envoy or an emissary, he can be transferred or removed at the command.
Sixth, military generals should also have supervision. However, it was a big mistake to use eunuchs as military supervisors in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. As the eunuch of the army, he was quickly bought by the buffer region, which contributed to the separatist regime in the buffer region. It may be a feasible method in ancient times to involve hundreds of civil and military officials and use literature to control martial arts.
Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, learned lessons from the chaos and collapse of the Tang Dynasty and the five dynasties' separatist regime, stripped the imperial generals and the military power of the buffer regions, and strengthened centralization, which finally ended the situation of the buffer regions' separatist regime for more than 200 years since the middle Tang Dynasty.