? According to historical records, there was a precedent of litchi transported to the north as early as the Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty tasted litchi for the first time, about the first year of Jianyuan (BC 140), and Zhao Tuo, king of South Vietnam, presented some tributes, including litchi. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ate litchi and liked it very much. He also ordered people to build a rich palace in Shanglinyuan, hoping to transplant litchi trees. Most of them died of climate problems.
Litchi is particularly easy to go bad, and litchi trees can't be planted in Chang 'an. New Tang Book describes that Yang Guifei eats fresh litchi. "If you are addicted to litchi, you must want to have it. Riding a bike from 1000 miles away. The taste has not been changed to Beijing. " Bai Juyi wrote in the Preface to Litchi: "If you leave the branch, it will change color one day, become fragrant on the second day, become stale on the third day, and will not return for four or five days."
Lingnan area is too far away, and the traffic conditions in the Tang Dynasty can't guarantee freshness at all, so the litchi that Yang Guifei ate probably came from Sichuan. The history books of the Song Dynasty insist on this point. At that time, litchi was distributed in Zhongzhou and Zhoupei in Sichuan. For example, Ji Di Ji Sheng describes litchi in Zhangzhou. "Scorpion garden is in the west of the state, and it is five miles into the city. There are more than one hundred lychees, which are relatively fat. Don likes it very much.
? In my opinion, there is no possibility that the litchi eaten by Yang Guifei will be shipped from Lingnan. Even if Chang 'an moved from Lingnan, the fastest route should be: Shaoguan, Guangdong to Jiangxi, along the Ganjiang River to the north, through the Han River to Xiangyang, and then through Wuguan Road to Guannei. It takes at least four days to transport fast horses and water, and the backward refrigeration technology at that time meant that litchi went bad before it arrived in Chang 'an.
Sichuan litchi does not have this problem, because the transportation distance is far from Lingnan. For example, after picking fresh litchi from Zhoupei (now Fuling), it quickly went north to Tongzhou (Dazhou, Sichuan), passed through zhenba county, Shaanxi, entered Xixiang County, Shaanxi, and then entered Woods Valley Road to Chang 'an. Obviously, Tang Xuanzong wanted Yang Guifei to eat the freshest litchi, which meant that it had to be transported by post. Taoism is mainly used as a channel to transmit military supplies and military orders, but Tang Xuanzong gave litchi to Yang Guifei. Historical experts said, "From the moment when Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty decided to transport litchi by ramp, Yang Guifei was doomed to cause controversy." In fact, Yang Guifei's Eat a Litchi has been controversial for a long time. I think the biggest reason is that the Anshi Rebellion broke out quickly.
If the Anshi Rebellion hadn't broken out, it would be a good story that Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty ordered Yang Guifei to send litchi. It is romantic for the emperor to do such a thing for his beloved woman, and it is also easy to be praised by literati. More importantly, the transportation of litchi all the way confirmed the weather in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.