"Is it my fault?" Zhao Bing was stunned for a while after hearing this. Is it wrong for his favor and loyal ministers?

"Your Majesty is close to loyal and kind, and is far from villains, and there is no fault. However, rumors can also kill people. The Jiang brothers are trusted by Your Majesty and have entrusted important tasks. One is the prime minister to take charge of the government; the other is the commander to command 100,000 troops and govern half of the Jiangnan region. Those who are wise are the masters who know people and use them well, while those who are not wise believe that they are respectful and have the heart of being unjust." Wang Yinglin said.

"This is to judge a gentleman by his villain's heart. He is jealous of the Jiang family and spread rumors and causes trouble. Some people in the court cannot see others' good deeds!" Zhao Bing snorted coldly and said hatefully.

"Your Majesty, don't be in front of you. There are loyal ministers and good generals available now, but it is difficult to guarantee that everyone will be as loyal as Jiang Zhishou in the future. You should still focus on the long term." Wang Yinglin said after the emperor calmed down a little.

"Yeah!" Zhao Bing nodded thoughtfully after hearing this. He understood the meaning, but still couldn't grasp the point.

"Your Majesty, can you tell me why Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was overwhelmed and declined, stopped his division and finally destroyed the country?" Wang Yinglin looked at His Majesty's appearance and knew that his words had touched the emperor's heart, and then asked.

"I only know the roughness. In his later years, Emperor Xuanzong favored treacherous and indulged in Yang Guifei and ignored political affairs, which triggered the Anshi Rebellion and led to the decline of the Tang Dynasty. But he didn't know the details, and he would like to listen to the king's teachings!" Zhao Bing bowed.

"I dare not!" Wang Yinglin returned the courtesy, "Your Majesty said correctly. Xuanzong was debauchery and neglected political affairs in his later years, which led to the treacherous and slanderous rule and triggered the Anshi Rebellion. But I think the Anshi Rebellion was just the cause, and the real reason was the internal cause..."

Zhao Bing listened to his story and gradually understood the meaning. He thought that the decline of the Tang Dynasty and the outbreak of the "Anshi Rebellion" were just a fuse, which led to the "crisis" that had been laid long ago in the Tang Empire:

First of all, there was the central conflict between Xuanzong and Suzong. After the An Lushan rebellion, Xuanzong appointed princes and royal families and established a large military region to deal with the development of the war. Especially when Tongguan was defeated and Xuanzong and Suzong parted ways, this strategy became more obvious. But undoubtedly, this policy also intensified the father-son conflict between Xuanzong and Suzong.

The replacement of Henan Jiedu candidates and the "Yongwang Rebellion" that broke out in the Jianghuai River were the manifestations of this central contradiction. This crisis was eventually ended with Emperor Suzong of Tang reaching the throne at the suggestion of his subordinates, and respecting Xuanzong as the Supreme Emperor, winning the struggle against Xuanzong's central government, that is, the Tang Central Committee returned to the 1st Yuan rule and ending.

The second wave of crisis came from emerging local military generals. Although the establishment of a large military region was no longer continued, Suzong, who replaced Xuanzong, still set up the Henan Xingying Marshal and Jianghuai Governor who had the power to rule the towns on the vassal states for the need to fight rebellion and war.

However, whether it was setting up a marshal in Henan or a magistrate in Jianghuai, Suzong was particularly concerned about Henan local military generals who had strengthened their power through the Anshi Rebellion, although most of them had played a key role in resisting the rebels' southward journey, such as Zhang Xun. Therefore, Suzong had both the efforts to use the Henan Marshal to remove these local military generals, and also had the determination to rely on the Jianghuai Rebellion to suppress them. However, the latter's failure eventually led to the "Liu Zhan Rebellion". With the implementation of the above measures, by the end of the Suzong Dynasty, this crisis, also caused by the Anshi Rebellion, was declared over.

The third wave of crisis originated from the alien races in the west. Dangxiang and Tubo took advantage of the Tang army in the west to quell the rebellion in the east, gradually eroded the western territory of the empire, and posed a serious threat to Guanzhong after the Anshi Rebellion. The successive establishment of the eight towns in the northwest of the capital was the measures taken by the empire to deal with this alien crisis. Although this wave of crisis lasted for a long time and its resolution was mainly related to the decline of the strength of the alien races such as Tubo, during the establishment and adjustment of the defense system of the eight towns in the northwest of the capital and the Shence Jun Town, it can still be seen that the careful considerations made by the Tang court to resolve this crisis.

The central struggle mentioned above, the threats from the central government, emerging local military generals, and alien races to the empire are the three waves of crises caused by the Anshi Rebellion. The time when the empire resolved these crises was different, and the impact of the three on the empire was also different in terms of geographical location. However, these three were not the most important crises encountered by the empire after the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, but the contradictions caused in particular severely hit the empire's survival and authority.

"It makes sense that the defeat of the Tang Dynasty was essentially the defeat in the national system. The main contradiction came from the contradiction between the Tang court and the Jiedushi of the border town. The Anshi Rebellion was just caused by the intensification of the contradiction. After the rebellion, this contradiction not only did not ease, but instead implemented the policy of establishing universal vassal states to achieve the goal of suppressing the vassal states. However, the war between the Tang court and the northern vassal states led by these original border forces was ignited again after the chaos. The rebellion of the Four Towns, the Fengtian Difficulty, and the war in the later period of the Yuanhe. The process of resolving this crisis can actually be regarded as a process of reconstructing the spatial structure and power structure of the vassal states, which is for us to learn from!" Zhao Bing nodded and said.

He analyzed Wang Yinglin's words briefly and found that it was not difficult to get an answer based on what he knew. In fact, the people of the Tang Dynasty themselves realized that the most serious crisis in the empire actually originated from a chronic disease in the system itself, which was the existence of a powerful Jiedu group in the border areas of the Tang Dynasty.

Specifically, it is the Ten Jiedushi during the Kaiyuan and Tianbao period. Among the Ten Jiedushi in Kaitian, in addition to the Jiannan and Lingnan five prefectures in the south, the power of Youzhou, Pinglu, Hedong, Shuofang, Hexi, Longyou, Anxi and Beiting in the north all had strong military forces. Before the Anshi Rebellion, as Du You said, two major military groups, namely Youzhou, Pinglu, Hedong, and Hexi and Longyou, led by Geshuhan, had been formed.

Faced with the rebellion from the Northeast Legion, Xuanzong first thought of using the Western Legion to resist. So in addition to a group of generals from the Western Legion who were successively sent to Henan, the troops in Hexi and Longyou also began to gather in Tongguan. However, the troops in Hexi and Longyou were defeated in the subsequent battle of Lingbao, and the leader of this group, Geshuhan, was also defeated and captured. Therefore, the forces in Hexi and Longyou were basically disintegrated.

However, although the Western Legion suffered severe damage through the Lingbao Battle, Su, who fought against the rebels after Xuanzong, had to rely on these border town forces before the chaos to deal with the rebels, besides borrowing the Uighur army. This was not because they wanted to do so, but because the Tang court had no other power to utilize except the army of these border governors.

The Anshi Rebellion ended in the early years of Daizong, but the rebellion was not completely quelled. After the chaos, Hebei was still occupied by the old generals of Anshi from Youzhou and Pinglu. For those original border corps that quelled the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Ting had to give them on-site treatment in the mainland after the chaos. This was not only an appropriate measure to praise the heroes, but also an inevitable result of resettling the border military governors who had to lead their troops to the mainland due to the loss of the border land.

Therefore, after the wartime system of the Henan Xingying Marshal, the territory of the northern vassal states after the chaos was almost entirely occupied by the border town forces before the chaos. Except for Youzhou, the old generals of Anshi from Pinglu occupied Hebei; the Pinglu forces who helped the Tang court to quell the rebellion dominated Henan; Guanzhong was divided by Shuofang, Sizhen Beiting, and later Youzhou soldiers.

In addition, some remaining troops in Hexi and Longyou entered Hedong; as for the Jianghuai area in the south, although it has no relationship with the power of the border Jiedushi, some foreign military generals who gradually settled in the local area after the Anshi Rebellion, especially the Central Plains generals and their subordinates, had greatly influenced the local political trend, so it might be better to regard it as the result of border rebellion.

"Your Majesty's intention is to hit the nail on the head." Wang Yinglin praised, "The traditional historical view believes that the establishment of vassal states in the mainland after the Anshi Rebellion was an act of weakening its own dominance and promoting local separatist rule. However, if the political entities in these vassal states were compared with the border governors before the chaos, it can be regarded as the eight years of Anshi Rebellion. The strength of the previous border military towns, whether it was the Northeast towns that came from the rebels or the Northwest towns that blocked the rebels, had actually been greatly weakened."

"However, as Your Majesty said, this is an opportunity for the Tang court to resolve the strong border and the weak court, but the authority of the Tang court itself has also suffered a heavy blow, only to solve the crisis of Du You saying that "the strong border is so, and the weak court is just like that". However, overall, the trend of the rise of local forces is still there. So on the one hand, after the end of the Dajun Town crisis, the momentum of the imperial court becoming stronger by controlling the upper class of the vassal states has been reflected in the vassal states. However, the real dominance of the vassal states has been moved to the hands of those emerging local grassroots forces, causing a more serious crisis."

"Yes, with the victory of the war of slashing the vassals, the officials of the court, especially a large number of civil servants, were sent to various vassal states to serve as commanders of the vassal states or subordinates of the shogunate, and successfully re-determined the power structure of the vassal states. It seemed that the court had restored its authority. But in fact, these officials appointed by the court did not become forces controlling the vassal states and truly replaced the emerging local forces." Zhao Bing said.
Chapter completed!