[Lightscreen]
[By this point, thanks to An Lushan's years of
careful "network maintenance," and because Zhang Shougui's battlefield record was simply too dazzling, An Lushan had already farmed enough invisible impression points in Emperor Xuanzong's mind.
And as for Zhang Shougui's actions, Xuanzong's interpretation was straightforward to the point of being naive:
If An Lushan truly deserved death, then why not execute him on the spot in Youzhou?
Why go through the trouble of escorting him thousands of li to Chang'an?
But the famed minister Zhang Jiuling firmly disagreed.
The law could not be bent, he argued.
If An Lushan was not executed, disaster would inevitably follow.
Here, Xuanzong produced an example so perfectly chosen that it almost bordered on dark comedy:
"You must not, like Wang Yifu, presume to recognize another Shi Le and thereby harm loyal men."
This referenced a well-known anecdote from the magical Jin dynasty histories:
Wang Yan, in his youth, allegedly took one look at Shi Le and declared him a born rebel, wishing to kill him—but failing to do so.
Xuanzong's citation carried two layers of meaning.
First:
Do not imagine yourself a man born with prophetic eyes like Wang Yan.
Second—and more importantly:
This is the Great Tang, a flourishing empire at its zenith.
Who, exactly, would bother rebelling?
Of course, we all know the truth.
Wang Yan was a complete waste of oxygen who later wagged his tail before Shi Le like a beaten dog.
This "foresight" story was most likely a later fabrication by the Wang clan, desperately trying to scrub the stain from their ancestor's reputation.
But used here, the anecdote becomes pitch-black humor.
Zhang Jiuling was right.
An Lushan really would rebel.
But the verdict had already been rendered.
An Lushan suffered no punishment whatsoever and was sent straight back to Youzhou.
From this episode, An Lushan extracted the core survival rule of Chang'an officialdom:
The emperor is Heaven.
After that, he doubled down—pouring even more money into bribing court officials, ensuring praise in Xuanzong's presence.
And the returns came swiftly.
In 742, An Lushan was appointed Military Commissioner of Pinglu.
From obscure nobody to frontier commander in under ten years—
a promotion speed so outrageous it left people slack-jawed.
By comparison, a full decade later, An Sishun was still merely Prefect of Taozhou.]
Chengdu.
Zhang Fei smacked his lips loudly.
"If Lü Bu had even half of this man's scheming ability…"
Then he turned toward Liu Bei, eyes lighting up.
"Brother, I suddenly thought of the perfect line to persuade this Emperor Xuanzong."
"?"
Liu Bei shot him a puzzled look.
Zhang Fei cleared his throat and deliberately mimicked Liu Bei's cadence and tone:
"Have you never seen the affair of Ding Jianyang and Dong Zhuo?"
The hall instantly erupted in laughter.
Even Liu Bei, fingers pinching the tip of his beard, could only laugh helplessly along.
Yet beneath the humor, Liu Bei felt a trace of regret.
"This Xuanzong has a famous minister at hand, yet refuses to use him.
Is this not self-destruction?"
If Liu Bei remembered correctly, this might well be the first time later generations applied the title "famous minister" with such weight.
Zhang Jiuling truly possessed the caliber to deserve it.
But still…
Liu Bei glanced sideways at Kongming.
Compared to Zhuge Liang—how would he measure up?
Kongming, utterly oblivious to Liu Bei's gaze, was rubbing his temples at the Wang Yan–Shi Le anecdote.
"The Wang clan truly has thick skin."
To him, the story didn't demonstrate foresight at all.
It demonstrated someone foreseeing his own burial beneath an earthen wall.
Unfathomable.
Worthy indeed of the title Magical Jin Histories.
Thus Kongming moved on, focusing on the structural issue instead:
"Zhang Shougui and An Sishun were both promoted from common status.
Even An Lushan, starting as a nobody, caught Zhang Shougui's eye—this too was built on military merit."
"If the military merit system had not already decayed, how could An Lushan ever rise so high?"
Fa Zheng instantly understood.
And, as always, his mouth was merciless:
"Only now do we understand why later generations cursed Xuanzong for dying too late."
…
Ganlu Hall
Li Jing, ever restrained, merely commented:
"Zhang Shougui deserved execution."
Hou Junji was far less polite.
"I have never heard of a deserter spared, nor of defeat without punishment."
"To trifle with military law like this—
where are the lives of the soldiers placed?"
For men like them, nothing was more intolerable than the inversion of military justice.
And they knew their emperor shared this view.
After all, His Majesty had not unified the realm through tactics alone, but through armies that dared to die.
Clear rewards.
Clear punishments.
Only then would soldiers give their lives.
Sure enough, Li Shimin's expression darkened, teeth grinding audibly:
"I should send these fine descendants to the battlefield for a few rounds of slaughter.
Let them learn what brotherhood in arms truly means!"
He had once believed An Lushan a buried battlefield talent.
Instead—expected, yet still infuriating—he was utterly incompetent in war.
And yet such a man could command tens of thousands of Tang troops.
The military discipline and authority Li Shimin had forged with blood and sweat—
was being casually squandered by his descendant.
At last, Li Shimin clenched his fist and let out a bitter sigh:
"What a fine case of a grandson selling off his grandfather's land without a shred of heartache."
Wei Zheng seemed about to speak, but Li Shimin waved him off.
"Xuan Cheng, no need. I know."
"To govern troops is to govern the realm.
Troops are water; generals are boats.
They can carry—or overturn."
Li Shimin stared at the light-screen image:
a rotund barbarian dancing, slapping his belly,
while above him sat an emperor drowned in luxury, laughing without restraint.
Same Tang.
Yet utterly weird.
[Lightscreen]
[From 742 to 751—these ten years were An Lushan's golden decade.
Ten years of meteoric ascent.
Ten years of groveling flattery and indulgent pandering.
Records of An Lushan flattering Emperor Xuanzong are too numerous to count.
For example:
When entering court, he bowed only to the emperor, ignoring the crown prince.
Someone reminded him that the prince would one day inherit the throne.
Xuanzong laughed heartily.
"The crown prince is merely my successor after death."
An Lushan immediately burst into tears, sobbing as he proclaimed:
"How could a Son of Heaven like you ever die?"
Or consider this:
He recognized Yang Yuhuan—sixteen years his junior—as his adoptive mother.
Each palace visit, he paid respects to her first, insisting that among barbarians, one always bows to one's mother before all else.
Xuanzong found this "innocent" and "straightforward."
In reality, a man who survived over a decade as a middleman, who navigated Chang'an's bribery networks with surgical precision, knew perfectly well which gate opened to which household.
Frankly speaking, if An Lushan had been born female, Yang Yuhuan wouldn't have stood a chance in the harem.
The rewards for such "foolish sincerity" were enormous.
Xuanzong granted An Lushan an opulent mansion—
even the kitchenware was gilded in gold and silver.
Yang Yuhuan hosted a lavish washing ceremony for her "three-year-old son,"
preparing a gigantic swaddling cloth for the nearly fifty-year-old An Lushan.
Imagine it:
a middle-aged obese man, belly sagging to his knees,
surrounded by palace concubines calling him "Lu'er" and celebrating his birthday.
In some sense—yes.
This truly was the High Tang.
From then on, An Lushan entered the palace without announcement, often staying overnight in the inner quarters.
When someone raised objections, Xuanzong brushed them aside—and even scolded the adviser.
Thus An Lushan became, in practice, second only to the emperor himself.
744: currently Military Commissioner of Fanyang
747: appointed Censor-in-Chief
751: requested the final piece—Hedong Military Commissionership—granted
In 754, Xuanzong even sought to appoint An Lushan as Grand Chancellor with authority equal to the Secretariat.
Only Yang Guozhong blocked it.
But honestly—it was already far too late.
From the moment An Lushan held three frontier commands, everything that followed was inevitable.
After all, give anyone command of 183,900 troops, and three realizations will follow in sequence:
"This throne looks rather comfortable."
"Why am I not allowed to sit on it?"
"I refuse."]
[ Server Chat Log]
VoidBreak: Host, This three-step realization came way too fast.
Proper procedure should be: sword-and-shoes court entry, no-name obeisance, Nine Bestowals, Grand Marshal, Commander of All Forces, Prince of Qi.
NerdGoMid: Early Li Longji could still be called incompetent.
Late Li Longji was pure reality-avoidance.
NoobPlay: Reality always beats fiction—because reality doesn't care about logic.
HitStrike: Just like Li Longji openly stealing his daughter-in-law earlier and declaring himself clear of conscience.
NoCarry: If Zhu Di—who needed 800 guards to seize power—saw this, he'd die of envy.
With this army, why bother with Zhu Yunwen? Just declare Yan on the spot.
Zhao Kuangyin: The era of military governors begins here. By heavenly mandate I must reflect.
Li Shimin: Despicable vermin! How dare he dream of the throne!!!!!
Chengdu
Kongming had no time for anything else.
His brush flew as he rapidly recorded this new named commentator.
Judging by the phrasing and surname—
a Song dynasty emperor?
Should he test the waters later?
As for Emperor Taizong's outburst—
Kongming could only say: completely understandable.
In fact, he sighed inwardly once more:
Compared to this, he had absolutely no complaints about Ah Dou.
Others, meanwhile, were far more stunned by the troop numbers.
"How—how many?!"
Zhang Fei leapt to his feet.
"Give me half of that and I'll personally drag Cao Traitor back and cut the head!"
Even Zhao Yun, usually unreadable, was visibly shaken.
Liu Bei's first reaction was envy.
His second was: If only I had such forces…
Only then did he wipe imaginary drool and sigh:
The Han had seen incompetent emperors before—but never one this extravagantly incompetent.
This was not an estimate.
This was a precise figure.
A real army.
With no logistics concerns, An Lushan alone could sweep aside Sun, Cao, and Liu alike.
Fa Zheng's brow creased deeply.
He swallowed his envy, but his tongue remained sharp:
"If no one stopped Xuanzong, would the next step be crowning An Lushan crown prince?"
And in his heart, Xuanzong's evaluation plummeted yet again.
You trust this kind of flattery—are you sure your mind is intact?
Xu Shu shook his head.
Even the map of the world shown earlier hadn't shocked him like this.
He murmured softly:
"The authority of Heaven… privately bestowed."
Chaos, captivity, Xuchang—
Xu Shu understood better than most:
An emperor without troops has already lost his mandate.
Zhang Song stared blankly, doubting the light-screen itself for the first time.
"This is the Great Tang?"
"How can this be called the Great Tang?"