"Before the troops move, food and grass will come first." Since ancient times, no matter what famous general fights, ensuring their own food and destroying the enemy's food have been important considerations in every war. Sometimes when facing strong enemies, you don’t need to fight them directly. As long as you get stuck in his food and supplies, you can make a perfect comeback.
However, there was an emperor in history: when he was running away, he was suggested to burn food and grass by his ministers, but he insisted on leaving the food and grass for use by the rebels. Isn’t this a disguised enemy? Is it stupid or too kind? The proposer of this weird idea is the famous Tang Xuanzong Li Longji.
Li Longji is a very complicated emperor. On the one hand, he was one of the few wise kings in history and created the Kaiyuan prosperous era ; but on the other hand, he was a foolish king, and he personally pushed Tang Dynasty to Anshi Rebellion . Since the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty has basically not recovered, and it has been a warlord melee.
As a wise king, Li Longji doesn't want to do this. The reason why he did this is because he overestimated his ability to control. At that time, the Li Tang Dynasty had to deal with various aristocratic families, so it simply introduced a large number of foreign nomadic peoples and used them to compete with the aristocratic families.
and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was a master in this field. On the one hand, he handed over military affairs to a large number of nomadic peoples to manage, and on the other hand, he handed over politics to aristocratic families to manage. These two groups were originally incompatible, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang deliberately added fuel to the fire among them, making both sides want to be divided into one by one.
In this way, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was relieved: because these two groups of people fought to the death, they would come to him to suppress each other, so Emperor Xuanzong of Tang could play with them in his palm. But he played it off. At that time, the Sogdians An Lushan had 150,000 elite Tang troops in his hands, while the Prime Minister Yang Guozhong was very dissatisfied with An Lushan, and the two fought to the death.
Even Yang Guozhong told Tang Xuanzong that An Lushan was going to rebel. This made An Lushan very nervous, because if he was not careful, he might be really judged to be rebellious. In addition, An Lushan is not a loyal minister or a filial son, so he simply took advantage of the fact that Xuanzong is not paying attention to it and he really rebelled.
Now Xuanzong was frightened: Almost most of the elite Tang army were at the hands of An Lushan. What should he do if An Lushan rebels? Sure enough, Tang Jun faced An Lushan's rebellion and had almost no resistance. Because An Lushan brought all the elites of the Tang army, it was very difficult for the other Tang army to defeat An Lushan.
Not long after, An Lushan fought to the capital of the Tang Dynasty. This time, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang knew that the matter had been completely ruined, so he quickly took his concubines and ministers in the harem to embark on the road of escape. However, before they escape, they had an important issue to deal with: what to do with the food and grass in the capital, as well as various other wealth?
Tangdu is an ancient capital of several dynasties, and it can be said to be extremely prosperous; and as the wealthy Tangdu capital, a large amount of food, gold, silver and jewelry and various other rare treasures were stored here. The ministers all suggested to Emperor Xuanzong of Tang to burn all the food, grass, and these gold, silver and jewelry! How can such a good thing be cheaper than An Lushan, a thief?
Burn the food and grass, and An Lushan's army is likely to be short of food. Even the elite troops are hungry for ten days and half a month, and the Tang army can easily control them. At that time, the Tang army could defeat An Lushan in one go. However, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang firmly opposed it.
He said that these grains must not be burned and must be kept for An Lushan and the others. Because, once the Tang army burned the food here, An Lushan could not find the food, and he would definitely attack the nearby people and plunder the people cruelly, causing the people to be in dire straits.
And as an emperor, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang felt that he could not do such unkind and righteous things. In the end, the ministers could not resist Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, so they really did not burn the food and left all the food to An Lushan's rebels.This not only encouraged the strength of the rebels, but also indirectly protected the people in the capital.
However, is Emperor Xuanzong of Tang really just trying to protect the people? Obviously not. If he really wants to protect the people, then he shouldn't have played with fire before, so that An Lushan and Yang Guozhong would fight to the death. If he wasn't playing with fire so much, how could An Lushan's rebels be there now? Naturally, he did not need to maintain his benevolence and righteousness by supplying rebel food.
The reason why he had to keep food and other gold, silver and jewelry was, in addition to protecting the people, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang had another meaning. At that time, An Lushan and the others actually had their own birthplaces very bitter and cold; their tribes were short of supplies, so they were particularly greedy for money and property.
. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang left food, gold, silver, jewelry and other rare treasures, which inevitably led to An Lushan and others fighting for money and property. In this way, the rebels would have a brief chaos, and An Lushan's army would not be able to catch up with Emperor Xuanzong of Tang in time. Therefore, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang insisted on keeping food, which was actually leaving a way out for himself.
