High Tang and the An Lushan RebellionExpansion eras
712–763
High Tang and the An Lushan Rebellion (712–763). You start as Guardsman and could rise all the way to General, if you survive. This era covers 41 historical battles.
Play free in your browserRanks
- Guardsman
- Mess leader
- Platoon leader
- Company commander
- Battalion commander
- Commandant
- General
Historical battles
| Year | Battle | Est. casualties |
|---|---|---|
| 712 | Battle of LengxingSun Quan, commander-in-chief of Youzhou, led his troops beyond the frontier against the Xi, was ambushed at Lengxing, and his whole army was routed. Sun Quan was captured, handed over to the Turks, and killed. | ≈30% |
| 714 | Battle of BeitingQapaghan Qaghan of the Turks sent his son Tongo Tegin to besiege Beiting. Tongo rode up to the walls alone, and picked men that the protector-general Guo Qianguan had hidden in wait burst out and cut him down. | ≈5% |
| 714 | Battle of Wujie StationA hundred thousand Tibetans invaded Lintao and Weiyuan and drove off the government's herds of horses. Wang Jun picked seven hundred men, dressed them in barbarian clothes and raided the enemy camp by night, then joined Xue Ne at Wujie and crushed the Tibetans. | ≈12% |
| 714 | Battle of the Tao RiverThe Tang army chased the Tibetans all the way to the Tao River and fought another great battle at Changzi. So many Tibetans died that, it is said, the Tao River stopped flowing. | ≈15% |
| 715 | Battle of FerghanaAlutar, put on the throne of Ferghana by Tibet and the Arabs, had seized the kingdom. The censor Zhang Xiaosong marched west with the Anxi troops and soldiers from the states of the Western Regions and stormed the city Alutar held. | ≈5% |
| 717 | Battle of BohuanThe Türgesh, allied with the Arabs and the Tibetans, besieged the Anxi towns of Bohuan and Dashi. The Anxi protector-general Tang Jiahui brought in Karluk horsemen to relieve them, and the Four Garrisons were saved. | ≈8% |
| 727 | Fall of GuazhouThe Tibetan general Xinuoluo stormed Guazhou and captured its prefect, Tian Yuanxian. He carried off all the army grain in the city and tore down the walls before he left. | ≈35% |
| 727 | Battle of GuazhouThe new prefect, Zhang Shougui, had barely put up the wooden frames for the new walls when the Tibetans came again. He set out wine and music on the walls. Suspecting an ambush, the Tibetans didn't dare attack, and as they pulled back he went after them and beat them. | ≈8% |
| 729 | Capture of ShibaoLi Yi, Prince of Xin'an and military governor of Shuofang, drove his troops day and night and took the Tibetan fortress of Shibao. The court stationed the Zhenwu Army there. | ≈10% |
| 733 | Battle of Mount DuGuo Yingjie, deputy commander-in-chief of the Youzhou circuit, fought the Khitan leader Ketuyu at Mount Du with ten thousand horsemen. The Xi who had come with him pulled out mid-battle, and Guo Yingjie was killed. The six thousand men left refused to surrender, and every one of them died fighting. | ≈50% |
| 736 | Campaign Against the Xi and KhitanAn Lushan, punitive commissioner of Pinglu, trusted his own courage, pushed ahead recklessly, and was badly beaten. The military governor Zhang Shougui asked for him to be beheaded, but Emperor Xuanzong pardoned him. | ≈25% |
| 737 | Battle of QinghaiThe eunuch Zhao Huicong passed off a forged imperial order and forced Cui Xiyi, military governor of Hexi, to break the treaty with Tibet. Cui Xiyi drove more than two thousand li into Tibetan land and crushed the Tibetans west of Lake Qinghai. | ≈10% |
| 738 | Battle of AnrongWang Yu, military governor of Jiannan, besieged the Tibetan fortress of Anrong. Tibet sent a great army to relieve it; the Tang were badly beaten and lost both of their newly built forts, and Wang Yu escaped alone. | ≈25% |
| 739 | Battle of SuyabCivil war broke out among the Türgesh, and Gai Jiayun, military governor west of the desert, stormed Suyab and captured the Türgesh ruler, Tuhuoxian Qaghan, alive. | ≈12% |
| 741 | Fall of ShibaoA great Tibetan army stormed Dahua county, massacred its people, and took back the fortress of Shibao. | ≈35% |
| 747 | Battle of Little BalurGao Xianzhi led ten thousand horsemen across the Pamirs, took the Tibetan fort of Lianyun, then crossed the ice-bound Darkot Pass, captured the King of Little Balur, and cut the rattan bridge that led to Tibet. | ≈15% |
| 749 | Battle of ShibaoGeshu Han gathered sixty-three thousand men to attack Shibao. There were only a few hundred Tibetans inside, but they held out for days. The fortress fell in the end, and tens of thousands of Tang soldiers died taking it. | ≈60% |
| 750 | Campaign Against ChachGao Xianzhi, military governor of Anxi, pretended to make peace with Chach, then struck when they were off guard, captured the king, and killed the old and weak in the city. The king's son escaped and went to the Arabs for help. | ≈3% |
| 750 | Fall of Yunnan CommanderyZhang Qiantuo, governor of Yunnan, abused Geluofeng, King of Nanzhao. Geluofeng rose, stormed Yunnan Commandery, and killed Zhang Qiantuo. | ≈35% |
| 751 | Battle of the Xi'er RiverXianyu Zhongtong, military governor of Jiannan, marched against Nanzhao with eighty thousand men. Geluofeng sent envoys to apologize and ask for peace; Xianyu Zhongtong refused. The armies met at the Xi'er River, and sixty thousand Tang soldiers died. | ≈50% |
| 751 | Battle of TalasGao Xianzhi led thirty thousand Han and allied troops more than seven hundred li west and met the Arab army at Talas. After five days of deadlock, the Karluks who had come with him switched sides in mid-battle. The Tang army was routed, and only a few thousand made it home. | ≈45% |
| 751 | Battle of the Tuhuzhen RiverAn Lushan led sixty thousand men against the Khitan. It rained for days on end, softening the glue and sinew of the bows and crossbows, and then the Xi guides turned on them. The Tang army was almost wiped out. An Lushan took an arrow and got back with only twenty-odd horsemen. | ≈45% |
| 753 | Battle of Great BalurFeng Changqing, military governor of Anxi, attacked Great Balur. His vanguard won battle after battle, and his officer Duan Xiushi warned him to watch for an ambush. Feng Changqing had the hills searched, and sure enough they found the hidden troops and crushed the enemy. | ≈5% |
| 754 | Battle of TaiheLi Mi led seventy thousand men against Nanzhao again and was drawn on to the walls of Taihe. Nanzhao shut its gates and refused battle. The Tang ran out of food and were struck by jungle fever; seven or eight in ten died, and the whole army was lost in the retreat. Yang Guozhong reported a victory to the court. | ≈60% |
| 755 | Fall of LuoyangFeng Changqing hastily raised sixty thousand men in Luoyang, most of them townsmen who had never fought. One charge by the rebel cavalry, and they were beaten all the way from the Hulao Pass back into Luoyang. Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi fell back to the Tong Pass, and soon after, Xuanzong ordered them both executed. | ≈35% |
| 756 | Fall of ChangshanYan Gaoqing, governor of Changshan, rose against An Lushan, and seventeen commanderies of Hebei followed him. Shi Siming turned back and besieged the city. Food and arrows ran out, and the city fell. Yan Gaoqing was taken to Luoyang, where he cursed An Lushan to his face and kept cursing until he died. | ≈45% |
| 756 | Battle of YongqiuZhang Xun held the little town of Yongqiu against tens of thousands of men under Linghu Chao. When his arrows ran out, he lowered more than a thousand straw men dressed in black down the walls at night and collected hundreds of thousands of enemy arrows. | ≈10% |
| 756 | Battle of JiashanGuo Ziyi and Li Guangbi crushed Shi Siming at Jiashan and took forty thousand heads. Shi Siming fell from his horse and fled back to Boling barefoot, leaning on a broken spear. | ≈20% |
| 756 | Battle of Tong PassYang Guozhong distrusted Geshu Han, and Xuanzong sent envoy after envoy ordering him out of the pass. Beating his chest and weeping, Geshu Han led his army out, and on the western plain of Lingbao he fell into Cui Qianyou's ambush. Only some eight thousand men made it back to the Tong Pass. Soon after, his officer Huoba Guiren tied him up and handed him over to An Lushan. | ≈40% |
| 756 | Battle of ChentaoxieThe chancellor Fang Guan followed the old books and fought the ancient way, with two thousand ox carts drawn up as chariots. The rebels beat their drums and set fires with the wind behind them; the oxen panicked and stampeded, and more than forty thousand government troops were killed or wounded. | ≈40% |
| 757 | Battle of TaiyuanShi Siming besieged Taiyuan with a hundred thousand men. Li Guangbi had fewer than ten thousand. He dug trenches, made mud bricks and dug tunnels, held out for more than a month, and finally sallied out and crushed the rebels. | ≈15% |
| 757 | Battle of SuiyangZhang Xun and Xu Yuan held Suiyang with some six thousand men for nearly ten months, holding off well over a hundred thousand rebels and saving the lands of the Yangtze and the Huai. When the food ran out, the defenders ate the tree bark, the sparrows and the rats, and in the end they ate the people of the city. Suiyang fell in the tenth month. The relief army arrived three days later. | ≈60% |
| 757 | Battle of Xiangji TempleLi Chu, Prince of Guangping, drew up the Tang army and the Uyghur cavalry south of Chang'an. Li Siye stripped to the waist and stood at the front with a long blade, roaring as he charged; the Uyghur horsemen swung around behind the enemy, and sixty thousand heads were taken. The next day, Chang'an was retaken. | ≈30% |
| 757 | Battle of XindianGuo Ziyi met the rebels in a decisive battle at Xindian. The Uyghur cavalry charged down the hill into the enemy's rear, and the rebels collapsed. An Qingxu fled to Ye, and Luoyang was retaken. | ≈25% |
| 759 | Battle of YeThe armies of nine military governors besieged Ye for months, with no commander-in-chief — only the eunuch Yu Chao'en as army supervisor. Shi Siming came to the rescue with fifty thousand picked troops. As the armies clashed north of the Anyang River, a great wind suddenly rose, flinging sand and tearing up trees until day was as dark as night, and the government army fled south in a rout. | ≈15% |
| 759 | Battle of HeyangLi Guangbi gave up Luoyang and fell back to Heyang. He led five hundred mares to the riverbank and kept their foals tied up in the city. When the mares whinnied, more than a thousand of Shi Siming's warhorses swam across the river and were driven into the city. | ≈12% |
| 760 | Battle of HuaizhouLi Guangbi besieged Huaizhou for more than a hundred days, finally broke in, and captured its commander, An Taiqing, alive. | ≈15% |
| 761 | Battle of MangshanThe eunuch Yu Chao'en said the rebels could be beaten, and the court pressed Li Guangbi to attack Luoyang. Li Guangbi wanted to draw up against the hills; Pugu Huai'en insisted on the open plain. The rebels charged before the lines were formed, the government army was routed, and both Heyang and Huaizhou were lost. | ≈20% |
| 762 | Second Recapture of LuoyangLi Kuo, Prince of Yong, as Marshal of All the Armies, crushed Shi Chaoyi north of Luoyang with Pugu Huai'en and the Uyghur troops. The Uyghurs burned, killed and looted in the city, and the fires burned for dozens of days; the government troops joined in the looting for months. | ≈30% |
| 763 | Battle of MozhouSurrounded at Mozhou, Shi Chaoyi broke out and fled north. Li Huaixian of Fanyang had already gone over to the court, and Li Baozhong, who held the city, shut the gates against him. With nowhere left to go, Shi Chaoyi hanged himself in a wood. | ≈35% |
| 763 | Tibetan Capture of Chang'anTibet, joined by the Tuyuhun and Tangut, more than two hundred thousand in all, took advantage of the empty western frontier and fought their way into Chang'an. Emperor Daizong fled to Shanzhou. The Tibetans set up a puppet emperor in Chang'an and left only after fifteen days. | ≈25% |
Casualty rates are the game's estimates from historical sources, used to work out the chance of dying. Treat them as approximate.
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