December 16, 755 · Fanyang (near modern Beijing) Theater
December 16, 755
The most powerful frontier general in the empire, An Lushan — commander of three great northern military regions — declared that he was marching to remove the corrupt chief minister Yang Guozhong, and led an army of some 150,000 hardened frontier troops south toward the imperial heartland. The peaceful, prosperous interior had no armies to stop them.
Commanders