Fall of Luoyang to An Lushan
An Lushan's rebels capture Luoyang
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Feng Changqing raised 60,000 men in ten days — untrained civilians, by the annal's own account, against veteran frontier cavalry.
In through all four gates
The Zizhi Tongjian dates An Lushan's capture of the Tang eastern capital to the dingyou day of the twelfth lunar month of Tianbao 14 — commonly converted as 18 January 756, though another modern military chronology gives 19 January.
Rebel troops entered through all four gates and began killing and plundering.
Feng Changqing's newly recruited loyalist army had already been beaten at Wulao, at Kuiyuan and at Luoyang's Upper East Gate.
Out through the garden wall
Feng kept fighting at the Duting relay station and the Xuanren Gate, then broke through the western wall of the imperial garden and fled.
The Tang officials Li Zheng, Lu Yi and Jiang Qing refused or failed to flee and were executed after the city fell.
Lu Yi had sent his family away, put on court dress, and waited at the Censorate.
The numbers, and the pause
The Zizhi Tongjian says An mobilized 150,000 troops at the start of the revolt while publicly claiming 200,000. Feng's emergency levy was 60,000 recruits raised in ten days.
Feng retreated west to join Gao Xianzhi and urged withdrawal to the defensible Tong Pass; that pause let the Tang reinforce the western approaches to Chang'an, which remained in Tang hands.
An stayed at Luoyang preparing to proclaim a new dynasty, and on 5 February declared himself emperor of Yan.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited Date disputed
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →
Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 0756-01-18.
What the sources leave uncertain
- The Zizhi Tongjian dates the capture to the dingyou day of the twelfth lunar month of Tianbao 14. The commonly published conversion is 18 January 756, but another modern military chronology gives 19 January, producing a one-day conversion disagreement.
- The title’s '200,000-strong army' repeats An’s advertised total. The Zizhi Tongjian says he actually mobilized 150,000 while claiming 200,000.
- The annal is a major historical source but was compiled centuries after the rebellion from earlier records.