But Yang failed to realize that An Lushan has plans of his own. Coming from the Northern barbarian tribes, An was tall and tough. Though a plain-looking and bulky army general guarding the frontier, he always seemed to have elusive stratagems. However humble and anxious he appeared, while waiting for his sentencing from the court, he was unwilling to accept his proposed fate, especially after he met Yang.
Yang Guozhong went to the Emperor to report An Lushan’s case.
“As Your Majesty wished, I tested An Lushan. He is truly a strong man with good battle skills. He also speaks at least six foreign languages, and is truly a talented person. Please enlighten me, Your Majesty, on how to deal with this criminal.”
The Emperor, who was planning to take Yang Yuhuan to Qu River later this same day, wanted nothing more than to simply ignore the case. He pondered Yang’s report for a moment and replied “As it stands, you can declare it my decision that An Lushan be pardoned and reassigned him a position in the capital for further inspection.”
An Lushan was content with this outcome. Although his new position in the capital placed him at the Emperor’s side, far away from the desolate deserts of the frontier, he was not very happy when he saw the unreachable lavish life and beautiful women in the palace. He believed he was much more capable than the people in power and began to grow ambitious. He was well aware of his current situation, however, so he masked his ambitions with loyal stupidity. He worked to flatter the Emperor with compliments and devotions of his loyalty, and soon won the Emperor’s trust and became one of the favored officials of the royal court. He was quickly reinstated to his former position and was then promoted to the capital’s governor, a rank next to the prince.
He recalled a story his mother once told him about a dream she had right before she discovered she was pregnant. She dreamt of a monster—with the head of a pig and the body of a dragon— fell on her bed. On the day he was born there was a thunder and lightning storm. All the animals ran about in panic. He thought, “Maybe I truly am the Son of Heaven! One day I’ll be seated in the royal court and claim myself Emperor. Then the nation and all the beauties in it will be mine.”
