唐肅宗

Separated from Xuanzong during the flight from Chang'an, he went north to Lingwu and let the troops there proclaim him emperor — his father was informed afterwards. He retook both capitals within a year, at the price of Uyghur allies who were promised the plunder of Luoyang, and died in 762 during a coup in his own palace.

The recovery was real and the cost set the shape of the late Tang: to end the rebellion the court accepted the surrender of rebel generals and left them in place as military governors of the northeast, which is how the provinces became autonomous without ever formally rebelling again.

Empress Zhang had been with him at Lingwu and became the dominant figure of the court. In 762, with the emperor dying, she moved against the eunuch Li Fuguo and lost; she was seized in the palace and killed, and Suzong died within days — thirteen days after his father.