History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 28 Nanzhao Nemesis
In November of the first year of the Qianfu reign (874), Nanzhao made a comeback and invaded the southwestern border of the Tang Dynasty again, threatening Chengdu Prefecture. The Xichuan army was defeated and could not be stopped.

Shilong was very proud and sent a letter to the Xichuan army, which was arrogant and full of threats and intimidation.

The Xichuan Army kept two members of the Nanzhao envoys alive and killed the rest. They told the two to return to Nanzhao with the reply letter. In the reply letter, the Xichuan Army listed all the crimes of Nanzhao and insulted and abused them. You son of a bitch, come over here and play!
The imperial court issued an edict, ordering Hedong, Shannan West Road, and Dongchuan to send troops to support the Sichuan army. Gao Pian, the military governor of Tianping Army, was transferred to Xichuan to serve as the "chief commander of the aid to Sichuan army". Gao Pian was then appointed as the military governor of Xichuan. In this way, not only the troops to aid Sichuan army were under his command, but also the local troops in Xichuan had to obey Gao Pian's dispatch. Gao Pian became the commander-in-chief in name and in reality.

The last "Chengdu Defense War" was initiated by local officials of the Tang Dynasty. Although Nanzhao came with great force, it came and went quickly. This time, Nanzhao was fully prepared, its strategic goals were clearer, and its offensive was more sharp.

Gao Pian was the Tang Dynasty's mascot against Nanzhao and the nemesis of Nanzhao.

As early as nine years ago (9) in the "Annan War", Gao Pian led his army to defeat Nanzhao, recapture Annan, and kill Duan Zongbang, the commander-in-chief of the Nanzhao invading army, and achieved many victories.

That battle completely subdued and frightened Nanzhao, and even made Nanzhao afraid of heights.

Now, the children of Nanzhao are disobedient, so it is time to send Gao Pian to spank them.

Gao Pian marched to Jianzhou (now Jiange County, Sichuan Province) and sent an envoy on horseback to inform Chengdu: open the city gates and lift the alert.

At this time, someone around him warned him that Nanzhao was already under Chengdu's nose, and we are still hundreds of miles away from Chengdu. If you let Chengdu open the city gates now, what if the Nanzhao army rushes in, won't Chengdu fall into the enemy's hands in an instant?

Gao Pian laughed loudly, curled his lips, and pointed at his nose with his thumb. "When I was in Jiaozhi, I easily defeated their 200,000-man army. When they heard my name, they didn't even have time to escape. How dare they enter Chengdu? It's spring now. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians are crowded together in Chengdu. The sanitary conditions are extremely poor. It's easy for an epidemic to break out. Open the city gates and release the refugees. It's urgent."

The envoys arrived in Chengdu on horseback, the city gates were opened, shops resumed business, enterprises resumed production, and soldiers were able to take off their heavy armor. Everything was like peacetime. The people were jubilant.

As Gao Pian had expected, when Nanzhao received the news that Gao Pian had entered Sichuan, its "fear of heights" immediately broke out, and it hurriedly sent envoys to ask for peace and escape.

The soldiers and civilians of Chengdu all praised Gao Pian for his courage, wisdom, bravery and wisdom. Gao Pian was simply a god of war descended to earth.

Gao Pian enjoyed all kinds of flattery and was delighted. He immediately reported to the court: "The Nanzhao barbarians are jumping clowns and are easy to deal with. There is no need to mobilize troops and send them on a long expedition. I am enough here. Why do you need to dispatch troops from Zhenwu (now in Inner Mongolia), Fufang (now in Shaanxi), and Hedong (now in Shanxi)? It's a waste of money. Let them all go back."

The court only ordered the reinforcements from Hedong to return.

Gao Pian arrived in Chengdu and the next day he sent 5,000 infantry and cavalry to pursue the retreating Nanzhao invaders. Do you think this is a public toilet, where you can come and go as you please?
They chased the enemy to the Dadu River, killed many of them, captured dozens of Nanzhao generals alive, and escorted them back to Chengdu.

Gao Pian stretched and yawned, "What's the point of keeping these bastards? Chop them all off." Outside the city of Chengdu, the Nanzhao captives were bled one by one.

Afterwards, Gao Pian renovated the various checkpoints and the forts and camps along the Dadu River, and built a city on the main traffic route for Nanzhao's advance, named it "Pingyi City", and stationed thousands of troops there. From then on, Nanzhao dared not make any more moves. After shocking Nanzhao, Gao Pian began to rectify the internal situation, summoned the officials who had retreated from the border, and blamed them for their poor performance in the battle, the loss of the natural barrier of the Dadu River, the loss of soldiers and generals, the humiliation of the state, and the damage to the military prestige, and ordered them to be beheaded!
After all the internal and external affairs were arranged, Gao Pian submitted another memorial: I am willing to lead my troops, together with the Tianping, Zhaoyi, and Yicheng armies, a total of 60,000 people, to launch a "self-defense counterattack against the barbarians", counterattack into the territory of Nanzhao, directly dig out its lair, and destroy Nanzhao! Once and for all, we will not be harassed by them every year.

The court did not approve his battle plan, but instead assigned him an assignment to copy an article, sign Gao Pian's name on it, and send it to Nanzhao.

It turned out that Nanzhao frequently attacked the Tang Dynasty, using both civil and military means. On the one hand, it devoted its national strength to the battle in Xichuan; on the other hand, it constantly sent letters to the Tang Dynasty, engaged in diplomatic and public opinion warfare. The letters sent were full of resentment and accusations, "We strongly condemn... We solemnly protest..." The Tang Dynasty remained silent.

Prime Minister Lu Xie said, "The southern barbarians are certainly confusing right and wrong and making trouble without reason. We, the Celestial Empire, have no intention of arguing with them, so we remain silent. But in this way, these barbarians think that we are at a loss for words and have no way to refute them. Let us start from the beginning and recount the kindness that the Celestial Empire has shown to their ancestors for ten generations, and their current ingratitude. We will call him an ungrateful wolf and leave him speechless."

So, this article came out:

In 649 AD, Xinuluo proclaimed himself "King of Nanzhao". In 653 AD, he sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty to pay tribute and expressed his willingness to submit to the Tang Dynasty. The then Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, appointed him as the governor of Weizhou. The Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao established a vassal relationship. (First Generation)
In 674, Xinuluo died of illness and his son Luo Shengyan succeeded him; (second generation)
In 712, Luo Shengyan went to Chang'an in person to meet Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, who had just ascended the throne. He fell ill on the way and died in Chang'an. His son Yan Ge succeeded him; (third generation)
In the same year, Yan Ge died and his younger brother Sheng Lupi succeeded him; (fourth generation)

Special note: Since Yan Ge's reign was very short, later scholars usually omitted it and regarded Sheng Lupi as the third king of Nanzhao. In order to show the favor of the Celestial Empire to them, I deliberately counted him very rigorously to increase the number of generations.

In 728, Sheng Lupi died of illness and his son Piluoge succeeded him; (Five Dynasties)

Piloge was the most influential king of Nanzhao. It was with the support of the Tang Dynasty that he annexed the other "Five Zhaos", completed the unification of the Erhai area, and laid the foundation for the later Nanzhao Kingdom. He was equivalent to the southern barbarian version of Qin Shihuang.

In 748, Piloge died of illness and his son Geluofeng succeeded him; (sixth generation)
In 779, Geluofeng died of illness and his grandson Yimouxun succeeded him; (seventh generation)
In 808, Yimouxun died and his son Xungequan succeeded him; (seventh generation)
In 809, Xun Gequan died and his son Quan Longsheng succeeded him; (eighth generation)
In 816, Quan Longsheng was murdered and his brother Quan Lisheng succeeded him; (ninth generation)
In 823, Quan Lisheng died and his younger brother Quan Fengyou succeeded him; (th generation)
In 859, Quan Fengyou died and his son Shilong succeeded him; (th generation)
The above is the "ten generations of grace" mentioned by Prime Minister Lu Xie. Except for Shilong and his father, Quan Fengyou, who were enemies of the Tang Dynasty, their eight generations of ancestors had all received the grace of the Tang Dynasty, and they were all well-behaved and honest vassals of the Tang Dynasty, paying tribute every year, coming to the court every year, and paying tribute. They were all good children.

Shilong, this kid, has forgotten his ancestors! Without the support of the Tang Dynasty for their ten generations of ancestors, how could their Nanzhao Kingdom exist? How dare they send a letter to the state to accuse the Tang Dynasty? Since you want to reason, let's talk about their eight generations of ancestors.

The imperial court agreed with this and decided that it was time to have a good talk with Nanzhao.

Prime Minister Lu Xie said that we cannot reply in the name of the central court, because that would be too much of a face-saving move for them, raising their status and tacitly acknowledging that their political and diplomatic status is equal to that of the Celestial Empire. Humph, a small foreign country... Send the draft to Gao Pian, the governor of Xichuan, and Xin Dan, the governor of Lingnan West Road, and have them copy it, and then have them send it to Nanzhao in the name of the local governors.

So, Gao Pian, who was on the front line in Chengdu, received this official letter.

Of course, Gao Pian did not do the copying work himself, but someone else was in charge. Gao Pian looked aside and nodded in praise, "The Hanlin scholars in the court are really good! They don't even use dirty words when they curse people. Look at the people cursing on the street, 'zhihuzheya yi yan aiya', four-six-eight sentences, neat parallelism, parallelism, metaphors, and double entendres... They are so good, even uneducated people may not understand..."

Since Nanzhao's nemesis Gao Pian moved into Xichuan, Nanzhao temporarily stopped its military offensive, which put the Xichuan region into a period of peaceful development.

(End of this chapter)