History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 370 Pingjing War 2
The territory of Jingnan is like a ribbon fish, distributed in a long strip along the Yangtze River. It is long from east to west and narrow from north to south. The east-west length is supported by the five states that have just been extorted. Its core area is just the isolated city of Jiangling Prefecture. It is a veritable tiny place without any strategic depth at all. Once a war breaks out, it will be the Battle to Defend Jiangling.

Faced with the three powerful armies, Gao Jichang closed the city gates and refused to leave, while at the same time urgently seeking help from Huainan in the east.

The southern Jing area is low, humid and hot, and suffered from continuous heavy rains. The logistical supply of the Pingjing troops could not keep up, and a large number of officers and soldiers fell ill. Even the commander-in-chief Liu Xun was seriously ill. Dong Zhang of Dongchuan also had the intention of separatism at that time, so he did not send troops. Ma Yin sent General Xu Dexun to Yuezhou to contact Liu Xun and agree to attack Jiangling Prefecture from the north and the south. He also expressed his willingness to donate bows, arrows, armor and other equipment, but they were not delivered for a long time.

The start of the Pingjing War was extremely unfavorable to the Later Tang Dynasty.

Li Siyuan then sent Privy Councilor Kong Xun to inspect the front line and assess the feasibility of the war.

This is interesting. Gao Jichang, Dong Zhang and Kong Xun were all adopted sons of Zhu Yourang, the adopted son of Zhu Wen. The war to pacify Jing became the family affair of the three grandsons.

Kong Xun arrived at Jiangling City and launched a fierce attack on it, but to no avail. So Kong Xun sent envoys into the city to persuade them to surrender.

What you can’t get on the battlefield, you can’t expect to get at the negotiation table. If Kong Xun’s attack had achieved certain results and caused a certain degree of deterrence to the city, he could naturally cash in politically through negotiations; how could he make the other side surrender when the military attack failed? Kong Xun really had no other options, and it was really a fantasy.

Gao Jichang refused with a very arrogant attitude. If you have the ability, come in; if you don't, get out. Stop talking nonsense to me.

Kong Xun had no choice but to report the battle situation on the front line to the central government truthfully.

Li Siyuan sent 10,000 sets of summer military uniforms to Ma Yin of Tanzhou, and also presented him with items such as saddles, horses, jade belts, etc., asking him to provide food and supplies to the front line to help with military needs.

Ma Yin accepted all the requests and said that he would do his best, but - there was a flood here, the road was blocked, reinforcements from Huainan had arrived, the war was at a stalemate... In short, he made excuses for various reasons and ultimately did not provide any food.

Li Siyuan could no longer afford to waste time, so he ordered a withdrawal of troops on May 5, hastily ending the Pingjing War.

Ma Yin sent Shi Guangxian to Luoyang to pay tribute, and Li Siyuan gave him ten horses and two beauties in return. On his way back with the horses and beauties, Shi Guangxian was robbed by Gao Jichang.

Gao Jichang has been a professional robber for 30 years. He took Shi Guangxian as a hostage, sent beautiful women to Huainan, and said that he would break away from Tang and return to Wu, and all of Jingnan would submit to Huainan.

Xu Wen, a powerful official in Huainan, kept a cool head. He believed that Jingnan was close to Luoyang but far away from Huainan. It would be easy for the Later Tang to attack it, but it would be difficult to rescue Huainan as it was too far away. Once he accepted Gao Jichang's submission, it would be like being dragged down by him and tied to Jingnan's chariot. Jingnan was a place surrounded by enemies. If he rescued it, he would lose the military service, and if he did not rescue it, he would lose the politics. So...Xu Wen accepted all of Gao Jichang's gifts, and then refused to accept Jingnan's submission.

This was the first time that Gao Jichang, the "Gao Laizi", was played a rogue by others. When a rogue meets another rogue, they will clash head-on.

In this war to pacify Jing, only the governor of Kuizhou, Xifang Ye, brought good news. He recovered Kui, Zhong, and Wanzhou in one go, splitting the hairtail fish of southern Jing into two. Li Siyuan then allocated these three states to the Ningjiang Army, with Kuizhou as the headquarters and Xifang Ye as the governor.

The war to pacify Jing was so disgraceful that Li Siyuan was furious, so he ordered former prime ministers Dou Lu Ge and Wei Shuo to commit suicide and held them accountable for agreeing to cede land; Liu Xun was demoted to the governor of Danzhou.

Those who keep company with the good will become good, and those who keep company with the bad will become bad. Those who keep company with the south of Jing will become bad. Ma Yin sent envoys to Luoyang to request the establishment of a Xingtai. Xingtai is an institution set up by the central government in the local area that can issue orders on behalf of the central government. Generally speaking, the establishment of a Xingtai is a prelude to the establishment of an independent country. The local military and political leaders took the initiative to request the establishment of a Xingtai in their own jurisdiction, which was equivalent to a tactful way of expressing to the central government that they wanted independence.

This was Ma Yin's attempt to take advantage of the situation. Since Li Siyuan couldn't even handle a small city like Jingnan, let alone cross Jingnan to attack Tanzhou, Ma Yin seized the opportunity to blackmail Li Siyuan.

"Comrade Ma Yin has worked hard and made great contributions. Just setting up a temporary office is not enough to express our appeasement and consolation. So, why not just enthrone Comrade Ma Yin as the King of Chu, establish a state in a legitimate way, and set up civil and military officials." Li Siyuan had a smile on his face, but he was cursing in his heart.

In August of the second year of Tiancheng (927), the Later Tang envoys arrived in Tanzhou, and the King of Chu, Ma Yin, formally established the State of Chu, which was historically known as "Southern Chu" (one of the "Ten Kingdoms"). The Southern Chu regime was a legitimate regime enthroned by the central dynasty, and was fundamentally different from the illegal separatist regimes such as the Southern Han and Southern Wu (Huainan) that had previously established themselves.

After this battle, Gao Jichang stepped up the construction of city defense works, expanded the inner city, built the Jianghan Tower at the east gate of the inner city, stationed a large army in Dangyang County, named it "Jingmen Army", to strengthen the strategic depth of Jingnan. He was ready to welcome the next war.

The war broke out again half a year later, and this time Gao Jichang faced the newly emerged Southern Chu Ma Yin.

In the last war against Jing, Ma Yin had been passive and wait-and-see, mainly because he did not want to help Li Siyuan get into trouble. This time, Ma Yin wanted to take all the spoils of war.

Ma Yin sent General Yuan Quan to lead the army, Wang Huan as his deputy, and his son Ma Xizhan as the military supervisor. He dispatched surface troops upstream and entered southern Jing. He himself went to Yuezhou on the border of Jingchu to support the army.

Yuezhou is located to the north of Tanzhou, controlling the main road connecting Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River. It is located at the junction of the four spheres of influence of Southern Chu, Jingnan, Huainan, and Later Tang, and controls the surface of the Yangtze River. Its geographical location is extremely important. Ma Yin personally sits in Yuezhou, where he can support Yuan Quan's troops entering Jingzhou, defend the border of Southern Chu, and block the Huainan reinforcements coming upstream.

From later records, it can be seen that Ma Yin’s strategic intention this time was to annex Jingnan.

Gao Jichang of Jingnan also led his naval forces to fight. At Liulangbo (where Liu Bei married Sun Shangxiang), they were ambushed by Ma Xizhan and were defeated, with thousands of casualties. The Southern Chu army took advantage of the victory and approached Jiangling City.

Gao Jichang was terrified, and hurriedly returned the hostage Shi Guangxian, apologized, and asked for reconciliation.

Wang Huan, the general of Southern Chu, accepted the reconciliation and returned to his camp.

Ma Yin was very angry and blamed Wang Huan for being greedy for petty gains instead of taking advantage of the victory to capture Jiangling.

Wang Huan said that Jingnan is located between Huainan, Later Tang, Bashu and Southern Chu, a place surrounded by wars on all sides. It should be preserved as a barrier to Southern Chu, and one should not lose the important position for the sake of temporary fame.

Wang Huan's attitude towards Jingnan is exactly the same as Wang Jian's towards Fengxiang, and the reason why Huainan refused to accept Jingnan is similar. As the saying goes, great minds think alike. Blindly expanding land is not necessarily the best choice. Reasonable use of geopolitics to maximize benefits is the upgrade of politicians.

(End of this chapter)