History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 6 Nanzhao
【FAQ】

First, why did they open the granaries to release grain when military rations were in short supply?

Wang Shi said the reason was very simple.

First, the Qiufu bandits used the method of hoarding food to lure the hungry people to join them. Now the government is distributing food for free, so the hungry people will not join the bandits. This is called cutting off the firewood from under the cauldron.

Secondly, the local prefectures and counties had no garrison troops and were unable to resist the bandits. When the bandits came, the government warehouses would be looted by them. Therefore, it would be better to distribute the grain to the people before they came. Not releasing the grain would be like aiding the enemy.

Second, why not set up a beacon tower?

Wang Shi said the reason was very simple.

First of all, the main purpose of setting up the beacon tower is to seek reinforcements. Now all the troops have been mobilized by me, and there is no reinforcement at the rear. The beacon tower has lost its function, wasting manpower and material resources in vain.

Secondly, beacon towers would disturb the military and civilians, easily spread panic, and cause our army to fall into chaos without fighting.

Third, why choose those who are afraid of death to do reconnaissance work and not give them weapons?

Wang Shi said the reason was very simple.

If a brave and fearless warrior is equipped with good weapons and is sent to serve as a cavalry scout, then when he encounters the enemy, he will inevitably be greedy for merit and fight until he is defeated. In a fight with the enemy, he will easily die gloriously and will not come back to report the news.

For the intelligence personnel who are investigating the enemy situation, I don't ask them to grab a lot of heads, I just need them to light up the vision.

Fourth, how do you know they were pretending to surrender at the beginning?

Wang Shi said the reason was very simple.

As I said before, the two armies have not yet engaged in battle, and the enemy is at its peak, with great power and has not suffered any hardship, so why would he surrender? It must be a false surrender, a tactic to make the enemy arrogant. Once we relax our spirits, we will be easily ambushed.

Fourth PLUS: 3 battles in 83 days. Qiu Fu had suffered enough and was trapped in an isolated city and asked for surrender. How did he know it was a false surrender?
Wang Shi said the reason was very simple.

It was because he had suffered enough. Hundreds of people were trapped in an isolated city, and we cut off their water supply. They had only two options: surrender or fight to the death to break out. What does surrender mean? Open the city gates and lay down your weapons. But they only surrendered verbally, so it must not be a real surrender, but a false surrender, a delaying tactic.

Fourth (Soul Trilogy Version): In the end, Qiu Fu personally led a hundred of his followers out of the city to surrender. This was a real surrender, so why did they still have to be killed and arrested?
Wang Shi said the reason was very simple.

First, those who surrender after being surrounded will be killed.

Secondly, let's return to the PLUS version of the Q&A. What can Qiu Fu talk to me about? I will not accept your surrender, and your head is mine too.

So, now that the fight has come to this, it doesn't matter whether you, Qiu Fu, surrender or not. It's just a different way to die.

Fifth, why do you block the bandits' way first? Aren't you worried that the bandits will become desperate and fight to the death?
Wang Shi said the reason was very simple.

After escaping, the bandits will not return to their homes. Instead, they will break up into small groups and become roaming bandits who harass the southeast region for a long time. This will not only affect the prosperity and development of the local economy and the stability of public security, but will also block the tax collection of the imperial court.

Therefore, we must concentrate on eliminating them and accomplish our goal in one fell swoop.

At this point, all the generals were full of admiration for the civil servant in front of them and felt inferior to him.

The celebration banquet was almost over. Wang Shi suddenly issued another order, "Take Xu Ze, the troublemaker from Yuyao County, and Chen Yu, the troublemaker from Cixi County, out and chop them off!"

The generals looked at each other in bewilderment. Stop standing there and continue asking for advice.

Why would Marshal Wang, as the commander of a region, personally sentence two common people to death?
the reason is simple.

Xu Ze from Yuyao County, the leader of a local evil gang, monopolized the profits of fish and salt and disrupted market operations;

Chen Yu of Cixi County, impostor, served as county magistrate (probably suspected of murder, see the bandits and Ma Bangde in "Let the Bullets Fly").

Both of them are leaders of major organized crime gangs.

Wang Shi warned everyone earnestly that people like Qiu Fu were actually small flies. Although the noise they made was earth-shattering, it would only hurt the skin of the empire. These two seemingly insignificant common people were the big tigers. They seized power by trickery and exploited the people. They were quietly shaking the foundations of the empire. Their crimes were heinous and unforgivable!

This should be an unexpected gain on Wang’s anti-special warfare front.

In August, Qiu Fu was sent to the capital and beheaded in the East Market of Chang'an as a public display.

Good things come in pairs. Not long after, the imperial court received good news: Bozhou (now Zunyi City, Guizhou Province) which had been captured by Nanzhao was recovered.

Internal and external troubles were the two spikes on Emperor Yizong's throne. Now, I can finally sit firmly on the throne.

Emperor Yizong of Tang announced that the era name would be changed to "Xiantong" and a general amnesty would be granted to the entire country.

However, ironically, just when the people across the country were still immersed in the joyous and festive atmosphere of the "first year of Xiantong", the court received another piece of bad news that spoiled the mood: Nanzhao invaded Annan.

[The beginning of the disaster - Nanzhao]

Nanzhao was a kingdom in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. In the local language, "zhao" means "king". People in the Central Plains usually called them "barbarians". During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang "captured Meng Huo seven times" to pacify the Nanman, and he was actually pacifying their ancestors. "When Shu was conquered by Zhuge Liang, all of them submitted to him." - "Old Book of Tang"

At the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, there were many small states in the Erhai Lake area. The most powerful ones were the six Zhaos. One of them was called "Mengshe Zhao". Its geographical location was the southernmost, so it was also called "Nanzhao" by the people in the Central Plains.

The Tang Dynasty adopted the strategy of "using barbarians to control barbarians" and "making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones". In terms of geopolitics, it was natural to unconditionally support Nanzhao. In terms of strength, Nanzhao was almost at the bottom of the six states, but because of the support of the great country of the Celestial Empire, it quickly conquered the other five states and became the regional hegemon. This was a strategic mistake of the Tang Dynasty, which sowed a bitter fruit for itself.

Whenever a major power interferes in the internal affairs of a region and seeks to maximize its geopolitical interests, one of the important rules is to fish in troubled waters and artificially create conflicts and chaos through differences in religion, race, culture, etc., so that various forces in the region become seriously dependent on the major power, and then compete to become puppets of the major power and serve as the major power's regional agents.

To this day, a certain hegemonic power still creates conflicts and contradictions in many hot spots in the world, disrupts regional peace and stability, and then plays the role of world policeman and claims to be a beacon of the world.

When Nanzhao became the unique overlord in the region, it inevitably developed a centrifugal force towards the Tang Dynasty and was unwilling to submit to it again.

During its more than 100 years of existence, Nanzhao changed its name many times, such as "Da Meng", "Dali", "Da Fengmin", and also had other names in the Central Plains, such as "Hetuo", "Longwei", "Zhumie", "Yangjian", etc. For the convenience of description, this book will call it "Nanzhao" regardless of the period. Please do not point out any typos or mistakes in the following text.

When the Tang Dynasty was prosperous, all the surrounding countries and tribes expressed their loyalty, paid tribute, submitted petitions, and requested titles. The Tang Dynasty was like a prosperous era with all nations paying tribute. But when it declined, it was invaded and harassed by these foreign barbarians.

The King of Nanzhao also said that "my descendants will always be ministers of the Tang Dynasty." Looking through history, the answer is haha.

In the 738th year of Kaiyuan Period of Tang Dynasty (), the king of Nanzhao, Piloge, was given the name "Guiyi" by the Tang Dynasty and was granted the title of Duke of Yue. Piloge bribed Wang Yu, then governor of Jiannan, to ask the court to merge the six states into one. Thus, Piloge "sweeped the world" and became the barbarian version of Qin Shihuang.

After Piloge completed the unification, he defeated his neighbor Tubo and became increasingly powerful, which inevitably led to centrifugal forces against the Tang Dynasty. However, Piloge still had a clear understanding of the power comparison between the Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao, and continued to maintain the vassal relationship, while the Tang Dynasty also tried to win him over. On the surface, the relationship between the two countries seemed to be extremely harmonious, and they tacitly maintained a fragile interdependence.

In the seventh year of Tianbao (748), Piluoge died and his son Geluofeng succeeded him. At that time, the governor of Jiannan was Xianyu Zhongtong and the governor of Yunnan was Zhang Qiantuo. These two Tang officials were quite rude to Nanzhao. Especially Zhang Qiantuo, one of his hobbies was to have affairs with Nanzhao, and to have his lower body extended to Nanzhao, especially the wife of the king of Nanzhao.

After Geluofeng ascended the throne, Zhang Qiantuo ordered him to send his wife to him, to make him a green hat, and not to break the rules. Geluofeng refused. So Zhang Qiantuo sent people to Nanzhao to insult Geluofeng for not knowing the rules, and at the same time reported to the Tang court that Nanzhao was disloyal and wanted to mobilize troops against Nanzhao.

Geluofeng could no longer tolerate this, so in the ninth year of Tianbao (750), he resorted to force and killed Zhang Qiantuo.

Xianyu Zhongtong, the governor of Jiannan, organized troops and launched a counterattack, and captured the capital of Nanzhao in one fell swoop. Geluofeng had to apologize and use Tubo as an excuse to issue a soft threat, saying that Nanzhao had been harassed by Tubo for many years. If the Tang Dynasty did not help him, he would have to turn to Tubo and pay tribute. If the Tang Dynasty did not help Nanzhao, then "Yunnan is not Tang's!"

Xianyu Zhongtong imprisoned the Nanzhao envoy and continued to attack Nanzhao, but was defeated by Nanzhao.

Therefore, in the 751th year of Tianbao (), Geluofeng really broke away from the Tang Dynasty and attached himself to Tubo. The Tubo king recognized Geluofeng as his younger brother, and the two countries became brother countries.

Afterwards, Yang Guozhong (Yang Guifei's brother) mobilized more than 100,000 soldiers in an attempt to retake Nanzhao, but was defeated again, and almost all of the more than 100,000 soldiers were wiped out (eighteen or nineteen of them died).

Next came the "Anshi Rebellion", during which Nanzhao took the opportunity to invade the Tang Dynasty and robbed the country.

In the 779th year of Dali (), Geluofeng's son Fengjiayi died before Geluofeng. Geluofeng loved the crown prince so he made Fengjiayi's son, Geluofeng's grandson Yimouxun, the crown prince. The name is difficult to pronounce, but it is actually equivalent to Zhu Yuanzhang passing the throne to Zhu Yunwen.

This Yi Mouxun loved reading (he was well-read and intelligent). During his reign, Nanzhao finally returned to the embrace of the Tang Dynasty. There is a very interesting story in this:

When Geluofeng took advantage of the An-Shi Rebellion to plunder the Tang Dynasty, he kidnapped a small county magistrate named Zheng Hui. Zheng Hui took the Mingjing exam during the Tianbao period. The Mingjing exam was far less valuable than the Jinshi exam. There is a saying that "30 is old for Mingjing, and 50 is young for Jinshi", which means that years old is considered old for Mingjing exam, and years old is considered young for Jinshi exam. Therefore, those who can enter the central government are generally "Jinshi", and those with Mingjing exam qualifications can only be small county magistrates in remote villages.

However, when Zheng returned to Nanzhao, he became the most educated and senior intellectual in the area. He was highly regarded by the king, Ge Luofeng, who asked him to be a teacher for his son Feng Jiayi to train the next generation of successors of Nanzhao. Feng Jiayi died young, and Zheng Hui became the teacher of Yi Mouxun, continuing to play the role of "imperial teacher". After Yi Mouxun succeeded to the throne, he asked him to be the teacher of his own son, Xun Mengcou (Xun Gequan).

As the "teacher of the emperor" for three generations, Zheng Hui was very strict in education. According to historical records, "Even Mou Xun and Meng Cou were beaten by him". What's wrong with the king? What's wrong with the crown prince? If they don't study hard, they will be beaten! In Nanzhao, there was no one that Zheng Hui didn't dare to beat.

Later, Zheng Hui became the prime minister (Qingping official) in Nanzhao. Under the Nanzhao system, there were six prime ministers in the same dynasty, ruling together, but during the reign of Yi Mouxun, the actual prime minister was only Zheng Hui. Yi Mouxun only consulted Zheng Hui on all military and national affairs, and the other five prime ministers all obeyed Zheng Hui's orders. If there was any small mistake, Zheng Hui would beat them (or if there was any fault, Hui would beat them).

Zheng Hui should be the strictest tutor in history.

After Nanzhao submitted to Tubo, although Tubo was nominally a brother, in reality it treated Nanzhao as a slave, levying heavy taxes and levying heavy taxes, which made Nanzhao suffer terribly. Yi Mouxun often expressed his reluctance and regret.

Zheng Hui often analyzed the interests for him, saying that Nanzhao had paid tribute to the Tang Dynasty before, and the Tang Dynasty valued etiquette, was lenient and restrained towards foreign barbarians, implemented super-national treatment, and never oppressed Nanzhao. But look at Tubo, it completely treated Nanzhao as a second-class citizen and a slave.

Finally, Yi Mouxun made up his mind and began to plan to break away from Tubo and return to Tang.

Later, envoys traveling to and from the Tang Dynasty were captured by Tubo. Tubo was furious and ordered Nanzhao to send the children of ministers and generals to Tubo as hostages. The exploitation and oppression of Nanzhao became even more brutal.

At that time, Tubo and Uighur were at war, and it was difficult to resolve the conflict, so they asked Nanzhao to provide 10,000 soldiers. Yi Mouxun took advantage of the situation and showed weakness, saying that Nanzhao was poor and had few people, so it could only provide 3,000 soldiers. After some bargaining, he finally agreed to send 5,000 soldiers.

Yi Mouxun first sent 5,000 soldiers into Tubo territory, and then personally led tens of thousands of troops to march at night, and then launched a surprise attack on the Tubo army with the 5,000 soldiers inside and outside, winning a great victory, occupying 16 castles, capturing five Tubo kings, and more than 100,000 people. This surprise attack on Tubo became Nanzhao's token of surrender to the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, the Tang Dynasty officially accepted the good boy Nanzhao who had returned to the right path and bestowed a golden seal on Nanzhao, which was inscribed with "Zhenyuan Book Nanzhao Seal".

In the third year of Yuanhe (808), Yi Mouxun died and his son Xun Gequan succeeded him. The Tang Dynasty bestowed the "Yuanhe Seal of Nanzhao".

Since the return of Nanzhao, the diplomatic relations between the two countries have entered normalization, with mutual greetings and greetings. There have been a few minor frictions during this period, and Nanzhao also apologized in time to eliminate misunderstandings. Overall, the relationship between the two countries is quite harmonious, and each country is developing its economy.

However, with the gradual decline of the Tang Dynasty and the growing strength of Nanzhao, the peaceful relations between the two countries became increasingly fragile.

War is about to break out.

Thanks to the book friend “孤孤单但大仙儿2333” for the recommendation!


(End of this chapter)