History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 7 "Annam War" (Part )
The feud between the Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao was not groundless.

When the two countries were friendly, Nanzhao sent students to the Tang Dynasty for further study every year. The Tang Dynasty selected a nearby location and placed the students in Chengdu for unified management.

In order to demonstrate the prosperity and wealth of our great Celestial Empire and to let foreign nations feel our imperial grace, international students enjoy high standards of living and high-quality teaching staff, and all expenses are free. The Tang Dynasty is willing to pay for it.

Nanzhao was like a spring breeze and had great admiration for the Tang Dynasty, so it paid tribute and came to the court every year, and its descendants would always be Tang's subjects for generations to come!

Wake up.

This is just a good show directed by the Tang Dynasty for itself, a game of self-deception, a business that loses money but gains publicity.

In addition to showing off, the main purpose of accepting international students is to export culture. Let the next generation of barbarians realize their own cultural backwardness and poverty, and realize the strength and development of the Central Plains civilization. The huge contrast is enough to make the young generation doubt life, and thus yearn for the Central Plains civilization, be devoted to sinicization, and become "Tang fans" and "Tang experts".

However, the "peaceful evolution" of the Tang Dynasty had little effect. These overseas students were obviously "loyal" elements who had been carefully selected and trained by the barbarians. After completing their studies, they all chose to return to China to build their hometowns and contribute to the rise of Nanzhao.

A group of international students graduated, and a new group of international students came, and this cycle repeated for more than 50 years. The Tang Dynasty paid a huge economic loss and precious educational resources for this, but it did not get lambs kneeling to suckle or crows feeding their parents.

What about Nanzhao's tribute? Of course, they paid tribute every year and came to the court every year. However, this was a business that lost money but gained publicity.

The Nanzhao envoys brought some worthless local specialties to Chang'an to show their loyalty. A gift of goose feathers from a thousand miles away is a token of affection. Our Celestial Empire is a vast country with an inexhaustible supply of gold, jade, pearls and silk. Of course, we must uphold the spirit of giving more and receiving less, and return gifts at double the amount.

There is another principle for returning gifts: all envoys who come to pay tribute, whether they are leaders or entourage members, will receive one.

The tribute delegations were often large in scale, with a few dozen people at the least and hundreds of people at the most... Paying tribute to the Tang Dynasty became the most popular investment channel at the time, with huge profits and no losses.

The barbarians from the surrounding countries and people of all races all rushed to Chang'an, kowtowed and shouted "Long live the emperor" to show their loyalty.

The city of Chang'an was in a prosperous state, and the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty was intoxicated by the sight of all nations coming to pay tribute, and could not extricate himself for a long time.

Du Chong, the then governor of Xichuan, unveiled the veil and explained the pros and cons to Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. In the end, Emperor Xuanzong ordered a significant reduction in the number of Nanzhao students and financial subsidies, and limited the number of tributes and the number of people.

Nanzhao King Quan Fengyou was furious and wrote a letter to curse the Tang Dynasty. He withdrew the students and stopped paying tribute. At the same time, he began to create conflicts on the border and invaded the border of the Tang Dynasty.

The rift between the two countries began to emerge.

In 859 AD, the th year of Tang Dazhong and the th year of Nanzhao Tianqi, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang passed away, and coincidentally, the ruler of Nanzhao, Quan Fengyou, also passed away.

In the same year, 26-year-old Emperor Yizong of Tang and 16-year-old Shilong both took up the positions of top leaders.

According to custom, the Tang Dynasty sent a mourning envoy to Nanzhao to deliver the sad news of Emperor Xuanzong's death. This incident became the fuse of a large-scale war between Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty.

The new Nanzhao ruler Shilong listed two charges of disrespect against the Tang Dynasty:

First, your father died, and my father died too! We went to pay our respects, why didn't you pay my respects?
Second, this edict is for the late king, not for me. Look, the letterhead says "Dear Quan Fengyou", not "Dear Shilong". Sorry, I dare not accept this package on your behalf, so I refuse to sign for it. Please ask the person in person to sign for it. According to convention, after the death of the ruler of Nanzhao, as the suzerain state, the Tang Dynasty would send senior officials to serve as condolences, and Chang'an would also suspend court for three days to express mourning.

However, Shilong's excuse was far-fetched. Nanzhao did not express condolences, and the Tang Dynasty did not even know that Quan Fengyou had died, so how could they offer condolences? It was even more impossible for them to appoint a new king.

Perhaps Nanzhao sent an envoy to express condolences, as the two kings died at a strange time, the distance was long and communication was poor, and there was a time difference.

In short, Shilong took advantage of the misunderstanding caused by the time difference. Since he did not receive the imperial decree from the superior country, he just cut himself off from China. So, Shilong changed the country's name to "Da Li Kingdom", changed the era name to "Jian Ji", called himself "Emperor", and refused to recognize the vassal relationship with the Tang Dynasty.

At the same time, Nanzhao sent troops to capture Bozhou. Border conflicts escalated, and the situation on the southern border of the Tang Dynasty deteriorated sharply.

This was the "external threat" that Emperor Yizong of Tang faced when he first ascended the throne.

Soon after, the rebellion of Qiufu in eastern Zhejiang was quelled, and the Annan Protectorate also reported the recovery of Bozhou. The ministers came to the court to congratulate, and Emperor Yizong of Tang changed the reign and issued a general amnesty, as mentioned above.

Emperor Yizong of Tang obviously underestimated the nature of this border conflict, and even more so the ambition of the 16-year-old young ruler of Nanzhao.

There were serious loopholes in the Tang Dynasty's control over the southern border.

The stability of this place depends largely on the personal abilities of the governors. Not everyone can possess the strategy and character of a king.

For example, Duan Wenchu, the governor of Yongguan, ate up the garrison troops stationed in Guangzhou, Guizhou, and Rongzhou by taking empty salaries, making it easy for Nanzhao to capture Yongzhou.

Previously, the Tang Dynasty had 6,000 permanent troops stationed in Annan. However, the former Protector of Annan, Li Tao, dismissed all of them and outsourced the defense work to a local chieftain, Li Youdu, saving the court the military expenses of 6,000 garrisons and using this as his own political achievement.

Nanzhao successfully instigated Li Youdu to rebel through marriage and promises of official titles, so Li Youdu led his troops to turn against the king.

During his tenure, Li Tao openly violated the central government's ethnic policy of "control and appeasement" and oppressed local ethnic minorities. He forced people to buy and sell at the border, exchanging a bucket of salt for a cow. This intensified ethnic conflicts and became another internal cause of the rapid fall of the Annan region.

Regional conflicts intensified, national defense was weak, and the only foreign mercenaries that could be relied on defected in an organized manner. The Tang Dynasty fell into an extremely passive situation at the beginning of the "Annam War" and collapsed as soon as the war started.

The imperial court transferred Cai Xi, the governor of Hunan, to replace Wang Kuan, the governor of Annan. Cai Xi mobilized 20,000 soldiers from Hunan, Hunan and other provinces to the front line of Annan.

It happened that Cai Jing, the Left Minister of Justice, went to Lingnan to guide the work. Cai Jing did not want to see Cai Xi make achievements (he was afraid of Xi's achievements), so he interfered, deliberately sang a different tune, lied about military intelligence, and reported that there were only minor frictions and conflicts on the border in Annan. He falsely accused Cai Xi of making a fuss out of nothing in order to gain fame and wastage of food and grass. He asked Cai Xi not to mobilize the army and waste money (the South is safe, the warriors are lucky to have made achievements, and gathering more soldiers will waste supplies. Please return the garrison troops and save money).

Cai Xi argued that Nanzhao had been eyeing Annan for a long time and that this time it was a well-prepared large-scale war of aggression and it was by no means a minor friction on the border. He asked Lord Cai to leave at least 5,000 soldiers behind no matter what.

At that time, Cai Jing was the "Zuo Shuzi", a member of the Zuo Chunfang, an official of the Crown Prince, and a member of the "Crown Prince Gang". One of his main responsibilities was to "refute and correct the memorials", which means "to have the final right of interpretation". Therefore, Cai Jing crushed Cai Xi in all aspects. In the end, Cai Jing's conspiracy succeeded, destroying Cai Xi's plan to increase troops and garrison. He was promoted to the governor of Lingnan West Road because of his "observant" and saved the court a large amount of military expenses.

(End of this chapter)