History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 914: The Loss of Jiaozhou
[The Loss of Jiaozhou]

As early as the Warring States Period, the Chu State conquered the Yue people, and the Yue people migrated south to the Lingnan area. They were collectively called "Baiyue" or "Zhuyue" by the people in the Central Plains. Qin Shihuang swept the world and conquered the Baiyue people in the south, setting up three prefectures, namely Nanhai, Guilin and Xiang. From then on, this place became Chinese territory. In the Western Han Dynasty, the Jiaozhi Provincial Administration was established, with its headquarters near Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam today.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Jiaozhi rebelled under the leadership of the Zheng sisters. General Ma Yuan led his troops to suppress the rebellion. Since then, Ma Yuan has become a national hero respected and cherished by people. He is worshipped as a god of war. Even Guan Yu, Yue Fei, Wen Tianxiang and others are fans of Ma Yuan. He appears repeatedly in poems, such as "General Ma died in a bitter battle, claiming to be the descendant of Fubo", "The mountains and rivers in front of the gate remain unchanged, and the defeated enemy once looked down on Ma Fubo", "Don't be afraid of drinking all night, my writing style is similar to Ma Fubo"...

Later, the Vietnamese regarded the rebel leaders, the Zheng sisters, as their national heroes and praised them as revolutionary pioneers of Vietnam's resistance to Chinese oppression... They are so shameless and distort the truth. Fuck them. They are so shameless.

The Tang Dynasty set up five military governorships in Lingnan, namely Guangzhou, Guizhou, Rongzhou, Yongzhou, and Annan, which were collectively called the "Five Governorates of Lingnan". The highest administrative chief was the Five Governors General, who was concurrently the governor of Guangzhou. Later, the Five Governors General was renamed the Lingnan Jiedushi, and then divided into two, namely the Lingnan West Road Jiedushi and the Lingnan East Road Jiedushi, with Guangzhou as the headquarters of Lingnan East Road. Today, the "East" and "West" in the names of Guangdong and Guangxi come from this saying "Liangguang".

Regardless of how the name changes, this region is Chinese territory, and the history of thousands of years from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties cannot be tampered with. At the beginning of this book, Nanzhao once conquered Annan, but was eventually defeated by Gao Pian, the "Nanzhao nemesis".

Since this place has been Chinese territory since ancient times, why did it gradually become independent and form a new sovereign state called Vietnam? The answer is revealed here.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Dugu Sun, the Protector of Annan and the Jiedushi of Jinghaijun in Jiaozhou, was excluded by villains, first demoted and exiled, and then killed by the powerful official Zhu Wen, which is the famous "Baimayi Massacre" mentioned above. As a result, Jiaozhou and Annan fell into a power vacuum, and the local tyrant Qu Chengyu took the opportunity to seize control of Jiaozhou. The court (Tang) was unable to control him, so it had to appoint him as the Jiedushi of Jinghaijun, recognizing Qu Chengyu's separatism, just like the separatism of other local vassal states at the same time.

Not long after, Qu Chengyu died of illness, and he recommended his son Qu Chenghao to be the successor. That was in 907, and Zhu Wen had just established the country and was out of reach of Annan, so he could only go with the flow and approve the proposal.

In 917, Qu Chenghao died of illness and his son Qu Chengmei succeeded him.

Qu Chengmei was also recognized by the Later Liang, but his neighbor, Liu Yan of the Southern Han, was quite dissatisfied with this. So in September 930, Liu Yan sent his generals Liang Kezhen and Li Shouyong to attack Jiaozhou. The Southern Han army defeated the enemy in one fell swoop, captured Qu Chengmei alive in October, and looted Jiaozhou.

Liu Yan was very happy and went up to Yifeng Tower to hold a captive offering ceremony. Liu Yan said to Qu Chengmei with great pride: "You said before that I was illegally separatist and established a pseudo-regime. Why are you now my prisoner with your face tied and the jade in your mouth?"

Qu Chengmei admitted his mistake and kowtowed for mercy. Liu Yan waved his hand and generously said that the past was gone and he would spare his life. Jiaozhou was also incorporated into the Lingnan forces. Just like the annexation of vassal states that was common in that era, Liu Yan's behavior was equivalent to Lingnan East Road annexing Lingnan West Road and unifying the Lingnan region. This was of course a warlord melee within China.

The good times did not last long. Just one year later, Jiaozhou rebelled. Yang Tingyi, a general of Aizhou (now Thanh Hoa, Vietnam), kept 3,000 fake sons and plotted a counterattack against Jiaozhou. He bribed Li Jin, the garrison commander of Jiaozhou, with a large sum of money and successfully bribed him. Then he launched an attack on Jiaozhou. Li Jin cooperated with him from inside and outside and soon drove away the Southern Han garrison.

When Liu Yan heard about the rebellion, he immediately sent General Cheng Bao to rescue. Before Cheng Bao arrived, Jiaozhou was conquered. Cheng Bao fought fiercely with the rebels and died for his country. The traitor Li Jin escaped, but was caught by Liu Yan and beheaded in public. The rebel general Yang Tingyi controlled Jiaozhou from then on (931).

In 937, a rebellion broke out again in Jiaozhou, and Yang Tingyi was killed by his subordinate Jiao Gongxian. Immediately afterwards, Yang Tingyi's son-in-law Wu Quan raised an army in Aizhou to "support the king" and brought charges against Jiao Gongxian.

Jiao Gongxian knew that he was no match for Wu Quan, so in 938 he asked for help from Southern Han.

Liu Yan was overjoyed, thinking that this was a good opportunity to recover Jiaozhou and Annan, so he immediately appointed his ninth son Liu Hongcao as the governor of Jinghai Army, changed his title to King of Jiao, and ordered him to lead a large army to rescue Jiaozhou. Liu Yan himself also led the army in person and stationed it in Haimen to boost momentum.

Liu Yan was full of confidence in this expedition, but Xiao Yi, the Chongwen envoy, advised him not to be blindly optimistic, because Wu Quan was not an ordinary man. He was fierce and cunning, and the heavy rain had lasted for dozens of days. Our army had been on a long journey, the division was old and the soldiers were tired, and the supply and transportation were in a hurry. At this time, we should avoid being greedy and reckless, and should proceed step by step. In short, our army did not have the advantage of time, place and people. "Humph," Liu Yan smiled contemptuously, "a woman with bound feet!"

Liu Yan failed to listen to Hou Yi's advice, which eventually led to a tragedy. Later, when Liu Yan was critically ill and was preparing to appoint a crown prince, he finally listened to Hou Yi's advice and passed the throne to his third son Liu Hongdu. However, ironically, after passing the throne to Liu Hongdu, Southern Han finally became bigger and stronger in the world of strange things. This is a later story.

Let’s look at Wu Quan.

Jiao Gongxian was too weak and was defeated and killed before he could wait for the Southern Han reinforcements. Wu Quan also learned of the impending attack by the Southern Han, so he deployed his troops and prepared to take advantage of the situation to fight against the Southern Han reinforcements.

At the mobilization meeting, Wu Quan said that Liu Hongcao was just a silly boy. The army had come from afar, the soldiers were old and tired, and they had no combat effectiveness at all. When they heard the news that Jiao Gongxian was defeated and killed, their morale would be even lower. We only need to make a concerted effort to win a great victory!

Wu Quan carefully analyzed the comprehensive situation of the two armies and pointed out that the advantage of the Southern Han was its naval vessels, while his own advantage was his insight into the topography and hydrological data of mountains and rivers. Therefore, Wu Quan made use of their strengths and avoided their weaknesses, and tailored a set of combat plans for the Southern Han expeditionary army.

Wu Quan ordered people to make a large number of huge wooden stakes, and then wrapped the tops with large iron nails and inserted them into the Bach Dang River in advance. The high and low tides of the Bach Dang River were the heavenly soldiers and generals that Wu Quan borrowed from nature.

As expected, the Southern Han army had been worn down by the long march, and when they heard that Jiao Gongxian, who was the traitor, had been killed, their morale was even lower. Just when they were feeling depressed, a group of poorly equipped small boats suddenly appeared on the Bach Teng River. They were the vanguard troops sent by Wu Quan. The Southern Han army immediately perked up, "That's it?"

The Southern Han Dynasty sent out its large warships. After the exchange of fire, the small light boats "fled in defeat", and the Southern Han army was very proud of themselves, so they sent out their main warships to chase them, wanting to strike down these barbarians and clowns and let them know how powerful the Celestial Empire was.

After entering the ambush circle, Wu Quan's main force was dispatched. It happened to be low tide at this time, and the water level dropped. The artificial reefs successfully trapped the Southern Han fleet in the middle of the river, making it unable to move. Some of the ships were directly smashed through the bottom of the ships, and the rest became sitting ducks. Countless Southern Han soldiers fell into the water and drowned, and the commander Liu Hongcao was killed.

When the news came, Liu Yan burst into tears, gathered his remaining troops and retreated back to Guangzhou.

This battle is the famous "Battle of Bach Dang River". After this battle, the Annan region was separated from the territory of China. Ancient, modern and contemporary Vietnamese historians all agree that Ngo Quan's "Battle of Bach Dang River" was the beginning of Vietnam's independence and its escape from Chinese control. Ngo Quan is also regarded as a national hero by the Vietnamese, and his status in the hearts of the Vietnamese people is like that of the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor in the hearts of the Chinese people.

In some materials on Baidu, the "Battle of Bach Dang River" is also described as "a heroic act of Vietnamese military and civilians in resisting the invasion" (search "Bai Long Bay" on Baidu, at the beginning of the second paragraph of "Social History").

Every Chinese should carefully examine this period of history and clarify it. Jiaozhou, Annan and other places have been Chinese territory since ancient times. At least during the "Battle of Bach Dang River", they were still Chinese territory. This was a war to quell rebellion! Whether it was the Qu family who ruled Jiaozhou or Jiao Gongxian who seized power through a mutiny, their legal system came from the appointment of the Chinese emperor as the "Jiedushi of Jinghai Army". This was an internal contradiction among the people. Where did the term "aggression" come from?
Wu Quan's behavior was a mutiny and rebellion, while Liu Yan's dispatch of troops to suppress the local armed rebellion could not be called an "invasion"? Baidu, where is your butt sitting?

Although Vietnam is an independent country today, its history cannot be tampered with. Just because it is a sovereign country today, it cannot be assumed that it has always been a complete and independent sovereign country in history. We must respect objective historical facts and tell the story of historical figures and events in the objective historical context of the time.

(End of this chapter)