Chapter 856: To Gain the Jinghai Army, First Settle the Kingdom of Dali

Two months after successfully seating himself on the throne of Yangjuxie City, the smile on Zhang Xiancun's face had turned into a frown.

Until you sit in this position, you have no idea how complicated things are — truly, you don't know how dear firewood and rice are until you run a household!

Zhang Xiancun's most immediate impression now was that there were simply too many rebels.

Although Zhang Cheng and Liu Zaisheng had successively wiped out two major rebellions, uprisings by small tribes and petty chieftains of the various peoples were breaking out one after another.

At the same time, how should the soldiers and officers willing to remain in Dali be enfeoffed, how should those wanting to return to the Central Plains be rewarded, and how should the Eight Tribes of the Western Hills who had come from Yuji City be settled?

What benefits should be given to the twenty-one Black Cuan tribes who had surrendered in advance, how should those who had resisted alongside Dali be punished, and how should the Duan, Gao, and Dong clans of the Bai people be arranged?

Every one of these matters, one after another, was a headache.

Fortunately, however, there was Guo Rong. This historically great and ambitious Emperor Shizong of Zhou, after three or four years of tempering in Nanxi Prefecture, had already begun to grasp a little of what it felt like to be a ruler.

He said to Zhang Xiancun with a smile: "Your Highness need not worry. I have observed how the Sage handles affairs and read how the wise rulers of past dynasties governed their states, and I have suddenly realized that no king who rules a country has ever had smooth sailing.

That situation where one word is spoken and the four seas submit simply never occurs. Even the First Emperor, who ruled the realm with Qin's harsh and brutal laws, could not make everyone obey.

Now that Your Highness has just founded a state, having some rebels is actually a good thing. These fellows are weak in strength and few in troops, easy to defeat. With so many soldiers and officers below you, it is best to give them something to do anyway. A few rebellions — just stamp them out."

Guo Rong's composure gave Zhang Xiancun excellent moral support, steadying this youth who had waited six or seven years to finally gain his throne and who was single-mindedly determined to measure up to his sworn elder brother, Prince of Yan Murong Xinzhang.

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Xiancun asked Guo Rong with a smile, "That being so, what can I do right now?"

"Wait!" Guo Rong said, concise and to the point.

"Wait?" Zhang Xiancun was completely baffled.

In his view, with rebellions large and small breaking out all around, the soldiers and officers still unrewarded, and over a hundred thousand men piled up in the Kingdom of Dali, the money and grain consumed every day was an astronomical figure — this was precisely the time to deal with problems quickly. How could they just sit and wait?

Fortunately, Guo Rong did not wait for Zhang Xiancun to ask before continuing: "The reason we must wait is that Your Highness is at present still only a duke with the right to open a government.

A duke alone certainly cannot sustain a state of a million people like Dali, so we must wait for the Sage's investiture to come down before deciding the next step."

At this point, Guo Rong paused briefly before continuing: "If the Sage confers a commandery princedom, then I would advise Your Highness to abandon the territory east of Yangjuxie City and concentrate on preparing to move west."

"That won't happen." Zhang Xiancun waved his hand with great confidence. If it were a commandery princedom, that would mean he, Zhang Xiancun, was merely an internal feudatory prince with a government, and after garrisoning this place for eight or ten years, he might still be transferred back.

In that case, the threat he, Zhang Xiancun, posed to the imperial throne — especially to the position of crown prince — would be far too great. His father would not arrange things that way, and it would also violate the agreement between father and son.

Seeing Zhang Xiancun so certain, Guo Rong's mind was immediately set at ease. He had only asked in order to test Zhang Xiancun's grasp of the matter.

From the look of it now, the Sage truly did intend for the eldest prince to become a king in this land, just like Murong Xinzhang.

"I also believe it will not be so." Guo Rong immediately chimed in agreement. "Then I must congratulate Your Highness. If a royal title is conferred, then Your Highness will have the standing to enfeoff vassals of his own below him.

In my view, Dali is not like the four provinces of Lelang, Chaoxian, Chaori, and Penglai, so far removed from the heartland. Ever since Zhuang Qiao became King of Dian and Tang Meng opened up the southwest, this has been territory of the state.

Therefore, even if enfeoffment is granted, first of all there is no need for a lord with such vast powers and responsibilities.

Furthermore, the lands of eastern Dian must be broken into fine pieces — many Patrol Commissioners should be enfeoffed, and even the ranks of lord and baron must be granted with caution.

Western Dian and southern Dian are mainly the three regions of the Lishui Military Governor, the Yongchang Military Governor, and the Yinsheng Military Governor. The mountains are high and forests dense, the produce is not abundant, and the people largely do not submit to royal rule. Regional lords must be used to overawe them, so the enfeoffments cannot be too small.

As for the Huichuan Command in northern Dian, it has always been contested territory between the Great Tang and Nanzhao. Even now, many people consider it land of the state, merely swindled away by Nanzhao. I advise handing a portion of it over to the state.

This would not only highlight Your Highness's noble character, but with this concession, the rewards for these tens of thousands of soldiers from the court can also be settled by the court itself."

The lands of eastern Dian that Guo Rong spoke of were roughly the later Kunming, Qujing, Xuanwei, Zhaotong, Liupanshui, and other places.

These places were close to Han territory and economically developed. Among them, Kunming, Qujing, and the like would certainly be directly governed by the Great King, while the other places could only be enfeoffed to petty native chieftains such as Patrol Commissioners. This strategy was quite correct.

Western Dian referred to the later Baoshan in Yunnan, Myitkyina, Mogaung, and Bhamo in Burma, as well as the Jiangxin Slope and the Naga Hills of India — all places that in later times were poor and inaccessible.

Southern Dian was the later Pu'er, Jinghong, Mengla, and the area north of Vientiane in Laos.

In western and southern Dian, apart from Baoshan, Jinghong, and a few other places that were passable, the rest were all impoverished regions. If one were to enfeoff only Patrol Commissioners capable of mobilizing two or three hundred able-bodied men, they certainly could not maintain order.

Thus, regional lords capable of fielding several thousand or even ten thousand troops were needed to govern, and at critical moments, support from the royal court at Yangjuxie City would also be required.

As for the Huichang Command in northern Dian, that was the later Xichang. The portion Guo Rong spoke of was specifically the two territories of Xichang City and Panzhihua City.

This place was indeed the focal point of contention between Nanzhao and the Great Tang, and also the key gateway to the north of Dali — its importance no less than that of Hanzhong to the Shu region.

Giving up this place would, on the one hand, show that Zhang Xiancun's child-state held no defenses against Sage Zhang.

On the other hand, it would indeed save a large sum in rewards that the Kingdom of Dali currently could not afford to pay out.

Using a portion of the Huichang Command's land in exchange for the court rewarding the roughly fifty thousand soldiers and officers deployed this time was indeed a very good bargain.

Zhang Xiancun was overjoyed — this plan sounded perfectly suited to his Kingdom of Dali!

Still, he felt a little embarrassed. The rewards and daily expenses for fifty or sixty thousand soldiers and officers were no small sum, and he did not know whether his father would agree.

Guo Rong chuckled. "The Sage will certainly agree. For the Prince of Yan's eastern campaign, the court bore more than seventy percent of the cost. If he did that for an adopted son, now that his own son is asking his father for four or five hundred thousand strings of cash, the Sage will surely agree."

That was true! Zhang Xiancun nodded emphatically. The old man had spent at least four million strings on his sworn brother Murong Xinzhang, nearly bleeding dry the great houses of Jiangnan and Jiangbei — the banks had issued paper notes twice for that. Now he was only asking for four hundred thousand strings; surely that ought to be granted.

Just as the two were discussing the remaining details, thunderous cheers erupted outside. Zhang Xiancun immediately grabbed Guo Rong's hand, and the two of them practically sprinted out of the hall.

The royal palace of Dali was built on the southern foothills of Mount Cang, overlooking the whole of Yangjuxie City. As Zhang Xiancun gazed out, he saw a dozen or so riders bearing the great silver-white sun-moon banner of the Emperor approaching at speed, the banner streaming ceaselessly in the fierce wind of their gallop.

The sound of drums and cheers drew soldiers and officers from all over Yangjuxie City. Amid the expectant gazes of the multitude, the messenger who had arrived ahead of time announced to Zhang Xiancun in a loud voice:

The court promoted Zhang Xiancun, Duke of Dian with the right to open a government, to royal rank, fixing the state title as Chu, styling him Great King of the State of Chu, establishing a hegemon's government with three offices, and bestowing upon him the name Huang.

As for Zhang Xiancun's state title, Zhang Zhao had in fact deliberated over it for a long time. The only usable state titles were King of Dian from Zhuang Qiao, King of Yunnan which Piluoge had received from Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, and King of Chu, which could barely be made to fit.

Among these, King of Dian truly sounded unpleasant, did not belong to the hundred states enfeoffed by the Son of Heaven of Zhou, and moreover faintly carried the flavor of a barbarian king of the frontier wastes.

The title King of Yunnan, for one thing, was a two-character royal title, not in keeping with the Central Plains tradition that one-character royal titles were the most honored, and for another, it carried too strong a flavor of separatist independence.

After weighing one option after another, only the title King of Chu was the most suitable.

Chu was one of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period and one of the Seven Powers of the Warring States, and had always counted among the most domineering of the best royal titles.

Moreover, the Bai people had a legend that they were descendants of Zhuang Qiao, King of Dian, and Zhuang Qiao could barely be counted as a marginal member of the Chu royal house.

Furthermore, in the Spring and Autumn period, the state of Chu — which had the audacity to boldly declare "We are barbarians!" — actually played the role of the Zhou dynasty in the south.

In Chinese history, the development of the lands south of the Central Plains began with Chu.

Although they could utter the words "We are barbarians" at the time, it was in fact after being mocked by the Central Plains states that, for practical interests, they adopted a somewhat defiant, devil-may-care attitude.

But in their hearts, the people of Chu absolutely refused to consider themselves barbarians. On the contrary, the face they presented to the lands south of the Yangtze was that of a great civilized state from the Central Plains.

In the Chu of that time, even if you were a barbarian from the mountain forests, as long as you acknowledged the King of Chu as your sovereign, learned the language, culture, and way of life of Chu, and were willing to send a hostage prince to Yingdu, they would treat you as a person of Chu — and if your strength was great enough, they would even absorb you into the ranks of the Chu aristocracy.

This made the composition and origins of the Chu royal clan and nobility extremely complex, and it also meant that although Chu was large, it could never gather its vast territory into a single cohesive force, giving it the bloated feel of being big but not strong.

But for later generations, Chu's strategy contributed enormously. Genetic surveys show that across the vast regions south of the Yangtze, many great local clans who consider themselves Han Chinese mostly split off from the Chu royal clan and nobility. This created a great many claims and a strong centripetal pull toward the Central Plains dynasties.

Zhuang Qiao's maternal ancestors were very likely a great local clan from the Yunnan-Guizhou region who had been absorbed into Chu, which was why he knew with such certainty that the Dali region was rich in resources and sufficient to build a career and found a state.

And why he knew the geography along the route, and could, in so short a time and with the productive forces of that era, strike all the way to the Dali region. (Purely the author's speculation, not guaranteed accurate; just read it for fun.)

So now, when Zhang Zhao bestowed on Zhang Xiancun the state title of Chu, it could on one hand draw in the Bai people, the most powerful local force, and on the other hand serve as a kind of inheritance.

And after receiving the royal title of King of Chu, Zhang Xiancun was also extremely excited. He naturally knew how much of Zhang Zhao's expectations were contained in the royal title of Chu.

At the great banquet for his ministers, Zhang Xiancun said to He Ning, who had personally come to serve as the imperial envoy: "Huang, in the pre-Qin era, was the bell and drum by which a ruler summoned his warriors; after the First Emperor, it became the replacement for the yue battle-axe.

My lord bestowed on my elder brother, the King of Yan, the name Yue, and bestowed on me the name Huang. His earnest expectations leap out from the characters themselves.

I beg the Chief Minister to report back to His Majesty: the entire Chu domain will always remember its duty to open up territory and to rule the barbarians as a Xia lord."

This was the tacit understanding between father and son. With a single character, Zhang Zhao made Zhang Xiancun understand what he was supposed to do.

In the ninth year of Shaoming of the Great Zhou, 954 CE, in the first month, King of Chu Zhang Huang formally began issuing orders in the city of Yangjumei, renaming Yangjumei to Dali.

The li in the Kingdom of Dali originally should have been this li. Now Zhang Xiancun changed li to li, implicitly conveying two meanings: restoring the old name and restoring the rites of Zhou.

After that, he also changed Shanshan Prefecture to Kunming Prefecture, Shisang Commandery to Chuxiong Prefecture, and Wumeng City to Jianwei Prefecture. These three prefectures, together with Jianchuan Prefecture to the north (around Lijiang) and the capital Dali, were made the territory directly governed by the Great King.

And in this one capital and four prefectures he established fifty thousand households of fubing militia. Of these, the Northern Prefecture Army comprised ten thousand households, responsible for guarding the national capital and the royal city, while the Southern Prefecture Army comprised forty thousand households, responsible for suppressing the localities.

In the central government, Zhang Xiancun made Guo Rong the State Chancellor.

Little Black Bear Zhang Liechao was made Commander of the Northern Prefecture Army, controlling the palace guard on his behalf. But Little Black Bear would clearly return to the central court in the future. In the Chu domain he was there first to help Zhang Xiancun, and second to accumulate experience. After Little Black Bear left, the command of the Northern Army would be concurrently held by the Great King himself.

Li Chongjin was made Commander of the Southern Prefecture Army, with a command office established to handle the stationing, rotation, and assembly of the forty thousand households of the Southern Prefecture Army.

Zhang Yongde was made Prefect of Kunming and Deputy Commander of the Southern Prefecture Army, responsible for garrisoning the key town of Kunming Prefecture.

Dong Sankuo was made Prefect of Chuxiong. More than twenty members of the Dong clan were enfeoffed as patrol inspectors and dispersed to garrison various places.

Gao Fang's son Gao Tong was made Prefect of Jianchuan. More than twenty members of the Gao clan were enfeoffed as patrol inspectors and likewise broken up and dispersed to garrison various places.

At the same time, the Duan clan, the Dao clan of the Baiyi (Dai people), and other great families each received rewards. Basically, clan heads and elders remained in the heartland, while the clan warriors were split apart and sent to various places as patrol inspectors and the like.

The remaining officers and soldiers who had followed Zhang Xiancun into Yunnan each received rewards: four men were enfeoffed as lords, eleven as barons, and more than seventy as patrol inspectors.

In the localities, Zhang Xiancun enfeoffed Zhang Fei as Count of Lishui and Military Governor of Lishui, based at Jinbao City (Myitkyina), governing forty-four thousand households of various tribal peoples, totaling two hundred fifty thousand people.

And An Shouqian, who had brought with him a large group of disaffected men from Hedong and Daibei along with old yabing guards, was enfeoffed as Count of Yinsheng and Military Governor of Yinsheng, based at Yinsheng City (Jingdong), governing thirty thousand households of various tribal peoples, totaling one hundred ninety thousand people.

With An Shouqian as their representative, the old yabing guards and yabing officers who could find no place under the new policies of the Zhang Zhou regime had finally found a place to settle.

An Shouqian was the son of An Shuqian, the man Zhang Zhao had tricked into running around as a peacemaker everywhere, and who had also been detained by Liu Zhiyuan.

An Shuqian had married his daughter to Zhang Xiancun as a secondary consort, and Zhang Xiancun had also married Princess Yongle, the youngest daughter of Li Siyuan, Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang. Thus, after Murong Xinzhang, he became the second investment target of the Hedong and Daibei military men.

But this group was extremely complex. They were not all Hedong and Daibei military men; within them there were actually three factions.

The first was the Qiang people from the Eight Tribes of Xishan who regarded Zhang Xiancun as a living Buddha. The second was a group of warriors from the fringes of Helong that the little aunt had personally recruited for her son. Only the remainder were the disaffected men of Hedong and Daibei under An Shouqian.

Although An Shouqian was a count, that was the reward the An family deserved after staking almost their entire fortune on Zhang Xiancun.

In reality, the other two factions listened only to Zhang Xiancun. In minor matters An Shouqian could command them, but in major matters, not necessarily.

In this way, the framework of the entire Chu domain was more or less set up, and the migration of the Azhali sect also began.

But just as Guo Rong had said, the internal pacification wars within the Chu domain would not stop any time soon. It would take at least five to eight years of fighting and negotiating before true suppression could be achieved.

However, the most important war at present was not quelling internal unrest, but rather immediately sending men to exterminate the remnants of the Kingdom of Dali entrenched in the Tonghai Command Area (Gejiu).

The reason for such urgency was that the Tonghai Command Area bordered Annam, and there was a great river, the Red River, running from Dali all the way to Annam.

This great river originated in the Kingdom of Dali and flowed all the way to the sea in Annam, bringing the fertile Red River Delta to the land of Annam. It was also the only great river that flowed from the territory of the later Republic into Annam.

Annam's terrain was actually very favorable for defense. At this time, the roads around Zhennan Pass were still covered by jungle. To pass through, one had to cross at least two hundred li of primeval forest, which was extremely difficult to traverse.

Going by sea, the Red River Delta was also particularly treacherous. The bay looked calm on the surface, but beneath it undercurrents surged, and the ebb tide times were damnably unpredictable. One moment your warships might be landing, and the next moment they'd be stranded.

When Southern Han attacked Annam, they fell for exactly this trick. The Jinghai Army had been beaten to the point of wailing for their parents by the Southern Han army, but Wu Quan played a dirty trick and planted hidden stakes in the sea in advance.

The Southern Han army did not know how fast the tide went out here. They were fighting smoothly when the sea ebbed, and the warships were dragged back out with the tide, then suddenly slammed into the hidden stakes that had been submerged underwater. Even the flagship of the commander Liu Hongcao was capsized, and in the end the entire army was annihilated.

So, in the cold-weapons era, there was only one way to attack Annam that they could not withstand: coming from the Tonghai Command Area, advancing down the Red River with combined land and water forces.

The Red River had abundant water flow. Once past Lao Mountain, there were no more strategic passes, and one could charge all the way down to Hanoi in a single rush.

Historically, when Nanzhao dared to attack and occupy the Jinghai Army several times during the Great Tang period, they went from here.

Even in the later Republic era it was the same. During the counterattack war, why did Vietnam have to accompany us in training at Lao Mountain?

It was because they knew that once past Lao Mountain, Vietnam had no defensible terrain. If they did not fight us there, if they did not hold Lao Mountain, Hanoi would be a whore with her legs spread open—enter whenever you want, leave whenever you want.

What 'refusing to give up and still wanting to invade'? The Vietnamese monkeys aren't fools. Who would invade poor places like Hekou and Pingbian? There's no profit in it at all.

It was because they had no choice and feared being beaten, so they could only occupy Lao Mountain and build fortifications. Even if their hearts bled and their men all died, they could only hold on stubbornly.

Therefore, in Zhang Zhao's campaign to recover the Jinghai Army, sending troops from the Kingdom of Dali was the most critical element, and so the Tonghai Command Area had to be recovered as quickly as possible.

At the same time, Ma Shacai, Ma Zhaoyuan, also formally submitted a memorial to Zhang Zhao, because he had found how to deal with the armor of moral righteousness that Liu Sheng of Southern Han had wrapped himself in.

You say you're a loyal domain? Simple. Now only the Jinghai Army remains unrecovered. The court formally orders the Southern Han land and naval forces to cooperate in recovering the Jinghai Army.

What? You say you won't go? Then your loyal domain is obviously a pretense.

The bones of your Liu Sheng's brother Liu Hongcao are still buried at the bottom of the sea south of the Jinghai Army. The great vengeance for tens of thousands of Southern Han's brave sons has not yet been taken. Say one more time that you won't go—try it.

Go? Good, then it's easy. On the way back, all the officers and men of the Southern Han land and naval forces will have been bought off. On the return journey they'll surround the Prince of Xing's palace. See whether you, Liu Sheng, call for help or not. And as you keep calling for help, you'll be rescued all the way to the divine capital Luoyang.

(End of chapter)

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