A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 1020: Jiangnan changes, the emperor's title is lowered, and the northwest changes, the past events

August of the fifth year of the Great Chapinin
Cha Wenhui of the Southern Tang conquered the four prefectures of Jian, Ting, Quan and Zhang, Wang Yanzheng was defeated, and the Kingdom of Min was destroyed.

In addition to the Tang-Fujian War, Ma Yin, the King of Chu, who had originally been a vassal of the Later Tang Dynasty, was forced to become independent because his suzerain state was destroyed.

A year later, the old King of Chu, Ma Yin, proclaimed himself emperor, named his country "Great Chu", changed "Tanzhou" to "Changsha Prefecture", and made it the capital.

After Ma Yin died, his son Ma Xifan succeeded him.

After Ma Xifan ascended the throne, he worked hard to govern the country, rewarded agriculture and sericulture, developed tea, advocated textiles, and attached importance to trade, thus enabling the economy of the Chu State to develop.

Secondly, given that there were more barbarians than Han people in the territory of Chu, Ma Xifan aggressively recruited the barbarians to come down the mountain to farm and reclaim wasteland, and registered them as citizens.

He also imitated the private military system of the Eastern Wu, and gave the captured barbarian captives as rewards to meritorious military generals in order to enrich their estates and provide themselves with manpower.

As a result, many elite troops good at mountain warfare were formed, such as the Yongshun Army in Langzhou, the Jingjiang Army in Guizhou, and the Ningyuan Army in Rongzhou.

At this time, Peng Shichou, the governor of Xizhou, who was under the jurisdiction of the Yunnan-Guizhou East Road under the Daxia vassal system, led more than 10,000 Tujia tribes to harass Chenzhou, Lizhou and other places in the western border of Chu.

Wherever they passed, they burned and looted the garrisons.

In that year, Ma Xifan ordered Liu Xing, the left commander of the Jingjiang Army, and Liao Kuangqi, the commander of the Decisive Army, to lead 5,000 Hengshan soldiers to suppress the bandits.

In the same year, he established the Tian Ce Palace, set up official posts such as Lieutenant of the Guard and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and appointed his brothers and officers to these posts in order to strengthen his military leadership.

Soon, Chu generals Liu Xing, Liao Kuangqi and others attacked Xizhou, and in a battle at Wangcheng, the Tujia army was defeated.

Peng Shichou had to abandon the state capital and retreat to Baoshan Village, and sent envoys to ask for help from Cai Hongyuan, the governor of Xiafuqian.

However, Xizhou is too far away from Qianzhou, and there are many rugged mountain roads in between.

Before the messenger could send reinforcements, Liu Xing had already captured the mountain stronghold.

Peng Shichou had to flee into the mountains of Jiangzhou and Jinzhou with his soldiers.

At the beginning of the following year, Peng Shichou, who was desperate, sent his son Peng Shihao to lead the local chiefs to surrender to the State of Chu by offering seals and maps of the three states of Naxi, Jiang and Jin.

Because Peng Shichou had a high prestige among the Tujia tribes, Ma Xifan was helpless for the time being and had to agree to peace talks.

Ma Xifan appointed Peng Shichou as the governor of Xizhou and Liu Qing as the governor of Jinzhou, and thus all the Tujia tribes returned to the State of Chu.

The Chu State also incorporated more than 20 states in southern Guizhou into its territory.

It was a critical moment when Daxia was attacking the Dali Kingdom in the southwest, so he had no time to take care of other things. He just ordered the Fuqian Military Governor's Office to guard the Qianzhou and Bozhou lines carefully and not to be taken advantage of by the Chu army.

By the time the Great Xia court had subdued the tribes in southern Yunnan and had time to spare, the Chu state had already stabilized the Tujia tribes and so the plan was abandoned.

However, this year, Ma Xifan passed away, and Ma Yin's seventh son, Ma Xiguang, succeeded to the throne of crown prince with the support of military generals, and ascended the throne as the new king the following year.

However, this angered his older fifth son, Ma Xi'e, who rebelled.

While Ma Xi'e was contacting the barbarian troops in Chenzhou and Meishan, he also pledged his allegiance to the Southern Tang and requested it to send troops to attack Changsha Prefecture.

October
Ma Xi'e led his own troops, the barbarian army, and the Southern Tang army to surround Changsha Prefecture.

The defender of Changsha City, Xu Keqiong, surrendered, the capital of Chu fell, and Ma Xiguang was captured.

After ascending the throne of the King of Chu, Ma Xi'e turned his back on his friends and first forcibly annexed the barbarian soldiers who came to help him, and then gave them as rewards to the other generals who helped him in the rebellion as their subordinates.

Later, he kept shirking his responsibilities in response to the envoys sent by the Southern Tang Dynasty who asked him to abide by the alliance, give up his imperial title, and submit to the Southern Tang Dynasty.

February, the sixth year of the Great Chaupenin
The Southern Tang sent a large army to attack the Chu State from three directions. The Chu army suffered defeat after defeat, losing dozens of cities in one month.

They were about to attack Changsha Prefecture.

Ma Xi'e, who had no ability to govern a country or command an army, hurriedly sent an envoy to Jiangning Prefecture, the capital of Southern Tang, to explain:
"Your Majesty sent an envoy to Chu to urge me to fulfill the covenant. I wanted to obey and give up my title of emperor to become a vassal."

"However, I am stupid and foolish, and was deceived by a villain, so I was punished by Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty sent a large army to remind him, and he suddenly woke up and immediately killed the villain who deceived me."

"I am about to pay tribute to you. Please forgive my ignorance. I am so grateful that I cannot express it in words."

Emperor Li Jing of Tang did not want to accept it at first, and was about to make a concerted effort to destroy Southern Chu.

Suddenly, we learned that the Xia army in Huaibei was making unusual movements. A large number of Xia troops were stationed on the border, and there was a fear that they might move south.

Li Jing immediately changed his attitude and sent someone to accept Ma Xi'e's surrender.

March
Witnessed by the envoys from Southern Tang, the Chu Emperor Ma Xi'e ascended the throne and knelt to the east to pledge his loyalty.

The Tang envoy conferred the title of King of Chu on Ma Xi'e on the Tang emperor, and appointed him as the General of Tiance and the Military Governor of Wu'an, Wuping, Yongshun, Jingjiang and Ningyuan.

Wait until the Southern Tang army returns to Jiangbei from the Chu territory.

The Xia army, which had intended to march south, suddenly stopped moving, as if nothing had happened.

March, Year 6 of Great Chapinin
The leader of the Lianghuang-Tibetan alliance, Zhebu Jiashi, sent envoys to seek help from Daxia, requesting reinforcements to resist the invasion of the Ganzhou Uighurs.

The Lianghuang-Tubo Alliance was an alliance of Tubo tribes that split from the Tubo Dynasty, and was mainly based in the Hehuang area and near Liangzhou.

Since the establishment of Daxia, the Lianghuang Alliance was afraid that Daxia would send troops, so it sent envoys to pay tribute many times.

This made Xia Ting, who wanted to take action against him, unable to find a suitable reason.

Now that the Ganzhou Uighurs had invaded, the Tibetans had taken the initiative to ask for help, which gave the Xia Ting an excuse to intervene.

"Since the fall of the Former Tang Dynasty, the Tubo Dynasty, which had previously fought against the Tang Dynasty, was also affected by the uprising of slaves in the east, which gradually spread to the plateau. In the end, the once powerful Tubo Dynasty collapsed."

"According to the information we have obtained from the Hehuang Tubo, the Chuanxi Tusi, the Diannan Tusi and other forces that separated from the Tubo Dynasty and were originally part of the Tubo sphere of influence."

"Since the last king of the Tubo Dynasty was assassinated by a monk, the Tubo Kingdom has been roughly divided into four parts."

"One part is located north of the Yarlung Zangbo River, with Lhasa as its center, occupying the northern part of Tibet and the northern part of Uzbekistan."

"One part is located south of the Yarlung Zangbo River, with the city of Pibo as its center, and occupies the southern part of the Wusi region and the western part of the Dokham region, the Yaze royal line."

"One part is the Ali royal family, centered in Bujang City, occupying the Ali region and Mengyu."

"The last part is the Tibetan alliance that we are familiar with, occupying Hehuang, Liangzhou, the area around Qinghai Lake, and the eastern part of Dokang. It is called the Yalong Jue'a royal family."

"Among them, because the great uprising was first launched in the east, the influence of the Yalong Jue'a royal family in the local area was very small, which led to the formation of an alliance between many scattered Tubo tribes and foreign tribes that originally belonged to the Tubo Dynasty."

"Later, due to the chaos among the generals of the Northeastern Tubo Dynasty, a large number of former Tubo troops took the former Tubo to occupy the Longxi area that belonged to the Tang Dynasty and returned to the Tang Dynasty."

"Shang Rangrang, the governor of Hezhou, the governor of Hewei, and the chieftain of Xunhua, who are now under the jurisdiction of Chang'an Road, is a general under the command of Shang Bibi, the former Tubo commander."

Inside the Xuanwu Hall of the Song Palace in Kaifeng, Wang Ziwu, the commander-in-chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, pointed to a hung map of the northwest and told the emperor and his ministers in the hall about the past of Tubo.

(End of this chapter)