The Tang Dynasty, which has always been prosperous, fought an unprecedented battle in the thirteenth year of Tianbao. This was a war between The Tang and Nanzhao, and in the face of the powerful Turkic tribes and the Tubo state, the Tang dynasty was not hit, but lost to the small Nanzhao state.
It's really incompetent, and it has become a joke in history. Nanzhao is located in Yunnan. During the Tang Dynasty, there were six small countries with good strength in the southwest region, called the Six Zhaos, and the strongest was the Nanzhao State.
Because of nanzhao's geographical location bordering Tubo, it became a target that Tang and Bo wanted to win over during the war. In the end, it was successfully taken by Datang, and Nanzhao also had the support of Datang to wipe out all other small countries and unify the Erhai region.
Nanzhao grew stronger and stronger with the support of Datang and became a worry for Tubo to attack Datang. Tubo, Datang and Nanzhao had a balanced power in the southwest region, and Nanzhao also became a powerful barrier in the southwest direction of Datang.
As time passed, Nanzhao's strength grew stronger, the balance was broken, and eventually the warriors fought each other. Later nanzhao dehua tablets recorded several causes of war.
First, Tubo is a han vendetta, so he and the conspiracy intend to destroy me together
The State of Nanzhao believed that the Tang Dynasty was expected to join forces with Tubo and wanted to send troops to attack Nanzhao together. However, this reason is unlikely, if Datang really wants to eliminate Nanzhao, there is no need to join forces with Tubo.
This reason also fully proves that the self-perception of King Ge Luofeng of Nanzhao is very clear. He clearly understood that in the southwest region where he was located, there was a balance of power on three legs, and no country could have problems, otherwise this balance would not be maintained.
2. The brother-in-law of king Chengjie was degraded in Changsha for disloyalty and filial piety. And the other is playing, and the intention is to order me
This reason is that King Chengjie, the half-brother of King Ge Luofeng of Nanzhao, was exiled to the Changhe region of the Tang Dynasty for the crime of great disrespect because of the following crimes. However, The Yunnan Taishou Zhang Qiantuo wrote to the imperial court to ask for a song, and the King of Fangcheng returned to the Nanzhao Kingdom.
For Ge Luofeng, the Tang Dynasty sent the rebellious prince back to Nanzhao because he wanted the internal contradictions and civil unrest in the Nanzhao state. Such an act of Datang is obviously stirring up discord between the internal relations of Nanzhao, how can it be tolerated!
3. Revere the Tao and slander the alliance, and the sin is combined to condemn it, but it is included in the house, and it wants to make me
Nanzhao eliminated other small states and unified the Erhai Sea. After the founding of the country, its strength gradually increased, and it wanted to expand its territory to the east, so it launched a war against the surrounding areas, intending to annex the land. The continuous expansion of Nanzhao has given Datang a great sense of crisis.
At the beginning, the Tang Dynasty co-opted Nanzhao and supported the unification of Nanzhao only to use him to suppress Tubo, and did not want him to be really strong, and now the development of Nanzhao's power is no longer under the control of the Tang.
Therefore, the Tang Dynasty gave care and support to those famous tribes that were crushed by the encroachment of the Nanzhao, and sheltered and settled the people. Nanzhao believed that this was a deliberate attempt by Datang to oppose himself and was dissatisfied.
4. He who is evil with me, and bestows honor on him, and he who is good with me, who is suppressed, is subordinate to me.
Nanzhao used this reason to directly express his dissatisfaction with Datang. Anyone who has a contradiction with Nanzhao, Datang will support the other party and give subsidies. Anyone who gets along well with Nanzhao will be targeted by data. Such an approach is obviously to suppress Nanzhao.
Fifth, build a city to collect quality, train troops in armor, and secretly attack me.
In the face of the increasingly powerful Nanzhao, Datang built a city wall and camped in just in case. However, Datang set up the garrison camp at the gate of Nanzhao on the grounds of taking measures to protect it, and was ready to attack at any time, which was really intolerable.
Sixth, the heavy department is straight, double the tax on military food, solicit excessively, and try to hide me
More and more taxes are collected every year, which makes the Nanzhao state bear a great burden. The Nanzhao State believed that the purpose of Doubling the taxation of the Tang Dynasty was to suppress the development of Nanzhao and prevent Nanzhao from becoming more and more powerful. All these intolerable acts made Nanzhao have to rebel against the Tang Dynasty, and war was inevitable.
Nanzhao made full preparations and launched a war against the Tang Dynasty in the ninth year of Tianbao. The trigger for the conflict was Zhang Qiantuo. At that time, Luo Feng, the king of Nanzhao, went to see Zhang Qiantuo, who was the Taishou of Yunnan. As a result, Zhang Qiantuo not only extorted money from him, but also insulted the queen.
Ge Luofeng was very angry and wrote to the imperial court to accuse Zhang Qiantuo of his crimes, but confiscated any reply and did not deal with his fault. This attitude made Ge Luofeng indignant, and coupled with the original resentment, he directly raised an army and killed Zhang Qiantuo.
Since then, the war between Nanzhao and Datang has begun. In the tenth year of Tianbao, the Tang Dynasty sent Jiannan Jiedu to lead 80,000 troops and horses to attack Nanzhao, a battle that broke the balance of forces between the three parties and forced Nanzhao and Tubo to join forces to crush the Tang army.
Thirteen years later, in order to show himself, the traitorous minister Yang Guozhong once again tricked the Tang King into sending troops to attack Nanzhao, and Li Mi led an army of 70,000 to attack and was defeated. Li Mi fought for a long time, and soon the problem of insufficient supply of grain and grass soon appeared, and the soldiers were dissatisfied with the water and soil, and the internal attrition was serious.
Ge Luofeng took the opportunity to attack, and the Entire Tang Army was destroyed, suffering heavy losses, and more than 200,000 soldiers and horses were wiped out before and after. However, Yang Guozhong, the traitorous minister, had been deceiving Tang Xuanzong's repeated victories in border wars, and no one at all levels of the imperial court dared to report the truth of the defeat to the emperor.
Tang Xuanzong always believed in what Yang Guozhong said, without any awareness, in the eyes of the emperor, Datang was still prosperous, peaceful and peaceful, and he did not know that there was a hidden crisis behind the prosperity.
In the end, Gao Lishi still explained the situation to Tang Xuanzong. However, for the fiasco in the First World War in Yunnan and the two major problems of border generals supporting the army and self-respect, Tang Xuanzong did not take timely countermeasures to solve the problem.
Perhaps it was because Tang Xuanzong was old and weak in heart, and he could not do what he did when he was young. So in the face of these unsolvable problems, all he did was escape. However, once it has been lost for thousands of years, all kinds of problems have gathered together, and over time, it has laid a major hidden danger for the occurrence of the "Anshi Chaos".
Reference: Book of Tang