During the Qin and Han dynasties, China could hardly have an enemy in the world, except for the Xiongnu, who had threatened the Central Dynasty at the beginning of the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, the Central Dynasty for most of the rest of the time was crushing the surrounding areas and places. However, the historical figure we are going to talk about today, he actually occupied the Lingnan region for 81 years from the end of Qin to the time of Emperor Wu, and for a long time let the central government helplessly against him, he was the former general of the Qin State, and later the South Vietnamese Wu King Zhao Tuo.
It is impossible to verify the specific year in which Zhao Tuo was born, and the time when he really appeared on the stage of history was already after Qin Shi Huang conquered the Six Kingdoms and initially unified the whole country. When Qin Shi Huang conquered the Six Kingdoms, he planned to continue to expand north and south, and to the north Qin Shi Huang sent the general We know as Meng Tian to attack the Xiongnu in the north and build the Great Wall. To the south, Tu Sui was sent as the main general to lead an army of 500,000 to conquer the land of Lingnan Baiyue. Zhao Tuo was Tu Sui's deputy at that time.
Originally, the Qin army was like a bamboo at the beginning, destroying all the way and occupying the Guangdong region in the year of the expedition. However, the South Vietnamese were not easy to provoke, and when the brave South Vietnamese engaged the Qin army in the Guangxi region, they actually killed the main general of the Qin army, Tu Sui. Qin Shi Huang soon appointed Ren Hu as the new general, while Zhao Tuo remained as a deputy general and once again led an army to conquer Baiyue. After years of conquest and several changes of commanders, the Qin Dynasty paid a considerable price, and finally took the land of Baiyue and included it in its own rule.
However, the good times did not last long, and soon after the pacification of Lingnan, Qin Shi Huang died in the process of inspection, and Qin II succeeded to the throne and reversed backwards, which eventually led to Chen Sheng and Wu Guang opening the prelude to the peasant revolt at the end of Qin that eventually destroyed the Qin Dynasty in Daze Township. Seeing that zhongyuan had fallen into a chaotic situation after the death of Qin Shi Huang, Ren Hu, as a lieutenant of Nanhai County, did not want the Lingnan region, which had been hard to settle, to be involved in the disputes in the Central Plains, but Ren Hu himself was seriously ill at this time.
Therefore, Ren Hu chose to call his former deputy general Zhao Tuo, who was then serving as the commander of Longchuan County, before his death, and he analyzed the situation in Nanhai County in detail for Zhao Tuo, believing that Nanhai County was surrounded by mountains and seas, and with the help of the terrain, it was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and could be used as a dependency to establish a country, thus resisting the invasion from the Central Plains rebel army. After Ren Hu finished speaking, he immediately issued an appointment document to Zhao Tuo, asking him to take the post of lieutenant of Nanhai County, and formally handed over the rule of Nanhai County to Zhao Tuo.
Soon after, Ren Huo fell ill and died. Zhao Tuo, who had succeeded as a lieutenant of Nanhai Commandery, decided to defend the stronghold according to the arrangements before Ren Huan's death, and conveyed defensive instructions to the troops at various important passes to resist possible attacks from the Central Plains rebels. However, compared with defense, in fact, Zhao Tuo was more concerned about ren Hu's idea of building a country, and the idea of dividing one side to establish a country independently was too attractive, so Zhao Tuo, while deciding to defend, also killed all the officials of the Qin Dynasty originally set up in Nanhai County, and replaced them with his own cronies.
In this way, Nanhai County truly became Zhao Tuo's Nanhai County. However, Zhao Tuo did not feel satisfied so easily. Taking advantage of the fall of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Chu-Han war between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang for the world, he quickly raised an army to annex the other two counties established by the Qin Dynasty in the Lingnan region, namely Guilin and Xiang County, and finally established the State of Nanyue in the third year of Han Gaozu (204 BC), calling himself "King Wu of Nanyue" and dividing the Lingnan side. At this time, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang of the Central Plains had not yet divided the victory and defeat.
In the fifth year of Han Gaozu (202 BC), Liu Bang finally defeated Xiang Yu and established the Western Han dynasty, but at that time, the forces of different surnames still made Liu Bang unable to deal with Zhao Tuo's self-reliance. After Liu Bang basically dealt with the domestic forces of the king with different surnames, it was not easy to deal with the problem of Zhao Tuo, after all, Zhao Tuo had been through Lingnan for many years, and the power was deeply rooted, and it was not a concept with the previously pacified king with a different surname, so Liu Bang sent the doctor Lu Jia to the South Vietnamese state, hoping to make Zhao Tuo take the initiative to return to Han through diplomatic means.
Under the painstaking persuasion of Lu Jia, Zhao Tuo finally chose to submit to the Han Dynasty and accepted the seal of the King of Nanyue given by Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao. The State of Nanyue thus became a vassal state of the Western Han Dynasty, submitting to the imperial court and paying tribute on time. During the reign of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gaozu, it should be said that the relationship between the Nanyue State and the Han Dynasty was quite harmonious, the two sides sent emissaries to each other, and also maintained trade exchanges with each other, Zhao Tuo admitted his submission to the Han Dynasty, and Liu Bang also recognized Zhao Tuo's rule over the three counties of Lingnan.
However, after Liu Bang's death, Lü Hou became the ruler of the Western Han Dynasty in the true sense of the word, and the relationship between the Han Dynasty and the State of South Vietnam took a sharp turn. Lü Hou began to restrict trade between the Western Han Dynasty and the South Vietnamese state and issued a ban. This upset Zhao Tuo, who feared that Lü Hou would most likely invade South Vietnam through the state of Changsha. So Zhao Tuo gave up his submission to the Han Dynasty and called himself "Emperor Wu of South Yue" and took the initiative to send troops to attack the state of Changsha, but Zhao Tuo did not really fight the state of Changsha, but after occupying several counties on the border of the state of Changsha, he took the initiative to withdraw, And Zhao Tuo's purpose was more likely to be to deter, after all, he himself knew that he could not really fight and defend.
Lü Hou was not willing to just suffer losses, so he sent a large army to attack the South Vietnamese state, and as a result, because the soldiers in the Central Plains could not tolerate the hot and humid climate of the South Vietnamese generation, the soldiers who fell due to illness in the army continued to emerge, and eventually the Han army failed to cross the Vietnamese ridge. Soon after, Lü Hou also died, and the Han Dynasty army stopped fighting South Vietnam. Zhao Tuo's success in fighting against the powerful Han Dynasty naturally did not give up such a great opportunity to expand his influence, and took this opportunity to greatly strengthen Zhao Tuo's influence on the surrounding countries and tribes, and also retained the imperial title and suspended his vassal relations with the Han Dynasty.
In the first year of the Reign of Emperor Xiaowen of Han (179 BC), Emperor Wen of Han succeeded to the throne, and the Western Han Dynasty began to take the initiative to repair relations with the State of Nanyue, emperor Wen of Han took the initiative to send people to rebuild the cemetery of Zhao Tuo's ancestors, set up a special tomb guard for it and also sacrificed on time every year, and Zhao Tuo's cousins were also given official positions and property. At the recommendation of Chen Ping, Lu Jia, who had returned to Han from South Vietnam during the han Gaozu period, once again sent an envoy to South Vietnam, and once again tried to persuade Zhao Tuo to return to Han.
Lu Jia once again felt affection for him and moved to reason, so that Zhao Tuo understood the significance of removing the imperial title and returning it to Han, and Zhao Tuo was once again impressed by Lu Jia and took the initiative to remove the imperial title and once again submitted to the Han Dynasty. This time, the friendly relationship between Zhao Tuo and the Central Dynasty lasted until his death without any further contradictions, and although Zhao Tuo acted in the name of an emperor in South Vietnam, he showed an attitude like an ordinary prince to the Han Dynasty, and the tribute and visit did not fall.