Han Shizu

Chapter 2097 Taizong Chapter 44 The World in the Shadow of the Han Dynasty (Part )

The war between the Han Empire and Chenla that took place in the winter and spring of the fifth to sixth years of Yongxi's reign undisputedly announced the great changes in the Indochina Peninsula.

This war ended with a disastrous defeat for the Chenla Kingdom. They lost their troops and lost their territory, and they sued for peace in humiliation. The once largest country on the peninsula has fallen into decline. It has lost large areas of land on both the north and south sides and suffered heavy losses. The coastal countries have almost been turned into inland countries. At the same time, a serious internal governance crisis also broke out, with the central authority losing its authority, local powerful factions rising, tribal rebellions, and separatism rising...

The ruling class of Chenla Kingdom has a certain degree of continuity, and its rule is not that fragile, just like the harassment and rebellion that occurred one after another in the North and South Jinzhou and Java Island. If the court wants to completely conquer Chenla, it will not engage in mass killings and pass " "Population policy" is extremely difficult to achieve results in a short period of time.

However, from the perspective of "causing chaos to the country", there is not much pressure on the Han Dynasty, especially after the country has been breached.

This peninsular war did not last long, but the scale of the troops mobilized was quite large. Not to mention the initial "self-defense counterattack". In the following months, they went abroad to fight. Due to the military situation, they were forced to ensure supplies and supplies. In the later period, an additional 30,000 pairs of civilians were sent to quell the "Zhenla Rebellion". "The imperial court mobilized a total of 120,000 soldiers and civilians.

A war of this scale is not a small battle anywhere, let alone on the Indochina Peninsula. It is conceivable that it consumes a lot of money and food. As for the casualties, they were also quite large. There were more than 7,000 people, more than half of whom were non-combat attrition. At the same time, more than 2,000 Han soldiers were buried in the peninsula plateau and dense forests...

It is true that the losses of the Chenla Kingdom were more serious, several times or even ten times that of the Han army, and the Han army also captured the sixth large area of ​​​​Zhenla territory centered on Wendan. However, this deal was not considered by the Han court. No matter how you calculate it, it's a loss.

Therefore, in April of the summer of the sixth year of Yongxi's reign, when the Chenla envoys arrived in Luoyang, Xijing after all the hard work, and brought the begging letter from King Jayavarmandhi V of Chenla, the emperor Liu Zongzhi did not go through much complicated and heated discussions. Yang then agreed to his request.

As for the conditions, it is necessary to pay tribute as a vassal and to cede territory and pay compensation. At the same time, Chenla is required to open the door to the country and prepare Han merchants to go to the territory of Chenla to colonize and trade. Moreover, those who are exiled in the territory of Chenla from Annan and Yunnan resist. power, Zhenla Kingdom also needs help in the eradication. To be honest, the court's conditions were considered to be lenient.

What Zhenla Kingdom doesn't know is that in fact, they only need to carry it one more time, and the situation will get better, because the top leaders of the Han Empire reached a consensus and decided to dismiss the soldiers and end the dispute with Zhenla Kingdom.

There are many reasons, mainly two aspects. First, the war with Chenla is really a loss-making one. It will not do much good to the court if it continues. It will only waste national power. After Chenla is defeated and surrendered, there is no need to waste money, food and troops;

The second is that entering the Yongxi era, the most important policies of the imperial court were to practice martial arts, cultivate literature, and recuperate. If it was not necessary, they would not start a war lightly.

Of course, like the Jiannan rebellion and the invasion of Zhenla, this kind of situation must be resolutely suppressed and counterattacked, but to what extent, the princes of the court have a psychological bottom line.

To be fair, the emperor's eldest son Liu Wenhuan led his army to counterattack into the border of Zhenla. Although it boosted morale and promoted Chinese martial arts, it was not so recognized by the upper class of the Han Dynasty.

Even Emperor Liu Yang, although he later ordered relevant ministries and departments to make every effort to ensure the logistics of the army, he still gave him a "reckless" evaluation.

As for the reason for some inconvenient sayings, the less the better, such as the imperial court sending troops, money and efforts to benefit the feudal country. The imperial court feudal country is to reduce the costs and consumption caused by expansion and colonization. This This was a consensus formed within the imperial court from the late Kaibao period.

However, when Emperor Shizu was there, he could openly accept the suggestions of his ministers and express his attitude, while Emperor Yongxi had to consider some influence and "brotherhood" when it came to the kings. Therefore, there are things that can be done but less said.

In the entire war, there were of course winners, and the one who benefited the most was undoubtedly Liu Shu's Linyi Kingdom. Since Chenla faced strong pressure from the imperial army in the north, even if Chenla was prepared for the south, its strength was limited and it was naturally reluctant to respond.

And Lin Yi can be said to be full of elites, and they have the strong support of a large number of nobles and maritime merchants who went south. They are led by Liu Wenyan and Liu Gong, the two most capable generals of Lin Yi.

The results of the battle were huge. Not only did Liu and Liu achieve their set goal of "capture Hezhou", they also overfulfilled the task and advanced northward to the confluence of the Tonle Sap Water and the Mekong River, where they built Bashan Fort as a defense.

Bashan Fort is not far from the Tonle Sap Plain, the core ruling area of ​​the Chenla Kingdom. Compared with the tens of thousands of troops from the Han Dynasty in the north, the "backstab" from Lin Yi State was obviously a more deadly threat.

Even though Liu Wenyan did not advance rapidly due to many factors such as military strength, transportation, logistics, etc., while Liu Wenhuan continued to exert pressure in the north and captured the city, he led his army north to the Tonle Sap Lake area. Although he did not deliberately pursue the capture of the city, he still killed and wounded. A large number of Chenla subjects plundered countless people, which greatly destroyed the social and production order of the Chenla Kingdom and greatly slowed down the speed of the Chenla Kingdom's counterattack against Linyi.

After Liu Wenyan's troubles, the Chenla Kingdom naturally suffered another traumatic loss, and the Linyi Kingdom occupied almost all of the Mekong Delta, including part of the urban land that had been developed by the Chenla Kingdom. This also saved a certain amount of personal and financial resources for the subsequent development of Lin Yiguo.

After all, no matter how good the water and soil are, colonizing land is not an easy task. Just one water conservancy condition can kill someone. Starting from the occupation of the Mekong River Delta, the Linyi Kingdom's true foundation for founding a country on the peninsula began to be gradually solidified. This fertile land was also worthy of the Han people to take root.

Like the Linyi Kingdom, it is the Linhai Kingdom to the west. While Chenla was under attack from the north and the south, Linhai King Liu Wenhai also sent an army to cross the mountainous obstacles from the direct area to the southwestern Gulf of Chenla (Gulf of Thailand). ) attack, even if it only achieved a nominal rule, through this operation, it also expanded hundreds of miles.    If Liu Wenhai hadn't focused his main energy on conquering the Bagan area in the north, Liu Wenhai would definitely have taken a big share of the fat meat of Zhenla.

In the past five or six years, the Indochina Peninsula has actually been far from peaceful. Not only the Linyi Kingdom has been devouring the Champa heritage and building a feudal military and political system. In the south, Qi King Liu Yun is also tightening his control over the Beijinzhou area. With his solicitation and the support of the imperial court, dozens of descendants of distinguished families and meritorious officials went to Nanyang to make fortunes. Liu Yun's "New Qi Kingdom" also It is indeed the first choice place for everyone in Nanyang.

The most uneasy one was obviously Liu Wenhai, who was aggressively attacking Bagan and the direct access area. With the support of the imperial court and the Nanyang Sea, Liu Wenhai led his army and in just one year, he conquered the Mon people in the southeastern region of "Myanmar". The direct access to political power in the country will be eliminated.

Then, while recruiting Han forces from the country and Southeast Asia, they also tamed the local indigenous people. At the same time, they advanced north and quickly started to fight against the Bagan Kingdom.

In the past few years, the western part of the peninsula has basically revolved around the war between the Linhai Kingdom of the Han Empire and the indigenous Bagan Kingdom.

By the sixth year of Yongxi reign, Linhai King Liu Wenhai was competing with the Bagan Kingdom for the "Lower Burma" area on the basis of taking all the direct access to his homeland. However, unlike the Linyi Kingdom, Liu Shu could also take into account the development of commerce, agriculture and fishery. , there are also some actual operating results.

As for Linhai State, it was a complete military system. Liu Wenhai completely established a militaristic state with Han military meritorious landowners as the main body. From the first year to the sixth year of Yongxi, there was almost no time without fighting. The rising trend of Bagan was interrupted every time, and it had to try its best to resist the invasion from the ferocious Han army and people.

Also in April of the sixth year of Yongxi's reign, Liu Wenhai gathered an army of 30,000 (pro-army + Han armed forces + servant army) to once again launch a summer offensive against Bagan.

This time, the Bagan State failed to withstand the attack from both sea and land from the Linhai State. Therefore, the Bagan State, which had resisted for more than four years, retreated northward. Liu Wenhai finally occupied "Lower Burma", and the Bagan State was really beaten into a " landlocked country".

At this point, Liu Wenhai stopped his expansion and turned his attention to domestic politics. Direct support from the imperial court had stopped long ago. Relying mainly on himself and his father's legacy, Liu Wenhai had to stop and rest after completing his initial expansion goals.

In August of the sixth year of Yongxi's reign, Liu Wenhuan, the eldest son of the emperor and Duke of Ruyang, who had been staying in Wendan City for more than half a year, finally received a summons from the court and withdrew to Annan with the last batch of expeditionary troops to return to the court to show victory.

Of course, before returning to the DPRK, Liu Wenhuan also did some aftermath work. It is still impossible to return the Zhenla land that has been captured. Liu Wenhuan and the Zhao family insist on including it within the scope of the Han Dynasty. This is understandable, otherwise the credit for opening up the territory will be lost, and Liu Wenhuan will be Being caught in the whirlpool of criticism for "using military force and wasting money and people", the people of Murong's group will definitely hold on to this matter.

However, the cost of directly incorporating it into the administrative management of the empire was too high. Therefore, after obtaining full power from the imperial court, Liu Wenhuan made some arrangements for the developed North Chenla land.

First of all, the four prefectures of Wen, Wan, Meng, and Zhen were nominally established, and a group of officials were mobilized from Annan, Yunnan, and Guangxi. In the name, Liu Wenhuan conferred more than thirty chieftains in the four states. Among these chieftains, there were dignitaries and generals who surrendered in Zhenla, as well as local indigenous tribal leaders.

Naturally, these forces had heard about the Han chieftain system. Annan Road next door also had many chieftains, so these new interests were collectively accepted quickly.

Therefore, although Liu Wenhuan could not guarantee that the newly acquired four states of Wen, Wan, Mongolia, and Zhenla could be completely stabilized and become a consolidated territory of the Han Dynasty, he could at least guarantee that they would not easily return to Zhenla, and as time went by, they would always We will be on the right path of "Chineseization". After all, the influence of the Han people in Indochina and even the entire Southeast is continuing to deepen and strengthen.

As for Liu Wenhuan's aftermath, regardless of whether there was someone behind the scenes, Emperor Liu Yang finally gave him a "good" evaluation. As Liu Wenhuan withdrew his troops and returned to China, the Indochina peninsula, which had been in turmoil for nearly a year, finally returned to stability.

Even though this stability is not so reliable, at the same time, a new situation on the peninsula and even Southeast Asia has been formed.

From a macro perspective, the "Peninsula War" of several months had an important impact on the history of the entire Southeast Asia, even if the outcome did not result in "destruction of the country."

But what is different from the "national annihilation" wars that took place in the Nanyang region in previous years is that this time it was not just the central powers of the Han Empire that ended up, but also the feudal states of the Han Dynasty such as Linyi and Linhai, and even post-war Southeast Asia. The new pattern of China was brought about by the efforts of these feudal states.

At this time, it seems that the situation that Emperor Shizu had expected has truly emerged. The pioneering spirit of the Han Dynasty should not just come from the emperor's personal preferences and support, and the feudal states should not passively wait for the court's nurturing. They need to be more active , more iron-blooded, need to have a source of expansion from the heart to spread the civilization of the Han Dynasty.

Of course, whether this situation is good or bad for the Central Empire remains to be tested by time.

But at least in the sixth year of Yongxi's reign, the situation in the entire East Asia region is that Chinese forces with the Han Empire as the core have further deepened their influence and control over the mountains, rivers, and ocean islands under the Han banner.

The dominance of the Han Empire over the entire East Asia region has been further consolidated, and a new vassal state system full of aggression and uncertainty is taking shape. This is also a positive attempt by the Chinese Empire to truly step out of the comfort zone of the traditional "Kyushu".

(End of this chapter)