Cao Bin's Officer Defeats the Jiangnan Army at Lishui, 975 CE

Background

The annalistic record of the Kangxi edition of the Lishui County Gazetteer opens its entry for this year with the note that "the Southern Tang had by then reduced its state title to Jiangnan" — that is, the record calls the state Jiangnan rather than Tang. Song forces were campaigning in the Jiangnan region in that year, and Lishui lay within the area of operations. The Xu Zizhi Tongjian Changbian, juan 16, places the Lishui action in the first month of the eighth year of Kaibao and sets it alongside the other operations of the Jiangnan campaign: in the same month Cao Bin pressed the attack on Jinling, and Li Hanqiong and Pan Mei successively crossed the Qinhuai and broke the river forts. The Lishui action thus belongs to the Song conquest of Jiangnan as a whole rather than standing on its own.

Time and place

The action took place in the first month of 975 CE, the eighth year of the Kaibao era; the gazetteer and the Changbian agree on the month. The gazetteer says only that it was fought at Lishui, and gives no precise site; the dynastic history and the annalistic history likewise write only "at Lishui" and record no battlefield within the county. Li Yu, the ruler of Jiangnan, surrendered later in the same year.

The action

正月，大将曹彬遣部下田钦祚败江南军于溧水。时南唐已贬国号曰江南。是岁，江南主李煜降，复改江宁为昇州，溧水隶之。

Translated: In the first month, the great general Cao Bin sent his subordinate Tian Qinzuo, who defeated the Jiangnan army at Lishui. At that time the Southern Tang had already reduced its state title to Jiangnan. In that year the ruler of Jiangnan, Li Yu, surrendered, and Jiangning was again renamed Shengzhou, with Lishui under it. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

The dynastic history and the annalistic history record the action in more detail than the gazetteer. The Xu Zizhi Tongjian Changbian, juan 16, under the first month of the eighth year of Kaibao, records:

是日，行营左厢战棹都监田钦祚领兵败江南兵万余人於溧水，斩其都统使李雄。（十九日奏到。《十国纪年》李雄作张雄。）

Translated: On that day Tian Qinzuo, fleet commander of the left wing of the field army, led his troops and defeated more than ten thousand Jiangnan soldiers at Lishui, killing their commander-in-chief Li Xiong. (The report arrived on the nineteenth day. The Shiguo Jinian writes Zhang Xiong for Li Xiong.) This is a translation, not the words of the original.

The History of Song, juan 274, "Biography of Tian Qinzuo", gives his office and the killed and captured:

（田钦祚）为升州西南路行营马军兼左厢战棹都监。领兵败吴军万余于溧水，斩其主帅李雄等五人，擒裨将二人。

Translated: Tian Qinzuo was made cavalry commander of the Shengzhou south-western route field army and concurrently fleet commander of the left wing. He led troops and defeated more than ten thousand Wu soldiers at Lishui, killed their commander Li Xiong and four others, and captured two subordinate generals. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

According to the two texts above, the Song commander in the action was Tian Qinzuo, fleet commander of the left wing of the field army; the Jiangnan troops defeated numbered "more than ten thousand"; their commander-in-chief, Li Xiong, was killed, and two subordinate generals were captured. The gazetteer gives no numbers, no order of battle and no account of the fighting; the dynastic history and the annalistic history likewise give only the numbers killed and captured, not the course of the action.

Consequences

Li Yu surrendered within the year. Jiangning, which had been a prefecture, reverted to the name Shengzhou, and Lishui passed under Shengzhou with it. The Jingding Jiankang Zhi, juan 15, "Treatise on Territories, Part One", traces the administrative history of Jiankang Prefecture and likewise records that "in the eighth year of Kaibao [the prefecture] reverted to Shengzhou", in agreement with the gazetteer. In 1018, the second year of the Tianxi era, Shengzhou was renamed Jiangning Prefecture and the county's superior authority changed again.

Uncertainties

First, "Jiangnan army" is the gazetteer's term for the forces of the Southern Tang. The size of the force Tian Qinzuo led and the exact site of the action within Lishui are recorded neither by the gazetteer nor by the dynastic history, and this entry does not supply them.

Second, the gazetteer has "the great general Cao Bin sent his subordinate Tian Qinzuo", whereas the Changbian and the History of Song's biography of Tian Qinzuo both have Tian Qinzuo leading troops himself and do not say that Cao Bin sent him. The two are set out side by side: Tian Qinzuo was in any case an officer of Cao Bin's field army and subject to his command, but the word "sent" is the gazetteer's own addition, and this entry does not conclude that he acted on Cao Bin's orders.

Third, the name of the Jiangnan commander appears in two forms: the Changbian writes "Li Xiong" and notes its own variant, "the Shiguo Jinian writes Zhang Xiong for Li Xiong", while the History of Song's biography of Tian Qinzuo writes "Li Xiong". The two are set out side by side. A search of the History of Song's basic annals, in the online punctuated edition consulted here, found no separate entry for this action.