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.

Time and place

The action took place in the first month of 975 CE, the eighth year of the Kaibao era. The gazetteer says only that it was fought at Lishui, and gives no precise site. 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 gazetteer gives no numbers, no order of battle and no account of the fighting.

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. In 1018, the second year of the Tianxi era, Shengzhou was renamed Jiangning Prefecture and the county's superior authority changed again.

Uncertainties

"Jiangnan army" is the gazetteer's term for the forces of the Southern Tang. The office Tian Qinzuo held at the time, the size of the force he led, and the exact site of the action within Lishui are all unrecorded, and this entry does not supply them.