Suppression of the Southern Tang
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In 975
975
Year 975 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.- Africa :* Al-Azhar University is founded in Cairo, Egypt .- Asia :...

 AD the Song managed through force to subdue the state now known as Southern Tang
Southern Tang
Southern Tang was one of the Ten Kingdoms in south-central China created following the Tang Dynasty from 937-975. Southern Tang replaced the Wu Kingdom when Li Bian deposed the emperor Yang Pu....

, to distinguish it from the synonymously named Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

, as part of a series of Song conquests to reunify China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

.

Battle on the Yangtze

On the river Yangtze near Nanking, the then capital of the Southern Tang, a major naval battle took place in 975 between the Song empire and the Southern Tang.

Southern Tang

The Tang had a fleet of ships that were ten decks high and equipped with multiple flamethrowers. There were at least 150,000 soldiers and sailors under the command of Chu Ling Pin.

Song empire

The admiral for the Song was Tshao Pin, The Song ships were smaller however the crew on board were better archers. The ships had flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...

s and were filled with bundles of reed soaked in oil to be thrown at the enemy ships.

Battle

The Song ships attacked ferociously, firing so many arrows that soon, the Tang ships were studded with them. Chu Ling Pin then ordered the flamethrowers to be fired. Normally, any attacker would be destroyed, however the wind blew in the opposite direction of the flamethrowers so the burning oil flew back onto the Tang. At that moment, the Song started throwing the bundles of burning reeds into the wind to cause more damage. The Song may have started using their own flamethrowers at this stage. About 150,000 Tang soldiers and sailors were killed in the fire and Chu Ling Pin committed suicide by jumping into the flames.

Analysis of Battle

Considering the position of Nanking in China, where the imperial capital would have been, and the above "evidence". It can be assumed that there was a strong westerly wind on the day of that battle. The attackers would have had the advantage of having a good wind behind them, their ships would have travelled much faster, and their arrows, "burning bundles" and burning oil would have had extra propulsion. However, the defending side would have had the exact opposite to this. Considering the claimed size of the defenders ships, Chu Ling Pin would have probably been inside the ship and may have not been aware of what the weather was like, which would have led him to make the mistake of ordering the flamethrowers to be fired. On a technological note, we know that the Wujing Zongyao
Wujing Zongyao
The Wujing Zongyao was a Chinese military compendium written in 1044 AD, during the Northern Song Dynasty. Its authors were the prominent scholars Zeng Gongliang , Ding Du , and Yang Weide , whose writing influenced many later Chinese military writers. The book covered a wide range of subjects,...

 written in 1044 (although the oldest edition is from around the 1560s) describes the flamethrowers oil being lit by fire drug (a flammable, quasi explosive compound that would in later cultures and generations be refined into gunpowder) and we know that fire drug was invented as a medicine sometime in the 9th century, but whether this battle did use gunpowder is speculative.

Aftermath

Li Houzhu
Li Houzhu
Li Houzhu , also known as Houzhu of Southern Tang , personal name Li Yu , né Li Congjia , courtesy name Chongguang , posthumously known as Prince of Wu , was the last ruler of the Southern Tang Kingdom from 961 to 975 during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms...

the emperor of the Southern Tang was more interested in poetry than ruling and soon after this battle the Southern Tang were absorbed into the new Song Empire. He was captured and sent to the Song capital, one of his wives raped and he was eventually poisoned.

Source

  • Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China Volume 5 Part 7 the Gunpowder Epic, page 89


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