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Cao Bin
Early Song general who led the conquest of the Southern Tang and kept his troops from killing when Jinling fell, later twice serving as military affairs commissioner
At dusk on a hilltop, a large tent stands open with a table holding a map marked with small stones inside, a saddled horse tethered outside, and fire stands burning; campfires dot the river plain below, and one tiny sentry stands on the slope.
Also known as Zi Guohua · Luguo Gong · Shi Wuhui
- Roles
- Commanders
Cao Bin, courtesy name Guohua, came from Lingshou in Zhending; his maternal aunt was a consort of the first Later Zhou emperor, and he entered office under the Zhou. When Song armies invaded Later Shu in 964 he served as army supervisor, and his men alone were kept from plundering. In 974 he commanded the land and river forces sent against the Southern Tang; as Jinling was about to fall the next year he pleaded illness until his generals swore, over burning incense, to kill no one when they entered the city, and Li Yu, the last Southern Tang ruler, surrendered. He went on to head the Bureau of Military Affairs, but as commander of the eastern army in the 986 campaign against the Khitan he was routed at Qigouguan and demoted, before being reappointed to the bureau. He died in 999 in his sixty-ninth year, receiving the title Prince of Jiyang and the posthumous name Wuhui; his granddaughter later became Empress Cao, consort of Emperor Renzong.
Life and times
Dates 931 CE–999 CE