Biography
Military Lineage and Frontier Career
Liu Ping was born in Kaifeng into a prominent military family as the son of Liu Tinghan, Grand Commander of the Palace Cavalry during Emperor Taizong's reign. Inheriting an imperial commission in 987 CE, he entered bureaucratic service in local garrisons along the northern and western frontiers. Endowed with natural military talent, horse archery proficiency, and administrative diligence, he gained deep familiarity with the topography of Shaanxi and the ethnic customs of the Qiang and Dangxiang nomads. Across the Tiansheng and Jingyou eras, he served as Military Inspector in Huanqing and became Vice General Commandant of the Fuyan Route.
The Western Xia Invasion and the Siege of Yanzhou
In 1039 CE, Li Yuanhao formally proclaimed the Western Xia empire and launched an extensive invasion into the Song borderlands. In the first month of 1040 CE, Li Yuanhao encircled the vital strategic fortress of Yanzhou with over one hundred thousand troops. Receiving urgent intelligence that Yanzhou was under imminent peril of falling, Liu Ping gathered fewer than ten thousand soldiers from scattered garrisons and marched day and night across the snowy Qinling mountains to relieve the stronghold.
The Battle of Sanchuankou and Martyrdom
At Sanchuankou, several miles northwest of Yanzhou, Liu Ping encountered the concentrated vanguard of Western Xia. Positioning his troops with their backs against the hills, Liu Ping led his cavalry in furious charges against the enemy, fighting savagely from dawn until nightfall and killing thousands of nomad horsemen. However, subordinate officer Huang Dehe took fright at the enemy numbers and fled the battlefield with his rear guard regiment, collapsing the Song flank. Surrounded and pierced by arrows, Liu Ping continued fighting until his weapons broke, whereupon he and General Shi Yuansun were overwhelmed and captured. Taken before Li Yuanhao, Liu Ping refused all offers of high rank and royal favor, furiously berating the rebel monarch before being put to death. In Kaifeng, after the truth of Huang Dehe's flight was exposed, the Song court posthumously elevated Liu Ping to Chancellor and Military Commissioner of Dingguo, conferring the posthumous title Wujie.