Song Gexing

Chapter 214 Convincing the Minister
When Ouyang Xiu heard this, he said disdainfully: "The officials are worrying too much. They are just a barbarian tribe. The Liao Kingdom can deal with them with just a raise of their hands. Why should we filter them?"

Zhao Fang immediately said with a smile: "Ouyang Qing, please don't be arrogant. Think about it, Yelu Abaoji was not a barbaric tribe back then. But look at the Liao Kingdom later, it even endangered our Song Dynasty."

Ouyang Xiu frowned and wanted to refute, but Fu Bi raised his hand to stop him, looked at Zhao Fang and said, "Do the officials think that the Jurchens may become so powerful that they cannot be controlled?"

"That's right, we must plan ahead, especially when dealing with these nomadic, fishing and hunting peoples. Once they find an opportunity, they will grow faster than we imagined."

Zhao Fang began to give examples as he spoke, starting from when the Xiongnu was weak. Everyone was shocked. Everyone present knew these things, but they didn't list them and explore them.

After being listed now, I discovered that except for the Xianbei, the rest of the grassland peoples grew and rose very quickly.

Almost all rose up seamlessly, and then swept the entire northern grassland within just a dozen years. Only the Xianbei people, under the suppression of the Han Dynasty, only grew stronger and rose hundreds of years later.

In particular, the founding of the Khitan nation was like a flood. In 907, Yelu Abaoji was elected by the Khitan people as the chief leader. In just nine years, they unified the north and established the Liao Kingdom.

Although they took advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains, there was more than one Khitan tribe in the grassland, and the Khitans were not the most powerful.

From this we can see that the rise of nomadic tribes is astonishingly fast. Often all it takes is a stronger tribe and a wise leader who is supported by the tribe, and the rest is conquest.

Constantly conquering other tribes everywhere, and then merging and growing, they will soon become a behemoth and threaten the Central Plains Dynasty.

Seeing everyone's shock with a hint of understanding, Zhao Fang continued: "The current situation of giving birth to a girl can already gather tens of thousands of people. Don't forget, gentlemen, they are all soldiers, and children as young as ten years old can ride horses and shoot arrows." , once a figure like Yelu Abaoji appears, not only the Liao Kingdom will be in danger, but our Song Dynasty will also be in danger!"

As he spoke, he looked around everyone, nodded and continued: "The Khitan people are now completely Chinese. In fact, they are no different from us. They also govern the country with Confucianism and understand the etiquette, justice and shame. But what about giving birth to a Jurchen? They are a barbaric nation. They are like mature women. It’s really different, they can only destroy but not build. If you don’t take it to heart, Wuhu’s chaos in China will still happen again.”

Now everyone was horrified. Yes, the Liao Kingdom is not scary now, even if the Central Plains is occupied, it will not be scary, because they are no longer different from the Han people.

Even though the Liao Kingdom still retained the policy of superiority of Khitan nobles, the Khitan people were actually not superior to the Han people.

The Liao Kingdom did not have a national hierarchy, and only reserved privileges among the upper-class nobles. This was essentially different from the later Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The reason should be that the Khitan people have long been Hanized. During the Tang Dynasty, most of the Khitan people lived together with the Han people, and intermarriage was also common.

After the founding of Yelu Abaoji, he wanted to formulate the aristocratic system of his own nation because he integrated the entire northern nomadic people. He needed to give these people special privileges, otherwise the regime would be unstable.

But as the country stabilized and developed, this rule gradually lost its meaning. The lover of the famous Empress Dowager Xiao Xiao Chuo was a Han Chinese, and she had great power in the government and the public.

Handerang is not a Khitan. He is the most powerful Han in the Liao Kingdom. His grandfather was a serious Han who was plundered and adopted by the Khitans.

In the Liao Dynasty, from the beginning of Yelu Abaoji to the end of Emperor Tianzuo Yelu Yanxi, the Han family ranked third after the royal Yelu family and the descendant Xiao family.

But the entire Liao Kingdom knew that the Han family was Han. Although they had been intermarried for 200 years, everyone considered it to be the patrilineal line, so the Han family was still Han.

This would never have happened in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Of course, Handerang's actions are actually very controversial, and he is also said to be accused of being a traitor.But what cannot be denied is that it was he who allowed the Liao Kingdom to fully implement Han law and changed the Khitan aristocratic system since Liao Taizu.

In the first year of Qianheng (979), Han Derang replaced the King of Yan, Han Kuangsi, that is, his father served as the left-behind guard in Nanjing. Nanjing in the Liao Kingdom became Beijing in later generations.

That year, the Song army went on the Northern Expedition and attacked Nanjing of the Liao Kingdom. Handerang defended Nanjing until reinforcements arrived and defeated the Song army. This was known as the Battle of Gaoliang River in history. He was promoted to Privy Councilor for his merit.

In the fourth year of Qianheng's reign, Liao Jingzong was critically ill. Before his death, he and Yelu Xiezhen were appointed ministers of Gu Ming. Shengzong was only 12 years old when he succeeded to the throne, which was the time when the master of the country was in doubt.

The Empress Dowager Xiao Chuo took over as regent, and the old lovers began to join forces to reform and fully implement Han law. At this time, the Liao Kingdom was in its most difficult time, and more than [-] clan nobles held military power.

Although Han Derang was eyeing the young emperor and Empress Dowager Xiao, he worked hard to help the Liao Kingdom stabilize its regime and defeated the Song army twice.

No wonder Han Derang was on his death bed in his later years. Emperor Liao Shengzong Yelu Longxu served him with decoction and medicine at his bedside like his own son for fifteen months until his death.

At that time, his old lover, Empress Dowager Xiao, had long passed away. The reason why the emperor treated her like this was not because of the relationship between lovers, but because of his outstanding contributions to the Liao Kingdom.

From this point of view, calling him a traitor is actually correct, because if he had colluded with the Song Dynasty at that time, the Liao Kingdom would have perished. That was the early Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty's army was at its most capable.

But from his point of view, it is actually correct. The Han family has been inseparable from the Yelu family since his grandfather Han Zhigu was kidnapped and adopted by the Khitan people.

Han Zhigu was taken prisoner at the age of six. He followed Yelu Abaoji when he was ten years old. When he grew up, he accompanied him in his expeditions.

His son Han Kuangsi grew up with Liao Jingzong and was favored by Shuluping, the queen of Liao Taizu. Otherwise, why would a Han be canonized as King of Yan?

By Handerang's generation, he no longer regarded himself as a Han Chinese. The Khitans gave him a high-ranking official, a marquis, and did not treat him as an outsider. Otherwise, they would not have made him a minister.

Therefore, the Khitans are not barbarians. Their level of civilization is the same as that of the Central Plains. Therefore, even if they enter the Central Plains, they will not cause civilization to regress.

But as for Jurchen, they are a completely newly civilized nation, far away from the Han cultural circle. Even though they are also influenced by Han culture, ordinary people do not have this awareness.

Wanyan Aguda indeed admired Han culture. Every time he went on a campaign, he told his men not to destroy books. The first thing he did after conquering the city was to protect the place where the books were collected.

But that's only a small group of people. The vast majority of Jurchens don't have this awareness. They are most active in robbing gold, silver, treasures and women. Who cares about books?

If it weren't for Wanyan Aguda's strict order, Chinese civilization would have been set back hundreds of years after the Jin soldiers went south, because many classics couldn't be taken away at all.

Fortunately, the Kingdom of Jin had to obey such an order, which is why the Kingdom of Jin quickly became Chinese. But the current ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty don't know that Aguda was not born yet.

(End of this chapter)