History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 257 The storm is coming
【The storm is coming】

Before Liu Shouguang was defeated, he urgently sent Han Yanhui to the northern frontier to beg for help from the Khitan and to tell the Khitan all the realities of the Central Plains. The Khitan knew that the Central Plains was in chaos, but they did not know it was already so chaotic, so they had the idea of ​​going south to take advantage of the situation.

With the assistance of Han Yanhui, in February of the second year of Zhenming (916), Khitan Khan Yelü Abaoji officially established a country and proclaimed himself emperor. He changed the country's name to "Khitan" (later changed to "Great Liao", and then to "Great Khitan". For the convenience of narration, this book uses "Liao" as the country's name and "Khitan" to refer to its ethnic group), established the reign "Shence", and established the capital in Shangjing Linhuangfu (now Balin Left Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia); the ministers presented the title of "Great Saint and Great Ming Emperor" to Yelü Abaoji, and presented the title of "Empress of Yingtian Great Ming Earth" to Shulü Ping; and made the eldest son Yelü Bei the crown prince.

Yelü Abaoji was the "Emperor of Heaven", his wife Shulü Ping was the "Empress of Earth", and his eldest son Yelü Bei was the "Emperor of Man", which means the three talents of heaven, earth and man. The "three talents" comes from the Book of Changes: "There is the way of heaven, the way of man, the way of earth... the way of the three talents". In addition, Yelü Abaoji also issued an edict to build the Confucius Temple. This shows the great influence of the Central Plains culture on the grassland people.

After Yelü Abaoji founded the country and proclaimed himself emperor, Zhu Youzhen of the Later Liang Dynasty immediately sent envoys to recognize him. Logically speaking, the Later Liang Dynasty inherited the mantle of the Tang Empire and was the suzerain of the Khitan people. The Khitan founding a country and proclaiming itself emperor was an open rebellion and "independence" for the Later Liang Dynasty. However, Zhu Youzhen recognized it immediately and established equal and friendly diplomatic relations. This was of course due to the existence of Li Cunxu in Hedong. The Later Liang Dynasty needed the Khitan people to create trouble for Li Cunxu.

Following closely behind the envoys from the Later Liang central government were envoys sent by Qian Liu from Hangzhou, who were also on a friendly visit.

This is very interesting. Several political forces formed a stacked distribution, from north to south, they are Khitan, Hedong, Houliang, Huainan, and Hangzhou. The neighbors are enemies, and the separated are friends. We can call their diplomatic strategy "Supreme Hamburger" diplomacy, where pie and pie, meat and meat unite, and pie and meat are irreconcilable.

After Yelü Abaoji proclaimed himself emperor, he immediately led an expedition to wipe out the remaining forces on the grasslands. It took less than a month to "subdue all the Turkic, Tuhun, Dangxiang, and Shatuo tribes." He achieved brilliant results, capturing thousands of chieftains and their followers, more than 900,000 pieces of armor and weapons (historical records do not record the unit, so it is unknown whether it was more than 900,000 catties or more than 900,000 pieces), and countless cattle, sheep, camels, and horses.

It greatly increased the national strength of the Liao Dynasty and greatly improved its reputation.

Therefore, in August of the same year, Yelu Abaoji assembled an army of 8, claiming to have a million troops, and marched southwards. He captured Shuozhou (now Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province) under the jurisdiction of Hedong in one go, and captured Li Siben, the governor of Zhenwu Army of Shuozhou alive. He then sent someone to send a letter to Li Cunzhang, the defense envoy of Datong in Yunzhou, demanding a huge ransom.

Li Cunzhang killed the Khitan envoys and prepared for war. The Khitan army then attacked Yunzhou. Li Cunzhang resisted stubbornly. After the Khitan surrounded Yunzhou, they attacked the five states of Wei, Xin, Wu, Gui, and Ru to the east, killing more than 14,700 people and looting countless people.

After this battle, the territory of the Liao Dynasty expanded rapidly to the south, from Daibei (now northern Shanxi Province) to Hequ (the "J"-shaped bend of the Yellow River), and then to Yinshan (now northwestern Hebei Province). Yelu Abaoji changed Wuzhou to Guihuazhou, changed Guizhou to Khanzhou, and set up the "Southwest Recruiting Office", officially incorporating today's northern Shanxi and northwestern Hebei into the territory of the Liao Dynasty.

Daibei was the birthplace of the Shatuo tribe. Li Guochang and Li Keyong started their rebellions in Daibei. Yinshan Mountain was the psychological warning line for the people of the Central Plains, and was considered the dividing line between nomadism and farming. “As long as the flying general of Longcheng is here, the Hu horse will not be allowed to cross Yinshan Mountain.” Today, the nomadic peoples have extended their tentacles into the traditional “Central Plains.”

When Yelu Abaoji attacked Shuozhou, the tower collapsed for no reason, perhaps due to disrepair, so the Khitan army took the opportunity to enter the city and easily captured it. At that time, the envoys of Houliang and Hangzhou were in the Liao Kingdom. Yelu Abaoji warmly invited the envoys to visit and show them the Liao Kingdom's military strength, and by the way, hinted that the Liao Kingdom was secretly blessed by gods.

After Li Cunxu received the news that the Khitan had invaded the border, he returned from the front line in Hebei and personally led a large army to rescue Yunzhou.

Yelu Abaoji's strategic goal (taking advantage of the situation) had been achieved, so there was no need to pay a heavy price to fight to the death with Li Cunxu, so he lifted the siege and withdrew.

Li Cunxu returned to Taiyuan and promoted Li Cunzhang to be the governor of Datong.

Li Cunxu carefully analyzed the current situation and made a judgment: the current number one enemy is still Zhu Youzhen of the Later Liang Dynasty, and the Khitans are just taking advantage of the situation. The Khitans want money, and the Later Liang Dynasty wants lives. Therefore, although the Liao Dynasty suffered an unprovoked attack and suffered huge losses, Li Cunxu still sent people to visit the Liao Dynasty, continued to treat Yelu Abaoji and his wife as uncle and aunt, and proposed to establish a friendly bilateral mutual assistance and cooperation relationship. After the Hedong envoy arrived at the Liao Dynasty, Han Yanhui privately handed him a letter and asked him to help bring it to Li Cunxu.

In the letter, Han Yanhui explained to Li Cunxu why he went north to serve the Khitan under the pretext of visiting his mother: "It's not that I don't love my lord or miss my hometown, but I don't stay. I'm just afraid of Wang Yan's slander!"

At the end of the letter, Han Yanhui pleaded with Li Cunxu to take good care of his old mother who was left in Youzhou, and promised Li Cunxu: "As long as Yanhui is here, the Khitan will not go south to herd."

Han Yanhui was very smart. On the surface, he left his mother in Hedong as a hostage in exchange for Li Cunxu's trust and actively promoted good neighborliness. In fact, he was threatening Li Cunxu: Treat my mother well, otherwise, I will instigate the Khitan to go south and destroy you!

Listen to the sound of speaking, and listen to the sound of gongs and drums.

Han Yanhui joined the Khitans but left his mother in the enemy country. He gained the trust of both sides, who believed that Han Yanhui was loyal to them. Han Yanhui became a double agent who was popular with both sides.

The history books are full of praise for Han Yanhui, believing that he made immortal contributions to promoting peace between the two countries and should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. The history books record: "Thus, throughout the Tongzhi and Guangxu periods, the Khitans did not invade deeply, thanks to Yanhui's efforts."

However, some people questioned this and pointed out the "Zizhi Tongjian" with good reason and evidence, saying, "Look, in 916, it was just said that the Khitan would not invade deep into the country, but in 917, the Khitan invaded Youzhou on a large scale. The authoritative history book slapped them in the face!"

First of all, please correctly understand "not penetrating deep into the enemy's territory" If you really want to be picky, the Khitans only rubbed their way to the gate of the Central Plains (Youzhou).

Secondly, let's look at the first half of the sentence, "the end of the Tongguang era". Tongguang was the reign title after Li Cunxu established the Later Tang Dynasty. In April 923, Li Cunxu founded the country and proclaimed himself emperor, changing the reign title to Tongguang. In a narrow sense, the invasion of Khitan before 4 should be excluded.

Of course, we can say that "Tongguang Era" should be understood as the entire Li Cunxu era to support the Tongjian slapping theory. But this is the third question I want to talk about: when was Han Yanhui's letter written?

The historical records do not have a clear time point for this, only saying that Li Cunxu sent an envoy to establish friendly relations, and Han Yanhui took the opportunity to bring back letters. The exchanges between the two sides were quite frequent, and the ones that can be recorded in the historical records are only those that are relatively large-scale or of great significance. It is impossible to verify which envoy brought back the letters.

Furthermore, although history books are based on rigor and objectivity, historians cannot escape romanticism. For example, Ouyang Xiu's work cannot be said to be artistic processing, but there is a certain degree of polishing. The correct understanding of "Zizhi Tongjian" should be that Han Yanhui did make outstanding contributions to the friendship between the two countries, so don't get entangled in details.

When the Khitans returned with a full load, a small mutiny occurred within the Hedong Group, which once again provided the Khitans with an opportunity to take advantage.

(End of this chapter)