History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 564 On the eve of the war
Afterwards, Jing Yanguang expanded the struggle and asked Shi Chonggui to order the arrest of all Liao merchants in the Later Jin Dynasty, kill them all, and confiscate all their property.

This is a very barbaric act, and it is also a popular movement that can easily get out of control. Its original motivation is greed and illegal plunder, but it is covered with the cloak of nationalism and patriotism. Throughout history, all those who have opened this Pandora's box have evolved into genocide without exception, such as the German Holocaust against the Jews before World War II.

Another example is Mi Dongzong in recent years, who incited rioters to attack the Secretariat (the Capitol). The rioters held high the banner of fairness and justice, but did odd jobs and stole things in the Secretariat. Some black brothers even held high the banner of opposing racial discrimination, but turned to smash, loot and burn Asian stores, which are also people of color.

Under the cover of lofty slogans, people have lost their morality and turned into bipedal beasts with huge teeth and fangs. This is a beautiful landscape that the American people have presented to the world at the beginning of the new year.

During Shi Chonggui's "national movement" in the early days of the Later Jin Dynasty, a large number of innocent Khitan people in the Later Jin Dynasty were indiscriminately massacred, and their property was "legally" confiscated by the people of the Central Plains.

When the news spread, the world was in an uproar, and Emperor Taizong of Liao, Yelu Deguang, was so angry that he almost went mad.

However, the matter did not end there. This was just the beginning of the "Qiao Rong incident". Next, Jing Yanguan's actions were both stupid and rampant.

In the actual political arena, no one or any faction can gain 100% of the right to speak. No matter how powerful or all-powerful one is, they only have relatively more right to speak, and the opposition will always exist.

Ensuring species diversity is a basic principle for maintaining ecological balance. Similarly, ensuring factional diversity is also a necessary means to maintain political balance. For example, the ruler of a group (such as an emperor) will always intentionally protect the opposition, making it weak, but never let it go extinct, in order to contain the powerful ministers.

For example, political masters such as Tang Zhaozong and Yang Xingmi would not only save endangered political forces, but would also deliberately cultivate a few nerds who were good at nitpicking. Once the time was ripe, they would become the vanguards, pawns, and cannon fodder of the political struggle, and they would be used to seize power back from the powerful officials.

No emperor would really kill all the treacherous and corrupt officials in the court, nor would he kill all the loyal and honest officials who spoke out and gave advice. He would definitely let several distinct factions form in the court, instigating them to fight each other, report each other, and actively hand over all the evidence against each other to the emperor. The emperor played with all the civil and military officials in the court.

Unless the ruler is mentally retarded or has no power, like Emperor Xizong of Tang.

Shi Chonggui was obviously not Emperor Xizong of Tang. Although Jing Yanguang had the merit of supporting him, Shi Chonggui still wisely kept a backup plan, such as Sang Weihan.

Sang Weihan was the core figure of the "pro-Liao faction". He was incompatible with Jing Yanguang's line and had irreconcilable political views. In the previous dynasty (the end of Shi Jingtang's reign), he had been squeezed out of the central government and sent to the local government. However, less than a year after Shi Chonggui came to power, he recalled Sang Weihan to the central government and reappointed him as prime minister, allowing him to lead the civil service group.

Many scholars have either intentionally or unintentionally ignored this personnel transfer, and thus artificially overlooked an important detail, thus drawing irresponsible and inaccurate conclusions.

The mainstream view is that Shi Chonggui was stupid and obeyed Jing Yanguang's orders. Under Jing Yanguang's deception, he became a staunch "anti-Liao faction", engaged in war and aggression, and took the initiative to provoke a war with the Liao Kingdom regardless of the gap in strength.

This is wrong.

First of all, Shi Chonggui is not stupid, nor has he been sidelined by Jing Yanguang.

Secondly, although Shi Chonggui showed an "anti-Liao" attitude, he did not really want to go to war with the Liao Kingdom, or his desire for war was not very strong and his will to fight was not so firm.

For example, he brought Sang Weihan, who had been excluded from the core power circle, back to the core decision-making level. For another example, before the outbreak of the war, that is, in the early stages of the war, he showed goodwill to the Liao Kingdom more than once and expressed his willingness to reconcile. He was the one who called for fighting and the one who called for a halt. Was he schizophrenic?
No, this is the perfect interpretation of his political skills. We can summarize it as: strategic deterrence.

He said "I'm going to fight you" but his body was very honest.

Shi Chonggui did this for two main purposes:

One is to ease domestic conflicts, or to divert them.

The Later Jin Dynasty was short of money and food, and suffered from natural disasters and wars. The people were deeply resentful. Some people with ulterior motives, such as An Zhongrong, would use the guise of nationalism and patriotism to tear apart the Later Jin Dynasty.

Therefore, Shi Chonggui created a persona for himself as a patriotic young man, which could not only avoid the emergence of a second An Zhongrong, but also direct the people's dissatisfaction towards the plunder and oppression of the Khitans, and then make them sympathize with the Later Jin regime and support Shi Chonggui in seeking happiness for the people.

The second is to put pressure on the Khitan and bargain.

The Khitans were like vampires, greedily grabbing the wealth of the Central Plains, making the people of the Central Plains even worse off and miserable. Therefore, Shi Chonggui wanted to create a posture of "officials forcing the people to rebel" to send a signal to the Khitans: If you don't restrain yourself, we will be forced to revolt!

Shi Chonggui was not completely ignorant of Khitan's internal affairs, and he also knew that there was a struggle between the two factions in Khitan, namely the "Support Jin Faction" headed by Empress Dowager Shulü and the "Destroy Jin Faction" headed by Yelü Deguang.

Simply put, Yelu Deguang was constrained by Empress Dowager Shulü in the Khitan territory. Not only that, he also faced the same danger as his brother, because the real intention of Empress Dowager Shulü was to let Yelu Lihu ascend the throne. The reason why Yelu Deguang was chosen was because the opposition voices were too loud, so she had no choice but to choose Yelu Deguang as a transition.

In order to break free from the control of Empress Dowager Shulü, Yelu Deguang had to invade the Central Plains from the south, occupy the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, and then occupy the entire north of the Yellow River, and finally unify the Central Plains. In this way, he could become the supreme emperor in the Central Plains.

Yelu Deguang’s political intentions are easy to understand.

Empress Dowager Shulü had a slightly higher vision. Objectively speaking, she was not opposed to the invasion of the Central Plains, but it was better to take it slow rather than rush it. War was only a means, and maximizing benefits was the goal. We cannot put the cart before the horse.

First of all, Empress Dowager Shulü was more rational. She knew that the Khitans did not have the strength to swallow up the Central Plains in one go.

Secondly, the Later Jin regime, at least during Shi Jingtang's time, was an ideal agent. He continuously transferred a large amount of resources to the Khitan, which was more cost-effective than war, with no capital investment and huge profits.

What is the purpose of war? Is it for pure killing? Isn't it just to occupy land and plunder resources? Now that Hou Jin has offered it to us, why do we still risk starting a war?

(End of this chapter)