History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 583: The Battle of Yangcheng 6
The Khitans were miserable and tired of war. Yelu Deguang Alexander was more like a gambler who had lost all his capital. He would not stop there. He had to borrow money to continue gambling. Only in this way could he turn the tables and earn back the money he lost. Yelu Deguang carefully summed up the lessons learned from the two failures and made active preparations for the third military operation.

Empress Dowager Shulü persuaded him and asked, "Son, do you think it is okay to use a Han Chinese as the Khitan emperor?"

Yelu Deguang knew that his mother was joking, so he said, "Of course not. The Khitan emperor must be a Khitan."

"Yes, that's the same logic. The emperor of the Central Plains should be a Han Chinese. You attack the Central Plains without regard for the consequences. Do you really want to be the ruler of the Central Plains?"

This seemingly unintentional remark was actually a direct collision of two major political lines. Could Yelu Deguang's little trick be hidden from Empress Dowager Shulü? Empress Dowager Shulü used a casual example and a metaphor in a relaxed tone to reveal Yelu Deguang's little calculations. You kid want to escape from my palm and set up a semicolon in the Central Plains.

Of course, Yelu Deguang could not answer this question directly, so he avoided the main point and changed the concept, and answered like this: "Because Shi Chonggui betrayed the kindness, which is against the will of heaven." Then he said a lot of bad things about Shi Chonggui to prove the justice and necessity of destroying the Later Jin Dynasty.

"Slippery tongue!" Empress Dowager Shulü was furious. Good boy, you have grown wings, right? You dare to talk back to me? This is after two defeats. If you had won two battles, what would have happened?
According to historical records, the power of Yelu Deguang and Empress Dowager Shulü did change after the "Hedong War". When Yelu Deguang first ascended the throne, he was just a small ant in the hands of Empress Dowager Shulü, so Yelu Deguang treated his mother with great respect. The previous article talked about his various acts of respect for his mother. One of them is that historical records show that whenever Yelu Deguang disagreed with Empress Dowager Shulü, as long as Empress Dowager Shulü frowned slightly, Yelu Deguang would bend down and bow, and then walk out backwards in this posture. As long as Empress Dowager Shulü did not summon him, he would never dare to show up again.

Now look at him, he already dares to "argue with reason" in front of his mother.

In the Hedong War, Yelu Deguang won the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun for the Khitan, expanded the territory for the Khitan, and forced the Han people to cede the land south of the Great Wall. This was a great achievement that no nomadic people in history had ever achieved, and Yelu Deguang brought honor to his family.

With this, Yelu Deguang could share equal power with Empress Dowager Shulü.

However, compared with Empress Dowager Shulü, Yelu Deguang was still a little naive.

Empress Dowager Shulü immediately set a trap for Yelü Deguang, "Who told you these words (the Later Jin Dynasty was immoral)?"

Yelu Deguang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and was glad that his mother had given him a way out. "Oh... it was Zhao Yanshou who said that..."

As soon as the three words "Zhao Yanshou" came out of his lips, Yelu Deguang realized that something was wrong and he was being tricked by his own mother.

As expected, Empress Dowager Shulü's originally gentle expression instantly turned into fury, "Zhao Yanshou? You are the Khitan emperor, but you are manipulated by a Han surrendered general! How can you be the emperor!"

Inspiring and enlightening.

If this sentence had been said before the Hedong War, it would have been tantamount to sentencing Yelu Deguang to death in both his political and personal career.

Yelu Deguang quickly lowered his head and said, "Mother, please calm down."

Empress Dowager Shulü also knew that Yelu Deguang was becoming more powerful and it was impossible to remove him like she did with Yelu Bei. After shocking the "Anti-Jin Faction", Empress Dowager Shulü immediately changed her attitude to be gentle and said to Yelu Deguang in a loving tone: "I am not stopping you from making achievements. However, even if you become the ruler of the Central Plains, it may not last long. If something goes wrong, it will be too late to regret it!" In other words, "Mom is doing this for your own good."

Then, Empress Dowager Shulü turned to the civil and military officials and said, "Remember, the Chinese are a sleeping army, but how can they stay asleep forever? Sooner or later they will wake up. Now we have taken the initiative to provoke a war, but we have been defeated. Of course, if we take the initiative to ask for peace, we will lose face. Fortunately, the Later Jin has taken the initiative to send envoys to ask for peace with us. We should take advantage of the situation and end the war decently. What do you think?"

Yelu Deguang nodded in agreement.

Then let’s talk.

If the negotiations between the two countries were successful, ending the war and restoring peace, Yelu Deguang would become a "Khitan prisoner" for life. However, his mother, the Queen Mother, had the highest instructions, requiring negotiations with the Later Jin Dynasty... This certainly was not a problem for Yelu Deguang.

It is very easy to sabotage a negotiation. All you need to do is propose a condition that the other party will never agree to. And if you make concessions to the other party during a negotiation, you can easily be regarded as a "traitor". If you maintain a tough attitude, refuse to give in, and force the other party to make big concessions, you can easily be regarded as a patriot or a national hero.

So it is much easier to sabotage a negotiation than to facilitate one.

Of course, Yelu Deguang set up various obstacles for the negotiations in this high-sounding manner. For example, Yelu Deguang proposed ceasefire conditions: Later Jin ceded Dingzhou Yiwu Army and Zhenzhou Chengde Army to Khitan.

The envoys of the Later Jin Dynasty looked at each other in confusion. This was not a negotiation at all; it was simply blackmail.

Generally speaking, ceasefire negotiations after a war like this are based on the actual control line as the border. This is an unwritten international rule. Even if the Later Jin Dynasty urgently needed a ceasefire and made major concessions, it would at best be the return of Taizhou. It is unheard of for the victorious country to cede land to the defeated country.

During the war, even when the Khitan had the upper hand, they were unable to capture Zhen and Ding. They were defeated in the battle, but instead the two towns were taken away with just a single word... What a joke!
Obviously, Yelu Deguang had no sincerity at all. Moreover, the envoys could not decide whether to cede the two towns of Zhen and Ding.

"Then let the one who can make the decision come." Yelu Deguang mentioned two people by name: Sang Weihan and Jing Yanguang.

You can never wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep, and you can never pull Yelu Deguang back to the negotiation table. When many people comment on historical figures and events, their vision is often confined to the Central Plains, their perspective is often limited to personal morality, and their vertical depth is superficial.

For example, when we evaluate Shi Chonggui, the king who lost his country, many people accuse him of failing to supervise his subordinates, nepotism, arrogance and debauchery, overestimating his own abilities, and warmongering... etc. In short, the Later Jin Dynasty was eventually destroyed by the Khitan, and Shi Chonggui was fully responsible.

However, this ignores an important factor: Khitan.

Even if Shi Chonggui could achieve political stability and good weather for many years, Yelu Deguang would still launch a large-scale war against the Later Jin Dynasty due to the internal struggle of the Khitan line. Logically speaking, the outbreak of war was inevitable, and the initiative was in the hands of Yelu Deguang. All Shi Chonggui did was to postpone or advance the outbreak of war.

(End of this chapter)