History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 622: Crossing Agreement 4
According to the original records in "History of Liao", Yelu Wuzhi temporarily asked the envoy to borrow "chips", which is the "Huban" mentioned above. After a disagreement, he "threw the chips away and left". Then the old empress dowager "asked for a chip", and Yelu Ruan "also took the chip and held it".

What does this "chip" look like? Some people think it is two pieces, and the grandfather and grandson each picked up a part. Some people think that Yelu Wuzhi broke the "chip" into pieces. There is also a view that the grandfather and grandson held one together. It doesn't matter what the details are, in short, this is an illustration of great historical significance:

In the center right of the picture, Yelu Wuzhi has a furious look on his face, his body leaning to the right, but his face slightly turned behind him (that is, to the left of the picture), his hands behind his back, as if he is about to leave with his sleeves waving; behind him, that is, in the center of the picture, an old and a young, a grandparent and grandchild with tears in their eyes, hold a tablet together and respectfully hand it to Yelu Wuzhi; a circle of civil and military officials around him all cover their faces and sob.

The title of the illustration is "The Promise of Crossing".

The grandfather and grandson reached a consensus on the nature of the civil war and made it clear that they would resolve the dispute through dialogue.

Empress Dowager Shulü was an old hand after all, and she could tell at a glance that Yelü Wuzhi was playing a trick of substituting one thing for another. The essence of the conflict was never a question of whether to fight a civil war or not, but a question of who would be the emperor.

Yelu Wuzhi seems to have solved a big problem, but in fact he has not solved any substantive problem. Listening to your speech is like listening to your speech. Putting aside the content of your speech, I completely agree with your point of view.

So Empress Dowager Shulü asked Yelu Wuzhi, "I agreed to the way to resolve the conflict, but I didn't agree to let this grandson be the emperor. As the arbitrator, please tell me who will be the emperor?"

Emotions have been aroused, tears have been shed, and the problem is back to the starting point.

Yelu Wuzhi was determined to do it. “If the Queen Mother grants him the title of Prince of Yongkang, it will be in accordance with the will of Heaven and the people. Why should I doubt it?” He supported Yelu Ruan.

As soon as these words came out, before Empress Dowager Shulü could get angry, someone nearby jumped out and shouted, "This kid can't do this while I'm here!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and found that it was Yelu Lihu. He had been accompanying Empress Dowager Shulü the entire time, but it was never his turn to speak, so he could only listen in silence. Now that he heard the verdict, he was very dissatisfied and expressed his dissatisfaction and appealed in court.

Yelu Wuzhi glanced at him with contempt and said, "According to the law, the throne is passed down from generation to generation, not to the younger brothers. Besides, the establishment of the heir (Yelu Deguang) laid the groundwork for today's disaster. Do you want to make the same mistake twice? Besides, you are far worse than my second brother! You are violent and cruel, and everyone is afraid and resentful of you. They are unanimous and firmly opposed to your enthronement. This is what the people want. What is your reputation? Don't you have any idea?"

Then he turned to Empress Dowager Shulü and said, "Yelü Lihu and Yelü Ruan are both your own flesh and blood. No matter who becomes emperor, the throne will be in the hands of their own bloodline descendants. Why not let Yelü Ruan ascend the throne? I hope the Empress Dowager will take a long-term view and agree to let Yelü Ruan ascend the throne."

Yelu Lihu wanted to argue again, but Empress Dowager Shulü waved her hand to signal him to shut up. Empress Dowager Shulü sighed and said to her beloved son Yelu Lihu: "Did you hear that? It's not that I don't want to help you, it's really that you don't live up to expectations!"

Because of Yelu Lihu's cruelty and bloodlust, all the civil and military officials in the court, as well as the ministers and nobles, unanimously opposed his ascension to the throne. However, he cannot be solely blamed for the "Empress Dowager Party" being deserted by its friends and relatives. Empress Dowager Shulü also contributed a lot.

During the negotiations, Empress Dowager Shulü exchanged views with some core members of the "Shizong Party". To put it simply, she wanted to incite them to defect and make them stand on her side again.

For example, Yelu Antuan. Unlike other "Shizong Party" backbones, Yelu Antuan was not originally in the team heading south. If the others "feared the crime and surrendered", then Yelu Antuan was "falling into the trap". He took the initiative to flee from the capital to Zhenzhou and helped Yelu Ruan spread rumors that Yelu Lihu had died. Empress Dowager Shulü questioned him: "How did I offend you? Why are you against me?"

Yelu Antuan's eyes flashed with ferocity, and there was a hint of pride in his anger. "The hatred for killing my father is irreconcilable!"

Yelu Antuan's father was Yelu Dieli. He was weak and sickly since childhood, so Yelu Abaoji took good care of him. Later, he served as a "Tiyin" and followed Yelu Abaoji to fight east and west. He made great contributions in conquering the Zhubu and Dangxiang tribes. Because of his merits, he was promoted to Nanyuan Yilijin and followed Yelu Abaoji to conquer the Bohai Kingdom, making countless contributions.

After Yelü Abaoji's death, Empress Dowager Shulü took power, which aroused widespread opposition from the Khitan nobles, one of whom was Yelü Dieli. He suggested that the eldest son of the emperor, Yelü Bei, should be the heir to the throne according to the system of primogeniture.

Yelu Dieli's words were quite important. His grandfather was Yelu Abaoji's second uncle. His current identity was Nanyuan Yilijin, and he had just made great contributions in the war to annex Bohai. He openly opposed Empress Dowager Shulü and Yelu Deguang's accession to the throne.

The previous article has already spoiled the fate of those who dared to oppose Empress Dowager Shulü.

Empress Dowager Shulü classified Yelu Dieli as a "Dongdan King's gang member", arrested him, imprisoned him, tortured him severely, and even used the most cruel punishment of burning him with fire.

Yelu Dieli was a man of great integrity, and would rather die than surrender, so he really died, being brutally murdered by Empress Dowager Shulü, becoming one of the victims of the first supreme power transfer in the Liao Dynasty.

Empress Dowager Shulü may have killed too many people, but Yelu Antuan only had one father. Empress Dowager Shulü forgot, but Yelu Antuan never forgot. At this moment, Yelu Antuan finally vented the anger that had been suppressed in his chest for many years.

Empress Dowager Shulü asked Xiao Han again, "What's wrong with you? How did I offend you?"

In fact, Xiao Han's relationship with Empress Dowager Shulü was closer than that with Yelü Ruan. One could tell from his surname alone that he belonged to the "queen clan".

According to the "History of the Khitan State", the Khitan people did not have surnames in the early days, and were called by the place where they lived. This is actually not much different from the Han people in the Central Plains. Many surnames in Han civilization are place names, such as Qin, Zhao, Wu, etc. Of course, some are official names, such as Situ and Sima.

After Abaoji came to power, he officially standardized his surname. The name of the place where he lived was "Shili", so he added "Shili" in front of his name. Later, "Shili" was transliterated as "Yelü".

The Yelu clan intermarried with the Yishi and Bali clans for generations, and played a big role in their seizure of the Khanate throne, becoming emperor and founding the country. Yelu Abaoji admired the legendary emperor of the Central Plains, Liu Bang, and often compared himself to Liu Bang, so he gave his wife's family the surname "Xiao", hoping that his brothers-in-law would be like Xiao He, who assisted Liu Bang. Thus, a magical scene in Chinese history took place: all the empresses of the Liao Dynasty had the surname Xiao, with only one exception.

(End of this chapter)