Chapter 2717: Abaoji’s final plan, Emperor Taizong of the Liao Dynasty suffered from embarrassment
During the hundred years of Han-Qiang war, both Han and Qiang people lived miserable lives.
The Han people lived a hard life, and the Qiang people lived an equally hard life, or even more hard times.
It's just that the Qiang people are uncivilized, and the lower-class civilians have never enjoyed a few days of good life. They are used to war and displacement, and their ability to withstand hardship is naturally stronger than that of the Han people.
It was not until Yelu Abaoji unified the Qiang people and ended the Qiang civil strife that the Qiang people lived a good life for a few days.
However, because of Abaoji's ambition, he overestimated his capabilities and provoked the Han princes, which caused the Qiang people to fall into war again, until they finally perished.
In fact, for the Qiang people, the life after the subjugation of the country and the genocide was better than before. After all, there is no war. The vast majority of the Qiang people can live a peaceful and stable life, which is naturally better than the constant war in the past.
The Qiang people are not fools. If the Sui State could treat them as equals and really let them live a good life, then they would naturally not rebel against the Sui State. But the key is that the Sui State cannot.
The Sui State did not give the Qiang and Han people equal status at all, even on paper. There were many controls and prohibitions on the Qiang people, and many of them were insulting in nature.
The Qiang people are uncivilized and rebellious, so how can they endure this? As a result, a large number of Qiang people embarked on the road of rebellion
But later, the Qiang people discovered that rebellion was a dead end and there was no way to go. They gradually gave up and began to gradually submit to the rule of the Sui State. After all, living in humiliation is better than dying.
But at this moment, the Sui State suddenly announced that it would lift all bans on the Qiang people and clearly declared that the Qiang people had the same legal political status as the Han people.
In the future, the Qiang people can also be like the Han people, with their land owned by themselves, their property protected by law, and they can also study, participate in imperial examinations, join the army, etc.
This is tantamount to good news for the Qiang people who are suffering from oppression and discrimination. How can they not like it?
Because of the release of the Qiang Order, a large number of Qiang people were so ecstatic that they were speechless all night long. They burned incense and prayed for the Sui King Yang Guang to praise his kindness to the Qiang people.
The Sui Dynasty had governed Haizhou for many years, but still failed to convince the Qiang people. However, after issuing the order to relieve the Qiang, Yang Guang won the hearts of the Qiang people just overnight.
Of course, this is just a superficial phenomenon. If Jie Qiang Ling was really so good, Ban Gucheng Gongying and others would not oppose it with all their strength.
It was precisely because the hidden dangers of the Qiang Order were too great that Cheng Gongying and other knowledgeable people opposed it. Ban Gu even risked his life to remonstrate, but still failed to change Yang Guang's mind.
The biggest hidden danger of the Qiang Order was that it benefited all Qiang people, but not all Qiang people were under the rule of the Sui State.
The number of Qiang people in Haizhou directly under the rule of the Sui Kingdom was actually only 600,000 to 700,000. However, there were more than a million Qiang people in places beyond the control of the government, and they were governed by the original Qiang leaders or nobles.
When the Qiang people were at their peak, even if they were in a divided state, their total population was as many as four million. It was precisely because of this that they were able to bring trouble to the Western Border for so long, and even brought down the Han Dynasty.
After the unification of Yelu Abaoji, the Qiang people still have a total population of nearly three million. They are highly unified internally and externally, which is not comparable to the divided Baiyue and Shanyue.
It stands to reason that with a total population of more than three million, plus the presence of heroes like Yelu Abaoji, even if they cannot defeat the Han people, they will not be unable to protect themselves.
The reason why Yang Guang and Li Shimin were able to wipe out the Qiang so easily was because they adopted the same strategy as the Manchu Qing Dynasty wiped out the Ming Dynasty: using Qiang to destroy the Qiang.
The Sui and Tang Dynasties relied on differentiation and disintegration within the Qiang people, and voluntarily gave away a large number of interests, thereby gaining the support of the Qiang elite, and gradually isolated Yelu Abaoji.
Abaoji is not an ordinary person. After two major defeats, betrayal and separation, he realized that the Qiang people were completely helpless, so he sacrificed his own life to give the Qiang people a chance to rise again.
Abaoji knew that the blood feud between Han and Qiang would never be resolved, and the Qiang elite basically had enmity with the Han, so he ordered his son Yelu Deguang and some hardcore confidants to take the initiative to lead the crowd to the Sui Kingdom after committing suicide. surrender.
In this way, although the Qiang people will be exterminated, most of the Qiang people will be able to survive, and under the leadership of the elite, they will save the fire and work hard to prepare for the future.
Although Li Shimin and Yang Guang destroyed the Qiang people, they did not conquer the entire Haizhou step by step. Instead, they occupied the Qiang land by surrendering the Qiang people after Yelu Abaoji was defeated and committed suicide.
This approach is naturally taking a shortcut, and the result of taking a shortcut is that although the early stage goes smoothly, the road ahead will inevitably be more difficult.
This was also the main reason why neither the Tang nor the Sui were able to completely digest the Qiang people, because the basis of their rule over the Qiang people was not the common people from the beginning to the end, but the aristocratic elites among the Qiang people.
In the same way, although the order to relieve the Qiang people launched by Yang Guang this time will benefit the lower class Qiang people, since more Qiang people are ruled by the aristocrats, the biggest benefits will naturally be taken by the aristocrats, and ordinary people will only get one. Small portion.
Therefore, no matter how grateful the Qiang people at the bottom are to Yang Guang, they will not strengthen the foundation of Sui's rule in Haizhou, because more of the Qiang's ruling power is in the hands of the nobles.
Yelu Abaoji hoped that the Qiang elite who surrendered would be just like the Han aristocratic families that relied on the Han to suck blood. They also attached to the Sui State to suck blood. They grew up with the Sui State until they were completely unable to lose their power and eventually revived again.
The subsequent development between Han and Qiang was somewhat different from what Abaoji had expected, but it was still generally going in the direction he wanted.
After all, under the extremely strong ban of the Sui State, the Qiang people were like wild horses that were harnessed. No matter how wild they were, they still could not escape the fate of being tamed.
But just when the wild horse of the Qiang people was about to be tamed, the Qin Dynasty's conquest of the Sui Dynasty brought a glimmer of hope to the Qiang people.
Originally, after the Sui State had persisted for several years, the Qiang people could no longer bear it any longer and might have succumbed on their own.
However, when the Qin Dynasty conquered the Sui Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty was completely unable to bear the internal and external troubles, and had no time to spend with the Qiang people, so it had to issue an order to relieve the Qiang people to survive.
Once the order to relieve the Qiang was issued, it represented the surrender of the Sui State. The Qiang people would be completely invincible and would soon replace the Sui State and regain control of Haizhou.
Haizhou, Yushu County seat, Yushu County.
After receiving the news of the Jie Qiang Order, the governor of Yushu, the second son of Yelu Abaoji, Yelu Deguang, Taizong of the Liao Dynasty, quickly secretly summoned several brothers and his father's confidants to discuss how to deal with it.
It has to be said that Yang Guang spent a lot of money in order to win over and appease the Qiang people. He not only made Yelu Deguang the governor of Yushu, but also married his sister Princess Lanling to Yelu Deguang. However, his painstaking efforts It is destined to have no effect.
Whether it was to avenge his father's murder or for his own ambition, Yelu Deguang could not truly surrender to Yang Guang.
Today, the Qiang people are roughly divided into four factions, namely: the Sinicization faction that directly belongs to the rule of the Sui Kingdom, the Qiang traitor faction that betrayed Yelu Abaoji, the dormant faction that surrendered under Abaoji's orders, and the Qiang faction that escaped from the Qiang land and The fleeing faction who took refuge in Yuan Meng.
Among the four major factions, the Sinicization faction is naturally the most powerful. After all, the Sinicization faction has a population of six to seven million, which is unmatched by the other three factions.
Although the Sinicization faction was the most powerful among the Qiang people, it was also the least united faction internally due to various bans imposed by the Sui Dynasty. Representatives include: He Lou Ziqian, He Lou Quan, Han Yanhui, Kang Moji and others.
Although the Qiang traitor faction and the dormant faction are not as numerous as the Sinicization faction, the gap is not too big, and the two factions are also the most united internally to resist the Sui Dynasty's rapid assimilation of the Qiang people.
In order to maintain their power and wealth, the Qiang traitor faction and the dormant faction had to put aside their hatred and temporarily make peace with each other to resist the Sui Dynasty's assimilation of the Qiang people.
The main representatives of the Qiang traitor faction are: Yelu Lage, Yelu Diela, Yelu Yindishi, and Yelu Anduan. These four people were all participants in the "Zhudi Rebellion", and the same was true in the original history. Betrayed Abaoji.
The difference is that the "Brothers' Rebellion" in original history failed, but in this life they succeeded.
The four brothers whom Abaoji trusted most, and at the most critical moment, stabbed Abaoji's brother in the back, becoming the last straw that crushed the Qiang people.
The representatives of the Hibernating Sect were members of the original Abaoji family headed by Yelu Deguang, Taizong of the Liao Dynasty.
Among them are: Yelu Bei, Yelu Lihu, Yelu Yaliguo and other Abaoji's sons.
As well as Yelv Su, Yelv Xie Nechi, Yelv Renxian, Yelu Wuzhi, Han Zhigu, Xiao Dilu, Xiao Aguzhi, Xiao Siwen and other confidants of Abaoji.
Not counting the total population, the Hidden Sect is the strongest among the four major factions. After all, the Hidden Sect has the second largest population of Qiang people and the largest number of talented elites.
As for the fleeing faction, although they have the smallest number among the four major factions, they are the elites among the Qiang elites. They include: the first wise man Yelu Chucai, the first fierce general Yelu Shilu, and the twin jewels Yelu Xiuge and Yelu Xiezhen. .
Under Yelu Abaoji's intentional arrangement, when Yelu Chucai and others escaped from the Qiang land, they also took away the two elite Pishi Army and Tielin Army of the Qiang Army.
Because Yelu Abaoji knew very well that if these two elite armies were not allowed to be taken away by Yelu Chucai, Yang Guang and Li Shimin would definitely be advantaged, and it would be even more difficult for the Qiang people to restore their country.
It has to be said that although Abaoji, the Taizu of the Liao Dynasty, failed to rise to prominence in this era, his single act of breaking and standing before his death was enough to prove that his failure was more due to bad luck than to himself. Inability.
"Is everyone here?" Yelu Deguang asked.
The third son of Yelu Abaoji, Yelu Lihu, who was most favored by Yelu Deguang and was even appointed as the emperor's younger brother and the general marshal of the world's military forces, Yelu Lihu, after hearing what his second brother said, quickly stood up and replied:
"Except for the fifth uncle, uncle, and eldest brother, who cannot arrive in a short time because they are far away, most of the others have arrived."
Yelu Deguang nodded. His fifth uncle Yelvsu and his uncle Xiao Dilu both supported him. They couldn't get there or they were really far away, but the same could not be said for his eldest brother Yelvbeke.
Yelu Deguang felt a deep sadness in his heart when he thought that the Qiang people were about to be completely assimilated by the Han people, but his eldest brother was still fighting for power with him, and that his father was defeated because of the betrayal of his four brothers.
"No wait, let's discuss it first."
As soon as Yelu Deguang finished speaking, his uncle Xiao Dilu strode in with Xiao Aguzhi and his son Xiao Siwen.
Uncle Yelu Deguang also arrived and immediately went to greet him in person. After all, like the Liao Kingdom in history, Xiao was the second most common surname among the Qiang people after Yelu.
Although Xiao Dilu's surname was Xiao, he was not Han Chinese. The origin of his surname was actually that after Abaoji established his political power, he felt that Prime Minister Xiao He was indispensable for the achievements of Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, so he killed his mother and grandmother. , the Baoli family and the Yishi family were all given the surname Xiao.
Therefore, the Xiao family in the Liao Kingdom were actually the Baoli family and the Yishi family.
"Everyone, my father asked me to be patient and wait for the opportunity to restore the country. Over the years, I have been working hard and daring, and I have been looking forward to the restoration of the country every day, and now I have finally waited for this opportunity."
After saying that, Yelv Deguang threw out the document with the order of extermination of the Qiang, suppressing the excitement in his heart and said: "This order of the extermination of the Qiang is the good opportunity for the restoration of the country that we, the Qiang people, have been dreaming about day and night."
