【One country, two systems】
Han Yanhui played the most important role in the founding of Khitan.
At that time, many Han people fled to the grasslands to avoid the war and were taken in by the Khitans. However, people in the Central Plains generally have deep-rooted rural sentiments and miss their hometown all the time. In addition, objective factors such as climate environment, lifestyle, and cultural differences lead to Han people outside the Great Wall often fleeing back. Even Han Yanhui had to desert.
Although the flight of the Han people cannot be elevated to a political issue, it is also a very serious loss of brains and productivity. The loss to the Khitan is immeasurable, but Yelu Abaoji is helpless about this.
Shu Luping reminded him that on the issue of Han people in the Central Plains, of course he must consult Han Yanhui, a senior Central Plains consultant. Yelu Abao was suddenly enlightened and immediately approached Han Yanhui to discuss countermeasures.
Han Yanhui lived up to the trust of the Khitan people. He proposed a very forward-looking solution, which was the "division between Hu and Han".
That is to say, the Khitan people are bound by Khitan law, and the Han people are managed by Han people's law.
Therefore, in the Khitan ruled area, two sets of management systems existed at the same time. The nomadic people, mainly Khitan, continued to follow the nomadic laws, while the Han people maintained the etiquette and laws of the Central Plains. Khitan set up a "bicameral system" in politics, with officials in the south (farming system in the Central Plains) and officials in the north (nomadic system), with dual cards and dual waiting.
In this way, the Khitan nation can retain the bravery, toughness and fighting spirit of the grassland civilization, and avoid prematurely losing themselves due to being Sinicized. At the same time, they can make full use of the advanced productivity of the Central Plains culture. The division of Hu and Han had both advantages.
During the Khitan's conquest and expansion, the Khitan people paid great attention to the plunder of labor force, and "population" was the strategic resource they focused on plundering. For example, in the battle against Shiwei and Dangxiang, a large number of the opponent's population was captured, then moved into the hinterland of Khitan, dispersed and incorporated into household registrations, making them "Khitan people", and then built cities and streets on the conquered land. Then the Han people were moved in to fill the area.
In order to eliminate the homesickness of the Han people and prevent defections, the Khitans took great pains when building new cities. They would try their best to restore a county or county in the Central Plains 1:1, and the names of streets and villages would also be used, which is equivalent to copycats. A certain state, county, or village in the Central Plains, and then move the Han people originally from these places into this copycat version of their "hometown."
In this way, all these Han people hear are local accents and all they see is their "homeland", which minimizes their homesickness and greatly reduces the rate of Han people's escape.
This is the common wisdom of mankind. For example, the fellows from Yorkshire immigrated to the New World of North America and named them "New York" (New York City); the fellows from Orleans called "New Orleans".
In addition to providing new immigrants with a copy of their hometown, Han Yanhui also formulated a big benefit: the government will help you get out of singlehood. Historical records record: "They also arranged for spouses, taught farming skills, and raised children. Therefore, there were few escapees."
Guys, the government will help you introduce a wife to solve your marriage problem; and then teach you how to open up wasteland and cultivate land to solve your employment problem; do light corvee and low salary to maximize your happiness index... What are you waiting for? Come and settle down outside the Great Wall!
Under the combined effect of the long-term turmoil in the Central Plains and the recruitment of talents by the Khitan outside the Great Wall, Han people from the Central Plains poured into the grasslands in large numbers, and "breaking into the Guandong" became a trend.
According to the laws of history, the Central Plains Dynasty (Tang Dynasty) declined and gradually lost control of the northern grasslands. The nomadic people (Khitan) took the opportunity to complete the integration of resources, and then invaded the south.
When the history books describe Liu Rengong, they say that Liu Rengong climbed over Zhaixing Ridge to surprise the main force of the Khitans, and he held a "cow and wine party" to deceive the Khitan princes without any sense of martial ethics. He also set fire to the pastures, which made the Khitans afraid to invade south. As we have analyzed in the previous article, this mainstream statement is too self-centered, one-sidedly emphasizing the subjective initiative of the Central Plains civilization and ignoring the Khitan's own factors. The real reason why the Khitans did not invade southward during the Liu Rengong period was that they were busy consolidating resources outside the Great Wall and had no time to go south.
Until today's Li Cunxu period (the Youzhou area belongs to you), although the Khitan occasionally made small moves, they were only limited to small-scale plundering, only damaging the hair and not touching the muscles and bones.
In this regard, a large number of people give the explanation that the Hedong regime has made strong ties with the Khitan in order to compete with Zhu and Wen's clique. For example, Li Keyong twice sworn sworn brothers with Yelu Abaoji as brothers of different surnames. After Li Cunxu came to power, he also treated him as an uncle. Wait for Yelu Abaoji and treat Shulu Ping with aunty courtesy.
Obviously, this also ignores the development of Khitan itself. The Khitan has not yet completed the integration of resources in the north, which is the root cause of not invading the south.
The Khitan's strategy was to start with easy things before difficult ones, and to go north first and then south.
Yelu Abaoji formulated this strategy based on three main factors:
1. Comparison of strength.
Although Liu Rengong and Li Cunxu were only part of the many vassal warlords in the Central Plains Dynasty, their comprehensive strength still crushed other nomadic groups on the grassland that had not yet completed internal unification, such as Shiwei, Tiele, etc. The chance of winning is much higher when attacking other nomads than when attacking Liu Rengong and Li Cunxu.
Two, time.
The nomadic peoples are not monolithic. The various tribes and clans within them have both overall unity and individual independence, such as the eight tribes of Khitan and the nine surnames of Tiele. Unless a strong man appears to unite the nation, the nation will be a piece of scattered sand, robbing each other in peacetime, and fighting independently in wartime, and it is easy to be defeated by each one.
Therefore, since ancient times, whoever completes the unification of the nation first will become the master of the grassland. Yelu Abaoji took the lead in completing the unification of Khitan, so he had to annex other ethnic groups before they could complete their unification.
Three, culture.
The nomadic peoples in the north have almost the same living environment, cultural background, and ideology. They are basically the same in terms of religious beliefs, lifestyles, customs, etc., and the resistance to assimilation is minimal.
The farming civilization of the Central Plains and the nomadic civilization of the grasslands are simply two sets of systems with completely different styles and relatively independent systems. The two technology trees have almost no compatibility. Moreover, the civilization of the Central Plains has an innate sense of cultural superiority. It regards itself as a kingdom of heaven, and its disdain and contempt for nomadic civilization is deeply rooted in its bones. It denounces it as barbarians, Rongdi, Zahu, and Hulu, and regards the rule of nomadic civilization as For the greatest humiliation, resistance was extremely high.
Even if the nomads forcefully occupy the Central Plains, they will encounter all-round resistance and will not last long. Therefore, the people of the Central Plains proudly shouted the slogan "The barbarians have no luck for a hundred years."
It was precisely based on these three main reasons that Yelu Abaoji set the unification of the northern grasslands as the first-stage strategic goal, so the representatives of the Central Plains civilization (Liu Rengong, Li Keyong, and Li Cunxu) were able to enjoy relative peace for more than ten years. Stablize.
Learn from history. We must abandon narrow racism and face up to cultural differences, so as to understand, tolerate and accept different civilizations with a broad mind. Be tolerant to diversity, tolerance is a virtue. It is precisely because the Chinese nation is good at accepting and absorbing, learning from foreigners and learning skills to strengthen itself, that it is able to stand tall among the nations of the world.
On the contrary, narrow-mindedness will lead to blind arrogance and general xenophobia, leading to isolation from the country and isolation from the world, thus leading to further backwardness.
After Yelu Abaoji completed the basic unification of the northern grasslands, the "southern invasion" was put on the agenda.
