【The rain is coming】
Before Liu Shouguang was overthrown, he hurriedly sent Han Yanhui to the northern part of the Great Wall to beg for Khitan assistance, and told the Khitan everything about the Central Plains. The Khitan knew that the Central Plains was in chaos, but they didn't know it was already so chaotic, so they had the idea of going south to take advantage of it.
With the assistance of Han Yanhui, in February of the second year of Zhengming (916), Khitan Khan Yelu Abaoji officially established the country and proclaimed himself emperor. The name of the country was changed to "Khitan" (later changed to "Da Liao" and then "Da Khitan". For the convenience of description, this book uses "Liao" as the country name and "Khitan" to refer to its ethnic group). "Shen Ce" made its capital Linhuang Mansion in Beijing (today's Balinzuo Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia); the ministers presented Yelu Abaoji with the title "Great Sage and Emperor of Tomorrow" and Shuluping with the title "Yingtian Damingdi" "Queen"; made the eldest son Yelvbei the crown prince.
Yelu Abaoji is the "Emperor of Heaven", his wife Shuluping is the "Queen of Earth", and the eldest son Yelu Bei is the "King of Human Emperor", which means the three talents of "Heaven, Earth and Man". "Three talents" comes from the "Book of Changes": "There is the way of heaven, there is the way of human beings, there is the way of earth...the way of the three talents." In addition, Yelu Abaoji also issued an edict to build a Confucius temple. This shows the great influence of the Central Plains culture on the grassland peoples.
After Yelu Abaoji founded the country and proclaimed himself emperor, Zhu Youzhen of the Later Liang Dynasty immediately sent envoys to recognize him. Logically speaking, Hou Liang inherited the mantle of the Tang Empire and was the suzerain state of the Khitan people. The founding of the Khitan state and proclaiming themselves emperor was an open rebellion and "prevention of independence" for the Hou Liang. However, Zhu Youzhen recognized it immediately and established equal and friendly diplomatic relations. This was of course due to the existence of Li Cunxu in Hedong. Later Liang needed the Khitans to cause trouble for Li Cunxu.
Next to the envoys from the Central Government of Houliang were the envoys sent by Qian Liu from Hangzhou, also on a friendly visit.
This is very interesting. Several political forces formed a stacked pattern of distribution, from north to south, Khitan, Hedong, Houliang, Huainan, and Hangzhou. Those who are adjacent are enemies, and those who are separated are friends. Let’s call their diplomatic strategy “Supreme Burger” diplomacy, in which pie and pie, meat and meat unite, and pie and meat are inseparable.
After Yelu Abaoji proclaimed himself emperor, he immediately led a personal expedition and wiped out the remaining forces on the grassland, including the Tujue, Tuhun, Dangxiang, and Shatuo tribes. It only took less than a month for them to "all be leveled." They achieved brilliant results and captured thousands of chiefs and tribesmen, more than 900,000 armors and weapons (historical records do not record their units, it is not known whether it was more than 900,000 kilograms or more than 900,000 pieces), countless cattle, alpacas, and horses. Its number.
It greatly increased Daliao's national power and greatly improved Daliao's reputation.
So, in August of the same year, Yelu Abaoji assembled an army of 300,000 people, known to the outside world as a million people, and invaded southward with overwhelming force. He captured Shuozhou under Hedong (today's Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province) in one fell swoop, and captured Shuozhou Zhen alive. Li Siben, the envoy of Wujun Jiedu. Then he sent someone to send a letter to Li Cunzhang, the defense envoy of Yunzhou Datong, demanding a huge ransom.
Li Cunzhang killed the Khitan envoys and actively prepared for war. The Khitan army then launched an attack on Yunzhou. Li Cunzhang resisted tenaciously. So after the Khitan surrounded Yunzhou, they attacked the five states of Wei, Xin, Wu, Gui, and Ru eastward, killing more than 14,700 people and taking countless captives.
After this battle, the territory of the Daliao Kingdom rapidly expanded southward, from Daibei (today's northern Shanxi Province) to Hequ (a "several"-shaped bend in the Yellow River), and then to Yinshan (today's northwest Hebei Province). Yelu Abaoji changed Wu Prefecture to Guihua Prefecture, changed Gui Prefecture to Khan Prefecture, set up the "Southwestern Recruitment Department", and officially included today's northern Shanxi and northwest Hebei into the territory of the Liao Kingdom.
Daibei is the place where the dragons of the Shatuo tribe flourished. Li Guochang and Li Keyong raised their troops from Daibei; and Yinshan Mountain is the psychological early warning line for the Central Plains people and is regarded as the dividing line between nomadic herding and farming. Cheng Fei will be here, but he will not teach Hu Ma to cross the Yin Mountains." Now, the nomads have extended their tentacles into the "Central Plains" in the traditional sense.
When Yelu Abaoji attacked Shuozhou, the city towers broke down for no apparent reason, perhaps because they were in disrepair, so the Khitan army took the opportunity to invade the city and captured it easily. At that time, the envoys from Houliang and Hangzhou were in the Liao Kingdom. Yelu Abaoji warmly invited the envoys to visit and show them the military power of the Liao Dynasty. By the way, he hinted that the Liao Kingdom was secretly protected by gods.
After Li Cunxu received the news that the Khitan invaded the border, he returned from the front line of Hebei and personally led an army to aid Yunzhou.
Yelu Abaoji's strategic goal (taking advantage of the situation) had been achieved, and there was no need to pay a heavy price to fight with Li Cunxu, so he relieved the siege and withdrew.
Li Cunxu took charge of Taiyuan and promoted Li Cunzhang to the rank of envoy of Datong.
Li Cunxu carefully analyzed the current situation and made a judgment: the current number one enemy is still Zhu Youzhen of the Later Liang Dynasty, and the Khitans are just taking advantage of the situation. The Khitans want money, and the Liang people want their lives. Therefore, although he suffered an unprovoked attack from Daliao and suffered huge losses, Li Cunxu still sent people to visit Daliao, continued to treat Yelu Abaoji and his wife as uncles and aunts, and proposed to establish a friendly bilateral relationship of mutual assistance and cooperation.
After the Hedong envoy arrived in Daliao, Han Yanhui privately gave him a letter and asked him to help bring it to Li Cunxu.
In the letter, Han Yanhui explained to Li Cunxu the whole reason why he went to the Khitan to visit his mother: "It's not that he doesn't love the British master, it's not that he misses his hometown, so he doesn't stay because he is afraid of Wang Mian's slander!"
At the end of the letter, Han Yanhui implored Li Cunxu to treat his old mother who stayed in Youzhou kindly, and made a promise to Li Cunxu: "While Yanhui is here, the Khitan will not be forced to go south."
Han Yanhui is very smart. On the surface, he left his mother as a hostage in Hedong in exchange for Li Cunxu's trust and actively promoted good neighborliness. In fact, it was a blackmail to Li Cunxu: treat my mother well, otherwise, I will definitely instigate the Khitan to go south and destroy you!
Listen to the sound of speaking, and listen to the sound of gongs and drums.
Han Yanhui joined the Khitan, but left his mother in the enemy's country. At the same time, he gained the trust of both the enemy and ourselves, and both believed that Han Yanhui was loyal to his side. Han Yanhui became a popular double agent on both sides.
History books are full of praise for Han Yanhui, believing that he made an immortal contribution to promoting peace between the two countries and should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. Historical records record: "Therefore, in the era of Tongguang, the Khitan did not go deep into the army and became a bandit, because it extended the power of Hui."
However, some people questioned this and took the "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" and rebutted it with reason, "Look, in 916 it was just said that the Khitan would not go deep into the invaders. In 917, the Khitan invaded Youzhou in a large scale. The authoritative history book slapped it in the face. !”
First of all, please correctly understand "not going deep into the enemy". If you insist on being literal-minded, the Khitan is just dabbling at the door of the Central Plains (Youzhou).
Secondly, let’s look at the first half of the sentence, “the end of the world of Tongguang.” Tongguang is the reign name after Li Cunxu established the Later Tang Dynasty. In April 923 AD, Li Cunxu founded the country and proclaimed himself emperor, and changed the reign to Tongguang. In a narrow sense, Khitan invasion before 923 must be ruled out.
Of course, we can say that the "era of Tongguang" should be understood as the entire Li Cunxu era to support the theory that Tongjian slaps him in the face. But this is the third question I want to ask: when was Han Yanhui's letter written?
There is no clear time point for this in historical records, but it is said that Li Cunxu sent an envoy to communicate with him, and Han Yanhui took the opportunity to send back the letter. The exchanges between envoys from both sides were relatively frequent, and the ones that can be recorded in historical records are only relatively large-scale or of great significance. It is impossible to verify which envoy sent the letter.
Furthermore, although history books are basically oriented toward rigor and objectivity, historians cannot escape from romantic sentiments. For example, Ouyang Xiu's works cannot be said to be artistically processed, but there is a certain degree of polish. A correct understanding of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" should be that Han Yanhui has indeed made outstanding contributions to the friendship between the two countries, so don't get hung up on the details.
When the Khitans returned with their full load, a small mutiny occurred within the Hedong Group, which once again provided the Khitans with an opportunity to take advantage of.
