【Prisoners of Dongdan】
The people of the Central Plains often say proudly that "the barbarian nomads with backward civilization will inevitably undergo sinicization after conquering the Central Plains by force, such as the Northern Wei Dynasty of the Xianbei Tuoba clan, and once they are To become Sinicized is to lose one's "self" and thus integrate into the vast and vast Han culture and become part of the Han civilization. Militarily, the nomads conquered the Central Plains, but culturally, the nomads were completely absorbed and digested by the Han people in the Central Plains.
Another example is the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which gradually became Chinese after entering the customs, so that even Puyi did not understand Manchu.
And if you reject Chineseization, you will not be able to integrate into the Central Plains. If you have long-term hostility and hatred, you will eventually be overthrown, such as the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty.
The Liao Kingdom had just been established not long ago and had not yet taken control of the Central Plains. If it started to be Sinicized at this time and lost the blood of the nomadic people, I am afraid that the Daliao Kingdom would be short-lived.
This is the far-sighted political wisdom of Queen Mother Shulu. Therefore, she firmly opposed Yelvbei's accession to the throne.
The Empress Dowager Shulu is a veritable "Iron Lady". Her iron fist makes even the men on the battlefield feel inferior. Her proposition of "You think of the late emperor" is almost unsolvable, and her courage to cut off her wrists is also shocking. Everyone. Now, even if she asked a dog to be the emperor of Liao, no one would dare to object.
After the death of the late emperor, the obituary notice was sent to Dongdan Kingdom, and Yelubei rushed to Linhuang Mansion in Beijing to attend the funeral. After the late emperor was buried, Yelubei was placed under house arrest and could not return to Dongdan Kingdom.
While staying in Beijing, he felt the pressure from Queen Mother Shulu and witnessed his mother's cruelty with his own eyes. Yelvbei felt unprecedented fear.
He understood that detaining him was the greatest mercy of Queen Mother Shulu as a mother. But his mother also has another identity, that is, a politician. Politicians have no concept of family affection. If he is still "obsessed", he will understand how vicious his mother is as a politician.
He is sensible.
After many sleepless nights, Yelvbei tossed and turned and considered repeatedly, and finally one day said to the civil and military ministers: "The merits of the Generalissimo are as good as heaven, and he belongs to China and foreign countries. It is appropriate to rule the country. I am willing to abdicate in favor of talents."
Later, Yelu Bei led the civil and military ministers to visit the Empress Dowager Shulu and asked her mother to transfer the throne to Yelu Deguang, who was favored by God and favored by the public.
Queen Mother Shulu looked at her sensible eldest son with satisfaction, glanced around the civil and military ministers, looked troubled, and said: "Hey, how could things become like this? I delayed letting you take the throne because you are young and ignorant. , lack of experience, lack of experience, the water here is very deep, I'm afraid you can't grasp it... Look, how did you misunderstand it to this point?"
Yelvbei was really sensible. He insisted that his merits and virtues were shallow, his talents and learning were insufficient, and he was too embarrassed to take on such a big responsibility.
Empress Dowager Shulu looked kindly and said to the ministers: "Look, the palms and backs of the hands are all flesh. Aren't the eldest son and the second son both my biological flesh and blood? Who succeeds is different? Aren't they all the blood of Taizu?" Although the eldest son has the virtue of giving in to others, the Ai family does not dare to act in the name of being expert, so let's vote on it, I want to follow your opinions."
After saying that, he asked Yelu Bei and Yelu Deguang to mount their horses and stand in the courtyard. The voting rules were announced: Whoever you are willing to support, you can hug the head of whose horse, and whoever gets more votes, you can let him succeed.
The Empress Dowager Shulu made it very clear that she cannot be called "good at expertise".
How could the ministers who had survived the disaster not understand the Queen Mother's meaning and rush to grab the reins of Yelu Deguang's horse, but there was no one in front of Yelu Bei.
Voting results: Yelu Bei received 0 votes and Yelu Deguang was elected unanimously.
At this time, Queen Mother Shulu spread her hands and showed a helpless expression, "Look, you can't blame me for acting arbitrarily, right? This is the voice of the people. Then I have to obey the opinions of the people."
With the strong support of Empress Dowager Shulu, Yelu Deguang finally ascended to the throne of emperor and was known as Taizong of Liao Dynasty in history.
After becoming the emperor, Yelu Deguang was most worried about his eldest brother Yelu Bei, whom he regarded as a thorn in his side and a thorn in his flesh. Dongping County of Dongdan Kingdom (today's north of Liaoyang, Liaoning Province) was designated as Liaonanjing, and Yelubei was moved there. All the people in Dongping were moved out, and guards were assigned to Yelubei for personal surveillance.
The entire Liao Nanjing became Yelube's private prison.
Subsequently, Yelu Deguang continued to revise the administrative divisions, reduce the territorial area of Dongdan Kingdom, and reduce the population within the territory. Every effort was made to weaken the strength of the Dongdan Kingdom.
Yelu Bei also tried his best to show his obedience and ordered Wang Jiyuan, a Hanlin scholar from the East Dan Kingdom, to write the "Stele of the Founding of the East Dan Kingdom in Nanjing" to praise the current sage Comrade Yelu Deguang and express his loyalty to the Great Khitan. A library was built on the top of Yiwulu Mountain with a collection of tens of thousands of books.
In order to show that he had no desire for the throne, Yelvbei only read the books of sages and ignored what was going on outside the window. He did not hesitate to spend a lot of money and sent people to the Central Plains to buy books at high prices. It was precisely because of Yelvbei's painstaking collection and preservation that a large number of precious classics were preserved and made outstanding contributions to the inheritance of Chinese culture.
In addition to reading and writing, Yelvbei also used painting as a pastime, and his painting skills reached the pinnacle of art. Song Huizong, the famous "artist emperor" in later generations, loved calligraphy and painting. During his reign, he compiled the "Xuanhe Painting Book", which contains clear records that 15 paintings by Yelvbei were collected in the secret palace of the Song Dynasty imperial palace. Being recognized by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty shows Yelubei's profound painting skills!
To this day, the original paintings of Yelvbei are also collected by major museums, such as "Riding and Shooting" in the National Palace Museum in Taipei; "Shooting a Deer" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and "The Journey of the King of Dongdan" in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Picture", "Fanqi Picture", etc.
But even so, Yelu Deguang still missed him and sent people to say hello from time to time. It's called a visit, but it's actually a surveillance, just like his bodyguards.
Perhaps, only the dead are the most reassuring.
Yelu Abaoji had a kind heart and could not bear to kill his brothers after three "brothers' rebellions"; Yelu Deguang also could not bear to kill his elder brother Yelv Bei.
Don't be afraid of thieves stealing, just be afraid of thieves missing you. Yelu Deguang's suspicion made Yelu feel like he was on pins and needles, and life was worse than death.
After Li Siyuan of the Later Tang Dynasty learned about this situation, he was very happy and sent an envoy across the sea with a letter to secretly contact Yelvbei. First, I would like to express my regret and sympathy for his unfortunate experience, and in view of the long-term friendly relations between the two countries, I would like to solemnly extend an invitation to him and welcome him to come to Houtang to guide the work.
The long-term "friendly relations" between the two countries are obvious to all. They are so good that we will not comment. So why did Li Siyuan take the initiative to provide political asylum to Yelvbei? This certainly contains Li Siyuan’s political wisdom.
