The Khitan people were miserable and war-weary, and Yelu Deguang Alexander, at this time, was more like a gambler who had lost all his principal. He would not stop there. He wanted to borrow money and continue gambling. Only in this way could he make a comeback and lose all his money. Make money back. Yelu Deguang carefully summarized the experience and lessons of the two failures and made active preparations for the third military operation.
Empress Dowager Shulu persuaded him and asked, "Son, do you think it's okay to use a Han to be the emperor of Khitan?"
Yelu Deguang knew that this was a joke by his mother, so he said: "Of course that won't work. The Khitan emperor must be a Khitan."
"Yes, for the same reason, the emperor of the Central Plains Han region should also be the Central Plains Han people. You attack the Central Plains regardless of the consequences. Do you really want to be the lord of the Central Plains?"
This seemingly unintentional remark is actually a head-on collision between two major political lines. How can Yelu Deguang hide this little trick from Queen Mother Shulu? Empress Dowager Shulu used a casual tone of giving examples and metaphors to reveal Yelu Deguang's little plan. You want to escape from my hands and go to the Central Plains to establish a new branch.
Of course, Yelu Deguang couldn't answer this question directly, so he avoided the important and changed the concept, and answered like this: "Because Shi Chonggui failed to live up to his kindness, and heaven cannot allow it." Then he said a lot of bad things about Shi Chonggui to demonstrate the justice of destroying the later Jin Dynasty. ,necessity.
"Glib tongue!" Queen Mother Shulu was angry. Good boy, your wings are strong, right? Do you dare to talk back to me? This is still two defeats. If it is two victories, is it still okay?
According to the analysis of historical data, the strength of Yelu Deguang and Queen Mother Shulu did change to a certain extent after the "Hedong War". When Yelu Deguang first came to the throne, he was simply an ant in the hands of Queen Mother Shulu. Therefore, Yelu Deguang treated his mother with respect. As mentioned above, he showed all kinds of respect for his mother. One of them is that historical records record that whenever Yelu Deguang When he disagrees with Queen Mother Shulu, as long as Queen Mother Shulu frowns a little, Yelu Deguang will bend down and bow, and then keep this posture and walk backwards. As long as Queen Mother Shulu does not summon him, he will never dare to appear again. .
Look now, he already dares to "argue and argue" in front of his mother.
During the Hedong War, Yelu Deguang won the Sixteen Youyun Prefectures for the Khitan, opened up territory for the Khitan, and allowed the Han people to cede the land south of the Great Wall. This was a great achievement that nomadic people in the past generations had not accomplished. Yelu Deguang honored his ancestors.
Based on this, Yelu Deguang can be equal to the Queen Mother Shulu.
However, compared to Queen Mother Shulu, Yelu Deguang was still a bit young.
Empress Dowager Shulu immediately laid a trap for Yelu Deguang, "Who told you these words (the late Jin Dynasty lost its virtue)?"
Yelv Deguang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling grateful that his mother had given him a step down, "Oh... Zhao Yanshou said it..."
As soon as the three words "Zhao Yanshou" came out of his lips, Yelu Deguang realized that something was wrong and that his mother had tricked him.
Sure enough, Queen Mother Shulu's originally gentle expression suddenly turned furious, "Zhao Yanshou? You are the Khitan Emperor, and you are actually manipulated by a Han general! How did you become the emperor!"
Inspiring and enlightening.
If it were before the Hedong War, this sentence would be equivalent to a death sentence for Yelu Deguang's political career and natural person career.
Yelu Deguang quickly lowered his head and said, "Mother, please calm down."
The Empress Dowager Shulu also knew that Yelu Deguang was getting more and more powerful, and it was impossible to take him away like she had done with Yelu Bei. After frightening the "Destroying Jin Sect", the Queen Mother Shulu immediately changed her gentle attitude and used her loving words to express her love. He said to Yelu Deguang: "I'm not stopping you from making great achievements. However, even if you become the lord of the Central Plains, it may not last long. If something goes wrong, it will be too late to regret it!"
In one sentence, "Mom is doing everything for your own good."
Later, the Queen Mother Shulu turned to the civil and military officials and said: "You remember, the Chinese are a sleeping army, but how can they stay asleep? Sooner or later, they will wake up. Now we take the initiative to provoke a war, but we are fighting If we lose the war, of course, it would be too shameful for us to take the initiative to sue for peace. It just so happens that the Later Jin Dynasty took the initiative to send envoys to us to sue for peace, so we should just go down the road and end the war with dignity, what do you think?"
Yelu Deguang only said yes.
Then let’s talk.
If the negotiations between the two countries succeed, end the war, and restore peace, then Yelu Deguang will become a "Khitan prisoner" for life, but his mother has the highest instructions and requires negotiations with the Later Jin Dynasty... Of course, this will not be difficult for Yelu Deguang.
It is very easy to sabotage a negotiation. All you need to do is propose a condition that the other party will never agree to. And if you make concessions to the other party during negotiations, you can easily be regarded as a "traitor". If you maintain a tough attitude, refuse to give in, and force the other party to make huge concessions during negotiations, you can easily be regarded as a patriot. ,national hero.
So it is much easier to disrupt a negotiation than to facilitate one.
Of course, Yelu Deguang set up various obstacles to the negotiations in this way. For example, Yelu Deguang proposed a ceasefire condition: the Later Jin Dynasty ceded the Dingzhou Yiwu Army and Zhenzhou Chengde Army to the Khitan.
The envoys of the Later Jin Dynasty looked at each other. This is not a negotiation. This is simply blackmail.
Generally speaking, ceasefire negotiations after such a war are based on the Line of Actual Control, which is an unspoken international rule. Even if the Later Jin Dynasty urgently needed a ceasefire and made major concessions, it would at best be the return of Taizhou. It is unheard of for a victorious country to cede land to a defeated country, and it is a scandal in the world.
During the war, even when the Khitans gained the upper hand, they failed to capture Zhen and Ding and lost both battles. Instead, they cut off the two towns with just one sentence... Are you kidding yourself?
Obviously, Yelv Deguang has no sincerity at all. Moreover, it was not up to the envoys to decide whether to cede Zhen or Ding.
"Then let those who can make the decision come." Yelu Deguang mentioned two people by name: Sang Weihan and Jing Yanguang.
You can never wake up a person who is pretending to sleep, and you can never bring Yelu Deguang back to the negotiating table. When many people comment on historical figures and events, their vision is often limited to the Central Plains region, their perspective is often limited to personal morality, and their vertical depth is superficial.
For example, when we evaluate Shi Chonggui, the king who lost his country, many people accuse him of neglecting personnel, nepotism, arrogance, excess, overestimation of his capabilities, and militarism... etc. In short, the Later Jin Dynasty was eventually destroyed by the Khitan, and Shi Chonggui took full responsibility.
However, this ignores an important factor: Khitan.
Even if Shi Chonggui was able to achieve political leadership and good weather for many years, Yelu Deguang would still launch a large-scale war against the later Jin Dynasty due to the Khitan domestic line struggle. Logically speaking, the outbreak of war is inevitable, and the initiative lies in the hands of Yelu Deguang. All Shi Chonggui did was to postpone or advance the outbreak of war.
