When Fu Yanqing reached the ground in Suzhou, he was catching up with a rebel army of tens of thousands of people attacking Xuzhou. Fu Yanqing, escorted by dozens of Khitan cavalry, arrived at the city, intending to communicate with the leader of the rebel army.
The leader of the rebel army, Li Renshu, directly sent people to surround Fu Yanqing, grabbed his mount, and said, "We are willing to follow the commander into the city!"
At this time, Fu Zhaoxu, the son of Fu Yanqing, was guarding Xuzhou City. Fu Zhaoxu expressed his attitude to the rebels: You don't want to threaten me by holding my father hostage. I won't accept this!
Xuzhou City is also a star city. It has experienced wars and has a perfect defense system. The rebel army could not attack for a long time and could not threaten Fu Yanqing, so they knelt down and kowtowed to Fu Yanqing and asked for forgiveness.
Fu Yanqing reached an agreement with them not to hold them responsible, and peace was restored in Xuzhou.
Liu Zhiyuan sent envoys carrying edicts to various places to appease the refugees who had been exiled in the mountains and forests, and persuaded them to return to their hometowns and resume work and production.
The nationwide anti-Liao movement quickly spread from a spark to a prairie fire, and Yelu Deguang finally made up his mind to return to his hometown in the north. He summoned his ministers and said that the weather was getting hotter and hotter, which was unbearable for the Khitan people, so he planned to return to the north temporarily to visit the Queen Mother. He planned to leave one of his closest confidants to take charge of the work here.
The civil and military officials suggested that he take over Queen Mother Shulu.
Yelu Deguang waved his hands with a wry smile, saying that the Queen Mother's family was huge, and its power was intertwined and extremely complicated. How could it be completely transferred to Bianzhou?
According to Yelu Deguang's plan, all the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty were packed away. Although these people are "not of my race" and are not trusted by Yelu Deguang, after they arrive on the grassland, they become Yelu Deguang's "direct descendants", just like Zhao Siwen and Zhao Yanshou, and they are the political capital he uses to compete with Queen Mother Shulu. .
Of course, these Han officials were unwilling to follow him north, so they said that if they did this, they would be afraid that people's hearts would be shaken and it would be detrimental to the country, so they might as well take them away in batches.
Therefore, Yelv Deguang ordered that officials with actual administrative tasks should follow him northward, while others (emeritus and retired sinecures) could temporarily stay in Bianzhou.
Yelv Deguang selected Xiao Han to stay in Bianzhou, announced the restoration of the Xuanwu Army, and appointed Xiao Han as the military envoy of the Xuanwu Army in Bianzhou.
Regarding Xiao Han's life experience, there is still controversy in the historical circles. Some people say that he is the son of Shi Lu, and some say that A Guzhi adopted Shi Lu. Both Shi Lu and A Guzhi contributed to the founding of the Khitan. In short, Xiao Han is the founder of the Liao Kingdom. The son of the founding father of the country was the nephew of the Queen Mother Shulu.
At the same time, Xiao Han is also Yelu Deguang's elder brother-in-law, and his sister is Yelu Deguang's queen.
In other words, Xiao Han is both a "Queen Mother Party" and an "Imperial Party", and both parties regard him as "one of their own."
Then Yelu Deguang left Xiao Han to take charge of Bianzhou, which is worth pondering. Because Xiao Han was based in Bianzhou, there were only two outcomes. One was to withstand Liu Zhiyuan's pressure and consolidate the Khitan's interests in the Central Plains; the other was to be defeated and flee, abandoning the Central Plains.
If it is the former, then Xiao Han will support Yelu Deguang as the uncle of the state, and Yelu Deguang will continue to stand at the top of Khitan politics with his contribution to annexing the Central Plains;
If it is the latter, then Xiao Han will share the responsibility for Yelu Deguang's defeat as the nephew of Queen Mother Shulu. Once Queen Mother Shulu investigates Yelu Deguang's crimes going south, Xiao Han will inevitably be implicated.
Of course, the latter is the most likely, so Yelu Deguang mainly wants to use Xiao Han as his backer.
On March 17, Yelu Deguang officially left Bianzhou, taking with him thousands of civil and military officials, thousands of Forbidden Army soldiers, and hundreds of palace maids and eunuchs. He took away all the gold, silver and jewelry in the palace, leaving only some musical instruments. Ceremony and other worthless things.
On his way back to the north, Yelu Deguang was surprised to find that the villages near Bianzhou were deserted and deserted, so he ordered the relevant departments to post a list of refugees and asked the grassroots governments to recruit the refugees. But he did not prohibit the Khitan soldiers from burning, killing and looting.
On March 21, Yelu Deguang crossed the Yellow River at Baimajin, Huazhou. What blocked him to the north was Xiangzhou, which was occupied by the rebel leader Liang Hui.
Yelu Deguang sent someone to surrender, promising to pardon him for all his crimes and promising to appoint him as a defense envoy.
Liang Hui initially agreed to surrender, but after thinking about it, he always felt that the Khitans were not worthy of trust, so when Yelu Deguang was preparing to cross the border safely, he suddenly went back on his word and boarded the city to refuse to defend.
Yelu Deguang was going crazy and immediately ordered: All troops attack!
On April 4th, the Khitan army launched a general attack in the darkness before dawn. When the sun rose, what they saw was purgatory on earth.
The Khitans created the appalling "Xiangzhou Massacre" in Xiangzhou, and their methods were so cruel that it was outrageous. According to historical records, after the Khitan army captured Xiangzhou, they massacred all the men in the city, and all the women accompanied the army to serve as comfort women. The most cruel thing was the treatment of babies. Khitan soldiers threw Han babies into the sky and then caught them with sharp knives. , enjoy it.
Only the Japanese can do this tragic scene.
Subsequently, Gao Tangying, the governor of Xiangzhou who was appointed by the Khitan people, took up his post gloriously amidst the mountains of corpses and sea of blood. Gao Tangying inspected the city and found that there were only more than 700 living people left in the huge Xiangzhou City. Later, officials collected the remains in the city and sorted out more than 100,000 corpses.
The Xiangzhou Massacre was another unspeakable crime committed by the Khitans.
Immediately to the north of Xiangzhou is Cizhou. Li Hub, the governor of Cizhou, had already secretly surrendered to Liu Zhiyuan. It was Li Hub who suggested that Liang Hui attack Xiangzhou.
So someone reported to Yelu Deguang that Li Hub of Cizhou had betrayed him. Yelu Deguang immediately arrested Li Hub and interrogated him strictly. Li Hub gritted his teeth and refused to admit it.
Yelu Deguang slowly reached into the car, as if he wanted to take out evidence from the car.
Perhaps Li Hub and Liang Hui communicated verbally in person, and he was confident that no evidence was left behind. Li Hub was convinced that Yelu Deguang was deliberately deceiving him, so he said calmly without changing his face and heartbeat: "Your Majesty, since you have sufficient evidence , it should be announced immediately." Counterattack General Yijun.
After six harsh interrogations, Li Hub behaved like a revolutionary in a slag cave. He always had only three words to answer his enemies: "I don't know."
Only then did Yelu Deguang believe Li Hub and released him.
Continuing north from Xiangzhou, almost all the towns and villages along the way are in ruins, and there is no human habitation anywhere you look. The entourage had mixed emotions, frowned, and couldn't bear to look directly. At this time, Yelu Deguang pointed to this vast no-man's land and said to the people on his left and right: "It is Zhao Yanshou's fault that the Central Plains was destroyed like this!" Then he turned back and said to the chief adviser Zhang Li. : "It's also due to your efforts."
