How did Yelu Longxu, who was in the shadow of Empress Dowager Xiao all his life, get the reputation of Liao Shengzong?
Wen and Yunchao.
Looking at the fifty years of the reign of Liao Shengzong Yelu Longxu, in the early stage, the Empress Dowager Xiao Sui assisted until the twenty-seventh year of Tonghe (1011), and in fact, in the twenty-fourth year of Tonghe, he completed the title of honor, and basically belonged to the Holy Sect as an independent director, and the Holy Sect before it was not not in charge, but the important military affairs were basically mastered by the Empress Dowager Chengtian, and even Xiao Xuan's assistant son was mainly to straighten out the internal personnel, and then it was the back and forth war with the Song people in the first ten years.
The issue with the Song people has been discussed separately, and after the Holy Sect succeeded to the throne, the biggest contradiction within the Khitan is probably the grievances between the Empress Dowager Xiao Xuan and the eldest sister Concubine Qi Xiao Huran. The origin of this grievance has been mentioned more or less by Mu Zong and Jing Zong before, and in the twelfth to fifteenth years of Tonghe (994-997), Xiao Huren led troops to conquer the Northwest Dangxiang, Wugu, Zhubu and other tribes, and made great contributions. In fact, there are also some credits of Xiao Tzulin, including adopting his suggestion to set up three prefectures in the northwest frontier region: Zhen, Fang, and Wei.
During the period in the northwest, a new contradiction arose. At this time, Xiao Huran found a handsome servant Tart Ran, and the two had a close relationship. Rumors spread far and wide, and after the Empress Dowager Xiao Xuan of Chengtian knew about it, she might have arrested Tart Lan Ah Bo and tortured him to force him to leave Xiao Huran, this scene revealed many details.
Originally, Xiao Xuan and Xiao Huran had grievances, but a long time has passed since the events of that year, Xiao Xuan's position has been stabilized, and he still shows concern for the eldest sister, and he is said to be unwilling to deliberately intensify the conflict. Xiao Xuan mainly tortured and questioned Ah Bo, speculating that this person's origin was a prisoner obtained in battle, and Xiao Xuan did not want him to stay with his eldest sister, probably to avoid bad things from happening. This "bad" should not only refer to the peachy topic of the two, but also somewhat concerned about the overall situation of the eldest sister's relationship with the safety of the northwest, and Xiao Sui did not rudely and directly solve the tart and a bowl, so Xiao Xuan didn't think that it would be a big problem to torture this person and force him to leave the eldest sister.
But Xiao Huyin was very excited about Xiao Xuan's move, and insisted on getting married officially. Obviously, the eldest sister was extremely dissatisfied with Xiao Xuan's interference in her private affairs, and even thought that there was a great humiliation.
Although Xiao Xuan was also annoyed by the confusion of the eldest sister, she still understood after calming down that Xiao Huyin had been single and lonely for a long time in the border area, and it had been almost 20 years since Qi Wang Gong Sage died of illness. Xiao Xuan was in her early forties at this time, and Xiao Huren was many years older than her, so out of sympathy and pity, she finally agreed.
Xiao Huran and Tart Lan Ah Bo were banished to the northwest. A few years later, Xiao Huran was still indignant about Xiao Xuan, and it is said that he planned to borrow the Bone Calendar Department (the name of this tribe is only found in the "Khitan National Chronicles", the origin is not very clear, but the "New Tang Dynasty Book Uighur Biography" records that the Guligan tribe, one of the Tiele tribes in the Tang Dynasty, is active in the north of the Hanhai in the northwest, perhaps the Bone Calendar Department is the transliteration of the Liao Dynasty), and then took her original men and horses in the northwest to deal with Xiao Xuan, Xiao Xuan learned the news and asked her to be transferred to Nanjing to stay, when the Empress Dowager Chengtian and the Holy Sect were already preparing for the southern expedition, Xiao Xuan still intends to use Xiao Hulin's ability to play a role.
In the first month of the twenty-second year of Tonghe (1004), Xiao Huren arrived in Zhuozhou to build castles such as Pingsaijun, Gucheng and Rongcheng. But it didn't take long for Xiao Xuan to be on the front line of the war to the rear of the eldest sister is still not at ease, after the completion of peace talks with the Song Dynasty, I still heard that Xiao Huren and his sister Xiao Yilazy (that is, Xiao Xuan's second sister) have the intention of continuing to deal with her (obviously under the pretext that the army did not achieve an actual victory in the south, but ended in negotiations with the Song Dynasty), in May of the twenty-fourth year of unification (1006), Xiao Xuan imprisoned Xiao Huren in Huaizhou (where Taizong Deguang's Xianling is located, and there are Fuyu County and Xianli County under his rule, all of which are mainly settled by the people of Bohai in eastern Liaodong, In the area of the Right Banner of Bahrain in Inner Mongolia today), Xiao Yilazy was imprisoned in Yanjing, and a year later, Xiao Huran was given to death. Xiao Yilazy disappeared after that, and he may not have a good death.
The reason why the Empress Dowager Xiao Sui of Chengtian will be ruthless to her two sisters is because twenty-four years after the unification, Xiao Sui has been honored, and the cause of Daliao has reached its peak in an all-round way. In order to ensure the safety of the Da Liao Foundation, he was afraid that the two elder sisters would be pardoned by their status and influence in the future, and if the Holy Sect was pardoned out of family affection in the future, it would inevitably make waves in the future, so he had to take an over-the-top iron fist to cut the grass and eradicate the roots before she left. In the twenty-seventh year of the subsequent unification, Xiao Sui died of illness at the age of fifty-seven. In this way, the Holy Sect Longxu can show his strength and continue to maintain the prosperity of the Great Liao.
Of course, Xiao Sui has another thing that has to be said is Han Derang, he is a figure who has accompanied Xiao Sui almost all his life, and he lives two years longer than Xiao Sui. As mentioned earlier, in terms of age, Han Derang is almost twelve years older than Xiao Xuan. In the later period of Jingzong, Xiao Xuan, who was then known as the Empress of Wisdom, was promoted to assist in the management of affairs, and Han Derang was already their very important minister.
After the collapse of Jingzong, Xiao Xuan became the queen mother, and made Han Derang extremely "favored", let him be in charge of the guards, and sealed the three divisions of Kaifu Yitong. In December of the same year, his father Han Kuangsi died. According to the tradition of the Central Plains Shi Dafu family, he asked to go home for the funeral, but Xiao Xuan reinstated him as the general of Zuo Jin Wuwei, plus a servant, in fact, Han Derang has often been in and out of the palace, which is enough to show that the relationship with the Queen Mother Xiao Sui is very close (many books and articles about the relationship between the two generally talk about the relationship, and most of them think that this must be some kind of evidence that Xiao Sui is inseparable from Han Derang, but this matter is not aimed at Han Derang alone, and his brother Han Dewei also has a move to retain affection).
At this time, no matter how backward and rough the Khitan customs were, many other Khitan relatives and nobles would of course be dissatisfied with Han Derang's status and official promotion. However, Han Derang not only out of the favor of the Queen Mother, but also in order to strengthen the Central Plains criminal law and purge the rule of officials, and took the opportunity to restrain the Khitan relatives. In November of the third year of unification (985), when Yeluhu Gu offended Han Derang because of something, he actually picked up the ** of the guards and hit him in the head, causing his death, which shows that his power has reached an unprecedented level.
Regarding the contradiction between Yelu Hugu and Han Derang, in fact, the record is vague, which seems to be to show Han Derang's great power at that time. In fact, from the limited records of historical books, Yelu Hugu does not seem to be a very arrogant and domineering negative image, and he is not without friendship with the Han family. His family was very prominent in the Khitan, and his grandfather Yelu Molie was a cousin of Taizu Abaoji, who was sent by Taizong Deguang to supervise Yelu Bei in Liaodong Dongdan after succeeding to the throne Yelu Yuzhi (Yuzhi was later the Han name), and took over Yili Jin, who had served as the entire Diera Division.
Yelu Hugu was very good when he was a teenager, known as "Shao Yingwu, Chongran Promise", in the early years of Liaojingzong Baoning, he awarded the Imperial Langjun, which is a kind of royal official close to the characteristics of the Central Plains "Enyin", and it is also for the sons and nephews of the nobles. At the same time, it also reflects that the imperial camp tent of the Liao Dynasty is a combination of mixed colors that not only have the characteristics of the northern Saiwai race, but also gradually absorb the court system of the Central Plains. Because the Liao Dynasty followed nomadic customs most of the time, the palace tents of Huluduo that toured around the southeast and northwest were their "court" and "court", and those who could follow the Son of Heaven around were the so-called "important ministers" and "close ministers" who really participated in the discussion of military affairs, followed by the Wujing guards who represented the towns in the southeast and northwest.
By the time of Jingzong Yeluxian, the imperial tent attendant organization had been surrounded by various personnel, and the so-called Imperial Langjun was one of such close attendants, with a special account Langjun Yuan, the Ledger Division, and the Chengying Small Bottom Bureau; There are also the only Hou Langjun Ban Detailed Stable Division, Sanban Yuan and Fengchen Division that belong to the only waiting system. They all belong to the attendants, and the specific division of labor is roughly distinguished by whether they are inside the temple (tent) or outside the temple (tent).
Liao History: In the tenth year of Baoning (978), the Song Dynasty was returned, and the meaning of the Song Dynasty to take the east of the river was heard. Yan Wang Han Kuangsi said: "How do you know? Hu Gu said: "The state of all the numbers of the Song Dynasty was collected, but the east of the river was not down." Today, the Song Dynasty talks about martial arts and warfare, and the intention must be in the Han Dynasty. "Kuang Si is frustrated, but it is stopped. Next year, Song Guo Vahan. The emperor used the ancient tiger to anticipate things, and said: "I and Kuang Hei can't worry about this." "Grant the history of Zhuozhou Thorn.
The history books mention that Yelu Hugu and Han Kuangsi originally had some friendship, but Han Kuangsi did not want Hugu to report important information and blocked it, which led to the Song army's conquest of Hedong very quickly, which made the Liao army a little busy in the early stage, and then Jingzong Yeluxian was even more impressed with Yelu Hugu.
Therefore, Yelu Hugu itself does not have too obvious problems, but with the rapid promotion of Han Derang by the Empress Dowager Xiao Sui, he has become the target of everyone's jealousy and dissatisfaction among the original Khitan relatives.
In the last years of Jingzong's reign, Han Derang had been promoted from the Liaoxing Military Envoy to the Privy Envoy of the Southern Yuan, and then became one of Jingzong's ministers of Tuogu. But as soon as the Holy Sect ascended the throne, Xiao Sui asked Han De to take charge of the chief guard of the imperial tent, and added the three divisions of the Fuyi Department, and this sense of cronieship was already extraordinary.
At this time, Han Kuangsi died, according to the rules of etiquette in the Central Plains, Han Derang should temporarily return home for mourning, but the Queen Mother did not allow it, and let Han Derang continue to stay in office, and added a lot of honors such as the champion general, General Zuo Jinwu, Jiashizhong and "Righteous Hero", which caused criticism from the government and the opposition. From the perspective of the repeated attacks of the Song army at that time, Xiao Sui needed a capable henchman like Han Derang to help at any time, which can be understood for special reasons, but it was difficult for other ministers to accept.
It was during this period that Yelu Hugu was summoned to Shangjing Linhuang Mansion to discuss matters. The author speculates that it is about how the Yannan region dealt with the Song army, and Yelu Hugu was somewhat unbalanced in his heart when he faced Han Derang in charge. As the deliberations unfolded, it was reported that Han Kuangsi deliberately did not take the risk of sending him to the Song Dynasty to investigate, and then Han Kuangsi performed poorly in the fight against the Song army and died of shame. The queen mother assisted the new master, but instead vigorously promoted Han Derang beyond common sense, Yelu Hugu said that it was because of Han's father that he lost the opportunity to take the throne, and naturally the more he said, the more he collided, which caused Han Derang to be unbearable.
Han Derang, as a decent and capable minister, it is said that the new lord has just been established, he should understand the need to unite civil and military officials, in the face of a Khitan noble like Yelu Hugu, who is actually capable, why would he lose his reason and actually want to kill him quickly? The author thinks that there should be some kind of extraordinary stimulus, not long after Han Kuangsi's death, Yelu Hugu mostly took the opportunity to vent and expose Han Kuangsi's shortcomings when discussing military affairs in the Yannan region, and insinuated Han Derang's unreasonable superiority, which caused Han Derang to be angry, and it was difficult to control his emotions for a while, and he killed Yelu Hugu under impulse, which does not seem like an intentional thing.
In other words, Yelu Hugu is not a bad villain. As Jingzong's personal attendant, he was trusted by Jingzong, and it was Han Kuangsi who blocked his meritorious service back then. Following Jingzong's premature death, the Queen Mother protected the Han family and pushed Han Derang to preside over the overall situation.
Just annoying Han Derang can make him desperate to kill him, unless Yelu Hugu is a despicable villain who deliberately stimulates Han Derang's peach-colored scandal with the Queen Mother. Yelu Hugu may be rude as a Khitan, and even if he secretly speculates that Han Derang's position has a secret secret, he will not risk the big disapproval and deliberately look for death against the wind, because Yelu Hugu's image in the history books is not so stupid and unbearable.
So to sum up, the author thinks that the convincing explanation is that it involves Han Kuangsi who had just died, Han Derang was pushed out of charge by being robbed, and Yelu Hugu was indeed reckless under emotion, venting about Han Kuangsi, and such an unexpected thing happened.
Han Derang's ability is much stronger than his father Han Kuangsi, he is not a pure Han official doctor, he has also participated in the operation to stop the Song army many times. For example, in the eleventh year of Baoning (the fourth year of Song Taiping's rejuvenation of the country, 979), the Song army took advantage of the momentum to go north to try to recover Youzhou after recovering Hedong. Therefore, in the last years of Jingzong, Han Derang was able to rise to the position of privy envoy of the Southern Yuan, although there was a meaning of Xiao Xuan's recommendation, but it is also a fact that Han Derang was indeed talented and meritorious.
In the fourth year of unification and (986), the Song army launched the Yongxi Northern Expedition in a big way, Han Derang followed Xiao Sui as the main force of reinforcements to attack the Song army, and then in the sixth year of unification, the Liao army counterattacked and attacked the Song Dynasty, and he also had a victory, although in the next battle, Han Derang failed to defeat Li Jilong, but he was still the king of Chu.
In the first month of the 11th year of Tonghe (993), Han Derang's mother Xiao died, and she was once again reinstated as the general of Zuojin Wuwei by the Empress Dowager Chengtian. In the following year, the senior minister Fang Zhishi, Han Derang took over as the prime minister of Beifu, and the Taibao and supervised the revision of national history. In September of the seventeenth year of Tonghe (999), the privy envoy of the Northern Court of Wei, King Yelu Xian, died, and Han Derang took over, and then because of the victory of Yingzhou and the capture of the Song general Kang Bao's descendants, he worshiped the prime minister and changed the title of King of Qi.
After that,Accompanying Xiao Xuan and the Holy Sect to the south, finally Da Liao reached an alliance with Zhao and Song, and Han Derang officially received the Khitan surname Yelu, becoming a clan identity of naturalized horizontal tents, and also obtained the special courtesy of being exempt from the Chang Dynasty, setting up a single seat next to the throne, not having to be called by the roll call, not having to bow down, and not being in the same class with other ministers.
A year later, Han De gave up his palace citizenship. As mentioned before, Han Zhigu, the ancestor of their family, was originally the servant of the Empress Dowager Shulu, and Han Zhigu served as a dowry to Yelu Abaoji, and even Han Kuangsi was also an attendant of the Empress Dowager Shulu when he was a teenager.
After the death of the Empress Dowager Xiao Xuan, the Holy Sect changed his name to Yelu Longyun because of Han Derang, and his name was the same generation as himself, and he was respected as a brother. Again, it can be seen that the Khitan and other border tribes value the people's generation, and they can not value it if they don't value it. Han Dejang was then ordered to go to Goryeo, but he fell ill and died a year later at the age of seventy-one. The Holy Father mourned with family etiquette, buried him with the etiquette of the prince, and posthumously presented Shangshu Ling, nicknamed Wenzhong.
Overall,We say that Xiao Xuan is an unborn heroine and heroine in the Liao Dynasty, with extraordinary wisdom and administrative ability, and at the same time, Han Derang actually acted as the main spokesperson of the Empress Dowager Chengtian in administrative affairs, and Xiao Xuan's achievements are indeed inseparable from Han Derang's assistance.
During the period when the Holy Sect was actually in charge alone, Han Derang was still the most important auxiliary minister. Moreover, the talents in all aspects of the entire Holy Sect period have been doubled, which largely reflects Han Derang's excavation work. He does not distinguish between Han and Han, and actively relies on and promotes all kinds of talents, such as the mentioned Mu Fang, Zhang Jian, Xing Baopu, Ma Dechen, etc., almost all of whom are good friends with him, and give great importance and play.
In addition, in terms of Khitan relatives and nobles, Han Derang and Yelu Xianzhen, Yelu Xiuge and other meritorious generals can also work together, and even brought Xiao Hezhuo, Yelu Shiliang and other Khitan ministers, as the so-called saying has always been circulated "close to Zhu Zhechi", such a group with virtuous ministers and capable ministers as the backbone, can naturally gather and attract more virtuous talents, reflecting the gathering of talents during the Holy Sect's years.
Again,Because of Han Derang, a core important minister who symbolized the compatibility of the Liao Dynasty with the culture of the Han Dynasty, he influenced and promoted Xiao Xuan and Shengzong Longxu to smoothly promote the Central Plains of the Khitan and become the mainstream atmosphere of the Liao Dynasty. The decade from the fifth year of unification (987) to the fifteenth year of unification (997) was the most important, and it was the stage of the improvement of the imperial examination in the Liao Dynasty.
To this end, through the examination of the Youyun region, many Central Plains talents were absorbed into the Liao Dynasty court, which greatly enhanced the status of the Central Plains scholars, and also made the Khitan tolerance of local talents in Yannan, and the integration of the two sides was more prominent. Although it cannot be rashly regarded as how equal and harmonious the tribes have been, it objectively does promote the relative peace of the two sides, at least in the civil and military ** class, resulting in a relatively stable camp. Looking back on history, those who can achieve this prosperity and prosperity can achieve this kind of prosperity and prosperity situation, and the Jingzong of the Khitan Liao Dynasty is still the first among the ancient northern tribes in the past half century.
Of course, there were many virtuous people in the previous tribal dynasties, such as the former Qin Fujian and the Northern Wei Xiaowen, who were enough to be called outstanding, and they also admired the Central Plains culture, but under the rule, they were not really evaluated by the history books as a prosperous era, and the time of their personal reign was still limited; A lot of their time was spent trying to build the foundations, including trying to conquer the South, and the actual governance was not enough.
Only the Liao Dynasty, before several monarchs were essentially working towards the same goal, building the foundation of the Central Plains has been considered a considerable foundation, Xiao Xuan connected Jingzong and the Holy Sect two generations are excellent figures, they spent enough time to build, including through some conquests to reflect the military strength, and finally in exchange for a longer period of tranquility, the Liao Dynasty Central Plains results are basically reflected, can really be evaluated as a prosperous era. In this regard, the quality and ability of Jingzong Yeluxian, Empress Dowager Xiao Xuan, and Shengzong Longxu have been consistent, coupled with the echo and implementation of a large number of virtuous ministers such as Han Derang, which has made a sufficient guarantee for the prosperity of the Khitan Liao Dynasty.