In 907, Zhu Wen seized the throne of the Li family through the form of Zen Rang, the Tang Dynasty collapsed, and Later Liang was established, which did not take over the Tang Dynasty's territory in its entirety, but only took over the largest piece of the Yellow River Valley, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms officially began.
In 923, Li Cunxun declared himself emperor and destroyed Later Liang, establishing The Later Tang. The later Tang Dynasty did not stop fighting for the throne since its establishment, first Li Siyuan (Li Ke used his adopted son) to suppress the Yidu Mutiny, and together with the rebels to attack Luoyang, Li Cunxun was killed in the confusion, and Li Siyuan ascended to the throne. During Li Siyuan's reign, the political situation was quite stable, and he was even able to expand his territory. After Li Siyuan's death, his adopted son Li Congke defeated the army sent by Li Conghou, and then marched east and seized Li Conghou's throne. After Li Congke took the throne, the battle was not over, just a new beginning, and Shi Jingyao appeared shining below.
Shi Jingyao was originally a general under Li Siyuan of the Later Tang Dynasty and was also Li Siyuan's son-in-law. In the beginning, Li Siyuan was able to seize Jiangshan mainly by relying on his son-in-law Shi Jingyao and his adopted son Li Congke. When Li Siyuan was in power, he trusted both of them, and both of them could be used heavily. As soon as Li Siyuan died and Li Congke ascended to the throne, he began to suspect Shi Jingyao, even if Shi Jingyao helped Li Congke get rid of Li Conghou's troubles in order to gain Li Congke's trust, Li Congke still did not trust him very much. In the end, Shi Jingyao had to pretend to be sick and paralyze Li Congke, and under the mediation of his wife Li Shi, Shi Jingyao had to be released, and still held the post of envoy of the Later Tang Dynasty.
After Shi Jingyao served as the emissary of Hedong Jiedu, Li Congke repeatedly sent people to test Shi Jingyao because he was worried that Shi Jingyao's supporters would be self-respecting and difficult to control. No way, Shi Jingyao is still the opposite, after all, it is a mountain that does not tolerate two tigers! After receiving the report that Shi Jingyao had occupied Jinyang for rebellion, Li Congke immediately sent Zhang Jingda to lead a large army to encircle and suppress it. Because Shi Jingyao was at the beginning of the rebellion, his strength was still relatively weak, and he was a little unable to deal with Li Congke, so he consulted with Liu Zhiyuan, a subordinate of The Power, and prepared to submit to the Khitan and use the strength of the Khitan to eliminate Li Congke and thus ascend to the throne.
In an emergency, Shi Jingyao sent emissaries from Jinyang to take a small road to ask for help from the Khitans, and asked Sang Weihan to write a table to declare himself a vassal to the Khitan Yelü Deguang, and asked to serve him with the etiquette of treating his father, and agreed that after the destruction of the Later Tang, the Lulong and the prefectures north of Yanmen Pass (Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures) would be divided to the Khitans. His subordinate Liu Zhiyuan advised Shi Jingyao: "It is okay to be a vassal of the Khitans, but it is a little too much to treat Yelü Deguang with the etiquette of his father." Bribing the Khitan with rich gold and silver treasures is naturally enough to prompt Yelü De to send troops without having to promise to cede the land, and if the land is ceded, I am afraid that the Khitan will become a major disaster for China in the future, and it will be too late to regret it. But Shi Jingyao did not listen, he said that the time was urgent, and he could not care about the present, but he could not care about the future. So the seal was sent to the Khitans, and the Khitan Emperor Yelü Deguang was very happy after reading it, and told his mother, Empress Shulu, that he had recently had a similar dream, which was really providential, so Yelü Deguang wrote a reply to Shi Jingyao, agreeing that in the mid-autumn, he would mobilize the Khitan people and horses to support him and ask him to do a good job in defending jinyang.
With Yelü Deguang's opinion, Shi Jingyao also had a bottom in his heart, so he made every effort to do a good job in the defense of Jinyang and prepared to meet the arrival of Yelü Deguang. Yelü Deguang did not fail the promise, in September he led an army of 50,000 to come, under the joint strangulation of Shi Jingyao and Yelü Deguang, after the Tang failed, Li Congke climbed the Xuanwu Building in Luoyang and set himself on fire and died, and the Khitan Emperor Yelü Deguang Lishi Jingyao became the Emperor of the Great Jin Dynasty, and the shameful son emperor in history was born. Shi Jingyao became emperor and after taking the Central Plains, he ceded sixteen prefectures (Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures) of You, Ji, Yun, and Ying to the Khitan as agreed.
The cedation of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures had a profound impact on later generations, which directly led to the central plains being unguardable, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty spent a lot of effort to recover it, creating extremely favorable conditions for the khitans, Jurchens, and Mongols to invade the Central Plains later.
Vignette: There is not only One Shi Jingyao who wants to be emperor, when Shi Jingyao promised the Khitan Emperor Yelü Deguang, there were also people who promised to the Khitans, that is, Zhao Dejun, the envoy of the Later Tang Youzhou Festival. Zhao Dejun was originally ordered by Li Congke to besiege Shi Jingyao, but Zhao Dejun was not at all interested in attacking Shi Jingyao, and while he gathered his troops and strengthened his strength, he sent emissaries to see Yelü Deguang, who asked Yelü Deguang to establish himself as the emperor of the Central Plains, asked khitan to help and use the existing soldiers and horses to pacify Hou Tang in the south, and was about a brotherly country with the Khitans, as for Shi Jingyao, he still let him be the emissary of Hedong Jiedu. After listening to Yelü Deguang, he was worried that Zhao Dejun would cut off his own back road, and he was actually a little moved by this suggestion.
When Shi Jingyao heard this news, he began to sit still and felt very frightened, so he quickly sent Sang Weihan to see Yelü Deguang, and Sang Weihan was moved by Yelü Deguang and knew that he was reasonable. In the end, Yelü Deguang did not take Zhao Dejun's advice.
Postscript: Shi Jingyao is not angry, but his son is still quite angry. After Shi Jingyao's death, his adopted son Shi Chonggui took the throne, and Shi Chonggui began to abandon Shi Jingyao's subservience to the Khitan and prepare to be tough on the Khitans. However, due to poor strength and the support and even rebellion of the local warlords, Shi Chonggui and Khitan Yelü Deguang started a war, and were soon defeated and captured and sent to Khitan.
Although Shi Chonggui failed, he was very backbone.