In The history of China, there has been more than one woman who has influenced the world.
There were Wu Cao, who directly pulled the emperor off his horse and changed the name of the country by the way; more often, he was the empress dowager, and the most courageous of them was Lü Yan.
But in fact, there is another woman, who also has excellent political talents, but is willing to put herself in the position of assistant to her husband and son, and in this regard, both Wulu are inferior to her.
But because her era was orthodox in the Song Dynasty, she became a "barbarian", not recorded in Chinese history, she is the Liao Empress Xiao, the folk have always called her "Empress Xiao".
Some scholars believe that during Xiao Qi's regency, the liao state's national strength was unprecedentedly strong, which forced the Song Dynasty Tianzi to go north to march north, and finally concluded the "Alliance of Liaoyuan". If it were not for the fact that there were many able officials in the Northern Song Dynasty at that time, the "shame of Jingkang" would have arrived 123 years in advance.
In 916, Yelü Abaoji established the Khitan Kingdom, and in 947 the name of the country was changed to "Liao".
Since the beginning of the Khitan dynasty, all the emperors of the Yelü family have married empresses with the surname "Xiao". There is no other reason why this was prescribed by the founding emperor Yelü Abaoji.
The empress of Yelü Abaoji, whose original name was Shu Luping, gave him advice and advice in the process of following Abaoji in his conquests, and it was almost with the joint participation of Shu Luping that the Khitan state was established.
Her resourcefulness allows Ah Baoji to compare herself to Liu Bang and at the same time equate her with Xiao He, which shows that Ah Baoji values her talents.
Therefore, the Shulu family was given the surname "Xiao", which led to the later Xiao clan.
Xiao Qi was a descendant of Shu Luping, the descendant of the Xiao family.
Because the emperor stipulated that the empress could only come out of the Xiao family, the daughters of the Xiao family learned the way of the monarch from an early age. Because even if you can't marry the emperor, the intermarriage will be to other descendants of the imperial family or important courtiers.
As Xiao Siwen's third daughter, Xiao Wei originally had a very low probability of becoming an empress, but because she was young, she was "organic and skillful", and her father thought twice and sent her to the court when she already had a marriage contract.
In 969, Emperor Jingzong of Liao succeeded to the throne. Because of Xiao Siwen's "work from the dragon", Xiao Was made a noble concubine in March and promoted to empress in May.
Emperor Jingzong of Liaojing relied heavily on Xiao Qi, and often told Xiao Qiu about the affairs of the court, and gradually, when Yelü Xian, who was addicted to hunting, went out hunting, the government was naturally handed over to Xiao Qi.
After seeing Xiao Qi's ability, Yelü Xian even sent on the orders of the minister of ceremonies, and in the future the empress could also call herself "Yuan", equate Xiao Qi with herself, and "make it a stereotype".
After that, all daily affairs were independently decided by Xiao Qi; as for important matters, Xiao Wei summoned the important ministers to discuss, and when the results were reached, they were reported to Yelü Xian, and Jingzong was responsible for saying "I know".
Under Xiao Qi's rule, the liao state's political, economic, and military strength was unprecedented, laying the foundation for the later march of the army to the south.
In 982, Yelü Xian died of illness while out hunting, and before his death, he left a testament, which was passed down to the eldest son of the two men, and "the military affairs obeyed the empress's orders".
With the emperor's will, Xiao Qi's visit to the government seemed to be justified.
However, unlike the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao State had Zhao Kuangyin's "right to release the army through a cup of wine"; as long as the Liao State was the king of the Yelü family, he could raise hundreds to thousands of private soldiers, but since he had raised them, how could he only raise a fixed number?
Therefore, as soon as Yelü Xian died, Xiao Wei was faced with more than two hundred princes with private soldiers, as long as a few of them had a slight conspiracy... Xiao Wei had not forgotten how her husband's throne came about.
The situation is urgent, but Xiao is methodical.
She cried in front of the heavy courtiers, now that the former emperor has just died, there are powerful clan princes inside, there are Northern Song Dynasty Zhao Guangyi tigers looking at the tiger, the lord is less suspicious of the country, what should we orphans and widows do?
After receiving the oath of allegiance from the courtiers, Xiao Yu immediately took the second step.
She arranged for Yelü Hugo to garrison the border in Nanjing (present-day Beijing), and appointed her in-laws, Yelü Xieyi, as a secret envoy to the Northern Yuan, focusing on supervising the clansmen.
In the end, she adopted the advice of Han Derang, the secret envoy of the Southern Yuan, and ordered the princes of the various clans to stay in their own mansions and not allow private exchanges. The possibility of the prince's tandem was cut off, and the safety of the son's throne was guaranteed.
In 983, Emperor Yelü Longxu of Liao succeeded to the throne and made Xiao Emperor Empress Dowager.
Since then, Xiao Qi has begun her 27-year regency career.
At the time of the internal stabilization of the Liao State, the Northern Song Dynasty was the time when Zhao Guangyi showed his fists.
After Zhao Kuangyin's death, his brother Zhao Guangyi succeeded to the throne. After 10 years of rectification, Zhao Guangyi had already purged the internal affairs of the Northern Song Dynasty and immediately turned his attention to the "Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun".
So in 986 AD, taking advantage of the "doubts of the lord and the country" within the Liao state, the Northern Song Dynasty launched the "Yongxi Northern Expedition" against it.
At the beginning of the Northern Expedition, the Song army was divided into three roads, and indeed achieved some victories, but Xiao Wei soon reacted, successively sending two large armies to engage the Song army, and finally personally rushed to Nanjing (present-day Beijing) to fight with the frontline soldiers.
In the end, while forcing the Song army to retreat, it also forced the isolated And helpless Song general Yang Ye (She Taijun's husband) to go on a hunger strike and martyrdom.
In 1004, eighteen years after the Yongxi Northern Expedition, Xiao Qi led the Liao Shengzong Yelü Xulong and Han Derang to lead 200,000 troops south in the name of demanding Guannan.
The Liao army was overwhelmed and soon attacked The Prefecture of Liao (澶州, in modern Puyang, Henan), across the river from the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.
At that time, the emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty had been replaced by Zhao Heng, the son of Zhao Guangyi. Although Zhao Heng himself was weak, he was fortunate to have a good minister in the state.
Under the almost persecution of the prime minister Kou Zhun, Zhao Heng finally rode in person to "go to the country together". It was also because of this behavior that the morale of the Northern Song army was greatly boosted, and hundreds of thousands of reinforcements were quickly gathered to confront the Liao army.
Xiao Wei judged the situation and decided to negotiate peace, which led to the "alliance of the Yuanyuan" that protected the people of the Song and Liao countries for more than a hundred years.
As another woman of "Muji Sichen", the history books, especially the Central Plains History Books, have a very good evaluation of Xiao Qi.
Most of them were "obscene and obscene, Yixia heard about it", attacking her from the aspect of private life and the chaotic relationship between men and women, and the whole Liao country knew about it.
Otherwise it is "cruel killing by nature... Long Xu was also disgusted, afraid to send it", saying that Xiao Yu's killing and abuse were too heavy, even her son could not look past it, but forced by her majesty did not dare to say.
However, after Xiao Qi's death, Emperor Yelü Longxu of Liao still regarded her "gossip boyfriend" as her father, and when he saw Han Derang sick, he "came to greet her in person and served soup medicine".
And after Xiao Wei's death, she still followed the policy of recuperation and benefiting the people she had established, which was really not something done by a resentful son.
It can be seen from this that Xiao Qi has always placed himself in the position of the emperor's assistant, which has a positive impact on his son Liao Shengzong.