As a eunuch, Tong Guan was very special in the Northern Song Dynasty, not just the extremely obscene and mentally retarded eunuch in "Water Margin", he set a number of historical records, which no one has broken so far.
Tong Guan once led the Shaanxi Seven Road Army. The Shaanxi Army was the main force of the Song Army, occupying more than 90% of the combat effectiveness of the Song Army at that time, and there was no doubt that he was the eunuch with the largest military power in history.
He led his army to defeat Western Xia many times, encroaching on large areas of its territory, and beheading hundreds of thousands of people, and there is no doubt that he is the most military eunuch in history.
He represented the state as an envoy to the Liao state and was the first eunuch to serve as an envoy.
And his history of promotion is a record history: Jiedu Envoy, Xuanfu Envoy, Kaifu Yi Tongsansi, Taibao, Taifu These official names were all worn on the heads of eunuchs for the first time.
Tong Guan not only controlled the military and political power, but also was crowned king, which was unique in the history of the Northern Song Dynasty and even in Chinese history.
【Tong Guan】
The rise of Tong Guan
Tong Guan was a native of Kaifeng (present-day Henan) and entered the palace at the age of nearly twenty. According to the historical records, he was tall and tall, his skin and bones were as strong as iron, his eyes were bright and bright, he was not as pale as other eunuchs, on the contrary, his face was somewhat black, and he also had a beard, which made people feel masculine at a glance, and did not look like an ordinary eunuch at all.
Not only is the length different from that of ordinary eunuchs, Tong Guan's personality is also very measured, and when he makes friends with harem concubines, eunuchs, palace women, and those Taoist priests and close courtiers who can approach the royal family, he does not hesitate to spend money, so he also gains a lot of benefits.
There were often people around the emperor who said good things about him, which naturally increased his position in the emperor's heart more and more. Tong Guan's temperament is also very well-behaved, careful as hair, good at guessing the emperor's psychology, often in advance can know the emperor's intentions, so it is more pleasing to the emperor, and the officials are getting bigger and bigger.
In the seventh year of emperor Huizong of Song (1117), Tong Guan, as a young school inspector, led the Privy Council, becoming the only eunuch in history to enter the ranks of prime ministers. In the third year of Xuanhe (1121), Tong Guan led an army to rebel against Fangla, and for his merits he received the highest honorary title of the Northern Song Dynasty, Taishi.
The great plan to destroy the Liao
In fact, according to the market situation of the Song Dynasty, there is no longer such a thing as a king, and even if it is mixed to the top of the Taishi, one hundred and fifty years before the Song Huizong, only Zhao Pu and Wen Yanbo have only two Taishi. Perhaps Tong Guan was also confused, he was also thinking about whether he could achieve further breakthroughs in life, and finally he found the answer - Ma Zhi.
Ma Zhiben was born in the Liao state, the official to GuangluQing, but in the Liao state is very popular, the future is not very bright, so began to consider betraying the Liao state to defect to the Song Dynasty. Every year, song and Liao had to send the chancellor He Zhengdan, and in the first year of the Song Huizong Zhenghe (1111), the Song court sent Zheng Yunzhong, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, to send an envoy to the Liao state He Zhengdan, and the inspector Tong Guanzhi was the deputy.
Ma Zhi heard that the mighty war god tong had penetrated the Liao kingdom, and thought that the opportunity could not be lost, and it would not come again, so he saw Tong Guan at night and claimed that there was a strategy to destroy the Liao!
Tong Guan
At this time, Tong Guan will think so? Perhaps at first he was also shocked, and as a state leader, he should have been very clear that taking in a traitor of the Liao state was itself a felony against the ancestral precepts of the Alliance of The Yuanyuan. However, Emperor Daozong of Liao and Emperor Shenzong of Song defaulted first, and it was not the head of my tong guankai, so he renamed Ma Zhi as Li Liangsi and secretly brought him back to Tokyo to meet Emperor Huizong of Song.
Li Liangsi proposed to Emperor Huizong: "Emperor Tianzuo of the Liao State is absurd, and the Female Zhi hates the Liao people to the bone, and if the Song Dynasty contacts the Female Zhi by sea, it will be successful to attack the Liao State together." ''
Emperor Huizong of Song was a little moved, but the people involved in this plot at that time were very opposed, the main reason was that the Song and Liao countries had been friends for more than a hundred years, and the Song Empire had taken advantage of others, and there was no need to start a war for a small female zhi tribe. More importantly, the Western Xia can be taken down immediately, even if it is to do something to the Khitans, it should first solve the Western Xia side and then say.
But Li Liangsi immediately added:
''The Liao kingdom will perish.' His Majesty remembers the suffering of the old people, restores the frontier of China's past, condemns it on behalf of heaven, and in order to control the chaos, as soon as the king comes out, he will come to greet him with pot pulp. In case the woman is straight and straight, preemptive, it will not be a problem. ''''''Continuing Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 91)
This means that Youyan is the land of the Great Song Dynasty, and the people are eagerly hoping that the Song court will liberate them, and the Great Song must seize the time, otherwise it will be troublesome if it is preempted by the female direct.
After the Qing Dynasty, the tribe of Nuzhi was accustomed to being translated as Jurchen, and it is said that they were descendants of Su Shen or Jing, and also had a certain kinship with the Bohai people, living near HuanglongFu (present-day Changchun Nong'an County, Jilin), farther north of Linhuang Province in the Upper Jingjing Province of the Liao Empire, and mainly fishing and hunting. Note that it is fishing and hunting, not nomadic herding, that is, only hunting wild animals, and even the technology of grazing has not yet been mastered, which is very backward.
Because the Song Empire had a history of provoking rebellions within the Liao Empire, such as Xi, Han, and Bohai, the Liao people were very defensive, and generally did not allow the Song to contact other ethnic groups in the Liao State, and due to geographical limitations, at that time, the Song people's understanding of the tribe of Nuzhi should be limited to several special products such as Dongzhu and Falcon, and the specific situation could only listen to Li Liangsi's one-sided words.
Li Liangsi took full advantage of this information asymmetry to convince the core decision-makers of the Song Dynasty that the Female Zhibu was very powerful and deliberately anti-Liao.
In fact, the situation in the Liao state at that time was indeed not very depressed, but it was not yet a complete collapse. The Jin State later claimed that the Liao State severely oppressed them, so it rebelled against the Liao, which was not distorted, but it was also obviously exaggerated.
With the strength of the female straight, there is no productivity or state organization, it is impossible to resist the huge Liao Empire, even if there is a little oppression, it can only succumb. Li Liangsi fabricated that female zhi could help the Great Song dynasty to destroy the Liao, which was equivalent to saying that bin Laden could destroy the United States, but because Song Huizong, Tong Guan, and others really did not understand the situation of female zhi, and were attracted by the great feat of destroying the Liao, several people who were good at great achievements were finally used by Li Liangsi and became his tools for achieving Gestapo.
This Li Liangsi was given the surname Zhao, accepted Emperor Huizong's will, and sent an envoy to the Jin Kingdom in the name of buying horses. During the negotiations with the Jin people, Zhao Liangsi in addition to Yanjing, he also tried to get Xijing and other places after defeating the Liao state, but Song Huizong only wrote in his letters to take back "Yanjing and the city of the prefecture", so the Jin state made a fuss about it, saying that your emperor did not mention it, and you should not fight anymore.
Since Zhao Liangsi crossed the sea from Dengzhou to the Jin Dynasty to negotiate this time, it is called "'Alliance on the Sea'" in history.
【Emperor Huizong of Song】
Eunuchs are crowned kings
After receiving the support of the Song Empire, the female zhibu became obviously arrogant.
In the second year of Zhenghe (the second year of Liao Tianqing, 1112 AD), the Liao Empire gathered various tribes to meet in the Chaotong River, and the female Zhibu Du Bo Jilie (the highest lord of the tribe) Guanyan Wuyashu sent his brother Wanyan Akuta to participate, but he was very disrespectful to Emperor Tianzuo (Yelü Yanxi), which caused the liao emperor to be angry.
According to the liao empire's national autonomy system, the tribal chiefs were elected hereditary by the headquarters, but they were also approved by the imperial court and accepted the auspicious and stable leadership assigned by the imperial court. However, after Zhenghe's three-year death in Wuya, he did not mourn the Liao Empire, and Ah Kuanta directly succeeded to the throne, nor did he accept the auspicious stability assigned by the imperial court, and formally separated from the direct administration of the Liao Empire. After that, Ah Kuanta directly led his troops to rebel against the Liao, plundering the prefectures and counties.
However, these actions never aroused the vigilance of the top brass of the Liao Empire, who still thought that this was an ordinary tribal disturbance, and did not take the backward little female Zhi tribe seriously, and was very light on the enemy.
They did not expect at all that this time there was the Song Empire behind the ghost, and under the support of the Song Empire, in just a few years, they already had a perfect state organization and army organization, and they could completely fight with the demoralized Liao Army. It was not until the female Zhi army conquered Huanglong Province that it really attracted the attention of the top brass of the Liao Empire.
However, it was too late, and the Bohai people also began to rebel, and the morale and military discipline of the Liao army were completely lost.
Since the liao empire's defensive strategy was mainly against the Song Empire in the south, the main forces and fortifications were in the south, and there was little defense against the northern plains, which was very easy to be attacked by cavalry, so the Tianzuo Emperor abandoned the capital and was left behind by the Qin and Jin king Yelü Chun and fled to Yunzhong Province.
Compared with the offensive of Nüzhi, the Song army never moved, not because Tong Guan did not want to fight, but because he was temporarily contained by the western Xia and the domestic Fang La rebellion. In the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122), Tong Guan finally defeated Western Xia and suppressed the Fang La rebellion, gathering 150,000 Shaanxi troops, tens of thousands of Tibetan and Qiang troops on the border of Hebei. At first, the Liao people thought that he had come to help suppress the Rebellion of the Female Zhi, and sent envoys to the Song army for help, only to learn that it was actually a pinch attack!
As soon as the secret strategy of eliminating the Liao Was announced, it also caused an uproar in The country. Tong Guan's Shaanxi military general Xihe Lingzhi Zhao Long pointed out that attacking the brotherly state was to corrupt the ancestors' consistent national policy for more than a hundred years, and Tong Guan was speechless.
A commoner An Yaochen wrote to Emperor Huizong, pointing out from the perspective of national strategy that the Song and Liao brotherly states were a relationship of cold lips and teeth, and there would be more and greater troubles after the destruction of the Liao. This person was indeed insightful, and Emperor Huizong finally realized that he granted An Yao the official position of a minister and suspended the discussion of cutting down the Liao.
That's where the decision takes place.
If Emperor Huizong of Song proposed to aid the Liao state, he would certainly get mainstream support, and even though Tong Guan was the commander-in-chief of the Shaanxi Army, at that time, the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu and even the Shaanxi Army were unanimously opposed to the destruction of the Liao, and he alone could not insist. Even if the Song army did not come to the aid, as long as it did not fight with the female direct, the female zhibu who lacked support could not defeat the huge Liao Empire in the end and could only be suppressed.
However, the temptation to be crowned king with a different surname always lingered in front of Tong Guan's eyes, so he repeatedly instigated Emperor Huizong of Song to cut down Liao.
When the situation in the Liao State continued to deteriorate, the female Zhi army conquered Xijing, and the main war faction threw out the argument that it was impossible for the female zhi to take the lead, the artist Song Huizong could not sit still, and even some anti-war factions were somewhat loose. In the end, the Song court finally passed the resolution to destroy the Liao, and Tong Guan immediately ordered the Shaanxi army to invade the Liao territory.
At that time, in the Shaanxi Army, the war god Tong Guan was an idol, the spiritual totem of all the Shaanxi army generals, but this time, even the top general under his command, Zhong Shidao, pointed out fiercely: "Our current behavior is like a robber entering the neighbor's house, and we not only do not rescue, but go together to divide up!" ''
Although Tong Guan could not explain, he forced the march, and the generals had no choice but to carry out the military orders, but they had no fighting spirit and were passive and sluggish.
The Liao people have now fully awakened that the Female Zhi Rebellion turned out to be a ghost behind the back of the Song Empire, which had been his brother for more than a hundred years, and was very sad, and sent the envoy to cry to Tong Guan: "The rebellion of the Female Zhibu in our country is also hated by the Great Song. Today, the Great Song Dynasty has a momentary advantage, abandons the good of a hundred years, and forms a state of jackals, laying the groundwork for the catastrophe of his day, what will be done when the time comes? Disaster relief and compassion for neighbors are the common righteousness of ancient and modern times, and it is what a big country should do! ''
Liao's remarks were also extremely insightful, keenly pointing out that the Song Empire did not understand the short-sighted behavior of lips and teeth, and Tong Guan was speechless.
However, in Tong Guan's view, how important is the centenary covenant important to the historical record of his canonization? Even if the Liao state surrendered very sincerely later, and even humiliated the country of brothers to the country of uncles and nephews, it could not shake the determination of the god of child war to become king.
Tong Guan drove out the Liao envoys, relieved of the military power of the Seed Division, replaced by the generals of the main battle faction, and quickly marched, with the help of the Liao rebel Guo Yaoshi, quickly conquered Youzhou Yanshan Province, and completed the great cause of recovering Youyun Sixteen Prefectures! Tong Guan was also crowned king for merit!
The anti-devouring body is extinguished
Strictly speaking, he is indeed the first time in the 175 years since the traitor Shi Jingyao betrayed the country's Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, and if history ends here, he is worthy of being a national hero!
But can history end there? Obviously not. The Liao Empire, a civilization rich and able to befriend the Great Song Dynasty for a hundred years, has perished, and is replaced by a barbaric and untrustworthy Jin Empire.
The Mongolian steppe is rich in fierce nomadic tribes, which is the most troublesome side problem for the Central Plains Dynasties in the past, and these tribes have a low degree of civilization, and they cannot talk to them in a state way, and can only use a two-defeat force to confront them. And even though the Han and Tang were as powerful as they drove out the Xiongnu and turks, they returned to fill in with more primitive and barbaric new tribes after they left, until the emergence of the Liao Empire.
As the first civilized empire on the Mongolian steppe, the Liao Empire was a good combination of primitive tribes scattered around, and the Central Plains Dynasty only needed to pay a little bit of old coins to avoid grassland border troubles.
Tong Guan destroyed the Liao state, crowned the king, and his personal exploits reached the peak, and then he had to face the Jin Empire, a new opponent he had single-handedly raised in order to destroy the Liao.
Jin Taizu deeply felt the kindness of the Great Song Dynasty, and before he died, he also told him everything to make friends with the Great Song Generation. However, the binding force of the will was limited, and his brother Jin Taizong soon attacked the Song after succeeding to the throne.
And because of the huge rift within the Song court in the matter of destroying the Liao, many people resented Cai Jing, Tong Guan, and even Song Huizong, and because of Song Huizong's mistakes in the deployment of the northern border, the Jin army's offensive was easy to succeed, all the way to Tokyo. As for the investigation of responsibility, the Song people all believed that it was a mistake in the decision-making of the leadership led by Song Huizong, and finally Song Huizong abdicated, and Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Zhao Liangsi and others were beheaded.
After Tong Guan was killed, the Shaanxi army lost its leader, and the Hebei army, after more than a hundred years of peace, had lost its combat effectiveness and was unable to resist the Jin army at all, which eventually caused the Jing Kang disaster.
The root cause of the Liao's demise was that it first violated the Alliance of The Yuanyuan, but more importantly, Tong Guan, the eunuch king. For his personal merits, he desperately raised tigers to attack the civilized empire, and eventually set himself on fire, so that Song and Liao were defeated, although he created many dazzling historical records, but there is no doubt that he is a sinner of history.
The difficulty of Jingkang is not only a great shame and humiliation of the Song Dynasty, but also a major setback on the way forward of human civilization.