The Yang family will be loyal and loyal, and in the war against the invasion of the Liao State, generation after generation of people will spill blood on the battlefield to protect the security of the frontier of the Great Song Dynasty. Empress Xiao, who was opposed to the Yang family, was the de facto emperor of the Liao state. In the rendition, Empress Xiao is an out-and-out villain who goes to great lengths to attack the Great Song and destroy peace.
However, after all, this is only a deduction, the real Empress Xiao has not engaged in any Heavenly Gate Array, nor will she deliberately target the Yang family general. But it was also true that it was because of this powerful Empress Xiao that the dream of the Great Song to recover Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures was ruined, and it is not wrong to say that Yang Laolinggong died at the hands of Empress Xiao.
In terms of political talent, Empress Xiao was not inferior to any empress dowager in the Central Plains; in terms of arbitrariness, this empress dowager seemed to be superior. There are indications that after she became empress dowager, she also held a wedding with her favorite minister Han Derang, which is unimaginable in the Central Plains.
Empress Xiao's real name was Xiao Qi, and her father, Xiao Siwen, was a very powerful minister of the Liao state, and several daughters were married to the liao emperor and clan relatives. The power structure of the Liao state is not entirely based on the Yelü clan as the core, the Xiao clan has a similar strength to the Yelü clan, and the two families often intermarry, jointly influencing the political situation of the Liao state.
Xiao Wei has been very serious about doing things since he was a child, even for small things, and strives to have a beginning and an end. In modern parlance, she was a perfectionist and had perseverance in doing things. Her father was very praised by her, believing that she would become a great success in the future. It seems that this excellent character was also revered in ancient times, and many great figures have similar records.
After Emperor Jingzong of Liao ascended the throne, in order to consolidate the throne, he made Xiao Siwen a privy envoy of the Northern Yuan, and summoned Xiao Shu into the palace to become a noble concubine. Just a week later, the father and daughter were promoted to prime minister and empress respectively. This shows how urgent Emperor Jingzong's support for Xiao was.
More than half a year later, Because of his poor health, Emperor Jingzong of Liao handed over the power of state affairs to Empress Xiao And once again promoted his father-in-law to the king of Han. The power of the Xiao family was in the ascendant, which caused the dissatisfaction of many people in the DPRK. In May of the following year, Xiao Siwen was assassinated, and Xiao Wei took on the government of a country alone.
During the period of Xiao Qi's administration, he not only maintained the stable development of the country, but also straightened out the intricate relationship between the magnates of the Liao state. In addition to her own high political talent, she also has a powerful helper, and is also the male protagonist of the scandal, Han Dejang.
According to the Records of the Song Dynasty, when Xiao Qi was young, he promised to give han Derang, but before he could get married, he was intercepted by Emperor Jingzong of Liao. In 988, Empress Xiao feasted on her courtiers in Han Derang's accounting room, rewarding many people, and later everyone thought that this was a wedding banquet between Empress Xiao and Han Derang. In the eyes of the Song dynasty subjects, this was unimaginable, but the Khitan people did not care about it, and their customs were to accept this kind of marriage.
Han Derang was a Han Chinese in the last years of the Tang Dynasty and was captured and enslaved to the Khitans. However, this family mixed well in Khitan and his father became the King of Yan in Khitan and was the most powerful Han courtier. Otherwise, the Xiao family would not let Xiao Yu and Han Derang get engaged.
During Empress Xiao's reign, her greatest achievement was to defeat Zhao Guangyi's Northern Expedition and completely shatter the Song Dynasty's dream of reunification. Zhao Guangyi attacked Yu Wei of the Northern Han Dynasty and wanted to regain Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures with a single blow. Yang Ye Yang Lao Linggong was originally a general of the Northern Han Dynasty, but seeing that the Northern Han Dynasty had exhausted its qi, he defected to the Song Dynasty and became a border general.
The Song army once besieged the Liao state of Nanjing, which is modern Beijing. The Liao general in charge of commanding the defenders was None other than Han Derang, who fought a siege for fifteen days, and the Song army did not take the city of Nanjing. Reinforcements sent by Empress Xiao had arrived and launched a counterattack against the Song army.
The Liao general Yelü Hugo led an army to raid Zhao Guangyi's army successfully, resulting in a major defeat for the Song army. After Yang Ye was cut off for the whole army, he missed the period agreed with the general Cao Bin and others, and Cao Bin thought that Yang Ye had fallen into the hands of the enemy, so he led the retreat. When Yang Ye arrived at the meeting point the next day as agreed, no one answered him, and he was finally surrounded by the Liao army.
Unlike Yang Laolinggong in the rendition, who crashed and died in front of Li Lingpai, Yang Ye was captured alive by the Liao army. But he insisted on not surrendering, died on hunger strike, and was martyred. Empress Xiao ordered Yang Ye's head to be teleported to the border pass to boost morale. Because of this, the commentary on the book yanyi portrayed Empress Xiao as a vicious villain.
Next, Empress Xiao ordered an attack on the Song Dynasty's Prefecture of Liaozhou. Emperor Zhenzong of Song personally marched, and the Song army was greatly encouraged, fighting desperately, shooting the famous Liao general Xiao Tao Rin with a crossbow in Liaozhou. Empress Xiao then decided to stop the attack and make peace with the Song Dynasty.
Empress Xiao abided by the peace treaty between the two sides, so that song and Liao did not have a large-scale war for hundreds of years. From this point, it can be seen that Empress Xiao was not a person who loved war, the previous wars were only for their own countries, and the Song Dynasty itself was not strong enough to complete the unification, no wonder others.
In 1009, Empress Xiao died, and she was regent for forty years in her life, and was a famous empress dowager in the history of the Liao State. She also has a place on the list of Chinese strong women.
[References: History of Liao, Chronicle of the Khitan State]