Shi Jingyu, the founding emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty, died a very humiliated death, lying on his hospital bed speechless, his ears were full of scolding for "recognizing the thief as his father", while the "father" he served with all his heart accused him of "not filial piety enough" with a fierce face.
Some people say that Shi Jingyao is "the biggest traitor in history", which is not unreasonable, because it was he who ceded the sixteen states of Yanyun, causing the Central Plains Dynasty to be unsafe for hundreds of years, and was greatly responsible for the demise of the two Song Dynasties.
Why did Shi Jingyao cede the country? Who is the "thief" he considers "Father"? It all starts with Shi Jingyu's legendary past.
Even if his life repeats itself a hundred times, I am afraid that Shi Jingyao would not dare to predict that he would be able to sit on the dragon chair, because he was just a Shatuo from the Yu ethnic class.
The Shatuo were originally a nomadic tribe living in the Western Regions and Hexi Corridor, but after the Anshi Rebellion, they moved to Hedong and became mercenaries of the Tang Dynasty. In the late Tang Dynasty, the Shatuo tribe fused with other ethnic minorities such as Turkic, Tuyuhun, Uighur, and Dangxiang, and inflated like balloons.
As Li Keyong's power grew, the Shatuo army led by him became the most influential separatist force in the late Tang Dynasty.
Shi Jingyu was born in Taiyuan under Li Keyong's rule, and from his ancestor to his father, he served as an official in the Tang Dynasty for several generations, and was a standard Sinicized class (as opposed to the wealthy family).
The Shatuo people are still martial, but Shi Jingyu is a well-rounded talent in literature and martial arts, he is silent and likes to read, especially the book of soldiers. Li Siyuan had a wise eye and recruited him as his son-in-law.
Li Siyuan is Li Keyong's adopted son, a cattle man who became a powerful cattle man in the late Tang Dynasty. After climbing this high branch, Shi Jingyu's life began to take off, and he frequently fought as the commander of the "Left Shot Army", and showed outstanding military talent and amazing bravery.
In the past twenty years, Shi Jingyao has killed the bloody road in desperate situations countless times, saved the lives of Li Cunxuan (Li Keyong's son) and Li Siyuan many times, and created miracles of turning defeat into victory several times.
In the first year of Tongguang (923), Later Liang was destroyed, Li Cunxuan ascended the throne as emperor, and the Later Tang regime was established, and Shi Jingyu and Li Congke (Li Siyuan's adopted son) ranked first-class merit.
It should have been the turn of the monarchs to share the fruits of victory among themselves, but Li Cunxuan, the emperor of Tang Zhuangzong, began to squeeze and suppress Li Siyuan everywhere out of jealousy, making Li Siyuan tremble.
In the fourth year of Tongguang (926), Wei Bo mutinied, but Yuan Xingqin, who was responsible for suppressing the rebellion, was defeated again and again, and Li Cunxuan had no choice, so he had to ask Li Siyuan to go out of the mountains to suppress the rebellion.
As soon as the army arrived at the front, Li Siyuan's subordinates mutinied, and he himself was kidnapped and asked to unite with the Weibo rebels and proclaim himself emperor in Hebei.
Li Siyuan was very happy, he pretended to agree, but escaped halfway. But the question is, what does he do next? Li Siyuan was calm in his heart: I was kidnapped, there is no reaction, the emperor should be considerate of me. So he decided to return to Luoyang and plead guilt to Li Cunxuan.
Shi Jingyao hurriedly blocked: Subordinates make chaos, how can you, as the manager, get rid of the relationship? Originally, people wanted to attack you, if you go back, you will definitely encounter accidents, it is better to raise troops.
Don't look at Shi Jingyu is a stuffy gourd, an old scalper, in fact, he is a thoughtful and knowledgeable person, he saw through the fierceness of the internal struggle in the Later Tang at a glance, and decided that Li Cunxuan and Li Siyuan could not live in peace, and Li Siyuan wanted to live, only to win in danger.
Li Siyuan woke up like a dream, gritted his teeth and stomped his foot, really reversed. So he led the rebels all the way south, and without much effort, overthrew Li Cunxuan and ascended the throne, for Emperor Mingzong of Tang.
What is sad is that after Li Siyuan sat on the throne, he was possessed by Li Cunxuan, and he also embarked on the road of not thinking of enterprising, indulging in pleasure, and pampering and traitors, causing the struggle of the imperial court to be full of smoke.
In November of the fourth year of Changxing (933), Li Siyuan's eldest son Li Congrong rebelled, and Li Siyuan died in fear. After the rebellion was quelled, Li Conghou ascended the throne as Emperor Min of Tang.
Li Conghou carried forward the glorious tradition of Li Cunfeng and Li Siyuan, and poured a bucket of oil on the raging fire of infighting, and he tried to eliminate his godbrother Li Congke, but was unexpectedly beaten by Li Congke and lost the capital.
In desperation, Li Conghou had to go to his brother-in-law Shi Jingyu. Shi Jingyao took Li Conghou in, but he didn't expect Li Conghou to fall down the donkey and not fall down, and he even ignored his own situation and accused Shi Jingyao of being unfaithful.
In fact, Li Conghou said that it was not unreasonable, at this time, Shi Jingyao had grass in his heart, on the one hand, he did not want to conflict with Li Congke, and on the other hand, he did not want to turn his back on his brother-in-law. But just when he was in a dilemma, Li Conghou actually made a move on him.
There was no choice, so the brother-in-law turned against each other, and Shi Jingyao captured Li Conghou alive and gave him to Li Congke. Li Congke cut through the mess quickly, killed Li Conghou, and ascended the throne for the late Tang emperor.
In ten years, the Later Tang changed four emperors: Tang Zhuangzong Li Cunxuan (son of Li Keyong), Tang Mingzong Li Siyuan (Li Keyong's righteous son), Tang Min Emperor Li Conghou (Li Siyuan's son), and Tang Emperor Li Congke (Li Siyuan's righteous son).
The poison of suspicion continued to attack, and after Li Congke sat on the throne, he began to attack Shi Jingyao frequently.
Although the Tang Dynasty perished, the poison of the domain town has always been rampant, Li Siyuan, Li Congke, and Shi Jingyao are all envoys of the domain town with heavy troops, although they have made great contributions to their predecessors, but the knife handle in their hands has always made people uneasy.
Li Congke said in his heart: After all, we are only Li Siyuan's righteous son, and the righteous son can take the throne, why can't Shi Jingyu, the son-in-law, do it? This guy is a dangerous person and must be eliminated.
Shi Jingyao was left in Luoyang, never daring to mention returning to Taiyuan, and in panic he did not think about tea and food, and became ill and emaciated. Seeing that her husband had become an "African refugee", his wife went to beg her mother Empress Dowager Cao: Shilang is loyal, and the emperor wants to torture him to death.
Empress Dowager Cao felt sorry for her daughter and son-in-law, so she went to intercede with Li Congke. Li Congke was raised by Empress Dowager Cao, and he loved mother and son, and he could not refuse to give this affection, so he had to agree to let Shi Jingyu return to the fanzhen.
Li Congke is a good hand at fighting, but his political talent is surprisingly poor. Since he doubted Shi Jingyu, he simply got rid of him and at least kept him in the palm of his hand. Since you let him go, you should find a way to encircle him.
However, Li Congke made a series of defeats, and after he released Shi Jingxuan, he continued to put pressure on Shi Jingyao, and even often beat Shi Jingyao publicly through Jiuxing. Once, when Shi Jingyu's wife returned to Luoyang to visit relatives and was about to return, Li Congke asked drunkenly: "Why are you in such a hurry to go back, is Shi Jingyao going to rebel?" ”
Shi Jingyao was originally a cautious person, and finally broke out under Li Congke's constant squeeze. In the third year of the Qing Dynasty (936), Shi Jingyu refused Li Congke's order and publicly asked Li Congke to return the throne to Li Siyuan's son, and his face was torn apart.
Shi Jingyao knew that he was not Li Congke's opponent, so he had been trying to survive and was forced to raise troops when he had no way to retreat. The question is, does he have a way to beat Li Congke?
No, or he wouldn't have whispered so much. But he added foreign aid to himself, and with confidence, this foreign aid is the Khitan people.
Just when the Central Plains fought for years and fought into a pot of porridge, the grassland nation Khitan moved towards unification under the leadership of Yelu Abaoji and established the Khitan State.
At this time, the reigning one was already Yelu Abaoji's son Yelu Deguang of Liao, a guy who coveted the Central Plains.
In order to gain the support of the Khitans, Shi Jingyu didn't even want his face, he even called Yelud Guang, who was ten years younger than him, "father", and promised to cede the sixteen states of Yanyun to the Khitans.
Yelud Guang was worried that he could not find the opportunity to enter the Central Plains, and suddenly the heavens sent a good son, and he obtained the sixteen-state barrier between the steppe peoples and the Han land out of thin air, and he was so excited that he almost called Shi Jingyao "father".
So the Khitan army swung south and helped Shi Jingyu defeat Li Congke. The Later Tang dynasty, and Shi Jingyu miraculously became the founding emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty, ironically calling him "Emperor Er".
In order to serve the "father" well, Shi Jingyu paid a large amount of tribute while servile his knees, and also had to act as a thug for the Khitans. At the same time, Shi Jingyu's move angered many envoys and the Shi class, including Liu Zhiyuan, who declared independence and became mortal rivals of the Later Jin regime.
Shi Jingyao lost his heart to the insiders, and externally because of the Tuyuhun incident offended the Khitan and was reprimanded by the "father emperor", under internal and external difficulties, he only sat on the dragon chair for six years and died of fear at the age of 50.
So, how should we evaluate Shi Jingyu?
A historical celebrity once said that Shi Jingyu was originally a Shatuo person, and he could not talk about "traitors". According to the relationship between Shi Jingyu and Empress Shulu, Shi Jingyu is indeed the nephew of Yelud Guang, so recognizing his father is not considered a self-descendant.
In addition, the sixteen states of Yanyun did not belong to Shi Jingyu, he was at most generous to others, and that place was laid down by the Khitan people, and Shi Jingyao did not contribute a contribution, which is not considered to cede land.
According to this big coffee, it seems that Shi Jingyao was turned upside down by posterity, and I dare not agree.
First, Shi Jingyu's identity is already controversial, and the so-called "Shatuo people" are a hodgepodge of people, including some Huhua Han people. Ouyang Xiu testified that Shi Jingyu should be a descendant of Shi Qiu, the great doctor of the Spring and Autumn Dynasty, and Shi Fen, the prime minister of Emperor Jing of Han, and the standard Han blood.
I think that even if Shi Jingyu is a Hu person, but the Shi family has been in the Tang Dynasty since the Gaozu period and has identified with Han culture, then he is Han Min. Therefore, he cannot escape responsibility because of his Shatuo origin.
Second, I don't know where the big coffee found out the blood relationship between Shi Jingyao and Shuluping, even if it is true, it must be very far away, why didn't Shi Jingyao recognize his father earlier, but chose that time? If it weren't for fighting Li Congke, would he have knelt down and bowed to the light of Yelud?
This is very clear, Shi Jingyao recognized his father as sacrificing his face for the sake of interests, and did not hesitate to lure wolves into the house.
Third, the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were indeed not in Shi Jingyu's hands, but it was indeed given to the Khitan in a legal way through Shi Jingyu's hands.
At that time, the Later Jin Dynasty was the legitimate power in the Central Plains, and Shi Jingyu, as emperor, signed the document ceding the sixteen states of Yanyun, which is an ironclad fact. As the Central Plains regime, Shi Jingyao should have taken the lead in resisting the Khitans, but he made perverse moves. The Khitan invasion of the Central Plains many times is related to Shi Jingyu's collusion and strategy, are these still not paying attention to his crime?
Since the loss of the Sixteen States, the door of the Central Plains has been wide open, resulting in the passivity of the Northern Song Dynasty in military defense, is it wrong to call him a sinner of the ages?