In successive Han regimes, the northern region has always been threatened by nomadic peoples, with Xiongnu in Han and Turks in Tang. In the face of menacing invaders, the Central Plains regime relied on geographical advantages to defend its homeland, which was Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures.
Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, that is, parts of present-day Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shanxi. To put it simply, Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures are a large number of lofty mountains in the north and west of China, which have rolling city grabens, such as the Great Wall, and also have steep passes, such as Shanhaiguan. In the long history, our farming peoples in the Central Plains have always relied on these mountains and the Great Wall and Pass above to resist the cavalry in the north.
<h1>Nomadic people on the other side of the mountain</h1>
Why did the nomadic peoples cause so much trouble to the Central Plains regime? One of the reasons for this is related to horses.
Do not underestimate a horse, which has four legs and runs much faster than a man with only two legs. In the era of cold weapons, horses were tank troops. When the heavy cavalry faced the infantry, it was almost as casual as chopping melons and chopping vegetables. But even if the horse runs fast, it is only because it is on the flat ground. Horses are not good at climbing mountains, and they can't climb cliffs!
The Central Plains regime is located in the plains of a horse Pingchuan, in the north is the cavalry of nomadic people riding high-headed horses, and in the middle is the Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, which are full of lofty mountains and mountains, and it is precisely because of its existence that the nomadic cavalry has never entered the hinterland of the Central Plains.
Until one person appeared and changed all this--Shi Jingyao. In 938, shi Jingyao, the founding emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty, in order to defeat the Later Tang, asked for help from the Khitan and ceded the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun and became the "Son Emperor".
Since then, the nomadic peoples and the natural grabens in the Central Plains have disappeared, and their cavalry can go directly south to the Central Plains. In the Central Plains of the Pingchuan River, the speed and impact of the cavalry tore through the dreams of the Central Plains Dynasty, and the Central Plains regime began a tragic history of using infantry to resist cavalry.
<h1>"Sinner of Eternity" Shi Jingyao</h1>
Because of the cession of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures and the recognition of the Khitan Emperor as his father, in history, Shi Jingyao was called a traitor with the same name as Wu Sangui. But under closer examination, Shi Jingyao does not seem to be as bad as recorded in history.
Shi Jingyao was not a Han Chinese, he was a Shatuo. Moreover, not only was Shi Jingyao a Shatuo, but in the five dynasties, the last four dynasties were founded by Shatuo (Tang Jinhan) or related to Shatuo (Zhou).
That is to say, in the five dynasties, except for the Later Liang style, which was established by Zhu Wen, a chaotic thief and a capricious snobber, all that remained was derived from the system used by Li Ke, the King of Jin:
The founder of the Later Tang Dynasty, Zhuangzong Li Cunxun, was the eldest son of Li Keyong, while the emperor of his heyday was Li Keyong's righteous son Li Siyuan, the founder of the Later Jin Dynasty, Shi Jingyao, was Li Siyuan's son-in-law, and the founder of the Later Han Dynasty, Liu Zhiyuan, was Shi Jingyao's right-hand man. As for Guo Wei, he was still a small character at that time, starting from the small soldiers around Li Cunxun.
Therefore, the Five Dynasties is an era when the Shatuo people sang the protagonist, and asking the Shatuo Emperor to be responsible for the Han people in later generations is a slightly nonsensical thing in itself.
As for the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, it was far from the prosperity it is today during the Five Dynasties of the Tang Dynasty, and today's Shanhaiguan-Huairou-Juyongguan-Datong Line of the Great Wall was gradually completed after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty did not use the Great Wall to defend against foreign enemies. In the land of Yanyun, in the Tang Dynasty, there were no specialties except for warlords. Moreover, during the Shi Jingyao period, Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures were not the effective jurisdiction of the central government.
If the above reasons are taken into account, Shi Jingyao's act of ceding Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures may not be as bad as recorded in the history books, and it may just be a measure taken by politicians in desperation.
All in all, Shi Jingyao is a very delicate presence in Chinese history:
On the one hand, he is definitely above average in terms of personal ability and personal morality. In the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms of "Fifteen Emperors, Sowing Chaos and Fifty Autumns", Shi Jingyao can even be regarded as the first echelon of emperors (among the five generations of monarchs, Tie Ding will definitely be ranked ahead of him, only Li Siyuan, Guo Wei, and Chai Rong).
On the other hand, the "Er Emperor" and the "ceding of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures" made Shi Jingyao bear the infamy of eternity. This is because, in the Northern Song Dynasty, the scholars and doctors enjoyed the rich life brought about by a hundred years of peace on the one hand, and on the other hand, they dreamed of a world of chaos. And in the Southern Song Dynasty, half of the country, the crown of the south, the hatred of the country, the feelings of the literati need a cathartic outlet, so the reason for the second Shenzhou Lu Shen was gradually added to a Shatuo person, how sad!