(Portrait of Robert II)
Eleventh year of taiping, 1031 AD.
According to the chronology of the stem branch, it is the year of the sheep.
This year is a year of fall.
The reason why it is said to be the year of the fall is that three emperors of different regimes have invariably chosen to die in this year.
The first was Robert II of the Capetian dynasty of France, who was far away on the European continent, and the emperor's private life was somewhat unruly, looking for flowers and willows all day, and even married his cousin, which annoyed the pope at that time, Gregory V, the emperor was a symbol of power, but the pope was bigger than the emperor, and the pope was the god who granted the emperor power in the eyes of people.
Therefore, as soon as the pope was threatened, the emperor also had to shake three times.
In the end, the emperor was sentenced to capital punishment and died on the streets.
The second is the Central Plains, the Western Xia Dynasty Emperor Taizong Emperor Li Deming, for Li Ge, the most depressed and difficult thing in his life is the geographical location of the Western Xia Dynasty, before the threat of the Northern Song Dynasty, and then there was the Great Liao, so when this emperor reigned, although he did not have the great cause of opening up the territory and expanding the territory, he pursued the "YiLiao and Song", and the policy of governing the country with no offense on both sides gained a glimmer of life for the Western Xia Dynasty in the chaotic world of the three divisions of the world at that time.
The third is the northern steppe, the Holy Emperor of the Liao Dynasty, Yelü Longxu.
(Portrait of Yerushalayim)
I don't think I need to introduce this emperor any more.
To some extent, he may be the best king in the entire Great Liao and even the Two Song Dynasties.
In the 49 years of his reign, he ruled martial arts, actively developed internally, forged ahead externally, and made great efforts to govern, and finally developed the Liao Dynasty into its heyday.
What is "Heyday"? The meaning is very simple, that is, the Liao Dynasty at that time, whether it is military, culture, science and technology, agriculture is almost very prosperous, there is no shortcoming.
Of course, there is no absolute thing in this world, if you have to pick out a shortcoming in this heyday empire, it is: the wise king will always have a day to end, and after the brilliant peak, there will be no more peak, only the downhill road can go.
On the third day of the first month of June 1031 AD, a generation of British lords Liao Shengzong Dragon rode on the guests, and his life came to an end.
The Liao Dynasty ushered in a new master, his son, Emperor Xingzong of Liao.
(Portrait of Jeroboam)
When the emperor ascended the throne, he was fifteen years old.
It's a very embarrassing age.
Saying that he is big, he is just a teenager and cannot fully understand the laws of the whole world.
But saying that he is small, he already has his own independent mind, and he has also begun to desire to grow, to mature.
But before Emperor Xian died, he did not seem to be very relieved about his precious son.
Therefore, the old emperor left a powerful assistant to the new emperor, this person was the wife of the former emperor, the emperor's mother, who had been promoted from empress to empress xiao Yunjin.
In a way, this is undoubtedly an orderly, generation-to-generation inheritance in the Liao Dynasty.
At that time, Emperor Shengzong's father, Jingzong Yelüxian, had also left Empress Xiao Yanyan for Emperor Shengzong, and now, the old emperor also left his most trusted woman to his son.
You are the ones I love the most and the ones I trust the most.
Now, with my legacy and blessings, lead the Liao Dynasty to continue to go on!
But it was clear that Xiao Yunjin was not a good woman.
Emperor Yelü Zongzhen had not fully grown up, he was the empress dowager of the regent of the Dynasty, but one day, the Son of Heaven would be pro-government, where would his fate fall?
Empress Xiao was already intoxicated by power and could not extricate herself, for her, what she wanted to do was not the emperor's guiding light, she wanted to be the light of the Liao Dynasty herself.
You must know that Xiao Yunjin is not the emperor's nominal mother, but the emperor's biological mother.
(Portrait of Xiao Yunjin)
Hot power has torn the affection between the biological mother and son, and a mother-son war is about to begin.
Empress Xiao believed that the young YelüZong was not really a bird in a cage, and that he would certainly have great potential after pro-government, and if he wanted to hold power for a long time, there was only one way to go, that is, to depose the king and establish a new king.
The empress dowager is the lord of the middle palace, although she can remotely control the government, but after all, it is a woman's Taoist family, and it is difficult to show her face in the court, so the empress dowager quickly found her brother in the court, Xiao Xiaoxian.
The brothers and sisters met overnight, planning to pick a good day and launch a mutiny, depose Yelü Zongzhen, and establish Empress Xiao's younger son Yelü Chongyuan as emperor.
If there were no accidents, Emperor Xingzong of Liao would probably be defeated at the hands of his mother and uncle.
But history is full of surprises.
Jeroboam served his mother very well on weekdays, and in the court, he also had to do everything personally, and he had to ask his mother's opinion in everything.
In the eyes of everyone, the young emperor has always been a "ma bao man" who has no opinion and obeys Xiao Yunjin in everything.
But one thing they forget is that there is a word in this world called "playing the pig and eating the tiger."
The emperor is young and intelligent, although he is young, but he is very bold and insightful, why is such an excellent young boy lang, why is the emperor so respectful, obedient and humble?
There is only one answer, the emperor is forbearing.
His body flowed with the blood of the Jeroboam clan, and his heart hid the glory of being a heavenly royal family.
He would never allow anyone to take the throne.
But should anyone include his own mother?
The emperor was also hesitant.
The Emperor was a loner, the loneliest man in the world.
When the emperor first ascended the throne, he would inevitably lose his father, and if he put on a system like the Northern Wei Dynasty's almost harsh "death of sons and noble mothers", the emperor would also lose his mother.
The Liao Dynasty paid attention to the two rules of Han and Qi, and the Khitan officials who were not the same above the court, and the Han ministers in the Central Plains, who held high positions, were not in the minority.
They are superficially humble to each other, but in reality it is difficult to work together.
(Liao Dynasty Minister)
The Khitan officials believed that the Central Plains Han officials were all a bunch of poor and corrupt Confucians who would only engage in theoretical things, while the Central Plains Han officials felt that the Khitan nobles were just a bunch of unsynchronized and grainless natives, who would only rely on force to win and could not govern the country at all.
The ministers quarreled in the courtroom and quarreled every day, and the emperor did not feel the harmonious atmosphere of the monarch and the courtier that should have existed in the Liao Dynasty.
He has no one to pour out his emotions, and he doesn't have anyone to trust.
His only emotional sustenance was his mother, Xiao Yunjin.
But now, her blood-linked mother was on his side.
His mother had become his enemy.
She wants to depose herself, she wants to blackmail herself.
Yes, in the face of power, any seemingly indestructible emotion will be crushed, even if it is a mother-child relationship, which is about to fall apart at this moment.
For the emperor himself, this was an extremely difficult choice.
A good boy defends his family and is determined to defend the country, but the emperor wants to take up arms and aim them at his mother.
But all this is irretrievable.
Seeing that his throne was not secure, Emperor Xingzong preemptively led his troops into the Middle Palace, deposed his mother as a shuren, and drove out of the Daliao Palace and imprisoned in Gyeongju. (Near Qingyang, Gansu)
Mother's love was originally as deep as the sea, but in the bodies of Yelü Zongzhen and Empress Xiao, there was only a terrible hatred.
And now, the emperor has finally cleared all the obstacles on his way to kingship, and he is about to become a qualified king.
The first thing the emperor did after he came to power was to ask for money.
Who are you looking for money?
Of course, it cannot be the Western Xia in the remote countryside, but the rich and prosperous Northern Song Dynasty.
(Northern Song Dynasty)
The Northern Song Dynasty, including the subsequent Southern Song Dynasty regime, had a remarkable feature in its diplomatic policy, that is:
Anything that can be solved with money is not called a thing.
Foreign enemies invade, give money.
Invade my territory and give money.
The enemy attacked the city strategically, or gave money.
You say you don't have money to eat? What else to say, I great Song Heavenly Dynasty Shangbang, give money!
Anyway, the Great Song lacks everything, that is, there is no shortage of money.
Since 1005, when the Song and Liao sides signed a commercial treaty of peaceful coexistence and bilateral cooperation (the Tanyuan Alliance), there was basically no large-scale war between the Song and Liao sides.
The emperors of the Song Dynasty were also very particular about their work, generously donating money and gifts to Daliao every year, and Daliao was soft in eating people and short in hand, and it was not good to take the initiative to provoke war.
After all, if you receive money, you have to do things, if you break the rules and lose your integrity, who will cooperate with us in the future?
But this situation, starting from the eleventh year of Chongxi, 1042 AD, has changed somewhat.
The historical background at that time was that the world was divided into two parts, and the Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty each accounted for half.
In the hearts of the emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty was powerful, and it was difficult for them to resist, even if the existence of the Great Liao hindered the pace of their unification of the world, but the hard power was there, and it was impossible to fight.
A Liao Dynasty has caused the Northern Song Dynasty a headache, but I don't know when a Western Xia Dynasty was born between the Song and Liao.
(Tombs of the Western Xia Kings)
The Northern Song Dynasty originally thought itself to be a heavenly kingdom, and the two points under the heavens had already made the Northern Song Dynasty very angry, and now when they were engaged, two points became three points.
The Northern Song Dynasty felt humiliated, so it decided to send troops to Western Xia to earn back some face for itself.
The fierce Song-Xia War broke out, but the result was unsurprisingly, and the Northern Song Dynasty was defeated.
A large part of the failure of the Northern Song Dynasty was due to the Northern Song Dynasty's policy of governing the country by emphasizing literature and suppressing martial arts.
It is okay to engage in economic activities and lead troops to fight wars, which is purely to send people's heads.
The Northern Song Dynasty was defeated in foreign wars, and Emperor Xingzong of the Liao Dynasty saw that the opportunity had come, and immediately gathered heavy troops to push straight to the Border of Song and Liao.
However, Emperor Xingzong of Liao commanded a large army to suppress the territory, but did not advance.
What is the intention of going to war and not marching?
The intention is simple, to ask for money.
Yelü Zongzhen saw that the Northern Song Dynasty was unfavorable to foreign wars, and wanted to take advantage of the fire and robbery to blackmail the Northern Song Dynasty.
Of course, the Northern Song Dynasty was unwilling to give, but it could not not give.
This is the golden rule of the emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty, since it can be solved with money, why not?
Taking advantage of the fire and robbery to let the Liao Dynasty fish for special fish (100,000 silver coins and 100,000 silk horses), and the next emperor's actions were even more surprising.
The Northern Song Dynasty was finished with blackmail, and the Western Xia could not let it go.
Therefore, Emperor Xingzong repeated the same trick, and Wuyang Wuyang led a large army to Western Xia and knocked hard.
Yes, in a way, this is an emperor who is very good at "making money".
He did not love to raise soldiers to fight, nor did he like to engage in the internal affairs of the country, let alone the bad hobbies of those who were in the traditional sense of the emperor, and the emperor's poor life was two big words:
Make money.
If I were to evaluate the true nature of Emperor Yelüzong of Liaoxing, I might leave such an assessment, although his temple name is called "Xing", but he is not an emperor who revitalized the development of the Liao Dynasty, he does not have the wisdom and wisdom of the ancestors of the past, but he is not like those tyrants, playthings lose their minds, and put the empire in danger.
(Liao Dynasty)
In his hands, Daliao did not climb the peak and create glory again, but it did not decline, heading into the abyss of eternal disaster.
All he can do is use his own understanding to paint a blueprint for governing the country in his heart.
What kind of blueprint?
To govern the country, why should we go to the golden horse, and develop the economy to rejuvenate the country.
This is Jeroboam's true understanding of the world.
In the first year of Qingning, in 1055 AD, Emperor Yelüzong of Liaoxing died at the age of forty.