manynovel Chapter 1197: Strategy to Control Liao
Chapter 1197: Strategy to Control Liao
Chapter 1197: Strategy to Control Liao
"Your Majesty, Yelu Yixin was very cautious and insisted on meeting Your Majesty before speaking. However, after talking with him for half a day, we learned a lot about the internal affairs of the Liao Kingdom, which the court did not know before."
The emperor heard this and said, "Very good. In the past, the court learned about the internal situation of Liao through secret agents in Khitan and "reformed people". They don't know the details of the high-level affairs. If Yelu Yixin can be used by me, the national situation of Liao can be clearly understood."
"What do you think, Mr. Zhang?"
Zhang Yue was looking at the record of the conversation between Yelu Yixin and Li Xian.
It took only a dozen days from the time Zhang Yue himself colluded with foreign countries to the time Yelu Yixin colluded with foreign countries.
He was also judging the situation of the Liao Kingdom. In fact, due to the limitation of language and writing, the Liao Kingdom had done a very good job of keeping secrets from the Song Dynasty. In addition, the Song Dynasty had the mentality of waiting for the Celestial Empire, and actually knew very little about the Liao Kingdom.
For example, in history, the prime minister of the Liao Dynasty who killed Yelu Yixin was Liang Ying, but the official records of the Song Dynasty recorded it as Liang Yiji.
Liang Ying's courtesy name was Xiuqing, while another Han Chinese prime minister, Yang Zunxu, was known by his courtesy name Yijie.
As a result, the Song Dynasty officials mixed up the surnames and characters of the two prime ministers and combined them into Liang Yiji.
In addition, the names of Liao people are difficult to translate. For example, Yelu Yixin's political enemy, Xiao Susa, who was in charge of the Northern Privy Council, was also translated as Xiao Su. A Liao official had several names in the official translation of the Song Dynasty, or several people shared the same name.
The question of whether Tan Tai Mieming was one person or two people often gave Zhang Yue a headache.
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, there are many Liao people who can read Chinese characters, but few Han people can read Khitan characters."
"For example, I know nothing about Yelu Yixin's fall from power."
The official said: "The intelligence of the Northern Dynasty has always been under the control of the Privy Council and the Imperial City Department, but there have been some shortcomings in recent years."
Zhang Yue knew what the emperor meant as soon as he heard it. The Imperial City Bureau already has 7,000 personal attendants and marriage officials. Do you want to turn the Imperial City Bureau into the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty?
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, after the reform, you can let the Ministry of War also take care of spying on the Khitan and Tangut intelligence."
"I remember that according to the Tang Dynasty system, the Zhifang Department was in charge of maps, city gods, garrisons, beacon guards, etc. The officials included one Zhifang Langzhong and one Yuanwailang, which is a good idea to set up."
The emperor was about to restore the three-province and six-department system when he heard Zhang Yue say, "That's good. The purpose of the Zhifang Division is to spy on the border situation."
Well, it is enough to spy abroad, but there is no need to spy domestically... Zhang Yue said: "I obey your order."
The establishment of the Ministry of War was under the Secretariat, and was under the jurisdiction of the future Shangshu Zuo Pushe.
Zhang Yue continued, "The Liao Kingdom has always relied on royal relatives to hold the power of the country, the military, and the various tribes. Yelu Yixin was poor and used to herd sheep, but he was still from the Yelu clan after all. The Liao lord now uses Han officials as prime ministers, so he is powerless."
The official heard this and asked, "Why do you say that?"
Zhang Yue also came to this conclusion based on Yelu Yixin's speculation about the Liao intelligence over the years.
Before the Liao ruler Yelü Hongji, the Khitan royal family and their foreign relatives were extremely powerful, but after the rebellion of the crown prince Yelü Chongyuan (this is the scene in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils where Qiao Feng helped Yelü Hongji to quell the rebellion).
Yelu Hongji also supported Yelu Yixin, who was born in a poor family, to suppress the royal family's relatives. Zhang Xiaojie, Yelu Yange, Xiao Shisan, Xiao Delit, Yelu Lugu and others in Yelu Yixin's group were also born in poor families.
However, when Yelu Yixin became powerful, not only did the poor families attach themselves to him, but also the former noble families joined him, threatening the imperial power. Moreover, Yelu Yixin's group was collectively corrupt, and his henchman Zhang Xiaojie openly clamored that "without a million taels of gold, you are not worthy of being a prime minister."
Yelu Hongji felt that he could not sit idly by, so he took action to eliminate Yelu Yixin. However, he did not liquidate Yelu Yixin's group.
Yelu Hongji still did not trust the royal family and relatives, so he continued to support Han officials in Yan who were more marginalized than the royal family to balance the power of the Khitan aristocratic families.
There was a certain degree of mobility among the Liao Dynasty's top leaders.
This liquidity was not a good thing for the Liao Dynasty. The vested interest groups were not eliminated, the new interest group (Yelü Yixin) failed, and the new Han interest group that was supported later was even less capable of fighting against the vested interest groups.
Yelu Hongji can be compared to Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, while Yelu Yixin can be compared to Yan Song.
At the beginning of his reign, Yelu Hongji worked hard to govern the country. He had a strong desire for power. For example, when the emperor's uncle Chongyuan rebelled, it was because he took back power from the empress and the royal family, and he succeeded in the end.
He and Jiajing usually used Yan Song and Yelu Yixin to balance the situation in the court. When they found that they could not get rid of them, they cut off their ties with them.
Yelu Hongji's methods were very clever.
Both he and Jiajing used the relationship between the poor and the aristocratic families to balance the situation in the court.
Zhang Yue remembered the TV series about the Ming Dynasty, in which Jiajing said that the Yangtze River and the Yellow River should not be allowed to overflow and submerge the mountaintops. This was simply sophistry.
Instead of using the contradictions between the poor and the rich to promote reforms, improve people's livelihood, and make politics clear, they only know how to use the contradictions between the two sides to continuously consolidate their own authority, and then manipulate power to further seize power.
No wonder people in later generations said that the Ming Dynasty actually perished in the Jiajing period.
The Liao Dynasty actually perished during the reign of Emperor Dao Zong.
From this point of view, although our emperor has his share of stupidity and ignorance, he is still a hundred times better than these two emperors.
Zhang Yue deduced from Yelu Hongji that it was impossible for the Liao Kingdom to intervene on a large scale in the conflict between the Song Dynasty and the Dangxiang. Of course, the guess was just a guess.
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, I, Yelu Yixin, have reported to the Liao Lord that he intends to intervene in the affairs between our dynasty and the Tanguts. We must be fully prepared. I think we should strike back and wait for an opportunity to strike."
The official asked, "Why do you act based on a conflict?"
Zhang Yue said: "All soldiers should not attack innocent cities or kill innocent people. If no one offends me, I will not offend anyone. If someone offends me, I will definitely offend him."
"Victory by force is inferior, victory by power is middle, victory by virtue is superior."
"When I negotiated peace with Liao before, I won by moral principles. So as long as I am on the side of morality and uphold it, I will not be afraid of an invasion from Liao."
Zhang Yue's strategy is 'never fire the first shot', but what happens next is no longer up to you, the Liao Kingdom, to decide.
You must have the courage to fight back against any offense.
The same principle applies to the country and to being a human being. Acting decisively and daringly turning against others on small matters will make you appear to be extremely difficult to mess with.
But when it comes to big things, you must not be impulsive, you must think carefully and make decisions before taking action.
"Secondly, the Military Affairs Department was established to conduct comprehensive investigations and bribe ministers from Liao and Xia. However, I thought Yelu Yixin was somewhat useful before, but seeing how easily he was overthrown by Liang Ying, I know that he has long lost the support of the people."
"But it will be useful to use him to sow discord and instigate rebellion in the future. At the same time, we also need him to tell us the internal situation of Liao."
Now Yelu Yixin is a lost dog. He was born in a poor family, so don't expect him to have much influence in Liao. To put it bluntly, his power was given by the emperor, and it would only take the emperor's words to take it back.
The emperor nodded after hearing this. Zhang Yue said, "The third is to send people to contact Zhu Bu and support the Jurchens and Goryeo to be enemies with the Liao Kingdom."
Zhubu is the name given to Tatar by the Khitan people. In the Tang Dynasty, it was called Shiwei and distributed in the south and north of the desert.
Now the Liao Kingdom had been using military force against Zubu every year, which consumed a lot of national strength. Zhang Yue inferred that the Liao Kingdom was unable to intervene in the dispute between Song and Dangxiang, which was also the reason.
At the same time, the Liao Kingdom also had two major threats: Goryeo and Jurchen.
After hearing what Zhang Yue said, the emperor said, "It is as you said."
(End of this chapter)