Chapter 10: The Khitan's Misrule

Hearing this, Wang Jun smiled calmly, stepped forward half a pace, and explained to Liu Zhiyuan: "Your Highness, this staff carries some significance. According to barbarian custom, only those who are given preferential treatment as great ministers are qualified to receive this reward, much like the bestowal of the staff and stool in the Central Plains. Even among Khitan nobles, very few have received this gift, and among the Han ministers serving the Khitan, only Zhao Yanshou, the Prince of Yan, has ever been granted this staff. On my journey back north, in every city I passed through, whenever Khitan generals saw this staff, they all treated me with utmost respect!"

Hearing Wang Jun's explanation, Liu Zhiyuan sneered and said: "So it seems this Khitan ruler thinks quite highly of me! Should I feel honored?"

"To answer Your Highness, at least in the Khitan ruler's eyes, that is exactly so!" Wang Jun replied, following up: "When I had an audience with the Khitan ruler, he heaped praise upon Your Highness, saying that when he sent troops to help the founding emperor of Jin replace the Tang, he already saw that Your Highness was extraordinary. His words were full of warmth and intimacy, and he issued an edict of commendation, even calling Your Highness his 'son'—"

The word "son" hung in the air, and Shi Hongzhao in the hall could not contain himself—he suddenly rose, his face burning with rage, looking like a minister who would die to avenge his lord's humiliation, and roared: "The Khitan ruler insults our lord too grievously! Does he think all the sons of China are men who would call a bandit their father?"

That one sentence drew several others in attendance to join in the cursing, as if they had truly suffered some unbearable humiliation. Even Liu Chengxun could not help but voice two words of righteous indignation. As for Liu Chengyou, he made no statement, merely listening in silence.

Liu Zhiyuan's stern face also bore a trace of anger. In the past, he had been the one to vehemently oppose Shi Jingtang's submission as a vassal and son, and the cession of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. The word "son" still stung him somewhat. After the crowd had calmed down, he finally said with disdain: "Could it be that the Khitan ruler still wishes to set me up as his 'Son of Heaven Emperor'?"

"The Khitan ruler indeed harbors such a desire!"

"Oh?" Liu Zhiyuan's eyebrows rose.

Wang Jun turned sideways, pointed to the southeast, and said with a light laugh: "When I took my leave of Bianjing, the Khitan ruler privately hinted to me that if Your Highness would personally come south, he would install you as the new master of the Central Plains, and he would lead the Khitan army back north. However, while in Bianliang, I heard that the Khitan ruler had made similar promises to Zhao Yanshou, the Prince of Yan, and to the surrendered Du Chongwei. But..."

As he spoke, a note of mockery crept into Wang Jun's tone: "Before I had even returned to Taiyuan, I received word that the Khitan ruler had proclaimed himself emperor and established the Liao. It seems that what he told me was nothing more than perfunctory words, his aim being to trick Your Highness into coming to Bianliang. What a pity—he was too hasty, too eager to sit upon the imperial throne of the Central Plains!"

"Heh heh, even if he could restrain himself, with Your Highness's wisdom, how could you be deceived by him and fall into his trap to be manipulated at his whim?" Yang Bin, standing nearby, picked up where Wang Jun had left off.

Hearing this, a contemptuous curve twisted at the corner of Liu Zhiyuan's mouth. He lowered his eyelids, pondered for a good while, then raised his eyes to fix on Wang Jun: "Wang Jun, you have spoken with the Khitan ruler face to face. What is your assessment of the man?"

Facing Liu Zhiyuan's question, Wang Jun mused for a few moments before speaking solemnly: "In my humble opinion, in the northern lands, the Khitan ruler may be counted as a wise sovereign of his generation. Yet in this southern conquest of the Central Plains, after entering the capital, he committed an irreparable grave error!"

"Tell us!" Liu Zhiyuan waved his hand in encouragement.

Sensing that the "meat of the matter" had arrived, Liu Chengyou, sitting at the side, suddenly perked up, his back straightening as he gazed at Wang Jun, eager to hear him describe the current situation in the Central Plains.

Wang Jun cleared his throat twice, then laid out the speech he had already prepared in his mind: "After the Khitan ruler entered Bian, his greatest blunder lay in 'governing China by barbarian law.'"

Glancing up at Liu Zhiyuan, Wang Jun began to elaborate: "Zhao Yanshou requested to supply grain and provisions to the Khitan army, his intention being to persuade the Khitan ruler to restrain his troops, but the Khitan ruler refused on the grounds that 'the state has no such law.' He then let the barbarian cavalry ride out in all directions, under the pretext of pasturing horses, plundering in rotating shifts—calling it 'beating the grass and grain.' Within a matter of weeks, across the eastern and western outskirts of the capital and the prefectures of Zheng, Hua, Cao, and Pu, a range of several hundred li, wealth and livestock were stripped bare. This act lost him the hearts of the people. On my return journey, along the way I saw able-bodied men cut down by blades, the old and weak abandoned in ditches and gullies. The people of the Central Plains are as if cast into a purgatory—displaced and homeless, a scene of such misery that one cannot bear to look upon it."

As he said this, Wang Jun's emotions could not help but grow agitated. He took a deep breath before continuing: "When the Khitan ruler pacified the Great Jin to the south, to reward his barbarian troops, he wished to take the entire treasury to reward his soldiers. But after the extravagance of the Young Emperor and years of continuous warfare, the treasury had long been emptied—how could the remaining wealth satisfy the gluttonous appetites of three hundred thousand barbarian soldiers? So he issued an edict to forcibly borrow money from all officials and citizens of the city as reward funds. But though it was called borrowing, in truth it was borrowing without any intention of repayment. Even so, it was still insufficient, so he dispatched dozens of 'money-levying envoys' to the various prefectures to plunder the people's wealth on a grand scale. The gentry and common folk suffered under this oppression, and their accumulated anger nearly pierced the very stars!"

"Having lost the people's will, he also lost the hearts of the scholar-officials. The deaths of Zhao Zaili and Liu Jixun, the forcible detention of the various military governors who came to pay homage, and the dispatch of his own officers to garrison their territories—all this lost him the support of the military provinces. Moreover, the Khitan ruler, wary of the surrendered Jin army, repeatedly spoke of killing the surrendered troops. Though he was dissuaded from this, he then wished to relocate all their parents and families north as hostages to coerce the Jin soldiers. Now the Jin soldiers in the Central Plains are all seething with anger and resentment born of fury and fear. From what I have observed, rebellion could break out at any moment."

"The Young Emperor and his family were taken north in disgrace, with supplies failing along the way, haggard and desolate. Many of the old officials in the regions pitied them."

"As for the Khitan ruler himself, he indulges in great feasts and revelry in the Bian palaces, and whenever he speaks with others, he belittles our people. His arrogance and conceit can be seen from this!"

"......"

"The Khitan's tyrannical governance and brutal deeds truly cannot be fully recorded even if all the bamboo slips were exhausted—far more than I could describe in a few words. But from what I observed along my journey north, the gentry and common folk of the Central Plains are seething with indignation, already on the brink of eruption. They await only a hero to rise and overturn heaven and earth." His mouth parched from speaking, Wang Jun licked his lips, clasped his fists, and concluded confidently to Liu Zhiyuan: "The people of the realm yearn for a hero as they yearn for sweet rain in a drought. Your Highness commands the hopes of all within the seas—if you raise your banner, the whole realm will surely follow like shadows!"

After Wang Jun finished his account, the hall fell utterly silent. People are by nature emotional creatures, and the civil and military officials present were nearly all enraged by the Khitan's tyranny. They had only heard rumors of the Khitan's atrocities before, but after listening to Wang Jun's description, they could not help but bristle with fury. Many faces showed fierce indignation, while the military officers clenched their fists.

"The Khitan are truly barbarian beasts! To torment our people to such a degree!" Liu Chengxun's refined face flushed red, his expression one of intense indignation as he muttered under his breath.

Liu Chengyou still made no sound, but that closed-off face of his looked all the more gloomy.

Not stopping his subordinates from expressing their anger, Liu Zhiyuan sat upright for a long while before letting out a long sigh: "Only today do I realize that the Khitan's misrule has reached such depths! The suffering of the people of the Central Plains has reached such depths! Barbarians, indeed, cannot govern China!"

Not far from Liu Zhiyuan, whose long sigh was steeped in pent-up fury, Liu Chengyou nonetheless sensed a faint trace of excitement hidden within it...

As Liu Zhiyuan spoke, the heated denunciations in the hall gradually subsided until there was utter silence. The atmosphere suddenly turned strangely oppressive.

At that moment, a stalwart figure stepped forward, striding to the center in two or three paces, and kneeling loudly petitioned: "The Central Plains has fallen, the barbarian invaders commit atrocities, and the realm is outraged. Your Highness commands the hopes of all four seas—please hasten to assume the imperial title, take your rightful place as Son of Heaven, and send troops south to strike the barbarian invaders and deliver the people from their peril!"

Following his lead, the civil and military officials of Hedong present all rose one after another to add their pleas, and in short order a whole swath of the hall knelt down—urging him to take the throne! If past urgings had been for power and wealth, for the merit of supporting a dragon's rise, then this time, everyone could openly raise the great banner of "quelling chaos and saving the people."

Liu Chengyou also knelt unhurriedly, both knees touching the ground. But out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the one who had taken the lead—Guo Wei. That fellow had said not a word at the last council meeting, yet this time he was again the first to step forward...

Faced with the pleas of all present this time, Liu Zhiyuan showed no reaction—neither anger nor joy. He raised his head to look beyond the hall, his gaze passing over the assembled officials, seeming somewhat distant and unfocused. After a long while, he finally looked toward Wang Jun, who was kneeling among the crowd: "General Wang, your journey to Bianjing has been arduous. I will surely reward you handsomely. Return to your residence and rest well..."

"As for the rest of you, you are dismissed!" With that said, Liu Zhiyuan rose and left the hall.