Chapter 1744: The Man from Mobei

In the night, the Guesthouse was immersed in a blaze of lights. Over the years, through continuous renovation and additions, the Great Han Guesthouse had grown ever larger in scale, its facilities more complete, and of course, its conditions more luxurious and splendid.

As the Great Han expanded outward and its influence spread, its communication and exchange with the outside world grew ever deeper, and the various peoples, states, and powers coming to the Eastern Capital for audience became ever more frequent.

Every guest who arrived could not help but be astonished by the prosperity of the Eastern Capital and the strength of the empire. Everyone who stayed at the Guesthouse could not help but feel ashamed of their own inferiority, and not a few foreign envoys mistook the Guesthouse for the Great Han imperial palace. People of all sorts who came to the imperial capital often lingered, unwilling to leave until their money was completely spent.

Somewhat disrespectful to foreign envoys was the fact that staying at the Guesthouse required payment, and the price was not cheap. This point was also heavily criticized by some remonstrance officials at court, who felt it did not reflect the magnanimity of a great celestial dynasty or its broad-minded embrace of all nations.

However, Emperor Liu retorted in casual conversation, "Must I learn from Emperor Yang of Sui, exhausting the resources of the Eastern Capital to let foreign envoys eat and stay for free?" Emperor Liu had escalated the matter to principle, and his subordinates could do nothing about him. When there were already so many things one could not stand to see, this one more made no difference.

Therefore, it had happened in the Eastern Capital that envoys from small states with shallow pockets had to move out of the Guesthouse, saving public funds to support foreign affairs activities in the Eastern Capital. Some foreigners wandering the markets of the Eastern Capital might well be envoys of some state or another.

Yet even so, this still could not stop the enthusiasm of foreign states coming to court. The higher the threshold of the Great Han, the more eager they became. And after learning of this situation, subsequent envoys grew wiser—besides carrying tribute, their delegations also brought sufficient funds for living expenses.

Of course, the court was not purely taking without giving, offering no return at all. Gifts of local specialties, as well as various political, economic, and military exchange policies, were still appropriately relaxed according to circumstances. After all, they came bearing gifts with sincere intentions, though the situation of exchanging small gifts for heavy rewards was basically impossible under the Great Han.

The Great Han's foreign policy had always valued substantial benefits over face-saving, a tradition that had continued for decades. One should know that in the early years after Emperor Liu ascended the throne, when facing foreign envoys, Emperor Liu would even personally inquire how many gifts had been received. There was no help for it—in those days the state's finances were difficult, and they had truly been frightened by poverty.

The carriage slowly stopped before the Guesthouse. A middle-aged man in silk clothing got out, took out his purse, and carefully counted out fifteen coins, handing them to the driver. The driver immediately broke into a smile, and after thanking him, did not forget to solicit his business. The man agreed, arranging for him to come pick him up at the same time tomorrow.

With a crisp crack of the whip, the driver cheerfully drove his "passenger carriage" away into the distance. The middle-aged man watched from behind and could not help but sigh. Since entering the Eastern Capital, the frequency of his sighs had noticeably increased.

This man was tall and sturdy, with a short beard. Apart from his somewhat rough skin, he appeared quite dignified. Those residing at the Guesthouse were basically all foreign envoys, and he was no exception. His identity was rather special—he was the chancellor of the Khitan in Mobei, Han Derang.

Since Yelu Xian had died of illness and the internal turmoil following Prince Yue Yelu Bi's coup, the Khitan in Mobei had been stable for many years. Internally, capable old ministers left over from the Yelu Xian era like Yelu Xiuge and Han Derang provided support; externally, the Great Han's attention had shifted and pressure had lessened. Only thus, under circumstances of a young lord and doubtful state, had they managed to hold on until now.

As for Han Derang, in the coup launched by Yelu Bi back then, he had adhered to the orthodox position of protecting the king, and together with imperial clansmen and senior ministers like Yelu Xiuge, had strenuously supported Yelu Longxu's ascension. He had also reaped abundant political rewards, becoming one of the Khitan's principal ministers of state. Now, he served as the Khitan's chancellor.

Since the Khitan had been driven to Mobei, their former system had been thoroughly disrupted and rebuilt. The dual northern-southern system had naturally been abandoned, the two sides merged into one, forming a power structure of the Chancellery governing civil affairs and the Bureau of Military Affairs commanding the military.

And Han Derang, this Han minister serving as the Khitan's chancellor, was also quite conspicuous. Although the Han clan had entered the Khitan very early, almost accompanying the rise and fall of that Khitan empire which once dominated Northeast Asia, and the Han family had long been accepted by the Khitan, once even being among the Khitan's upper nobility...

But with the rise of the Great Han and the collapse of the Liao dynasty, the Hu-Han dual northern-southern system of rule had completely disintegrated, and the position of Khitan Han ministers like the Han family had become awkward. After all, without the support of the lower-class Han populace, they lacked sufficient confidence, and their usefulness had plummeted—the Khitan tribesmen simply did not need Han ministers to help manage them.

And as the leader of the Han ministers in the Mobei Khitan regime, even with close relations to the imperial clan, the Han family's position could not help but remain awkward. In the past few years, targeting Han Derang's position as chancellor, internal Khitan forces had launched more than one assault, even brewing into coups.

That Han Derang could keep this position was due not only to his own ability, but also to two factors: first, the deathbed decree of Yelu Xian protecting him; second, the support of important ministers like Commissioner of Military Affairs Yelu Xiuge.

But even so, as the young Khitan lord Yelu Longxu grew older, contradictions within the Mobei Khitan began to intensify again, and some Khitan imperial clansmen and nobles opposing Han Derang began to surface once more. Han Derang, this Han minister chancellor, found his days increasingly difficult. Some fundamental contradictions, even with his heaven-and-earth-spanning talent, were hard to resolve.

The Mobei Khitan's days in recent years had truly been hard. Locked tightly by the Great Han in that desolate, bitter-cold land of Mobei, whether to the south or to the northeast, those fertile pastures had all been seized by the Great Han, and they could only desperately hold onto that barren land.

Internal contradictions were numerous, and attitudes toward the Great Han were likewise divided. Some had been beaten into fear and would rather maintain good relations with the Great Han, even submit; some profited heavily from private trade with the Great Han; some refused to sit and wait for death, holding radical attitudes, at one point pushing to move the Khitan southward to plunder resources and population from the Great Han.

Amid all the turmoil, the great dragon of the Great Han had gone dormant, no longer so confrontational, and troubles had arisen on the western and eastern fronts. Since the great Han-Liao war, seeing the Khitan weakened, the Naiman people in the west had begun to rise, forming alliances and expanding eastward together. The lands, cities, and pastures they had seized during the great chaos of Mobei, the Mobei Khitan had still not recovered to this day.

And the Naiman's momentum was growing daily. Especially recently, the various Naiman tribes had held a council and elected a Khagan, called the Sun Khagan. The key point was that this Sun Khagan was young, only fourteen years old, but his identity was quite intriguing—according to internal Naiman claims, he was the son of the Great Han's Prince Wei, Liu Min.

A crude and rough Naiman regime was taking shape. They had found a common lord acceptable to all, and had begun to display their aggressiveness. But no matter how crude, it was more advanced than the old form of scattered tribal alliances, and the first to bear the brunt was naturally the Khitan regime entrenched across most of Mobei.

The west was unsettled, and the east was not peaceful either. The Shiwei people from beyond the ridges were like evil ghosts bursting forth from hell, each one ferocious beyond measure, ceaselessly raiding the Khitan, killing people and seizing property, occupying rivers and pastures, and coming in an endless stream.

For this reason, Yelu Xiuge had personally led troops on punitive expeditions. Although some results were achieved and many Shiwei were driven off and killed, the Shiwei menace was never pacified. After all, these barbaric Shiwei people dared even to provoke the Andong region of the Great Han—how much less would they fear a Khitan long since in decline.

With internal troubles and external threats, maintaining this Khitan regime had exhausted Han Derang's mind and energy, but he increasingly felt unable to cope. And the entire Mobei Khitan, from top to bottom, gave one a feeling of awkwardness.

It was precisely for this reason that the Great Han's pressure on the Mobei Khitan had gradually lessened. Aside from the cost of punitive campaigns, it was also because they considered the current situation in Mobei barely acceptable.

This time, Han Derang personally came south to the Great Han, certainly not like other Han ministers, wanting to return to their ancestral roots, bask in the Great Han's glory, and feel the Son of Heaven's grace. In the Khitan, no matter how awkward, he was still a chancellor wielding great power—what could he gain in the Great Han, and what status could the Han clan have?

Han Derang's purpose in coming was also very clear: to seek the complete elimination of old grievances with the Great Han and restore good relations. To put it more plainly, he had come to offer submission on behalf of the Khitan lord Yelu Longxu. This was also the first formal contact between the Great Han and the Khitan, those old adversaries, since the Kaibao northern expedition. For Han Derang, this was also an ice-breaking journey.

In order to change the Khitan's harsh environment and resolve the livelihood difficulties of Mobei, after synthesizing opinions from all sides and suppressing those radicals, Han Derang had finally, in the twenty-second year of Kaibao, personally come south on a mission to the Eastern Capital.