Chapter 2168: Shizong Chronicles 36: The Wanyan Tribe Like No Other

Wanyan Shilu, the current chief of the Wanyan Jurchen tribe and grandson of Wanyan Baha, the first Songmo Military Governor, was resolute and upright by nature, possessed authority, and was regarded by his tribe as a worthy man.

Over the past half-century and more, due to the Great Han Empire's large-scale expansion and management, the social conditions of the Northeast had undergone drastic changes, and those who felt these changes most deeply were undoubtedly the Jurchen and Shiwei tribes, the "indigenous peoples" of the northeastern lands.

Especially the wild Jurchen tribes north of the Yazi River — none had more say than them. Their language, script, customs, practices, and beliefs had all suffered severe impact, while the transformation of their tribal organizational structure, and even their modes of production and daily life, was a fundamental change.

In the beginning, the Wanyan tribe was not particularly prominent among the wild and civilized Jurchen tribes of the Yazi River basin. It relied on the Great Han's Kaibao northern expedition and advance into the Northeast to carry out a speculative expansion.

But clearly the timing was not right. Between such behemoths as the Han and the Liao, even a unified Jurchen confederation might not have been able to accomplish much, let alone a mere Wanyan tribe.

As a result, not only did the Wanyan tribe fail to gnaw a piece of fat from the Khitan's body in the Northeast or absorb any nourishment, but under the counterattack of Liao army commanders such as Yelu Xiuge, it lost men and generals, and its strength was greatly diminished.

By the time the Great Han had taken all of the Northeast, not only was the land of Huanglong Prefecture, which they had desperately craved, taken away from them and turned into the current frontier stronghold of the Liaodong Circuit, even their tribal lands in the Yazi River basin were occupied by the Andong Protectorate, and later they even had to make further room for the development of Suihua's royal city.

Of course, having paid so much, the Wanyan tribe was not without gains — at least the title of Songmo Military Governor was retained. Though it was an empty title, it still set them apart from the other Jurchen tribes. At the same time, thanks to their earlier performance, they also gained more trust from Andong than other tribes, and received considerable benefits during Prince Qin Liu Xu's integration of the Northeast.

When the Wanyan tribe was still under the rule of the father-son pair Wanyan Baha and Wanyan Suike, they were in fact in a state of recovering their strength. Of course, given Prince Qin Liu Xu's method of integrating the barbarian tribes of Andong, it was impossible for him to watch these tribes quietly accumulate strength.

Therefore, the Jurchen tribes, including the Wanyan tribe, faced powerful internal and external pressures during their recovery and development, accompanied by quite intense confrontation. The long-standing traditions and customs of each tribe were shattered under the impact of Andong's military-political power, which naturally offended the interests of the conservatives and triggered fierce backlash.

The process of changing the barbarians' customs, registering households, and governing by Han law could never be smooth sailing. Thus, during the twenty years of Liu Xu's rule over Andong, internal pacification campaigns rose one after another, and relapses among the assimilated tribes were everywhere.

During that process, there were records of Andong troops being sent to suppress rebellions, but how many people died, no one knew. In short, the blood spilled was enough to dye the Yazi River red. So much so that in the early years of Liu Wenyuan's succession, another backlash from conservative barbarian forces occurred in Andong, provoking an even harsher and bloodier suppression from him.

It was also from the reign of Liu Wenyuan that the barbarian tribes and minority peoples of the Northeast truly began to forget their old non-royal customs and practices, embracing Han orthodoxy — even if they had other ideas, they had to be based on Sinicization.

And in the process of Sinicization, the Wanyan tribe also advanced the fastest and most thoroughly, which caused the Wanyan tribe's strength to gradually widen the gap with the other Jurchen tribes, becoming the undisputed number one.

As for this number one status, it was precisely after Wanyan Shilu became tribal chief. The past twenty years were a period when the Wanyan tribe's flame of civilization burned vigorously, and also a process of the Wanyan tribe's complete transformation.

From a young age, Wanyan Shilu was sent by his father Suike to Suihua City, where, while serving as a hostage, he also studied Han culture, etiquette, and institutions at the Andong official academy. Only after Wanyan Suike died did Wanyan Shilu return to the tribe and take on the heavy responsibility of tribal chief.

Therefore, although Wanyan Shilu's lineage was Jurchen, ideologically he was a "Han" deeply influenced by Han learning. After becoming the head of the Wanyan tribe, he also applied everything he had learned to the tribe's development and reform.

It should be noted that in orthodox history, Wanyan Shilu nearly lost his life for carrying out doctrinal governance reforms to the tribe, offending a great number of conservative forces — the process was extremely difficult. But in this life, the conservative forces had already been shattered by Andong's iron fist, and the difficult matters were also done with the help of the Andong government, while Wanyan Shilu gained more fame and prestige for his "good governance."

In less than twenty years, he brought the tribe's home base to great order, and even built a "Wanyan City." However, the seemingly thriving Wanyan tribe also faced many problems. The problem of survival was at least half solved with the introduction of rye and the development of fishing and herding, but the problem of "quality of life" was becoming increasingly serious.

And these problems all stemmed from an obstacle that the Wanyan tribe had to overcome for further development: the State of Andong.

Although deeply influenced by Han learning, Wanyan Shilu always had a "Jurchen heart." While striving to develop and strengthen the Wanyan tribe, he was also attempting to shake off the influence of the State of Andong. For these Jurchen tribes, the intervention from the Andong royal court in every aspect was simply too deep and heavy. In Wanyan Shilu's heart, there was always a longing for independence and autonomy.

Wanyan Shilu's dissatisfaction with the rule of the State of Andong was mainly concentrated on two aspects. First, Andong's exploitation of the Wanyan tribe was too heavy. The tribe's people labored hard all year, and in the end, fifty to sixty percent of their produce fell into the hands of the Andong government through various means, leaving clearly insufficient to sustain even a subsistence livelihood for the tribe's people.

When Prince Qin Liu Xu was alive, he could be said to know when to stop, adjusting policies in various aspects in a timely manner. But once Liu Wenyuan came to power, he basically left no room. Beyond taxation, there was also conscription of population and corvée labor — the people taken away from the Wanyan tribe and the soldiers levied were all cuts at the tribe's backbone. The Andong king treated the Jurchen tribes as slaves, using them like pigs and dogs. Such harsh practices truly made it difficult for anyone to submit willingly.

On the other hand, the current Sinicization and assimilation policies of the State of Andong increasingly failed to consider the interests of the original tribal leaders. The preferential treatment that Prince Qin had once promised was no longer guaranteed. The process and intensity of household registration were growing larger and faster. Clearly, the Andong government intended to completely break down the tribal organizational form, bypassing the upper class of these tribes, and directly rule the tribal people.

And this loss of interests was hard for both the declining old chieftains and the newly risen Jurchen elites who had undergone Sinicization to accept. Opposition, even resistance, was only natural.

Therefore, in the past decade, one could clearly observe that tribal disturbances under Andong's rule had become more frequent than before, and one notable characteristic was that the leaders were some old tribal chieftains.

In contrast, the ordinary tribal people remained numb to all this. After all, even without Andong's extortion, their lives wouldn't be much better. At the same time, if they could be selected into the Andong army, that would be a complete turnaround.

The treatment of the Andong army, at least in the Northeast region, followed the highest standards, which was extremely tempting to many low-ranking tribal people. The Andong army was a mix of Han and barbarians, but its loyalty was very high, and its combat effectiveness remained consistently good. This trend was also what increasingly worried the tribal chieftains and headmen.

Compared to others, Wanyan Shilu could be considered to have considerable insight. He had always insisted on and promoted the tribe's deep Sinicization and institutional reform, but he hoped this change would move in a direction favorable to their rule, rather than ultimately being devoured clean by the Andong government, leaving not even bone fragments...

Of course, compared to those who recklessly stirred up rebellion and resistance, Wanyan Shilu was far more enduring. Under the suppression of the State of Andong's powerful strength, any direct confrontation was seeking death.

The only thing he could rely on was the imperial court of the Great Han Empire. However, Wanyan Shilu had also studied the principle that "outsiders cannot come between close relatives." Using his identity to sow discord between the Great Han court and the State of Andong was also a poor strategy.

Therefore, for a long time, Wanyan Shilu was deeply troubled. He could only barely maintain the tribe's situation, dealing with the various demands of the State of Andong while silently waiting for an opportunity.

The turning point came during the Kangzong era. The State of Andong was growing increasingly powerful, and its relationship with the imperial court was visibly drifting apart. By the time Liu Wenji ascended the throne, the atmosphere had become even more tense. Wanyan Shilu could observe from close range the friction, conflicts, and crimes occurring on the border between Andong and the Liaodong Circuit.

When Zeng Hui was transferred to Liaodong and carried out a series of policy measures against Andong's military, merchants, and civilians, which severely impacted Andong, it also made Wanyan Shilu fully realize that the relationship between Andong and the imperial court was not so close after all, and that the imperial court also harbored wariness and precautions against Andong...

If that was the case, then there was plenty of room to maneuver. Wanyan Shilu deeply recognized that to overthrow Andong's rule and escape Andong's enslavement, relying solely on his own strength was far from sufficient — he had to rely on the central power of the Great Han Empire.

Of course, the thinking was like this and the reasoning was sound, but how to implement it was not so easy. If it were his grandfather Wanyan Baha, perhaps he could still make some noise at the imperial court, but by Wanyan Shilu's time, under Andong's forceful and powerful assimilation, the Wanyan tribe could only have some understanding of and influence over the Andong royal court.

Thus, in a rather stifling and oppressive atmosphere, Wanyan Shilu endured another seven or eight years of bitter waiting, until the Andong king Liu Wenyuan's hair had turned white, until he himself was no longer young, and finally he glimpsed this thread of opportunity that could be exploited.

At first, when he received the secret order from the Andong king to dispatch tribal soldiers south to raid and plunder the border, Wanyan Shilu was both bewildered and terrified. This kind of thing was not something he was "good at," nor did he dare to do it.

But after the initial reaction passed, a voice buried deep in his heart rose up — wasn't this precisely the opportunity he had been desperately seeking but could not obtain? The Andong king was openly confronting the imperial court! Wasn't such a move far easier than racking his brains to figure out how to use the court's power to escape Andong?

However, Wanyan Shilu, who had endured for many years, still did not dare to act rashly. He still needed to observe, assess, confirm, and then make a decision. But before that, he continued to dispatch his tribesmen south to raid and plunder, following the inertia of the past decades.

Of course, before they set out, he gave his subordinates what could be called stern instructions: stealing things and making noise was fine, but first, they were absolutely not allowed to kill Han civilians, and second, they were not allowed to attack towns. In short, just go through the motions.

After that, Wanyan Shilu received news from the Great Han side — Emperor Liu Wenji had embarked on a northern inspection tour, with fifty thousand imperial army troops accompanying him. At the same time, he also received an "hint" from the Andong side, requiring the Wanyan tribe, together with the other Jurchen tribes, to attack Huanglong Prefecture.

This was rebellion — how could Wanyan Shilu agree to it? Most importantly, Wanyan Shilu, who believed he had obtained ironclad evidence of the Andong king's rebellion, finally made a bold decision: to report to the imperial court and expose Liu Wenyuan.

Synthesizing the information he had obtained, in Wanyan Shilu's analysis, whether on Emperor Liu Wenji's side or the Andong king Liu Wenyuan's side, the confrontation between the two had already been brought into the open and would not be easily resolved.

And his memorial was like pouring oil on fire, making the situation even more heated. The only thing that worried Wanyan Shilu was that something went wrong during the process of escorting the Andong secret envoy to Youzhou — the envoy was discovered, could not be restrained, and committed suicide...