Chapter 400: Yelu Deguang's Dream

Wu Da'er and the others withdrew, but Yelu Deguang remained motionless for a long time in the imperial tent where he had just received the Hexi envoys.

Wu Da'er's words just now — "Hexi honors the Son of Heaven of the Central Plains" — sent ripple after ripple through Yelu Deguang's heart.

Son of Heaven of the Central Plains, Emperor of China, Heavenly Khagan.

What alluring words!

If a man like Shi Jingtang can become Son of Heaven, why can't I, Yelu Deguang, with all my sagely culture and martial divinity?

The the the Shatuo Li clan were nothing but refugees who fled to Hexi, and their family still became Son of Heaven of the Central Plains.

We Khitan have admired Central Plains culture, and have been in contact with the Central Plains since the Northern Qi period. In the Wude era of the Great Tang, we even directly submitted as vassals. Our Khitan Dahe clan was also granted the surname Li.

Why should we not be allowed to become Son of Heaven of the Central Plains?

At this thought, Yelu Deguang glanced at the shaven-headed attendants all around him, his mind turning over and over.

For several hundred years, the Khitan had practiced the system of elective succession. When it passed to his father Yelu Abaoji, the centuries-old elective system was replaced by hereditary succession, and there were not a few who secretly refused to accept it.

At this thought, Yelu Deguang felt his scalp itch terribly. It turned out he had not abandoned the Khitan tradition of shaving the head; the topknot and net cap on his head were merely a wig.

Yelu Deguang was putting on a show, because he wanted the Han people of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun to serve him wholeheartedly.

But at this moment, a different feeling arose in his heart.

The various Khitan tribes, in truth, did not accept the hereditary system his Yelu family had instituted.

No! Not only the other tribes — even within the Yelu family itself, there were those who did not accept this hereditary system.

If... Yelu Deguang's eyes lit up. If he could enter the Central Plains and become Son of Heaven.

Once firmly established, he would use the Central Plains custom of binding the hair and wearing the right-lapped robe to replace the Khitan custom of shaving the head and wearing the left-lapped robe.

Use the Central Plains hereditary system to thoroughly root out the elective system from the hearts of the Khitan people.

Then he, Yelu Deguang, would be Son of Heaven of the Central Plains and Emperor of the Khitan people.

To hold the Central Plains and also control the grasslands — what would that be?

Would that not be a Heavenly Khagan like Emperor Taizong the Cultured of the Great Tang!

At this thought, Yelu Deguang's heart surged. His hands, tucked inside his wide sleeves, trembled faintly. Heavenly Khagan! The Heavenly Khagan who unifies all under heaven.

But he, Yelu Deguang, was already thirty-eight years old. Could he live another twenty years?

After a while, Yelu Deguang's trusted ministers arrived — all men of the Yelu family: Yelu Pode, Left Pishi Xiangwen; Yelu Wuzhi, Right Pishi Xiangwen; Yelu Xila, Commander of the Palace Guard; and Yelu Anduan, Yelu Deguang's imperial uncle and Commander-in-Chief of the Nanjing troops.

As well as the Han ministers Han Kuangtu, Commander of the Zhangwu Army cavalry and infantry, and Han Kuangye, Minister over the Masses and Military Governor of the Tiancheng Army.

Xiao Shilu and the others, stripped of office but still serving as Yelu Deguang's personal guards, also came over.

"You all know that Zhang Zhao, King of Han in Hexi, has sent men to offer apologies? I have summoned you all to discuss and settle on a course of action."

Seeing everyone arrive, Yelu Deguang first set aside the turmoil in his heart and began soliciting opinions.

At this point, almost everyone first looked toward Xiao Shilu, because he alone had crossed swords with the Hexi army.

Regarding this King of Han in Hexi who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, Xiao Shilu had the most authority to speak.

Xiao Shilu's face reddened, though fortunately he was somewhat dark-skinned, so the others could hardly tell.

Yelu Deguang still could not bear to see his maternal uncle so embarrassed, and after a cough, he asked.

"Does the Supervisor think the several thousand Hexi elite troops by the Hun River could possibly be from the Zhe family of Fuzhou? Or at least primarily composed of the Zhe family's troops?"

But the moment Yelu Deguang spoke, Xiao Shilu felt even more wounded.

In the past, Yelu Deguang had addressed him directly as maternal uncle.

Although "Supervisor" was far better than being called "Xiao Shilu" outright as he had been on the day he returned in defeat, it still made this youngest brother of Empress Dowager Shulu feel deeply uncomfortable.

"They should not be the Zhe family of Fuzhou. If a mere prefecture like Fuzhou could produce such elite troops, then how many would Yunzhou have? How many would the Southern Dynasty have?

If that King of Han truly holds all of Hexi and Longyou, then perhaps he could afford to maintain such elite troops. The Hexi soldiers must not be underestimated!"

Hearing Xiao Shilu speak thus, the imperial uncle Yelu Anduan coughed with some displeasure.

"If we follow the Supervisor's words, then of that force encountered by the Hun River, the fiercest two thousand-odd men had fighting strength even above the Left Pishi Army.

At least in foot combat, we are not their match, and moreover their armor is thick and their bows strong.

Since the decline of the Great Tang, our great Khitan nation has ceaselessly built up and trained such elite troops, and to this day we have no more than thirty to fifty thousand.

Yet Hexi, until just a few years ago, was nothing but a land where various peoples stood side by side and warfare never ceased.

If this old man's guess is right, the several thousand men by the Hun River must be the finest of the Hexi troops."

"Then according to the imperial uncle, this King of Han must have deliberately concentrated his elite troops at the Hun River.

But if he has only these few thousand elite troops, then why did he intercept and kill the envoys of the Jin state and ambush the Fengsheng Army by the Hun River? Is he not afraid that Your Majesty will raise a great army to demand an accounting?"

Han Kuangtu, eldest son of Han Zhigu and Troop Commander of the Zhangwu Army, was somewhat puzzled.

He had voiced the puzzlement in everyone's hearts.

A Left Pishi Fengsheng Army of three thousand men had been nearly annihilated. This was no ordinary grudge — it was a deep enmity.

But the Khitan nation and Hexi had never had any quarrel. Why would Zhang of Hexi do this?

Surely he did not think the great Khitan nation had fallen to the point where any random person could come and take liberties?

"Your Majesty, I recall something. In the eighth year of Tianxian (933), on the Empress Dowager's birthday, envoys from Shazhou came under orders to offer birthday congratulations. They claimed their lord was of the Cao clan, and also called themselves the Guiyi Army, did they not?

Could this Cao clan and the current Zhang clan of the King of Han in Hexi be the same group? Did the Zhang clan replace the Cao clan?"

Hm? Yelu Deguang rubbed his chin. He did somewhat recall now — that year, there had indeed been envoys calling themselves the Cao clan of the Guiyi Army who came to offer birthday congratulations.

The reason Yelu Deguang could still recall it after more than seven years was that he remembered these people being a bit foolish, which left him with a somewhat blurry impression.

The birthday gifts those Guiyi Army envoys presented that year were actually a pair of jade discs and twenty horses.

At the time, it made Yelu Deguang laugh in anger. Had they not traveled several thousand li to get there, he would have almost had them thrown out.

Do you take our great Khitan nation for the Meng Shu or Ma Chu of the Southern Dynasty? Twenty horses were worth sending all the way from Dunhuang?

You would have done better to send some white cotton cloth than horses.

And by custom, since the Khitan were the superior state, they would also have to bestow gifts in return.

Have you come to offer birthday tribute, or to scrounge for handouts?

After recalling this unpleasant episode, Yelu Deguang still managed to pinpoint the key information in Han Kuangye's words.

"The Minister of Education means that the Guiyi Army in Shazhou may well have undergone a change of power? The Zhang clan replacing the Cao clan?"

"Your servant examined the list of envoys and noticed one man named Cao Yanjing, who should be of the Cao family of Shazhou. Your servant requests leave to sound him out, and perhaps clarify the situation."

Han Kuangye nodded. As long as Yelu Deguang approved, he was prepared to go probe that deputy envoy called Cao Yanjing.

One must never imagine this era as one of free-flowing information. Never mind Zhang Zhao — even Zhang Yichao was known to few people.

Before the eighteen prefectures returned to the nation, the name "the Guiyi Army" was something most people had never even heard of.

Even in the information-rich age of later generations, take countries close at hand like Malaysia or Indonesia, reachable by plane in just a few hours.

Most people in later generations could not say who their prime ministers or presidents were, and few even knew the names of their capitals, or where they were.

And by the reckoning of distance at this moment, from the Khitan heartland at Liaoyang Prefecture in the Eastern Capital to Dunhuang in Shazhou was a full four thousand li.

At an average pace of sixty li a day, barring natural disasters, the journey would still take more than two full months.

To the Khitan sovereign and his ministers, Dunhuang in Shazhou was practically at the edge of the sky.

So for Yelu Deguang and his court to have a rough knowledge of the name "the Guiyi Army of Dunhuang in Shazhou" was already quite good. To find out everything about Zhang Zhao was truly not something that could be done in a short time.

"I think the matter is not so complicated!" Yelu Pode, the Left Pishi Xiangwen, suddenly said.

"No matter who this Zhang, Han King of Hexi is, or what his intentions are, he attacked the troops of our Great Khitan Nation and cost Your Majesty over a thousand brave warriors. We cannot possibly let them off lightly.

Your servant humbly begs Your Majesty: no matter what the Hexi envoys say or do, give them no reply.

Once Yunzhou City is taken, your servants are willing to follow the Great King, with the heavenly troops of the Great Khitan Nation, to Xiazhou, and order that Zhang, Han King, to come in person before the army to explain himself. We cannot let the thousand brave warriors of the Left Pishi Army die in vain!"

Yelu Pode was the Xiangwen of the Left Pishi Army, and the Left Pishi Fengsheng Army was nominally under his command as well. So the moment he spoke, Xiao Shilu also threw himself before Yelu Deguang.

"What the Xiangwen says is the word of justice. We beg Your Majesty to win justice for the thousand warriors of the Fengsheng Army."

But only after these two had finished did Yelu Wuzhi, the Right Pishi Xiangwen, who had been sitting there with an air of perfect composure all along, slowly open his mouth.

"Punishment must of course be sought, but your servant must also report to Your Majesty: from Yunzhou to Xiazhou is over seven hundred li, and to Liangzhou in Hexi is at least one thousand eight hundred li.

If this Zhang, Han King, truly holds all of Hexi and Longyou, as the Prince of Yan and his son say, and has now swallowed the Dingnan Army as well, then he certainly cannot be defeated overnight.

If Your Majesty wishes to raise troops to demand an accounting, it would be best to wait until the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun have been secured before making plans.

As things stand now, although our Great Khitan Nation's iron cavalry is invincible, the urgent task is still to swallow up the land of Yan-Yun, and even continue plundering the rich lands of Hebei from the Jin state — not to send a great army to attack that poor and bitter Hexi."

Yelu Wuzhi was the Right Pishi Xiangwen, and he was naturally pleased to see the Left Pishi Army take a beating.

Moreover, what he said was entirely reasonable. Even Yelu Pode and Xiao Shilu could find no fault with it.

Yelu Deguang fell silent for a moment at these words. In his heart, he was certainly more inclined toward what Yelu Wuzhi had said.

For only by digesting the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun, and then gradually swallowing the Jin state's Hebei lands, could he step by step realize his dream of becoming Son of Heaven over the Central Plains.

And the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun alone were so rich — whether in population, farmland, or techniques of farming and smelting, they had all given the Khitan an enormous boost.

If they could swallow all of Hebei, the Khitan's national strength would surely rise to a new level, and dealing with Hexi then would be far easier.

However, the Hexi people had killed more than a thousand of his Fengsheng Army warriors, and Yelu Deguang certainly could not say he would not take revenge.

To do so would chill the hearts of the warriors below. So he could only begin by smoothing things over.

"What you have all said has merit. Let the Minister of Education go privately to see that deputy envoy surnamed Cao, and ideally obtain the truth.

The Left Xiangwen shall put the troops in order and be ready at any time to march west and demand an accounting.

The Right Xiangwen and the Imperial Uncle shall devote themselves to the matter of Yunzhou. The sooner it is taken, the sooner we can completely swallow up such a rich land."

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