Chapter 474: A Poisonous Scheme and a Resentful Dupe

Zhao Yanshou, Zhao Yanzhao, Han Kuangye, Han Kuangtu, and Liu Yanzuo — these few men were the very top stratum of Han Chinese within the Khitan Liao state.

The brothers Zhao Yanshou and Zhao Yanzhao were the son and nephew of Zhao Dejun, the former Military Governor of Lulong.

The Han family of Khotan was even more different — they were hardly any different from the Khitans themselves.

Liu Yanzuo, for his part, represented the local Han military men.

After Yelu Deguang was repeatedly defeated by the Later Jin, and especially after the disastrous defeat at Yangcheng, these men were like ants on a hot pan, because their interests were bound up with Yelu Deguang's.

If the Khitans were utterly defeated, they could at worst roll out of Youdu Prefecture and return to the grasslands and Liaoxi.

But these men would be finished. Not only would their position — beneath the Khitans yet above the Han — surely be lost, but their family fortunes would likely be plundered clean, and they might well lose their lives.

No! One should not even say "beneath the Khitans, above the Han," because the power and influence of these few men was something ordinary Khitans simply could not match.

They should not be regarded as Khitans or Han, but rather as the ruling class of the Khitan state.

Yelu Deguang was, after all, a ruler of no small ability. After two crushing defeats, he finally began to see the true strength of his Great Liao state.

Namely, that although the Jin state had no ability to counterattack the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun, with their forty to fifty thousand battle-hardened yabing guards, it would still be very difficult for the Khitans to march south over a thousand li in open battle and defeat them.

Unless Yelu Deguang could swallow this humiliation, carefully develop the Yan-Yun lands for eight to ten years, and wait until the Later Jin's people were ground down in misery before marching south.

But clearly, Yelu Deguang did not have that patience. He wanted revenge immediately.

"All you ministers are men of talent. Now the Southern Court has gone too far in bullying us. Had it not been for me, that Shi Chonggui would have been buried together with the former lord of Jin in the city of Jinyang long ago. Such an ungrateful wretch is utterly hateful.

I have summoned you all here so that lord and vassal, Khitan and Han, may join hearts and strength to chastise the Southern Court."

At this moment, Yelu Deguang's term of address for the Later Jin finally changed.

He no longer called the Jin state "Han," but instead called it the "Southern Court" — the term used by northern regimes for southern regimes during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period.

The Liao state's Han men present naturally understood what this signified. The brothers Han Kuangtu and Han Kuangye in particular felt a surge of joy, as though they had finally waited for this day.

Han Kuangtu was the first to step out, drop to one knee on the ground, and say with tears of gratitude:

"Your servant and the entire Zhangwu Army have long awaited Your Majesty's summons. The moment Your Majesty gives the order, your servants will immediately strike at the Southern Court and capture the Jin lord alive to present to Your Majesty."

Han Kuangtu could speak this way because his younger brother Han Kuangsi had recently been in the Eastern Capital, Liaoyang Prefecture, attending upon Yelu Deguang's mother, the wrist-severing Empress Dowager Shulu Ping.

Their Han family had also entered the Khitan court as dowry officials accompanying Shulu Ping.

Among the ten thousand tribal troops Shulu Ping had dispatched to Yelu Deguang this time were three thousand men of the Zhangwu Army trained by the Han family, commanded by Han Kuangtu.

They had not yet suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Jin army, so naturally they were eager to try their hand.

"Your loyal heart is truly commendable. The Zhangwu Army is the elite of my Great Liao. Once battle is joined, they will surely strike terror into the soldiers and generals of the Southern Court."

Although Han Kuangtu put on a display of utter loyalty, this declaration was not what Yelu Deguang needed.

What Yelu Deguang needed was for these Han men, whose fates were bound to his own, to offer him ideas.

But Yelu Deguang also knew that families like the Han family, who had been carried off to the grasslands twenty years ago, had gradually become grassland-ified in their thinking, and no longer understood the true situation of the Southern Court.

Expecting them to offer ideas was surely unrealistic. He would still have to rely on men like Zhao Yanshou and Liu Yanzuo.

"The Prince of Yan has always been valiant, and is moreover quick-witted. Given the present situation, do you have a sound plan? If you can offer a stratagem to break the Jin, then in days to come I will surely fulfill the Prince of Yan's wish."

For Zhao Yanshou, nothing anyone could say to him at this moment could move him as much as Yelu Deguang's words "in days to come I will surely fulfill your wish."

Because what Zhao Yanshou yearned for day and night was how, with Yelu Deguang's support, to ascend the throne of Son of Heaven of the Southern Court.

At once, hearing Yelu Deguang's first personal promise, Zhao Yanshou was stirred. He stepped out, knelt on both knees, drew a roll of silk writing from his bosom, raised it above his head, and said in a clear voice to Yelu Deguang:

"Your Majesty, your servant the Prince of Yan, Yanshou, has an important matter to report to my sovereign father."

Yelu Deguang gestured for an attendant beside him to take the silk writing Zhao Yanshou held up, while pretending to be very surprised as he helped Zhao Yanshou to his feet.

"The Prince of Yan and I share both the bond of lord and vassal and the grace of father and son. There is no need for grand obeisances, and there is nothing you cannot say to me."

Zhao Yanshou rose to his feet with Yelu Deguang's support, and there were actually glints of tears on his face, as though he were deeply moved.

"Sovereign father, three days ago a man from the Southern Court came to Youdu Prefecture and delivered a letter to my residence. It was written by clansmen I left behind in the Southern Court — an imperial decree summoning your servant to return south.

But your servant is a minister of Liao. How could I do such a thing as betray my lord?"

This letter was indeed a surrender-soliciting letter sent by the Jin court, and it was signed in the name of Zhao Xingshi — Zhao Xingshi being the original name of Zhao Yanshou's father, Zhao Dejun.

And Zhao Yanshou was not lying. He truly had no intention of returning south to the Jin state, because for a man in Zhao Yanshou's position, returning south no longer held any meaning.

For after returning south, he would at most receive a Military Governor's post — a position he already held among the Khitans, so why risk returning south?

And after returning south, if he were placed in prefectures like Ding and Zhen, facing the Khitans directly, that would be disastrous.

The Khitans lacked the ability to march south and destroy the Jin, but their cavalry came and went like the wind, and they still had the ability to smash prefectures like Ding and Zhen to pieces.

He had been sitting on this matter without reporting it only because he had not yet figured out how to extract more benefits from Yelu Deguang.

And now that Yelu Deguang had directly promised the very thing he wanted most, there was no point in hiding it any longer.

"I too believe the Prince of Yan would not betray me." Yelu Deguang nodded repeatedly, putting on an appearance of complete trust in Zhao Yanshou.

But in truth, he had long known about the man from the Southern Court delivering a letter to Zhao Yanshou, and had already begun to harbor some suspicion.

That was why he had offered the promise Zhao Yanshou had always wanted — because Yelu Deguang had never intended to set Zhao Yanshou up as Son of Heaven of the Central Plains. This time, he wanted to become Son of Heaven of the Central Plains himself.

"Your servant thanks my sovereign father for his trust. But your servant wishes to reply to the Jin lord, saying: 'I have been trapped among the barbarians for long. How could I forget the land of my parents? If you come against me with an army, I will return.'"

"You impudent traitor! Would you betray your lord?" Hearing Zhao Yanshou speak this way, Han Kuangtu immediately bristled and was about to leap out and seize Zhao Yanshou, but Yelu Deguang quickly waved him back.

The Liao emperor's eyes suddenly flashed with sharp light as he stared fixedly at Zhao Yanshou.

"The Prince of Yan's meaning is to falsely claim an intention to return south, and thereby lure the Jin army north?"

"Your Majesty's sagely brilliance illuminates all. That is exactly what your servant is thinking." Zhao Yanshou said to Yelu Deguang with great excitement.

"Your servant observes the Southern Court. The Jin lord is no wise sovereign, and the Jin army's commander-in-chief, Du Chongwei, is even less a general skilled in the use of troops.

They have been able to prevail twice only by relying on the fighting prowess of the Jin soldiers and the valor of generals like An Shenqi, Fu Yanqing, Gao Xingzhou, and Huangfu Yu.

But the Jin army is not without weaknesses. Their cavalry is far too few. In the previous two southern campaigns, we took the initiative and marched south over a thousand li, unable to bring the characteristics of my Great Liao's iron cavalry into play — and that is what led to the great defeats.

Now the Jin state, high and low, despises us. If we can use the pretext of receiving your servant's return south to lure them into sending troops north, to the region between Yi, Mo, and Ying —

I will then take elite cavalry by a roundabout route south, cut their supply lines, sever their route of retreat, and refuse battle. When the Jin army runs out of provisions, we will then lead our troops in pursuit and slaughter, and their defeat will be certain."

How utterly vicious!

Yelu Deguang sprang to his feet and paced excitedly about the room.

For Zhao Yanshou's plan was, one might say, tailor-made for the Jin army.

Only a man of his background, born into the martial nobility of Daibei, could so precisely seize upon the Jin army's weaknesses.

In truth, at the last battle of White Regiment Village at Yangcheng, Yelu Deguang could already have done this.

But he had not recognized his own strength, and in his haste to swallow the Jin army whole, he had instead suffered a heavy loss.

Had Yelu Deguang at Yangcheng dug deep moats and raised high ramparts, surrounding the Jin army without attacking, in three to five days at most the starving, thirsting Jin troops would have collapsed.

Zhao Yanshou's plan was, in effect, to fight the battle of White Regiment Village at Yangcheng all over again.

But this time, the Khitan forces would never mount a direct assault until the Jin army collapsed on its own.

They could first sweep the outer regions clean, then dig deep moats and raise high ramparts to besiege them, dragging the Jin army's logistics to ruin, waiting for its collapse, and then taking it with ease.

"Your Majesty, your servant also has kinsmen in the southern court, and is likewise willing to write letters expressing his wish to return south.

Within Yingzhou lies the Hutuo River. If the Jin army comes there to cross, I need only send my elite cavalry around their rear to tear down the bridges, and the Jin army can be trapped on the river's northern bank."

Seeing that Zhao Yanshou was about to be rewarded with the throne of Son of Heaven over the south, Liu Yanzuo, that shameless wretch, hastened forward to offer his own plan.

He was the Prefect of Yingzhou (Hejian), and could conveniently lure the Jin army to the northern bank of the Hutuo River in Yingzhou.

Yelu Deguang burst out laughing at these words, the gloom in his heart swept clean away. "My two beloved ministers, carry out your plans at once. If you can destroy the great army of the Jin state, even the throne of Son of Heaven over the Central Plains I would be willing to give away."

Just as Zhao Yanshou was offering this venomous plan to lure the Later Jin's great army northward, the entire Henan and Hebei lands of the Jin state were sinking into a terrible famine.

Hebei especially: two great battles had been fought there within two years, and from Dingzhou in the far north to Xiangzhou and Weizhou in the far south, nearly everything had been trampled over once.

And in the lull between these two campaigns, the three calamities of flood, drought, and locusts, together with the man-made disasters of the Later Jin court, had in turn ravaged the land of Hebei.

By the third and fourth months, when the spring famine was at its worst, for a thousand li across Hebei no cock crowed, and for ten thousand li white bones paved the ground.

Often one could ride several dozen li beyond a city wall and still see not a single village; at least three hundred thousand people had been driven from their homes.

Outside every town of any size, great numbers of starving refugees gathered, too weak to do anything but lie on the ground and wait for death.

And at this time, the Jin court could produce no grain for disaster relief.

Shi Chonggui's private granaries did still hold some, but he was unwilling to touch them, and dared not touch them.

For one thing, he still had to carouse in luxury with Lady Feng; for another, Shi Chonggui knew very well in his heart that in this age, famine victims could stir up no great trouble — so long as the military men did not rebel, all was well.

The grain in his private stores was meant precisely for calming the army's hearts in a moment of emergency.

Still, with the great Hebei famine so severe, he could not make no move at all, and so Shi Chonggui dispatched the Director of the Palace Domestic Service, Wang Qinzuo, to Zhenzhou, where the famine victims were most numerous, to provide relief.

Shi Chonggui's original intent was merely to put on a show, but he had not expected that this Wang Qinzuo was not only a man who got things done, but also one who did not fear the powerful.

Earlier, the grain Du Chongwei had extorted in Zhenzhou still had more than a hundred thousand shi sitting there, not yet transported away.

After Wang Qinzuo arrived in Zhenzhou, he actually had men open Du Chongwei's granaries directly and distribute the grain to the famine victims.

When Du Chongwei's steward went to stop him, Wang Qinzuo had his men bring out ten thousand bolts of silk, claiming the court had purchased Du Chongwei's grain for disaster relief.

But that price — that was the price of a year of plenty!

In a year of great disaster like this, grain simply had no market price at all. This one move nearly drove Du Chongwei mad with rage.

With me, Du the Plague Lord — you may do to him whatever you like, but if you touch his money, that is worse than taking his life.

On top of that, having lost the post of Defender of Yedu to Zhang Cong'en, Du Chongwei was all the more furious.

He went at once to Shi Chonggui and poured out his grievances in towering rage: "I am no rebel — how can my house be seized like this? I drove back the Khitan host, a deed of the greatest merit, and I may not even keep a hundred thousand shi of grain?"

In Du Chongwei's view, he was a meritorious minister — how could he be treated as though his household were being confiscated?

What was more alarming was that Shi Chonggui actually thought Du Chongwei was in the right, and so decided to avoid seeing him, playing the turtle that hides its head.

With that, Du Chongwei felt all the more justified, and made a racket in the Eastern Capital day after day.

And it was precisely at this moment that Li Shouzhen also came back, full of grievances.

Originally, Li Shouzhen had rendered great service in the great battle of White Regiment Village at Yangcheng, and Shi Chonggui had promised to appoint him Military Governor of Hezhong.

The reason it was the Military Governor of Hezhong — apart from that region's wealth — was that the incumbent Military Governor of Hezhong, Hou Yi, had been ill all along, and it looked as though the post would soon be vacated.

But by the time Li Shouzhen returned victorious, Hou Yi's illness had miraculously recovered.

This gentleman was born in 885, an old hand among the martial nobility of Daibei, and moreover one of the Thirteen Loyalists of Xingjiao Gate who had followed Li Cunxu to the last at Xingjiao Gate.

With such seniority, so long as he did not move, no one could do anything to him.

And so the great post of Military Governor that Li Shouzhen had been promised simply vanished.

Although Shi Chonggui gave him lavish rewards to placate him, how could they compare to the post of Military Governor of a great province like Hezhong?

Li Shouzhen therefore bitterly resented Shi Chonggui, Hou Yi, and the rest.

Now these two resentful fellows came together, and the more they talked, the angrier they grew, until they wished they could march into the palace that very moment and give Shi Chonggui two great slaps across the face.

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