Chapter 501: Yelu Deguang Wants to Exterminate Buddhism

'Chuolizhi falsely calls himself Emperor, and Yaogu is even more wildly insolent.'

When Yelu Deguang read these lines, he felt a surge of fury shoot straight to the crown of his head; the flames of rage burned until his mind buzzed.

Guang-ge swept the low table off the folding bed with one hand, scattering the documents on it all over the floor.

"Zhang Zhao! You whelp from Hexi! I will surely kill you!"

The reason Yelu Deguang was so furious was that this had stabbed Guang-ge right in the heart.

Chuolizhi was his father Yelu Abaoji's Khitan name, and Yaogu was his own name.

Actually, Yelu Abaoji should now be called Yelu Yi, though that name had little to do with Yelu Abaoji himself, because it was the Han name Yelu Deguang gave to Yelu Abaoji.

Er... this Great Tang and Five Dynasties era really is full of filial sons — a son giving his father a name. Absurd.

And the reason Yelu Deguang did this was that he admired Han culture.

This man grew up reading the Book of Documents, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Five Classics, and deep in his heart he actually carried a profound sense of ethnic inferiority.

So he named his father Yelu Yi and named himself Yelu Deguang — that way, wouldn't it sound less like a barbarian and more like a son of Tang?

And he not only gave his father a Han name, he also set the Khitan empress clan's surname as Xiao, and even fabricated his mother Shulu Ping's family — that relatively Sinicized branch of Uyghurs — as descendants left on the steppe by Empress Xiao of Emperor Yang of Sui.

Actually, it wasn't entirely fabricated; Shulu Ping's family had always had this legend, but its truth could no longer be verified. To make up for his ethnic inferiority, Yelu Deguang seized the chance to have it widely compiled.

All of the above is enough to show how sensitive Yelu Deguang was about his ethnic identity.

Back then, the reason he agreed to send troops for Shi Jingtang — besides gaining the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun — was also, in no small part, to link himself to Han culture by crowning a Son of Heaven of the Central Plains.

Now Zhang Zhao, without the slightest mercy, called Yelu Abaoji "Chuolizhi" and Yelu Deguang "Yaogu" — how could that not stab deep into his heart?

What kind of people are "surface brothers"? Yelu Deguang and Zhang Zhao — ah! No! The two of them couldn't even count as surface brothers.

After swearing brotherhood at Shahukou, only in the year before last, on the birthday of Empress Dowager Shulu Ping of the Severed Wrist, did the state of Liang send someone to offer congratulations.

And that was only because Zhang Zhao was about to attack Gaochang and subdue the Kyrgyz people, and feared the Khitan would stick a foot in, so he dispatched envoys.

After that, on the birthday of Zhang Zhao's legal mother, the Queen Dowager of Fengtian, the Khitan merely sent over a minor official of the lower sixth rank, and relations between the two states rapidly cooled.

The next year, on Shulu Ping's birthday, Zhang Zhao likewise sent a minor official from the Ministry of Rites.

Now it had finally come to the point of utter mockery.

Yelu Deguang was roaring, but below him, Feng Dao and Li Song kept turning over in their minds a different sentence.

That was the line: "Since ancient times, when emperors have ruled all under heaven, China has dwelt within to control the barbarians, and the barbarians have dwelt without to serve China. Never has it been heard that barbarians dwelt within China and ruled all under heaven!"

How to put it — the attitude of people of this time toward Hua and Yi was completely different from that of the Song and Ming, especially after the Great Ming.

Before the Song dynasty, the Han people's outward attitude had gradually opened up, reaching its peak in the Great Tang.

Before that, there had also been barbarians moving south, but when Liu Yuan entered the Central Plains, he had to style himself as a maternal grandson of the Liu family, and even went so far as to offer sacrifices to Liu Shan, the last ruler of Shu Han. Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei, Tuoba Hong, would rather tear his own balls off than not move south and Sinicize.

During the Five Barbarians' chaos at the end of the Han, the Han people indeed suffered, but the lower classes of the barbarians lived no better — they were not a cut above anyone.

The great barbarian and Han clans who controlled the means of production learned from each other and merged into one — they were the winners of that era.

Before this, if you called a barbarian a barbarian, he could barely endure it, but if you said he was not a son of Tang, he would leap up and fight you to the death.

That was why there were such fanatical converts as Qibi Heli, Bai Xiaojie, Yuchi Sheng, and Li Keyong.

The Han people of this time also held a slightly welcoming attitude toward the Sinicization of barbarians.

Because they had not experienced the Jingkang era, when imperial princesses were reduced to camp prostitutes; they had not experienced the hundred thousand forced to leap into the sea at Yashan; they had not experienced the ethnic oppression of the Yuan dynasty; still less had they experienced the Manchu Qing's head-shaving and forced change of dress.

So they felt a bit of resistance to Yelu Deguang taking the Central Plains, but the root of it was mostly that Yelu Deguang allowed the Khitan to plunder and raid, not that Yelu Deguang was a Khitan.

In their view, no matter what barbarians entered the Central Plains, sooner or later they would be Sinicized.

And this proclamation of Zhang Zhao's was a deafening cry, born of the years when the two Songs were successively destroyed by foreign peoples, when Hexi, Longyou, and Liaodong were lost to the Han for several hundred years, and when the Han people were once regarded as weak cowards.

Still, it wasn't that using it here was inappropriate — though it struck a little too hard, it could still deliver a blow to the head.

Combined with what the Khitan had been doing in the Central Plains these past few months, that line "never has it been heard that barbarians dwelt within China and ruled all under heaven" pointed so clearly to the Khitan's fate.

"Recall Zhou Ru and tell him he need not go to Guanzhong. Summon all the Pishi and Shushan armies. Have the Wuding Army of Fengsheng Prefecture and the Zhongshun Army of Weizhou — all the Bohai, Xi, and Han troops — cross the river. I will campaign in person and exterminate the traitor Zhang!"

On one side, the Han ministers exchanged glances; on the other, Yelu Deguang was still roaring. He had originally already sent Zhou Ru as an envoy to Guanzhong to negotiate with Zhang Zhao.

Because Yelu Deguang felt that Zhang Zhao's identity as a descendant of loyal ministers of the Great Tang was highly suspect, and that his ethnic makeup was probably similar to his own.

Moreover, Hexi fought every year no less than the Khitan, its troops and horses exhausted, and Zhang Zhao had also reached into the steppe, so his ambitions toward the Central Plains should not be that great.

Then as the elder brother, he would occupy the Central Plains and hold the fertile lands of Henan and Hebei, while Zhang Zhao, the younger brother, would sit on Guanzhong and, having gained Long, gaze upon Shu. Each digesting his own occupied territory — wouldn't that be fine?

In any case, seven states stood side by side under heaven, and two more warlord regimes like theirs would hardly be missed.

But in the end! Guang-ge never imagined that this black-hearted Zhang Zhao would treat him, his elder brother, as a bandit who had burst into the house to be beaten, and would even call on all the states under heaven to strike him together.

Hateful! Deserving of death!

At the same time, Zhao Yanshou's cold sweat poured down in streams.

He finally understood what his son Zhao Kuangzan was trying to do.

Unfilial wretch! Unfilial wretch! You'd be quite smooth playing Ma Mengqi, but your old man has no wish to play Ma Teng.

At this thought, this great traitor, who had just been enfeoffed as King of Wei, rushed out and said to Yelu Deguang:

"Your Majesty, if we are to deal with the state of Liang, relying on our Great Liao alone may not be entirely safe. Better to summon all the Han generals and troops, with me as the cavalry and the military governors of the various provinces as the infantry — only then can we overcome the enemy."

Hearing Zhao Yanshou say this, Yelu Deguang, blazing with fury, immediately calmed down, and in his ears there seemed to ring again the braying of that sturdy camel.

Right! Using only the troops of Great Liao to fight the state of Liang — no! The state of Yong — the odds of victory were not necessarily great.

And the state of Yong had the great horses of Liangzhou. If they were defeated, this time they might not be able to escape on camelback.

More importantly, he knew the strength of the Jin troops. At Baituanwei Village, in that kind of environment, they had smashed his eighty thousand troops into collapse like a landslide. They were not easy to deal with. If he could organize them, wouldn't that be fine?

Right! And let that dog Zhang Zhao have a taste of being the Camel War God! Guang-ge's face burned a little as he thought viciously.

However, there was a problem with this: after Guang-ge entered the Central Plains, he had allowed the Khitan to plunder and raid everywhere. These Jin troops went hungry, and their families had been affected no small amount.

As for the generals, it was even worse. Men like Du Chongwei and Li Shouzhen had to hand over ten thousand strings of cash as congratulatory money, to say nothing of the others.

With treatment like that, you still expect people to go to the battlefield and risk their lives for you?

I'm afraid that simply running away would already be doing you a favor. Turning coat on the battlefield and stabbing you would be the normal thing.

For the first time, Zhao Yanshou felt contempt for Yelu Deguang in his heart.

You barbarian wretch! I begged you to stop messing around, but you damn well wouldn't listen — now look what's happened!

But contempt was one thing; since he had already set foot on this road, he still had to put in the effort. Zhao Yanshou walked over and whispered in Yelu Deguang's ear.

"In the Eastern Capital of Kaifeng and the Western Capital of Luoyang, there are great numbers of temple money houses holding enormous stores of cash. Why not order these money houses to make offerings, and use the funds to richly reward the armies?

I know well the character of these yabing guards and yabing officers of the Central Plains. So long as there is profit to be had, they will fight to the death."

Yelu Deguang's eyes widened in shock. It was not that he had never thought of touching the temples' money, but in the current climate Buddhism was universally revered, and not everyone had the boldness of the three emperors who had suppressed Buddhism.

Zhao Yanshou gave a cold snort. "That Prince Yong, Zhang Zhao, tucked away in his corner, can exchange blank paper for the real gold and silver of the temples. Your Majesty holds the lands of two great states, Liao and Jin — why can you not issue silver notes to serve as money?

Besides, no one is asking to take all their gold and silver. Your Majesty need only exchange five hundred thousand strings of Great Liao silver notes for five hundred thousand strings of their cash."

Well said! Everyone fell utterly silent.

Why could Prince Yong Zhang Zhao exchange silver notes for real gold and silver? Anyone who gave it some thought could figure it out.

It was simply much the same as Lord Shang's standing-post trust: all of it was supported by the strongest credit.

Every silver note that Prince Yong issued had a corresponding deposit of gold and silver behind it, and was further guaranteed by Buddhist treasures from India — therefore everyone believed in them.

What do you, Yelu Deguang, have? What credit does your Liao state have? You do not even pay your soldiers; a state kept going by plunder — on what grounds should anyone trust it?

However, everyone understood this, and Yelu Deguang did not necessarily fail to understand it either — but no one would say it aloud.

Because right now, seizing the gold and silver of those bald donkeys to richly reward the armies was the best option available.

What else could be done?

Impose another court-congratulation levy and apportion it among the Han officials and Han commoners?

And besides, the idea of plundering the temple money houses was Zhao Yanshou's, and the hands that did it would be Khitan — what did it have to do with the Han officials in this room?

And so, amid a chorus of flattery, Yelu Deguang swept his hand grandly.

"The situation is urgent now, so we must let the great masters suffer a little. Once the rebel Zhang is destroyed, I shall personally go before the Buddha to repent, and repay double whatever silver is taken."

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