Chapter 9 The third chapter of the chaos of the brothers

According to regulations, the Khan of the Khitan ethnic group was re-elected every three years, but A Baoji had been working for nine consecutive years without any intention of re-election, not even a formality.In this way, the group of people below will stop doing it.First of all, Abaoji's brothers quit.Abaoji has no intention of abdicating at all, and Abaoji's brothers have tried their best to get addicted to Khan, so what will happen? Abaoji's brothers feel that since the position of Khan has now been transferred from the Yaolan family to the Yelu family, they should be elected every three years. Everyone in Yelu has the opportunity to experience a khan addiction.But now A Baoji has been in the job for nine years, and he has no intention of going down at all.What if he doesn't go down?The brothers are going to help him down.Thus, Abaoji's brothers rebelled. This is the rebellion of the younger brothers recorded in the "History of the Liao Dynasty", a total of three times.

Who is Abaoji?So easy to let the brothers mess up?He was very intelligent and very resourceful.For the first time, several of his younger brothers were going to make trouble, but before it happened, they were nipped in the bud by A Baoji.Among his younger brothers is Lage, who is the worst person, and he picks the head every time there is a rebellion; there is another named Diel, another named Yindishi, and one named Anduan (these names are rather strange, because they are all Khitan transliteration into Chinese).After A Baoji nip the brothers' rebellion in the bud, he dragged these brothers to climb a mountain to worship the sky, and made them swear to the sky that they would never fight against him again.The brothers saw that if they didn't swear, they could imagine what would happen. The bottom of the mountain was full of Abaoji's soldiers and horses, their shiny big blades had just been sharpened, and their bows had already been fully drawn.So, all the brothers swore: From now on, we will be loyal to Big Brother, you will always be the boss, our khan, and our great leader.

"Benji 1 of Taizu Taizu of Liao Dynasty" records: "The emperor's younger brothers Lage, Diela, Yindishi, and Anduan conspired against each other. ... The emperor couldn't bear to punish him, so he climbed the mountain with his younger brothers to torture animals, and told heaven and earth to pardon him for his sins." After these people swear, what they say is different from what they think in their hearts.In the autumn of the second year, A Baoji was away on an expedition, and the brothers rebelled again, because this year came the year when the Khan was re-elected.This time they rebelled, and they planned to send troops to intercept A Baoji on his way back to the army.This time, Abaoji held a burnt wood ceremony on his own, that is, burning firewood.Don't you want me to be a Khan?I will start burning firewood to worship the sky now, and I will be a khan after the sacrifice. If I am a khan, you have no right to oppose me.The brothers saw that my eldest brother was too cunning, our soldiers were not ready yet, and all his firewood had been burned.There's nothing we can do about it, so we have to endure it, Boss, we were wrong again, your lord has a lot, please forgive us!Thus, the rebellion was put down again.

"The First Chronicle of Taizu Taizu of the Liao Dynasty" records: "All the younger brothers sent people to apologize for their sins. The emperor is still sympathetic, and promises to rehabilitate." However, his brothers didn't stop there.They summed up the lesson: the first time, we were caught off guard by him, and before we could do anything, he took us to the mountain to make an oath; the second time, we prepared our soldiers and horses to intercept and kill him, but we No matter how fast he prepares soldiers and horses, he is not as fast as he prepares firewood. Before we send troops, he is already a khan for burning firewood to sacrifice to heaven.We have to learn a lesson, we also prepare firewood, isn't whoever burns firewood is a Khan?Who wouldn't know this?So the third time the younger brothers rebelled, Abaoji's brothers also prepared firewood, and after offering sacrifices to the sky, they announced that Lage was Khan.We have elected a new Khan, and then we will send troops to fight Abaoji. Now let me see what you can do.At that time, A Baoji led the army and was not in his camp. In this rebellion, the rebels stormed A Baoji's hometown and marched very fast.In this case, Abaoji's wife, who was later the Empress Dowager Shulu of the Liao Kingdom, showed her extraordinary side.

We say that the Khitan nation has the remains of the matriarchal clan, and the status of women is very high, especially the wives of the princes.The Shulu family immediately mobilized troops and horses to defend the old camp until Abaoji's reinforcements arrived and defeated the rebels in one fell swoop.After defeating the rebels, A Baoji scolded his brothers angrily, saying that you have rebelled repeatedly, and I have forgiven you several times, but I did not expect you to be so capricious.Complaining to the heavens does not count. I burned firewood, and you also burned firewood. If you don't punish severely, I will be sorry for my ancestors.Therefore, A Baoji asked the younger brothers to admit their mistakes, and after repenting, he released the younger brothers and went home.But his younger brother followed more than 300 people who rebelled, and after tribal elders held a meeting and tried them, they were all executed.A Baoji was quite kind-hearted. Before his execution, he held a grand bonfire party for these three hundred people, letting them sing and dance, drink, wrestle, and archery to their heart's content all night long, playing whatever they wanted.After playing enough, the next day, A Baoji sent people to the camp where these people lived to read out the crimes of these rebels.

"The First Chronicle of Taizu Taizu of the Liao Dynasty" records: "Shang sighed and said: 'It is not what I want to cause people to die. If you stop taking care of me, you can still accept the loan. This Cao is unruly, cruel to the loyal and good, smothering the people, and plagiarizing Looting property. There used to be tens of thousands of horses among the people, but now they are all on foot. This has never happened since the country was established. It is really a last resort.'" (A Baoji said with a sigh: "It is not my wish to put people to death. If You only object to my personal words, and I can forgive you. But you are unruly, cruel to the loyal, devastated the people, and plundered property. The people used to ride horses, but now they are all on foot. It has never happened since China. It is really a last resort to kill you.”)

After the three counter-insurgency wars, how heavy were the losses of the Khitan people?The population has decreased by more than 100,000, and the number of horses has decreased by tens of thousands.The three hundred people who participated in the third rebellion were all executed, but Abaoji pardoned his brothers. It seems that Abaoji still cared about brotherhood and was praised by historians.We can see that in Chinese history, especially in the royal family, there are endless books about brothers fighting each other.What is the emperor most concerned about?It's the chair under his ass!What kind of father-son relationship, husband-wife righteousness, brotherhood, this is not what he cares about.We know that in Chinese history, many emperors and sages were merciless in killing their own brothers, such as Tang Taizong Li Shimin.If you compare it with A Baoji, you have to say that A Baoji is able to do this with an unusually broad mind.

Abaoji's ability to forgive the enemy is actually proving his own strength.In fact, this is mostly the case in history. The stronger the dynasty, the more open it is, and the more it can tolerate opposition forces.The more we are in decline, the more tense our struggles are, the more tyrannical or tyrannical we tend to be towards our political opponents.A Baoji has this kind of heart, knowing that with his own strength and under his leadership, the Khitan nation will become stronger and more prosperous, and his younger brothers will eventually support him.