"Your Majesty, Yelu Yixin is very cautious and insists on seeing His Majesty before talking to him. However, after talking to him for only half a day, we learned a lot about the inside story of the Liao Kingdom, which the imperial court did not know before."
After hearing this, the official said: "Very good. In the past, the imperial court learned about the internal affairs of Liao through spies and 'returners' in Khitan. They did not know much about high-level affairs in detail. If Yelu Yixin can be used by me,
Then the national conditions of the Liao Kingdom can be clearly understood."
"What do you think, Qing Zhang?"
Zhang Yuezheng was looking at the record of the conversation between Yelu Yixin and Li Xian.
From Zhang Yue's own country to foreign countries, to Yelu Yixin's road to foreign countries, it only took a few dozen days.
He was also judging the situation in the Liao Kingdom. In fact, due to language limitations, the Liao Kingdom kept the Song Dynasty very confidential. In addition, the Song Dynasty had a mentality of waiting for the Heavenly Dynasty to come to the country, and actually knew very little about the Liao Kingdom.
For example, in history, the prime minister of the Liao Kingdom who killed Yelu Yixin was Liang Ying, but the official records of the Song Dynasty recorded it as Liang Yijie.
Liang Ying's nickname was Xiuqing, while another Han prime minister Yang Zunxucai's nickname was Yijie.
As a result, the Song Dynasty officials combined the surnames and characters of the two prime ministers into Liang Yijie.
In addition, Liao people's names are difficult to translate. For example, Yelu Yixin's political enemy Zhibei Privy Councilor Xiao Susa was also translated as Xiao Su. A Liao official had several names in the official translation of the Song Dynasty, or several people shared the same name.
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The question of whether Tantai Mieming is one person or two people often gives Zhang Yue a headache.
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, many Liao people can read Chinese characters, but few Han people can read Khitan characters."
"For example, I don't know anything about Yelu Yixin's loss of power."
The official said: "Espionage in the Northern Dynasties has always been under the control of the Privy Council Military Room and the Imperial City Department, but there have indeed been some inconsistencies in these years."
Zhang Yue knew the emperor's intention as soon as he heard it. The Imperial City Division already has seven thousand personal servants and marriage officers. Do you want to turn the Imperial City Division into the imperial guards of the Ming Dynasty?
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, after the restructuring, the Ministry of War can also take care of spying on Khitan and party intelligence."
"I remember that in the Tang Dynasty, Fang was in charge of the map, city god, town garrison, beacon watch, etc. The officials had one official, Fang Langzhong, and one Yuanwailang, so they can be established."
The officials were about to restore the system of three provinces and six ministries when they heard Zhang Yue say: "That's good. The main purpose of the official department is to spy on border affairs."
Well, spying abroad is enough, but there is no need to spy domestically... Zhang Yue said: "I obey the order."
The establishment of the Ministry of War means that it is placed under the Shangshu Province, and it is also under the jurisdiction of the ministers in the future.
Zhang Yue continued: "The Liao Kingdom has always had to be a member of the clan to hold the throne, hold military power, and control various tribes and accounts. Yelv Yi and Xin's family was poor, and they once herded sheep, but after all, they were from the Yelu family, and the Lord of Liao now valued them
Since the ministers of the Han Dynasty are prime ministers, we know that there is nothing we can do."
After hearing this, the official asked: "Why do we discuss this?"
Zhang Yue also drew his conclusion from Yelu Yixinhe's guesses about Liao intelligence over the years.
Before Yelu Hongji, Lord of the Liao Dynasty, the Khitan royal family and their relatives were very powerful, but after the rebellion of Emperor Taishu Yelu Chongyuan (this is the part in Tian Long Ba Bu where Qiao Feng helped Yelu Hongji put down the rebellion).
Yelu Hongji also supported Yelu Yixin, who was from a poor family, to suppress his relatives from the royal family. Zhang Xiaojie, Yelu Yange, Xiao Shisan, Xiao Delit, Yelu Lugu and others in the Yelu Yixin Group also came from poor families.
However, after Yelu Yixin became powerful, not only the poor families but also the previous aristocratic families came to join them, threatening the imperial power. Moreover, the Yelu Yixin Group was collectively corrupt, and its member Zhang Xiaojie openly claimed that "without a million taels of gold, it is not enough to be a prime minister's family."
Yelu Hongji felt that he could not sit idly by, so he took action to eradicate Yelu Yixin. However, Yelu Yixin's group was not liquidated.
Yelu Hongji still did not trust his relatives outside the clan, so he continued to support the Han officials from Yan who were even more marginalized than the royal family to check and balance the powerful Khitan families.
There was a certain amount of mobility among the top leaders of the Liao Kingdom.
This liquidity was not a good thing for the Liao State. The vested interest groups were not eradicated, the new interest group (Yelü Yixin) failed, and the new interest groups of the Han people that were then supported were not enough to fight against the vested interest groups.
Yelu Hongji can be compared to Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, while Yelu Yixin can be compared to Yan Song.
At the beginning of Yelu Hongji's rule, he worked hard to govern. This man had a strong desire for power. For example, the rebellion of Emperor Taishu Chongyuan at the beginning was caused by him taking back power from his descendants and the royal family. In the end, he succeeded.
He and Jiajing usually used Yan Song and Yelu Yixin to balance the situation in the court. After finding that Wei Da couldn't get rid of them, they both cut them off.
Yelu Hongji's methods were very clever.
Both he and Jiajing used poor families and noble families to balance the situation in the court.
Zhang Yue remembered that in the TV series of the Ming Dynasty, Jiajing's theory of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers meant that they should not be allowed to overflow and submerge the mountains. This was simply sophistry.
Instead of taking advantage of the contradiction between a poor family and an aristocratic family to promote reforms, improve people's livelihood, and make politics clear. Instead, they only know how to use the contradiction between the two sides to continuously consolidate their authority, and then use power to further seize power.
No wonder later generations said that Mingshi died in Jiajing.
Liao Shi died at the hands of Daozong.
From this point of view, although our officials also have some unclear aspects, they are a hundred times better than these two emperors.
Zhang Yue deduced from Yelu Hongji that it was impossible for the Liao Kingdom to intervene on a large scale in the dispute between the Song Dynasty and Dangxiang. Of course, the guess was just a guess.
Zhang Yue said: "Your Majesty, since I am Yelu Yixin and the Lord of Liao intends to intervene in the affairs of this dynasty and the party, we must make complete preparations. I think that I will take action later and watch the provocation."
The official said: "Why watch the provocation and act?"
Zhang Yue said: "Ordinary soldiers will not attack a city that has no fault, and will not kill innocent people. If they don't attack me, I will not attack them. If they attack me, I will attack them."
"Strength to win is the lower level, power to win is the middle level, and Dao victory is the upper level."
"When I negotiated peace with the Liao Dynasty, I won with morality and justice. Therefore, as long as morality and justice are with me, I will uphold them and not be afraid of the Liao Kingdom's invasion."
Zhang Yue's strategy is to 'never fire the first shot', but it is not you, the Liao Kingdom, who has the final say on what happens next.
You must be brave enough to respond to any offense.
The same goes for the country and life. If you attack decisively on small matters and dare to rebel, you will appear to be very difficult to mess with.
When it comes to major matters, you should not be impulsive, but should think carefully and make a decision before taking action.
"Secondly, we set up the Ministry of War's Fang Division to comprehensively spy on and instigate rebellion and bribe the ministers of Liao and Xia. However, I thought that Yelu Yixin was of some use before, but seeing that he was so easily overthrown by Liang Ying, we know that he has already lost his support."
"But it will also come in handy in the future to use him to sow discord and instigate rebellion. At the same time, this person should also be informed of the internal situation in the Liao Dynasty."
Now Yelu Yixin is a lost dog. He came from a poor family, so don't expect him to have much appeal in the Liao Kingdom. To put it bluntly, his power was given by the emperor, and it was only a matter of the emperor to take it back.
The official nodded after hearing this, and Zhang Yue said: "The third one sent people to contact the divination and support Nuzhi and Goryeo in becoming enemies of the Liao Kingdom."
Zubu is the name given to Tatar by the Khitan people. In the Tang Dynasty, Shiwei was called Shiwei and was distributed in Monan and Mobei.
Nowadays, the Liao Kingdom uses troops against Zubu every year, which consumes a lot of national power. Zhang Yue concluded that the Liao Kingdom was unable to significantly intervene in the dispute between the Song Dynasty and Dangxiang for this reason.
At the same time, the Liao Kingdom also had two close enemies, Goryeo and Nvzhi.
After hearing what Zhang Yue said, the official said: "It's just like what you said."
