On this day, 901 years ago, on February 21, 1124 (February 5, the 1124 lunar calendar), Yelu Dashi of the Western Liao Dynasty proclaimed himself emperor and was established in the Western Liao Dynasty. Yelu Dashi is the eighth grandson of Yelu ABaoji, the founding emperor of the Khitan State. When Yelu Dashi was born, Yelu Hongji, the Liao Daozong, was in power. Since he and Yelu Hongji were not in the same line, he had no chance to become an emperor. However, Yelu Dashi not only became an emperor later, but his reputation was also overshadowed by any emperor in the Liao Dynasty, even his ancestor Yelu ABaoji. During Yelu Dashi's legendary 20-year military career, he successively fought against the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty, Central Asian countries and the Western Asian coalition forces. Thanks to Yelu Dashi, the Northern Song Dynasty exhausted the military supplies accumulated for more than 40 years since Wang Anshi's reform but still failed, eventually leading to the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty; thanks to Yelu Dashi, the Liao State was revived after its demise, and its prosperity even exceeded that of any period in the Liao Dynasty. Its territory exceeded that of Mongolia and the Southern Song Dynasty at that time, and was more than twice that of the Western Xia Dynasty. Thanks to Yelu Dashi, the Central Plains culture and Khitan culture were spread in Central Asia; Because of Yelu Dashi, countries in Central and West Asia understood that wars did not depend on numbers of people. Yelu Dashi used "The Art of War" to get them to pay tuition fees. For quite a while, Khitan became synonymous with China, and Yelu Dashi became synonymous with Khitan. To this day, the pronunciation of the word "China" is still "Khitan" in many language families around the world. Liao Daozong reigned for forty-five years and was the longest-serving emperor in the Liao State. From the beginning of Liao Daozong's accession to the throne, the Liao State began to decline, because Liao Daozong was "far from gentlemen and close to villains" and he could not listen to honest words that were harsh to his ears. During the reign of Liao Daozong, it was also the period with the largest number of treacherous officials in the Liao State. People hoped for him to die early and that a wise monarch would succeed to the throne to save the declining Liao Empire. But this Liao Daozong lived a long life, and it was not until forty-five years later that people waited until this day. But what is disappointing is that Emperor Tianzuo, who succeeded to the throne, was even worse than Daozong of Liao Dynasty. Emperor Tianzuo hunted and fished all day long and ignored court affairs. In 1114 AD, the Jurchen tribe in the northeast elected Wanyan Aguda as its leader and raised an army against Emperor Tianzuo. Since Wanyan Aguda had only 2,500 people under him, Emperor Tianzuo did not take him seriously and only sent 7,000 troops to suppress him. As a result, not only did Wanyan Aguda not be eliminated, but Wanyan Aguda's team was expanded, and most of them surrendered. When the number of people grew to more than 20,000 people, Wanyan Aguda proclaimed himself emperor and his country was called Jin. Wanyan Aguda was the Taizu of Jin. Emperor Tianzuo mobilized 700,000 soldiers from all over the country to attack Jin. Although the number was 35:1, the Liao army began to retreat before the war began. The Jin soldiers began to attack, while the Liao army was running frequently. Emperor Tianzuo ran 500 kilometers in one day, but finally had nowhere to hide and ran to Jiashan in Mongolia. When they arrived at Jiashan, there were only 5,000 troops left. Yuan Tengfei, known as the "most powerful history teacher in history", said that the reason why Emperor Tianzuo went to Jiashan was because there were swamps there that the Jin soldiers couldn't pass. If the Jin soldiers couldn't get through, how did Emperor Tianzuo get through? Yuan Tengfei was different from Yi Zhongtian. Yi Zhongtian relied on reasoning, while Yuan Tengfei was good at on-site performance, but this on-site performance was obviously unworkable. (I also learned to reason.) The country cannot go without a monarch for a day. Emperor Tianzuo fled, and the ministers had no choice but to establish Yeluchun, King of Jin, as emperor in Yanjing, known as the Northern Liao Dynasty in history. Because the attack on the Jin Dynasty had mobilized all the troops in the country except the border city of Kedun, and these troops had died, surrendered, and fled. There was no choice but to recruit 22,000 hungry people in Liaodong, plus the thousands of people recruited in Yanjing, bringing a total of less than 30,000 people. The Northern Song Dynasty heard the news that the Liao State was about to fall and decided to recover the sixteen prefectures of Youyun before the Jin Dynasty. The Northern Song Dynasty sent Tong Guan to lead 200,000 troops to attack Yanjing, but he returned miserably. A few months later, Yeluchun, Emperor of the Northern Liao Dynasty, died, and the Northern Song Dynasty sent the generals Liu Yanqing and Liu Guangshi (later known as the Four Anti-Jin Generals with Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, and Zhang Jun) to lead troops to attack Yanjing. As a result, they lost 100,000 troops and lost again. The Northern Song Dynasty attacked Yanjing twice and used the military supplies accumulated for more than 40 years since Wang Anshi's reform. The military strength was more than ten times that of the other party. Moreover, the other party's soldiers were still temporarily formed miscellaneous troops. However, the Northern Song Dynasty could not win. What was the reason? Because the commander of the Liao Army was Yelu Dashi. The Northern Song Dynasty could not capture Yanjing City, so it had to turn to the Jin Dynasty for help. Due to the disparity in troops, the capital of Yan was breached by the Jin soldiers and the Northern Liao Dynasty was destroyed. After breaking the capital of Yan, the Jin soldiers looted all their property and captured men, women and children as slaves, leaving only an empty city in the Northern Song Dynasty. Since the Song army lost twice to Yelu Dashi, in the eyes of the Jin people, the Song army's combat effectiveness was even weaker than that of the Liao State, and Yanjing City would be theirs sooner or later. Sure enough, within a few years, the Jin soldiers recaptured the capital of Yan from the Song army, and then went south to capture Bianliang, Tokyo. The Northern Song Dynasty was finally destroyed. The Song Dynasty not only failed to obtain the sixteen prefectures of Youyun, but also lost half of its country. This was all because it lost to Yelu Dashi, which allowed the Jin people to understand the details. After leaving Yanjing City, Yelu Dashi was defeated at Juyong Pass and captured. If Emperor Tianzuo had handed over his troops to Yelu Dashi for command, the gold medal would have been just a flash in the pan. When Yuan Tengfei narrated "Hundred Lectures: Liao of the Three Dynasties in the Northern Region", he said that Yelu Dashi had gone to Jiashan to meet Emperor Tianzuo before being captured, and after escaping from Jinying, he went to Jiashan to meet Emperor Tianzuo again. However, only the latter time is recorded in the History of Liao. So did Yelu Dashi go to Jiashan to see Emperor Tianzuo before he was captured? I don't think so. If Yelu Dashi went to Jiashan to meet Emperor Tianzuo, then as long as Emperor Tianzuo heard that Yelu Dashi was captured, he would not stay in Jiashan honestly. Although Yelu Dashi was a royal family, there were not a few in the royal family who surrendered to the Jin Dynasty. This was probably one of the reasons why Yelu Dashi successfully pretended to surrender. According to records in the History of the Jin Dynasty, Yelu Dashi atoned for his crime after being captured and led Jin soldiers to Jiashan to capture Emperor Tianzuo. However, Emperor Tianzuo took advantage of the chaos and fled, but Yelu Dashi was still promoted. This again contradicts the records in the History of Liao, but Yuan Tengfei did not raise doubts about this. If Yelu Dashi betrayed Emperor Tianzuo, would he still go to see Emperor Tianzuo after escaping from Jinying? No. Who is Emperor Tianzuo? A foolish king. Even if he didn't know that Yelu Dashi had betrayed him, he would still suspect Yelu Dashi because Yelu Dashi had been captured after all. Yelu Dashi went to see Emperor Tianzuo, which was equivalent to a wolf entering the tiger's mouth and narrowly escaped death. In addition, how many people does Emperor Tianzuo have under his command? Five thousand people. It would be good if the entire army was annihilated, but how could they escape? Yuan Tengfei only raised doubts about why Yelu Dashi betrayed Emperor Tianzuo. Why did Yelu Dashi betray Emperor Tianzuo? It doesn't make sense! Even if Yelu Dashi wanted to defraud the trust of the Jin people, he would not betray his master. Unless he was completely disappointed with Emperor Tianzuo, but if he was completely disappointed with Emperor Tianzuo, he would not be able to see Emperor Tianzuo again. Therefore, I personally think that the records in the History of the Jin Dynasty are false. Regarding Yelu Dashi's records, I believe more in "History of Liao" because Yelu Dashi was after all from the Liao State. So why did "Golden History" make up such a lie? We know that the Jin people had two enemies at that time, one was Yue Fei and the other was Yelu Dashi. Yue Fei wanted the two emperors of Huiqin and the recovery of lost territory; Yelu Dashi also wanted the recovery of lost territory, but his recovery of lost territory meant the destruction of the Jin Dynasty. At that time, the Khitan people all pinned their hopes on Yelu Dashi. After Yelu Dashi escaped from Jinying, 7,000 Khitan people joined his team along the way, which shows that his reputation in the Liao Kingdom was very high. Therefore, the Jin people fabricated lies to reduce Yelu Dashi's reputation among the Khitan people. Yelu Dashi met Emperor Tianzuo. Emperor Tianzuo asked Yelu Dashi whether he should make Yelu Chun, King of Jin, emperor. However, when he saw Yelu Dashi bringing back 7,000 troops, he did not deal with Yelu Dashi, but was anxious to attack Jin. Yelu Dashi's dissuasion failed. In order to preserve the last of its strength for the Liao State, one night, he secretly left Emperor Tianzuo with 200 elite soldiers and headed for Kedun City. Kedun City is located on the Mongolian border, more than 3,000 kilometers away from Jiashan. Due to the vast desert in between, it was difficult to mobilize and defend troops. Therefore, when Emperor Tianzuo mobilized the entire army, only the army here did not move. At that time, 20,000 people were stationed. Yelu Dashi's 200 troops finally crossed the desert and arrived at Kedun City after many hardships. At the same time, Emperor Tianzuo left Jiashan and took the initiative to attack, but was defeated and captured. After being captured, Emperor Tianzuo was demoted to King Hailing and died a year later. Although Yelu Dashi had never been to Kedun City, he was elected as the leader due to his high reputation in the Liao State. When Yuan Tengfei narrated "Hundred Lectures¡¤Liao of the Three Dynasties in the Northern Region", he said that Yelu Dashi had captured three cities in the Jin Dynasty after arriving at Kedun City, but it was not recorded in historical materials. I don't know where these three cities are. They should not be on the other side of the desert. If it's not on the other side of the desert, it's on the east side of Coton City. However, it is recorded in the History of the Liao Dynasty that after the establishment of Western Liao Dynasty, Yelu Dashi sent 70,000 troops to attack the Jin Dynasty. However, when passing through the desert, most of the troops died and had to return in the end. Yuan Tengfei also emphasized that "200 people can pass, but 70,000 people cannot." Since you can attack the Jin Dynasty from Kedun City, why do you have to pass through the vast desert? If there is a Jin city to the east of Kedun City, why wasn't Kedun City captured by the Jin soldiers? Didn't the Jin people know that there were 20,000 Liao troops here? If you really don't know, it can only mean that Yelu Dashi is a militarist rather than a politician. In this way, Yelu Dashi was exposed prematurely and had no choice but to choose the Western Expedition. Yelu Dashi's Western Expedition should also pass through the desert, and this desert is the desert traveled by 70,000 people. This desert should be larger in area. Yelu Dashi marched westward and embarked on a road of no return. Yelu Dashi and his party arrived in western Xinjiang. Due to no place to stand, they clashed with a local tribe. Yelu Dashi's troops, as a tired army, failed to win, so they had to continue westward and finally found a place to stay in today's Kyrgyzstan. This was also once a territory of the Liao State. As soon as Yelu Dashi's troops arrived, Han and Khitan people came to defect, among which Khitan people alone accounted for more than 10,000 households. After recuperation, Yelu Dashi conquered the surrounding Turkic tribes one by one. In 1131, Yelu Dashi proclaimed himself emperor and established the Western Liao Dynasty. As the large group of troops could not pass through the desert, Yelu Dashi recovered his lost territory, and his dream of destroying the Jin Dynasty was finally dashed. In order to consolidate the Western Liao regime, Yelu Dashi began the Western Expedition. He defeated all Central Asian countries in the west and made these countries dependent on the Western Liao. The Western Liao occupied most of western Xinjiang and today's Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, becoming the largest country in Central Asia. In order to curb the strong momentum of Western Liao, some Central Asian countries joined forces with Western Asian countries to form a 100,000 coalition force to attack Western Liao. At that time, Yelu Dashi had only twenty to thirty thousand troops at his disposal, forming three tribes of Han, Khitan and Turkic people. He used the terrain to lead the West Asian coalition forces into a grand canyon, and diverted his three troops to the left, right and back of the West Asian coalition forces. On the three sides, he used the canyon to form a situation of twenty to thirty thousand people surrounding 100,000, and finally wiped out the West Asian coalition forces. Yelu Dashi participated in the Yanjing Defense War at the age of 36, established the Western Liao Dynasty at the age of 46, and died at the age of 56. A total of 20 years of military career, he grew from the initial 200 people to more than 90,000 households (not including the affiliated states). His territory is second only to the Jin Dynasty in Central Asia and East Asia, and his prosperity is second to none in Central Asia, so that many people who came to the Western Liao Dynasty did not want to return. After the death of Yelu Dashi, the Western Liao Dynasty lasted for another 78 years. In 1212, the Naiman Tribe was destroyed by Genghis Khan, and the son of the leader of the Naiman Tribe surrendered to the West Liao Dynasty and usurped the leadership of the West Liao Dynasty. In 1218, the Genghis Khan faction eliminated Zhelie and surrendered to the law, and the Western Liao Dynasty perished. After the fall of the Western Liao Dynasty, some old ministers of the Western Liao Dynasty went to West Asia to establish the Post-Western Liao Dynasty. However, most of the Post-Western Liao Dynasty were Central Asian people, and there were very few Han and Khitan people. After Yelu Dashi, only one Yelu Chucai (the prime minister of Genghis Khan) appeared in the Khitan tribe, and his reputation disappeared. Khitan Ethnic Group (Data Map)