"What is this?"
At noon, by the Suiye River, the autumn wind was blowing and the wildfire was gradually dying out. Xiao Tabuyan, dressed in plain clothes, had slightly red eyes and looked at Xiao Worila in front of him with a little vigilance.
"Reporting to the Queen Mother."
Xiao Wulila, the Grand Lord of the Six Courts of Western Liao and the Marshal of the Army, bowed his head and looked at each other. In his hand, he was holding a delicate locked wooden box that was two feet long and one foot wide. "This is a collection of letters between the late emperor and the emperor of the Song Dynasty when he was alive... Every year, the late emperor personally took the old key to change the new lock and put the letters of the previous year in... Before his death, the late emperor said that when his bones are collected after his death, if the empress dowager is alive, she must come and read them with me; if the empress dowager is not alive, Your Majesty must open it in person, and then I will read it to Your Majesty."
Xiao Tabuyan relaxed a little, but at the same time she remembered that her husband did leave a bunch of keys before he died, so she hurriedly asked someone to get them.
However, while the emperor and his minister were waiting for the key, even though there were nearly a hundred civil and military officials and thousands of soldiers surrounding the scene, they still fell into a tense and sad silence.
The sadness is of course because today is the cremation and ossuary collection ceremony of Yelu Dashi, the de facto founding monarch of Western Liao and the nominal tenth emperor of Liao.
But the tension came from a kind of mutual fear between the two most powerful people present at the moment - not only was the young emperor Yelu Yile still very young, but the Empress Dowager Xiao Tabuyan just stood there in silence, and Xiao Worila could only stand at the side holding the box without moving.
To be fair, Xiao Worila and Xiao Tabuyan were very familiar with each other. One was Yelu Dashi's most trusted queen, and for more than ten years, she was often in charge of governing when Yelu Dashi went on expeditions; the other was Yelu Dashi's most trusted minister, serving as the commander-in-chief of the army and the king of the Six Courtyards... and both of them were in-laws (Yelu Dashi had only one son and one daughter, and the daughter was betrothed to Xiao Worila's eldest son)... There was no reason for them not to be familiar with each other.
Even further, both of them have the surname Xiao, and although they are not close relatives, they are from the same Shulü Xiao clan and have a close relationship. And Xiao Tabuyan was able to become the queen when Yelu Dashi first proclaimed himself Khan, which was inevitably due to the help of Xiao Wulila, the second founder of the Western Liao Dynasty.
However, this is a different time.
Now, Yelu Dashi, who had been unable to bear the physical strain due to years of fighting and traveling, fell ill and died, and his son was still young. According to the Liao tradition, Xiao Tabuyan had to follow the rule of a female ruler and change the reign title to Xianqing. The biggest destabilizing factor and the most direct threat that she had to face first was Xiao Worila, the King of the Six Courtyards and the Marshal of the Army.
It should be known that the Western Liao state system followed the former Great Liao system and was divided into two major branches, the north and the south. The northern branch was the central official, which was basically a mixture of the Han central system and the Khitan palace system under the Western Liao system. It directly governed the capital Hu Si Oluduo on the banks of the Suiye River and most of the so-called Khitan-Xi-Han-Jurchen and other so-called former countries; while the southern branch was the dispatched official, who was directly responsible for dozens of large and small vassal states including Gaochang, Eastern Karakhan, Western Karakhan, and Khwarezm.
The internal and external diversion and prevention are still very obvious.
In this situation, Xiao Wulila was not only the commander-in-chief of the army, but also the King of the Six Courtyards who commanded the royal family. His power was self-evident.
Of course, Yelu Dashi’s prestige as a founding monarch who traveled thousands of miles away was invaluable, and his widow and orphans were also supported by the palace army and his tribesmen.
In short, the ruler is young and the country is in doubt, the queen mother is in charge of the court, powerful ministers are in charge of the army, and the national situation is so special... the two of them cannot help but be so embarrassed.
The key was delivered soon, and the awkward silence was broken. The surrounding Khitan nobles, including several Xi-Han-Jurchen close ministers, all pricked up their ears early, wanting to know what the late emperor Yelu Dashi had said to the Zhao Song official.
The lock of the box was successfully opened, and twelve stacks of more than a hundred letters were taken out, some of which were particularly thick.
After reading the first letter in order, it turned out to be the famous letter in which the Zhao Song government sent the current Minister of War Hu Hongxiu to meet and form an alliance, inviting them to attack Western Xia. In the letter, the Zhao Song government directly called Yelu Dashi and the Western Liao people "stray dogs". The people present at that time included the Western Liao Marshal Xiao Wulila and Liang Jiaying, the Song Dynasty envoy to Western Liao who had appeared in the morning. Everyone knew it.
But there are also things that they don’t know… After reading this, everyone realized that the official actually called himself a stray dog in the letter.
Considering the later achievements of the two emperors, the events of the past have already become legendary stories. However, one of the protagonists in the story has just passed away, while the others are still alive. There seem to be some secrets involved... It is both sad and epic to read.
In short, since these letters were written from the most noble person in the world to the second most noble person, and they must also contain certain retellings of the previous emperor's last words, no one dared to underestimate the political significance of these letters. However, there were too many letters and the contents were too diverse, so after discussions between Xiao Tabuyan and Xiao Wulila, several close ministers who were proficient in writing came forward to help read and organize them.
But even so, I read from noon till dark, and still didn't finish reading in front of Yelu Dashi's bones.
Therefore, everyone had to seal the box again, but the Empress Dowager held the box and the Marshal held the key. They agreed to return to the palace and read together the next day. Now they would bring the late emperor's bones back to the city and ask the monks and Taoists to carefully preserve them, so that they could set out on time in a few days and bury them in Linhuang Prefecture according to the late emperor's will.
At noon the next day, the letters were finally read through. But to be honest, most of the letters were long and boring... They were filled with the messy narration of the Emperor Zhao, ranging from regular greetings to some messy poems, from some smug Zhao Song Dynasty policies to complaints about family matters, and even some strange hand-drawn animals.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!
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