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Compared with the Song Dynasty's heyday, the Liao Dynasty actually had a very difficult time in those years.
During the Chongxi period, the Song Dynasty carried out weapons reforms, gradually replacing cold weapons with hot weapons, and crushed the Liao Dynasty's military power.
Afterwards, the Song Dynasty reformed the military system to improve the soldiers' military literacy and combat effectiveness. From then on, the military situation between Liao and Song was completely reversed.
The Liao Kingdom had completely fallen behind the Song Dynasty army in terms of military numbers, combat effectiveness, equipment and personal quality.
Under such circumstances, the former Liao Kingdom was completely unable to suppress the Song Dynasty militarily. On the contrary, through the Battle of Xijin, the Liao Kingdom lost the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and Liaoyang, the Liao capital.
These places have always been the important lands for taxation and farming that the Liao Kingdom relied on for its survival. The loss of these places was a huge blow to the Liao Kingdom, and its national strength declined seriously.
After Yelu Zongzhen's death, his son Yelu Hongji was young and unable to control the overall situation, so his younger brother Yelu Chongyuan had to inherit the throne of the Liao Dynasty.
All we can say is that Yelu Zongzhen at least made a relatively wise decision before his death.
Yelu Chongyuan was young and strong, had sufficient prestige, and had experience in leading troops to quell rebellions many times. Therefore, he was able to suppress the nobles of various Khitan tribes and barely maintain the Pi Shi Army from falling apart.
Otherwise, if Yelu Hongji succeeded to the throne, I am afraid that the Khitan would first launch a rebellion, and then it would be disastrous for the Liao Kingdom.
But the problem is that even if Yelu Chongyuan came to power and barely maintained the situation, he could not prevent the Liao Kingdom's national strength from declining sharply and rebellions from breaking out all over the country.
This is the general trend, and it would be useless even if Liao Taizu Yelü Abaoji were resurrected.
First of all, the decline of military power led to the Liao Dynasty's inability to control such a vast territory. For example, the western and central parts of the Mongolian grasslands and the northeastern part north of Heilongjiang were completely lost to the Liao Dynasty's control.
Secondly, after losing the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and Liaoyang, the Liao Dynasty's economy and agriculture plummeted because most of its handicraft manufacturing industries and fields were in these places.
Under such circumstances, if we can’t even maintain the army, how can we maintain order in the country?
Therefore, in order to protect the economy and agriculture, they had to trade with the Song Dynasty in the south and purchase food and other supplies to maintain the army.
But this will increase conflicts with the ethnic groups in Northeast China.
Because most of the Liao Kingdom's natural resources were in the northeast, including furs, timber, medicinal materials, minerals, etc., the Liao Kingdom needed these resources to exchange with the Song Dynasty.
The problem is that the local ethnic groups in Northeast China are not only the Khitans, or in other words, the Khitans can only be regarded as a border ethnic group in Northeast China, and their main habitat is the grasslands in the area from Chifeng and Tongliao in Inner Mongolia to Changchun in Jilin in later generations.
They were mainly nomadic and were the first to form a unified regime from scattered tribes. They then conquered the scattered tribes of various ethnic groups in the surrounding areas, thus forming today's Liao Kingdom.
The real northeastern ethnic groups between the Baishan and Heishui regions are mainly composed of tribes such as the Bohai, Jurchen, Shiwei and Xi.
Especially the Jurchens, who are numerous and powerful in combat, and their strength should not be underestimated.
Therefore, if the Khitan people wanted to maintain their regime, they had to seize resources from the Northeast and exchange them with the Song Dynasty. However, the local ethnic groups in the Northeast had become increasingly aware of the decline of the Liao Dynasty and launched a wave of resistance.
At the beginning of the war between the two sides, the Liao Kingdom was able to suppress them with firearms, and put down rebellions, barely maintaining the Liao Kingdom's ruling position.
But more than ten years later, the Jurchen tribes in the northeast gradually rose up, reversed the situation, and sounded the clarion call for a counterattack against the Liao Kingdom.
"That doesn't make sense."
Inside the Constitutional Court, everyone was very surprised.
Han Qi said, "Aren't we forbidden to export firearms to neighboring countries? Although Liao's firearms are a bit backward, they should have no problem suppressing the Jurchens."
"No."
Zhao Jun shook his head and said, "This is an inevitable trend, but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly."
"Inevitable trend? Why is it an inevitable trend?"
No one quite understands.
Although the Liao people could not buy firearms from the Song Dynasty, they could buy raw materials.
They already had the technological capabilities related to firearms, which ensured they had an adequate supply of firearms.
Although the ethnic tribes in Northeast China bought a lot of the Song Dynasty's more backward cold weapons such as swords, guns, armor, bows and crossbows.
However, primitive firearms such as grenades and artillery were enough for them to defeat enemies fighting with cold weapons.
Moreover, the Liao Kingdom suppressed the ethnic groups in the northeast, but was still able to continuously seize resources from them, and then continued to supply firearms through the Song Dynasty, forming a cycle.
Why is this an inevitable trend?
"Do you think that the Liao Kingdom was able to maintain its national strength by constantly suppressing rebellions and intimidating all sides in the past few years?"
Zhao Jun asked back.
"Yes, even if there are rebels in the tribes, they dare not openly become enemies of the Liao people. The Liao Kingdom only needs to ensure the supply of raw materials."
Zheng Jian said.
"That's the ideal scenario, but have you ever thought about this?"
Zhao Jun looked around at the crowd and said, "The Liao people are also human beings, and as humans they are prone to corruption and depravity. Moreover, the Khitan nobles have been decadent for a long time, and they can no longer escape from a life of luxury."
"What does Hanlong mean?"
Yan Shu immediately understood, his eyes widening as he asked, "Are the Liao people themselves corrupt? Were they bribed into selling firearms, or are they using military funds to maintain their extravagant lifestyle?"
Zhao Jun didn't answer directly, but just smiled faintly: "If we don't reform the military system, our fate will be the same as the Liao people."
"I see, that's how it is."
"We previously envisioned that if the Liao used the resources they seized from the Northeast to buy raw materials and food from the Song, they could continue to suppress the Northeast's ethnic groups and continue to plunder resources. Although the Northeast's ethnic groups were dissatisfied, they were still subject to the Liao's military power as before and were forced to accept it. In this way, a balance was formed among the three parties."
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