Chương 229: Chapter 228 — Reporting in the Council Hall

At that moment, the Great Khan's gaze turned toward the place where the generals stood in line. It was a matter for which the ordinary officials and craftsmen had to be dismissed, and only the generals called separately. As the Great Khan raised his hand to send the people out, Zongwang stepped closer and spoke quietly.

"I will escort you to the building next door." It was one of the few small buildings already completed inside the palace fortress. The great halls were still in the process of taking shape with pillars and eaves, but that building had been finished in haste. It was the only building that could be used immediately. It was the place the Great Khan used when calling together the chiefs of many tribes and the generals for council. The building was octagonal.

Seen from a distance, it looked less like a small wooden hall and more like a great field tent transferred into timber. Eight pillars supported the perimeter, and the roof gathered upward toward the center. The walls were not built high, so the presence of inside and outside was not completely severed, and when the doors opened, the wind circled once and passed out. It was not large. Yet it was suitable for sitting around and speaking.

Rather than clearly dividing high seats from low seats, the center was left empty, and people sat in a circle. Since there was no direction, there was no seat of honor. It contained the will of the steppe, where council was held in a place of equality, without high and low. It was good for the tribal chiefs to face one another as they spoke, and the Great Khan too could look at everyone's eyes at once instead of issuing commands while seeing only one man's face.

Thick mats had been laid on the floor, and a low brazier stood in the center. The fire in the brazier was still small, but above it drifted the faint smell of dried tea and meat. Along the walls were wooden racks where bows and swords could be hung, and on one side stood a low table where maps could be spread. In the middle of the rough construction ground of the new palace fortress, that octagonal building was already being used like the heart where Jin's military administration gathered.

The Great Khan entered first. Zongwang and Yeongu followed, and the generals crossed the threshold in order. Outside, the sound of craftsmen moving timber began again, and inside, words that would move armies began to gather like a low breath. The three great tasks Yeongu had spoken of to Zongwang the previous night were reported. Zongwang first emphasized the importance of the matters, then calmly reported the three future tasks. He added to Yeongu's rough expressions what he had thought through overnight.

Not one of the matters was easy. But if they could be done, it seemed they might be able to lead the great decisive battle against Liao to victory. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Pressure on Liao through opening relations with Song. A bilateral meeting to secure Goryeo's support. Infiltration of spies for an intelligence operation to shake Liao from within. Not a single one was simple.

At the astonishing words, those seated could not open their mouths. If even one word had come out, saying no would have been easy, yet no one could speak, and they only swallowed. Yeongu glanced at Kim Yun-gyeong. Kim Yun-gyeong had already guessed that this had not come from Yeongu's head. Kim Yun-gyeong's gaze asked insistently. Though he did not speak in the Great Khan's presence, his eyes asked, Is this your idea? Unable to endure that gaze, Yeongu spoke as if confessing.

"Your Majesty, this… that is, the intelligence operation was General Park Geun-su's idea. I kept persistently asking him to mobilize the Goryeo army. Hm, it is truly a difficult request. I do not even know whether such a thing can be called a request. The idea he came up with to avoid it was to incite rebellion. According to our information, trust in the current Liao emperor has fallen to the floor.

They say he failed to conduct several battles properly, that matters have come this far because of his tyranny, and that he has no plans for what comes next. They say things such as, 'Yelü Chun, whom the late emperor had intended to make crown prince, would have been better.'" *Yelü Chun, Emperor Xuanzong Xiaozhang of Northern Liao, 1063–1122, was the first emperor of Northern Liao, reigning from March 13 to June 1122, and was a member of the Liao imperial clan, a grandson of Emperor Xingzong.

Originally, Emperor Daozong intended to make his nephew Yelü Chun crown prince. However, checked by his officials, he instead made Emperor Tianzuo crown prince.

"Yelü Chun?" Was it because the surname Yelü carried an uneasy presence? Agolta repeated the name. O Geol-mae answered.

"He is presently the Prince of Wei." Yelü Chun was the last possibility of stability that Liao had ultimately missed. He was close to an elder of the imperial clan, one who could have held the already-tilting empire in place a little longer. His character was gentle, his reputation sound, and he stood in a position where he could have obtained both the blood of the imperial house and the trust of the court. The late emperor had once intended to make him crown prince. There was reason behind that judgment.

Liao was already a country in which the interests of Khitan nobles, the Xi people, Balhae-descended people, Han officials, and many subordinate tribes were tangled together. Such a country needed not a young emperor inclined toward hunting and pleasure, but a ruler who listened to the court and understood the weight of the imperial clan. Yelü Chun was a name that could have bound people together in such a position. But the officials opposed it.

They weighed the legitimacy of the imperial line and the interests of the court, and put forward the young Yelü Yanxi. Yelü Yanxi had lost his parents as a child. There was also a heart that pitied his unfortunate state. That sympathy entered into the judgment of imperial succession, and in the end it changed the fate of Liao. The throne of an emperor was not a place for comforting a pitiable person. It was a place that had to bear the horses, storehouses, generals, and people of a country.

The heart that pitied a child who had lost his parents was warm in human terms, but on the scales that decided the succession of an empire, it was too light an emotion. That single warmth later returned as the blood of countless fortresses, military tents, and common people. That pity comforted one person, but endangered a country. After Yelü Yanxi became emperor, Liao quickly loosened. The emperor enjoyed hunting, the court watched cautiously in fear, and the border generals alone bore responsibility.

While Jurchen strength grew, Liao failed to see that danger properly. It saw it and looked down on it, lost time while looking down on it, lost soldiers after losing time, and even after losing soldiers could not bind the heart of the court into one. At every such moment, the name of Yelü Chun rose to mind. Had he become emperor, Liao would not have recovered all of its old strength.

There were already old cracks in the empire's roots, and Jurchen strength was not a wind that would disappear simply because one ruler was changed. But the speed and shape of collapse would very likely have been different from what it was now. If Yelü Chun had ascended the throne, the court would first have been somewhat more stable. The imperial clan and nobles would have found it harder to speak the name of rebellion easily around him, and public sentiment in Nanjing and Shangjing would have been less shaken.

The attitude toward the Jurchen may also have changed. Instead of losing time through contempt and carelessness, he may have used conciliation, restraint, and military reorganization together. He was less a genius who could save a country than a man unlikely to ruin a country recklessly. In the late imperial house of Liao, that was exactly the kind of person needed. More than an extraordinary conqueror, a ruler who knew how to hold up collapsing pillars was precious.

Yelü Chun was the face of the imperial clan who could bear that weight. So later people might say this: If the late emperor had followed his first intention and set up Yelü Chun, Liao would not have collapsed so hastily before Jin. The court and army that scattered under the name of Emperor Tianzuo would have split a little later under the name of Yelü Chun. Even if he could not have turned back the fate of a ruined country completely, he might have preserved the last dignity of a collapsing state.

Had Yelü Chun become emperor, Liao may still have shaken in the end, but it would not have shown the sight of destroying itself as it did now.