The History of China - #138 - N. Song 6: Peace In Our Time

Episode Date: March 11, 2018

The new Song Emperor, Zhenzong, sits uneasily on the Chinese throne after his father’s untimely death in 997. But court intrigues and attempted coups will only be the tip of the iceberg for this untested and unlikely sovereign, because the Liao Dynasty to the north has its eyes and hearts set on revenge for Chinese slights, and will send a massive force bent on crushing Song resistance to their will. Time Period Covered: 997-1005 CE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hi everyone, this is Scott. If you want to learn about the world's oldest civilizations, find out how they were rediscovered, follow the story of Mark Antony and Cleopatra's descendants over ten generations, or take a deep dive into the Iron Age or the Hellenistic era, then check out the Ancient World Podcast. Available on all podcasting platforms, or go to ancientworldpodcast.com. That's the Ancient World Podcast. This episode is brought to you in part by Sudio Headphones.

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When last we left off the main narrative, before plunging headlong into the full history of rice that would revolutionize Chinese farming right around this time, we had ended off with the death of the Song Dynasty's second emperor, Taizong, and the unlikely accession of his third son, Zhao Heng, as the emperor Zhenzong in the year 997 at the age of 30. And so today, we'll begin looking at the man who would take China into the 11th century, a wholly new type of monarch within the Song state, the shy guy emperor, Zhenzong. Prior to his death, and apparently before the untimely death of his second son and crowned prince Zhao Defang in 992, at just 22 years old,

Emperor Taizong had expressed doubts as to how he thought his sons might rule the empire he'd built for them. He's written to have said, quote, My children are brought up in the seclusion of the palace. Without knowing the affairs of the world, they will need the advice and guidance of good scholars, end quote. And it's definitely a fair point. After all, both Taizong and his own brother, Taizu, had been brought up first and foremost as warriors and military strategists, and as leaders of men. They were most at home in the pitch of battle, or in the tents encamped among their battle-hardened men, and viewed the opulence and ceremony of palace life as dull and, here's the key bit, a burdensome duty that must be borne upon their shoulders. Taizong's sons, on the other hand, had been, to borrow a phrase from the Roman and Byzantine

empires, born into the purple. They'd never known privation, suffering, or anything of real life-or-death consequence. As a result, it had been Taizong's real fear that without the proper guidance, his issue might become opulent, indolent, and the source of tyrants that any reader of Chinese history in the 10th century could tell you only occurred at the very end of dynasties. Did that mean that Taizong put in the extra elbow grease to make sure his potential heirs were their best possible selves, ready for whatever challenges of leadership threw at them? Absolutely not. Don't be absurd. When his preferred son and heir died, he pretty much locked himself away in mourning for two years and wouldn't let

anyone talk to him about appointing another of his sons to the title. When he finally got out of his funk and got back around to the question, he would do a couple of things. First, he did get around to ordering court scholars to begin instructing his still-living sons about the merits of entrusting administration to the counselors and of respecting the opinions of the officials, while himself teaching them lessons like modesty and, quote, even ordering the heir apparent, Zhao Hung, to stand below the chief counselors at court, to treat his tutors with deference, and to respect the council of subordinates, end quote. Nothing says, I'm sure you're going to mess this up, by teaching your heir that he should always, always listen to his subordinates, because they all definitely know better than he does. Even when Zhao Hung's heirdom

was made official the following year with his appointment, finally, to the governorship of Kaifeng, there was still a heavy air of, you can't possibly do this yourself. Since Taizong closely monitored his son's activities and made sure to repeat ad infinitum that he should always do what his counselors tell him to do. Even though, again, Zhao Hung was 28 when he received his first and only governorship.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, dad. Maybe I'd be a little more at ease in this position if you'd given me a real job before I was approaching 30. This extremely belated education in management took a turn for the even worse when Taizong died suddenly in 997, leaving his heir's education woefully incomplete as he assumed the throne. Is it any shock, then, that Zhenzong took his father's advice to heart? Not only had his father rammed it into his skull at every opportunity that he was definitely not equipped for the job and should leave it all to his subordinates, but then even his inadequate education had been cut short before it was anywhere close to done by his father's death.

Nor was Taizong alone in thinking that Emperor Zhenzong really shouldn't have gotten the job. Almost as soon as the 30-year-old had sat himself on the imperial throne, he was forced to face down a conspiracy against him, emanating from the highest echelons of his own court and family. The new Empress Dowager, Empress Li, influenced and assisted by several members of the imperial court, attempted to gain wider approval throughout the court to remove Zhenzong and replace him with his elder surviving brother, Zhao Yuanzhuo. Now, a couple of things here. First off, this whole conspiracy is weird because Empress Dowager Li is actually Taizong's second Empress Li, which makes one's eyes cross a bit, but it's also weird because she didn't actually have a dog in this fight. Neither of the two contenders for the throne were her sons by

blood, which really makes one wonder why she'd stick her neck out like this. The other strange thing was that Zhao Yuanzhuo was virtually a non-entity in the Zhao family tree. He's mentioned all at once by Lao and Huang, and this is the entirety of what they had to say about the eldest surviving son of Taizong. Quote, the tragedy of the Zhao clan continued. Taizong's eldest son, Yuanzhuo, who alone had remonstrated against his uncle, Ting Mei's exile in 984 following another conspiracy against Taizong, was driven insane by his uncle's unjust death. While he was recuperating in 985, he was not invited to the family gathering for the autumn festival. Feeling deserted, he got drunk and set fire to the palace.

As punishment, he was reduced to the rank of a commoner, end quote. So yeah, he went crazy, set fire to the palace, and got himself he was reduced to the rank of a commoner, end quote. So yeah, he went crazy, set fire to the palace, and got himself kicked out of the family as a result. But, critically, Yuan Zou was still alive and still kicking, now perhaps 32 or 33, making him just maybe a viable substitute for the underwhelming Zhenzong. Except that that would never come to pass, because when the conspirators approached the imperial chief counselor, Lu Duan, with their little scheme, Lu balked and instead immediately placed the lead conspirator, the minister Wang Qian, under arrest. Lu then immediately approached the apparently treasonous Empress Dowager and told her in no uncertain terms that the will of

Taizong could not be reversed, not even by claims of primogeniture, and certainly not by some half-mad and disowned commoner. And minor Black Panther spoiler here, but you kind of wish that Lu Duan or someone of his like was present in Wakanda for just this reason. No, no, we've already figured the succession order out, no takesies-backsies. In fact, at the formal accession ceremony, Counselor Lu actually took the fairly unprecedented step of ordering the removal of the throne screen that would typically have hidden the visage of the sovereign from those dirty common eyeballs, and thus proved to all that the man being made sovereign

was indeed the real Zhao Hung. He then led the whole of the court present to hail their new emperor. In the two months following the coronation ceremony, all three of the chief conspirators were sent into exile for their crimes of improperly drafting a commemorative edict, lobbying in the court, and for deceit and forming a clique. Though the nitty-gritty details of this conspiracy against the new emperor remain shadowy and mysterious, the swift justice against the conspirators, and especially ones of such high rank, including an assistant counselor and a powerful court eunuch,

was more than sufficient to show that Zhenzong was the real deal and meant business. Emperor Zhenzong, well aware from the outset that he ran the risk of losing control of his empire, and perhaps even throne, to his own lack of experience, did his best to appear and act strong. Not tough, but strong. He tried in all aspects during his early reign to emulate his father as much as he could. Just 12 days into his reign, for instance, he disallowed the refusal of his vice minister of works to a new office. You misunderstand me, minister.

That wasn't a request for you to transfer. That was an imperial order. Now be on your way. He even, bless his heart, tried to will himself to be interested in military affairs, ceremonially inspecting the border provinces with his chief generals and helping to draw battle formations with their input and guidance. Still, he clearly knew his limits. He was young, and far more importantly, deeply inexperienced in such affairs. Thus, he made good on his father's and teacher's advice that he defer to his own experts in the many realms he could not hope to personally oversee. For this, Zhenzong is often

called diffident and deferential, but I tend to view it a little differently. There is certainly strength in taking the lead, but there's also strength, and even more than that, wisdom, in knowing what it is that you don't know, and when it's best to leave such matters up to those who do know what they're doing in those realms, rather than insisting that you must stick your fingers into every pie just to appear strong. From Lao and Huang, quote, the new emperor respected the chief counselors, especially Lu Duan, whose style was to pay little attention to small matters, but to focus on big issues, and to emphasize stability in the court and bureaucracy. Zhenzong would allow the Bureau of Military Affairs and the Secretariat Chancellery to exchange important information, something his father and uncle had never allowed,

requiring all such information to be directed through them personally. Moreover, he even allowed many of his high officials to entertain visitors at their homes. In all, Zhenzong was exceptionally trusting of his officials, and was more comfortable than most monarchs with delegating imperial authority and decisions among his top-level staff. In fact, in the year 1001, the emperor claimed that he actually never made decisions alone and always discussed state affairs, big or small, with his counselors before reaching a conclusion. Through this change in leadership and leadership style, the ever-present threat of the Khitan loomed over the Song Empire from the north, in the form of the Liao Dynasty.

That ongoing state of war would reach its apex in the year 1004, when the Liao Emperor launched his state's largest invasion of the Southlands in more than half a century, since 946. It was not just the Liao Emperor Shen Zong, the 6th Emperor of the Catan now 32 years old, but also his mother, the now 54-year-old Empress Dowager Xiao Yanyan. Yes, the same pair of Catan royalty who had overseen the humiliating defeat of Taizong in 989 at the Battle of Gaoliang River, as the Song forces attempted to besiege Beijing, then called Yanjing. This time, mother and son commanded a force of

purportedly more than 200,000 step-riders that swept down upon Song outer defenses with blinding speed, penetrating deep into the Hebei region and reaching the outskirts of the city of Chanyuan, modern Puyong Henan, in just 60 days. This placed them well within striking distance of the capital, Kaifeng, a mere 200 miles further off. What did the Liao hope to get out of this? That is, what were their war aims? First and foremost, of course, was the classic case's belly, vengeance. Payback for the late Tai Zong and his two incursions of their own empire, which no self-respecting Khitan chieftain, much less the emperor of an entire dynasty, could stand to let go unreturned in kind. Beyond that, however, Lao and Huang posit that on the eve of this invasion, the Liao Emperor saw three paths before him and his people regarding

the Chinese Empire. They were a continuation of their long-standing policies centered around short-ranged raids across the Song borders, pressing for an advantageous permanent peace treaty, or lastly, forcing the Song Emperor to the negotiating table by pursuing a full-on offensive war against China. The first option, though traditionally the preferred policy of the border states to the north of China, had become increasingly difficult to maintain. This was in no small part thanks to the extensive networks of man-made swamps and waterways constructed by the Song forces specifically to impede the Khitan-mounted raiding parties. Between 999 and 1001, for instance,

virtually every Catan raid in Song borderlands had been forced to turn back without any significant plunder. Quote, With fewer victories and more defeats, the Liao faced a choice between either abandoning their strategy of having a buffer zone between the two states or paying an unpredictably high price to maintain that buffer. Since either choice jeopardized Liao's security,

a different alternative had to be found, end quote. The second option, immediately pressing for a peace treaty, was likewise untenable for both the Liao and Song perspectives. For the Catan, any permanent peace settlement needs must be predicated upon the Song forever renouncing their revanchism towards the so-called Lost Sixteen Prefectures along China's northeastern borders of Yan Yun, as well as returning the region seized by the later Zhou state south of the mountain passes, helpfully called Guannan, meaning south of the passes, in Hebei. This would, in the Khitans' eyes, secure against any further Chinese aggression against them, and ensure their continuing security. It's easy to see, though, that what to the Liao was permanent

peace and security, to the Song would mean abandoning every defensive measure they had in place against the Liao attack and not just ceding their claim to Yan Yun, but also giving up even more territory in the process. The two states' diplomatic objectives were therefore diametrically opposed upon this key issue, making a negotiated peace without first securing victory in war impossible. This already dim prospect had been snuffed out completely when even diplomatic backchannels between the two states had been cut off by the Song in retaliation for their discovering Liao infiltrators operating within the border markets between them. Thus it was the last option, war,

that seemed the only viable path forward in the year 1004. Yet for all their storied fearsomeness, the Khitan army that streamed down towards Kaifeng would suffer from the great unpredictable curse of bad timing. The previous year, a Song border general and longtime confidant of the emperor, named Wang Zhizong, had been taken captive by the Liao. Upset at the loss of his friend and justifiably assumed that he'd been killed in action, Emperor Zhizong ordered a sweeping series of updates and reforms to take place along the borders. Again from Lao and Huang,

The Bureau of Military Affairs and the Secretariat Chancellery were allowed joint discussion on these matters. Old strategies were adjusted, new commanders were appointed, and Zhenzong was prepared to lead a counterattack in person. From the autumn of 1003 to the late summer of 1004, in anticipation of invasions, the song went on the highest alert. End quote. Napoleon Bonaparte rose from obscurity to become the most powerful and significant figure in modern history. Over 200 years after his death, people are still debating his legacy. He was a man of contradictions, a tyrant and a reformer, a liberator and an oppressor, a revolutionary and a reactionary. His biography reads like a novel, and his influence

is almost beyond measure. I'm Everett Rummage, host of the Age of Napoleon podcast, and every month I delve into the turbulent life and times of one of the greatest characters in history, and explore the world that shaped him in all its glory and tragedy. It's a story of great battles and campaigns, political intrigue, and massive social and economic change, but it's also a story about people, populated with remarkable characters. I hope you'll join me as I examine this fascinating era of history. Find The Age of Napoleon wherever you get your podcasts. And that red alert status paid off big time for the Song defenders. A month or more before the Khitan had even set out southward,

their buildup had been detected by Chinese intelligence units. In response, Zhang Zong accepted the suggestion of his chief counselor that he lead a winter counterattack, hopefully catching the Liao army off guard, since winter attacks were not typical of Chinese strategies, and thus end their threat to his empire once and for all. But first, he, and they all, would have to withstand the first furious assault. Meanwhile, the regional officials scrambled to prepare for the coming assault. In the coastal trading city of Xiongzhou, for instance, the local prefect was able to convince the coastline authorities to open the canal and seacoast floodgates, inundating a wide region and preventing Khitan advance through the area. The invasion proper commenced in late autumn,

with the Liao army committing itself completely to the attack, plunging deep into Chinese territory, even at the risk of exposing its rear to counterattack. As I mentioned before, in the span of just two months, the 200,000 manned force had broken through the Song first line of defense and overrun 10 prefectures. However, in spite of this rocket punch of an opener, the Chinese defenses held their ground. Though the prefectures were occupied, only two out of 10 capital cities laid to siege were actually captured. Even so, with the path to Kaifeng virtually defenseless and hundreds of thousands of angry Khitan cavalry only a hundred or so miles away, it's not surprising that within the imperial

capital, nerves were getting a little rattled, especially with the still recent memory of the Khitan capturing and looting barren Kaifeng back during the Five Dynasties period. Many of Zhenzong's ministers urged the emperor to escape ahead of the inevitable Liao assault on Kaifeng, lest he be taken captive in the event of the city's fall. Yet in spite of his own personal inclinations to head for the hills, Zhenzong showed a surprising amount of backbone for such a reserved and typically shy man. He was at last convinced by his chief counselor to follow through on his initial plan and personally lead the Song counterattack against the Liao forces massed at Chanyuan. Meanwhile, for all their might on the open plains,

the Liao were finding it frustratingly impossible to breach the key defensive fortifications of the Chinese prefectural capitals. Again from Lao and Huang, quote, In northern Hebei, an all-out Liao offensive had failed to capture the strategic strongholds of Dingzhou. Then the Liao dowager Empress Xiao beat the war drums herself to launch a day-long attack on another vital Song military stronghold, Yingzhou. She reportedly lost 30,000 troops within weeks, again in vain. At about the same time, Song border garrisons took the offensive, some closing in on the rear of the advancing Liao expedition. They succeeded in occasional ambushes, while other garrisons took the offensive, crossing the frontier and scoring minor victories against the Liao, end quote. It was into this state of uncertain stalemate that the figure of Wang Zhezong re-emerges.

General Wang, as I'd mentioned, had been taken captive by the Khitan and presumed KIA by the Song. Thus, it was quite surprising when it seemingly was Wang himself who had penned a personal appeal for peace to Emperor Zhenzong as he campaigned. Lao and Huang point out that his role in negotiations between Liao and Song remains controversial in its specifics. It's agreed, though, that he revealed his own close relationship to Zhenzong, to the Catan Empress Dowager, and that he was subsequently appointed as the Liao tax commissioner and married to a woman from Empress Xiao's own clan, which certainly does make it seem like he'd

been bought off in order to facilitate a favorable negotiated settlement with the Song. Still, some historians posit that it might all have been part of an elaborate setup that would have made MI6 proud, involving General Wang purposely getting captured on the orders of Zhanzong himself in order to play the rarely attempted triple agent and tilt the eventual scales of peace negotiations in the Song's favor. It's all deliciously coke and dagger. But whatever his true role and intentions, it was through Wang Zhezong that the Liao did open negotiations towards peace. Zhenzong's position was clear enough. The Song Empire was willing to buy the Liao off, but flatly refused to cede any territory to the Khitan, and certainly not the strategically vital mountain passes. After repeated communiques with General Wang,

Zhenzong dispatched a negotiator of his own to the Liao court, to attempt to reach a solution. It was shortly after he departed that the Liao renewed their assault on the walls of Yingzhou, in an attempt to increase their bargaining power. Shortly after this new attack failed once again, and with Zhenzong now leading his army out to confront the invaders, the leader of the Yingzhou siege, Empress Dowager Xiao, announced her willingness to personally negotiate peace. Though her fresh repulsion from the city's walls were almost certainly a significant factor in her sudden willingness to open direct negotiations with the Song Emperor, the death of her cousin, Xiao Talan,

a leading general of the Liao forces when struck by an arrow on a scouting mission, likely weighed heavily on her mind and decision as well. In contrast, the appearance of the Emperor himself on the front lines to lead his troops to victory had exactly its intended effect of rallying the Song forces and greatly boosting their morale on the eve of what was to be a great battle for the soul of the empire. Yet with the call for negotiations renewed, warfare was put on pause to make way for diplomacy. The first two rounds of these negotiations failed to bear fruit, especially over the contentious point of control of the Guandong mountain passes. At this, the Liao forces pivoted and plundered a nearby prefecture in an attempt to drive their point home. Yet for all their fury, after this long, arduous, and frankly rather disappointing campaign,

the Liao soldiers were just about ready to call it quits and begin making moves as if to begin retreating northward. Zhenzong, also exhausted by the bloodshed, likewise began his preparations to return to Kaifeng. Thus it was that the third round of negotiations would finally reach an accord. Though the Song once again rejected the Liao demand of control of the passes, the Liao this time accepted the Song offer of annual payments for the assurance of peace between the empires. This agreement, reached in strictly confidential petitions directly between Emperor Zhenzong and General Wang Zhezong, would be formalized in just

a few days into what has become known as the Treaty of Chananyuan, or the Chanyuan Zhemeng. The agreement was as follows. 1. Song would pay the Liao annually 200,000 lengths of silk and 100,000 ounces of silver as a contribution to military expenses. 2. The border would be carefully demarcated. 3. Both sides would take strict measures against unauthorized infringements of the borders, and neither side would disturb the cultivated lands of the others. Neither side would give refuge to fugitive criminals. Existing border fortifications might be repaired, but no new fortifications or canals might be built along the border.

Both sides would observe this treaty, which was sworn with a solemn oath invoking religious sanctions in the case of infringement. It would cultivate friendly relations, and they would respect each other's territorial integrity. So let's take a closer look at this landmark treaty between Song and Liao. First off, the specific language used regarding the payments is no accident, and indeed deeply significant. Song diplomats demanded that any such payments be termed as contributing to

military expenses, because the alternative, calling it a payment of tribute, was completely unthinkable. Where this payment would take place and who would be delivering it was also spelled out to Song exactitude. This would be no trek to the Liao capital by a high official to make a contribution to the throne, but instead would be conducted by a minor no-name official at a backwater border town called Xiongzhou. As Tzuchit and Tietze put it, this demonstrated that the court at Kaifeng considered it only a financial transaction, not a political act implying submission. The treaty also spelled out how the two empires would address each other going forward. You'll remember that during the Liao domination of the north during the latter stages

of the five dynasties, the would-be northern monarchs were forced to acknowledge the Liao emperor as their unambiguous superior and call him their imperial father. While Zhenzong of Song was having none of that, the Kaifeng court would address this northern neighbor as Da Qidanguo, or the Great Khitan State, or alternately as just Great Liao. The Khitan court at Shangjing, meanwhile, would refer to the Chinese as the Southern Song state, and more informally, each spoke of the other as the Northern and Southern court, respectively.iao Emperor as imperial younger brother, and the Liao Emperor referred to his Song counterpart as elder brother. This relationship involved them in ceaseless rounds of ritual exchanges,

in which the Khitan and Song envoys were treated at the other's court quite differently from those of other states. Each state observed the taboos on the personal names of deceased emperors of the other state. Embassies were observed on such ritual occasions as the New Year celebration, imperial birthdays, the deaths of emperors or their empresses, and the enthronement of new monarchs. End quote. In return, Emperor Zhenzong abolished all placed names that included insulting or pejorative terms about the peoples beyond China's border, terms like caitiff and barbarian. How did the Song purchase such symbolic equanimity with the Liao? Why, by capitulating on almost every single other point, of course, to the detriment of its territorial claims and long-term

security. Article 3, for instance, effectively relinquished China's claims on its lost 16 prefectures of Yan Yun, prompting the reformer and one of the founders of Neo-Confucianism, Fan Zhongyan, to later exclaim, quote, Yan and Yun are lost. This is the greatest insult inflicted on China by the barbarians in a thousand years, but it has not been avenged, end quote. Article 4 prohibited both sides from sheltering or accepting into their own service officials from the other court who had fled, a particularly harsh blow to Song since they'd long accepted defecting Liao officials who brought with them valuable skills and information. And Article 6 put a stop to what had been the most effective measure of static defense the Chinese had against Liao incursions, the construction and flooding of artificial swamps and canals, which acted

effectively as moats against any cavalry attack. If anything, the least damaging aspect of this treaty for the affairs of the Song state were the actual payments to be made to the Liao. 200,000 lengths of silk and 100,000 ounces of silver certainly sounds like a lot, and to the Catan and their comparatively meager economy, it was a great boon to them, but it was a drop in the bucket for the Song empire, which could easily absorb such costs virtually as a rounding error in their yearly budget. The annual quota of silks was equivalent to the yearly output of just a single southern city like Yuezhou, while the silver payments amounted to just 1-2% of Chinese wartime military budget at the time, and only 0.3-0.5% of total state expenditures in the course

of a given year. What's more, with the reopening of the border markets between the two states, and the development of seven new sites of trade and insatiable demand for Chinese goods, something on the order of 60% of the silver sent to Liao was returned to China in the course of yearly trade. On average, official Song trade netted a profit of 4,000 to 500,000 strings of cash per year as a result of this trade, or about the equivalent of 520,000 to 650,000 ounces of silver. Moreover, the stimulation of the Liao economy had beneficial ripple effects even beyond the Catan and Chinese. Lao and Huang write, quote, the construction of their central capital and exported the silk in large quantities to Central Asia and to frontier people such as the Tanguts at a price three to four times higher than the Song charged in peacetime and 40 times higher than the price during wartime, stimulating a cycle of multi-state trade. In spite of the myriad concessions and payments made by the Song dynasty

in the Treaty of Chanyuan, it's recognized as a great success of political realism over ideological pretensions. Relations between Song and Liao would remain stable and even relatively, dare I say, friendly for the next hundred years, punctuated by only occasional minor infringements that were dealt with at the local level. The border between the two empires, set from the coast to the great bend of the Yellow River, was clearly demarcated and regularly patrolled by both sides, marking it out as an early instance of a genuine international frontier in the modern sense, something unprecedented in Chinese history. Remember that by its own worldview, in the past, present, and future, China's resting posture is that the emperor is de jure sovereign of the four corners of the world, and tasked with bringing the light of civilization itself to the benighted barbarians the world over.

So the very admission that there was another great imperial civilization that was China's political equal, and with a clearly delineated border with the Middle Kingdom, was quite the diplomatic break with the past, to say the least. Fuche and Tietze thus conclude their section on the Treaty of Chanyuan, quote, Pichit and Tietze thus conclude their section on the Treaty of Chanyuan, "...the arrangement was thus a good bargain for both parties. The Song ensured lasting peace at a modest price. The Catan acquired a steady source of additional revenue and were able to reduce the southern border defenses to some degree

and to concentrate on internal developments." Further, it allowed the Song court to re-establish its stated preferred policy, the so-called strong Trunk and Weak Branches policy, emphasizing civil control of government and demobilization of large swaths of the military. Immediately following the conclusion of the treaty process, Zhengzong ordered that some 400 military officers be relieved of their post to be replaced with civilian overseers, and in the coming years would oversee the standing down and dismissals of half the garrisons throughout Hebei and some 30% of the border garrisons altogether.

So that is where we'll leave off today. Next time, Zhenzong will attempt to get the bitter taste of concession out of his mouth by performing the holiest ritual an emperor of China could do, the sacrifice to heaven and earth atop the holy Mount Tai, that had only been performed five times before him, last by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang more than two and a half centuries prior, and after Xuanzong would never be performed again. Thanks for listening. Hey all, before letting you off the hook today, let me plug my fellow Agora member and good friend Thomas Daly's show, American Biography, a podcast that looks at American history by following the course of human events

and examining the lives of important, if less discussed, Americans who have exerted great influence upon the nation's development. So far, Tom has taken an incredible deep dive into one of the men that fundamentally shaped the character of the American Republic, its first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Marshall. And, you know, if you listen long enough, you just might hear yours truly pop in for a few whimsical sidequests. Once again, that's American Biography by Thomas Daly, available on iTunes or at acast.com slash American Biography. The American Story, as told through Americans' stories.

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