Hot porridge is hard to drink, and people's hearts are hard to touch.

- Zhuang proverb

The praying mantis catches the cicada, and the yellow finch is behind.

If the Song Dynasty is compared to a poor autumn cicada and the Liao State is a praying mantis that catches cicadas, then the Jin State established by the Jurchens in Northeast Asia is the yellow finch hiding behind.

The Jurchens are an ancient ethnic group living in the northeastern region of China. The period of the Shang and Zhou dynasties was called Sushen, the Western Han Dynasty was called Lu Lou, the Northern and Southern Dynasties was called Beji, and the Sui and Tang dynasties were called Jin Ya.

It is the first self-name of the people, which means the people in the forest, and is divided into two parts: the black water and the south.

After the Liao State destroyed the Bohai State established by the Su Mo Ya, it changed its name to the Jurchen people.

In 1112, the Liao Emperor summoned the Jurchen chieftains in Chunzhou (in present-day Baobao Town, Tuquan County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) to come to the court. He drank a few more bowls of wine at the feast, and then he became a little drunk, and with the strength of the wine, he drove out the dancers who were performing for the guests, and rudely demanded that the Jurchen chieftains perform a dance for him.

Intimidated by his majesty and brutality, the chiefs had no choice but to go to the middle and dance for him.

Only one Jurchen chieftain named Yan Agu felt that this was an insult to the dignified Jurchens, and resolutely refused to get up and dance. Since then, Wanyan Aguta and the Emperor of Liao have formed a hatred in their hearts.

On January 28, 1115, Wanyan Aguda established the capital in Huining Mansion (now Acheng District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province), with the name of Dajin, and formed the Four Kingdoms with the Liao, Western Xia, and Song Dynasties.

After 10 emperors and 120 years, the Jin State ruled over a vast territory and rich land during its heyday, including today's Northeast China, most of the Huai River and northern Qinling Mountains, and the Far East of the Russian Federation.

The ruling group of the Jin State absorbed the political systems of the Liao State and the Song Dynasty, reformed the nomadic deliberative system, and gradually moved from dualistic politics to a single Han law system, making the political mechanism of the Jin State streamlined, efficient and powerful.

In terms of military affairs, the Jin State adopted the Meng'an Mouke system of integrating the military and the people, and the iron cavalry and firearms were quite elite and unstoppable.

In terms of economy, most of them inherited the legacy of the Song Dynasty, the ceramics and iron-making industries flourished, and the mutual market of foreign trade controlled the economic lifeline of the Western Xia.

After the establishment of the Jin State, the first target that Wanyan Aguta wanted to attack was the Liao State that bullied the Jurchens and humiliated him. In order to avoid making enemies on all sides, he first concluded a maritime alliance with the Song Dynasty to temporarily stabilize the Song Dynasty, and then immediately marched towards the Central Plains occupied by the Liao State.

In the later period of the Liao State, the emperor was arrogant and indulgent, and the government was lax. The bureaucracy and aristocracy expropriated and fought each other. The various peoples of the border rose up in revolt.

At first, the Liao Emperor did not regard the small Wanyan Agu Fight as a threat to himself at all, but the troops sent to suppress it were all defeated. Only then did the heart of the Emperor of Liao become nervous. In order to solve the threat of the northern Jurchens, he personally took command of the expedition, but was still defeated by the Jin State.

In the spring of 1116, the Jin army marched forward victoriously and captured Tokyo (present-day Liaoyang, Liaoning Province) in one fell swoop.

After the capture of Tokyo, the Jin army quickly advanced westward. In the spring of 1120, the Jin army broke through the capital of the Liao State, Shangjing, Linhuang Mansion.

The Liao Emperor fled to Xijing (present-day Datong, Shanxi Province) for refuge in a hurry.

In the first month of 1122, in the face of the fierce Jin army, the Liao army stationed in Dadingfu in Zhongjing (northwest of present-day Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) collapsed without a fight. Nakakyo also fell after Tokyo and Kamikyo.

The spring season was supposed to be a time for the royal family to enjoy the eyes, but the Liao Emperor was not happy, seeing the general trend, he was disheartened, and fled to the more remote Jiashan (northwest of present-day Inner Mongolia Tumut Left Banner) to hide.

The cities of Shanxi under the rule of the Liao State surrendered to the Jin army.

At the beginning of the following year, the Jin army conquered Nanjing (present-day Beijing) in two ways, and took all the land of the Liao State into the Jin State's pocket.

In the spring of 1125, the Jin army captured the emperor of Liao in Yingzhou (present-day Yingxian, Shanxi Province).

The once rampant Liao State has finally perished.

In northern China, a new Three Kingdoms emerged, including the Jin Kingdom, the Western Xia Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty.

It should be said that the Khitans are a bloody people. They then established the Liao State, the Eastern Liao, the Later Liao, and the Western Liao in East and Central Asia respectively, and although they were wiped out by the Jin State and the Mongol State successively, at least unlike some peoples who were knocked down once and could never get up.

In particular, I want to praise Xiliao.

In 1130, due to the oppression of the Jin soldiers, the royal family Yelu Dashi had to abandon the Mongolian Plateau and lead the remnants of the westward expedition. In 1132, Yelu Dashi established the Liao State as the emperor in Yemili (now Emin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region), known as the Western Liao in history, and the capital was Husi Huluduo.

At one time, Western Liao expanded to the whole of Xinjiang and most of Central Asia, becoming a major power in Central Asia. In 1218, Western Liao was destroyed by Genghis Khan's Mongol army, and the state was established for 87 years.

In 1222, the nobles of Western Liao were unwilling to be defeated, and went to today's Iran to establish a small regime in Western Liao, and later failed to escape the hands of the Mongol army.

The Jurchens were originally a small people dependent on the Liao State, accepting its rule and assuming the obligation of paying tribute. However, the Jurchens were also a bloody people, and gradually became strong in the struggle against the Liao State until they got rid of the rule of the Liao State. After establishing his own state, the Jin State won successive battles in the war until it destroyed its enemy Liao.

On the contrary, the Liao State was repeatedly defeated in the face of the increasingly prosperous Jin State, and fled in defeat after defeat until it was wiped out by the Jin State.

In this trend of transformation of strength and weakness, the Liao State changed from strong to weak until it was eliminated by the Jurchen regime ruled by itself, and the fundamental reason was that the government of the Liao State became increasingly corrupt, did not repair military equipment, the treasury was empty, and the army had no fighting spirit and no combat effectiveness, and collapsed without a fight under the fierce attack of the Jin army.

However, the Jin State gradually formed a strong and unified military alliance, established a set of state system with Jurchen characteristics in the war against the Liao State, and the army was also well-organized and had strong combat effectiveness, especially the opposition to the rule of the Liao State met the requirements of the Jurchen social development at that time, so in the war between the two countries, it gradually changed from weak to strong, from the rule of the Liao State to the destruction of the Liao State, and incorporated the entire territory of the Liao State into the territory of the Jin State.

The Jurchen leader Wanyan Aguta gave full play to the advantages of the cavalry's rapid mobility, took the initiative to attack, and won by surprise. In the wars of conquering Ningjiangzhou, Chuhedian, Huanglongfu, Tokyo, Shangjing, Zhongjing and Nanjing, the Jin army took the initiative to attack, grasped the initiative in the war, and defeated the main force of the Liao army many times.

In the case of each defeat and flight of the Liao army, the Jin army took advantage of the situation to take the initiative to pursue, forming an aggressive trend, causing the Liao army to collapse without a fight and retreat again and again. Under the situation of repeated defeats of the Liao army and the victory of the Jin army, the Jin army was always able to seize the opportunity to attack Liao, pressing step by step, seizing the important towns of Liao one by one, and finally destroying Liao.

In the 11-year-long Jin-Liao War, which lasted for hundreds of battles, Wanyan Agu judged the situation and used the strategy of combining armed attack with division and disintegration, fought thousands of miles across the country, won by surprise, defeated the main force of the Liao army many times, and established the rule of the Jin State in northern China.

After the Jin State eliminated the Liao State, it did not stop advancing, and its desire to rule the world began to swell, intending to go south to eliminate its ally Song Dynasty.

In the process of jointly eliminating the Liao State with the Song Dynasty, the Jin State had keenly felt the political corruption of the Song Dynasty and the low combat effectiveness of the army, so it took advantage of the momentum of eliminating the Liao State and gathered more than 100,000 troops to attack the Song Dynasty in two ways and launched a war to destroy the Song Dynasty.

Under the powerful offensive of the Jin army, the emperor of the Song Dynasty was worried that the Jin State would go down the mountain like a hungry tiger and not choose to eat, which would hurt the great cause of the Song Dynasty, so he sent envoys to beg for peace, and finally agreed to cede the three towns of Taiyuan, Zhongshan (now Dingzhou, Hebei Province), and Hejian (now Hebei Province) to the Jin State, in exchange for the Song Dynasty's temporary survival.

Taiyuan has controlled mountains and rivers since ancient times, standing on the shoulders of the world, the key to the four stops, the capital of the five plains, and the place of Longxing of many dynasties, especially the Li family, the emperor of the Tang Empire, originated here, and it is naturally the place where the soldiers of the past dynasties must fight. From the Xia, Shang, Zhou and Song dynasties, there were successively Qundi, Zhurong, Xiongnu, Xianbei, Qian, Di, Qiang, Turkic, Hui, Jurchen, Khitan and other ethnic groups here to communicate and blend with the Han people, and also carried out fierce conflicts and struggles. In such a historical environment, or because of imitating foreign peoples, or because of resisting foreign enemies and defending the country, the customs in Taiyuan are somewhat different from those of the Han people in the Central Plains, but they are closer to the customs of the Hu people, forming a martial and chivalrous folk customs.

Taiyuan was also the center of the world-famous Jin merchants. Folk business has become a common practice, the commercial economy is very developed, the atmosphere of traditional culture is strong, and all kinds of noodles and meat snacks of Han and Hu people are rich and colorful, and they are feasting happily.

The patriarch of the Wangchen family of Taiyuan Mansion passed down to this generation is Wang Zhihe.

Wang Zhihe has always admired the idea of making money with harmony, although his family is much richer than ordinary people, but he has always been cautious and low-key. Now that the ancestral homeland was ruthlessly given to the alien Jin Kingdom by the emperor, Wang Zhihe's heart was sad: although our family also has foreign blood, but for hundreds of years, it has been a Han people, and now it is about to become a subject of the Jurchen Jin Kingdom.

Wang Zhihe adhered to the concept that businessmen spent money to eliminate disasters and everything was silver, and he was unwilling but did not dare to offend Jin Jun, and took the initiative to send some silver to Jin Jun who came to inspect the door, in exchange for Jin Jun's favor.

Since then, Jin Jun has stopped coming to the door to find fault and cause trouble.

Soon, one of Wang Zhihe's sons was arrested by the Jin army to serve as a soldier, and he said goodbye in a hurry, and there was no news, and his life and death were unknown.

Wang Zhihe and his wife Yuwen were afraid that the claws of the Jin army would reach out to the other children, so they hid them in the cellar where the gold and silver were stored during the day, and only let them come up to sleep after locking the door at night.

The Jin army rampaged through the streets with the arrogant attitude of conquerors, and when they encountered Han people who did not like their eyes, they deliberately bullied them as people from the Liao State, punching and kicking the light, and pulling them to work on errands, and suffered a lot.

The people of all ethnic groups in Taiyuan Province have lived like years under the devastation of war and the oppression of foreign races, and have been second-class citizens of the Jin State for more than 80 years.