When Yu Hengzi heard the conversation between the two, he realized that the young man in the tent was not the Khitan Emperor Yelu Deguang. The man was named Yelu Ruan, the eldest grandson of the founding emperor Yelu Abaoji of the Khitan Emperor, and the eldest son of the late crown prince "King Dongdan" Yelu Bei.

When Yelu Bei left the Khitan, in order to avoid Yelu Deguang's suspicion, he reluctantly left his son Yelu Ruan and his wife in Shangjing Prince's Mansion. Yelu Bei used the excuse of accompanying his concubine to the temple to burn incense for his newborn daughter, avoiding the surveillance sent by Yelu Deguang outside the palace. He rode a carriage ready at the back door of the temple and fled to the then Later Tang Dynasty with his wife and daughter, and defected to Emperor Mingzong of Tang Li Siyuan. That year, Yelu Ruan was only thirteen years old.

Yelu Deguang was fleeing with great trouble, and although he was furious, he did not blame his sister-in-law and nephew for his mother Shuluping's face. From then on, Yelu Ruan relied on his biological mother for life. Within a few years, Yelu Ruan had grown into a handsome and strong young man. Seeing him, Shuluping remembered his son Yelu Be who was far away in Luoyang.

Yelu Deguang was worried that his mother would be unfavorable to the stability of his throne, so he sent Yelu Ruan to the army and asked someone to closely monitor his every move. Yelu Ruan was hard-working and quickly won the love of the soldiers and his position in the army rose repeatedly.

A few years later, a coup occurred in the Later Tang Dynasty. Shi Jingtang won the trust of Yelu Deguang on the conditions of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and sent troops to help him invade Luoyang and destroy the Later Tang Dynasty. The last emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Congke, died in chaos, and was killed by Yelu Be and his wife, who were regarded as a guest of honor in the palace by Li Congke. Their only daughter has been wandering among the people since then, and nowhere is known. Yelu Ruan has sent people south to Jin State to inquire about his sister's whereabouts, and those people always come back disappointed.

After hearing the bad news, Yelu Ruan failed to close his eyes for three days and three nights. Although Khitan soldiers participated in this matter, Yelu Ruan was weak and did not dare to complain about the emperor's behavior. After thinking about it, he found that the initiator was Shi Jingtang, so he hated the newly established monarch and minister of the Jin State.

Later, Yelu Deguang asked Yelu Ruan to inherit his father's title of King Dongdan and still served in the army. During several southern expeditions, he led his troops to charge forward. This time, Yelu Deguang appointed him as the commander of the former camp and led 30,000 people to attack Dingzhou of Jin.

Yelu Ruan had long been hiding hatred, thinking that one day he would make his enemies return twice as much. This time he led his troops to fight was a good opportunity to revenge. Yelu Ruan led the way, and his soldiers were well-trained and could fight bravely when they were in battle. Therefore, they captured Dingzhou in less than a month. The Khitan's front camp army headed south to Hengzhou, confronting the Jin army on the north bank of the Hutuo River.

There were only 7,000 soldiers of Jin State stationed in Hengzhou City, led by Li Shouzhen, the chief military commander. Li Shouzhen knew that he was outnumbered. He saw the Khitan army waiting on the other side of the river. While sending people to the Khitan camp for peace, as a delaying strategy, he also sent people to Kaifeng Prefecture to rescue Emperor Shi Chonggui.

Yelu Ruan saw through Li Shouzhen's plan, ignored the people coming, and ordered the siege. The walls of Hengzhou City were more than ten feet high, and there was a natural moat like the Hutuo River. Khitan soldiers attacked for three or four days, lost hundreds of people, and failed to occupy Hengzhou.

Yelu Ruan had no choice but to do nothing but increase casualties, so he sent people back to the Khitan camp in Dingzhou to ask Yelu Deguang for instructions. Yelu Deguang had already sent his daughter Yelu Zhongying to the capital of Jin State, trying to win without a fight. Unexpectedly, the Emperor of Jin State Shi Chonggui refused to bow his head and surrendered to the death with Khitan, and appointed Du Chongwei as the envoy of the northern camp, leading an army of 100,000 north to Hengzhou to fight against the enemy with Li Shouzhen.

Yelu Zhongying returned to his father in Dingzhou and conveyed Shi Chonggui's meaning in a polite manner. Yelu Deguang was furious and decided to let the 50,000 troops of Yelu Wuzhi, commander of the Central Camp, go to Hengzhou to fight. Yelu Zhongying remembered what Chen Ruseng, the Minister of Rites, said softly: "Father, the emperor of Jin is disrespectful to you, it's just his own business. Why do you have to get angry and scatter the country's troops to attack?"

Yelu Deguang was startled and thought to himself: "My baby daughter has always been gentle and considerate, and she never has any words to object to me. How could she have changed so much after only one month after she went to Jin State?" He looked at Yelu Zhongying and saw that she was lowering her head and thinking, her eyes were full of tenderness, and she suddenly understood two or three points.

Yelu Deguang retreated everyone, leaving only four guards, namely Lu Wanli, He Liantian, Hu Pingqiu and Xishuishen. These people were all the masters of the Khitan, and they were commanding the imperial guards in the four courts of the east, west, south, and north of the palace.

Lu Wanli and He Liantian accompanied Yelu Zhongying to the Jin State to envoy, and realized that they had a great responsibility, so they did not dare to neglect them at all. Seeing that Yelu Deguang kept them, they naturally understood what happened next. Yelu Deguang asked blankly: "Two beloved ministers, you must answer truthfully what I asked you."

Lu Wanli and He Liantian looked at each other, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I will not dare to hide anything you know." Yelu Deguang said, "Since that's the case, let's talk about what happened along the way and who did you meet?" He Liantian stood up and talked endlessly, palleting all the things that met assassins on the way, entering the palace to meet Shi Chonggui, fighting with others on the way, etc.

Yelu Deguang said nothing after hearing this for a while, and then said after a moment: "I asked Ying'er to serve as an envoy to Jin State. I originally wanted her to launch an army to punish her, but who knew that she was fascinated by the young man in Jin State. Now she is rebellious and is thinking about the safety of that boy. She actually advised me to withdraw my troops and return to China. It's really outrageous!"

Lu Wanli and He Liantian heard Yelu Deguang's tone were wrong and hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, this has nothing to do with Your Highness, it is all the sins of the ministers, which made Le Yiyang meet Your Highness and Your Highness, and the minister is willing to be punished."

Yelu Deguang sighed, shook his head and said, "Two my dear ministers, why are you guilty? Ying'er is my daughter, I can't even take care of her. Can you still control her?" He said, and suddenly stopped, looked at the four people in front of him, and said, "This is just a private matter of my Yelu family. Let's not talk about it today. What do you think about the current situation of the war?"

Lu Wanli said: "Emperor, this is a national event. You should discuss with Privy Councillor Zhao Yanshou, the commander of the former camp Yelu Ruan, the commander of the central camp Yelu Wuzhi, the commander of the rear camp Xiao Han, the commander of the northern courtyard Yelu Wa, and the commander of the southern courtyard Yelu Hu. I am just a martial arts practitioner and know nothing about military information. Is there any useful insights? Please ask the emperor to investigate clearly.
Chapter completed!