Probably the most foolish emperor in history, when a general commanding tens of thousands of troops was still in the field, he went and executed more than 160 members of that man’s family. Anyone with a functioning brain wouldn’t do something like that. Watching the scene in the drama where the father and son finally avenge them and then just sit in the palace eating a simple meal, flatbread and mutton soup, really hit me emotionally. Losing even one close family member can break a person; but over 160 lives… for those left behind, every single day afterward must have felt like pure torment.😭
war ? I don't get. How is the best possible outcome ? The soldiers who died. Only to kowtow to the Khitan King…
The ten days of holding the city were answered not by relief, but by an edict from the Khitan emperor, Yelü Deguang. Its purpose was to send a message: the throne of the Central Plains may be yours, but it must not belong to Du Chongwei, who surrendered on the battlefield, nor to Zhang Yanze, who is less than human. Those ten days were fought precisely to prevent Zhang Yanze from entering the city too quickly, to delay matters until the Khitan armies drew closer to Bianliang. It was also a way of telling Yelü Deguang that in the Central Plains, there were still people who stood with the court, not everyone was like Du Chongwei and Zhang Yanze.
This became a form of bargaining power, and a final gesture of dignity. For if Zhang Yanze had entered the city first, then, as the series portrays it, Bianliang would have become the deepest hell on earth.
Sadly, in the real history, after Du Chongwei surrendered at the front, Zhang Yanze took Bianliang with only two thousand men, encountering almost no resistance. What followed inside the city, however, was no different from what the series depicts: a catastrophe that swept through its streets, a descent into chaos and suffering that turned the fall of the capital into a human tragedy rather than a mere political event.
This became a form of bargaining power, and a final gesture of dignity. For if Zhang Yanze had entered the city first, then, as the series portrays it, Bianliang would have become the deepest hell on earth.
Sadly, in the real history, after Du Chongwei surrendered at the front, Zhang Yanze took Bianliang with only two thousand men, encountering almost no resistance. What followed inside the city, however, was no different from what the series depicts: a catastrophe that swept through its streets, a descent into chaos and suffering that turned the fall of the capital into a human tragedy rather than a mere political event.