The Decisive Battle and Suppression of the Liao Rebellion is the struggle that begins when YeLu NieLuGu and his father, YeLu ZhongYuan, challenge YeLu HongJi’s rule. The crisis tests the emperor’s legitimacy and the cohesion of his army; after a defeat made imminent by the capture of soldiers’ families, Xiao Feng’s daring capture of YeLu ZhongYuan gives HongJi the means to end the fighting without destroying the remaining rebel force.

Causes and Stakes

The rebellion grows out of a contested succession. YeLu HongJi’s grandfather, YeLu LongXu, had designated his eldest son, YeLu ZongZhen, as successor. The empress instead favored her second son, YeLu ZhongYuan, but ZongZhen learned of the scheme and told his brother, who relinquished the chance to take the throne and supported him. In gratitude, ZongZhen named ZhongYuan his royal emperor brother and next in line to succeed him. Yet after ZongZhen’s death, the throne passed to his son HongJi, not ZhongYuan.

Once emperor, HongJi tried to recognize his uncle’s standing. He named ZhongYuan royal emperor uncle and supreme commander of the army, exempted him from kneeling at court, and granted him exceptional honors. He also gave ZhongYuan’s son, YeLu NieLuGu, the title Prince of Chu and control of military affairs in the Southern Chancellery. With HongJi away on a hunting trip, NieLuGu led the rebellion, while ZhongYuan’s authority over the army made the challenge especially dangerous. HongJi had trusted his uncle to manage military affairs; now he feared that the uncle would support his son.

The rebels sharpened their claim by issuing an edict that called HongJi a false emperor and ZhongYuan the legitimate ruler. HongJi burned the document, but understood its danger: the accusation could weaken the loyalty of both soldiers and civilians. His own force was far smaller than the army his uncle could command, and the rebel troops advanced with overwhelming numerical superiority.

From March to Encirclement

An urgent bugle signal reached HongJi’s camp through a chain of relay stations. The celebrations stopped, and HongJi calmly announced the rebellion and ordered the army to return at once. Orders passed rapidly through the ranks, and the troops marched south in organized formations. The scene establishes the command structure that would shape the campaign: signals, officers, and coordinated units could move an army faster than any individual rider.

The following morning, HongJi learned that his uncle and cousin were bringing a much larger force to intercept him. He promised his soldiers promotion and rewards after the crisis, put on golden armor, and personally led his troops. His example restored their courage. Xiao Feng rode beside him as a personal bodyguard, while the Flying Bear troops guarded A'Zi at the rear.

When the armies met, HongJi’s force established a fortified position. Soldiers dismantled the great leather tent, drove its pillars into the ground, arranged barriers, and built a wooden stockade on the grassland. About ten thousand archers took positions behind it. Drums then answered drums as the rebel cavalry advanced. HongJi’s troops loosed a coordinated volley, bringing down the front ranks, but successive waves pressed forward while enemy archers approached behind shields. The defenders had discipline and a strong position; they were nevertheless surrounded and badly outnumbered.

Families as Leverage

The rebels changed the battle by bringing captured relatives before the stockade. HongJi’s practice of keeping his soldiers’ families in the capital had helped bind the troops to him and discourage rebellion during expeditions. Now that policy gave the rebels a means of coercion: more than 200,000 family members were in their hands, and 30,000 were brought to the battlefield, including people who had been arrested by mistake. The crowd included men, women, and children, and soldiers in the stockade recognized those they loved.

A rebel general offered the defenders a stark choice: surrender to the new emperor and receive promotion and rewards, or watch the captives be killed. Executioners stood ready as the drums marked the threat. The soldiers had remained loyal despite promises of advancement, but loyalty could not hold when their families were placed in immediate danger. One soldier ran from the stockade toward his mother; others followed, and the breach spread. Hundreds left, then thousands, until roughly 60,000 to 70,000 of HongJi’s original 150,000 troops had gone over to the rebels.

HongJi used the confusion created by the soldiers’ reunion with their families to retreat with the remaining force. About 80,000 men escaped northwest into the mountains. At dusk they fortified high ground and repelled an immediate attack, but the refuge offered only a temporary reprieve. The rebels still had the larger force, and HongJi’s position deteriorated further when the Chancellor of the Northern Chancellery led 3,000 soldiers in a charge to cover the defenders. The entire force was killed, and the chancellor died after fighting on. From the hillside, HongJi, Xiao Feng, and the others could only witness the sacrifice.

Xiao Feng Turns the Battle

After the charge, the Prince of Chu called on HongJi to surrender, arguing that resistance would only cost more Liao lives. HongJi accepted the dilemma and began to raise his sabre against himself. Xiao Feng stopped him, insisting that an honorable hero should fight rather than take his own life. The intervention turns the crisis away from surrender or suicide and gives HongJi’s side one final chance to alter the military balance.

Xiao Feng then attacked the Prince of Chu. Concealing himself beneath a riderless horse, he approached the rebel formation and fired from under its belly. His first arrow was stopped by a guard; after mounting the horse, he shot again, bringing down that guard, and struck the prince in the shoulder. A further arrow pierced the prince’s side and chest, killing him. Xiao Feng had removed the rebellion’s most immediate leader, but the royal emperor uncle remained protected by a dense screen of guards.

With the prince dead, Xiao Feng charged into the rebel ranks despite the danger of being surrounded. He vaulted over the guards’ shields, landed on YeLu ZhongYuan’s horse, seized him, and demanded that the troops lay down their weapons. Holding the uncle gave Xiao Feng leverage over the rebel army: he called out that the emperor would pardon the soldiers, and the force could hear him above the tumult. ZhongYuan agreed to address his troops. He blamed his son for bringing about the disaster, urged the rebels to surrender, and repeated HongJi’s promise of clemency. The soldiers cast down their weapons, and Xiao Feng brought ZhongYuan back to the mountain.

Aftermath and Significance

The rebellion’s defeat rests on a reversal of the same forces that had driven it forward. The rebels exploited the family ties that helped bind HongJi’s army together; mass desertion left the emperor with too few troops to hold his position. Xiao Feng’s personal courage then supplied what the remaining army could not: the death of the Prince of Chu removed the rebellion’s leader, and the capture of ZhongYuan gave the rebels a voice able to order them to disarm. HongJi’s promise of pardon made that surrender possible.

The outcome also rests on earlier political arrangements. ZhongYuan’s place in the succession and his command of the army had made the challenge credible, while NieLuGu’s control of the Southern Chancellery placed military power in the hands of the rebel leader. The episode shows how offices, inherited claims, and military loyalties can turn an old succession compromise into civil war. It also marks a decisive shift in Xiao Feng’s role: although he had wanted to avoid taking office, his loyalty to HongJi drew him into the struggle, where his actions preserved the emperor’s rule and helped bring the rebellion to an end.