Xiao Feng and Yelu Hongji

Xiao Feng and Yelu Hongji are sworn brothers whose personal loyalty becomes consequential during a Liao succession crisis. Xiao Feng first knows Hongji as a close friend, not as emperor; when rebellion threatens Hongji’s throne, he chooses to share his brother’s danger, helps restore imperial authority, and is appointed Prince of Chu and Lord of the Southern Chancellery. Yet the intimacy that enables Xiao Feng to act decisively also draws him into a state whose aims he cannot readily embrace.

The bond before the revelation

Yelu Ji, as Xiao Feng initially knows him, has already established the relationship through generous gifts and an earlier act of assistance. When a Liao cavalryman recognizes Xiao Feng on the grasslands, he reports that his lord misses him and invites him to meet. Xiao Feng is delighted to learn that his sworn brother is nearby and readily agrees to go. The attendant’s description of the large quantities of gold, silver, cattle, and sheep previously sent by Yelu Ji has already suggested that the absent friend is a Khitan noble of considerable rank.

Their reunion is staged on an imperial scale. After Xiao Feng and A'Zi travel west with the cavalry, they arrive at a vast encampment, where troops assemble and a yellow horse carries Hongji toward him. The two friends dismount and clasp hands, their joy plain to the assembled soldiers. The troops then acclaim Hongji as king. Only as Xiao Feng sees the soldiers bowing does he understand that his sworn brother is the ruler of Liao. Hongji identifies himself by his full name and explains that he had feared Xiao Feng might refuse brotherhood had he known his identity beforehand.

The revelation brings political rank into direct contact with an already existing personal tie. Xiao Feng immediately kneels, recognizing the deference owed to the Khitan emperor, but Hongji raises him and asks that they speak as brothers that day, leaving formal homage until the next. He seats Xiao Feng opposite him in the great leather tent, among the Liao court’s senior officials. The welcome makes clear that Hongji’s affection is not merely private: the emperor publicly honors Xiao Feng while insisting that their brotherhood remains the terms on which they meet.

The inheritance behind the crisis

The rebellion that tests their bond emerges from a contested succession history. Hongji’s grandfather, YeLu LongXu, had designated his eldest son, YeLu ZongZhen, to succeed him, although the empress favored her younger son, YeLu ZhongYuan. The account presents the empress dowager’s influence as a powerful feature of Liao succession: ZongZhen’s position was insecure, and he thwarted his mother’s plan by telling ZhongYuan of it. ZongZhen later made his brother the royal emperor brother and next in line to the throne.

When ZongZhen died, however, the succession passed to his son Hongji rather than to ZhongYuan. Hongji then compensated his uncle with the title of royal emperor uncle and renewed his place in the succession, while also giving him supreme command of the army and exceptional court privileges. ZhongYuan’s son, YeLu NieLuGu, received the title Prince of Chu and command of the Southern Chancellery. These honors placed military and administrative power within the very branch whose inherited claim could challenge Hongji’s rule.

Hongji’s trust in his uncle is especially consequential. When Hongji goes hunting, he leaves military affairs in ZhongYuan’s hands, despite the history that made his uncle a possible successor. The crisis becomes explicit when a rapid chain of bugle signals interrupts a banquet: Hongji calmly announces that there is a rebellion in the capital and orders the camp to break up and return. A subsequent report says that the Southern Chancellery has proclaimed ZhongYuan emperor, presenting Hongji as an illegitimate usurper. The competing claim draws force from the succession history and from the military authority Hongji himself had entrusted to his uncle and cousin.

Loyalty under pressure

As Hongji’s army prepares to face the rebels, Xiao Feng has a chance to leave. He had intended to depart with A'Zi, but the emergency makes him stay: he cannot simply walk away while his sworn brother is in danger. Hongji’s position worsens when scouts report that ZhongYuan and NieLuGu are approaching with five hundred thousand troops, against the roughly one hundred thousand following the emperor. Rumors that Hongji’s mother and wife are held in the capital deepen the soldiers’ fear for their own families, and their distress spreads through the camp.

Hongji nevertheless leads his troops personally, promising promotion and substantial rewards after the crisis is settled. Seeing the emperor take the field gives his soldiers courage. Xiao Feng follows beside him with a bow and spear, acting as his personal bodyguard, while the Flying Bear troops protect A'Zi at the rear. His place beside Hongji turns the brothers’ private loyalty into a visible commitment in the middle of the military confrontation.

After Hongji’s forces suffer a crushing defeat, Xiao Feng urges him to escape, regroup, and fight another day. Hongji refuses: he believes he cannot abandon his mother and wife, and that in Khitan eyes the defeated are treated as rebels rather than heroes. Xiao Feng accepts the danger instead of saving himself. He tells Hongji that whether his brother is emperor or commoner makes no difference to their relationship, and that he will face death alongside him. Hongji responds with tears and thanks. The exchange defines the bond at its clearest: it persists when imperial authority has failed on the battlefield and when Xiao Feng has no assurance of reward or survival.

Victory, office, and divided obligations

The rebellion ends when Xiao Feng captures ZhongYuan and brings him before Hongji. Once the Prince of Chu is dead and their leader is in imperial hands, the rebels lay down their weapons after ZhongYuan calls on them to submit. Hongji greets Xiao Feng with intense relief and says he will share his kingdom with him. He then consults Xiao Feng about what to do with the defeated forces. Xiao Feng advises pardoning ZhongYuan so that the rebels’ morale can be stabilized; Hongji agrees and orders an imperial edict conferring on Xiao Feng the title Prince of Chu and the office of Lord of the Southern Chancellery.

Xiao Feng is startled by the appointment. He says that he acted to save his brother, not to obtain status, and asks Hongji to withdraw the order. Hongji insists, even suggesting that if Xiao Feng will not accept the honors he could yield the throne to him. Recognizing the danger of prolonging the exchange while the situation remains unsettled, Xiao Feng finally accepts the title and office. His acceptance is framed as an act of loyalty and practical judgment, not as a pursuit of political advancement. Hongji assigns YeLu MoGe to assist him in the Southern Chancellery, and the new office brings Xiao Feng into the machinery of government.

That machinery soon makes the cost of the appointment clear. After more than a month of receiving officials, tribal leaders, and foreign envoys, Xiao Feng is summoned by Hongji and told to base himself in Nanjing and prepare for an eventual southern campaign against Great Song. Hongji says an immediate invasion would be unwise while Liao’s forces recover and Song is not weakened by internal division, but expects Xiao Feng to watch for an opportunity to conquer south. Xiao Feng accepts the order, yet is troubled: he grew up in the south and is reluctant to lead a campaign against Song. He plans to go to Nanjing first and seek resignation later, rather than break with Hongji at once.

Their brotherhood thus remains both a source of genuine loyalty and the means by which Xiao Feng is drawn into obligations he does not welcome. The history of Liao’s succession shows that imperial power depends on inherited claims, court arrangements, and command of armies; the rebellion demonstrates how quickly those structures can turn against a ruler. Xiao Feng can help restore Hongji by personal courage and judgment, but the office granted in gratitude carries the expectation of serving Liao’s expansion. The relationship’s decisive significance lies in that unresolved tension: brotherly fidelity wins Xiao Feng a place at the center of imperial authority without making the state’s purposes his own.