Jin Destroys Liao

After the Jurchen founded Jin, they rose swiftly and kept attacking Liao. Liao and Northern Song were both in deep crisis: Emperor Tianzuo of Liao was devoted to hunting, government was corrupt, internal conflicts were sharp and uprisings were constant; Emperor Huizong of Northern Song believed in Daoism, employed treacherous ministers like Cai Jing and Tong Guan, built lavishly, and ruled decadently. After Jin forces took parts of Liao, the Northern Song court hoped to use Jin to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun held by Liao, and sent envoys across the sea from Shandong to contact Jin. In 1120 the two sides made a pact to attack Liao jointly: Jin would take Liao's Central Capital and Song its Yanjing; after Liao's fall the Yan and Yun lands would go to Song, which would transfer to Jin the annual tribute it had paid to Liao. Because the envoys traveled by sea, it is called the “Alliance Concluded at Sea”. Jin forces then swept through, taking Liao's Supreme, Eastern, Central and Western Capitals one after another. But when Northern Song attacked Yanjing it was heavily defeated twice by Liao, and in the end Jin took Yanjing. Northern Song's corruption and weakness were fully exposed. Afterward Jin handed only Yanjing and six nearby prefectures to Northern Song, carrying off their people and goods, and Song had to pay Jin an extra “substitute tax” of one million strings of cash a year. In 1125 Emperor Tianzuo was captured by Jin at Yingzhou and Liao fell, after over two hundred years. In destroying Liao, Jin's rulers saw Northern Song's political corruption and military weakness and in that same year launched war against Song, which fell two years later.