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In the year 1124, an ambitious prince in northern China named Yelü Dashi faced a pivotal decision—stay and make a final stand with his people, who faced near-certain defeat, or head for the hinterlands in search of new prospects. Just a decade earlier, Dashi had been a junior member of the Yelü royal clan of the Khitan, the nomadic group that ruled the Liao Empire. The empire had been founded in a.d. 907 by Abaoji, a direct ancestor of Dashi’s. Abaoji united the Khitan tribes, who were bas
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