in the shadow of the flickering candle" () and proved to be popular to this day. Modern historians were unable to find any concrete evidence suggesting murder; however they generally accept that the "Golden Shelf Promise" as fraud fabricated by Emperor Taizong and Zhao Pu. Also worth mentioning is the suicide of Zhao Dezhao, Emperor Taizu's eldest son, three years after his father's death. During Emperor Taizong's first campaign against the Khitan-led Liao dynasty, Zhao Dezhao was leading an army when rumours spread that Emperor Taizong had disappeared, and that Zhao Dezhao should be the new emperor. Upon hearing that, Emperor Taizong did not award the troops when they returned. When Zhao Dezhao asked him, Emperor Taizong barked back, "You do that when you become the new emperor!" According to this account, Zhao Dezhao immediately went to his palace and killed himself and when Taizong heard about the suicide, he was very sad and hugged the corpse crying. Emperor Taizu's second son, Zhao Defang, died in 981 from an unidentified illness. Just 22, he was unusually young. Emperor Taizong was very sad and visited Defang's grave and cancelled meetings for 5 days. During the same year, Emperors Taizong and Taizu's younger brother, Zhao Tingmei (previously known as Zhao Guangmei and Zhao Kuangmei), was also stripped of his title "Prince of Qi" and sent to the Western Capital. He died three years later. Moreover, when Emperor Taizu's widow Empress Song died, her body was not buried with her late husband and not given the recognition according to tradition. After Emperor Taizong's ascension to the throne, there were persistent doubts as to the legitimacy of the succession, and a popular prophecy arose that Taizu's descendants will rightfully return to the throne one day (). This prophecy proved true when Taizu's seventh-generation descendant Xiaozong became emperor after the capture of most of Taizong's line by the Jurchens during the Jingkang incident and Gaozong, the first emperor of the Southern Song dynasty, whose own son Zhao Fu died young, lacked an heir. Military campaigns Conquering Northern Han Emperor Taizong personally led the campaign against Northern Han in 979 and ordered the flooding of enemy cities by releasing the Fen River. The Northern Han ruler Liu Jiyuan was forced to surrender, thus ending all the kingdoms and dynasties in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. First campaign against the Liao dynasty Having conquered Northern