Chapter 33 Digging canals for viewing Qionghua

When Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty conquered the Chen Dynasty in the south, he admired the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River very much.Then he worked as the general manager of Yangzhou for another nine years.Yangzhou was very prosperous in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and it was said that "life is only for Yangzhou and death".Later, there was a saying that "wrapping 100,000 guan in the waist, riding a crane to Yangzhou", compared going to Yangzhou with being a rich man and being a god, which shows the charm of Yangzhou City.Emperor Sui Yang was naturally very addicted to such a beautiful and romantic place.Later, when he became emperor, he still missed his days in Yangzhou very much. Even when he saw a picture depicting Yangzhou hanging in the palace, he paid attention to it for a long time and lingered endlessly.Therefore, the emperor decided to go to Yangzhou again.

But he is the emperor now, and if he wants to go to Yangzhou, he can't be as easy and easy as he is a prince.Moreover, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty liked to put on a show, and he wanted to bring hundreds of officials, concubines, and accompanying servants and maids...a large and mighty group of people.It was definitely a huge project for so many people to go south with him, far exceeding the carrying capacity of the society at that time.However, Emperor Sui Yang believed that the world would be stable and prosperous, so how could he be blocked by such a small difficulty, so starting from the first year of Daye (605), he ordered the excavation of an unprecedented huge project - the Grand Canal.

This is the famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in history.It is roughly divided into the following parts: From Xiyuan in Luoyang to Shanyang (now Huai'an, Jiangsu) on the south bank of the Huaihe River, it is called "Tongji Canal"; In this way, the waterway transportation from Luoyang to Jiangnan is very convenient.From the north bank of the Yellow River in Luoyang to Zhuojun (now Beijing), it is called "Yongji Canal"; from Jingkou opposite Jiangdu to Yuhang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang) is a canal called "Jiangnan River".These four canals are connected to form a grand canal running from north to south.At that time, in order to speed up the construction period, a large number of civilian workers were recruited, and countless manpower was used. According to historical records, a total of more than 5.43 million people were used.The cruel official Ma Shumou was in charge of repairing the river. He forced all men over the age of 15 to serve in the military service, and selected one person from five families, old, young, or female, to provide food and cooking for migrant workers.Fifty thousand burly men were also dispatched, each carrying a stick, as supervisors to supervise the labor of migrant workers.Because the labor burden was heavy, the supervisors were too anxious to supervise and beat them with sticks at every turn, so when the project only went to Xuzhou, 1.5 million people died of overwork.According to records, from Xingyang in the east to Heyang in the north, at a glance, there are all corpse trucks carrying dead people, which is terrifying.Moreover, this Ma Shumou also has a terrible habit, he loves to eat human flesh, and he only eats children.Because of his ugly appearance and terrifying beard, he was called "Mahu".Later, the folks frightened the children and said: "Ma Huzi is here." It is still the case in some places.The project of the entire Grand Canal lasted as many as six years, consuming countless manpower and financial resources.This large sum of money is transformed into more onerous taxes.The strong and healthy people went to dig the canal, and the old and weak had difficulty supporting their families at home, and they had to bear exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes with increasing names, which caused complaints from all over the country.

But these things would not be taken seriously by Emperor Sui Yang. In August of the first year of Daye, he set off from Luoyang and went to Yangzhou by dragon boat without waiting for the canal to be completed.The fleet is huge.The dragon boat of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was forty-five feet high, fifty feet wide and two hundred feet long.It is divided into four layers, the upper layer is the main hall, the inner hall, and the east and west halls, the middle layer has a total of 160 rooms, all decorated with gold and jade, carved patterns, and the lower layer houses eunuchs and servants.The dragon boat has 1,080 sailors pulling it forward with large black silk ropes. They all wear brocade robes and are known as "palace feet".The boat on which the queen sits is called the Xiangchi boat, which is smaller than the dragon boat but has the same decoration. Nine hundred people are brought in with the feet of the palace.The concubines ride in floating scenery boats. There are nine boats in total, each with two hundred people at the foot of the palace.The boats on which the nobles, beauties and concubines of the Sixteenth Court take are called Yangcai boats. There are thirty-six boats in total, each with a hundred people.In addition, there are thousands of gorgeous large ships of various kinds, on which are sitting palace people, kings and princesses, monks, nuns, Taoists, envoys from various countries, and palace guards, totaling more than 800 people with the feet of the temple.This mighty fleet was connected end to end when sailing in the canal, with a length of more than two hundred miles.There are another 200,000 cavalry escorts on both sides of the strait, horseshoes are chaotic, and banners cover the sky.Emperor Sui Yang's dragon boat had set off for more than 50 days, and the accompanying boats had just left Luoyang.Along the way, food must be offered within five hundred miles of the states and counties they pass, which is called "sacrificing food".Naturally, the local officials would not give up this good opportunity to flatter, so they rushed to contribute, and the number even reached hundreds of cars in a state, all of which were rare and delicious.With so many things, Emperor Sui Yang and his party would throw away all the leftovers wherever they could finish them.Such extravagant expenses will be passed on to the common people in the end. Although Emperor Sui Yang hypocritically exempted Yangzhou from taxes for five years, the troubles he caused to the local people during his tour are much greater than the taxes paid in just a few years. up.

When he arrived in Yangzhou, the emperor naturally wanted to have fun.He thought the local palaces were too spacious and lacked the fun of twists and turns, so he built a new building on Guanyin Mountain and spent all the money in the treasury.The layout of this building is chic and exquisite.Looking from the outside, the pavilions are uneven, the windows are exquisite, or there are a few vermilion columns slantingly exposed, or a curtain of embroidery is hidden, decorated with gold, silver, pearls and jade.After entering the gate, I saw a main hall in the middle, with painted pillars and carved beams, extravagant and rich, but also ordinary.The ingenious thing is that it is upstairs, where the hidden rooms and secret rooms are intertwined, making people overwhelmed.What's more, there are thousands of twists and turns, the front is covered and the back is reflected, the door is doubled, and the coincidence turns around. It is obviously in the front hall, but after a few turns, it is actually in the backyard;Step by step into the scenic spot, everywhere is incredible.Even the emperor himself almost didn't know where he was. He looked east and west, left and right, and was so tired that he was dazzled. He couldn't help admiring: "This building is winding and confusing. Even immortals will get lost in it. It's called "Misty". Lou' it."

With the wonderful "Milou", Emperor Sui Yang could enjoy the beauty and beauties of Yangzhou in peace.He set up four pairs of precious tents on the fan tower, which are called: Scattering Spring Sorrow, Drunk and Forgotten Return, Ye Xinxiang, and Yanqiuyue.Then he selected thousands of women from good families to live in the maze, and used his "random car" to have fun with them at will.He also asked the painters to draw dozens of pictures of the intercourse between men and women and hang them in the pavilion.Dozens of black copper screens were cast, and the surface was polished to be as shiny as a mirror, surrounding the bed.So when Emperor Yang of Sui was up and down with the beauties, his figure was reflected on the screen without any omission.He was very happy and felt that such a "true appearance" was much better than painting.However, the emperor dealt with the women every day, and his body gradually became unbearable.He said to his attendants: "I still remember when I ascended the pole, I worked very hard but didn't fall asleep. I could only close my eyes when I lay on the woman's lap. But now I can't wake up when I fall asleep, and I get tired when I get close to women. Why is that? ?” The valet advised him to be less sensual and take care of his body.The emperor nodded again and again, and the next day he chose a quiet room in the harem to recuperate, and no court ladies were allowed to enter.But only one day later, Emperor Sui Yang came out angrily and said, "What's the point of living like this for ten million years?"

However, although Yangzhou has beautiful scenery and beauties, its most famous scenic spot is the Qionghua, which is known as "the only flower in the world".The origin of this Qionghua is also quite unusual. It is said that it was born of beautiful jade planted by immortals, so it is called "Qinghua", and "Qiong" means beautiful jade.This flower is "beautiful like jasmine, laughing like roses like mortals, but narcissus can be as leisurely as it is, and Jiangmei is as elegant as it". One is in Houtu Temple in Yangzhou.Many people admired the fame and transplanted plants one after another, but they couldn't survive anyway.In this way, even though Emperor Sui Yang was the emperor of the Sui Dynasty and could do almost anything, if he wanted to see the Qionghua, he had to come to Yangzhou himself.But the weather was not good, Emperor Sui Yang worked hard and dug the Grand Canal, which caused commotion all over the world, and the people complained. Finally, when he arrived in Yangzhou, the viburnum was smashed to pieces by a hailstorm, and there was not a single flower left.So the emperor was furious and ordered the Qionghua tree to be cut down.But although Qionghua was destroyed, Emperor Sui Yang was also murdered to death soon, and the Sui Dynasty perished.So people said that Emperor Sui Yang dug the canal because he wanted to see Qionghua, which led to the subjugation of the country.

This story is not recorded in the official history, and it only comes from the Ming people's novels about Emperor Sui Yang. It is just a folk legend, not a historical fact.Although the demise of the Sui Dynasty was related to Emperor Sui Yang digging a canal and going to Yangzhou three times to abuse people's power and extort money, but the construction of the Grand Canal cannot be said to be an act of national subjugation.There is a poem in the Tang Dynasty: "It is said that the Sui Dynasty died on this river, and it has been thousands of miles away. If there is no dragon boat event in the water palace, Gong Yu's merits will not be much." It can be seen that it is important for strengthening the connection between the capital and the north and south, consolidating unity, and promoting the economy. The importance of cultural exchange is a pity that Emperor Sui Yang's original intention was not here. He just wanted to play more comfortably for himself.Therefore, because of this "dragon boat incident in the water palace", it is very unfair to let the Grand Canal also bear the infamy of subjugation.