Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Where Did Sui Yang Di Go Wrong

If you want to select the "prodigal son" among the emperors of all dynasties in China, Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, will probably bear the brunt of it. For thousands of years, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty has long been a tyrant equal to Qin Shihuang Yingzheng in the eyes of the world, and even worse than Qin Shihuang.Qin Shihuang abused the power of the people and caused chaos in the world, but this unified country, after all, was brought down by himself. In the end, he lost as much as he fought, and at most it was nothing.But this Emperor Sui Yang was different. What his father Yang Jian left him was a prosperous economy, a strong national power, and the world's most powerful country in East Asia—the Great Sui Empire, but it took him only 13 years. , The world was in chaos, the country was ruined and the family was destroyed. The good Sui Dynasty made wedding clothes for the prosperous Tang Dynasty.This is really like a person inheriting a rich inheritance, but ruining it at an extremely fast speed. What is it if he is not a prodigal son?

So for many years, this tyrant has been a 100% villain in the film and television images of literary works.But looking at history, the truth, is that really the case? Speaking of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, modern people say that he is a faint emperor, but during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, for a long period of time, Yang Guang was a young and promising prince with countless achievements and a good reputation. He is regarded as the dragon among men, the hope of creating a prosperous age. Modern people talk more about the things about Yang Guang's "pretending to be garlic".For example, when he was a prince, he was frugal, courteous and courteous, which pleased Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty. In the end, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty abolished the crown prince Yang Yong and made him the heir.But in fact, as early as when Yang Guang was 20 years old, he became famous all over the world. The reason was the unification war of the Sui Dynasty-the war to destroy Chen.

In 589 AD, Yang Guang, who was only 20 years old, was appointed as the Marshal of the Army and Horses, and led an army of 500,000 to destroy the Chen Dynasty in the south. The political significance of this battle was far greater than the military significance. After all, it was the last battle to unify the world.In terms of difficulty, the Sui Dynasty had strong soldiers and horses at that time, which was far from comparable to the small court of the Southern Chen Dynasty, and the Southern Expedition was naturally devastating.In this war, Yang Guang also let the world know him for the first time. As the commander-in-chief, he formulated the tactics of two-way breakthrough and direct attack on Jiankang City, which minimized casualties and ensured that wherever the Sui army went, Discipline was strict, no crime was committed against the common people, and all the property seized was turned over, and Nan Chen's treasury was "nothing to take".Yang Guang himself set an example, practiced in the army, and behaved respectfully and simply. After destroying Chen, he clearly rewarded and punished him, killed the courtiers around Chen Houzhu, and won the hearts of the people in the south.During this period, Yang Guang was a "good young man" who was respectful and virtuous, diligent and caring for the people, and his image after ascension to the throne was very different.

In fact, long before this, Yang Guang showed his talent more than once.For example, he is proficient in poetry and poetry, and has read a lot of books. When he talks about national affairs, even his father Yang Jian is very surprised.When Yang Guang was 13 years old, he was appointed as the general manager of Taiyuan. It can be seen that since then, Yang Jian has carefully cultivated Yang Guang, hoping that he will become a master in the future. After pacifying Nanchen, Yang Guang participated in several other major events in the Sui Dynasty.One is to put down Gao Zhizhi's rebellion in the south of the Yangtze River, and after the rebellion is put down, he will appease the local people and provide comfort to the people;Yang Guang, who lives in Yangzhou to calm the chaos, can be said to have devoted himself to his work. For more than ten days in a row, he stayed up all night working, commanding battles during the day and taking care of civil affairs at night. The local case has accumulated for decades since Nanchen. He finished it all within one month, and the result was "appreciated by everyone."In 590 A.D., the Turks aggressively invaded the border, and Yang Guang was ordered to lead the army to go out. He fought bravely and took the lead in repelling the Turks in Yan'an, Shaanxi.Such a character, at that time, was indeed a young talent with both civil and military skills.

In terms of life, Yang Guang inherited the characteristics of his father Yang Jian, and he is especially good at pretending.At this time, Yang Jian had 5 sons in total, namely Yang Yong, Yang Guang, Yang Jun, Yang Xiu, and Yang Liang, and all 5 of them were born to Yang Jian's main wife, Empress Dugu.Regardless of whether it is Lidi or Lichang, the throne is not destined for Yang Guang, but Yang Guang is very good at pleasing his parents.Moreover, Yang Jian's situation is special. He is a well-known "strict wife" among Chinese feudal emperors. When Queen Dugu was alive, he had only one wife, Queen Dugu, and Queen Dugu herself had a tough personality. play a decisive role.

For his mother, Queen Dugu, Yang Guang tried his best to win her favor.To please Empress Dugu, showing filial piety and giving gifts is useless. Empress Dugu is very strict with her husband throughout her life. What she cares most about is whether a man is loyal or not, and she is no exception to her son. However, the eldest son Yang Yong is a romantic man. His original wife was extremely indifferent, and the family married several concubines, which naturally annoyed Empress Dugu greatly.On the contrary, Yang Guang is very good at dealing with affairs. When he was the prince, what he showed most to the outside world was "love each other" with his wife Xiao Shi. Such a style will naturally please my mother.In fact, Yang Guang himself is also lustful, and he often visits the maids in the royal palace, and secretly aborts once he becomes pregnant, but he hides it from his mother after all.As time goes by, Empress Dugu holds Yang Guang in high regard, and keeps blowing pillow wind to Yang Jian, and Yang Jian's spiritual balance is tilted like this.

In addition to being able to pretend in front of his parents, Yang Guang is also good at pretending in front of ministers and subordinates. For example, when he led the army to the Northern Expedition to the Turks, the troops were short of food and the soldiers had no food. I was moved to tears.When he went south to Pingnanchen, he gave up his war horse to the sick soldiers and vacated his tent for the sick soldiers to recuperate.Sui Wendi's close ministers Yang Su, Gao Shao, Yu Wenshu and others also made friends with him, colluding with each other internally and externally. Here we will talk about Yang Yong who competed with Yang Guang for the crown prince.The reason why Yang Yong was eventually abolished was that apart from Yang Guang's pretending, he actually violated two taboos against Sui Wendi Yang Jian and his wife.The first is that Yang Yong believes in Buddhism and loves luxury. For Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty who practiced frugality, this can be said to be against the wind.The second taboo is that Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty was an introverted and gloomy person. Yang Yong's son was not like his father. .For example, he once accepted the congratulations of hundreds of officials on the winter solstice in AD 600. Yang Jian, who was worried that his son would seize power, felt guilty in his heart.The fuse of Yang Yong's defeat was that when Yang Guang took office as the governor of Yangzhou, he bid farewell to Empress Dugu before leaving. The mother and son exchanged tears. Yang Guang even took the opportunity to say that Yang Yong wanted to harm him, and spread rumors that Yang Yong's concubine was poisoned by Yang Yong dead.After hearing this, Queen Dugu said angrily: "If this son ascends the throne, my son may not be spared." So far, Yang Yong's fate is irretrievable.In October 600 A.D., Yang Jian officially issued an edict to abolish Yang Yong as the crown prince and replace Yang Guang as the crown prince.It is worth mentioning that Yang Guang framed Yang Yong for so many years, but until Yang Yong was abolished as the crown prince, he never said a word against his younger brother Yang Guang. The history books said that Yang Yong was "generous in nature", which is true.

At this time, the Sui Dynasty has become a prosperous age after Yang Jian's efforts to govern. What is most needed is a lord of success, just like the two emperors Wen and Jing behind Han Gaozu.And Yang Yong, who has a generous personality, is obviously more suitable for this condition, but Yang Guang, who has no choice but to pretend to be kind, inherited this inheritance. Objectively speaking, Yang Guang's own ability was indeed the most outstanding among Yang Jian's five sons at that time. He seems to be a qualified successor. How did the chaotic situation in the world be caused?

In 604 A.D., Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty died, and Yang Guang came to the throne. This is the famous Emperor Yang of Sui in history. Of course, it is not a good reputation. There are countless historical records about the various evil deeds during the reign of Emperor Sui Yang, among which the three most important ones are: opening the Grand Canal, conquest of Goguryeo, and several parades. Looking closely at these three evil deeds, it is not difficult to find that although the final result of the incident is to cause public dissatisfaction and chaos in the world, the occurrence of the three incidents has its own reasons.

Let me talk about digging the Grand Canal first.In fact, since the founding of the Sui Dynasty, digging canals has been a strategic focus of the country.During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty during the "Kaihuang Reign", the Sui Dynasty launched large-scale canal projects several times, dredging the river from Jiankang to northern Jiangsu in the south, dredging the tributary of the Weishui River to Chang'an in Shaanxi, and even In the Hexi area of ​​Gansu, water conservancy projects have been built many times. The Hexi area was able to become the most affluent state and county in the world during the Tang Dynasty, and the foundation was laid down during the Sui Dynasty.As for the excavation of the Grand Canal, as early as the tenth year of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, local officials in the south of the Yangtze River requested that the canal be excavated to reduce the cost of tax and grain transportation.After the Sui Dynasty pacified Nanchen, the southern economy developed rapidly and taxes increased sharply. However, a large amount of taxes were transported to the north, and the cost of traveling long distances was very high. Self-responsibility, during the period of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, only the taxes and food in the Jiangnan area were apportioned to each commoner, and the "loss" to be paid was 9 times that of the tax itself.As the Sui Dynasty continued to win over the Turks, Tuyuhun and other tribes, the rewards increased day by day, and the demand for tax and food in the south also increased. Therefore, opening up the north-south traffic arteries and reducing transportation costs has become a trend that has lasted for more than 10 years since the time of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty. Voices, in the last 10 years of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, there were more than 50 memorials requesting the excavation of the canal from the central government to the local government, including many important ministers such as Gao Shao and Yang Su.It can be said that at that time, the excavation of the Grand Canal was the voice of the whole country, not the whim of Emperor Sui Yang himself.

The entire construction design of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was planned by Yu Wenkai, the most famous engineer in the Sui Dynasty.Yu Wenkai's original plan was to connect the five major rivers of the Haihe, Yellow, Huaihe, Yangtze, and Tangjiang in the form of civilian service in batches, and build a Grand Canal connecting Beijing and Hangzhou.In Yu Wenkai's original idea, he considered every detail of this huge project in detail. For example, he suggested that it is not appropriate to mobilize too many civilians at one time, but that the common people serve in batches to ensure that the total number of civilians is used every year. There are no more than 200,000 people, and all civilian laborers who participate in labor are subsidized by the state.With the grain reserves in the south of the Sui Dynasty at that time, it was not difficult to do all this.Yu Wenkai's earliest project idea was to plan to run through the whole line in 11 years, but after the report was delivered, Emperor Sui Yang thought it was too late, 11 years? He couldn't wait for one year, and finally it was promulgated that the time limit for the Grand Canal project was shortened to seven years, and food subsidies were not allowed at all. It was Emperor Sui Yang's character that he wanted horses to run and not let them graze. . As a result, starting from 605 A.D., the Sui Dynasty mobilized 1.1 million civilians to start this massive project. Unlike Yu Wenkai's earliest step-by-step approach, the Sui Dynasty adopted a strategy of starting construction at the same time, that is, from the Central Plains to the south of the Yangtze River, 5 The project of the large water system started at the same time.At the same time, although the progress of construction is fast, but in this way, most of the people in the six provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang will be expropriated, and production will suddenly be paralyzed. pay.The power of the entire empire was spent on this project, which was beneficial for thousands of years, but it was enough to toss the Sui Dynasty to exhaustion.For example, Ma Ku, the river official in charge of supervision, was known as Ma Yan Wang. He abused the power of the people, so that his name could stop children from crying in the rural areas of the Central Plains.Since the work must be done, the people will not be allowed to eat, and the people will be extorted. Naturally, the people will suffer unspeakably. By 611 A.D., this large-scale project running from north to south was completed. During this period, a total of more than 2 million people were mobilized. It took 6 years to complete such a project. It is a miracle in the history of ancient human engineering, but behind the miracle is the Central Plains. The blood and tears of the people.As far as taxes are concerned, the taxes paid by the Sui Dynasty in these six provinces in the past six years have been much reduced compared to when Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty was in power.Cultivation should be practiced, but no one can stand such a practice. Similar to the construction of the Grand Canal, Emperor Sui Yang's three conquests of Goguryeo were condemned. If the construction of the canal was an abuse of people's power, then the conquest of Goguryeo was even more called a militarism by later generations.But few people in later generations are aware of a problem. At that time, Goguryeo had to be fought. We can focus on future generations. The Tang Dynasty, which succeeded the Sui Dynasty, also adopted a tough policy towards Goguryeo.Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty used to conquer Goguryeo in person, but he also suffered a failure. It was not until Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi of the Tang Dynasty that he defeated Goguryeo with soldiers.The war with Goguryeo ran through the border period between the Sui and Tang dynasties, and even throughout the reign of Zhenguan and Yonghui.Why did two different dynasties and four generations of rulers adopt the same policy of resolute suppression of this small regime in Northeast China?Is it just to show off force and resort to military force? To understand this issue, we must first look at what kind of regime Goguryeo was. Goguryeo, located in Northeast China and the Korean Peninsula, is a regime that has existed since the Three Kingdoms era. This regime has always been at war with the Central Plains Dynasty. At first, it was mainly nomadic, and later it turned into a semi-fishing and hunting economy.At the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Goguryeo grew rapidly. By the time of the Sui Dynasty, Goguryeo had a population of 5 million and a standing army of 500,000. It seemed to be a powerful force in Liaodong.In fact, in the early days of the founding of the country, the Sui Dynasty adopted a favorable policy towards Goguryeo, but it was Goguryeo who provoked it first. They coveted the territory of the Liaoxi of the Sui Dynasty and invaded it when Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty was in power.For this reason, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty dispatched 300,000 troops to march north in an attempt to destroy Goguryeo in one fell swoop, but was defeated by Goguryeo.Compared with nomadic peoples like the Turks, Goguryeo had a relatively developed economy and was in a semi-agricultural state. Its state power was tightly organized, far from that of the loose nomadic peoples like the Turks. Given time, it would become the enemy of the Central Plains dynasty. After Emperor Sui Yang ascended the throne, Tuyuhun surrendered, and the Turks accepted the canonization. Only Goguryeo in the east has been continuously invading. During the period when Emperor Sui Yang poured all his power into digging the Grand Canal, Goguryeo also continued to make moves on the Chinese border. While sending envoys to claim the territory of western Liaoning, they kept attacking and killing at the border of the Sui Dynasty.In addition, he formed alliances with many tribes of the Turkic Khanate, echoed each other, and harassed the border of the Sui Dynasty. Therefore, it was an inevitable choice for the Sui Dynasty to maintain border security through a war that severely damaged Goguryeo. But Emperor Sui Yang obviously made another mistake about digging the Grand Canal: fuck it.The purpose of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was not to inflict serious damage, but to complete his efforts in one battle and completely solve the border troubles of Goguryeo.Therefore, in 610 A.D., when the Grand Canal project was coming to an end, he mobilized a million civilians and 1.18 million troops to launch a conquest against Goguryeo.For this war, he built 300 giant warships in Penglai, Shandong. Three-tenths of the migrant workers who built the ships died in this forced labor.In 611 A.D., the Sui army set out and marched by land and water, but unexpectedly encountered stubborn resistance. Although the Sui army's vanguard once reached the city of Pyongyang, the capital of Goguryeo, it eventually retreated due to the deep penetration of the army alone. Of the 300,000 troops of Emperor Sui Yang's headquarters, only 2700 people.In 613 and 614 A.D., Emperor Sui Yang sent troops to attack Goguryeo twice. As a result, civil uprisings occurred in the country and he had to withdraw his troops hastily. There is a saying today that "Sui died in Goguryeo", mainly because in 611 AD, because of resisting the conquest of Goguryeo, Shandong peasant Wang Bo revolted, which opened the prelude to the vigorous peasant uprising at the end of Sui Dynasty.During the second expedition to Goguryeo, the important minister Yang Xuangan led his troops to rebel again, and the world was in chaos from then on.Speaking of this lesson, later generations always say that this war cannot be fought. In fact, the most important question is: not that it cannot be fought, but that it cannot be fought in this way. Many people in later generations overlooked one thing. With the strength of the Sui Dynasty at that time, it was difficult to destroy Goguryeo all at once.This semi-fishing and hunting state regime is different from the nomads, and it is impossible to surrender through one or two devastating blows. Even the prosperous Tang Dynasty later experienced two generations of monarchs, and finally united with Silla. Destroy the country.The tenacity and war mobilization ability of this country are far stronger than those of Turks, Tuyuhun and other regimes, and it must not be taken lightly as a small state.Therefore, the best choice for the Sui Dynasty at that time was to combat its arrogance through limited wars and gradually weaken it, rather than eating a fat man in one bite.Obviously, Emperor Sui Yang made another wrong choice. As for his other thing that posterity criticized: cruising around.Judging from the situation at the time, it was not just to show off the majesty. At this time, China was unified and the northern border troubles were not eliminated. Launching a parade can play a role in calming people's hearts.But at this time, the vitality of the country was seriously injured, and the people were unbearable. However, Emperor Sui Yang was a person who talked about face. The emperor talked about face, and the ministers wanted face.From opening canals, fighting, and parading, the people of the Sui Dynasty suffered three times in a row, and the country was dying. In such a situation, it is difficult to maintain chaos. How should we evaluate Sui Yangdi's failure? Although each of the three subjugation events had their own reasons, they finally led to a great uprising and the country was subjugated in the chaos of the world. Perhaps there is a metaphor that is most appropriate: the Sui Dynasty, like a healthy but hidden patient, moved first He performed a blood vessel operation to eliminate hidden dangers, then he rushed to fight people regardless of his weakness, and then he blindly enjoyed himself regardless of his body, and finally broke himself.The Sui Dynasty was such a poor patient.