Chapter 48 139 Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty visited Jiangdu

After Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty ascended the throne, in order to strengthen his political control over the country and make it easier for materials from the Jiangnan area to be transported to the north, coupled with his personal pursuit of pleasure, he did two things from the beginning: first, Build a new capital in Luoyang, called Dongdu; the second is to open a grand canal running through the north and south. In 605 AD, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty sent Yu Wenkai (sound kai), a minister in charge of construction projects, to build the Eastern Capital.Yu Wenkai is a brilliant engineering expert. He catered to Emperor Sui Yang's pursuit of extravagance and made the scale of the project extremely large.The high-grade wood and stone materials needed for the construction of the palace were all transported from the south of Dajiang River and the north of Wuling Mountains, and it took thousands of people to pull a single pillar.In order to build the Eastern Capital, 2 million migrant workers were recruited every month to work day and night.They also built a large garden in the west of Luoyang for Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty to enjoy, called "Xiyuan", with a circumference of 200 miles. What's more, when the leaves fall in winter, they send people to cut colorful silk into flowers and leaves, and tie them on the trees, so that the garden will be perennial spring.

In the same year that the Eastern Capital was built, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ordered that more than one million people from all over Henan and Huaibei be expropriated, and a canal was opened from Xiyuan in Luoyang to Shanyang (now Huai'an, Jiangsu) on the south bank of the Huai River, called "Tongji". and more than 100,000 people in Huainan were confiscated from Shanyang to Jiangdu (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu) to dredge a "Han (sound) ditch" opened by Fu Chai, king of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period.In this way, the waterway transportation from Luoyang to Jiangnan will be much more convenient.

In the next five years, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty recruited migrant workers twice to open a canal. One was from the north bank of the Yellow River in Luoyang to Zhuojun (now Beijing), called "Yongji Canal"; Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) to Yuhang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang), called "Jiangnan River".Finally, the four canals were connected to form a grand canal running from north to south with a total length of 4,000 miles.The Grand Canal is one of the great projects in the history of our country.It plays a positive role in the development of my country's economy and culture and the unification of the motherland.Needless to say, this is what thousands of working people in our country paid for with their blood, sweat and even their lives.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty especially liked to go out on tours, firstly to play and have fun, and secondly to show his prestige to the people. The canal from Dongdu to Jiangdu had just been completed, and Emperor Sui Yang took a huge team of 200,000 people to Jiangdu for a tour. Emperor Sui Yang sent officials to build tens of thousands of large ships.On the day of departure, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and his wife Empress Xiao took two four-storey dragon boats. There were palaces and hundreds of palace rooms on the boats, which were resplendently decorated; The colored ships; thousands of larger ships behind, loaded with guards and their accompanying weapons and tents.There are tens of thousands of large ships lined up on the canal, with the bow and stern connected, it is actually two hundred miles long.

How to sail such a huge fleet?Those who intended for the emperor's enjoyment had already arranged for it.On both sides of the canal, a royal road lined with willow trees was built. More than 80,000 migrant workers were conscripted to pull the fibers for them, and two teams of cavalry escorted them along the bank.Glorious boats sailed on the river, and colorful flags fluttered on the land.At night, the lights are brightly lit and the drums are playing loudly. It is an indescribably luxurious scene. In order to satisfy the enjoyment of a large number of people in the fleet, Emperor Sui Yang ordered the people on both sides of the strait to prepare food and drink for them, which is called "offering food".Officials in those prefectures and counties forced the people to hold banquets and send them. In some prefectures and counties, hundreds of banquets were sent.Not to mention that Emperor Sui Yang couldn't eat so much, even the eunuchs, princes and ministers he brought with him couldn't finish it.The leftovers were dug a hole on the bank and buried.But those people who were forced to donate food have lost their fortunes.

Jiangdu was a prosperous place at that time.When Emperor Sui Yang arrived in Jiangdu, he not only played and had fun, but also showed off his prestige.In order to decorate a ceremonial guard used when going on tour, it took more than 100,000 labor and hundreds of millions of money.After going on like this for half a year, he returned to Dongdu in a brash and majestic manner. After this, Emperor Sui Yang made tours almost every year.Once, he went to the north by land to inspect, conscripted migrant workers from more than a dozen counties in Hebei, dug Taihang Mountain, and paved a road for patrolling; in order to protect the safety of his patrol, he conscripted more than one million people to build the Great Wall. It was built in ten days.In this way, under the escort of 500,000 soldiers, he patrolled the northern border once.There is no ready-made palace in the north. Fortunately, Yu Wenkai, who was next to Emperor Sui Yang, was a craftsman, and specially built a mobile palace for him, called "Guanfengxing Palace".This kind of hall can accommodate hundreds of guards on the top, and it can be installed when it is in use, and it can be disassembled and shipped when it is not in use; there are wheels on the bottom, which can be rotated at will.This was considered an invention at the time, but it was a pity that it was only for Emperor Sui Yang's enjoyment.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty built the Eastern Capital, opened canals, built the Great Wall, coupled with years of large-scale parades, endless labor and increasingly heavy taxes, and the people have been overwhelmed.However, Emperor Sui Yang's extravagance and licentiousness became more and more serious.In order to show off his martial arts, he launched a war against Korea in 611 AD. This year, he took a dragon boat from Jiangdu to Zhuojun along the Grand Canal, and personally directed the war.He ordered the national army, no matter how far or near, to gather in Zhuo County; he also sent people to supervise the construction of 300 military ships in Haikou, Donglai (now Ye County, Shandong Province). The shipbuilders were under the supervision of officials, day and night. Less than a break.The lower half of their bodies were soaked in the sea water. After a long time, they rotted from the waist down to the point where maggots were born. Many people couldn't stand the torture and fell into the sea water and died.

Then, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ordered Henan, Huainan, and Jiangnan to supervise the construction of 50,000 carts and send them to Gaoyang to transport armor and tents to the soldiers; Southeast) and grain from Luokou warehouses were transported to Zhuojun.As a result, countless vehicles and boats, regardless of day or night, continuously flowed from south to north along land routes and canals, forming a torrent.Many of the hundreds of thousands of people who transported supplies died of exhaustion and starvation on the way, and there were dead bodies along the way.Due to the death of too many peasants, the farm cattle were also confiscated to pull carts, leaving the countryside barren and the people struggling to survive.

The people could bear it no longer.If you want to survive, you can only resist.Wang Bo, a native of Zouping (now Zouping, Shandong), first led the peasants to revolt in Changbai Mountain. He wrote a song "The Song of the Death of the Waves in Liaodong without Direction" (the death of the waves means sending death in vain), calling on everyone to resist the government. The song reads: "...Suddenly hearing the arrival of the officers and soldiers, he raised his sword and swung forward. For example, if Liaodong dies, beheading will not hurt." Then, in the vast areas of Shandong and Hebei, peasant uprisings occurred one after another, and the rule of the Sui Dynasty began to be unstable.