Chapter 24 1. Warming up in the Sui Dynasty

Attention everyone, I will start to talk about another stage, which is the most prosperous period in Chinese history-the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Today, there are 56 main ethnic groups in the Chinese nation. The largest ethnic group is called the Han nationality. China Town, where overseas Chinese live together, is called Chinatown. It means that the ethnic groups of the two dynasties of the Han and Tang dynasties, "Xiong Han Sheng Tang", are the strongest in Chinese history. Big two dynasties.We have already seen the strength of the Han Dynasty, so who laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty?Sui.

In 581 AD, Yang Jian, a relative of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, changed the country name to Sui, the reign name Kaihuang, and the capital Chang'an.Yang Jian was Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, and Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty was a relative of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.The so-called foreign relatives refer to the emperor's mother and wife's family, the empress dowager's family and the empress's family.Yang Jian was the grandfather of Emperor Jing of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. He abolished his grandson to stand on his own, became emperor, and stood on his own in place of Zhou.

It is estimated that the father of Emperor Jing of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Emperor Xuan of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, may have been forced to marry Yang Jian's daughter, as is the case with foreign relatives usurping power.Wang Mang was also the emperor's grandfather, he usurped it; Cao Cao was the emperor's father-in-law, he didn't usurp it, but his son Cao Pi did usurp it, abolished his brother-in-law, and became emperor on his own.Like Emperor Zhou Xuan, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty was forced to marry Cao Cao's daughter because the original queen was killed. Yang Jian was granted the title of Sui Guogong in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, so after he abolished the establishment, the country was named Sui, the reign was Kaihuang, and the capital was Chang'an.In 589 AD, Yang Jian sent his second son Jin Wang Yang Guang to destroy Chen with an army of more than 500,000 by land and water, and unified the north and the south.Chen is the last dynasty of the Southern Dynasties, Song, Qi, Liang and Chen. "The emperor of the Southern Dynasties loves to be romantic, and sticks to the country to never end."

The reason for the unification of the north and the south in the Sui Dynasty is the integration of various ethnic groups. In history, the North wanted to unify the South several times.During the Three Kingdoms, Two Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the biggest battle was the Battle of Feishui in 383 AD. In the former Qin Dynasty among the 16 countries, Fu Jian, the emperor of the former Qin Dynasty, led an army of 900,000 to the south, intending to destroy the Eastern Jin Dynasty and complete the unification of the country, but failed.Just because ethnic conflicts were very sharp at that time, the common people in the south were unwilling to be ruled by the barbarians.The former Qin was a country established by the Di people, and the 900,000-odd army mainly consisted of Han soldiers. The total population of the Di people was only a few hundred thousand, so the Han soldiers regarded the Eastern Jin Dynasty as their own motherland and were unwilling to fight against the motherland as a puppet army. Therefore, they refused to resist and sent troops without efforts, which finally led to the defeat of the war.

When the Sui was unified, although both the Sui and Tang dynasties had Xianbei blood, the southerners no longer regarded them as aliens.The north has been completely sinicized, which is exactly the same as the Central Plains dynasty, so the southerners no longer regard the Sui as a foreign race, which made Yang Jian cheaper. The second reason is that the recovery and development of agriculture in the north has laid an economic foundation.The North originally had a higher level of productivity than the South. Although it was destroyed by the war, it has been actively recovering and developing at this time.In war, to be honest, there is an old saying, before soldiers and horses move, food and grass go first, and money must be spent in war, otherwise the United States can be so good.War requires a solid economic foundation.

Another reason is that it is easier to fight from north to south. Almost all unification wars in ancient China involved the unification of the north and the south. The only exception was the Northern Expedition of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty.The descendants of Genghis Khan continued to be Mongolian Khans until they were defeated by Huang Taiji. The last Mongolian Khan was Lin Dan Khan. From Genghis Khan to Lin Dan Khan, 35 generations were passed on in 482. The entire Northern Yuan regime was consistent with the Ming Dynasty. It was Hou Jin who destroyed Bei Yuan, that is, people from the Qing Dynasty, not the Ming Dynasty.Even the War of Liberation was a battle of crossing the river from the Songhua River to Hainan Island and from the north to the south.So in history these unification wars were fought from north to south, from top to bottom.

Because in ancient times, the economy in the north was developed, and it was convenient to fight the southern barbarians.Later, the south also developed, but the northerners were brave and good at fighting, while the southerners seemed to be literary and elegant, but they were not fighting.In addition, the terrain in the south is hilly, fragmented, and easy to separate. Unlike the northern plains, which are easy to unify, after unification, a centripetal force will be formed, and the concentrated force will rush outward.Go south to sweep.All these reasons made the unification of the Sui Dynasty a multiplier with half the effort, and it was inevitable.