Regarding the demise of the Sui Dynasty, many friends may blurt out that the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Sui Dynasty. It should be said that there is nothing wrong with this statement. In 617, in the case of peasant revolts everywhere, Li Yuan remained in Taiyuan County of the Sui Dynasty to rebel against the Sui Dynasty, and on December 18 of that year, he conquered the Sui capital Chang'an. Later, Li Yuan made Yang You (yòu), the grandson of the Sui Emperor Yang Guang, a puppet emperor. But in fact, at this time, the Sui Emperor Yang Guang was still alive, because he had already gone to Jiangdu, which is today's Yangzhou, Jiangsu. Therefore, after Li Yuan established Yang You as a puppet emperor, he actually ostensibly honored the Sui Emperor as the Taishang Emperor.
Li Yuan took the Sui Dynasty and replaced it, but was not a direct destroyer of the Sui Dynasty
However, on April 11, 618, the Sui Dynasty army that followed the Sui Emperor in Jiangdu launched a rebellion, and the Sui Emperor Yang Guang was killed. After the death of Yang Guang, who had some influence on the situation in the world before, Li Yuan had no scruples about getting rid of the puppets, so he deposed Yang You, whom he had established, in June of that year, proclaimed himself emperor, and established the Tang Dynasty. So from this point of view, it is indeed correct to say that the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Sui Dynasty. But I believe that everyone has seen here and found that in fact, the demise of the Sui Dynasty and the death of The Sui Emperor Yang Guang are the most important nodes. However, Yang Guang was not killed by Li Yuan or Tang Jun, but by the rebellious Sui army. At that time, the person who led this rebellion was called Yu Wenhuaji, so strictly speaking, he was actually the one who directly destroyed the Sui Dynasty. So who is he? Why is he related to the Huns? What happened to the ultimate fate of the Xu Kingdom he founded?
In fact, when it comes to Yu culture and, in fact, many friends are not strangers. Because whether it is the traditional novels and commentaries "Sui and Tang Yanyi" that were widely circulated in the early years, or the TV series "Sui and Tang Yanyi", which was popular in previous years, there is a more core opposition role, that is, Yuwen Chengdu. In novels or TV series, Yuwen Chengdu is the son of Yu Wenhua, and Yu Wenhua and himself are also one of the more prominent characters in these works.
But novels, reviews and TV series certainly cannot be equated with history, so in fact, there is no Yuwen Chengdu in real history, but Yu Wenhua is a real historical figure. And the real history of Yu culture and is also a very complex character. And this complexity of his is first reflected in his world.
Yu culture and family arose during the Northern Zhou Dynasty
First of all, Yu Wenhua and of course the surname Yuwen. Then many friends also know that in fact, the establishment of the Sui Dynasty before that was the Sui Emperor Yang Jian destroyed the Northern Zhou established by yuwen. During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yu Wenhua and his family had long been a major vassal of Northern Zhou, and his grandfather Yuwen Sheng was once the Shangzhu State of Northern Zhou, that is, one of the most important generals, and his father was also a close confidant of Yuwen Hu, the chancellor of Northern Zhou. However, although his family had always been a heavy subject of Northern Zhou, and his surname was Yuwen, at the time of the fall of The Sui Emperor Yang Jian of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Shu had already "turned around gorgeously" and became a close associate of Yang Jian, not only was not implicated in the demise of the Northern Zhou Yuwen Dynasty, but also became a famous general of the Sui Dynasty, who fought for the Sui Dynasty many times and made a lot of military merits. So why is that?
Yu culture and ancestors returned to the General Orientation of the Yuwen Department before and after the Shun Yuwen Department
In fact, this reason is also quite simple, because although yu culture and the Yuwen family from which they are born are also surnamed Yuwen, they are not the same thing as the Yuwen royal family in Northern Zhou. Some historical records record that the Yu culture and the family from which they were born were actually Xiongnu people, surnamed Broken Wild Head. In the 4th century AD, their ancestors submitted to Yuwen Yidougui, the leader of Yuwen Xianbei's tribe, and became his servants, so they later changed their surname to Yuwen with their masters. Therefore, although Yu Culture and this family are also surnamed Yuwen and are nominally Sinicized Xianbei people, and some theories believe that Yuwen Xianbei itself originated from the Xiongnu, Yu Culture and this family and the Yuwen family that established the Northern Wei dynasty are not completely tied together, but are likely to be a family with a Xiongnu background.
However, Yu Wenhua and the eventual rebellion to kill Emperor Wen of Sui had nothing to do with the identity of the Xiongnu, but because he was the representative of a powerful warrior group of the Sui Dynasty, that is, the Xiaoguo Army group. This Xiaoguo army group was actually the earliest Yulin Army of the Sui Dynasty. In 583, Emperor Yang Jian of Sui recruited a large number of brave soldiers and formed two yulin armies called the Xiao Wei Army and the Guo Yi Army. At that time, the soldiers recruited into both armies were required to stab the blood eagle on their left arm as a mark, and soon they were collectively known as the Xiaoguo Army.
The Xiaoguo Army set up by Yang Jian eventually became the gravediggers of the Sui Dynasty
Yu Wenhua and his father Yuwen Shu became Yang Jian's subordinates during the Northern Zhou Dynasty's Eastern Expedition against Northern Qi, and soon became Yang Jian's confidants. Therefore, in the process of the establishment of the Sui Dynasty and the formation of the Xiaoguo Army, Yuwen Shu also quickly became an important figure in the Xiaoguo Army, the imperial forest army. In the process of Yang Guang's killing of his brother Yang Yong and thus seizing the throne of the Sui Dynasty, Yuwen Shu once brought a large amount of treasure into Beijing to contact Yang Guang's important courtiers extensively, winning him important support, so he was more trusted after Yang Guang seized the throne.
In 613, the Sui Emperor expanded his army because of the conquest, during which he recruited a large number of new troops into the Xiaoguo Army, so that the size of the Xiaoguo Army was rapidly expanded, reaching almost 100,000 people at its peak, which also made it a very powerful force at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and the Yuwen family also became an important family that the Sui Emperor relied on during this period.
The Sui Dynasty Emperor's excessive reliance on the Yuwen family also laid the groundwork for his eventual killing
Therefore, Yu culture and soon had an important position in the Sui Dynasty court. Long before Yang Guang became emperor, Yu Wenhua had become a prince servant and was one of Yang Guang's most trusted cronies. Moreover, Yang Guang also married his daughter Princess Nanyang to his younger brother Yuwen Shiji. And these acts of trust seem to have contributed to Yu Wenhua and his character, so his image left in the history books was very bad from the beginning. The history books say that he had misbehaved when he was young, often riding a high-headed horse with a bow and arrow in Chang'an, and was called a light and thin prince by the citizens of Chang'an. In the middle, he was also dismissed from office for accepting bribes many times, and it was Yang Guang who came forward to intercede to keep his official position.
After Yang Guang gained the throne, Yu Wenhua was soon appointed as the Taibu Shaoqing(太仆少卿), the deputy official in charge of emperor Che Ma and Ma Zheng. Yu Wenhua, who had some power in his hands, soon abused it, and he and another younger brother, Yuwen Zhihe, privately began to smuggle and obtain huge profits. As a result, yang Guang discovered this and provoked him to be angry, not only dismissing Yu Wenhua and Yuwen Zhihe's officials, but also preparing to behead them at one point. In the end, it was Yuwen Shu who personally interceded, and Yang Guangcai released them, but the official position was swept to the end.
The situation of the peasant revolt at the end of the Sui Dynasty
By 616, Yuwen Shu was dead. At this time, there was already a popular uprising in North China, and Yang Guang remembered his old love with his family, and considered that the Yuwen family was needed to suppress the civil rebellion for himself at that time, so he revived Yu Wenhua and appointed him as the general of Right Tun Wei. After the civil unrest intensified and Yang Guang came to Jiangdu, the Xiaoguo Army, which was very powerful in the Yuwen family, became the main force to protect him. At that time, Yang Guang saw that the Sui army was powerless to quell the people's rebellion in the north, so he moved the idea of moving the capital to Danyang nearby.
However, the Xiaoguo Army was the Yulin Army, so most of its non-commissioned officers were recruited from around the Capital of the Sui Dynasty, that is, the Guanzhong region. Therefore, after knowing that Yang Guang was preparing to move the capital and was not ready to return to Chang'an, many soldiers wanted to flee because they were homesick. Sensing that the army was unstable, the generals of the Xiaoguo Army quickly focused on discussing countermeasures, and sima Dekan, the supreme commander of the Xiaoguo Army, once suggested that everyone simply lead the army to abandon the Sui Emperor and leave Jiangdu. However, Yu Wenhua and his younger brother Yuwen Zhiji said: If you just leave, if Yang Guang sends other troops to pursue, in the end, if we are unable to control the army, we will definitely be executed. Since the matter has come to an end, it is better to simply launch a coup d'état and kill Yang Guang.
The generals thought that this was the case, so they all agreed to a coup d'état. However, Yuwen Zhi and his seniority in proposing the coup were still shallow and not enough to convince the public, so they elected Yu Wenzhi and his brother Yu Wenhua as the leader, and finally launched a coup d'état. In this way, Xiao Guojun killed Yang Guang on April 11, and then quickly killed Yang Guang's brother and son and a large number of Sui Dynasty royal families. However, at that time, Yu Wenhua thought that the time was not ripe to directly claim the title of emperor, so he also found a nephew of Yang Guang, named Yang Hao, and made him a puppet emperor. But this Yang Hao was really just a puppet, after he was erected, he was heavily guarded in the other palace, and he had no power every day except to sign the edict. Yu Wenhua, on the other hand, made himself the Prime Minister and completely controlled the government.
After taking power, it was perhaps Yu Wenhua and worried about the prestige of his former superior Sima Dekan, so he stripped him of his military power on the grounds of promotion. This in turn caused Sima Dekan to be dissatisfied, so he began to plot to attack Yu Wenhua. However, Yu Wenhua and preemptive action killed Sima Dekan.
Li Mi is the key figure in the failure of Yu Culture and ultimately
But even so, Yu Wenhua and the Xiaoguo Army did not establish enough prestige, and he did not seem to have too high military talent. Therefore, in the chaotic world of the late Sui Dynasty, the Xiaoguo army he commanded was quickly defeated many times by the Wagang army led by Li Mi. During this period, his henchmen fled in large numbers, and Ubunaga also had a premonition that his end was coming, so he drank and had fun all day. After a drunken encounter, he hugged his two sons and cried bitterly, while accusing his younger brother Yuwen Zhi and his original proposal to rebel, resulting in the end of the whole family. Yuwen Zhiji, on the other hand, was also tit-for-tat and sneered at each other.
Yu Wenhua and the confrontation with Li Mi and Dou Jiande
In this situation of knowing that time was short, Yu Wenhua felt that it was too bad for him to die in such a day that the emperor was not proper, so in September of that year, he poisoned the puppet Yang Hao who had been set up before, openly proclaimed himself emperor, and established the Xu State. However, in doing so, he further accelerated the process of rebellion and separation, resulting in a further decline in his strength, and was defeated by Li Mi, Li Shentong, and Dou Jiande. Eventually he was captured by Dou Jiande, and was soon killed along with his younger brother Yuwen Zhi and his two sons Yuwen Chengji and Yuwen Chengzhi, and the Xu state he established was destroyed. However, their killing did not mean the extinction of their Yuwen family. Because Yu Wenhua and his third brother Yuwen Shi were not caught by Dou Jiande, he defected to Li Yuan in time and was forgiven, and finally served as an official in the Tang Dynasty for a long time, and also became the prime minister until his death in 642 AD. To a certain extent, the experience of this Yuwen family can also be regarded as one of the last imprints of the Xiongnu remnant in the Central Plains of China. (Image from the Internet, infringement notice deleted)