The excavation of the Grand Canal has always been a relatively large point of controversy for the Sui Emperor, and it seems more reasonable to describe it as "sin in the contemporary era and profit in the thousand autumns". However, it must be made clear that the Grand Canal excavated and dredged during the Sui Dynasty Emperor is not the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal that we are usually familiar with, of course, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was indeed excavated and dredged on the basis of the Sui Dynasty Grand Canal, just as the Grand Canal of the Sui Dynasty was also obtained on the basis of the labor results of the past dynasties. In any case, Beijing is not the starting point of the Grand Canal.
The current Area of Beijing was Zhuo County during the Sui Dynasty, and the title of Zhuo County was far inferior to that of later Youzhou.
The following four girls will talk about the Grand Canal during the Sui Dynasty, and the canal excavation in the Sui Dynasty was obtained on the basis of the old water canal and the dredging of natural rivers.
Yang Guang ordered the opening of the Tongji Canal in the second year of his succession, the first year of Daye. Starting from the Luoyang Xiyuan, the valley water and the Luo water are diverted to the Yellow River, and then there is also the water into Surabaya, and then to the Huai River. In fact, it is Sizhou, which connects Luoyang to the Huai River, and this section was completed by the Emperor Fu to requisition more than one million people in Henan and Huaibei counties.
This was followed by the dredging of Hangou (Shanyangdu), when more than 100,000 people from Huainan were requisitioned to dredge the canal, connecting Chuzhou to Yangzhou. The width of the dredged canal is forty steps, and next to the canal is the royal road, and willow trees are planted.
The section further south continued to dredge in the sixth year of Daye, this time the Jiangnan River, which connects the Jingkou (Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) to the Yuhang (Hangzhou) area. The total length is more than 800 miles, and the width reaches more than ten zhang.
The Tongji Canal, Hangou and Jiangnan River formed the southern section of the canal, which at that time played the most important role in transporting grain from the south to the Liangjing area.
The Sui Emperor ordered the dredging of the northern section of the canal, the Yongji Canal, and the dredging of this canal began in the first month of the fourth year of Daye, when more than five million people in the counties of Hebei were requisitioned, and there were not enough men, so women were on top. The dredging of this canal was the most difficult, the longest and most expensive. Qinshui was introduced south into the Yellow River and north to Zhuo county (Beijing), which was completed in the fifth year of Daye. That is to say, Zhuo County is the terminal of the Yongji Canal, not the so-called beginning.
The opening of the Yongji Canal played an important role, not only ensuring the smooth collection of taxes in the northeast, but most importantly, as soon as the Yongji Canal was completed, the Sui Emperor began to requisition Goguryeo in the following year, requisitioning a large number of people to build ships, transport grain, and then recruit the world's soldiers, regardless of distance, to Zhuo County. The Sui Emperor even took a dragon boat from Luoyang to Zhuo County for inspection in the seventh year of Daye. However, the first crusade, which was well prepared and cost millions of troops, failed magnificently, and what was even more unexpected to the Sui Emperor was that this was only the beginning of his defeat, and there was still a fall of the country waiting for him.
Therefore, the main role of the Yongji Canal was in the military sense, that is, through the Yongji Canal, the imperial grain and soldiers could reach the northeast region as quickly as possible, in preparation for the attack on Goguryeo. Of course, the political role of this canal is also very large, such as boasting about the strength of the empire throughout the country, after all, the Sui Dynasty ended the previous centuries of division and finally achieved unification, and the necessary boasting is also an important part of politics.
In summary, the canal dredged during the Sui Dynasty was mainly divided into two sections: the southern section was connected from Luoyang to the Yuhang area, and the northern section was connected from Luoyang to the Zhuo County area. Zhuo County (Beijing) is only the end of the northern section, not the starting point.