If we talk about the famous tyrants in history, most people estimate that the First to bear the brunt of the Sui Emperor, in various novels, Yang Guang is even more blackened, about his black history, is a batch of batches, lustful, squandering the people's fat, just to go to Jiangnan to see the Qionghua, they will not hesitate to use millions of migrant workers to open an unprecedented Grand Canal...
We all know now that the Grand Canal has increased the connection between the north and the south, so is the Sui Dynasty Emperor really building the Grand Canal just because of greed? What exactly is his purpose? Experts will tell you: connect the route of the Grand Canal and you will understand.
The first point to explain is that the Jiangnan Canal was not the first creation of the Sui Dynasty Emperor, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period of the Wu Kingdom, it has already opened the Xuxi, Hangou and other waterways, and later Qin Shi Huang excavated the Ling Canal, the Han Dynasty dug the Trough Canal, the Wei and Jin Opened the Baigou Canal, quanzhou Canal, etc., the purpose of which was to facilitate transportation and reduce transportation costs.
As for the Sui Emperor, it is somewhat similar to Qin Shi Huang's construction of the Great Wall, and what he did was to connect these canals and canals into one, forming four roads headed by the Grand Canal: Tongji Canal, Ditch, Yongji Canal, and Jiangnan Canal. The descendant Su Shi wrote in the "Biography of the Book": "From Huaihuai and Si into the river, it will be the way to The Bian ... It also shows that Qin, Han, Wei, and Jin all had this waterway, and it was not created by Emperor Jiao."
It's just that later novels treat the Sui Emperor as a pioneer of the canal and treat him as a sinner who makes the common people suffer, which is obviously unfair, according to this point, successive dynasties, including the later Tang Dynasty, cannot escape the guilt.
So what was the purpose of the Sui Dynasty Emperor in building the canal? Just because of enjoyment? In fact, we can first look at the route, in addition to the four sections of the Jiangnan, the Grand Canal will also connect the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, and the Huai River, and the northernmost part of the canal, even derived to Beijing, which was still a border plug at that time, if the Sui Emperor wanted to enjoy the scenery or pleasure, he would definitely not run there, and its purpose was only one, that is, to conquer Goguryeo.
At that time, Goguryeo grew rapidly during the chaotic period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, so the Sui and Tang rulers all wanted to reduce this threat, and the Sui Emperor tried to conquer three times, but they were all defeated, and the important point was that there was a big problem with the supply line of the Sui army, and the excavation of the canal became a crucial factor.
As for another point, opening up the canal also facilitated the Sui Emperor's southern tour, so he traveled thousands of miles and ran to Jiangnan to go to the mountains and rivers?
Looking at the emperors who patrolled everywhere in the past, including Qin Shi Huang, Han Gaozu, Tang Taizong, and Song Renzong reluctantly added a Qianlong, they were all considered to be monarchs with great talent, and it was precisely a few emperors, such as the Jin Hui Emperor, who liked to hide in the luxurious capital city, and did not listen to civil affairs, and the southern tour would undoubtedly increase huge expenses, and the Sui Emperor made the people on both sides of the strait miserable, not only to offer wine and food beauties, but also to be manpower porters.
However, the southern tour could also consolidate its own dominance, and during the Sui Dynasty, Jiangnan grew into the most prosperous area, but it was also a place where the control of the Guanlong aristocratic group was quite weak.
After the fall of Southern Chen, the Sui Emperor in order to manage Jiangnan, to win over the local warriors can be said to have made a lot of painstaking efforts, he married the Western Liang Xiao clan as a princess, and also learned Wu Nong's soft language, but during the peasant revolt, Jiangnan once became the place that most troubled the Sui Emperor, and when the Sui Emperor made his last southern tour, Li Yuan was still faithfully fulfilling the Sui Emperor's order to suppress the uprising, but Jiangnan became a nest of chaos, and in October of the eleventh year of the Emperor's great cause, "the East China Sea thief Li Zi supported the people to cross Huai, called himself the King of Chu, Jianyuan Mingzheng, and Kou Jiangdu." Therefore, when he entered Jiangnan, there was also a significance in stabilizing the situation, but the Sui Emperor's move also took away a large number of troops, resulting in the emptiness of the north, and finally provided conditions for the rise of Li Miwagang and Li Yuan and others to rebel.
From today's point of view, the Sui Emperor was an out-and-out tyrant who disregarded public opinion and exhausted the world's material resources and manpower for his ideals and desires, but he was definitely not a stupid monarch.