At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and the flocks of heroes rose up to chase deer in the Central Plains. After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, because Xiang Yu had the greatest merit in destroying Qin, the heavy responsibility of dividing the princes fell on him. At this time, Xiang Yu was already nominally an ally of various princes, but because Xiang Yu was very jealous of Liu Bang, he sealed Liu Bang to Shu.
During the Qin Dynasty, the Shu land was barren, and the road out of the river was very steep, and most of them were sheep intestine trails. When Liu Bang was sealed in Shu, Xiang Yu could send troops to guard the throat and prevent the Han army from coming east. However, Xiang Yu forgot that although Shudi was very barren, it was once the place where prisoners were held in the Qin Dynasty, and it was the granary of the world.
It was precisely because of the large number of prisoners and granaries in Shu that Liu Bang had the capital to further compete for the world.
Xiang Yu sent troops to guard the Han army's way out of the river, thinking that he would sit back and relax. However, who would have thought that Liu Bang would use the Ming Xiu Trail to secretly cross Chen Cang's strategy, let Han Xin's troops take a detour and attack the three princes in the old land of qin.
Finally, before Xiang Yu could react, Liu Bang occupied the entire Qin state.
Since then, Liu Bang has really had the capital to fight against Xiang Yu. In the process, Liu Bang's strength was developed, and then Liu Bang led the Han army to directly attack Xiang Yu's old lair, Pengcheng.
However, Xiang Yu was Xiang Yu after all, and after he learned of the fall of Pengcheng, he immediately led the Elite Army of Chu to counterattack Liu Bang. Xiang Yu only relied on the tens of thousands of Chu troops under his command to defeat the hundreds of thousands of Han troops under Liu Bang. Liu Bang, whose strength was greatly damaged, could only helplessly promise Han Xin heavy profits.
Under the attack of Liu Bang and Han Xin on both sides, Xiang Yu was eventually unable to support himself, and was surrounded by the Han army under the qixia, and killed himself on the edge of the Wu River, and a generation of heroes came to an end.
When the Han army besieged Xiang Yu under the siege, it promised to exchange one thousand catties of gold and ten thousand households for Xiang Yu's first rank. At that time, Xiang Yu also heard about Liu Bang's reward, and Xiang Yu, knowing that he would not be able to escape death, decided to give this credit to his compatriot Lü Matong. Although Xiang Yu wanted to give his first rank to Lü Matong at the time of his death, after his death, Liu Bang's general Wang Feng was Lü Matong's superior, and Lü Matong naturally did not dare to monopolize this great merit.
Xiang Yu's first rank was eventually taken away by Wang Feng. After Wang Feng took away Xiang Yu's first rank, Xiang Yu's remaining body was still of great value to everyone, and it was true afterwards. After some fighting, Xiang Yu's body was split into four. They were received by four people: Yang Xi, Lü Matong, Lü Sheng and Yang Wu.
In addition to Wang Feng, who received the first rank, these four people were indeed later made marquis by Liu Bang. Lü Matong was made the Marquis of Zhongshui by Liu Bang, Liu Bang was made the Marquis of Duyan, Yang Xi was made the Marquis of Chiquan by Liu Bang, Yang Wu was made the Marquis of Wufang by Liu Bang, and Lü Sheng was made the Marquis of Neiyang by Liu Bang.
After Wang Feng's death, his title was passed on to Emperor Wu of han, and eventually Wang Dingguo, a descendant of Wang Feng, was stripped of his title for his sins. After Yang Wu's death, his title passed to his son Yang Quyi,who was stripped of his title for his sins. Lü Sheng's posthumous history books do not record that his descendants inherited his title. After Lü Matong's death, his title was passed on to emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and eventually his descendant Lü Yicheng was stripped of his title due to the Jinjin incident, and the outcome of these four people did not seem to be impressive.
The most successful of the five who benefited from Xiang Yu was Yang Xi. Yang Xi's great-grandson Yang Chang (杨敞), during the reign of Emperor Xuan of Han, was an official who held the post of chancellor.
Yang Chang's father-in-law was the famous Taishi company Ma Qian. Subsequently, the Yang family of Hongnong experienced vigorous development, and in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the descendants of the Yang family, Yang Zhenguan, served as a lieutenant. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Hongnong Yang family, like the Yuan Shao family, was also a large family of the fourth and third dukes.
Yang Xiu, whom Cao Cao killed, was also a descendant of Yang Xi. By the time of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Yang family was still famous, and the two daughters of the Yang family had become the two empresses of Sima Yan, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty. The Yang family's influence, which became a foreign relative, further expanded, and even reached the point of controlling the government, and the Yang family at this time was already famous all over the world.
By the time of the Sui Dynasty, the power of the Hongnong Yang family had reached its peak. In the end, Yang Zhen's fourteenth grandson Yang Jian, with the help of the Yang family's power, sought the throne of his son-in-law.
After Yang Jian's death, the throne passed to Yang Guang, although historical documents greatly degraded Yang Guang.
However, under the leadership of Yang Guang, the Great Sui first destroyed the State of Chen, and then Nanping Linyi. After Yang Guang moved the capital of the Sui Dynasty to Luoyang, he even had the feats of swallowing guhun in the west and marching on Goguryeo in three ways. The Sui Dynasty also built the famous Grand Canal at the same time as opening the Science and Taking Division. The construction of the Grand Canal made the exchanges between the north and the south more frequent, and it also brought economic prosperity to the Sui.
Unfortunately, Yang Guang was too anxious, frequently requisitioning and requisitioning labor to build the Grand Canal, excessively driving domestic labor, so that Li Yuan had an opportunity to take advantage of it.
Yang Guang's starting point was good, but he became the executioner who broke the Sui Dynasty in a hurry, and from the historical point of view, Yang Guang was not recognized, and perhaps the historical materials that greatly belittled Yang Guang were from the hands of the Li Tang Dynasty.