As the second emperor of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Guang, the emperor of the Sui Dynasty who had set ambitions and hoped to achieve a prosperous country and a strong people through his own hard work, did not resist the temptation of beauty after all, and under his cruelty and tyranny, the original good hand was played to pieces, and a prosperous and wealthy Sui Dynasty was also pushed to the abyss of destruction by his own hands.
So, what has Yang Guang experienced in his life? Let him step by step from enlightened and heroic to wanton and tyrannical?
How did Yang Guang win the throne?
Yang Guang is the second son of Emperor Wen of Sui Emperor Yang Jian and Empress Dugu Jialuo, Yang Guang was talented and intelligent, dignified and talented, and was deeply loved by Yang Guang. When he was just twelve years old, he was named King of Jin, and was also given the official title of Zhu State, which governed and merged states.
In 588 AD, Yang Jian ordered a crusade against the state of Chen, when the emperor of Southern Chen, Chen Shubao, was incompetent, abandoned government affairs, and there was no virtuous minister and good general around him to assist him.
In the battle against Chen, although Yang Guang was named the generalissimo of soldiers and horses, he had no real power. In fact, it was the general Gao Gong who controlled the entire battle situation.
This expedition, Yang Guang is actually selfish, that is, he has coveted Chen Shubao's favorite concubine Zhang Lihua for a long time, originally thought that after subverting the Chen Dynasty regime, he would take the beautiful woman as his own, who would have thought that the eventful Gao Gong would make a hindrance from it and end Zhang Lihua with a knife, although Yang Guang gritted his teeth with hatred, but at this time, his strength was weak, and he had to compromise and endure for the time being.
In fact, Yang Guang is not only good at forbearance, but his ability to show off is far beyond ordinary people. At that time, Yang Jian gave the position of the crown prince to his eldest son Yang Yong, Yang Guang supported Gongshun on the surface, but in fact, he had long coveted the position of the East Palace.
Yang Guang knew that if he wanted to win the crown prince's treasure, he must win the favor of his father. Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian advocated thrift and single-mindedness throughout his life, and only married Dugu Jialuo as his wife in his life, which was a veritable "strict wife".
If something is good, it will be effective. Once, when he heard that his father was coming to his house, Yang Guang immediately asked a group of young and beautiful palace maids to quietly hide and replace them with a group of old and decrepit grandmothers to serve, in addition, he also deliberately asked people to put a dusty broken string piano in a conspicuous position in the room, when Yang Jian entered the house to check, he was really blinded by the illusion, and praised Yang Guang's thrifty practice and staying away from women.
In contrast, the behavior of the crown prince Yang Yong disappointed Yang Jian. Although he loves literature, but his life is extremely extravagant, he once used his armor to weave patterns with precious brocade, Yang Jian was very angry when he found out, thinking that Yang Yong was not bowing down, embarrassed and useful.
Queen Dugu Jialuo was extremely disgusted with her son and ministers' concubines, especially the pregnancy of the concubine, which made Dugu Jialuo even more repulsed. But the crown prince Yang Yong has many wives and concubines, and the entire East Palace is extremely poor and luxurious, and there is a miasma.
So when Yang Yong's crown princess Yuan suddenly died, Dugu Jialuo decided that it was Yang Yong's concubine Yun's victimization, so he secretly arranged eyeliner to find the prince's fault.
After Yang Guang learned the news, he thought that the time had come to turn the tables against the wind, so he only favored Concubine Xiao alone, and the rest of the concubines were furnishings, which made Queen Dugu very pleased, so she had the intention of abolishing Yang Yong and making Yang Guang the prince, anyway, both of them were her sons, and who was appointed as the prince had no impact on her status at all.
Yang Guang continued to put on a show, every time he went to the court, he was light and simple, his clothes were extremely simple, and he was extremely humble and respectful to the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, so whether it was Yang Jian or Dugu Jialuo, they all felt that Yang Guang was the best candidate to inherit the throne!
Everything is ready, and victory is still one step away. In order to completely defeat Yang Yong, Yang Guang spent a lot of money to buy his cronie Ji Wei, and asked Ji Wei to denounce Yang Yong's extravagant life. At the same time, Yang Guang also asked Ji Wei to fabricate the facts, saying that Yang Yong often found someone to tell the fortunes, and wished that his father would return to heaven as soon as possible, so that he could be honored as the Ninth Five-Year Plan.
When Yang Jian heard the news, he was both sad and angry, and in a fit of anger, he arrested Yang Yong and put him in prison, and soon after deposed him as the crown prince and renamed Yang Guang as the crown prince. Even if Gao Ying repeatedly advised, Yang Jian insisted on demoting Yang Yong to a concubine.
The obstacle has been removed, and Yang Guang, who is the crown prince, is about to show his true face!
Extravagance and indulgence are Yang Guang's two major labels
In 604 AD, Yang Jian, the founder of the Sui Dynasty, was seriously ill and lay ill in Renshou Palace, and Yang Guang, who was eager to ascend the throne, wrote a letter to the minister Yang Su to ask about Yang Jian's condition.
In addition, Yang Guang also entered the palace privately, stretched out a salty pig hand to Yang Jian's beloved concubine Mrs. Chen, fortunately Mrs. Chen was alert, so she was able to break free from the clutches, and afterwards Mrs. Chen told Yang Jian about it, Yang Jian, who was lying on the sickbed, was extremely angry, scolded Yang Guang for being an animal, and blamed Queen Dugu for having no eyes at the beginning, why did she choose Yang Guang as the prince?
However, it was too late, Yang Guang was already fledgling at this time, and he controlled almost all the key departments of the imperial court, making Yang Jian a real loner, and walked to the end of his life with endless regret and resentment.
After Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, the first thing he did was to force the deposed prince Yang Yong to commit suicide, and the rest of the Yang royal family that threatened his throne were either imprisoned or executed.
Beginning in 605 AD, Yang Guang began to build the eastern capital of Luoyang, for which he did not hesitate to recruit 2 million people every month, which took ten months, and for a time, the people's resentment boiled.
After that, he ordered the construction of dragon boats, tens of thousands of ships, these ships are forty to fifty feet high, two hundred feet long, the upper weight has the main hall, the inner hall, the east and west courts, the middle two rooms are one hundred and twenty, all decorated with gold and jade, the lower weight is the inner servant's residence, it can be described as extremely luxurious, the cost is huge.
Yang Guang took a dragon boat to travel to the capital of Xingjiang, and the entourage visited the kings, hundreds of officials, concubines, palace maids, etc., 1 or 200,000 people, and the fleet stretched for more than 200 miles, which was magnificent.
In order to satisfy himself, he also ordered nearly a thousand young and beautiful women dressed in white to stand at the bow of the boat, and whoever he fancied would spend the night with him.
In addition, Yang Guang also made a strange palace rule: all palace maids serving in the palace must wear open crotch pants, so that he can be lucky at any time! Its behavior is outrageous!
Yang Guang once also built a radius of 200 miles of the West Garden, there is a long and narrow dragon scale canal in the north of the garden, he ordered people to build sixteen courtyards along this canal, each courtyard has a beauty to live, the decoration of the courtyard is extremely luxurious, once in autumn and winter, the trees in the courtyard wither, will be replaced by high-end colored silk, so that this place will always become a gentle township like spring all year round.
Yang Guang especially likes to take advantage of the moonlight to patronize the Sixteen Courtyards, and at this moment, the "hostesses" of the Sixteen Courtyards will prepare all kinds of delicacies to seek Yang Guang's one-night favor, and its degree of debauchery is no less than that of Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty, who was fortunate with the sheep cart!
Extravagance and indulgence are the killer weapons of defeat, Yang Guang has been indulging in pleasure for many years, so that the originally strong and wealthy Sui Dynasty is stepping towards the abyss of collapse, but it is a pity that Yang Guang, who was dazzled by beauty, did not feel the arrival of the crisis at all, and was still happy and sunk in the gentle township......
How did the Sui Dynasty fall?
Although during the reign of Yang Guang, he built Luoyang, the eastern capital, destroyed the Tugu Hun expedition to Goguryeo, created the imperial examination system, and built the Sui-Tang Grand Canal, which ran through the north and south, which had a far-reaching impact on the political, economic, and cultural exchanges of later generations.
However, the endless extravagance and waste, the long-term conquest wars, and the tyrannical expropriation of officials at all levels led to the boiling of public resentment and frequent uprisings, among which, the largest and most influential was the Wagangzhai uprising led by Li Mi.
In fact, at this time, Yang Guang already sensed that he was about to die. Once, when he was drinking and having fun with Empress Xiao and the ministers, he suddenly ran to the mirror, looked at his face and said, "This is really a beautiful head, who will take him?" ”
Yang Guang's sentence is really a prophecy, on April 11, 618 AD, Yang Guang, who has passed the year of the Mandate of Heaven, saw the chaos in the world, he did not dare to return to the capital when he was still playing in Jiangdu, so he wanted to flee to Nanjing, who knew that the minister Yu Wenhua and the army rebelled, Yang Guangda was shocked, hurriedly changed his clothes, fled into the West Pavilion, and was caught by Yu Wenhua and his generals, forcing him to drink poisoned wine and commit suicide.
The emperor who was originally rich in the world and commanded all the people ended up like this, it can be seen that "a knife on the head of the color word" is really a wise saying, I wonder if Yang Guang did he have a deep reflection on his absurd request for the palace ladies to wear open crotch pants when he was dying?
epilogue
The general trend of the world will be together for a long time. It stands to reason that the Sui Dynasty, which ended the 500-year-long split between the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, should have something to do, and if Yang Guangzhen can be like his father Yang Jian, diligent and thrifty, and make great efforts, then the Sui Dynasty will definitely have a prosperous atmosphere.
However, perhaps it was because he pretended to work too hard when he was young, and soon after ascending the throne, Yang Guang exposed his greedy, debauchery, and cruel character, and did many unspeakable absurd things, so that a unified and prosperous dynasty at the good end quickly went to the point of no return.
Therefore, Tang Taizong Li Shimin in view of the lessons of the Sui Dynasty, will say the wise saying "Water can carry a boat, but also can overturn a boat", if Yang Guang can also deeply understand this truth, will he still do those ridiculous things?