In July 616, the Sui Emperor Yang Guang left the eastern capital Luoyang and took a dragon boat to Jiangdu. The Sui Emperor never returned, never to Luoyang. By March 618, Yu Wenhua and launched the "Jiangdu Mutiny", and the Sui Emperor was strangled alive. So the question is, why did the Sui Emperor go south to Jiangdu, is it really for fun and appreciation of Qionghua? The answer is no, although the Sui Emperor was absurd and cruel, the southern jiangdu had a special political purpose!
First, Jiangdu is Yang Guang's "base area"
As we all know, Yang Guang was the second son of Emperor Wen of Sui and was originally crowned king of Jin. In 589, Yang Guang, as a marshal of the march, led an army of 510,000 to destroy the Chen Dynasty. After that, Yang Guang was appointed as the governor of Yangzhou, sitting in Jiangdu, in charge of the military and government of the Jianghuai region. In the following ten years, Yang Guang recruited talents and formed his own power group. In 600, Yang Guang seized the position of crown prince and returned to Chang'an. Even so, Jiangdu was the birthplace of Yang Guang.
In 604, Yang Guang became emperor of the Sui Dynasty, and he still did not forget the Jiangdu and Jianghuai regions. In 605, as emperor, Yang Guang made his first tour of Jiangdu, "pardoning the south of Jianghuai, Yangzhou for ten years, and the old governor for three years." In 610, when Yang Guang made his second tour of Jiangdu, he repeatedly held banquets and rewarded fathers, elders, and officials in the Jiangnan region. In Yang Guang's view, although Luoyang and Chang'an are the capitals, Jiangdu is his "old camp".
Second, Jianghuai was the "money bag" of the Sui Dynasty.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, a large number of northern population moved south, which promoted the development of the Jiangnan region, so the economy developed rapidly. After the unification of the Sui Dynasty, in order to communicate between the north and the south, the Sui Emperor ordered the construction of the Grand Canal, which accelerated the economic development of Jiangnan. Coupled with the Sui Emperor's preferential policies for the Jianghuai region, the Jianghuai region jumped up and became the richest economic region in the country at that time. At that time, there was a proverb, "The prosperity of the world, Yang is the head", Yangzhou is the capital of Jiangsu!
In the last years of the Sui Dynasty, the world was already in turmoil, and uprisings broke out everywhere. In this case, the eastern capital Luoyang was already under threat from the peasant rebel army, especially the powerful Wagang army. The Sui Emperor went to Jiangdu, on the one hand, to avoid the sharp edge of the peasant army, on the other hand, he also wanted to use the material base of the Jiangnan region to achieve a comeback, after all, this was the base area where he had operated for ten years.
Third, Jiangnan is Yang Guang's last "hope"
As early as when Yang Guang was the king of Jin and the town guarded the capital of Jiangsu, he had the idea of dividing Jianghuai. At that time, Yang Guang actively planned to seize the concubine, but he was also prepared for failure, and if the conquest failed, he would divide the Jianghuai region, "if it is not harmonious, it must also divide Huaihai and Jianghuai, and restore Liang and Chen's old." This means that even if Yang Guang could not become a prince, he would launch a rebellion, occupy the Jianghuai region, and establish himself as emperor, just like Liang and Chen in the Southern Dynasty.
In the last year of the Sui Dynasty, the situation in the world was precarious, and Yang Guang thought of Jiangdu, so he went to Jiangdu in 616. When Yang Guang went to Jiangdu, he took with him more than 100,000 troops and the important civil and military ministers of the imperial court. At the beginning of his arrival in Jiangdu, the Sui Emperor still wanted to save the Central Plains, and he sent Wang Shichong to lead troops to rescue Luoyang. However, later, the Sui Emperor found that the north could not be recovered, so he wanted to divide Jianghuai and planned to move the capital to Danyang (referring to Nanjing). But at this time, the Jiangdu Mutiny broke out, and the Sui Emperor's dream of dividing the territory came to naught!
References: 1. Book of Sui; 2. Zizhi Tongjian; 3. Taiping Imperial Records