Emperor Yuwen Yong of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was one of the longest reigning emperors during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the most outstanding emperor of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During his reign, he implemented a series of reform measures, strengthened the economic and military power of Northern Zhou, and eventually unified the north. After Emperor Wu of northern Zhou unified the north, he had two-thirds of the world at that time, laying the foundation for the great unification of the Sui Dynasty.
<h1>First, from puppet to pro-government</h1>
In 535, Yuwen Tai established the Yuwen Dynasty. He established the Guanlong clique, annexed Jingzhou and Bashu, and owned half of the world. However, a common phenomenon during the Southern and Northern Dynasties was that "Lao Tzu was like a dragon, and sons were like worms", and the sons of many founding emperors were very faint and directly destroyed a dynasty. Bai Yang called this phenomenon a "bottleneck", believing that any dynasty will have a bottleneck in the second generation, and many dynasties will have a coup d'état in the second generation, or even directly perish, and if the bottleneck is smoothly overcome, it can be long-lasting. The same is true of the Yuwen Dynasty.
In 556, Yuwen Tai fell ill during a tour of the north and died shortly afterwards. At this time, Yuwen Tai's sons were young, so the state government had to be entrusted to the eldest brother's son Yuwen Hu. After Yuwen Hu came to power, Yuwen Tai's concubine Juewen Dang became the "King of Zhou" and abolished the puppet Emperor Wei, so Northern Zhou was formally established. After Yuwen Hu took power, he plotted to persecute Zhao Gui, DuGuxin and other pillar generals to further control the government. At this time, Yuwen Hu began to arbitrarily kill the young emperor in an attempt to claim the title of emperor. He first killed emperor Yuwen Jue, the eldest son of Yuwen Taishu, as emperor, and in 560, he poisoned emperor Yuwen Yu and made Yuwen Yong emperor.
Yuwen Yong was yuwen tai's fourth son, and history called him "young and filial, intelligent and instrumental", and Yuwen Tai praised: "Those who become wuzhi will be here." After Yuwen Jue ascended the throne in 557, Yuwen Yong became a great general and left tongzhou. Later, he was promoted to Zhu Guo, Dasikong, Lu Guogong, and Grandmaster. Yuwen Yong did things calmly, and Shi Zai said: "This person does not speak, and his words will be in the middle." After Yuwen Yong succeeded to the throne, in order to avoid the lessons of the past, he chose to obey on the surface. In this way, Yuwen Yong became a puppet emperor for more than 10 years, when the Northern Qi people said, "Protecting the outside world is the face, in fact, Wang Ye." ”
However, Yuwen Yong was not willing to be a puppet, and he was also secretly developing his own power. In 572, Yuwen Yong and Yuwen Hu went to visit the empress dowager. Yuwen Yong persuaded Yuwen Hu to read Yuwen Tai's "Wine Curse" to advise the empress dowager to reduce alcoholism, and Yuwen Hu listened. Just as Yuwen Hu was reading the article, Yuwen Yong raised yuju and attacked Yuwen Hu, and then Yuwen Yong's half-brother Yuwen Zhi jumped out and directly killed Yuwen Hu. From then on, Yuwen Yong really controlled the real power of Northern Zhou, and was historically known as "Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou".
<h1>Second, strive to govern</h1>
Since the Wei and Jin dynasties, the Mongol clans have been strong, they have occupied land and hidden the population, which soon aggravated social contradictions and reduced the state's taxes. After Yuwen Yong took over the government, he searched the population on a large scale, and those who "were hidden in five households and more than ten dings, and more than three hectares in the hidden land, until they died." This was the most severe census work carried out by the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it had a great impact on the family clans at that time.
During the Yuwentai period, the pillar generals of the Western Wei Dynasty frantically plundered the population and even reduced it to slavery. For example, when Yuwen Tai attacked Jiangling, he drove more than 100,000 men and women from Jiangling to Guanzhong, and these people became slaves. After Yuwen Yong came to power, he released these slaves. After the destruction of Northern Qi in 577, Yuwen Yong ordered the release of slaves in Northern Qi, the largest release of slaves since Emperor Guangwu of Han. Yuwen Yong's release of slaves dealt a serious blow to the family clan, causing a large increase in self-cultivated farmers, which was conducive to the alleviation of social contradictions.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism developed vigorously and formed a monastic economy. The monks of the monasteries did not have to pay taxes to the state and did not have to bear the burden of servitude, so many peasants "pretended to be shamen and avoided the transfer of labor", resulting in huge losses in labor. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the number of monks had reached 2 million, accounting for one-fifteenth of the registered population. After Yuwen Yong came to power, he convened Taoist monks, monks, and hundreds of officials to discuss the issue of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, and established that "Confucianism comes first, Taoism comes second, and Buddhism comes second." In 574, Yuwen Yong ordered the confiscation of temple assets, organized millions of monks into Juntian households, and chose them to join the army. In this way, it has increased the state household registration and fiscal revenue, and also strengthened the military strength, and the history says that "since the abolition of [Buddha], the civil service has been slightly thinner, the rent has increased every year, and the military division has become more and more prosperous." "After the unification of the north, the policy of exterminating Buddhism continued to be promoted. This incident is known in history as "Zhou Wu destroyed the Buddha", which made a total of 3 million monks return to the world.
<h1>Third, unify the North</h1>
Yuwen Yong's reforms led to a large increase in the household registration population of Northern Zhou, the financial resources were gradually enriched, and the size of the army rose from 100,000 to 200,000. At that time, Northern Qi was very faint, and went into decline, and the history said that "the Qi clan was tyrannical, the government was out of many doors, the prison was sold out of the government, the mercenary was the view, the absurdity of wine, and the jealousy of Zhongliang." The situation is too bad to be overwhelmed." At the same time, Northern Qi failed to resolve the contradiction between the Xianbei and Han in the six towns, hastening its demise.
In order to be able to eliminate Northern Qi more quickly, Yuwen Yong chose to ally with Southern Chen. In 573, Northern Zhou invited Chen Chao to attack Northern Qi together, so Chen Yan went out to attack Northern Qi, defeated Qi troops at Xuzhou, and restored the land of Huainan. However, Chen Yan was really just a shoucheng king, he was only satisfied with the division and defense, so he did not further attack the hinterland of the Central Plains, which was exactly what Yuwen Yong wanted to see.
Yuwen Yong of Northern Zhou sent troops in 575 to unify the north. At this time, Chen Yan repented, so he sent an army to Shandong, but was defeated by Northern Zhou, and the 100,000-strong army was completely destroyed and suffered heavy losses. The following year, the land of Huainan was basically occupied by Northern Zhou.
In 575, Yuwen Yong mobilized an army of 180,000 to attack Northern Qi, of which Yuwen Yong personally led the Sixth Army to capture Heyin (Mengjin), and Yuwen Xian's forward army also captured the two cities of Luokou and The East and West. Subsequently, the Northern Zhou army besieged Luoyang and Mengxian county) and lost, and had to retreat. At this time, the Southern Chen army was recuperating in Huainan.
In 576, Yuwen Yong led another 140,000 troops to attack Shanxi, in an attempt to take The Northern Qi military town of Taiyuan and then overlook the Central Plains. When the Northern Zhou army conquered Pingyang, the Northern Qi emperor Gao Wei was hunting in Tianchi (Guan ShuShan), and when the news of the Northern Zhou attack came, the concubine Feng Shufei actually "please kill more". Because the Northern Qi military operation was not timely, Pingyang was quickly captured. After that, the Northern Qi army marched south to prepare for a decisive battle with Northern Zhou, while Yuwen Yong withdrew the main force to Guannei, leaving 10,000 elite troops to defend Pingyang. So the 100,000-strong army of Northern Qi began to besiege Pingyang, and after a month of siege, Pingyang was still strong.
Yuwen Yong saw that the Northern Qi army was exhausted, so he sent 80,000 elite soldiers to fight a decisive battle with the Northern Qi army. The two armies laid out their positions in Binh Duong and "held each other". Subsequently, the Northern Qi army began to advance south, the two armies engaged, and at the critical moment, the eastern wing of the Qi army retreated slightly. So Feng Shufei and others thought that Northern Qi would fail, so they instigated Gao Wei to surrender Gaoliang Bridge. Gao Wei obeyed and ordered a retreat, which led to the disillusionment of the army. Yuwen Yong took the opportunity to attack, and Northern Qi "fought with military resources, hundreds of miles, and abandoned the mountain. Subsequently, the Northern Zhou army was like a fierce tiger, and successively attacked many cities in Shanxi, and the main force of Northern Qi was basically destroyed.
At this time, the Northern Qi emperor Gao Wei tried unsuccessfully to flee to the Turks, and northern Qi ministers surrendered. In 577, Yuwen Yong led a large army to capture yecheng, and Gao Wei was captured. Since then, Northern Qi has perished, and the North has been unified. Just as Northern Zhou was sending troops on a large scale, the Southern Chen army also began to launch a second northern expedition, trying to divide the Kwantung on an equal footing with Northern Zhou. Soon, the Northern Zhou army and the Southern Chen army encountered, the Southern Chen army was beaten to pieces, and the entire huainan land soon fell into the hands of northern Zhou. Nan Chen is really a bamboo basket to hit the water empty.
In order to concentrate on destroying Northern Qi, Yuwen Yong continued to adopt a policy of alliance with the Turks. After unifying the north, Yuwen Yong prepared to go south in one fell swoop and destroy Southern Chen. However, in 578, the Turks attacked Youzhou, so Yuwen Yong led the Northern Zhou army in the Northern Expedition. However, on the way to the Northern Expedition, Yuwen Yong's death did not realize his wish of "pacifying the Turks and fixing the south of the Jiangsu".
<h1>epilogue</h1>
Even so, Yuwen Yong can still be said to be the most outstanding emperor of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The "History of the North" commented that "it is a painstaking and anxious thought, self-denial and encouragement; labor is the first soldier, and the frugality of the same husband; the government of the rich country is repaired, and the art of strengthening the army is strengthened; the provocation of the people of the chickens is taken advantage of, and the death of the heavenly path is pushed along the way of heaven." Within a few years, the Grand Hoons set. Although he did not unify the whole country, he laid two-thirds of the world, laying the foundation for the unification of Emperor Wen of Sui. In addition, he also sent troops to attack Tuguhun, weakening its national strength and paving the way for the Sui and Tang Dynasties to destroy Tuguhun later. The Book of Zhou says, "After the destruction of Qi, it is necessary to exhaust the armies of the army, pacify the Turks, and fix the south of the jiangsu, and within one or two years, the whole world will be unified."