Why was Emperor Yang Di discredited by history?

Now when it comes to Yang Di, everyone's impression is a typical tyrant, killing his father to seize power, killing his brother and killing his sister-in-law. But do you believe that after he took office, he revised more than 200 laws, reduced the punishment and won the love and support of the people? What about killing your father and seizing power? This is nothing new in the ancient power struggle. For example, Li Shimin killed his brothers Li and Li Yuanji, which seems to be the only way to reach the throne of power. So what other charges are we wrong about him?

A crime: arbitrariness

How to evaluate an emperor's arbitrariness? If successful, such as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he established the Han Empire through public opinion. What if it fails? Then it will bear the eternal blame, because not listening to advice led to the collapse of the dynasty. These comments are all hindsight, and many people have raised objections. It is impossible for them to return to the predicament at that time, and it is empty talk to solve the current crisis.

So what's the problem with Emperor Yang Di Yang Guang? That is Guanlong Group. During the Xiaowu period of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Xianbei nobles controlled all the military forces from Guanzhong, Shaanxi Province to Longshan, Gansu Province. For example, the Yu Wentai family is the biggest beneficiary of Guanlong Group. After his son established the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the most influential Emperor Wendi of the Guanlong Group replaced the Yuwen family. So, Yang Guang overthrew himself in the same way to prevent anyone in Guanlong Group from getting bigger, and began to attack Guanlong Group after his rights were firmly established.

In addition to Guanlong Group, there are also the gentry left over from Wei and Jin Dynasties. Most of these gentry live in Shandong, so they are also called Shandong gentry. We can see that the old ministers killed by Yang Di are the representatives of these interest groups, such as Gao Jiong, He Ruobi and Yu Wenbi. On the surface, he was killed for talking about Yang Di's policies, but in fact, he found an excuse to get rid of these Guanlong groups and gentry.

Senior ministers such as Gao Jiong, He Ruobi and Yu Wenbi are all prominent nobles. After killing them, Emperor Yang Di Yang Guang often bypassed some aristocratic officials in the six-part system of three provinces and found some junior officials to participate in decision-making. These officials lack the support behind them and are obedient to Yang Di. For example, junior officials with no background in Historical Records have access to core secrets and served as the emperor of Yang Di.

What are the consequences of these? Officials obeyed, and sometimes they deliberately covered up some bad news to welcome Emperor Yang Di. For example, Yang Di once saw a picture of hundreds of thousands of insurgents surrendering to the imperial court north of the Yellow River. If you think deeply, you will find that how can there be so many insurgents? Yu Shiqi said airily, there are many mice, so why worry. So this matter was fooled. It can be seen that Yang Di inadvertently encouraged it in order to crack down on dissidents and consolidate its dominant position? Arbitrary? .

Two sins: wasting people and money

We say that Yang Di's biggest waste of manpower and financial resources is to build the Grand Canal, so why did he build it at that time? Some people say that Yang Guangxiu built the Grand Canal to see beautiful women in the south of the Yangtze River. This statement is certainly not reliable. Let's take a look at the Sui and Tang Grand Canal, with Luoyang as the center, Hangzhou in the southeast and Beijing in the northeast. Why should it be built in Beijing? At that time, it was a frontier fortress in the Sui Dynasty.

Koguryo was a regime in the northeast of China in order to crack down on Koguryo. It was different from nomadic people at that time. This is a unified regime. Why didn't Mongolia, which was invincible later, suffer at this time? Because they are a loose tribe. But Koguryo is different. It is a centralized country with perfect system. Not only the Emperor Yang Di saw the threat of Koguryo, but also every dynasty saw the threat of this local tribe. Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, also died in Koguryo, that is, he saw this potential enemy. After the Ming dynasty, it was all to eliminate the threat from this place.

Then let's take a look at the significance of the Universiade for attacking Koguryo. It is difficult for us to understand how efficient water transportation was at that time. If it is transported by carriage, more than 80% will be consumed. Take the attack of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty on Xiongnu as an example. At that time, only one meal was delivered for ten meals, and 90% of them were consumed on the road, which shows the high transportation cost.

During the Tang Dynasty, the government transported grain, which was generally a fleet of 30 large ships. As long as 1000 people escorted it, it could transport 3.6 million Jin of rice. What if it becomes land transportation? According to a carriage carrying 500 Jin of grain, it needs 7200 carriages. Even if two drivers change shifts in a car, the number of people alone is more than 10 thousand.

Therefore, after the Grand Canal was completed, it sent troops to Liaodong for three times to attack Koguryo. Ironically, Emperor Yang Di consumed too much national strength to build the Grand Canal, which led to the collapse of the Sui Dynasty, while the Tang Dynasty relied on the Grand Canal to ensure the food supply in Xi 'an.