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[An emperor with mixed reputation - Yang Guang, the Sui Dynasty]

Some people say that he was the most wronged emperor in history. He dug canals, built the Great Wall, and marched into Luoyang, benefiting future generations. However, he left behind the notoriety of killing his brother and father, being ambitious and warmongering. He squandered his family fortune in just 14 years, ruining a good hand of cards.

So, are these famous tyrants in history worthy of their reputation or are they just slandered? In this video, let's restore the life of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty.

In 604 AD, Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian, passed away. Before his death, he sent someone to find the deposed crown prince, Yang Yong, to enter the palace. However, the news leaked and Yang Jian died mysteriously. Yang Guang falsely passed on the will in the name of his father and sentenced the deposed crown prince Yang Yong to death.

Yang Guang also sent people to recall Yang Liang, the Prince of Han, from Jinyang. Yang Liang, the Prince of Han, was dissatisfied with Yang Guang for killing his father and brother, and he started a rebellion in August of the same year. Yang Guang sent Yang Su, the Duke of Chu, to quell the rebellion and demoted Yang Liang to a commoner.

In order to avoid future troubles, Yang Guang executed all of Yang Yong's sons. In this chaos, more than 20 households were killed or exiled. Yang Guang ascended the throne by stepping on the blood of his brothers, and his reign was called "Daye".

He wanted to announce to the world that he would create an unprecedented and prosperous era.

The first thing Yang Guang did after ascending the throne was to build Luoyang, the eastern capital. The capital of the Sui Dynasty was Chang'an, but due to years of war, the surrounding food and grass could no longer support the operation of the capital, and it still needed to rely on the grain transport from Guanzhong.

In times of famine, the imperial court had to move to Luoyang. This problem was not solved until the Tang Dynasty. Yang Guang built Luoyang to relieve the pressure on Chang'an, so he spent a lot of money and conscripted 200 million civilians to perform labor service every month. It took only 10 months to complete this huge project.

The newly built eastern capital Luoyang was magnificent and magnificent, and was one of Yang Guang's proudest achievements. However, beneath this prosperous scene were piles of bones.

According to the "Zizhi Tongjian", during the construction of Luoyang, due to the tight schedule, the laborers worked day and night, resulting in the death of nearly half of the laborers. The number of carts used to transport corpses was endless.

Building Luoyang was just the beginning. In addition to Luoyang, Yang Guang also loved the scenery of Jiangnan, and built more than 40 palaces along the way from Chang'an to Jiangdu.

In order to connect the north and the south, Yang Guang ordered the conscription of the people to dredge the canal, connecting the canals needed by the previous dynasty into the Grand Canal that runs through the north and the south.

This Grand Canal is centered in Luoyang, extends to Yuhang in the south and Zhuojun in the north, and is 2700 kilometers long. It is the earliest and largest canal in the world. It brought convenience to the later Tang and Song dynasties, but brought countless hardships to the people of the Sui Dynasty.

Just like the construction of Luoyang, the construction schedule of the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty was also very tight. Countless laborers were killed or injured, and the common people even had to rely on self-mutilation to escape the disaster.

After the city and the canal were built, Yang Guang also conscripted a million laborers to build the Great Wall, and four to five out of ten of them died.

Objectively speaking, Yang Guang's huge projects were indeed designed for the sake of the country, but more importantly, Yang Guang was unwilling to be an ordinary wise ruler who maintained the status quo. He wanted to be a great emperor on par with the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor. As for the suffering of the common people, this was obviously not something Yang Guang would consider.

During the reign of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, the endless waste of people's energy caused dissatisfaction and uprising among the people.

The first large-scale civil unrest during the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui occurred in 610 AD. Due to Yang Guang's excessive conquests and militarism, the people could not bear the heavy burden.

Three uprisings occurred in Luyang, Yanmen and Ruya, but they were quickly suppressed. What really ignited the uprising was Yang Guang's three expeditions to Goguryeo, which brought the Sui Dynasty to its doom.

Goguryeo had attacked the Sui Dynasty during the Kaihuang reign, but was repelled by the local garrison commander. Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian, once sent an army of 30 to attack, but was forced to stop due to lack of food and fodder and the sinking of ships.

Goguryeo sent an envoy to apologize, and the two sides stopped fighting and made peace. In 611 AD, Yang Guang was dissatisfied with Goguryeo's failure to defend its borders, and decided to mobilize the whole country to destroy Goguryeo in one fell swoop. He recruited 113 million troops and more than 200 million civilians, and marched towards Goguryeo in the first month of the following year.

In Yang Guang's view, Goguryeo was just a small place, how could it defeat a million-strong army? Unexpectedly, due to the long battle line and improper command, the Sui army did not capture any city of Goguryeo, but suffered heavy casualties.

Yang Guang was unwilling to admit defeat and went to war against Goguryeo again the following year. Unexpectedly, he failed to capture the Liaodong City of Goguryeo after besieging the city for more than a month. The battle situation on the front line was tense, but Yang Xuangan, who was responsible for transporting grain in the rear, rebelled first.

He was dissatisfied with Yang Guang's suspicion of him, so he gathered 10 people in Liyang and prepared to attack Luoyang. Upon hearing the news, Yang Guang hurriedly withdrew his troops, and the food and supplies piled up like a mountain, all of which were happily accepted by Goguryeo.

Yang Xuangan's rebellion was quickly suppressed, but his confidant Li Mi escaped. After many twists and turns, Li Mi finally came to Wagangzhai, and the most famous Wagangzhai uprising in "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties" was about to take place.

The Sui Dynasty at this time no longer had the spirit of the Kaihuang Reign. Yang Guang pursued achievements and built large-scale projects all year round, and conquered without limit. Coupled with floods and natural disasters, the people's lives were extremely poor. North of the Yellow River, there was no smoke for a thousand miles; between the Yangtze River and the Huai River, there were lush grass. The nobles Tian Gong had pork ribs and green gardens. The country had reached this point, and its demise was a matter of time.

However, Yang Guang did not stop. In 610 AD, he went on a third expedition to Goguryeo.

This time, countless nobles fled on the march, and Yang Guang's order to suppress them failed to stop the momentum. However, Goguryeo was no longer able to fight against the Sui Dynasty and took the initiative to surrender. Yang Guang felt that he had won the victory, so he ordered the army to withdraw.

After returning, Yang Guang went to court with the King of Goguryeo, but the King ignored him. Only then did he realize that he had been fooled by Goguryeo. However, he was no longer able to fight Goguryeo. The three expeditions to Goguryeo had drained the national strength of the Sui Dynasty. Various places rose up one after another, and the court was unable to take care of itself.

What was even more fatal was that the Guanlong nobles were already very dissatisfied with Yang Guang. Like his father Yang Jian, Yang Guang was suspicious by nature and harsh to others. In order to ensure the centralization of power, Yang Guang had been suppressing the Guanlong Group and making use of the scholars from Jiangnan.

With counterattacks all over the Central Plains, he decided to leave Luoyang, the eastern capital. However, those who tried to dissuade him were beaten to death in court by Yang Guang. From then on, no one dared to stop Yang Guang from leaving Luoyang and embarking on the road to his doomed death.

Before leaving, Yang Guang left his grandson Yang Tong in Luoyang to supervise the country, and the end of the Sui Dynasty began.

Soon after, the leader of Wagang Town, Zhai Rang, started a rebellion. With the help of Li Mi, the Wagang army was unstoppable, conquering cities and strongholds along the way, and approached Luoyang in the spring of the following year, occupying Luokou Warehouse. Yang Tong urgently sent Taichang Sicheng and Yuan Shanda to Jiangdu for help.

Li Mi has a million people as the enemy, and the Eastern Capital has gathered in Luokou Granary, and there is no food in the city. If Your Majesty returns quickly, the mob will surely disperse, otherwise the Eastern Capital will dig up graves.

At this time, Yu Shiji, a favorite minister of Yang Guang, said, "Your Highness is young and was deceived by this group of people. If the Eastern Capital is so critical, how did Yuan Shanda escape?"

Yang Guang really believed Yu Shiji's words and arrested Yuan Shanda. Luoyang lost its last lifeline.

Soon, Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang, raised an army in Jinyang and marched into Chang'an under the banner of deposing Emperor Yang Guang and enthroning Prince of Dai Yang You. He finally captured Chang'an in November of the same year, enthroned Yang You as emperor, and remotely respected Yang Guang as the emperor emeritus.

After hearing the news, Yang Guang had a premonition that he might not have a good end, so he fell into his final madness, living a life of drunkenness and dreaming all day long. He invited beautiful women from the countryside to enter the palace, and beat them to death if they disagreed with him.

One day, Yang Guang sighed in front of the mirror: "What a beautiful head, who should chop it off?" The one who could chop off his head was not Li Mi or Li Yuan, but Yu Wenzhi, the imperial guard general beside him.

The imperial guards who came to Jiangdu with Yang Guang were all from Guanzhong. They missed their homeland and were angry when they saw Yang Guang was drunk and didn't want to go back. They nominated Yu Wenzhi as their leader and carefully planned a coup, which was called Jiangdu Incident in history.

Late one night in March 618 AD, the rebels broke into the Jiangdu Palace, captured Yang Guang, and massacred all the royal family members and relatives in the palace. Even Yang Guang's 3-year-old youngest son was killed in front of Yang Guang.

Yang Guang said: "Even if I have failed the people, have I failed you guys? You are rich and powerful, why do you want to rebel?" Yu Wenji sneered and wanted to kill Yang Guang with a knife.

Unexpectedly, Yang Guang suddenly said: "The emperor has his own way of dying, how can he die with a sword?" Yang Guang wanted to be respectable, but Yuwen Huaji didn't want to give him respect. In desperation, Yang Guang took off his turban and asked Linghu Xingda to strangle him to death. He was 50 years old.

When the news reached Luoyang, the general Wang Shichong supported Yang Tong as emperor, but later killed Yang Tong and proclaimed himself emperor. Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang in Chang'an, also forced Yang You to abdicate, ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, using Guanzhong as his base to wipe out the heroes.

In 624 AD, China unified the world and ushered in a powerful and great Tang Dynasty after the Han Dynasty.

As for how we should view Yang Guang, we need to know that the Sui Dynasty he took over was not a perfect country. On the contrary, because the criminal law was too harsh in the later years of Emperor Wen of Sui, social contradictions had become increasingly serious.

Yang Guang's actions were to put the country on the downward slope. He ignored the fact that officials and people were already alienated from each other, and instead built a lot of buildings and engaged in war to show off his imperial ambitions, which eventually led to the people rising up and the generals rebelling.

Ironically, when the Sui Dynasty fell, the people were in poverty and the country was penniless, but the treasury still had a large amount of food and supplies. These legacies were passed on to the later Tang Dynasty, laying a solid foundation for its prosperity.

——"Yang Guang has indeed been badly criticized. He opened the Grand Canal, marched to Luoyang, conquered Goguryeo three times, and recovered lost territory. Each of these was good for the country and the people. If he succeeded, he would be Emperor Wu. If he failed, he could be said to have surpassed his contemporaries and benefited future generations. Unfortunately, he failed, so he can only be Emperor Yang of Sui."

——"I don't think Yang Guang was wronged at all. He was too eager for success and didn't allow the people to rest and recuperate."

——"Yang Guang wanted to weaken the Guanlong Group, but he was too anxious."

——"The only person in history who could bring down a dynasty at its peak was Yang Guang. This really proves the saying that we are not afraid of the second generation ruining the family, but we are afraid of the second generation starting a business with ideals."

[The man who even Wu Zetian was afraid of - Cheng Yaojin]

The real Cheng Yaojin in history was not a reckless man who only knew how to use three axes. He was born in a noble family, was both wise and brave, and had a perfect life experience, but he was misunderstood by people for a thousand years. In this video, let us get to know the real Cheng Yaojin in history.

Cheng Yaojin, also known as Cheng Zhijie, was from Dong'e, Jizhou. His father, Cheng Louguan, was once the Grand Justice of Jizhou. As a true official son, Cheng Yaojin was very brave since childhood and was good at using horse lance.

——"As soon as I saw that he was using a horse lance, I knew that Cheng Yaojin was from a wealthy family. In ancient times, one of these things must have been damn expensive!"

——"The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties has misled me for too long!"

At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the country was in chaos. Cheng Yaojin witnessed hundreds of militiamen defending their hometown. Later, he led his people to join Li Mi and joined the Wagang Army.

When Wang Shichong sent troops to attack Shan Xiongxin, Li Mi sent Pei Xingyan and Cheng Yaojin to lead the army to rescue him. Unexpectedly, Pei Xingyan was shot by a stray arrow, and Cheng Yaojin rushed into the battle alone and rescued Pei Xingyan.

As a result, he was pierced by the pursuers' spears. If an ordinary person was hit so hard, he would definitely fall down on the spot, but Cheng Yaojin was different. He not only turned back to break the enemy's weapon, but also killed the pursuers and ran back to the Mangshan camp with Pei Xingyan.

The bravery and fighting skills shown in this battle were rare in the world, and Wang Shichong secretly made up his mind to recruit him into his army.

At this time, Li Mi had just eliminated Yu Wenzhi and was proud and complacent. He did not take Wang Shichong seriously at all. Although he was defeated, he was still full of confidence and did not even bother to see the wall.

At dawn the next day, Wang Shichong, who had been lying in ambush on Mount Mang, suddenly rushed out. Li Mi was caught off guard and fled with his remaining troops to join the Tang army, while Cheng Yaojin, Qin Shubao and others temporarily joined Wang Shichong.

Wang Shichong treated Cheng Yaojin and others with great courtesy, but Cheng Yaojin felt that Wang Shichong was narrow-minded and could not accomplish great things. He discussed privately with Qin Shubao and prepared to surrender to the Tang army.

When Wang Shichong and the Tang army were fighting in Jiuqu, Cheng Yaojin and Qin Shubao defected to the Tang army with dozens of their subordinates on the battlefield and were incorporated into the army of Qin Wang Li Shimin. Li Shimin had heard of Cheng Yaojin's name and appointed him as the third commander of the left army of Qin Wangfu.

Cheng Yaojin fought bravely and always led the troops in every battle. He defeated Song Jingang, Dou Jiande, and Wang Shichong successively, and was named Duke of Su for his merits.

As the Tang Dynasty defeated the various warlords and unified the country, the conflict between Crown Prince Li Jiancheng and Qin Wang Li Shimin became increasingly serious. Cheng Yaojin, as a capable general under Li Shimin, was also targeted by the Crown Prince.

According to the "Zizhi Tongjian", Li Jiancheng once forced Cheng Yaojin to be the governor of Hangzhou by complaining to Li Yuan. Cheng Yaojin insisted on staying and was unwilling to take up the post. He warned Li Shimin: "Now that the king's wings have been removed, how can I protect myself? I swear to never leave you, the king must make plans early."

As expected, the Xuanwu Gate Incident broke out not long after, and Cheng Yaojin followed Li Shimin to kill the crown prince Li Jiancheng and Qi Wang Li Yuanji. Afterwards, Cheng Yaojin was appointed as the crown prince's right guard and the general of the right guard, and was granted 700 households.