Emperor Yang Guang was an emperor full of contradictions.
Some people said that he was a fatuous ruler, while others said that he was the emperor of the ages.
He was so ambitious that he recruited hundreds of thousands of people just to build the Grand Canal.
His vision was excellent. He saw that once the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was opened, the north and south would forever be connected as one. Not only would it greatly ease the economic pressure, but it would also be beneficial to the transportation of economic goods. It would also ease the pressure of transporting troops back and forth.
In the long run, this river was beneficial to the country and the people. However, the riverbed was covered with the bones of hundreds of thousands of people.
He attacked Tuyuhun with the intention of using Tuyuhun to establish his reputation, but he still failed.
He had seen the rapid rise of Goguryeo, and he had also noticed that the meritorious nobles were bullying the people, causing them to be in dire straits.
He thought of a strategy to drive the wolf and swallow the tiger.
He forcefully recruited the servants of the soldiers in the country, intending to weaken the power of the aristocratic families while destroying Goguryeo.
But he still failed.
Goguryeo's tenacity had exceeded his expectations. He had attacked Goguryeo three times in a row, but all three failed.
At the same time, the aristocratic families that were forcibly conscripted were increasingly dissatisfied with the increasing number of casualties among their descendants.
Since they had failed to conquer Goguryeo, they had naturally failed to obtain the many benefits that Yang Guang had promised them.
After the failure of the external war and the internal affairs, Yang Guang had completely fallen.
At the beginning of his ascension, he had recruited people from all over the world to cultivate in the temporary palace dormitories.
In the year 605, he ordered the transportation of rare stones from the south of the Great River and the north of the Five Ridges to build the Palace of Prominent Divine. The next year, he built the Palace of Heavenly Scriptures. Later, he ordered the construction of palaces all over the country.
Yang Guang was extravagant and extravagant. In order to build the palace quickly, he ordered the construction to be accelerated. As a result, four or five tenths of the laborers died under the whip.
After the palace was built, he led thousands of palace maids and concubines to play in the palace.
When Yang Guang led the princes and concubines to the River East, he had 200,000 followers. The length of the ships upstream and downstream of the canal was more than 200 miles.
In order to solve the food problem, he ordered the fleet to provide food within 500 miles.
Ever since he ascended the throne, Yang Guang would go on an inspection tour almost every year. Every time he went on an inspection tour, it would be extremely grand. In the long run, the resentment of the people would be deep.
In 604, Yang Guang transferred hundreds of thousands of farmers from Shanxi and Henan to dig long trenches.
In the early years of Daye, Luoyang, the eastern capital, was built, and as many as two million men were enslaved every month.
From 605 to 610, in order to open the Grand Canal, Yang Guang recruited more than three million farmers and soldiers from the hinterland of the Central Plains in Huainan and Huaibei.
In 607 and 608, he ordered 1.2 million farmers to build the Great Wall, and more than 600,000 of them died in labor.
Just the corvee alone had forced more than ten million people to be conscripted, and four to five million of them had died forever in the land of corvee.
Furthermore, apart from the corvee, there were also the conscripted soldiers brought along by the war.
In just the seventh year of Daye, the Sui Dynasty had mobilized over a million soldiers and over two million conscripted soldiers to attack Goguryeo.
The Sui Dynasty had a population of more than 50 million. However, excluding women, children, and the elderly, there were only about 10 million young men left. Almost all of these people had been recruited by Yang Guang.
The people were in dire straits and had accumulated grievances for a long time. Finally, uprising armies erupted all over the country.
The peasant uprising that broke out at the end of the Sui Dynasty was the largest uprising in the history of China.
Thirty-six clouds of dust, seventy-two rebellions. In this way, it was normal for the Sui Dynasty to perish.
He evaluated Yang Guang's life as extravagant, extravagant, and impetuous.
He had foresight but no strategy, his heart was higher than the sky, and his life was thinner than paper.
He built the Great Wall and opened the Grand Canal to bless his descendants.
However, he opened up the corvee, and half of the people in the world were conscripted.
Opening up the corvee, opening up the canal, conquering Goguryeo three times, attacking Tuyuhun, conquering Jiangdu three times, and leaving Zhuo County two times, all of these things happened in just ten years.
He thought too highly of himself. He had always wanted to become the greatest emperor in history. He had foresight, but he did not have the ability. The deaths of millions of men were perhaps just a string of numbers to him.
He knew what he wanted to do, but he couldn't do it well, or rather, he didn't have the ability to do it.
This was the crux of the problem.
It was precisely this contradiction that created the different views of the two people in the later generations.
Some people thought that he was a fatuous ruler, while others thought that he was the greatest emperor in history.
But no matter what, he was the ruler of a subjugated country.
The video ended.
Everyone stared blankly, as if they were reminiscing about something.
Only Li Shi Min snorted coldly,
"There's actually someone who thinks that Yang Guang is the greatest emperor in history.”
"Half of the ten million conscripts he conquered died on the construction site.”
"Yang Xuansu opened the granary to help the people, but Yang Guang ordered all the people who received the grain to be killed.”
"Because Yang Xuansu rebelled against the Sui Dynasty."
"He went to Jiangnan several times, and every time he went, he exhausted the people's wealth.”
"Every time he attacked Goguryeo, he would gather rations.”
"The peasants and commoners who fled to the mountains and forests are endless.”
"At that time, my Li Clan was also considered a noble clan in Longxi.”
"But even in my family, no one can eat a sheep for a whole year!”
"My family is already like this, let alone the other commoners. I don't even dare to think about what kind of life they are living!”
"I still remember that one year when I conquered the county city, I opened the granary to give out 100,000 stones of grain for three days. However, I only gave out a few dozen stones of grain in three days!”
"Why?"
"Because everyone else is dead!!”
"Dead people can't get food!!”
"The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is indeed a long-term project, but he can completely carry it out slowly. Out of more than three million civilians, only about one million survived.”
"Why did he progress so quickly?"
"Is it really for the people? Why do I feel that it's more for my own benefit?”
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