Because of this, it is not objective for people today to regard Emperor Yang of Sui as the scum of the emperors of the past dynasties, and to think that he is much worse than most emperors.

It is precisely because Yang Guang can do it more than most emperors and has more ambitions, so he will challenge the difficulty and try to do something big.

Although he failed in the end, and the country died, and the end was worse than those emperors who did not do things and messed around, we should still have an objective understanding of his abilities and the far-reaching ambitions he once had, rather than simply treating all the kings of the fallen country as wastes like Li Yu and Liu Chan.

Yang Guang is not ambitious and talented, his talent is actually good, but his goal is too lofty and eager, which makes the entire empire unable to bear it.

Although the chaotic situation and war before Yang Guang's death brought great harm to the people, he himself was also a victim, and his morality should not be overly scandalized because of this.

Throughout most of Yang Guang's life, most of the things he did actually revolved around the center of "fame and posterity", and today's people deny his aggressiveness and hard work for most of his life just because he was depressed and self-defeating a few years before his death, and he denied his aggressiveness and hard work, and also scandalized him as a loser who only knew how to eat and wait for death all his life, which is undoubtedly very unjust.

Yang Guang degenerated and neglected government in the later period, and the corpse was a vegetarian, but he did not seek government in his position, so he should undoubtedly bear the leadership responsibility, but when we condemn him, it is not appropriate to go to the platform, but should take into account the difficulties of the actual situation and the obstruction and constraints of the gate lord aristocracy when he tried to cheer up, and be objective and moderate.

If, as the mainstream public opinion is doing now, we blindly emphasize his absurdity and immorality, deliberately ignore his psychological process of self-abandonment in a desperate situation, and simply attribute the reason for his disregard for state affairs to his natural laziness, greed, and retention, it will inevitably become a distortion of history

Because Yang Guang treated Confucianism well, no matter what the people said about him, most of the Confucian scholars at that time still thought that Yang Guang was the son of the Holy Heaven.

And the reason why the country under the rule of the Son of Heaven is becoming more and more chaotic is naturally because there are too many traitors, and the Confucian cannot hold power, but it is not because the Son of Heaven is stupid.

Later, in order to prevent the Confucian scholars from being used by the chaotic party, Yang Guang specially increased the quota of 120 secretarial provinces, and supported a group of more famous literati and nobles, and discussed with them all day long how to achieve a prosperous era for a thousand years.

In fact, he knew very well in his heart that these Confucian scholars who were studying were all guys who called their mothers when they had milk, and they didn't understand any major principles of governing the country and quelling chaos.

He just wanted to give them some favor so that they didn't go around inciting rebellion. Many Confucian students' lifelong goal is to be officials, and in order to get ahead, there is nothing that these people are unwilling to do, and as for being a good official or a bad official, they can't sell their conscience, which is not within their scope of consideration at all.

Although these people did not learn any practical knowledge of governing the country and the country from the books of those sages, they taught them how to talk nonsense in a more high-sounding manner.

The scholars took the court's money, ate people with short mouths, and naturally knew how to repay their kindness, and talked nonsense with their eyes closed all day long. Every time they go to the book, they either sing the praises of the prosperous times, or they play the auspicious places again. One after another, they disturbed and drowned out many loyal and upright words that advised Emperor Yang of Sui to cherish the people's power and make great efforts.

And these flattering words cater to Emperor Yang of Sui's mentality of avoiding problems in the last few years, covering his ears and stealing the bell, which made Emperor Yang even more reluctant to cheer up.

Sui died in Tang Xing, Li Shimin finally picked peaches and ascended to the throne, this person also pays attention to inviting people's hearts, and regards buying Confucian students as the top priority, so he never mentions the bad things he does, and can only praise him.

As for Yang Guang, the former emperor who was once kind to Confucianism, he turned his face and slandered in every way in the light of the new master, so Emperor Yang of Sui was completely denied and scandalized, and this distorted image originated from the Tang Dynasty and prevailed in later generations. Since ancient times, literati have no bones, they can raise a group of people like raising and advocating excellence, or they can use book burning to deal with those who refuse to be bought, and most of them will eventually compromise.

A few hard bones were charged with insulting their mothers and fornicating with their fathers and concubines, and let them die for thousands of years.

And as long as they clean up those few hard bones, the rest of the people will dare to say a few strange words by means of ancient irony, and as long as the officials glare, they will be so frightened that they will immediately take the book back and delete and change it, intending to pretend that they have never written it.

And after a few hard bones are eliminated, a large number of soft bones literati will praise the merits of the superiors, even if the perverse actions obviously kill millions of people, they will try their best to defend it, saying that this is the price that the country and the people have to pay.

16. The fall of the empire is different from many people's existing perceptions, Yang Jian seemed to have left a good situation before his death, but in fact it was a pot of boiling water, and the lid of the pot was about to be blown away by the accumulated heat. After encountering this kind of mess that Yang Guang took over, if he eats and waits for death like most emperors, puts most of his time and main energy in the deep palace, and spends his days on a woman's belly, most of them will be able to survive the term of office, and Da Sui is estimated to be able to mix for a few more generations.

But if you want to do something practical, it is easy to intensify the contradiction in advance, let the big hidden danger of the gate valve burst out, and finally lead to the situation out of control. It's a pity that Yang Guang is not the kind of mediocre monarch who messes around, but it's a pity that although he is an ambitious emperor, his talent is limited after all, and he is not enough to control the chaotic situation under the hidden dangers and do great things without mistakes.

In fact, there are only three real core reasons for the fall of the Great Sui Dynasty, one is the overpopulation, the second is the gate valve system, and the other is the three expeditions to Goguryeo. The first two are historical issues, and only the conquest of Liao is Yang Guang's own idea. As for the chatter of later generations, such as building palaces, extravagance and waste, and building the Grand Canal, it is not a big disturbance to the people, and it is not a key factor in leading to the destruction of the country.

Yang Guang was disheartened in the last two years and ignored the government, also because the building was about to collapse and he was unable to return to the sky. If the population is large and the per capita arable land is insufficient, there will be chaos.

However, the gate valve system has exerted too much exploitation of the common people, and it has also exacerbated land annexation and wealth polarization, and has not given the elite a way out of the common people, and social contradictions have naturally intensified.

However, the selfishness of the gate lords themselves caused the power of the ruling group to be scattered, and they could not be twisted into a rope to suppress the popular rebellion and maintain the rule of the empire.

The three expeditions to Liao took place against such a background of many hidden dangers, and each time they forcibly requisitioned millions of troops and millions of people, and the burden was huge, which was a wrong strategy in itself, and it was not as good as Li Tang's later attack on Goguryeo with elite troops to drag down Goguryeo.

And the three large-scale requisitions also exposed Yang Guang's dispassionate temperament for the people. In fact, those monarchs who are sympathetic to the people cannot talk about loving the people like sons, but they have to restrain themselves because they are afraid of forcing the people to rebel. Therefore, the problem of Emperor Yang of Sui was not that he was unsympathetic to the people, but that he overestimated the people's ability to endure and underestimated their ability to resist.

In fact, just not caring for the people may not cause accidents, and large-scale requisition does not hurt. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also did not care about the people, worked the people and lost money, and let the world "halve the household registration", but still not known as the hero of the ages?

The key lies in the fact that the first expedition to Liao was lost, and the second and third labor expeditions had to be organized again, and this continuous large-scale expedition finally exceeded the scope of national strength. All in all, the factors that led to the fall of the Sui were complex, and it was the combination of forces and bad luck that allowed the nascent empire to collapse so quickly.

In this process, Yang Guang is indeed to blame, but his fault may not be so big, far less exaggerated than the mainstream public opinion today.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty spared no effort to conquer Goguryeo, although he had personal ideas such as establishing meritorious deeds, being an emperor through the ages, and satisfying his inner sense of accomplishment, but it seems that the more motivated was that this eloquent monarch hoped to lay a stable frontier for future generations and not leave hidden dangers for future generations.

The Khitan arose after the fall of Goguryeo, and eventually the Great Liao developed into a more powerful empire than the Central Plains regime, occupying a vast area north of Henan and suppressing China for a long time.

At that time, Goguryeo was more developed and more threatening than the Khitan, and if it sat back and watched its vigorous growth, sooner or later it would have to fight with the Central Plains, and the losses that the Central Plains would undoubtedly bear at that time would be greater.

Therefore, there was nothing wrong with the first expedition to Goguryeo, what was wrong was the underestimation of the enemy and the false reputation shown by Emperor Yang of Sui in the course of the war.

There is nothing wrong with planning another expedition after the failure of the first campaign, and the Great Sui must completely defeat Goguryeo and put an end to hidden dangers; At the same time, the final victory was used to annihilate the evil consequences brought about by the fiasco of the first expedition to deter the neighbors.

However, Yang Guang's biggest mistake was to rush out of the army when the country was in turmoil, and did not consider the bearing capacity of the country and the people, which directly led to the rapid deterioration of the situation to the point of being out of control.

In the final analysis, Yang Guang's mistake is inseparable from the factors of his character of not caring for the people and despising the resistance of the people, as well as his vanity and good name, and his mentality of being eager to win and save face.

On the whole, Emperor Yang of Sui is not a wise monarch of the ages, but he is not a tyrant of the ages, let alone a good-for-nothing scum as many people imagine. To be precise, if you look at it from the outside, Yang Guang should be regarded as a mixture of the British lord and the faint monarch, which is quite rare among the emperors of previous dynasties.

He has been wise, but he has also been confused; I have been progressive, and I have fallen; There have been successes and fiascos; has achieved remarkable achievements, and has also promulgated countless chaotic orders; It once made all countries come to court and made the people of the Central Plains raise their eyebrows, but it also caused chaos in the world and displaced the people. When we look at Yang Guang today, we should uphold a fair and objective attitude of dividing it into two, not only acknowledging his mistakes, but also affirming his achievements.

If you can't break free from the long-standing shackles of "winning and losing" and "judging heroes by success or failure", just because Yang Guang is the king of the fallen country and a loser, you will believe the Li Tang Dynasty's demonization of him and regard him as useless, then you will have a biased understanding of this period of history.