& As the saying goes, "the dragon's eye is not gracious", power can best wear out the kindness in people's hearts, so most of the kings of the past dynasties are ruthless and cold-hearted. Among the many emperors, Yang Guang is an outlier, and his tolerance and benevolence are rare in the history books.

Even to the people around him, even the palace maids and eunuchs, he was very gentle and generous, and rarely got angry with them.

Emperor Wen of Sui commuted the criminal law and removed some cruel torture methods from the previous dynasty, but he still did not pardon those who committed the "ten heinous crimes", and still used cruel punishment, which is the origin of the allusion of "ten heinous crimes". Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was soft-hearted, and after his accession to the throne, he further reduced the criminal law and abolished the "ten evils" in the law.

Li Shimin and others accused Emperor Yang of Sui of killing two younger brothers, and even his uncle, Yang Shuang, a general who once shocked the world, also died in his conspiracy, which are all groundless rumors. After Emperor Yang of Sui ascended the throne, he only killed the abolished prince Yang Yong, whose identity was too special, and it was very likely that he would be used by some people who were dissatisfied with the new dynasty, causing political turmoil and even civil strife in the country.

Whoever sits in Yang Guang's position will not be killed. For the fourth and fifth brothers who plotted rebellion, he also treated them with courtesy after they were captured, but only confined, and allowed their father and son to get together, and sometimes even took them with him, so that they could go out to relax.

On the contrary, it was Li Shimin who killed his fourth brother Li Yuanji and destroyed his whole family, including the infant baby, who was obviously far inferior to Yang Guang in terms of human nature.

For courtiers, generals and children of the family, Yang Guang has always been tolerant and lenient. Compared with the ruthless emperors such as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, his human touch is much stronger. Xiao Cong, Yang Yue, Pei Ju, Pei Yun, and Yu Wenshu are all old ministers who have been driving for more than ten or twenty years, and he has never been slow for more than half a minute. After the death of some of Thak's trusted ministers, he even wept sadly in front of people.

According to the record of "Zizhi Tongjian", when Yang Xuangan rebelled, many children of the family surrendered to the rebels, and if they were placed in other dynasties, I am afraid that it would be full of disasters.

However, Yang Guang can understand the hardships of these people who are forced to be thieves, and does not hold their relatives accountable, and even the rebels themselves are forgiven.

Later generations rumored that Yang Guang liked to slaughter heroes, which was a malicious slander. When it comes to not killing subordinates indiscriminately, Yang Guang must be among the top ten among the emperors of the past dynasties.

There have been many examples in later generations to prove that Yang Guang was an out-and-out tyrant, but these are all fabricated and instigated by well-intentioned people, a kind of slander against the emperor of the last dynasty of the previous dynasty, the purpose is to strengthen the rationality of the Li Tang Dynasty to replace it, so it is not to be credulous, and it needs to be studied and analyzed one by one.

On the issue of seizing his brother's throne, Yang Guang did use scheming, and even pretentiousness, but it was basically fair competition, competing for talent, ability and reputation among ministers, and position in the heart of the old emperor Yang Jian.

From a moral point of view, it is understandable for Yang Guang to seize this throne. As a prince who is far more talented than the crown prince in his teens, even if he doesn't fight and allows his brother Yang Yong to take the throne, I am afraid that Yang Yong will not have the courage and courage to tolerate the younger brother of a general who once led an army of 400,000 to conquer Jiangnan and conquered half of the country for the Great Sui.

Li Shimin once accused Yang Guang of killing Gao Gong as a tyrannical king, and even publicized the political attacks made up by Yang Xuangan when he rebelled, so as to scandalize Emperor Yang of Sui.

It is said that Yang Guang admired Zhang Lihua, the queen of the Southern Dynasty, during his southern expedition, and wanted to accept him as his favorite, but Gao Gong was worried that Zhang Lihua would be in trouble and charm the king like Daji, so he obstructed it, so Yang Guang of ** has held a grudge against Gao Gong since then, and found an excuse to kill him after he ascended the throne.

This statement is completely naked and bloody, and the story is not at all reasonable. Yang Guang** was suave, he was only twenty years old when he destroyed Chen in the south, and Zhang Lihua was over forty years old at the time, and a twenty-year-old boy Yingjie admired a half-old, and thought about it to be included in the account, which is obviously ridiculous.

And Yang Guang was not the crown prince at that time, Yang Yong's crown prince position was still very stable, Gao Gong never expected him to ascend the throne in the future, and a prince took a beautiful woman, what did Gao Gong do? What's the matter?

With a little scrutiny, this rumor is self-defeating. But Li Shimin, who has the right to speak, of course, will not analyze this matter objectively, and does not mention the ages of Yang Guang and Zhang Lihua.

In fact, slanderers never need facts and truth, they only need to deliberately mislead according to political purposes. And the ignorant people only know that everyone is the same, how can they have the ability to think and discern? Unconsciously played the role of adding fuel to the fire.

With the vigorous propaganda of the Li Tang Dynasty and the false rumors of the common people, this absurd and flawed statement has spread widely and confused many people.

In fact, Yang Guang's killing of Gao Gong was mainly due to political struggle. Gao Gong is the father-in-law of the deposed prince Yang Yong, and when he was fighting for the throne, he has always stood firmly on Yang Yong's side, speaking ill of Yang Guang in front of the old emperor, and trying his best to oppose the re-establishment of Yang Guang as the crown prince.

Moreover, Gao Gong's power in the army was intertwined, and Yan zhòng threatened Yang Guang's throne and the stability of the Sui Dynasty's rule.

In the nineteenth year of the emperor's reign, in order to entertain the Turkic Qimin Khan who came to the pilgrimage, Emperor Yang ordered Yu Wenkai to make a tent that could accommodate 3,000 people. Accusing Emperor Yang of extravagance, Gao Gong deeply agreed.

As a result, the two discussed and denounced others, and were executed together by Yang Guang in August 607 for "defaming the government and government". Yang Guang has always been generous, more tolerant of his subordinates, and rarely kills like Zhu Yuanzhang. He has always been suspicious of Tang Gong Li Yuan, suppressed him several times, and even arrested him once. But Yang Guang is soft-hearted after all, and he doesn't have the kind of ruthlessness and cruelty that is common to superiors, and since he can't find conclusive evidence, he can't bear to unjustly kill a minister.

Li Yuan saw through his temperament, he has always been cautious, Taoguang is obscure, Yang Guang was finally confused by it, made a big mistake, and handed over more than a dozen important towns in Hedong to Li Yuan to manage, let him be in charge of the Northern Imperial Turks, and gave him the opportunity to gather troops and sit big.

People often say that "there is no doubt about employing people", both doubting the loyalty of the other party but entrusting them with important tasks, this arrangement of Emperor Yang of Sui is undoubtedly very confused. The root cause of this is actually due to the soft-heartedness, generosity, indecisiveness and other factors in his character.

Another reason why Yang Guang was named a "tyrant" was that when it was rumored that he and Xue Daoheng were "making peace", Xue Daoheng wrote more poems than him, and Yang Guang was unhappy and found an excuse to kill him.

People accuse him of being narrow-minded, killing ministers arbitrarily, and not being a tolerant king, but this statement is actually a lie that Li Shimin sent people to walk. According to the "Book of Sui" - "The Biography of Xue Daoheng", it is recorded that after Emperor Yang of Sui succeeded to the throne, Xue Daoheng was on the "Ode to Emperor Gaozuwen", Yang Guang was very unhappy after reading it, and he said to Su Wei: "Daoheng is the first dynasty of beauty, and the righteousness of this fish algae is also." ”

Yuzao is the title of the "Xiaoya" chapter of the "Book of Songs", which has the meaning of "saying that all things lose their nature" and "so the gentleman thinks of the ancient warrior Wang Yan". To put it bluntly, the reason why Emperor Yang of Sui was unhappy was because Xue Daoheng contained irony in his eulogy to Emperor Wen of Sui, and belittled Emperor Yang of Sui by praising Emperor Wen of Sui with all his might.

Soon after, the imperial court discussed a new decree, but after discussing it for a long time, it could not be decided, so Xue Daoheng mocked: "To make Gao Gong immortal, the order should be carried out for a long time." ”

Yang Guang killed him under the pretext of slandering the emperor because Gao Gong was Yang Yong's party, and he had always been against him, and he held military power and threatened his throne, but the punishment was actually too heavy, so it has always been Emperor Yang of Sui's heart disease.

So he listened to Xue Daoheng's words, and thought that Xue Daoheng was a member of the Gao Gong Yu Party, who was complaining about his killing, and insinuating to ridicule his own governance, which made him commit suicide, which has nothing to do with writing poetry and being jealous of the virtuous.

Li Shimin spared no effort to turn Yang Guang into a tyrannical king, but he himself believed the words of the Fang Shi, and just because the name of the general Zhang Liang was in line with the Wei Wei, he was executed and his family was confiscated.

After Emperor Yang of Sui heard the rumors of the "Eighteen Sons", he was only suspicious of Li Yuan, and did not kill him innocently.

And after Li Shimin heard the folk rumor that "after the third Tang Dynasty, the heroine Wu Wang has the world", he wanted to punish all the people surnamed Wu in the world, which shows the cruelty of his heart. From this, we can also feel that at the beginning of Li Shimin's usurpation of the throne, he always felt that his rule was unstable because of his improper position, and he was quite worried and uneasy.

Li Junxian has made outstanding contributions, just because he is a native of Wu'an, the official residence of General Zuo Wuwei, the town guard Xuanwu Gate, and the knight of Wulian County, there are several places related to the word "Wu", and the nickname is "Wu Niangzi", and it is related to the word "female", Li Shimin found a clumsy excuse to kill him.

Needless to say, Emperor Yang of Sui did kill innocent ministers in vain, and once punished Li Hun and his family for believing in the words of Fang Shi. However, Yang Guang still has a bottom line in life, he once trusted the Taoist priest Pan Dan and asked him to prepare the elixir of immortality, but as soon as Pan Dan proposed to use the bone marrow of the boy as medicine, Yang Guang immediately executed him. When it comes to superstitious immortals, the great refining elixir, Li Shimin, known as the "Emperor of the Ages", is also not exempt from vulgarity, and like Qin Shi Huang, Tang Taizong finally died of "swallowing gold" (that is, drug poisoning).

Friendship between monarchs and ministers---- Wei Zheng Li Shimin PK Yuwen Shu Yang Guang Speaking of the friendship between monarchs and ministers, people often think of Wei Zheng and Li Shimin. However, few people know that those stories of risking death and humbly accepting advice are just clever performances of two dramas. Even fewer people know that after Wei Zheng's death, Li Shimin personally ordered his tombstone to be torn down to vent his resentment against Wei Zheng in his heart.

In my opinion, when it comes to the friendship between monarchs and ministers, Yang Guang and Yuwen Shu are exemplary. After Yang Jian usurped the throne, many children of the Yuwen family did not know the current affairs, raised troops to rebel, and the words described the young man in the army, killed all the same clan, and made great contributions to Yang Jian.

The friendship between Yang Guang and Yu Wenshu lasted for more than 20 years, at the beginning Yang Guang and Yang Yong competed for the crown prince, Yang Jian liked to be thrifty, so he set a very meager salary for several children and grandchildren, as the king of Jin, Yang Guang in order to leave a good impression on his father and mother, he practiced thrift at home, each meal was only two flavors, clothes, shoes and socks were all sewn by the princess herself, and every reward in the palace was taken out to buy most of the books, and the rest was used to intersect with the literati...... The annual expenditure of the Jin Palace's mansion is less than one-tenth of that of Prince Yang Yong's, and such a simple behavior has also won him the appreciation of the first emperor and the reputation of virtue.

But when he bought the eyeliner in the palace in private, socialized with the children of the family, won over the ministers, curryed favor with his mother's clansmen, and coped with the bribes of several uncles surnamed Dugu, Yang Guang was never stingy.

He learned that Yang Su liked Cai Yong's characters in the Eastern Han Dynasty, so he spent 20,000 yuan to buy it from Jiangnan and give it to Yang Su as a birthday gift. In order to alleviate the hostility of Prime Minister Gao Gong, he actually let his subordinates spend two years to find the "Art of War", and also transcribed it and handed it over to the other party.

And the interaction with Shi Wansui, He Ruobi and other generals in the army is even more expensive. In order to get the support of the ministers, Yang Guang spent money like running water, but on the surface, he had to make a clean posture, and this money was all dependent on Yuwenshu secretly operating some industries, and it could only be supplied with the support of Yuwen's entire gate valve. In order to make up enough money for Yang Guang to make friends with hundreds of civil and military officials, Yu Wenshu even did not hesitate to destroy his future, risking being impeached by the officials, accepting bribes and swallowing up the seized materials.

It can be said that it was all thanks to Yu Wenshu's private funding that Yang Guang had the financial resources to win over the courtiers, make friends with celebrities, and then defeat the former crown prince Yang Yong with the unanimous support of everyone inside and outside, and ascend to the throne as he wished.

Yang Guangzhi Entu reported, after ascending the throne, he was extremely close to Yuwenshu, Yuwenshu became the first person in the military circle of the Great Sui, and the Yuwen family also leaned towards the government and the opposition. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and Yuwenshu had a deep friendship that was beyond the monarch and ministers, and even after Yang Guang ascended the throne, his friendship with Yuwenshu was not estranged, and he later became a family of sons and daughters. When Yang Guang ascended the throne, the heroes were either pampered and arrogant, or clean and self-controlled, and they were all estranged from Yang Guang one after another.

Only Yu Wenshu is still like Yang Guangwei before he became emperor, and naturally often goes to the palace to chat with him and send him some delicacies that he likes to eat. For Yang Guang, Yuwen Shu is the existence of Yichen and Friend. Therefore, over the years, Yuwenshu has never had any storms in his career, whether he was defeated in the Eastern Expedition or his descendants stealing and selling military food, it was a big mistake to steal the family and destroy the clan on the heads of others, but it was just a trivial matter in Yuwenshu.

If you want to say that you trust and tolerate the people around you, you can repay your kindness, these characters are commendable advantages for ordinary people, but they are not necessarily good things for the master of a country. The essence of the emperor is that of a politician, and a politician must be shameless and ruthless in order to maximize his profits.

When the Turks besieged Emperor Yang of Sui in Yanmen, the situation was extremely critical, the food and grass in the city were about to run out, the soldiers could not eat enough to defend the city, and Yu Wenhua and his brothers, who were responsible for the defense of the city, saw that the situation was not good, and they wanted to bet on both ends, stealing and selling military food to the Turks, and exchanging the safety of Emperor Yang and the interests of the country for a back road for the Yuwen family after the city was broken.

Later, the reinforcements arrived, the Turks were defeated, and the theft and sale of military food was also discovered, which was a major crime of raiding the family and exterminating the clan, but Yang Guangnian remembered his friendship with Yuwenshu, and he only demoted the official position of the Yuwen brothers, and easily let go of this crime that endangered the safety of his throne.

There are rules of the game that the superior must follow, and if even the behavior that endangers his own safety can be tolerated, then if others rebel in the future, they will lose their due fear, and they will bring disaster to themselves.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty cherished the old feelings, and knew that he mainly relied on Yang Su and Yuwenshu to help him when he competed for the crown prince, and after ascending the throne, he not only rewarded these two people and entrusted them with high-ranking officials, but also married his eldest daughter to Yuwenshu's son Yuwenshi and, Yang Su's son Yang Xuangan was exceptionally promoted to the Ministry of Rites.

At the critical moment of the second expedition to Goryeo, seeing that Goguryeo could not withstand it, Yang Xuangan raised troops in the rear to rebel and attacked the Sui army with Goguryeo, causing the Sui army to fail. And Yu Wenhua and Yu Wenzhihe, who were deeply favored by the emperor, even instigated a mutiny in Jiangdong, Yang Guang died in their hands, and the Great Sui also fell inexplicably.