In fact, an important part of maintaining unity was to fight against the power of the aristocracy. The father and son emperors of the Great Sui Dynasty were all devoted to this. Because he was worried that the world would fall back into division after his death, Yang Jian carried out several political purges in his later years, and dealt a cruel blow to the aristocratic forces. The founding heroes were expelled or killed, and the leadership changed several times. Because Yang Jian was too suspicious and his methods were rough, many people felt mean and unkind. As a result, the upper nobility was silent on the surface, but in fact there was an undercurrent of discontent. Yang Guang understands his father's hard work. However, in his opinion, an emperor can be completely less hard, gloomy, and tired. An eloquent monarch could have been kinder, brighter, and more graceful. After ascending the throne, Yang Guang also spent a lot of effort in weakening the power of the aristocracy. Unlike his father, he believed that the most crucial measure should be to break the monopoly of power on the aristocracy.

Inheriting the afterglow of the gate lord government zhì during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the nobles and commoners in the early years of the Sui Dynasty are still two worlds. The children of the nobility are destined to rise to prominence when they are born. Those big families have controlled most of the political resources for generations, and handsome people from poor backgrounds have no way to enter. Scenes of "the world's high-ranking and handsome subordinates" abound. In the first year of his reign, Yang Guang introduced one of his many political inventions: the imperial examination system. The imperial examination system has broken the boundaries of family, region, and age, and has a considerable degree of openness and a certain degree of competition, which cannot but be said to be a very modern and rational product. This system set in motion the door to the disappearance of the power of the gate lords and aristocrats. In the fifth year of the great cause, he also "controlled the Wei and Zhou officials and could not be shaded", so that the descendants of those Guanlong nobles who had no merit could no longer be shaded. Compared to his father, his methods were certainly more subtle and effective. However, the blow to the aristocracy still caused the sequelae of Yan zhòng. The immediate consequence was that the upper nobility was divided into two factions. The ministers who were reused by the new emperor in the era of the new emperor were staunch royalists, but most of the old ministers and their descendants in the era of Emperor Wen of Sui had become staunch opponents of Yang Guang. Not only have the old economic and political privileges been deprived, but also the future generations have lost the possibility of passing on the family inheritance. In the upper echelons of society, there was a force secretly brewing against Emperor Yang of Sui, and with the failure of the conquest of Goryeo, it was like a seed finding a crack and suddenly burrowing out of the ground. This is the real motivation for Yang Xuangan's rebellion.

The worst thing is still coming. Yang Guang had long been mentally prepared for the rebellion of the nobles, but he didn't expect it to break out at this juncture. His response was swift. While quickly withdrawing his troops, he continued to issue various instructions and mobilized soldiers and horses from all over the country to encircle and suppress Yang Xuangan.

In the ninth year of the Great Cause, although Yang Guang's political prestige had suffered heavy losses due to the failure of the conquest of Goryeo, it was still not the same as the situation of the Great Cause for more than ten years. After the important ministers of the Sui Empire learned of Yang Xuangan's rebellion, they did not wait for Yang Guang's order, and immediately raised troops to rebel. Although Yang Xuangan attracted nearly 100,000 peasant troops from all walks of life to defect, the combat effectiveness of these peasant armies was too poor to rely on. Therefore, Yang Xuangan was wiped out and committed suicide after only a month of raising the army.

twenty-six

Yang Guang, who returned to Zhuo County, saw the post report, and the stone in his heart fell to the ground temporarily. The counterinsurgency went so smoothly that he even began to regret that he had gone too fast. If he had known this, he would have been able to hold out in Liaodong for another ten days and a half months, so that Goryeo might have been wiped out at this time, and the great cause of the ages had been successful!

Although Yang Xuangan's rebellion was not a great threat militarily, it meant the consequences of being strict in politics. Yang Xuangan publicly declared that Yang Guang was a faint monarch, and declared in the uprising oath: "The Lord has no way, does not think of the people, harasses the world, and tens of thousands of people die in Liaodong. ("Zizhi Tongjian" volume 182) Yang Xuangan listed all kinds of misgovernance in which he had made great achievements and abused the people's power, and announced that he would "abolish the faint and establish the Ming", which caused another huge decline in his ruling prestige. And the defeat of the Goryeo War, which had almost exhausted the strength of the whole country, made the vassal kings of the countries accompanying the army snicker again, making him lose half of his face last time, and almost completely lose it this time. More importantly, it was an open split at the top of the political hierarchy in front of the subjects of the whole country and the border of the four borders. The political wounds of the empire are exposed in front of the world, which will inevitably bring great danger to China, and Yang Guang, who is not accustomed to failure, misunderstands the meaning of "the more frustrated the more excited". The fragility of his heart is expressed in the form of strength. Two setbacks in a row made Yang Guang forget about the other qiē, like a gambler who was about to run out, and his mind was focused on how to turn the book. Gamblers have a narrow field of vision, they can only see the size of the table, and they can't see the other possibilities of life after washing their hands. Although the flames of the peasant uprising had burned the whole body of the Great Sui Dynasty, and military newspapers from all over the country were piled up higher and higher on the table in the main hall, Yang Guang still intensified his preparations for the Third Eastern Crusade. If he could think carefully about Yang Xuangan's accusations against him, then there was still hope for his fate to be redeemed, because Yang Xuangan judged the lesions of the imperial government very accurately, but Yang Guang was not willing to recall the rebellious words of this rebel minister at all, he didn't believe that others would be wiser than him. He insisted on his judgment, believing that it was the failure of the conquest of Goryeo that brought about this qiē consequence, so only by conquering Goryeo could he redeem his prestige, save his heart, and save his future and destiny. Facts proved that the Third Crusade did not contribute to Yang Guang's prestige in the slightest.

The continuous expeditions caused the Sui army to lose its sharpness. Yang Guang also felt the fatigue of the huge team behind him. Even he himself felt the reluctance of this crusade, like an old man facing the third ** in the same night. What embarrassed him even more was that this third time was the third time he took the initiative to prove himself. As he moved forward, he was worried about the supply of food and grass, and he knew that the country had been almost wiped out by him.

Fortunately, the Koreans were also scared. After all, the two wars have exhausted the small country's national strength. The last time the danger was even more terrifying. As soon as the Sui army arrived, they sent people to negotiate peace, hoping to exchange peace for one confession of mistakes, if it was in the first two times, Yang Guang would never agree, he must leap into the Datong River and set foot on the land of Sanhan in order to be satisfied. However, at this time, when he heard that the Goryeo envoy had come to sue for peace, he couldn't help but feel a trace of secret joy in his heart. Even he was ashamed of this secret joy.

As a result of the negotiations, Goryeo admitted his mistake and the Sui army was in charge.

The entire Great Sui Empire could finally begin preparing for the long-awaited celebration ceremony, but all the ministers were busy with expressionless faces, because they all knew what this victory was all about. The grand triumphal ceremony outside the Golden Light Gate was the most listless ceremony held since the founding of the Great Sui Empire.

The result of the Third Crusade was only two words: "Embarrassing." "It turned out that the powerful and wealthy empire was tossed to the ground, and its vitality was greatly damaged, and the scars were everywhere. The common people were tossed to death, and their homes were surrounded by walls, and nothing was found.

However, this seems to be just the beginning, and the "embarrassment" squeezed open the crack in the door, and rushed in one after another, making Yang Guang dizzy:

On the way back to the Eastern Capital from Zhuojun (Beijing), Yang Guang's imperial drive encountered the robbery of the peasant rebel army, the discouraged Imperial Forest Army was scattered by the peasant army, and the imperial horse of the Son of Heaven was robbed of forty-two horses by this rabble in broad daylight.

Just a month after the triumphal ceremony was held, Emperor Yang of Sui summoned Goryeo to the court, but Goryeo did not reply at all, and the three expeditions to Goryeo became a complete joke.

After Yang Xuangan's rebellion, the flames of the powerful and peasant uprisings all over the country were like being poured with a barrel of gasoline, and suddenly rose up, almost reaching the level of no county and no soldiers.

At the time of the great chaos in the world, the powerful steppe peoples also began to test the authority of the Sui Empire. Because the border was not quiet, Yang Guang went out to patrol the north again in August of the 11th year of the Great Cause, but unexpectedly encountered the Turks going south in Yanmen, Shanxi. Hundreds of thousands of court concubines and hundreds of officials and attendants who were caught off guard were surrounded in Yanmen City, and almost became prisoners of the Turks.

Since returning from the expedition to Goryeo, Yang Guang has been like a firefighter, fighting fires everywhere. A series of blows made Yang Guang a little unable to come back to his senses. He didn't understand how this all happened: why did he, who was building the pyramid of his great cause with great interest, slip off the top of the pyramid while laying the last brick, and fall into such an embarrassing situation? Why has he, who has always been smooth sailing and loved by all people, now become the object of ridicule of all the people in the world? Why did his hard work get such a result?

At the moment when he was surrounded in Yanmen and once again lost face in front of the whole country, Yang Guang realized for the first time that the problem he was facing now was not the question of ranking first or second on the emperor's list, but the question of whether the empire could keep it in his own hands! He suddenly discovers that the lucky fortune that has been with him since he was born has left him forever. The symphony, which had been played brilliantly and magnificently, had turned into a low and depressing symphony, and now it was so much that a concert became a burlesque, and the audience could not help but laugh. He thought he was God's favorite, but he didn't expect that Heaven would treat him as a dog like all things. He thought that his luck was a gratuitous gift from God, but he didn't want it to be a debt with heavy interest, and asked him to repay it one by one with his misfortune. He had always thought that God had given him the happiest life in history, but he didn't know that the plot took a sudden turn halfway, and it seemed that his life was likely to become a complete tragedy.