Did Emperor Yang Guang of Yang Di dig the Grand Canal when he first went down to the south of the Yangtze River?

China has a vast territory and rich resources, and its water transport industry has been very developed since ancient times. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the ancients began to dig canals to connect waterways. After Yang Di succeeded to the throne, he always dreamed of making contributions and making a name for himself, so he named his country "Daye" in order to build a great cause that shocked the ancient and modern times.

On the basis of previous canals, Yang Di took a nationwide view and presided over the construction of a Grand Canal leading to Beijing and Hangzhou in the north. The canal runs through Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and flows through Haihe, Yellow, Huaihe, Yangtze and Qiantang rivers. Its total length is about 1794 km, and its value is comparable to that of the Great Wall.

The excavation of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal runs through the north-south traffic artery, which naturally provided many conveniences for the economic development, cultural exchanges and military control of the Sui Dynasty. But the main purpose was to satisfy the personal wishes of Emperor Yang Di, who was keen on group travel. Today, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal still plays an important role in transportation. In addition, it also has profound historical and cultural connotations, and is known as the "ancient cultural corridor", "ancient science and technology library", "landscape museum" and "folk custom showroom", and is a living fossil of Chinese heritage.

Mid-Autumn Festival, the first time in Yangzhou.

During the reign of Yang Di, he came to Yangzhou three times and held a grand ceremony before 0 every time. According to Sui Shu, on August 15th of the first year of Daye, Yang Di went to Yangzhou for the first time. There are tens of thousands of dragon boats alone, and the huge dragon boat team is connected end to end, stretching for more than 100 kilometers.

These dragon boats are very big, about 33 meters long, 15 meters high. They are just a moving water palace. There are four floors on the ship. It is the main hall and east-west hall on the top floor, where the emperor works and meets his courtiers. There are 120 rooms on the middle floor, and each room is decorated with golden jade, which is more luxurious than the current five-star hotel, mainly for the emperor's entertainment and rest. On the ground floor, all the servants of the emperor lived here and were responsible for the daily life and safety of the emperor.

The shape of the whole dragon boat is a lifelike dragon. The faucet leads the neck to the sky, and the eyes are wide and dignified. The dragon's tail is high, pointing to the sky. According to Du Bao's memorabilia, these dragon boats are "decorated with Dan powder and gold beads with exquisite carving". As soon as the ship started, colorful flags fluttered, which was very spectacular. The queen's Xiang Yu boat is slightly smaller than the dragon boat, and its function and decoration are similar to those of the dragon boat. Then there are nine big ships, named "passing by". This three-story ship mainly carries some daily necessities for the emperor and queen to travel.

In order to make his trip more perfect, Yang Di specially chose the Mid-Autumn Festival. On this day, the autumn is crisp and the sky is clear in Wan Li. Such a beautiful scenery can't help but shock people. But this is not enough for the romantic emperor Yang Di. According to Zi Zhi Tong Jian, Yang Di has a travel habit, that is, he likes to organize groups and takes many followers with him every time he travels. These people include core court officials, princesses, princesses and grandchildren, and even political prisoners like Betty Wong Yang Xiu. Why did you bring so many people? First of all, it is huge and shows its national prestige; Second, ancient kings were afraid of loneliness, so it is better to be happy alone than with others.

The boats these people take also have different shapes. There are thousands of ships here, named Cai Yang, Bamboo Bird, Cangmao, White Tiger, Xuanwu, Flying Fish, Qingfu, Ling Bo, Wang Lou, Dojo, Tan Xuan, Banta and Huangqi. Such a huge fleet followed the dragon boat of the emperor and queen, and went down the river in a mighty way.

During this trip, Yang Di not only spent a lot of thoughts on building dragon boats. In addition, even the athletes on the dragon boat must wear uniforms, and they are all sewn with extremely high-grade brocade. Brocade is a kind of silk fabric with patterns, which is naturally expensive and may not be affordable for the general rich. This shows the luxury of Emperor Yang Di.

Emperor Yang Di was a typical perfectionist. Although the dragon boat is spectacular, he still thinks it has a defect, that is, the tracker on board. According to legend, in the year of Shuowen Jiezi in the Tang Dynasty, "the dragon boat went into the water and the river went down the Huaihe River." Girder, unpretentious, built with seven treasures and gold, and so on. Therefore, wuyue named 500 folk women aged 15 and 16 as temple women. "The so-called' maid-in-waiting' refers to a woman holding a dragon boat. They are all beautiful women selected from wuyue, wearing palace makeup and silk clothes, just like a beautiful scenic line on the dragon boat.