Yang Guangyou is very talented, but why did he become a tyrant?

The face-saving project killed Emperor Yang Di.

(The second topic recommended by TV academic storytelling program)

Yang Di is indeed a historical figure worthy of attention.

He was a famous tyrant in the history of China, but before he became emperor, he had a good reputation and wrote beautiful articles. When he knew that the prince had lost his father's favor because of his infatuation with wine and color, he deliberately made harps in his own house for the old emperor to see. The old emperor was really taken in, thinking that he was not good at pleasure, so he regarded him with special respect and turned him into a crown prince. This shows that his IQ is not low, unlike an idiot emperor like Sima Zhong.

Objectively speaking, at the beginning of his reign, Yang Di also tried to make a difference. He once wrote a letter to exempt female handmaiden and part-time class service, ending the system of women's land service since the Northern Wei Dynasty. The age of men was also adjusted from 2 1 to 22, which shortened the service time. On the basis of his father's imperial examination reform, Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty also set up the Jinshi branch to limit the monopoly of nobles on power and select talents more widely. This move of his perfected the imperial examination system and had a far-reaching impact on the history of China. From Yang Diji, it can be found that there are often records in history books that he gives back to the people (exempting corvee). Emperor Yang Di once issued a decree to give special treatment to the elderly: those who have reached the age of 90 are too defensive; Those who have reached the age of 80 are awarded the title of county magistrate, and so on. It is really creative to respect the elderly by conferring official titles. This shows that, from the very beginning, Emperor Yang Di was not a villain who lost at least his sense of morality by "letting him enjoy himself". On the contrary, he is very concerned about his image, hoping to win a good reputation and become a praised wise monarch.

However, what he did later made him a cruel, fatuous and reviled tyrant and went down in history. Less than 15 years in office, it completely destroyed the prosperous country that my father worked hard to build for 20 years, and at the same time, while the people suffered endless pain, they also ruined their lives.

Emperor Yang Di died in a mutiny and was strangled with a rope, which was very tragic. But when we thought about it for a long time, we found that what really killed him was the face project that he had been obsessed with.

What is the face project of Emperor Yang Di?

First of all, we must be clear about what face engineering is. Face project is a kind of image project. However, all seemingly vigorous and beautiful events, regardless of objective conditions and actual effects, can be called image projects. Among them, showing it to the boss is a performance project to win the approval of the boss and strive for promotion; It is a face project to show to outsiders in order to get praise and admiration from others, so as to satisfy their vanity. Emperor Yang Di is the emperor and the "No.1" in the world. Of course, the great things he did did did not have the problem of achievement project, so it was called face project.

Emperor Yang Di is a man with great face, and he gained great benefits from the face operation of "piano breaking dust" before boarding Dabao. Therefore, it is likely that exaggerated, flashy and superficial operating principles have been deeply implanted in his subconscious mind, which eventually led to his obsession. There is a line in "Big shot": "Don't ask for the best, just ask for the most expensive", and Emperor Yang Di had this mentality.

So, what are the contents of Emperor Yang Di's face project? What about its harm?

Emperor Yang Di's face projects can be divided into two categories. One has certain positive significance, but it is too face-saving on issues such as scale and cost; One is that it has basically no positive significance, but it has gone too far. But in either case, the consequences are extremely tragic.

During the Sui Dynasty, China presented a pattern in which the political center of gravity was in the north and the economic center of gravity was in the south. Emperor Yang Di then considered digging the Grand Canal to connect the north and the south. This can strengthen the political control over the south, transport the wealth of the south to the north, cruise Jiangdu conveniently, find a feeling in the place where he made his fortune, and find pleasure in the prosperous south of the Yangtze River. If we only look at the first two project objectives, this project can also be a good project that benefits the country and the people. However, regardless of objective conditions, Yang Di lashed out at the emperor, making the operation of this project a disaster for the country and people.

In July 604, Yang Di ascended the throne, and the Grand Canal was dug in an all-round way the following year. From the start of construction in 605 AD to its completion in 6 10 AD, Tongji Canal, Han Canal, Yongji Canal and Jiangnan River were dug, forming the Grand Canal with Luoyang as the center, Yuhang (now Hangzhou) in the south and Zhuo Jun (now Beijing) in the north. This canal connects Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River and Qiantang River, with a total length of more than 4,000 miles, which was completed in only five years. Even in today's modern construction machinery, the scale of the project is very huge and the speed is amazing. Yang Di achieved his goal by predatory use of national strength and people's strength. Digging Tongji Canal and recruiting more than one million people in Henan counties; Digging ditches, more than 100 thousand people in Huainan were found; Build Yongji Canal and recruit more than one million men and women in Hebei counties. Similar records are numerous in history books.

The abuse of national strength and people's power does not stop there. Before the Grand Canal was dug, Yang Di began to expand Luoyang at the beginning of his reign. For the purpose of expanding Luoyang, the emperor confessed: "The monarch surnamed Ji in the Zhou Dynasty had two capitals, which was the original intention; The Shang dynasty moved the capital five times, which made the Shang dynasty monarch attach great importance to it. ..... So Emperor Gaozu said,' I have been to many places in the world, and only Luoyang is valuable'. Since ancient times, emperors have paid no attention to this place, and there is a reason why they don't build their capital here. Either because the world has not been unified, or because the state treasury is stretched. Therefore, there is no chance to put the plan of building Luoyang as the capital on the agenda. " ("Ji Yi two weeks, such as the meaning of King Wu; Yin people migrated five times and became the inheritance after Tang. ..... So Han Zu said,' I traveled all over the world and only looked at Luoyang.' Since ancient times, emperors have not paid attention to it, and those who do not have it have covered it with reason. Either Kyushu is not one, or it is trapped in its treasures. As a pheasant system, so I have no leisure. "-"Sui Shu Yang-ti Ji "Yang-ti was ambitious and had answers. He thought that the Sui Dynasty had already possessed the conditions that the predecessors did not have, so it was necessary to compete with the previous emperors for courage and strength. So he ordered the expansion of Luoyang as the eastern capital. This is not only to satisfy vanity, but also to get on a boat near the Grand Canal when visiting the south in the future.

In 604 AD, Yang Di rushed to Luoyang, immediately recruited hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, and dug a trench stretching for thousands of miles as a barrier for Luoyang. Only after more than ten days, Luoyang was officially extended by a letter. The whole expansion project is very huge. In order to seek the top feeling, we collected exotic materials and stones, good grass and good wood, rare birds and animals from all over the country and sent them to Luoyang for engineering. Cutting down trees from Zhang Yu (Nanchang, Jiangxi) and transporting them to Luoyang to build a palace, from cutting down to transportation, often a piece of wood needs hundreds of thousands of labor ("Building a Ganyang Temple and logging in Zhang Yu, the cost of a piece of wood has already been hundreds of thousands of labor." -Hong Mai's "Rong Zhai Xu Qin Sui Evil"). This project not only consumes huge financial and material resources, but also employs 2 million young men and women every month.

In the case of very tight manpower, Yang Di also ordered the construction of the Great Wall from Yulin to He Zi (Inner Mongolia and Linger) and recruited more than one million migrant workers.

Emperor Yang Di's vanity is extremely heavy, and his imagination is extremely rich. In today's words, this man has many ideas and strong planning ability. He has planned some masterpieces that have amazed people at all times.

In 606 AD, Qimin Khan, a Turkic, appeared in front of Yang Di. For ostentation and extravagance, Yang Di ordered hundreds of performances in Chi Pan, Xiyuan. Since then, it has become a practice to hold a hundred performances in the first month of each year. During the performance, the theater was 8 miles long, with more than 30 thousand actors, and the costumes were extremely gorgeous. In order to buy costumes for performances, the stocks of high-grade silk stored in Du Dong and Xi Du have been exhausted.

During the Yuan Dynasty in 6 10 A.D., due to the gathering of leaders, envoys and merchants from various countries in the eastern capital, Emperor Yang Di once again raised the level of performing hundreds of operas, and ordered the establishment of an unprecedented hundred theaters in Duanmenwai Street to perform hundreds of operas and play music from various countries. Among them, the number of musicians alone reached 65438+8000, and the music resounded through the sky and spread to dozens of miles away. In order to create an atmosphere, he also ordered people to arrange bright torches in the streets and lanes, and wrapped the street trees one by one with colored silk. According to the regulations, all businessmen hoard all kinds of exotic goods in advance, and concentrate on selling them during this period to show their strength. All businessmen wear gorgeous clothes according to the regulations, and even vendors who set up stalls to sell vegetables must put their vegetables on the ground with expensive dragon whiskers. When foreign businessmen pass by the hotel restaurant, they must ask the boss to sit down, drink and entertain, and receive nothing. They told foreigners in accordance with the unified caliber promulgated by the government that the Sui Dynasty was too rich to eat and drink for free as usual, which surprised these foreigners.

There is an ancient saying in China that "war is fierce and dangerous", so don't use war unless you have to. If we really want to take military action, we must also act in strict accordance with military law. On this basis, outstanding military works such as Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's Art of War were born. However, in the place of Emperor Yang Di, you can wage war because of face, and you can March and fight according to the principle of taking care of face.

The conquest of Korea was the biggest foreign war launched by Yang Di during his reign. It was planned three times and the fourth time, but it was abandoned because of the death of Emperor Yang Di. The cause of the war is this: In 607 AD, Yang Di the Great made a tour to Wang Ting, Qimin Khan, Turkey, and accidentally met the envoy sent by the Kingdom of Korea to the Turkic khanate. Therefore, Emperor Yang Di told the special envoy that he would cruise Zhuo Jun (Beijing) at 6 1 1 and ordered korean king Gao Yuan to appear in front of Zhuo Jun himself. In AD 6 1 1, Emperor Yang Di really cruised to Zhuo Jun, but the Kingdom of Korea only sent a special envoy to meet him, and Gao Yuan himself was not present. This time, Emperor Yang Di thought that this greatly swept his face. So I decided to crusade against North Korea.

Emperor Yang Di issued a war mobilization order, ordering soldiers from all over the country to assemble in Zhuojun County, and logistics materials such as ordnance and grain and grass were concentrated in Liaoxi County (Yixian County, Hebei Province), and ordered the construction of warships as soon as possible. For a time, the whole country was in a state of madness. Every day, at least100000 people run around in the marching army and the crowd carrying war supplies. By the second year, in 6 12 AD, the number of troops concentrated in Zhuojun County had reached1130,000, claiming to be 2 million, and more than 2 million migrant workers were transporting food and grass. A * * mobilized 3 million to 4 million young and middle-aged laborers nationwide. The team marched to the war zone, flying dust and hunting flags stretched for thousands of miles, showing off. From the vanguard to the rear army, a * * * walked for more than 40 days. ("I didn't send the first army, but I will lead the division for forty days." Banners are thousands of miles long and have been prosperous since ancient times. "-"Sui Shu Yang Diji ")

Yang Di indulged in this magnificent scene, and even ignored the laws of military action, and issued imperial edicts, requiring his subordinates not to engage in small moves such as Raiders. All combat operations should be aboveboard, and they can only be implemented after they have been approved by him, and they cannot go their own way. Emperor Yang Di was immersed in the beautiful feeling of absolute commander-in-chief, and his vanity was greatly satisfied. But the war has its own iron law, which gives Yang Di a blow.

In the process of attacking Liaodong (Liaoyang, Liaoning), the sergeant bravely attacked the city and destroyed a section of the city wall. The defenders could not resist and begged for surrender. However, the siege commander didn't dare to accept it, so he had to stop fighting and send someone to the rear to ask the emperor Yang Di for instructions. When he was instructed, the other party had blocked the gap and resumed resistance. So incredibly three times in a row, Liaodong city is still unable to capture. Finally, the first expedition to North Korea ended in a fiasco in Sui Jun. This time, Sui Jun directly lost 300,000 people.

The second expedition to Korea came to an abrupt end because of Yang Xuangan's rebellion. The third conquest began in 6 14, and this time North Korea was forced to make peace. But when Emperor Yang Di returned to the eastern capital, Gao Yuan was recruited into North Korea, but Gao Yuan was still not there. Emperor Yang Di was furious and prepared for the fourth Crusade, but at this time, the world was in chaos and his heart was unable to bear it.

Ancient emperors in China regarded Jiangshan as their private property, and it was normal for them to pursue enjoyment desperately. But for some sober monarchs, they can better grasp the relationship between personal enjoyment and the endurance of mountains and rivers. For the long-term stability of our mountains and rivers, we can actively restrain our desires to a certain extent, so that our short-term goal of pursuing pleasure can be better combined with our long-term goal of pursuing eternal happiness. As an example that Yang Di can learn from, his father, Emperor Wendi Sui, did a good job in this respect.

Emperor Wendi was in power for 20 years, knowing that it was hard to come by, and extravagant style was harmful to consolidating political power. Therefore, he has always advocated a frugal life. According to records, after he proclaimed himself emperor, he usually only ate a meat dish except the banquet; He forbade the harem concubines to be too gorgeous, and kept some clothes of that year, and watched "Self-Police" from time to time.

But when the throne came to Yangdi, he completely subverted his father's tradition, and his pursuit of happiness came to the extreme. He fell into the quagmire of crazy enjoyment and maximum satisfaction of vanity, which left him with eternal infamy.

Yang Di was in office for 15 years, but he really stayed in the capital for less than 15 years, and spent the rest of his time on a cruise. Emperor Yang Di's parade is closely related to the concepts of top enjoyment and top ostentation and extravagance.

In order to reach Jiangdu (Yangzhou, Jiangsu) from the canal by water, Yang Di ordered the construction of tens of thousands of ships south of the Yangtze River. Among them, there are only thousands of large ships for members of the royal family. The dragon boat that Emperor Yang Di personally rode was as high as four stories. There are also nine three-story "floating water halls"; There are thousands of other big ships. Every time I go out to patrol, these thousands of big ships don't use paddles, but use 80 thousand people to pull optical fibers. Thousands of other warships accompanied the escort. There are many cavalry guards on both sides of the shore. Tens of thousands of ships are connected end to end, with a length of more than 100 kilometers, accompanied by hunting flags, all over Ma Benteng, and the ostentation and extravagance is earth-shattering. Emperor Yang Di was intoxicated by this feeling.

In 607 AD, Emperor Yang Di began to sail north again. There was no boat to take this time, so I took the bus instead. This car is special. It's as big as a boat, but it feels uncomfortable on wheels and has to be carried by people. Of course, the imperial road for cruising was specially built. This time, like the trip to Jiangdu, the royal family and all the civil and military officials were accompanied. 500,000 infantry, 654.38+ 10,000 cavalry, 600,000 * *. The whole patrol can't see the end, winding back and forth for more than 500 kilometers.

Every time he cruised, Emperor Yang Di had to prepare a lot of etiquette supplies. In Jiangdu alone, 654.38+10,000 people are responsible for making ritual vessels and costumes, costing "billions". A large number of bird feathers were needed to make sacrificial ceremonies, so officials apportioned them to the people. Birds were caught in nets everywhere, and those with feathers were almost killed. ("Qiu, He Chou, and Cheng Yun, a teacher, have made a ritual ceremony, so they sent feathers to counties and counties, and the people caught them by land and water, and the animals were almost useless." . -"Sui Shu Yang Diji"

Emperor Yang Di is cool and feminine. Every cruise, there are more than 1000 accompanying beauties; There are thousands of beautiful women living in the palaces of Du Dong and Jiangdu. According to statistics, the total number of palace beauties enjoyed by Emperor Yang Di in all parts of the country exceeded 654.38+500,000.

Every cruise, the food supply of hundreds of thousands of people accompanying him was provided by local officials within 250 kilometers along the way, which was extremely exquisite and was abandoned before leaving.

When Dongdu was expanded, Yang Di ordered the construction of Ren Xian Palace and Xiyuan for his own enjoyment. Among them, Xiyuan Park covers an area of 300 square kilometers, and there are artificial lakes with a perimeter of 10. The Longlin Canal was dug to connect the artificial lake and Luoshui, and there was a 16 palace on the bank of the canal, which was called "16 courtyard". Each hospital has 200 to 300 beautiful women; The halls and buildings of every hospital are magnificent. For example, when trees fall down in autumn and winter, people are sent to cut ribbons of flowers and leaves and cover them with branches, and the color deteriorates slightly to ensure that the environment is like spring all the year round.

Emperor Yang Di liked this top feeling. Whoever defeated his splendor felt that he had no face, so he severely punished the person who defeated his splendor ("If the courtiers don't agree, they will be guilty and exterminated." -"Sui Shu Yang Diji"); He gives great benefits to officials who obey him and worship his face. He once bluntly said to ministers: "I don't like to listen to the opposite opinion by nature." I said that those who dare to speak are loyal, and I can't stand it the most. " If you want to be promoted, you must obey. "In 6 14 AD, Yang Di called hundreds of officials to discuss conquering Korea again. For several days, no one dared to express their opinions. ("I asked a hundred monks to discuss cutting Korea, and no one dared to speak for days." -"Sui Shu Yang Di Ji") 6 16 AD, at this time, the world was in chaos. Officials Cui and Wang Airen were killed because they reported the real situation of the "thief" bee rise and advised them not to continue cruising. ("I believe that Lang is like a thief who stormed Jianguomen in a flood. It is not advisable to make a patrol on the above table. If I am furious, I will solve it first, but I will cut it. ..... I drove to Surabaya. I am convinced that that Wang Airen and that Lang Lang are thieves. I told him to return to Xijing and run away. " -"Sui Shu Yangdi Ji") The founding fathers Gao Xi and He Ruobi talked privately about the excessive luxury of the imperial court. Yang-ti was executed after hearing that they had been labeled as libel.

In 607 AD, Yang Di toured the north, and most of the places he passed were barren places in the northwest, so people's lives were very difficult. When passing by Yanmen, Taishou Mountain and the people searched and prepared a large number of exquisite food sacrifices; When Yang Kuo arrived in Mayi, he couldn't raise fine food, so he didn't provide food. Emperor Yang Di was very satisfied with the former and very dissatisfied with the latter. As a reward, Yang Di transferred Chou He from a barren border county to Boling in the mainland as a magistrate, and ordered Yang Kuo to learn from Chou He's advanced experience in Boling to humiliate Yang Kuo.

In 6 13 AD, Yang Di stopped at Shanggu during his cruise. Because of the shortage of food and other materials, he was so angry that he had to be removed from his office. ("Every time I drive to the valley to pay, it is not official, so I am furious and avoid being too defensive." -"Sui Shu Yang Diji"

In 6 16 AD, the world was in chaos and out of control, but Yang Di continued to indulge himself. In May of this year, he had a whim and did another great thing: he collected a large number of fireflies in Jinghua Palace and released them when he traveled into the mountains at night, which made the mountains glow with fluorescence. ("I have to ask the fireflies in the Jinghua Palace to let them out of the mountains and shine all over the rock valley at night." -"Sui Shu Yang Diji") This year, Emperor Yang Di went to Jiangdu for the last time, and the situation was out of control. But Emperor Yang Di did not consider how to save the crisis. After meeting officials, he still only cares about how much jewelry and food they provide. Those who pay more will be promoted, and those who pay less will be demoted.

With both positive and negative examples, all officials have seen clearly how the officialdom under Yang Di should mix. As a result, officials competed with each other and killed everyone to satisfy the emperor's crazy desire, so as to keep his hat and get promoted to a higher position. Under the pressure of this bureaucratic system, the people live in an extremely miserable situation.

In every big project, officials completely ignore the physiological limits of the people, and treat migrant workers cruelly in order to meet the extremely demanding schedule and project scale requirements of superiors, causing a large number of casualties.

During the expansion of Du Dong, due to the strict supervision of the project, the mortality rate of service personnel was as high as 4/ 10 and 5/ 10. East to the elevation, north to Heyang, hundreds of miles from east to west, nearly hundreds of miles from north to south. Vehicles carrying the bodies of migrant workers face the road.

In order to transport the big logs for building palaces from Jiangnan to Du Dong, a large number of Jiangnan men were recruited, and every 2,000 people pulled a log, and people died along the way.

When the Great Wall was built in 607 AD, five or six of the millions of migrant workers died within ten days.

In the process of digging the canal, the death toll is also quite amazing. According to the records in Tan He Lu of the Tang Dynasty, 3.6 million migrant workers were recruited in the process of digging Tongji Canal and Hangou. When digging a canal near Xuzhou, it was 6.5438+0.5 million less. The construction site by the river is full of bodies. When the Yongji Canal was dug, there was a serious shortage of men and women and they were called up for service.

In the war to conquer Korea, hundreds of thousands of people died on the battlefield, and a large number of people died in hard labor during the preparation period. According to the Biography of Yuan Hongsi in Sui Shu, in order to build warships, officials of all sizes threatened migrant workers to soak in seawater day and night and were not allowed to rest for a moment. Migrant workers are all maggots from the waist down, and three out of ten or four are dead.

Migrant workers carrying military supplies all over the country, bringing their own dry food, ox carts or trolleys, rushed all the way to western Liaoning under strict and urgent military orders. Most of them died of illness and starved to death along the way. No one collected the bodies, and they could be seen everywhere for hundreds of kilometers.

Emperor Yang Di started a large-scale project and used millions of migrant workers at every turn. According to records, the population of the Sui Dynasty was only over 40 million at that time. Because a large number of young men were requisitioned and killed, agricultural production stopped and the economy collapsed. Coupled with the endless search by officials, the people are poor and struggling on the verge of death. In the later period of Yang Di, in just 12 or 13 years, the foundation laid by Wendi for 20 years was exhausted and the society was in ruins. In the fertile Yangtze River and Huaihe River basins, people's livelihood is cut off, and people eat bark, grass roots and soil on a large scale. In some places, people even eat each other.

In this case, the people can only choose to take risks and gather people to rebel.

The first large-scale popular rebellion in Yang Di era took place in 6 1 1. This year, Yang Di ordered preparations for the conquest of Korea. Zou Ping (Shandong Zouping) and Wang Ben gathered in Changbai Mountain (Shandong Zhangqiu) to rebel. Then, Sun, a native of Qinghe County, was still enlisted because his family was flooded and his wife starved to death. He was accused by the county magistrate of being late for reporting and was whipped. In a rage, he killed the county magistrate and gathered people to rebel. From then on, until the last rebellion was suppressed by the Tang Dynasty in 628 AD, there were 136 rebellions, mutinies and court coups in 18 years. Among them, there are more than 50 people who have assembled more than 6.5438+0.5 million troops. There is real chaos in the world.

Sima Guang of the Northern Song Dynasty made a thorough analysis of the causes of the uprising: Emperor Yang Di planned to conquer North Korea last year, ordered Shandong to set up specialized institutions, and ordered horses to be raised for military use. Migrant workers are also recruited to transport food and hoard it in Liuhe and Huaiyuan. Vehicles and cattle often go back. More than half of the soldiers died, agricultural production could not be carried out on time, and a large number of farmland was deserted. Another famine, food prices rose sharply; The northeast frontier is more serious, and a barrel of rice is worth hundreds of copper coins. If the grain and rice delivered to the destination are of poor quality, people will be ordered to exchange good rice for bad rice. More than 600,000 unicycles were recruited, and two people pushed a cart and carried three meters of stones. The road is dangerous and narrow, and the three stones of rice are not enough for the road rations. After arriving at the destination, there was no food to pay, and the migrant workers fled for fear of being punished. Coupled with the greed and cruelty of officials, they hitchhiked with all kinds of high-sounding excuses and names. The people are embarrassed and poor, and their wealth and strength have been exhausted. Being an honest obedient citizen is bound to be hungry and cold, and death is just around the corner; Robbery may also prolong life. So they began to get together and become "robbers". (See the original Tongzhi "Jian Sui Wu Ji")

Faced with such a grim situation, Yang Di is full of contradictions and timidity. He is unwilling and afraid to face the reality. However, the deterioration of the situation was independent of human will, and Yang Di finally paid the final price for his actions.

In Yang Di's army, there are so-called small fruits (courage and determination), namely guards, who all come from Guanzhong. Yang Di visited Jiangdu for the third time since 6 16. Because thieves are everywhere in the north, he dare not return to Luoyang, the eastern capital, and settle in Jiangdu for a long time. The soldiers were homesick, so they plotted a mutiny and went home. After receiving the news, SiMaDeKun, commander of Xiaoguo, discussed with Ethan, another accompanying military general, and Pei Gantong, a branch official. Sima Dekun said: At present, your majesty's attitude is that he will not return to the eastern capital. Xiao Guo, under my leadership, everyone wants to go home, and everyone is whispering and plotting to escape. I wanted to tell your majesty the truth, but your majesty was afraid of hearing these unfavorable news, so I was afraid that I would be beaten into a ghost by the sword before it happened. But now I know the truth but I don't report it, and then something really happened, so I slaughtered my nine families. Advancing is killing, and retreating is killing. What should I do? -Sima Dekun's worry is completely well-founded, because Xiaoguo also learned it from a maid-in-waiting. After reporting the news that Emperor Yang Di was extremely unwilling to hear, she was immediately killed by Emperor Yang Di. -Sima De and the two men discussed that taking risks is better than doing nothing, so they decided to launch a mutiny. And ready to recommend the right Tunwei general Yu Wenhuaji as the main brain, * * * in the same case. (For the original text, see Biography of Sui Shu Yu Wenhuaji)

Yu Wenhuaji's nature was originally very slow and timid. After several people told him the content of the plot, they all said, "When I first heard about it, I was afraid, and I was sweating when I moved. After a long time, it was settled." . In 6 18, Sima Dekun led his troops to meet Yu Wenhuaji and then entered the palace. Emperor Yang Di fled to a small room to hide, and was pointed out by a maid-in-waiting who hated him. The soldiers found Yang-ti. When his death approached, the arrogant tyrant looked innocent and asked piteously, "What have I done to myself?" The mutinous soldiers ignored him and took him to Jiangdu Gate for public display. Then they took him back to the palace and ordered Linghu Star to hang him. Emperor Yang Di was fifty years old and reigned for fifteen years.

From the behavior of Emperor Yang Di, we can see that his vanity and the resulting concept of face gripped his soul like a nightmare, and any measures taken by the empire can be included in the category of face project as an element to satisfy vanity. Before he ascended the throne, he successfully cheated his father's trust by whitewashing and packaging himself, thus making himself a huge treasure. He was fascinated by the completely overestimated reward he got on his first attempt. When he ascended the throne, he began to enjoy unlimited absolute power. As a natural person, it may be just a good face of vanity and personality weakness, which has become the real driving force of disaster. In his view, as long as he wants to do great things, the power given to him by the imperial power enables him to do it. The process is extremely convenient, just like it is easy for modern people to use a faucet: twist it counterclockwise and the water will flow out; Twist in the opposite direction and the water flow will stop. So he turned on a series of faucets at will: expanding Du Dong, digging canals, building the Great Wall, conquering Korea, building dragon boats, extravagance and waste, and so on. However, national governance is obviously not a matter of turning a faucet, and supporting an extremely luxurious life is not just as simple as turning a faucet. The country's manpower, financial resources and material resources are limited, but Emperor Yang Di, who was carried away by vanity and absolute power, did not understand this basic truth. As you can imagine, Yang Di's crazy decisions will certainly encounter many obstacles in the implementation process. Therefore, he asked all officials to act according to his requirements, severely punish those who violate the law and set positive and negative examples. In this way, all the different opinions were suppressed, and all he heard was the praise he wanted. At the same time, he pursues top pleasure and is dominated by abnormal vanity and face concept. Take whether he meets his own pleasure needs as the standard of loyalty, and decide the promotion or demotion of officials accordingly. In this way, in the whole imperial bureaucracy, the rules of the political game that cruelly exploited ordinary people and catered to the emperor were born. However, officials, large and small, entrenched in the officialdom, while carrying out all kinds of absurd emperor's orders, exploited the common people by taking advantage of selfishness and hitchhiking, which led to the continuous deterioration of the imperial political ecosystem, put all kinds of unbearable heavy burdens on the common people as the bottom of society, made people's resources, financial resources and material resources be overused, broke through the limit, a large number of people died abnormally, agricultural production stopped completely, social life declined, and so on.

(Author: Ran Guangze, senior editor of Chengdu TV Station)