Many years later, when the rebellious Xiaoguo army threw the self-hanged white silk in front of Yang Guang, the emperor of the Sui Dynasty, I wonder if he would remember the morning when he walked out of the camp many years ago and announced that he would launch a second expedition against Goguryeo at any cost.
Under the influence of works of art such as "Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", most people's impression of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty can be described in four words: absurdity and immorality.
If this word is used to describe Yang Guang of the Yang Emperor of the Sui Dynasty in his later years, there is not much of a problem, but the image of the Yang Emperor of the Sui Dynasty in his early years and his later years can be described by judging the two of them, and the Yang Emperor of the Sui Dynasty in the early years is not an exaggeration to describe it even if he uses the wise Shenwu, Yang Guang led an army of 500,000 to destroy Nanchen when he was only 20 years old, ending China's century-long north-south ** situation.
After Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, he successively completed the construction of the eastern capital Luoyang, built the Grand Canal, attacked the Turks and Khitans in the north, and pacified Tuyuhun; He also initiated the reform of the imperial examination system that has influenced China for thousands of years.
Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty.
At the peak of the Sui Empire under Yang Guang, there were 8.9 million households, with a total population of more than 40 million, which was not much better than that of the Tang Dynasty. However, due to the three untimely conquests of Goguryeo, not only did Yang Guang's dream of being an emperor come to naught, but also completely collapsed the ruling foundation of the Sui Empire, and Yang Guang finally ended up with death and national destruction.
Since the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty in 316 and the defeat of the Southern Chen by the Sui army in 589, China has experienced nearly 300 years of great **, when the unification reappeared, it took a certain amount of time for the emperor and the people to adapt to this process from ** to unification.
In such a state, the question arises: which regions should be included in the territory, and which regions should be left to stand on their own? This is a question that has no standard answer.
Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty once personally conquered Tuyuhun and set up Heyuan, Xihai, Shanshan, and Momo 4 counties, and included Qinghai into the territory of the Sui Empire.
Goguryeo was established as an independent state in the late Western Han Dynasty, and before that, Goguryeo's land was within the territory of the Western Han Empire. As a result, Goguryeo became a "potential" object of unification.
What's even worse is that Goguryeo at this time was ambitious, often colluding with the Turks to harass the northeastern border of the Sui Empire, which strengthened the determination of Emperor Yang of Sui to crusade against Goguryeo.
The crusade against Goguryeo was not too much of a problem, and it was true that Goguryeo should have been taught some lessons due to the situation at that time, but when and what scale of the crusade should be carried out is indeed a question worth discussing.
And Yang Guang's answer was: to pour the strength of the whole country, gather a million troops, eliminate the Goguryeo regime in one fell swoop, and incorporate it into the territory of the Great Sui.
This raises the questionWas the national strength of the Sui Empire able to support a military operation of this magnitude?
Regarding the answer to this question, the views of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty and his ministers were diametrically opposed, Yang Guang believed that the Great Sui had reached its peak, the national strength was in full swing, and the gathering of a million troops and the raising of sufficient war materials were a little bitter for the people, but they could still be done, and these difficulties should be overcome and could be overcome compared to the major event of conquering Goguryeo.
However, most of the ministers believed that such a large-scale military operation should not be carried out at this time, because at this time, the Sui Empire had already spent too much civilian power in the construction of the eastern capital Luoyang and the Grand Canal, two large-scale projects, you must know that Yang Guang collected two million people per month when he built the eastern capital Luoyang, and now, if a military operation of such a scale is carried out immediately, the burden on the people is too heavy, and what will happen if the burden is too heavy, everyone also knows what will happen.
At this time, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty had been carried away by the victory, he thought that so many things he had done before, and the conquest of Goguryeo would also be successful, and there was no reason not to succeed, gathering a million troops to go out on the expedition (the Sui army collected 1.3 million troops at that time, known as two million, but later generations believe that the 1.3 million army has a large number of non-combat members, that is, the people, and the real combatants are about 600,000), which is also extremely rare in Chinese history, according to Yang Guang's assumption, so many soldiers pressed the border, Maybe you don't have to fight, Goguryeo surrendered directly.
In Yang Guang's consciousness, as long as the army is assembled, there is no such thing as defeat, such an idea has been repeated in subsequent history, whether it is the Tang army that expeditioned to Nanzhao, the American army that came to Vietnam thousands of miles away, or the Soviet army that entered Afghanistan with great ambitions, such an idea has appeared in his mindThey think it's an asymmetrical war with a doomed outcome, but war always tells these people in the most brutal way that anything can happen on the field.
In short, in the eighth year of the Great Cause (612), Emperor Yang of Sui completed the assembly of a million troops, although the people's bearing capacity has reached the limit during this period, although some people have been ruined, but the assembly was generally smooth and did not cause large-scale turmoil in the country.
In March of this year, the Sui army arrived in Liaodong, and in the eyes of Emperor Yang of Sui, the final battle of his eternal imperial industry was about to begin, and the title of the first emperor of the ages was close at hand.
This war, which would not have any suspense in the eyes of Emperor Yang of Sui, slowly kicked off. Emperor Yang of Sui, who was carried away by the "great causes" he had accomplished, ignored one point:Goguryeo at this time was also a very aggressive country.
When Emperor Yang of Sui sent troops to Liaodong, Goguryeo's territory included Liaodong and most of the Korean Peninsula, and the threat to its south was that the Baekje Silla Alliance had collapsed, and it was difficult for these two regimes to pose a threat to Goguryeo alone, and the King of Goguryeo Plain took it"Governing the army and accumulating valleys is a strategy to resist", actively preparing for war, Goguryeo was able to gather more than 200,000 troops in the case of extreme mobilization.
But these situations of the opponent were ignored by Emperor Yang of Sui, and they were before the expeditionA tacit understanding has been formed between the monarch and the ministers, and this battle is not to win, but to win beautifully.
War is one of the most violent human activities, and any superfluous thoughts in war may affect the outcome of the war. And with these superfluous thoughts, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty began a series of magical operations.
In the eighth year of the Great Cause (612), the million-strong army of the Sui army arrived at the Liao River, and Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ordered Yu Wenkai to build a pontoon bridge, and after the pontoon bridge was built, the Sui army attacked from the west bank. When the pontoon bridge was extended to a position a few meters away from the opposite bank, Goguryeo took the opportunity to attack and defeated the Sui army, which could not land on the shore.
But after all, the Sui army has a thick foundation, a defeat is not enough to shake the huge advantage of the Sui army, after the defeat in the initial battle, the Sui army quickly gathered forces, Shaofu Supervisor He Chou connected the bridge, the armies advanced one after another, and the Goguryeo army came into contact with the fierce battle, and finally defeated the Goguryeo army, and the Sui army took advantage of the victory to pursue and besiege Liaodong City.
Before the attack, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ordered the army to be divided into three roads in order to prevent a certain army from doing its best, but whenever there was an attack military action, the three roads must be notified to each other, and the light army was not allowed to advance alone, and there was a major military operation that must be notified to Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty in advance.
Due to the resistance of the defenders in the city, the siege battle was once very stalemate, but because the advantage of the Sui army was too obvious, it was only a matter of time to break the city, but when the city was about to be broken, the defenders in the city claimed to surrender, and the besieging army did not dare to accept the surrender without authorization, and could only report to Emperor Yang of Sui. By the time Emperor Yang of Sui's order arrived a few days later, the defenders of the city had already prepared their defenses and began to resist again.
The above situation was repeated many times, and in the end, the Sui army failed to take Liaodong City in January.
Sui Dynasty Zuo Yiwei general Yu Wenshu (Yu Wenhua and the father) is a powerful minister of the Sui Dynasty, this person's military talent is frankly good, in the military operations to destroy Nan Chen and Tu Guhun are good, and because of the process of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty succeeded to the throne, so it is very important to Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty.
Yuwen Shu. Yu Wenshu, who was born as a military general, gradually discovered that it was not as easy to fight hard as to get promoted and make a fortune by trying to win a war with Emperor Yang of Sui.
So, as the main military general of the Sui army's military operation,Yuwenshu's main consideration before and after the war was not how to achieve victory, but how to make Emperor Yang of Sui happy.
Before the expedition, in order to reflect the army's full preparation and abundant materials, Yuwenshu ordered the army to bring 100 days of rations, plus weapons, armor, cooking utensils and other materials, the burden of the soldiers was too heavy, and it was almost difficult to march, Yuwenshu also issued an order to cut those who discarded the rations halfway, but this did not change the fact that the soldiers' burden was too heavy, so the soldiers could only secretly bury the rations at night, Yuwenshu was aware of this, but also let it go.
It stands to reason that secretly burying military food at night is also an act of discarding military food halfway, and it should be beheaded according to the regulations, but from Yuwenshu's attitude, the reason for this is probably to bury the grain at night Emperor Sui Yang can't see it, and if the grain is discarded during the day, Emperor Yang of Sui may be different.
To a certain extent, Yuwenshu reflects the overall mentality of the Sui army: We must make Emperor Yang of Sui happy.
Due to the fact that a large amount of military rations had been buried before, before the war, the food in the Yuwen Shu army had been in short supply, and hunger had become a problem that plagued the soldiers.
In order to make the already exhausted Sui army further exhausted, Eulzhi Wende ordered the soldiers to continue to deceive and lure the Sui army to attack, the Goguryeo army retreated all the way, and the Sui army pursued all the way to the city of Pyongyang, and the Sui army pursued to the city of Pyongyang, and the Sui army pursued to the city of Pyongyang was extremely tired, and the siege was undoubtedly defeated.
So, Yuwenshu decided to retreat, but this was in the hands of the Goguryeo army, the Sui army began to retreat, the Goguryeo army immediately counterattacked from all directions, the Sui army was defeated and retreated to Sashui, the Sui army thought that the water was not deep, so he ordered to cross the river, but the Goguryeo army suddenly opened the gate to release the water and sent troops to kill, the Sui army showed a rout for a while, and the soldiers fled for a day and a night to reach the Yalu water, traveling 450 miles. Wang Rengong was the queen of the palace and finally defeated the pursuers of Goguryeo.
In this battle, the 300,000 troops led by Yuwenshu and others suffered heavy losses, and the long-term attack of Liaodong City and the crushing defeat of Yuwenshu's army made it difficult to continue this expedition, and this seemingly unsuspenseful war ended in the defeat of the Sui army.
The failure of the first conquest of Goguryeo disgraced Emperor Yang of Sui, and the Sui Empire at this time had reached the limit of what it could bear, due to the large number of young and middle-aged people joining the army, grain production was greatly affected, a large amount of land was barren, the people were famine, and there were already small-scale peasant uprisings in various places.
If Emperor Yang of Sui admitted defeat and restored his national strength like his father at this time, the Sui Empire would not have had the opportunity to relieve this breath, but at this time, Emperor Yang of Sui had completely lost his mind, and he desperately announced that he would carry out a second expedition against Goguryeo.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty claimed to collect twice as many troops as the first time to attack Goguryeo, but apparently the mobilization ability of the Sui Dynasty at this time was not as good as the first time, but in any case, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty finally pieced together hundreds of thousands of troops to rush to Liaodong, this time, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty learned the lesson of the first time, and was ready to take Liaodong City first, so he ordered the soldiers to build siege facilities such as flying towers, crashes, and ladders.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ordered to make more than 100,000 cloth bags, which were full of soil, and wanted to pile up into a 30-step wide and high Yuliang Avenue with the city, so that the soldiers could climb the city along this road.
If the flying tower and the cloud ladder are for a more clever capture of Liaodong City, then the practicality of Yuliang Avenue is questionable, it is really difficult to find out what specific help this so-called Yuliang Avenue has for the siege of the city, but I have to say that this kind of Yuliang Avenue with a width of 30 steps and a height of the city is very domineering when you think about it, the tyrant of the king.
In any case, Emperor Yang of Sui has a strong family background after all, and in the case of such repeated attacks, the defenders of Liaodong City are already a little unbearable, however, sometimes fate is so interesting, the more a person wants to do something, the more he can't do it.
Just when Liaodong City was about to be taken, a fire broke out in the backyard of the Sui army, and Prime Minister Yang Xuangan rebelled.
Yang Xuangan is the son of Yang Su, a minister who helped Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty to ascend the throne, has a lot of power in the court, although Yang Guang became the emperor with Yang Su's merits, but for Yang Su, who is in power to the government and the opposition, Yang Su is extremely jealous, after Yang Su's death, although his son Yang Xuangan has also been reused, but Yang Guang has actually been full of fear for him, and now Yang Guang has made the people miserable for the conquest of Goguryeo, and the peasant uprising has a situation that cannot be suppressed.
Yang Xuangan's rebellion went smoothly at first, but there were major mistakes in key decisions, he was too obsessed with Luoyang, but he could not quickly capture Luoyang, giving Emperor Yang of Sui a chance to breathe, Yang Xuangan's rebellion against Sui was finally quickly suppressed by Yuwenshu and others, however, it disrupted the Sui army's Liaodong war, and Emperor Yang of Sui's second expedition to Goguryeo ended in failure.
At this time, the world was already in chaos, there were countless rebel armies in Hebei, Shandong and other places, and the mobilization ability of the Sui Dynasty had become extremely poor, but even in this state, Emperor Yang of Sui was still ready to launch the third conquest of Goguryeo.
In the tenth year of the Great Cause (614 AD), Emperor Yang of Sui issued an edict to once again levy the world's troops to attack Goguryeo. There were not many responders to this requisition, and many peasants rebelled directly on the spot after receiving the order to requisition, and Emperor Yang of Sui trained countless gravediggers for himself.
The only thing that made Emperor Yang of Sui feel a little relieved was that Goguryeo also had internal problems at this time, so although Emperor Yang of Sui was short of soldiers and horses, Goguryeo still asked Emperor Yang of Sui to surrender, Emperor Yang of Sui was very happy, and his long-cherished wish for many years seemed to have been realized, but so, Emperor Yang of Sui summoned Goguryeo King Gao Yuan to enter the court, but Gao Yuan did not come.
Obviously, this was a fake surrender.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was greatly annoyed and prepared to conquer Goguryeo again, but at this time, the Great Sui court was already in name only, and how could he still have the strength to conquer other countries.
The last days of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty gave people a feeling of breaking the jar and falling, he ignored the government and politics, did not return to the capital, and stayed in Jiangdu for a long time.
But most of the soldiers around Yang Guang were northerners, and they saw that the Sui Dynasty was about to run out, so they had the idea of abandoning Yang Guang to gather people to return to their hometowns, and the Xiaoguo army around Yang Guang finally just wanted to forcibly return to the north by force, but several senior generals decided after discussion: If you want to do it, you will do a big wave, so they supported Yu Wenshu's son Yu Wenhua and as the leader, and decided to kill Emperor Yang of Sui.
Emperor Yang of Sui, who rebelled against his relatives, was finally strangled to death by the Xiaoguo army. It is indeed embarrassing that this wise monarch who worked hard in the early stage ended his life in such a way.
His death stemmed from his contempt for war, from his excessive obsession, and from his foolish idea of trying to treat war as a political achievement.
War is the most violent form of human activity, and all people in a war must mobilize all resources, use all means, and use all means to achieve victory in war, in which case anything can happen.
Therefore, a strong country cannot guarantee that it will be able to win a war, and a very embarrassing reality is that if a military power obtains strong military strength with its strong comprehensive national strength as the backing, then war is often a loss-making business for such a country.
Therefore, the more powerful and powerful the country, the less easily it is to start a war, because the gains obtained in the war are often just icing on the cake for the big countries, and once the war gets out of control, it may directly lead to the decline of the great powers, or even the ashes.
From small individuals to large nations, attitudes toward war often determine their fate.
The future of a country that is afraid of war will not be too bright, a country that is afraid of war will have the possibility of rising, and a country that is obsessed with war will be swallowed up by war sooner or later.
Time and time again, history has shown people the horrors and despair of war, but there are always careerists who have chosen to repeat the mistakes of the past, who have walked the path of destruction and death to a similar abyss of fate, and they have never tired of doing so.