In 604, the brilliant Sui Emperor Yang Jian died, and the throne was succeeded by his son Yang Guang. Frankly speaking, Yang Guang's ability was not bad among the kings of the fallen country, and this person's experience in his youth was like that of Li Shimin, when the Sui Emperor Yang Jian seized the Northern Zhou Dynasty and was determined to unify the world, at this time the southern and Southern Chen had not yet been pacified.
In order to boost the morale of the army, Yang Jian wanted a prince to personally sit on the expedition, which should have been the crown prince Yang Yong's, but Yang Yong was afraid that Yang Guang would eventually lead the army.
However, Yang Guang's problem is that he is too hasty to do things, and he has only been in power for 14 years but wants to do the work of several generations, and this rush to achieve quick success has also caused people to complain.
However, frankly speaking, in fact, Li Tangjiangshan was largely established on the basis of Yang Guang, who reigned for a short time, but he helped Li Tang to clear away the disaster, and Li Tang was able to ascend the throne safely by relying on Yang Guang.
So what four things did Yang Guang do to make Li Tang and later China Yize?
Create a system of examinations and eliminate door valves
First, for the readers at that time, Yang Guang's greatest achievement was the examination system. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, due to the long-term control of the imperial government by the family gate valves, many hanmen disciples have been unable to exert their talents and learning: "There is no cold door in the upper grade, and no scholar in the lower grade" is the truest portrayal of that society.
As a result, the truly talented people in that society at that time could only gamble their lives before the battle, and during the two Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was only one way to jump to a high position from a humble background, huan wen, Liu Yu and others.
It is precisely because of the "unevenness" of distribution that the whole society at that time was full of contradictions, and at the same time, from the perspective of the talent selection system, it was no different from the development of the country.
In order to avoid the recurrence of their family's affairs, Yang Guang changed the election mechanism, from the previous "nine-pin Zhongzheng system" to the "examination system".
This directly breaks the monopoly position of the door valve, although this system is not very good in some places, but it is much better than the monopoly of the door valve.
Construction of the Grand Canal
Second, Yang Guang's greater merit was the construction of the Grand Canal. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Two Jin Dynasties, due to the continuous years of war in the north, a large number of civilian men moved.
In ancient times, for a long time, only the south was a remote mountainous area, and after the large-scale migration of the population of the two Jin Dynasties and the southern and northern dynasties and the development of the southern dynasty, the southern economy also developed rapidly.
The economy of the South was unprecedentedly developed, but the wealth generated by the population of the North was not enough to meet the needs of the imperial court, and the lack of roads between the North and the South caused the wealth of the South to be transported to the North within a long time.
Connecting the land and water to strengthen the connection between the north and the south has become an urgent matter, and Yang Guang chose to build the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal at that time, he could directly send the materials from the south to the north quickly, and Yang Guang's three expeditions to Goguryeo relied on the continuous transportation of materials from the south to the north, otherwise Yang Guang would have a million troops.
The construction of the Grand Canal also depleted the Sui Dynasty, directly leading to the demise of the Sui Dynasty.
However, this Grand Canal benefited future generations, and later the large-scale development of the southern economy and the economic southward migration were all based on this Grand Canal.
It also drew an end to the long-term non-customs clearance between the north and the south.
Open up the western region
The first time the Western Regions entered people's eyes was during the Western Han Wu Emperor period, when Emperor Wudi of the Western Regions sent Zhang Qian to the Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions in order to attack the Xiongnu, so the Western Regions became an inseparable part of Chinese history, and a Silk Road connecting the Central Plains and the Western Regions was also famous all over the world.
However, later, with the demise of the Han Dynasty, the bond between the Western Regions and the Central Plains has always been broken and stopped, and the Western Regions and the Central Plains have no way to avenge each other.
Yang Guang's ambitions were great, and he was determined to be a Han Wu Emperor and rebuild a "Silk Road", so he specially sent officials to the western region to investigate.
However, when the officials sent by the Sui Dynasty arrived in the Western Regions, they found that the Western Regions were not as chaotic as the Legend of the Central Plains, on the contrary, the economy here was very developed, and all kinds of rare and exotic beasts were dazzling.
However, at that time, the Silk Road connecting the Western Regions and the Central Plains had been invaded by nomadic peoples, and Yang Guang personally led an army to fight in Tuguhun in order to connect the Silk Road, re-strengthening the ties between the Western Regions and the Central Plains.
It was Yang Guang's efforts that enabled the Western Regions to achieve great unification.
Build Luoyang and revitalize the economy
After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, his capital city followed the Chang'an of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and although Chang'an was dangerous in terrain, it was precisely because it was too closed for the entire country to be detrimental to economic development.
Therefore, Yang Guang had always wanted to move the capital, where was the capital city that the Sui Emperor valued at that time? Luoyang.
If it is in a chaotic world, Luoyang is indeed not conducive to the dingdu. But at that time, it was in the Taiping Dynasty, and the most important thing in the Taiping Prosperity was to develop the economy.
Although Chang'an has 800 miles of Qinchuan, it cannot be connected to the outside world for a long time due to the barrier of mountain roads, so if you want to revitalize the economy, you must find a city with deep roots and convenient transportation.
Luoyang is like this, he is located in the center of the world, the capital Luoyang can connect Guanzhong, Jiangnan, Shandong and Hebei, which is beneficial and harmless for economic development.
Yang Guang was a man who could do whatever he wanted, and it took him only fourteen months to assemble a million people to build Luoyang.
Yang Guang reigned for 14 years, and the four major things he did were indeed to benefit future generations, but his practice of quick success and quick profit was really undesirable, and one bite could not be eaten as a fat man. Eventually, Yang Guang's actions also led to the demise of the Sui Dynasty.