Diqin Designer

Chapter 350: Talking about the Great Sui Dynasty

Li Nian nodded and said, "That's right. When liquid water is boiled and turned into gaseous water, its volume will change. The original container can no longer hold it. It's like forcing a large object into a small box."

"A small box cannot contain a large object, but it is forced to be compatible. The large object will naturally stretch the small box to a point where it can contain it."

"The fundamental principle of making a steam engine is to use this outward force."

"This force can be very strong. Just as Deputy Commander Li said, it can pull carriages, horses, boats and accomplish things that are beyond human power!"

Hearing this, Wei Liao continued, "The three states of water can be transformed into each other. Gaseous water can be transformed into liquid water, so it is inexhaustible and inexhaustible. It is really wonderful!"

Li Nian smiled and said: "Someone once said, 'The essence of human technology is boiling water and throwing stones.' Although this statement is a bit one-sided, it does make sense!"

"The essence of human technology is boiling water and throwing stones." What does this mean?

Does this thing have such great power to boil water?
Everyone pondered over this sentence, but Li Nian did not explain it. He led the First Emperor and his ministers to visit other projects.

Although the steam engine had been manufactured, it was still a long way from being able to produce practical steam locomotives and steamships.

Not to mention that the steam engine did not have enough horsepower, but the material requirements for building trains and ships were also beyond the reach of the Qin Dynasty.

It is not the case that with later technology, things can be manufactured quickly. For example, the high-precision and high-strength parts used in manufacturing trains cannot be made immediately and require a certain amount of time.

Li Nian also wanted Daqin's technology to develop rapidly, ideally to unify Europe and Asia within one year and the entire world within three years. However, given Daqin's situation, this was obviously impossible, even with his help!
After the tour, all the ministers left, but Li Nian was retained. Also retained with him were Meng Tian, ​​Meng Yi, Wang Wan, Feng Jie, Feng Quji, Wang Jian and Wang Ben.

Over the past year, the number of people in Daqin's small group of listeners has increased by five, all of whom were people that the First Emperor considered to be able to guarantee their loyalty to Daqin and him.

Seeing these people being left behind, Zhao Gao and Li Si appeared calm on the surface but were deeply worried in their hearts.

They are also important officials of the Qin Dynasty. Why doesn't Your Majesty keep them as well?
Is there something His Majesty doesn't want them to know about and be involved in?
The fewer the number of people, the more important the matter, and the greater the power. Li Si and Zhao Gao, who have been immersed in the court for many years, understand that this small circle has the highest power. Unfortunately, His Majesty seems to intend to exclude them from this small circle.

Wei Liao, who was also not retained, was not as worried as Li Si and Zhao Gao. One's own family knows one's own business. He knew that he was not retained because he was not so loyal to the Qin Dynasty.

Inside the Zhangtai Palace, Wang Wan and the others' eyes lit up when they saw that the First Emperor had kept Li Nian, Meng Tian and them with him. It was obvious that His Majesty wanted Li Nian to tell them about the history of later generations again.

When they learned that Li Nian came from the future more than two thousand years later, Wang Wan and others finally solved many mysteries that had puzzled them for a long time: Why was this Master Li Nian so highly regarded by His Majesty? Why was he so talented and wise, knowing everything from astronomy to geography, and involved in both government affairs and military affairs?
If this person is from the future, more than two thousand years later, then everything makes sense.

It’s just quite amazing that people from the future could travel through time and come to their era.

While they were surprised, they also felt fortunate that they had not betrayed the Qin Dynasty and His Majesty in the history they knew, otherwise they would have ended up like Zhao Gao and Li Si.

Your Majesty has not dealt with Li Si and Zhao Gao for the time being, and still allows them to be important officials of the Qin Dynasty, but they will definitely be liquidated in the future. Li Si may be able to be preserved, but Zhao Gao is already dead, but has not yet been buried.

They also understood why the First Emperor treated the two princes Fusu and Huhai specially. It was impossible for Huhai to ascend the throne again, and if Fusu did not behave well, he would also have no chance.

In fact, according to Li Nian's advice to the First Emperor, Wang Wan, Wang Jian, and Wang Ben should be selected to join the lecture group after some time.

Because although these three did not do things like Li Si and Zhao Gao in history, they were not as loyal as Meng Tian and Meng Yi.

After Wang Wan was deprived of his position as prime minister by Li Si, he retired, and Wang Jian and Wang Ben also resigned and retired.

Not to mention that he was inferior to Meng Tian and Meng Yi, he was also somewhat inferior to Feng Jie and Feng Quji who had always stayed in the Qin court. Therefore, Li Nian advised the First Emperor to consider it carefully and make a decision after further investigation.

But the First Emperor finally decided to allow several people to be selected.

Because from the perspective of the First Emperor, Wang Wan was the top civil official of the Qin Dynasty, and Wang Jian was the top military general of the Qin Dynasty. If the small listening group continued to expand, these two should be selected.

It is not only a bad influence but also a bad idea to always exclude a country's prime minister and the top military commander.

At the same time, it can also be used to express his appreciation for these people: I have not forgotten my dear ministers!

The First Emperor said, "Li Nian, last time you said that Yang Jian replaced Zhou (Northern Zhou) with Sui. What happened to Sui later? Why did it fall in the second generation?"

After hearing what the First Emperor said, all the ministers in the hall perked up and prepared to listen carefully. In the last lecture, Li Nian had said that the Sui Dynasty would perish in the second emperor, wasn't that the same as the Qin Dynasty?
The ministers already knew the reason why the Qin II fell, but how did the Sui Dynasty destroy itself? It was so brave and powerful that it could be the only one in the history with the Qin Dynasty!

To be honest, when it comes to the demise of the second emperor, the Qin Dynasty was actually not as good as the Sui Dynasty, and Hu Hai's destructive power was not as strong as Guangshen's.

When Guangshen succeeded to the throne, Sui was just becoming powerful after the rule of Yang Jian, but Guangshen destroyed it in just over ten years.

Li Nian recalled what he had said last time, and then said, "Your Majesty, Yang Jian was a very capable and wise ruler. After he replaced the Northern Zhou Dynasty, he successively conquered the Western Liang Dynasty and the Southern Chen Dynasty, and unified China after years of division. In terms of internal governance, he established the Five Provinces and Six Departments system, which was later changed to the Three Provinces and Six Departments system."

When Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi proclaimed himself emperor, he referred to the system of three provinces and six ministries when he carried out official system reform in Qin.

"Reforms were carried out in the local areas, changing the three levels of prefectures, counties and prefectures into two levels, and adopting Yang Shangxi's suggestion of 'keeping the important and eliminating the idle, merging the large and eliminating the small', and abolishing or merging some prefectures and counties, cutting off a large number of unnecessary officials and greatly saving the court's expenditures."

"He also pacified Lingnan, built Daxing City, established the imperial examination system, rectified the administration of officials, and revised the Kaihuang Code."

"Of course, the imperial examination system set up by Yang Jian was different from the later imperial examinations and did not have much impact at the time."

"After all, the world was still dominated by aristocratic families at that time. Those who could participate in the imperial examinations were either from aristocratic families or related to aristocratic families. Ordinary people couldn't even read and write, so how could they participate in the imperial examinations set up by Yang Jian?"

"But this is a good beginning after all. Without this beginning, how can we talk about the future?"

"However, in later generations, some people attributed the credit of Yang Jian to his son Yang Guang." It was obviously Yang Jian who set up the imperial examination in the Sui Dynasty, but some people only attributed it to Yang Guang. In fact, even if it was Yang Guang's credit, the imperial examination in the Sui Dynasty was not that useful. It was still a plaything in the hands of aristocratic families, and ordinary people could not participate at all.

It is said that Yang Guang’s opening of the imperial examination attracted the fear of the aristocratic families, who fiercely resisted and sabotaged all of Yang Guang’s plans, and desperately hindered the great Guangshen, which led to the failure of Guangshen’s great cause and the death of the second emperor of the Sui Dynasty...

This is indeed overestimating the influence of the imperial examination system during the Sui Dynasty. The imperial examination system during the Sui Dynasty was almost monopolized by aristocratic families. How could the aristocratic families oppose Yang Guang because of the imperial examination system?
"Yang Jian also implemented 'big search and inspection' and 'registration and sample collection' to check the population of the country so as to collect taxes."

"'Da Suo Mao Yue' means that officials check the household registration based on appearance to prevent people from hiding their household registration. And 'Shu Ji Ding Yang' means that 300 to 500 households are grouped together, and the households are divided into upper and lower grades according to the standard, and the corvée and taxes are determined accordingly."

"'Da Suo Mao Yue' and 'Shu Ji Ding Yang' can be said to be the foundation for the prosperity of the Sui Dynasty, because they found a large number of hidden people and greatly increased the tax revenue of the Sui Dynasty court!"

"In terms of military achievements, Yang Jian also had many merits. Internally, he conquered the Western Liang and Southern Chen, pacified Lingnan, and unified China. Externally, he split the Turks, and made the Tuyuhun, Khitan, Mohe and other tribes either submit or send envoys to pay tribute."

The First Emperor and the others just listened quietly without commenting. Li Nian also continued: "After Yang Jian ascended the throne, he was good at both civil and military affairs. The Sui Dynasty reached a prosperous period under Yang Jian's rule for more than 20 years, which is known in history as the 'Kaihuang Reign'."

This is not just Yang Jian's credit, but also the foundation laid by the Northern Zhou Dynasty. It's just that Yang Jian made good use of the foundation of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

Li Nian's words also made the First Emperor and others more curious.

Since Yang Jian led the Sui Dynasty to a prosperous era called "Kaihuang Reign", how did the Sui Dynasty fall in the second generation?
Although the Qin Dynasty perished in the second generation under Hu Hai, the Qin Dynasty left by the First Emperor to Hu Hai had many problems of its own. It was not like the prosperous dynasty of Sui Dynasty!
The problem must lie with Yang Jian’s successor, the "Yang Guang" mentioned by Li Nian.

But how powerful did Yang Guang have to be to bring down the prosperous and unified Sui Dynasty?

The First Emperor thought to himself that Yang Guang might be a more powerful "hero" than his own Hu Hai!
Li Nian continued, "Yang Jian had almost no flaws in politics and military affairs, but his biggest problem was that he did not choose a suitable successor."

"This problem was so serious that the Sui Dynasty went from prosperity to decline and quickly collapsed! And the heir chosen by Yang Jian was his second son Yang Guang!"

Hearing what Li Nian said, Qin Shi Huang secretly said in his heart, "As expected!", another emperor who failed to choose a good successor, leading to the collapse of the dynasty.

He inexplicably felt a sense of empathy with Yang Jian.

But in fact, the problem of Sui Dynasty in not choosing a good successor was more serious than that of Qin Dynasty, and Qin Dynasty could not be compared with it.

The collapse of the Qin Dynasty could be blamed on Hu Hai, but the First Emperor obviously had a bigger share of the blame. Many of the Qin Dynasty's problems started during his time, but the collapse of the Sui Dynasty was undoubtedly due to Yang Guang.

After hearing Li Nian say that Yang Guang was the second legitimate son, Feng Quji asked, "If Yang Guang is the second legitimate son, could it be that there is an eldest legitimate son above him? Why didn't the eldest son succeed to the throne, but Yang Guang?"

Could it be that the eldest son died young, so Yang Jian chose Yang Guang, the second son?

Li Nian smiled and said, "Before Yang Guang, Yang Jian had another eldest son, Yang Yong, who did not die young. He was made the crown prince in the first year of Emperor Kaihuang, but his position as crown prince was later abolished by Yang Jian. The fact that Yang Yong was abolished as crown prince had a lot to do with Yang Guang!"

"Both of them were born to Yang Jian's empress, Empress Wenxian Dugu Jialuo. Although Yang Jian was a wise ruler, according to some rumors, he loved Dugu Jialuo very much and was even a little henpecked."

It is not a good thing for the emperor to be a romantic man. If he is also henpecked, it is even worse, unless he is a son of destiny like Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu.

There was no need for Li Nian to explain, the First Emperor and others could already imagine the subsequent development process:
It was simply because Empress Dugu liked the second son and disliked the eldest son, so she asked Yang Jian to depose the eldest son from the throne and enthronize the second son.

Li Nian said: "Empress Dugu married Yang Jian, who was 17 years old, when she was 14 years old. They were a young couple. She accompanied Yang Jian through many hardships, so Yang Jian loved her very much. Empress Dugu was also the person who could most influence Yang Jian's decision in the Sui Dynasty."

"Empress Dugu gave birth to five sons and five daughters for Yang Jian, including the eldest son Yang Yong, the second son Yang Guang, and three others, Yang Jun, Yang Xiu, and Yang Liang. Empress Dugu could influence Yang Jian's decision. If you could get Empress Dugu's approval, it would basically be equivalent to getting Yang Jian's approval!"

The First Emperor looked strange and asked, "So Yang Guang followed the path of Empress Dugu?"

In fact, there was someone who had taken this route in the Qin Dynasty. It was the father of the First Emperor. He followed the advice of Lu Buwei and took the route of Lady Huayang, and was successfully established as the crown prince of the Qin Dynasty.

If Yiren had not followed Lady Huayang's path, perhaps the course of Chinese history would have changed.

Li Nian nodded and said, "That's right!"

"Empress Dugu advocated frugality and disliked men having three wives and four concubines. She believed that a man should be loyal to his wife for his entire life. It is said that when she was alive, even Yang Jian did not dare to openly take concubines."

"Yang Yong was the exact opposite of his mother. He loved luxury and pleasure, was very lustful, and took many concubines."

The name Yang Yong was chosen correctly. He was really brave and stupid. He knew what his mother didn't like, so he went against her.

Mother, you advocate frugality, so I live a life of luxury. Mother, you don’t like men to have three wives and four concubines, so I take in many beautiful concubines…

This is stepping on Queen Dugu's minefield. It would be strange if she is not blown to death!
"In addition, Yang Yong did not like his Crown Princess. Instead, he doted on Yiyun Zhaoxun and had three sons with her. The Crown Princess was chosen by Empress Dugu and Yang Jian for Yang Yong. Yang Yong did not dote on his wife but on a concubine. This naturally made Empress Dugu unhappy."

The Crown Princess was chosen by Empress Dugu and Yang Jian for Yang Yong, which also meant that this daughter-in-law was recognized by them. Yang Yong's failure to favor the Crown Princess was actually a slap in the face of Empress Dugu and Yang Jian.

What do you mean, Yang Yong? You are not satisfied with the wife chosen for you by me and your father, and you insist on favoring a concubine?

Do you feel that you have grown strong enough to no longer listen to your parents?
"But even at this time, although Empress Dugu was dissatisfied with Yang Yong, she did not completely turn into disgust. Unfortunately, the Crown Princess became sick and died because Yang Yong favored Yun Zhaoxun instead of her!"

Yang Yong was also unlucky. Empress Dugu already disliked him, and now the Crown Princess was dead. Empress Dugu's impression of her eldest son would inevitably deteriorate rapidly.

"At this time, Yang Yong did another stupid thing. After the Crown Princess died, he immediately asked Yun Zhaoxun to take charge of the Crown Princess's Palace on her behalf."

(End of this chapter)