After ascending the throne, Emperor Yang Guang of Sui first launched three campaigns against Goguryeo and expanded westward to open up the Silk Road. At home, he ordered the construction of a canal, undertook massive building projects in Luoyang, built palaces, and revitalized the economy. Then, in politics, he was the first to establish the imperial examinations. He meant to eradicate the great clans' interference in and control over imperial power once and for all, laying a solid foundation for a thousand years of greatness for the Sui dynasty.
But who could have guessed that he had still underestimated the power of the great clans?
Any one of those four undertakings—especially the campaigns against Goguryeo, the canal, and the imperial examinations—if handled well, might have been enough to usher in an age of peace and prosperity and make him an emperor remembered through the ages. There was no doubt about it!
It was a pity...
A man's greed knew no bounds. Overconfident and far too dismissive of the great clans' stubborn strength, he had acted in haste. Not only did he fail to achieve the results he had envisioned, he also plunged the Sui dynasty into turmoil. Bandits rose everywhere, the people lived in misery and fear, and many even called him an incompetent, benighted ruler and a tyrant who lived in luxury and excess.
It happened that only recently, Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian, had founded the dynasty, bringing more than three hundred years of upheaval and division across the land of China to an end. Among the people, the Sui era stood at a crossroads: it had inherited the legacy of the Qin and Han dynasties while still suffering the poison left by the calamity of the Five Barbarians' invasion. The people were fierce, and martial arts