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The History of China

#81 - Sui 5: Disintegration

The History of China

Chris Stewart

History

4.61.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2015

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With its push against Goguryeo rather catastrophically stalled out, the whole enterprise begins to unravel with spectacular speed for the Sui Dynasty. All the while, its Emperor Yang will maintain a disturbingly unaffected demeanor for the suffering his edicts are creating across the countryside - in large part because his lackeys have created a "reality-distortion filter" around him they'll literally kill to maintain.But elsewhere, agents of insurrection will rise to challenge the waning star that is Sui China, especially in the form of one Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang and his family.Time Period Covered:614-618 CEMajor Historical Figures:SuiEmperor Yang of SuiEmpress Xiao Prince Yang You (Emperor Gong)Prince Yang Hao, Prince of QinGeneral Yuwen HuajiRebel Tang ForcesLi Yuan, Duke of TangLi ShiminLady Li/ Pingyang, Commander of the Woman's ArmyGokturk KhannateShibi KhanWorks CitedSima, Guang. Zizhi Tongjian.Wright, Arthur F. The Cambridge History of China, vol. 3Bennett Peterson, Barbara. Notable Women of China: From the Shang to the Early 20th CenturyWen, Daya. The Diary of the Founding of the Great Tang Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.

0:05.0

This episode is brought to you by Pepsi Max.

0:09.0

Christmas is great, but there's loads of ways to make it better

0:13.0

like sneaking some chili into the gravy for some extra oms

0:17.0

or building a playlist that will even get your none up on the table.

0:21.0

Or just cracking open an ice cold Pepsi Max. Christmas better with

0:28.5

Pepsi Max. Hello and welcome to the history of China. Episode 81 Disintegration.

0:49.0

Last time, the Soy Dynasty's second emperor, Yam, had committed himself and his Chinese empire to the conquest of the

0:55.4

Korean kingdom Gogaryo and its Manchurian holdings.

0:59.9

He and his court had been expecting a walkover. After all, just how much resistance

1:04.7

could a tiny little kingdom hope to put up before the might of the unified sway

1:08.5

Imperial Army and Navy? Well, much to everyone's surprise, the answer turned out to be a hell of a lot.

1:15.0

Of the strike force sent to capture the Korean capital, Pyongyang, again a truly massive combined land and sea force,

1:21.0

consisting of more than 300,000 infantry and 100,000

1:25.0

Marines. Only a couple thousand would survive the deadly defensive tactics, Gogurya's

1:29.7

field marshal, Yol Jeymondundok would crash against them.

1:33.6

But the cost of the devastating defeats hadn't been only paid for in the bodies of the hundreds

1:37.9

of thousands of sway soldiers slain.

1:41.0

But even across the empire, the war taxes, rationing, and domestic disasters had sapped the Chinese

1:46.6

populace's will to tolerate such tremendous efforts.

1:50.4

In 313 and 314, Emperor Young had tried and tried again to take Korea, and for all his efforts had only served to compound his initial failure.

1:59.0

And when we last left off, he had at last been forced in 615 to scuttle his plans to commit a fourth invasion

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