Sky Curtain: The Overlord Charges into Battle, Shocking Emperors of All Dynasties

It's so easy for later generations to talk when they're not the ones suffering the consequences. They praise the Grand Canal built by Emperor Yang of Sui so much, why don't they go and build it themselves?!

Anyone who can say such a thing either has too high a position or thinks of themselves as an emperor.

Did the ancients not believe that all future generations would be "meat-eaters" and hold high positions?

Such a thing is absolutely impossible; as long as there are people, there will be distinctions.

"Tianmu is right, I'm not in such a rush to build the canal,"

Kublai Khan stood with his hands tucked in his pockets, speaking slowly.

"It took me ten years of effort, combined with the existing waterways, to complete the canal."

"How can we build a canal by forcibly filling it with human lives? Even though I am the Mongol emperor, I know this principle!"

The Yuan Dynasty had ample time to build the Grand Canal, and it was led by water conservancy experts such as Guo Shoujing.

Compared to Emperor Yang of Sui, Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor, actually seems more like a Han Chinese emperor.

It can only be said that there were differences between the two emperors.

As for the three campaigns against Goguryeo, even if Goguryeo had a strategically important location and a harsh environment, what kind of weakling would fail to conquer such a small country after three attempts?

Moreover, Yang Guang actually mobilized an army of over a million men, not including civilian laborers, able-bodied men, and artisans who accompanied the army.

To transport military provisions for the northern expedition against Goguryeo in Liaodong, the construction of the Yongji Canal mobilized over a million able-bodied men, an army of 1.2 to 1.3 million, and over two million civilians to transport grain along the way.

In addition, the wise and powerful Emperor Yang Guang also devised a plan to attack Goguryeo by both land and sea.

In the seventh year of the Daye era, an order was issued to Donglai to urgently build more than 300 warships and large ships. Officials supervised the construction day and night, and the craftsmen stood in the water all day long, not daring to go ashore to rest.

[Due to prolonged immersion, the craftsmen's skin and flesh rotted, and maggots infested their bodies from the waist down; two or three out of ten died from exhaustion.]

The sky rippled, and the blue sea appeared in the sky.

With masts erected thousands of times and hundreds of large ships under construction simultaneously, countless black dots surrounded the ships, like ant colonies repairing their nests.

The camera slowly pans down, the frame shrinks, and focuses on the craftsmen on one side of the warship.

The craftsmen worked diligently, hammering away at the wooden planks to integrate them into the magnificent warship.

Judging from his upper body alone, the craftsman was only slightly swollen.

Suddenly the camera sank to the surface, and gurgling bubbles rose to the top.

White and red intertwine in the image.

The limbs, pale from being submerged in water, were already loose and torn open by the vigorous activity, revealing fresh, red flesh.

The camera focuses, zooming in, revealing something churning, surging, and dancing within the whitish, soaked flesh.

Like seaweed in the sea, except it grows within flesh and blood, it's white, and it's a living creature.

Maggots!

"Ugh~"

This powerful image resonated deeply with the hearts of people in ancient times, especially those who lived in peaceful and prosperous eras.

They had never seen anything like this since they were born.

Perhaps they have seen this creature before, but that was elsewhere.

And what's on the sky is white seaweed growing alive in human flesh and blood.

Some children were so frightened by the sight that they burst into tears and even vomited repeatedly.

"They're maggots!"

"The presence of maggots is actually a good thing."

In the early Tang Dynasty, in a small rural town in Hebei...

An elderly man with his left trouser leg tied in a knot sat on a bench at a tea stall, speaking calmly, with a wooden cane beside him.

"Old man!!!"

"What do you mean by that?!"

"What do you mean it's a good thing that maggots have appeared?!"

Upon hearing this, the tea drinkers at the tea stall stood up abruptly, their young faces filled with anger.

Some were even rolling up their sleeves, ready to teach the old man a lesson.

The old man leisurely poured a bowl of coarse tea into his mouth, then wiped his lips with his right hand.

"The maggots swarmed in, and they ate the rotten flesh, saving me the trouble of cutting it myself."

"Besides, with maggots growing on your body, you can just grab one and eat it when you're hungry, which is better than starving to death."

After saying this, he picked up his cane, limped away from the tea stall, and left with his back to the crowd.

As she walked, her right trouser leg flipped up, revealing a glimpse of her right leg beneath the trouser leg.

All that could be seen were the healed pits on his ankles, as if the skin and flesh had been ripped away with a sharp blade.

The first campaign against Goguryeo in the eighth year of the Daye era involved 1.2 million troops, more than 2 million laborers, and over 1 million laborers working on river repairs.

[They ultimately suffered a crushing defeat, with their main force almost completely wiped out.]

[In the ninth year of the Daye era, the second campaign against Goguryeo was launched. The army still numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and the number of laborers transporting the troops also reached hundreds of thousands. However, due to a domestic rebellion, the army was hastily withdrawn.]

[In the tenth year of the Daye era, the third campaign against Goguryeo was launched. At this time, the country was engulfed in war and peasant uprisings, and there was a severe shortage of soldiers. Yet, Yang Guang still summoned hundreds of thousands of troops and hundreds of thousands of laborers.]

[Goguryeo was, after all, a small country, and the three-year war had taken a heavy toll on its resources. How could its wealth compare to that of the Sui Dynasty? So it feigned surrender again, and Yang Guang readily agreed, thus returning with his army.]

[After this, Goguryeo continued to refuse to send envoys to the Sui court, nor return the captives from the Sui Dynasty. They continued with their own affairs, refusing to submit.]

The food is both mediocre and concerned with appearances!

Stupid without even realizing it!

"How can anyone be so stupid?"

When Emperor Wu of Han (Liu Che) saw the size of the army that Yang Guang had organized for his first campaign against Goguryeo, he was practically drooling.

He was really craving it.

This number of troops, this number of able-bodied men.

If he got this, he could send Wei Qing and Huo Qubing straight to Europe, the land depicted on the sky!

You can say Liu Che was bad, but you can't say he was incompetent.

"I saw on the sky earlier that he would be the commander-in-chief and lead the army to destroy Chen."

"cut!"

Liu Che let out a snort, followed by a sneer of utter contempt.

"In reality, the veteran general should have been in command of the army; he just held the title!"

Sang Hongyang straightened his body.

"Your Majesty, after three years of continuous warfare, plus the previous battles in Luoyang, the eastern capital, and the Grand Canal..."

"The Sui Dynasty was truly wealthy; it allowed Yang Guang to squander it for over a decade."

"Indeed, the Sui Dynasty had a very solid financial foundation."

"But speaking of which," Liu Che suddenly felt like laughing, his lips involuntarily curving upwards.

"Emperor Wen of Sui was stingy his whole life, and he was even reluctant to distribute grain to disaster victims."

"How would one react to seeing Yang Guang recklessly squandering the wealth he had accumulated?"

......

"My money!!!!"

"My food supplies!!!"

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!"

Yang Jian's face contorted in rage, and he roared furiously, his voice piercing the sky, emitting a scream resembling that of a groundhog.

An immense aura of resentment emanated from Yang Jian, and the ministers below, sensing this powerful resentment, retreated hastily.

Dugu Jialuo was originally upset and angry because of the matter concerning Lady Chen, the Consort of Xuanhua.

Now, he quietly moved his feet, widening the distance between himself and Yang Jian, and a hint of fear appeared on his face.

Even with Dugu Jialuo's usual assertiveness, she dared not offend Yang Jian in this regard.

For Yang Jian, this miser, money was everything.

He wasn't even this devastated when he learned that the Sui Dynasty had only lasted two generations.

"Yuan Zhou!!!"

Yang Jian, the dragon who was stingy to the extreme, roared and gave a stern order to Yuan Zhou, the Left Guard General he trusted most.

"Arrest Yang Guang!!!"

"Arrest Yang Guang!!!"

"Don't let him die!!!"