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Yang Su
Sui general and chief minister who took the river fleet down the Three Gorges against Chen, helped Yang Guang supplant the crown prince, and crushed the rising of Yang Liang
At dusk on a hilltop, a large tent stands open with a table holding a map marked with small stones inside, a saddled horse tethered outside, and fire stands burning; campfires dot the river plain below, and one tiny sentry stands on the slope.
Also known as Zi Chudao
Yang Su, courtesy name Chudao, came from Huayin in Hongnong and had already made his name as a soldier under the Northern Zhou. When Yuchi Jiong rose against Yang Jian's regency, he led the troops of Henei against Yuwen Zhou, one of the rebels, and routed him. In the Sui conquest of Chen in 588 he commanded the river fleet that sailed from Yong'an and broke the Chen defences in the Three Gorges. As a chief minister alongside Gao Jiong he drove labourers hard to build the Renshou Palace, and as field commander he routed the Turkic Tardu Khan. With his brother Yang Yue he helped Yang Guang, Prince of Jin, displace the crown prince Yang Yong, and in 604 he put down the rising of Yang Liang, Prince of Han. Emperor Yang made him director of the Department of State Affairs and Duke of Chu; he died soon after and was named Jingwu. The Sui History (Sui shu) records a seven-hundred-character poem he sent to Xue Daoheng.
Life and times
Dates 544 CE–606 CE