always treated them well—drawing the response from Sima: "All of the earth is angry at you. It does not stop at just one man." They killed Yang Gao on the spot to show him that they were serious. Emperor Yang offered to swallow poison, but none could be found quickly. He then took off his scarf, and the soldier Linghu Xingda () strangled him with it. The coup participants also killed a number of high-level officials and relatives of Emperor Yang, including Emperor Yang's brother Yang Xiu and his sons, son Yang Jian and his sons, grandson Yang Tan the Prince of Yan, Yu Shiji, Pei Yun, Lai Hu'er, Yuan Chong (), Yuwen Xie (), Yuwen Jiong (), and Xiao Ju () the Duke of Liang (Empress Xiao's nephew). The only close relative to Emperor Yang who was spared was his nephew Yang Hao, the prince of Qin, who was friendly with Yuwen Huaji's brother Yuwen Zhiji (). Yuwen Huaji thereafter declared Yang Hao emperor. Empress Xiao and the ladies in waiting, with no one else to help them, were forced to make makeshift caskets for Emperor Yang and Yang Gao using headboards from their beds. It was not until Yuwen Huaji left Jiangdu that the Sui official Chen Leng () buried Emperor Yang with reduced ceremony. In 622, after Li Yuan had established the Tang dynasty, becoming Emperor Gaozu, and had somewhat reunified the empire, he reburied Emperor Yang with honors. The tomb was moved several times, and it was said that because of his immoral behaviour lightning struck the tomb wherever it was relocated. Patricide controversy While no allegations were made at the time that Emperor Wen's death was anything other than the result of illness, starting from the time of the succeeding Tang dynasty, it was generally assumed that Emperor Wen was killed on Emperor Yang's orders—although more neutral historians generally assumed it to be true while stating that there was no direct evidence. An example is the Song dynasty historian Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian, generally considered one of the most reliable, albeit secondary, sources in Chinese history, which, after mentioning Emperor Wen's death and giving a commentary on Emperor Wen's reign, then gave this account: More detailed versions of the story largely alleged that Zhang Heng personally killed Emperor Wen by pounding his chest and breaking his ribs. The advocates for the theory that Emperor Wen