The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 295 Dusk of Guanlong

The whole Chang'an and the whole Daxing Palace were shrouded in haze, and the uneasiness had spread to the palace. This time, it was different from Yang Tong's burning of the palace city. The most important thing is the war of destroying the country, the situation is completely different.

And Chang'an, just as Yang Tong expected, carried out forced conscription, and men between the ages of 14 and 55 were required to join the army to assist in the defense.Although the recruitment was not smooth, Li Tang forcibly formed an army of 15 in Chang'an.

The continuous rain for several days made Chang'an feel cooler and less hot, which made people feel refreshed.

In the evening, Chang'an was shrouded in thick dark clouds, and heavy rain was coming.

The majestic, magnificent, majestic, solemn and solemn Chang'an is a little more ethereal and elusive in the rain.

In a bedroom in Dugu Mansion, Dugu was lying on the bed, his whole body seemed to have aged a lot in an instant, and the white hair on his head was so dazzling.

A few days ago, Duguzheng felt a little uncomfortable, so he asked for leave to recuperate at home. He is getting old, and it is not easy to recover from illness. After a series of disastrous news came, Duguzheng's minor illness became a serious illness. Li Tang is anxious about his future and fate, he doesn't care about Li Tang's life and death, what he cares about is the Dugu family!At the same time, he also had a deep hatred for Li Yuan, hated him for being incompetent, and hated him for being beaten up by the Sui Dynasty many times when the situation was good.

Thinking of the fact that before Li Yuan raised his army, the Dugu family would not hesitate to marry their prostitute daughter to Li Shimin, a married man, in order to appease Li Yuan's heart.

Thinking of Li Yuan's army, the Dugu family spent nearly [-]% of their money and food to support Li Tang.

Thinking of Li Yuan's repeated beatings, he and many Guanlong nobles supported him wholeheartedly.

But in the end, what did you get?
Dirty, like a dog.

But all of this is what he asked for. For the benefit of the Dugu family, he betrayed another nephew, Yang Guang, in exchange for nothing in return.A kind of irrepressible anger, despair and regret arise spontaneously.

Why did he support this nephew, Li Yuan, and oppose another nephew?
Without him.

interest ear.

This interest is not only the interest of the Dugu family, but also the interest of the entire Guanlong powerful group.

The Guanlong Group is a military aristocratic group formed by Yuwentai on the basis of the Fubing system by unifying the military generals from the six northern towns who migrated from the Hetao area to Guanzhong with the strength of the local wealthy families in Guanlong in order to compete with the Gao clan of the Eastern Wei Dynasty.

Among them, Yu Wentai is the head of the Eight Pillar Kingdom.The other pillar country is the royal family of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and its power is limited, so it is actually a six-pillar country.Each of the six pillar kingdoms has two generals, and each general has two Kaifuyitongs and three divisions.Each Kaifu leads an army, a total of 24 armies. This is the Fubing system.For the common interests, these Zhu kingdoms, generals, and Kaifu advocated military merits, supported them alternately, married each other, and formed a political group from the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty to the present.

In the chaotic era of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, this political interest group that turned out to be born out of nowhere, because of its large numbers of talents and strong cohesion, became the main force that ended the four or five hundred divisions between the North and the South.

Historians of later generations have high praise for him: "Wei Zhou established its foundation, Sui and Tang inherited its rule, ruled with martial arts and literature, controlled east and west, and unified north and south, ended the 400-year division of Wei and Jin, and opened the Sui and Tang Dynasties. "

In other words, the Guanlong Group promoted the rise and fall of the Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang dynasties.They first gathered under Yuwentai's banner and founded the Western Wei Dynasty together; then they separately supported the descendants of Yuwentai to establish the Northern Zhou Dynasty to replace the Western Wei Dynasty, thereby gaining more benefits, and then they were dissatisfied with the status quo, and supported Yang Jian to establish the Sui Dynasty to replace the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty who was born in the Guanlong Group, took advantage of the reign of the Young Emperor of the Northern Zhou Dynasty and had no owner of the artifact to win the support of the Guanlong Group and finally won the throne.

But after ascending to the throne, Yang Jian was deeply wary of the Guanlong Group. On the one hand, the Guanlong Group was intricate and powerful. He was afraid that someone would follow his old tricks, support others to usurp the party and power, and launch a coup d'état to change the dynasty again; On the one hand, it is to limit clan politics, promote more vigorous poor people to enter the political stage, release civilian productivity, and promote national reform and development.

In the early years of Kaihuang, Yang Jian took a major measure: to implement the monarchy directly under the government military system.This directly deprived the military foundation on which the Guanlong nobles depended.But the Guanlong Group continued to control military power in another way, that is, to use the convenience of power in their own hands to place their children, disciples, false sons, former officials, and family members among the 70 guards established by Yang Jian. From top to bottom, he controlled this army that was enough to kill the Sui Dynasty.Because of this, Yang Jian did not dare to offend the Guanlong Noble Group too much, so he made a compromise with them, which also made the power of the Guanlong Noble Group flourish.

After Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, he inherited his father's will and continued to attack the Guanlong Group with greater force.He founded the Jinshi Department, which is a symbol of the official establishment of the imperial examination system and an official selection system that adapts to historical trends. From then on, poor scholars can pass the exams to get into official careers, restricting and combating the monopoly of the Guanlong Group and expanding the source of talents. and the basis of domination.

Then, Yang Guang deprived the Guanlong Group of the privileges of hereditary titles of nobles.He once issued an imperial edict, "It is not allowed to take the exam to increase the rank, and there must be those who have outstanding virtues and functions, and they will be promoted." For male ninth-class titles, "only kings, dukes, and marquises are kept, and the rest are abolished." This not only reduces the redundant bureaucratic levels, but also saves expenses, but seriously violates the vested political interests of the Guanlong Group.When Li Yuan counted Yang Guang's crimes, this was the most serious one. In order to get the strong support of the Guanlong Group, after Li Yuan ascended the throne, he conferred more than a hundred princes, county princes, county princes, Hou, Bo, There are tens of thousands of sons and men. After meeting the requirements of the Guanlong Group, they won everyone's full support.

And what about Yang Guang?

On the basis of changing Jiujue to Sanjue, further attack the economic interests of the aristocratic families represented by the Guanlong Group.Its main measure is "enclosed households", that is, to check the household registration, to search out the people who have not been reported by the aristocratic families, and to send them back to their hometowns or naturalize on the spot, which can increase the country's wealth and military resources.Although all dynasties tried to compete for household registration from aristocratic families, only the Sui Dynasty was the most thorough.

As an auxiliary means of closing households, Yang Guang also introduced the policy of light taxation and rectification of officials, attracting small farmers who had been hiding under the blessing of aristocratic families to avoid heavy taxes and harsh officials into the embrace of the imperial court.Later generations praised and said: "With the law of light taxation, the floating customers will return to the registered households. The prosperity of the Sui Dynasty is actually due to this."

In this way, Emperor Wen and Wu of the Sui Dynasty used a series of means to deal a fatal blow to the Guanlong Group, depriving the Guanlong Group of its original military, economic, and political privileges, and making it impossible for future generations to pass on the family fortune. .As a result, their rule of the Sui Dynasty naturally shifted from support to opposition and hatred, and they did everything possible to regain their original rights.

Therefore, the Guanlong Group headed by Duguzheng and Dou Wei launched Li Yuan as the spokesperson of interests. Why is Li Yuan not someone else?
This again involved the power struggle within the Guanlong Group.Because the Guanlong Group was divided into two factions after the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, one faction was headed by the Yuan family, and the other was headed by the Dugu family.However, no matter whether it is the Dou faction or the Dugu party, it is true that they can work together as one outside, but internally they are also fighting endlessly for the position of leader. people who agree.Therefore, Li Yuan came into the sight of the two factions. First, Li Yuan himself was also an important branch of the Guanlong Group; second, Li Yuan was Dugu's nephew and Dou's son-in-law. He felt that his son-in-law was in the top position, and in the future he could blow the wind around his pillow and dominate Dugu's head, so he had no objections.Therefore, Li Yuan has become the balance point of the interests of the two factions, and everyone is happy with his superior position.

But no matter whether it is the Dou faction or the Dugu faction, after the purges of the two emperors of the Sui Dynasty, Wen and Wu, especially after Yang Guang's repeated attacks, the originally strong Guanlong dignitaries began to weaken.It's just that a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, and the weakness of the powerful and powerful in Guanlong is just a period when relative power dominated the world and 70 forbidden soldiers were in their hands.

The former Guanlong dignitaries had land and industries all over the world, but after being suppressed by Yang Guang, they all retreated to their lairs in Guanlong, and they still have a strong influence in the Guanlong area. Possession, all kinds of profitable businesses are also monopolized by them, which is one of the reasons why Yang Guang is eager to move the capital to Luoyang. He is worried that he will wake up the next day and become a prisoner of the Guanlong Group for no reason.

The reason why Li Yuan was able to quickly take root in Guanlong is closely related to the full support of the Guanlong dignitaries. The Guanlong dignitaries not only supported Li Yuan morally, but also contributed money, food and troops, helping the defeated Li Yuan back to its peak.

If Yang Tong hadn't been born, with the support of the powerful and powerful in Guanlong, Li Tang would have been able to sweep the world and establish a powerful dynasty like in history, but it's a pity that Li Tang was repeatedly defeated by the Sui army, and his hearts were broken. The core of the Long nobles was also lost.

This also means that the Guanlong Group's tried and tested method of betting did not work well for Li Yuan, and the bet failed.

And Yang Tong, the winning player, no longer plays according to the Guanlong Group's inherent routines. We know our enemies and friends clearly, and we don't give Guanlong Group the opportunity to bet on both sides. Therefore, the fate of the Guanlong Group that failed to invest is undoubtedly is perish.

Now they have only two ways to go, one is to stay in Guanzhong and wait for Yang Tong to clean up; the other is to encourage Li Yuan to escape and go to an unknown future. Is the Guanlong Group in Guanlong still the Guanlong Group?

As the helm of the Dugu family, Dugu has lost everything accumulated by the family for several generations, and the discomfort, self-blame, pain, and regret in his heart can be imagined.

Now that he was getting old, a serious illness made him dying, and he lost half his life.

"Patriarch." Looking at Duguzheng's getting older and waiting to die, Dugu Cheng couldn't help but shed tears in his eyes. Although he didn't want to affect the Patriarch's recuperation, there are some matters that must be approved by the Patriarch. Moreover, He also knew that the Patriarch was very concerned about things outside the city.

"How's it going outside?"

"Since Chang'an was trapped, people's hearts have been scattered!" Dugu Cheng was silent for a while, and then said: "In the past few days, there has been a nursery rhyme widely circulated in the city. To equalize the fields, the serfs stand up and sing."

Dugu smiled miserably, and said: "It's such a sentence that directly points to the hearts of the people, 'Down with the aristocratic family and the land', this sentence is better than 'worry about the world's worries first, and enjoy the world's joy later', or 'Education is the foundation of a century-old plan' More powerful, amazing!"

Dugu Cheng understood the meaning of Duguzheng, and also knew the power of this sentence.

Only when the people have land can they satisfy their food and clothing, and only after their food and clothing are solved can they study and become officials, and only then can they have the feeling of worrying about the country before worrying about the world's worries, and then enjoying the world's joys'!That is to say, "Down with aristocratic families and equal land" will definitely touch the hearts of the lower-level people in Chang'an. With this sentence, who is willing to resist the Sui army?Who is willing to fight with the Sui army who "overthrew the family and land"?Once the Sui army enters the city, the scene of welcoming them along the road will definitely be staged.

"Where's Li Yuan? What's your reaction?" After a long time, Duguzheng asked again.He called the emperor's name directly, which shows the extreme disrespect.

"Words of moving the capital spread all over Chang'an City!" Dugu Cheng said: "Although the Holy Majesty has not made a statement yet, I think this is his rumor. If everyone does not object, he will really announce the southward move. If everyone opposes I am afraid that he will also move south, because the situation is such that staying in Chang'an can only lead to death."

"The entrustment is not human!"

Duguzhen's voice revealed deep resentment and remorse, and he said angrily: "After Li Yuan entered the Guanzhong, he was blindly arrogant and started a full-scale war, which led to the loss of Bingzhou; Winning battles to unite the hearts of the people, but negotiating with the Sui Dynasty again and again, signing countless clauses that humiliate the country. How many days can such a court that does not think about making progress, lingering, and lingering on its last days last in the south?"

Dugu Cheng was silent for a while, and said: "Perhaps he wants to make a comeback! At least the prince has such considerations."

"I only know how to fight for power and profit all day long, and I will play balance all day long. Even my sons have become tools for him to consolidate the throne. I don't see any point in him trying to make a comeback, let alone the slightest hope of him making a comeback. It's a waste My Dugu family supports him so much, if we knew this, we should support Yang Tong."

Dugu was bleeding with hatred in his heart, this was his huge mistake as the head of the family, because he failed in the bet and brought disaster to the Dugu family;

However, where in the world is there any regret medicine to buy?How many heroes in the troubled times lost their great country, property and life because of a little mistake, what is a mere Dugu family?
"Patriarch! What should my Dugu family do now? Want to negotiate terms with Yang Tong?" Dugu Cheng heard the meaning of the Patriarch.

"About conditions?" Duguzhen laughed at himself, "The entire Guanlong belongs to the Sui Dynasty, the land, wealth, and population. What qualifications does our Dugu family have to negotiate terms with others?"

Dugu Cheng was silent for a moment, then said in a serious tone: "But I thought...we still have the capital to negotiate terms..."

"Capital? What capital?" Dugu racked his brains all these days and couldn't think of a solution. Seeing his nephew being so determined, his spirits were greatly lifted.

Lonely Cheng said cautiously: "It is our capital to bring down Li Tang, who is leaking everywhere. We can take advantage of our position and exchange Li Tang's core secrets for the foundation of the Dugu family's survival!"

Duguzhen's cloudy eyes lit up, he really forgot about this biggest 'capital', thanks to Dugucheng's reminder.

Just as he was about to say yes, a report came from the housekeeper: "Patriarch, Dou Xiangguo is asking to see you!"

……

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(End of this chapter)