The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 601
At night, a gorgeous carriage, guarded by dozens of burly knights with swords, slowly stopped in front of the gate of Dugu Mansion. Dugu Cheng, the head of the Dugu family who was waiting on the steps, hurried down and opened the door very actively. He greeted those in the carriage.

"Mr. Dou, be careful where you step." Dugu Cheng reminded

Dou Gui smiled heartily, and said, "I'm taking the liberty to visit, and I hope Mr. Dugu will forgive me."

"Dou Gong's visit is a blessing to Dugu Mansion, please..." Dugu Cheng welcomed Dou Gui into the mansion with a smile, and received him with the unique ceremony of Guanlong dignitaries.

"Please!"

The two entered the mansion side by side, and under the leadership of Dugu Cheng, they sat down in the study. The maid poured good tea soup, bowed and retreated silently.

Dou Gui took a sip of the fragrant tea, tasted the fresh and timeless taste, then put down the cup of tea, glanced at Dugu Cheng, and said calmly: "His Royal Highness came to see me in the evening."

They are all familiar people, and Dou Gui is too lazy to go around in circles.

"What does Your Highness say?" Dugu Cheng asked softly as he added some tea soup for Dou Gui.

After the incident of moving the capital to Bashu, the relationship between the Guanlong dignitaries and Li Yuan was very tense. They kidnapped public opinion and took the opportunity to make three demands to Li Yuan.

Dou Gui said: "His Royal Highness told me that the Holy Majesty has agreed to our three requests. Unless Xiangyang falls, the capital will never be moved; at the same time, we will increase our troops by [-] to ensure the safety of Jingzhou."

"What about Xiangguo?"

Dugucheng was more concerned about Xiangguo's request. At the beginning, Duguzheng saw that the situation was not good, and resigned from Xiangguo because of his age. Since then, the Guanlong dignitaries headed by the Dugu family have never been in the political affairs hall of the Li Tang Dynasty. There was no interest representative, and they seemed very passive. Seeing that the Dou family was gaining power, some families turned to the Dou faction one after another. Only then did Duguzheng realize how ignorant Ci Xiang was at the beginning. The conditions for Guanlong dignitaries to re-enter the first phase.

Dugu Cheng is very concerned about this candidate now, he hopes that Lonely Wynn, who is the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, can be selected, and quickly asked: "The Holy One decides who will be the prime minister?"

"The initial candidate is Dou Lukuan. He is now Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and he will be named Ping Zhang Shi after the year." Dou Gui said.

When Dugu Cheng heard this, his expression became ugly.

Although Dou Lukuan is also the backbone of the Dugu faction, he is not his own family after all. If he is one of the "six nobles" in the political affairs hall, he may not take away the leader of the Dugu faction in the future.

But Dugu Cheng was after all the patriarch brought out by Duguzheng, who disturbed the Sui world, and he was also a scheming old fox. He knew that Li Yuan's decision to let Dou Lukuan enter the palace was not a short-term decision, and there must be reasons unknown to him. Maybe it was Dou Gui who was behind the scenes.

The two families have been fighting secretly for decades, and the rift created over the years cannot be repaired overnight.Now the two families are determined to merge the two factions of Guan and Long into one, twist them into a political force like an iron barrel, and then play games with Li Yuan just like they did with Yuwen and Yang Jian.But no one wants to give up the right to dominate all the powerful people in Guanlong, so how could Dou Gui allow the Dugu family to show up again?
Due to his own rights, Dou Lukuan may have already invested in the Dou family. Once the Dou family has the second chancellor on Li Tang's side, and with a general like Dou Cong, the power will be in full swing, and there will be more Dugu sects to change their families. On the other hand, the Dugu family, only Dugu Huai'en, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, has become a foregone conclusion. Who will obey the orders of the Dugu family in the future?

So far.

Dugu Cheng took a sip of the tea cup slowly, tried to maintain a calm smile and asked, "Did Mr. Dou ever go to another house?"

"Of course it's not the Dugu Mansion. No matter how unwise I am, I won't be indiscriminate." Dou Gui shook his head and asked, "The Holy Majesty has accepted the three conditions of Guanlong's dignitaries. Does Duke Dugu think that we should give them to you?" The materials are transported to Xiangyang to stabilize prices and solve the shortage of food and clothing in the capital?"

Dugu Cheng smiled indifferently, and shook his head: "The Dugu family has lost everyone, and it doesn't make any sense to express your opinion now. Mr. Dou should discuss it with the real family! I think the Doulu family has always dared to be the first in the world, and will definitely be enthusiastic to promote everyone. There is unity of opinion."

Dou Gui couldn't hold back, why couldn't he hear the other party's accusation?With a wry smile, he explained: "To be honest with Mr. Dugu, I really didn't know beforehand that the Holy Majesty decided to appoint Dou Lukuan as Prime Minister. I only found out about it when the prince came to visit. My Guanlong lineage is now weaker than ever before. If we fight among ourselves at this time, we will only To benefit the southern gentry, whether it is for my own benefit or for the overall situation, I will not do such a dirty thing, please believe me, Mr. Dugu."

"Of course I believe in Dou Gong!" Dugu Cheng didn't express anything when he said this.

Maybe Dou Gui wasn't manipulating it secretly, or maybe Li Yuan was deliberately sowing dissension, but it was a fact that no one in the Dugu family was in the picture, which made Dugu Cheng extremely angry. Cut off the rights of their Dugu family, what is the basis of Li Yuan who is on the sidelines?Do you really think Dugu's only choice is him?
For a while, the study room became quiet.

Dou Gui knew that Dugu Cheng didn't believe it, so it was useless to say anything, so he simply brought up something that tempted him: "Besides, the crown prince passed me a letter from the Holy Majesty, I think it is necessary to discuss it with Duke Dugu."

"Mr. Dou, please tell me."

"Mr. Dugu, take a look at it yourself!" Dou Gui handed Li Yuan's letter to Dugu Cheng.

"Two million grains, one million coins?" Dugu Cheng watched it silently, then looked up at Dou Gui.

In the past, the Guanlong dignitaries took over the task of providing 80 shi of grain and 30 guan of money in an overall way, and then shared them equally among each family and paid them in two installments; but this time Li Yuan asked for a huge amount, and also asked for a one-time payment. pay off.Dugu Cheng wasn't worried about anything, because it was no secret that Li Yuan was short of money, food and materials, and it was understandable that he was anxious for money and food to expand his army.

"Exactly!" Dou Gui pondered for a moment and sighed: "The Sui Dynasty had strong troops and horses, and they needed to expand their army by 50. If a war is launched in the coming year, the Li and Tang Dynasties will not be able to hold on for long. With Yang Yu's means, if the Tang Dynasty is destroyed, it will definitely be destroyed." Distribute all manors equally to the slaves and common people. On the contrary, in the Tang Dynasty, money, food and materials are now scarce, and the food in the official warehouses of the court and the common people's warehouses are exhausted, and the army cannot continue, let alone expand the army. There is no way to count on the tax, so the Holy One plans to exchange all of Li Tang's businesses for 200 million shi of grain and a million guan of money."

"To be honest, I don't like the business of Datang, but with the right to do business, all caravans can travel unimpeded under the rule of Datang, without being questioned or exploited by anyone, so that they can sell their materials. It is the key." Dou Gui is also a beneficiary of commercial rights, and he knows that Dugu's is the same, so he is not worried that Dugu Cheng will refuse
"How will Mr. Dou decide to apportion the share?"

Dugu Cheng was really moved.

In the past, we could only sell supplies from Jingzhou to our heart's content, and those from Bashu could only be used by the Li and Tang courts. In exchange for more wealth, he couldn't help being tempted.

"I think so!" Seeing that Dugu Cheng's resistance was not as strong as before, Dou Gui said while the iron was hot: "I want to divide this money and food into one hundred parts, each part is 40 shi grains and 20 guan If you don’t have enough copper coins, you can use equivalent gold instead. Bashu Business will also be divided into hundreds of shares. The more shares you subscribe, the greater the business management rights you will get. I, Mrs. Dou, decided to subscribe for [-] shares, that is, take out [-] stones of sugar and [-] guan of money, and another [-] shi of grain and [-] guan of money to help the court tide over the difficulties."

Dugu Cheng was surprised when he heard the words, Dou's bet this time is really big enough.

Although the amount of donations was large before, they have never been so generous. Apart from the huge temptation of Bashu commercial rights, there must be reasons that I don't know.

But Dou Gui was still waiting for his reply, so he immediately withdrew his mind, pondered for a moment, and said, "Let's do it! My Dugu subscription and donation amount are the same as Dou's."

"There are still [-] shares that need to be distributed, so I won't keep more." Dou Gui knew that Dugu Cheng felt estranged from him, and was anxious to discuss with the old Patriarch Duguzhen who was behind the scenes, so he got up and left.

Sure enough, as Dou Gui expected.

Dugu Cheng, who sent Dou Gui out of the house, quickly returned to the house and discussed with Dugu Cheng. To a certain extent, the power to decide the fate of the Dugu family is still in the hands of Dugu Cheng. It's not that Dugu Cheng is afraid of his uncle, but It was my uncle who worked hard all his life, and his experience was beyond my own.

After listening to Dugu Cheng's statement, Dugu thought for a long time, and said coldly: "This should be Li Yuan's strategy of alienation. It is nothing more than fear that the Guanlong nobles will twist together and shake his imperial power. As for Dou's enthusiasm, there is no other reason. There are almost three points. First, Dou Gui wanted to be the leader of Guanlong, but he could not suppress our Dugu faction with the power of his lineage alone, so he took advantage of Li Yuan's power to do it; Yang Tong won't get much power if he accepts the Dou family in the future, so he simply bets all on Li Yuan. If Li Yuan wins, the Dou family will be the greatest hero and has a bright future. There has been no change in the position of the side;”

"The third and most important point is that the Zhou and Sui dynasties were betrayed by the nobles of Guanlong. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are notorious. Once Yang Tong unified the world, the nobles of Guanlong would be wiped out in the blink of an eye. He has absolute control over the power of the world, and he doesn't need to compromise with any family. He doesn't allow any powerful Guanlongmen Clan to exist. Whoever is strong will die. The Dou family is sure of this, so they let go of their hands and feet. Fight, the more miserable Dou is, the more relieved Yang Tong will be."

"Uncle, Mrs. Dou has found a way, what about us? Are we also weakening ourselves like Mrs. Dou?"

"This way, the Dou family, who has nothing to do with the Sui Dynasty, can go. Even if they follow Li Yuan to death, they will win the name of loyal ministers. But we can't..." Dugu sighed a long time, and muttered to himself Said: "We are facing the same problem as Xiao Yu. The two families are Yang Guang's most trusted families, but both families have betrayed. If we follow Li Yuan all the way to the end, we will only completely anger Yang Tong and end up exterminating the family..."

Dugu Cheng nodded silently, his uncle's foresight made him ashamed, Dugu saw the worry in his eyes, he smiled and said: "It's not as serious as you think, since Yang Tong opened his mouth, it can be seen that the aristocratic family is still useful to him."

Dugu Cheng thought for a while and asked, "What can we do?"

"The civil and military officials of the Sui Dynasty were dominated by the royal family and the powerful Kanto. He needed a third, fourth, and fifth party to balance, otherwise Yang Tong's court would not be stable. He will be able to accept us. Another way is to make Yang Tong no longer so strong, and use Li Yuan and Li Mi to weaken his strength to the extreme. Once weakened, everything will be easy to talk about."

"Yang Tong is too strong, Er Li may find it difficult to do this!"

"I've already planted a chess piece in Bohai, and it has grown to thousands of soldiers. It's a pity that people are not as good as heaven." Dugu shook his head and said with a wry smile: "In order to suppress the bandits, Yang Tong drew all the soldiers of Jizhou County. When he went to the south, he was in charge of exterminating various copycats. Now Pei Renji doesn't know where he is assigned, let alone get in touch. Fortunately, Yang Tong didn't find this chess piece, which can develop and grow again. When the war comes to a critical moment, this It will become a poisonous dagger, and maybe it can change the situation of the battle."

Dugu Cheng was so shocked that he couldn't keep his mouth shut for a long time, his uncle was so crazy, didn't he know that if the news leaked out, it would completely anger Yang Tong?

"Don't worry!" Duguzheng understood what his nephew was worried about, and smiled triumphantly, "Even his master doesn't know about this pawn, so it won't affect the family."

"Nephew understands." Dugu Cheng smiled wryly.

"You do two things now."

"Please give orders, uncle."

"I heard that Li Mi is unpopular in the south of the Yangtze River. He suffers from a lack of food, but he dare not offend the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River for fear that everyone will rebel. Send someone to find Li Mi and tell him that there are five large manors in Ninghai County, Jiangdu. Each has five or sixty thousand shi of grain and a lot of copper coins, so let him carry them with confidence."

Dugu took out a map and handed it to Dugu Cheng, "This is the map of the five manors. You must send it to a trustworthy person. You must not reveal that it belongs to our family."

"Here!" Dugu Cheng took the map and waited for the second order.

"The second thing is that you go to Luoyang in person and contact the important ministers of the Sui Dynasty. It would be better if you can meet Yang Tong. Anyway, it is to show Yang Tong the attitude of my Dugu family, and say that the Dugu family is willing to hand over [-]% of the land. , When his army reaches Xiangyang, we can be our internal response. When the time is right, we can open the gate of Xiangyang for him and lead the Sui army into the city. In addition, we can help him appease the nobles of Guanlong."

Dugu Cheng was stunned by his uncle's generosity, 30% of the land, which is [-] to [-] hectares of fertile land.

"What are we fighting for? It is the benefit of the day and night! And why the Guandong gentry has been passed down for thousands of years? It is the most gentle way to follow the trend. They will fully support a certain person, but they will also keep a certain distance from this person. Even if this person When it's over, you can also find another backer, and you won't be wiped out with this person. This is the right choice to inherit a thousand-year-old family. In contrast, the Guanlong nobles are too ostentatious, actively participating in the world's disputes, disrupting In the game of the world, winning will certainly bring huge profits for a while, but it will also arouse the fear of those who win the world, so Yang Jian and his son will deal with us. If the Li family is the one who wins the world in the future, they will try their best to weaken us, because there is no one The emperor is willing to have a strong force that threatens his throne. We, the Dugu clan, will also learn from the Kanto gentry in the future, not to fight for the benefits of one dynasty, just follow the general trend and add fuel to the flames, and we must not overstep the Daizu."

…………

However, after Dou Gui left Dugu Mansion, every family opened the door and quickly implemented all the subscriptions.Then he entered the palace at night to deliver an order to Li Yuan and report the results of raising money and food.At this time, Li Yuan had just fallen asleep, and when he heard that Dou Gui urgently asked for an audience, he immediately received Dou Gui in the inner hall.He listened carefully to Dou Gui's detailed process of raising money and food, and from time to time he came out to praise, expressing his appreciation for the feats needed by the imperial court in Guanlongmen.

Dou Gui spoke even more vigorously, unaware that the corner of the emperor standing in front of the window showed an imperceptible sneer from time to time. If he was a little more careful, he would notice the uncontrollable murderous intent in the emperor's eyes.

While pretending to listen, Li Yuan pretended to praise him, but he no longer had illusions about the powerful people in Guanlong.

It's not that these Guanlong dignitaries lack money and food, the reason why they pushed back and forth was that they were unwilling to use it to support the imperial court, and now they gave them a little sweetness and generously donated their money. In less than two hours, they solved the money and food problem that had plagued them for a long time.

The attitudes before and after are completely different, which is enough to show that the Guanlong dignitaries have not changed at all, they are still the same as before, everyone puts profit first, no one, no one cares about the overall situation, if Yang Tong promises them a little benefit, They will definitely turn around and sell him to the Sui Dynasty.

Li Yuan felt that this group of people was too unreliable. Except for the children of the clan, it was difficult for him to find reliable people, even his relatives were not reliable. Duguzheng and Xiao Yu were the biggest relatives in the Sui Dynasty. They sold Yang Guang's At that time, it is called a straightforward.Especially Duguzheng, who had plotted against the law as early as the Kaihuang period.

When looking at Duguzheng from Yang Guang's point of view, Li Yuan suddenly felt very shocked. Thinking about his difficult situation today, he felt that Duguzheng had already set out to sell him.

Amidst his fright, Dou Gui finally shut up.Li Yuan hurriedly said with a pleasant face: "Please go back and tell everyone that Mrs. Dou, I will never break my promise, and I hope that everyone will continue to help Tang Jun as always, as long as you help, you will get something."

"My minister will definitely convey the meaning of the Holy Majesty to everyone."

"Ms. Dou has worked hard all day, I am very sorry, it is already late, go back and rest early!"

"Resignation." Dou Gui saluted and left the hall.

At this time, Li Yuan was no longer sleepy. He watched Dou Gui's back disappearing into the night, and silently thought about how to deal with the rich and powerful in Guanlong.He felt that there was not much time left for him to scrape his bones and heal his wounds, and he had to solve the safety hazards before the arrival of the Sui army, otherwise the first ones to rebel would be the Guanlong dignitaries.

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Brothers, the second watch is here, we don't have too much expectations for the monthly pass, how about some recommended tickets?

(End of this chapter)