The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 636
In February of Yangchun, the south of the Yangtze River is warm and windy, misty and rainy.There are many apricot trees planted in Jiangdu City Apricot Blossom Lane. Every spring, the pink and white petals are intertwined with water droplets and float down with the wind.Spin perfectly in the air.

One after another floats down, it is so beautiful.

Xinghua Lane is neither deep nor big, there are only five families with tall doors and deep walls, covering an area of ​​several acres, it can be seen that they are wealthy families.

The innermost house was originally Yu Shiji's private house in Jiangdu. Later, Yu Shiji's family was killed by Yu Huaji, and the house was vacant. Yuan Zhen.

Bing Yuanzhen and Zhai Rang established the Wagangzhai back then, and he can be said to be the elder among the elders in the state of Wei. Even Shan Xiongxin and Xu Shiji are latecomers, and their qualifications are far inferior to Bing Yuanzhen.

When Li Mi and Zhai Rang confronted each other, Bing Yuanzhen belonged to the middle faction. Later, he focused on supporting Li Mi and was reused by Li Mi. He gradually became Li Mi's number one counselor, even Fang Xuanzao was far behind.However, in Li Mi's major decision to abandon the Central Plains and move to the south of the Yangtze River, he advocated uniting the Tang Dynasty to resist the Sui Dynasty.

In this dispute over the development route, Bing Yuanzhen accepted bribes from the Tang Dynasty.In the end, it aroused Li Mi's suspicion and dissatisfaction. Although Li Mi did not embarrass him because of this, it was obvious that he would not reuse him.

After moving to Jiangdu, he was first named Minister of the Ministry of Rites, not to mention that he had no power or soldiers in his hands. Even because Wei had no allies, the Ministry of Rites became a Qingshui yamen with few people. Doing trivial things like emperor ceremonies all day long.Bing Yuanzhen, who is extremely depressed, often excuses his old illness to ask for leave every three days and does not deal with government affairs at all. Li Mi is too lazy to take care of him, and directly confers a vacant post as an extremely human minister. The implication is that since you If you are not in good health, then take care of yourself at home.

Li Mi went to inspect the military camp today. Bing Yuanzhen closed the door as usual and hid at home. He just read books, drank tea, and drank alcohol at home, but he had one of his greatest hobbies, which was counting money in the secret room, wiping odds and ends. Dust that does not exist on rare treasures.

Bing Yuanzhen's reputation of being greedy for money was well known in the Wagang Army in the past, after so many years, he has indeed accumulated a lot of wealth.

He knew very well that the land could not be kept, and the copper money could not be taken away, so he used his position to exchange all the money into gold and jewelry. There were only five large boxes in total. It can be said that wherever people go, the boxes will go.
At this time, Bing Yuanzhen hid in the inner room of the study, counting the gold one by one. The gold occupied four big boxes, and the other box was full of rare treasures.He caressed an ingot of yellow and clear gold, pushing the lost heart of the power, and immediately felt a great sense of satisfaction.

His wife glanced at the money-obsessed husband speechlessly: "You know money all over your head now, counting it every day, is it interesting?"

Bing Yuanzhen said eloquently: "What do you know, girl? You don't need money for food, drink and clothing? I used to be a poor boy with no power and no power, and you thought I was poor; now that I have money, you don't need money. He also said that I am a philistine, and then said that everything is my fault."

Mrs. Bing asked back: "Let me ask you, is money or life more important?"

Bing Yuanzhen said without hesitation: "Of course life is important. If life is gone, money will become someone else's money."

"..." Mrs. Bing was about to praise him a few words, but she heard him continue: "But if you lose your life, you can start over in the next life... If you don't make money in this life, I will not be willing to die!"

Madam Bing's face turned green with anger, and she slapped him hard on the back a few times, angrily said: "Just hold your money and go to hell!"

Bing Yuan screamed in pain. He has a high position and authority, but the most trusted wife is always this poor wife. Although he has taken a few concubines, he knows that if disaster strikes, none of those little vixens can be relied on. His old wife made him feel at ease.

Moreover, although Bing Yuanzhen is greedy for money, his family education is extremely strict, and he never allows his children to participate in bribery. Even his children don't know what kind of person their father is, and they even defend him outside, which makes him extremely gratified , looking at the old wife with a few more strands of gray hair, suddenly sighed: "I earned these property for you mother and child, and I will definitely not need it in my life."

"Why?" Madam Bing was taken aback.

Bing Yuanzhen chuckled: "Let me ask you, was I greedy for money when Brother Zhai was in charge?"

Mrs. Bing thought about it carefully, and found that when Zhai Rang was the master, her husband really didn't take any extra money. She looked at her husband suspiciously and said, "When you become prosperous, you will naturally lose the foundation of helping the world and benevolent folks." Heart."

Bing Yuan was so angry that he almost died, he glared at his old wife, and said, "If I don't, I would have died a long time ago."

"You mean His Majesty?"

"Brother Zhai has no big ambitions, but he is sincerely kind to us old brothers. He thinks that if he treats people sincerely, he will be rewarded, but he ignores that greed is human nature. When Wagang has hundreds of thousands of soldiers, people Everyone wants to be the hero of the founding of the country, everyone hopes that he will dare to be the first in the world and directly challenge the Sui Dynasty, but his courage and vision are far from enough, which makes many people feel dissatisfied, the old brothers are just fine, but The people who joined later were all ambitious people, so Brother Zhai became a stumbling block for many people, even an old brother like Xu Shiji was also dissatisfied. But none of these people took the lead, and they became a leaderless group. Scattered sand, dare not say anything even if there are complaints, when the sage entered Wagang, his heroic charm of daring to be the first in the world, won the admiration of this group of people, soon split Wagang into two, forming a mountain that cannot accommodate two tigers In such a situation, I have persuaded brother Zhai many times to either blow the sage away or kill him directly, but brother Zhai did not listen. He believes too much in "loyalty" and regards "loyalty" as sacred. Even if people don't die, they will murder the Holy One sooner or later. In order to protect myself, I can only drift with the tide, neither betray Brother Zhai nor be loyal to the Holy Majesty, just sit on the sidelines."

"Later I became the counselor of the Holy One, but I was one of the founders of Wagang, and now I have a high position. Some old brothers gradually took me as the leader. I see that the Holy One is crazy to cut off dissidents, and I can only lose my reputation. To stink and let everyone down on me is what keeps us alive."

"Then why did you take Li Yuan's money for the decision to go south?" Mrs. Bing asked suspiciously.

Bing Yuanzhen sneered and said: "Wagang's roots are in the Central Plains, and going south is not a good way out at all. The situation at that time was to unite all forces that could be united, and beat Yang Tong, a tiger, so that he could stop his pace of going south. At that time, the foundation of the Sui Dynasty was not stable. If Li and Tang went northward together, those local tyrants who were brutally poisoned by Yang Tong would definitely respond, which would make Yang Tong fall into internal and external troubles. As the army marches north, Li Yuan will definitely enter Guanzhong to regain the foundational land of the Guanlong nobles, and Guanzhong is the capital of the Sui Dynasty. , This is a great opportunity for our Wei country... But under the general situation, the sage still plots against Li Yuan. Now it's all right, we are in a dilemma."

Although there is suspicion of hindsight, judging from his advocacy of alliances with Wang Shichong and Li Yuan, etc., he does have the idea of ​​joining forces to beat Yang Yu and fight for the south.

There is one thing he did not tell his wife, that is, the situation of Wei State is very dangerous,

Although he has been marginalized, his heart is as clear as a mirror about the danger of Wei. Not only is the powerful Sui Dynasty attacking Wei at any time, but the deeper crisis lies in the disapproval of Li Mi by the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. On the chariot of Wei State, but voluntary and forced are completely different things.

So while he was desperately collecting bribes, he also had to consider the future of his descendants. No matter what, he had to leave a way out for the Bing family.

(End of this chapter)