The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 676 Send charcoal in the snow, Li Yuan confesses (ask for tickets at the end of the month)

night.

In the Imperial Study Room of Taiji Palace, Li Yuan opened a long list. It was a petition against the Western Tour. The signatures on it were densely packed. There were more than 160 names. It is huge, and the officials along the way donate thousands of food, which is a waste of money for the people, and it is easy to cause dissatisfaction among the local people.

Although it is true that the court's finances are tight, this petition has little to do with finances. The financial strain is a matter of the Ministry of Finance and has nothing to do with other ministers.

And their petition against the west tour on the grounds of financial constraints was neither signed by Xiao Yu, who was in charge of finance, or Chen Shuda, who was in charge of civil affairs, nor was it signed by the ministers of the two ministers.

The root cause is actually that the extermination of Buddhism and the military merit system have affected the vital interests of officials and wealthy families.

During the incident of exterminating Buddha last year, the imperial court obtained a large amount of land property. Seeing that the situation was not good, the Daoist sect volunteered to donate part of it, and part of it was obtained from punishing local bullies.The imperial court had these fields in their hands. On the one hand, it implemented the land equalization system, so that a large number of disaster victims who had taken refuge in the family manor did not want to be servants and tenants. They gradually left the manor and returned to their hometowns to register for land.A large number of disaster victims returned to their hometowns, which seriously affected the interests of officials and Wanguanlong nobles who owned a large amount of land. Now the people who farm in the major manors in Bashu and Jingxiang are mainly the disaster victims in Guanzhong and Central Plains. Only a handful of local tenant farmers and family servants remained on their estates.No matter how much land you have, if no one cultivates it, there will still be no harvest.

On the other hand, the introduction of the military merit system gave the lieutenants hope and expectations. They no longer ran away, but accepted training with peace of mind. More training will make a strong and powerful army. For some people who look forward to Sui Rijiu, it is definitely not a good thing.
Li Yuan can tolerate officials opposing the Western Tour for their own interests, and even find ways to solve this problem, but he can't tolerate those who point directly at himself and the military merit system.

And it is the Dugu faction who is manipulating behind the scenes, and people like Yu Yun are the backbone of the Dugu faction in the court.

There are also many officials, either the children of the Dugu sect, or the former officials of the Dugu family, and they constitute the huge power of the Dugu sect in the Li and Tang Dynasties.

In fact, Li Yuan did not object to officials forming gangs, let alone power struggles among factions. As an emperor, Li Yuan even encouraged the existence of these factions, because the existence of many factions would help him control the court.However, certain factions turned their targets on him, Li Yuan, challenging his authority and threatening his dynasty.

This time the Dugu faction incited the nobles of Guanlong and the ministers of the court to put pressure on him.Ask him Li Yuan to give up the western tour, he will never tolerate it.

With this opportunity in hand, it undoubtedly gave Li Yuan the opportunity to use the "letter stolen by Li Xiuning" to clean up the Dugu faction. As long as he showed the letter written by Duguzheng to Yang Tong, he would appear grandiose when dealing with the Dugu faction. One of the winds of the west tour is that Li Yuan depends on how many people from the Dugu faction are in the court and how many people are disloyal to him. Looking at it now, the plan offered by Li Jiancheng is a success.

The reason for his hesitation was the private army in the hands of the Guanlong nobles. These people were recruited by the Guanlong nobles to deal with the troubled times. There were tens of thousands of people in total. These soldiers were well-equipped and well-trained. In addition, there are many young and strong family servants in each family who have been receiving training, and their elite level is not inferior to that of Li Tang's elite teachers. Although they are scattered in various places, once they gather together, they are enough to overthrow the country.If the plan is not kept secret and known in advance by various families, civil war will break out immediately. Once the Sui army arrives, the Li and Tang Dynasties will be over.

But no matter what, before the Sui and Tang Dynasties came, Li Yuan would spare no effort to pull out this threatening army at all costs. Didn't think about it.

While they were thinking about it, an eunuch reported at the door, "My Majesty, Dou Xiangguo and Concubine Zhao are asking to see you."

Li Yuan's eyes lit up, and suddenly he had an idea, so he said, "Show them two to come in!"

After a while, Dou Gui and Zhao Cijing hurried into the imperial study room, and the two bowed and said: "My minister sees the Holy One!"

"Stay flat, sit down."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The two saluted deeply and took their seats.

"I don't know why the two of you came here at night?"

Dou Gui said to Zhao Cijing: "Jing Zhaoyin, please tell the Holy Master what happened."

"Here." Zhao Cijing got up quickly and said to Li Yuan: "Your Majesty, about an hour ago, someone in the city said that Li Mi was defeated and the Sui army was overwhelmingly suppressing the territory, causing panic in the city; I have already arrested hundreds of people who spread rumors. Judging from their confessions, it should be instigated by the same group of people, and I suspect that the Sui army did it."

Dou Gui also added: "These are ordinary people. They took money from others. From the description, they should be related to the group who set fire to the food."

"Did you catch anyone?" Li Yuan asked.

Zhao Cijing hesitated for a moment and said: "The minister is doing his best to investigate, but the voice of these people is exactly the same as that of the people in Xiangyang, and they are hidden very deeply. The minister will not be able to find out for a while."

"It's really useless!"

Li Yuan scolded extremely angrily: "I almost caught people in the arson incident last time, but they escaped cleanly, and they escaped cleanly this time. How long are they going to make trouble in Xiangyang? Only you, Jing Zhaoyin, can give me a piece of cake." Satisfactory answer."

Zhao Cijing said in a low voice: "The minister will intensify the arrests and will definitely give the Holy One a satisfactory explanation."

"Okay! I'll wait a few more days, you have to hurry up."

"Weichen understands."

Li Yuan was quite satisfied with his son-in-law's attitude, so he changed the subject and said, "Since it's chaotic outside, you should go down and investigate first."

"Here."

Not long after Zhao Cijing left, Dou Gui worried: "Your Majesty, the son-in-law is upright and not tactful enough to deal with intrigues and schemes. I feel that he is not suitable to be Jing Zhaoyin."

"I also know that Cijing can't be found out." Li Yuan couldn't be more clear about Zhao Cijing's character. The reason why he was appointed as Jing Zhaoyin was that Zhao Cijing was too straightforward, making those who hid in the dark think that a gentleman can be bullied. They jumped out to make trouble one after another, so as to catch them all in one go.And Li Yuan's real sharp blade is actually his Wu Chuansi.

"Then why..."

"Ci Ying single-mindedly aimed at the Sui army's secret work, and made a big mistake in terms of direction. Because the person who set fire to the grain and Wu Chuansi's mansion was not the Sui army's secret work at all, but our 'insiders'."

"Who did it?" Dou Gui was surprised.

"Not long after the arson case happened, Wu Chuan sent the investigation file." Li Yuan said, took out a document from a drawer, and handed it to Dou Gui: "Mr. Dou can read it for himself."

Dou Gui browsed quickly, and said in disbelief, "It's actually the Dugu family?"

"The houses where the arsonists escaped were all the houses of Dugu's children and disciples, and some bloodstains remained on the side doors and back doors of some houses, but after a while, these bloodstains were cleaned up. But I think the evidence is insufficient, so I can't It's over." Li Yuan said.

Dou Gui nodded. This is indeed suspected of blaming the Dugu family. There is no conclusive evidence. It is indeed reasonable not to arrest people indiscriminately.But he also knew that the Holy Majesty had mentioned this matter to himself, and there must be a follow-up.

As expected by Dou Gui, Li Yuan said: "Now I have enough evidence to prove that it was the Dugu family. Not long ago, Pingyang obtained some letters between the Dugu family and Yang Tong from Ziwei Palace. We have done it many times. The major failures were all due to Dugu's disclosure of the news to Yang Tong in advance."

After Li Yuan finished speaking, he handed a thick stack of letters to Dou Gui. These letters were arranged very skillfully.The first letter was Duguzheng leaking the letter that the Guanlong nobles joined forces to besiege Daxing Palace.

In this incident, the mainstay of the Dou family headed by Dou Kang died, and Dou Cong was also captured alive by Yang Tong. If Li Yuan hadn't paid a lot of money to redeem him, he would have become a piece of loess at this moment. After that, the strength of the Dou family Great reduction, when facing the Dugu faction, is always in a weak position.

After Dou Cong came back, he has been investigating the culprit of leaking secrets. They suspected Xiao Yu, Yuwen Shiji and others who were related to the Sui Dynasty; they even suspected Li Shimin, because the Dou family supported Li Jiancheng. Li Shimin's benefits are endless. They have suspected many people, but they never thought of Duguzheng who supported Li Yuan to oppose the Sui Dynasty.Who would have thought that Duguzheng, an old thief, would do such a thing as betrayal in order to suppress the Dou family. That was the closest Li Tang came to success, and he was ruined by Duguzheng just like that.

After watching Dou Gui, he felt very angry. There is both family hatred and national hatred.

Then, he read the second letter, which was the last letter written by Duguzheng, the one that promised to donate [-]% of the land to help the Sui army break the city.

"What a cruel and ruthless Dugu old thief." Dou Gui only read two copies, and then stopped reading. At this moment, he wished to dig Dugu out of the grave and whip his corpse, and asked bitterly: "My lord, what do you decide?" Do?"

Knowing that the time is ripe, Li Yuan said worriedly: "I really want to seek justice for the court and the sacrificed soldiers, but my Tang Dynasty is in a very bad situation. If I attack the Dugu family, I am afraid that the family of the Dugu faction will take advantage of their forces." Rebellion, if that's the case, my Tang Dynasty will be in the midst of internal and external troubles, and if I don't pay attention, I will fall into a hopeless situation."

Li Yuan is relatively weak in military affairs and strategy, but power struggle is his strong point. He is one of the Guanlong nobles and knows all kinds of relations of Guanlong nobles like the palm of his hand.He knew that the Guanlong nobles were indeed a whole when enlarged to the world, but the internal struggle was very severe. First of all, the Dugu clan and the Dou clan fought openly and secretly for decades for the leader of the Guanlong nobles. Dou Wei can do nothing to anyone, as for the families below, they stand in line.

At that time, Duguzheng strongly supported the Yuan family to seize the world, Li Yuan was only a candidate, and Dou Wei fully supported Li Yuan. In the end, Yuan Min and other outstanding children of the Yuan family died at the hands of Li Mi. In desperation, Duguzheng fully supported Li Yuan , so Li Yuan got closer to the consistent Dou family. After the founding of the country, Dou Wei, Dou Gui, Dou Kang, Dou Cong, Dou Jing and other outstanding figures were all reused. The center of the imperial court.

Now, he intends to use sinus rail as a breakthrough.

"You really can't act rashly."

Dou Gui thought that Duguzheng's letter of willingness to cooperate with the Sui Dynasty was a few months ago. I am afraid that the Dugu clan had already prepared to rebel, and burning food was only the first step for them to prove their loyalty to the Sui Dynasty.

"Even the Dugu family shamelessly betrayed me. Now I am very worried about the various private armies." Li Yuan said leisurely: "All dynasties and dynasties have not tolerated armies that are not under the control of the court. At that time, no family objected to one hundred thousand parts. What I can't understand is that everyone is clearly a person with high hopes from the court, and there are people in every family and clan who hold important positions. As long as everyone works hard and is loyal to their duties, the court will not He will target anyone for no reason, even if someone is planning to do something wrong, this little army can't deal with the imperial army at all, so why keep private parts?"

"My lord, in fact, the role of the army is to protect their own interests. Everyone is afraid of losing their land and wealth, so they refuse to let go of the army. Most people have no intention of rebelling."

"For any emperor, the most important thing is the stability of the country; the army that is not under the control of the emperor and the court is the enemy of the country. Prime Minister Dou has also seen now that the private army of the Dugu faction has become the largest in the Tang Dynasty. The threat of the threat is far greater than that of external enemies, can I not be in a hurry? If everyone has no private part, it will naturally not bring violent turmoil to the court."

Dou Gui said without hesitation: "What the Holy Majesty said is very true. At present, everyone has a relationship with the Tang Dynasty who shares honor and disgrace. At this time, it is true that we should unite as one. The private parts of each family are extremely brave, and they should come out when the court is in danger. To serve the country, not to act as a watchdog for a family. The ministers are willing to hand over Dou's trilogy to the court to fight against the Sui army, but there are only about 5000 people, so I am afraid it will not help the court much."

"Master Dou still understands the truth, I am very relieved." Li Yuan was overjoyed, as long as Dou Gui took the lead, then the private trilogy of the Dou faction could also be owned by the country.

Dou Gui knew that any emperor admired loyal ministers and martyrs. As long as he was loyal to Li Tang wholeheartedly, even if Li Tang was defeated afterwards, Yang Tong might be lenient to the Dou family. Falling on both sides will definitely not end well, so he has already positioned the Dou family as one of Li Tang's loyal ministers, and is willing to cooperate with Li Yuan's all policies.Thinking of the land policy of the Sui Dynasty again, he said: "The current state affairs are difficult, and I feel that the system of equal land and military merit will help the people return to their hearts, and the soldiers will be loyal, so they decide to donate [-]% of the land, [-]% of the slaves, and half of the wealth. It is enough for the Dou family to use for several generations."

"Okay, okay, okay!" Even Li Yuan, who was neither emotional nor angry, was deeply moved by Dou Gui's feat of sending charcoal in the snow at this moment.

"Since you are a minister of the court, you should share weal and woe with the court." After expressing his loyalty, Dou Gui said, "I feel that many officials and families have been deceived by the Dugu family, so I am willing to speak out."

"It's so good." Li Yuan pondered for a while, and then said: "Actually, I understand the reason why old Patriarch Dugu is dissatisfied."

Dou Gui quickly asked: "My lord, what is the reason?"

Li Yuan said: "In fact, I have negotiated with the old Patriarch Dugu more than once. The first negotiation was when Shimin and Princess Jin got married. It is to let the people of the world be the sons of the world."

"Unexpected." Dou Gui was shocked when he heard the words.

"It's really unexpected." Li Yuan sneered and said: "It is an iron law that has never changed through the ages, and it is an eternal law; and it is kind, magnanimous, generous, comprehensive, and well-founded. When I served the Sui Dynasty, he fulfilled the duties of a father and brother at home, kept the house in order, and took good care of his younger brothers and sisters; his younger brothers and sisters respected him and loved him, and the children of the clan also worshiped him. Such a person is undoubtedly the heir The best choice; and the people of the world are strong, although they are both wise and brave, but he is too gambler. I think that if the destiny is in my Tang Dynasty, after the country is unified, the world needs governance instead of fighting everywhere. As far as people's temperament is concerned, if he inherits Guozuo, I am very worried that he will become the second Yang Guang. Yang Guang has the accumulation of Emperor Wen, the treasury is abundant, and money and food are piled up everywhere, which is not enough for Yang Guang to squander. If the people of the world come like this Toss Datang, the poor and weak Datang will finish faster."

"Therefore, the successor I need should have the ability of Wen Jing, and Jian Jian is obviously the best candidate. In this way, how can I accept the conditions of the old Patriarch Dugu?"

Dou Gui's heart was awe-inspiring, and he didn't expect Li Yuan to see such a long-term view, and what happened later just confirmed the emperor's speculation: no matter how chaotic the court was or how dangerous Li Tang was, Li Jiancheng could always calm down, and he could be called the leader of Tang Dynasty. Xiao He, what is this if it's not Wen Jing's ability?And Li Shimin was either a big victory or a big defeat in the military.

"The second negotiation was the assassination of Yang Tong in Daxing Palace. The condition of the old Patriarch Dugu was that he hoped that Dugu Huai'en would be one of the six ministers, and that he would also be in charge of the civil affairs minister. I know that as long as he agrees to this Once, my Tang court would never have peace, so I still did not agree to him, but appointed Dugu Huai'en as Minister of the Ministry of Industry. I never expected that the old Patriarch was not satisfied, and he agreed in name, and also provided manpower , but in the blink of an eye they sold us out. Afterwards, there were many negotiations. Of course, the old Patriarch could not get the rights and positions he wanted, so he resigned from the position of Prime Minister, but later regretted it and planned to let Dugu Wynn inherits his phase."

Li Yuan smiled wryly: "If Xiuning hadn't risked his life to steal these letters, I'm afraid I would never have thought that it was Dugu's fault after I died."

Dou Gui was furious, he didn't suspect that Li Yuan was lying, because the Dugu family really had a grudge about Dou Lukuan's entry into the prime minister.

In fact, Li Yuan did not lie. At this point, the Dugu family has become the leader who must be eliminated. Being honest with Dou Gui, who is wholeheartedly loyal to him, can make him feel more at ease, and make him even more devoted to himself.

(End of this chapter)