The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 879
Nominally, although the Tang Dynasty occupied Yizhou, the five prefectures of Fangling, Xicheng, Hanchuan, Hechi, and Hanyang were already owned by the Sui Dynasty. In the south, the mountains were towering and the Liao people were infested. The Tang Dynasty's control there was very weak. Therefore, the territory of the Tang Dynasty was much smaller than Liu Bei's Shuhan regime, which also meant that there were very few places for Li Yuan to inspect.

At noon that day, Li Yuan's inspection team arrived at Yicheng County.

Shunzheng County in the north of Yicheng County and Hanchuan County in the east are all owned by the Sui Dynasty. If the patrol team wants to continue patrolling, they can only go west, and that is Wudu and Pingwu County controlled by Li Shimin, so The mighty cars camped early beside the official road.

Soldiers were busy setting up camp, tents appeared in the wilderness, and the sides of the official road were extremely lively.

In the big account of the Chinese army, Li Yuan discussed the severe drought with several accompanying officials. He had already received urgent help from several county prefects, requesting relief for the victims. This serious disaster made Li Yuan very worried.

Chen Shuda used to be the prefect of Jiangjun, and he had a deep understanding of the local situation. He suggested: "My lord, I suggest that the counties and counties first set up charity warehouses to avoid starvation, and then provide disaster relief month by month to ensure that the victims stay in their hometowns. , so as not to flood into the capital on a large scale, causing pressure on the law and order of the counties and counties passing through."

Dou Lukuan also said: "Your Majesty, I also agree with Chen Xiangguo's opinion that the righteous warehouse should be released first, and the official warehouse should not be moved lightly. But since ancient times, opening the warehouse to release grain will lead to corruption incidents, so the inspector must be present before the grain is released. "

Li Yuan nodded, "The suggestions of the two lovers are very good, and I can consider them. In addition, I want to send a highly respected person to patrol the disaster area and comfort the victims for me. Who do you think is more suitable?"

Chen Shuda winked at Dou Gui who was welcoming him, and Dou Gui got up and said: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has repeatedly patrolled places, comforted the victims, and supervised officials. He is not only highly respected, but also experienced; In fact, the time spent is not much, and he is in the disaster area in the south of Yizhou, so he can help the Holy Majesty nearby, so I recommend His Highness the Crown Prince to inspect the disaster area for the Holy Majesty."

Chen Shuda and Dou Gui are staunch supporters of Li Jiancheng, but Li Jiancheng has been neglected recently and lost all power. They have been waiting for an opportunity to speak well for Li Jiancheng. This disaster happened to be a good opportunity.

They thought that Li Yuan neglected Li Jiancheng because when Li Jiancheng stayed in Xiangyang, Li Xiaogong's entire army was annihilated and Chai Shao died tragically.

But Li Yuan didn't have anyone to send, so Shun Lu said, "Okay! I agree with this plan and appoint the prince as a conciliator to go to the disaster area to inspect the relief situation."

"Saint is wise."

"Dear dear ones, there was a serious looting and smashing incident in the capital. Yesterday, I ordered the army to martial law the whole city and put 30 shi of grain to stabilize the price of food. But this is not a long-term solution. Moreover, there are many exiles in the capital. These refugees will rise up to make trouble sooner or later, do you have a good solution?"

Li Yuan is now more concerned about the situation in the capital city. He received an urgent report yesterday that serious riots occurred in the west and south cities of Chengdu, with heavy casualties, which made his heart ache.

Pei Ji stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I think that it is not only the responsibility of the government to resettle the disaster victims, but also the rich local households have the responsibility to share the worries of the court. After all, the place is not peaceful, and it is of no benefit to them. The Holy Majesty can order the local wealthy households to provide relief. The victims of the disaster asked every family to provide disaster relief for at least three days, and sent the censor to supervise them. In addition, they were required to set up porridge relief places outside the city, lure the refugees out of the city, and set up tents outside the city for them to live in. The capital is safe."

Pei Ji is the minister who understands Li Yuan's thoughts best. He knows that Li Yuan, who is expanding his army like crazy, is reluctant to give government food to help the people, so he does what he likes and proposes a method of involving wealthy households in the capital to participate in disaster relief.

This method really made Li Yuan very happy, and he said happily: "Pei Xiangguo's words are in line with my wishes, and I have adopted them. Pei Xiangguo immediately drafted an order and sent it to the capital."

"My minister obeys." Pei Ji readily complied.

Chen Shuda, Dou Gui, and Dou Lukuan looked on coldly, frowning silently, disgusted by Pei Ji's favored behavior.

Almost all the wealthy households in Chengdu were wiped out, and the remaining small households were exploited several times by Li Yuanji. Even if there was still some food, there was not much left. What did they use to help the victims?What's more, there is no specific plan, and each household takes a bucket of rice to cook porridge for relief, which is considered relief. How many refugees will be saved?
But the holy order has been decided, and they dare not touch the emperor's bad luck. Only after the incident happened, the emperor will know how ridiculous Pei Ji's relief plan for the rich is.

At this moment, an eunuch said at the door, "Shangshu Zhao asked someone to repay you."

Hearing this, everyone was stunned.

The emperor's so-called inspections actually meant to demonstrate to Li Shimin, otherwise he would not have brought [-] troops to accompany him. After marching to Jinshan County, Li Yuan even appointed Zhao Cijing, Minister of the Ministry of War, as the deputy envoy of Shubei Economic Strategy to assist Li Shimin in managing The government affairs of the five counties of Pingwu, Wudu, Dangchang, Tongchang and Shunzheng.

The reason why no one was sent was because Zhao Cijing was Li Yuan's son-in-law and Li Shimin's sister-in-law. Even if he could not take over the political affairs of the five counties in northern Shu, he would not be persecuted.

Who thought that Zhao Cijing would be rewarded so soon?

Did something happen?

Li Yuan felt bad, and quickly asked, "Where is Zhao Shangshu?"

"My lord, something happened to Zhao Shangshu!"

"What?" Li Yuan was taken aback. He was really afraid of something, so he hurriedly asked, "What happened to him?"

"According to reports from the soldiers, it is said that Zhao Shangshu was ambushed by Pei Xingyan's army in the area of ​​Gansong Mountain in Wenshan County yesterday, and more than [-] of the [-] guards died. Zhao Shangshu was hit by two arrows and almost died. Treat and recuperate the wounded in Wenshan County."

Li Yuan's face was quite ugly. The government affairs were in charge of the imperial court. It was a tacit agreement between him and Li Shimin. Therefore, he sent the upright Zhao Cijing to take charge of the government affairs, and slowly lifted Li Shimin away. Unexpectedly, Zhao Cijing was attacked before he arrived in Tongchang County. ambush.

What Pei Xingyan's army?It was clearly Li Shimin's army.

Although Zhao Cijing's personal soldiers didn't say it clearly, Li Yuan and everyone in the tent understood the stakes.

Li Yuan clenched his teeth and cursed bitterly in his heart: "Nizi!"

"My lord, since Zhao Shangshu is injured, let him return to Beijing to recuperate! After all, there is no good doctor in Wenshan." Chen Shuda sighed inwardly.

Judging from this posture, Li Shimin would never let the imperial court intervene in his military and political affairs. Li Shimin clearly saw the essence of the imperial court's strong outsiders, but expected that the imperial court would not dare to send troops to conquer him, lest the Sui Dynasty be in vain. Only [-], even [-], he is not afraid.

It is precisely because of this that Li Shimin is so confident and unscrupulous in assassinating court ministers.Even Zhao Cijing was seriously injured. If someone else went north, it might not be as simple as being hit by an arrow.

Li Yuan was both annoyed and helpless in his heart. Under such circumstances, he could not tear off this layer of disguise and turned against his second son regardless of the consequences, so he nodded and said: "Okay! Let Zhao Shangshu return to Beijing to recuperate first, and the son of Shubei Let’s talk about it later.”

"Here."

The eunuch outside the door responded and left.

"Your Majesty!" Dou Lukuan got up and saluted, "Now that there is a food shortage in the south, why don't you slow down the supply of rations to the Northern Army?"

The Northern Expedition Army was Li Shimin's army. In order to enable Li Shimin to raise the army successfully and guard the gate of the Tang Dynasty, he responded to Li Shimin's request not long ago and promised to give him 80 shi of military rations. These military rations have also left Chengdu.If the court insists on choking him to death, then Li Shimin's army will naturally not be able to support them.

Hearing this, Li Yuan's heart skipped a beat, he pondered for a moment, and finally shook his head, giving up on this seemingly beautiful idea, which actually hurt both sides and benefited the Sui Dynasty.He said coldly: "If this military ration is used to help the people, the army that doesn't get the ration will be in chaos."

"My minister obeys." Dou Lukuan, who was kicked by the horse after failing to flatter the horse, smiled coyly, and cupped his hands again: "My lord, an official from the Ministry of Industry sent a letter saying that the iron ore mine in Pingqiang County has been repaired properly. It can produce iron."

"Really?" Li Yuan's eyes lit up. This is definitely the good news he has been waiting for for a long time. As long as the production is sufficient and increases day by day, Datang will gradually lose the predicament of being controlled by the Sui Dynasty. He couldn't wait to ask: " How much is Nissan?"

"The Pingqiang iron mine is difficult to mine and contains little iron, so the output cannot be guaranteed. If more civilians are sent, the output will naturally rise." Speaking of this, Dou Lukuan suggested: "I think that the refugees can be sent to Mining, let them sell their labor for relief food."

"Relief with work?" Li Yuan patted his forehead, he was so busy that he forgot about it.

"It's work for relief!" Dou Lukuan said: "Work for relief has changed the way of eating for free in the past. It not only achieves the purpose of relief for the victims, but also assists the court to complete each project. The victims get benefits. It’s also free of profit and double income. More importantly, once the refugees are together with nothing to do, they will reorganize, so that they have something to do, and it can also reduce the pressure on local officials.”

"Zoo!" Li Yuan agreed without hesitation. When Yang Tong first went north, he had been gathering refugees and disaster victims from all over the world. At that time, everyone thought he was stupid, and they all laughed at the benevolence of a woman, making himself trapped in a cocoon.

But first, under the disaster relief plan of "relief with work", he asked the refugees to build all the roads and canals in Jizhou, Youzhou, Liaodong, Bingzhou, Yongzhou, and Liangzhou; The refugees and victims used their hardworking hands to feed back the Sui Dynasty, and contributed amazing and enviable taxes.

Although the current land and water transportation in the Sui Dynasty was dominated by foreign slaves, refugees and victims of disasters played a role in it, not weaker than slaves of other ethnic groups.

There are successful cases of work-for-relief, and Li Yuan will not foolishly abandon it just because it is the system of the Sui Dynasty.

Chen Shuda cupped his hands and saluted: "Your Majesty, since the Pingqiang Iron Mine has already produced iron, can we properly restrict the free trade between us and the Sui Dynasty, otherwise the other party will empty us out sooner or later."

As early as the beginning of February, Yizhou merchants saw that Yizhou was short of grain, so they wanted to buy and resell the Sui Dynasty’s grain, but the Sui Dynasty suddenly included grain, meat, cloth, oil and salt, and other materials closely related to people’s livelihood. After entering the embargo, only luxury goods such as colored glaze, fine wine, jewelry, Qingdai, soap, scented soap, and rouge are allowed to be transported into Yizhou. Even iron ore can only be bought by Li Tang officials.This unfair trade emptied the materials of the Li Tang Dynasty.After losing business, the people at the bottom almost lost all means of making a living except to go up the mountain to find trees. In addition, the shortage of various living materials and the rising food prices forced many people to leave Chengdu or return to the city. Hometown, or supporting the old and bringing the young to the Sui Dynasty, the population of Chengdu can be said to be decreasing day by day.

Although the Tang Dynasty obtained iron ore, it also paid a heavy price for the destruction of commerce. The most embarrassing thing was that the Tang Dynasty held its first imperial examination in mid-February, and only more than 500 scholars participated. For each scientific examination, 30 to [-] scholars signed up to participate. It can be said that the so-called free trade destroyed not only the economy and people's livelihood of the Tang Dynasty, but also the confidence of scholars in the Tang Dynasty.

"I've said this question many times, and talked about it many times, why don't you understand?"

Li Yuan snorted coldly with a bit of hatred for iron: "When will the Pingqiang Iron Mine produce iron, how much iron can be produced, and whether it can meet the needs of the army before the war comes? No one can tell; if we stop the trade, However, the output of Pingqiang Iron Mine is in short supply. Where does the iron for making weapons and armor come from? Because of this, we cannot pin our hopes on Pingqiang Iron Mine, and must accept the fact that it was squeezed by the Sui Dynasty. It is also because of the crazy price increase of the Sui Dynasty , we must seize the time to buy iron ore, otherwise, if the trade of iron ore is cut off, we will be the ones who will suffer in the end. The order will go on, and everything that the Sui Dynasty is willing to accept will be exchanged for iron ore."

Chen Shuda originally thought that the Pingqiang Iron Mine produced iron, and the emperor could face up to the huge trauma caused by free trade to Datang.Unexpectedly, he only had the army and iron in his heart.What he said, not only did not impress the emperor, but made him worry that the Sui Dynasty would interrupt the trade and want to increase the cost to snap up the purchase.

Faced with such a result, Chen Shuda was anxious and angry, and almost passed away in anger.

"My lord, Xiao Xiangguo's memorial has arrived." An eunuch presented Xiao Yu's memorial.

Li Yuan nodded, and said to the ministers: "My dear ministers, please write memorials on the issues just now, and they must be detailed and thorough. I can execute them after I approve them. Everyone hurry up to deal with them!"

"Wei Chen retire."

All the ministers saluted and retired, and an eunuch presented Xiao Yu's memorial.

During Li Yuan's northern tour, he handed over the responsibility of guarding the capital to Li Yuanji, the king of Qi.So far, Li Yuanji's performance has made him very disappointed, especially the incident of refugees flooding into Beijing and smashing the second city, which made Li Yuan extremely disappointed in Li Yuanji.

When he recalled Li Jiancheng's previous performance, he found that there was a huge gap between the two. Li Yuanji didn't even have Li Jiancheng's ability at all.

Can such an undoubted person inherit the Great Tang business?

Can it compete with the mighty Sui Dynasty?
Facing Li Yuanji, who couldn't help him, also shook Li Yuan's heart of being easy to store.

Li Yuan opened Xiao Yu's memorabilia and watched it carefully. Xiao Yu mainly elaborated on the incident of smashing and smashing. However, the Jingzhao government turned a deaf ear to it, ignored it, adopted a laissez-faire attitude, and did not take any relief or resettlement measures. When more and more refugees flooded in and disputes occurred with the people in the city, they did not send troops to control them. Without relief and diversion, the refugees starved to death and could not survive. Finally, this big conflict broke out, killing more than 20 people and injuring more than [-].

Xiao Yu was just discussing the matter, and did not point out who should bear the responsibility, but Li Yuanji was in charge of the security of the capital, and he was Jing Zhaoyin, who had all the military and political power in his hands. If he didn't do anything, who would get the army in the capital?
If he is not responsible for this incident, who will be responsible?

Seeing this, Li Yuan couldn't help sighing. If such an incompetent person became emperor, he would hardly need the Sui army to fight him.

Thinking of this, his eyes continued to look at the unfinished memorials, and his face suddenly turned pale.

Xiao Yu continued to write in the memorandum that the day before the smashing incident, Li Yuanji was poisoned at the farewell banquet held by Beijing officials for Li Jiancheng, even after the smashing incident was over, he was still alive.As for Li Jiancheng's itinerary, Xiao Yu also mentioned that after the imperial doctor concluded that Li Yuanji was fine, the prince went south as usual the next day to negotiate with the bureaucrats in Luchuan.

"Crack!" Li Yuan threw the playbook heavily on the table, his lips trembling a few times, "Nizi, another Nizi."

Xiao Yu's last paragraph can be described as a turning point. Not only did he successfully extract Li Yuanji from the smashing incident, but his statement of Li Jiancheng's itinerary seemed fair and objective, but in fact he put Li Jiancheng in an extremely disadvantageous situation.

Everyone says that Xiao Yu is upright, but is it true?

perhaps.

But at some point, the idiom "upright and upright" will be transformed into treachery like loyalty.

Otherwise, he would not have sent a letter to Li Yuan when Li Yuan entered Guanzhong, and said that he would arrive soon.As a result, the messenger had just delivered the letter to Li Yuan, and soon he arrived in person.

How could he show Xiao Yu's sincerity in returning to Tang if he didn't come back immediately after seeing the letter?

If no one has come to believe him, how can it show that Xiao Yu has been looking forward to the Ming Lord for a long time?How can it set off the image of Li Yuan's wise and martial arts with a single call and a gathering of responders?

It was precisely because of his operation that Li Yuan Longyan was very happy, and Xiao Yu was immediately granted the title of Doctor Guanglu, Duke of Song, and Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

After that, he went to the Sui Dynasty to negotiate many times as envoys, but he didn't mention a word about his sister who brought him up like his mother.After all, this is a mercenary character.

Although his memorandum did not say that Li Jiancheng was wrong at all, but praised Li Jiancheng for "doing business in a public manner" and "putting state affairs first", all Xiao Yu's spearheads were aimed at Li Jiancheng who "put state affairs first".

At least it can make Li Jiancheng get the notoriety of disregarding the life and death of his brothers, so as to realize the purpose of destroying his style of benevolence and elder brother's righteousness.

Why did he say that Li Jiancheng was the most suspected by Han Zhi's side?
Just because his daughter is Li Shimin's average wife, he hopes to use Li Yuanji's hand to pull Li Jiancheng down.

Why did Li Jiancheng's itinerary be added to the Li Yuanji poisoning case?It is hoped that Li Jiancheng's image will be discredited. When the image of his three Li brothers is equally black in Li Yuan's heart, Li Shimin, who is self-reliant, also has a chance to rise to the top.

So far, he has succeeded.

Not only did Li Jiancheng's move to go south to Luchuan become an escape from guilt in Li Yuan's mind, but it also further implied Li Yuan: Li Jiancheng was actually the one who poisoned Li Yuanji.

Otherwise, why Li Jiancheng, who has the style of an elder, can't wait to go south?If this is not a guilty conscience, what is it?
It can be said.

The pursuit of power by high-level figures does not lie in the size of his political achievements, but in the attitude shown at critical moments.

……

At this time, news came that Li Shentong, Minister of the Ministry of Justice, and Minister of Dali Temple asked to see him.

Li Yuan pondered for a while, and then someone brought Li Shentong in.

"How is Yuanji?" Without waiting for Li Shentong to salute, Li Yuan asked immediately.

Li Shentong was stunned for a moment, and quickly said: "Returning to the Holy Lord, King Qi's physique is extraordinary, and the imperial doctor prepared an antidote for King Qi in time, which brought King Qi back from the brink of death, and the situation is gradually improving."

Li Shentong didn't know about this incident, because he was Li Yuan's most trusted confidant, and Li Yuanji didn't dare to trust him too much.

Li Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, and asked again: "Do you know who poisoned it?"

"It was a maid in the palace who added poison to King Qi's dishes and committed suicide in fear of crime. Officials from the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Punishment rushed to her residence to investigate and took away all the belongings of the maid. There was no evidence at all, but Finally found her parents and got the gold."

As he spoke, he took out two ingots of horseshoe gold from his pocket and put them on the table.

Li Yuan glanced at the gold on the table, and he could recognize at a glance that it was the official gold cast by Shaofu Temple.

Li Yuan said coldly: "Don't ask questions and answer them, tell me everything you know."

"This court lady was originally from Xingyang. According to her parents, they became refugees in the tenth year of Daye. At that time, this court lady was seriously ill. If she hadn't been lucky enough to meet the returning Crown Princess to help her, she would have died long ago. These two ingots of gold were entrusted to them by their daughter not long ago."

"Did they know their daughter was dead?"

"I don't know!" Li Shentong shook his head and said, "These are the two ingots that Shangshu Xingbu exchanged for other gold."

"Tell me about this gold!"

"This is official gold, and there is usually a number on the bottom, but the number has been crossed out by a sharp weapon, so we went to Shaofu Temple to investigate and found out that the styles of each casting are different; this batch only cast [-] ingots. It symbolizes the Ninth Five-Year Supreme, and was collected by the Holy One. Later, I went to Zuozang to inquire, and found that this batch of gold ingots was only rewarded once. On the birthday of the prince the year before last, the Holy One rewarded [-] ingots. In the time of Shu, a lot of ingots were shipped, and later disappeared in the raids of the Liao people."

There was a loud bang in Li Yuan's mind, and his expression became very painful. Li Shentong, who didn't know about this incident, also thought it was Li Jiancheng. ah."

Li Yuan smiled miserably: "For the sake of a precarious throne, you don't hesitate to kill your own brothers who have the same father and mother, I really..."

"Your Majesty, His Highness the Crown Prince is a benevolent person, and I feel that he would not do this. Perhaps his subordinates did it on their own." Li Shentong seemed to be apologizing for Li Jiancheng, but in fact he put the hat of poisoning on Li Jiancheng's head .

What is the difference between the subordinates doing it privately and him?
"What's the point of speaking good words for him? Although he has been indifferent to the world recently, he has always hated me for not fulfilling my promise and giving him the throne." Li Yuan shook his head and said in a harsh voice: "He used to win the battle with the people of the world. It's very fierce, but the people of the world have broken with me now, and there is no threat to him; and Yuan Ji is deeply loved by me, and I have not passed the throne to him for a long time, so I am afraid that I will pass the throne to Yuan Ji, so I want to express my gratitude to my own brothers If Yuan Ji dies, I can only pass the throne to him."

"Your Majesty, why don't you call the prince here for questioning!"

"He has already gone to Luchuan County, how can we call him? Calling him back will only make him surrender to the Liao people. I will pass on my will and return to court tomorrow." Li Yuan's face became extremely ugly.

"Here." Li Shentong sighed secretly, he knew that a big storm was inevitable.

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(End of this chapter)