The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 430 Jianghuai Tiger
Du Fuwei's influence is mainly in the Huainan area west of Jiangdu. The vast land between the Jianghuai and Huaihe Rivers is owned by him. Under his rule are Liyang, Danyang, Zhongli, Huainan, Lujiang, Tong'an, and Yiyang. The recruited army with a population of 15 or [-] is its elite force. Du Fuwei regards this army as his own soldiers. It is very embarrassing at ordinary times, but the requirements are also very strict. Every battle must be recruited as the vanguard. After the war Check the wounds on each person, and cut off immediately if the wound is on the back, because the wound on the back means that they retreated before the battle.Every time he wins, Du Fuwei rewards the whole army with wealth, so all the troops will do their best for Du Fuwei, fighting on their own, invincible.

But Du Fuwei is not the only one in the Jianghuai area, but Du Fuwei is the strongest. In addition, there are Shen Faxing of Wujun, Li Zitong of Jiangdu, and Meng Haigong based in Yongjia. These four forces occupy the vast land of Jianghuai and Jiangnan.

Among these three forces, Shen Faxing and Li Zitong worshiped Li Mi mainly; Du Fuwei regarded himself as a Sui official. When Yang Tan ascended the title of Huangtai Emperor in Luoyang, Du Fuwei proclaimed himself a minister and was named the king of Chu. Of course, this kind of surrender is only in name. It is impossible for Yang Tan to interfere in Du Fuwei's affairs, so Du Fuwei is still an independent force.But with Wang Shichong's successful usurpation of the throne, Du Fuwei was once in a state of confusion. Later, he simply proclaimed himself a general and stood on his own.

In the afternoon of this day, a caravan drove dozens of mules and horses into Liyang City with a full load of goods. The leader of the caravan was Zhang Xuan who had come from Ye City. The province returned to the court and served as the director of the Vertical and Horizontal Department of the Ministry of Rites of the Sui Dynasty. More than [-] black ice platform secret guards pretended to be caravan buddies to protect Zhang Xuan all the way south.

They came from the sea and landed in Jiangdu County. They had to pass through Li Zidao's sphere of influence to reach Liyang. Naturally, they couldn't go south wearing armor and court clothes, so they could only disguise themselves as businessmen.

As the capital of Du Fuwei, Liyang has a dense population and prosperous commerce. There are constant business trips in the city, and the voice of hawking keeps coming and going.

The goods that Zhang Xuan brought were furs unique to the north, which were very rare in Jianghuai. As soon as they entered the city to collect them, they were snapped up by shopkeepers of several shops.

After handling the goods, Zhang Xuan found an inn near the city gate to check in. This is a well-known big inn in Liyang.

The men went to rest separately.Zhang Xuan found the shopkeeper. He needed some advice. The two sat down in the back hall. The shopkeeper Gu ordered the waiter to serve tea, and said with a smile, "Brother Zhang seems to be from the north with his accent?"

Zhang Xuan smiled and said: "My little brother is from Bohai County, and he runs a fur business. This kind of thing is very common in the north, and he basically doesn't make much money. Thinking about the chaos in the world and the closed roads, it might be rare in the south." I didn’t want anything, so I came to the south to find a way out. I never thought that I would be robbed of everything as soon as I entered the city.”

"Furs are indeed scarce in the south." Shopkeeper Gu smiled and said, "I don't know Brother Zhang, what do you want to ask?"

Zhang Xuan originally wanted to inquire about some news, but he didn't want to be interrogated by the shopkeeper instead. He smiled, "It's nothing, but I just want to ask the shopkeeper about something."

"Brother Zhang, tell me. As long as I know, I will definitely tell you."

"I came here with a few business friends from Luoyang. They used to help me sell goods in Zheng. This time we plan to investigate the demand for fur in the south. It's just that they were separated in Qiao County. They will also come to Liyang. I don't know. Has anyone from Luoyang stopped here in the past two days?"

Zhang Xuan knew that Du Fuwei was originally loyal to Emperor Yang Tong, and Wang Shichong had usurped the throne for several years, so he didn't know whether Du Fuwei had any connection with Wang Shichong.

"People from Luoyang?" Shopkeeper Gu thought hard for a while, and said, "People from Luoyang came here half a month ago, but they were not businessmen, but envoys from Luoyang. I haven't heard of other people from Luoyang. , or maybe not living with me."

"Thank you for telling me." Zhang Xuan's heart sank, and Wang Shichong indeed sent an envoy. At this moment, there was a sudden noise outside the door, and a clerk stumbled in.

"Shopkeeper, there are many soldiers rushing outside."

Shopkeeper Gu stood up abruptly and said, "What are the soldiers here for?"

The man glanced at Zhang Xuan and said in a low voice, "They are here to find this Master Zhang."

Shopkeeper Gu glanced at Zhang Xuan hesitantly: "Brother Zhang, what's going on?"

Zhang Xuan smiled, "Maybe the fur I brought has alarmed some important person!"

Shopkeeper Gu suddenly said: "Furs are rare, Brother Zhang has come back so much, it's normal to alarm the government."

"Since you've come to see me, I'll go and have a look. Maybe this is the way I'm looking for." Zhang Xuan is an envoy who was ordered to go on a mission, and he is not worried about encountering soldiers.He walked quickly to the front yard, and saw dozens of sturdy soldiers holding long knives standing in the front yard, they stepped forward and said, "I am a fur merchant from the north, what do you all want me for?"

The head lieutenant waved his hand, "Arrest him!"

"Slow!" Zhang Xuan snorted coldly, took out a token from his pocket, and said, "I am the envoy of the Sui Dynasty, how dare you be rude?"

"Captain, look!" A soldier took it.

The lieutenant didn't know many words, but he knew the word 'Sui'. He froze for a moment, looked Zhang Xuan up and down and said, "Are you the envoy of the Sui Dynasty?"

"I don't need to lie to you. Fur is just a cover for passing by Li Mi's land. If it wasn't for the dark sky, I would have gone directly to see your general."

"Fur is rare in Liyang, so we suspected it was Li Mi's spy, but we didn't expect it to be the Sui envoy, offended." The school captain cupped his hands.

"No problem!" Zhang Xuan simply said, "If possible, I want to see your general now."

The captain hurriedly bowed and said, "Please envoys to accompany us to the General's Mansion!"

"Wait a minute!" Zhang Xuan ordered someone to fetch the schoolbag, and followed the soldiers of Du Jun to meet Du Fuwei.

Du Fuwei once proclaimed himself a general, so the soldiers called him the general.

Although he is the number one overlord of Jianghuai, he is actually still very young. He is only 33 years old this year, and he looks extremely majestic, giving people a feeling of carelessness.

He and Fu Gong Er went south to start a business. After several years of hard work, they finally made a career, occupying a fertile land thousands of miles away, with a population of several million and an elite Jianghuai army of 15. Not weak, if counting population background and war potential, Wang Shichong is far inferior to him.

It's just that Du Fuwei didn't intend to establish himself as an emperor and compete for the Central Plains, so he became the target of many forces. The first to win him over was Yu Wenhuaji, who named him Liyang prefect, but Yu Wenhuaji's stinginess angered Du Fuwei. Fu Wei, he immediately surrendered to Luoyang Huangtai Emperor Yang Tong, who made him the King of Chu and the Chief of the Six Counties in Huainan. He was much more generous than Yu Wenhua.

But not long after, Yang Tan was abducted by Wang Shichong, and the Southern Sui Dynasty to which he was loyal has since disappeared.

These days, not only Wang Shichong sent envoys to woo him, but even Li Yuan also sent envoys to lobby, hoping that he could surrender to the Tang Dynasty. Shangzhu Kingdom, crowned King of Chu

But Du Fuwei is hesitating, because the current situation in the world has gradually become clearer. In the future, the one who will unify the world will either be Yang Tong of the Great Sui Dynasty, or Li Tang and Li Yuan. not on.

Relatively speaking, he is more optimistic about the Great Sui Dynasty, which suppressed Li Yuan and the Turks, but the turbulent Great Sui Dynasty has never paid attention to them. If he accepts Li Yuan's surrender, he is afraid that Li Yuan will not be able to withstand the power of the Great Sui Dynasty. I am afraid that Li Yuan will also suffer, so he has been in hesitation. Two days ago, he and Fu Gong Er even planned to send people to Yecheng to find out the attitude of Emperor Shengwu of the Sui Dynasty towards them.

At this time, he was in the room instructing the various counties to play documents, and a guard reported at the door: "To the general, Beicheng seized a fur trader from the north. He claimed to be a special envoy of the Sui Dynasty."

Du Fuwei stood up in surprise and joy with a cry of 'ah'. The Sui Dynasty lived up to his expectations, and indeed sent a special envoy. He hurriedly said: "Please invite the envoy of the Sui Dynasty to the post house to rest. Treat each other with courtesy."

"Here." The guard left in a hurry.

Du Fuwei was very excited. Although he didn't intend to surrender to the Sui Dynasty immediately, the arrival of the Sui Dynasty gave him a bigger choice. He could calmly consider his future between the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Auxiliary Gong Er is invited.

Not long after, a burly man in his 40s walked in quickly. This burly man was Du Fuwei's close comrade-in-arms Fu Gong Er.

Although the two are like brothers in personal relationship, Du Fuwei is the master and the assistant is the deputy in terms of power division.When no one was around, Du Fuwei would call Fu Gong Er the eldest brother, but when there were outsiders, he would call Fu Gong Er the second general just like everyone else.

"Brother, please sit down." Du Fuwei said kindly.

Fu Gong Er walked into the room: "I heard that the Sui envoy is here? The talk is over so soon?"

"No." Du Fuwei shook his head, and said: "I let them go to the post house to rest first, and I want to hear the opinion of the elder brother first."

Assistant Gong Er took his seat with a smile.

The two had great differences on the issue of future. Fu Gong Er opposed to relying on others. The reason why he agreed to surrender to Emperor Taidi Yang Tan was because Yang Tan was too weak to control them. Becoming an official is the same as Li Mi accepting the title of King Wei. They all need to be justified.

But now it’s different. Whether it’s the Great Sui or Li Tang, they are all powerful princes. No matter who they surrender to, they will be subject to actual control. If they go back, they will give the other party an excuse to annihilate them. He hoped that Du Fuwei would refuse anyone's solicitation, go south with all his strength, and create a foundation.

Wait until the world is completely clear before making a decision. If Sui, Tang and Li Mi can't help each other, they advocate following the example of the Three Kingdoms Soochow and establishing their own country in the south.

(End of this chapter)