The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 675

It was almost dusk, and Pei Ju's mansion was brightly lit.

Since he unloaded the Minister of Rites of the Tang Dynasty, Pei Ju has gradually faded out of people's sight, and few people have heard of him.

Pei Ju has indeed done everything, but after all, he has been in the officialdom for most of his life, so it is impossible not to pay attention to the general trend of the world. He is old, but he is energetic, and his intelligence and thinking ability are far better than some so-called prime ministers.If Li Yuan asked him to be his prime minister, he would be fully capable of handling the tedious affairs.However, even in a unified dynasty where the son inherited his father's career, there is a saying that "one emperor, one courtier", not to mention that he is a courtier of Emperor Wu of the Sui Dynasty. No matter from which point of view, it is impossible for Li Yuan to appoint him as the political affairs hall. Guo Xiang, but after he resigned from the Ministry of Rites, Li Yuan also wanted to keep this experienced old man and give advice by his side.

However, Pei Ju used the excuse of lack of energy to retreat completely without nostalgia. On the one hand, Pei Ju looked down on the Li Tang Dynasty and did not want to have too many entanglements with the Li family, so that after Li Yuan failed, his descendants would also be punished by Yang Tong. On the other hand, Pei Ju decided to turn the energy of the rest of his life from the world to the family, and set up a century-old plan for his Pei family.

Pei Ju believes that the general trend of the world is the Sui Dynasty, and Yang Tong's reunification is not far away, and because of the wars of more than ten years, the old aristocratic families and old forces will be fatally hit. Without these huge political forces, Yang Yu All Dong's policies will be postponed. With the powerful emperor and the support of the people all over the world, no one can oppose the method of employing people through the imperial examination. The nine-rank Zhongzheng system will become history with the collapse of the Li and Tang Dynasties.

The imperial examination system is a huge opportunity for anyone, and the way to obtain this opportunity is to have outstanding talents, and the children of the Pei family must not only produce a large number of talents, but also understand all the strategies of governing the country, so that they can be like-minded with the emperor , go hand in hand, don't worry about being abandoned by the superiors, and slowly bring out more children, step by step to occupy positions at all levels of the court.

Pei Ju's sons are relatively mediocre, and because he was an official in the Tang Dynasty, it was impossible to obtain any position in the soon-to-be-unified Sui Dynasty, and it was no longer worth cultivating, so he devoted all his hopes and efforts to his grandchildren .

At this time, he was discussing the current situation with his five elderly grandsons in a secret room, "The emperor is the most fickle person in the world. If you want to understand his mind, you must not only listen to what he says, but also watch how he behaves." What to do, as long as you know the benefits of doing so, you can judge his next move. Emperor Shengwu had the opportunity to destroy Tang last year, but he did not pursue the victory, nor did he occupy Xiangyang and other counties. So his first move this year One target is obviously not Li Tang, but Li Mi. The unification of the Central Plains and the unification of the South will put the target on Li Tang. It's a pity that both the Chinese and the military were frightened by the great momentum created by the Sui army, and they didn't take what happened last year. Considering the overall situation, if you understand Emperor Shengwu's intentions, you won't be so passive."

"grandfather."

The eldest grandson Pei Hong saluted. He is the eldest son of Pei Xuanji. He is 24 years old this year and he is also a person who Pei Ju focused on training. He only heard him say: "The emperor lost too much troops in the Eastern Expedition last year. I think Emperor Shengwu could do it back then." Taking advantage of the victory, they occupied Chongling, Xiangyang, Yiling, Xicheng, Fangling and other counties that were empty of troops, and forced the Li Tang Dynasty to retreat into Bashu. At that time, he only needed to send an army to block Yiling, so that the Tang army He couldn't leave Shu, so it wouldn't be like today. He had to deal with Li Mi and waste countless troops to defend Li Tang. There's a big problem left."

Pei Ju asked, "Let me ask you, is it better to fight Jingxiang or Bashu?"

"Naturally it's Jingxiang..." Pei Hong said this, and suddenly realized: "I understand, the reason why Emperor Shengwu suddenly accepted him was that he hoped that the Li Tang Dynasty would draw all the war potential to Jingxiang, and then bring Li Tang to Jingxiang. The dynasty and all the troops were wiped out in Jingxiang, so Bashu, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, is almost settled without a fight."

"good."

Pei Ju smiled and nodded, "These grand strategies are not important to you now. What is important to you is the change in the power structure of the Li and Tang dynasties after the failure of the Eastern Expedition. Think about it carefully, when the emperor returned to Xiangyang, what happened in the court what change?"

Pei Hong thought for a moment, and said: "After the Holy Majesty returned to Xiangyang, firstly, he scattered the generals of King Jin's lineage everywhere, and separated from King Jin to form a whole. Secondly, he adjusted the chief officials of the Political Affairs Hall and the six ministries of the three provinces. It is used in military, financial, civilian positions that are closely related to the country."

"That's right, why did His Majesty do this?" Pei Ju guided the eldest grandson's thinking step by step.

"I think the Holy Majesty is balancing power. Most of the important positions before were held by the Guanlong nobles, but after the Sui army released rumors of reconciliation with the world's aristocratic families, the Guanlong nobles were ready to move, and the Guanlong nobles turned against the Western Wei Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty, and the Zhou Dynasty. On the other hand, in the Sui Dynasty, there was still the practice of killing the lord. Seeing that the situation in the Tang Dynasty was not good, he was afraid that the Guanlong nobles would rebel against the Tang Dynasty again, so he included his cronies in the power structure. However, the official position is limited, which requires many people to step aside , it will become logical to attack the powerful Dugu faction." Under the careful guidance of his grandfather, Pei Hong had a glimpse of the path of power change, and his thinking became clear.

Pei Ju was very satisfied with the eldest grandson's clarity, and asked again: "With the death of Duguzheng and Dugu Huai'en, there is no one in the court who can talk to the Dugu family. Dou Gui took the opportunity to win over many Dugu faction families Except for the relationship with the Yuan and Zhao clans, the Dugu clan is almost isolated, where do you think the next step will be for the Holy One?"

"Next step?" Pei Hong frowned and thought hard.

At this moment, Pei Hong's younger brother, Pei Xu, said: "Grandfather, brother, I think the next thing the Holy Majesty will deal with is the Dugu family."

Pei Hong suddenly realized, and asked, "What is your basis?"

"During the court meeting in the Yuan Dynasty, the Holy Majesty officially promulgated the land system for military merits. All generals who have made military merits will be rewarded with land, but the land obtained for exterminating Buddhas is far from enough." Speaking of this, Pei Xu changed the topic: "And Guan Long Although the nobles are weak now, they are only in power compared to the past. The former Guanlong nobles benefited from their illustrious power and plundered all over the world, resulting in land and commerce all over the world. Restrictions were made to curb the excessive expansion of the Guanlong nobles. Emperor Wu started with the huge land properties of the Guanlong nobles and found a lot of evidence of crimes, forcing them to exchange illegally obtained land for Emperor Wu's forgiveness. At the beginning of troubled times, the Guanlong nobles Withdrew to Guanlong's lair. Although Guanlong was lost, they still had strong power and wealth in Bashu. Most of the good land was owned by Guanlong nobles, and all kinds of profitable businesses were also monopolized by them. The Dugu family owned countless properties in Bashu, and These are exactly what the Holy Majesty needs."

Pei Ju stroked his beard and smiled. It was exactly what he liked to see his grandson discussing with each other, and they were going in the right direction, and the content of the discussion was getting closer to the essence.

Just now, Pei Xuanji's report came from outside the door: "Father, Pei Xiangguo urgently asks to see you."

"Why is he here?" Pei Ju frowned upon hearing this, and his voice was full of disgust.

Pei Xiangguo was naturally Pei Ji.He is of the same generation as Pei Ju and Pei Yun, but this person has too much desire for power, he will do anything for the sake of power, and he will do anything. This kind of crazy gambler has never been favored by the prudent Pei Ju and Pei Yun. Hi, when the two were both prime ministers of the Sui Dynasty, they were afraid that the Pei family would be destroyed by this person, so they never seriously supported them, so they have been idle Jinyang palace supervisors all along.What happened later also proved Pei Ju and Pei Yun's conjectures. When the situation was unclear, Pei Ji had been inciting Li Yuan to rebel.

The original Patriarch of the Pei family was Pei Ju, who came from the direct line, but after Pei Ji, a concubine, became Li Tang's founding hero, he took advantage of Li Yuan's closeness to seize the position of Patriarch, and kept speaking ill of him in front of Li Yuan behind Pei Ju's back. From then on, Pei Ju cut off contact with him and took care of his line of work seriously.Unexpectedly, this guy suddenly visited at night, which made Pei Ju's good mood disappear all at once.

"It seems to be related to the relocation of the capital." Pei Xuanji outside the door also knew the conflict between his father and Pei Ji, and quickly said: "If father is inconvenient, I will send him away."

Pei Ju thought for a moment, then said, "Let him wait in the study outside."

I must see you. After all, Pei Ji is the Xiangguo of the Li Tang Dynasty, and it is very likely that Li Yuan asked him to come to him. The key is that he has lost power in the Li Tang Dynasty and cannot get first-hand information. He also wants to get it from Pei Ji. Some information that I don't know to support my analysis.

Pei Ju changed his clothes and came to the outer study without haste. The door was not closed, and Pei Ji could be seen sitting there with his head bowed in thought, with a serious expression on his face.So he coughed lightly, walked into the room, cupped his hands with a chuckle and said, "It's a sin to keep Pei Xiangguo waiting."

"Brother, you are welcome."

Pei Ji hurriedly got up to return the salute, even though he was Li Tang Xiangguo, even though Pei Ju had no official position, no matter how much he plotted against Pei Ju behind his back, when facing Pei Ju directly, the sense of awe accumulated over the years still gushed out involuntarily, It looked very humble.

The reason why he came to the door overnight was indeed for the purpose of moving the capital, but it was not Li Yuan's intention, but his own.

The people Li Yuan trusted most before were Pei Ji and Liu Wenjing. Because Pei Ji was good at observing appearances, and Liu Wenjing was very bookish, especially if he offended others, Li Yuan relied more on Pei Ji. Li Deliang was killed, and Bingzhou fell, and he and Liu Wenjing had to fight for three points unreasonably. Now, both of them are disgusted and disgusted by Li Yuan, and they are gradually alienated, while Chen Shuda and Xiao Yu have become Profitable fisherman.

Liu Wenjing is familiar with military affairs, has a strong view of the overall situation, and is good at planning huge battles. He has always been an indispensable figure for Li Yuan. In addition, Liu Wenjing has become much more tactful after years of experience, so Li Yuan does not pay attention to Chen Shuda and Xiao Yu. Alienated and neglected Liu Wenjing.However, Pei Ji is an expert in internal fighting, a layman in external wars, and has the loss of Bingzhou, which is no longer important to Li Yuan. He is a prime minister in name, but in fact he has been far away from the center.

Pei Ji didn't know whether Li Yuan's visit to Bashu was really a visit, or if he moved the capital. He wanted to hear Pei Ju's opinion, so he took a sip of tea, put down the tea cup and asked, "Brother, have you heard the news that the Holy Admiral is going to visit Bashu?"

"This matter has caused a lot of trouble, so I have heard of it." Pei Ju smiled and said: "The emperor's tour has been a top priority since ancient times. It is said in the workshop that the emperor's tour is a prelude to the actual capital move, but I don't know if it is true or not. gone."

Pei Ji murmured: "I heard that Li Mi is dead."

"Is this true?" Pei Ju was shocked by this news, "Isn't this too fast?"

Pei Ji smiled wryly and said, "Yang Tong went south across the sea, attacked Li Mi's rear, captured Jiangdu, and then played a few easy games, and Li Mi was finished."

Pei Ju nodded, Li Mi's dead, the next step of the Sui Dynasty would naturally be to attack Li Tang, Li Yuan was afraid that he would not be able to defeat him, so he ran away in the name of patrolling Bashu, once he arrived in Bashu, he would not return to Xiangyang.

This principle is exactly the same as that of Yang Guang's southern tour of Jiangdu. Yang Guang's cleverness is that he never mentioned moving the capital. In addition, he has traveled all over the world all year round, so when he proposed to tour Jiangdu in the south, there was very little resistance. I just hope that he will sit in Luoyang and command the army to suppress the rebellion and increase the confidence of the court, but Yang Guang never came back after he left.

With Yang Guang's southern tour as an example and the news of Li Mi's demise as proof, Pei Ju immediately saw through Li Yuan's real motive for the tour, and asked, "What is the reaction of the court officials?"

Pei Ji sighed slightly, "The news of Li Mi's defeat is still being kept secret. This news is only limited to the Political Affairs Hall. Ninety-nine percent of the people in Xiangyang don't know about Li Mi. There is a lot of opposition, and the Guanlong nobles are pushing behind it, and they have created a book of opposition, and many people have signed it."

"Li Mi's defeat, the battle between Sui and Tang Dynasties is imminent, Xiangyang has become the frontier of the war, the court is not safe here, I am afraid that the Holy Majesty has the idea of ​​moving the capital, as the saying goes, a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall, moving the capital is indeed a wise choice, you What do you think?" Pei Ju glanced at him and asked with a half-smile.

"It is indeed necessary to move the capital at this moment!" Pei Ji nodded, and then said: "What I just can't figure out is that if the news of Li Mi's defeat is told, many people will also know that the Sui and Tang Dynasties are about to break out, and the opposition will be at least Therefore, more than half of the time, why should the news of Li Mi's defeat spread to Xiangyang, and let go of the wind of inspection. I can't figure it out, so I ask my brother for advice."

After listening for so long, Pei Ju finally knew that Pei Ji had already been kicked out of Li Tang's core by Li Yuan. Otherwise, he would not have been suspicious, but got a clear answer directly from Li Yuan. He suddenly felt that Pei Ji could make himself I got a lot of unknown information, so I decided to help him, as long as I help him analyze it thoroughly, then I will share some secrets in the future, so I said: "If I guess correctly, this time the Holy Majesty is going to take the opponents Sweep it all out. Before Li Mi's defeat, he sent out inspection tours in Bashu to draw out those who disagreed with the court. You see, the news of Li Mi's defeat will definitely continue to be concealed until it can no longer be concealed. People who oppose the inspection this time, I'm afraid no one can escape."

Pei Ji's face turned completely pale. What a powerful person Pei Ju was, he immediately saw Pei Ji's uneasiness, and asked, "Could it be that you also signed the objection book?"

Pei Ji shook his head: "I didn't understand the real intention of the Holy Majesty, so naturally I would not sign hastily, but I saw that the initiator was Yu Yun, and there were more than 100 names behind it. This list has a strong lineup except Dou's. , including most of the Guanlong patriarchs, as well as many officials from the Guandong gentry."

"These people are doomed, and they will surely die." Pei Ju concluded.

"With so many people, will the Holy Majesty be able to deal with it?"

Pei Ju glanced at Pei Ji, and found that Pei Ji had known Li Yuan for so many years, and he couldn't understand Li Yuan's nature at all, let alone the madness of a dying emperor, and then said: "When the regime is facing a major crisis, the suspicion of the superior This is a rule that has been hard to break since ancient times. The wise and powerful Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was no exception, the extravagant Gao Wei was no exception, and Emperor Wu of the Sui Dynasty was no exception. Today, when the crisis of the Li and Tang Dynasties is getting worse Because of the reconciliation order of the Sui Dynasty, the Guanlong nobles have a new way out, and not many people are willing to live and die with Li Tang. These people are very likely to cooperate with Yang Tong and dedicate Jingxiang Bashu to Yang Tong. Just like when they betrayed the Great Sui Dynasty and dedicated Guanzhong to the Holy One, what are these people compared to the Great Tang Dynasty?"

"Little brother understands." Pei Ji was convinced now. He really didn't expect that there was such a big secret behind this simple matter. At this moment, he felt that the gap between himself and Pei Ju was too big. I guessed the root of it with just a few words, but I couldn't figure it out even if I tried my best.

Pei Ju didn't say anything more, he didn't trust Pei Ji very much, so he didn't tell Li Yuan about the Dugu family's property, if Pei Ji told Li Yuan, he would be out of luck.And what I said before, in fact, as long as he is a wise bystander, he can see a thing or two, so he is not worried about anything, and he believes that Pei Ji will not be stupid enough to spoil Li Yuan's plan. In his words, he took the opportunity to add fuel to the flames and get some credit for it.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

At the same time, there was a heavy rain in the sky. Li Shimin, escorted by more than a thousand cavalry, rushed from Yiling to Xiangyang. After a long-distance raid for a day, he passed Yiqing County in Xiangyang, and the brightly lit Xiangyang City could be seen in the distance.

The news of Li Mi's demise came back from his intelligence point in Nanjun. Li Shimin was extremely surprised and worried that the Sui and Tang Dynasties would soon follow, so he went back to Beijing in the rain to discuss countermeasures with his father. Years of military career have given him a healthy body, but the heavy rain can make him more sober.

At this moment, Li Shimin only felt a sudden twitch between his eyebrows, and a warning sign suddenly rose in his heart. As an outstanding archer, he was very familiar with this feeling, and rolled on the spot without the slightest hesitation.

"Puff puff puff"

A series of five crossbow arrows shot at his horse, and the horse fell to the ground, foaming at the mouth and dying.

"poisonous."

Li Shimin broke out in a cold sweat, and said loudly: "There are assassins, everyone be careful."

Almost at the same time as the order was issued, dozens of figures appeared in the bushes on both sides of the official road. These people did not speak, and each raised their crossbows to aim at Li Shimin's direction and fired a round.

Fortunately, Li Shimin retreated quickly. The crossbows held by these people were not only the two-stone rhubarb crossbows specially used in the army, but the arrows were very poisonous.

Also at this time, more than a hundred masked men rushed to the official road, and without saying a word, they launched a fierce attack on the place where Li Shimin was with the weapons in their hands.

Li Shimin reacted quickly, took the bow and arrow from the dead horse, and without looking carefully, he stretched the bow and set the arrow, pulling the string like a full moon, and fired three arrows at once, and the three arrows shot at the fastest and closest masked man like lightning. People, the other party probably didn't expect Li Shimin to be so calm at this time, let alone Li Shimin's reaction so fast, caught off guard, was directly shot by Li Shimin and fell to the ground screaming.

"Blow the horn!"

Li Shimin drew his bow three times in a row, and after shooting down nine people, he felt that he could not react in time, so he threw the bow and arrow, and pulled out the Dingtang knife from his waist with his backhand. The Dingtang knife may not be as famous as Zhanlu, Longyuan, Ganjiang, and Moxie , but also extremely sharp, Li Shimin just swept the horizontal knife, and cut off all the five horizontal knives close to him. Li Shimin is also stabbed.

Li Shimin flashed sideways, with a faint brilliance flashing, and an assassin's forehead was split open with a knife.

Zhai Changsun, who was the commander of the personal guards again, took off the horn from his waist and blew it on his cheeks. This is the horn of the Red Armored Army under Li Shimin's command. After the Red Armored Army was defeated in the battle of Zhuyangguan, Li Shimin joined the army again , The folks selected brave men and trained them day and night. In view of the destruction of the Red Armored Army, Zhai Changsun not only increased the amount of training, but also found assassination techniques from ancient books. After training day and night, although the Red Armored Army had not Formed, but each has a certain level.When they heard the sound of the horn, they would kill immediately.

After Zhai Changsun blew the horn, he shook his spear and joined forces with Li Shimin to kill the enemy. The two of them fought together. Li Shimin, who had lost his horse, defended, and Zhai Changsun mainly attacked. Can't get close.

But the Red Armored Army on this section of the road suffered disaster. They were hunted down one after another by assassins with powerful crossbows, and they fell to the ground without saying a word.However, the Red Armored Army had a large number of people, and the assassins' crossbows were slow to reload. They saw the Red Armored Army rushing in, but they were unable to take down Li Shimin. They blew a whistle for the first assassin, and a group of assassins were about to retreat.

"Fire the arrows!" Zhai Changsun saw that the opponent was about to retreat at this moment, so he was not willing to give up. With a stern shout, the Red Armored Army quickly took off their crossbows, and fired a volley at the assassin who was about to retreat, half of them fell down in an instant. The rest retreated in panic.

"Don't enter the forest, don't chase after the poor, don't fall into the tricks of the thieves." Li Shimin waved his hand to stop the eldest grandson Zhai who wanted to pursue, and ordered: "Everyone should perform their duties!"

"Here!" Zhai Changsun responded and ordered people to strengthen their guard. The deputy commander, Tian Liu'an, carefully looked at the assassins who had not been hit in the vitals, and turned to look at Li Shimin and said, "Your Highness, these assassins also committed suicide by swallowing poison."

"Don't worry about it, it's important to go back to Xiangyang." Li Shimin waved his hand and said, "Someone ask local officials to deal with these corpses."

"Does Your Highness know who the chief envoy is?" Zhai Changsun asked Li Shimin.

Li Shimin pondered for a while, then shook his head and said, "At this time, there are too many people who think that my royal family will die, and I don't know who did it."

"Could it be someone Yang Yu sent for it?" Zhai Changsun asked.

Li Shimin shook his head and said, "It can't be Yang Tong, he is a man of rules."

Zhai Chang felt that His Highness had lost his mind. If Yang Tong talked about the rules, then he, Zhai Changsun, would be a saint. He lost his voice and said, "Yang Tong talks about the rules? Then what happened to Li Mi back then?"

"Back then, Li Mi asked Pei Shiqing to marry Yang Tan's concubine and Wang Shichong. The purpose was to bring disaster to the east and try to trigger the war between Sui and Zheng. This behavior was the greatest insult to the royal family of the Sui Dynasty, and it also broke the law of war. This caused Yang Tong Horrific revenge, after that, he never launched an assassination on such a large scale." Li Shimin said solemnly: "He uses everything on the battlefield, but he always abides by the rule that disasters do not harm the family, otherwise he would not easily kill the royal family. The family members returned."

When Yang Tong stormed Daxing Palace, he almost caught Li Yuan, but even though Li Yuan escaped, the concubines, princes and daughters in the palace were all caught, and finally they spent a lot of money to redeem them. The shame of the royal family, but Li Shimin also had to admit that Yang Tong was very authentic in matters.

Zhai Changsun knew that it was related to the dignity of the royal family, so he said nothing more.

"Go back to Beijing." Li Shimin took the horse sent by a soldier, mounted the horse vertically, and ran towards Xiangyang City under the guard of the Red Armored Legion.

(End of this chapter)