The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 680
The night was deep, but the emperor Li Yuan did not fall asleep, and was still waiting for news from Han Zhi. He just finalized a general direction, and the specific affairs were decided by Han Zhi himself, but Li Yuan knew that there would be news anyway, so in the Imperial Study Room patiently waiting.

At this time, an eunuch reported at the door: "Your Majesty, Shi Hanzhi, Chief of Qi Wangfu, and Shi Hanzhi, Chief of Wuchuan, are asking to see you."

Li Yuan's spirit lifted: "Xuan!"

Not long after, Han Zhi walked in quickly, and with a proper expression of sincerity and fear, he bowed deeply: "My minister Han Zhi pays homage to the Holy One."

Han Zhi's petty respect and apprehension made Li Yuan feel very comfortable, and greatly satisfied his heart of prestige and respect, and said in harmony, "Han Qing is not polite, how is the situation?"

Han Zhigong said respectfully: "My Majesty, I chose to attack during dinner. When Wu Chuanwei entered the mansion, they were defenseless, and no one from all the mansions slipped through the net. Now the family members of all mansions are under house arrest in Dugu Mansion." , Dugu Mansion is extremely lively right now, and the children in every family are crying and crying. There are two purposes for this, one is to centralize it in one place, which is easier to control; , will definitely agree to the conditions of the Holy Majesty, and all the mounts and carriages that are available for them to leave will also be confiscated. As for the servant and the coachman, they will be imprisoned in the Wuchuan Si Prison."

"Han Qing has done a great job, no wonder King Qi values ​​it so much." Li Yuan nodded his praise and asked again: "What is Han Qing going to do next?"

"The humble officials plan to put them under house arrest for a few days first, and then separate them when they have internal strife, and then force them to hand over the army by breaking them one by one."

"Han Qing's method is a very good strategy, and I appreciate it very much."

"It's His Royal Highness King Qi who taught well. The humble minister just followed King Qi's teachings and did not dare to take credit for it."

"Haha, Han Qing is also meritorious. Once this matter is over, I will reward him heavily." Seeing that Han Zhi attributed the credit to his son, Li Yuan was even more satisfied with Han Zhi who knows how to advance and retreat.

"Thank you my Majesty." Han Zhi showed a grateful expression.

"Is there anything else to say?" Li Yuan asked with a smile.

Among his three sons, the eldest son Li Jiancheng and the second son Li Shimin are wise and courageous, they can be said to be dragons and phoenixes for a while, and they never need him to worry about it.Seeing that Li Yuanji also knew that he cared about the Tang court and controlled his subordinates submissively, this made him feel relieved.

Han Zhi saluted and said, "My lord, I have a suggestion."

"Say it!" Li Yuan was very satisfied with Han Zhi and wanted to hear his suggestion.

"Your Majesty, the nobles of Guanlong regard the private army as their lifeblood, and they would not agree to it at ordinary times. And the patriarchs are imprisoned in the Dugu Mansion. They know that life and death are at the discretion of the court. The only thing that makes the Holy Majesty worry about them is them. I am worried that after handing them over, they will become a group of lambs waiting to be slaughtered, and I am afraid that they will agree for a while."

"Han Ai's words are good, what's your suggestion?"

"Your Majesty, the Sui-Tang war is about to break out, and we don't have so much time to waste on the heads of the families. I suggest that the court adopt two-handed preparations. On the one hand, continue to persecute the heads of the families, and on the other hand, directly send capable people to confiscate their farms and use To motivate soldiers and enhance our army's combat power and will to fight."

Li Yuan also knew that he didn't have much time to spend with the Patriarchs. Han Zhi's method was correct in the general direction, but the details needed to be improved.

Li Jiancheng suggested early on to learn from the Sui Dynasty and use land to reward soldiers, but they did not implement it when they had no land. If they quickly confiscated the farms of the Dugu faction's Guanlong nobles, the court would have a large amount of land and could quickly implement the reward plan .

After pondering for a long time, Li Yuan said to Han Zhi again: "Your suggestion is very good, but each army is equal to the dead soldiers of each family. If they cannot be nationalized, these armies will definitely be strongly punished when the imperial court takes over the fields of each family. resistance."

Feeling Li Yuan's trust in him, Han Zhi knew that the opportunity had come, so he mustered up his courage and said, "My lord, each family is flourishing, and there are inevitably people from them in the city. The manor leaks the news, and Zhuang Ding's private army can quickly gather into a large army; if the imperial court sends out troops to suppress the news before it goes out of the city, these leaderless mobs can be defeated one by one, and they can even be defeated without a fight. Subduing others. At that time, the attitude of these patriarchs will no longer matter, isn't that how Li Mi dealt with the Jiangnan gentry?"

Li Yuan was stunned for a moment, nodded and said: "Let me think about it, you go back and preside over the overall situation first."

"Resignation." Han Zhi saluted and bowed to leave.

Li Yuan immediately summoned Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin, and Dou Gui to discuss. After hearing this, the three of them felt that Han Zhi's method was good, and strongly supported it. They hoped that Li Yuan would send troops to suppress it as soon as possible, so as to suppress the civil strife before it germinated.

Li Yuan no longer hesitated, and Li Yuanji of each Bashu issued an order to send troops to each manor, and at the same time let Li Shimin be responsible for destroying and surrendering the private army in the manors of several counties in Jingxiang.

But what Li Yuan didn't know was that when Han Zhi led Wu Chuanwei to surround Dugu Mansion, Dugu Wu, the head of Dugu's family, was ordered to go out to inquire about the news. When he saw the army surrounding Dugu Mansion, he quickly hid aside, Avoid Wu Chuanwei's arrest in time.

When he saw the army surrounding the mansion, he immediately realized that the situation was not good, so he fled to a part of Dugu Mansion, and informed Dugu Cheng's younger brother that Dugu Cheng was the eldest son of Dugu Shan, and he had a younger brother, Dugu Lan.

Dugu Lan talked with his elder brother and supported his brother against the Tang Dynasty. When he heard that Wu Chuanwei surrounded the main house, he immediately realized that the emperor was going to attack Dugu's family. Trustworthy people sent letters to Dugu Wudu, the son of Dugu Luo, who is in charge of the Bashu family property in Chengdu County, and Dugu Qingyun and Dugu Yanyun, who are in charge of the private army. At the same time, they also wrote letters to the heads of various private armies. , Tell them the situation in Xiangyang, let them follow the control of Dugu Qingyun and Dugu Yanyun as agreed, and raise troops to rescue the heads of the families.

Just when the two were discussing urgently, an arrow shot in from the window with a 'Dao' sound, and passed over Dugu Lan's head. Dugu Wu was shocked, he protected Dugu Lan behind his back, and pulled out the horizontal knife at his waist.

But there was no more movement outside the window. He carefully opened the window with a knife. Outside the window, the shadows of the trees danced, but there was no one.

When he turned around, he saw that Dugu Lan had already pulled out the arrow on the wall, and there was still a letter on the shaft, with only one sentence in the letter, 'Officers and soldiers are approaching, run away! '

Dugu Lan was startled, and quickly took out a bag of treasures to Dugu Wu, ordering: "Awu, hurry up and leave Xiangyang City alive."

"Second Master, the humble guard will leave you." Dugu Wu said in a deep voice.

"Confused."

Dugu Lan said angrily: "The old man is too old to escape. If the old man's guess is correct, Li Yuan must have closed the gate of the city. You are very skilled in martial arts, so it's easy to leave."

"Second Master..."

"Li Yuan needs everyone to be hostages. As long as the army is not lost, I and the heads of the various families will be fine. The lives of all the families are on you. Go." Dugu Lan said calmly: "You go through the side door in the backyard. No one knows about your house for the time being, you leave through the secret path, hurry up."

"Honestly obey orders."

Dugu Wu knocked his head heavily, hesitated for a moment, and immediately ran towards the backyard with a knife in his hand. At this moment, he heard the sound of footsteps coming from the side wall, and he was very anxious, so he ran straight backyard.

All the way out of the back door, in the night he could faintly hear the sound of running footsteps from a distant corner, and the torch was clearly visible dozens of steps away, Dugu Wu crossed the street without hesitation, and rushed into the mansion across the street.

There is a secret passage in the house, which leads directly to the Lifang next door, which is used by Dugu Lan for emergency escape, but only a few people know this secret, and Dugu Wu is one of them.

There is no one living in this house, the small door is not closed tightly, only a wooden bar is used as the bolt, Dugu Wu broke in, he quickly closed the small door, his heart was beating wildly with nervousness.

I saw someone shouting outside: "General Qi, the back door is not closed!"

A vicious voice said: "Rush in directly!"

Dugu Wu looked out from the crack of the door, and saw that the back door he had just left was brightly lit, and more than a hundred Wu Chuan guards had gathered, and the leader was Dou Cong's eldest son, Dou Ping.

Not long after Dou Ping led the soldiers into the mansion in the backyard, there were screams. It was obvious that Dou Ping had brutally attacked the guards in the mansion.

Dugu Wu hated extremely in his heart, but when he thought of his mission, he tried hard to stop his desperate thoughts, gritted his teeth and fastened the door, turned around and ran towards the secret path in the backyard, but he was also full of doubts, who informed Dugu Lan .

. . . . . . . . . .

At noon the next day, Han Zhi took a few of his confidants into Lingyun Winery for a meal. Seeing the arrival of the proprietor, the shopkeeper personally greeted them. According to Han Zhi's instructions, he entertained the group of senior generals of the Wuchuan Division with delicious food. On the way, Han Zhi excused himself to leave. When I got to the balcony, I saw a young man waiting.

This young man was Yang Jing who was in direct contact with him, and he quickly stepped forward and asked, "What's the matter?"

Yang Jing saluted and said: "We heard that many nobles in Guanlong had accidents last night, and we want to know what happened."

Han Zhi said in a deep voice: "Li Yuan has already grasped the evidence of the Dugu family's rebellion, and the heads of the Dugu faction of the Guanlong nobles participated in it. They were all caught up by Wu Chuansi last night. All the heads and their families were under house arrest in the Dugu mansion. One is centralized control, and the other is to use the family members as a threat to cause them to have internal strife so that they can be defeated one by one. The current reason is that the Sui army secretly infiltrated a large number of people. In order to ensure the safety of these founding heroes, Li Yuan concentrated "protection" by the court. Those who know the truth are extremely Few, very few, but the fire is not contained in the paper, I believe it will not be long before the real news will leak out, and there will be an uproar in Xiangyang."

Yang Jing asked puzzledly: "Since the evidence of treason has been obtained, why didn't Li Yuan kill people directly? Is there another mystery?"

Han Zhi said: "Li Yuan can't bear the price of rebellion by private armies. He wants to use peaceful means to force the nobles of Guanlong to compromise, and voluntarily hand over the private army so that these private armies can become Li Tang's army. There are also as many as 5 to [-] people. The Guanlong noble families are not monolithic, and they are very likely to be defeated by Li Yuan by threatening his wealth and seducing high-ranking officials with huge profits. When they hand over their private army, they are actually not far from death. gone."

Yang Jing also knew the existence of these private troops. Although they were scattered in various manors of various families, they could be assembled with a huge strength. It is said that these private troops are not only well-equipped, but also well-trained. They are a very powerful elite division. However, the Guanlong nobles are now vacillating between the Sui and Tang Dynasties, so the threat of this private army to the Li and Tang Dynasty can be imagined, and it is no wonder that Li Yuan wants to put the various patriarchs under house arrest.

He asked again: "The nobles of Guanlong penetrated deeply in the Li and Tang Dynasty. Almost every temple and local government has their disciples, and there are many in the army. Isn't Li Yuan afraid of causing turmoil in the government and the army?"

"This army poses a hundred times more serious threat to the Li and Tang Dynasty than the turmoil between the government and the public. Li Yuan is worried that they will cooperate with the Sui army, so he wants to eradicate this army, and taking it as his own is the result he wants most. And Li Yuan dispatched it last night. Armies from all over the country stormed the estates of various families in order to annihilate the threat before it broke out."

"No wonder there was no riot last night." Yang Jing suddenly said.

"All the descendants of the Dugu faction have fallen into the hands of Li Yuan. How dare they make trouble? What capital do they have to make trouble?" Han Zhi sneered, and then said: "Li Yuan has been preparing for this day for more than half a year. Li Yuan is well aware of the children and disciples from all over the country and in the army, and he will deal with these people ruthlessly before the news leaks out. If these people learn the news that the Patriarch is under house arrest before Li Yuan lays hands on them, they will definitely make trouble. Sui Baili is harmless."

"I see." Yang Jing nodded: "I will try to report to the imperial capital!"

"It couldn't be better like this," Han Zhi said.

Yang Jing couldn't bear the curiosity in his heart, and asked, "Who is the envoy?"

Han Zhi chuckled: "I am the No.1 who has obtained a lot of secrets. It is related to the layout of the Holy Majesty against Li Tang. Emperor Wu's people will do."

Yang Jing nodded, and changed the subject: "We found that Li Yuanji is very cunning now. Could it be that his idleness in the past was all just pretending?"

Han Zhi sneered and said: "You think highly of Li Yuanji, this ugly ghost is still as arrogant, vicious and vicious as ever, and he hasn't made much progress, but he has the heart to win the heir, so he listened to the advice of his advisers and became low-key Come to think of it, in fact he is still the original Li Yuanji."

Only then did Yang Jing suddenly realize that Li Yuanji had the desire to seize the heir apparent. No wonder he was doing things differently recently. He asked again: "What happened to the nobles of Guanlong last night, how should we deal with it?"

Han Zhi said solemnly: "The matter is of great importance, and Li Yuan has been staring at this matter all the time. There is no benefit in rashly doing anything other than exposing ourselves. All we have to do is to report the latest information to the Holy Majesty, or execute orders."

"I understand." Yang Jing nodded silently.

"Okay, I should go." Han Zhi took a few steps, then turned his head and reminded in a low voice: "Li Yuan is very likely to make a big fuss and try to lure the Sui army into secret operations. If my brother is really discovered, I can only be cruel. Kill people. You must be careful and careful, I don't want my hands to be stained with the blood of my brothers."

"Thank you for reminding me." Yang Jing felt awe-inspiring.

He also knew that the other party was a very important figure in the puppet Tang Dynasty, and it must have been very difficult to achieve this step today.As far as the court is concerned, its value far exceeds the sum of all the secret works. As long as he is still alive, even if all the secret works are dead, the court can still obtain important information.On the other hand, even if there are many civilian-style meticulous work in Xiangyang, it will not be of much use.

Not long after Han Zhi left, Yang Jing also returned to the information point and reported the information he had obtained to his grandfather Yang Ji.According to Han Zhi's suggestion, Yang Ji promoted a capable man who didn't know the situation to be the shopkeeper, and was in charge of the business of the store, while his family and other intelligence personnel moved to another stronghold.

After about an hour, the three letter eagles flew into the sky and flew towards the northeast.At dusk, the three Xinying landed in the Wanqiu military camp in Huaiyang County.

When Du Ruhui received the news, he hurried to the big tent of the Chinese army and asked a Shura guard, "Is the Holy Majesty there?"

The Asura Guard saluted and said: "Reporting to Du Shangshu, the Holy One is still there, but I'm going to have dinner later."

"Report to the Holy One quickly, and say that I have urgent military affairs to see."

Not long after this Asura Guard entered, he quickly came back and said, "Du Shangshu, Your Majesty invites you to enter!"

Du Ruhui hurried in, only to see Yang Tong waiting for him, he quickly saluted and said: "My humble minister sees the Holy One."

Yang Tong asked with a smile, "Is it Shubao or Pei Shangshu's military situation?"

Du Ruhui replied: "It's news from Xiangyang."

"What happened to Xiangyang?"

"Please have a look." Du Ruhui handed the eagle letter to Yang Tong respectfully.

Yang Tong took it over and saw that the letter not only mentioned that Li Yuan imprisoned the Patriarch of the Dugu faction, but also mentioned that Li Yuan wanted to get the private troops of various families, so he couldn't help laughing: "If I were Li Yuan, I would have started to remove the customs as early as after I moved to Xiangyang. The Long nobleman is a hidden danger, instead of waiting until there is a crisis before taking action."

Du Ruhui said: "Weichen also thinks that Li Yuan should have done it long ago. Apart from adding to the turmoil, it seems that there is no benefit. It is a very unwise choice."

Yang Tong shook his head and said: "Li Yuan is a dead pig who is not afraid of boiling water. Compared with his country, a short-term turmoil is not a big deal. What he is most afraid of now is that during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Guan with heavy soldiers in his hands The Long nobles assembled their forces to cooperate with us inside and outside, he said that we must first settle inside when we fight against outsiders."

"My lord, shouldn't we support the Dugu faction? Let's send a large army to put pressure on Li Yuan, forcing him to release the patriarchs, so as to show favor to these Guanlong nobles, so that they will do their best for us." Du Ruhui suggested.

"The emperor's grandfather once told me..." Yang Tong said: "Since the Yongjia Rebellion, the regimes of the Southern and Northern Dynasties have changed one after another, and none of them lasted long. It was divided into two by Zhou Qi. The Sinicization reform measures implemented by Emperor Xiaowen eased class conflicts and played a positive role in economic recovery and development. However, the Xianbei people did not have high cultural literacy, nor did they have reform ideas suitable for the actual situation of the Northern Wei Dynasty , which led to the complete Sinicization of the system promoted by Emperor Xiaowen without sublation, especially the Dading clan surname, and the transplantation of the aristocratic system, which caused the rapid corruption of the Tuoba nobles in Xianbei who had no cultural accumulation, which seriously eroded the vigor and vitality of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Vitality intensified contradictions and conflicts, causing the Northern Wei Dynasty to quickly turn from prosperity to decline. In short, Emperor Xiaowen’s sinicization reforms were not only not suitable for the national conditions of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the conditions of the Xianbei clan, but also the beginning of the crisis in the Northern Wei Dynasty. As a result, the wind of the clan flourished, and Yu Wentai established the Guanlong clan, and finally he was able to establish a country, but his dynasty was still destroyed by the clan. Therefore, the cancer of the world is nothing more than the old clan, and the poison of the clan is headed by Guanlong. Emperor Wendi II No matter how hard the emperor tried, he couldn't help them, and was almost destroyed by the nobles of Guanlong, so the Guanlong Clan is my confidant's first concern in the Sui Dynasty. If Li Yuan can eliminate this long-term hidden danger for me, why not do it?"

Speaking of this, Yang Tong said with a faint smile to Du Ru: "The seeds of trust between the emperor and ministers that you sowed in Xiangyang at the beginning of the year have successfully taken root and germinated, and the time for flowering and fruiting is not far away."

Thinking of the scene where the heads of the noble families of Guanlong visited together, Du Ruhui smiled knowingly, "So, the battle between the Sui and Tang Dynasties will be delayed again?"

"I can give Li Yuan time." Yang Tong couldn't help laughing when he said this: "Others may not be willing to give Li Yuan time. Remember to send an eagle letter to Shen Guang. He is in Bashu, the heartland of the puppet Tang Dynasty. , is far more convenient than ours, I think he will definitely take advantage of this opportunity and cause trouble for Li Yuan."

"Here."

Du Ruhui also laughed.

(End of this chapter)