The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 704 Sui and Tang Conspiracy
In the early morning of the next day, Li Jiancheng, led by several court ladies, arrived at Jiuzhou Pool in Ziwei City. This was the first time in his life that he entered the palace city of Ziwei City.By the pool, the palaces are hidden in the dense shade of trees, and the gurgling stream makes people feel like they are in the jungle. It seems that everything is kept in the original state of the forest. However, most of the flowers and trees are rare species, which shows that everything is man-made, but it maintains the original state of the forest. Such natural beauty can be described as unique ingenuity.

Walking through a secluded and secluded path, in front of you is a semicircular bluestone platform that extends into the lake, surrounded by exquisitely carved railings, and a group of red carps wrestle up and down in the lake below the platform.At the end of the platform, a white jade arch bridge connects the islands in the center of the lake, and a magnificent three-story palace appears in front of you, with the three characters of "Yaoguang Palace" written on it.

At this time, the sky is dyed red with the morning glow, and dawn rays pass through the magnificent clouds. The entire Jiuzhou Pool shines like a fairy palace.It makes Li Jiancheng feel like he is in a wonderful fairyland, and his heart full of mortals seems to have been washed.

But the lady-in-waiting did not take him up the arched bridge, but turned to a bluestone pavilion by the pool. Behind it was a towering old locust tree, like a canopy, covering half of the pavilion. There was a coffee table on a stone table in the pavilion, and a set of colored glaze was placed on it. Cups.

Beside the pavilion, Yang Tong in regular clothes stood waiting for a long time, Yang Tong cupped his hands from afar and said, "Brother, please."

"Renjin." Li Jiancheng stepped forward quickly, looking at Yang Tong, who seemed to come out of a picture scroll under the morning sun, and smiled in amazement: "I haven't seen you for many years, my virtuous brother is still so charming, like a banished fairy."

"Thank you, thank you." Yang Tong invited Li Jiancheng to a seat like a hospitable host, then made him a cup of tea, and said with a smile: "I should have met yesterday, but I think you two have been separated for many years and you have a lot to say, so let's go." I've given time to you."

"Speaking of which, I really want to thank my brother." Li Jiancheng said with a smile: "Third Younger Sister has a wild personality. I was worried that she would not be a good wife and mother, but now I feel relieved."

"No matter how aggressive a woman is, once she has a child, she will change." Yang Tong could sense Li Jiancheng's sincere joy for his sister.

"That's not true."

Li Jiancheng took a sip of the tea, which left a lingering fragrance in his mouth and refreshed his mind. He said, "I'm used to drinking your tea, but the old sencha is really hard to swallow."

"If brother likes it, just bring some back. There are a lot of tribute tea this year."

"Thank you so much." Li Jiancheng said with a smile: "Tea soup improves eyesight and refreshes the mind. I have relied on this for years."

"Is brother busy?"

"Guarantee."

"Actually, I don't understand. It's still good to sit and drink tea and chat like now. Why do you have to fight and kill?"

"You know." Li Jiancheng shook his head and sighed: "It's easy to pick up, but it's too difficult to put down. At our level, how can we go back?"

Yang Tong asked with a smile, "You prince, are you tired of being a prince?"

"What do you think?" Li Jiancheng asked angrily.

Yang Tong laughed, and said, "Xiangyang City has been reduced to a storm center, and there are many people who want to kill you. You should be careful yourself. The gang of Guanlong nobles can do any kind of vicious tricks."

"Thank you dear brother for your concern, I will definitely be careful." Li Jiancheng was grateful in his heart, and asked again: "I didn't even know someone wanted my life, how did you know?"

Yang Tong smiled slightly, "It's normal. You probably know more about Sui than I do, right?"

Li Jiancheng nodded with a wry smile and said, "That's true. When I was in Xiangyang, I even lost my way, but when it comes to Zhuojun, Taiyuan, Yecheng, Daxing, Luoyang and other strong cities, few people are more familiar with it than me..."

"So, I know it's normal for someone to kill you." Yang Tong said: "The power structure over there is quite complicated, like a mess, and you can't even make sense of it."

"The reason why the Guanlong nobles are so powerful is because of the army. The Guanlong nobles have very deep connections in the military. During the Daye Period, more than half of the hundreds of thousands of standing troops were controlled by the Guanlong nobles. Most of the leaders of the government soldiers in various places were A disciple of the Guanlong nobles, a former official and general; the reason why Emperor Wu of the Sui Dynasty established the Xiaoguo Army was that the existing army was not credible, so he had to set up his own family and set up a royal guard. The same is true of our situation." Li Jiancheng I don't know what's going on with me, I feel that Yang Tong, an enemy, is more trustworthy than his own people.However, he is also more cautious, saying what everyone knows: "I'm not going to hide it from you, we actually wanted to move the capital a long time ago, but the Guanlong nobles opposed it strongly, and in this situation, the emperor has nothing to do. "

"Can you talk about these divisions of power?" These things are extremely beneficial to Yang Yu's governance of the country, and even if the important officials in the court knew about it, they dared not explain it thoroughly, because many important civil and military officials in the Sui Dynasty came from the fringes of the Guanlong Group s home.

"The relationship between the various clans of the Guanlong nobles is really too complicated. Even the two hostile clans are related by relatives. Only they know whether they are really hostile. So there is no way to break it down. I can only talk about it roughly."

Li Jiancheng thought for a while, then smiled wryly: "The clan system flourished in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. After the Sui Dynasty unified the world, the big and small clans were also concentrated in the Great Sui Dynasty. It can also be said that the previous Great Sui Dynasty was a world composed of powerful clans. At most, there are thousands of families at least, and each family has many branches and leaves, and no one can figure it out. But within the core power structure, there are actually three major systems. One is your Yang family royal family. Needless to say. Then there are the Guanlong nobles and nobles. The Guanlong nobles are represented by Jiafang. The second is the Dou family, which represents the interests of the emerging aristocracy, and the Changsun family belongs here. Of course, all families and clans are free, not to say that they have been firmly following anyone, just take the Dou Lu family. To put it bluntly, it was the core family of the Dugu faction before, but it actually joined the Dou faction long ago, and I only knew about it because Dou Gui recommended Dou Lukuan as a chancellor."

Seeing that Yang Tong listened very attentively, Li Jiancheng continued: "During Emperor Wen's time, the gentry were headed by the Hongnong Yang family and Wenxi Pei family. The Boling Cui family, the Taiyuan Wang family, the Bohai Gao family, the Southern Xiao family, the Southern Chen family, etc., were respectively attached to these two great gentry clans. They were said to be attached, but in fact they were combined because of political interests. There is no master-slave relationship between them. However, after Yang Xuangan's rebellion ended, Pei Yun, the censor, was ordered to liquidate, and took the opportunity to list all the families related to Yang's rebellion as followers of Yang Xuangan's rebellion. Tens of thousands of people were killed. There are countless clans that have been wiped out. Since then, the Pei faction has dominated the gentry."

Yang Tong nodded silently. He roughly understood that this kind of intricate network of interests, he is not very interested or concerned about it now. He just wants to get a skeleton so that he can classify it in the future.

At this time, Li Jiancheng said again: "In troubled times, everything is in chaos. Many elites have launched their representatives to seek heaven, such as Lu Shi Lu Mingyue, Gao Shida Gao Shida, Gao Kaidao Gao, Zhang Jincheng and others. There are aristocrats pushing, but there seems to be some contradictions, Lu Shi Lu Mingyue, Gao Shida, Zhang Jincheng broke with the aristocrats who presided over them successively, causing the situation in Hebei to completely get out of control, and in the end, it was easy for you in vain."

"Brother, I agree with that." Yang Tong nodded and smiled, "If it weren't for the fact that dozens of forces, large and small, have devastated Jizhou and Youzhou successively, even if various policies are implemented as expected, there will be internal conflicts. All ethnic groups thought we were in the midst of civil strife and were unable to go north, so the Khitan and Goguryeo and other ethnic groups were caught off guard by me. I really have to thank Gao Shida and the others.”

Yang Tong's calmness made Li Jiancheng secretly upset.He even sighed secretly in his heart, it's a pity, if he hadn't been a hostile force, he would have become one of his subordinates, but...

"Brother's intention, I heard." Yang Tong refills tea for Li Jiancheng, and the tea is full of eight points.

Li Jiancheng's heart suddenly hung up.

"I promise."

"what?"

Li Jiancheng screamed in dismay, he was ready to be rejected, and he also prepared some words that could impress Yang Tong, who would have thought that Yang Tong would agree so simply.

"But I'm kind of demanding."

"Brother, please tell me." This is normal. It is not in the interests of the Sui Dynasty to have no desires and demands. Li Jiancheng is not at ease if there is no demand.

"My first request is to kill all the nobles of Guanlong."

"What kind of request is this?" Li Jiancheng said with a wry smile: "The nobles of Guanlong have rebelled. Even if my brother doesn't say anything, we will still deal with the nobles of Guanlong."

Yang Tong nodded and said, "But you haven't considered clearly how far you want to deal with the Guanlong nobles. I'm helping you make up your mind."

Li Jiancheng couldn't help laughing: "What does this have to do with you?"

Yang Tong said: "There is nothing more poisonous in the world than clansmen, and the poison of clansmen is nothing more than the nobles of Guanlong. They control the military and government, deceive the superiors and conceal the truth, and rebel at every turn, poisoning the world. The biggest problem with the two emperors, Wen and Wu, in my dynasty is for the sake of the world." An Ding, did not break the old forces in a bloody way, but made repeated concessions to the Guanlong nobles by drinking poison to quench their thirst, which led to the establishment of the Sui Dynasty since the founding of the country, and there has never been a day of real peace, and I will never repeat the same thing." Yang. Dong said very frankly: "As long as they are still around, no matter whether it is the Sui Dynasty or the Tang Dynasty that finally unified the world, they will try their best to restore their former glory. Now that the Guanlong nobles are rebelling against the Tang Dynasty, it is an opportunity to eradicate the chaos in future generations... as long as you I am willing to completely annihilate it, and for the sake of peace in the next few hundred years, the Sui side can cease the war and give you time to rectify. What I mean is very obvious, that is, the Sui and Tang dynasties joined forces to annihilate the Guanlong nobles."

"On the issue of the Guanlong nobles, the goals of the Sui and Tang dynasties were the same, and they both turned against the Tang Dynasty. We have no reason to leave troubles for ourselves." The more Li Jiancheng said, the more absurd and interesting he became. He took a sip of tea, and said cheerfully: "To tell you the truth, I also think that all the strategic materials of the Guanlong nobles must be confiscated, including land, grain, armor, war horses, pig iron, and even gold and copper coins as military expenses. This time it is indeed annihilation of the Guanlong nobles. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you give them vitality, they will definitely retaliate in the future. For the sake of future generations, they must be completely defeated. My Tang Dynasty also has the capital to contend with you. If you are willing to truce, it will be more calm and thorough for us to clean up the Guanlong nobles."

Yang Tong nodded, "The second request is that I want you to bring in more Tubo troops, preferably all their elite troops."

"Stop underestimating people." Li Jiancheng was very embarrassed, and said with a dark face: "My Tang army is not a waste, it may not be able to beat you, can we use the Tubo people?"

"Misunderstood."

"It's more or less the same." Li Jiancheng's complexion improved when he heard this.

Yang Tong continued, "It's not just the army that is trash, but Li and Tang's generals are all trash. It's actually quite normal for a big trash to bring out a bunch of trash."

"You..." Li Jiancheng burst into flames
"Okay, okay, just kidding... If you are confident, you won't agree to form an alliance."

"I objected." Li Jiancheng said discouragedly.

"It doesn't matter." Yang Tong chuckled and asked, "Are you agreeing or not?"

Li Jiancheng pondered: "Are you so confident?"

Yang Tong said: "The strength is there, do I dare not be confident?"

Li Jiancheng asked disgustingly: "Did Tubo offend you?"

"That's not true. I just wanted to destroy him. However, the environment on the plateau is harsh, and it is difficult for our people to survive on it. Since they sent them to our door, they happened to catch them all in one go. This is also for future generations."

"It's hard to say. After all, Tubo is not my Tang Dynasty. How many soldiers are sent, we don't care."

"As long as you promise to divide the world equally, the Tubo people should pour out their country to fight."

"You want me to bear the name of traitorous Tang, right?"

"As the saying goes, you don't get itchy when you have lice, you don't get worried when you have debts, and you don't get scalded by dead pigs. It's not your first time, so why not sell it a few more times? Anyway, I'm here, and I can't sell it even if I want to. What are you afraid of? And one more time The support army has a better chance of winning, and with the full support of the Tubo army, maybe you can really unify the world." Looking at Li Jiancheng with a pale face, Yang Tong said with a smile: "History books are always written by the victors, as long as you can seize the world, History books only say that I, Yang Tong, are licentious, cruel and ruthless, but who dares to say that your Li family is traitorous?"

Li Jiancheng said angrily: "Nowadays, books are popular all over the world, and you can't stop talking if you want to. There will always be someone who will record the events of this dynasty. Moreover, I will not do the scandal of tampering with history books,"

"You are too soft-hearted, so you can't do others." Yang Tong shook his head.

Li Jiancheng asked curiously, "Who?"

"me."

"You are indeed outstanding, and I am not as good as you." Li Jiancheng admitted it very bachelorly, and then said: "About Tubo, I can only say that I am doing my best."

Li Jiancheng knew that the Tang army was very scattered, and that when the soldiers met, they would have no advantage at all. Once they entered Shu, they would be able to squeeze the Tang army into fists. , can't support so many troops at all, and still can't support the Sui army that has eight or nine world support. Yang Yu can kill Li Tang just by fighting for consumption, and the fact that the Tang Dynasty and Tubo have formed an alliance is an unchangeable fact. In this way, he naturally hoped that Tubo would send more troops, after all, it would be of no harm to Datang.

"Since that's the case, the temporary truce has been reached. If you retreat, I won't chase after you. It will last for two months." Yang Tong said.

"It's too short, let alone a year's truce."

"Two months is plenty of time; one year is meaningless."

"..." Li Jiancheng was silent.

This truce is just for each to get what they need and get something. Maybe after the delivery is over, the Sui army will attack Yizhou immediately, and if the Tang army has a chance to fight, they will not miss it. The reason is the same.

"Let's leave these details to the deputy envoy."

"Alright."

"It's rare for brother to come to Luoyang, so let's stay a little longer. Xiuning and I will show you around."

"Your brother, as the emperor of the Great Sui Dynasty, would you like to visit the mountains and rivers with me?" Li Jiancheng said with a smile, "I saw many envoys from foreign countries waiting to pay a visit yesterday."

"It doesn't matter." Yang Tong waved his hand and said, "Everyone in my clan, even ordinary people, is ten thousand times nobler than the king of Fanbang. Let alone elder brother?"

Although Yang Tong's words sound unreasonable, Li Jiancheng couldn't help feeling warm in his heart, shaking his head and said, "Moving the capital involves many issues, I really can't delay."

It's not that he didn't want to, but that he didn't dare.

Along the way, Li Jiancheng has been shocked too many times. He is worried that if he stays any longer, his fighting spirit will be wiped out.

. . . . . . . .

Although the truce between the Sui and Tang Dynasties was finalized at this point, there were many details involved. Du Ruhui and Chen Shuda still talked for three full days, and finally the two sides reached a compromise.Xiangyang, Chongling, Jingling, Yiling, and Qingjiang were assigned to the Sui Dynasty, and the Tang army completely withdrew from Jingzhou. The Tang Dynasty could not force people to relocate.Regarding the truce period, Chen Shuda asked for a one-year truce on the grounds that it would take time to suppress the rebellion and relocate the capital, but Du Ruhui only agreed to two months. In the end, both sides gave way, and the truce lasted for half a year.

(End of this chapter)