The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 942
Thirty to forty miles to the northwest of Guanlutang Mountain in Mianzhu, there is a valley surrounded by mountains. Even in the narrow valley road that enters the valley, there is a hill blocking the road. Don't be a wide world inside.

In the valley, the terrain is vast, with lush forests, pavilions and pavilions can be seen everywhere, and exquisite buildings are hidden in the thick emerald green.

This valley was originally a barren mountain, and few people knew it. In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Liu Guogong Yu Wenxian was named Yizhou Governor and Yizhou Governor. He was the military governor of 24 states including Yi, Ning, Ba, and Lu. Yu Wenxian was only 16 years old at the time. But he was good at comforting and controlling his subordinates, and paid attention to the art of governance. The people of Shu jointly erected a monument for him to praise his merits.He also made great achievements in the military. During his tenure, he traveled all over the dangerous passes of Yizhou and the surrounding mountains and rivers. Afterwards, he deduced the way of attack and defense according to the topography of each dangerous pass, compiled it into a book, and kept it in the palace.

It was also at that time that Yu Wenxian, who walked to Mianzhu Pass, discovered this valley. He believed that it could not only be used for Tibetan soldiers, but also allow the army hiding here to be self-sufficient through the fertile land, so he ordered the prefect of Shu County to pay attention. , lest one day, the Southern Dynasties gradually send troops to gather here, waiting for an opportunity to launch a war within Yizhou.It’s just that the Northern Zhou Dynasty was powerful and adopted a high-pressure posture against the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Southern Chen Dynasty. The Southern Chen Dynasty was always on the defensive passively and was unable to march into Yizhou. Therefore, this valley was not used to hide soldiers. At that time, the prefect of Shu County retired and returned home. After that, he chose this beautiful valley as a place to live his life, and invited skilled craftsmen to build a beautiful villa.

Since its discovery and use, more than sixty years have passed. Not only was Yu Wenxian, a famous general of the Northern Zhou clan, strangled to death by Emperor Zhou Xuan, but also the Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, and Southern Chen ceased to exist. The dynasty is also in turmoil.

The world's rivers and mountains have changed so much, and the owner of this valley can't escape from prosperity to decline. In the past 60 years alone, the owner of the valley has changed no less than a dozen rounds. Li Yuanji took it for himself, but he was burned to death by Li Shimin before he settled in once. Now, it has become the place where the deposed prince Li Jiancheng "retires his life".

At the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, the valley is lush and green, and the layers of terraced fields opened up according to the mountain are like jumping notes. In the fields after harvest, only small rice stalks are left, watching the land alone. Paddy fields, while the building complex is scattered among the mountains and ravines, occasionally revealing a corner, which is picturesque.

There are stars but no moon tonight, and you can see the bright stars all over the sky when you look up, as if you can pick one off with just reaching out.

The breeze is blowing, and the valley is cool at night.

The jungles near and far, showing light and light shadows under the starlight, are like a well-proportioned landscape painting painted with ink, but this beautiful ink painting can move.Every night when the wind blows, it will sway beautifully.

If the moonlight is like a veil, this situation and this scene may be more charming, but for emotional people, this scene still has a kind of tranquility that penetrates the heart.

only--

Li Jiancheng, the 'Valley Master', can't appreciate such a view, let alone compare the different styles of day and night, rainy and sunny, starlight and moonlight.

At the same time that Luo Shixin wiped out the soldiers under Zhang Changxun, Li Jiancheng, who was in the main house, was sitting in front of a burning rosin wax, listening anxiously to the disturbing "cracking" sound of the wind dancing branches.

Although Li Jiancheng lived a life like a prisoner, it was only because Li Xiaogong was still in Nanzhao and he had been running the court for several years, his influence was beyond Li Shimin's. In order to unite the various factions and fight the Sui Dynasty, Li Shimin did so The intensity of control is wider than that of Li Yuan.Except for the [-] Red Armored Army soldiers who were monitoring him, the rest were all brought out from the palace.

Of course, there are actually not many people who can make Li Jiancheng feel at ease and trustworthy.

"Husband, can't sleep again?" The door to the back building opened, and Zheng Guanyin who came in asked softly.

She was wearing a well-tailored coarse cloth dress, but even a cloth skirt could hardly conceal her moving figure.She used slender hands to gather her messy temple hair, her elegant demeanor was in stark contrast to the village woman's dress.

"Have you disturbed Madam?" Li Jiancheng said with a wry smile. When the Tang Dynasty was still ruled by his father, he was not worried about his wealth and life.But after Li Shimin successfully launched a palace coup, he was detained here, completely cutting off contact with the outside world, and living under the threat of death all the time.Li Jiancheng himself is ready to die, but he can't let go of his wife and children. Judging from the experience of Li Yuanji's family, if he dies, his wife and children may not end well.It was this kind of cognition that made him restless and very irritable.

"How can I sleep as a concubine?" Zheng Guanyin sighed quietly, and sat beside Li Jiancheng.

"Ma'am, don't worry too much." Seeing his wife was worried, Li Jiancheng couldn't bear to lie, and said in a low voice, "It's easy to teach Madam to be at ease. In fact, after we were placed under house arrest by our father, our husband has been in secret contact with Mr. Zhao Hongzhi, Xu Shimo, and Mr. Wei Ting. I didn't say it before, it's not that I don't trust Madam, but I'm worried that Madam will show her flaws."

Zheng Guanyin whispered "Ah", she didn't care about Li Jiancheng's concealment before, and said in surprise and joy: "Didn't the three gentlemen leave their husbands in Dalao County, Ziyang County?"

"It's not that they gave up on me. It's because I know that the emperor must punish my confidantes to shock the courage of the officials. In order to avoid harming the innocent, I let them go to the vast Sui realm; but They didn't leave for too long, but sneaked into Chengdu." Li Jiancheng said: "When Shimin launched the Gongyan coup, he fought with his father for power for a while, and then he was eager to win people's hearts, and he was at a loss; The people monitoring us are the Yuan Cong Imperial Army. They are the army of the father's direct line. When the father loses power, these soldiers are afraid of being purged by the people of the world, and some of them also ran away. The remaining people also because of the change of power And the monitoring of us became lax, and the three gentlemen took this opportunity to get in touch with me again."

When Zheng Guanyin heard it, his eyes sparkled, and he said with deep emotion: "As the saying goes, people's hearts are seen in adversity. Your husband treats people with sincerity, and gentlemen will never let you down." It’s nothing more than that.”

"What's more! Just in case, I asked General Xie Shufang to secretly train [-] very loyal guards. He has already contacted the three gentlemen and General Li Junxian. As long as the time is right, he will look for opportunities and send Our family was rescued." Seeing his wife happy, Li Jiancheng felt better.

In fact, these [-] guards were dead men he trained in Xiangyang, the purpose was for this day, but it was his father who was worried that he would kill him. At that time, these [-] dead men could be used to transfer his wife and children , but he never expected that his father did not ruthlessly kill him, but his brother threatened his life and death.

It's just that now, the Li family has been reduced to the point where the father is not the father, the son is not the son, and the brother is not a brother. Li Jiancheng is not enough to protect himself, so how can he care about Li Tang Jiangshan?Now he just wants to use this limited force to create a stable future for his small family.

Speaking of this step, Li Jiancheng simply opened his mouth, only to hear him say in awe: "According to the secret message of the three gentlemen, the Sui army used the people of the world to launch a change in the palace, which caused instability of people's hearts, and brazenly attacked Yizhou and occupied In the territory south of Shu County, there is very little territory left in our Tang Dynasty, and this world will soon be reunified by the Sui Dynasty."

"Didn't you say that Yizhou is in danger of the four fortresses? Why is this, so fast...?" Zheng Guanyin was taken aback. Although she didn't have any strategic ideas, she was a princess after all, and she was familiar with Yizhou's topography. relatively understandable.

Li Jiancheng laughed and laughed at himself: "The road to Shu is indeed as difficult as climbing the blue sky, but the dangerous Guanshan can stop the Sui army, but it can't stop the people of Yizhou from being war-weary and determined. When everyone loses confidence in a certain dynasty, then , No matter how hard this dynasty works, it will only last for a while."

Originally, the strength of the Tang Dynasty was no worse than that of the Sui Dynasty, and even benefited from the great support of the Guanlong nobles. The Tang Dynasty was stronger than the notorious Sui Dynasty in terms of manpower, people, and cohesion. Because the Sui Dynasty was based in Jizhou and Youzhou, and these two places became devastated because of Emperor Wu Yang Guang's three conquests of Goguryeo, people had a natural rejection of the "Sui Dynasty" that "caused" the people of Jizhou and Youzhou to live in poverty. Shang Yang Tong didn’t want to lose the strength of the Sui Dynasty, and he was stunned to fight against the powerful Turkic Khanate when the mountains and rivers were broken. It can be said that the internal and external environment of the Sui Dynasty, which was dominated by refugees at that time, was far inferior to the Tang Dynasty, which was internally united and diplomatically Turkic. Okay, but the result is astonishing. Yang Yu led the way in the unfavorable situation, played the majesty of the Sui Dynasty, solved the external troubles, reshaped the majesty of the Sui Dynasty, and built the foundation of the Sui Dynasty step by step. It was tamped tightly.

On the other hand, the Tang Dynasty, although it was supported by many aristocratic families at the beginning, after a long delay in finding a military situation, various factions fought against each other, making the people's hearts and national strength weaker and weaker day by day in the power struggle.

Whose fault is this?
Undoubtedly it was Li Jiancheng's father, Li Yuan.

It was because he was too greedy for power, unwilling to let go of military power, and constrained the frontline generals everywhere, that made the Tang army rigidly implement the court's established strategy in war after war, and missed countless good opportunities in vain.

It can be said that today's Tang Dynasty was created by his father Li Yuan, and the reason why the Sui Dynasty was able to recover Bingzhou, Yongzhou, Liangzhou, and Jingzhou smoothly was also because they had the biggest "spies" Li Yuan to help them.

"This..." Zheng Guanyin said in shock: "If the Sui Dynasty occupied Yizhou, would the Sui Emperor do it???"

"Don't worry! The Sui Emperor told me more than once that his enemy was never me, let alone our Tang Dynasty. He even told me many times that he hoped that I would return to the Sui Dynasty one day earlier." Speaking of this, Li Jiancheng was silent. He sighed deeply, it was ridiculous to think about it, obviously he was the deposed prince of the Tang Dynasty, but his father and younger brother couldn't be trusted now, instead they believed in the biggest enemy - Yang Tong.

Although Yang Tong said many times in the past few years that the Tang Dynasty has no future, he said that he was only a shield used by his father to prevent his brothers from attacking the throne in the Tang Dynasty. , And also advised him many times to let go of everything and go back to the mountains.But it's not very nice to say it, but the majestic prince of the Tang Dynasty needs to be awakened by the emperor of the enemy's country. Is there anything more ridiculous in this world than this?

But now, what makes Li Jiancheng dumbfounded is that compared to his father and younger brother, deep down in his heart, he seems to be more willing to trust Yang Tong.

……

When the husband and wife were grieving over the past and remembering the future, twenty figures had sneaked into Li Jiancheng's residence.

These people were the Asura Guards and Heibingtai fighters sent by Yang Tong. He listened to Li Xizhi's proposition and accepted Fang Xuanling's suggestion. He decided to rescue Li Jiancheng and prepare a big talk for surrendering Li Xiaogong But he is the emperor of the Sui Dynasty after all, and the safety of one person is tied to thousands of soldiers of the Sui Dynasty, so he did not go out in person, but asked people to cut off Li Shimin's people first, and took Li Jiancheng's family into custody. Mianzhu County to join.

In order to get Li Jiancheng to cooperate obediently, he not only dispatched Yin Mingyue and Yang Qinfang, but also Li Xiuning.

According to the information provided by Li Xizhi, they found that Li Jiancheng's residence was slightly different from other places. These houses just surrounded Li Jiancheng's family. This was the fourth line of defense for Li Shimin's confidant soldiers.

However, in any place, if some people regularly perform surveillance tasks, it is impossible to maintain vigilance all the time after a long period of time.

However, these soldiers of the Red Armored Army who were responsible for security tasks still brought some troubles to Yin Mingyue and the others, because several of them had dogs. Thanks to Yin Mingyue's rich experience, they carefully detoured and finally sneaked in quietly. After entering the "Fuling Prince's Mansion", he touched Li Jiancheng's main residence.

It was already midnight, but there was still light coming through the window paper in the building. Yin Mingyue turned her head and gestured to Yang Qinfang and Li Xiuning, and the group relaxed their steps and walked over gently.

The floor on the second floor of the main house is paved with bamboo slices. Even if there is a slight movement, 20 people will make a slight creaking sound when stepping on it. Fortunately, the wind has not stopped at this time, which just covers up their small voices. .

Yin Mingyue and Li Xiuning stopped in front of the door, looked behind them, and gestured to each other. Li Xiuning suddenly pushed the bamboo door, and Yin Mingyue rushed in.

Li Jiancheng and his wife were thinking about those old events in a low voice, when suddenly a black shadow flashed in like a whirlwind, which startled the couple.

After all, Li Jiancheng was a man, and he was relatively calm about such emergencies. When Zheng Guanyin encountered such a sudden incident, he screamed and hid behind Li Jiancheng, tightly clutching her husband's clothes.

Before Li Jiancheng could see Yin Mingyue's face clearly, he only saw the 'peerless sword' in her hand.

The 'Peerless Good Sword' is a broad sword, not to mention as black as ink, and also looks weird. A 'branch' grows abruptly from the sword body, and after crossing the sword grid, it protects the sword stem with an arc.The front part of the sword body is huge, and then slowly retracted. What's even weirder is that there is a triangular hole where the hilt and the sword body are connected.

Li Jiancheng thought of a possibility, that is, Li Shimin sent someone to kill his family.Immediately drew out the sword beside the table and stabbed at Yinmingyue.

(End of this chapter)