There is a huge house covering an area of ​​nearly 80 acres in Xuanyangfang, Chang'an. This is the famous Dugu Mansion in Chang'an, which was the mansion of Dugu Xin, a hero of the founding country of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

Later, he was inherited by his eldest son Dugu Luo, who died because he was implicated in the He Ruobi case. Before his death, he passed the mansion to the new head of the family Dugu Zhen, but did not give it to his son Dugu Liang. In this way, the Dugu Mansion became the home of the head of the Dugu family.

At night, Chang'an was shrouded in a drizzle. The family members of Dugu Mansion were busy placing shade lamps in the river next to them. Today is July 13th, and in two days it will be the Zhongyuan Festival. Although Emperor Li Yuan demanded frugality and prohibited luxury, the necessary customs must be preserved.

In the drizzle, a carriage slowly stopped in front of Dugu Mansion. A housekeeper hurriedly carried an umbrella and ran down the steps. Dugu Liang came out of the carriage.

Dugu Liang was the eldest son of Dugu Luo. Because he was old, he did not serve in the court. He was named the crown prince Shaobao and inherited the old title of Duke Zhao, and had a high status.

Although Dugu Liang did not hold a real position, many of the other Dugu children served as senior officials in the Tang Dynasty.

For example, his brother Dugu Hong was appointed as the general of the Right Guard, his nephew Dugu Qi was appointed as the prefect of Ziyang County, his clan brother Dugu Huaien was appointed as the Minister of Works, his uncle Dugu Zhen was appointed as the Inner Shi Ling, etc., his civil servants and military positions were extremely honored in the Tang Dynasty.

Dugu Liang glanced at the busy Dugu family members by the river and asked lightly: "Is the head of the family in the mansion?"

"Here, please follow me, the second master." The housekeeper hurriedly walked into the mansion with Dugu Liang.

In the study, Dugu Zhen, the head of the Dugu family, was sitting at the table and writing a letter with a pen. Dugu Zhen is about 60 years old this year, with a childish face and a strong spirit. He is one of the five prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty and served as the Inner Shin-ji.

The Dugu family and the Dou family were called the second tribe of the Tang Dynasty, second only to the royal family Li family, and far surpassed other Guanlong nobles.

It was not accidental to obtain such a high status. At the end of Daye, the Dugu family transferred all the money and grain from the Sui Dynasty to Guanzhong one after another. The Dugu family was known as the richest man in the Sui Dynasty and had extremely high appeal in Guanlong and Bashu areas.

When Li Yuan took over Guanzhong, the Dugu family first took out huge amounts of money to support the Tang army, and the 6,000 servants from each manor were also handed over to the Tang army.

Then he personally followed Li Xiaogong to Bashu to persuade the counties of Bashu to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. He made great contributions to the Tang Dynasty's troops occupying Bashu without bloodshed.

Li Tang repaid his favor. It is reasonable to have a great conferred title on the Dugu family.

However, as the Tang army was repeatedly defeated by the Sui army, nearly 200,000 troops were destroyed, and more than half of his 6,000 servants were killed or injured. Dugu Zhen's confidence in the Tang Dynasty began to shake.

This is like an investor. When his investment in Datang repeatedly makes losses, it is difficult to bring him rich profits. He even falls to the brink of bankruptcy, of course he is unhappy.

Another thing that bothered Dugu Zhen these two days was that he received news this morning that his nephew Dugu Huaien was captured by the Sui army, which really annoyed Dugu Zhen.

Dugu Huai'en was appointed as the Minister of Works and was the successor of the Dugu family head. He was actually captured by the Sui army. He heard that he was injured by arrows for a whole day. Dugu Zhen was so upset by this incident.

At this time, the butler came from outside the door, "The head of the family, the second master is here."

Dugu Zhen put down his pen. Dugu Liang was here. He knew that he would come, so he said, "Please come in!"

The door opened. Dugu Liang walked in. Although he was two years older than Dugu Zhen, he was Dugu Zhen’s nephew. He stepped forward and bowed, "See the head of the family!"

Dugu Liang is the eldest grandson. He has a high status in the Dugu family, so Dugu Zhen also respects him very much. He does not show off his elders in front of him. The two of them are called uncles and nephews, but in fact they are as affectionate as brothers.

"Xunliang is here just in time. I originally wanted to ask someone to invite you, sit down!"

Dugu Liang sat down, and a maid came in with a tea tray. Dugu Liang took a sip of hot tea and said worriedly: "I only got the news in the afternoon. Huai'en was actually captured by the Sui army. How could this happen? Li Xiaogong himself ran away."

Dugu Zhen sneered, "Not only did Li Xiaogong run away, but several of his staff also ran away. However, the dignified Marshal and Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Works of the Court were captured. Don't you think it's a bit incredible here?"

Dugu Liang was surprised, "What the head of the family means is that Li Xiaogong deliberately made Huaien captured by the Sui army?"

"I dare not say that Li Xiaogong did it on purpose, but he did not protect Huai'en with all his heart. This is obvious. I think if Dou Feng was the chief minister, Li Xiaogong would not have allowed him to be captured no matter what."

Dugu Zhen's tone was extremely dissatisfied. The first decision of the prince's proposal to let Huaien go to Jingxiang to serve as the Minister of the South East Daoxingtai was a wrong decision. Although this was to divide Li Xiaogong's power.

But Li Shimin and Li Xiaogong could not have allowed Jingxiang's power to be divided so easily. Isn't that coming? Li Xiaogong used war methods to easily depose Huai'en. Dugu Zhen hated Li Xiaogong for being vicious, and was dissatisfied with Li Jiancheng.

He said again: "I went to see the prince today. I told him openly that if I didn't give a explanation to the Dugu family, my Dugu family would not give the court a penny or a piece of food in the future."

"But will it be useful?"

"It must be useful. Li Yuan also wants to recruit soldiers and also cast copper ingots. He has to ask for all these things for my Dugu family. He will definitely find a way to redeem Huai'en."

Dugu Liang was silent for a moment and said, "Did the pressure from the head of the family put too much pressure on them?"

Dugu Zhen shook his head, "The prince and Li Yuan knew it well. I'm not just dissatisfied with this matter. In fact, besides being able to squeeze the soft peaches like Liang Shidu, Li Gui and Xiao Xian, who else can they deal with? They themselves know how many times have they lost to Yang Yuanqing?"

Dugu Liang also said worriedly: "In fact, it is not only the head of the family that is dissatisfied, but I have contacted many Guanlong nobles. Everyone is dissatisfied with the repeated defeat of the Tang army by the Sui army. I heard that even the Dou family had an objection."

Dugu Zhen inadvertently showed a hint of regret. He couldn't help but sigh, "I support them to unify the world, but they can't even get out of Guanzhong. How can I not disappoint me? If I had known, I should have supported Yang Yuanqing. One wrong step is wrong, every step is wrong!"

"But Yang Yuanqing is the enemy of the Guanlong nobles. Did the head of the family forget about suppressing He Ruobi and suppressing the Zhang family and the Yuan family?"

Dugu Zhen smiled and spoke very slowly. It seemed as if Dugu Liang wanted to remember his words.

"You don't understand this. It's called not being in his position or not seeking his position. At the beginning, he was just a minister and following Yang Guang's holy will to do those things. But now he has made the decision and wants to win the world, he will eventually compromise with the Guanlong nobles."

Dugu Zhen saw Dugu Liang thinking, and continued, "A person who doesn't know how to compromise will never achieve great things. Yang Yuanqing is not such a person. When I suppressed the rice price in Luoyang, I knew he was a person who knows how to compromise."

Dugu Liang already understood the meaning of the head of the family, "The head of the family said, why don't we have some secret contact with Yang Yuanqing?"

Dugu Zhen smiled proudly and said, "In fact, I have already contacted him. When he was in Fengzhou, I contacted him. Have you forgotten?"

Dugu Liang suddenly realized that he really forgot about that person.

...........

Shouguang County, Beihai County, is a small county in the northernmost part of Beihai County. To the north is a forest. When you cross the forest, you will be more than ten miles wide. When you go north, you will be a vast ocean.

Song Jingang led more than 20 remaining soldiers to flee, but he did not dare to enter the county town. He rushed directly into the forest and ran towards the mudflats.

The battle between Dou Jiande and Song Jingang lasted nearly half a month. Although Dou Jiande had an absolute advantage in his army of 30,000 against Song Jingang's 12,000 troops, Song Jingang used the tall city walls of Yidu County to mobilize the military and civilians of the city to strictly guard against each other, causing Dou Jiande to suffer heavy losses.

In the end, because the people were forced to open the city and let Dou Jiande's army enter the city, Song Jingang's army was defeated on its entire line. Song Jingang led more than 100 personal soldiers to seize the gate and fled.

After crossing Shouguang County and passing through the forest, Song Jingang finally saw the mudflat. It was not until this time that he breathed a sigh of relief. When he arrived at the mudflat, he saw if he could find a boat to go out to sea and leave Beihai County.

"General, where are we going?" asked a personal soldier.

Song Jingang didn't know where else he could go? In fact, twenty days ago, Yang Yuanqing sent someone to find him, hoping that he could surrender Beihai County to the Great Sui Dynasty.

At that time, he felt that the conditions offered by Yang Yuanqing were too low, so he only gave him an open title of a county duke and an unemployed general. Without any real power, he did not agree.

But now he wanted to agree, I'm afraid Yang Yuanqing would not tolerate him. He lost Beihai County, lost his army, and had nothing. What capital does he have to accept the positions of county duke and general?

He and Meng Hai Gong had old age, and perhaps he could take a boat south to Kuaiji to join Meng Hai Gong.

Song Jingang sighed, "Finish the sea boat first!"

At this time, they were tired and hungry, and continued to walk northward. After walking about ten miles, they were almost at the sea. Suddenly, a family was seen in front of them, with smoke coming from the roof, and someone was there!

Everyone was surprised and happy, and urged the horse to rush over. This was a fisherman's family. A middle-aged couple lived with a couple of children. The male owner had just returned from fishing with his son. The family was reunited and enjoying the joy of family.

Suddenly, a large group of soldiers rushed in like bandits. The male owner was furious and swung his harpoon and fought desperately. He was killed by the soldiers. The mother and daughter were so scared that they hid in the inner room, but the soldiers locked the door with a lewd smile.

"Fuck it, look for food soon, let's talk about women when you're full."

Song Jingang was hungry and urged his men to find food. The soldiers turned the house over the bottom and found only a few liters of rice. However, there were a lot of sea fish in the backyard, allowing the soldiers to have a full meal of seafood.

As night fell, Song Jingang also became lustful and kicked open the door of the inner room.

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The night became deeper and deeper, and the sins under the cover of the night were over. The soldiers were exhausted all day long and were sleeping soundly.

Just then, Song Jingang was suddenly awakened by a strange sound, and only felt a fire outside the window.

He was shocked and suddenly sat up. He rushed to the window a few steps, which made his scalp explode. He saw hundreds of fishermen surrounded by the dough outside, each holding a steel fork and a torch, his eyes full of anger.

In front is a boy of sixteen or seventeen years old, who looks so similar to the killed middle-aged fisherman, Song Jingang took two steps back.

Suddenly, he yelled, "Get up quickly, get up all of them!"

The house was in chaos, and the fishermen did not burn the house because they were afraid of hurting the women in the house, but the two women were dead and they would soon find out.

"Get out and take back the horses!"

The soldiers drew their swords and rushed out, and Song Jingang also rushed out. Only by regaining the war horses could he have the possibility of survival.

A series of wails sounded among the torches, and the fishermen yelled and cursed angrily, drowning the soldiers' begging for mercy. Soon, Song Jingang was left, and he was surrounded by more than 200 people.

Song Jingang was injured in his leg and could not run anymore. He shouted angrily: "I, Song Jingang, would die at the hands of a group of fools!"

"Kill him!"

I don’t know who shouted first, and hundreds of steel forks threw them at him, nailing Song Jingang’s fork to death on the mudflat.

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