An old sigh reached Dou Wei's ears from behind, making Dou Gui startled slightly. When he turned around, he saw two old men sitting on the seats behind him, both about sixty years old, ordering several plates of side dishes.
and a jug of wine.
Both of them were dressed cleanly and neatly, and it was obvious that they were from well-to-do families. The one who spoke just now was an old man with a white beard. He picked up the wine glass and sighed again, "If the court doesn't make up its mind, I guess I won't be able to survive next year.
"
"Next year?" Another old man snorted, "If the Turks hadn't moved south, I don't think it would have been able to survive this year."
Dou Gui picked up the wine glass and stood up, walked to the two old men and said with a smile: "My surname is Liu, and I am also from the capital. I am drinking alone. Can we have a fight and talk."
The two old men nodded happily, "It doesn't matter, this dear friend will just sit over here."
Dou Gui quickly waved to the waiter to bring his food and drinks. He ordered a few more delicious dishes and smiled at the two old men: "I don't have many friends, and few people talk to me. I wonder what your last names are?"
The two old men saw that Dou Gui was a good person and had a good impression of him. The old man with a white beard pointed at himself and said with a smile: "My surname is Chen, and the surname of the person opposite is Wei. They are both from the capital."
When Dou Gui heard that the other old man's surname was Wei, he couldn't help but take a second look. Could it be that he was a member of the Wei family? However, he knew all the important people in the Wei family. It was estimated that even if he was a member of the Wei family, he was still a concubine.
Dou Gui sat with them because he wanted to listen to public opinion and the opinions of ordinary people in Chang'an on the current situation. Generally, people at the bottom would not care about such things. People at the bottom only care about firewood, rice, oil and salt, and three meals a day. As long as they are not rioters
When you call, they don't care who controls the world.
Most of them are people with some experience and family background who care about such military and national affairs. Those who can come to Lantian Winery to drink are at least from small and well-to-do families. Only such people can represent the real public opinion.
Seeing that they no longer mentioned the topic, Dou Gui smiled and said: "I have a relative who is also a fourth-rank official in the imperial court. I chatted with him last night. He said that people in the imperial court are now panicked and many officials are not doing anything.
We have been sitting together all day discussing the current situation. A series of recent events have really shocked people's hearts and are now being discussed everywhere."
Dou Gui was telling the truth. Now everyone in the court felt uneasy. They gathered together all day long to discuss the current situation. He knew these situations very well, but he wanted to hear the voices of the people and the thoughts of ordinary people.
Dou Gui's suggestion sparked a conversation between the two old men. The old man surnamed Wei sighed and said, "I told Brother Chen just now that there is still hope in the Tang Dynasty, but one has to lose his arm to survive."
"Hope?" Elder Chen sneered, "That's what you think. A court that has been defeated repeatedly, and even the capital city was conquered by the other party, where is the hope? Go and ask around Chang'an. Who still talks about the Tang Dynasty now?
There is hope, but there is only internal strife and fighting for power and profit all day long. Who cares about the life and death of the people? The price of grain has reached 120 cents per dou of rice, and only 40 cents per dou of rice in Taiyuan. Do you think everyone is blind?"
Old man Chen's words were full of anger. Although there was some truth in them, Dou Gui felt uncomfortable. He quickly asked the old man surnamed Wei: "Brother Wei just said that there is hope for the Tang Dynasty. What hope is it? Can Brother Wei tell me?"
Just say it."
Seeing that Dou Gui was not interested in what he said, the old man Chen felt depressed, so he drank the wine one after another. The old man surnamed Wei slowly tasted a glass of wine, and then he slowly said: "My dear friend, do you know that the real crisis in the Tang Dynasty is now
Where?"
"You tell me, I'll listen." Dou Gui picked up the wine bottle and poured him a glass of wine, smiling.
"The biggest crisis in the Tang Dynasty now is land. The land equalization system has been implemented since last year, but it has been more than a year now and there is no news. As far as I know, Hedong, Hebei and the Central Plains are now being implemented on a large scale.
Under the equal land system, a family could get one hectare of permanent land on average. In Fengzhou and Lingwu County, they could even get three hectares. What was the reason for this in the Tang Dynasty? The reason was that the government had no land to distribute.
"What about Bashu and Jingxiang? Don't they have land?" said the old man Chen next to him unconvinced.
"Don't tell me, we really don't have any land."
The old man surnamed Wei said proudly: "Bashu and Jingxiang have not experienced large-scale rebellions and melees like Hebei and the Central Plains. Too many people have died and there is unowned land everywhere, so it is easy to distribute, while Bashu and Jingxiang are relatively stable.
, all land has its own owner, and there are many big landowners in the area. The imperial court cannot take away the land over there and give it to the people in Guanzhong! That will cause chaos."
Dou Gui took a breath silently. He was the prime minister of the dynasty, so of course he understood this issue very well. In fact, he also knew that the Sui Dynasty had a large amount of unowned land, which could be distributed to poor peasants to win over the people. In this way, there would be sufficient troops and soldiers to use their lives.
On the contrary, the Tang court had no land in its hands, and the little land it had was distributed to the clan and royal relatives. As a result, the land equalization system could not be implemented, the people were unpopular, and morale was low. How could it defeat the Sui Dynasty?
The old man surnamed Wei added: "The only hope of the Tang Dynasty now is to seize land from the powerful and distribute it to the landless peasants, so as to inspire the morale of the lower-class peasants to defend their homes and the country. Then there is still hope for the Tang Dynasty, otherwise we will count on the powerful to protect the Tang Dynasty.
, it’s meaningless at all, I’m just afraid that these powerful people have already surrendered in advance.”
Dou Gui could no longer listen. It was a joke to deprive the powerful of their land and distribute it to the peasants. The Tang Dynasty would be over soon. At this time, Dou Gui was no longer in the mood to eat or chat with the two old men. He took out a small
Ingots of silver are placed on the table.
"You two dear friends, there is still something to do at home. Please be patient. I will take the first step."
When the two old men saw that he had paid the bill, they were in a good mood. They stood up and thanked each other, "I am a sweet-tempered man. We will talk in detail when we have the opportunity in the future."
Dou Guigong handed over his hands, turned around and went downstairs. His carriage stopped at the door of the wine shop. As soon as he walked beside the carriage, he heard someone calling him, "Master! Master, take a step slowly."
When Dou Gui turned around, he saw his butler riding a donkey running towards him. Dou Gui stopped. After a moment, the housekeeper rushed forward and whispered to Dou Gui: "Master, the general is back. Please come back to your home immediately."
One trip.”
The general is his clan brother Dou Kang, who is appointed Qianniu Preparation General and the general manager of Yizhou Xingtai. Dou Gui was slightly startled, why is Dou Kang back? He is far away in Chengdu, the news should not be so fast.
Dou Gui nodded immediately, got on the carriage and ordered: "Go back home immediately!"
The carriage started and rushed towards Dou Mansion...
Dou Gui's mansion is located in Chongrenfang, covering an area of about 80 acres. It is also a famous mansion in Chang'an. The Dou family is an important representative of the Guanlong aristocracy. Their ancestors were also Xianbei aristocrats, and they were extremely important emperors in the Sui and Tang dynasties.
Relatives and relatives.
Empress Dou of the Tang Dynasty was the daughter of the Dou family, and Dou Kang's mother was Princess Wan'an, the eldest sister of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian. Therefore, the Dou family had a very important status in both the Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty.
In the outer study, Dou Kang was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back, looking very worried. He had heard that Yang Yuanqing led his army to attack Chang'an a few days ago, and he immediately realized that something was wrong.
If the Tang army suffered repeated defeats against the Sui army, it was only a military defeat and there was still room for recovery. Then Yang Yuanqing led his army to attack Chang'an, which was a political turning point, which meant that the Tang Dynasty would be completely passive.
As the second-in-command of the Dou family, how could he stay in Chengdu and live a leisurely life at this critical moment?
In fact, Dou Kang's military power had been deprived. As the general manager of Yizhou Xingtai, Dou Kang was only in charge of Bashu's army. However, less than a month after he took office, Qi King Li Yuanji also came to Bashu and took away all the military power. Dou Kang became
An idler, he secretly came to Chang'an from Chengdu and no one knew about him.
At this time, there were footsteps outside the door, and then the door opened and Dou Gui walked in, "When did the second brother come back?"
"I just came back, aren't I anxious to find you?"
Seeing his solemn expression, Dou Gui understood something in his heart. He closed the door and asked again: "Don't Li Yuanji know that you are coming back at this time?"
Dou Gui is very cautious. At this critical moment, Li Yuan will definitely pay attention to the movements of important officials in the court. Especially after the incident of Tang Feng spying on Yin Guiping was exposed, everyone became even more cautious.
Dou Gui snorted disdainfully, "That guy only plays with women and hunts. He has no skills. In such a cold winter, he actually went to Hanzhong to hunt."
Dou Gui was startled, Hanzhong? This place is very sensitive. Recently, the prince and the King of Qin were fighting for the military power in Hanzhong. Tang Feng reported to Hanzhong general manager Luo Yi that he was cheating on his salary, which made Li Yuan furious and ordered the supervisory censor and the Ministry of War to jointly investigate.
Qi King Li Yuanji went to Hanzhong to hunt at this critical time, but did not come to Chang'an to sacrifice his mother. This is really unreasonable.
However, Dou Gui couldn't care about this matter now. He sighed and said, "Second brother still doesn't know about the big event that happened in Huining County!"
Dou Gui then told Dou Kang in detail about the surrender of Sheng Yanshi and the annihilation of Li Shenfu's entire army, and finally said with a wry smile: "The Holy One is frightened and wants to negotiate peace with Yang Yuanqing at all costs, not even Hexi."
, Second brother, the situation is worrying now!"
Dou Kang took a breath of air. Is the situation already so serious? He asked again: "Third brother, how much time do you think we have?"
Dou Kang meant the time for the Sui Dynasty to fully attack the Tang Dynasty, that is, how much time the Dou family had. Dou Gui pondered for a while and said: "I think the Sui Dynasty's capture of Hexi means that Yang Yuanqing has turned his strategic attention to the pass.
Although many people say that the next step for the Sui Dynasty is the six counties of Qingzhou, I think Dou Jiande is no longer worth mentioning. A general can lead an army to wipe out the whole country. Now that the Sui and Tang Dynasties are negotiating, the Sui army may go back to rest for a while, but next year at the latest
In the summer, or next spring at the earliest, Yang Yuanqing will definitely attack the five counties in southern Guan and Hehuang counties to complete the strategic encirclement of Guanzhong. We still have a few months at most."
After a pause, Dou Gui sighed, "Speaking of which, the Dugu family is still cunning. I just found out that Zhang Lei, the weapons supervisor of the Sui Dynasty, turned out to be Dugu Lei, the former craftsman of the Dugu family. Dugu Zhen had already arranged this move.
Our Dou family is still a step behind."
Dou Kang stood up and said: "It's not too late to repair the lost sheep. I will go to Huining County to have a detailed discussion with Yang Yuanqing."