Du Fuwei's forces are mainly in the Huainan area west of Jiangdu, the vast land between Jianghuai and Huai are owned by him, under his rule there are Liyang, Danyang, Zhongli, Huainan, Lujiang, Tong'an, Yiyang seven counties, there are 150,000 land and water troops, the number of 40,000 recruits is its elite force, Du Fuwei will take this army as his own soldiers, usually very enlarged, but the requirements are also very harsh, every battle must be recruited as the vanguard, after the war to check the wounds on each person's body, such as the wound in the back immediately beheaded, Because the injury is in the back, it means that he is about to retreat. Every time he was victorious, Du Fuwei rewarded the whole army with his wealth, so the troops did their best for Du Fuwei, and the people fought for themselves, and they were invincible.

However, Du Fuwei is not the only one in the Jianghuai area, but Du Fuwei is the strongest, in addition to Shen Faxing of Wujun and Li Zitong of Jiangdu, these three forces occupy the vast land of Jianghuai and Jiangnan.

Among these three forces, Nong Faxing and Li Zitong are dominated by Li Mi; Du Fuwei regarded himself as a Sui minister, Yang Qi was in Luoyang when he ascended to the emperor Tai Emperor, Du Fuwei was a minister, was named the king of Chu, and the official worshiped the governor of the host province, of course, this surrender was only nominal, and Yang Qi could not interfere in Du Fuwei's affairs, so Du Fuwei was still an independent force. However, with the success of Wang Shichong's usurpation, Du Fuwei was confused for a while, and later he simply proclaimed himself a general and stood on his own.

In the afternoon of this day, a caravan drove dozens of mules and horses, loaded with goods into Liyang City, the caravan led by Zhang Xuan, who came from Yecheng at this time, he had returned from the Western Regions Xingtai Province, as the director of the Department of Vertical and Horizontal of the Great Sui Rite Department, and more than 20 black ice platform secret guards pretended to be caravan guys to protect Zhang Xuan all the way south.

They came by sea and landed in Jiangdu County, and they had to pass through Li Zidao's sphere of influence to reach Liyang, so naturally it was impossible for them to wear armor and helmets and wear court clothes to go south, so they could only change their clothes to become merchants.

As the capital of Du Fuwei, Liyang is densely populated, prosperous in commerce, and there are endless business and travel in the city, and the sound of selling comes and goes.

What Zhang Xuan brought was the goods that were unique to the north, which was very rare in Jianghuai, and as soon as he entered the city of Zhangluo, he was snapped up by several shopkeepers.

After dealing with the goods, Zhang Xuan found an inn near the city gate to stay, which is a famous inn in Liyang, the shopkeeper's surname is Gu, more than forty years old, and he looks kind and friendly.

The men went to rest separately. Zhang Xuan found the shopkeeper, he had something to consult, the two sat down in the back hall, the ancient shopkeeper ordered the guy to serve tea, and said with a smile: "Listening to Brother Zhang's accent, it seems that he is a northerner?" ”

Zhang Xuan smiled and said: "The younger brother is from Bohai County, running a fur business, this thing is very common in the north, and he basically can't make any money, thinking that if there is chaos today, the road is closed, maybe it is a scarce thing in the south, so he came to the south to find a way." I never thought that I would be robbed as soon as I entered the city. ”

"Fur is really scarce in the South." Shopkeeper Gu smiled and said, "I don't know Brother Zhang, what do you have to ask?" ”

Zhang Yu originally wanted to inquire about some news, but he didn't want to be interrogated by the shopkeeper, so he smiled, "It's nothing, but I want to ask the shopkeeper about something." ”

"Brother Zhang, you say. As long as I know, I will definitely advise. ”

"I came with a few business friends from Luoyang, who used to help me sell goods in Zhengguo, and this time we plan to investigate the demand for fur in the south together, but they will also come to Liyang if they are separated in Qiaojun. I don't know if there are people from Luoyang who have stopped here in the past two days? ”

Zhang Xuan knew that Du Fuwei was originally loyal to Emperor Tai Yang Tong, and Wang Shichong usurped the throne for several years, and he didn't know whether Du Fuwei had a connection with Wang Shichong.

"Luoyang people?" The ancient shopkeeper thought hard for a while, and said: "There were people from Luoyang who came half a month ago, but they were not merchants, but envoys from Luoyang, and other Luoyang people didn't hear of it, and maybe they didn't live with me." ”

"Thank you." Zhang Xuan's heart sank, Wang Shichong really sent a messenger, and at this moment, there was a sudden commotion outside the door, and a guy stumbled in.

"Shopkeeper, there are a lot of soldiers rushing outside."

The ancient shopkeeper stood up and said, "What are the soldiers doing here?" ”

The guy glanced at Zhang Xuan and said in a low voice, "They are here to find this Zhang Ye." ”

The ancient shopkeeper glanced at Zhang Xuan hesitantly: "Brother Zhang, what's going on?" ”

Zhang Xuan smiled, "It may be that the fur I brought has alarmed some big shot!" ”

The ancient shopkeeper suddenly said: "Fur is rare, Brother Zhang has been back for so many years, and it is normal to alarm the government." ”

"Since you're looking for me, I'm going to take a look. Maybe that's the way I'm looking. "Zhang Xuan was an envoy who was ordered to send an envoy, and he was not worried about encountering soldiers. He walked quickly to the front yard, only to see dozens of fierce soldiers with long knives standing in the front yard, and stepped forward and said: "I am a leather merchant from the north, what are you looking for me?" ”

The first lieutenant waved his hand, "Arrest him!" ”

"Slow!" Zhang Xuan snorted coldly, took out a token from his arms, and said, "I am the envoy of the Great Sui, how dare you be rude?" ”

"Captain, look!" A soldier picked up.

The school captain didn't know much, but he knew the word 'Sui', he was stunned for a moment, looked Zhang Xuan up and down, and said, "You are the envoy of the Sui Dynasty?" ”

"I don't have to lie to you, the fur is just a cover for passing by Li Mi's land, if it weren't for the fact that it was already dark, I would have gone directly to see your general."

"Fur is rare in Liyang, so we suspect that it is Li Mi's agent, but we didn't expect it to be the Sui envoy, offended." The lieutenant arched his hand.

"It's okay!" Zhang Xuan said simply, "If I can, I want to go see your general now." ”

The captain hurriedly bowed down and said, "Please follow the envoy to the General's Mansion!" ”

"Wait a minute!" Zhang Xuan ordered someone to get a clerical bag and follow Du Jun's soldiers to meet Du Fuwei

Du Fuwei once proclaimed himself a great general, so the soldiers called him the great general.

Although he is the No. 1 overlord of Jianghuai, he is actually still very young, only thirty-three years old this year, and he is extremely majestic, giving people a feeling of thick branches and leaves.

He and Fu Gongqi went south to start a business, after several years of fighting, and finally broke out of a career, occupying a fertile land of thousands of miles, with a population of millions, with 150,000 elite Jianghuai army, the strength is not weaker than Wang Shichong in the Central Plains, if you count the population base, and war potential, Wang Shichong is far less strong than him.

It's just that Du Fuwei did not intend to establish himself as the emperor and compete for the Central Plains, so he became the object of many forces, the first to win him over was Yu Wenhua, named him Liyang Taishou, Yu Wenhua's stinginess angered Du Fuwei, he immediately surrendered to Luoyang Huangtai Emperor Yang Tong, Huangtai Emperor named him the king of Chu, and the head of the six counties of Huainan, and the head of the soldiers and horses of the six counties of Huainan, and he was much more generous than Yu Wenhua.

But not long after, Yang Qi was exiled by Wang Shichong's court, and the Southern Sui Dynasty to which he was loyal disappeared.

These days, not only Wang Shichong sent envoys to woo him, but even Li Yuan also sent envoys to lobby, hoping that he could surrender to the Tang Dynasty

But Du Fuwei was hesitant, because the current situation in the world has gradually become clear, and the person who will unify the world in the future will either be Yang Tong of the Great Sui, or Li Tang and Li Yuan, and he will not look down on Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande, Xiao Mo and others.

Relatively speaking, he is more optimistic about the Great Sui Dynasty that oppresses Li Yuan and the Turks, but the Great Sui Dynasty has not paid attention to them, if he accepts Li Yuan's surrender, he is afraid that Li Yuan will not be able to withstand the power of the Great Sui Dynasty, and at that time I am afraid that Li Yuan will also suffer, so he has been hesitating, two days ago, he and Fu Gongqi even planned to send someone to Yecheng to find out the attitude of Emperor Shengwu of the Great Sui towards them.

At this time, he was in the room instructing the various counties to play the papers, and a guard reported at the door: "General Qiyu, a fur merchant from the north has been seized in Beicheng, who claims to be an envoy of the Sui Dynasty. ”

Du Fuwei 'ah', and stood up in surprise and joy, the Sui Dynasty lived up to his expectations, and sure enough, he still sent an envoy, he hurriedly said: "Quickly invite the Great Sui envoy to the post house to rest, and treat each other with courtesy." ”

"Whoa." The guards hurried away.

Du Fuwei was excited, although he did not immediately surrender to the Great Sui Dynasty, but the arrival of the Sui Dynasty gave him a greater choice, and he could calmly consider his future between the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

After a while, a man in his forties walked in quickly, this big man was Du Fuwei's close comrade-in-arms, Fu Gongyi, who had heard about the arrival of the Sui envoy on the way, so he hurried over.

Although the two have a personal relationship with brothers, in terms of the division of power, Du Fuwei is the main and the auxiliary is the deputy. When no one was around, Du Fuwei would call Fu Gong Yi the eldest brother, but when there were outsiders, he would call Fu Gong Yi the second general like everyone else.

"Big brother, please take a seat." Du Fuwei said kindly.

Fu Gongqi walked into the room: "I heard that the Sui envoy is coming?" Negotiated so soon? ”

"Nope." Du Fuwei shook his head and said, "I'll let them go to the post house to rest first, and I want to listen to the eldest brother's opinion first." ”

Fu Gongyi smiled and sat down.

The reason why the two were in favor of surrendering to Emperor Tai Yang Qi was because Yang Qi was too weak to control them, but they could use Yang Qi's canonization to change from grass to officials, just like Li Mi accepted the title of King Wei, they all need to be justified.

But now it's different, whether it's the Great Sui or Li Tang, they are all powerful princes, no matter who they surrender, they will suffer actual control, and if they repent, they will give the other party the excuse of annihilation, so Fu Gongyi is very cautious, he hopes that Du Fuwei will refuse anyone's solicitation, go south with all his might, and create a foundation.

Wait until the world is completely clear before making a decision, if neither the Sui and Tang Dynasties nor Li Mi can help anyone, then they advocate following the example of the Three Kingdoms of Eastern Wu and establishing a country in the south, after all, they have the natural conditions for self-reliance, so why should they be encouraged?