When the people of Luoyang were dressed in red and celebrated the New Year, Xiangyang, the capital of Li and Tang, seemed to be more deserted, and on the cold streets, it was almost rare to see the people walking, even if there were occasional, they were in a hurry to go their separate ways.

Since the failure of Li Yuan's eastern expedition and the withdrawal to Xiangyang, the entire Li Tang Emperor has been shrouded in a depressing uneasiness and turmoil, the most typical is the slowly rising prices, although not skyrocketing, but the climbing force is quite large, more worrying is not only food, but so the daily use is in Shanghai, from firewood, rice, oil, salt to clothing, food, housing and transportation, the prices of various industries are rising.

In fact, this is an inevitable thing, once the war breaks out, it will inevitably consume countless materials, such as grain, meat, medicinal materials, pig iron, livestock, cloth and other materials must be supplied to the army in large quantities. In addition, there is another reason, that is, a large number of Kaiyuan Tongbao poured into Xiangyang, resulting in the rise in the price of various materials, although there is the Great Sui Ministry of Commerce in the operation, but more is the hand of the gate valve, these people hoarded a large number of copper ingots and Sui five baht, Daye money and other old money, when Li Yuan scrapped the old money and did not use it, everyone opened the furnace to mint money, a large number of coins poured into the scarce market, resulting in the faster depreciation of Kaiyuan Tongbao.

However, after so many years of war, the people seem to be forced to get used to the difficulties brought about by the war, but the impact of Li Tang's repeated defeats is not limited to prices, but more importantly, the people's confidence in the Li Tang Dynasty, when the Sui army bullied the Han River, the Tang Emperor returned to Xiangyang, which has meant that Li Tang's Eastern Expedition launched by the power of the country has completely failed, and the streets and alleys and neighborhoods are full of dissatisfaction with the Tang Army. Everyone naturally complained about the incompetence of the Li Tang court. It's just that in the minds of the people, the 'imperial court' is a behemoth, and it is not something that the small people can afford to provoke, so they can only quietly complain a few words.

December 20th noon!

As usual, the Xiangyang Weinan wine shop was crowded with officials from various ministries who had come to eat, and in a private room on the third floor, ten Beijing officials of the military department gathered together for a drink.

These people's positions are not high, they are all low-level officials in the Ministry of War, Lang Zhong, Wailang, the main book, the record and the like, this year's war continues, after the end of the Eastern Crusade, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of families involved need to be bereaved and appeased, plus the Li Tang Dynasty followed closely and expanded the army, so the Ministry of War is definitely the busiest department this year. Now that Chinese New Year's Eve is approaching, the officials of other ministries are on vacation, but they are still busy with their feet on the ground, and they are all full of complaints.

Everyone ordered more than ten dishes, five pots of wine, and while drinking and eating, they whispered about the government and the current situation in the world.

Eating and eating.

A foreigner asked softly: "Shen Yuanjun, you have the most extensive sources, what is the situation outside?" I only heard that King Zhao Junwang was in charge of Chungling, but whether he fought or not, there was no news coming, so was it just a confrontation? ”

The official called Shen Qianjun is named Shen Qian, a child of the Shen family in Jiangnan, about forty years old, and the official worships the driver of the military department, and is the highest person in the court, and he has a very good personal relationship with Zhao Cijing, the squire of the military department, and can often get some top-secret information from the imperial court.

The expectant expressions of everyone satisfied Shen Qian's vanity, making him feel that if he didn't reveal some news, he wouldn't be able to show his superiority and connections.

Shen Qian drank all the wine in the cup, and sneered continuously: "What are you talking about King Zhao Jun now, this was all hundreds of years ago, let me tell you, the Sui Dynasty did a big thing." ”

"Envoy, what did the Sui Dynasty do?"

Everyone looked at Shen Qian's gaze, full of nervousness and expectation, nervous because as soon as there was a movement on the side of the Sui Dynasty, the next step would be Li Tang; As for anticipation, it is naturally a curiosity for the unknown.

Shen Qian hesitated for a moment, lowered his voice and said: "This matter was absolutely sealed by the imperial court, in order to prevent someone from bringing this news to Xiangyang, the Holy Lord even sent troops to set up cards, and business travelers were not allowed to enter the country. ”

The crowd was even more curious.

"I just heard a little bit by chance, and I can reveal a little bit to you, but you have heard about it, you must not go out and talk nonsense, otherwise, it will be as simple as losing your position." Shen Qian solemnly confessed.

"Don't worry, you know."

"It is said that Yang Tong convened his subordinates in Luoyang, discussed major military and political affairs, and decided to expand the army by 500,000 in order to ensure a big victory in the coming year, and recruited 200,000 slave soldiers from various mining areas.

When everyone heard this, they were all stunned!

The Sui and Tang dynasties have been fighting for many years, Li Tang's forces have always had the upper hand, but they have always been defeated miserably, if a million nearly two million troops come to attack Li Tang, Li Tang must at least have a million troops to resist, right?

As a member of the military department, everyone knows that Li Tang's defense line is leaking everywhere and has to be defended everywhere, and the soldiers are inferior to people in terms of equipment, combat strength, morale, and fighting will, and no two million troops can not withstand the powerful attack of the Sui army.

"Then how did the imperial court decide?" An official stammered.

"You ask me, who do I ask? It is estimated that the Taiji Hall is in an urgent discussion, and no one has the heart to eat. ”

"This Tang Dynasty is in danger." Shen Qian muttered again, drank all the wine in the cup, slammed the wine glass on the table, and said indignantly: "If the imperial court does not make up its mind to reform the system, I estimate that it will not be able to survive next year." ”

"Next year?" Another young man snorted, "If it weren't for the approaching cold winter and the Sui army didn't take advantage of the victory to pursue, I don't think it would have survived this year." ”

It was Dugu Ming who said this, the partial concubine of the Dugu Valve, who had a low status in the family, if it weren't for the name of the Dugu family, he wouldn't even be able to be a record of this small military department, although his status was not high, but he had lived in the leafy gate valve since he was a child, and his knowledge was extraordinary.

Although these petty officials are in the court, they are actually representatives of public opinion, because ordinary people can't recognize a few big characters, they only care about their own firewood, rice, oil, salt, three meals a day and other trivial matters, as long as they are not bandits who cut their heads in, who sits in the world and who is the emperor does not care.

Only people with a little experience and a little family background will be idle to care about and discuss military affairs, and such people can truly represent the public opinion of a country.

"Indeed, now the people of the court are panicking, and although many officials do not do things, they sit together all day to discuss the current situation. The chain of big things that have happened in recent years is really so depressing that it's being talked about everywhere now. ”

Dugu Ming told the truth, since the failure of the Eastern Crusade, the Sui Dynasty army has pressed the border, and the court and the opposition are not at ease. Some children of families who have nothing to do gather in one place all day to discuss the current situation.

Shen Qian sighed and said, "Actually, there is still hope for my Datang, but I have to learn how to survive with a broken tail of a gecko." ”

"That's what the envoy thinks, I don't think there's any hope at all." Dugu Ming sneered and said, "Where is the hope of a court that has been defeated repeatedly and even the land of Longxing and the capital has been easily broken by the Sui army?" You can go to Xiangyang Gelifang to inquire. Now who would say that there was hope for the Tang Dynasty? The court only knows about infighting, only about fighting for power and profit, and intrigue. Who cares if the people live or die? Now the price of grain in Xiangyang has risen to more than 200 yuan of doumi, and it is still soaring. What about Luoyang, Daxing and Yecheng? The selling price of the Dasui Supply and Marketing Cooperatives is 30 yuan for rice, and the difference in grain prices is about seven times. ”

Although Dugu Ming's words made some sense, everyone didn't dare to take them, and one person said in a round: "Just now Shen Yuanjun said that there is still hope for my Datang." Can you talk about it? ”

Shen Qian tasted a glass of wine, and then said slowly: "As long as you find out where the source of the crisis in the Tang Dynasty is, you can prescribe the right medicine." ”

"Envoy, please speak." One of them picked up a flask and poured him a glass of wine.

After the end of the Battle of Bingzhou that year, the court discussed a lot, seeking the reason why the Tang army was unwilling to fight to the death, and the final conclusion was that the reason why the army was unfavorable in fighting was that the rewards were unfair, and the pension really went to the families of ordinary soldiers, less than one percent. Later, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that the crisis of the Tang Dynasty was actually the land, as long as the soldiers had fields, then he had concerns, in order to protect his fields and houses from being taken away by the Sui army, the battle was naturally brave, and for a period of time, everyone said that they would implement the Sui Dynasty's uniform land system and implement the system of raising the army with high salaries. But after so many years, there has been no news. As far as I know, the Sui Dynasty is now in the Central Plains, Qingzhou, Jingyang area of the large-scale implementation of the uniform field system, one person can get 20 acres of Yongye field, in order to encourage the people to move to the north, the prosperity of the sparsely populated counties of Caohan, Jincheng, Lingwu, Wuyuan and other counties, as long as the people are willing to settle down here, the imperial court not only provides food and lodging along the way, each person can get 50 acres of land. Where are the shortcomings of my Datang? The reason was that the government did not have land to distribute to the people and soldiers. ”

"Doesn't Bashu have land?" The man said unconvinced.

"Bashu really doesn't have any extra land." Shen Qian glanced at Dugu Ming and said with a smile: "Jizhou, Qingzhou, Central Plains, and Yongliang regions have experienced large-scale wars for many years, and in the past ten years, too many people have died in those places, and there is ownerless land everywhere, so the Great Sui has land to distribute, and many people have fled to the land under the rule of the Sui Dynasty, hoping to get a place to live." And there is no major turmoil in Bashu, the land is all owned by the owner, and the court can't take away the owner land and share it to others! That's going to be a big mess. ”

Dugu Ming sighed silently, he was a person who entered the court as an official from the Dugu clan's Bashu Manor, of course he knew this problem; He also knew that the Great Sui not only owned a large amount of ownerless land, but also took away the land belonging to the world's families, which could be distributed to the common people to buy the hearts of the people. It can also attract people from all over the country to join it, this population is large, not only the tax money and food are abundant, but the military resources are also very abundant, and then the huge taxes are used to raise the army with high salaries, and the soldiers naturally use their lives.

On the contrary, the Li Tang Dynasty had no extra land in their hands, and the only little land was distributed to the royal family and various families, resulting in the failure of the Juntian system, resulting in many soldiers from Guanzhong, from the Central Plains, and from Jianghuai like rootless duckweed, and were also rejected by the locals, for fear that they would take away their own land, everyone followed the court to Xiangyang, but the court did not give them a little protection, and they were like homeless people. blames the court for not giving land, resents the boss's exploitation, and is even more afraid that after his death, the family will starve to death, so how can the Tang army have morale? How could he defeat the high-morale Great Sui Dynasty?

Shen Qian said again: "My only hope for the Tang Dynasty now is to seize part of the land from the powerful people, distribute it to the landless people, and appease the soldiers, so as to stimulate the will of the people at the bottom to protect their families and defend the country, otherwise, can they still expect the powerful to carry a knife to protect the Tang Dynasty?" When it really comes to that point, I'm afraid that the first ones to surrender are these magnates. ”

Dugu Ming frowned when he heard this.

In his opinion, the theory of seizing the land of the powerful and distributing it to the people was simply a big joke, and the imperial court was really going to do this, and the civil strife would immediately be staged in the Li Tang Dynasty, and as soon as the Sui army arrived, this fragile imperial court collapsed without a fight.

"Bang!"

Just when Dugu Ming wanted to come out to refute, the door of the private room was kicked open, and more than a dozen soldiers wearing black armor and white robes and straddled swords rushed in.

Seeing the uniforms of these soldiers, everyone's faces changed greatly.

These people belonged to the Wuchuan Division, which was created after Li Yuan withdrew his troops from Nanyang, and was under the control of Li Yuanji, the king of Qi. The original intention of the establishment was to crack down on and arrest all parties who infiltrated Datang.

The Wuchuan Division was developed by Li Yuanji on the basis of the assassination supervision organization of 'One Eye', and it was originally just a force walking in secret, but after Li Yuanji took over, he went from darkness to sunlight, in addition to the meticulous work of cracking down on various forces, it was more used to supervise the officials of the dynasty, and later the power was further expanded to supervise the army and monitor the common people. After a few months of development, it quickly became an espionage agency inside and outside the supervision.

Most of the members of the Wuchuan Division came from Li Yuanji's new army, which consisted of three parts: the military office, the prison and the barracks.

In the past few months, Wu Chuan Division has arrested a lot of people who talk about the government in vain, and most of them go in vertically and come back lying down.

The people of Xiangyang will go to listen to the sound of the gong on the street before noon every day, and then it will seem that the soldiers of the Wuchuan Division escorted the 'spies' to behead, men, women and children, and several families were copied and beheaded.

In just a few months, Commander Wuchuan was terrified, and his prison was called hell. Especially after the end of the Eastern Crusade, Li Yuan was worried about the confusion of the people, so he asked Li Yuanji to strengthen supervision of the people of Xiangyang.

Li Yuanji, with Li Yuan's acquiescence, was unscrupulous, I don't know how many people were killed and their families were destroyed, and the wailing and screaming all day and night came out from the 'hell', making that area like hell, and many residents were so frightened that they moved one after another, and the land covering an extremely large area was no longer inhabited.

The soldiers of the Wuchuan Division are all people who survived Li Yuanji's cruel training, they are already very ferocious, and under Li Yuanji's indulgence, they are like the devil out of the cage, they will arrest the people and officials who slander and betray the court every day, and the power is terrifying. Not only can you arrest people at will and break into people's houses at will, but you can also execute officials and ordinary people below the seventh rank at will.

They are distributed in all corners of Xiangyang every day, monitoring everyone's words and deeds. A group of people disguised themselves in various high-end wine shops, green houses, and teahouses to eavesdrop on the conversations between officials and ordinary people, while some people wore standard armor and robes and were responsible for arresting people.

The Weinan liquor store is a place where officials are concentrated, and it is the object of the Wude Division's key supervision, and they also dine here, and they just heard this group of military officials talking about the government and politics, and there are many dissatisfied voices, so they don't wait for the gang to arrive, so they put on the standard armor they carried with them, and broke down the door to arrest people.

The captain at the head pointed at Shen Qian and said loudly: "Discuss the government in vain, speak untamed words, and arrest them all!" ”

Shen Qian, Dugu Ming and the others said angrily: "Are you mistaken, we are not spies, we are officials of the Tang Military Department!" ”

The lieutenant held up a piece of gold and said coldly: "Wuchuan Division is under the order of the Holy Lord to monitor the hundred officials, and those who dare to discuss the imperial court will be arrested and investigated, and they will all be arrested for me." Dare to resist, regard complicity as rebellion, and kill without mercy. ”

"Whoa!"

The burly Wu De pawn swarmed up and tied these military officials like rice dumplings, and Shen Qian shouted: "We have not slandered the imperial court, you can't arrest people indiscriminately." ”

"If you have something to say, I'll explain it when I get to the Wude Military Office, take it away for me!" Seeing this group of civilian officials who are usually high-minded, they trembled with fright, and the captain was extremely disdainful.

As this group of weak officials was tied up, the officials who were eating at the Weinan wine shop were in an uproar, although they knew that Wu Chuansi was acting out of line, but they didn't expect to be arrogant to the point of openly arresting officials, but now, no one dared to get into trouble, and could only silently watch these unlucky military officials being escorted into a sealed and windowless carriage.

Looking at the carriage that was leaving, everyone's mood was very heavy, since the Sui Dynasty, the imperial court has always been free speech, and there are special boxes for anonymous reporting, which are used to report lawbreakers to officials and ordinary people who do not want to cause trouble. As long as there is a report letter, Emperor Wen of Sui will watch it carefully, and let people start to investigate, even if the report is wrong, it will not be investigated, and the wrong accusation in the Sui Dynasty will not be charged, and once the situation is found to be true, it will be severely punished.

The most typical representative is Emperor Wen of Sui's son Yang Jun of Qin, this monarch because of his luxurious life, privately built the palace, robbed the people of good land and family property, was anonymously reported by the people, Emperor Wen found that the situation was true, that is, the edict was confined, and abolished as a concubine. Some ministers advised, and Emperor Wen of Sui said: "The law must not be violated." After Yang Jun was poisoned by his princess, his assistant asked for a monument to be erected, but Emperor Wen of Sui did not agree, and said: "If you want to be famous, a history book is enough, why use the monument?" If the children and grandchildren cannot protect the family, they will be the ones who will be the townspeople. "Because Emperor Wen of Sui enforced the rule of law, officials were afraid, so that corruption and crime were relatively reduced, which was somewhat beneficial to the people.

This regulation is still prevalent in the Sui Dynasty and has been further expanded, with the exception of Luoyang, Daxing, Yecheng, and Zhuo counties, where each county has an anonymous report box. Therefore, speech in the Sui Dynasty was quite free.

In the Tang Dynasty, although there was no anonymous report box, there was no decree prohibiting speech, and it was actually normal for officials to chat and complain a few words during dinner. But now, not only are they not even allowed to complain, but they are not allowed to talk about government affairs in private. If this situation continues, I am afraid that even the gathering of friends and colleagues will be punished in the future, when did the court to which they are loyal become so dark?

For a while, the Weinan liquor store became dead silent.

The officials didn't dare to eat, so they hurriedly settled the bill and went their separate ways.