Due to the sudden rebellion and the strict control of speech by the Takekawa Division, the city of Xiangyang became very silent, and the streets were deserted, and the shops closed one after another. A pre-storm feeling pervades the city.

In the Lingyun Wine Workshop, there are two old men sitting opposite each other for a drink, one is named Dugu Kaiming, is the concubine of Dugu Xin's eldest son Dugu Luo, with Dugu Cheng, Dugu Lan, Dugu Ji, Dugu Yanfu, Dugu Yanshou and other important figures of the Dugu clan were placed under house arrest, many of the children of the Dugu clan were also closely monitored in Xiangyang City, so that they could not withdraw from Xiangyang.

Although Dugu Kaiming is the son of Dugu Luo, he is not only a concubine, but also has no power in the Dugu clan, made a big mistake for more than 30 years, and was expelled from the Dugu family by the angry Dugu whole. Of course, the so-called expulsion of the clan is just an arrangement deliberately made by Dugu in order to confuse the Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, in order to make it easier for the Dugu clan to act better.

Dugu is enlightened in the Dugu clan, in fact, he is one of the most important figures in the Dugu clan, he has been controlling the Dugu clan's dead soldiers behind his back, and is an indispensable helper for Dugu Cheng and Dugu Cheng, and the assassination of Li Shimin was arranged by him. It's just that he hides it well, and for so many years, he has never revealed a flaw, and his children and grandchildren don't know that he is still the core figure of the Dugu clan. So after Dugu Cheng and other Dugu clan's children were all imprisoned, his small life was quite leisurely.

The drinking friend sitting opposite him was named Yu Qian, who was Yu Zhongwen's concubine, and the situation of his Yu family was very similar to that of Dugu Kaiming, and he also controlled the dead soldiers of the Yu clan in the name of expulsion; Speaking of which, this is still the idea set by Dugu for Yu Yun, the son-in-law of the six gods and no owner, when the family is facing a crisis. So Dugu Kaiming knew the identity of the other party, but Yu Qian didn't know that Dugu Kaiming was also doing the same thing as himself.

"Brother Yu, guess how much our meal costs." Dugu asked with a smile.

Yu Qian said with a smile: "The wine is fruit wine, and there are four dishes, one is stewed mutton, one is stir-fried slices, one pickled carp, and one bone broth, if it was in the past, it would be about 300 yuan at most." Now, I think it's better to have money than to talk about it! ”

Dugu smiled openly, and said very firmly: "Now if you don't talk about it, you have to go through three times, and only accept Yanhuang Tongbao or Kaiyuan Tongbao." ”

"Sanguan?" Yu Qian was taken aback, "This is more ruthless than robbing money." ”

Not convinced, he called the bartender and asked, "How much do we cost?" ”

The bartender replied respectfully: "Old man, you have spent three hundred and twenty-two dollars on this meal. ”

"Is it really that expensive?" Yu Qian looked at the smiling Dugu in surprise.

"The old man must rarely go out, and I don't know what's going on lately." The bartender thought that Yu Qian was talking to him, and said with a wry smile: "Now not only are prices rising, but also because the saint collected gold, silver and copper coins, and went to Sui Chaonan County to buy a large amount of high-priced rice as military rations, and a lot of money went to the Sui Dynasty. ”

Yu Qian was puzzled: "Since money is so valuable, is it as long as we have more meals?" ”

"That's not how it works." The bartender shook his head and explained: "With the arrival of summer grain and the arrival of a large amount of Sui Dynasty rice, Xiangyang is not short of grain now, but it lacks everything except grain. As a result, there is a phenomenon of cheap grain and expensive vegetables. ”

A few years ago, Yang Tong promoted Yanhuang Tongbao under his rule, and recovered the previous five baht coins from the people at a price much higher than the five baht coins, at that time everyone in the world was laughing at him, saying that he was a loser who could not do business, and sooner or later his treasury would be exhausted. However, he bought a large amount of materials from all over the country with the eliminated five-baht money, and a large number of Sui five-baht poured in, resulting in a situation of more money and less goods, causing prices to skyrocket in various places and boiling public resentment. Li Yuan, who bore the brunt of the situation, had to transport the materials of Bashu and Jingxiang to Daxing, so that he could barely stabilize prices. In order to avoid a repeat of the old story, Li Yuan followed the example of the Sui Dynasty and issued the Kaiyuan Tongbao to recover the disadvantages of the coin, but he could not recover the huge losses before.

Li Yuan poured all his strength into the war of the Eastern Expedition last year, and all kinds of material resources were continuously transported to the front line, but with the failure of the Eastern Expedition, these money, grain and military equipment fell into the hands of the Sui Dynasty and became the spoils of the other party. The Tang Dynasty was poor, and although the nobles of Long donated money, there was still a food shortage among the people. At the end of last year, Fang Xuanling sent an envoy to Xiangyang and reached a trade agreement with the Tang Dynasty, allowing the Tang Dynasty to use gold, silver, jewelry, and Kaiyuan Tongbao to buy grain in Nanjun. Li Tang Dynasty was overjoyed, Li Yuan was afraid that the Sui Dynasty would rebel, so in just one month, he bought millions of stone of high-priced grain from Nanjun, and then bought grain back one after another. However, with the flow of a large amount of money to the Sui Dynasty, Xiangyang inevitably had a money shortage.

"I see, thank you brother for your doubts." Yu Qian said.

"Don't dare to be." The bartender bowed and withdrew.

Yu Qian looked at Dugu and said depressedly: "Brother Dugu, how do I feel that the Sui and Tang Dynasties were full of strong Yang Dong-style conspiracy. ”

"Not bad."

Dugu nodded and whispered: "In the past, a large influx of five baht from Sui caused a food shortage; Now a large amount of high-priced grain is pouring in, so that there is a shortage of money in Xiangyang. Both are completely opposite, it's both a conspiracy. To tell my brother, I have long heard that the phenomenon of bartering has occurred among the people, but because of the different prices of the goods exchanged, the contradictions and disputes arising from bartering have continued to grow, and bloody conflicts have occurred in many places. If the imperial court could not solve the problem of money shortage, sooner or later there would be large-scale riots. ”

Yu Qian sighed: "In fact, the way to resolve the money shortage is very simple, that is, to cast money, cast a lot of money, and then buy all the materials of the Sui and Tang dynasties, so that Yang Tong will lose all his money, so that he will lack food and materials, and there is no way to start the war of the Sui and Tang dynasties." ”

"It's easy to say." Dugu said angrily: "The thirteen states in the world, except for Yizhou and the small half of Jingzhou in my dynasty, Feng An's Jiaozhou, and some of them belong to Lin Shihong and Meng Haigong, all belong to Yang Tong. With so many materials produced in such places, how could only the Tang Dynasty in Yizhou and Xiaobanjing be able to buy them out? Besides, I haven't found copper for a long time, so how can I have so much money to buy it? ”

"Brother Dugu is not an outsider, so I dare to tell the truth. My family now has a lot of food, but I lack everything but food. I'm not afraid of starving to death now, but we can't just eat dry food. Yu Qian was silent for a while, and said with a wry smile: "I think it's strange, even if the imperial court buys a lot of grain and there is no money to use, how can the people's wealth be consumed so quickly?" ”

Dugu said openly, "When the Sui Dynasty traded with the imperial court, it did allow our dynasty to use Kaiyuan Tongbao to buy grain, but the people of the Sui Dynasty did not accept Kaiyuan Tongbao, only recognized Yanhuang Tongbao, and our merchants did not have Yanhuang Tongbao, so they could only go to the Sui Dynasty to sell special products, but they did not transport the goods back, and directly exchanged them to the Sui Dynasty to exchange gold to make the difference, so that all kinds of materials other than food became less and less, and the people now exchanged gold much easier than before." It is for this reason that Xiangyang lacks everything but food. ”

Yu Qian was surprised and said: "I understand, since this kind of thing has happened, why don't the saints care about it?" If this continues, then what's the point? ”

Dugu Kaiming shook his head: "The only way is to interrupt trade, but once it is interrupted, where will the food of the imperial court come from." Without food, how can you feed so many troops? ”

Yu Qian said suddenly: "In the final analysis, it is still a huge army that drains the wealth of our dynasty. ”

Dugu nodded openly: "Yes." We have such a small territory and a small population, but we have to maintain hundreds of thousands of troops, which is far beyond the ability of the people, and the people have endured to the extreme, if taxes are increased, the people will rebel. ”

"I understand, our army is mostly maintained by grain from the Sui Dynasty. If the Sui Dynasty cuts off trade......" Yu Qian looked at Dugu in surprise.

"If the Sui Dynasty interrupts trade, our Dynasty will lose the food to feed the army. At that time, the Holy Lord had only two options, one was to reduce the army massively, and the other was to increase taxes. However, I think the Holy One will choose to increase the tax. Just because the Sui army has a million strong divisions and does not maintain a huge army, it is not an opponent at all. Dugu said openly.

Yu Qian nodded understandingly: "I understand, the expansion of the Sui Dynasty is also a trick, the purpose is to let my dynasty also expand the army, and then let our army eat the money and grain of the dynasty, once the trade is interrupted, the internal contradictions will immediately erupt, and our army will be chaotic without a fight." This is a conspiracy that cannot be resolved, unless ......"

"Unless the Holy One surrenders." Dugu Kaiming added.

"Shh Yu Qian hurriedly waved his hand.

As soon as Dugu Kaiming turned around, he saw more than a dozen Wuchuan soldiers walking this way, he was taken aback and didn't dare to speak again.

"May I ask who is Mr. Yu?" The brigade commander at the head asked Yaoyao.

"Old decay is." Yu Qian stood up and arched his hand: "Dare to ask the general what is the matter?" ”

"We are on business under the orders of our superiors, please come with us." Wuchuan Division followed Li Yuanji into Shu, and was fully taken over by Han Zhi, although he arrested people, but no longer even ordinary people were arrested as before, under his management, Wuchuan was much more polite than Li Yuanji's period.

"Why?"

Wuchuan Sijun has no return, it is the consensus of the people of Xiangyang, if you go with them, there is only a dead end. As soon as he heard the other party say this, Yu Qian's face changed greatly, and his tremors trembled.

Dugu Kaiming also got up and said, "Is the general looking for the wrong person?" Yu Lao is not a member of the Yu family. ”

"Of course we know that Yu Lao was expelled from the clan early." The brigade marshal said coldly: "However, Yu Lao, do you really have nothing to do with the Yu family?" ”

Yu Qian only felt a chill all over his body, knowing that he was exposed, so he pretended to be calm and said with a wry smile: "The old man was no longer a member of the Yu family twelve years ago. ”

"That's not something that a lowly job can know." The brigade marshal said with a smile: "But please cooperate with Yu Lao, otherwise it will ......."

"How else?" Dugu Kaiming also knew that Yu Qian was exposed, and his heart was shocked.

"Those who dare to resist will be killed." The brigade commander said.

Dugu's face changed drastically.

"Brother Dugu take care." Yu Qian knew that he couldn't escape this catastrophe, so he saluted and left with Wu Chuanwei.

Dugu Kaiming looked at Yu Qian's departing back, and a feeling of sadness for the dead rabbit and the fox arose.

At this time, the bartender came and said in a panic, "Old gentleman, why don't you settle the bill first!" ”

"Settle a!" The fear in Dugu's enlightened heart, when the bartender spoke, seemed to find an outlet, he slapped the table heavily, and said angrily: "We were arrested for having a meal here with you, what kind of bird shop are you?" It's just that I don't bother you, are you embarrassed to settle the bill with the old man? The doors are not ......"

"Don't get me wrong, old man, this matter has absolutely nothing to do with us." The bartender repeatedly defended, "Lingyun Liquor Workshop is the property of Wuchuan Si Han Changshi, if it weren't for no reason, Wuchuan Wei would never arrest people here indiscriminately." Your old man is safe and sound now, which means that Wu Chuanwei is only looking for your old friend. ”

Dugu asked openly: "Are you saying that the entire wine shop only arrests the old man's friends?" ”

"Exactly." The bartender nodded and said, "I heard people outside, except for a limited number of Dou Mansion, Doulu Mansion and so on. All the mansions related to the Guanlong aristocracy were surrounded by the army. ”

When Dugu Kaiming heard this, he immediately knew that the matter of the Guanlong nobles had escalated, and this realization also made him frightened.

Yu Qian, as the shadow son of the Yu family, has been hidden for more than ten years, but he is still being found out, what about himself?

Dugu was enlightened for a while, and his heart was like a mess.

'Da Da ......'

At this time, there was a rush of horses' hooves on the street, and Dugu looked out, only to see a group of soldiers appear on the street, and a general shouted: "The Holy Lord has decreed that martial law will begin in Xiangyang an hour later, and no one is allowed to stay on the street." Please return home as soon as possible, so as not to be injured by mistake for Sui Jun's meticulous work. ”

"There is an order from the Holy Father, and the whole city will be under martial law for one hour! Please return home as soon as possible, so as not to be injured by mistake for Sui Jun's meticulous work. The soldier roared.

"There is an order from the Holy Father, and the whole city will be under martial law for one hour! Please return home as soon as possible, so as not to be injured by mistake for Sui Jun's meticulous work. ”

“……”

As the soldiers shouted, the diners in the brewery paid their bills and hurried in the direction of home. Dugu Kaiming also paid the bill, got out of the winery, and hurriedly boarded the car and left.

When the drinkers are gone, the gate of Lingyun Distillery is immediately closed. Not only Lingyun Liquor Fang, but all shops, green buildings, and inns in Xiangyang City have also closed according to the order. In an instant, the number of pedestrians on the streets of Xiangyang suddenly increased, and one or two hurried home. The gates were slammed shut shut so that no one was allowed to enter or leave.

This is after Qu Tugai took over the military defense of Xiangyang, he began martial law and prepared to meet the invading rebels.

According to the information sent from the front, the 30,000 rebels led by Dugu Yanyun have arrived in Yongqing County, Fangling County, and will enter the territory of Xiangyang tomorrow, and there is not much time for Qu Tugai to prepare.