Chang'an Xuanyangfang, there is a huge mansion covering an area of nearly 80 acres, here is the famous Dugu Mansion in Chang'an, which is the mansion of Dugu Xin, the founder of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

Later, it was inherited by the eldest son Dugu Luo, Dugu Luo died because he was implicated in the He Ruobi case, and before he died, he passed this mansion to the new head of the family Dugu Zhen, and did not give it to his son Dugu Liang, so that this Dugu Mansion became the house of the head of the Dugu family.

At night, Chang'an is shrouded in a misty drizzle, the family of Dugu Mansion is busy placing yin lanterns in the small river next to it, today is the thirteenth day of July, and two days later is the Zhongyuan Festival, although the emperor Li Yuan asked for frugality and forbidden luxury, but the necessary customs should still be retained.

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

Dugu Liang is the eldest son of Dugu Luo, because of his advanced age, he did not serve in the imperial court, and was named the prince Shaobao, and attacked the old lord Zhao Guogong, with a noble status.

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

For example, his brother Dugu Hong served as the general of the right guard, his nephew Dugu Qi served as the Taishou of Ziyang County, his brother Dugu Huaien served as the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and his uncle Dugu Zhen served as the internal Shi Ling, etc., civil and military positions, and the family status was extremely glorious in the Tang Dynasty.

Dugu Liang glanced at the busy Dugu family by the river, and asked lightly, "Is the head of the family in the house?" ”

"Yes, the second master, please come with me." The housekeeper hurriedly walked towards the mansion with Dugu Liang.

In the study, Dugu Zhen, the head of the Dugu family, is sitting at the table and writing a letter, Dugu Zhen is about 60 years old this year, with a childish face and strong spirits, he is one of the five phases of the Tang Dynasty, and he served as the internal history order.

The Dugu family and the Dou family are known as the second clan of the Tang Dynasty, second only to the Li family of the royal family, and far above the other Guanlong nobles.

It is not by chance that such a high status has been obtained. In the last years of the great cause, the Dugu family transferred the money and grain from all over the Sui Dynasty to Guanzhong, and the Dugu family was known as the richest man in the Great Sui, and had a very high appeal in the Guanlong and Bashu regions.

When Li Yuan entered Guanzhong, the Dugu family first took out a huge amount of money and grain to fund the Tang army, and the 6,000 families in each manor were also delivered to the Tang army.

Immediately, he personally followed Li Xiaogong south to Bashu and persuaded the counties of Bashu to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. It made great contributions to the bloodless occupation of Bashu by the Tang Dynasty soldiers.

Li Tang reciprocated the favor. It is also reasonable to seal the Dugu family.

However, with the repeated defeats of the Tang army at the hands of the Sui army, nearly 200,000 troops were wiped out, and more than half of his 6,000 family members were killed or wounded. Dugu Zhen's confidence in the Tang Dynasty also began to waver.

It's like an investor, when his investment in Datang has repeatedly lost money, it is difficult to bring him huge profits. Even slipped to the brink of bankruptcy, which of course he was not happy about.

Another thing that annoyed Dugu Zhen in the past two days was that he got the news this morning that his nephew Dugu Huaien was captured by the Sui army, which made Dugu Zhen really annoyed.

Dugu Huai'en was appointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Works, and was the successor of the head of the Dugu family, but he was actually captured by the Sui army, and I heard that he was also wounded by an arrow for a whole day. Dugu Zhen was made heavy by this incident.

At this time, the housekeeper reported from outside the door, "The master of the family, the second master is here." ”

Dugu Zhen put down the pen, this is Dugu Liang is here, and he knows that he will come, so he said: "Please come in!" ”

The door opened. Dugu Liang walked in, although he was two years older than Dugu Zhen, but he was Dugu Zhen's nephew, he stepped forward and saluted, "See the head of the family!" ”

Dugu Liang is the eldest grandson. has a high status in the Dugu family, so Dugu Zhen also respects him extraordinarily. There is no shelf of elders in front of him, the two of them are called uncles and nephews, but in fact they are like brothers.

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

Dugu Liang sat down, 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 be?" Li Xiaogong himself ran away. ”

Dugu Zhen sneered, "Not only did Li Xiaogong run away, but several of his staff also ran away, but it was the dignified marshal Changshi, but the Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry of the Imperial Court was captured, don't you think it's a bit unbelievable?" ”

Dugu Liang was taken aback, "Does the head of the family mean that Li Xiaogong deliberately let Huai En be captured by the Sui army?" ”

"I don't dare to say that Li Xiaogong did it on purpose, but he didn't protect Huai'en wholeheartedly, this is obvious, I think if Dou Jin was the chief historian, Li Xiaogong would not let him be captured anyway."

Dugu Zhen's tone was extremely dissatisfied, it was a wrong decision for the prince to let Huai En go to Jingxiang to serve as the Shangshu Commander of the Southeast Dao, although this was to divide Li Xiaogong's power.

But where could Li Shimin and Li Xiaogong let Jingxiang's power be divided so easily, isn't this coming? Li Xiaogong used the means of war to easily abolish Huaien, and Dugu Zhen hated Li Xiaogong's viciousness, and was dissatisfied with Li Jiancheng's inconsiderate consideration.

He said: "I went to see the prince today, and I told him clearly that if I don't give an explanation to the Dugu family about this matter, my Dugu family will not give the court a penny or a grain in the future." ”

"But will it be useful?"

"It must be useful, he Li Yuan still has to recruit soldiers, and he also wants copper ingots to mint money, he has to ask my Dugu family for these, and he will definitely find a way to redeem Huai'en back."

Dugu Liang was silent for a moment and said, "Is the pressure on the head of the family like this, is it too much pressure on them?" ”

Dugu Zhen shook his head, "The prince and Li Yuan both know in their hearts, I'm not just dissatisfied with this matter, in fact, in addition to being able to pinch soft peaches like Liang Shidu, Li Liang and Xiao Miao, who else can they deal with, they know for themselves, how many times have they been defeated in the hands of Yang Yuanqing?" ”

Dugu Liang was also worried: "In fact, not only is the head of the family dissatisfied, I have contacted many Guanlong nobles, and everyone is dissatisfied with the repeated defeats of the Tang army to the Sui army, and I heard that even the Dou family has an opinion. ”

Dugu Zhen's eyes inadvertently showed a trace of remorse, and he couldn't help but sigh, "I support them, it is to let them unify the world, but they can't even go out of Guanzhong, how can I not be disappointed, I knew earlier, I should have supported Yang Yuanqing, one wrong step, one wrong step!" ”

"But Yang Yuanqing is the enemy of the Guanlong nobles, when he suppressed He Ruobi, suppressed the Zhang family and the Yuan family, did the head of the family forget?"

Dugu Zhen smiled, and his words were said slowly. It's as if he wants Dugu Liang to remember his words.

"You don't understand this, this is called not in his position, not seeking his position, he was just a courtier at the beginning, and he was adhering to Yang Guang's holy will to do those things, but now that he is in charge, he wants to win the world, and in the end he still has to compromise with the nobles of Guanlong."

Dugu Zhen saw Dugu Liang thoughtfully. And he continued: "A man who does not know how to compromise. It will never be a big thing, Yang Yuanqing is not such a person, when he suppressed the price of rice in Luoyang. I knew he was a compromiser. ”

Dugu Liang already understood what the head of the family meant, "The head of the family is saying, we might as well have a secret contact with Yang Yuanqing?" ”

Dugu Zhen smiled slightly proudly: "In fact, I have already been in contact. I came into contact with him when he was in Toyosu, have you forgotten? ”

Dugu Liang suddenly forgot about that person......

Shouguang County, Beihai County, here is the northernmost small county of Beihai County, and then to the north is a forest, beyond the forest is a tidal flat as wide as ten miles, and then to the north is the endless sea.

Song Jingang led more than 20 remnants of the army to flee all the way, and he did not dare to enter the county seat. Rush straight into the forest and run towards the tidal flats.

The battle between Dou Jiande and Song Jingang lasted for nearly half a month, although Dou Jiande had an absolute advantage in strength with 30,000 troops against Song Jingang's 12,000 men, but Song Jingang used the tall city wall of Yidu County to mobilize the army and people of the whole city to defend it to the death, causing Dou Jiande to suffer heavy losses.

In the end, because the people were unbearable. Kaicheng let Dou Jiande's army enter the city, so that Song Jingang's army was routed on all fronts, and Song Jingang led more than 100 personal soldiers to seize the door and flee.

After crossing Shouguang County and crossing the forest, Song Jingang finally saw the tidal flats. It was only then that he let out a long sigh of relief. When he came to the tidal flats, it was up to him to see if he could find a boat to go to sea and leave Beihai County.

"General, where are we going?" A pro-soldier asked.

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

At that time, he felt that Yang Yuanqing's conditions were too low, and he only gave him the position of an empty lord of the county prince and a general who was idle, without any real power, so he did not agree.

But now he wants to agree, I'm afraid Yang Yuanqing won't let him go, he lost Beihai County, lost the army, and has nothing, what capital does he have to accept the position of county prince and general?

He has an old relationship with Meng Haigong, maybe he can take a boat south to Huiji to join Meng Haigong.

Song Jingang sighed, "Let's find the sea ship first!" ”

At this time, they were tired and hungry, and continued to go north, about ten miles, and when they saw that they were almost on the sea, they suddenly saw a house in front of them, and there was smoke from the roof.

Everyone was surprised and delighted, urging the horse to rush over, this is a fisherman's family, a middle-aged couple with a pair of children to live, the man with his son has just returned from fishing, the family is reunited, is enjoying the joy of family.

Suddenly, a large group of soldiers rushed in like bandits, and the man was furious, picked up his harpoon and tried desperately, and was slashed to death by the soldiers.

"Fuck you quickly find food, and talk about women when you're full."

Song Jingang was hungry and urged his subordinates to find food, and the soldiers turned the house upside down, only finding a few liters of rice, but there were a lot of sea fish in the backyard, so that the soldiers could feast on a full meal of seafood.

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

The night is getting deeper and deeper, and the evil under the cover of the night has ended, and the soldiers are tired all day and are sleeping soundly.

At this moment, Song Jingang was suddenly awakened by a strange noise, only to feel a fire outside the window. Startled, he sat up suddenly, rushed to the window in a few steps, and his scalp exploded with shock, only to see hundreds of fishermen surrounded outside, all with steel forks and torches, and their eyes full of anger.

In front was a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy, who looked so similar to the middle-aged fisherman who was killed, Song Jingang took two steps back.

Suddenly, he yelled, "Get up, get up for me!" ”

There was a mess in the house, and the fishermen didn't burn it because they were afraid of hurting the women in the house, but the two women were dead and they would soon find out.

"Kill it and take back the warhorse!"

The soldiers drew their knives and killed outward, and Song Jingang also pounced, only by recapturing the war horse, he could have a chance of survival.

A wail sounded in the torches, and the angry shouts of the fishermen drowned out the soldiers' begs for mercy, and in a short time, only Song Jingang was left, and he was surrounded by more than 200 people.

Song Jingang was injured in the leg and couldn't run, he looked up to the sky and shouted angrily: "I can't imagine that I, Song Jingang, will die at the hands of a group of fools!" ”

"Kill him!"

I don't know who shouted first, and a hundred steel forks were thrown at him together, nailing Song Jingang to death on the beach