Chapter 659 Creating Opportunities
Chapter 659 Creating Opportunities
The saltpeter was in the warehouse in Chengdu. Song Chang'en immediately took back the ship and arranged for the laborers to start loading the ship. At the same time, he bought some medicinal materials such as astragalus and Panax notoginseng.
Yang Qing had been sending people to monitor him, and when the goods were loaded, he sure enough showed up.
Yang Qing picked up a piece of saltpeter and looked at it. He couldn't tell the difference between saltpeter and Glauber's salt. They were the same to him. He even asked the imperial physician and learned that this thing was indeed a medicine with a strong cold nature and was effective in curing plague.
He could never have imagined that this thing was actually the raw material for the Sui army's most powerful weapon in Jiangnan.
More importantly, he was afraid of death and didn't want to offend King Jin. If he really angered King Jin, he would send assassins to kill his entire family, and it would be hard to defend against. In the end, the two bastards King Wei and King Lu would get the benefit for nothing.
Faced with the threat of death, he could only find a way out and give in.
"Since it is medicinal material, I will not stop you. You can let it go after paying the tax!"
Yang Qing ordered the collection of a commercial tax of one thousand strings of cash and approved it.
Hundreds of large ships loaded with gunpowder left Chengdu and sailed along the Minjiang River towards the Yangtze River.
The struggle for power among the Three Yangs was already an open secret in Chengdu. They had been attacking each other since they arrived in Bashu. Yang Ji attacked Yang Qing, causing him to retreat in a hurry, allowing the Eastern Sui to occupy Chang'an without any effort.
Yang Qingze fought back without mercy. It was because Yang Ji and Yang Shigui fled first that the army's morale collapsed.
Finally, Yang Qing got the support of the military, which ended the power struggle among the Three Yangs. The puppet emperor Yang Yong then appointed Yang Qing as regent, in charge of military and political affairs, and appointed Yang Ji as the Minister of Rites and Yang Shigui as the Minister of Works, which was considered a small appeasement.
Yang Qing was also not shy about it. He appointed his three sons, Yang Zhen, Yang Huan and Yang Lian, as assistant ministers of the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Justice respectively, giving them control over the power over personnel, finance and law respectively. He himself served concurrently as the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Minister of War, controlling the power to issue imperial edicts and military power.
The military strength of the Western Sui Dynasty consisted of Yang Qing's own 25,000 Guanzhong troops and General Qiu He's 30,000 Bashu troops, in addition to Yang Yu's 10,000 Yulin troops, plus the local troops from various counties in Bashu, totaling about 20,000 people, so the entire Western Sui Dynasty had a strength of about 90,000.
That night, a carriage slowly stopped in front of the mansion of Prince Wei Yang Ji, and a man came out of the carriage. He was about forty years old, handsome, with a deep gaze. This man was called Dugu Kaiyuan, the third son of Dugu Tuo's eldest brother Dugu Luo, and was granted the title of Duke of Xiping County.
Yang Ji's eldest son Yang Wannian came out and invited Dugu Kaiyuan into the palace. The two went straight to the inner hall, where Yang Ji was already waiting at the door.
"My Lord, long time no see!"
Yang Ji also smiled and said, "Thank you, nephew Dugu, for coming to visit me!"
After exchanging a few pleasantries, the two went into the hall and sat down. A maid came in and served tea.
Dugu Kaiyuan bowed and said, "My master received the prince's letter. He is willing to help the prince. I wonder if the prince has changed his mind now?"
Yang Ji sighed and said, "I have completely lost confidence in the Western Sui Dynasty. Now Yang Qing has taken over the power and has sidelined the Western Sui emperor. I am already disheartened and want to return to Chang'an to retire. Of course, I hope that the Luoyang emperor can forgive me, so I still hope that the Dugu family can talk to the emperor on my behalf."
Dugu Kaiyuan nodded, "In this case, the prince will need to write another letter to the emperor, and my master will hand it to the emperor."
“What do you want me to write?”
"The head of the family said that in order to gain the emperor's forgiveness, the key is that the prince must make meritorious contributions and help the emperor's army recover Bashu. Only in this way can the emperor pardon you and you can keep your title of prince." Yang Ji said in embarrassment: "But I don't know how to help the emperor?"
Dugu Kaiyuan smiled and said, "We'll talk about how to help later, but Your Majesty must have this attitude in his heart. Maybe the emperor doesn't need your help. The key is attitude is very important."
Yang Ji nodded silently, "I understand!"
Yang Ji then wrote a letter and handed it to Dugu Kaiyuan. This was a letter to Emperor Yang Guang. In the letter, Yang Ji sincerely admitted his mistakes and expressed his willingness to make meritorious deeds to atone his sins and contribute to the emperor's destruction of the Western Sui Dynasty.
At the same time, he gave a detailed introduction to the current situation of the Western Sui Dynasty in the letter, including the army, morale, court situation and the support of the people.
Dugu Kaiyuan got the letter and said goodbye, and returned to Chang'an overnight.
Emperor Yang Guang stayed in Chang'an for a whole month, but he did not meet with any member of the Guanlong nobles, nor did he even ask any questions, as if this force did not exist at all.
This indifferent attitude eventually became the last straw that broke the camel's back, making the Guanlong nobles completely despair and also allowing the already divided Guanlong nobles to unite again.
That night, several carriages parked in front of Dugu Mansion. Yuan Xiaoju, Yuan Shou, Dugu Tuo, Dugu Zuan, Houmochentai, Dou Wei, and Yu Shiqian, as representatives of the Guanlong nobles, held a secret meeting in the inner hall of Dugu Mansion.
As the convener, Dugu Tuo slowly said to everyone: "The actions of the Emperor Chang'an have completely betrayed us and his promise. He is no longer fit to stay on the throne. I am considering overthrowing the Emperor through a coup. Do you agree?"
In fact, Dugu Tuo and Yuan Xiaoju had reached an agreement in advance to join forces to overthrow the emperor. As for the conflict over who would be the emperor, they decided to resolve it by betting on multiple sides. In other words, while the Dugu family supported Li Yuan, they also secretly supported Xiao Xia. By the same token, the Yuan family also secretly supported the Li Yuan family.
Seeing that Yuan Shou and Yuan Xiao Ju were silent at the same time, without even exchanging glances, Hou Mo Chen Tai knew that the two families had reached an agreement beforehand, so he said, "I support the coup, but how and where should it be carried out? I hope these details will be clarified."
Dugu Tuo smiled and nodded, "We must discuss the details, but does the Houmochen family agree to the principle? Do they agree to the coup?"
Houmo Chentai nodded, "I can agree on behalf of my family!"
Dugu Tuo looked at Dou Wei and Yu Shiqian again, and they both nodded, "Agree!"
Dugu Tuo said happily: "Since everyone agrees, the next thing is the details. First of all, where should we launch the coup? Luoyang is definitely not suitable. I thought about it and thought that if we launch the coup on the way to conquer Western Sui, our chances would be greater."
"Is it in Chang'an?" Houmo Chentai asked.
"It doesn't have to be Chang'an, Chang'an or Hanzhong will do."
Dou Wei asked: "The key is whether the emperor will lead the army in person?"
Yuan Xiaoju said calmly: "Don't worry! He will definitely lead the expedition personally to conquer the Western Sui Dynasty."
"Then when?" Yu Shiqian asked.
Dugu Tuo smiled slightly, "I will create an opportunity for the emperor. Prince Wei Yang Ji expressed his willingness to surrender to the emperor. With this opportunity, the emperor must be eager to wipe out the Western Sui Dynasty. It is estimated that it will be either the end of this year or the beginning of tomorrow!"
(End of this chapter)