In Li Yuan's study, there were three people sitting on their knees. In addition to the owner Li Yuan, there were two middle-aged people, one of whom was Li Yuan's uncle Dugu Zheng.
Duguxin had seven sons and three daughters. His first wife, Luo, died of illness early after giving birth to her eldest son, Duguluo. Her step-siblings, Guo, had Dugushan, Dugumu, Duguzang, Dugushun, Dugutuo, Duguzheng, Empress Mingjing of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Li Yuan’s mother was Dugu Prajna. Concubine Cui only gave birth to one Dugu Jialuo. Therefore, in terms of closeness and blood relationship, brothers such as Li Yuan and Dugu Shun are closer, while brothers such as Yang Yong and Yang Guang are farther away.
To this day, Dugu Xin only has two sons and one daughter left. The sons are Dugu Shun and Dugu Zheng, and the daughter is the mother Dugu Prajna. Among the brothers and sisters, Dugu Zheng is the youngest, only 48 years old this year.
Another middle-aged man is Dou Wei from the Dou family. This person is Li Yuan's wife, Dou's cousin, and Li Yuan's elder.
The Dou family is also an aristocratic family with a long history. It entered its most glorious period as early as the Wenjing period of the Han Dynasty. Among them were Dou Xianle and Shi Yanran. His brother Dou Du was a guard. Dou Jing and Dou Gui were both servants, chariots and consorts. The captain and other sons of the Dou family were all in important places, and their authority was unparalleled. In order not to arouse the emperor's suspicion, the four brothers committed suicide to avoid disaster. However, because no one had more power and wealth than them at that time, the four brothers People only want to overhaul their own houses, compete for luxury, and strive for craftsmanship, creating an illusion of brotherly disharmony.
It has been passed down to this day. Although the Dou family is not one of the twelve generals of the Eight Pillar Kingdom and did not receive decent dividends in the coup that deposed the Zhou Dynasty and established the Sui Dynasty, when the world stabilized, its long historical inheritance and huge number of talents will This gave full play to their huge advantages. When the Guanlong nobles such as the twelve generals of the Eight Pillar Kingdom, whose inheritance was short-lived and the population was not flourishing, fell into a talent bottleneck and stagnated, the Dou family was developing like a trickle. , in the current situation of fair competition, even if the Dugu sect and Yuan sect jointly suppressed it, they could not suppress it, and the Dou family finally became one of the most important families of the Guanlong aristocracy.
The Dou family is a true military family, and the children in the family are also famous for their bravery and military skills. In front of the Dou family, the Guanlong nobles can only be regarded as rising stars in the military family. However, Dou Wei, who is only forty-six years old this year, is an alternative who likes literature and dislikes martial arts. He has beautiful literary talent and profound knowledge. Later, he was appointed as the secretary of the Shu King Yang Xiuzheng. Because Yang Xiu committed many illegal activities, he resigned due to illness. Now Yang Xiu He was deposed as a commoner, and most of the officials in the palace were convicted. Only Dou Wei was spared.
But Dou Wei has not been used, and he is still a white man, helping his brother Dou Yi to take care of family affairs.
In this regard, he is similar to Dugu Zheng, who only has titles, honors, and casual officials. However, behind him is the huge Dou family. Who in the civil and military dynasties dares to bully him as a commoner?
Since he bought the Rijin Doujin sea salt business from the Dugu family at a low price more than three months ago, Dou Yi became one of the "hot" candidates for the family owner after he was ordered to commit suicide.
The three of them exchanged a few words. Li Yuan waited for the two elders to put down their tea cups and asked the doubts in his heart: "The two elders came to visit side by side. I don't know why? If something happens, just send someone to inform the junior, and the junior will definitely be there on the first day." Why bother bothering two elders when you can come and listen to the teachings all at once?”
When Dugu Zheng heard Li Yuan's question, he did not answer directly. Instead, he asked: "Shude, do you know why we came to see you today?"
Li Yuan knew that Dugu Zheng and Dou Wei were considering him. If they were wrong, there might be nothing to follow, so he said seriously: "This junior speculates that this should be related to the follow-up of the He Ruobi case. The Dugu family and Dou Wei The family probably wants to cultivate the younger generation and serve for the inheritance of the Guanlong nobles, right?"
There was a rumor circulating among the Guanlong nobles before, saying that the three Guanlong factions intended to merge into one. If they merged into one, they would definitely find an interest representative to fight for power with the emperor on their behalf.
This kind of approach is not unfamiliar to Li Yuan, because it is exactly the same as the military leaders of Wuchuan and the heroes of Guanlong jointly supporting Yu Wentai, and the nobles of Guanlong jointly supporting Yang Jian. In the past few days, many things happened to the nobles of Guanlong, and the three Four core figures of the big faction died, and dozens of people were implicated. At that time, Li Yuan guessed that the cooperation between the Guanlong nobles was not far away, and Dugu Zheng and Dou Wei were probably making a choice to leave the Yuan family to come to him. There were differences on the issue of interest representation; and as the nephew of the Dugu family and the son-in-law of the Dou family, and weak in power, he was undoubtedly the best candidate to represent the interests of the two families.
There is no one in this room who cannot be trusted, so Li Yuan is honest and unabashed.
Dugu Zheng smiled happily, nodded slightly and said: "Shu De is a smart man, so I won't be careless. As long as Shu De is willing, our two factions will provide all the strength to help you gain a foothold in the court, five years at the latest. It will make you a minister of the first minister of the Ministry of Secretariat; in another five years, you will be promoted to a minister of the Ministry of Secretariat; in another five years, you will become a servant of the minister of ministers, or a minister of internal history, and a disciple of the minister, what do you think?"
Dugu Zheng and Dou Wei only thought that Li Yuan would be overjoyed, but they did not expect that he was not excited at all. He just frowned and thought hard. The two looked at each other, and Dugu Zheng said again: "Shude, the saint has already contacted us. The Long nobles became strangers and drifted apart. For this reason, they implemented many decrees to cut off our strength. They even did not hesitate to abolish the Crown Prince Yang Yong who we supported and replaced him with the tough Yang Guang. Once Yang Guang ascended the throne, he would inevitably suppress Guan Guan. The policies of the Long nobles are carried out to the end. In the new dynasty, it will be difficult for us officials of the Long nobles to gain a foothold in the court, and it will be difficult for local officials to take charge of the central government. With your own efforts, you can restore the Li family's past glory. It’s almost impossible.”
"Not bad." Dou Wei added: "The higher you go up, the harder it is to get promoted, and the fewer positions you get. With your current position, there are many people competing with you at every level, and they all have deep backgrounds and connections. Strong, coupled with the emperor's deliberate suppression, let alone mediocre, even if you have accomplished the merits of greed, it will be difficult to move forward. If you are willing to shoulder this burden, we can use the manpower and wealth in our hands To help you achieve meritorious service, you can use the mouthpieces all over the world to advocate for you. When you have enough merits and fame, it will be difficult for the emperor to use you. And when you get to that point, you can only restore the former glory of the Li family. It’s something that happens overnight, even if you don’t care about your career, you can’t just sit back and watch the decline of the Li family from generation to generation, right?”
Li Yuan's heart skipped a beat when he heard what the two said. As the head of the Li family, he not only knew the subtle relationship between the emperor and the Guanlong nobles, but also knew the wealth owned by the Guanlong nobles, including the Dugu family, the Yuan family, and the Dou family. Home is the most important thing.
The Yuan family itself belongs to the royal family of the Northern and Western Wei Dynasties, so it goes without saying that they possess wealth. The Dou family is a family with a long history and has been inseparable from the royal family since the Western Han Dynasty. How can the wealth of the past generations be so small?
As for the fact that the Dugu family is known as the richest man in the Sui Dynasty, it is entirely because they came from behind. Long before the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, Dugu Xin had amassed a staggering amount of wealth through his dual identities as a relative and the Bazhuguo. It was also due to the strong financial support of the Dugu family that Yang Jian was able to quickly assemble an army to defeat Yuchi Jiong who opposed him, and was able to quickly assemble hundreds of thousands of troops to fight back against the Turkic Khanate.
Although the Dugu family has done nothing politically, this is the result of Empress Dugu's deliberate suppression in order to avoid the exclusive power of her relatives and the two families becoming enemies; on the other hand, it is the strategic change of the Dugu family itself. After realizing human potential, he decided to follow the example of Dou Xian of the Han Dynasty in order to avoid the political scenery and prepare to settle down for a long time. But who dares to underestimate the Dugu family, which does not have much real power? Isn’t everyone still lining up to curry favor with the Dugu family?
So Dou Wei said that the two families could use their wealth and connections to help him perform meritorious deeds. Li Yuan was moved, because money can do things better than people. When the money used reaches a certain level, the attitudes of many opponents will soften into mud. . But Li Yuan also knew that "to be courteous for nothing is not to steal". How strong the support and conditions of the Dugu family and the Dou family were, but he might not be able to afford them. After all, the current Sui Dynasty is an unprecedented prosperous age. It is a dynasty with a life span of hundreds of years. It may be a powerful and long Han Dynasty, and there is no soil for Yu Wentai and Yang Jian. If the two families let him be Yu Wentai's third and Yang Jian's second, then the Li family will definitely die.
Dugu Zheng saw Li Yuan's eyes flickering, but he did not express his position. After thinking about it for a moment, he knew where Li Yuan was hesitating. He chuckled and said, "Shude is worried that we will let you do something against your will, right?"
"I am indeed a little worried." Li Yuan nodded slowly. When the two of them mentioned this topic, they regarded him as the head of the Li family, not a nephew or niece-in-law. Since it was a reciprocal negotiation, Li Yuan Naturally, he no longer conceals his worries.
"You can rest assured, Uncle De." Dugu Zheng said with a smile: "Actually, this does not conflict with your personal ambition. A poor man strives to be famous, and what he wants to become an official is nothing more than his personal future, and then support his family and future generations; in addition, he is a Expressing one's losses and spreading one's reputation through the ages. However, to do all this, he must seek recommenders, make colleagues, and unite like-minded people, thus forming a 'big family' that will be both prosperous and destructive. The purpose of aristocratic families The same is true for He, except that the objects of support and help from aristocratic families are the children of their own family and in-laws, rather than like-minded colleagues, so they are regarded with hostility and hatred by Hanshi."
"But this does not mean that the aristocratic families are selfish and only care about supporting their own people. It is that the children of the aristocratic families have enjoyed the education of famous teachers without worrying about food and clothing since they were young. Their knowledge and knowledge are far higher than those of ordinary people, so the aristocratic families recommend this book to the court. Having good talents and beautiful capital is not only in line with our own interests, but also officials needed by the court and the people. In fact, if a child of a noble family is a mediocre person, even if the court wants to use it, we ourselves will not agree. This is because once a mediocre person takes office Being promoted to an official position is not good for the court, the people, or the reputation of aristocratic families. More importantly, it will ruin the whole family's soup because of this rat excrement. Therefore, the aristocratic families recommend only real talents to avoid harming others. People harm themselves.”
"The vision and tolerance of aristocratic families are not so short-sighted. Whether they want to push the future of a certain child to the top, or let the family be passed down for generations. The prerequisites are peace in the world, peace and prosperity for the country and the people. So what the aristocratic families want is, The future of a country, the emperor's expectations, and the interests of the people are actually the same. It's just that the abilities are different and the things they expect are different, but there is no difference in themselves. Our Dugu family's status in the Sui Dynasty is second only to the royal family. If the emperor changes his surname, not only will our status not be guaranteed, but we will even be implicated and die. Therefore, the Dugu family does not oppose the saint. It is just that someone made Zhifa (Dugu Tuo) do something detrimental to the Sui Dynasty. But this It's his personal matter and has nothing to do with the family, which is why only his branch is punished. So you don't have to worry about our family letting you commit adultery."
Li Yuan was silent for a moment, there was a powerful emperor like Yang Jian in the world, and there was an even more powerful prince named Yang Guang who was eyeing him, so when those ministers and ministers were in power, they could not be said to be one person below tens of thousands of people, but when they were not in their position, they were in a worse situation than ordinary people. The officials were miserable. Judging from the period during which the Crown Prince supervises the country, once he takes office, he will definitely follow Yang Jian's route instead of compromising with the Guanlong nobles and the ministers of the DPRK. In view of this, the positions of minister and minister, who accompany the king like a tiger, are not very attractive to Li Yuan. He cares more about real power and interests.
Like the Dugu family, even though they are unknown in the officialdom, they can control the life, death, honor and disgrace of countless officials. What kind of power is that? What is the use of a false name without real power other than to satisfy vanity?
Of course, although the emperor severely suppressed the ministers, ministers, and servants, these positions still had a lot of coveted power compared to the official positions below. However, the position that was achieved with the support of outsiders was not as good as that of minister Zuopshe Yang. Su is so beautiful.
Although Yang Su is a descendant of the Yang family of Hongnong, he did not borrow much power from the family. He came into Yang Jian's sight entirely by relying on his own ability. His current status is achieved entirely by ability. It is precisely because of this that, Even the head of the Hongnong Yang family couldn't restrain him; he didn't dare to let out a fart in front of him, and he obediently treated him as Yang Su's puppet and mouthpiece. Even the head of the family was like this, so how could other forces make Yang Su obey?
And Li Yuan had wasted so many years. Not only did he not make any meritorious service on the battlefield, but his political achievements so far in government were mediocre and he accomplished nothing. He had no foundation or good reputation in the court. If he relies on the support of the Dugu family and the Dou family to enter the court, he will become a puppet controlled by the two families. In the future, as we progress step by step, there will inevitably be many handles falling into the hands of the two families. The bigger the official becomes, the greater the degree of control he will be under the control of the two families. This is obviously the fundamental reason why the two companies are preparing to appoint him as their representative of interests.
But when Li Yuan thought of "two families", his heart moved and he had new ideas in his mind.
The Dugu family and the Dou family had fought fiercely and suppressed each other before. Now they have come together. It is obviously because the imperial power is too strong that they have brought the two families together. However, this partnership for profit does not mean that The two families can completely let go of their previous grudges. In future cooperation, countless conflicts will certainly arise due to competing interests.
If you ascend to a high position, you can definitely play both sides of the fence between the two families and use their strength to strengthen the Li family. When the Li family reaches a level where it can be on an equal footing with the Dugu family and the Dou family, then the handle will no longer be a handle. After all, this handle was forged by both parties. It is something that is not only something that the Dugu family and the Dou family are ashamed of, but also something that the Dugu family and the Dou family are ashamed of. If they were to move it out, it would harm others and not benefit themselves, and it would be a lose-lose outcome. It is not something a wise person would do.
Besides, things are far from that point yet. If the attitudes of the two families change in the future, can't I change it myself?
Seeing that Li Yuan was thinking hard and didn't answer for a long time, Dou Wei became a little impatient. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Isn't such a generous salary not enough?"
"No one can refuse such a generous offer, not even the juniors." Li Yuan shook his head and asked in a deep voice, "May I ask the two elders, what do the juniors need to do?"
Dugu Zheng and Dou Wei looked at each other and smiled. They knew that as long as Li Yuan had a little ambition, he would not be able to refuse the support of the two families.
Dugu Zheng said: "We are now at a critical moment when the old and the new are changing. In addition, many things that are unfavorable to the Guanlong nobles have happened, so it is not appropriate to start a big war at this stage. You should continue to be a local official, and on the one hand, eradicate those who are unfavorable to us. For corrupt officials, you need to establish your reputation and reputation in order to gain praise from both the government and the public; on the other hand, you must advance and retreat with the government's decrees in matters related to the national economy and people's livelihood. This will enable you to gain the trust of saints and princes and work hard for us behind the scenes. Create conditions. And we will use the human and financial resources of the two families to prosper the place where you govern, and ultimately shape you into an upright official and a hard-working official."
When Li Yuan heard this, his expression gradually became serious, and he said solemnly: "Since it is beneficial to the country, the people, and yourself, then the younger generation has no reason to object."
"The leaders of the three Guanlong sects have reached a consensus to merge into one, but there are differences in the selection of representatives. The Yuan family hopes that Yuan Shou will be the representative." Dugu Zheng smiled slightly and said calmly: "And Yuan Shou is the Yuan family If he becomes the 'leader' of the Guanlong nobles, he will definitely be biased towards the Yuan family, and he will definitely be biased when doing things. Not only is this not in the interests of everyone, but it may also fragment the Guanlong nobles who have finally reached a consensus. , so this 'leader' must not be a child of three families. If our two families elect you, you will definitely gain widespread support."
Li Yuan smiled bitterly when he heard this. In the final analysis, it was because the Li family was too weak, and he was the nephew of the Dugu family and the son-in-law of the Dou family, which was in the interests of the two families. Therefore, as the representative of their interests, he was obviously a compromise between the two families. However, this made Li Yuan less worried. After all, the three families and factions each have their own interests and demands, and this is where he can do a lot.
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