Early the next morning, Shopkeeper Zhu finally took a crossbow and reported the case to the Chang'an County Government Office. However, the investigation of prohibited weapons was a matter for the internal security guards. A Chang'an County security officer took Shopkeeper Zhu to the Internal Security Office on Chunmingmen Street.
At noon, Zhou Min, the deputy commander of the internal guard, personally led 500 soldiers to the West Market Tea Shop and surrounded the Bashu Chuanxiang Tea Shop. The shopkeeper Li Wulang and several clerks did not escape, but were detained by the soldiers.
"I am a serious businessman, and I do business innocently. Why should you arrest me?" Li Wulang yelled with a guilty conscience.
Zhou Min waved his hand, "Search thoroughly!"
The soldiers' target was obvious. According to the report, it should be right next to the stairs outside, but what they saw was a wall with no room or door. The soldiers knocked twice with a hammer, and a 'Boom! Boom!' was heard inside the wall.
There is a hollow sound, and there is a secret room inside.
Li Wulang's face turned pale. How could the inner guard know that there was a secret room here?
He looked angrily at the several waiters, who were also panic-stricken and looked confused.
There is actually a door to the secret room, but it is covered by a mountain of tea bags on the floor of the warehouse upstairs.
Zhou Min ordered: "Smash it open!"
"Boom! Boom!" Two hammers hit it, and a big hole appeared in the wall. It was a fake wall made of wooden boards and was coated with thick plaster.
The soldiers slashed with their swords, and in a moment, a large hole six feet high and four feet wide was opened. The secret room appeared in front of everyone. The one-foot-long and wide secret room was filled with various weapons, bundles of spears, and long spears.
Knives, bundles of leather armor, dozens of boxes of war knives, and a large number of bows and arrows.
The arrows and crossbow bolts were placed against the wall. Perhaps the weapons were covered with grease, so the rats attracted gnawed a hole the size of a duck's egg in the wall where the arrows were placed, which could just fit into a child's mouth.
Mao Xiaolang, who was playing hide and seek, got a crossbow bolt through this small hole, and finally exposed the secret room, which shows that there is God's will in the dark.
"This... I didn't put this there. I don't know, maybe it was the previous shop owner who put it there. You can't accuse me unjustly!"
Li Wulang had no way to deny it, so he denied it outright.
Zhou Min sneered, "Whether you released it or not, we'll tell you after investigation. Take it away!"
Li Wulang and several clerks were escorted away, and the soldiers closed the door and put a seal on the shop door.
The outside was crowded with businessmen and customers watching the excitement, and they were all talking about what was going on. However, the Zhus had another idea. It would be a pity that the tea cakes in the store were moldy, so they might as well sell them to themselves at a low price.
It's a reward, isn't it?
...........
The possession of prohibited weapons has always been determined by the quantity. If the quantity is not large, it is a small case. Usually, the person is beaten with fifty sticks and fined a sum of money to close the case. If the quantity is large, it is a major case.
This tea shop case is neither big nor small. There are 300 sets of armor and 300 weapons of all kinds. It needs to be 500 sets to be a big case. This can only be considered a medium case. It can be said that they are doing it.
Those who engage in black market business are usually sentenced to three years of exile and sent to mines for mining.
Wang Yue knew about this case, but he didn't care about it and left it to his subordinates to handle.
Wang Yue was really worried these past two days. The assassination case left him at a loss. He started investigating from Wu Faping and learned that Wu Faping had been living in his brother's house until last year.
The internal guards found Wu Faping's brother's home again and found that his brother suddenly fell ill and died. Judging from the body, he should have died of poisoning. However, his sister-in-law knew nothing about Wu Faping, not even that he was a warrior in Dugu Mansion.
.
Wang Yue came to a dead end again. He wanted to find out the whereabouts of Li Xiao, but no one came to claim the reward of three thousand taels of silver, indicating that there was a high possibility that he was no longer alive.
Wang Yue was upset and pacing back and forth in the room with his hands behind his hands. At this time, footsteps came from outside, and it was the voice of Deputy Commander Zhou Min, "I have a situation report!"
"Come in!"
Zhou Min walked into the room, holding several confessions in his hand, "Commander, this is the confession in the case of concealing weapons at noon. They all confessed smoothly."
"Are they from Zhu Si?" Wang Yue asked.
"No! They unanimously denied that the weapon had anything to do with them at first, but the name and number of the craftsman was engraved on the sword. I found out that it was made by the weapons supervisor early last year, and they have been selling tea in the shop for three years.
, so I pressed them again, and they finally admitted that the weapons were theirs, and they wanted to make a lot of money selling them on the black market."
"Then it will be handled according to the regulations and there is no need to report it to me."
Zhou Min bowed and said: "Commander Qi, although they explained this, I think it is still false."
"Why?" Wang Yue frowned.
Zhou Min said calmly: "They used three thousand kilograms of tea to seal the entrance to the secret room. It is very inconvenient to take out a weapon. If you really want to do business on the black market, you will not store it like this. In addition, the complete set of three hundred weapons
A, why don’t you look like you’re doing business on the black market?”
"So?" Wang Yue continued to ask.
"So I interrogated a clerk alone and used severe torture to extract a confession. He said that these weapons were used by their organization and reported them to the commander. He said the words 'Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce'."
"What?"
Wang Yue jumped up and asked anxiously: "What did you just say?"
"Commander, the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce was included in his confession."
Wang Yue was overjoyed. He really couldn't find anything, and it took no effort to get it. He didn't expect that an unexpected case would lead to the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce.
"Hurry and transfer them to the 'Grade A Heavenly Prison'!"
Zhou Min hesitated and said: "Commander, I humbly suggest that I report to His Highness the King of Jin first where they got the three hundred sets of new soldier armor. I'm afraid there may be a big case involved."
Wang Yue was reminded by one sentence. Wang Yue pondered for a moment and said: "You are a good reminder. I will report to His Highness King Jin now!"
........
Wang Yue hurried to the palace of King Jin, and just in time, Guo Song was clearing the desk and preparing to return to the palace.
Guo Song saw an unconcealable excitement on Wang Yue's face, so he smiled lightly and said, "Did you find out something?"
"Reporting to your highness, I didn't find it, I encountered it accidentally."
Wang Yue gave Guo Song a detailed report on the case of concealed weapons discovered today, and finally said: "Thanks to Vice Commander Zhou being cautious, he did not believe their lies and continued to extract confessions. As a result, he was expelled from the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce.
confession!"
Guo Song was silent for a moment. He knew that even if he found out a little bit about the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce, it was still far from its core. With the caution of the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce, they still had a long way to go, so he was not like Wang
The more excited he is, the more he is concerned about the source of the three hundred sets of armor, which is equivalent to the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce. This is a more serious case than the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce.
After thinking for a long time, Guo Song slowly said: "I would like to make two suggestions. First, keep this case under wraps and treat it as a case of black market weapons sales. You send people to check the black market weapons to give the other party an illusion. We
The Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce was not found, buying us time.
Second, divide this matter into two cases. You continue to investigate the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce and ask Zhou Min to investigate the source of the three hundred sets of armor. The investigation must be conducted secretly. Once the officials who smuggle weapons are found, they will be arrested immediately.
See him and protect him to prevent him from being silenced by the other party."
"Follow the order!"
Wang Yue bowed and hurried away. Along the way, he was thinking of ways to extract confessions. Tonight, he had to pry open the mouths of these people.
.........
That night, when the executioner of the inner guard placed a six-foot-long, wide-and-high iron cage in front of Li Wulang, he suddenly collapsed. Inside, there were hundreds of venomous snakes, wrapped together in a greasy roll, with silky threads spitting red.
Xin, this is also what the waiter who confessed at noon said, their shopkeeper is most afraid of snakes.
Li Wulang was so frightened that his whole body was like chaff, and he cried and begged: "I say! I will attack them all! Take it away quickly."
When the soldiers pushed Li Wulang to the next door, his face was pale and his whole body was still shaking. Wang Yue said coldly: "Tell me! What happened to the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce?"
Li Wulang raised his head in surprise, how could the other party know about the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce?
Wang Yue said calmly: "Your men have been recruited, but they don't know much. If you don't want to sleep in the snake cage tonight, then just tell the truth!"
Li Wulang no longer had the courage to confront the other party. He lowered his head and said, "Actually, I don't know much. I only know that the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce is just a name spoken to the outside world. It is not called the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce internally."
"what is it call?"
"My name is Tang Jinghui."
The recorder next to him wrote quickly and recorded every word Li Wulang said.
"Besides yours, what other stores does the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce have?"
Li Wulang shook his head, "I don't know. I only know that there is a villa in Hanzhong. What is its name? Where is it? I don't even know. I have never been there."
"Who is your boss?" Wang Yue continued to ask.
"I still don't know."
Seeing the sharp look in his eyes, Li Wulang quickly explained: "The Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce implements a single-line reverse communication. I never know who my boss is and where he lives. He will come to me every year when he wants money, and then he will come to me when he has something to do.
All I know is that he is an old man about sixty years old, with Sogdian ancestry, and I call him Da Guanshi, but I don’t know his real surname.”
The confession given by Li Wulang is very credible, similar to that given by several of the clerks. Wang Yue now knows why His Royal Highness Prince Jin is so calm, and he probably has guessed that he will not be able to get anything valuable from him.