Li Wulang's confession has almost no value. They have a single line of reverse contact. His boss knows him, but he does not know his boss. Only three pieces of sporadic information are of some value.
The real name of the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce is Tang Jinghui; secondly, Li Wulang's boss is an old man with Sogdian descent; thirdly, his weapons are provided by a man named "Black Panther" on the black market, and the weapons broker is Qin Xiaoyi.
The first and second ones here are basically of no practical significance, but the third one is more useful.
In addition, another of Li Wulang's subordinates provided an extremely important clue. He had been to the villa in Hanzhong, near Dingjun Mountain in Liangzhou.
This single line of reverse contact also has an advantage, that is, the Tangzhou Chamber of Commerce will not know about the incident at the West Market Tea Shop for a while, and they still have a few days.
Wang Yue made a prompt decision, and he and Zhou Min divided their troops into two groups. Wang Yue rushed to Hanzhong with hundreds of cavalry, while Zhou Min was responsible for investigating the source of the weapons.
There are not many restrictions on commodities in Chang'an, so there are not many black markets. Currently, there are three main black markets, one gold and silver black market. After the last silver bill incident, the gold and silver black market was in a very sluggish state. It still exists, but the trading volume is very small.
The second black market is the weapons black market, which is mainly based on personal preferences. Many martial arts practitioners will have one or two long weapons, or horizontal knives, and weapons shops only sell bows and swords, so they can only go to the black market to find sources.
The third black market is the manpower black market. King Guo Song of Jin Dynasty has already ordered a ban on slaves, but there are still a small number of slaves on the market. They just change the tricks, such as adopting orphans, adopting godmothers, etc., and using so-called family affection to imprison the government.
There is no trace to be found.
There are also shady activities such as finding assassins, buying substitute exams for imperial examinations, etc., all of which are carried out in the black market.
The internal guards also monitor the black market, mainly monitoring the weapons black market. They can find the tracks of various vassals and towns in Chang'an. Zhou Min immediately found the internal security officials responsible for supervising the weapons black market.
The internal security officer responsible for supervising the black market is called Peng Hong. He is a civilian military officer, about thirty years old, and very smart and capable.
"Let me ask you, is there a broker named Qin Xiaoyi on the weapons black market?"
Peng Hong nodded, "Report to the general, there is indeed this person? He is very cunning? It is said that he only does business with regular customers, or is recommended by regular customers? He does not accept business from strangers."
Zhou Min's heart was moved? Is there anything famous in this?
...........
The weapons black market in Chang'an is located in the Dongshi Arms Store. The so-called black market is actually more than a dozen brokers on the streets and in stores. If a customer wants to buy prohibited weapons, the clerk will introduce the broker to the customer and get some benefits from it.
But where are the specific weapons? The brokers don't know either, but they know who has something.
Qin Xiaoyi is about forty years old and has been in this business for more than ten years. He can be regarded as the son who inherited his father's business? His father is a famous arms broker.
With each feudal town being annihilated by the Jin army? Qin Xiaoyi's life has not been easy in the past two years. He has recently begun to consider changing his career to become a land and house broker, which will be the real estate agent in later generations.
The weather in the morning was good, but it was already late spring or early summer. The sun was shining a little brighter after it came out. Qin Xiaoyi was sitting in the shade under the wall of a shop. He hadn't opened the shop for three days, but there was no way. He couldn't even buy a sword recently.
There are very few people there, let alone prohibited weapons.
At this time, someone tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned around, he recognized Mo Changqing, the owner of Changqing Martial Arts School. Mo Changqing had bought many weapons from him and was considered a regular customer.
"Is Mr. Mo going to take care of my business?"
"A colleague of mine wants to buy some notes!"
Qin Xiaoyi's eyes lit up, "Is it a long strip or a short strip?"
The long strip refers to a long sword or a standard spear, and the short strip refers to a horizontal sword.
"Everything is there!"
Mo Changqing pointed to a burly man on the corner of the street and laughed softly: "My junior brother, the owner of Taiyuan Huanglong Martial Arts School, can take care of the price."
"no problem!"
Qin Xiaoyi stood up and said excitedly: "Let's find a quiet place to talk!"
"Go to my martial arts gym!"
Qin Xiaoyi readily agreed, and the three of them walked to Changqing Martial Arts Hall together.
The man was very silent and basically didn't speak along the way. He occasionally said a word or two to Mo Changqing, with a strong Taiyuan accent, which reassured Qin Xiaoyi. After all, what he was doing was an illegal business and he valued safety very much. He preferred to do it.
Business for people from other places is relatively safe and reliable.
Changqing Martial Arts Gym is also a relatively famous martial arts gym in Chang'an. It is not far from Dongshi and is located in Changlefang next to Dongshi.
When they arrived at the martial arts hall, Mo Changqing pointed to a room and said with a smile: "You go inside and talk! According to the rules, I will avoid it first."
"Thank you, Lao Mo, for introducing the business. I'll treat you to dinner another day."
Mo Changqing chuckled, "The deal is done, even if you don't want to invite me!"
Qin Xiaoyi waved his hand, "Master, please!"
"You go first! I'm not used to walking in front."
What kind of inexplicable habit is this? Qin Xiaoyi didn't bother to talk about it, and went directly into the room. When he walked into the room, he saw several people sitting in the room. He was stunned for a moment, turned around to exit, but was pushed into the room by the person behind him.
The door is closed.
"What are you doing?" Qin Xiaoyi felt as if his tail had been stepped on.
"We are internal guards, please be honest!"
The speaker was the master of the Huanglong Martial Arts School behind him. He no longer spoke Taiyuan dialect, but spoke standard Chang'an Mandarin.
When Qin Xiaoyi heard that he was an internal guard, his legs softened and he sat down.
"I'm just going to introduce you to some small businesses. Someone is practicing martial arts and wants to buy a knife or something. He's not committing a serious crime!"
Zhou Min slapped the table hard, making Qin Xiaoyi tremble all over. Zhou Min stared at him sternly and said: "In the second half of last year, you sold three hundred sets of armor, and now you are guilty!"
Qin Xiaoyi's face turned pale. It was one of the biggest transactions since he entered the industry. He had always been a little worried and afraid of the crime happening. Unexpectedly, after more than half a year, the crime still happened.
He knelt down and said, "I plead guilty! I plead guilty! I beg the general to give him a lighter sentence."
"We found out that they were weapons manufactured by the Chang'an Ordnance Supervisor, but we need to know how this batch of armor was leaked out? If you have done meritorious service, this matter has nothing to do with you. If you don't tell or lie, then
But you should be aware of the death penalty."
Qin Xiaoyi certainly knows the risks in this business. Selling more than ten prohibited weapons at one time is a capital offense. What's more, what he sells is not weapons, but armor, with as many as three hundred sets!
He was so frightened that he trembled all over, "I said! I said! It's Luo Tao, the weapons supervisor. He came to me in March last year and said that he had a batch of soldiers in his hands who wanted to take action. He asked me to help him find customers. It happened that Xishi Bashu was spreading the fragrance.
Shopkeeper Li from the tea shop came to me and wanted to buy a batch of soldiers and armor, so I acted as an intermediary between the two of them."
"But the tea shop owner said a Black Panther man provided him with the weapons."
Qin Xiaoyi quickly explained: "This Black Panther is Luo Tao's nickname. He has a black leopard tattooed on his arm. We all call him Black Panther. According to the rules, no real identity is used for transactions."
"You mean, this Luo Tao has done more than one business, so many people know him."
Qin Xiaoyi nodded, "I just made one deal, but we all know him, which means he made more than one deal."
Zhou Min thought for a moment and then asked: "Since you only deal with regular customers, then why are you willing to do business with Shopkeeper Li of the tea shop?"
"It was introduced by a Sogdian named Kang. He is my regular customer. I made a big deal with him a few years ago."
Zhou Min's heart moved and he asked again: "How old is this Sogdian?"
"About sixty years old!"
"Can we find him?"
Qin Xiaoyi shook his head, "This man is very mysterious. I don't know his name or where he is from? I even suspect that he is wearing a mask."
"Who did this Sogdian buy his weapons from?"
"It seems like...it's still Black Panther!"
Zhou Min was furious and slammed the table, "Didn't you just say that you only did one business with Luo Tao? Now it's already been two."
Qin Xiaoyi was so frightened that he kowtowed repeatedly, "You deserve to die, little man! It happened three years ago, and I forgot about it just now."
"Given this last chance, how many businesses did Luo Tao do?"
Qin Xiaoyi thought for a while and said: "I promise, I only have these two pens in my hand. I don't know whether the Sogdian went to Luo Tao alone."
"I have another question?"
Zhou Min continued: "Since this Sogdian knows Luo Tao, the weapons supervisor, then when he introduced business to the tea shop shopkeeper Li, why didn't he go directly to Luo Tao, or did he go through you?"
"General, I can't figure this out! I also thought about it myself. I guess he didn't want the tea shop owner to know that he had done business with Luo Tao, because he repeatedly told me not to let Luo Jiancheng know.
I know it was him who introduced me, otherwise he would never do business with me again."
Zhou Min tapped the table with his index finger and pondered for a moment. It seemed that the weapons supervisor, Luo Tao, was a key figure!