Tibet

Ten days before the New Year, the business in the West Market gradually reached its climax, with a surging crowd and a bustling crowd. Although there were new shops in each district, the people of Chang'an had a deep-rooted idea that things bought in the West Market must be cheap.

The West Market mainly deals in wholesale, and buying at wholesale prices will definitely be cheaper.

Li Chenghua stood at the gate of the West Market, and she was a little overwhelmed. There were too many people in the West Market. How could she catch the suspect?

The inner guards were deployed around the Cangzhou Cloth Shop, most of whom were dressed as clerks from the surrounding shops, and even the clerks in the Cangzhou Cloth Shop were all replaced by inner guards.

It was already noon, and the target had not appeared. As time went on, everyone was a little discouraged.

At this time, a man in black clothes and a bamboo hat walked to the stall of the Cangzhou Cloth Shop. Because of the last few days of business this year, all the shops had set up stalls, and several clerks were responsible for shouting.

The man in black looked at the name of the store, and then flipped through the goods sold on the stall. A clerk came forward and smiled: "What do you want to buy?"

The man in black looked around and said to the clerk in a low voice: "I want to buy 500 pieces of cotton cloth produced in the grassland!"

The faces of the three clerks changed drastically. One of the clerks immediately rushed to the man in black. The clerks from several shops surrounded him. Seeing that the situation was not good, the man in black turned around and ran, but it was too late. He was pressed to the ground by the clerks, covered his mouth, and quickly tied up with ropes.

In the distance, a young woman's face changed, and she turned around and disappeared into the crowd.

The man in black finally broke free from the hand covering his mouth and shouted like a slaughtered pig, "I am Wang Qian, the rogue of Xishi, I am not a spy!"

Li Zengquan, the commander of the inner guard, was shocked and stepped forward to grab the hair of the man in black, gritted his teeth and asked, "Who are you?"

The man in black was so scared that he trembled all over, his tears and snot were all over his face, and he cried, "I am really Wang Qian, the rogue of Xishi, and Zhang Shijian knows me!"

The shopkeeper Liu Zhan recognized Wang Qian and whispered to Li Zengquan, "This man is indeed a famous rogue in Xishi, not the one the general wants to catch!"

Li Zengquan was furious and slapped him a dozen times, shouting, "You damn dog, how could you ask about the production of cloth in the grassland?"

Wang Qian was so scared that he knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, "I received ten taels of silver, and someone asked me to ask."

"Who asked you to ask?"

"It's a man, about 30 years old, with very dark skin, he should be from the grassland."

"Where did this person ask you to ask?" Li Zengquan asked again.

"At the gate of the West Market!"

"Damn it!"

Li Zengquan immediately ordered: "Block both ends of the cloth shop. If you find any dark-skinned men, arrest them first!"

Li Zengquan also has rich experience. He believes that this grassland man will definitely observe nearby.

Hundreds of internal guards acted quickly. In fact, they had already been deployed in place. After the order was issued, they immediately blocked the entrances and exits of the cloth shop. Thousands of people who came to buy cloth for the New Year were immediately blocked in the shop.

The people didn't know what happened. They screamed in fear. The street was in chaos. The shops also secretly complained. Now the business was over.

Li Zengquan shouted loudly: "Everyone, don't panic, please be quiet, we are arresting spies, we will never arrest people randomly!"

After shouting twice, the panicked crowd finally calmed down slowly, and Li Zengquan ordered again: "Let the women, children and the elderly go first, and the remaining men will be identified and released one by one!"

A large number of women, children and the elderly were released, and the remaining men were identified by Liu, the cloth shop assistant and the rogue Wang Qian. Basically, the white-skinned and weak Han people were released, and the remaining ones were more than a hundred strong and dark-skinned men.

At this time, Li Chenghua rode over and asked, "What's the situation?"

Li Zengquan said with a guilty face, "Reporting to the governor, the other party is very cunning. They bribed a rogue from Xishi to come to the contact, which led to our exposure when we arrested him."

Li Chenghua pointed his whip at the more than 100 men sitting on the ground, "Will the target be here?"

"So far, the Turkic man from last time has not been found. It can only be said that it is possible that his accomplices are inside, but I don't think there is much hope."

"Even if there is little hope, we must strictly check!"

Li Chenghua was worried. They met a powerful opponent this time. It is very likely that the other party sent a woman or an old man who was just let go.

Li Chenghua was right to worry. A young woman hurried out of the gate of Xishi and got into a carriage parked outside. She whispered, "The situation has changed. Go!"

The carriage turned around and quickly left Xishi.

In the carriage, Anan asked, "Junior sister, what is the situation?"

The young woman closed her eyes and ignored him. Anan had no way to deal with her, so he stopped asking.

The young woman is called Pinggu, who is both Ashina Chengqing's female disciple and his mistress.

Pinggu and Anan were originally lovers. Five years ago, Anan was sent out on business. When he came back a few months later, he found that Pinggu had been taken over by Ashina Chengqing.

He did not dare to resist his master, so he had to swallow his anger and accept this cruel reality silently.

Pinggu still had some feelings for Anan at first, and kept urging Anan to elope with her, but Anan refused to do so and acted too cowardly. She gradually became cold-hearted, so she cut off her feelings and began to follow her master loyally.

The Zoroastrian Temple in Buzhengfang was called by the people of the Tang Dynasty, and they called it Guangming Temple.

At this time, in a house at the end of Guangming Temple, Ashina Chengqing moved a cabinet to reveal the tunnel behind it.

At this time, many wealthy families in Chang'an had emergency escape tunnels, and temples and Taoist temples were also common. It was normal for Guangming Temple to have tunnels.

But the tunnel had a special meaning for Ashina Chengqing. He relied on the tunnel to escape death several times.

So wherever he went, he would look for the tunnel to leave a way out for himself.

At this time, footsteps were heard outside. Ashina Chengqing was startled and quickly pushed the cabinet back up to cover the tunnel.

"Master!" It was the voice of his eldest disciple Ananda.

"Come in!" Ashina Chengqing sat on a wide chair.

The door opened, and several disciples walked in. The first one to walk in was the eldest disciple Anan, followed by the female disciple Pinggu, and then the other two disciples.

"How is it in the West City?" Ashina Chengqing asked.

"As expected by Master, the inner guards have laid a net of heaven and earth. The disciple bribed a scoundrel to contact and activated the ambushed inner guards."

Ashina Chengqing nodded, "Then what?"

Anan looked back at his junior sister, and then he didn't know, and his junior sister refused to say.

Ping Gu stepped forward and said, "The shop assistants and the surrounding assistants were all dressed as internal guards. After the rogue said that, the internal guards took action and blocked all the entrances and exits of the street. They arrested many ugly and dark men who looked like my senior brother. They released the women and children, and my apprentice was able to escape!"

Ashina Chengqing laughed, "Although your senior brother is a little dark, he is not ugly. It seems that Tian Chengsi's luck has run out. Even such a secret intelligence point has been broken."

"What should we do then? Do we still need to assassinate Li Ye?" Anan asked.

Ashina Chengqing pondered for a moment and said, "There is something I didn't tell you. I took over the task of assassinating Li Ye not because of Tian Chengsi's request, but because of Da Guangming Temple's request."

Everyone looked at each other, Pinggu couldn't help asking, "Why did Da Guangming think of eliminating Li Ye? They should have nothing to do with each other!"

Ashina Chengqing said slowly, "Da Guangming Temple took over Bukhara because of the decline of Suiye. Now Li Ye has sent another 5,000 troops to Suiye. Once Li Ye unifies the world and solves the internal affairs, he will definitely re-manage the Western Regions and take back control of Bukhara and Tokharistan. This will seriously damage the interests of Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism does not want Li Ye to become the master of the Tang Dynasty!"

Everyone nodded silently, and Anan asked again, "But what should we do?"

"Be patient and wait. I believe the opportunity will definitely come!"

Li Chenghua apologized to Li Ye with a frustrated face and reported her failure today.

Li Ye waved his hand and said, "Victory and defeat are common in the military. You can't always be a victorious general."

Li Chenghua sighed and said, "Later, a shopkeeper revealed that a young woman was sneaking around his shop and had been hiding next to his shop to observe the Cangzhou cloth shop. I realized that the other party was a woman who came today. We should have blocked her, but we let her go again."

"Okay! Okay! If it doesn't work once, we will continue the second time. They will eventually take action."

Li Chenghua smiled bitterly and said, "There are no clues now, and Chang'an is so big. I really don't know where to start?"

Li Ye pondered for a moment and said, "I will introduce you to someone, the former demon Taoist Shi Jingzhong. This person has a wide network of contacts. He is a Turkic noble. If the other party is a Turkic, then Shi Jingzhong may be able to provide some clues."

Li Chenghua nodded, "I will go to him in the afternoon."

"He is in Luoyang now. It may take a few days for him to come to Chang'an. You can send someone to wait for him in Guangcheng Palace outside the city."