Tibet

Halfway through, there was an emergency in the county, and Magistrate Zhou had to return. He asked Magistrate Yang to accompany the internal security guards throughout the entire process.

Liu Wutong didn't care. He found that Yang Xianwei was really familiar with low-level situations.

The port area of ​​Penglai County is very large, covering an area of ​​thousands of hectares. There is only a flat official road entering the port area. It is surrounded by rocks, mud pits and overgrown weeds. A long wall was also built to surround the port area, but the age of the wall For a long time, it has become dilapidated, and large sections of it have collapsed to the naked eye.

Yang Xianwei introduced to Liu Wutong: "The wall was built during the Wu Zetian era, but it is meaningless. Serious merchants must use the official road to transport goods. Livestock and carts cannot travel elsewhere, and smuggling fishing boats will not enter the port at all." We unloaded the cargo in the area and landed at a random inlet outside.”

Liu Wutong nodded and asked, "How many fishing boats are there?"

"At least thousands of ships!"

Liu Wutong was startled, "How to check this?"

Yang Xianwei smiled and explained: "Actually, there is a bow in here. These fishing boats are basically a village and a gang. They choose a bow. When encountering anything, the bow will take part. Fights over fishing grounds are commonplace. Yes, the general only needs to ask the bow of the ship, they already know it."

"How many bows are there?"

"About thirty or so!"

Liu Wutong was a little worried and said: "I'm just afraid that they will be involved in interests and refuse to tell the truth!"

The county lieutenant narrowed his eyes and smiled: "General, don't worry, we have a solution!"

"The county captain might as well tell me what a good idea is?"

The county lieutenant said in a low voice: "The bows of these boats are competing for fishing grounds. They often fight and have deep conflicts. Moreover, they all know each other's ins and outs. If you give them a small profit, they will definitely sue each other!"

Liu Wutong secretly admired that these low-level officials had a solution.

The county lieutenant summoned more than thirty people on board the ship to give a lecture, telling them clearly about the suspicious foreigners in the past month or two, as well as the foreigners who had smuggled into the Tang Dynasty. They were not allowed to hide it, and any offenders would be severely punished.

After the training, the county lieutenant arranged for the catcher to spread the news, and there would be rewards for exposing the fish. The highest reward could be a fixed fish position. The fish position is the stall selling fish in the market. This is very important to the fishermen. If there is no fixed fish position, Every time they have to rent someone else's stall, the price is very expensive, which really hurts them.

The next thing is simple. They don't need to talk, they just wait for the captains to expose each other. On the one hand, they want to retaliate against each other, and on the other hand, they see if they can get some rewards.

The county lieutenant's method was indeed effective. People came one after another to expose and complain against each other, saying everything, but there was no target for the internal guards to pay attention to. A dozen or dozens of young and strong people sneaked into the Tang Dynasty.

The next morning, Liu Wutong was listening to a report from Laizhou, and the person reporting the report was his son Liu Xiaoshi.

The boy back then had grown up, and Liu Xiaoshi was in his twenties. He was tall, mighty, and athletic. He also joined the internal guards and followed the deputy investigation envoy to Laizhou for investigation. He was ordered to come to Dengzhou to report to his father.

"We found some clues in Laizhou. A month ago, a Khitan fishing boat capsized. The fishing boat in Laizhou rescued a dozen Khitan fishermen and brought them back to Laizhou. They were going to report to the official the next day, but they rescued people the next day. The fishermen were killed, and the dozen or so Khitan fishermen disappeared without a trace. General Peng opened the coffin for an autopsy and found that the killed fishermen had been stabbed through the heart with a sword. It was very cruel and precise. General Peng judged that the dozen or so Khitan fishermen were A professional killer."

Liu Wutong nodded and asked, "Did you send the eagle letter to Chang'an?"

"already sent!"

At this moment, a voice of inquiry came from the courtyard, "Excuse me, does the inner guard General Liu live here?"

Liu Wutong walked out of the lobby. It turned out to be the county captain Yang Liao, followed by two people.

"Does Lieutenant Yang have any clues for me?"

Yang Liao nodded, "There are clues that General Liu is interested in today!"

He turned around and waved, and two fishermen stepped forward and bowed together. Yang Liao smiled and said, "They can provide clues!"

Liu Wutong immediately said: "Come in and talk!"

Several people walked into the lobby and sat down around a table. Liu Wutong smiled at an older person and said, "I saw you yesterday. Your surname is Guan, and you are a shiphead!"

The bowman nodded, "The information provided to the general yesterday was of no use. When I went back last night, my cousin Guan Wulang came to tell me a piece of news. I thought it was useful, so I came to see Captain Yang early in the morning."

The slightly shy young man next to him was Guan Wulang. Liu Wutong smiled at him and said, "You tell me!"

Guan Wulang said cautiously: "My brother-in-law is a fisherman from another village. About a month ago, he accompanied my sister back to her parents' home. We drank together. He told me something. They picked up a big business on the bow of the boat and helped several people. Ten Japanese samurai smuggled into Dengzhou and made hundreds of taels of silver."

Liu Wutong perked up and said, "Are you sure he is a Japanese samurai?"

"He said they were definitely Japanese. We had seen them many times and could tell them apart. These dozens of Japanese were all carrying swords, so he thought they were Japanese samurai."

"Who is your brother-in-law's captain?"

"Huang Yu!"

Lieutenant Yang next to him nodded, "I know this Huang Yu, nicknamed Big Yellow Fish. I saw him yesterday. There are rumors that this person is a smuggling broker!"

Liu Wutong asked in confusion: "There is obviously no naval force in Dengzhou. The stowaways can go ashore by themselves. Why do they need to find a broker?"

Yang Xianwei smiled bitterly and said: "Reporting to the general, it is not that the government does not care about smuggling, but the coastline is too long and the government does not have enough manpower to manage it, so a reward system for reporting is implemented. If a smuggler does not have a broker, he secretly goes ashore on his own, and the people and the land are unfamiliar. Without a language barrier, it is easy for villagers to catch him and send him to the county government to receive rewards.

If you want to successfully smuggle in, you must find a broker. This big yellow croaker is a smuggling broker, but there is no evidence. The Huang family is a wealthy family in Penglai, so it is difficult for the government to deal with it! "

Liu Wutong made a decisive decision: "Go find this Huang Yu immediately!"

It's better to call him Huang Yu than Big Yellow Croaker. This fish-headed guy on the bow of the boat is about forty years old, and he looks like a cunning person.

But no matter how cunning he was, he did not dare to confront the internal guards. When the internal guards carried him into the compound, he was so frightened that he peed his pants. He thought it was because he was working as a smuggling broker.

He didn't dare to hide anything and honestly explained what happened a month ago.

This big yellow croaker appears to be a fisherman, but is actually a smuggling broker who specializes in helping Silla people and Japanese smuggle into the Tang Dynasty.

"That day someone introduced me to a business and brought in more than 20 Japanese people. I thought it was the same as usual, so that night I took a few of my men to Sanshan Island under the cover of night. Sure enough, there was a big ship, and we picked it up. Twenty-five people were all Japanese. They were not tall, but they were all very strong. They also carried knives. Some even carried two knives. I took them ashore from Shark Bay and took them to the official road. They prepared ten days of dry food and water, as well as a dozen donkeys, and then they walked along the official road. I don’t know what happened next.”

"Who introduced you to the business?" Liu Wutong asked.

"One of my clan brothers, Shopkeeper Huang of Donglai Restaurant!"

"Are these Japanese people the business he introduced?"

"yes!"

Liu Wutong immediately turned back to his son Liu Xiaoshi and said: "Take two brothers to secretly control shopkeeper Huang, don't alert the enemy!"

"Follow the order!"

Liu Xiaoshi hurried to the county seat with two soldiers.

Liu Wutong asked again: "Can those Japanese speak Chinese?"

"There are two people who can speak very well. I thought they were from Tang Dynasty, but they also spoke Japanese with other people at the same time."

"Can you understand Japanese?"

Huang Yu lowered his head and said, "If you have more contact, you can understand a few words."

"What else did you understand?"

"It seems. It seems like they came from Bohai Country."

"What!"

Liu Wutong was shocked, "Are you sure you are a Japanese from Bohai Country?"

Huang Yu was so frightened that he waved his hands quickly, "I'm not sure, I just heard them mention Bohai Country once!"

"Will Shopkeeper Huang of the restaurant know?"

"I don't know. He won't tell me anything. He just comes to me when he has business, gives me the time and place, and then gives me money. I don't ask anything else."

Liu Wutong realized that this information was very important. If it was a Japanese coming from the Bohai Kingdom, it would definitely be closely related to the situation in Liaodong.

Huang Yu was smuggled into the country and was caught by the internal guards. His confession was accurate and the evidence was conclusive. County Lieutenant Yang ordered his men to take Huang Yu back to the county government for questioning. He took Liu Wutong and a large group of internal guards to the Donglai Restaurant in the county seat.

Liu Wutong led a brigade of internal guards to the Donglai Restaurant. At this time, shopkeeper Huang was already under house arrest in the shopkeeper's room by Liu Xiaoshi.

Hearing that it was the internal guards who came to investigate him, Shopkeeper Huang was so frightened that he became weak and couldn't stand up.

Liu Xiaoshi handed a notebook to his father, which they found in the shopkeeper's room. It was filled with dense smuggling records.

The earliest record of smuggling can be traced back to fifteen years ago. Of course, there must be smuggling even earlier, but it's just not Shopkeeper Huang.

According to shopkeeper Huang’s account, as early as the early Kaiyuan years, Donglai Restaurant was the smuggling base in Dengzhou, mainly for Silla and Japanese people smuggled into Datang.

There are two ways to stow away. One is to stow away on a boat to the open sea, and then be picked up by a ship like Huang Yu. The other is to come with the merchant ship. This is more troublesome. Huang Ting has to arrange for someone to take the stowaway to a designated destination. The county towns usually go to Luoyang or Chang'an, and most of the stowaways are young girls who were brought to Datang by human traffickers.

"That group of Japanese people was contacted by a Bohai businessman named Su Qi. Each of them had twenty-five taels of silver. He paid a total of five hundred taels of silver, and then I left the rest to Huang Yu did it, but I don’t know what the twenty-five Japanese looked like. They left immediately after landing, and I don’t know where they went.”

"Where's the businessman named Suchi?"

"I don't know him. This is my first time contacting him. He paid the money in one go and never showed up again?"

"How do you know his name is Su Qi?" Liu Wutong asked again.

"I don't know what his real name is, but the name he gave me is Su Qi!"

Shopkeeper Huang found a famous post from the drawer and handed it to Liu Wutong.

Liu Wutong took a look and said, 'The proprietor of Longhe Trading Company in Longquan Prefecture of Bohai State, Su Qi. ’

That afternoon, an eagle slowly took off with the eagle's letter, circled in the air several times, and flew towards Chang'an.