Tibet

Li Chenghua hurried back to the inner guard. She immediately summoned 20 inner guard generals and deployed a strict investigation of all music and dance houses. She also sent an eagle letter to Luoyang, asking the inner guard in Luoyang to organize a strict investigation at the same time.

An hour later, dozens of inner guard soldiers rushed to various houses in the city to investigate.

Music and dance houses have two major functions. One is a school to cultivate music and dance talents. Chang'an families think that girls should learn some skills so that they can marry well in the future, so they send their children to learn music and dance.

But there are also poor girls who are directly sent to music houses by their parents. In fact, they are sold to music houses and trained by music houses. After learning, they start to perform for music houses to make money. The Pipa girl in "Pipa Xing" is this type.

The second major function of music and dance houses is theater performances. They are equivalent to theaters in Chang'an. When the middle class in Chang'an go out to meet friends, they either go to restaurants to eat and drink, or go to music houses to listen to songs and watch dances.

Or when a wealthy family holds a banquet, they usually invite dancers and musicians to entertain, and the same applies to weddings and funerals.

This led to many music and dance houses in Chang'an, with more than 200 of them. Basically, they were all in the model of front shop and back workshop, with performances in the front and training in the back.

Of course, the flesh trade of music and dance houses is also one of their main businesses. If they like a certain music girl or dancer, they can take her out by paying a sum of money. For those Pipa girls who have no personal freedom, they have to do whatever the manager arranges them to do, and there is no choice.

Dance and music are inseparable. Music and dance houses are actually the same thing, just with different names.

The most concentrated area is Pingkangfang, where more than 20 houses are gathered. When the inner guards arrived, each house began to suspend business for inspection, and all girls under the age of sixteen were gathered for questioning.

It does not mean that if the girl is sold, the owner will be arrested and interrogated. These are two different things. If there is a sales contract and the origin is clear and true, then the owner will first be warned and the girl will be given a deadline to restore her freedom and restore her civilian household registration.

Now the internal guards focus on checking girls of unknown origin, especially those under the age of fourteen. If the owner cannot produce a contract and cannot explain her origin, the girl will be taken away. If there are more than three people of unknown origin in a music hall, the owner will also be taken away.

In the innermost part of Pingkangfang, there is a music hall called Xiaoyuexian. This music hall also has an internal guard to check, but the door of the music hall is closed and there is no one inside. The captain leading the team asked the residents around, and they all said that it was still bustling the morning before yesterday, and they didn’t know why it was closed today. Other music halls were also unaware.

But there is one thing that other music halls know, this Xiaoyuexian music hall is just a school, all of them are young ladies around ten years old, about fifty people.

The captain felt something was wrong and immediately reported it to his superiors. Li Chenghua, who happened to be patrolling in Pingkangfang, heard the news and rushed over and ordered to break the door for a detailed search.

The internal guards broke the door, rushed in, and began a thorough search.

Soon, they found something unusual. This music house actually had seven or eight dormitories. Each dormitory had more than a dozen small beds with beddings. Each small bed also had a small box, but the things in the box were all gone. There were still a pile of unwashed bowls in the kitchen, and the dining table was not cleaned up. It was a mess, as if they had just finished eating and left.

At this time, a soldier brought up a middle-aged woman, who was the cook for this music house.

"I was fired by them at noon the day before yesterday. All the people working in the music hall were fired by them. I don't know where they went!"

Li Chenghua asked: "How many of these students are there? Are they all locals?"

The cook shook her head, "I remember there were 55 in total. They should not be locals. They came from other places. I don't know where they found them from?"

It was more and more in line with the goal of the internal security investigation. Li Chenghua asked again: "What is the name of the owner of the hall?"

"The owner's surname is Kang, and he is a Hu person."

"What about the other managers? Are there any locals?"

"The second manager is a local, his surname is Ma, and his home seems to be nearby, but I don't know where it is exactly. The coachman knows, and the coachman is the cousin of the second manager."

Li Chenghua asked again: "Where is the coachman's home? Do you know?"

"I know, it's in the town."

Li Chenghua immediately ordered his men: "Take her to find the coachman, and after finding the coachman, go directly to the second manager and bring her over."

"Yes!"

The generals took the cook away.

Soon, Tiger Guard General Wang Qian hurried back and said with a fist: "Reporting to the General, I went to other music houses to investigate the news of this music house and found that its previous name was Daguang Music House, and it was changed to Xiaoyuexian Music House last year."

Li Chenghua's eyes lit up. Wasn't Daguang Music House one of the gangs that Xu Wuliang had explained?

At this time, the subordinates reported, "The driver has been gone since the day before yesterday, and the second manager surnamed Ma has also disappeared."

"Did he say where he was going?"

"The driver told his family that they were going to Longyou."

Li Chenghua was basically sure that this was a group of child slaves who had been abducted and sold.

She immediately ordered Tiger Guard General Wang Qian: "General Wang can lead 500 cavalrymen to chase westward along the Xianyang Road. All the carts on the road must be checked!"

"I obey your order!"

Wang Qian led 500 cavalrymen to leave Chang'an overnight and chase westward.

There is a mansion covering an area of ​​about five acres in Yanshoufang. The owner is Liu Qinggui, a big businessman in the wine business. Logically speaking, a businessman is not qualified to live in a mansion of five acres. However, in the second year of Zhide, Liu Qinggui donated it to the emperor Li Heng. With five thousand guan of money, he supported the Tang army and was granted the title of earl, so he was eligible to live in a five-acre house and have a three-bedroom concubine.

After the title was liquidated last year, Liu Qinggui was not eligible for the title and was deprived of it. However, the court allowed him to keep his house and concubine.

Liu Qinggui has been really uneasy these days. He is a wine merchant in name, but in fact he is one of the largest human traffickers in the Tang Dynasty. Starting from the Tianbao period, he colluded with several Sogdian businessmen and brought together hundreds of thousands of people. Thousands of girls are trafficked to the West, making huge profits.

Now that the imperial court has implemented the abolition of slavery, the business of selling girls will be difficult to do. It doesn't matter if he doesn't do it. It doesn't matter if he gets rid of the last few sales and washes his hands from now on, but he is afraid that the past things will be exposed.

He also knew that selling girls from the Tang Dynasty to the West was the greatest evil. Once discovered by the court, the lives of the whole family would be in danger.

Liu Qinggui has been uneasy since the abolition of slavery, but what really frightens him is what happened last night. The internal guards searched for underage girls in various music studios in Chang'an, especially those with unknown origins. If found out, the owner of the museum will also be arrested.

Liu Qinggui immediately realized that the court had discovered the trafficking of girls, and began targeted searches. The music studio was indeed the place where Liu Qinggui trained girls until they were eleven or twelve years old, and then sent them to Samarkand. Merchants sold them to noble families in Western countries. Music girls from the Tang Dynasty were extremely popular and expensive.

However, the music studios he cooperates with are basically not in Chang'an City, but in various counties in Jingzhao Prefecture, which are relatively hidden. There is only one in Chang'an, Xiao Yuexian Music Studio, which was actually opened by him, and the other Kang Guo Hu people also account for 30% of the population.

Fortunately, they happened to send away a group of fifty-five girls the day before yesterday. Only one day later, something happened in Chang'an.

At this time, Liu Qinggui's eldest son Liu Jiao hurried back and reported to his father: "I have asked about it. A total of seventeen music leaders were arrested last night, but they have nothing to do with us. No one who knows my father is currently in Chang'an. , please rest assured, father!”

Liu Qinggui breathed a sigh of relief. He was indeed very secretive and never interfered directly. It was three Sogdian barbarians who came forward. He was hiding behind the scenes to control him. Unless these three barbarians were caught, no one could confess him. .

Among the three, Liu Qinggui was most worried about Kong Shibo, the chief steward of Xiao Yuexian Lefang. This guy had just left Chang'an the day before. He must not be caught by the internal guards.

Liu Jiao saw his father's worry and comforted him: "Don't worry, father, after arriving in Longyou, there will be a special smuggling informant to deal with them, and they will definitely not be found out."

Liu Qinggui nodded. The saddest place in Longyou was the Wushaoling inventory point. After passing that inventory point, it was completely safe.

Liu Qinggui said to his son again: "I estimate that the internal guards will soon investigate all the counties in Jingzhao Prefecture. You should immediately notify the music studios and arrange for all my young ladies to go to the countryside. Go and notify them now!"

"My child obeys!"

Liu anxiously hurried away.

Liu Qinggui sighed and walked to the window, looking to the west. Once Kang Shibai and the others entered the Hexi Corridor, they would be safe.