Chapter 111: Citywide search

The house of Yangzhou prefect Lu Huan was behind the state yamen. Just after the third update, he was awakened by a fierce knock on the door.

"What's the matter?" Lu Huan asked in a daze.

"Eunuch, it's not good. Something big happened in the warehouse."

'Warehouse!' Lu Huan suddenly woke up. He sat up, and rushed to the door without even wearing shoes and asked, "What happened to the warehouse?"

The property worth more than 100,000 yuan given to him was all in the warehouse. Last night, he thought to store the property in the warehouse of the Grand Governor's Mansion today, but nothing happened.

"What happened in the warehouse?"

"Empress, nearly a hundred people rushed into the warehouse and snatched the Du family's property. The brothers died and five were injured!"

"Ah!" Lu Huan was stunned.

The warehouse of the prefecture has been controlled by a large number of yamen runners who rushed to hear the news. In the hazy morning mist, the yard is in a mess, with broken cages and blood everywhere. A murdered yamen runner is lying in the corner, wrapped in a roll of mat, and several injured people are leaning against the wall for treatment.

"Empress, they came too suddenly, and when they came in, the brothers happened to hand over the house. My subordinates were sure that there was an inside line among us."

Lu Huan walked into the warehouse with a gloomy face. The lights were lit. It was originally filled with the Du family's property, but now it is empty. Less than 10% of the property and dozens of silver fell during the looting process. It has been moved to another room, and the room is filled with a faint stench of rotten wood.

Lu Huan sighed softly. Needless to say, he knew who did this. Yangzhou City and the entire Tang Dynasty could maintain so many dead soldiers, who would be besides King Qing?

At this time, his aide Fang Wuzhen also rushed over when he heard the news. The scene in front of him also surprised him. After a while, he said: "Empress, while the city gate is not open, we should search immediately, and perhaps we can find them back."

"Do you want King Qing and I to turn against each other?" Lu Huan asked coldly.

"But, if you lose more than 100,000 yuan of property, how can the prefect explain to the court?"

Seeing Lu Huan silent, Fang Wuzhen whispered to him: "Even if you can't move King Qing, at least you need some evidence. When the court investigates it in the future, the envoy will have an excuse to explain."

Lu Huan nodded. Fang Wuzhen's words made sense. He had to search anyway, otherwise he would really not be able to explain.

"But we are short of manpower. Even if we mobilize the people from the county government, it is not enough to investigate the entire city of Jiangdu. Now it is almost the fourth update, and the city gate will have to be opened at the latest for the fifth update."

"We ask for the military's assistance!"

"It's useless, only the Ministry of War has the right to mobilize the army."

"Eunuch, go and ask Li Qing'an for help. I heard they had already returned last night."

"Okay, I'll go to the barracks right away."

After a moment, Lu Huan rode his horse towards the north city gate, surrounded by more than a dozen yamen runners. The city gate was specially opened for the prefect. The horses ran out of the city gate and rushed straight to the garrison of the regiment training camp. The night wind hit him, and Lu Huan was anxious. He had no hope at first, but Li Qing's return made him see another glimmer of hope, or he could really find the property.

Less than a quarter of an hour, Lu Huan rushed to the barracks, and a sentry shouted from afar, "Stop! Otherwise we will shoot the arrow."

"Don't shoot arrows. I am the prefect Lu of Yangzhou. I have urgent matters to see your general."

"Premier Lu, please wait for a moment."

A sentry ran down the sentry tower and ran towards Li Qing'an's residence. Li Qing'an was woken up. He only returned from a squirting shot last evening and was extremely tired.

He hurriedly put on his military uniform and came out, "What's wrong?"

"General, Prefect Lu has urgent matters to look for."

Li Qingan looked at the sky. It was just the fourth update. What would happen so early?

He strode to the gate of the camp. When Lu Huan, anxious, saw him coming out, he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed and said, "General Li, just now, the Du family's property kept in the treasury was robbed by a group of unknown people. I beg General Li to send troops to search for me."

Li Qingan was stunned, "Has all the money worth more than 100,000 yuan was robbed?"

"Yes, nearly one hundred people came to them, very fierce. Twenty yamen runners died and five injured, and most of their money and property were robbed."

"Sir, please don't say anything more. I'll send troops to help you!"

The bell of the emergency gathering rang. After nearly a month of intensive training, the emergency response capabilities of the soldiers in the regiment camp were beyond the reach of ordinary troops. They put on their armor at the fastest speed and took military weapons to the stable. In less than a cup of tea, the five hundred soldiers lined up to the camp in an orderly manner.

Lu Huan was stunned by this speed. Li Qingan turned over the horse and pointed the whip at Jiangdu City. "Immediately enter Jiangdu City and start a search of the whole city!"

Before dawn, Jiangdu City was awakened by the rushing sound of horse hooves on the street. Five hundred Tang troops were divided into fifty teams, and the yamen runners from the prefecture and county yamen also formed twenty teams and began to knock on doors and search.

The lights were lit up, and the curses of each household, screams and crying of children could be heard everywhere. Lu Huan rode a horse to patrol around with guilt. He knew that searching for ordinary families was meaningless, but if it weren't for the whole city, what reason would he have to search King Qing's other houses?

"Eunuch, do you feel that General Li is particularly willing to help today?" Fang Wuzhen whispered behind him.

"It seems that there is something. I thought he still refused to agree, but I didn't expect him to be so happy."

A few days ago, Lu Huan went to negotiate with Li Qing'an twice for Du Bosheng's incident, but Li Qing'an refused to see him. When he went there for the third time, Li Qing'an went out to train. Unexpectedly, Li Qing'an agreed to help as soon as he came back today, which was indeed beyond his expectations.

Lu Huan turned around and looked at Fang Wuzhen and smiled, "Have you discovered anything?"

Fang Wuzhen nodded and said, "I'm wondering, what's the use of Du Bosheng to Li Qing'an? He has nothing to do with Yangzhou. Why did he arrest Du Bosheng so hard? Now we all know that people are in his hands, why does he refuse to hand it over? What medicine is sold in his gourd?"

Lu Huan pondered for a moment and said, "Do you mean he is waiting for a price?"

"It's a bit like this. Du Bosheng is the core figure in the competition between the two factions in Yangzhou. Isn't this the purpose of holding it in his hands?"

"Then what does he want?" Lu Huan really couldn't understand Li Qing'an's intention.

"I thought he actually wanted nothing."

Fang Wuzhen chuckled slowly and said, "If I guess correctly, Li Qing'an is choosing the lord, with the crown prince on one side and the king on the other side. He is choosing who he should surrender to."

"But Gao Lishi is his backstage, so he should be more inclined to the prince."

"It should be so, so he handed over the Du family's property to the envoy, not Liu Changyun. Today, he was willing to help the envoy search the city, but in fact he gave the envoy a hint. He was waiting for the envoy to give him a promise."

Lu Huan's eyes gradually lit up. If this is the case, then he would have a 70% chance of winning in the deadlock in Yangzhou. Moreover, Li Qing'an is indeed very good and has strong abilities. The prince happened to be too weak in the military. If he could be pulled into the prince's camp, in time, Li Qing'an will definitely become the prince's right-hand man.

"I understand, this matter cannot be delayed anymore. I will talk to him now. If Li Qingan is pulled over by Li Qiu, it would be a pity."

After saying that, Lu Huan turned his horse and headed towards Nancheng.

The time for opening the city gate has passed. Jiangdu City only opened the south gate at this moment. Thirty yamen runners guarded the door to conduct strict inspections. Each carriage leaving the city and every load carrying was repeatedly searched. The opening time of Nanshi has passed, but the market is still closed and no one is allowed to enter and exit. Li Qing'an personally led ten teams to search in Nanshi. Nanshi is a place where merchants from all countries gather, and there are many valuables in the warehouse, and basically they are loaded in box cages. Therefore, the search of Nanshi is also very careful, and the account books must be checked one by one. The store mainly explains the extra items, and those who fail to explain will detain the items.

At this time, Li Qing'an was checking a Hu people's jewelry store in Lingxi. There were a lot of jewelry and jade among the Du family's belongings.

The owner of the jewelry store with a pointed nose and blue eyes nodded and bowed: "General, we are all law-abiding merchants. All our items have been paid taxes, and we have never leaked the tax money from the Tang Dynasty.

"I didn't say you leaked taxes, but there were special circumstances to search. Besides, you are not completely clean. There are only eighteen guys in your list, but we counted twenty-six people, and where are the other eight people from? Could it be that you can hide slaves privately?"

Li Qing'an just said casually, but after a long time, he couldn't help but look at him strangely, and saw that he looked nervous and his hands were trembling slightly. Li Qing'an's doubts increased greatly. He collected the list and ordered: "Call out everyone in your store and be inspected."

The Hu Rendongzhu looked pale and stuttered: "General, nothing."

"Come on! Get in and drive everyone out of the shop."

More than a dozen Tang soldiers rushed into the shop and drove out the people in the shop. At this time, a Tang army reported: "General, there is a person in the shop who calls himself the Prince of Stone. He wants to see you."

Li Qingan was stunned, and then he slowly laughed. Could it be that this coincidence that the Yuanen also came to Yangzhou?

"Take him here!"

Li Qingan turned over and waited for the arrival of Prince Shi. Soon, eight Hu people walked out of the shop. The leader was Suning, who had met with Bahuan two years ago.

"General Li, we are destined to meet each other thousands of miles away! Do you still remember me?" Suning bowed to Li Qing'an and said.

"Haha! I'm really an old friend. Suning, who almost made me rich, how could I not remember you?"

Li Qingan smiled and looked at Yuan En next to him again. He was still the prince he had met in a Kucha tavern. He smiled in Turkic words: "Your Highness Yuan En, this is the second time we meet."

Yuanen was stunned. He had no impression of meeting Li Qing'an, "General Li, you remembered it wrongly! When did we meet?"
Chapter completed!