The female assassin subconsciously looked outside the courtyard, then slowly walked over with her hands on her shoulders.
She was still dressed in the same nocturnal attire. After a night, the thin silk shirt and trousers had already been dried, the material was still very soft, and did not expose the curves of her body.
The female assassin squatted down in front of Yang Fan, staring at him. "Why are you up so early?"
Yang Fan brushed his teeth, vaguely saying: "Because I'm the worker of this workshop, I'm on duty this month, so I have to go open the door early in the morning."
The female assassin was surprised. "You're a worker? The worker is supposed to assist Marquis Wu in guarding against theft, why are you … … stealing. "
Yang Fan scratched his head. "This question … … is really hard to answer. You say that officials should love the people like their own children, why are there so many officials who are greedy and cruel, treating the people like dogs? "
"Well! I didn't know, you silly … … you're quite reasonable. "
The female assassin thought for a moment, then nodded. She looked around the empty courtyard, then asked: "You're the only one in your family?"
Yang Fan said: "Yes, when I was young, I wandered to the South Sea with the Kunlun merchant ship. Pei! Pei pei! I didn't come back until I was an adult. Pei! I haven't even been in Luoyang for a year. "
The female assassin knitted her delicate eyebrows again, saying suspiciously: "You lived overseas, and returned to the Tang dynasty for less than a year, and you're a Luoyang citizen, and even a worker of the Xiuwen workshop?"
Yang Fan glanced at her. "Don't you know how easy it is to get a household registration in the Tang dynasty?"
The female assassin was speechless, she knew that Yang Fan was speaking the truth.
During the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui, the population of the Central Plains was more than 46 million, but during the reign of Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the population of the whole country was only about 15 million, a sharp decrease of two thirds.
Of course, because of the chaos at the end of the Sui dynasty, many people died, but the number of people who died in the war was actually very limited. Most people did not die on the battlefield, but died from the side effects of the war — — the destruction of agriculture. At that time, the number of people dying of starvation was ten times that of those who died in the war.
But even so, the population of the early Tang Dynasty would not have decreased to such a huge extent. At that time, the main reason for the sharp decline in the population was because of concealing the household registration. During the chaos of war, the peasants lost their homes, destroying the original household registration system. After the world had stabilized, many peasants had turned to the rich and powerful to become servants or tenant farmers. It was very difficult to count the population again.
In the past few years, the imperial court had continuously increased the population statistics, and the system was much more perfect than it was in the early years. However, there were still many loopholes that could be exploited. Thus, it was not difficult to conceal one's identity or obtain one.
"What's your name?"
The two people were silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke at the same time. As soon as these words came out, Yang Fan laughed. The female assassin did not think it was funny, her face was tense, a pair of clear eyes as clear as water stared at Yang Fan, until Yang Fan felt that his sense of humor was indeed very low. Only then did she retract her smile and introduce herself: "My name is Yang Fan, ranked second, everyone calls me Beta Persei or Erlang, may I know your name …"
The female assassin pondered for a moment, then replied: "My name is Tin Aino."
Yang Fan said in surprise: "Your surname is Tian? What a big surname! "
The female assassin shook her head: "No, I don't have a surname. My name is Tin Aino, my name … is Tian, Ai, Nu! "
The name Tin Aino was of course nothing strange. At that time, women usually did not have a full name, only a small character. The Empress of Wei Wen Emperor Cao Pi was called Queen Guo. Han Heng Emperor Liu Zhi's Empress was called Deng Mengnv. Han Zhao Emperor Liu Fuling's Empress was called Shangguan Xiaomei. And this dynasty's Taizong Emperor Zhangsun's Empress was called Guanyin Maid.
Most of the Empresses came from prestigious families, if their pet names were like this, then it was not strange for women to have all sorts of strange pet names. But women without a name were common, people without a surname … how could this be possible? Yang Fan was very tactful and did not ask further. He knew, on this girl's body, there must be a secret that no one knew, perhaps it was the same as him.
Yang Fan was not in the mood to dig out other people's secrets, so he smiled and said: "Tin Aino! What a nice name! Do you want to brush your teeth, it's my treat! "
Tin Aino's bright eyes were first focused on his toothbrush that had curled up, her eyebrows raised again, then she looked at him again. Yang Fan smiled and said: "Of course not, I still have a few new toothbrushes."
Yang Fan got up and walked into the room, after a while he came back with a brand new toothbrush, he also brought out a water ladle and scooped up half a ladle of water. Yang Fan handed the ladle, toothbrush, and green salt to Tin Aino, and introduced: "Here! This is Luoyang's Xiu Wen Fang's Ma family toothbrush, exquisite workmanship, first class quality, it is widely praised everywhere. "
The red sun rose from the east, leaping above the clouds on the horizon, through the gaps between the clouds, rays of golden sunlight shone on Shen Du Luoyang. In the courtyard of Yang Fan's house, a man and a woman, each holding a ladle and a basin, squatted face to face, brushing their teeth under the sun.
"I need a set of clothes, pei, pei pei …"
"Okay, wait a moment, when the door opens, I will find a set of clothes for you, pei pei, pei …"
"Thank you, pei!"
"No need to thank me, my family doesn't run a restaurant, I will bring some food back for you. We have a Jiang family noodle soup shop in our house, their noodle soup is chewy, the soup is clear, and the taste is good. It is widely praised everywhere, pei, pei pei …"
"Is that so … Actually, I am not that hungry …"
…
Early in the morning, not long after the doors opened, a few people dressed in civilian clothes on horseback hurried on the road to the Xiu Wen Fang.
If anyone recognized them, they would be surprised to find that among these people were Luoyang's Lieutenant Tang Zong and the Ministry of Justice's Cao Cang Military Advisor Qiao Junyu. It was not easy for these two people to walk together so early in the morning, it was unknown if some big case had happened in the nine cities.
Luoyang's Lieutenant Tang Zong was about forty years old, had a square face, a wide mouth, thick eyebrows, and a thick black beard, giving him a very dignified appearance. His age was when a man's physical and mental strength was at its peak. Wearing a long robe, his chest and arms showed the curves of his body, showing his burly and sturdy body.
On his left was the Ministry of Justice's Cao Cang Military Advisor Qiao Junyu. Qiao Junyu was also a middle-aged man in his forties, his body slightly thinner than Tang Zong, his cheeks wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, and the shallow wrinkles on his face added a bit of scholarly temperament to his clear features.
Next to him was a handsome young man dressed in a brocade robe and a jade belt. This young man was half a head shorter than Qiao Junyu, wearing a jade-colored robe with a seven-star belt around his waist, a headscarf on his head, and a pair of thin black silk shoes. He was very slender and looked to be only sixteen years old, with a handsome face and sharp eyebrows.
As Tang Zong urged his horse forward, he said in a deep voice, "Qiao Junjun, Luoyang has a population of a million people, good and bad mixed together, to find one person is as difficult as ascending to the heavens. The imperial court does not allow a big battle, isn't that making things difficult? To be honest, even if we asked Yang Langzhong to be in charge, I don't have much hope! "
Qiao Junyu sighed softly, the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes became even denser.
How could he not know how difficult it was to find one person in such a big city like Luoyang? Moreover, it had to be done quietly, without causing a big commotion, this was really too difficult, but …
Qiao Junyu glanced to the side and saw that the handsome young man in a jade robe and brocade belt beside him had a gloomy expression after hearing these words. His heart couldn't help but tighten, and he hurriedly laughed and said, "That person is injured, this is a very obvious sign. The criminal went missing in the vicinity of the Xiuwen workshop, we can use the Xiuwen workshop as the center and search in all directions. If Luoyang Prefecture does not have enough manpower, we can mobilize Marquis Wu and the workshop attendants from each workshop and have them search each lane and each lane! "
Hearing this, Tang Zong grumbled even more, "Qiao Junjun, it's easy for you to say. At the foot of the Son of Heaven, a random old man in a woven rush raincoat fishing by the stream could be a certain minister or assistant minister. A random young man playing cuju in an alley could be a relative of the Emperor. The benefactor of a small Buddhist temple or a small Daoist temple might even be a noble's son. How could they investigate? Search, how? "
Qiao Junyu glanced at the handsome young man beside him. Seeing "his" expression become gloomy, she couldn't help but secretly complain in her heart, but she couldn't say anything to stop him, "This Tang Zong has been a law enforcer for many years, he has seen many things and can be considered a person who has seen the world, how could he not see the identity of the woman beside me? She is a member of the internal guards, even if you can't see her identity, can't you see that she is disguised as a servant?
How could the internal guards refuse a task assigned to them by them? Although this Miss Xie Muwen who came looking for him was only a military officer of the internal guards, even the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice and the Minister of Justice would not dare to treat her lightly. What was the internal guard? It was a sword in the hands of the Empress of Heaven.
If this sword wanted to kill, it didn't need to be interrogated, imprisoned, or even charged. It had the power to kill first and report later. Did you not see that when this Xie Duwei came to the Ministry of Justice, even Assistant Minister Zhou Xing treated her as an honored guest and immediately arranged for me to send her to see Yang Langzhong so that Yang Langzhong would personally be in charge of this case? Young Master Tang, oh Young Master Tang, what is wrong with you today? "
What he didn't know was that Tang Zong, as the Luoyang Commandant, was in charge of Luoyang's judicial system and had long known of the existence of the Plum Blossom Internal Guards. This disguised woman had always been by Qiao Junjun's side. She seemed to be Qiao Junjun's follower, but Qiao Junjun often looked at her expression and Tang Zong had already guessed her identity.
At this time, Tang Zong pretended not to know and was purposefully complaining for her to hear. There was a limit to the number of officials and laborers in Luoyang Prefecture. With the small number of officials in Luoyang Prefecture, how could it be easy for them to manage such a large city and a population of more than a million people? If a random person from the internal guard could order him to mobilize such a large number of people, then who would be responsible for the daily security of Luoyang? Who would be responsible if trouble occurred?
Tang Zong was pretending to be confused and venting the dissatisfaction in his heart to the internal guard. The disguised woman, Xie Duwei, seemed to sense that he was complaining to her. Her eyebrows rose and she was about to retort when several beggars suddenly ran up from the side of the road. They raised their hands in a salute and said, "Noble people, please have pity on this lowly one and give us some food …"
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