Tang Dynasty: Taking the Empress Dowager to a brothel, Father Emperor, what a coincidence!

Pingkang Square.

Xiao Shunzi stood guard at the alley entrance.

Li Chengqian walked alone into the house at the end of the alley.

Inside the courtyard, there were only old trees and broken walls; not even a bird could be heard chirping.

Li Chengqian walked to the door, knocked on the rotten door three times, paused for a moment, and then knocked on it twice more.

That was the code word that the head of the Xuan Department in charge of Chang'an City told Li Chengqian.

The door slowly opened.

Li Chengqian went straight inside.

It was pitch black inside, except for a half-burnt oil lamp on the small table in the very center.

"The head of Tingfeng Pavilion greets Master."

A figure shrouded in a black cloak knelt before Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian didn't ask him what his name was.

Those who do this kind of underground work will face certain death if their real name is revealed.

"Shadow. Today I'll test whether your Listening Wind Pavilion is as powerful as Grandfather said."

Li Chengqian took out a wooden box and placed it on the table.

"Who do you want to investigate? Just give the word, Master."

"The Wang family of Taiyuan".

Li Chengqian tapped the table.

"Within half a month, concrete evidence was found regarding the smuggling route from Hedong Road to Yanmen Pass."

The shadow remained silent, simply clasping its hands in a fist salute before disappearing into the shadows.

The two-week period was Li Chengqian's litmus test for Tingfeng Pavilion.

The Wang family's trade route to Beiguan had been deeply entrenched for over a hundred years. Even the old officials in the Ministry of Justice, who spent half a year trying to find out more, could only manage to uncover a couple of menial servants.

If the truth can be found within half a month, then it will be worthy of the prestige of following Li Yuan in the founding of the country.

But Li Chengqian miscalculated.

Three days.

Only three days have passed.

The shadow then appeared in the study of the East Palace.

He placed a stack of documents in front of Li Chengqian:

"The Hedong Road leads to the outside of Yunzhong Pass. There are 31 private routes and secret channels of the Wang family in Taiyuan. The currency inventory and secret handover records of the past three years have all been presented for verification."

Li Chengqian raised an eyebrow and opened the document in front of him.

Turn to the first page.

The first line is in red ink, and the second line is filled with accounts and names.

In the fourteenth granary of Dongzhuang Old Cellar in the northern suburbs of Taiyuan Prefecture, Hedong, there was a hidden compartment containing 9,000 catties of iron ingots and 7,000 dan of coarse salt.

They exchanged 800 warhorses of the Yibishe tribe of the Western Turks through a secret passage in the Yunzhong Horse Market.

This is a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one's family, skinning them alive, and executing the entire clan.

Even something as suicidal as transporting iron ore overseas to sharpen enemy swords—this group of prestigious families who constantly preach ethics and morality were actually selling it by the wheel.

Flip it over again.

The second record is even more outrageous.

The year and day, the name of the guard who led the team out of Yanmen Pass, the village in which county of Qinghe was his hometown, the fact that his grandfather worked as a night watchman for a few years, all of this is recorded.

As for the smuggling relay points along the way, how old was the old curator at the post station when he died of illness, and which illegitimate son of the second wife was the replacement head of the relay station?

In the details, I even remembered that under the sentry yard at the border of the clouds, the yellow dog guarding the gate would eat the three pieces of pork ribs that Steward Zhang threw away every night at 8:30.

Li Chengqian became increasingly alarmed as he looked at it.

This doesn't seem like a frontier intelligence agent at all, but rather like a ghost hiding in the inner courtyard of the Wang family.

They wrote down exactly how many ounces of food each family ate and how many times they got up at night to use the toilet.

this is too scary.

In the early years of the Wude era, before the armies that quelled the rebellion even reached the passes, Li Yuan would already know what time the enemy would eat and send out troops. This kind of network, deeply rooted in the blood of aristocratic families, was the real killer move that remained hidden for a lifetime.

Now, all things considered, this menacing net has fallen into the pocket of the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty.

Those ministers who usually dressed like respectable men were nothing but skinless pigs in front of this big knife.

What lofty reputation?

They were all naked.

"Are there still people living in Wang Qinian's mansion?"

Li Chengqian casually pressed down the account book and didn't look at it any further.

"Grandma Xu, who makes mixed flour pancakes in his kitchen, is an old lady in our inner quarters. She came to the mansion as a laborer ten years ago."

The shadow replied,

"He can deliver what room he enters each night, what private words he says, to the East Palace by dawn the next morning."

Li Chengqian squinted at the shadow and praised it:

"Well done."

The new decree of the emperor is hereby proclaimed.

I will hold off Wang Qinian, Wang Gui, and all the core members of the top-tier aristocratic families who are always the most vocal and aggressive.

The daily menus, the visitors, and who received how many small gold bars were all filed separately.

"At your command!"

The shadow responded.

Then the shadow quietly left the East Palace study.

Li Chengqian tapped the booklet on the table, but he was no longer in a hurry.

If the records of the Taiyuan Wang family selling half of the border region east of the Yellow River are sent to the Ganlu Hall, Li Shimin will surely use the Emperor's sword to exterminate the ancestral graves of these clans tomorrow.

But we can't rush into doing anything.

If this page of irrefutable evidence were used to raid the old stronghold of a powerful family, scholars throughout the city would inevitably accuse the emperor of fabricating a pretext to establish his own power.

He wouldn't take the blame, and his father, Emperor Li Shimin, certainly couldn't touch it.

He wanted to make powerful families pay the price for their reputations being ruined by his actions.

This drove these powerful officials to rage and act out in the main hall.

Let them stand alone, isolated and criticized behind their backs by everyone in the Tang Dynasty.

This booklet could be the final straw that breaks the camel's back.

Just then, Xiao Shunzi ran in excitedly.

"Your Highness! It's done."

This servant just took a stroll around the West Market and Shengye Lane. My goodness, Miss Zheng has actually written eight short stories!

Those old storytellers got their paychecks, and today, as soon as the sun came up, they started their lessons by banging gongs.

The West Market Street was packed with people. Our old skit, "Eavesdropping on Secrets in Taiyuan Courtyards," had people laughing so hard they were hoarse, even before buying tofu, they were practically leaning over benches.

Li Chengqian placed the booklet on the table into a hidden compartment in the bookshelf.

They then walked to the platform of the outer hall.

A series of noises could be heard coming from the direction of East Street.

"Don't grin like an idiot."

Li Chengqian looked at Xiao Shunzi and asked.

Did Cheng Chumo and the others follow the plan this morning?

"It was done a long time ago."

Xiao Shunzi said with a smile,

"The young masters went to Pingkang Lane early in the morning, wearing red floral battle robes."

Whenever a scion of a prominent family walked down the street, he would have dozens of his followers loudly recite erotic texts to him from behind. It's said that Wang Qinian's second son, Wang Cheng, was so utterly humiliated that he and his horse stumbled into a ditch.

Li Chengqian laughed out loud after hearing this.

The consequences of resorting to thuggish tactics are often the biggest nightmare for these face-conscious high-ranking officials.