Xiahou Jin and his party of 12 people either pretended to be single merchants, or pretended to be rangers who defected to the Yuan Kingdom, and scattered into Luoyang. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Now these two types of people come to Luoyang in an endless stream, and the twelve dead soldiers are not conspicuous at all, and they all successfully received the Yuan State waist card.

Although it is a dead soldier, it is good if a few people can escape after the incident, and the Yuan State has a waist card control, and it is much safer to enter separately.

Although they are all new to Luoyang, they have stepped on a little bit before, and the two guest houses where they stayed are only half a mile apart.

After staying there, Xiahou Jin asked Lu Kuang to lead the people to stay in the guest house with peace of mind, while he, Cao Cheng, Li Ji, and Gong Cheng, who pretended to be merchants, went out separately to inquire about the news, and took turns every day to sell goods on Tongtuo Street (Note 1) in front of the palace gate to see if they could keep the opportunity.

Among the deceased, Cao Cheng was a member of the Cao clan, Li Ji was originally a member of the Cao clan, and Gong Chengyuan was a member of the Xiahou clan. Lu Kuang was a recent general in the army, a member of the Lu clan of the Qingzhou Plain of the Bapin family, a strong man, and a good envoy (Note 2), and was also the deputy leader of this Assassin team.

Go deep into the enemy territory to assassinate the head of the other party, no need for Guo Jia to explain repeatedly, Xiahou Jin and others all know that they must carefully investigate and plan in advance, patiently look for opportunities, and they are not in a hurry.

In the past, it was discovered that Deng Mu'an would go to the people's homes to pay a visit, and only at this time, in order not to disturb the people's homes, he brought very few guards, but it was difficult to judge when and where to go to the people's homes Deng Mu'an's safety.

Every day, some people wander the copper camel street, but they dare not get too close to the palace gate. However, I found that Deng Ji had left the palace seven or eight times, and he followed far and secretly along the way, mostly to the Chinese martial arts of the dynasty, to maintain the dignity of the Yuan Emperor, there were hundreds of guards who came and went, and there were no mobile phones at all.

The only time he took more than ten guards to the people's homes, it didn't take long to go back to the palace, when Deng Ji entered the palace gate, Lu Kuang waited for an urgent dispatch before rushing out of the guest house.

As the king of a country. Deng Ji was not completely unvigilant, the time he spent as a guest in the people's homes was very short, it was not easy to follow the assassination, and it was completely unrealistic for the twelve people to ambush outside the palace gate all the time. However, according to the only one time, Deng Ji went out of the palace to the people's affairs. Xiahou Jin and others also made the same judgment as Guo Jia, if they knew their approximate destination and time, they would have a great chance of success.

But how easy is it?

One blow of strength, then decline, three and exhaustion. Xiahou Jin wants to be safe. As time passed, Lu Kuang was anxious, but he became impatient in the guest house, and during the secret discussion, he opened his mouth to propose that if he really couldn't find a good opportunity, Deng Ji would go out of the palace to the homes of civil and military officials, and he could risk his death to attack.

After rejecting Lu Kuang's proposal that it was almost impossible to succeed, Xiahou Jin and the other four worked hard to investigate in Luoyang City, and secretly visited the people for nearly a month, and finally it was Li Ji who made things change first.

When he entered the Yuan Kingdom, he had lead powder in his bag, so Li Ji pretended to be a makeup powder merchant.

Cosmetics for folk women in this era. In addition to rouge, there are many homemade makeup powders, generally rice juice or millet juice is precipitated and exposed to the sun to form powder, called rice flour or corn flour, if you have to add some spices to it, it will become fragrant powder, which is already a high-end product.

The lead powder sold by Li Ji is made of lead, tin, aluminum, etc., also known as Hu powder, with delicate texture and white color, which is indeed loved by women. However, because of the higher price, the diligent and thrifty housewives are reluctant to buy it, and they are only willing to use homemade, and only a few wealthy families buy it.

Under the rule of Henan, there are more and more wealthy people. Rouge, lead powder, brocade, porcelain, cane sugar and other luxury goods that were difficult to sell elsewhere in the troubled times have been shipped by large and small merchants.

Li Ji walked the streets and alleys to sell lead powder, and whenever he met an old man at home, he had to behave like a talkative person and lead the other party to chat with him for a while.

Deng Ji started from the end of Wei, Li Ji walked a lot, and really bumped into a few families who knew Emperor Dayuan. From the mouths of these old men and old women, they gradually got some things related to them, but most of them were useless, such as the old matter of worshipping his mother in the country of Shihou, Deng Mu'an once visited his house in person, the length of his children, and the incompatibility of his wives and concubines.

Li Ji had paid special attention to the two families, both of whom had daughters who were female officials in the palace, but unfortunately these two families had relatively tight mouths and did not come up with any useful information.

At the end of September, Li Ji met a real talkative old man during the visit, and the two chatted in front of his house for a long time.

Li Ji immediately cheered up, and when he talked about it, he knew that Lao Suo's two sons were only civilian household registrations, and pretended to be unhappy: "Although I am only a popular businessman, I am also a righteous person, why should my husband deceive each other with false words?" ”

The old man glared displeased: "The old man has always been sincere, how can he lie a word?" ”

"What the old man said is all about the DPRK, how can the common people hear it? Or does the old man still have noble relatives in the court? ”

Lao Su exhaled lightly and asked, "Huh! Do you know about drinking tea? ”

Drinking tea? Li Ji thought about it for a while, and hesitated: "I have heard a little, the medicine of tea is used by the monks to replace the wine, and the drinking method is obtained by the Han royal family, and it has been listed as a tribute, which is a precious thing." ”

"You know a lot!" Lao Yu laughed: "My Emperor Dayuan ordered the craftsmen to change the art of making tea, which is not like the Han Emperor's private collection, so that it can be pushed to the public, but in a few months, the Chinese military officials of the dynasty have gradually learned to drink, and the people can also drink, but it is difficult to sell it in small quantities." Zheng Zhi, a small official of Yushitai, should be given credit to the households, three months ago in Luobin Street set up a teahouse to sell tea, is a suitable place for recreation, gathering customers have been crowded, officials also have frequent visitors, I have nothing to do to go, what I said before have been heard in the teahouse, not a vain! ”

Li Jie thought secretly, it was opened three months ago, no wonder I don't know much. Luoshui has a part of the flow through Luoyang City and then outflow, although Luobin Street is the city avenue, but it is located on the bank of Luoshui, has been next to the south city wall, their own family and so on only to facilitate the approach to the palace in the north of Luoyang City, too far has not been carefully explored, if not today to listen to this old man mentioned, do not know that there is such a place.

Wouldn't it be much better to go to the places where the officials of the DPRK and China are entertained to find out the news and find people than to bump into the streets like headless flies every day?

Farewell to Lao Suo, Li Ji hurriedly went back to find Xiahou Jin and informed him of the matter.

On the second day, Cao Cheng stayed in Tongtuo Street, Xiahou Jin, Li Ji, and Gong Cheng all went to the south of the city, and walked around Luobin Road twice only to find that the three-story teahouse was next to Luoshui, in the south of Luobin Road, unlike other shops, its door did not face the north avenue, but opened to the west. There is a small piece of flat land in front of the door, you have to turn into a few steps into the flat land to see, the outer cloth banner simply picks up a "tea" word, and I don't pay attention to it and think that it is just a house at all.

There were a lot of people coming in and out. The three of them stopped on the road for a little more than half an hour, and there were already dozens of people entering and leaving the teahouse, mostly craftsmen and civilians, as well as a few officials and outsiders with white cards like them.

After several people discussed, Li Ji served as the head spy. Be the first to enter the teahouse.

The way of operation of the teahouse is still very novel in this era, Li Ji just stepped into the door of the teahouse hall, and saw that there was no wall on the south side of it, only a few large lattice windows, which were completely opened at this time, and the scenery of Luoshui was in front of him, not to mention, the light in the hall was also sufficient, and the heat and smell of coal in the hall were also ventilated.

The hall on the first floor is very spacious, but there are also many guests, I am afraid that there will be no forty or fifty. It's a little crowded, and if you look at the clothes, it's probably just ordinary farmers, occasionally mixed with two small merchants from other places.

At a glance, the layout of the hall is also strange, there are no seats, only on the wall, in the center of the nailing of many hanging long wooden strips, guests squatting on the wooden strips in various comfortable postures, chatting with each other, on the wooden sticks each person has a celadon bowl in hand, which should be filled with tea.

In the northeast and southwest corners, there are furnaces unique to Sizhou. On a hot day, both stoves were burning, and there were pots on them, and water was steaming out.

Beneath the east wall is a wooden staircase. The second floor goes up from there.

Li Ji is accustomed to meticulous work, and is sensitive enough to abnormalities. After he entered the door, the eyes of many guests swept over, most of them were withdrawn in an instant, but a few of them were a little long, and they seemed to pay special attention to the white card on his waist. There is a hint of scrutiny.

It's just that after he entered the hall, no host came to greet him, and he couldn't figure out how to drink tea.

Seeing him standing in front of the hall door with a somewhat helpless appearance, the white-headed old farmer who was closest to the guests asked loudly: "What is the first guest to go to the teahouse?" ”

"Yes!" Finally rescued, Li Ji hurriedly replied: "I heard that tea is sold here, it is rare in the world, so I will try it!" If it is extraordinary, it will also seek to make a profit. ”

"There is almost no tea in the Yuan country, but the people who are happy are becoming more and more popular, and there are many teas in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are also in Hanzhong, if you buy it to sell, you will make a profit." The old man answered him, and then stretched out his hand to point to the wooden cabinet under the stairs of the east wall, Li Ji had actually seen before, there were several large stacks of celadon bowls on it, and he first looked at it with a puzzled look.

The old man smiled and said: "The first floor of this shop is unattended, the tea is in the pot, the guy only comes for half an hour to change the tea and add coal and water. Those who want to get good tea can go up to the second floor, which is only ten times more expensive! ”

Li Ji hurriedly saluted: "Thank you for telling the elders!" ”

I went to get the bowl, only to see a small round hole on the counter, and there was an enthusiastic point next to it: "Just put the money into the hole!" ”

Li Ji took a copper coin and threw it down, went to the stove to carry the pot and poured water, but the water was yellow, and there was no tea in it.

Learn from others to find a place to sit on the wooden bar, blow the water in the cold celadon bowl, hesitate to take a sip, only bitter and astringent, strange as drinking medicine, suddenly frowned, after a while, it seems that there is a sweet taste to refresh the mind, and the brow is stretched out again.

Note 1: Copper Camel Street, named after the two Han cast copper camels on the side of the road, runs north-south, connects the Han Palace Gate in the north, and the South City Gate in the south and the Xiaoyuan Gate in the south, which is the north-south axis of Hanluoyang City, the most famous prosperous area. "Taiping Yulan" volume 158 quotes Jin Luji's "Luoyang Chronicles": "Luoyang has a copper camel street, two Han cast copper camels, opposite each other in the four roads of Gongnan, as the saying goes: 'Outside the Golden Horse Gate, the copper camel Mo is a young man'", Houwen Luobin Street is apocryphalized by the author.

Note 2: The long vertebrae, which refers to the long handle of the vertebrae, the vertebrae is the hammer, the long vertebrae in the history books mostly refer to the black iron hammer, the hammer body weighs about 50 pounds, the hammer is more than one meter long, the weapons that began to appear during the Warring States period are mostly used for personal self-defense and raids.

(Back at school, connected two days to the township wire rectification, the tiger fainted to death.) I slept until two o'clock in the middle of the night today, turned on the lights and looked, the electricity came, and quickly got up to modify the front intermittently and update, and looked at the time, well, it was only 15 minutes away from five o'clock in the morning, and at this time I tearfully asked for this month's monthly pass and recommended ticket. (To be continued.) )