When he returned to Taiyuan, it was already mid-May, and Yang Yuanqing left Beijing in early April to inspect the shipyard, but it took more than a month to return to the capital.

Yang Yuanqing sat quietly in his study, the light in the study was hazy, and he hung a thin light veil on the window to make the light less transparent, and also made the courtyard unable to see the situation in the house.

At this time, there were a hundred more personal female guards in the mansion, although it was much safer, but the ubiquitous female guards made the privacy of the family a problem, and there were two female guards hidden in the courtyard outside the study, although they couldn't see it, but Yang Yuanqing could feel their presence, which made him a little uncomfortable.

It's been two days since I came back, but Yang Yuanqing has not recovered from the trip to Hebei, in the morning, the room is very quiet, Yang Yuanqing is sitting on a rattan couch reading a book, at this time the door opened, and his wife Pei Minqiu walked in from outside with a cup of tea.

"Isn't the husband going to the court today?" Pei Minqiu pursed his lips and asked with a smile.

Yang Yuanqing replied lazily: "Rest for three days, and officially go to court tomorrow." ”

Pei Minqiu put the teacup on the table, sat sideways beside her husband, pinched his earlobe a little mischievously, she touched her earlobe again, and said with a smile: "I found that your guy's earlobe is fat and big, why is my earlobe so small, it is said that the earlobe is blessed, am I destined to work hard?" ”

Yang Yuanqing picked up the teacup, sucked the fragrant tea gently, and said with a smile: "The pig's ear is bigger, can it dominate the world better than me?" ”

"You guy, I say human ears, but you compare yourself to a pig, all right! Even if you're a pig, what am I? Am I marrying a pig and following a pig? ”

Pei Minqiu spread the wings of imagination and thought of her husband as a big-eared pig who ruled the world in the pig kingdom, she hugged her husband's neck and laughed wildly.

Yang Yuanqing gently hugged her slender waist like a girl, she was already a mother of two children, and she was still so slim, he couldn't help but think of Pei You's waist. She is the life of toil.

"Minqiu, I wrote to you for half a month....."

Yang Yuanqing reminded him slightly, and Pei Minqiu immediately remembered Pei You's matter, and his smile retracted. Xiu frowned slightly, "Is it true?" Sister You really sells wine? ”

"It's not enough to sell wine when she sells alcohol, her wine shop has a good market, and the business should be good, but it is only affected by the war that the business is light, and she can only support her family. But she is very capable, and she will slowly get better in the future, I wonder, how are you going to help her? ”

Pei Minqiu sighed, "The day after I received your letter, I asked Steward Fu to go to Taiyuan New City to buy the Sanyuan Liquor Store on the street, and Steward Fu had already gone to Qinghe County to exchange the deed with the Cui family. I also plan to fund her another 10,000 yuan to make her liquor store bigger, anyway. I'll take care of this, so don't worry about it, hey! Sister You never wrote to me, I didn't know that she was living so hard, but fortunately I was met by you. ”

Pei Minqiu thought of their deep sisterhood in the past, and she felt a little uncomfortable, she couldn't wait to go to Qinghe County in person and take Pei You to her house.

Yang Yuanqing knew that his wife was a kind-hearted person who valued old love, and she would definitely do her best to help Pei You. I don't have to ask about these things.

At this moment, the voice of the housekeeper's wife came from outside the door, "Master! General Wei came and waited in the guest hall. ”

General Wei is Wei Ben, and when he comes to find him, there must be an investigation. Yang Yuanqing immediately instructed: "Please ask him to wait in the outer study." ”

Yang Yuanqing took another sip of tea and smiled at his wife: "I have been back for two days, and I haven't reunited with everyone yet, so I will hold a family banquet tonight, and the whole family will have a party." ”

Pei Minqiu nodded and agreed, Yang Yuanqing stood up and walked quickly to the outer study.

In the outer study, the internal guard general Wei Ben is pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back, after Yang Yuanqing returned to Taiyuan, the first thing to find is him, Wei Ben blamed himself in his heart, and he beat Hebei, his internal guard deployment was not updated in time, so that the worship of Maitreya was so rampant, he didn't know, if it wasn't for the general manager to encounter this matter by chance, there would have to be a big mess.

In fact, the matter of worshipping Maitreya cannot be completely shifted to the internal guards, after all, the intelligence system of the internal guards is mainly aimed at the enemy side, and it is deployed in Chang'an, Luoyang, Jiangdu, and the enemy's major cities.

Their internal responsibilities are also mainly based on anti-enemy intelligence, and they are generally only deployed in large cities and strategic places, such as Taiyuan, Hedong, Youzhou, Anyang, Yan'an, Fengzhou, and other places.

There is a more important point, since the Han and Tang dynasties, the rulers of all dynasties have no precedent for monitoring their own people, such as the pawn of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the Tang Dynasty's inspection hall are basically aimed at officials, until the death of the Song Dynasty, ** strengthened, which gradually expanded the scope of surveillance.

The management of a folk religion like Maitreya is the responsibility of the local government, and if the folk religion is out of control, it is also a dereliction of duty by the local government, and the responsibility cannot be passed on to the internal guards.

So Yang Yuanqing told Wei Ben about this, and he didn't mean to put the blame on him, but Wei Ben himself felt ashamed.

At this time, there was a sound of footsteps outside the door, Yang Yuanqing walked in, Wei Ben hurriedly stepped forward and knelt down on one knee, "See the manager!" ”

"Get up!"

Yang Yuanqing sat down and asked him, "How did I explain your affairs?" ”

Wei Ben took out a thick booklet from his arms and presented it to Yang Yuanqing, "This is formulated by the Internal Security Mansion, and some additions to the expansion of the internal guard's monitoring power, please take a look at it." ”

Yang Yuanqing took the booklet and read it, which included a plan to expand the army by 10,000, install surveillance points in each county, set up an independent yamen, be directly responsible to the internal guards, and have the right to arrest and other temporary disposals.

Yang Yuanqing's face showed a look of disappointment, what he wanted Wei Ben to do was not this, this Wei Ben actually misinterpreted his meaning.

"General Wei, the duty of the internal guard is to defend against enemy spies and probe the enemy's intelligence, not to spy on their own people internally, and they can't arbitrarily expand the power of the internal guard just because they worship Maitreya once, do you understand what I mean?"

Wei Ben organized dozens of people, and it took two days to write this new internal defense law, he thought it would be praised, but he was rejected by the general manager, which made him really stunned.

"But... The lowly feared that a similar Maitreya uprising would break out. ”

"That's not something you're worried about, the imperial court will set up a collection envoy to understand the people's sentiments and customs, the imperial history station has a supervisory envoy to monitor officials, how to manage the people is the court's business, and it has nothing to do with the military, even if you find something, you can only tell the government in time, you can't exceed your authority without authorization, and besides, what I told you to do is not this matter."

Although Yang Yuanqing's tone was not high, his words were very stern and resolute, and he handed the booklet back to Wei Ben, "I hope there will be no next time!" ”

Wei Ben took the booklet and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, he understood what the governor meant, the governor told him about Pingyuan County, that is, to tell him that the internal guards should not participate, but he misunderstood the intention of the governor on the contrary.

"I understand my humble duties, and I will not overstep my authority again."

Yang Yuanqing nodded, and asked again: "How is the investigation of the situation in the Bafang Wine Shop?" ”

Yang Yuanqing was concerned about this matter, and when he was in Hebei, he received a letter from Wei Ben that he had discovered that the Bafang Liquor Shop in Taiyuan North City might be an important intelligence point in the Tang Dynasty.

But Yang Yuanqing is concerned about whether this Bafang wine shop is Li Shimin's 'Tang Feng' or Li Jiancheng's external supervision hall.

The Tang Dynasty had two intelligence agencies, one belonged to the imperial court called the Outer Supervision Hall, which was run by Li Jiancheng, and the other belonged to the army, called 'Tang Feng', which was run by Li Shimin.

The difference between the two intelligence agencies is that they have different responsibilities, and the Outer Supervision Hall is mainly to understand the customs and conditions of the people in various places outside the Tang Dynasty, as well as the taxes of the government and the background of officials.

And Tang Feng mainly explores the enemy's intelligence, military deployment, army combat strength, equipment and military rations, etc., and Tang Feng's leader is the eldest grandson Wuji.

This is what Yang Yuanqing asked Wei Ben to investigate, and Wei Ben hurriedly said: "The humble position has been investigated, and this Bafang wine shop belongs to Tang Feng." ”

Yang Yuanqing walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, turned back to Wei Ben and said, "Don't startle the snake for the time being, it's best if our people can infiltrate it, or buy the people who win over the other party." ”

Wei Ben laughed, "There is a way to be lowly and degraded, do you still remember Han Chang, the shopkeeper of the grocery store in Fengzhou?" ”

Yang Yuanqing still remembered that at that time, Li Yuan set up an intelligence point in Wuyuan County, which was a grocery store, and the shopkeeper was this Han Chang, who had been controlled by the Sui army.

"What, this person is also in Taiyuan?"

"Back to the chief manager, this person is in Taiyuan, but he is Li Jiancheng's person, in charge of the Taiyuan Outer Supervision Hall, but he can be used by his humble position."

Yang Yuanqing nodded, "I won't just ask how to do these things, you can arrange it yourself, but I will explain your matter, and you must do it for me." ”

"If you understand it, you will definitely do it!"

Wei Ben said goodbye and left, Yang Yuanqing stood in front of the map with his hands behind his back, looking at Chang'an on the map, and couldn't help sneering, "Come and don't go, it's rude...... Bafang wine shop is located outside the gate of Taiyuan North City, this area is the most prosperous place in Taiyuan business, wine shops, green buildings, inns are dense, there are more than 20 large and small wine shops, Pei Minqiu bought the Sanyuan wine shop is also located here.

Among the many wine shops, the Bafang wine shop can only be regarded as the middle and upper, covering an area of about three acres, four floors, facing the gate of the North Market, the market is good, and the business is also prosperous.

This liquor shop was originally the property of the Guanlong aristocratic Yuan family, after the defeat of the Yuan family, it was sold to the Dou family, and now the Dou family was transferred to the Tang Dynasty military, becoming the base of the Tang Army's intelligence agency 'Tang Feng' in Taiyuan, the business is only three floors, and the fourth floor of the liquor store is not accessible to ordinary people, which is the secret of the entire liquor store.

The general person in charge of Tang Feng in Taiyuan was Li Shouzhong, who had been to Fengzhou that year, Li Yuan's general, and later became Li Shimin's confidant.

In the afternoon, a man went straight up to the fourth floor from the back of the liquor store, and he brought back some of the information he had gathered......