The reason why the Great Qin Empire sent spies here is ridiculous, they are just to obtain silk. This magical fabric, as smooth as a baby's skin, traveled thousands of miles to Daqin via the Great Silk Road, and soon became a favorite of the upper classes, especially the aristocratic women. But I don't know when silk suddenly became expensive, and then it was impossible to buy it even if there was money.

The ladies were blowing pillow wind, and the elders of the House of Elders held several meetings before finally making a resolution asking the Great Qin Emperor to take measures to find a way to obtain silk. But for the big eastern country thousands of miles away, the Great Qin Emperor also didn't know anything, so he sent this team of more than 20 spies.

The leader of this spy team is called Jokama, who opened a Great Qin Tavern in Wuji City, making it an important stronghold for him. Being able to be the leader of the spies, Jokama has his own advantages. When the construction of Wuji City was completed and the shops began to be sold to the outside world, Jokama keenly saw the opportunity, and immediately spent money to buy a piece of land here and open this Daqin Tavern.

There are many taverns in Wuji City, all kinds of things, there are Han-style taverns, there are local taverns in the Western Regions, and there are taverns opened by merchants from Kangju, Dawan, Shenzhi and other places. Because of the large flow of customers in Wujicheng, some people miss the taste of their hometown, and some people want to taste the exotic customs, so even if there are so many taverns, business is still booming.

However, there is only one Great Qin Tavern in the entire Wuji City. After all, Great Qin is thousands of miles away from here, and although there are many Great Qin merchants who have come here, among the more than 100,000 merchants from all over the world, it can only be regarded as a very small part.

Because of this one, the business of Jokama's Daqin Tavern is extremely prosperous, and there is almost no time to close. The funds that he had embezzled at the beginning have now been filled back, and there is still a large balance. In just one year, he earned enough money to buy a large mansion in the city of Rome and live an aristocratic life. But in the hierarchical Great Qin Empire, if you want to enter the upper class, it is not enough to have money, and Chokama still lacks a title.

For a commoner like Jokama, the only way to earn a knighthood is to build merit. But Jokama was not a warrior, and he had no way to accumulate merit through war, so he could only try to obtain valuable information. After Liu Xin reopened the Silk Road, Jokama's mission had actually ended, but he was still willing to return to China in the Western Regions, just with the intention of making meritorious contributions.

During this period, Jokama had sent information back twice, but both of them were lost in the sea, and there was no response. The information must have been delivered to the House of Elders, as the two couriers returned safely each time. Even if they were discovered by the Han Chinese in Wujicheng, there would be no problem, because no one else here could know the information written on the parchment except him, including the two messengers, who were also illiterate.

Just yesterday afternoon, Chokama received another extremely important piece of information, that the Han Emperor had actually taken a personal expedition, and that he had left Beijing to the west while a large-scale war was going on in the territory of the Han Dynasty. This information is too important, those elders in the House of Elders are all mature guys, and there will always be people who will take a fancy to this information. If they organized an expeditionary force to come to the Western Regions and captured the Han Emperor, then ......

How to develop later has exceeded Jokama's imagination, but he believes that with this information, Bo Baron should not be a problem. So Jocama immediately sent the two messengers back to Rome. To Jokama's surprise, the two messengers did not leave Wuji City immediately, but quietly went to the Qinglou in the city to fool around all night, preparing to leave for China early the next morning. In the course of that night, the situation changed abruptly, and the two messengers became captives of the Han Chinese.

Wu is the only Daqin tavern in the city, which is convenient for Zeng Lie. There was no need for the two messengers to lead the way, Zeng Lie himself led Liu Xin and his party over. As soon as I arrived at the entrance of the alley, I saw a young Han army officer step forward and arch his hand and said, "Lord Qiqi, the situation has changed!" ”

It turned out that after Zeng Lie got the confessions of the two messengers, he immediately ordered someone to strengthen the monitoring of this Daqin tavern, just to prevent them from getting the news and fleeing quietly. Wujicheng is a mixed bag, and if they leave this Daqin Tavern, trying to catch them again will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Hearing that the situation had changed, the muscles on Zeng Lie's face twitched a little, and he gritted his teeth and asked, "What happened?" ”

The young officer didn't look at Liu Xin, who was standing not far away, because he didn't know Liu Xin's identity yet, but continued to report to Zeng Lie: "Go back to your lordship, you want to follow your lord's order to sneak into the tavern, but you find that the tavern is closed today. The guy in the store said that a few partners of the tavern happened to come over today to take inventory, and they were temporarily closed for a day, so please come back tomorrow. ”

The Hu people did business differently from the Han people, they often teamed up with several people, jointly funded the capital, and then one of them was responsible for managing it, and the others only needed to check the accounts and divide the accounts when the time came. Therefore, it is reasonable to say that the business is temporarily closed on this day of the audit.

Zeng Lie frowned and said, "I've never heard that this Daqin Tavern is a partnership, why did a few partners suddenly appear?" Could it be a fraud? ”

Liu Xin didn't want to come to the front desk, but seeing that something seemed to be wrong here, he couldn't help but step forward quickly and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

The young officer saw Zeng Lie's respectful appearance to Liu Xin, and hurriedly recounted the situation here.

Liu Xin nodded thoughtfully and asked, "Have any of the people in this tavern ever left?" Is that guy you seeing a new face? ”

Although the young officer didn't know Liu Xin's identity, he had been calmed by the momentum of Liu Xin's long-standing position, and hurriedly said: "Lord Hui, after receiving the order from Lord Zeng, he immediately led people to set up sentry posts around the tavern, and did not see a person leave, nor did he see a person entering, and all the guests were stopped outside. In addition to marking himself, he sent a few other groups of people to test it, and it was basically certain that the guy was still the person in the original tavern. ”

Liu Xin was very satisfied with the young officer's performance, and asked casually, "What's your name?" ”

The officer clenched his fists and said, "Mark Shi Ran." ”

Liu Xin patted Shi Ran on the shoulder and said, "The young man is good, do a good job, continue to go to the front and stare at it, the person should still be inside." ”

Shi Ran clenched his fists hard, turned around and ran into the alley. Liu Xin said to Zeng Lie: "This kid acts calmly, and he only does a team of righteous talents." ”

This sentence is the biggest compliment to Shi Ran, Zeng Lie also felt that there was light on his face, and couldn't help laughing: "Your Majesty, don't look at his tall figure, in fact, he is still young, and I am afraid that he will be promoted too quickly and it will be difficult to convince the public." ”

Liu Xin also smiled and said, "I can see that there is only a few faint fluff on his mouth, I'm afraid he is not eighteen years old." ”

Zeng Lie's face showed embarrassment, and said: "Actually, he is only fourteen years old this year, and I don't know how he got in at the beginning. It's just that this kid ......, and he still hopes that His Majesty will open the net. ”

Liu Xin suddenly put away his smile and said: "Baimi is inevitably negligent, but if a fifteen-year-old boy is leaked in, it is not a matter of occasional negligence, and the person who was responsible for the conscription in the first place must be strictly held accountable!" As for Shi Ran, he dismissed his team and sent him to Chang'an Flying Tiger to be a firehead soldier. ”

Zeng Lie was startled at first, then overjoyed, and hurriedly arched his hand and said, "Your Majesty Shengming! ”

Liu Xin waved his hand and said, "Now deal with the matter in front of you first." This Daqin Tavern suddenly closed its doors, it is very suspicious, there must be something wrong here! Either something important is coming, or something big is happening. Zeng Lie, if a shop is closed today, what reason do you have to go in? ”

Zeng Lie thought for a while and said, "The taxes of all the shops in Wuji City are collected by the Military Participation Office, and you can send someone to enter in the name of auditing the accounts." ”

Liu Xin muttered: "Didn't the guy in the store say that a few partners are checking the accounts? Then let's have a good time and check the accounts! ”

After a cup of tea, a group of soldiers appeared in front of the Daqin Tavern. The soldiers all had the word "tax" written on the back of their uniforms, indicating their identity. In fact, except for the two real tax collectors in this team, the others were all pretended to be the Flying Tiger guards. Liu Xin and Zeng Lie and Cleya were also mixed in, and as officials and interpreters leading the team, they naturally didn't have to dress like that.

The Daqin Tavern, which had been resting on the first day since it opened, suddenly heard a quick knock on the door, and the guy opened the door impatiently, pointed to the sign hanging on the wall next to the door, and said, "This store has something to do today, and it will be closed for one day." ”

The tax officer who walked in front reprimanded loudly: "Put the bright spot on the move, check the tax!" ”

This is because Liu Xin and Zeng Lie are both in the queue, otherwise the scolding will be even more fierce.

Only then did the guy see that it was a group of soldiers who had entered the door, and hurriedly nodded and welcomed them in, arranging tea while sending someone to the back to inform the shopkeeper.

Hearing that an officer and soldier came to the door, Jokama walked out from behind in a panic, and said again and again: "I don't know what the military masters are doing here?" ”

Zeng Lie came to this Daqin tavern and knew that Jokama was the owner of the tavern and the leader of the spies he wanted to arrest, so he hurriedly whispered a few words in Liu Xin's ear. Liu Xin's purpose in deceiving the opening of the store was just to verify whether Jokama had escaped. Now that Jokama himself has appeared, Liu Xin naturally doesn't have to talk nonsense with him anymore, he waved his hand and shouted: "Take it all!" ”

Chokama was taken aback and shouted, "What crime has Xiaomin committed? ”

Liu Xin said without thinking: "Tax evasion! ”