After Fang Ling sat down in the room, Hao Tieniu went out to find Lu Bei, and after a while, Lu Bei came back, Dong Canghai and Shen Huantian also came to the house, and Hao Tieniu was outside to let out the wind.

Fang Ling opened his mouth and asked, "Brother Lu, is it safe for everyone to live now?"

Lu Bei replied: "Your Highness, please rest assured, the soldiers are all living in two inns, each with different identities, and the way of transmitting the news is also very secretive, and it has not aroused any suspicion for the time being." ”

Fang Ling knew that he was cautious, so he was relieved, the imperial city guards had a set of special training methods, especially for hiding their identities and finding out intelligence, they could clearly feel from Hao Tieniu, the previous city guard soldier had now transformed into a bit of a professional, so he said: "Then you can tell me in detail about the current situation in Blackwood City." ”

Lu Bei replied: "The city lord of Blackwood City is called Yuan Ba, this person used to be the deputy general of an important pass on the border of Cai State, because he was found to have withheld military salaries and private military funds, and fled here with dozens of subordinates before being dismissed, this person is not only ruthless, but also very fond of collecting money, he came all the way to recruit his subordinates, and established this Blackwood City, and now there are more than 100 soldiers under his command, either soldiers and bandits or wanted criminals of the two countries, and many people have life lawsuits in their hands. ”

Fang Ling bowed slightly: "What about the residents in the city?"

Lu Bei replied: "There are about 200 residents in the city, and these people are also soldiers and bandits and wanted criminals, unlike soldiers, the residents here are engaged in black market transactions, according to the information we have found so far, most of these residents do not go out to rob in person, but act as middlemen, that is, the looted property from all over the country is sold through them. ”

Fang Ling narrowed his eyes slightly and said: "In this way, these people are really a bit like businessmen, they don't need to go out to rob, they only need to have connections and venues, and they can sit and collect money." ”

Lu Bei nodded and said: "According to the rules of the city, every shop in the black market can only be rented by the residents of Blackwood City, so those thieves have no way to sell things by themselves, so they can only entrust them to the residents of the city to sell." ”

Fang Ling asked, "Then how should Yuan Ba make money, it should be based on taxes, right?"

Lu Bei replied: "Exactly, there are several kinds of taxes in the city, including the cost of renting shops, transaction taxes, etc., although it is quite expensive, but these are all robbed things, whether it is a buyer, a seller or Yuan Ba, they all have their own profits." ”

Fang Ling pondered: "Has there been any progress in the identity of the buyer?"

Lu Bei took out a list and said: "There are a lot of buyers in the city, and their identities are very secretive, but we still found out the identities of some buyers from some clues." Among these, in addition to the magnates of the local states and counties on the border of Cai State, of course, there are also some magnates in our country. ”

Fang Ling took the list and took a look, and found that it was written on the identities of more than a dozen buyers, and there were also names and quantities of goods they bought and sold, as well as the dates of entering and leaving the city, whereabouts, etc., he secretly appreciated, worthy of being a guard in the imperial city, he could inquire about so many people in a month, and after carefully reading the list, he smiled and said: "Sure enough, they are all local magnates, and there seem to be people in several states and counties around this king's fiefdom, collect this information well, it may be useful in the future, but remember to be careful, don't reveal your identity." ”