Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 428 - 425: Closing the Net

Xiao Chong, who was inspecting the water conservancy project, suddenly heard the cry of a hawk. He looked up at the sky and saw a hawk circling above the County Government.

"It’s my cousin’s hawk," Xiao Chong said in a low voice.

Standing a step behind him, Shuqi took out a short whistle from his bosom and blew it long. The gyrfalcon circling above the County Government turned its head and flew over to them.

The road that takes a long time to walk on the ground is only a moment’s glide in the sky for the gyrfalcon.

By the time the gyrfalcon flew above the people, Shuqi had already donned his protective shoulder pad. The gyrfalcon descended from the sky, landing on Shuqi’s shoulder, its sharp claws gripping the protective pad fiercely.

Xiao Chong casually threw a piece of jerky to the gyrfalcon, then took the note tied to its leg. Upon opening it and reading, his sword-like brows furrowed, cold light flashing through his eyes, he said coldly, "Du Minor Mansion!"

County Magistrate Du Zhongshang met Xiao Chong’s gaze, his scalp tightened, and he stepped forward quickly, clasping his hands in salutation, "I am here!"

"Seal all key roads in Mao County and round up all the rogues and brokers throughout the county. We must find the daughter of the Village Lady Le’an. If anything happens to the young lady, then let them pay with their lives!" Xiao Chong’s tone was not chilling, but his words were extremely brutal. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Yes!" Du Zhongshang felt a chill in his heart upon hearing this. Their newly appointed County Magistrate seldom issued threats. But once he said such words, everyone could expect a thunderous response!

Taking the rogues’ and brokers’ lives was indeed not a difficult task for the County Magistrate.

There was an ancient saying, "cart, boat, store, foot, and broker, even without crime, deserve to die."

The broker, in plain terms, was akin to modern human traffickers.

Human traffickers certainly have blood on their hands and cannot remain unstained, so they "deserve to die even without crime."

Traffickers in the Great Tang were divided into legal and illegal.

Legal ones included official sales, privilege, and self-sale. After convict sells by officials, the nobility sold slaves equivalent to livestock; common folk might sell themselves to bury a father, and more.

Illegal ones were unnecessary to elaborate on, it was using deceit, trickery, or even kidnapping, selling the good into debasement.

The "Tang Code" stipulates that anyone kidnapping and selling people as slaves would be hanged; selling people as subordinates, exiled three thousand miles; selling people as wives, concubines, or descendants, punished with three years of hard labor.

This means those engaging in illegal trafficking for slavery were to be hanged; selling people as subordinates, exiled three thousand miles; selling individuals as wives, concubines, or descendants, punished with three years of hard labor.

Another point to particularly explain is that in the Tang Dynasty, the buying and selling of the children of good people were absolutely prohibited. Even parents and grandparents had no right to sell sons or daughters; they were responsible for raising the children to maturity. If they abandoned or sold them, the punishment would be increased!

Children are the future, and even during the Tang Dynasty, there was a form of juvenile protection law.

In the Great Tang, minors were defined as children below the age of fifteen — naturally, this primarily protected the people of good social status, while descendants of the debased class found it hard to rise up on their own.

During the Tang Dynasty, in the impoverished and remote areas of Lingnan Road, there was a custom of mortgaging children for money. In response to this, the Emperor issued many decrees curbing the phenomenon of human trafficking.

The illegal trafficking of people underground in Mao County was also quite rampant; dismantling the criminal chain of trafficker groups was one of the tasks Xiao Chong assigned to County Magistrate Du Zhongshang this year.

After Du Zhongshang left on horseback, Xiao Chong also took Shuqi to Lin Family Manor on horseback. He couldn’t just wait for others to report; he needed to go to the first site where Qingyu went missing to conduct a field investigation.

Despite Qingyu somewhat keeping a protective and hostile attitude towards him, Xiao Chong still liked Qingyu because he loved Qingyu’s surroundings.

After riding for a while, Dugu Di and his guards also caught up on horseback.

Xiao Chong slowed his pace, waiting for him to catch up before asking, "Xiwen, what brings you here?"

"Zifang, we are about to reel in a big catch; why take down the net now? If we do, the big fish will be scared away, and from then on, the sea will be vast, leaving you with no opportunity to catch it again." Dugu Di, lacking the white cloth wrapped over his eyes today, could vaguely see; his eyes clearly expressed his disagreement.

Xiao Chong pondered for a while and said, "Times change; for this fish, losing the Jade Bottle is not worth it."

Dugu Di pulled the reins, turned his horse around, and said with disappointment while facing away from Xiao Chong, "Zifang, your weaknesses are increasing."

Without waiting for Xiao Chong’s response, he spurred his horse and rode away with a "hup!"

Xiao Chong faintly curved his lips, softly laughing, "Xiwen, how do you know this is a weakness and not armor? Hup!"

The horse hooves galloped, a cloud of dust rising behind him.

Lin Wanwan, with a sullen face, had already questioned each of the children who had played with Qingyu, obtaining a useful clue — the site where Qingyu was last seen might be by the water jars set at the corners of the workshop courtyard for fire prevention.

Sun Chuyao and the men who once earned their keep on the docks, now servants of Lin Wanwan, had already begun a net-like search.

Yet, in this land of numerous mountains and rivers, finding two small children was exceedingly difficult!

Although today the workshop was stirred by the accidental death of a child, causing a significant disturbance, the abductors could take Qingyu from Lin Family Manor, surely having scoped out the area, and acted with premeditation—certainly not by spur of the moment.

There had been too many outsiders lately, making it genuinely challenging for Lin Wanwan to unravel the truth with her amateur interrogation and investigation skills.

But she wasn’t willing to passively wait for bad news. Even if she wasn’t good at solving cases, she could resort to modern tools!

Lin Wanwan rushed back to the modern times, immediately contacting the police officer she had added on WeChat, asking if she could borrow police dogs to help find things, willing to pay any cost.

The police officer refused her and explained that police dogs, as working dogs tasked with execution duties, could be summoned but not lent out.

The official way didn’t work, so Lin Wanwan immediately contacted Lawyer Tan and Lu Shouyue, who were among the most connected people she knew.

Both of them had extensive networks; even if they couldn’t borrow police dogs in their prime, a retired one would do!

Among those available online were well-known retired police dogs, but unfortunately, none were located in Yongcheng, rendering their aid ineffective for immediate needs.

Nonetheless, she could rent a couple of civilian search and rescue dogs available online for money.

Shortly after sending out her request for help, Lu Shouyue was the first to respond, calling to ask Lin Wanwan what treasure she was seeking.

Both military and police dogs could be borrowed by him, but the handlers would also accompany them, asking if it was convenient for her.

Lin Wanwan certainly couldn’t tell Lu Shouyue the truth, so she concocted a story saying she lost a beloved item left by family while hiking and wanted to borrow the clever dogs to find it.

But she preferred to take the dogs herself without troubling the handlers.

Lu Shouyue immediately knew Lin Wanwan was lying; requesting dogs but not handlers didn’t align with normal recovery logic.

However, he didn’t expose her, pausing in thought before saying, "Then wait for my news; in half an hour, I’ll bring over the dogs."

"Thank you, I truly appreciate it!" Lin Wanwan repeatedly expressed her gratitude.

"No need to stand on ceremony with me, see you later."