Chapter 613: Incognito Inspection (Part 2)

The carriage stopped in Xiling Alley, located right next to the Western Market. Li Qing’an entered Rehaiju. Soon after, a middle-aged Turkic man accompanied by two young Turkic women came out through the back door on the other side of Rehaiju. The middle-aged Turkic man was, of course, Li Qing’an in disguise. There were several skilled makeup artists in Rehaiju who applied a beard to Li Qing’an, thickened his eyebrows, gave his eyes a green tint, and even changed his skin color, so that no one could recognize him as Li Qing’an.
Mingzhu was also disguised as a Turkic woman, with significant changes—her hair turned chestnut brown, her eyelashes grew longer, and her nose was slightly raised. She kept taking out a small copper mirror to examine her appearance, frowning at times and sneaking smiles at others; she had become someone entirely different.
The other Turkic woman was actually a Han Chinese in disguise. Her name was Li Rong, and she worked for the intelligence department of the Anxi Army. Highly skilled in martial arts, she was the leader of the 27 female bodyguards in the Prince Zhao’s palace. Today, she pretended to be Li Qing’an’s lover and his personal bodyguard.
In addition, eighteen elite bodyguards followed not far away, keeping a vigilant eye on their surroundings.
Rehaiju’s architectural layout was extremely unique. Xiling Alley was a dead end, and it only took a little over a hundred steps to go from the front door to the back door of Rehaiju. But if one tried to exit through the alley and then make their way to the back door, it would take at least half an hour. It was this special layout that allowed the people inside Rehaiju to evacuate quickly in case of danger, and it also ensured that Li Qing’an wouldn’t be tracked.
Li Qing’an strolled slowly through the Western Market with the two beautiful Turkic women. There were many Turkic merchants in the market, accounting for at least 30% of them. It wasn’t surprising to see Li Qing’an among them as a Turkic merchant. What did draw attention, however, were the two women by his side.
“Dalis, let’s go to the rice shop first!”
Li Qing’an spoke in Turkic. Li Rong, under the name Dalis, translated for Mingzhu, “Mingzhu, the master says we should go to the rice shop first.”
Mingzhu smiled sweetly, affectionately holding onto Li Qing’an’s arm, but inwardly she was furious. With so many Turkic merchants speaking Chinese, why did this fake Turk insist on speaking in his native language? Mingzhu secretly pinched Li Qing’an’s arm hard and whispered, “My dear, can’t you speak Chinese?”
Li Qing’an turned around, winked, and said with a smile, “My dear lady, what are you saying? I don’t understand.”
He still spoke in Turkic. Mingzhu was frustrated. Seeing the suggestive smile on Li Qing’an’s face, she felt too embarrassed to ask Li Rong and simply turned away, ignoring him…

The Western Market mainly dealt in goods for daily use—tea, rice, oil, salt, cloth, ordinary silk, cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, writing brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, and so on—ranging in number to hundreds of types. It operated primarily on a wholesale basis with enormous quantities of goods handled, featuring thousands of shops. A few were privately owned, while most were rented. Just the rent from these shops in the Eastern and Western Markets alone provided a substantial income for the imperial court.

Goods of the same type tended to gather together, with shops for a particular item concentrated in one area, known as a “trade district,” such as rice shops, silk shops, cloth shops, oil shops, tea shops, pig iron shops, and so on. Some bulk commodities were further subdivided; for example, among rice shops, there were four categories: five-cooked rice shops, white rice shops, polished rice shops, and japonica rice shops, all located in the central part of the Western Market.

Since ancient times, grain has been a focal point for various dynasties, and its price fluctuations could even determine the rise and fall of a dynasty. During the prosperous mid-Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the price of rice was only ten coins per dou. Thus, Du Fu wrote in his poem “Recalling the Past”: “In the golden age of Kaiyuan, even small towns housed tens of thousands of households. Rice was rich and oily, millet was white, and both public and private granaries were well-stocked.”

But after the Tianbao era, irrigation systems in Guanzhong gradually declined, disasters became frequent, land was consolidated, and rice prices began to rise steadily. When famine-stricken people from Hedong flocked to Guanzhong, rice prices peaked at three thousand coins per dou. Since then, prices have fluctuated continuously without stability.

There were over a hundred rice shops in the Western Market, all large-scale businesses handling more than a thousand dan of rice per day. They essentially monopolized Chang’an’s grain supply, with rice shops in various districts coming here for wholesale purchases. Of course, there were also a dozen or so government-run shops at the Changping Granaries, but they usually did not trade regularly. Only during years of disaster when prices needed to be stabilized would these government shops open and sell grain at low prices.

Rice shops generally allowed customers to pay in front and pick up the goods at the back door. There was also a small river behind, and many families used boats to transport rice, as did suppliers. Therefore, it was not easy to judge the scale of a rice shop from its main entrance—most had small doors and secluded courtyards.

Li Qing’an passed by several shops before finally choosing one that seemed clean, with a sign reading “Huhang Old Shop.” The sign was somewhat worn, indicating it was at least fifty years old.

“Let’s go take a look at this one!”

This time, Li Qing’an spoke in Chinese. Using Turkic language was merely to deceive others temporarily. When his bodyguards reported no one following them and no abnormalities, he didn’t want to keep speaking in Turkic.

Mingzhu was overjoyed—she could finally understand. She quickly smiled and said, “Great! Let’s go take a look.”

Li Rong walked ahead. As soon as they entered the gate, a clerk came forward warmly. But once he saw that they were foreigners, his enthusiasm faded significantly. With a lazy and listless tone, he asked, “How much rice do you want to buy?”
“I’d like to take a look first!”
Hearing him speak fluent Chinese, the clerk became enthusiastic again. “Let me show you around.”
Seeing his mood shift like a chameleon—sometimes cold, sometimes warm—Li Qing’an joked angrily, “You clerk, if you’re not awake, send someone else!”
The clerk smiled bitterly and said, “Sir, you don’t know. The imperial court strictly prohibits selling rice abroad. If caught, even the rice shop will suffer consequences. That’s why we generally dare not do business with foreigners.”
“Wait!”
Li Qing’an interrupted him. “Isn’t the Western Regions also part of the Tang territory? I come from the Shi State, and including the Shi State and the Nine States of Hexi, they’re all part of the Tang territory now. Selling rice there isn’t illegal, is it?”
Li Qing’an found this strange. He only knew that selling rice to An Lushan was forbidden, but he didn’t know about the rule against exporting rice. The clerk glanced outside, pointed north, and whispered, “Actually, the court didn’t issue such a rule. It’s an industry convention—mainly out of fear of selling rice to the Uyghurs. Three months ago, the Luo Family Rice Shop sold a thousand dan of grain to a foreign merchant, who was caught by border guards at Juyan Lake. That merchant was executed, and the Luo Family Rice Shop was fined 10,000 guan. All their hard-earned wealth was lost overnight, and the shop had to close. Everyone was scared, so they established the convention against selling rice to foreigners.”
Only then did Li Qing’an understand. He had read Cui Qianyou’s report about a Sogdian merchant who tried to secretly transport rice to the Uyghurs and was caught by border guards. He didn’t expect the court to impose a fine of 10,000 guan—this must have been done by Liu Yan, who also served as the Minister of the Imperial Treasury.
Li Qing’an nodded and smiled. “So why are you enthusiastic now?”
The clerk also smiled. “We’ve seen many people. If a merchant can speak fluent Chinese, they must have stayed in the Central Plains for a long time. They probably buy rice to do business there too. So there’s an exception to the convention—Tang people and foreign merchants are exempt.”
By “Tang people and foreign merchants,” they meant something similar to today’s “American Chinese,” just reversed—“Chinese Americans.” There were at least hundreds of thousands of foreigners living in the Tang Dynasty for a long time. Some stayed because of war in their homelands, while others admired the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty and refused to return. They obtained Tang citizenship and most could speak fluent Chinese.
“Alright! I want to buy rice to Henan. First, introduce the rice prices to me.”
“Sure! Please follow me, sir.”

TheWaiter led them into the central hall. From the outside, Li Qing’an had thought this “Huhang Old Shop” was deserted, but once inside, he realized he was wrong—there were over a hundred people in the hall, most of them merchants buying rice, with the rest being shop staff. The noise was loud, and it was quite bustling.

The hall was square, ten zhang long and wide. Along the walls stood tall bamboo baskets filled with various types of rice. Li Qing’an took a quick look and found that the price of rice was around 400 wen per dou, which surprised him greatly.

At the beginning of the year, he had read a report from the Ministry of Finance showing that the price of rice was 80 wen per dou. How could it have quadrupled in just ten months? Was it due to immigration or war?

Li Qing’an grew nervous. At 400 wen per dou, he would surely be cursed by the common people. In the report given to him by Pei Zunqing, it was all praise for his governance in Chang’an. If it were truly praise, the price should be around 40 wen per dou.

“Why is the price of rice so high?” Li Qing’an frowned and asked theWaiter, “Weren’t there heavy harvests in Longyou this year?”

TheWaiter smiled bitterly. “Longyou is a vast area. If a good harvest there could solve Chang’an’s food shortage, then what would be the need for grain transport?”

It sounded reasonable, but Li Qing’an knew it wasn’t entirely true. In the past, the grain from Longyou mainly supplied the troops there and those in Hexi, so it wasn’t sent to Chang’an. But now it was different. After the Tubo were conquered by the Tang army, there were hardly any troops left in Longyou and Hexi. The 20,000 Tang troops by the Juyan Lake also relied mainly on grain supplied from Guanzhong. So this year, most of the grain from Longyou was sent to Guanzhong. Although Guanzhong’s harvest was slightly lower than last year, the large manor estates that had annexed land had been eliminated, and the remaining small legal manor estates paid their taxes as usual. The official grain reserves were sufficient to handle war without affecting prices. If prices rose to 400 wen per dou, the government should have released grain to stabilize prices—so why was there no such move?

Li Qing’an was filled with confusion. At that moment, a merchant buying rice nearby said, “It’s not that grain prices are high; it’s that money has lost value.”

Li Qing’an was stunned. He seemed to gradually understand. He quickly bowed and asked, “Sir, how can money lose value while grain prices rise?”

Seeing that he was polite, the merchant nodded and smiled. “It’s not just grain that’s expensive; everything is. Silk used to cost 500 wen per bolt, but now it’s risen to 3 guan. Meat used to cost 80 wen per pound, but now it’s up to 200 wen.”

“That’s right!” another merchant interjected. “Previously, one could get authentic Gaochang wine and four or five dishes for just one guan. Now, for the same things, one needs at least three guan. Look!” He shook the cloth bag he carried, making a rustling sound, and said, “These are all silver coins—two hundred silver coins, worth two hundred guan. Originally, they were worth two hundred and forty guan. Now that there are more, they’re cheaper. Before, two hundred guan weighed 1,200 jin, and one had to hire a cart to transport the money. Now, it’s convenient to carry around, but the copper coins are no longer valuable.” “Besides Anxi silver coins, there are also Byzantine gold coins! I have many of those too.”