Li Ye then went to the West Market. Jincheng County was divided into thirty-five lanes, but there were no lane walls. They were all divided by streets. There was a market in the west of the city called the West Market. It was the same as the West Market in Chang'an.
Selling all kinds of daily necessities, such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, etc., of course, there are also shops selling various luxury goods in Jincheng County, mainly concentrated on Guangwumen Street, and there are some on Yongdengmen Street, but not many.
Although the West Market does not have a city wall, it does have a fence. The long wooden fence surrounds the West Market.
Li Ye did not ride in the carriage again. He only took two soldiers from the recording office and wandered around the market. The soldiers followed him from a distance. In fact, with his martial arts skills, he did not need protection at all, not to mention that he also carried a throwing knife.
As the New Year approaches, this is the time when there are the most people in the market. Tomorrow, on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, the number of people will be reduced by half. By the day after tomorrow, on New Year’s Eve, there will be basically no people in the market.
Li Ye was asking about the price of grain. Li Ye found it strange that the grain shop was full of wheat and corn, or just ground flour. There was no rice at all, and no grains such as beans.
The shop is not big, it can only be regarded as a small grain shop. The owner is from Lanzhou. He is in his forties. He looks very honest and timid, but he is very smart when it comes to food.
"We can't sell rice. We have sold it before. We bought it from Bashu, but it was too expensive. Forty coins per dou, plus shipping and small profits, it becomes seventy cents per dou. Our wheat is only thirty wen per dou.
Who would buy rice worth seventy cents? I bought more than ten kilograms of rice, but the last half was not sold and turned into stale rice with rice bugs, so I had to sell it at a loss, which was a huge loss."
Seeing his sad face, Li Ye couldn't help but laugh. For a few kilograms of rice or a few guan of money at most, what does it mean to suffer a huge loss?
At this moment, a shout came from not far away: "What are you going to do? You are all robbers!"
Li Ye was startled and looked back, only to see a group of men in black holding whistle sticks dozens of steps away from him and smashing into a rice shop. It should be the largest rice shop here, called Luo Shi Rice Shop.
A middle-aged man said coldly: "I warned you, if you don't agree, don't even think about the Chinese New Year, just give it to me!"
More than twenty warriors in black rushed into the rice shop. Several waiters squatted on the ground with their heads in their hands, and the shopkeeper knelt on the ground and cried and begged, but to no avail.
"Shopkeeper, what's going on over there?" Li Ye asked the owner of the grain shop in front of him.
"Hey! It's useless for the Luo family to hug the Xin family's thighs! How can he fight against the old Liu family?"
"Old Liu's family?"
Li Ye reacted immediately, "Liu Shengdian's family?"
The shopkeeper nodded, "There are deep grudges here. It's hard to say who is good and who is bad."
At this time, Feng Bin from the Guards Corps ran up and whispered a few words in Li Ye's ear. Li Ye nodded, "If it doesn't involve other stores, just leave it alone for the time being and let them go their own way!"
"I understand your humble position, but Your Highness can't be here, it's not safe!"
Li Ye nodded. This is not a matter of safety, but that he is not suitable to be here.
"I'm going back!"
Li Ye left with the two soldiers. The shopkeeper's legs were so frightened that he was beside Li Ye and clearly heard the address of "Your Highness". Could this young man with outstanding temperament be His Highness King Qi?
Li Ye returned to the government office and told Ji Shouchun: "Go and find Xin Zheng!"
Xin Zheng is Xin Yunjing's cousin. He currently serves as Deputy Sima of the Jiedushi Dynasty and is in charge of military animal husbandry. He is responsible for the management of tens of thousands of camels.
Among the three famous Xin brothers in Lanzhou, the eldest, Xin Mo, is Xin Zheng's father. He served as governor of Lanzhou and Qinzhou, and as governor of Longyou Jiedu Prefecture. He has a relatively long life and is still alive today.
The second eldest brother, Xin Yan, is Xin Yunjing's father. He once served as General Zuo Xiaowei and has passed away long ago.
The third child, Xin Ran, once served as the military commander of Longyou Jiedu and joined the army. A few months ago, he died tragically at the hands of Tubo swords at Tianlang Fort.
After a while, Xin Zheng walked into the official room and saluted: "See you, Your Highness!"
Li Ye smiled and waved his hands: "Please sit down!"
Xin Zheng sat down, and Li Ye asked with a smile: "Is Mr. Xin in good health?"
"Thanks to Your Highness, my father is still in good health!"
"Who is in charge of family affairs in the Xin family now?"
Xin Zheng didn't understand what His Highness meant, but he still said truthfully: "It's my eldest brother Xin Feng. My father officially handed over the family affairs to him at the beginning of the year."
Li Ye circled around a few times and finally returned to the topic. He took a sip of tea and said calmly: "Today is the Day of Compassion for the People. We all spent the afternoon visiting people suffering from hardships, but I saw an interesting thing in the West Market.
Maybe it was a steward! He led a group of men in black and smashed up Luo's Grain Shop. Can Xin Sima tell what happened?"
Xin Zheng understood as soon as he heard it, and the Liu family started to take action. He nodded, "I know what is going on, and I am willing to tell His Highness the whole story."
Li Ye leaned back slightly, pretending to be listening attentively.
Xin Zheng smiled bitterly and said: "Your Highness also knows that there are four major families in Lanzhou, Li, Xin, Liu, and Yang. After decades of marriage, the four major families have formed a political alliance. Although it is an alliance, it is not monolithic.
, sometimes they will fight each other for their own interests, and they fight fiercely, but on the surface they are relatively peaceful.
The four major families all have their own forces and younger brothers. Among them, our Xin family also has several younger brothers. The Luo family is one of them. Luo Xianglin, the grandfather of the current head of the Luo family, Luo Shengfei, once worked as the chief steward of the Xin family for thirty years. My eldest brother
My concubine is Luo Shengfei’s eldest daughter.”
"Let's talk about the Luo family in detail!" Li Ye interjected. He felt that the relationship between the Luo family and the Xin family was very important, and they might be the white gloves of the Xin family.
Xin Zheng nodded, "The Luo family is a grain merchant, and their business is relatively large. They are currently the largest grain merchant in Lanzhou, with eight grain shops. In addition, there are grain shops in Weizhou and Qinzhou, and the grain shop in Xishi
Just the biggest one among them.
Our Xin family has always been protecting the Luo family, but the problem lies within the Luo family. Luo Shengfei's youngest son is called Luo Ganlin. He is an out-and-out playboy, proficient in eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling.
Six months ago, he gambled and lost a thousand taels of silver. He couldn't afford to pay it back and was afraid that his father would find out, so he stole the land deed of a grain store to pay off his gambling debt. But for some reason, the land deed fell into Liu's hands.
The Liu family was also in the grain business, but they couldn't compete with the Luo family, so the Liu family came to ask for the store.
Of course Luo Shengfei didn't want to do it. His grain shop was worth ten thousand taels of silver. How could it be sold for so cheaply for just one thousand taels of silver? And he found out that the person gambling with his son was a trap. He suspected that the Liu family was behind it, so he came to beg me.
Big brother.
My eldest brother also coordinated, but Liu Shengdian was determined to seize the grain store in the West Market. They believed that even if there was evil in gambling, it had nothing to do with the Liu family. Now that the land deed was in his hands, he gave Xin a face.
We can give another two thousand taels of silver to the Luo family, but before the end of the year, the Luo family must give up their grain store, otherwise he will come and forcefully close the store!"
Li Ye was not interested in the grievances between wealthy families. He was concerned about one thing. When Lanzhou fell, the other three major families suffered misfortune, but the Liu family was the only one unscathed. Why did the Tubo people let the Liu family go?
Li Ye kept his secrets secretly before. He learned the lesson from Xiangyang and was concerned about the relationship between the four major families, so he just asked Li Chenghua to spy on the Liu family.
Today I accidentally discovered the quarrel between the Xin family and the Liu family. If the Liu family smashed up Luo's Grain Store in order not to show favor to the Xin family, would it trigger a split between the two families?
It can be seen from this that the four major families are not monolithic as imagined.