Chapter 294 Weihe Warehouse
Chapter 294 Weihe Warehouse
Chang'an has a large gray industry, that is the black market. To put it bluntly, the black market is an industry that exploits loopholes. Although many materials are not illegal, the court restricts their sales for some reason. For example, the court prohibits extravagance and does not allow the sale of luxury goods such as Shu brocade and jade, but the black market has everything.
Another thing is that some materials are scarce and in short supply and cannot be purchased through normal channels. For example, high-quality products from all over the country were sent to the palace as tribute. They are difficult to find in the market, but they can also be found on the black market.
There are also some things that are illegal in themselves but difficult for the court to find, such as the ordination certificates of monks or Taoists. These things have always been scarce. After the monks pass away or the Taoists pass away, the ordination certificates left behind should be cancelled, but in fact, temples basically do not cancel them, but choose to sell them to make a profit.
There are also official kiln porcelains and various high-quality handicrafts produced by the Artisan Supervision Bureau. These cannot be bought on the normal market, but can be bought on the black market. It’s just a matter of price.
There are all kinds of strange things in the black market, but the most traded items are gold and silver. Although Xiao Xia got a lot of gold and silver, it does not mean that others can get them. Ordinary people cannot exchange silver at the black market, let alone gold.
The only way for ordinary people to obtain gold and silver was to buy gold and silver jewelry, but the premium of jewelry was too high. One tael of silver was worth one guan of money, but a silver hairpin weighing one tael would cost at least three or five guan of money.
The remaining channel is the black market. The official price is one tael of silver for one guan of coins, and one tael of gold for ten guan of coins. However, in the black market, one tael of silver requires 1,300 wen, and one tael of gold requires at least 13 guan of coins.
It was this spread between the official price and the black market price that made many black market merchants who bought and sold gold and silver rich.
Yu Ye was one of them. Yu Ye’s name was Yu Kaiji, a native of Chang’an, about fifty years old. His daughter was taken as a concubine by Li Bi’s grandson Li Kuan, and gave birth to a son. With this relationship, as long as Yu Kaiji did not commit serious violations of the law, the Li family would help him solve some minor crimes.
It was precisely because of the protection of the Li family that Yu Kaiji was doing well in both the black and white worlds. The scope of his black market transactions became wider and wider, even involving the most profitable and risky illegal transactions, and receiving stolen goods, just like Shan Xiongxin.
In the afternoon, Xiao Xia led three hundred soldiers to the old city of Chang'an again and blocked a shop called Kaiji Yahang. Yes, this was Yu Kaiji's public shop, and its main business was intermediary services.
A broker is a person who helps people find channels, build relationships, and introduce various information. Yu Kaiji happened to be in the store, and he was brought to Xiao Xia by several soldiers.
Yu Kaiji smiled and said, "General, if you have anything to say, just tell me."
Xiao Xia said calmly: "Jiang Balang, you should know!"
Yu Kaiji thought about it, shook his head and said, "Too much business, can't remember?"
Xiao Xia snorted and said, "He's a thief and he's been caught, but he's also involved in another case that's of great importance. If you tell the truth, I won't hold you responsible. If you dare to lie to me and it causes serious consequences, I'm afraid you and your entire family will be exiled."
Yu Kaiji laughed and said, "I remember now. He was a very thin man from Shangdang County. He asked me to introduce him to a partner."
"We are now tracking down the two partners. They ran away. When we searched their room, we found five boxes of crossbows, a total of 25. We are now tracking down the source of these 25 crossbows."
Yu Kaiji hurriedly shook his head, "The military crossbow has nothing to do with me!"
"What about them?"
Xiao Xia pressed on: "Don't tell me you know nothing about these two people."
Yu Kaiji said after a while, "I do know a little about these two people. Their real names are Wang Feng and Wang Jian. Their nicknames are Heaven's Eye and Earth's Listener, which means they are very sensitive to news. They are from Huxian County. If there is any disturbance, they will flee back to their hometown and hide. I know this because I have bought things from them."
"Five boxes of military crossbows. Didn't they ever think of selling them to you?"
Yu Kaiji shook his head, "I don't know about the military crossbow."
Xiao Xia discovered that this guy was a veteran and there was no way he could avoid it, so he squeezed out a little bit of information and denied it as much as he could.
"Let me tell you this! If it was a military crossbow bought on the black market, I wouldn't care at all. I'm worried that someone is going to rebel. These military crossbows are just the tip of the iceberg, so I want to track down the source of these military crossbows. Tell me the truth, even if it's an item traded on the black market, I don't care. You'd better prioritize things!"
Yu Kaiji then stammered, "They did want to sell it to me, but I didn't dare to accept it because I was afraid of getting into trouble. I gave them ten strings of cash and asked them to find another buyer. I also made inquiries yesterday. Those military crossbows were not from the black market. No one lost anything. I wonder where they stole them from?"
"Didn't they tell me?" "These two are very tight-lipped. They never tell me where the things they sell come from."
Xiao Xia felt that the other party did not seem to be lying, so he nodded and said, "Let me ask you one last question. How can we catch them both?"
Yu Kaiji said, "Since the general asked in a friendly way, I will not hide anything. They have an uncle who runs a grocery store on Jianzhang Road in the old city, called Jinji Grocery Store. If the two men were not hiding in the grocery store, then they must have fled back to their hometown in Huxian County. Their uncle also knows where their hometown is. That's all I know, and I told the general everything."
Xiao Xia nodded, "As long as you tell the truth, I won't embarrass you!"
Xiao Xia stood up and ordered, "Go to Jianzhang Road!"
Xiao Xia led 300 cavalrymen and rushed to Jianzhang Road like a gust of wind. This place was close to Jianzhang Palace. They quickly found Jinji Grocery Store and immediately surrounded the store.
The soldiers held down the shop owner and began a thorough search, when suddenly one of the soldiers shouted, "We got him!"
Xiao Xia was cheered up. These two people did not escape back to Hu County.
Soon, the soldiers escorted two young men out of the house. They were the brothers Wang Feng and Wang Jian who had escaped last night.
The soldiers of Wuhouwei immediately took them back to the barracks for interrogation.
Soon, the two men confessed honestly that they had stolen five boxes from a warehouse at the Wei River Wharf. There were thousands of pieces of goods piled in the warehouse, and there were hundreds of boxes alone.
The Weihe Wharf warehouse is a civilian warehouse and it is impossible for it to contain military supplies. So there is only one explanation: someone is secretly smuggling military supplies.
Xiao Xia immediately led a thousand cavalrymen and his two brothers to the Wei River wharf.
The Wei River wharf is very large, with more than a hundred warehouses. It was winter, the Wei River was frozen, everything was bleak, there were no laborers, and there were only a few people watching over the warehouses.
The Wang brothers pointed to a large warehouse in the north and said, "That's the warehouse. It has a vent. We pried it open."
The soldiers broke the chain lock and opened the warehouse, but the warehouse was empty and there was nothing inside.
The two brothers looked at each other in bewilderment. "Yes, it is this warehouse. It was full of supplies the night before yesterday. How come it is gone?"
At this time, the dock manager was brought over. He saluted Xiao Xia and said, "Greetings, General!"
"What's going on with this warehouse? Are they delivering goods these two days?"
The manager nodded and said, "A lot of people came yesterday, bringing hundreds of carts, and they took away all the goods in several trips!"
"Whose cargo is it?"
"General, I don't know who the goods belong to, but this warehouse is the private warehouse of His Royal Highness the King of Han. The goods were shipped here in September and were moved out yesterday."
It should be the armor of King Han Yang Liang.
It seemed that they had alerted the enemy. King Yang Liang of Han was afraid that his things would be seized, so he moved them away overnight.
But what does the King of Han need so many weapons and armor for? Is he planning a rebellion?
(End of this chapter)