Chapter Ninety-Four: Matters of Cooperation

Zhen Qian spent quite a while with a boar-bristle toothbrush dipped in coarse salt, scrubbing away at his mouth until his oral hygiene could be considered taken care of. He performed the whole ritual with meticulous care; he certainly did not want to end up with a toothache in the Tang Dynasty.

It is a mistake to think there were no toothbrushes in that era. Tang Dynasty toothbrushes were made with frames of bamboo, bone, or jade: small sticks more than ten centimeters long, flat in shape, broad at the top and narrow at the bottom, with tufts of bristles set into the end. Of course, ordinary people could not afford such things; they made do with willow twigs instead. And if one did not know how to use them, ending a toothbrushing session with a mouth full of blood was as common as could be.

Toothpaste in the Tang Dynasty was, in fact, simply coarse salt. By the late Tang, toothpaste began to include poria. Later the ingredients grew ever more elaborate, with agarwood, sandalwood, borneol, musk, fragrant spices, and the like, finally kneaded into a paste with cooked honey. This was the ancient version of toothpaste, also called tooth powder. Truly infuriating, wasn't it?

For the sake of a healthy set of teeth, and to avoid being tormented to death by dental disease, Zhen Qian could only pinch his nose and accept his fate.

Later generations would probably find it hard to understand how one could spend an hour every morning merely getting out of bed, but among wealthy families in ancient times, that was nothing unusual. And this was only with Little Mei's help; if Zhen Qian had done it himself, there would have been no need to receive guests all morning.

"Lord Zhao, Lord Han... sorry to have kept you waiting!"

Zhao Wenshan and Han Guangyu were great landowners from the districts near Xiantai Village, each family possessing nearly ten thousand mu of fertile land. At first they had not believed the rumor that Xiantai Village could yield four shi per mu, but as more and more people spread the word, they had come in person to inquire.

Zhen Qian did not deny it. Their estates were not far apart, and deliberate concealment would only make things awkward. If matters truly turned ugly, he would be the one at a disadvantage. Better to admit it openly.

"No trouble at all..." Zhao Wenshan, stout and rosy-faced, chuckled. Though already past fifty, not a wrinkle could be seen on his face; he was known as the Smiling Zhao.

"I heard that Master Zhen possesses a secret method that can raise yield to more than four shi per mu. I wonder if that is true?"

Han Guangyu, standing nearby, thin as a rake, was a little embarrassed. If one was going to spy on another man's farming secrets, only Zhao Wenshan could do so with such brazen honesty.

"The two of you are joking. Four shi per mu is only rumor-mongering by others. At most it is three or four shi," Zhen Qian said. His land could indeed reach more than four shi per mu, but that was not due entirely to manure. Intensive cultivation could raise yields, and using medicinal stones in the fields could also improve them, but he would not tell them any of that. "It is not really any great farming secret, only that I put a little more manure into the fields. Did the two of you have some purpose in mind?"

Zhao Wenshan and Han Guangyu had not rushed to the Zhen residence early in the morning just to drink tea and exchange idle talk. They had not expected Zhen Qian to be so direct, and for a moment they were taken aback. Then Zhao Wenshan sighed enviously. "Master Zhen is truly blessed to possess such an excellent farming secret. Might you tell us a little of it?"

Han Guangyu looked down on Zhao Wenshan's nakedly greedy demand: "Master Zhen, if this farming secret is a Zhen family secret not passed down outside the household, I am willing to pay a high price for it. What do you think?"

Zhao Wenshan also realized he had been too abrupt and quickly amended himself. "One thousand strings of cash... I am willing to pay one thousand strings for the Zhen family's farming secret, and I guarantee it will not be passed to others!"

One thousand strings of cash amounted to a million coins. A single dou of rice was only ten wen, and one shi was ten dou, worth one hundred wen. That was enough to buy ten thousand shi of grain. For a poor household, annual expenses might only be four or five strings, the equivalent of a year's money and grain for two hundred households. Zhen Qian had not expected the two of them to toss out such a thunderbolt at the first opening of their mouths.

But if one calculated carefully, one thousand strings to buy Zhen Qian's method for making fertilizer did not seem like much.

With ten thousand mu of fertile land each, if Zhao Wenshan and Han Guangyu could increase their yield by three times, that would be thirty thousand shi. Even if they gave ten thousand shi to Zhen Qian, it would only be one-third of the additional yield. Moreover, this was not a method used just once; it could be passed from father to son, son to grandson, without end. To think they could buy the fertilizer method from Zhen Qian with just one thousand strings was truly wishful thinking.

Zhen Qian had no intention of making a one-time deal. In later ages, this would have been a technical patent to enrich generations of descendants for ages to come, something one could live idly on while lying down and collecting interest.

The Tang Dynasty had no patent law. As a feudal dynasty, agriculture was the foundation of the realm, and if one possessed such a farming secret, one ought to report it to the court at once. That was the proper consciousness of a loyal subject in a feudal state.

But Zhen Qian was no loyal subject. He had not been one in his previous life, and he was certainly not going to be one in this one.

"You truly wish to purchase the Zhen family's farming secret?"

Zhao Wenshan and Han Guangyu nodded like pecking chicks. "As long as Master Zhen is willing, anything can be discussed."

Zhen Qian lifted his tea cup and took a sip. This was not the tea soup of the Tang Dynasty, but autumn tea freshly roasted.

As the old saying went, "Spring tea is bitter, summer tea is astringent; if you want it delicious, choose the white dew of autumn." In truth, because tea-brewing techniques improved in later ages, the "bitterness" of spring tea became even more prized and was considered tastier. The color and flavor of autumn tea lay between those of spring and summer tea; its fragrance was gentle, and nutritionally it was generally inferior to spring tea.

At this moment, Zhen Qian actually preferred black tea, that is, fermented tea, which helped digestion, stimulated appetite, promoted urination, reduced edema, and strengthened cardiac function. The flavonoids abundant in black tea could eliminate free radicals, provide anti-oxidation effects, and lower the incidence of myocardial infarction. Traditional medicine held that tea also had a cold-hot nature: green tea was bitter and cold, suited to summer and used to dispel heat; black tea and pu'er tea were more warming and better suited to winter drinking.

A look of pained reluctance appeared on Zhen Qian's face. He clasped his hands toward the direction of the ancestral hall. "This farming secret cannot be passed on lightly, lest I incur the displeasure of my ancestors..."

When the two heard that he had brought up even his ancestors, they hurriedly said they would not dare, though greed still glimmered in their eyes.

"Please listen while I explain slowly... Although this method should not be spread carelessly, the world rests on agriculture. If each mu yields one shi more, then the people of the world have one more path to survival. How could I hoard such a thing for myself? Yet the family rules are difficult to disobey..."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Wenshan grew anxious. "Does Master Zhen have any way around this?"

Zhen Qian continued his bluffing. "This farming secret has also been improved through successive generations, and the difficulties involved are hard to describe in a single sentence..."

Zhao Wenshan thought Zhen Qian was trying to raise the price, and gritted his teeth with a constipated grimace. "How about two thousand strings?"

"Vulgar. Too vulgar... unbearably vulgar." Was Zhen Qian a man who loved money? At least he would never admit it. Two thousand strings and they thought they could buy the fertilizer method, as if it were cabbages sold all over the street!

"It is not a matter of how much money. If either of you insults the Zhen ancestors again with filthy wealth, do not blame me for turning my face and refusing to recognize you!" Zhen Qian said with feigned anger.

The two men could not tell what Zhen Qian was really after. No matter how much they tried to circle around the matter, they could not make sense of it, and could only stare at him blankly.

That was precisely the effect Zhen Qian wanted. His dream of becoming a rich man in the Tang Dynasty had only just begun, and he had not earned nearly enough yet. How could he possibly sell the farming secret to them so easily? If he did not tear a piece of flesh from them first, then he might as well take their surname.

"I do have a method. I wonder if the two of you would be willing to hear it?"

"We would be glad to hear it in full!"

"There is no need for such politeness among neighbors and fellow villagers." Seeing that the hook had been set, it was time to draw in the net. "Though the farming secret cannot be made public for now, I can provide manure fertilizer to both of you. I will not charge you a single coin for it. But in return, how about selling me the surplus grain in your hands?"

After a round of verbal fencing, Zhao Wenshan and Han Guangyu realized they could not see through the young man before them at all. Though so young, his cunning eyebrows could have been used as whistles. The old fox had not outfoxed the young fox, and instead felt as though they themselves owed him something.

"Since Master Zhen is willing to provide manure at no charge, then we cannot be stingy either. Next year, we will sell you the grain in our hands at ninety percent of market price. As for this year's five thousand shi of surplus grain, I wonder whether Master Zhen wants it?"

They knew Zhen Qian was engaged in the brewing business, so his demand to buy grain seemed only natural to them.

Around the time of the Kaiyuan Prosperity, many great landowners had large surpluses of grain in their hands. When grain prices collapsed, they had no choice but to move into other trades, and brewing became one of the fastest ways to make money.

Both Zhao Wenshan and Han Guangyu had their own private breweries, but what they produced was mostly cloudy wine and sweet wine, which sold at a price ten times lower than Zhen Qian's homemade burning knife liquor. Liquor with an alcohol content of fifty or sixty degrees was not favored by scholars of the Tang Dynasty; one bowl could floor an ox. Zhen Qian had no intention of seizing the low-proof premium liquor market for now. He sold large quantities of his liquor to the Sogdian merchants who traveled from Jingxing to Youzhou to do business, and it was this that drew the Sogdians' covetous attention.

The Sogdians were an ancient people who originally lived in Central Asia along the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, speaking a Middle Eastern Iranian language. From the Han Dynasty all the way to the Song, they moved actively along the Silk Road for a thousand years, and were renowned across Eurasia for their skill in commerce.

Their commercial journeys did not end, as commonly believed, in Tang-era Chang'an, but in Youzhou far to the east of Asia. After reaching Chang'an, they would travel north into Taiyuan and split into two branches. One continued northward, passing through areas such as Dai and Yun prefectures, entering the vast northern grasslands and following the southern edge of the steppe eastward to the lands of the Khitans before finally reaching Youzhou. The other set out from Taiyuan, crossed the Jingxing Ancient Road through the Taihang Mountains to Luchuan County in Heng Prefecture, and then headed north to reach Youzhou.

The Sogdians were by no means innocents. The goods they traded included spices, silk, jewels, curios, livestock, slaves, and usurious loans, and in secret they often trafficked women from the Central Plains to Central Asia.

The secret of Sogdian commercial success lay not only in their mastery of the trade, their mathematical skill, their fearlessness in the face of hardship, and their command of many languages, but also in many other business practices.

They were adept at aligning themselves with political powers and securing a certain political standing, thereby facilitating their commercial activities. Sogdians were also involved in the An-Shi Rebellion, taking part of the money and grain they had earned and funneling it to An Lushan in exchange for commercial privileges within the prefectures under his control. Many Sogdians even held official honorary titles in the Tang, cloaking themselves in a legal garment of official and merchant alike.

It was said that An Lushan's biological father had the surname Kang, his adoptive father the surname An, and his mother was of the Turkic Ashide clan, itself an aristocratic and powerful foreign lineage. He thus had a murky and tangled connection with the Sogdians.

The liquor Zhen Qian was selling at present was all blended from the first pot and the final few draws, yet even this kind of spirit made the Sogdians' eyes glow green. Time and again they infiltrated the brewery to steal the secret of how the liquor was made.