Moreover, the Tang Dynasty's golden age had already begun during the Kaiyuan era. Having transmigrated to the Tang Dynasty, yet unable to witness the true Tang era, Lu Xuan was even more unwilling to accept it.
The surrounding pressures and his own inner yearning—everything was forcing him to leave this place. Lu Xuan made extensive preparations for this, but the right opportunity never arose. In this era, returning from the war-torn western frontier to the Tang Dynasty, or even Chang'an, was no easy feat.
"While parents are alive, one should not travel far" is one of the ancient rules of filial piety. The fundamental reason for this is that in ancient times, traveling far from home was an extremely dangerous undertaking. Long journeys, sparse populations, bandits, natural disasters, and diseases—any one of these could easily kill a person. And once a person dies, there is no one left to serve their parents and fulfill their filial duties; hence the saying, "While parents are alive, one should not travel far."
Lu Xuan had previously struggled to grasp the true meaning of this statement. After all, in his previous life, during the high-speed era, the Earth had become a global village. But now, in this so-called Tang Dynasty, he finally understood the source of the ancients' fear of long journeys.
Moreover, the journey back to Chang'an from the Western Regions was not only long, but also involved crossing vast deserts, which multiplied the danger.
Just like the sandstorm before, if you encounter it on your journey, you can only leave it to fate. Lu Xuan never leaves his fate to heaven; he would rather face real danger, face bandits, face Turks, so that at least he can use the knife in his hand to fight for his own survival.
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Chapter Five: Opening for Business
Lu Xuan had considered going back with a merchant caravan, since he was skilled and physically stronger, and theoretically more likely to make it to Chang'an alive. However, this idea was extinguished by the old man's scolding.
"Go to Chang'an? You've been following me for so long, what have you learned? If you want to die, just cut your own throat and save me the trouble."
Lu Xuan was immediately indignant.
"What do you mean? There's something wrong with these caravans? I checked their goods; they're Tang Dynasty porcelain and tea. I can be a knife-wielder and go back with them." At the time, Lu Xuan was so caught up in the joy of leaving that he didn't even realize how absurd his idea was.
"Hehe, the caravan is fine. They're probably heading to Chang'an. The problem is with you, you brat."
"Me? What's wrong with me?" Lu Xuan still didn't understand.
"What's wrong with you? You've got a huge problem. I'm asking you, who are you?"
"Lu Xuan?"
"Lu Xuan? In which region of the Tang Dynasty is your name listed in the household register?"
"Um... I guess not." Lu Xuan had already realized how naive he had been.
"Of course not. People who come here won't appear on the Tang Dynasty's household register. We are all rootless and adrift. Once we join a merchant caravan, we can only work as swordsmen. All the swordsmen who go to Chang'an from here have the same dream as you. They dream of going to Chang'an to work hard, buy a house, get a wife, and have children."
Bah! In your words, "Anything can happen in a dream," go to sleep. You, a swordsman from the Western Regions, think you can make a living in Chang'an? What makes you think you can? All the government offices will be watching you. No matter what happens, they'll investigate you immediately. And that's nothing compared to what you'll face. You'll only encounter these problems if you manage to settle down in Chang'an.
Following the caravans from here to Chang'an, bandits and disease along the way would kill more than half of the swordsmen. Even if you were lucky and strong enough to reach Chang'an alive, these caravans wouldn't give you the other half of your payment peacefully. They'd be lucky if they abandoned you and went their own way. The more ruthless ones would just bury you on the spot, saving themselves the other half of their commission.
And then there are those with shady connections. They'll sell you off like merchandise. There are people in Chang'an who specialize in buying us rootless, homeless people. They buy us to be slaves, scapegoats, and we won't live long. So, if you're confident you can resolve everything up there, come to Chang'an, I'll go with you…”
Lu Xuan hadn't expected that even after transmigrating, he still couldn't escape these social issues. However, the old man's scolding calmed him down. Afterwards, those secret and meticulous plans began.
Actually, when Mr. An appeared, Lu Xuan remembered something. That character was probably a villain from a movie from a long time ago. When he first noticed this, Lu Xuan considered participating in the plot and returning to Chang'an with those characters. But embarrassingly, he waited for a year and still didn't see any other characters appear.
His timeline didn't seem to overlap with that storyline. Left with no other option, Lu Xuan made some other preparations.
He secretly tried to befriend some Turkic tribes, preparing to acquire some warhorses for himself. If things didn't go well, he would take the warhorses and defect to the Tang army. In wartime, warhorses were a scarce resource, so he thought he could get some benefits from them.
But more likely, his warhorse would be forcibly conscripted by the local Tang army. Lu Xuan held these border Tang soldiers in high esteem. However, the army of this era, coupled with his own unofficial background, made such a deal virtually impossible.
Another method was salt production. The technology for refining crude salt emerged in the late Tang Dynasty. This would be during the prosperous Tang Dynasty. There was still some time before the emergence of the refining technology.
The technology for refining crude salt is a powerful tool for improving people's lives. However, precisely because it's so crucial, this salt-making technology should absolutely not be in the hands of a swordsman in a small border town. Therefore, the moment he dares to hand it over, there's a 90% chance it will be his death.
Both of these methods are used when the situation changes drastically and lives are at stake. What Lu Xuan actually devoted the most energy to was building his own caravan.
Find a group of relatively trustworthy people and form a caravan entirely under your control. Xiao Si took them in for this very purpose. Once the situation is favorable, avoid everything and return to Chang'an.
This is actually the safest approach. However, it requires a significant amount of time and resources, which Lu Xuan has accumulated far from sufficient. Left with no other option, he resorted to searching for trustworthy individuals in a lawless region, according to later standards. To put it bluntly, it's a bit far-fetched. So, in just over half a year, he recruited only Xiao Si. This path is truly arduous and long-term.
Lost in thought, Lu Xuan fell into a deep sleep.
...............
As dawn broke, Lu Xuan got up and went to the kitchen in the backyard. The boy named Xiao Si had been keeping watch there all night. He sat on a wooden post, leaning on a fire poker, yawning intermittently. Although somewhat drowsy, he forced himself to stay awake and tended the fire, keeping it burning but not too bright. The air was filled with the aroma of stewed meat.
Lu Xuan's entrance startled Xiao Si. He stood up somewhat flustered.
"Master, the fire hasn't gone out. I've been watching it the whole time. It's been simmering on a low flame all night."
"I understand, go to sleep. Wake the old man up."
"Okay." Xiao Si responded quickly and ran over to call the old man.
Lu Xuan lifted the lid of the pot and looked inside at the meat. There were two large iron pots, each over a meter in diameter. These were the most valuable items in the entire mutton soup restaurant. In a Turkic tribe outside, these two iron pots could bring a small tribe to the brink of annihilation. In this era, in this place, ironware was more valuable than the currency of the Tang Dynasty.
At this moment, one of the iron pots was piled high with large chunks of mutton and large, deboned bones. Lu Xuan took out a small knife, cut off a small piece of mutton, and tasted it. It was already very tender. He nodded in satisfaction. Then he took out the larger chunks of meat and began to cut it on the cutting board next to him.
At this moment, the old man also came in. He didn't help Lu Xuan cut the meat. Instead, he took out a large piece of fermented dough, quickly rolled it into a flatbread shape, and started baking it on another stove.
His skill... could hardly be called skill. It was just random kneading. In the end, he barely managed to shape it into an uneven pancake. Then he put it on a grill to bake. Because of the uneven thickness and poor heat control, the outside was often burnt while the inside was still raw.
But he didn't care about such a 'trivial matter' at all. He took out a small knife, casually scraped the burnt areas a couple of times, and then tossed it aside. Before long, he had baked a large pile of flatbreads.
Lu Xuan cut the large chunks of mutton into smaller pieces and set them aside. Then he opened another iron pot. Inside, two horse legs were stewing. Horse meat was a common cut in this area, but it was notoriously coarse and unpalatable. Without the aid of various spices from later generations, it was difficult to make it palatable. Of course, this was from Lu Xuan's perspective. The people here, well…
He casually cut the horse leg meat into large chunks and put it together with the old man's flatbread. Then he poured out the mutton broth and horse meat broth and combined them. He threw in the mutton bones and horse bones, which had been stripped of their meat, and then lit a fire to cook it again. It was almost noon, and Lu Xuan felt it was about time.
Yes, the mutton soup restaurants don't open in the morning. People here don't have the habit of eating breakfast. In fact, even among the nobles of Chang'an in this era, very few ate breakfast.
The old man carried the bamboo basket filled with flatbread and horse meat into the hall. As for the mutton... that was for his own consumption. The main problem was that only one of the two sheep they had planned to get had been brought back, so Lu Xuan had no choice but to use horse meat as a substitute.
The mutton soup was ready. Lu Xuan scooped up a spoonful and took a sip himself.
"Pfft..." The strong smell of mutton made him spit it out.