Great Tang: From Chang'an to the Western Sea

The seventh year of Daye, on a snowy night. A government runner kicked open the door of the Su family inn. “For military supplies, provide one cart within five days. Miss the deadline, and you’ll be fined three bolts of silk.” Seventeen-year-old Su Xingyan held the notice up to the lamplight and read it twice. Then he said two things: “The payment column is blank.” “Our household has fulfilled its labor service quota.” The cart was safe. The trouble remained. Su Xingyan was not from this era. In his previous life, he made a living auditing accounts, drawing up contracts, and assessing risks. Other people transmigrated hoping to become nobles or ministers. The first thing he did after transmigrating was check his family’s accounts. To him, a troubled age was a sheet of paper covered in clauses: where the clauses were, there were loopholes; where the loopholes were, there was money to be made. He couldn’t save the world. He only wanted to protect his family. So he brought his whole family to Chang’an’s Western Market: they opened a shop, organized trading caravans, kept accounts, and sold on credit. Some people cheated him, some robbed him, and some made fortunes thousands of miles away by trading under his family’s name. He never panicked. “You can steal the name, but you can’t dodge the bill.” From a snowy day at the end of the Sui dynasty, through the warfare of the Zhenguan, Kaiyuan, and Tianbao eras; from Chang’an to Liangzhou, and from Liangzhou to the Western Sea. Emperor after emperor came and went. The Su family did only one thing: travel, keep accounts, and light lamps. This book’s protagonist is not one person, but a family. Each generation walks only one stretch of the road; wherever the previous generation stops, the next picks up and continues. Those who walk the road need someone to bury them. Nearly three hundred years. The road outlasts the dynasty.