In the beginning, he was ranked alongside An Shigeng as a spoiled brat.

Zhang Xiaoshan didn't think much of it, after all, the Purple-Robed Dragon King, who had transformed into Granny Golden Flower, was also a ruthless person.

Chapter Seventy-One Untitled

"Ling She Island in the East China Sea?"

The Twelve Treasure Tree King never expected that Zhang Xiaoshan actually knew the whereabouts of the Purple-Robed Dragon King.

At the same time, they also valued Zhang Xiaoshan even more. After all, the Central Plains is vast, and such a huge information channel shows that the Zhang family is not simple.

At least the Zhang family is definitely more than just businessmen!

Moreover, the items Zhang Xiaoshan requested also demonstrate the Zhang family's extensive knowledge of Persia; they were all high-quality goods.

Persian carpets, like silk from the Central Plains, were considered luxury goods; cobalt blue was now directly supplied to the imperial court for firing celadon; Damascus steel was prohibited from export...

"Furthermore, if you would like any local specialties to take back with you, the Zhang family can prepare them in advance and place them at the dock for you to pick up upon your return!"

"Really?"

"Of course, and we can also trade through barter, exchanging Central Plains porcelain, silk, tea... for Persian cobalt blue, carpets, saffron..."

The Zhang family can first send the goods to Persia, and then you can load the Zhang family's required items onto the ship and return.

"Thank you for your kindness, Young Master Zhang."

Another deal was struck. The Twelve Treasure Tree Kings naturally knew that the deal proposed by Zhang Xiaoshan was a win-win cooperation.

It is worth noting that luxury goods from the Central Plains were highly sought after in Persia.

They came to investigate the Purple-Robed Dragon King and did not bring much gold or silver.

It's impossible for them to be as honest as the Zhang family, a big business family.

Moreover, with fine wine already in front of him, and Zhang Xiaoshan promising one hundred jars of 50-jin bottles of the same wine, Twelve Treasure Tree King almost dragged Zhang Xiaoshan to worship him.

As the wine continued to flow, Zhang Xiaoshan, seeing the drunken state of Twelve Treasure Tree King, directly arranged two private rooms on the second floor for him to stay in.

"Young master!"

As Manager Feng watched Zhang Xiaoshan escort the Twelve Treasure Tree Kings into the private room, her charming face couldn't help but chide him:

"Isn't the young master afraid these old guys will die in bed?"

The Red Mansion operates the Golden Hairpin Red Pavilion, which, although not a place of prostitution, is divided into upper, middle, and lower classes.

At the top are the Twelve Beauties, seated in the twelve private rooms of the highest rank. They are known for their refined tastes and rarely perform music and dance. Their status is comparable to that of the Ten Beauties of Jiangnan. In the middle are the Twelve Secondary Beauties, who are skilled in music and dance and are also rare and beautiful dancers. At the bottom are the Secondary Beauties who accompany the guests, who are also skilled in singing, dancing, playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

But every place has its exceptions, and to deal with these, Zhang Xiaoshan also arranged for several alluring courtesans to handle any possible situations.

The two private rooms that Zhang Xiaoshan just brought in were deliberately arranged to be the "cougar's rooms".

"They won't die. Although the Twelve Treasure Tree Kings are just Persian scribes, they all have some martial arts skills."

Zhang Xiaoshan's arrangement was certainly not without purpose.

Instead, he could tell along the way that these two old guys were lecherous scoundrels, and that catering to their tastes was a businessman's tactic.

Only in this way can we obtain more benefits.

After all, Zhang Xiaoshan had a great longing for Damascus steel.

The Damascus steel that became so prevalent in later generations is completely different from the Damascus steel of ancient India and Persia, which is why Zhang Xiaoshan invested so heavily.

Zhang Xiaoshan will give the two courtesans some compensation tomorrow.

No one is born a degenerate, and Zhang Xiaoshan would certainly not embezzle this hard-earned money.

"Sister Feng, arrange a private room for me!"

Zhang Xiaoshan drank quite a bit of alcohol, especially with An Shigeng accompanying him; Zhang Xiaoshan was the one who was forced to drink by the three of them.

If his qi and blood were strong, Zhang Xiaoshan would have collapsed on the table long ago.

Besides, with only Liu Sheng Piaoxu by his side, Zhang Xiaoshan was genuinely worried about his safety on the road. He figured it would be better to rest here for the night.

Better safe than sorry!

"Young master, come with me."

Manager Feng also smelled the strong, pungent smell of alcohol on Zhang Xiaoshan, and then led him to her private room.

The twelve private rooms, numbered Twelve, are all completely secluded villas!

The entrance features not only a uniquely designed courtyard with artificial hills and pavilions, but also an elegant and magnificent hall, with a bathtub, study, and embroidery room on one side...

Therefore, any courtesan or courtesan who stays here never leaves.

After all, the Dream of the Red Chamber offers the ultimate in enjoyment in terms of food, clothing, and accommodation.

After a hot bath, Zhang Xiaoshan felt much more awake and thought he was ready to leave the Hong residence on his own and go home to rest.

However, just as Zhang Xiaoshan was about to leave, a graceful and delicate figure appeared in the mist.

···

After their one-night stand, Zhang Xiaoshan went straight home to the Zhang family the next morning.

As for Manager Feng? Although Zhang Xiaoshan had intended to make arrangements, he ultimately did not bring her back to the Zhang family.

This is a formidable woman, and Zhang Xiaoshan knows her methods well. Neither Hongxiao nor Jiangxue are her match. Huang Rong may be clever, but her methods are not ruthless enough.

Bringing the other party into his inner courtyard could turn her into a powerful figure, which would be extremely disadvantageous for him.

The Twelve Treasure Tree Kings were all smiles, extremely satisfied with Zhang Xiaoshan's arrangements.

The number of Damascus steel ingots has also increased from one hundred to one hundred and fifty!

Zhang Xiaoshan was not stingy in this regard, and gave each of the two courtesans a thousand gold coins as a reward.

After all, weapons made of Damascus steel represent the pinnacle of the era of cold weapons, and are extremely rare and valuable.

"The copper coin case is still unsolved?"

"It is said that the fake copper coins were found by the Six Doors, but the number of fake copper coins on the market has not decreased during this period."

"That means it's not broken!"

Zhang Xiaoshan lured An Shigeng away from the mountain, but to his surprise, the Six Doors still came up empty-handed. He couldn't help but sigh at the benefits of surveillance cameras everywhere in the streets and alleys of later generations, which made it impossible for any criminal to hide.

At this moment, Uncle Yang also looked somber. After all, as long as the copper coin case remained unsolved, the Zhang family's losses would only increase.

Even with the constraints of the imperial court, those merchants weren't fools. They broke down their large sums into smaller amounts and exchanged them with the Zhang family through ordinary people.

The 100,000 taels of gold that could have sustained the economy for half a month has now run out.

"Young Master..."

"Uncle Yang, let's stop the exchange. We've already exchanged what we were supposed to. What's left? The Zhang family isn't going to be fooled."

Another rumor spread that the Zhang family's first batch of 100,000 taels of gold for market intervention had been redeemed, and that funds would be mobilized for a second batch redemption in five days!

Five days should be enough time to solve the case.

Even if the Zhang family prepares a second batch of funds, they will only need to exchange them for a day or two at most, so the loss will not be significant.

The remaining counterfeit copper coins will just fall into the hands of those people.

The Zhang family isn't someone you can easily fool!

"Yes, Master!"

Uncle Yang also understood Zhang Xiaoshan's intentions and was absolutely supportive.

After all, their market intervention was a benevolent and righteous act, not the work of idiots who were tricked by certain people. Anyone would be angry.

Chapter Seventy-Two: Divine Weapon? Ghost Corpse?

"Uncle, the investigation is complete."

Those Hu people were the two great treasure tree kings and the three messengers of wind, cloud and moon of the Persian Zoroastrianism. They came to the Central Plains to find the Holy Virgin and succeed her as the leader of the Persian religion.

but···"

"It's just a coincidence, isn't it?"

Zhuge Zhengwo looked at Wuqing, his expression not changing much.

He never doubted the Zhang family from the beginning, especially since the Zhang family's efforts to save the market had caught the emperor's attention.

"It was a coincidence, but this young master Zhang revealed the whereabouts of the holy maiden to the Zoroastrian Church in Persia, and in return, he gained a lot of benefits."

According to the Persian warriors, this holy woman was to be subjected to the cruel torture of being burned alive after being captured and taken back to Persia!

To profit by betraying a woman?

In Wuqing's eyes, her initial goodwill towards Zhang Xiaoshan instantly plummeted to freezing point.

Even when Zhuge Zhengwo and the others heard this, Zhang Xiaoshan's image as a great philanthropist instantly transformed into that of a hypocritical, despicable, and shameless villain.

"We cannot arbitrarily interfere in Persian internal affairs."

The next key case is the fake copper plaque case. All signs point to a connection between the An family and the Ghost Street organization, with some even implicating them.

Even though Zhuge Zhengwo looked down on Zhang Xiaoshan, he could still distinguish between what was important and what was urgent.

Moreover, Zhang Xiaoshan's problem was merely a moral one, not a violation of the imperial laws, so they didn't even have the right to question him.

Even if he reported it to the emperor, the emperor would just laugh it off.

"Let's go and meet the Demon King Yama tonight!"

Of the nine gates and three households, Ghost Yama is the sole administrator and should be aware of the counterfeit money matter.

As for the other two?

Zhuge Zhengwo vaguely guessed the identity of the God of Wealth, but he had no clue about the most mysterious Golden-Faced Buddha who controlled the whole situation behind the scenes.

Apart from appearing once a year, the Golden-Faced Buddha has basically vanished from the face of the earth, with no other news about him.

···

With the Zhang family ceasing the exchange of counterfeit currency, the market once again descended into tension.

The 100,000 taels of gold were all spent in a short period of time, which was absolutely terrible news for most people.

Although the Zhang family announced that they would exchange the currency again in five days, how long can the second exchange last?

Three days? Five days?

For ordinary people, they are the ones who suffer the most from the circulation of counterfeit money.

Families like the Zhang family, the An family, or money shops all circulate large denomination banknotes, so those copper coins have no effect on them.

Even if the shop received counterfeit copper coins, it could be treated as a normal loss and calculated accordingly.

Furthermore, to prevent others from taking advantage of the situation, Zhang Xiaoshan instructed his steward, Uncle Yang, to bribe most of the storytellers and spread the story of the Zhang family's 100,000 taels of gold used to save the market in the entertainment districts.

One hundred thousand gold?

The Zhang family didn't just come up with so much money for show.

One hundred thousand gold coins can be converted into at least one million five hundred thousand taels of silver, or fifteen million coins of silver. This is an enormous sum.

Therefore, after the initial dejection and complaints, the people in the city felt even more grateful to the Zhang family.

After all, even the imperial court would not easily come up with 100,000 taels of gold.

"Inoue, Tokugawa, disguise yourselves as retainers of the Yasuie family, take a thousand gold coins, find the nearby Japanese ronin, and attack the Persian envoy's ship."

Remember, this matter must be handled in the name of Anjia!

Inside the study, Zhang Xiaoshan summoned two Jonin.

Inoue is proficient in spiritual disguise and the art of loyalty, while Tokugawa has been secretly cultivating invisibility and the Five Elements Escape Technique. The resources the Zhang family has provided them in the past two years are by no means empty words.

With the encouragement of Yagyu Hyouse, the four Jonin all improved to some extent.

Zhang Xiaoshan's purpose was to frame An Jia and then offer her help in her time of need.

Zhang Xiaoshan didn't have much trust in the Persian envoy.

These Westerners are all like robbers; unless there's an absolute favor or some tricks involved, they might just double-cross each other.

Therefore, what Zhang Xiaoshan needs to do is to provide timely assistance.