Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

"Alas, these are all things of the future. However, after you raised your army, the Tang army sent 50,000 troops to besiege you. My uncle's 2,000 troops hidden in Bozhou would probably be like a mantis trying to stop a chariot in front of 50,000 Tang troops."

Li You's heart skipped a beat: "Two thousand soldiers? You've placed two thousand soldiers in Bozhou?"

"Have you forgotten about this?"

"Uh... Uncle, I've been too busy lately, and there are some things I really can't remember right now."

Some of the memories were still preserved by the original owner.

There are other memories that Li You truly cannot recall.

In his previous life, Li You, a history enthusiast, had carefully studied this period of history.

There is no description of this Bozhou army in any historical records.

Historical records only describe Yin Hongzhi's instigation of his nephew.

After the uprising, Yin Hongzhi mysteriously disappeared, never appearing during the rebellion, and subsequent historical records did not mention him again.

It was probably thanks to these two thousand private soldiers that the Yin family was able to survive, eventually living in anonymity.

The Tang army ultimately failed to capture Yin Hongzhi, so it is not recorded in historical records.

"Uncle, does this team from Bozhou still obey your orders?"

"Among these people, some are your grandfather's former subordinates, and some are the loyal and steadfast warriors I have trained over the years. They are all loyal and resolute men who obey my orders completely and can be used with confidence."

Li You was overjoyed upon hearing this: "That means Huang Chao's army has gained another two thousand loyal soldiers!"

Yin Hongzhi laughed and said, "You'er, it's best not to use these people as suicide soldiers."

"What does Uncle mean?"

"Now that you are becoming more and more powerful, you will inevitably have to fight in battles in the future. At that time, what you will need most is an elite army to help you command the whole army."

Li You nodded: "Then let them stay in Bozhou for now. Hopefully, these two thousand soldiers won't be discovered by the local officials."

"Of course not. I instructed them long ago to lie in wait in the mountains and marshes, disguised as hunters and woodcutters, to avoid being seen."

What do they eat on a daily basis? How do they make a living?

"I will send them money and food regularly."

"Uncle, if you don't have enough money, just take it from Huang Chao's army."

After establishing a foothold in Xiangzhou, Li You had a large sum of cash at his disposal, enough to emulate the story of Song Jiang, the timely rain.

"It's alright, Uncle can still manage to feed, clothe, and provide for two thousand people."

In order to rebel, Yin Hongzhi has spent a lot of time and effort on money over the years, and he has many profitable businesses in Luoyang.

When it comes to making money, the uncle and nephew are on the same page.

"Very well. Uncle, among these people, are there any veterans skilled in training troops? We can invite a few to join Huang Chao's army to help train soldiers and teach them battle formations."

A battle-hardened army is what Li You desires most, but is extremely difficult to obtain.

"Let me think... I'll have Gao Shen and Zhang Lan come and help you. They were both elite soldiers in Liu Heita's army."

"Liu Heita...is from Hebei?"

"Yes, they are all heroes from Hebei."

In the Tang Dynasty, Hebei was not just a place name, but also a well-known trademark, representing that the person was very skilled in combat.

This point was almost universally acknowledged at the time.

Li You then thought of something else.

"Uncle, how many assassins do you have at your disposal right now?"

"I have hidden 200 assassins in Luoyang to help guard the properties there. This time, I have 300 assassins with me."

These five hundred elite warriors are all at your command.

At this moment, Yin Hongzhi was like a good uncle who had returned home for the Chinese New Year and hadn't seen his nephew for a long time.

He had bought all sorts of great toys and couldn't wait to take them all out and give them to his nephew.

"Very good. These 300 assassins can be dispatched now to the prefectures and counties of Shandong, Hebei, and Guanzhong to investigate the local governments, powerful families, taxes, and mines. I have already sent out more than a dozen assassins to scout, and three have already returned."

"Yu'er, what's the point of you investigating all this?"

"Of course it's useful. Take mines and minerals, for example. The Tang government strictly controlled the casting of copperware by private individuals. The purpose was to prevent people from melting down their copper coins to cast exquisite copperware for profit. This would lead to a loss of Zhenguan Tongbao coins, which would be detrimental to the country."

"But strangely, the government turns a blind eye to the private mining of copper. If we knew where there were copper mines, we could send people to mine them, bring back the copper ingots, and directly cast them into Zhenguan Tongbao coins. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

Yin Hongzhi was stunned when he heard this.

"Smelting copper to cast artifacts... copper ore... minting coins... how come I never thought of this..."

"Uncle, are you alright?"

"You'er, who taught you the mining and minting methods you just mentioned? It wasn't that golden-armored deity again, was it?"

"Uncle, what's so difficult about this? As long as the imperial court doesn't regulate illegal copper mining, someone will soon come up with a solution. The problem now is that I don't know where the mines in the Tang Dynasty are. Once we find the mines, we can mint coins like crazy!"

Counterfeiting copper coins has always been a standard practice for rebels.

However, according to Li You's investigation in several surrounding states, it seems that no one is doing this right now.

In fact, the Tang Dynasty was an era in which the counterfeiting of copper coins was rampant.

The main reason for this was that the imperial court's control over copper mines was not very strict, which allowed many people to take advantage of the loopholes.

During the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, the counterfeiting of copper coins remained rampant, but the government cracked down hard, often resulting in heavy casualties.

However, in the actual history of the Tang Dynasty, the practice of counterfeiting copper coins began during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi.

During the Wu Zhou period, the upper echelons of the Tang Dynasty were preoccupied with killing each other and continued to turn a blind eye to the counterfeiting activities.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the practice of counterfeiting reached its peak.

Yin Hongzhi smiled wryly and said, "You'er, you think too highly of the people in this world. To tell you the truth, there are more than thirty wealthy families in Luoyang who have copper smelting and casting. Among them, I have business dealings with no fewer than five. But these wealthy families all secretly mint copper coins into copperware. Even if they buy copper ingots, they make them into copperware and sell them secretly. Not one of them has thought of a way to directly mint copper ingots into coins."

"Is it because the government would find out if they were to mint coins?"

Yin Hongzhi shook his head: "No, it's just because no one has ever thought of doing it this way. If they had, they wouldn't care about a mere government ban."

At this point, Yin Hongzhi began to do a rough calculation in his mind.

"Five times, at least five times the profit! You'er, if we can really mine copper directly and use the copper ingots to mint coins, we can definitely make five times the profit. If we're a little ruthless and manipulate the copper-lead ratio, making ten times the profit wouldn't be difficult at all."

Li You waved his hand and said, "Uncle, we'd better not do that. We should make sure the coins are exactly the same as the Zhenguan Tongbao coins. If inferior coins flow into the market, we can certainly make huge profits in the early stages, but they will easily be discovered by the government. This would be detrimental to Huang Chao's army in every way."