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

"My lord, it's too crowded here. Shall we find another place?"

"Alright."

After settling the soldiers he had brought with him, Qi Bin took Li You, Yan Hongxin, and Wu Hong back to Xuanzhou city, found a quiet restaurant, and went into a private room to talk.

"My lord, we have already loaded some of the mined copper ingots onto ships and transported them back. I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly."

"I happened to be nearby, so I came to check on you. How's the production from the two mines you've contracted?"

"Including the hired villagers, there are a total of 300 people working in the mine, earning 50 to 60 catties of copper ingots every day. We will sell 20 catties of copper to local merchants and keep 40 catties for storage, preparing to transport them to the mountain stronghold."

As he spoke, Qi Bin took out a copper ingot from his pocket and handed it to Li You for inspection.

The quality of this copper ingot is significantly higher than that of the crude copper from Raozhou.

The reason for selling off a portion of the production capacity was primarily to conceal the true purpose of the copper mine and avoid arousing suspicion.

"Very good, you've done a good job. What is the price of these Xuanzhou copper ingots?"

"If the government were to collect copper, they would give one bolt of hemp cloth for every five catties of copper. But when we trade with those merchants, it's four catties of copper for one bolt of hemp cloth."

Upon hearing the price, Li You's mood improved considerably.

According to the price given by the government, one bolt of linen cloth is worth five catties of copper, which is 2500g.

A bolt of linen was worth 200 Kaiyuan Tongbao coins.

One Kaiyuan Tongbao coin requires 3.2g of copper. So, 2500g of copper material can be used to cast 780 coins.

Nearly four times the interest.

"Qi Bin, if we buy up copper ingots on a large scale in Xuanzhou, will the government investigate?"

"As long as you don't buy from state-run mines, the government won't interfere. But the output of private mines basically has its own customers, and if you want to buy in bulk, you have to pay a higher price."

"If you're going to raise the price, how much is the usual increase?"

"About 50%, but in the short term, I estimate we won't be able to buy too much."

"It's alright, buy what you can, and if you can't, that's fine too. Just keep an eye out for them. Could we take over a few more mines around here?"

"I've already talked to three or five companies, but these unscrupulous businessmen seem to have conspired together and are offering too high prices. It wouldn't be worthwhile to take over all of them."

"Just go with the price they offer. If you don't have enough money, you can have all the wealth I brought with me. Remember, whatever mine you can buy, whatever can produce copper ingots, no matter how expensive, you must buy it."

"Understood, I will go to them tomorrow to finalize this matter."

Li You nodded and then asked, "Have you found any silver mines?"

"We found it. It's located on Lion Mountain, about a hundred miles southeast of Xuanzhou. But very few people go there to mine silver. Only a few silver jewelry shops go there every now and then."

"Hire more people to mine silver. Silver is useless to others, but it is a treasure to my Huang Chao army."

"promise!"

Li You and Yin Hongzhi had already figured out where the silver would go, making it another excellent business deal.

"My lord, there is one more thing I need to tell you. The charcoal we produce is in high demand in Xuanzhou, and even the government often buys it. My brothers and I have discussed it and we think that this business can also make money."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"My lord, you may not know this, but the smelting furnaces used in Xuanzhou require a four-layer process: first, a layer of charcoal at the bottom, then a layer of mineral powder, then another layer of charcoal, and finally another layer of mineral powder on top. The charcoal they used before was clearly inadequate. When we started smelting our own, we used newly smelted charcoal, and the quality of the copper ingots we produced was even higher than that of the government."

"Later, when the government heard about this, they sent people to buy our charcoal. We had no choice but to sell it to them. Other charcoal makers also started buying it. So the brothers hired people in the surrounding mountains to burn charcoal, and they could earn seven or eight hundred strings of cash a month."

Qi Bin spoke of this with great enthusiasm and excitement.

Li You couldn't help but think that even a simple business like charcoal, if done well, could benefit Huang Chao's army and also benefit various other places.

"You've done a very good job. I'll add a few hundred more men for you later. As for the silver mine on Lion Mountain that you mentioned, make sure to investigate it thoroughly and seize it first."

"promise!"

"Be careful when dealing with the government, and don't give them any leverage against you."

"Yes, my lord."

……

With the financial support from Li You, Qi Bin quickly acquired three new mines at a high price and started hiring workers to begin operations.

Afterwards, Qi Bin sent people to visit the owners of other mines, expressing his intention to purchase copper ingots, and that it was a long-term purchase.

Because Qi Bin offered very generous prices, some shop owners got tempted and kicked out their original customers or reduced their share, then sold the copper ingots they kept to Qi Bin.

After accomplishing all these tasks, Li You had used up all the money he had brought with him, but the results were remarkable. In Xuanzhou City, he purchased a total of 18,500 catties of copper ingots. Including Qi Bin's stock of goods from the past few days, the total amount reached 19,000 catties.

It would take time to accomplish the above tasks, so Li You stayed in Xuanzhou City for a period of time.

The city of Xuanzhou has a circumference of about ten li, and there are quite a few people coming and going every day.

Because it's close to the end of the year, it's even more lively than usual.

The people in this city seem to prefer pork; Li You sees people herding pigs through the streets every day.

It turns out that people were already raising pigs during the Tang Dynasty.

Li You had only ever eaten wild boar he had hunted before; he had never tasted the flavor of domestic pigs from the Tang Dynasty.

Recalling the life he had lived after transmigrating, Li You couldn't help but sigh at the awful life he had been living.

Now that I'm back in the village, I need to get everyone started raising pigs, and I also need to resolve the issue of salt.

Due to the strong demand for manpower in various places, it has become a common practice for Huang Chao's army to purchase slaves. In addition, Li You issued a strict order to prohibit the mistreatment of newly joined slaves and to give them the status of official members of Huang Chao's army. This move was very effective in winning people's hearts, so the enthusiasm for labor in the stronghold was quite high.

When Qi Bin was not busy with his work, he would also take Li You, Yan Hongxin, and Wu Hong to eat something nice in Xuanzhou City.

As Li You had expected, the people of Xuanzhou did indeed like to eat pork, and they even came up with new ways to prepare it.

That day, Qi Bin took Li You and the others to a tavern and ordered a dish called "fragrant belly".

Li You looked closely and realized that it was a sausage!

I picked up a few slices with my chopsticks, chewed them, and found the taste to be quite good, much better than the wild boar meat I cooked myself.

"My lord, how is the food?"

"Yes, that's really good, and worth learning from."

There's a story behind Xuanzhou's fragrant sausage.

"Yeah?"

"It is said that during the Sui Dynasty, there was a monk named Huibao in Miaoshan Temple north of Xuanzhou City. He was not good at chanting scriptures, but he was exceptionally devoted to eating meat and drinking alcohol, especially pork. However, the temple did not allow him to eat meat, so he could only eat it secretly."

"Once, the monk Huibao had a sudden inspiration. He cleaned the pig's small intestine, stuffed it with pickled pork and mung beans, and then dried it to make fragrant sausage."

"When the other monks in the temple heard about this, they all tried it and said it was delicious. Later, the abbot discovered this and severely beat the group of monks, led by Huibao, and expelled them all from the temple, forbidding them from becoming monks."

"In order to make a living, Huibao led his fellow disciples who had been expelled to open a stall in the city and sell fragrant sausages. As a result, the business was surprisingly good, and the food of fragrant sausages spread throughout Xuanzhou City and continues to this day."

Upon hearing this, Li You couldn't help but smile.

The monks of the Sui and Tang dynasties certainly had a variety of interests and activities.

The precepts that Monk Huibao broke were considered minor.

The monks coming and going in the Tang Dynasty palace were truly an eye-opener.