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

"Of course, money is worthless. We can earn more after we spend it. It's a waste if we can't convert it into soldiers. Hongxin, Junmo, you two also have important things to do. Let me see... The initial work at Dahong Mountain is almost done. Next, let Qin Yun lead the team to rescue the slaves in the monastery."

After making the arrangements, Gao Shen and Zhang Lan rested for a few days before setting off for Bozhou.

The money needed to expand the army was obtained from the Qizhou branch of Huinong Bank.

As for the more than 3000 newly arrived monks and slaves, Li You will provide them with initial training.

The main body of the training course, besides simplified Chinese characters, also includes the three courses we had taken before.

The content of these three lessons has already spread widely throughout Huang Chao's army.

In other words, Li You no longer needed to personally train these 3000-plus monk slaves; all the officers and soldiers under his command were their teachers.

After more than two years of training and fighting, Huang Chao's army has a very positive atmosphere, and everyone is eager to learn, full of vigor and vitality, and confident about the future.

Gao Shen and Zhang Lan were both very envious of this, because although the Bozhou army under their command was also loyal to the Qi King's rebellion, their loyalty was very rigid. They were willing to send them to their deaths, but to ask them to learn something new was as difficult as climbing to heaven, and would kill them.

Upon returning to Bozhou, Gao and Zhang brought along a "world map" and a "caste pyramid," as well as two or three soldiers who were literate enough to give the local lads a crash course, telling them not to think about fighting all the time, but to at least learn some useful knowledge.

After training and observation, the strongest men were selected from these monks' slaves to form a new combat battalion. The others were assigned to various production tasks within the mountain stronghold. The exceptionally outstanding were promoted to leaders. In this way, the assimilation of this group of people was completed.

Yan Hongxin and Zan Junmo's new mission is related to Chao Yang.

However, Chao Cuo has recently been plagued by romantic entanglements, and he left the mountain stronghold to get married in Huangzhou.

Therefore, Li You told Yan Hongxin and Zan Junmo to rest first, and to make further arrangements after Chao Yang returned.

Now, Chao Yang's persistent spirit finally moved the young widow Liu. After comparing him with other suitors, she felt that Chao Yang was more outstanding than others, and he was also a cultured man with a collection of writings. After careful consideration, she decided to marry him.

From this perspective, the fortune teller who predicted Chao Yang's fate was indeed correct; this fellow's good marriage did indeed fall into the territory of Huangzhou.

The Liu family was quite wealthy, and the couple's wedding was to be held in Huangzhou.

Chao Yang went to the meeting alone, bringing almost nothing with him, giving the impression of someone who was marrying into the family.

However, on the eve of the wedding, Chao Yang still gave Liu a draft for three thousand strings of cash.

Liu was puzzled and asked, "How can this thin piece of paper be worth three thousand strings of cash?"

Chao Yang then explained the operating rules of Huimin Bank to his fiancée.

As a result, Liu was still skeptical.

"My lady, if you don't believe me, we can go to Gwangju another day. There's a new Huimin Bank there. As long as we issue a draft, we'll definitely be able to get the money."

"Great! If we have these three thousand strings of cash, we can use them to open a book printing shop in Huangzhou. That would be a good business."

"...My lady, to be honest, my book printing shop is already open in Suizhou."

"What? You scoundrel, how many other properties haven't you told me?"

"Uh... just this one printing shop. After we get the money from Guangzhou, we'll go to Suizhou to check it out, okay?"

"Fine, I'd like to see if you're hiding any other women in your shop!"

……

One day in September, Yan Jiu and Wang Sanwa prepared a meal and placed it on the table outside. They then invited Li You and Yin Shaojue to come out and eat.

Before Yan Jiu and Li You got married, Li You was the head chef and Wang Sanwa was the assistant.

After getting married, Wang Sanwa worked as the head chef for a while, while Yan Jiu became his assistant.

Now, Yan Jiu's skill level has surpassed Wang Sanwa's, so she is now the head chef, and Wang Sanwa continues to be her assistant.

Wang Sanwa had no complaints about being an assistant, because he felt that his cooking skills had reached their limit, while the King and Queen Qi always managed to come up with new dishes, which he considered a talent.

Yin Shaojue also ate with them. Yin Hongzhi sometimes came here to eat, sometimes with Yan Hongliang and the others, and sometimes with the coin-casting craftsmen. It's not very clear.

Besides his talent in cooking, Yan Jiu has also made great progress in calligraphy. He can now read and write more than 300 simplified Chinese characters and can recite the multiplication table backwards.

Li You assigned Yan Jiu and Wang Sanwa to do the simpler accounting calculations, while Yin Shaojue was responsible for organizing documents and materials. These three were now essentially Li You's three chief secretaries.

With the help of the three of them, Li You was able to save a lot of time.

As Huimin Bank and Huitong Currency Operations continued to develop, some more complex accounts and freight calculations began to emerge. Yin Shaokang first calculated these data to arrive at the totals before reporting them to Li You.

These figures contain a wealth of information about merchants, businesses, government, and geography.

Li You handled part of the information processing himself, while entrusting Dou Jun, a businessman, with the task of organizing it.

Numbers are the most tedious language in the world, yet they are also the most accurate and truthful. Dry mathematical calculations may be boring, but when they are combined with real-world phenomena, they become incredibly vivid.

For example, the number 600000 is a 6 followed by a bunch of zeros, representing 60.

When Yin Shaokang calculated that Huimin Bank's deposits had reached 60 guan, his heart began to race.

With an initial investment of 240,000 guan, the company attracted 360,000 guan in deposits in just four months. The net profit from handling fees alone was 20,000 guan, not even counting the interest generated from loans.

In other words, the transaction fees paid by merchants when depositing and withdrawing money were already equivalent to a month's worth of coin production from Tongbai Mountain Village.

Huitong Freight, which developed at the same time as Huimin Bank, not only handled the transfer of copper coins, but also took on many orders for the transfer of goods. After deducting operating costs and unexpected situations, the net profit of the past few months was 16,000 guan.

An unexpected situation refers to the loss of goods due to theft by bandits.

In ancient times, traveling was quite different from today. Whether it was an individual or a caravan, people had to carry knives on the road. Those who were well-off would even pay to hire a few guards to accompany them, all in order to guard against bandits.

The bandits who dared to rob Huitong Freight were all powerful figures in the underworld.

Huang Chao's army, however, insisted on arguing with these fearless outlaws.

In addition to compensating the merchants for their losses, Huang Chao's army dispatched troops to suppress bandits in the area where the incidents occurred. They successfully destroyed seven bandit gangs, killed more than 300 people, captured more than 100 people, and recovered more than 10,000 strings of cash and stolen goods.

If these bandits hadn't been involved in the freight business, Huang Chao's army would have had absolutely no connection with them.

However, since we've run into you, we can only take care of you while we're at it; blocking someone's path to wealth is like killing their parents.

As a result, Huitong Freight's reputation spread, and merchants speculated that Huitong might be backed by a powerful force, which was why it had the strength to suppress bandits.

As a result, Huitong's business orders are now rising sharply.

After compiling all the data, Li You couldn't help but sigh: "We were the first to try something new, so we made the most money."

Of course, Huimin Bank was the first; while similar carriage and horse-drawn carriage companies like Huitong were not the first in the Tang Dynasty.

But there are very few who can simultaneously transport goods and suppress bandits.

After the meal, Yan Jiu and Wang Sanwa cleaned up the dishes, while Yin Shaojue went to the university to teach the monks and slaves to read and write.

Li You found Dou Jun, and the two went into the house, sat at the table, and discussed some new intelligence that Yin Shaokang had sent up the mountain.

Yan Jiu had just finished working in the kitchen when she heard a woman's voice coming from outside.

"Husband, such a huge printing press, is it all your property? And you print so fast! Wow, you have no idea how expensive books are, we must be making a lot of money!"

"Uh... not all of it can be considered my property. When you see the lord later, don't say anything out of line."

"My lord, who is my lord?"