The immortal of the Tang Dynasty, but the game starts at Xuanwu Gate?

The next day, in the morning.

Chen Huai'an arrived at Hongwen Hall.

I thought Cheng Chumo and his group of immature teenagers probably wouldn't come, but to my surprise, they not only showed up, they did too.

And they came with bruises and swelling on their faces.

Upon seeing him enter, Cheng Chumo, with a dark circle under one eye, sniffed, "Sir, my old man Cheng is quite sensible; I brought one hundred strings of cash. What do you suggest we do next?"

Chen Huai'an: "..."

Li Zhen looked a little uneasy, touched his buttocks, and said seriously, "Yesterday I went home and taught that spendthrift woman a lesson. She should know she was wrong. I said I wanted a hundred strings of cash, and she gave it to me without daring to say a word."

"Sir, this money is too heavy and takes up too much space. I put it in the carriage outside, where my attendants are watching over it."

"Awesome!" Chen Huai'an immediately gave a thumbs up.

Cheng Chumo and Li Zhen proudly raised their heads.

If you ignore the fact that they have bruises and swollen faces and occasionally grimace in pain, their words still have some credibility.

Chen Huai'an glanced at the three men and then fixed his gaze on Tang He.

Seeing that both he and Cheng Chumo were covered in wounds, he knew that this was a sure thing.

However, he still asked one more question: "Monk, did you bring any money?"

Tang Heshang immediately became angry: "Sir, my name is Heshang, not Heshang!"

"Besides, how could I possibly refuse? After I got home, I reasoned with them and appealed to their emotions, using words and actions to get my parents to obediently hand over the money."

"Thank goodness they brought it out, otherwise I would have definitely given them a piece of my mind."

Chen Huai'an was filled with respect: "As expected of you!"

Tang He hummed twice, quite pleased with himself.

"Sir, I brought it too." Li Chengqian was very self-aware. When Chen Huai'an looked at him, he took out a tray from the table below, on which ten gold ingots were neatly arranged.

Upon seeing this, Cheng Chumo and the others were stunned.

Good heavens, we all brought copper coins, and you came up with gold ingots right away?

Chen Huai'an wasn't surprised that Li Chengqian took out gold ingots. After looking at the quantity, he asked with interest, "Why are there ten?"

"At the current market price, this gold ingot is worth about 80 strings of cash, but this is 800 strings of cash."

Upon hearing this, Li Chengqian immediately replied, "My mother said that since we are going to make money using the methods taught by the teacher, we naturally cannot let the teacher suffer a loss."

"Since everyone needs to raise money for business, I'll cover your share, sir."

Li Zhen and the others were stunned upon hearing this.

And this kind of operation?

Chen Huai'an paused for a moment, then chuckled softly, "Alright, bring your men in."

Upon hearing this, Li Chengqian called out to the outside.

A woman of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old with a gentle appearance walked in: "My name is Shen He, and I greet Mr. Chen."

"Alright." Chen Huai'an didn't say anything, but pointed to the gold ingots that Li Chengqian had taken out and said, "Take this money out right now and use it all to buy turbid wine."

"I've inquired, and the current market price for cloudy wine is about twenty coins per dou (a unit of volume). If you buy in bulk, it will be much cheaper. I want you to lower the price to fifteen coins per dou until all this money is spent. Can you do that?"

Upon hearing this, Shen He's eyes flashed with surprise, but she didn't ask anything and pondered, "This may take three days."

"Your Highness has a lot of money. If you use it all to buy cloudy wine, the amount will be too much. No tavern has that much cloudy wine. You must buy it in separate portions."

Chen Huai'an was very satisfied with her attitude. She didn't ask many questions, just did her job. She was a very shrewd woman, worthy of being chosen by the future Empress Zhangsun.

"Three days it is, you can buy it in batches."

"After you buy it, go to my house and find my little maid. She will tell you where to deliver it."

"Yes, Mr. Chen." Shen He replied and slowly withdrew.

As soon as she left, Cheng Chumo and the others couldn't sit still any longer: "Sir, why did you buy so much cloudy wine?"

"Do you intend to make money by selling counterfeit liquor?"

Li Zhen stroked his chin and said, "If we buy it back for fifteen coins, and then sell it for twenty coins even if it's not the same as the market price, or even if we only sell it for nineteen or eighteen coins, we'll still make a profit."

"Moreover, the men of our Great Tang Dynasty love to drink, and this stuff is a hard currency, so we're not worried about it not selling. It's definitely doable."

"It's small!" Chen Huai'an said meaningfully.

"What's smaller?" Tang Monk asked.

"The vision is too narrow."

Chen Huai'an sat down: "Nineteen coins? Eighteen coins? That's barely enough to make any money. What good is that little bit of money?"

"How can someone earn five thousand or even ten thousand coins a month?"

"We'll sell it for one hundred coins, two hundred coins, three hundred coins!"

Cheng Chumo's eyes widened: "Sir, are you having a fit of hysteria?"

Chen Huai'an: "..."

"Damn it, you're the one who's having a fit! I'm perfectly fine!"

Li Zhen muttered under his breath, "If he's not having a fit of hysteria, why is he talking nonsense? Even the best wine in the Tang Dynasty, 'Jinlingchun,' only costs one hundred coins, and the best wine in the entire Tang Dynasty only costs three hundred coins."

"How can your mediocre wine be so expensive?"

Chen Huai'an exclaimed in surprise, "Really? Those... Jinlingchun teas are so expensive?"

"Yes, that wine is much better than the premium sake. Many officials love to drink it. My husband usually drinks this wine, and if he's in a good mood, he'll drink the 300-cash one."

"Oh!" Chen Huai'an was taken aback. "Then it seems I'm too young. One hundred coins is too cheap. Let's start at two hundred coins."

Everyone: "..."

No, is this man really not suffering from hysteria?

Why is there so much more to say?

Do you think people are stupid?

They're starting at 200 coins; you might not even find anyone willing to take it for 20 coins.

Li Chengqian, however, did not think so. He had listened to what Empress Zhangsun and Li Shimin said yesterday and wrote down every word Chen Huai'an said when he returned.

I've watched it more than once, and each time I have different insights.

Putting aside the things he didn't understand, the phrase "a great scholar will debate the classics for you" alone made him ponder for a long time.

Li Chengqian increasingly felt that this gentleman was unfathomable.

He said there must be a reason why it could sell for two hundred coins.

"Alright, I know you don't believe me, but let's not waste any more time. Time is of the essence, we can't afford to waste any more time. Let's get things arranged first, and then I'll explain to you slowly."

Chen Huai'an knew exactly what these people were thinking, but he didn't rush to explain. He said to Cheng Chumo and Li Zhen, "You two immediately send your servants to my house to find Yunyan and tell her that all two hundred strings of cash should be used to pay the balance of the still, and the rest should be used to buy empty wine jars."

"Monk, send people to the slums of Chang'an to recruit workers. Just put out the money for them to see: 80 coins for men and 60 coins for women a day. Recruit 50 men and 50 women respectively, and they must be in good health."

"..."