The low-key prince summons trainees from the Imperial Household Department at the start of the game.

The twentieth year of Yonghe, the White Dew season.

As autumn deepened, the osmanthus flowers in the Imperial Garden were in full bloom, their sweet fragrance drifting on the wind into the Ninth Prince's side hall, causing Chunlan to sneeze three times in a row.

Zhou Xing sat by the window, holding a piece of osmanthus cake in his hand, taking small bites, his gaze fixed on the old locust tree outside the window, as if he were in a daze.

It has been over a year since he transmigrated to this world. He has grown taller, from six to seven years old. The baby fat on his face has faded, and his features have gradually become more handsome.

In everyone's eyes, the Ninth Prince was still a quiet, timid, and shy child. His only improvement was that he no longer blushed so easily.

This is exactly what Zhou Xing wanted.

He swallowed the last bite of osmanthus cake, patted the crumbs off his hands, and silently recited a phrase in his mind.

The golden light screen unfolded silently before his eyes. Compared to the excitement he felt during the previous summons, he could now calmly face this light screen that only he could see.

The annual summoning qualification for large-scale teams has been refreshed, exactly one year since the last summoning of the Beggars' Sect startup team.

Over the past year, his plan has taken shape.

Inside the palace, Zhao Gao and his four associates infiltrated the Imperial Household Department; outside the palace, Lu Changfeng's Beggars' Gang spread an intelligence network; and within the Imperial Guard Camp, Xu Chu and his four associates served as a trump card in terms of military strength.

However, he increasingly felt a bottleneck: the intelligence network could collect information, but lacked efficient channels for transmitting it.

The Beggars' Sect members used their own two legs to deliver messages, which was slow, inefficient, and had limited coverage.

The procurement intelligence that Zhao Gao obtained from the Imperial Household Department often took several days to reach him. By the time the information arrived, it was too late.

More importantly, the intelligence network itself also requires funding.

Although the twenty or so brothers in the Beggars' Gang did not receive salaries, they still had to spend money on daily food and drink, developing external informants, and occasionally bribing officials.

The dozen or so taels of silver he had given Lu Changfeng earlier had long been spent. In recent months, the funds had all been scraped together by Zhao Gao from the purchasing department's accounts, but the amount was limited and the risk was high.

Money is the resource he lacks most right now.

Without money, even the most sophisticated network won't last long.

"Summon, a super team!"

The text on the light screen slowly appeared.

This time, the light was not as intense and flamboyant as when Xu Chu was summoned. Instead, it carried a calm and unhurried dark gold tone, like an old ledger that had been opened, with yellowed paper but still clear ink.

As Zhou Xing watched the words appear line by line on the screen, the corners of his mouth slowly widened into a smile.

"A two-star super team."

"Name of the elite group: Shanxi merchants' banks".

Two stars, one level higher than the Beggars' Sect's one star.

Zhou Xing had a general idea in mind—the system's star rating standard was that one star was a makeshift team that was barely usable, while two stars represented a team with initial organization and professional division of labor.

For his most pressing needs right now, a two-star business team is more effective than a five-star military team.

He continued looking down at the list of members.

"Leader of the Supergroup: Yi Dun."

"Core members: Lei Lutai, Mao Honghui, Li Hongling."

"Supporting members: accountant, shop assistant, warehouse key keeper, and prospective branch managers from various locations, totaling twenty-eight people."

Zhou Xing stared at the four names for a long time, then took a deep breath and, with an almost reverent attitude, mentally reviewed the past lives of these people.

These four individuals are among the most brilliant stars in the history of Shanxi merchants, spanning the Spring and Autumn Period, the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the Republic of China. In their respective eras, they created a landscape that was enough to rewrite the history of Chinese commerce.

Yi Dun, the ancestor of Shanxi merchants, was a legendary businessman who started from scratch during the Spring and Autumn Period.

He started his business with animal husbandry, accumulating enormous wealth over ten years. He then turned to the salt and iron trade, becoming a prominent merchant on par with Tao Zhugong Fan Li.

When later generations mentioned "Tao Zhu and Yi Dun," they were referring to these two insurmountable peaks in the history of Chinese commerce.

He is the source of the Shanxi merchant spirit and the first businessman in Chinese history to truly embody the concept of "starting from scratch".

The system made him the leader of this elite group, which is equivalent to letting the patriarch of Shanxi merchants personally lead the team.

Lei Lutai's name carries more weight in financial history than Yi Dun's in commercial history.

He was the founder of Rishengchang Draft Bank, the first draft bank in Chinese history, and is known as the "ancestor of draft banks." He pioneered inter-regional remittance and deposit and loan services.

Before Lei Lutai, merchants could only transport silver through escort agencies, which was risky, costly, and time-consuming.

Lei Lutai invented the draft bank, which allowed merchants to withdraw cash in other places with a draft, completely changing the way Chinese commerce was settled.

He is a master of financial innovation, a genius in risk management, and the first person to turn the word "credit" into real money.

Mao Honghui, the second manager of Rishengchang Bank and Lei Lutai's capable partner, later independently founded Weitaihou Bank, which rivaled Rishengchang.

His strengths lie in business management and the establishment of branch networks. Lei Lutai is a genius creator, and Mao Honghui is a genius executor.

One is responsible for going from zero to one, and the other is responsible for going from one to one hundred.

Li Hongling was a representative figure of Shanxi merchants in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, and the head manager of Weifenghou Bank.

What makes him special is that he experienced the entire process of Shanxi merchants' rise and fall, and witnessed firsthand the collapse of the draft bank system under the impact of Western banking.

In his later years, he wrote "Advice for Fellow Travelers" and "The Success and Failure of Shanxi Merchants," which systematically summarized the experiences and lessons learned from the rise and fall of Shanxi merchants' banks.

Of the four, he was the one with the strongest sense of crisis and reform, knowing how to transform when the old model reached its end.

The team consists of 28 people, covering all aspects from strategic decision-making to daily operations, from accounting management to market development.

When these people come together, they form a complete, mature financial institution that has stood the test of time.

The system put them into a group called "Shanxi Merchants' Banks" and rated them two stars.

Zhou Xing felt that the rating was a bit low, but then he realized that the system's rating mainly looked at martial prowess and potential, and these people were all pure businessmen with no cultivation level, so their martial prowess was negligible.

The two-star rating likely doesn't reflect their business acumen, but rather their ability to survive in this martial arts world.

The light screen continued to flicker, and an explanation of the implanted identity appeared.

"The members of the supergroup are implanted with the following identities: the owner, manager, and employee of a newly opened small business in the western market of the capital, 'Heshengyuan'."

"The business mainly deals in general merchandise from both the north and south. The shop is located in the most remote Huai Shu Lane in the West Market. The shop is small and has only been open for less than half a month."

"The leader, Yi Dun, is the owner of the business; Lei Lutai is the head manager; Mao Honghui is the second manager; Li Hongling is the accountant; and the remaining members are responsible for tasks such as running errands, managing the warehouse, and purchasing. All members carry memories from their previous lives and are absolutely loyal to the host."