Starting with choosing a wife, creating the most powerful Xia

"call……"

An You's breath hitched slightly, and his expression changed drastically.

This was the first time he had lost his composure in front of Chu Xuan. Even though Chu Xuan had just humiliated him with a poem and an essay, it only made the prince somewhat displeased and helpless.

As I said before, although Xiao Ziqi is attractive, there is no shortage of beauties in the world. At most, one might be a little disappointed, but not to the point of losing one's composure. But this time is different.

Chu Xuan saw right through An Youzhong's deepest thoughts, and the conversation, which should have been led by An Youzhong, was already on the verge of getting out of control.

This feeling of being controlled made the Crown Prince extremely unhappy, but he was powerless to do anything to stop it and could only watch helplessly as the situation spiraled into the most difficult direction.

"Chu Xuan, you certainly have a lot of nerve. Aren't you afraid that I, the young master, will kill you right here?"

An You finally came to his senses, narrowed his eyes slightly, and said in a cold voice.

Seeing that His Highness seemed somewhat unwilling and still wanted to fight for it, Chu Xuan just found it amusing and shook his head.

"No. Firstly, Your Highness should understand one thing: I can help you. Secondly, since I dare to say these words to you, it means I came prepared. In that case, does Your Highness really have the ability to kill me?"

Chu Xuan's casual words instantly shattered An You's hard-won efforts.

He immediately looked like a defeated rooster, revealing a bitter smile.

"you win."

He looked at Chu Xuan with some resentment.

An Youzhong was not unfamiliar with the Chu family; on the contrary, because of his status, he had quite a bit of contact with the younger generation of the Chu family. However, Chu Xuan was never among them. In the past, he was an insignificant marginal figure who didn't even have the qualifications to be remembered by An Youzhong.

Now, however, he can utter such arrogant words right in front of him, and An You is ultimately powerless to refute them.

It's truly heartbreaking.

How do you plan to help me?

"What I am about to say is absolutely confidential, Your Highness. I asked those guards to leave for the good of the young master. They claimed to be protecting the young master, but as you know, they were actually spies."

An You finally nodded upon hearing this. He was well aware of this and knew that if he were the legitimate son, the position of Prince of Liyang would surely be his in the future.

However, being born out of wedlock always leaves some loopholes.

The king, having been bewitched by that woman, was completely captivated by her charms. Out of love for her, he also doted on her illegitimate son, and in recent years there have been signs that he was trying to suppress him.

They even sent guards to keep an eye on him, which is why An You finally put on a dissolute act in front of others.

"If Your Highness wants to contend for the throne, then the illegitimate child is an insurmountable obstacle. Although Your Highness has kept a low profile for so many years, numbing the Prince of Liyang and others, and secretly plotting, you must be feeling the predicament now, right?"

Chu Xuan laughed.

He knew very well what An Youzhong was thinking; it was just an old trick of feigning one thing while secretly doing another.

However, it must be said that this tactic was indeed effective. On the surface, An Youzhong frequented brothels, bullying men and women, while secretly raising many assassins and scheming followers in order to seize an opportunity.

The problem is that the Prince of Liyang was obviously wary of this move and had taken away the tenants and businesses that were originally under his control.

The wealthy and powerful clans rely on only two paths to wealth. By doing this, the Prince of Liyang is essentially cutting off their source of income. Want to start something? But how can they do it without even the silver?

Although An Youzhong is still the glamorous heir of the Prince of Liyang, he actually only receives a few dozen taels of silver from the prefectural governor each month. This amount of money would be enough for an ordinary person to live a good life, but for An Youzhong, it's not even enough to fill a tooth gap.

Chu Xuan was certain of this, which is why he proposed today's deal.

"I can help Your Highness solve the problem of money, but it depends on whether Your Highness has the courage."

Upon hearing this, An Youzhong's breathing became heavier, his bull-like eyes widened as he stared intently at Chu Xuan, remaining silent for a long time.

He seemed too excited to speak.

Chu Xuan's dialogue struck a chord with An Youzhong, hitting the nail on the head.

He quickly came to his senses and asked.

"What advice does Young Master Chu have for me?"

It's no wonder An You was so anxious. The people under his command needed him to support them every day, and now he was already in dire straits.

If this situation can't be resolved, I'm afraid his men will rebel against him before they even have a chance to start an uprising!

It was precisely because of this that An You had no extra energy to get entangled with Chu Xuan regarding Xiao Ziqi's matter.

"Two approaches."

Chu Xuan held up two fingers: "Snow Salt, and Perfume."

"Let's talk about the snow salt first. As Your Highness knows, I was enfeoffed in an unnamed mountain. The former village chief found a salt field somewhere in the mountain, and then the salt field belonged to me."

“I have been there. The salt field covers an area of ​​about one acre. With my abilities, it is enough to produce 300,000 to 400,000 catties of snow salt every year. Your Highness can think about how much benefit this can bring.”

An Youzhong, who was initially puzzled about the perfume, was speechless after hearing these words.

She stared at Chu Xuan almost blankly.

Three to four hundred thousand catties of snow salt?! What an incredible quantity!

It should be noted that although the Great Xia had a method for refining snow salt, it was far too crude, resulting in extremely low yields. Even with 10,000 mu of salt fields, only a few hundred jin of snow salt could be produced each year.

The rest were either toxic salt mines that could not be refined or coarse sand salt, which was full of impurities and had a strange, sour taste. People who ate it would not be as healthy as those who ate snow salt. If snow salt were not so expensive, costing at least tens or hundreds of taels per kilogram, who would eat this stuff?

Therefore, under this background, Chu Xuan's words obviously brought a huge impact on An Youzhong's worldview.

This made him question his own understanding of himself over the past twenty years.

They didn't think it was surprising that Chu Xuan asked his guards to leave. To put it more seriously, if Chu Xuan's words today were to spread, it might even have a huge impact on the salt industry. Even the emperor, who was high and mighty, would not be able to resist getting involved and taking a share of the profits.

Chu Xuan simply smiled faintly, sipped his tea, and remained silent, waiting for An You to finally realize what was happening.

After a moment, An You's eyes finally regained their brilliance, and he looked at Chu Xuan with fervor.

"Is what you said true, sir?"

You see, people are just like that, driven by self-interest. Before, they kept calling each other "you" and talking about being from a collateral branch of the Chu family, but now that they've seen the benefits, they respectfully call each other "sir," and the obsequiousness is almost palpable.