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

"Your Highness..."

Chen Huai'an looked at the eight-year-old child at the investiture ceremony and sighed inwardly.

In this era, being a crown prince is truly an extremely dangerous profession.

If you turn to the history books, you will find that Li Shimin's predecessor as crown prince was Li Jiancheng, and his successor as crown prince was Yang Yong.

Even going back a hundred years, you can't find a single crown prince who successfully ascended the throne.

Those princes who became emperors had at least one brother's blood on their hands.

You can be the crown prince then, and you'll remain silent the whole time.

Above, Li Chengqian seemed to notice Chen Huai'an's gaze. With a stern face and a resolute expression, he mouthed a sentence: "Sir, I will definitely not let you down."

Chen Huai'an: "..."

He covered his face, not knowing what to say.

What exactly was Li Chengqian imagining?

You silly boy, if you want to be like your father but don't want to be a worthless son, that's going to be a bit difficult.

"Huai'an!"

At the investiture ceremony, Li Shimin led Li Chengqian down by the hand.

"Your subject is here," Chen Huai'an replied respectfully.

Li Shimin held Chen Huai'an's bowing hand, then placed Li Chengqian's hand in his: "I hereby appoint you as Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince. From this day forward, I entrust the Crown Prince to you!"

The civil and military officials who were watching the ceremony were quite surprised by what they saw, but Changsun Wuji was not surprised at all.

This is because Li Shimin had promised from the beginning to entrust his son to Chen Huai'an for education, and now he was simply keeping his promise.

In addition, this is also a reward.

Chen Huai'an's contributions now appear even greater, so Li Shimin certainly couldn't leave without making any gesture.

By publicly appointing Chen Huai'an as Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince, without giving anyone a chance to object, this was a very good gesture.

Chen Huai'an glanced at Li Shimin, then at Li Chengqian, who was looking up at him with a gleam in his eyes. After a moment of silence, he smiled and agreed, "Your Majesty, I will certainly not fail your trust."

"Good." Li Shimin nodded in satisfaction, then turned to Wei Zheng and said, "Xuancheng, I hereby appoint you as the Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince. From now on, you and Huai'an will jointly teach the Crown Prince."

"Yes, Your Majesty." This time, Wei Zheng didn't cause any trouble and readily agreed.

To be honest, Li Shimin originally wanted to appoint Li Gang as the Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince, but during a casual chat last time, Chen Huai'an jokingly said that Li Gang had taught two crown princes, and neither of them had a good ending.

Li Shimin kept these words in mind, which made him feel uneasy.

Li Gang... seems to actually have some merit.

Therefore, Li Shimin didn't consider Li Gang at all, and directly appointed Wei Zheng as the Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince, apart from Chen Huai'an.

Above, Empress Zhangsun watched with satisfaction as her son was handed over to Chen Huai'an and Wei Zheng.

With these two mentors, Chengqian will surely be outstanding in the future, right?

"..."

"Sir, that's impressive!"

Ouyang Shu, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, looked at Chen Huai'an with admiration: "I didn't expect that everyone would actually agree to keep 40% of the profits from ironware in the Ministry of Works."

"In this way, it will be much more convenient for our Ministry of Works to do things in the future, and we won't have to put up with the attitudes of those people in the Ministry of Revenue."

Chen Huai'an waved his hand casually: "Alright, if I could, I'd like to keep it all, but that's obviously impossible. Let's do 40% then. 40% is enough for us to do a lot of things."

Even if it's not enough... I can think of something else.

You still have a way?

The Ministry of Works was astonished. What kind of divine minister had arrived?

Are we really going to take them flying?

"My lord, what should we do next?" Chang Gui, another vice minister of the Ministry of Works, asked excitedly. These were all real achievements.

Chen Huai'an pondered and said, "Ouyang Shu, first write out a detailed process, according to the framework I set out before. It should include everything from how wages are paid under the employment system, how much wages are paid, where to mine iron ore first, what kind of ironware to make first, and what the price is. All of this must be written out."

"Remember, now we need to focus on developing farm tools. Don't make the prices too high. We should make a profit based on cost, but we can't let it become like before, where ordinary people can't afford them."

"We can put land reclamation on hold for now. We can consider land reclamation once the mining, iron forging, and sales lines are stable."

In fact, the Tang Dynasty did not lack iron mines; they were simply abandoned. If they were reopened, the price of iron would quickly come down.

Moreover, using an employment system for such a large project is almost tantamount to a roundabout way of providing disaster relief.

Chen Huai'an accepted the position of Minister of Works because he believed it was a good fit for his work and wanted to first develop handicrafts and heavy industry.

As long as it's an employment system, as long as it's not corvée labor, as long as he still monopolizes iron and his income source isn't interrupted, this is enough to create a virtuous cycle and allow the economy to begin to recover.

"My lord..." Chang Gui hesitated, "There is something I'm not sure if I should say."

"Speak up, there are no outsiders here."

Chang Gui thought for a moment and said, "Your method is very good, but it may be difficult to implement. The first problem is that people don't actually have much money. Most of the time, people barter with goods, such as salt, silk, and grain, which are hard currencies."

"If we insist on charging money, the results might not be as good."

"I propose that when we sell ironware, we accept barter."

"At the same time, we must also make it clear to the people we hire that they can accept goods in lieu of wages."

"Otherwise... our ironware might still only be affordable for ordinary people with some money."

Chen Huai'an was taken aback: "You know a lot about this?"

Chang Gui coughed dryly and said, "Your Excellency, I used to be in charge of the government's capital, so I believe I have some understanding of this area..."

Chen Huai'an suddenly realized.

Public funds, to put it bluntly, are the government's business ventures.

Chang Gui used to manage the public funds, so these words are highly credible.

In fact, Chen Huai'an had considered that ordinary people might not have much money, as the money was mostly in the hands of powerful families.

But he didn’t take it too seriously at first, thinking that even if powerful families were powerful, ordinary people should still have money.

Surprisingly, many people still use bartering.

Chen Huai'an stroked his chin and pondered, "In that case, I'll put you in charge of this aspect, including how to sell them, how to accept barter, and how to use these items instead of copper coins to distribute to the employed people."

"However... we will only accept silk and grain; nothing else!"

Chang Gui asked in bewilderment, "Sir, are we not even going to take salt? It's a valuable commodity."

"Really?" Chen Huai'an raised an eyebrow, picked up his teacup and took a sip. "It is now, but who knows what will happen in the future."

"Just do as I say!"

"..."