I Started a Rent-to-Own Scheme in Great Tang and Bled the Aristocratic Clans Dry

[Underdog’s rise + modern finance as a dimensional advantage + crushing capital power + satisfying face-slapping + intellectual battles] Gu Xuan transmigrated from the start as a lowly post-station runner during the Zhenguan era. Faced with the monopolies and oppression of thousand-year-old aristocratic clans like the Five Surnames and Seven Houses, he gave a cold laugh: “Want to play historical research? I’ll play modern finance and supply-chain monopolies instead!” From the start, he built the Tang Dynasty’s first logistics company and invented presales, grain coupons, and bonds! The aristocratic clans want to hoard grain and drive up prices? Gu Xuan simply issues “Tang Dynasty Fair-Price Grain Coupons” and uses his logistics network to ship a hundred times the supplies to Chang’an. The clans lose everything overnight! The clans monopolize the books needed for the imperial examinations? Gu Xuan opens the “Tang Dynasty Chain Book-Rental Academies,” with assembly-line printing and monthly subscriptions! He sells the sages’ books for the price of cabbages, digging up the thousand-year-old foundations of the aristocratic clans! Furious, the clans join forces with the imperial censors to impeach Gu Xuan for “disrupting the court and amassing wealth without restraint.” But then Li Shimin gets his hands on Gu Xuan’s submissions, “Tang Dynasty Treasury Share Dividend Breakdown” and “Plan for Self-Funding Troops and Military Expenses.” He can’t stop grinning! “Impeach him? What nonsense! My beloved subject Gu is the Tang Dynasty’s god of wealth!” “Anyone who dares lay a hand on my beloved subject Gu will have their whole family wiped out!” Use the wool trade to undermine the Turks’ finances, use bond financing to put the Tibetan royal family in a bind, and use maritime trade companies to sideline the court’s customs duties! With the Tang Dynasty’s economic lifeline in his hands and a private army of a million at his command, Gu Xuan smiles at the aristocratic clans and says: “Sorry, in this era, I’m the one who makes the rules!”