It had been less than half an hour since he entered the house, but Chu Qing could clearly see the faces of the Tao family, from the disciple to the young master, and from the young master to the master. They must be quite snobbish.
So without any hesitation, I sat down and picked up the yellow paper and pen.
Before Tao Shaozhang could speak, Chu Qing shook the brush vigorously because there was too much ink on it.
Ink stains were sprinkled on the paper, and Tao Shaozhang's heart twitched.
The papermaking industry in the Chang Dynasty was not developed, and bamboo slips were mostly used. Although there were yellow, pink wax, rattan and other papers, they were all used by high-ranking officials and were extremely expensive. The hard yellow paper on the table was "shunned by Tao Shaozhang" from Dali Temple. "The ones who came back are not very willing to use it on weekdays.
How could Chu Qing understand this? Even if he did, he wouldn't care.
Not only did he not understand, he couldn't even use a brush. He held the brush in his right hand as if he was trying to mess with someone.
Tao Shaozhang had already determined that the guy in front of him couldn't even use a writing brush, so how could he understand arithmetic?
Just as Tao Shaozhang was about to speak, Chu Qing smiled slightly and pointed at the account: "What does this word mean?"
Tao Shaozhang: "..."
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to use a brush, you still can’t read!
"As for the people, they are all deaf when they come or see off guests!" Tao Shaozhang felt that he was insulted and shouted.
In fact, it’s not that Chu Qing is illiterate. The main reason is that many of them are in seal script, not traditional Chinese characters. They look neat, but they are very different from the simplified Chinese characters of later generations. How could he understand it as a “newcomer”.
Seeing that Tao Shaozhang was ready to challenge him personally, Chu Qing knew that it was time to show off his talents.
"The word 'gai' means debt, right? It cost thirty-two guan to build the Yamen in Xiao County, including 17 guan of masonry and 130 guan of iron material. The official silver was used, and seventy people were employed, and the construction started. More than a month…”
Raising his head, Chu Qing still had that calm smile: "Right."
Tao Shaozhang nodded subconsciously.
"In order to collect taxes, the lower county used official silver, hired civilians to spend money on food, and also purchased stone and iron materials, which means stone and metal, right? And the stone and metal workshops are under the name of the Li family. The horses are also hired by the Li family." Chu Qing knocked on the table and pondered for a moment: "You understand now."
Tao Shaozhang looked at the accounts and felt that he understood, but he didn't seem to understand and frowned.
Just then a servant came running over: "Young master, the younger one will see you off right now."
"What kind of guests are you sending? Tea, tribute tea, go quickly!"
The servant ran away speechlessly. Tao Shaozhang looked at Chu Qing: "What's the problem?"
Chu Qing shrugged: "I didn't know."
Tao Shaozhang turned to the servant who had just run away and shouted: "Come back and see us off!"
Fu San, who was watching the excitement on the side, wanted to take out a knife. This Tao family was so damn useless.
Chu Qing hurriedly said: "You have to do the calculation. There is a problem at first glance. The left hand is the right hand. If you calculate it, there is a big problem."
The servant came back: "Young Master..."
Tao Shaozhang: "Hurry up and serve tea!"
Chu Qing: "..."
In the Chang Dynasty, both merchants and officials used accounting methods similar to the Longmen accounting method.
The focus of accounting is the general ledger, which covers the content of relatively complete accounting statements. With "receipt" and "payment" as accounting symbols, it is divided into four categories: "in", "payment", "deposit" and "account". The word "the" represents exactly the negative equity, that is, the amount owed.
Chu Qing saw the problem with a casual scan, because the accounts were done so unprofessionally that even elementary school students would be able to tell that something was wrong. The totals were correct, but after breaking down the various accounts, he found that they were all duplicates. number.
The funniest thing is that the money spent by the government is spent on merchants, and these merchants are all under the name of the Li family.
However, there was one thing that Chu Qing didn't know. The Xiao County magistrate Li Mu was found to have embezzled money from officials, not because of accounting issues, but because he was impeached by a stupid young supervisor.
Li Mu's father was a veteran of three dynasties, and the Ministry of Revenue was unwilling to take care of it. The other courtiers turned a blind eye. As a result, another stunned Qing Tao Shaozhang learned about it and took over Dali Temple.
Originally, Tao Shaozhang was planning to collect witnesses and evidence, but he found nothing, only account books. Even if he found a friend who worked in the Account Department, he could only roughly tell that there was something wrong with the accounts, but he couldn't tell where the problem was.
Tao Shaozhang did not dare to underestimate Chu Qing anymore, because the friend he had found before had the same views as Chu Qing. He did not say that the left hand was the right hand, but he said that government and businessmen colluded.
The tea was served, but Chu Qing didn't bother to drink it. He was afraid that he would be blackmailed after taking a sip. He really didn't dare to compliment the Tao family.
In order to carry the gas, Chu Qing had to make serious calculations.
It's nothing more than addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I kept checking the calculations. As time passed by, I gradually gained insights.
Tao Shaozhang on the side had a twitching face. On the valuable paper, Chu Qing was able to write all the "big characters" in just a few strokes, which could be described as "extremely extravagant".
Gradually, Tao Shaozhang became fascinated and asked softly: "Xiandi, this is..."
"Subtraction formula, parentheses."
"what for."
"I bought the stones, the stoneware shop collected the money, and the amount matched. However, the date for repairing the government office did not match. The people who repaired the government office should be regarded as corvees."
"so what?"
"Are you stupid? It looks like we used free coolies, but the account says that we hired civilian laborers. You, the young minister of Dali Temple, must have paid for it. You don't even understand this."
"I see, then this is..."
"Divide formulas, dates, have you ever gone to school? How much did the young master of Dali Temple buy them for? Is it expensive? Give me one."
"Then this secret talisman is..."
"It's brackets, brackets, one on the left and one on the right. Blind, can you shut up and stop annoying me?"
"Okay, drink tea, drink tea."
Unknowingly, Tao Shaozhang began to be "humble", pouring tea and grinding ink for the irritable Chu Qing, laughing and being careful with him.
Experts can tell if something is wrong as soon as they make a move. Tao Shaozhang doesn't understand "formulas", but he can understand numbers. The results of Chu Qing's calculations are indeed consistent with some things he has investigated privately.
This means that there is no need to break a leg or find evidence to testify. You can just use these so-called "formulas" to calculate how much money Li Mu has embezzled.
The more he looked at the numbers written by Chu Qing, the more frightened he became. This Li Mu really deserves to be called Li Sanchi, scraping three feet off the ground!
"My good brother is a master of arithmetic. He is a great talent. He is a great talent."
Tao Shaozhang really admired him. You must know that even an old official in the Ministry of Revenue, not to mention calculating the accounts of a lower county for several years, even for a quarter, requires more than ten people to proofread them together, and it takes several days, using all the Stupid method, but there are always discrepancies.
Tao Shaozhang couldn't understand it, but it didn't stop him from realizing it.
Seeing that the sky was getting dark, Chu Qing was about to calculate the final result, but Tao Yao walked out of the main hall.
When he saw that Chu Qing hadn't left yet, and then when he saw that the ground was full of valuable "waste paper", he became angry.
"You bastard, what are you doing again?"
Tao Shaozhang quickly explained with excitement: "Dad, Mr. Chu is actually very good at arithmetic. He can clear up Xiao County's confused accounts in three strokes and two strokes..."
Before he finished speaking, Tao Yao interrupted in a deep voice: "Chu Wensheng's son knows nothing about arithmetic. You, what do you want your father to say about you? This kind of boasting about a child's reputation is really bad, not to mention arithmetic." , whether you can read or not is a different matter!"
Chu Qing turned his head and coughed lightly: "Mr. Tao, um, I'm still here. Can you consider the feelings of the person involved?"
Tao Yao didn't care about him at all: "Come here, drive him out!"
Tao Shaozhang was anxious: "Father."
"shut up!"
"Why do you want to protect the Li family? You are the prince's young master. Are you still afraid of Li..."
"You bastard!" Tao Yao flicked his long sleeves: "You still want to rebel."
Just as Tao Shaozhang was about to argue, Chu Qing shook his head slightly and said softly: "Brother, let's do this. If you are still willing to continue the investigation, come to Chu Mansion to find me. I will leave first. You and your son will continue to argue, otherwise I'm afraid of you. Can’t let go.”
After finishing speaking, Chu Qing glanced at the paperweight on the table, and the hint was extremely obvious.
He really annoyed this old guy Tao Yao. After all, he was the prince's teacher. What kind of birdie was he?
Tao Shaozhang originally wanted to persuade him to stay, but in the end he didn't know what he thought of and nodded heavily.
The old housekeeper came, and Chu Qing and Fu San followed the old housekeeper and left without even taking away the six baggage.
