Wei Yan left the county seat Nanzheng with his three sons and came to Mianyang, not just to inspect the counties, but the most important task was to prepare camps for the upcoming army led by Prime Minister Zhuge. Prime Minister Zhuge would lead more than 100,000 troops to Hanzhong this time and launch a large-scale northern expedition. It would not be possible to camp without a large enough place. Mianyang is located on the north bank of the Mianshui River, the eastern foot of Yangping Mountain, and the westernmost part of the Hanzhong Plain. To the north, you can directly connect to Chencang Road, enter Guanzhong, or go west to Longyou, and to the south, the Jinniu Road directly to Chengdu. It can be said that it is the key to the western part of Hanzhong. It is the most suitable place to camp here.

Following my father on the mountain plain during the day, checking the terrain, listening to my father explaining various terrain, how to arrange warnings, camp, and looking at the map at night to review the knowledge points learned during the day, making up for the military foundation. Wei Ba's life was tense and fulfilling. The concerns about brush calligraphy and official documents disappeared without realizing it. His father Wei Yan and his elder brother Wei Feng were not knowledgeable. Apart from being more proficient in one's hand, they were not much better than him. The official documents were written simply and straightforwardly and without any literary talent. After comparing the official documents sent from Chengdu, even Wei Ba himself felt a little ashamed. Looking at the official documents written by others, that is called classical Chinese. The father and son of the Wei family were regarded as vulgar and unwilling martial artists, and they were not wronged.

Wei Ba did not dare to point fingers at his father, but he could make suggestions. When the father and son chatted a few times after dinner, Wei Ba made a tactful request.

"Dad, I want some money."

"What do you want money?" Wei Yan raised his wine glass with one hand and looked at the account book with the other hand. His eyebrows were slightly frowned, and he looked in a bad mood. He heard Wei Ba's words, but he didn't look back, but just asked casually.

"I want to buy some books to read."

"Book? What book?"

"The Art of War, the Book of Filial Piety, the Spring and Autumn Annals, etc. If you have more, buy some "Poetry" or the like."

"The Art of War" and "Book of Filial Piety" in Nan Zheng. I will give it to you after I go back." Wei Yan snorted, closed the account book heavily, threw it on the ground, and shouted sternly: "I remember all the messy accounts, take them over and let them re-copy them and send them to them."

Wei Feng hurriedly went up to pick up the account book and smiled bitterly. Wei Yan turned his head and looked at Wei Ba: "You can know the past and present after reading the Spring and Autumn Annals. It is good to have time to read it. What is the use of the Book of Songs? What are you buying it for?"

"Reading the Book of Songs can increase your knowledge and increase your literary talent. Didn't the Master say that he speaks without writing, and he does not go far."

"Bad!" Wei Yandu said: "Writing articles is to talk about things. What's the use of just writing beautifully? Just like these books, it is justified to remember what things are there and how much inventory there are. If you can't, it's bullshit. Even if you say it, what's the use of it?"

Wei Ba was silent. He knew that his father was taking advantage of the topic and expressed his disdain for Yang Yi. The Yang family is a big family in Xiangyang, so of course he had nothing to say about writing articles. Many of the official documents sent by the Prime Minister's Mansion in Chengdu were written by Yang Yi. Yang Yi probably deliberately wanted to humiliate the father and son of the Wei family, and often put some very remote allusions in it, which made his father very angry.

"Especially, we are the generals. Being able to win battles is the foundation of our career. What's the use of writing a good article? I can still read and write official documents. Some people don't even know words, so they will lead troops?"

Wei Ba lowered his head and did not dare to look at his father Wei Yan again. He knew that he had said the wrong thing today. When he was reading the official documents two days ago, he saw the official report of Ma Zhong who made meritorious service, and asked about Ma Zhong's situation. Only then did he know that Ma Zhong had limited literacy and was considered semi-illiterate, while Wang Ping, the other general who had not yet become a famous one, was simply illiterate. He could not read a lot of big words. The implication was that the father and son of the Wei family could read and write official documents freely, which was considered knowledgeable.

Of course, it is not possible to be worse than me, but it may not be useful if it is better than me. This is Wei Yan's psychology at this moment.

Wei Feng poked Wei Ba with his elbow and told him not to say anything again. "I've been very busy recently, and I don't have to hurry to buy books. Let's talk about it later."

Wei Ba nodded understandingly and glanced at the account book in Wei Feng's hand: "What is this?"

Wei Feng smiled bitterly: "The accounts sent by Mianyang Order just received are complicated and complicated, and it is difficult to find out for a while, which is really a headache." He glanced at his father Wei Yan, who was angry, and whispered: "The Prime Minister is coming soon, Yang Yi will definitely come to check the accounts. If the accounts cannot be clarified in time, he will inevitably be humiliated by him."

Wei Ba's eyes trembled, took the account book, opened it and looked at a few pages, and suddenly felt a big headache. These books were all recorded in circulation, and they wrote down one by one according to the time and date, and finally wrote the result. Is this result correct? Only God knows. If you want to check it correctly, you must calculate the entire account again, and there can be no errors in the middle, otherwise you have to start over.

Not to mention that Wei Yan was unhappy in these accounts, even Wei Ba felt a little dizzy when he looked at them. When he thought of the thick stack of accounts that Mianyang Order had just sent, Wei Ba's temples began to thunder. It would be almost impossible to find out all these accounts before Yang Yi came. In other words, this time, he would definitely be ridiculed by Yang Yi's old enemy.

No wonder my dad is in a bad mood.

Wei Ba thought for a while and suddenly said, "This account is difficult to check. We can redesign a form for them to refil, which may be more convenient."

"Form?" Wei Feng was stunned for a moment and looked at Wei Ba in surprise. Wei Yan, who was drinking, also glanced at Wei Ba. Wei Ba smiled, picked up the chopsticks, dipped it in the wine, and drew a schematic diagram on the desk, and said the format of the account book in his memory. Wei Yan's eyes lit up and nodded repeatedly. Wei Feng said with some concern: "The method you said is good, but for a while, where did so many forms come from? I think the forms you mentioned seem quite complicated. If someone asks you to draw them one by one, I'm afraid no one is willing to do this."

Wei Ba felt it made sense. If you want to copy these books again, it would take about thousands of pages of account pages, and drawing them by hand would be a task that would make people faint. Alas, if there was a copy machine, even a mimeograph machine, it would be fine, as long as you engrave a sheet, you could print out thousands of pictures.

Wait, although there is no mimeograph, it is not difficult to carve a plate. Wei Ba had an idea and suddenly remembered the woodblock printing. As the initial stage of printing, woodblock printing was relatively primitive than later movable type printing, but it was used for a long time. Until the 21st century, there were still many things that needed to be woodblock printing, such as printing New Year paintings, and that was a color printing. When Wei Ba was traveling to the ancient city of Yangzhou, he visited the woodblock printing museum. Out of the instinct of a technician, he had learned about this long-standing technology.

"This problem is not big. I can prepare a 10,000-page form in two days, but I just need each county to re-print it..."

Wei Yan stroked his beard and thought for a moment: "As long as it is a good idea, I won't be afraid that they will dare to refuse to follow. What I am worried about is whether there will be any problem with your method. It will be criticized and will give someone a handle when the time comes."

Wei Ba smiled and said, even if my accounting method is not comprehensive, it will definitely be several times better than your accounting method. Wei Feng has more experience. He thought about it for a while and said with a smile: "Father, this is very simple. We can invite the chief clerk Mr. Li and the officials of each Cao to discuss it to see if the accounting method of Badi is applicable. They are all old accounting offices who are good at money and grain, and they will definitely know the right and wrong."

Wei Yan nodded repeatedly and waved his hand: "Afeng's words are reasonable. You can do it quickly. If possible, then Aba will take care of this matter immediately. What is needed, even if it is. The Prime Minister is coming. Time is tight, the sooner it is done, the better."

Wei Yan was decisive and immediately called the officials of the Cao Cao who were accompanying him. These people had been busy for a day and were enjoying a rare leisure. Several older ones had already gone to bed to rest and were suddenly called. They were in a bad mood, but in front of Wei Yan, they did not dare to show any unhappiness, so they could only stand in the hall with a silent expression on their faces.

Wei Yan felt uncomfortable when he saw the people's faces and his face was gloomy. Seeing this, Wei Feng hurriedly stepped forward to say hello to avoid Wei Yan offending the person as soon as he spoke.

"Sir, I have something to discuss with you so late." Wei Feng pointed to the pile of books and said, "This is the account book that Mianyang has just sent. I believe you have read it. You are all old men who have been in charge of the board of directors for many years. I wonder what I think about it?"

The chief clerk Cheng An is a grand clan of Nanzheng, nearly fifty years old, and is the leader of the official history of the Hanzhong Prefectural Office. He is as rebellious as Wei Yan, and he is also afraid of him. After hearing Wei Ba's words, the others looked at Cheng An. Cheng An naturally raised his head and glanced at Wei Feng lightly: "We have seen it, but we didn't find any problem. Could it be that the Major General saw something inappropriate?"

"I didn't find anything wrong. The accounts are complicated, and even if there is anything wrong, I'm afraid it's hard to find it for a while. Since all the old men think it's okay, I certainly won't doubt it." Wei Feng smiled, "However, Yang Yi, the Prime Minister, is good at calculating, and we can't see it, it doesn't mean he can't see it, Mr. Cheng, do you think so?"

Cheng An's white eyebrows trembled, his mouth twitched, but he didn't say anything. He understood what Wei Feng meant. As the chief clerk of the Hanzhong Prefectural Office, he had represented Wei Yan many times to report his duties to the Prime Minister's Office. Yang Yi's tricky and smartness were impressive. Although Yang Yi was targeting Wei Yan, he was still Cheng An who was scolded in person in person. He was very uncomfortable when a man of age was scolded in person by a man under forty. Unfortunately, as Wei Feng said, Yang Yi was good at calculating, and as long as there was a problem in the account book, he could see that even Cheng An, who was a mature man, had to accept this. He had read all the books and found no problems, but it did not mean that Yang Yi would not be able to see the problem.

Could it be that Wei Feng asked them to check it again out of caution? As soon as he thought of this, Cheng An's heart became irritated.
Chapter completed!