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 further ado, after sitting down, I picked up the hard yellow paper and hard pen.
Before Tao Shaozhang could speak, Chu Qing shook the brush vigorously because he thought there was too much ink on it.
Ink stains were spilled 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 "ordered by Tao Shaozhang" from Dali Temple.
"When I came back, I was 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 has already determined that the guy in front of him can't even use a writing brush, so how can 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!
"Where are the people, coming and seeing off guests, they are all deaf!" 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 the above 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, seventeen guan of bricks and stones, and one hundred and thirty guan of iron materials. All 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 raise taxes, the lower county spent official money, hired civilians to spend money on food, and 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, right?"
Tao Shaozhang looked at the accounts and felt that he understood, but he seemed not 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 is so damn useless.
Chu Qing hurriedly said: "You have to do the math. This is a problem. 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 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 "" 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 in later generations would be able to tell that something was wrong. The totals were correct, but after splitting the various accounts into details, he found that they were all duplicates.
of numbers.
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. 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 the matter and took over Dali Temple.
Originally, Tao Shaozhang was planning to collect witnesses and physical 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 look down on 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 that the 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. It could be said to be "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 labor, but the account says that we hired civilian workers. You, the young minister of Dali Temple, must have paid for it. You can't even understand this."
"I see, then this is..."
"Division formulas, dates, brother, 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 and brackets, one on the left and one on the right. Damn you, 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, no need to find witnesses and physical evidence, 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 virtuous brother is actually a master of arithmetic. He is a great talent. He is a man of 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 it, and it takes several days, using all the methods.
It's a stupid method, but there are always discrepancies.
Tao Shaozhang couldn't understand it, but it didn't stop him from understanding 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 I saw that Chu Qing hadn't left yet, and then when I saw that the ground was full of valuable "waste paper", I immediately 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 just 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 matter of two opinions!”
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: "Someone, please 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 quarrel, otherwise I'm afraid of you.
Can’t let go.”
After finishing speaking, Chu Qing glanced at the paperweight on the table, the hint was very obvious.
He really annoyed this old guy Tao Yao to the core. 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.