The horse racing match with the Turks was scheduled for three days later. Since the Dragon Boat Festival school competition, although the left and right armies were integrated into an independent army and set up a separate big tent, they did not elect a commander. They continued to maintain the same organization as before. The marshals of both sides still perform their respective duties. This may be because Li Shimin adopted a gradual integration method to maximize the possibility that the two armies, which were originally managed differently, can get along with each other for a period of time. When the three armies are reorganized in the future, it will not be as difficult as before. , However, for this competition, Li Shimin resolutely chose the venue of the competition in the school field shared by the two armies that had been integrated. The purpose was also to see whether, after two months of running-in, the two armies were fully coordinated in the battle. .
During this period, Meng Xinghe, who had already served as the Minister of Household Affairs, went to serve in his Ministry of Household Affairs.
The office of the Ministry of Revenue is located next to the Shangshu Province, adjacent to the other five ministries. Since the Ministry of Revenue is in charge of national finance and taxation, compared to the other five ministries, the people in the Ministry of Revenue are almost all those who deal with numbers all day long. , most of them were tortured into lifeless weirdos without much anger.
Meng Xinghe's office is a separate room, which is specially prepared for Lord Shangshu. In addition to reporting work on weekdays, the officials below who are busy with statistics will not easily come to disturb unless it is an important issue. Under normal circumstances, his job as the Minister of Household Affairs is quite leisurely.
However, two days before Meng Xinghe went to the Ministry of Household Affairs, the officials below brought a thick stack of detailed accounts of Datang's annual tax and fiscal expenditures in recent years and placed them in front of him for his review. Because his predecessor Yu Shangshu passed away suddenly, and there has been no Shangshu in the Ministry of Revenue for several years. In the past, the Shangshu ordered Master Du to handle these matters. Now that there is a new Shangshu, these things must of course be given to him to read, sign and seal before they can be revised. It is best to put it in the specially set up archives room of the household department for future review.
Fortunately, Meng Xinghe was a science student in his previous life, and he basically didn't have much resistance to accounts such as numbers. He worked efficiently and ensured quality, and in just two days, he completed all the accounts accumulated by the Account Department for several years. After reading and confirming that the account books were correct, he signed and stamped them all, then put the account books aside, then took a pen and wrote something on the desk. After finishing writing, he asked the guards outside to check the three persons under the household department. Important officials in charge, including Doctor Duzhi, Doctor Jinbu, and Warehouse Doctor, were all called in to hold a brief meeting to arrange the next work.
The three chief doctors came in from outside respectively. Except for Dr. Duzhi, who was slightly older, the other two doctors were all middle-aged. However, Meng Xinghe felt that these three people were just like those he met when he was studying at Peking University. The people in the Mathematics Department of Peking University all look the same. They talk very little and rarely smile. They have a typical rigorous style. I am afraid that they have been dealing with finance and taxation for a long time and have developed a habit of being meticulous. They are not even allowed to meet their superiors. Every bit of sloppiness.
Meng Xinghe had already recognized these three doctors on the day he arrived at the Ministry of Household Affairs. The older one was Mr. Wang. He was currently the doctor of Duzhi and was a subordinate official of the Ministry of Household Affairs. He was responsible for taking charge of the world's rents, property, land and water, and the year-end. Accounting is the most important department in the household department, including accounting expenditures and many other things directly linked to the national economy. The young Mr. Li and the tall, thin and dark Mr. He are the finance department and the warehouse respectively. Among the doctors of the two departments, there used to be an old minister who managed these three departments. However, the old minister has also been ill and has been recuperating at home for two years. He has not been to the household department for a long time. Therefore, there has been no chancellor for a long time, and there is no minister in charge. The Ministry of Revenue, under the hard management of these three people, did not make any important achievements, but they did not make any mistakes. However, today the new minister suddenly summoned them, and these three people did not show any arrogance or take the credit. They went to fiddle with him and came to Meng Xinghe's special office. Although the three of them were older than Meng Xinghe, they still followed the etiquette of a subordinate meeting a superior.
Meng Xinghe asked the three of them to sit down separately. They all said that the new official had three things to do when he took office. He had never thought of this. He just looked at the details of the accounts made by the Department of Accounts. Compared with the accounts of the private business of his Dragon Gang, what was recorded above It is extremely detailed and the accounts are clearly organized. It can be seen at a glance that Datang spends a huge amount of money on those aspects every year, and there are still some shortcomings in some aspects. Meng Xinghe has only taken over the household department now, so it is obvious that such talents are needed. He was able to have a little leisure time, so he was not so foolish as to set fire to show the dignity of the new official.
The three adults did not have the same temperament towards Meng Xinghe as those who show off their power when they are young. Instead, they were neither happy nor angry, and were quite polite to them. This made the three adults say nothing, but secretly sighed in their hearts that the newly appointed minister was not Simple, no wonder he won the favor of the Holy Spirit at such a young age.
Meng Xinghe did not speculate on the thoughts of his subordinates. He took the account of the household department sent by Mr. Wang two days ago, expressed his own opinions on some of the records on it, and said: "I just took a look at what was written on it." , basically there is nothing wrong, it’s just that some of the records about numbers are too detailed. I called the three adults here today. In addition to everyone having a deeper understanding of each other, I also made a little suggestion, "
The three adults were obviously surprised that they were able to read the detailed accounts of the Tang Dynasty's national taxes and expenditures in the past five years in two days. Today's adults are really born to be ministers of the Ministry of Accounts. You know, these few accounts alone are amazing. It only took a few months to compile the statistics. Now, in the eyes of Master Shangshu, it only takes two days to read them all. He always modestly said that he had just glanced at them, but in fact, he had already frightened people quite a lot.
Meng Xinghe personally handed over what he had just written to the hands of the three adults, "The accounts I just saw recorded by the officials of the Ministry of Revenue were all written in the Tang Dynasty script. This notation is a little complicated. You What I have in my hand is a type of numbers that I wrote earlier that are used by countries in the Western Regions to count, called Arabic numerals. If we use these numbers to count, then our accounting department will be more efficient in accounting. Quick, you three adults, please watch it by yourself first. If there is anything you don’t understand, I will try my best to clarify it."
I have read through the account books before, and although the accounts recorded above are clearly visible, they all use the counting method written in Chinese characters in the Tang Dynasty. If Arabic counting is used, it will undoubtedly be an improvement in this aspect.
The three adults are all people who have been dealing with numbers all year round. Meng Xinghe not only wrote the ten strange numbers on the paper, but also gave some examples in words. They easily understood that the ten numbers were used in modern Chinese characters of the Tang Dynasty. What do the two represent? They all secretly sighed. It is really simple to write like this. It seems that this Lord Shangshu did not just come to the position just to flatter others. He really has great talents and learning in his heart. Otherwise, he would not have just been in the Ministry of Revenue for two days. will make such meaningful reforms.
Although it is known that Meng Xinghe's move has saved the Ministry of Household Affairs a lot of time in writing relevant numbers, it is still very difficult to promote this matter. After all, there are hundreds of officials in the Ministry of Household Affairs alone who are accustomed to the previous counting method. Maybe Still unable to adapt for the moment, among the three adults, Mr. Wang, who is the oldest and has the most say, is not uncooperative with Meng Xinghe's work. He said: "Your Majesty's move is indeed a first for our household department, but not to mention the household department. , even the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Finance, which the company commander interacts with the Ministry of Accounts, will sometimes go to the Ministry of Accounts to borrow some accounts to look at the expenses they spent during the year. If we use I'm afraid that officials from other departments cannot understand the method you mentioned of counting using Arabic numerals. This is also a very important problem when communicating and accepting review by the Ministry of Finance. If we want to implement it, we must let all departments in the three provinces and six ministries All the officials in the Ministry of Accounts must learn Arabic numerals so that they can understand the accounts of our Ministry of Accounts in the future. Is such a reform too far-reaching and affecting the whole body?"
Mr. Wang said this after considering all aspects. This is indeed a difficult problem. However, without Meng Xinghe thinking too much, he immediately thought of a solution and said: "In my opinion, if you want to implement this matter, you only need to Your Excellency wrote a memorial to the Holy One, and selected some officials from the three provinces and six ministries and sent them to the Tang Dynasty to set up national demonstration schools in Luoyang, the eastern capital, and the Imperial College in Chang'an, to learn the counting method of Arabic numerals. In two or three years, the problem will be solved naturally."
"Good idea," Meng Xinghe slapped his thigh. It seems that there is such a knowledgeable person in his household department who actually thought of sending the court officials out to study again. He is worthy of someone who has been dealing with numbers for many years. His logical thinking is simply Careful, he felt as if he had found a treasure, and said: "What Mr. Wang said is true. I will write to the Holy One tomorrow. If this matter can be accomplished, Mr. Wang will be indispensable."
Mr. Wang did not dare to take credit and said: "Without Mr. Meng's bricks, there would be my jade leads. I wonder if you have seen the accounts of our household department in the past five years and if you have any suggestions, I would like to take advantage of this opportunity." People modify it so that it can be archived later,"
Meng Xinghe didn't have any suggestions. He knew that these accounts were all audited by the above, and there could be no mistakes. He smiled and said: "I don't have any suggestions. What is written above is extremely detailed, including the details of various banknote expenditures and the national statistics." All state and county tax revenues have been recorded, and all the tasks that have been put aside in the past have been solved today. I don’t know what our Ministry of Household Affairs needs to do next,”
It can be regarded as the vacancy of the previous Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, so all the remaining tasks are solved at once today. What should be done next? When Meng Xinghe first arrived, he did not know the daily rules of the Ministry of Revenue, and he had no idea what the Minister had to do. Knowing that the Lord Wang in front of him had been his subordinate when the former Minister of the Ministry of Revenue was still alive, he was naturally familiar with what the Minister should do. Meng Xinghe was not ashamed to ask. Lord Wang was very frightened and said: "What the Lord needs to do every day , that is, to check the accounts submitted by the three of us, and then sign and seal them. However, the Holy Sage has said that he will let you patrol the south of the Yangtze River for him. When you are no longer here, these things can of course be completed by the lower officials. "
Mr. Wang didn't say anything, Meng Xinghe had almost forgotten about it. It seemed that he had to prepare for his trip to Jiangnan. This time he returned home in fine clothes under Li Shimin's order. Jiangnan was prosperous, and the accounts recorded that the annual tax revenue accounted for 10% of the country's total. One third, he, Meng Xinghe, is getting a big deal this time. He can take all his family members to experience the surging mood of Emperor Sui Yang's three trips to the south of the Yangtze River, and he has countless charms.