I studied in modern times

Chapter 725 Wu Hou's Manuscript
A quarter of an hour later, Lu Gongzhu looked at the account book in his hand and began to mutter to himself.

"In the past, Wang Jiefu used the name of financial management to shake the world and brazenly changed the laws of our ancestors..."

"Now the government does not change the wise policies of our ancestors, but uses its holy virtue to govern them. The money it earns is no less than that of Wang Anshi who shook the world..."

"From this we can see that the laws of our ancestors are good, but in the past the officials below implemented them incorrectly."

Liu Weijian listened from the side, just smiled and did not comment.

But in my heart, I was full of complaints.

When it came to changing the ancestral laws, Wang Anshi did it just for fun.

The truly powerful one is still the young master!

Less than two years after ascending the throne, he had already come up with new ideas for changing the ancestral laws.

However, no one in the government or the public had any objection.

Even singing praises.

The ministers of the New Party believed that "the holy ruler inherited the power and virtue of the divine father and continued the great policies of Xi and Feng."

The old party felt that "the Lord is kind and benevolent, like the benevolent ancestors, who personally follow the laws of their ancestors and the teachings of the saints."

To be honest, Liu Weijian didn’t quite understand.

But he doesn't need to understand this.

He waited for Lü Gongzhu to finish his sigh, then asked, "Does the Left Prime Minister need to check the account book on the spot?"

He pointed to the dozens of officials holding abacuses standing by outside and said, "If necessary, these finance officials can start immediately."

Lu Gongzhu nodded slightly. He was also quite curious about how the various departments usually settled their accounts.

It should be noted that all the departments in charge of the administration have to calculate the salaries of civil and military officials in Beijing every month to ensure that the salaries are paid accurately and on time.

This task is extremely large and tedious.

As an accounting expert, Lu Gongzhu knew that to do this job well, there was no need to do any accounting.

Liu Weijian nodded and told the officials in the courtyard outside the gate: "All the finance officials, start calculating."

Then, dozens of people immediately took out their abacus and bowed in response.

Then, Lu Gongzhu saw dozens of boys in green clothes appear in the courtyard.

The boys brought tables and stools.

They placed these things in front of the officials.

Then the boys started to get busy.

They walked in an orderly manner towards the room where the account books were stored in front of Lü Gongzhu and Liu Weijian.
Then the boys began to search the bookshelves where the account books were kept.

Lu Gongzhu discovered that all the bookshelves were covered with words written on hemp paper.

A, B, C, D…

Then each row of the bookshelf was labeled with numbers.

Lu Gongzhu looked at it and nodded slightly in approval.

Categorize and file documents according to reason and date. This is a method of organizing documents that is becoming popular in the palace and the capital.

Lian Chongwenyuan has now begun to use this method to reorganize and archive various historical materials and archives.

This is indeed a good idea. It saves a lot of trouble and makes many things easier.

Just ...

"Who are those boys?" asked Lu Gongzhu.

"Oh..." Liu Wei replied simply, "They are all students of the finance officer of this yamen!"

"Duzhi official?" Lu Gongzhu chewed on the word.

The Ministry of Revenue of the Song Dynasty had Duzhi Langzhong and Duzhi Yuanwailang, who were in charge of the Duzhi Department of the Ministry of Revenue.

Its duty is to "support military and national expenses and calculate the income and expenditure as well as the amount of funds."

This position is already very powerful, and since the current emperor ascended the throne, he has attached particular importance to the Duzhisi.

Therefore, he ordered Zhang Heng, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, to concurrently serve as the judge of the Ministry of Revenue.

So, these people are officials from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance?
Not like ah!
Because the total number of people in the Duzhisi was only fifty-six.

But there were at least twenty or thirty financial officials in front of him.

If they were all officials from the Duzhisi, it would be equivalent to calling almost all the staff of the Duzhisi over, and the Duzhisi would have to shut down.

Seeing this, Liu Weijian explained, "Left Prime Minister, these Duzhi officials are not officials of the Duzhi Division."

"The officials and clerks of the Ministry of Revenue are all gentlemen...especially the gentlemen of the Ministry of Finance...why would they do such 'un-Confucian officials' things?'" He said leisurely, with a bit of dissatisfaction in his tone.

Liu Weijian had a lot of complaints against the senior officials in the Ministry of Revenue.

The main thing is that when he first took office as the Director of the Ministry of Finance, he borrowed a few civil officials from the Ministry of Revenue to help.

result……

When the people from the Ministry of Revenue arrived at the various departments' special account offices, they saw that they were actually asked to settle the accounts.

His face fell immediately.

It was because of his identity that she did not dare to attack.

But the next day, they all said they were sick and didn't come.

If only it were that!
The key point is that those guys also told outsiders that "the eunuchs in power humiliated us and forced us to do the work of clerks! It's really hateful!"

The listener immediately gave the standard answer of the Song Dynasty scholars and officials: Is this what a Confucian official would do? The eunuchs have deceived us too much!

After Liu Weijian heard this, he kept it in mind.

It's just that he has a good temper. If it were Shi Deyi or Song Yongchen, they would have found an opportunity to teach those guys a lesson.

However, this matter has always been hidden in Liu Weijian's heart.

If he gets a chance, he will use it to investigate the Ministry of Revenue.

He even complained about this in front of Zhao Xu.

As Lu Gongzhu listened, his heart moved, and he recalled the series of personnel changes after Zhang Heng was appointed as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue by the emperor himself.

First, the Minister of Revenue Wang Cun was transferred to the Minister of Punishment, the Minister of Rites Zeng Xiaokuan was changed to the Minister of Revenue, and the Minister of Rites Han Zhongyan was transferred to the Minister of Personnel.

After Zhang Heng took office, he immediately reformed the Ministry of Revenue.

Especially after he took on the position of judge of the Duzhisi, the entire Duzhisi was cleansed up.

All the original officials were removed from the Ministry of Revenue on the grounds of incompetence and sent to the Ministry of Personnel to wait for vacancies.

So the root is here!

Then Liu Weijian said, "Your teachings are still right...both the people and the government should be self-reliant."

"So, I petitioned everyone and asked Kaifeng Prefecture to publicly recruit some clerks who were good at accounting, and set up the framework..."

"Then, we asked Mr. Lu from the Imperial College for help, and invited some mathematics teachers to help..."

"Later, the Grand Tutor heard about my predicament and invited a number of famous arithmetic masters from Henan Prefecture to come to me..."

To be precise, Wen Yanbo was looking for those mathematicians who had followed Shao Yong back then.

In order to write Huangji Jingshishu, Shao Yong supported many people who were interested in mathematics.

These people naturally felt comfortable when they followed Shao Yong.

However, after Shao Yong's death, they were forced to live in the market, relying on doing accounting for merchants for a living, and many of them were unable to make ends meet.

As soon as Wen Yanbo called, these people rushed to Bian Jing to seek refuge.

"With the help of these people, I worked hard and finally took on the task of the various departments and the special departments!" At this point, Liu Weijian straightened his chest and said, "Because of this, I would like to ask everyone to give the clerks of the various departments and the special departments a title."

"I am honored by your grace and appointed as the 'Duzhi official' by your imperial decree..." At this point, Liu Weijian couldn't help but curl up his lips slightly: "Your majesty has granted me the title of 'Duzhi official', and I can be dismissed after serving for ten years without any fault."

Lu Gongzhu nodded and couldn't help but look at Liu Weijian again.

I secretly sighed in my heart, Liu Weijian is really in the emperor's heart!

I wonder what the officials of the Ministry of Revenue would think if they knew about this.

Oh……

The person in charge of the Ministry of Revenue now is Zhang Heng, Zhang Ziping.

That's all right! Zhang Heng and Wang Zishao were both regarded as the henchmen of the emperor.

As the two were talking, the sound of abacus clacking could be heard in the yard.

The boys took out the account books one after another and delivered them to the finance officials.

The finance officials were busy all the time while looking at the account books.

The beads went up and down, making crackling sounds, and they quickly calculated the accounts one by one.

In just a quarter of an hour, a finance official stood up and reported, "My Lord, the account of the Tailoring Office has been confirmed to be correct, and there is nothing missing..."

"The total income was 128,000 guan, the expenditure was 167,000 guan, and the loss was 39,000 guan..."

This shocked Lu Gongzhu.

So fast?
How did you do it?
But, this is just the beginning.

In the following half hour, each finance official quickly settled their accounts.

The reported results were almost exactly the same as the numbers in the account book in Lu Gongzhu's hand.

Lu Gongzhu couldn't help but come down and calculate the simplest tailoring house himself.

But he was obviously much slower in using the abacus. It took him more than half an hour to do the calculation, while the finance official only took less than a quarter of an hour.

"How did you do it?" Lü Gongzhu couldn't help but ask, "Why are you calculating so fast?"

"Practice makes perfect!" the finance official replied, bowing.

Lu Gongzhu shook his head: "I have been dealing with abacus all my life..."

"But it's not even 30% of your speed..."

The finance official looked at Liu Weijian, then bowed his head and said, "My lord, even if we have nothing to do, we still need to practice for more than three hours in the office every day!"

"In addition, the guard also taught us a copy of Wu Hou's manuscript "Abacus Formulas" which was hidden in the palace... That's why we can do this..."

"The posthumous manuscripts of Wu Hou? Abacus formulas?" Lu Gongzhu was stunned for a moment.

He knew that the so-called Wu Hou's manuscripts were mostly forged.

But he was very interested in this abacus formula.

Then, he turned around and bowed to Liu Weijian: "Unknown supervisor, would you be willing to give me a copy of the "Abacus Formulas"?"

Liu Weijian smiled and nodded, and told a boy, "Go get a table of abacus formulas for the left prime minister!"

……

Late at night, in Lu Gongzhu's study, a bright candle illuminated the study.

Lu Gongzhu was sitting in the study, holding a thin piece of paper in his hand, looking at it intently and exclaiming in admiration from time to time.

"Sir..." Lu Xichun walked in quietly and said, "It's time to rest... I have to go to the palace to pay homage to the emperor tomorrow..."

Lu Gongzhu put down the paper in his hand, let out a sigh, and asked, "What time is it?"

"It's almost midnight." Lu Xichun replied.

"It's so late..." Lu Gongzhu solemnly placed the page of paper in his hand on the desk and weighed it down with a paperweight.

"Where is Lu Xizhe?" he asked as if he remembered something.

"Master Lu Nong held a banquet at home and invited my brother to attend, but he has not returned yet..."

Lu Gongzhu's brows suddenly furrowed.

"This rebellious son..." He gritted his teeth, "He's going to be lawless!"

But there was nothing he could do.

Because Lu Xizhe is very close to the government.

Many things might have been done by orders from the government.

In other words, they are doing their job on orders!
Good thing...

His uncle Lu Hui is not bad either.

Wang Jiefu's adopted grandson, Wang Di, has been with him for almost two months.

Now, Wang Di has begun to call him "En Xiang" in private.

That's good.

If you kidnap my children and grandchildren, I will take your grandchildren as my student or son-in-law.

That stubborn husband is so mad!
……

It’s just past three o’clock.

Surrounded by Yuan followers, Lu Xizhe returned home drunk.

"Brother, why did you come back just now..." Lu Xichun opened the door and welcomed Lu Xizhe in: "My Lord asked about my brother tonight..."

"Father asked about me?" Lu Xizhe sobered up immediately and asked quickly, "Is there something wrong?"

Lu Xichun shook his head and said, "However, since returning home in the evening, father has been in the study, looking at a piece of paper he brought back..."

Lu Xizhe nodded: "Got it!"

"Go to bed, brother!" He put his hands behind his back and walked towards his old father's study.

Lu Xichun looked at it, his eyelids twitching constantly.

At that time, my uncle Lu Gongbi wanted to explain the drawbacks of the new law to the late emperor.

The draft has been written and is placed in my study.

As a result, Lu Jiawen asked that bastard to sneak in, copy a copy and give it to Wang Anshi.

Therefore, all of my uncle's remarks and evidence were reported to the late emperor in advance.

The uncle was furious and scolded Lu Jiawen as a "traitor in the family".

Of course, privately, they brothers secretly speculated - perhaps, their uncle deliberately asked Lu Jiawen to steal the book.

Because the new law cannot be shaken by a thin draft.

Therefore, my uncle is leaving a way out for the Lu family.

Thinking of this, Lu Xichun swallowed back the words that were about to stop him.

It was not only because he trusted Lu Xizhe, but also because he knew that Lu Xizhe would not betray his father like Lu Jiawen.

It was also because he wanted to see what was on the piece of paper that his father had been looking at all night.
……

Lu Xizhe slipped into his father's study and walked to the desk with ease.

Yes!
He would never betray his father.

However, some things are better to know in advance.

This way at least we can be prepared.

When Lu Xizhe looked at the desk, he saw the paper pressed down by the paperweight.

He picked it up carefully, walked to the candlestick, and looked at it in the candlelight.

"Five minus four... four minus six plus one..."

"Three minus five divided by two... four minus six plus one..."

Just as he was looking puzzled, he discovered that there was another piece of paper underneath this one.

He picked it up and saw his father's handwriting: "Rebellious son! Starting tomorrow, your brothers, father and son will all be confined to their homes and not allowed to go out until you can recite the abacus formulas passed down in this manuscript by Wu Hou by heart and become familiar with the abacus!"
Lu Xizhe suddenly froze in place, like a hamster with its neck strangled.

Needless to say, this is a trap!
And he was trapped!

"Why am I so stupid?" he sighed.

After what happened with Lu Jiawen, his father became extra careful in everything he did.

Where would there be any loophole for him to exploit?
Just ...

Lu Xizhe thought of those two times last year...

and so……

"My Lord deliberately let me see those things..." He lowered his head silently.

(End of this chapter)