Awaken Chapter 112

Hour of the day.

The Ministry of the Household.

With Xu Qingnian’s arrival, the Household Department was completely quiet at this moment.

Everyone inexplicably had a sense of fear towards Xu Qingnian.

If Xu Qingnian glanced at anyone, the latter instantly lowered his head, not daring to look directly at him.

No one dared to mess with this god, and with the lessons of the Ministry of Justice in front of them, no one dared to mess around.

However, the Ministry of the Household had its own methods, and they were not as stupid as the Ministry of Penalties, who directly gave Xu Qingnian small shoes, but did their best to cooperate, only this best was a bit too much.

If you want the files, I’ll give you all the files, so you can take your time and check them out.

It was only Xu Qingnian’s sudden visit that made the entire Household Department a little nervous, thinking that Xu Qingnian had come over to look for trouble.

“Greetings, Lord Xu.”

“Good morning, Lord Xu.”

However, when they saw Xu Qingnian, they still opened their mouths and said “Lord Xu”.

Xu Qingnian returned a smile one by one.

At that moment, someone came up.

“Lord Xu, Minister Gu asks you to go to the inner hall.”

The other person spoke up and informed Xu Qingnian that Lord Gu had been waiting in the inner hall for a long time.

“Good.”

Xu Qingnian had come over this time to find Shang Shu Gu as well.

He walked towards the inner hall, and soon a dozen figures appeared in the inner hall, looking at the stance, it inexplicably looked like some kind of a three-chamber trial.

Gu Yan stood in the middle of the crowd, his face was thin, his hair was a little gray, he looked almost close to seventy years old, wearing the official robe of the Shang Shu, standing with his hands folded, looking at himself from a short distance away.

“My humble servant Xu Qingnian, I’d like to meet Shang Shu Gu, the two lords of the court, and all my fellow officials.”

Xu Qingnian also appeared calm as he walked up and said this.

“En.” Gu Yan nodded, and then spoke, “Have you accounted for the dossier you took away the other day?”

Gu Yan asked directly, he had originally planned to make a trip to Xu Qingnian yesterday, but in the end, he calmed down.

What exactly Xu Qingnian had in mind, he didn’t know, whether he was going to move against the royal lineage, he didn’t know either, but the only thing Gu Yan could do was to stall Xu Qingnian for time.

Yes, stall for time, Xu Qingnian wanted to check the tax and silver of the Household Ministry right? That’s fine, go and look at the information first, when you’ve finished reading and accounting, then come back to yourself.

At that time, we will talk slowly.

As for the fact that Xu Qingnian has the Dragon Talisman in his hand, he doesn’t care about anything. His Majesty has said that the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Penalty are at Xu Qingnian’s disposal, and that the Ministry of Household is just a support.

The first of these is the fact that the government has to be able to do what it wants to do, but if it can’t, then it can’t say that much.

“The accounting has been completed.”

Xu Qingnian opened her mouth and said with a faint smile.

When this was said, the crowd’s faces changed slightly, while Gu Yan’s expression remained unchanged and he just looked at Xu Qingnian and said.

“Qingnian, it’s not that this official is looking down on you, it’s just that you took more than 8,000 dossiers the other day, and each one of them is incredibly long, so if we were to let the entire Ministry of Finance do the math, it would take a month.”

“You haven’t even had twenty days to finish the accounting here?”

Gu Yan was not surprised, but asked directly.

The Ministry of the Household sent Xu Qingnian more than 8,300 volumes, before and after, and you had to read them all for a month, right? Even if you, Xu Qingnian, were to read them at a glance, half a month would be needed, right?

Now in 20 days, you say you have not only finished reading but also finished accounting? Are you not bluffing?

“Lord Shang Shu, the subordinate official has his own method of accounting, here is a breakdown of all the expenses for the past thirty years, I hope Lord Shang Shu will verify it.”

“Oh, yes, there is also a list of omissions, after reading it, you have to investigate and deal with it immediately, I believe that the officials of the Ministry of Finance are clean and upright, but after all, it is better to be cautious when it comes to money and taxes.”

“Otherwise, it would be bad if they were caught in the act.”

Xu Qingnian handed over two copies of the rice paper, one with the numbers that had been accounted for over the years and one with the areas where mistakes had been made.

At that moment, the Ministry of the Household frowned, while Gu Yan half-heartedly accepted the thick stack of paper, before turning his gaze to it.

With just one glance, Gu Yan’s face changed.

Xu Qingnian’s way of arranging things was too subtle, calculating expenses and income in a clear manner, whether or not this method was difficult to learn was one thing, but the main thing was that it was convenient

It was like if His Majesty needed to see the tax revenue of the Household Department of the Great Wei, the presentation would be a large pile of volumes.

Then he would look at them one by one.

Xu Qingnian’s copy was very concise, and Xu Qingnian had even marked the contents of that volume, so that it would be easy to review and avoid problems.

Gu Yan could tell in an instant that this thing could improve the efficiency of the Ministry of Household Affairs by at least 30%, and in the future, when everyone was accounting, it could save too much trouble.

When he looked at the accounts again, he was amazed at every item he read.

The more he looked at them, the more shocked he became.

As the Minister of Household, he knew the accounts of the Ministry of Household best, and it was not too much to say that he was familiar with them, so he could compare each of Xu Qingnian’s accounts in his mind.

There was not a single mistake.

And where there was an error, it would be marked on the other copy, because it was itself the wrong account.

“Good!”

A quarter of an hour later.

Gu Yan couldn’t help but lose his voice and shout out a good one.

And the other officials of the Household Ministry were a little surprised, they did not know what Gu Yan had read and why he had shouted yes straight away.

Sensing the gazes of the crowd, Gu Yan took a deep breath and glanced at the crowd, before handing the thing in his hand to the Left Servant and said, “Watch it well, verify it again, and study it carefully.”

After saying this, Gu Yan looked towards Xu Qingnian and said.

“Qingnian, come in with me.”

This move by Xu Qingnian made Gu Yan no longer dare to underestimate him.

To be honest, it was not that Gu Yan despised Xu Qingnian, but Xu Qingnian’s literary skills were called Wangu, and he had a talent for investigating cases, a great talent in the literary world, a great talent in the Ministry of Justice.

But if it is not the great talent of the Ministry of Household, who can know?

What is the foundation of the Ministry of the Household? To put it most simply, it is arithmetic.

As for the collection of taxes, that is a different level, a political factor, and the bottom line of the Ministry of the Household is to account for it clearly and then check for fishy things from it.

Xu Qingnian’s form was of great significance, at least to the Ministry of the Household, and was extremely helpful.

Soon the crowd gathered around.

And Xu Qingnian also walked into the room.

“Sit.”

Gu Yan motioned for Xu Qingnian to sit, while deliberately pouring tea for Xu Qingnian.

“Qingnian, what you gave me just now, is it really what you wrote in these twenty days?”

Gu Yan inquired.

“In reply to Lord Shang Shu, to be more precise, seventeen days.”

Xu Qingnian said without being condescending.

Gu Yan: “…….”

“In seventeen days, how did you calculate clearly? With all due respect, eight thousand three hundred and fifty-four volumes, you would have to read them for half a month just to read them, right?”

“In other words, it only took you two days to account for what the Ministry of the Household needed three or four months to account for.”

Gu Yan couldn’t help but ask.

“Uh …… Maybe that’s talent.”

Xu Qingnian scratched his head somewhat embarra*sedly and said.

Gu Yan: “……”

Looking at Gu Yan, who was silent, Xu Qingnian did not intend to act anymore, but took out a piece of paper and said.

“Lord Shang Shu, I know what you want to ask.”

“It is nothing more than to ask the subordinate official about the method of arithmetic being both accurate and efficient.”

“In fact, the subordinate official just changed the algorithm.”

Xu Qingnian spoke up, knowing what Gu Yan wanted to ask, so he was straightforward.

“A different algorithm? Tell me.”

Gu Yan got up and came to Xu Qingnian’s side, with a gesture of not being ashamed to ask.

And Xu Qingnian didn’t hide it either, this kind of thing was better to be brought out earlier, at least it was a good thing for Great Wei.

Reducing manpower costs and improving efficiency, it could even be extended nationwide, and it would be a kind of national strengthening.

“Gu Shang Shu, the method of accounting for the Ministry of the Household, should be with the help of something like the abacus, but want to really skilled in learning the abacus, first of all more trouble, the second is that each account needs to be repeated over and over again but several times, otherwise the error rate is great.”

“Then one could use addition and subtraction arithmetic to do the accounting.”

“But accounting with addition and subtraction arithmetic requires replacing numbers, for example, this word one, to be changed to this.”

Xu Qingnian patiently explained for Gu Shangshu, dropping out the Arabic numerals as well by the way, ten in total.

Gu Yan, who was at the side, listened with great interest and was full of learning attitude, not daring to breathe a single breath.

“Gu Shang Shu can understand these ten numbers as symbols, this is one and this is two, not to be confused.”

“Suppose a sum of money is received this year, one thousand four hundred and eighty-five thousand six hundred and twenty-three taels, and then the expenditure is eight hundred and fifty-six thousand four hundred and twenty-one taels, then a simple subtraction can be made.”

Xu Qingnian wrote the numbers up, followed by the conversion, and said in the tone of a primary school teacher teaching someone.

“Decrease the number by a large amount, borrow if you don’t have enough, then this, then this, and finally this.”

“The result is, Liu Hundred and Twenty Nine Thousand, Two Thousand, Two Hundred and Twenty Two.”

Xu Qingnian spent close to two quarters of an hour going over the principles of addition and subtraction.

In fact, the concept of addition and subtraction already existed in Great Wei, which had the art of the nine calculations of the Heavenly Chips, which also counted as addition and subtraction.

The core point of what Xu Qingnian taught to Gu Shangshu was not addition and subtraction, but Arabic numbers.

After all, once you need to do the calculations, it is a question of whether it is troublesome to take an abacus and crackle it around.

The main thing is that you have to do it again after you’ve done it once. A few hundred taels is easier, but what about tens of thousands? How about hundreds of thousands of taels? How about a few million taels? What about even tens of millions of taels, tens of thousands of taels?

How many volumes of expenditure and income of a country can be added up?

In the Ministry of Accounts of the Great Wei, 70% of the staff are engaged in calculating money every day for 30 days a month, is this tiring? Is it troublesome? Is it a waste of time?

We can use Arabic instead of numbers, not to mention tens of thousands of taels, even if it’s millions of taels, it’s just adding a few more zeros.

“Gu Shang Shu, have you learnt to waste?”

Xu Qingnian asked.

If it hadn’t been learned, it would have to be taught again.

“Old man …… Understood.”

Gu Yan came back from his shock and heard Xu Qingnian speak in this manner, at that moment Gu Yan fetched a brush and directly began to calculate.

Gu Yan casually wrote a series of numbers, followed by another series of numbers, following the method of addition and subtraction taught by Xu Qingnian, although there was a lag, but the speed was not slow.

After a while, Gu Yan worked out the answer.

Immediately afterwards, he took out a handful of abacuses from a side cabinet and began to account for them.

The same calculation, Gu Yan Gu Shang Shu was proficient in the art of abacus, tapping and tapping, was a few breaths slower than the previous one, but it was also calculated.

After comparing the two, they came up with the exact same figures!

Hiss!

At this moment, Gu Yan, the head of the Ministry of Household Affairs, was completely frozen in place.

Xu Qingnian was calm, sipping his tea and looking at ease.

After a while, Shang Shu Gu swallowed fiercely and looked towards Xu Qingnian.

“Da Cai!”

“Da Cai!”

“Shouren! You are truly a great talent of the ages!”

Gu Yan grabbed Xu Qingnian’s arm with a deadly grip, excitedly shouting repeatedly, calling Xu Qingnian a great talent of the ages.

However, Xu Qingnian pulled her hand out and said with a serious face.

“Lord Gu, men and women are not intimate, and men and women are even less intimate, I’m going to sue you for this.”

He did not discriminate against the love of dragon and yang, but putting it on himself would not do, especially when he was still so old, this was definitely not okay.

“This algorithm.”

“If it is extended, the efficiency of the Ministry of Accounts will be greatly increased by at least several times in the future.”

“Xu Shouren, you are truly a great talent of the ages.”

Shang Shu Gu did not care about Xu Qingnian’s remarks, but said with unparalleled excitement.

Xu Qingnian’s algorithm was not so much accurate as it was simple and extremely easy to learn, there was no need to learn to plan a dial or to go back and forth for fear of accidentally getting it wrong.

After all, if you accidentally played the abacus too fast, you would be prone to errors, so generally speaking an accounting would require five people to do separate calculations, and the five people must come up with the same answer before it could be recorded in the dossier.

But with the figures invented by Xu Qingnian, it was even simpler, as the five people still had to do the calculations once, but there was no need to foolishly keep tapping the abacus, just add and subtract, and the result would soon be reached.

Wouldn’t this reduce manpower considerably?

The rest of the staff could do other things, and the efficiency of the Household Department could be at least doubled.

And what is the Household Department? It’s the department that controls Wei’s finances, and by speeding up the basic accounting, it will be able to do other things effectively.

This is a boon to the Household Department. A day or two may not feel like much, but in time, a year, a decade, a century.

How much time could be saved in between?

Gu Yan really did not expect that Xu Qingnian was not only extremely talented in literature, he did not expect to have such a terrifying talent in the Household Ministry as well.

What the hell kind of person was this?

Could he really be a great talent of the ages?

At this moment, Gu Yan couldn’t help but have a phrase floating in his mind.

”If the heavens do not give birth to me, Xu Qingnian, the Confucian Way is like a long night.”

Gu Yan inexplicably wanted to change two words for Xu Qingnian.

“The result is, Liu Hundred and Twenty Nine Thousand, Two Thousand, Two Thousand and Two.”

Xu Qingnian spent close to two quarters of an hour going over the principles of addition and subtraction.

In fact, the concept of addition and subtraction already existed in Great Wei, which had the art of the nine calculations of the Heavenly Chips, which also counted as addition and subtraction.

The core point of what Xu Qingnian taught to Gu Shangshu was not addition and subtraction, but Arabic numbers.

After all, once you need to do the calculations, it is a question of whether it is troublesome to take an abacus and crackle it around.

The main thing is that you have to do it again after you’ve done it once. A few hundred taels is easier, but what about tens of thousands? How about hundreds of thousands of taels? How about a few million taels? What about even tens of millions of taels, tens of thousands of taels?

How many volumes of expenditure and income of a country can be added up?

In the Ministry of Accounts of the Great Wei, 70% of the staff are engaged in calculating money every day for 30 days a month, is this tiring? Is it troublesome? Is it a waste of time?

We can use Arabic instead of numbers, not to mention tens of thousands of taels, even if it’s millions of taels, it’s just adding a few more zeros.

“Gu Shang Shu, have you learnt to waste?”

Xu Qingnian asked.

If it hadn’t been learned, it would have to be taught again.

“Old man …… Understood.”

Gu Yan came back from his shock and heard Xu Qingnian speak in this manner, at that moment Gu Yan fetched a brush and directly began to calculate.

Gu Yan casually wrote a series of numbers, followed by another series of numbers, following the method of addition and subtraction taught by Xu Qingnian, although there was a lag, but the speed was not slow.

After a while, Gu Yan worked out the answer.

Immediately afterwards, he took out a handful of abacuses from a side cabinet and began to account for them.

The same calculation, Gu Yan Gu Shang Shu was proficient in the art of abacus, tapping and tapping, was a few breaths slower than the previous one, but it was also calculated.

After comparing the two, they came up with the exact same figures!

Hiss!

At this moment, Gu Yan, the head of the Ministry of Household Affairs, was completely frozen in place.

Xu Qingnian was calm, sipping his tea and looking at ease.

After a while, Shang Shu Gu swallowed fiercely and looked towards Xu Qingnian.

“Da Cai!”

“Da Cai!”

“Shouren! You are truly a great talent of the ages!”

Gu Yan grabbed Xu Qingnian’s arm with a deadly grip, excitedly shouting repeatedly, calling Xu Qingnian a great talent of the ages.

However, Xu Qingnian pulled her hand out and said with a serious face.

“Lord Gu, men and women are not intimate, and men and women are even less intimate, I’m going to sue you for this.”

He did not discriminate against the love of dragon and yang, but putting it on himself would not do, especially when he was still so old, this was definitely not okay.

“This algorithm.”

“If it is extended, the efficiency of the Ministry of Accounts will be greatly increased by at least several times in the future.”

“Xu Shouren, you are truly a great talent of the ages.”

Shang Shu Gu did not care about Xu Qingnian’s remarks, but said with unparalleled excitement.

Xu Qingnian’s algorithm was not so much accurate as it was simple and extremely easy to learn, there was no need to learn to plan a dial or to go back and forth for fear of accidentally getting it wrong.

After all, if you accidentally played the abacus too fast, you would be prone to errors, so generally speaking an accounting would require five people to do separate calculations, and the five people must come up with the same answer before it could be recorded in the dossier.

But with the figures invented by Xu Qingnian, it was even simpler, as the five people still had to do the calculations once, but there was no need to foolishly keep tapping the abacus, just add and subtract, and the result would soon be reached.

Wouldn’t this reduce manpower considerably?

The rest of the staff could do other things, and the efficiency of the Household Department could be at least doubled.

And what is the Household Department? It’s the department that controls Wei’s finances, and by speeding up the basic accounting, it will be able to do other things effectively.

This is a boon to the Household Department. A day or two may not feel like much, but in time, a year, a decade, a century.

How much time could be saved in between?

Gu Yan really did not expect that Xu Qingnian was not only extremely talented in literature, he did not expect to have such a terrifying talent in the Household Ministry as well.

What the hell kind of person was this?

Could he really be a great talent of the ages?

At this moment, Gu Yan couldn’t help but have a phrase floating in his mind.

”If the heavens do not give birth to me, Xu Qingnian, the Confucian Way is like a long night.”

Gu Yan inexplicably wanted to change two words for Xu Qingnian.

Change Confucianism to Great Wei.

“Minister Gu, I have already taught you the method of accounting, so should we talk about the business next?”

Xu Qingnian was not arrogant, instead, he mentioned the business, this method of accounting was just a thin gift to the Ministry of Household Affairs, also to strengthen Great Wei, but today he came over, not just for this matter.

“En!”

Gu Yan withdrew his mind, and then poured another cup of tea for Xu Qingnian.

“Shouren, you have given such a great gift to the Ministry of the Household, then I will be straightforward.”

“Actually, giving you all the volumes is not a suppression, but two purposes.”

“One, I am hoping that you can truly understand the current situation of Great Wei.”

“Secondly, I want you to be quiet for a while, you just killed the County King in front of you, the whole of Great Wei doesn’t know how many eyes are staring at you, if you make a wrong step, it will be an abyss of ten thousand feet.”

“It is because of this that I will have someone do this, and you should not be upset.”

Gu Yan said honestly, he was not thinking of disgusting Xu Qingnian, nor did he mean to wear small shoes, this was not necessary, it was just a misunderstanding by the people below.

“The next official knows.”

Xu Qingnian nodded, he understood Gu Yan’s thoughts, if he were in Gu Yan’s shoes, he would probably do the same.

After all, if one was too rigid, one would break.

But the problem was, in Great Wei today, you couldn’t be more rigid if you weren’t, and Xu Qingnian couldn’t wait for Great Wei to be in its prime, wouldn’t it be cool to read a few poems and win a beautiful woman for yourself?

Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

“It’s good that you understand.”

Gu Yan nodded, and then continued to speak.

“Then let me ask you, what are you going to do next?”

“Tell the truth.”

Gu Yan said seriously.

Since the words had already come out here, there was no need to cover up.

“Levy taxes! Collect taxes! Pay the taxes!”

Xu Qingnian did not intend to cover up either, the other party was the Minister of Household, and what he was going to do was what the Ministry of Household did, so naturally, there was no need to cover anything up, so he might as well just say it.

At these words, Gu Yan’s face changed, but he composed himself and looked at Xu Qingnian and said.

“Taxing who?”

Gu Yan asked.

“The foreigners.”

Xu Qingnian said with certainty.

“The foreigners?”

This time Gu Yan was a little surprised, he had expected Xu Qingnian to say that it was the royal family, his stomach was full of words that could not be said instantly.

“Lord Gu, from your position, their taxes, should they be made up?”

There was a hint of coldness in Xu Qingnian’s eyes.

Gu Yan was the Minister of Household, and once Xu Qingnian said this, he instantly understood what Xu Qingnian was thinking.

“The!”

After half a sound, Gu Yan nodded as he replied from the perspective of a Shang Shu.

“Just what is the meaning of back taxes?”

Gu Yan asked, he was a little confused, he could understand all the tax collection and tax levy, but what is the meaning of back taxes?

“Minister Gu, the silver earned by these foreigners in Great Wei every year can be called astronomical, in the past, it was Great Wei that prospered and allowed them not to pay taxes, sort of giving these foreigners a chance to survive.”

“But now that Great Wei is gradually declining, how can they be allowed to lie on Great Wei and suck blood?”

“To make up for the taxes, is to make up for all the taxes they paid three years ago, and to make up thirty percent back for each one.”

Xu Qingnian spoke his mind.

“Thirty percent!”

“Shouren, will they agree?”

Shang Shu Gu almost screamed out, he was the Shang Shu of the Ministry of Household, so naturally he understood how terrifying Xu Qingnian’s words were.

To make up thirty percent in one year, three years would be ninety percent.

In other words, if they earned 10,000 taels of silver in three years, they would have to make up 9,000 taels this year, which was equivalent to earning nothing this year.

Who could agree to this?

No one else could agree to this.

“No?”