"Hahaha... You didn't see it. When I handed the account books over, Zhu Ping'an was so surprised. He was like a frightened dog outside the door. Hahaha..."
After ensuring that everything was fine, Zhang Guanku asked Doctor Zhao to bring the account books to Zhu Ping'an. After Doctor Zhao delivered the account books, he returned to the filing room to share Zhu Ping'an's surprised look with everyone, laughing so hard that he couldn't stop.
"A frightened dog... Hahahaha, Lord Zhao, your metaphor is just right. I am amazed..."
In an instant, the room was filled with laughter.
I just like to see Zhu Ping'an's surprised look. It gives Zhao Langzhong and others an inexplicable sense of accomplishment and feels great.
However, if they could see the scene in the secluded room more than a hundred meters away, perhaps their laughter would not be so brilliant.
In a secluded house, ten boxes were placed on the floor around a desk, taking up half of the floor space in the room. They were filled with stacks of account books, giving people a feeling of a sea of accounts.
In the middle of the box.
The boy who should have been frightened silly as Doctor Zhao said was a dog, was now curling his lips, smiling, with a pair of bright eyes, looking at the sea of account books on the ground as if they were treasures, without any surprise at all...
As the national treasury, Taicang should have so many account books. If there were fewer, Zhu Ping'an would be surprised.
I think Doctor Jia and his men moved all the account books of Taicang for the past three years here in order to make him give up.
This saves a lot of trouble.
I should really thank Doctor Jia, Doctor Zhao and others.
Zhu Pingan smiled slightly, leaned over and checked the ten boxes one by one. There were labels on the boxes, marking the time of the account books in the boxes. Zhu Pingan chose the oldest box, took out a book from it, took it to the table by the window, poured a cup of tea, opened a page and started reading.
"In April of the 28th year of Jiajing, the tax on fish collected in Taicang was 7,459 taels, 4 fen, and 4 li."
This is the limitation of the times. Even the accounting method used by institutions like the Ming Dynasty Treasury could not go beyond the scope of single-entry bookkeeping.
Single-entry bookkeeping is easy to falsify and difficult to detect, which is probably why they are so fearless.
As for the account book in hand, it has detailed records, clear organization, and rigorous logic, and there is no flaw at all. If the Ming Dynasty were to select the best account book, this account book, no, strictly speaking, all the account books here would be qualified for selection.
Zhu Ping'an continued to flip through a few pages, looking at the records, and slightly curled the corners of his lips. If he was a native of the Ming Dynasty, even if he had started studying accounts since he was a child and was trained as an accountant, he would probably be helpless when he encountered these account books. These accounts seemed to have no problems at all.
This is a common problem with account books in this era. It is very easy to falsify and it is difficult for even high-level accountants to detect problems when doing the accounting.
For example, when I passed the imperial examination and helped my father-in-law check the accounts, it was only my father-in-law who made false accounts. All the accountants in Huaining County gathered together and checked for several days but could not find any problems.
What's more, this time the accounts were done by the top accountant of the national treasury.
However, it is a pity that I am not a native of the Ming Dynasty, but a modern person with hundreds of years of historical accumulation. If I look at this account book with modern accounting knowledge, it will be different. The hidden loopholes in it will be exposed.
If you redo the bookkeeping using the double-entry method, all the evildoers in the account book will be exposed.
Zhu Ping'an sat on a chair, drinking tea and flipping through the account book in his hand. After finishing a cup of tea, Zhu Ping'an also finished flipping through the book.
Putting down the teacup and the account book, Zhu Ping'an reached into his arms and took out the twenty double-entry accounting sheets he had drawn last night.
After thinking for a while, he put nineteen of them into the corner of a box.
You must always be on guard against others.
He opened the first page of the account book, confirmed that it was the earliest one, and then unfolded the double-entry bookkeeping sheet on the table. Then Zhu Ping'an began to grind the ink. After grinding the ink, he took a small brush from the pen holder, dipped it in the ink, and began to do the accounting using the double-entry bookkeeping method.
No complexity
As I kept doing it, I got better and better.
The sun outside gradually rose higher, and the sun began to scorch the earth again. The guard dogs in Taicang began to curl up in the shade with their tongues out again...
Zhang Guanku was not in his office, but was practicing calligraphy in another secluded room in Taicang. There were seven or eight basins of ice in the room, keeping the temperature cool and comfortable.
Doctor Zhao was not in Taicang at this time, but in a brothel not far from Taicang, hugging a charming young woman and moving his body. The young woman was a widow, her husband died, and she had no children. Her uncles and aunts drove her out to fight for the family property. A woman who was driven out of the house had no skills and could only use her body. Fortunately, the young woman was not willing to be lonely. She had hooked up with wild men when her husband was still alive. Now she was like a fish in water as a brothel... ...
There are five or six secret prostitutes here, all of whom do business in Taicang and Shenjiying, which is not far from Taicang.
In their words, there are no cats that are not naughty, only birds that are not good... ... As long as you take care of this piece of land, you will never have to worry about lack of business.
Doctor Jia and three treasurers were playing Majang in a secluded room in Taicang. There were seven or eight basins of ice in the room, making it very cool, but the atmosphere was very hot. Ever since Doctor Jia started playing Majang, he would feel itchy hands if he didn't play a few rounds every day, and he would be in low spirits the whole day.
"Song Jiang has tens of thousands of taels of silver, hahahaha, I just touched it myself... Sorry everyone..."
After Doctor Jia touched a card, he burst into laughter. Although he had already won a lot of change, who would complain about winning too much
"Alas, Master Jia's luck today is such that he can kill any god who stands in his way, and any Buddha who stands in his way..."
The other people at the table sighed and complained, but they paid their money very quickly.
"Master Jia, should we go to Zhu Ping'an to make sure nothing goes wrong?" a treasurer at the card table reminded.
"What is there to see? Didn't you hear what Ghost Hand Zhang said? Even if all the accountants in the capital spent a month or so, they would not be able to find any problems, let alone Zhu Ping'an who can't even use an abacus."
"That's right, that's right..."
The other two treasurers laughed and retorted.
"What Treasurer Wang said makes sense. Let's play a few more rounds and then go and see..."
Doctor Jia was in good luck at the moment. He had just played a round and naturally didn't want to leave the table. He spoke while shuffling the cards.
A few more rounds...
The other people at the table understood the music and started to shuffle the cards together. Naturally, they no longer mentioned going to see Zhu Ping'an to check the accounts.
The sun outside was getting higher and higher, and the scorching sunlight shone in through the window. The mottled windows could not block the sunlight at all. The scorching sunlight just shone in through the window and fell on Zhu Ping'an who was writing furiously at the desk.
The room was already very stuffy at this time, and Zhu Ping'an's official uniform on his shoulders and back was already wet in large areas, but Zhu Ping'an seemed not to feel it and was still concentrating on making the double-entry accounting spreadsheet.
There are nine account books on the desk that have been sorted out, and there are only two pages left in the tenth account book in front of me...