At about 11 o'clock, Zhu Ping'an stretched himself. All the seventy-odd account books on the table had been sorted out using the double-entry bookkeeping method, and one third of a box of account books had been sorted out.
The process of sorting is actually simple addition and subtraction, nothing complicated. Ancient account books were all written with a brush, and one page only had five or six simple addition and subtraction problems.
Zhu Ping'an was not good at using an abacus, but thanks to modern exam-oriented education, he had mastered at least three or four quick calculation techniques for addition and subtraction, as well as calculation formulas. These modern arithmetic methods were dozens of times faster than using an abacus. It was just a bit more laborious to re-record using a double-entry accounting table, otherwise if it was just calculations, Zhu Ping'an could finish a large box of account books in one morning.
After finishing the account book in his hand, Zhu Pingan noticed that it was already past eleven o'clock. He guessed that someone would come to Taicang soon, either to spy on his account checking or to ask him to have lunch, but the purpose was nothing more than to see his account checking progress.
You must not let them know the real progress of your audit, and you must not put pressure on them. The longer you can confuse them, the more proactive you will be.
So Zhu Ping'an stopped, blew the ink off the double-entry accounting sheet, folded it carefully, and placed it under the pillow on the bed.
He carefully put the account books on the table back into the box in order, folded a corner of the bottom account book and marked it.
Only an account book was left on the table. He opened the second page and placed it on the table, pressing it down with a ruler.
So on and so forth.
Zhu Ping'an finally curled the corners of his lips in satisfaction.
After the rearrangement was completed and he stopped, Zhu Ping'an realized that his official uniform had been wet with sweat, dried and wet again, and he didn't know how many times he had repeated this process. Now his uniform was wet again.
Since it was wet, Zhu Ping'an simply took off his official uniform, threw it on a chair, put on only a single piece of clothing, drank a cup of cold tea, and lay down on the small bed to take a nap.
The small bed was against the wall and was not exposed to sunlight. The mat on the bed was relatively cool. When lying on the mat, Zhu Pingan suddenly felt much cooler and more comfortable.
There were seventy-six account books this morning, and six of them had problems. Arranged in chronological order, the problematic account books started to appear in the second quarter of the twenty-eighth year of Jiajing. A total of 3,218 taels of silver could not be accounted for in these six account books, which meant that someone had embezzled the money.
He only checked one-third of the account books in a box and found a shortage of 3,218 taels of silver.
This is just the deficit reflected in the account books.
Three thousand two hundred and eighteen taels of silver, converted into RMB, is approximately RMB 2 million.
Although the amount cannot be compared with that of Zhao Dehan, the "billion-dollar director" in The People's Name, but for ordinary people, two million is not a small sum.
Besides, this was only the result of checking the account books of one-third of a box, and there were still ten boxes that had not been checked.
hehe
Take your time and don't rush.
Zhu Ping'an lay on the small bed, turned over, and had a good rest.
I was busy doing interesting things with Li Shu last night. We did it too much, for too long, and were so obsessed with it that I forgot to go to bed, resulting in poor sleep. This is a good time to catch up on some sleep, otherwise my body won’t be able to take it.
Zhu Ping'an is also very talented when it comes to sleeping. He lies on the bed and falls asleep in just a few minutes.
Not long
Snoring sounds began to sound.
While Zhu Ping'an was immersed in his dreams and snoring to provide music to himself, someone walked towards the room from outside.
This man is Liu Siku from Taicang. He had been playing mahjong with Doctor Jia in the morning. Doctor Zhao just came in from outside and took his place. Doctor Jia asked him to come and see how Zhu Ping'an was doing with his audit of the account books, and then ask what Zhu Ping'an would like for lunch.
When Treasurer Liu approached the house, he caught a glimpse of the official uniform under the window. He was shocked and thought that Zhu Ping'an was sitting in a chair, carefully checking the account book.
Such careful inspection
I hope nothing is found out. Siku Liu couldn't help but feel nervous. He took another step forward and just as he got closer, he looked towards the window carefully.
Huh... ...
When Treasurer Liu saw the scene clearly under the window of the room, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and smile. It was not Zhu Ping'an sitting on the chair checking the account books, but just an official uniform draped on the chair. He was just dazzled.
But where is Zhu Ping'an? Isn't he in the room
Siku Liu walked into the room with doubts. The sun was shining brightly outside, but the light inside the room was dim. There was a brief visual blindness when walking into the room from outside. Siku Liu could not see clearly inside the room, and could not help but call out softly, "Master Zhu..."
The room was very quiet and no echo was heard.
No one
Siku Liu was startled, and the next second he heard a thunderous snoring sound, "Hur... ... Lu..."
Forehead
It turns out he fell asleep!
Siku Liu was stunned for a moment and couldn't help shaking his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He thought there was no one there, but it turned out that he was asleep.
By this time, Liu Siku had adjusted to the light in the room. He looked in the direction of the snoring and saw Zhu Ping'an lying on the small bed in a single layer of clothes, snoring loudly. His mouth was drooling and his pillow was wet...
In the eyes of Liu Siku, it is no exaggeration to say that Zhu Ping'an's snoring is louder than the snoring of the pigs in the Taicang pigpen.
"Master Zhu?"
Siku Liu called out softly again and looked carefully at Zhu Ping'an lying on the bed.
There was no sound at all, and the only response to Liu Siku was Zhu Ping'an's snoring.
And you're still inspecting the treasury?!
Looking at Zhu Ping'an who was snoring loudly, Liu Siku's face was full of ridicule. After staring at him for two seconds, Liu Siku turned around gently, walked to the desk quietly, and carefully looked at the pens, inkstones, account books and other items on the desk.
Seeing that there was only one account book on the table, Treasurer Liu gently picked it up and took a look at it, and the mockery on his face became even more intense.
The account book had obviously only one page turned, the abacus on the table was placed upside down, and the beads were obviously moved randomly...
The ink was ground and the brush looked like it had been moved. After seeing this, Secretary Liu carefully checked the desk again and opened the blank rice paper beside it. On it was a willow tree, under which was a pond. Under the tree was a lotus leaf, on which lay a large toad... ...
There is also a poem in the blank space: Sitting alone in the pond like a crouching tiger, relaxing under the green trees to refresh your spirit.
This is the end of this sentence, there is no next sentence.
Sitting alone in the pond like a tiger, resting under the green trees...
After reading this poem, Liu Siku chuckled, and the sarcasm on the corners of his mouth became even stronger. Zhu Ping'an must be too hot and wanted to cool down in the shade, so he painted such a big toad to quench his thirst.
hehe
Treasurer Liu folded the rice paper again as it was originally and put it back in its original place. Then he looked carefully at the box on the ground. Seeing that the account books in the box were neatly arranged, as if they had not been touched, the smile on his face became even more intense.
Siku Liu walked out of the room quietly, without waking up Zhu Ping'an, but went to Doctor Jia and Doctor Zhao.
Soon, the news that Zhu Ping'an only read one page of the account book in the morning, drew a big toad, and then lay on the bed and fell asleep spread throughout Taicang... ... The reputation of the Toad Inspector spread like wildfire.