Chapter Thirty-Two: The County Magistrate Inspects the Accounts

  "Whoever controls the money is the god of wealth." Lu Haoshan said with a smile.

  "Isn't the one in charge of money just the Household Department official? That Zhou Dàyuan, Zhou the official?"

  Lu Haoshan nodded and said, "That's right, it's him. The Household Department is in charge of household registration, land taxes, financial taxes, marriage, and manages the finances of a county. It can be said that they are rich to the point of overflowing. The current Household Department official Zhou Dayuan is Chen Gui's iron-clad confidant. Almost everything Chen Gui has done over the years has been through his hands. He is the confidant among confidants. If Cao Hu were to be subdued, Chen Gui would lose a leg. If this Zhou Dayuan can also be taken down, then Chen Gui will also lose an arm. Without one arm and one leg, let's see what he uses to fight me."

  Lu Haoshan's fists were clenched by then.

  "Mountain Brother" Liu Jinzhu said with some difficulty: "This Zhou Dayuan, I've been paying attention to him for a long time. This person has no special hobbies, he's never late, never leaves early, and never takes a day off. After work, he goes home immediately. Although he's been the god of wealth in the household registration office for many years, he still lives in that small old house with three rooms, taking care of a shrewish wife, not even a concubine. He rarely attends banquets and doesn't seem like a normal person, making it hard to make a move."

  Lu Haoshan exclaimed in surprise: "Oh, there's such a thing?"

  "Yes, I've never seen anyone like him before. If I didn't know him personally, people would think he's the god of wealth from Jiangyou."

  "This man is not simple." Lu Haoshan nodded and said.

  In Lu Hao's memory, there are a few kinds of people who are hard to forget, such as the soldiers from Danyang, the teachers from Shaoxing, and the shopkeepers from Shanxi. Especially, the accountants from Shanxi left the deepest impression on Lu Hao. The poor land in Shanxi forced many people to leave their hometown to make a living as soon as they grew up, which made the name of Jin merchants well-known very early. In the later period, for safety and convenience of transactions, many people set up silver banks, equivalent to early banks, which had deposit and loan functions, as well as collection services in different places, with high profits. Many people imitated them, but none did it better or longer than Jin merchants, one major reason being the accountants of these silver banks.

  It is said that cultivating a qualified shopkeeper starts from childhood, observing and training them to become a strict, demanding, professional, and rule-abiding person with no desires. The silver business in the bank involves handling countless amounts of money every day, and once greed arises, the consequences are unthinkable. Those Shanxi shopkeepers never slack off, working diligently every day, fearing even the slightest mistake. There's a small story that illustrates this: A master inspected his silver bank and saw that the apprentices were selling with great effort, business was booming, and the accounts were spotless. He was very satisfied, but just as he was about to leave, he suddenly saw the shopkeeper's wife wearing a fancy dress. He immediately fired the shopkeeper. When others asked why, the master calmly said: "The shopkeeper is fine, but his wife is restless, and I'm afraid she'll eventually disrupt the rules."

  Zhou Dayuan is the housekeeper of Jiang You, and also Chen Gui's confidant. Although he is not a good person, no one in the county government has spoken ill of him. Someone who knows how to advance himself, understands how to take sides, and can handle human relationships well, yet is so reserved and low-key, must have big ambitions. Lu Haoshan cannot help but reevaluate this person.

  "Shan Ge, how are we going to take him down?" Having successfully subdued Cao Hu, Liu Jinzhu was full of confidence and ready to make another move.

  If he could get his hands on the household, it would be like a mouse falling into a rice jar, just waiting to die. In Liu Jinchu's eyes, all this hard work was just for the sake of satisfying his craving for power and getting another large sum of silver to slip away. When he heard that Lu Haoshan had finally made his move on the household, he became excited.

  Lu Haoshan thought for a moment, shaking his head: "People like him who are so conservative won't be easily deceived. Based on my usual observations of him, Zhou Dayuan has a kind of blind self-confidence in himself. To thoroughly defeat him and make use of him, it seems that I need to crush his self-confidence and make him believe in me. His self-confidence comes from his expertise in accounting, after all."

  At first, Chen Gui ordered his men to increase Lu Haoshan's workload in order to give him a hard time. One of the tasks was to check the accounts, and Zhou Dayuan, the clerk of the Household Department, was the most enthusiastic. He immediately brought over a large pile of account books. Lu Haoshan's efforts for those ten days were not in vain. Although he had not yet found any specific problems, he did discover many suspicious places. This was thanks to his past life experience of being infatuated with a beautiful female accountant. At that time, he had also learned some basic accounting knowledge in order to get close to her. Later, after he won her over, he unintentionally heard her mention some techniques. Although Zhou Dayuan did a good job of covering his tracks, Lu Haoshan was still able to see through his tricks.

  Zhou Dayuan used the scattering method to cook the books. Unlike others who would insert a few fake entries into a large pile of accounts, making it convenient and quick, Zhou's approach was to break down an entry into smaller parts and allocate them to other accounts. He would only manipulate the expenses and expenditures, making the account less noticeable. When doing so, he would intentionally add some useless entries, increasing the number of transactions, and making the account more complicated. Even if someone tried to investigate, it would be time-consuming and laborious.

  However, for this kind of fake accounting, there are usually two sets of account books. One is for internal use and the other is for auditing by superiors, so it's also called yin-yang account book.

  Others may not be able to find out, but Zhou Dayuan's approach is just a minor trick in Lu Haoshan's eyes. If he finds the right way and knows his accounting method, it will naturally be half the effort with twice the effect.

  "With Brother Shan coming out, it's naturally a matter of course to capture him." Liu Jinzhu now has an inexplicable admiration for Lu Haoshan, and he immediately responded, but then curiously said: "Just getting rid of him is enough, why do we still need to subdue him?"

  "Do you think there's anyone else around me? Are you sent here?"

  "No, no, Shan Ge, you also know that I, Liu Jinzhu, don't even recognize a single character, spare me." Liu Jinzhu still knew his own weight and shook his head repeatedly upon hearing this.

  "Alright, that's all you're capable of, let's go, go back and rest well, tomorrow we'll deal with Zhou Siyi."

  Liu Jinzhu said with some helplessness: "Sometimes I think it's better to be a rich man, eating this bowl of rice from the Zhu family is really like being an ox and a horse for him."

  "It's indeed a case of working like an ox and a horse." Lu Haoshan thought for a moment, nodded very seriously, indicating his agreement.

  The Han Dynasty had a five-day workweek, with one day off every five days. However, this day off was not necessarily on Saturday or Sunday, but rather rotated throughout the week. This day was also known as "Xiū Mù" (休沐), and officials could return home on this day.

  During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the system changed to a ten-day workweek with one day off every ten days, known as "Xún Xiū" (旬休). Although it seemed like the treatment was worse than during the Han Dynasty, in reality, the concept of a "Golden Week" already existed during this period. Every New Year's and Winter Solstice, officials would have seven days off with pay.

  These seven days were paid vacation time, and other holidays such as Dragon Boat Festival, Double Ninth Festival, the Emperor's birthday, and even Buddha's birthday and Laozi's birthday were also given as holidays. The treatment was exceptionally good.

  In the Song Dynasty, things were more moderate, with several dozen days off per year still available. However, during the Yuan Dynasty, there were only a little over ten days off per year. But officials in the Ming Dynasty had it even worse. Zhu Di (also known as the Yongle Emperor) was naturally biased against officials and not only did they have low salaries, but also few holidays. If you wanted to eat from the imperial pot, then you had to work diligently without complaint.

  Want a vacation? You got three days off per year - New Year's, Winter Solstice, and Zhu Di's birthday. Other than that, sorry, the salary may be low, but you still have to work hard.

  Although it's already the sixth day of the new year, the festive atmosphere hasn't dissipated yet, so I still need to be on duty.

  One night without a word, the next day, after finishing his shift, Lu Haoshan called Zhou Dayuan.

  "Sir, I don't know what you want me to leave behind. What are your orders?" asked Zhou Dàyuan with great respect.

  Lu Haoshan smiled and said: "Hehe, nothing, there have been fewer lawsuits recently, I'm so bored, it's just right to check the account book to relieve boredom."

  "But sir, it's rare for people to check accounts at this time. Moreover, sir was ill the last time he checked accounts. Can't we...can't we delay this matter?" Zhou Dàyuan said hesitantly.

  "Do you still ask?" Lu Haoshan said with some embarrassment: "The imperial court has an order to thoroughly investigate the accounts, to ensure integrity and honesty. Not only do superiors send people to inspect, but those in office cannot slack off either. Now it's not a lot of work, but if it's after the new year, then there will be business taxes and summer grain taxes, won't that exhaust the officials? I'm not afraid of being laughed at by Zhou Siyi, what I fear most is these accounts, every time I look at them my head spins."

  Oh, so that's how it is. Zhou Dàyuan finally felt at ease, thinking that this County Magistrate Lu had discovered something. He dared to speak out and thought to himself with a smile, "The County Magistrate not only has a headache, but also contracted an illness from checking the accounts!" An ordinary accountant would get a headache just looking at their own account books, let alone an inexperienced scholar like him?

  After understanding, Zhou Dàyuan hastily said: "Yes, sir wants the account book for that month, I'll send it to you right away."

  "Uh, just in the past two years."

  "Two years?" Zhou Dàyuan was shocked and hastily said: "Sir, that's also too much."

  Lu Haoshan waved his hand and said, "Alright, don't try to persuade me anymore. I'll work hard and set an example for the county government officials. Don't worry, it will be returned to you in three to five days, just do as I say."

  "Yes, sir, I'll take care of it right away."

  "Go."

  "The little man withdraws."

  When Zhou Dajuan left, he had a smile on his face. In fact, he was secretly laughing in his heart, laughing at Lu Xian's cleverness in showing off. If it were specified to investigate the accounts of a certain period, there might be some fear, perhaps he had already obtained some information. But now, he suddenly wants two years' worth of account books and claims that they can be returned within three to five days. The expenses of a county for two years! Not to mention Lu Haoshan, even if there were ten accountants, it would take at least one or two months to complete. Now there is only one person, what can be done in just a few days?

  Just going through the motions, pretending to be doing something anyway.

  Zhou Dayuan's efficiency was not bad, and in less than half a time, several bookkeepers brought a large pile of materials to Lu Haoshan. Not long after, the document was piled high, and Lu Haoshan waited until Liu Jinzhu closed the door before spreading out the paper and picking up his pen, saying: "This time it's really come, unfortunately there is no master, what a pain."

  Lu Haoshan is eager to find a substitute to share his workload, so he can free himself up to do other things, unfortunately, he hasn't found one yet.