Zhu Yuanzhang Returns from Modern Times

Chapter 94 Zhu Yuanzhang reveals himself
"Ascend to the throne, our Ming Dynasty is about to face disaster!"

This was the first sentence Liu Bowen said to Zhu Yuanzhang after they met.

Looking at Liu Bowen's serious face, even though Zhu Yuanzhang had returned from studying abroad, he could not remain calm and composed in the face of what Liu Bowen said.

"Where does this disaster come from?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Liu Bowen and asked.

Liu Bowen said: "From the case of the empty seal."

Zhu Yuanzhang raised his left eyebrow slightly: "Mr. Liu, do you think we shouldn't punish these people in this way?

Or should we not squeeze out the huge amount of money that those people have amassed over the years by using the Empty Seal?"

As he spoke, he pointed to a chair not far away, indicating Liu Bowen to sit down and talk.

Seeing this, Liu Bowen hesitated for a moment, then sat down readily.

It was not that he was unwilling to be respectful in front of the emperor, nor was it that, as some shameless people said, Liu Bowen was so arrogant.

It was really because the current emperor treated him so well.

He is too strong and will not tolerate rejection when doing things.

The last time he met the emperor, the emperor asked him to sit down, but he refused. As a result, the emperor personally pulled out a chair for him.

What else could he do facing such a powerful emperor who didn't give anyone any chance to refuse?
I could only reluctantly accept the request and sit down.

What else can I do?
If he still refuses to sit, what will happen if the emperor personally pulls out a chair for him to sit on?
It is really helpless to face such a powerful emperor who has the final say.

Liu Bowen sighed to himself.

But you know what, this chair is really comfortable to sit on, even more comfortable than the rocking chair at home.

It is worthy of being the emperor's chair, it is really extraordinary.

Thoughts raced through his mind, and Liu Bowen suppressed some of the joy in his heart, shook his head seriously, and said solemnly:
“Those people should be punished like this.

Many of them were spoiled by the Yuan Dynasty's ways, and were rotten to the core. No matter how many times they were warned or told, it was impossible to make them repent and stop.

There is no hope at all.

The best way is to find an opportunity to plow it hard, just like the previous one did.

Only in this way can we clear out many insects, make many people truly afraid, and restrain themselves a lot.

The money these people have taken away through empty tokens is the blood and sweat of the people, and we should squeeze it out.”

"Then why did Mr. Liu say that our Ming Dynasty is about to face a disaster?"

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know whether he really didn't guess what Liu Bowen meant, or he was deliberately handing Liu Bowen a ladder so that he could continue speaking.

“All of these actions taken by those in power are good, but… sometimes, one must also consider the reality of the situation.

It was really satisfying to punish nearly three thousand local insects at one time.

But with so many officials missing at once, it would be difficult to fill the gap in a short period of time.

Then local taxation and other matters will inevitably be greatly affected.

There might even be chaos.

The wallet is very important and affects every aspect of life.

It’s not just about tax itself, it affects so many other things.”

Zhu Yuanzhang naturally understood what Liu Bowen meant.

Even in the past, although local taxation had various problems, it could still function by patching up.

At this time, many problematic parts were removed at once.

It crashed immediately.

Completely unusable.

There are not enough parts to repair it, and it will take more than a short time to complete.

"Then... Mr. Liu, do you have any good ideas to teach us?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Liu Bowen and asked again.

Liu Bowen said, "Your Excellency, I have come here to seek your advice.

I have thought about it over and over again, but I can't find any proper solution.

According to the methods I have thought of, even if I try my best, there is no way to solve this problem in a short period of time."

Liu Bowen was telling the truth.

Before the Empty Seal Case even began, he had already guessed what method the emperor would use to deal with Li Shanchang.

And I guessed that the superior wanted to take the opportunity to clean up the place.

But there is one thing that he still hasn't figured out.

That is, after solving the problem of so many local tax officials at one time, how to solve the problem of shortage of local tax officials.

You have to know that tax officials are not ordinary officials. They need to be able to write and calculate, and know how to keep accounts. They need to have special abilities.

If the gap is small, it’s easy to deal with. You can still make up for it by putting some effort into it.

But now, the gap has reached a terrifying number of nearly three thousand!

How to make up for it in such a short period of time?
He racked his brains but couldn't think of a solution.

In the past, he would have thought that this was because his superiors were annoyed by the numerous corrupt officials and Li Shanchang's ordering of local officials to resist the court, and had gone crazy.

We must take this opportunity to clean up the area and break Li Shanchang's control over the local government.

As for the rest, I didn't think much about it.

As for tax issues, which will arise for a long time, I haven't come up with any good solutions.

This is also normal.

After all, it is also about breaking Li Shanchang's control over local governments and preventing them from banding together again to coerce the emperor and affect the overall situation of the country.

The tax chaos caused by the purge of so many officials and the subsequent series of problems are not that serious.

An acceptable price.

But now, he has experienced a lot of things, especially that time when he was pulled by the superior and talked about the common ideals of the Ming Dynasty. After that, he witnessed many of the methods used by the superior.

Liu Bowen had more expectations for getting to the top.

I always feel that the person in the higher position is unfathomable, and is a typical person who takes one step and looks three steps ahead.

There may not be no corresponding considerations regarding the current shortage of local tax officials.

That is why I ask this question now.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard Liu Bowen's words, he blinked and then felt a great sense of accomplishment in his heart.

By the way, I have always been the one asking for advice from Liu Bowen, a smart man, but now things are turned upside down.

It became Liu Bowen asking himself for advice.

This is Mr. Liu, the man whom I liked, admired, and yet felt inferior to in my previous life!
This feeling was extremely good for Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Haha, Mr. Liu, you're right. We do have some ways to deal with this.

We can minimize the adverse effects as much as possible.”

Zhu Yuanzhang did not hide it and admitted it directly with a smile.

This was what he was going to do next. Now that Liu Bowen came to ask, how could he miss the opportunity to teach Liu Bowen in return?
Liu Bowen was shocked when he heard this. His feeling was right. There really was a way to get to the top!
He immediately pricked up his ears, ready to listen carefully to what the method of getting to the top was.

"We already have candidates for additional local tax officials. We can basically have them all in place before the next tax collection."

Liu Bowen was stunned when he heard this.

The solution proposed by his superior was very different from what he had in mind.

According to Liu Bowen, the best solution now is to seize the time and do everything possible to send as many tax officials as possible to those important places.

While making some other adjustments.

The methods that the higher-ups come up with should not go beyond this scope.

Who would have thought that the way to get to the top would be to fill as many missing tax officials as possible in various places before the next tax collection!

Liu Bowen naturally knew that the most fundamental solution now was to fill the gaps in tax officials in various places.

But the key point is that there are simply not enough corresponding personnel available in the Ming Dynasty now!

Where did he find so many people who can write, calculate, and keep accounts in such a short period of time after taking office?

Thinking of this, Liu Bowen's heart suddenly moved, and a bold idea appeared in his mind.

This... Could it be that the person in power is prepared to employ talents in an unconventional way?

Next, find some shopkeepers, clerks who can write and calculate, accountants, etc., and directly promote them as exceptions and appoint them as officials?

Thinking of this, Liu Bowen became anxious instantly.

This method can indeed solve the urgent problem, but it is really too ridiculous.

It directly and massively destroyed the system of selecting and appointing officials.

Moreover, these people are of varying quality, and many of them are mercenaries. If they suddenly occupy high positions and hold such important posts, I am afraid they will do some inappropriate things.

Even if it is an extraordinary time to do extraordinary things, it would not be done like this!
Given the superior's temper, it's not impossible for him to do such a thing.

Speak out immediately to dissuade them.

However, when the words came to his lips, he held them back, thinking it would be better to be cautious.

The solution from the higher-ups may be different from what you think.

"Next, we plan to have the students of the Imperial College finish their studies early and send them to various places to serve as tax collectors."

Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Liu Bowen had obviously misunderstood him, and he was ready to correct him.

As a result, Liu Bowen held it back again.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang feel a little regretful, as he lost a natural opportunity to show off his prowess in front of Liu Bowen.

After a brief pause, seeing that Liu Bowen had no intention of speaking anymore, Zhu Yuanzhang suppressed his slight regret and continued speaking, informing Liu Bowen of his plan.

He actually set his sights on the students of the Imperial College?

After hearing the emperor's plan, Liu Bowen did not feel enlightened.

The doubts in my heart became even stronger.

After all, this was a method he had considered long before, and after a series of considerations, he rejected it.

In the third year of Hongwu, the emperor restored the imperial examination system and began to recruit scholars.

But after only this one time, the imperial examination was stopped.

Li Shanchang and others were involved in this, both openly and covertly, but the most fundamental reason was that the higher-ups felt that most of those selected through the imperial examinations were over-promising.

Writing articles is fine, but when it comes to actually doing things, it's a mess.

There is a huge gap between the expectations and the upper level.

After the imperial examination was abolished, the higher authorities attached more importance to the Imperial College. They began to expand enrollment two years ago in preparation for cultivating suitable talents.

The students at the Imperial Academy not only studied Confucian classics, but also mathematics.

Today, there are about four thousand students in the Imperial Academy.

The purpose of these students' coming to power is to train them to become officials.

It would be possible to let them leave the Imperial College in large numbers early and go to various places to serve as tax officials.

But it just makes sense. In reality, it won't work if you really do that.

Otherwise he wouldn't have excluded it before.

“To take the position, this… I’m afraid it’s not going to work.

Being able to write, calculate and keep accounts is not an easy task and requires a good foundation in arithmetic.

At the local level, there are many accounts, some of which are quite complicated and require learning special accounting methods.

I'm afraid there aren't many students at the Imperial College who are capable of doing this. Eight hundred, perhaps? "

Liu Bowen had already mentally calculated the fate of the students at the Imperial Academy.

The earliest batch of students in the Imperial College were admitted three years ago and have studied for the longest time.

Although everyone needs to learn arithmetic, not everyone can learn it well.

In addition, being a tax officer requires even higher levels of arithmetic knowledge.

Adding to some other reasons, it would be a maximum of 300 out of 500 people who could serve as local tax officials.

The group of students from the previous year happened to catch the good time when the government was expanding the scale of the Imperial College.

There are about 1,500 people in this group, and they have only been studying for two years.

Even fewer are qualified to be tax collectors.

Last year's batch had 2,000 people, and they had only studied for one year. Except for a few who really worked hard on arithmetic or had a high talent in arithmetic, the vast majority were not qualified.

So after all the calculations, there are only about 800 people in the Imperial College who can be transferred to serve as tax officials.

Compared with the gap of 3,000, it is still a huge gap.

What's more, these students in the Imperial Academy are all very useful.

Although the superiors did not say it explicitly.

But Liu Bowen knew that this was all preparation for the future land survey by the superiors.

This is another matter that concerns the fundamentals of the country.

If all these students from the Imperial Academy were sent out to serve as tax collectors, the land survey would have to be postponed for a few more years...

Liu Bowen's calculations were quite accurate, and basically the same results as the one Zhu Yuanzhang got the day before yesterday when he asked Song Ne, the chief academic officer of the Imperial College, to conduct a baseline test.

Even Liu Bowen said that there were more than forty extra ones.

But Zhu Yuanzhang still laughed.

And rejected Liu Bowen's statement.

"Mr. Liu has miscalculated. I think it shouldn't be difficult to find 3,000 students from the Imperial College who are both capable of accounting and bookkeeping and qualified to serve as local tax officials."

Liu Bowen became even more confused, and for a moment he couldn't help but wonder if the emperor was deliberately making fun of him.

how can that be!

Unless those in power are prepared to recruit a large number of people without real skills to fill the positions.

If this is done, then this great opportunity to plow through local tax officials will be wasted.

"It will definitely not work if we only rely on the level of the current students.

But we have a way to enable at least 1,500 Imperial College students to successfully master the relevant skills within a month and take up positions in local areas. Within two months, we can also train at least 1,500 more students who master these skills.

From now on, they will study and take an examination every ten days. Those who pass the examination will immediately set off to serve as officials in prefectures and counties far from the capital.

Those who passed the assessment late were asked to work nearby.

In this way, tax officials from all prefectures and counties will be in place within three months at most.

Do not delay the collection of autumn taxes.

This year is a special case, and we can extend the delivery of autumn grain to Beijing by two months.

Give them enough time to adjust to the job.

That way, even if some of them are inevitably unskilled because it is their first time doing these things, and some of them may take some time off, it doesn't matter."

Zhu Yuanzhang was counting on his fingers as he settled accounts with Liu Bowen and talked about his plan.

It can be said that he makes a lot of sense.

Liu Bowen was stunned when he heard this.

Of course, I was not shocked by the emperor's perfect plan.

But he was stunned by what the emperor said.

How can we train at least 1,500 qualified students in one month and at least 3,000 qualified students in two months?
Is the higher-up so pissed off by the empty seal case that he's talking nonsense here?
How is it possible!

If there really is such a good idea, why would the students of the Imperial Academy have to study for several years in a row?
Do the higher authorities have to rack their brains to train enough students who are good at arithmetic and can calculate the area of ​​​​fields?

Zhu Yuanzhang liked to see Liu Bowen stunned by him.

Let Old Liu come over and tell me that the Ming Dynasty is about to face a disaster, just to scare me.

How are you now? Are you scared back by yourself?

A certain emperor who was not petty at all thought smugly in his heart.

Seeing that Liu Bowen's appetite had been completely aroused by him and the result he wanted to see appeared, Zhu Yuanzhang did not keep the matter in suspense any longer.

He reached out and took a book from the table and handed it to Liu Bowen.

"Mr. Liu, take a look at this and you will know that what we said is true.

Mastering half of the above content is enough to be competent."

Liu Bowen suppressed the strange feeling in his heart and quickly reached out to take it.

I glanced up and saw four big words written on the cover: "Arithmetic Enlightenment".

I couldn't help but be stunned.

No, it's the book where the superiors are full of confidence and say that as long as you master half of the knowledge, you will be qualified to be a local tax official?
I thought it was some kind of divine book.

The result was arithmetic enlightenment.

This...isn't this too ridiculous?
After learning only half of the basic arithmetic, you can go to the local accountant and become a tax officer?

Is it the superior who is confused, or is it me who is confused?

Restraining all the strange feelings in his heart, Liu Bowen opened the book on arithmetic enlightenment and began to read.

"By the way, here's a comparison chart. Mr. Liu, take a look at it and compare it with the chart. Otherwise, you won't understand it."

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to remember something and took out a form from the side and gave it to Liu Bowen.

Liu Bowen took it but did not look at it.

Just look at the book "Arithmetic Enlightenment".

As a famous figure in the literary world, known as one of the four great talents of Jiangnan, and also a person with profound attainments in astronomy, Liu Bowen naturally understood arithmetic.

And the level is not low.

He wanted to see what kind of book this arithmetic enlightenment book was that could give the superiors such great confidence.

The superiors also wanted to give me some kind of comparison table, but I said there was no comparison table and I couldn’t understand it.

With my level of knowledge, do I need a comparison table to read an introductory arithmetic book?

What a joke.

The one in power looks down on others too much!
After opening the book and flipping through a few pages, Liu Bowen picked up the comparison table and began to look at it carefully.

Match the words and symbols in the comparison table, which look like a worm looking for its mother, with the Chinese characters in the annotations at the back one by one and remember them well.

After remembering these, it will be much smoother to read the arithmetic enlightenment.

However, after turning many pages, Liu Bowen's reading speed slowed down significantly. When he was about halfway through, he couldn't help blinking.

Because at this point, not only are all the arithmetic methods explained, but various shapes such as rectangles and squares are also presented, and methods for calculating their areas are explained.

The method is summarized very well, simply and clearly.

After remembering the method, you only need to plug in the numbers and perform calculations, and you can get the result quickly.

It was just as the superior said, if you master half of the knowledge, you can keep accounts and become a tax officer.

He is even capable of clearing accounts of land and calculating the area of ​​land.

I flipped through the pages again and found that knowledge about powers appeared at the very end.

Liu Bowen was completely confused and couldn't help blinking hard.

No... the higher-ups call this arithmetic enlightenment?
Is this enlightenment?

Whose arithmetic enlightenment looks like this?
How many people's arithmetic level cannot reach this level of enlightenment!

If this is enlightenment, then what should we call the many people who only know how to count?

If this kind of arithmetic knowledge can only be called enlightenment, then what is the arithmetic knowledge that comes later?
"Mr. Liu, how are you?"

Zhu Yuanzhang took in all of Liu Bowen's reactions, and for a moment he felt refreshed, as if drinking ice in summer.

In terms of academics, it feels good to crush great scholars like Liu Bowen.

"It's unfathomable, just as the superior said. Once you learn half of it, calculating the amount of money, grain, and supplies, and calculating the amount of money and grain, will not be a problem at all."

Liu Bowen closed the book and spoke out sincerely.

"But...why would the higher-ups use these foreign characters instead of numbers? And even come up with those symbols?"

Liu Bowen finally asked his question.

"Mr. Liu, don't you think these foreign characters and symbols are more concise, easier to write, and more conducive to calculations?

Use this thing to replace the original numbers. Once you master it, your calculation speed will be greatly improved.

Take the essence and discard the dross; stones from other mountains can also be used to polish jade."

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile, explaining very patiently.

Liu Bowen pondered it carefully, nodded and said, "It is indeed as the superior said, it will be much more convenient.

There is just one thing to note: this kind of number can be easily tampered with.

When writing down the results of important calculations, it is better to write them in the original numbers."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded. Liu Bowen was indeed a quick thinker. He had already thought of this.

"Mr. Liu's consideration is correct. However, our numbers are also easily altered. For example, the numbers 'one' and 'two' can be changed by adding a stroke.

We have a new counting method here, which guarantees that once the final result is written, no one can change it."

As Zhu Yuanzhang spoke, he picked up his pen and wrote a line of words on the paper - one, two, three, four, all the way to ten.

By the way, this capital number has not appeared at this time.

This was something I came up with in my previous life, after the Guo Huan case broke out, in order to prevent the final results of the accounts from being tampered with.

In terms of effect, it is very good and has been used until modern times.

When Liu Bowen saw these ten numbers written by Zhu Yuanzhang, he was sincerely impressed. It turned out that he had already considered this before he came to power.

There is already a better solution!

"Sir, this is a good idea. It should be included in the arithmetic enlightenment textbook so that everyone can learn it."

Liu Bowen gave his advice.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, took the arithmetic enlightenment book, turned to a page and showed it to Liu Bowen.

Liu Bowen suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

It turns out that it was already written here, but I just took a quick look and didn't see it.

"With these simple and easy-to-learn arithmetic knowledge, and then learning the accounting method, it is indeed feasible.

It's just that... the four-pillar accounting system is a bit difficult to learn and may take more time."

Liu Bowen made another suggestion.

"This is easy to handle."

Zhu Yuanzhang pulled out another book and handed it to Liu Bowen, saying, "Let's switch from using the four-pillar book to this new accounting method."

Liu Bowen was stunned for a moment, then reached out to take it mechanically.

There were only a few big words written on the cover of this new book: Double-entry bookkeeping.

With the experience of his arithmetic enlightenment, Liu Bowen did not dare to have any extra thoughts when facing the book on double-entry bookkeeping this time.

I quickly opened it and took a look.

The more I look, the more fascinated I become, and the more surprised I become.

This double-entry bookkeeping method is simple and easy to master.

You just need to figure out which is the debit and which is the credit, record them separately, add them up later, and if the debit and credit are equal, you can verify whether they are correct and keep accurate accounts.

Every account can be recorded clearly.

It is much simpler than the four-pillar accounting method, but more convenient to use.

Good stuff! It really is good stuff.

With these two good things, large-scale teaching began immediately in the Imperial Academy.

For the next two months, I studied nothing except these two courses.

After this charge, we can indeed achieve the goal that the superiors said, which is to train at least 3,000 available local tax officials within two months.

Not long ago, I thought that my superior had a fever and was confused, so he said those words. But looking back now, it seems so reasonable.

Liu Bowen was not only moved and shocked, but also felt more and more confused and curious.

Of course, it is not good things like arithmetic enlightenment and double-entry bookkeeping. The superiors have obviously prepared them in advance. Why didn’t they take them out earlier and send them to the Imperial College for students to learn.

Given the intelligence of Li Shanchang and others, if the superior really did these things in advance, they would most likely guess the superior's true intentions.

So we can take some measures to avoid such empty printing cases from happening again.

Once this happens, it will be difficult for the superior to take sudden action like this and catch all these people in one fell swoop and achieve such a dazzling result.

The struggle with Li Shanchang will turn into a long tug-of-war.

If this happens, the harm to the country will be even greater.

It was only right that the higher-ups had waited until now to bring out this good stuff.

He was puzzled and curious about where the superior got these two good things.

When it comes to knowledge and insight, it's not that he is boasting, there are not many people in the entire Ming Dynasty who are more capable than him.

Given his status in the literary world and the breadth of his reading, if these two books had existed in the past, he would have known about them.

But the fact now is that he really knows nothing about this.

It's like it suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

When did the Ming Dynasty have such talented people?

How could he produce two such books in quick succession without making any noise?
“Sir, I wonder which great talent wrote these two books?

It is truly convincing and gives people a revelation after watching it.

It is truly a blessing for the Ming Dynasty to have such a great talent."

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to have expected Liu Bowen to ask this question and was not surprised at all.

"Haha, Mr. Liu, the great talent you speak of is far away and right before our eyes."

He was actually outspoken.

Upon hearing this, Liu Bowen looked behind the emperor and around him, trying to see if there was anyone hiding somewhere.

"Mr. Liu, stop looking around, this person is us!"

What? !

Liu Bowen was stunned for a moment. The news was so sudden that his mouth was open for a moment.

"Why, Mr. Liu, do you think we don't look like each other?"

Liu Bowen realized that his reaction was inappropriate and tried hard to calm down.

"Ah, no, no, I just didn't expect that the superiors even knew all this, and I was a little bit embarrassed for a moment.

The talent of those in higher positions is truly unfathomable."

Liu Bowen said this, but he couldn't help but complain in his heart.

The superior is really something. If he doesn't want to tell me the origin of this book, then he can just not tell me. But he still insists that he wrote it.

Aren't you just kidding yourself?
This is not to say that he looks down on the higher position, but it is true that knowledge cannot be faked.

This is especially true in arithmetic.

If you can, you will, if you don't, you won't.

The superior had some level of arithmetic, but he really didn't believe that he could reach the level of writing this Arithmetic Enlightenment and at the same time come up with such a useful double-entry bookkeeping method.

There must be an expert helping secretly, but that expert doesn't want to be in the spotlight.

The superiors then used this obviously false excuse to deceive themselves.

This made Liu Bowen feel full of emotion. There are so many heroes in the world, like a swarm of carp crossing the river!
We really cannot and dare not underestimate the people of the world.

"Mr. Liu, this is really written by me."

Having lived for so many years in later generations and received so much education, much of which was learned on my own initiative, it was quite easy to get a book on arithmetic enlightenment.

"Ah, yes, yes, this is what you, the Supreme, compiled. Both of them are. Your talent is indeed unfathomable."

Liu Bowen nodded seriously again, confirming the emperor's words.

Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath and suppressed a smirk. Why is it that no one believes the truth these days?
Everything I said is true, this is considered self-exposure, okay?
After a while, Liu Bowen, who had calmed down a little, spoke again and told another reason why he came to see the emperor.

This matter is more important, the kind that must be resolved...

(End of this chapter)