Shipin Dalizheng

The person outside cursed a few times in frustration and was quite rude.

But when breakfast was handed in from outside, a packet of insect repellent powder was found at the bottom.

It was still dry, hard, and disgusting coarse bread, plus a can of water. Rong Tang had no time to worry about the food of the girls next door. After a quick meal, he and Rong An threw themselves into the frenzy of checking the accounts.

According to Zheng Changzhi, the investigation concerned disaster relief efforts in Northwest China, overseen by Minister Liang two years prior. The imperial court allocated three million taels of silver, but later it was revealed that much of the grain delivered to the disaster area had rotted and moldy, causing widespread poisoning and diarrhea in the victims. Later, additional grain funds were not promptly provided, leading to the starvation deaths of tens of thousands of people, with the survivors fleeing to other regions. To this day, the region remains undeveloped, with no one residing for thousands of miles.

It is impossible for Minister Liang not to be greedy, but without real evidence, it is impossible to do anything to him based on speculation alone. If Emperor Xuanning is willing, Concubine Shu and Prince Rui will not stand idly by.

Rong Tang came to check the accounts only to target Minister Liang, so naturally he gave priority to the projects related to him. It must be said that Minister Liang was a very smart man and did a very good job of accounting. If he really used an abacus to calculate, he would probably get the numbers right.

Because Minister Xiao had given them the direction in advance, it was much easier to investigate. Finally, after flipping through dozens of books, they found the clue Minister Xiao had mentioned. The 500,000 dan of rice purchased by Minister Liang cost 2,640 wen per dan, totaling 1.32 million taels. This item alone accounted for two-thirds of the disaster relief funds.

Rong Tang didn't quite understand the conversion methods used in this world, so he asked Rong An. Although Rong An wasn't surprised, he still answered, "One liter of rice is about one jin and two liang. One dou of rice is ten liters, twelve jin. One dan of rice is ten dou, one hundred and twenty jin."

Rong Tang silently calculated, "One dan of rice costs 2,640 wen, which is equivalent to 22 wen per catty, and 264 wen per dou."

Rong An was shocked, "It's so expensive."

Even during the worst years of famine, when rice prices were so high, the imperial court would intervene, not to mention that it was the imperial court that purchased the rice for disaster relief.

"Rice is different from rice. Think about it carefully. How much was the most expensive rice per dou two years ago?"

Rong An finally calmed down and thought, he was thinking wrongly, the rice that ordinary people ate was the worst old rice, which cost dozens of coins per dou, but the officials ate the best refined rice, which could cost more than a hundred coins per dou.

After all, poverty limited his knowledge. He was unable to determine the price of refined rice two years ago, and felt very ashamed.

Rong Tang comforted him, "It's okay, I'll ask them."

He knocked on the wall and received a response from the other side. Rong Tang then asked questions, but there was too much noise during the day and he couldn't hear clearly. When he got louder, he heard shouting and scolding from outside the door.

Rong Tang simply took out a dagger from his sleeve and dug a hole in the wall. The dagger was sharp, and it dug a hole in the wall like tofu. In a short while, he had dug a hole the size of a fist.

A terrified cry came from the other side, "Damn rascal."

It was Miss Cui who cursed.

Rong Tangjing waited for a moment and explained in a low voice, "I'm not trying to peek. I just dug a hole so we can communicate. Don't you want to find out and get out as soon as possible?"

There was a rustling noise from the other side, and Tang Tiantian asked quietly, "What's going on?"

"What was the price of rice in Beijing last year?"

There was silence for a moment, but Xie Ying answered, "Sorghum rice is three wen, beans range from two to four wen, rice over five years old is six wen, three years old is eight wen, one year old is twelve wen, and freshly harvested rice is sixteen wen."

"In other words, was there any period of time when the best and most expensive sixteen wen exceeded twenty wen and reached twenty-two wen?"

Xie Ying said, "That's impossible. A jin of rice costs 22 wen, and a dou of rice costs 264 wen. That's impossible. I remember it very clearly because I was the one who managed the household accounts back then."

The daughters raised by the Xie family will marry into a wealthy family and become wives in the future, so managing accounts is a compulsory course.

"Well, now the three of you start calculating. Calculate the total amount of silver needed for 500,000 dan of grain, based on the various grain prices you know."

He also copied down the total price of grain handled by Minister Liang and continued to look for other suspicious points.

Soon the ladies came out with the result. Even if Minister Liang had bought the best quality fine rice, one dou was only 192 wen. Just because of this, at least 360,000 taels of rice evaporated.

This piece of evidence was enough to make Minister Liang very angry, and Rong Tang was very excited.

On the other side of the wall, the girls also found ideas for checking the accounts. Sometimes they couldn't find any problems when checking the accounts because there was no way they could make any mistakes by calculating according to the numbers above. No one even considered whether the numbers themselves were reasonable.

Therefore, they also looked through the pages nervously and orderly.

Later, the three of them found a faster method. Xie Ying was sensitive to prices, so she was responsible for finding the flaws, and Miss Cui Si was responsible for calculating the errors. The two of them worked together and their efficiency was greatly improved.

Tang Tiantian thought about it, and simply sat down opposite the hole, and said to Rong Tang, "You two search, and I'll calculate."

In this way, one person searches, one calculates, and one writes, which makes the process much faster.

During this time, Rong Tang went to the toilet, which was the most unbearable moment for him. Even though he ate less and tried to drink less water, he still had to go to the toilet once a day.

The commode was in a corner, hidden by a bookshelf. No one carried it out or cleaned it every day, so the room smelled not only of decay but also of feces and urine. Rong Tang seriously suspected the Ministry of Revenue had done this deliberately, hoping to dissuade them from doing so.

Tang Tiantian and her friends were better off. They could go to the toilet in groups of two. However, before they went out, the gatekeeper would search them, saying that she was afraid they might take important documents out.

And because the three of them amazed many people with their math competition, the officials of the Ministry of Revenue paid close attention to them. Almost every hour, someone would come to the door and ask, "Have you found any clues?"

At this point, Xie Ying would always reply, "We haven't found any valuable clues yet. Please be patient, sir."

As for Rong Tang, he would occasionally ask about it, and he would take the opportunity to complain about it, saying that the air was polluted, the food was bad, he couldn't sleep at night, and he was dizzy. He would strongly demand to leave, which would often be met with ridicule and abuse.

Before nightfall, the girls stuffed the day's data through the hole, and Rong Tang waited for a special time to stuff it out through the crack in the door.

They didn't know what the situation was like outside, but they knew that the situation was even more serious the next day. Their treatment was even worse, and the food they ate was not only crude but also smelled rotten. Rong Tang vomited after taking a bite, and he didn't let Rong An eat either.

They were starving until noon, when two snacks were stuffed into their mouths from across the hole in the wall. Tang Tiantian whispered, "These are from Miss Cui. You can eat them first. We're keeping a close eye on things here, and the maids will take away any leftovers."

Two pieces of snacks, which were equivalent to the size of two mooncakes, were already considered quite large. However, they still couldn't fill their stomachs. The two could only hope to find more evidence as soon as possible before they starved to death.

Rong An cursed in a low voice, "What are they doing? We were recruited by His Majesty's order. Are they trying to torture us to death?"

"Because they're scared." Rong Tang whispered, "Or maybe the information we sent last night caused Zheng Changzhi to send people to investigate, and that alerted the enemy."

Two years ago, Minister Liang was in charge of purchasing grain. No matter from whom the grain was purchased, what was the quality, and how much it cost, one could find problems in the other party's accounts by simply checking. Even if he really bought 500,000 dan of fine rice, the extra 360,000 taels of difference was either on him or in the grain shop.