Shipin Dalizheng

In the afternoon, painful wails were heard from every room. Some people had abdominal pain, some were vomiting, some asked for a doctor to see a doctor, and some could not stand the inhuman treatment and wanted to leave. All of them were scolded by the guarding officials, who said that they disregarded the emperor's orders, were greedy for pleasure, and could not bear even the slightest hardship. They refused to call a doctor and would never let them go.

By the evening, the meal was good again, with each person having a bowl of white rice and a chicken leg.

Rong An said as he wolfed down his food, "What's wrong with this?"

"I can't tell. Someone's checking."

Rong Tang was right. Somehow the news of the poor food here got out, and the palace sent Li Dequan to conduct a surprise inspection, but this "surprise inspection" did not succeed because the news from the palace had already been passed to the Ministry of Revenue, and preparations were made in advance.

"one more bowl."

After Rong Tang finished eating, he knocked on the door and asked for more. Although the guard was annoyed, he was afraid of alarming Li Dequan, so he still gave him another bowl.

Rong An also followed suit. Even though he was full, he still had to keep some food in his stomach.

In the next room, the young ladies were all noble ladies, so the guards did not dare to treat them harshly. They always had good food. Because Li Dequan came to inspect, they each had an extra meat dish.

While the mother-in-law wasn't paying attention, Tang Tiantian wrapped the uneaten chicken legs of the three people in a handkerchief and hid them under her skirt.

The old woman was surprised that the three girls had increased their appetites. She looked around but didn't notice anything and left.

When everything was quiet, a bulging handkerchief was stuffed through the hole in the wall. Tang Tiantian whispered, "Mine was untouched, but both of theirs took a bite."

Rong Tang silently took the handkerchief. Now that he had a meal in his stomach, he decided to wait until tomorrow morning.

Rong An whispered, "Why didn't anyone shout just now?"

"You can't shout."

Rong Tang shook his head. "Remember, we're here to investigate Minister Liang. Don't worry about other people or things. No official is clean. If we find out too much, it will cause too much trouble. Even if the emperor finds out something, just keep it in your mind and don't spread any information."

Rong An was silent.

That night, when Rong Tang rang the secret signal, there was no response from outside.

Not giving up, he knocked again, and then he heard someone yelling from outside, "You're going to die, I'll kill you if you keep knocking."

Rong Tang was shocked. The person had been replaced. It seemed that the officials of the Ministry of Revenue had become alert, and it would be difficult to spread the news outside.

In the second half of the night, there was a commotion from somewhere, and the officers and soldiers ran over to block it, making a loud noise that lasted for a long time.

Just before dawn, a familiar knock sounded on the door.

Rong Tang shouted in a low voice: "Who is it?"

Old Wen's irritated voice came from outside the door, "Damn, they are all pigs. They can't do anything right. Grandpa has to come here in person."

Rong Tang felt relieved and sent out all the notes he had prepared.

Old Wen added in a deep voice, "Kid, keep a low profile, or you'll get pushed to the edge."

"You should also tell Zheng Changzhi to take it easy. We haven't gotten out alive yet."

"I know. I'm being careful."

At dawn, the miserable days of the previous one or two days returned. We had to eat food that even dogs would hate and listen to Minister Luo's bombardment from one end of the corridor to the other over and over again.

"Our Ministry of Revenue is a poor government agency with a tight budget. Even these food items are saved by officials and servants at all levels and distributed to you. If you despise them, you are squandering natural resources and wasting food. Your Majesty hates waste the most. If you don't eat anything, I will starve you. Even dog shit will smell good if you starve me for two days. You are all mathematical geniuses, the foundation of talent the Ministry of Revenue will need in the future. If the Ministry of Revenue does well, you will do well too. If the Ministry of Revenue does not, what future do you have? Don't focus on food and drink, focus on the real things. For example, if you find any errors or omissions, report them to me immediately. I will use my own money to subsidize your meals, that's fine too!"

Rong An spat as he flipped through the account books, "Despicable! Threats, intimidation, bribery, everything."

Rong Tang's heart moved, and he suddenly shouted outside, "I found it, I found the wrong account!"

There was silence outside for a moment, then suddenly hurried footsteps rushed towards their room. The door was opened in a moment. Minister Luo asked with a gloomy expression, "What mistakes did you find?"

Rong Tang pointed to a spot and said, "Here, the total account is wrong. It should be 16,779 taels. I overstated it by 100 taels."

Minister Luo's heart was at ease, and he asked the Ministry of Revenue official who was following him to recalculate. After finishing the calculation, the official wiped his sweat and said, "Yes, sir, I don't know who made the mistake and entered the wrong position."

"Idiot, find out who made the mistake and make him make up for it."

"Yes."

Rong Tang was quite proud, "Sir, I recovered one hundred taels of lost money. Is this a merit? Is there a reward?"

Minister Luo cursed him as an idiot in his heart, but he still smiled and said, "Yes, it's a credit, I'll give you an extra meal at noon."

After the man walked out, he went into the next room and the sound came clearly.

"Ladies, have you found any mistakes?"

There was silence for a few seconds, and then Xie Ying started talking, being really rude.

"Minister Luo, we're not nitpicking, but the Ministry of Revenue's accounts are in disarray, riddled with errors and omissions. There are countless inconsistencies. Yesterday alone, we discovered dozens of discrepancies, at least a thousand taels missing. Was this a miscalculation, or was someone being a corrupt official? Minister Luo needs to conduct a thorough investigation."

He then mentioned no less than a dozen errors and omissions, which, like Rong Tang's, were insignificant. If the person responsible were caught, the most he would have to pay was compensation, and the worst that could happen was a demotion.

Minister Luo listened to the opinions very humbly and said that he would definitely prevent such incidents from happening again in the future.

After the others left, Rong An thought about what Rong Tang and Xie Ying had done for a long time. He felt that the mystery in it was enough for him to ponder for a while, and it would also be enough for him to have some self-protection means in his future career.

How could there be no problem with the Ministry of Revenue's accounts? If they turned out to be fine, then there would be a problem!

At noon, their meal was not much better. Perhaps Minister Luo did not care about this idiot at all, or perhaps he had forgotten about it. In any case, Rong Tang had no choice but to take out the chicken leg that he had "treasured" for a night and half a day.

He handed one to Rong An and said, "Eat it, or it will stink if you don't eat it now."

The chicken leg did taste a bit off, but it was still edible. Rong Tang ate one and then slowly ground the bones into powder and swallowed it.

Rong An didn't care about the tooth marks of a certain lady on the chicken leg. After he finished chewing the meat, he chewed the bones until they were shiny and threw them into the corner of the room reluctantly. Anyway, they would be taken away by mice at night.

Rats? If you're really hungry, you can eat them!

Fortunately, when Old Wen came again, he knew to bring them some dry food. "Kid, hold on a little longer. We're already dealing with it."

In this way, during the time they were checking the accounts, the Ministry of Revenue's attitude was sometimes strict and sometimes relaxed. When it was strict, they would open the door in the middle of the night to search to see if anyone had written a note or something like that. The guards were changed every two hours to prevent anyone from being bribed.

When it relaxes, he will be able to eat normal meals and his tone will be slightly better.

After a few times, the situation stabilized, meals became normal, and they were allowed to take out their toilet bowls and replace them with clean ones.

It was also at this time that Rong Tang learned that two of the people who came with him had died of illness, and more than ten could not bear the abuse. He didn't know how he had to get the host family who recommended them to take them away.

Rong An was very angry, "They really dare to take human lives!"

Rong Tang sighed, "What are they afraid of? If they are found out, they will lose their heads and property at any time. How can they not do something desperate? Now it's clear who will be abandoned and who will be saved."