The Great Song Dynasty: You were put in charge of teaching, and you produced a whole bunch of prime

"One hundred strings of cash?! Why doesn't Jiang Lin just rob it?!"

In the private room of Wanghu Tower, the head of the Zhang family slammed his hand on the table, causing the water in the teacup to splash out.

The heads of several prominent families sat together, their faces increasingly grim.

"This is blatant profiteering!" The Li family patriarch gritted his teeth. "When have we, the aristocratic families of Jiangnan, ever suffered such humiliation? First, they tricked us with fake exam questions, and now they're ripping us off with this 'cram school'! One hundred strings of cash for each spot, and if each family sends ten children, that's a thousand strings of cash!"

The head of the Lin family had a gloomy face, and was fiddling with two walnuts in his hands, making a cracking sound.

"What's the use of scolding?" the Lin family head said coldly. "The power is in their hands now. Su Shi is in charge of the imperial examinations; he decides how to test us. Our boys have been memorizing the Four Books and Five Classics since they were little. You want them to calculate water conservancy and earthwork, or check account books for deficits? They don't even know how to use an abacus!"

The private room fell silent.

That's the most fatal thing.

They weren't afraid of spending money; they were afraid of spending money and still failing the exam. If all the prestigious families of Jiangnan failed this time, and the spots were taken by those from poor families, then their foundation in Jiangnan would be completely shaken.

"So... we're just going to hold our noses and pay this money?" The Zhang family patriarch's face turned purple with frustration.

"Submit!" Patriarch Lin stood up abruptly. "Not only do we submit, but we also need to select the smartest children in the family! Didn't Jiang Lin claim he could teach them everything? I want to see what kind of talent that Shen Kuo of his can produce! As long as our people learn those practical skills, they'll still crush them in the exams!"

The next day, a huge shed was erected in the courtyard of the temporary office of Jingshi Academy.

Hundreds of tables and chairs were set up under the shed. At this moment, all the seats were already occupied.

They were all core members of the major families in Jiangnan. They were all dressed in fine silks and satins, with jade pendants hanging from their waists, but their faces looked as if they had swallowed flies.

Zhao Lingjun sat behind the front counter, surrounded by piles of gold bars and silver notes. She grinned from ear to ear as she worked on her abacus.

"Ten members of the Zhang family, one thousand strings of cash, payment complete!"

"The Li family consists of fifteen people, with a total of 1,500 strings of cash, all paid up!"

Jiang Lin stood in the corridor not far away, watching this scene, and said to Shen Kuo beside him, "Cunzhong, it's up to you now. These young masters are used to being pampered, and their minds are full of nothing but romance and poetry. You have to brainwash them."

Shen Kuo had changed into clean clothes today, but his hair was still messy. He held a long pointer in his hand and had several thick ledgers and drawings tucked under his arm.

"Don't worry, Headmaster." Shen Kuo pushed up the glass glasses Jiang Lin had specially made for him on the bridge of his nose, his eyes revealing a pure technological fanaticism. "In the face of science, everyone is equal. I will let them know that numbers don't lie."

Shen Kuo strode onto the podium.

The young men from prominent families below began to whisper amongst themselves.

"Is this Shen Kuo? He looks rather dull-witted."

"I heard he's just a quack with fancy tricks, what profound principles could he possibly understand?"

"Bang!"

Shen Kuo slammed his pointer hard on the lectern, making a loud bang that instantly silenced everyone.

"Enough with the nonsense, turn to page 50 of the exam questions." Shen Kuo didn't bother with any opening remarks and went straight to the point: "Today we'll discuss double-entry bookkeeping and the verification of deficits in state and county finances."

The scholars below reluctantly opened their books.

Shen Kuo turned around and wrote a long row of dense numbers and symbols on the blackboard behind him.

"Suppose a county's annual revenue is 10,000 bolts of silk and 20,000 strings of cash. Its expenditures are 3,000 strings of cash for post stations and 5,000 strings of cash for river works. However, when the warehouse is inventoried, it is found that the balance in the books does not match the actual goods. The old-style cash flow book only records the inflows and outflows, which is very easy to falsify. Now, I will teach you how to use the 'debit' and 'credit' of double-entry bookkeeping to find the 500-string deficit in this book."

Shen Kuo spoke very quickly, his chalk flying across the blackboard.

At first, the young noblemen below tried their best to listen, but in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the eyes of most of them began to glaze over.

"What...what is he saying?" A member of the Zhang family stared blankly at the four words "loan balance" on the blackboard. He recognized each word individually, but when put together, they looked like gibberish.

"How should I know! What do you mean by recording the left side, recording the right side, and then having both sides equal in the end... My head is spinning." The Li family member next to him clutched his head in pain.

Shen Kuo completely ignored their reactions. After finishing his theory, he threw several thick ledgers onto the table in the first row.

"This is a genuine copy of the Hangzhou Salt Transport Office's account books from last year," Shen Kuo said coldly. "Now, everyone take a page and start calculating. If you can't find any loopholes in the accounts within half an hour, you won't get lunch today."

"What?!" The entire audience erupted in uproar.

"You dare not feed us? We paid a hundred strings of cash for tuition!" A troublemaker stood up, pointing angrily at Shen Kuo. "I am the nephew of the prefect of Changzhou! Who do you think you are, daring to order me around like this!"

Shen Kuo stopped what he was doing, turned his head, and looked at him coldly through his glasses.

"In my class, there is only right and wrong, not status." Shen Kuo walked up to the troublemaker and pulled out an extremely complex wooden hydrological model from his sleeve. "Since you're unwilling to do the math, then we'll do this. This is a model of the water flow and sediment at a breach in a section of the Yellow River. It calculates how many kilograms of boulders would be needed to plug the breach when the flow rate is three zhang per second."

The troublemaker was dumbfounded when he saw the model covered with dense markings.

"If you can't figure it out, get out of here. Jing Shi Academy doesn't keep useless people." Shen Kuo's voice wasn't loud, but it was extremely penetrating.

The troublemaker's face flushed red. He gritted his teeth and sat down, staring intently at the model, trying to figure out what was going on.

Half an hour later.

The shed was filled with wails.

Some people were so engrossed in doing calculations that their eyes went black, some were staring blankly at the models, and some even vomited from exhaustion and collapsed onto the table.

The troublemaker clutched his hair, his eyes bloodshot, tears welling in them. He calculated the weight of the stone over and over again, but each time the result was different.

Shen Kuo stood on the podium, looking at the group of distraught scions of noble families, his tone completely calm: "This is the practical exam you're going to be tested on. If you can't even figure this out, even if you become officials, you'll only be manipulated by your subordinates. The Song Dynasty will be doomed sooner or later if it's handed over to you."

These words were like a sharp knife, piercing the hearts of these proud and arrogant young masters.

Jiang Lin watched this scene from the corridor and nodded in satisfaction.

Shatter their pride and reshape their perceptions. That's the true purpose of the intensive course.

Just then, a gray carrier pigeon fluttered down and landed on the railing next to Jiang Lin.

Jiang Lin's eyes narrowed, and he walked over to remove the bamboo tube from the carrier pigeon's leg.

Jiang Lin poured out the secret letter, glanced at it, and the smile on his lips instantly vanished, his eyes turning cold.

"Headmaster, what's wrong?" Zhao Lingjun noticed something was wrong and came over.

Jiang Lin handed her the secret letter, his voice low and menacing: "That old fox Cai Jing has finally lost his patience and decided to resort to underhanded tactics."

Zhao Lingjun looked down and saw that the letter contained only one short line:

"Cai secretly ordered the leaking of false exam questions in Jiangnan, thus fabricating a major case of cheating in the imperial examinations."