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

Inside the back hall, a dozen huge mahogany boxes were lined up, each containing the bank's transaction records for the past few months.

Lord Wang slumped in his armchair, holding a teacup, staring intently at the group of old accountants from the Ministry of Revenue below, who were frantically calculating with their abacuses.

"Investigate! Open your eyes wide, all of you! Find out even the smallest amount of money involved!" Lord Wang slammed his fist on the table.

He didn't believe in superstition. With millions of dollars in revenue, how could this makeshift team manage to do things flawlessly?

The old accountants were sweating profusely, their fingers spitting smoke as they swung the abacus, the sound of beads falling onto a jade plate sounding like a death knell.

Jiang Lin sat opposite Lord Wang, comfortably sprawled in his chair, crossing his legs and cracking sunflower seeds.

Zhao Lingjun stood behind him with his arms crossed, his lips twitching as he tried to suppress a laugh.

Time passed slowly, and we endured from the beginning of the afternoon until sunset.

The old accountants' faces went from rosy to deathly pale, and they moved the abacus beads slower and slower, their hands trembling as if they had Parkinson's disease.

"Are you done yet? Have you found the deficit?" Lord Wang couldn't sit still any longer and stood up impatiently.

The head accountant from the Ministry of Revenue wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his legs went weak, and he knelt down in front of Lord Wang with a thud.

"My lord...this...this account book..."

"What? Is there a mountain of unresolved debts? Quickly, give me the numbers!" Lord Wang's eyes lit up, and he was fully revitalized.

The old accountant swallowed hard, his voice trembling with tears, "Your Excellency, this account book... it's simply inhuman!"

Lord Wang was stunned: "What do you mean?"

"It's perfect! What's this called... double-entry bookkeeping! For every debit, there must be a credit, and the total debits and credits must equal the total! Every bad debt has a reason for balancing it, and every penny of income is clearly recorded!"

The old accountant was completely exasperated. "I've been doing abacus work for thirty years, and I've never seen such divine accounts! Forget about a deficit, we've been searching all day, and we can't find a single penny's difference!"

Lord Wang's ecstatic joy froze instantly, as if he had swallowed a greenbottle fly.

"Bullshit! A bunch of good-for-nothings!" He kicked over the old accountant's desk. "How could a plate worth millions be clean! Jiang Lin, you definitely hid the real account book, didn't you!"

Jiang Lin patted the sunflower seed crumbs off his hands and slowly stood up.

"Lord Wang, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want. The account books are all here. You're blaming the good citizens for your own incompetent subordinates!" Jiang Lin launched into a sarcastic remark without any politeness.

Lord Wang was so anxious that his eyes turned red.

Before he came, he made a solemn pledge to Grand Tutor Cai. If he went back empty-handed today, Grand Tutor Cai would skin him alive!

He shoved aside the old accounting books on the ground and pounced into the pile of ledgers like a mad dog, frantically searching through them.

Suddenly, he paused and abruptly pulled out a red-and-gold-embossed account book from the bottom.

"Jiang Lin! You're still pretending! It's clearly written in this ledger that 500,000 strings of cash were secretly transferred out last month, without even a record of where it went!"

Lord Wang, holding up the account book, trembled with excitement: "Five hundred thousand strings of cash! You and Su Shi embezzled such a huge sum! I'll take your heads right now!"

Faced with this furious accusation, Jiang Lin not only didn't panic, but instead looked at him with an expression as if he were an idiot.

"Lord Wang, are you sure you want to investigate the whereabouts of this money?" Jiang Lin sighed softly. "Some blind boxes can be deadly if you open them."

"Stop playing tricks on me! I am an imperial envoy; there is no account in Jiangnan that I cannot investigate!" Lord Wang was extremely arrogant. "If you can't explain this 500,000 strings of cash today, don't even think about leaving this door alive!"

Jiang Lin helplessly shrugged and turned to look at Zhao Lingjun.

"Zhao Ling, the Imperial Envoy is stubborn and insists on investigating the accounts of the top-ranking official. You should open his eyes."

Zhao Lingjun chuckled, pulled a heavy gold medal from his pocket, and with a flick of his wrist, slammed it onto Lord Wang's table with a "smack".

"Minister Wang, open your dog eyes and look carefully."

Zhao Lingjun spoke coldly, "This 500,000 strings of cash was transported directly back to Bianjing via the Imperial City Guard's top-secret waterway and entered the Emperor's private treasury! This is a 'Royal Collection' gold token personally bestowed by the Emperor!"

Lord Wang stared intently at the gleaming gold plaque on the table, the dazzling royal emblem on it making him gasp.

My legs went limp instantly, like noodles.

"The...the imperial treasury?" Lord Wang's voice trembled like leaves in the cold wind.

The Emperor's Private Treasury!

Jiang Lin actually went so far as to take 500,000 strings of cash to pay protection money to the current emperor?!

"Impossible! Why would the government accept money of dubious origin?" Lord Wang was still making his last desperate attempt.

Zhao Lingjun stepped forward, looking down at him with a commanding presence, exuding an aura of authority.

"Origin unknown? This is a share of the profits from the Jiangnan Grain Reserve Bank of the Great Song Dynasty, presented to the Emperor! When the Emperor received the money, he even issued an edict praising Prefect Su and Chief Jiang for their economic revitalization and commendable loyalty!"

Zhao Lingjun's lips curled into a dangerous smile. "What? Lord Wang, are you here today to investigate the Emperor's accounts, or to impeach him for corruption and force him to hand over this 500,000 strings of cash for your Grand Tutor Cai to review?"

This enormous charge, capable of punishing nine generations of one's family, was slammed down on Lord Wang, breaking his spine.

Investigating the emperor's private accounts? Even if he had ten heads, it wouldn't be enough to chop them off!

If this matter were to reach Bianjing, even before the emperor could react, Grand Tutor Cai, in order to distance himself from the situation, would be the first person to be beheaded and fed to the dogs.

"This humble official wouldn't dare! This humble official deserves to die! This humble official was blind!"

Lord Wang was drenched in cold sweat, his official robes soaked through. He fell to his knees with a thud, frantically banging his head against the ground like a pestle being pounded.

Jiang Lin walked over with a pigeon-toed gait, squatted down, and reached out to pat Lord Wang's bloodless cheek.

"Lord Wang, have you sorted out the accounts yet? Are there any deficits I need to cover?" Jiang Lin smiled innocently.

Lord Wang was terrified, shaking his head frantically: "No embezzlement! Absolutely no embezzlement! Jiang Shanchang is incorruptible and law-abiding, a model for all merchants! I will return to the capital immediately and report the truth!"

"Go? Where to?" Jiang Lin stood up, clapped his hands, and said outside, "I just said that if no problems are found, Lord Wang has to go to the main gate and kowtow to the folks queuing outside to apologize."

Jiang Lin extended his hand, gesturing for him to enter: "Your Excellency, please broaden your perspective and proceed."

Lord Wang's face was ashen, as if he were dead. A high-ranking official of the third rank, forced to kowtow to a peasant—his reputation for officialdom was utterly ruined.

But when he looked up at the pardon in Zhao Lingjun's hand and then at the Imperial Guards outside the door with their sword hilts, he knew he was doomed to lose face today.

Half an hour later.

The arrogant imperial envoy, Lord Wang, groveled in utter humiliation as he kowtowed three times in front of thousands of Hangzhou citizens at the bank's main gate.

Then, along with a group of old accountants, they fled Hangzhou in disgrace, like stray dogs.

Watching Lord Wang's carriage disappear in a disheveled state around the street corner, Jiang Lin stretched comfortably.

"I bet Cai Laodeng is going to smash his cup in anger at the Grand Tutor's mansion this time." Jiang Lin turned to Zhao Lingjun and Li Gefei. "Alright, now that we've swept away the annoying flies, we should get back to some serious business."

Jiang Lin smiled expectantly: "Next month is Zizhan's wedding day. Our Jingshi Academy should really hold a grand celebration."