Duke of Zhenguan

Looking at the stack of booklets that Lin Chuan was pointing to, the Luozhou officials in the room felt utterly absurd.

They felt their intelligence had been insulted, and their eyes were fixed on Lin Chuan's face, trying to glean something from him or hear something like a "joke" from his mouth.

But there was nothing there. After saying, "General, there are problems with these accounts," Lin Chuan stood there calmly.

Seeing that Lin Chuan didn't seem to be going crazy, the officials of Luozhou could only assume that Lin Chuan's words were a tactic used by Cheng Yaojin to coerce them, and they all turned their attention to the governor of Luozhou.

After all, last night the governor of Luozhou patted his chest and said that he had already dealt with Cheng Yaojin.

The governor of Luozhou was inwardly cursing Cheng Yaojin for being shameless, even though they had clearly reached an agreement in the brothel.

Two thousand bandits couldn't have suddenly appeared. There were indeed powerful families behind those bandits. They used to be scattered throughout Luozhou, and their sudden gathering in one place was naturally at the behest of these powerful families.

They originally intended to make an example of the Changsun family, who had the closest relationship with the current emperor.

Unexpectedly, this directly summoned the tiger. The bandits originally planned to break up into smaller groups again, so that even if the imperial court investigated, they wouldn't find anything and the matter would simply be dropped. They were very familiar with this method.

They just didn't expect the imperial court to react so quickly. The army descended like divine soldiers, wiping out the bandits in one fell swoop and capturing hundreds of prisoners.

Now that they had been caught red-handed, those powerful families had no choice but to accept their fate. Those heads and the three surviving prisoners were the explanation those powerful families of Luozhou would give to the imperial court!

Although he was only acting as an intermediary, he almost fell out with these powerful families.

As a result, the dignified Right Martial Guard General went back on his word after leaving the brothel?

The governor of Luozhou's face was a mixture of emotions. His gaze swept over Cheng Yaojin's face, and after some deliberation, he decided that he couldn't afford to turn against him.

At the very least, he couldn't turn against them openly. The world now belonged to the Li family, and Cheng Yaojin was the emperor's confidant. If he really turned against them, his position as governor would be over.

His gaze finally settled on Lin Chuan's face, and he asked in a deep voice:

"Military Advisor Lin, what do you mean by this?"

"Prefect Wang, what I mean is that these accounts may be miscalculated, or the numbers may be falsified. In short, there is something wrong with these accounts!" Lin Chuan cupped his hands and replied calmly.

"Military Advisor Lin was able to spot the problems with the accounts with just a glance. Is he some kind of celestial being descended to earth?" the Prefect of Luozhou sneered.

"Prefect Wang, I am no divine being descended to earth; I merely possess some knowledge of mathematics!" Lin Chuan replied, bowing respectfully.

"Oh!"

The governor of Luozhou sneered and cupped his hands in a respectful gesture towards Cheng Yaojin:

"General, these accounts have been carefully calculated line by line by the most experienced accountants of the prefectural governor's office and various county offices in Luozhou."

"Military Advisor Lin judged the accounts to be problematic after only a few glances; that's rather frivolous. I implore the General to uphold justice!"

Cheng Yaojin had previously been very confident in Lin Chuan, but now he felt that Lin Chuan was somewhat unreliable. How could someone just glance at the accounts and immediately say that there was a problem with them?

Even if you're just putting on an act, you should at least go all the way!

No account in this world can withstand scrutiny. Just find one or two small mistakes, and you'll give him an excuse to lash out!

Just as he was thinking of an excuse, he saw Lin Chuan nod at him.

Is there really a problem?

Cheng Yaojin hesitated for only a moment before choosing to trust Lin Chuan. He cupped his hands in greeting to the Prefect of Luozhou and said with a smile:

"Prefect Wang, wouldn't it be clear if we settled the accounts right here in front of you?"

After hearing Cheng Yaojin's words, the governor of Luozhou looked at Lin Chuan with a bit more seriousness. He never thought that Cheng Yaojin, who could hold the title of Duke, was a fool. Could it be that this young man could really see the trickery in the account book at a glance?

Taking a deep breath, the governor of Luozhou felt as if he were in a dilemma.

Although no problems could be seen from the account books, the governor of Luozhou knew that there must be something wrong with the accounts.

The Luozhou Prefectural Governor's Office, along with its nine subordinate counties, has nearly fifty officials of official rank. Although the governors and county officials are appointed by the imperial court, over the past few years, countless people have been recruited by powerful families through various means.

The remaining mid- to low-level officials were almost all from powerful families, including the even larger number of officials outside the official ranks, who were also from powerful families.

Those who actually get things done are precisely these mid- to low-level officials and clerks.

So, is it possible that the accounts are fine?

impossible!

Cheng Yaojin sat calmly in his seat, waiting for the governor of Luozhou to make a decision. With five hundred cavalrymen in the front yard, he was not afraid even if Luozhou rebelled.

In his view, although the governor of Luozhou was also involved with powerful families, he should not have been completely won over by them.

Just like Cheng Yaojin thought, the governor of Luozhou pondered for a long time before finally deciding to stand in the middle and let Cheng Yaojin and the powerful families compete in magic to see whether the accountants of the powerful families were more capable or the young man brought by Cheng Yaojin was more skilled.

"In that case, I shall order the person in charge to be summoned here, and Military Advisor Lin shall confront him face to face. What do you say?" the Prefect of Luozhou asked Lin Chuan in a deep voice.

"That's only right!" Lin Chuan nodded.

The governor of Luozhou nodded, turned his gaze to the county magistrates standing to the side, and said in a deep voice:

"Everyone heard what Military Advisor Lin said. Go and call all the people involved!"

Now that he had spoken, Lin Chuan naturally wanted to find the problems in the account books. Seeing the county magistrates going out to summon people, he bowed to the governor of Luozhou and said:

"I will trouble Governor Wang to have someone prepare writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones..."

The governor of Luozhou waved his hand, and a minor official hurriedly brought over a set of writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.

Holding a pen in one hand and flipping through an autumn tax ledger in the other, Lin Chuan wrote down numbers one by one on a blank sheet of paper in front of everyone.

In fact, throughout history, the methods of falsifying accounts have been limited to a few: directly altering numbers, creating fictitious accounts, duplicate entries, and exaggerating losses...

The only difference is that modern accounting methods are more covert and sophisticated.

As for the account books in his hand, Lin Chuan did not want to comment on them.

Simply copy down the numbers one by one, and compare the loan details; the trickery will be as obvious as lice on a monk's head.

By the time the county magistrates led their men into the main hall, Lin Chuan had already finished organizing the autumn tax ledgers in his hands.

After glancing at the cover, Lin Chuan bowed to the county magistrates and asked:

"This is the autumn tax account of Yanshi County. I wonder who the magistrate of Yanshi County is?"

The magistrate of Yanshi County, a man in his thirties, stepped forward and bowed to Lin Chuan.

"I am the magistrate of Yanshi County. May I ask what advice Military Advisor Lin may offer?"

"I dare not presume to offer guidance; I have a few questions, please answer them, sir!"

Lin Chuan cupped his hands in greeting, pointed to a section of the account book, and asked:

"There are twelve villages here, including Zhao Family Village and Qingtouji, that are delivering their autumn grain in twelve batches. I've calculated it, and it totals 520 shi (a unit of dry measure). Why is the warehouse record only showing 52 shi a month later?"

And here, several hundred bushels of autumn grain were stored in August, but in September, twenty batches of grain were sold cheaply to merchants because they were moldy. I calculated that the total was one thousand bushels.

According to the laws of the Tang Dynasty, if a thousand shi of grain in a warehouse were truly moldy, the registrar and the granary official would be buried with grass several feet high by now.

... "

With each sentence Lin Chuan spoke, the magistrate of Yanshi County turned paler. By the time Lin Chuan finished reading out all the findings, the magistrate had collapsed to the ground, his face deathly pale.

What is meant by "dimensional reduction attack"?

That's it!