Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

Shi Heng was stunned by the sudden barrage of questions and accusations.

This……

How come this young emperor knows the weight of the horses' rations better than he does?!

"Your Majesty, please understand that the fodder from Taiyuan Prefecture suffered significant losses along the way to Datong..."

Shi Heng stammered in his defense.

"loss?"

Zhu Qizhen sneered, his voice suddenly rising as if someone had touched a raw nerve.

"From Taiyuan to Datong, the official road is flat and only about four hundred li long. There are three large post stations along the way. I have calculated that the loss from transporting goods by cart and horse is at most only 15%!"

"You reported a 30% loss in your report! What about the extra 15%? Did some bandits rob our supply route?!"

Zhu Qizhen grew angrier and angrier as he spoke, and walked up to Shi Heng, practically pointing his finger at him and cursing him out.

"Do you think the silver in Taicang came from the wind?! Do you know how many laborers carried stones and sandbags on the Yellow River dike to earn 100,000 taels of silver?!"

The young emperor's eyes were red-rimmed, and he gritted his teeth, looking as if Shi Heng had stolen his wife.

Shi Heng was now completely panicked.

He was a rough man, skilled in warfare, but his accounting was entirely fabricated by his subordinates.

Little did he know that this sixteen-year-old emperor was not only astonishingly skilled in mathematics.

He knew the distances between post stations and the loss of grain and fodder like the back of his hand, and could even dig out the details of 15% on the spot!

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty... Your Majesty, I am a rough man. Perhaps the scribes below made a mistake with the numbers..."

Shi Heng broke out in a cold sweat and knelt down again with a thud, all traces of his former arrogance as a fierce general completely gone.

"Written it wrong? You think you can swindle 100,000 taels of silver from the imperial court just because you wrote it wrong?"

Zhu Qizhen turned around and walked back to his desk, grabbed the folded book, and slammed it hard into Shi Heng's face.

"My money! That's my money! You wrote down 100,000 taels wrong, he wrote down 100,000 taels wrong! No matter how much money the Ming Dynasty has, it's not enough for your mistakes!"

"I will not approve a single coin of this 300,000 taels! The warhorse froze to death; this is due to your poor management and negligence, General. If the Ministry of War investigates, you will be charged with dereliction of duty!"

Zhu Qizhen, panting heavily, shouted sternly.

"Wang Zhen, draft an imperial edict! Order the Ministry of Revenue to deduct 100,000 taels from this year's salt tax revenue of Datong Town to make up for the shortfall in purchasing warhorses."

"The remaining fodder, let Shi Heng find a way to plunder it from beyond the Great Wall! If even one horse is missing, I will offer his head as a sacrifice to the flag!"

Shi Heng's face turned ashen. He scrambled to pick up the folded paper from the ground and kowtowed repeatedly.

"Your Majesty, I obey! I admit my guilt! I will return to the border immediately and will certainly order my men to thoroughly investigate the accounts!"

This fierce general, who was renowned throughout the nine border regions, came with an air of arrogance, but left like a stray dog, scrambling and crawling as he fled the Wenhua Hall.

He never wanted to face this emperor again in his life, the one who used abacus beads as hidden weapons.

Silence returned to the main hall.

Zhu Qizhen sat back on the dragon throne, picked up the now-cold tea and gulped down a mouthful, his chest still heaving violently.

Gu Yannian sat in the armchair, looking at Zhu Qizhen's meticulous and calculating appearance, a hint of satisfaction flashing in his eyes.

He held his teacup and offered a casual compliment.

"Your Majesty's rebuttal today was reasonable, well-founded, and hit the nail on the head. You protected the 100,000 taels of silver in the Taicang granary, truly demonstrating the qualities of a wise ruler. On behalf of the people of the world, I thank Your Majesty."

Upon hearing Gu Yannian's praise, Zhu Qizhen felt that awkward sense of pride well up inside him again.

He snorted coldly and turned his head away, unwilling to look at Gu Yannian's face, which he both hated and feared.

"Grand Tutor, stop trying to put me down with these words. This empire was built by your schemes, Prime Minister Gu; I'm just a laborer checking your accounts."

Zhu Qizhen's tone was sour, revealing a sense of resignation and despair.

Gu Yannian ignored his sarcasm, simply stood up and dusted off his sleeves.

"It is a blessing for the Ming Dynasty that Your Majesty can think this way."

Gu Yannian bowed slightly.

"Now that the accounts at the border have been settled, it's time to settle the accounts of all the scholars in the land. Tomorrow is the day of the imperial examination, and I will once again be the chief examiner for this special examination."

"I have prepared the questions for this exam. Please take a look, Your Majesty."

After saying this, Gu Yannian took out a sealed file from his sleeve, placed it on the imperial desk, and then turned and left.

Zhu Qizhen watched Gu Yannian's departing figure and gritted his teeth in resentment.

He opened the sealed file and pulled out the exam paper inside.

After just one glance, this emperor, who had been tested by account books for a long time, couldn't help but gasp and feel a pang of sorrow for the candidates who were about to enter the examination hall.

The next day, at the examination hall.

Three blasts of the clarion cannon signaled the official start of the imperial examinations.

Thousands of candidates from all over the Ming Dynasty, filled with the hope that "there is a golden house in books," sat in the narrow examination cells.

Among these candidates was a talented young man from Zhejiang named Shang Lu.

Shang Lu was handsome and refined. He not only won first place in the Zhejiang provincial examination but was also a renowned scholar in Jiangnan.

He was well-versed in the Four Books and Five Classics and could write eloquent and beautiful eight-legged essays.

He was determined to succeed this time in the capital, vowing to win the top score in the provincial examination and even aim for the legendary "Triple Crown".

He confidently ground the ink and unfolded the exam paper in front of him.

I thought the first question would be a profound saying from the Analects or Mencius, and that he would need to decipher and answer it.

However, when he stared intently at the ink-written characters on the scroll, Shang Lu's confident face instantly froze.

The exam paper clearly stated:

"In the ninth year of the Zhengtong reign of the Ming Dynasty, the Zhejiang Provincial Administration Commission suffered a severe drought, the worst in a century. The Ministry of Revenue wanted to transfer 300,000 shi of grain from Huguang to provide disaster relief. However, the waterway from Huguang to Zhejiang was impassable, and it required an 800-li land journey. The route passed through three mountains and five rivers. If 50,000 laborers were conscripted, each person would have a daily ration of one and a half jin, and 20,000 mules and horses would consume three jin of hay per horse per day."

"Question: When the grain supplies arrived in Hangzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang, how much was actually left? How should we compensate and reimburse the laborers who died or were injured along the way, and the mules and horses that were lost? Please calculate the amount in silver and draft a relief plan."

Shang Lu rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things.

This……

Is this an imperial examination paper?!

This is clearly a financial audit conducted by the Ministry of Revenue's Department of Expenditure!

What about the Four Books and Five Classics?

What about the teachings of the sages?

What about Yin and Yang and the Five Elements?

None at all!

Shang Lu turned his head and looked around.

From the nearby cells, gasps of shock rose and fell, and even faint sobs of despair could be heard.

Those talented scholars, like Shang Lu, who studied diligently for ten years but only knew how to quote classics and compose poems about the wind and moon.

Faced with this "arithmetic problem" filled with the strong atmosphere of everyday life and the cruel reality, I was completely clueless and felt like I was in a fog.

This isn't an exam for top scholars; it's clearly a recruitment drive for accountants!