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

Although he was intelligent from a young age, he only had a general understanding of the complexities of carriage and horse damage and the rations for the laborers.

Where would one find such detailed accounting?

Inside the Minglun Hall of the Imperial Examination Hall.

Gu Yannian sat upright behind the chief examiner's desk, closing his eyes to rest.

The examiners looked down at the candidates below, scratching their heads and looking worried, and secretly groaned.

"Prime Minister Gu, isn't this topic... a bit too obscure? These candidates are all well-versed in the classics; such mundane matters..."

One of the examiners, a graduate of the Hanlin Academy, cautiously offered his advice.

Gu Yannian slowly opened his eyes, his deep gaze sweeping across the examination room.

"A side path?"

Gu Yannian picked up the purple clay teapot and took a sip of tea from the spout.

"Officials in the Ming Dynasty were supposed to go to the local areas to manage floods, provide disaster relief, and collect grain. If they couldn't even calculate how much manpower it would take to transport a single bushel of grain to a disaster area, or if they couldn't even allocate relief funds for disaster victims who were starving to death right before their eyes, then no matter how many sages they read, they would only be good-for-nothings who could write poetry."

Gu Yannian put down the teapot, his voice not loud, but it conveyed an undeniable determination.

"As long as I sit in this examination hall, the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty will only select practical talents who can get things done and are good at accounting. Those who only talk about ideals and morality will all be dismissed and sent back to their hometowns to farm."

Three days later.

The first exam is over.

The gates of the examination hall slowly opened.

Thousands of candidates staggered out of the gate, many looking ashen-faced, as if a layer of their skin had been peeled off.

Shang Lu mingled in the crowd, his steps unsteady.

His once handsome face was now etched with weariness.

With his extraordinary talent, he managed to deduce that "arithmetic problem" and, while he dared not say it was completely accurate, he managed to write a disaster relief plan that was barely passable.

But he knew that countless talented people in the world would fail at this hurdle.

The Forbidden City, Wenhua Hall.

Gu Yannian presented the first batch of reviewed papers to Zhu Qizhen's desk.

Zhu Qizhen looked at the test papers, which were full of mistakes and showed that even basic addition and subtraction were not understood, and couldn't help but slap the table and laugh.

"Hahahaha! Grand Tutor, look at these self-proclaimed talents who call themselves the Emperor's disciples! They even included the principal in the calculation of fire loss! If such fools were to become county magistrates, wouldn't they be swindled out of everything by their clerks!"

Zhu Qizhen picked up his vermilion brush and mercilessly drew large red crosses on the scrolls, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction welling up inside him.

He suddenly realized that the Grand Tutor's insistence on him using an abacus and digging trenches back then wasn't all bad.

At least for now, sitting on this dragon throne, looking at these brilliant minds from all over the world who are being tormented by the accounts, he is filled with a sense of superiority that crushes them with his intellect.

"Your Majesty is wise."

Gu Yannian stood aside, watching Zhu Qizhen's smug expression, a hint of a smile flashing in his eyes.

"The talents of this world still need a wise ruler like Your Majesty, who is well-versed in the finances, to discern them."

Zhu Qizhen snorted coldly and threw the completed papers aside.

"Grand Tutor, don't try that. I see it now. You just want to turn all the officials in the country into your puppets, with nothing but account books on their minds."

Gu Yannian did not refute, but simply turned and walked out of the hall.

"The stability of this country and its people has never been built on a few eloquent words. If the accounts are clear, the world will not descend into chaos."

Gu Yannian's voice, carried by the spring breeze, dissipated outside the Wenhua Hall.

Zhu Qizhen watched the Grand Tutor's departing figure, gritted his teeth, and helplessly picked up a thick document from the Ministry of Revenue again.

Despite his resentment, he still had to continue ruling the Ming Dynasty.

Amidst the endless clatter of abacuses, the strange yet unbreakable tacit understanding between the emperor and his minister was propelling the Ming Dynasty into an era of immense wealth and prosperity.

Back in the courtyard of Xuanwufang.

Gu Yannian took off his official robes and put on a cotton long gown.

He sat down at the stone table in the courtyard and brought out a plate of freshly sliced ​​braised beef and a pot of liquor from the house.

Constitution +1

Feeling the increasing power within him, Gu Yannian picked up a slice of beef and put it in his mouth.

"The next exam paper will test their budget for repairing the Yellow River. Becoming an official in the Ming Dynasty isn't that easy."

He downed a glass of strong liquor and looked at the old jujube tree with its lush branches and leaves in the yard.

In the early summer of the eleventh year of the Zhengtong reign, the weather in the capital was as unpredictable as a child's face.

In the afternoon, the once clear sky was suddenly filled with layers of dark clouds.

The fierce wind whipped up the withered flowers and leaves from the Imperial Garden, rampaging through the alleyways of the Forbidden City.

Before long, large raindrops began to pelt down, creating a white mist on the glazed tiles.

Inside the Grand Secretary's office next to the Wenhua Hall, the doors and windows were tightly closed.

Gu Yannian, dressed in a moon-white summer robe, sat upright behind a large sandalwood table.

The thunder rumbled outside the window, but it did nothing to disrupt the flow of the purple brush in his hand.

He steadily signed his name in the signature book.

[Ding! Today's attendance complete. Attribute point gained +1.]

He put down the purple-tipped tea, picked up the pre-rain Longjing tea beside him, and gently sipped the tea.

"This rain is just in time. The Yellow River is rising, it's a good opportunity to test the newly built breach dike of the Ministry of Works."

Gu Yannian muttered to himself, a cold glint flashing in his deep eyes.

The Ministry of Works submitted the "Completion Calculation Report of Yellow River Embankment Repair" a few days ago.

He glanced at it only once before tossing it onto the desk.

The book was beautifully presented, full of classical allusions, and without a single flaw.

But in his eyes, which have seen through a thousand years of time.

Between the lines, the stench of rats gnawing at the national treasury was palpable.

However, he did not personally refute it.

The young dragon who used to cry for layered cakes has now been tormented by him under the abacus for eight whole years.

It's time for all the officials of the Ming Dynasty to see this.

What kind of man-eating fangs has this young emperor, whom he personally sculpted, now grown?

The atmosphere inside the Wenhua Hall was oppressive and suffocating.

The nineteen-year-old Emperor Zhu Qizhen, dressed in bright yellow casual clothes, stared with bloodshot eyes at a thick account book on his desk.

No ice was lit in the palace because the young emperor thought it was too expensive.

The sweltering air was mixed with the strong smell of ink.

The stench made Wang Zhen, the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, sweat profusely, but he didn't even dare to wipe it with his sleeve.

"Pat...pat..."

The clanging of the abacus beads sounded particularly dull and irritating under the cover of the thunderstorm.

Zhu Qizhen frantically manipulated the sandalwood abacus, the veins on the back of his hands bulging.

His thick calluses, worn from years of using the abacus, even emitted a faint burnt smell at this moment.

"No...no! These bastards!"

Zhu Qizhen suddenly pushed the abacus aside and stood up abruptly.

His eyes were wide open, his chest heaving violently, like a lone wolf enraged, staring intently at the folding book in his hands.

"Wang Zhen!"

Zhu Qizhen gritted his teeth and growled, the sound seeming to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

Wang Zhen was so frightened that his legs went weak and he knelt down on the gold brick with a thud.

"Yes, Your Majesty! What are your orders?"

"Go! Bring Zhou Lin, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, and several other officials in charge of supervising the river works, all of them, to this Wenhua Hall!"

"Immediately! A moment too late, and I'll skin you alive!"