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

Back in the courtyard, Shen Wan came forward, naturally took the meat from his hands, and turned to go to the kitchen.

Before long, a plate of braised pork belly, with its bright red color and rich but not greasy texture, was served.

The two sat down across a square table.

Gu Yannian picked up a piece of meat and put it in his mouth. The rich aroma of the meat juice made him squint his eyes in satisfaction.

"The government office is busy today. In a few days, the imperial court will move the capital to Shuntian Prefecture, and you and I will have to go north with it."

Gu Yannian swallowed the food in his mouth and gave a brief explanation in a calm tone.

"I'll organize the things in my house slowly when I have time."

Shen Wan nodded without asking why, and simply got up to serve him a bowl of rice.

Night gradually enveloped the city of Jinling.

Gu Yannian sat on the daybed and closed his eyes.

The northward migration has begun, and the most glorious chapter of the Ming Dynasty is about to leave a magnificent mark on this long historical scroll.

He doesn't need to compete for fame or fortune, nor does he need to engage in fierce battles and power struggles.

He only needed to sit quietly in this carriage heading towards the future, watching the changing winds and clouds outside the window.

……

Spring of the eleventh year of the Yongle reign.

The plants and trees in Jiangnan are sprouting and spreading their leaves like crazy, and the city of Jinling is shrouded in a rich spring atmosphere.

However, the officials of the Ming Dynasty had no time to appreciate flowers and enjoy the spring scenery.

Ever since Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) issued the imperial edict to move the capital, the entire capital city was in an uproar, like a hornet's nest that had been stirred up.

Moving the capital is by no means a simple matter of moving a few pieces of furniture or doing something overnight.

This is the great shift of the heart of the Ming Empire.

The Six Ministries and Nine Ministers, the Five Military Commissions, the Hanlin Academy, and the Imperial Academy.

Countless government offices were about to collect decades' worth of yellow registers, fish-scale maps, and top-secret archives.

Along with the officials' families and the gold and silver in the treasury, everything was transported to Beiping along the newly dredged Grand Canal.

This incredibly complex and demanding responsibility naturally fell on the shoulders of the Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi, who was in charge of the country.

Inside a side hall of the Wenhua Hall, Gu Yannian sat upright at his desk.

"Checking in".

He meditated in his heart.

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

"Add to the spirit."

A cool and refreshing feeling spread through his mind, and Gu Yannian's eyes became even brighter.

In front of him were hundreds of material allocation orders from the Six Ministries and the Office of Transmission.

With his high mental attribute of over 800 points, he only needed to glance at the densely packed ink characters, and they would appear as if they were living fish.

It automatically categorizes and proofreads in his mind.

At this quiet moment, a series of heavy and hurried footsteps came from the direction of the main hall.

Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi walked in like a moving mountain of flesh, his face full of irritation.

As he walked, he tugged at the collar of his everyday robe, followed by several trembling officials from the Eastern Palace.

"It's chaos! Complete chaos!"

Zhu Gaochi plopped down on the large armchair, the wooden chair making a teeth-grinding creaking sound.

"The Ministry of War's shipment records from yesterday don't match up, the Ministry of Revenue says they lost three large boxes of tax ledgers from Huguang over the years, and the Ministry of Works has even grouped the ships transporting sandalwood with those transporting gunpowder together!"

"If things go wrong halfway through, I might as well give up being the crown prince and just hang myself outside Fengtian Gate!"

The officials were so frightened that they knelt down on the ground, not daring to utter a sound.

Gu Yannian put down his vermilion brush and stood up.

He picked up the kettle from the charcoal stove next to him and naturally brewed a pot of Junshan Silver Needle tea.

He poured out a cup and placed it on the tea table in front of Zhu Gaochi with both hands.

"Your Highness, please calm down and have some tea to soothe your throat."

Gu Yannian's tone was calm, carrying a strange magic that could soothe people's hearts.

Zhu Gaochi glanced at Gu Yannian, picked up his teacup, drank it all in one gulp, and sighed heavily.

"Yan Nian, these past few days, even when I'm sleeping, I feel like there are countless mouths in my ears shouting for boats and carriages. The families of all the officials, plus the files from various government offices, number over a hundred thousand people. Just packing and cataloging them has already made my subordinates dizzy."

"Your mind is always sharp; do you have any ideas on how to break this deadlock?"

Gu Yannian bowed slightly and walked back to his desk.

He knew that what the Crown Prince needed now was not lengthy reassurances, but immediate results.

"I spend my days organizing books in the Wenhua Hall, but my knowledge is shallow, and I have no understanding of such national policies for governing the country."

Gu Yannian smiled slightly and said slowly.

"Back in my hometown, there used to be a large cloth merchant. One year, he wanted to move all the goods from dozens of warehouses to a new city a hundred miles away. At first, it was a complete mess, with cloth and silk often getting lost or mixed up."

Zhu Gaochi's eyes lit up, and he immediately waved for the kneeling officials to step down, leaning forward.

"And then what? What did that wealthy family do?"

"The wealthy family later hired an experienced accountant who had worked on sea voyages."

Gu Yannian picked up a paperweight from the desk and continued speaking.

"The old accountant set a rule that the items would no longer be loaded onto the carts according to their value, but instead, thousands of sturdy wooden boxes of the same size were ordered from the lumberyard. Regardless of whether the contents were fine silks or coarse linen, they were all packed into these uniformly sized wooden boxes."

"In this way, the carriage can be loaded tightly without tipping over."

Zhu Gaochi nodded thoughtfully: "Uniform wooden crates do make transport easier. But what if the contents get mixed up?"

"Your Highness is wise; this is the old accountant's second trick."

Gu Yannian picked up a vermilion brush and drew several symbols on a blank sheet of Xuan paper.

"He marked each wooden box with a different color of paint. Red paint represented first-class preciousness, and black paint represented second-class commonness."

"Next, write the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches on the paint. For example, red Jia Chen not only indicates that the contents of this box are valuable, but also corresponds to the item on the Jia Chen page of the account book."

"In this way, the laborers only need to recognize the colors and numbers, and don't need to know what's inside. The accountant can follow the map without any confusion."

The main hall was completely silent.

Zhu Gaochi's breathing gradually became heavy.

Gu Yannian presented this concept, which would later be used in logistics and warehousing as standardized containers and barcode numbers, in a popular folk tale.

Although it seems simple, in the primitive transportation system of the Ming Dynasty, which relied on human eyes to identify and mouth to exchange goods, it was undoubtedly a game-changer.

"Meow!"

Zhu Gaochi slapped his thigh and stood up abruptly, the gloom on his face vanishing instantly.

"What a brilliant idea of ​​standardized packaging! What a clever use of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches! Those incompetent fools in the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue, who have studied the classics their whole lives, are not as resourceful as an old country accountant!"

Gu Yannian took half a step back, his head bowed and his eyes lowered.

"I was just telling a funny story from the countryside. I hope Your Highness found it amusing."

"To relieve boredom? Your amusing story has saved me from a great crisis!"

Zhu Gaochi strode to the desk, quickly picked up a brush, ground ink, and began to draft the imperial edict.

"By my decree, the Ministry of Works is ordered to immediately produce standardized wooden crates, and the Ministry of Revenue is to lead the effort to seal all documents and account books to be moved north according to the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. Anyone who disobeys will be severely punished!"

As soon as the imperial decree was issued, chaos erupted again outside the Wenhua Hall.

Gu Yannian sat down again, picked up his cup of tea which had cooled slightly, and took a small sip.

The affairs of the world are in a tangled mess, and he has no desire to be the hero who cuts through the chaos.

As for showing off, that's out of the question.

On his resume, he was still the same mediocre clerk who could only memorize and show up on time.

Summer of the eleventh year of the Yongle reign.

The torrential rains that had lasted for days finally stopped, and Nanjing City welcomed a rare sunny day.

However, even more dazzling than the sunlight was the massive fleet that sailed upstream along the Yangtze River and eventually docked at the Longjiang Shipyard.

The eunuch Zheng He completed yet another of his magnificent voyages to the Western Ocean.

They returned in glory, laden with exotic treasures, spices, gems, and envoys from various countries.

This time, Zheng He brought back not only wealth, but also an auspicious omen that shocked the Ming Dynasty.

According to officials from the Ministry of Rites, the Western Kingdom of Malindi presented a legendary mythical beast, the Qilin, as tribute.

This beast has the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, the hooves of a horse, and the scales of a fish. It has a single horn on its head and will never appear except in times of peace and prosperity.

When Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) heard this news, he was overjoyed.

He immediately ordered all officials to assemble outside Fengtian Gate, as he wanted to personally receive the worship of this auspicious beast.

As the registrar of the Eastern Palace, Gu Yannian naturally had to join Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi and all the civil and military officials in this lively event.