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

On this day, Gu Yannian was transferred to the Ministry of Revenue's warehouse to assist in taking stock of the losses of various materials that were stored after the autumn harvest.

As a "useful" clerk in the Wenhua Hall, his photographic memory and accounting skills have long made him a highly sought-after talent by various departments.

In a dimly lit storeroom, Gu Yannian sat amidst a pile of account books that reached the ceiling, his abacus beads moving rapidly beside him.

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

"Add to Agility."

A series of enormous numbers intertwined in his mind.

Suddenly, his gaze fell on an account book for "Winter Charcoal Losses and Waste of Civilian Iron Pots" from three counties surrounding Shuntian Prefecture.

The Ming Dynasty strictly controlled pig iron; when iron pots in private hands were scrapped, they had to be handed over to the government for remelting.

In these three counties, the number of scrapped iron pots since the beginning of summer this year is three times higher than in previous years.

Even more strangely, the charcoal consumption in these three counties also showed an abnormal peak.

If it were an ordinary clerk in the Ministry of Revenue, they would only think that the county magistrate below had embezzled some silver.

But in Gu Yannian's eyes, these cold, hard numbers pieced together a clear picture.

Someone is collecting large quantities of scrap iron while simultaneously consuming massive amounts of charcoal for high-temperature smelting.

This is definitely not the making of farm tools.

Gu Yannian continued to cross-reference the data and discovered that the destination of the scrap iron from these three counties ultimately pointed vaguely to an abandoned imperial estate on the outskirts of Beijing.

That imperial estate was originally registered under the name of a distant relative of the Prince of Han.

"Making weapons privately? This Prince of Han really doesn't want to die sooner."

Gu Yannian closed the ledger and made a faint comment in his mind.

What should he do? Should he go directly to the Crown Prince and report him?

No.

Those who live forever never get involved in the game themselves.

If he were to report this, the Han King's faction would certainly see him as a thorn in their side.

Even Zhu Di would doubt how a mere clerk like him could investigate so deeply.

Gu Yannian picked up his vermilion pen and naturally made a note at the end of the problematic ledger: "Accounting error."

He deliberately mixed up the figures for charcoal and scrap iron with the expenses for repairing the city walls, which were related to the defense of the capital.

Then, he bundled the account book together with a batch of case files on public security in the capital that needed to be reviewed by the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review.

Two days later.

An imperial censor from the Censorate discovered this glaring "erroneous account" while jointly reviewing the city's defense expenditures with the Ministry of Justice.

This censor was originally a member of the Crown Prince's faction.

Just when they were worried about not being able to find any fault with the King of Han, they dug deeper into the accounts and immediately discovered the trickery involved.

The imperial censor secretly reported to the crown prince overnight.

Zhu Gaochi broke out in a cold sweat when he saw the clues presented to him.

He immediately mobilized the most elite guards of the Eastern Palace, and together with the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, raided the abandoned imperial estate under the pretext of "searching for and arresting a major thief".

When they rushed into the hidden chamber beneath the royal estate, the hundreds of sets of iron armor being forged and the thousands of sharp steel blades completely shocked everyone.

The perpetrators were caught red-handed, and the evidence was irrefutable.

Such a heinous crime of treason could not be tolerated by Zhu Di, no matter how much he favored Zhu Gaoxu.

The swift horse, carrying irrefutable evidence, galloped to the imperial camp outside the Great Wall.

Less than half a month later, Zhu Di's angry imperial edict was sent back to the capital.

"The troops of Prince Zhu Gaoxu of Han are hereby stripped of their two guards, and he is to be immediately sent to Le'an Prefecture to assume his fiefdom. He is forbidden from entering the capital without an imperial edict! All those involved in the case within his household shall be executed!"

The city of Jinling was teeming with people.

The once arrogant and domineering Prince of Han left Shuntian Prefecture like a stray dog, escorted by a group of Imperial Guards.

He completely withdrew from the core power circle of the Ming Dynasty court.

This political storm, which had been brewing for a year, finally came to a swift and decisive end.

In the courtyard of Xuanwu Lane, the autumn wind swept away the last fallen leaf.

Gu Yannian sat in the warm main room, watching Shen Wan put the dried red dates into a storage jar, making a crisp clinking sound.

"The power struggle in the Ming Dynasty has finally brought some peace and quiet."

Gu Yannian picked up the teacup, blew away the foam on the surface, and took a small sip.

Outside, the officials who had been promoted and ennobled because of the fall of the King of Han were celebrating their new positions.

No one knew that the fuse that ignited this storm was simply a mistake made by a mediocre clerk in a corner of the Wenhua Hall.

He was still the unremarkable Gu Yannian.

I have to go to roll call tomorrow.

……

Spring of the fifteenth year of the Yongle reign.

As the ice and snow outside Shuntian Prefecture melted, the willows along the moat sprouted tiny buds.

The March breeze still carried a hint of chill on my face.

However, the construction site of the Forbidden City was a scene of bustling activity.

Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) officially issued an imperial edict to begin the comprehensive construction of the three main halls of Beijing.

The number of artisans and laborers conscripted from various places reached hundreds of thousands, and the daily consumption of money and grain was a dizzyingly large amount.

Xia Yuanji, the Minister of Revenue, has been staying at the yamen for half a month straight.

This chief steward of the Ming Dynasty had mostly gray hair, and the collar of his official robe was covered in sweat and dust.

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

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

He silently instructed himself to allocate attribute points to "Spirit".

A sudden clarity dawned on me, and all the subtle sounds around me came into view.

At that moment, a series of chaotic footsteps came from outside the main hall.

Xia Yuanji, carrying a thick stack of account books, stepped across the threshold, panting.

He had no time to see Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi, and went straight to the side hall, where he plopped down in the armchair opposite Gu Yannian's desk.

"Recorder Gu, I'm in trouble today and need to borrow your sharp eyes and quick hands."

As he panted, Xia Yuanji slammed the stack of account books heavily onto the table.

Gu Yannian stood up, picked up the earthenware pot from the clay stove, and poured Xia Yuanji a cup of warm tangerine peel tea.

"Lord Xia is a pillar of the nation, in charge of the nation's finances. I am but a lowly seventh-rank clerk, with only a superficial understanding of rote memorization. I am afraid I cannot be of much help."

Gu Yannian spoke calmly, picked up his teacup and took a small sip.

Xia Yuanji shook his head, picked up the tea and drank it all in one gulp, then wiped the tea stains from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

"These are the handover accounts sent this month by the brick kiln in Linqing, Shandong, and the timber factory in Huguang. The Ministry of Works is urging for materials, and the Ministry of Revenue needs to approve the final payment."

"But my men calculated it three times, and the amount of timber loss still didn't match the cost of firing the Linqing bricks. With such a discrepancy of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, I dare not sign off on it lightly."

Xia Yuanji pointed at the account books, his brows furrowed.

Gu Yannian put down his teacup and reached for the top ledger.

His eyes swept quickly across the paper.

Numbers that would take an ordinary person half a day to figure out on an abacus, he could arrange and combine automatically.

In a short time, he can calculate the sum and difference of every expense.

He remained silent, his expression calm, turning pages with his left hand and holding a small wolf-hair brush in his right.

He quickly jotted down numbers on a piece of white paper next to him.

The only sound inside the hall was the faint rustling of papers.

Xia Yuanji held his breath and waited quietly to the side.

Half an hour later, Gu Yannian closed the last account book.

He picked up the blank sheet of paper covered with numbers and handed it to Xia Yuanji.

"Lord Xia, please take a look. Three hundred pieces of Phoebe zhennan wood transported from Huguang were reported damaged when they passed through the Xuzhou sluice gate. However, according to the warehouse entry slips at Tongzhou Wharf, there is no record of any timber-carrying ships docking during those days. Most of these Phoebe zhennan wood were probably secretly intercepted and resold in Xuzhou."

"As for the brick kiln in Linqing, the accounts show that 50,000 gold bricks were burned, but the amount of charcoal consumed was only half of what it used to be."

"Burning gold bricks requires extremely high temperatures, and charcoal would certainly not be used so sparingly."