The cannon fodder original wife's bad story

Chapter 584

Lotus brought iced lotus seed soup, and the four of them ate one each. Xu Lingbai still felt sleepy, so he went to wash his face with cold water. When he returned to the desk, he sighed, "Guanzhou, the accounts are so complicated. Although I studied mathematics when I was young, I never thought that it would be so overwhelming when it comes to checking the accounts."

Song Guanzhou smiled at the two scholars and said, "Everyone has different accounting habits, and there are many tricks hidden in them. If outsiders come to check, they can only list them one by one and calculate the difference in amount."

Xiao Bei bent over his desk and sighed, "…it's only been half a day, but I already admire Cang Ge'er. His eyesight is not good, and he still has to look at so many accounts. If I were to do this, I would never be able to do it in my lifetime."

Song Guanzhou was amused by the dejected look of the two men.

"It's just that the list is complicated. For example, this tea shop has a shopkeeper and five servants. In addition, they have rented a horse carriage for a long time. There are two rooms on the left and right sides of the shop, but one is owned by the Xiao family and the other is rented. The monthly income and expenditure accounts not only come from the sale of goods, but also the wages of the shopkeeper and servants, rental fees, livestock, taxes, and account fees, etc...."

After hearing this, Xu Lingbai already held his head and didn't want to look at the accounts anymore.

"I never thought that a mere tea shop would have so many accounts. Just look at this. Three teacups were broken and a whole cake of tea was soaked. Qian Lao San came to buy on credit again. And this. The clerk was delivering tea to Tianxianglou and was chased by a dog on the way, breaking the tea leaves—"

Xu Lingbai pointed at the account book and said helplessly, "It gives me a headache to record these things every day."

Song Guanzhou smiled faintly, "Cousin, it would be great if the accountant could remember it this way. Speaking of which, fourth cousin, the Xiao family's business is really admirable. For example, here, if the clerk was chased by a dog and broke the tea leaves, he only needs to pay one-fourth of the cost, which is fair."

Xiao Bei sighed, "The wages of the men are meager. If we say we won't compensate them, we're afraid someone will take advantage of us, so the shopkeeper will also be held responsible. But - I haven't been compensated too many times in this book, right?"

After saying that, he opened the account book in his hand and handed it to Song Guanzhou.

"Look, I lost money fifteen times this month for various reasons—"

Song Guanzhou looked at it carefully, dragged his hand across the abacus, and looked at the account again. "This Jiangzhou Tieguanyin is not cheap, two taels of silver per cake, ordinary people can't afford it. I'm afraid the clerks have to be careful when they sell it. On the contrary, there are so many damaged ones, there must be a problem."

He moved the beads on the abacus and looked at the items below. "The carriage rental fee was calculated once at the beginning of the year. I vaguely remember that it was recorded every month. In my fourth cousin's monthly account from the year before last, it was recorded every three or five days."

Xu Lingbai came over and looked at Xiao Bei, then they all looked at Song Guanzhou, "Did you remember it again?"

Song Guanzhou shook his head slightly.

"We need to check. For example, if the vehicle is used every now and then, and it is not rented long-term from the coachman's shop, but is rented temporarily, we need to check the receipt. If there is no annotation, it will be regarded as a duplicate record and must be registered."

Xiao Bei was overwhelmed.

"Brother Ru Lingbai, please forgive me for talking too much. These things seem simple. Food, clothing, and expenses, how much money do you need? I thought it was just a matter of using an abacus to calculate. Who would have thought that the accountant below would fool people? Guan Zhou, this job is not easy!"

Song Guanzhou pursed his lips and chuckled.

"Brother Cang is smart, is it so easy for me to take his house?"

Because the two were close, Song Guanzhou did not hide anything. When Xu Lingbai heard it at first, he was also surprised. He thought that the Xiao family was really generous to get a third courtyard just by checking the accounts.

But after only two days, Xu Lingbai had dark circles under his eyes and suddenly felt that it was difficult to earn money for this house.

"That's true. Cang Ge'er is very calculating."

Xiao Bei laughed heartily, and then sighed, "Even a small tea shop has so many tricks, not to mention the other big businesses of the Xiao family."

Song Guanzhou was smiling and talking, and he could see clearly.

"Check both ends. At least I checked the tea items in the Xiao family's general ledger and the general ledgers of the 19 tea shops, two tea houses, and five tea gardens. The difference is as much as 20,000 taels of silver."

As soon as the voice fell, Xu Lingbai and Xiao Bei could not hide their surprise, "So many?"

Song Guanzhou said sternly, and nodded slowly, "Just checking the total amount of the account, there is so much. If we check it carefully, there will be more. Cang Ge'er has already found out all this. He doesn't want me to just give him the difference, but to tell him where the deficit is and who is involved in the failure to balance the account."

Xiao Bei smacked his lips, "This job is indeed not easy."

Song Guanzhou lowered his eyebrows and smiled, "...I can only try my best to live up to the trust of my two uncles and Cang'er. I dare not say that I will check everything, but I will record all the problems in the account books and compile them into a written document."

After listening to this, Xiao Bei bowed in submission.

"Fortunately, I will go to the academy to study hard tomorrow, and Lingbai will be at your service." There was a lot of teasing and joking in his words. Xu Lingbai's eyes turned black, and he asked Song Guanzhou, "I'm afraid you won't be able to avoid these things when you become an official in the future."

Song Guanzhou shook his head and smiled, "It's not that you have to do it yourself. If you become a county magistrate, you will have a deputy governor or a clerk to manage you. They will just report the general situation to you, but--"

Are you at ease?

Looking at him inquiringly, Xu Lingbai wiped his face heavily with both hands, "Now that you said that, I'm afraid I'll have to look at the accounts myself someday."

Song Guanzhou smiled brightly, "Not really. This is the first time you check the accounts, you must make sure you can see the clues. When you hold people accountable, your subordinates will know that you are an expert in the industry and will not dare to fool you. In the future, random checks will be--"

At this point, Song Guanzhou took the account book he had seen yesterday and handed it to the two of them, "Have you ever seen this account book?"

The two took it and quickly flipped through it. "It's not an ordinary annual account. Although I haven't looked at it carefully, it looks normal now."

Song Guanzhou shook his slender fingers slightly, "This book contains false accounts."

"False accounts?"

Xu Lingbai lowered his head again and flipped through the books. "These are all routine matters. I summarized the monthly account books. I counted half of them yesterday and there were no problems."

Song Guanzhou took the account book and turned to the back middle page. In the leftmost column, it was written that a canal of more than 90 meters was dug in the tea garden and 2,128 taels of silver were paid out.

Xiao Bei looked at him puzzledly, "Guan Zhou, what's wrong with this?"

"I asked Silang about the Wanjia Tea Garden in Tong County. He had been there before and said that the Tong River was next to the tea garden. When I asked about the irrigation water for the tea garden, Silang also said that more than ten tributaries were brought in ten years ago. The tea garden is located at a high altitude, so water was also pumped up by waterwheels. Digging canals - that's simply nonsense."

Hearing this, Xiao Bei immediately recalled.

After a moment, he finally understood, "That's true. Where did the canal in Wanjia Tea Garden come from? The tributaries were introduced in the early years. Even if we dredge them again, it won't cost so much money."

More than two thousand taels is not a small amount. Even if it is a three-courtyard house in the center of Jiangzhou city, with a worse view, two thousand taels can be enough to buy it.

Xu Lingbai was a little confused when he heard this, "How dare they..."