Chapter 17
What exactly does Xu Xian do?
Xu Xian turned the ledger to face Mo Feichang, pointing to a line of numbers on the first page.
"First, the numbers are too clean."
His finger traced from the first page to the last, passing over neat, round numbers—2000 taels, 1500 shi, 800 taels, 5000 guan.
Flipping through the entire ledger from beginning to end, the vast majority of the amounts end in zero, with a few ending in five, and almost no irregular endings like 1, 2, 4, 6, or 8.
He put down the ledger and explained to Mo Feichang.
"The real tax revenue was collected from thousands of households in a scattered manner. There were odd amounts of land tax, and the poll tax was converted. The losses varied, and the last digits of the numbers in the accounts should be randomly distributed from 0 to 9, with all sorts of numbers."
"But right now, all the numbers in this ledger are zeros—there's only one explanation: the person who did the accounting rounded all the numbers up to make it easier to smooth out the discrepancies."
Mo pulled the ledger in front of him and flipped through a few more pages. He saw that it really was true.
Xu Xian then pointed to the summary data of several consecutive years in the middle of the ledger and made a second point.
"Annual tax is too stable."
He pointed out the annual revenue figures for the past five years to Mo Feichang, which fluctuated around eight thousand taels each year, with a difference of no more than five hundred taels, remaining unchanged regardless of whether it was a bumper year or a disaster year.
Mo followed Xu Xian's finger and looked over. Sure enough, the annual income figures for the past five years were neatly arranged.
Xu Xian continued scrolling down to the page on quarterly breakdowns and pointed out the third point: the quarterly breakdowns were too even.
He turned to the quarterly details page of the ledger, where it clearly stated that the total amount for the year was four thousand taels, with each season (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) yielding exactly one thousand taels. The amounts for the summer and autumn taxes were exactly equal, not a penny more or less.
Xu Xian said frankly,
"The real accounts can't be like this. Summer grain tax is high, autumn tax is next, and the amount paid during the busy farming season is low due to delays. The amount varies greatly from quarter to quarter, and the difference between summer and autumn tax amounts can usually reach more than 30%."
"This account book forcibly divides the total annual amount into four equal parts, which completely violates the natural law of agricultural taxation."
As he spoke, he flipped back a few pages, pointing to several large deposits.
"Sir, how far back is the date on this document from the last audit?"
Mo Feichang glanced at the dates following those large sums of money, and his eyelids twitched—they were all from the month before the audit, with the dates clustered together just before the audit.
Xu Xian then made a fifth point—he pointed out the proportions of land tax, poll tax, and commercial tax to Mo Feichang. The proportions had been exactly the same for many years, regardless of whether the local town had developed, whether the population had increased or decreased, or whether commerce had prospered. The tax proportions never changed.
After saying this, Xu closed the ledger and pushed it back to Mo Feichang.
"If any of these five conditions are met, the ledger is fake. This ledger meets all five conditions, and it's done very perfunctorily. It's obviously done by an amateur."
Mo Feichang reopened the ledger and read it three times from beginning to end, his breathing becoming heavier with each reading. After finishing the third time, he closed the ledger and threw it on the table, looking up at Xu Xian with a glint in his eyes.
"What exactly did you do at Iron Gate Pass before?"
"I did a little bit of everything. My adoptive father did everything. I took over his job. He taught me everything, so I learned everything."
"The annual tax revenue from the Iron Gate Pass is less than a fraction of that of the capital, but the principle is the same."
Xu Xian smiled and said, "When it comes to accounts, if someone tampers with them, there will definitely be traces in the data."
Mo remained silent for a long time, then suddenly chuckled softly, "Good, very good, excellent!"
After saying that, he picked up a brush and began to write in a flowing, elegant style on the back of the poem:
The tax records are all false; it turns out the government granaries are a den of rats.
Today, with a single blow, the case is shattered; a gentle breeze caresses the willows, awaiting the spring waves.
After finishing writing, he blew on the ink, nodded in satisfaction, and pushed the manuscript in front of Xu Xian. "How is it?"
Xu Xian glanced down at the twenty-eight characters—the tones were all wrong, the parallelism was barely correct, and the key was that the metaphor of "a rat's nest" to describe the corrupt officials in the Ministry of Revenue was quite vivid.
He folded the poem and tucked it into his sleeve, saying earnestly, "Thank you for your calligraphy, sir. I will certainly treasure it!"
Mo was very satisfied, nodding in approval. He pulled a blank document from the drawer and began writing as he spoke.
"You have some talent; you'll assist Charlie in this case later."
After finishing the official document, he added another sentence.
"The tax and banking case is too big for a small officer like you to handle. I'll find you a superior."
He sent someone to summon Yang Xu.
Yang Xu is a veteran of the Inspection Headquarters, a fourth-rank commander, at the peak of the Meridian Opening Realm, and has worked in the Headquarters for more than ten years.
...
A short while later, Yang Xu strode into the public room and bowed to Mo Feichang with clasped hands.
"What are your orders, sir?"
Mo handed him the official document and briefly explained the situation of the tax and silver case, asking him to coordinate with Xu Xian to assist in the investigation.
Yang Xu's gaze swept over Xu Xian from head to toe and then back again, his brows furrowing slightly.
"Tsk...Sir, the tax silver case involves the Ministry of Revenue and the Three Departments. It's probably not appropriate to send a mere junior officer to assist in the investigation."
"This is His Majesty's will."
Yang Xu paused for a moment, then said nothing more, "Yes."
The two left Mo Feichang's office, Yang Xu in front and Xu Xian behind. As they passed through the main corridor, Yang Xu suddenly turned around.
"Tsk... The tax silver case is not the mission case. With the mission case, Princess Yunshang put in a good word for you, but with the tax silver case, you don't. You stay behind me, talk less and do more, and don't cause me any trouble."
After saying that, he strode away.
Xu Xian stood under the corridor watching Yang Xu's figure disappear around the corner, then put his hands in his sleeves, humming a little tune as he continued walking towards his courtyard.
...
The next day, Yang Xu took Xu Xian to the Ministry of Revenue's Department of Finance to report for duty.
The Minister of Revenue personally received him in the main hall, his attitude impeccably polite. He offered him a seat, served tea, and exchanged pleasantries, going through the entire formality without missing a single detail, but every word he uttered seemed to be pushing him away.
The Minister said that the Ministry of Revenue was busy with official duties, that there were too many accounts to review all at once, and that the Department of Finance had limited manpower and might not be able to cooperate adequately.
Yang Xu immediately lost his temper and bluntly stated that the Inspection Department was investigating the case by imperial decree and did not need the Ministry of Revenue's cooperation, only the Ministry of Revenue's obedience. After these two sentences, the Minister's smile vanished.
The two argued for almost half an hour in the main hall of the Ministry of Revenue. In the end, Mo Feichang sent someone to deliver a message, which barely managed to smooth things over, and everyone continued to check the accounts.
Xu Xian sat to the side without saying a word, observing everyone.
He noticed a thin civil official in the corner who was responsible for serving tea and water and kept his head down without saying a word.
Ji Feng, Director of the Department of Revenue.
He was a fifth-rank official and worked in the Ministry of Revenue for fifteen years.
This man was in his forties and a veteran of the Ministry of Revenue. Although he was checking accounts, he kept drinking water and wiping away sweat.
It's October now, and Kyoto is in the north, so drinking tea is understandable, but why am I sweating so much?
Xu Xian picked up his teacup, took a sip, and mentally marked Ji Feng as an important figure.
This kind of body language usually means two things: the person knows something and is very afraid!
However, Xu Xian did not point it out on the spot, because pointing it out now would only make him shrink back even deeper.
After Yang Xu finished arguing with the Minister of Revenue and stormed out of the Ministry of Revenue, Xu Xiancai stood up and followed behind him. When he passed by Ji Feng, he paused and glanced down at the account book spread out in front of him. The page was exactly the record of tax revenue in October of last year.
Xu Xian left without saying anything.
...
After returning to headquarters, Yang Xu began his brute-force approach.
All the account books of the Ministry of Revenue's Department of Finance were sealed up, and all eight officials of the Department of Finance were isolated and questioned. They were called into the interrogation room one by one and interrogated from morning to afternoon, and then from afternoon to night.
By the time the third person was interrogated, the Minister of Revenue was furious. He sent an impeachment memorial directly to Emperor Jingyuan, accusing Yang Xu of obstructing the Ministry of Revenue's official duties and abusing his power.
Mo Feichang deflected the impeachment memorial, replying with a single sentence:
"The Inspection Department is handling the case by imperial decree. If the Ministry of Revenue has any objections, please report them to His Majesty."
Emperor Jingyuan left the memorial to the emperor and ignored it, leaving the Minister of Revenue with no choice but to swallow his anger.
After all, Mo Fei was a favorite minister of the Jingguo Kingdom and had a close relationship with the emperor. He wielded great power in the court and the country, so there was no use in expressing his dissatisfaction.
Yang Xu continued the interrogation. By the time he reached the eighth person, it was already dark. The eight testimonies were laid out in a row, without any flaws.
Mo Feichang found himself standing at the interrogation room doorway, leaning against the doorframe. Looking at the eight airtight statements on the table, he shook his head and recited two lines on the spot:
"Examining every corrupt official in the granary, it's hard to find a single truthful grain; the government office is as deep as the sea, where fish swim at the bottom."
Yang Xu looked completely bewildered as he listened to Xiao Shi.
"Tsk... What does this mean, sir?"
Xu Xian chimed in from the side, "The magistrate means that interrogating these small fry is useless; the real big fish are underwater."
Mo gave Xu Xian a very approving look.
"Learn more from Mr. Xu in the future, not only how to solve cases, but also how to read poetry."
Yang Xu's lips twitched, and he secretly gritted his teeth:
Tsk... You call that poetry?!
"First, the numbers are too clean."
His finger traced from the first page to the last, passing over neat, round numbers—2000 taels, 1500 shi, 800 taels, 5000 guan.
Flipping through the entire ledger from beginning to end, the vast majority of the amounts end in zero, with a few ending in five, and almost no irregular endings like 1, 2, 4, 6, or 8.
He put down the ledger and explained to Mo Feichang.
"The real tax revenue was collected from thousands of households in a scattered manner. There were odd amounts of land tax, and the poll tax was converted. The losses varied, and the last digits of the numbers in the accounts should be randomly distributed from 0 to 9, with all sorts of numbers."
"But right now, all the numbers in this ledger are zeros—there's only one explanation: the person who did the accounting rounded all the numbers up to make it easier to smooth out the discrepancies."
Mo pulled the ledger in front of him and flipped through a few more pages. He saw that it really was true.
Xu Xian then pointed to the summary data of several consecutive years in the middle of the ledger and made a second point.
"Annual tax is too stable."
He pointed out the annual revenue figures for the past five years to Mo Feichang, which fluctuated around eight thousand taels each year, with a difference of no more than five hundred taels, remaining unchanged regardless of whether it was a bumper year or a disaster year.
Mo followed Xu Xian's finger and looked over. Sure enough, the annual income figures for the past five years were neatly arranged.
Xu Xian continued scrolling down to the page on quarterly breakdowns and pointed out the third point: the quarterly breakdowns were too even.
He turned to the quarterly details page of the ledger, where it clearly stated that the total amount for the year was four thousand taels, with each season (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) yielding exactly one thousand taels. The amounts for the summer and autumn taxes were exactly equal, not a penny more or less.
Xu Xian said frankly,
"The real accounts can't be like this. Summer grain tax is high, autumn tax is next, and the amount paid during the busy farming season is low due to delays. The amount varies greatly from quarter to quarter, and the difference between summer and autumn tax amounts can usually reach more than 30%."
"This account book forcibly divides the total annual amount into four equal parts, which completely violates the natural law of agricultural taxation."
As he spoke, he flipped back a few pages, pointing to several large deposits.
"Sir, how far back is the date on this document from the last audit?"
Mo Feichang glanced at the dates following those large sums of money, and his eyelids twitched—they were all from the month before the audit, with the dates clustered together just before the audit.
Xu Xian then made a fifth point—he pointed out the proportions of land tax, poll tax, and commercial tax to Mo Feichang. The proportions had been exactly the same for many years, regardless of whether the local town had developed, whether the population had increased or decreased, or whether commerce had prospered. The tax proportions never changed.
After saying this, Xu closed the ledger and pushed it back to Mo Feichang.
"If any of these five conditions are met, the ledger is fake. This ledger meets all five conditions, and it's done very perfunctorily. It's obviously done by an amateur."
Mo Feichang reopened the ledger and read it three times from beginning to end, his breathing becoming heavier with each reading. After finishing the third time, he closed the ledger and threw it on the table, looking up at Xu Xian with a glint in his eyes.
"What exactly did you do at Iron Gate Pass before?"
"I did a little bit of everything. My adoptive father did everything. I took over his job. He taught me everything, so I learned everything."
"The annual tax revenue from the Iron Gate Pass is less than a fraction of that of the capital, but the principle is the same."
Xu Xian smiled and said, "When it comes to accounts, if someone tampers with them, there will definitely be traces in the data."
Mo remained silent for a long time, then suddenly chuckled softly, "Good, very good, excellent!"
After saying that, he picked up a brush and began to write in a flowing, elegant style on the back of the poem:
The tax records are all false; it turns out the government granaries are a den of rats.
Today, with a single blow, the case is shattered; a gentle breeze caresses the willows, awaiting the spring waves.
After finishing writing, he blew on the ink, nodded in satisfaction, and pushed the manuscript in front of Xu Xian. "How is it?"
Xu Xian glanced down at the twenty-eight characters—the tones were all wrong, the parallelism was barely correct, and the key was that the metaphor of "a rat's nest" to describe the corrupt officials in the Ministry of Revenue was quite vivid.
He folded the poem and tucked it into his sleeve, saying earnestly, "Thank you for your calligraphy, sir. I will certainly treasure it!"
Mo was very satisfied, nodding in approval. He pulled a blank document from the drawer and began writing as he spoke.
"You have some talent; you'll assist Charlie in this case later."
After finishing the official document, he added another sentence.
"The tax and banking case is too big for a small officer like you to handle. I'll find you a superior."
He sent someone to summon Yang Xu.
Yang Xu is a veteran of the Inspection Headquarters, a fourth-rank commander, at the peak of the Meridian Opening Realm, and has worked in the Headquarters for more than ten years.
...
A short while later, Yang Xu strode into the public room and bowed to Mo Feichang with clasped hands.
"What are your orders, sir?"
Mo handed him the official document and briefly explained the situation of the tax and silver case, asking him to coordinate with Xu Xian to assist in the investigation.
Yang Xu's gaze swept over Xu Xian from head to toe and then back again, his brows furrowing slightly.
"Tsk...Sir, the tax silver case involves the Ministry of Revenue and the Three Departments. It's probably not appropriate to send a mere junior officer to assist in the investigation."
"This is His Majesty's will."
Yang Xu paused for a moment, then said nothing more, "Yes."
The two left Mo Feichang's office, Yang Xu in front and Xu Xian behind. As they passed through the main corridor, Yang Xu suddenly turned around.
"Tsk... The tax silver case is not the mission case. With the mission case, Princess Yunshang put in a good word for you, but with the tax silver case, you don't. You stay behind me, talk less and do more, and don't cause me any trouble."
After saying that, he strode away.
Xu Xian stood under the corridor watching Yang Xu's figure disappear around the corner, then put his hands in his sleeves, humming a little tune as he continued walking towards his courtyard.
...
The next day, Yang Xu took Xu Xian to the Ministry of Revenue's Department of Finance to report for duty.
The Minister of Revenue personally received him in the main hall, his attitude impeccably polite. He offered him a seat, served tea, and exchanged pleasantries, going through the entire formality without missing a single detail, but every word he uttered seemed to be pushing him away.
The Minister said that the Ministry of Revenue was busy with official duties, that there were too many accounts to review all at once, and that the Department of Finance had limited manpower and might not be able to cooperate adequately.
Yang Xu immediately lost his temper and bluntly stated that the Inspection Department was investigating the case by imperial decree and did not need the Ministry of Revenue's cooperation, only the Ministry of Revenue's obedience. After these two sentences, the Minister's smile vanished.
The two argued for almost half an hour in the main hall of the Ministry of Revenue. In the end, Mo Feichang sent someone to deliver a message, which barely managed to smooth things over, and everyone continued to check the accounts.
Xu Xian sat to the side without saying a word, observing everyone.
He noticed a thin civil official in the corner who was responsible for serving tea and water and kept his head down without saying a word.
Ji Feng, Director of the Department of Revenue.
He was a fifth-rank official and worked in the Ministry of Revenue for fifteen years.
This man was in his forties and a veteran of the Ministry of Revenue. Although he was checking accounts, he kept drinking water and wiping away sweat.
It's October now, and Kyoto is in the north, so drinking tea is understandable, but why am I sweating so much?
Xu Xian picked up his teacup, took a sip, and mentally marked Ji Feng as an important figure.
This kind of body language usually means two things: the person knows something and is very afraid!
However, Xu Xian did not point it out on the spot, because pointing it out now would only make him shrink back even deeper.
After Yang Xu finished arguing with the Minister of Revenue and stormed out of the Ministry of Revenue, Xu Xiancai stood up and followed behind him. When he passed by Ji Feng, he paused and glanced down at the account book spread out in front of him. The page was exactly the record of tax revenue in October of last year.
Xu Xian left without saying anything.
...
After returning to headquarters, Yang Xu began his brute-force approach.
All the account books of the Ministry of Revenue's Department of Finance were sealed up, and all eight officials of the Department of Finance were isolated and questioned. They were called into the interrogation room one by one and interrogated from morning to afternoon, and then from afternoon to night.
By the time the third person was interrogated, the Minister of Revenue was furious. He sent an impeachment memorial directly to Emperor Jingyuan, accusing Yang Xu of obstructing the Ministry of Revenue's official duties and abusing his power.
Mo Feichang deflected the impeachment memorial, replying with a single sentence:
"The Inspection Department is handling the case by imperial decree. If the Ministry of Revenue has any objections, please report them to His Majesty."
Emperor Jingyuan left the memorial to the emperor and ignored it, leaving the Minister of Revenue with no choice but to swallow his anger.
After all, Mo Fei was a favorite minister of the Jingguo Kingdom and had a close relationship with the emperor. He wielded great power in the court and the country, so there was no use in expressing his dissatisfaction.
Yang Xu continued the interrogation. By the time he reached the eighth person, it was already dark. The eight testimonies were laid out in a row, without any flaws.
Mo Feichang found himself standing at the interrogation room doorway, leaning against the doorframe. Looking at the eight airtight statements on the table, he shook his head and recited two lines on the spot:
"Examining every corrupt official in the granary, it's hard to find a single truthful grain; the government office is as deep as the sea, where fish swim at the bottom."
Yang Xu looked completely bewildered as he listened to Xiao Shi.
"Tsk... What does this mean, sir?"
Xu Xian chimed in from the side, "The magistrate means that interrogating these small fry is useless; the real big fish are underwater."
Mo gave Xu Xian a very approving look.
"Learn more from Mr. Xu in the future, not only how to solve cases, but also how to read poetry."
Yang Xu's lips twitched, and he secretly gritted his teeth:
Tsk... You call that poetry?!