Son of Song Dynasty

Chapter 69 Unpredictable Prophet
Zhao Dezhao stood up, frowning and slowly paced back and forth in the study.

According to the deed tax collection process he designed, any tax payment needs to go through the hands of the cashier, the ticket issuer, and the auditor. .As long as you compare the accounts, it will be clear at a glance who is playing tricks and cheating.

Even if the cashier, the ticket clerk, and the auditor all collude together to make their fake accounts match up with each other, there is still the level of the warehouse keeper. This position is specially responsible for Checking and keeping invoices and taxes.

Every morning before the door opens for business, the ticket issuer needs to go to the warehouse clerk to go out of the warehouse, check the tax invoices that need to be used on the day, and sign for receipt;
After the door closes every evening, the ticket issuer needs to return the unused tax invoices of the day to the warehouse clerk for re-stocking, checking and handing over.

Tax stamps need to be counted when they go out of the warehouse in the morning, and they need to be counted when they are returned to the warehouse in the evening. By subtracting the two numbers, you can know the total consumption of tax stamps on the day, and this amount must be compared with the cashier’s payment to the warehouse clerk on the same day. The total amount of taxes in the treasury is consistent with the total amount of tax receipts - how much tax stamps are consumed, how much tax has to be received, and someone has to be responsible for a copper plate missing!
The task of Wang Zixing and Shi Yuanliang is to be in charge of the Kaifeng branch and Luoyang respectively, responsible for supervising the implementation of this process.

Therefore, there is such an unreasonable and sharp drop in taxes in a single day, but there are no flaws in the books for the time being. There are only two possibilities——

Or, the cashiers, ticket clerks, auditors, warehouse managers and all other handling officials, and even the local government have all colluded with each other to cheat and cheat, and evened out the accounts;

Or, it was a worse situation - even Wang Zixing and Shi Yuanliang were dragged into the water and participated in malpractice for personal gain.Ordinarily, this possibility is very small. Both of them are rich and powerful children who have seen the world. To them, tens of thousands of coins are far less valuable than their political future. Regarding interests, who can say for sure?
But whatever the problem, this state of affairs cannot continue.

Otherwise, at least he would not be able to fulfill his promise to the emperor's father, which would cause him to lose all face.

More importantly, the financial reform of the Song Dynasty, which had only just started, was aborted, and he no longer had the opportunity to make contributions. Zhao Guangyi's party members would also take the opportunity to besiege and bite, so that his political credit and prestige, which had just improved, would be beaten back to its original form. .

Zhao Dezhao didn't want to think about it anymore, he stopped pacing, and called out to the outside of the study: "Qian Niuer".

Qian Niuer, who was waiting outside, immediately appeared at the door of the study.

Zhao Dezhao ordered with a sullen face: "Go and invite Brother Xing to my place immediately!"

The best response, of course, is to call Wang Zixing and Shi Yuanliang to him, and ask them face to face.

But Shi Yuanliang was far away in Luoyang, and it took a lot of time to communicate, so he could only call Wang Zixing for questioning.

After Qian Niu'er took the order, he immediately trotted towards the stable.

At this time, Wang Xiuzhi had probably figured out that the matter was quite strange, knowing that his concubine Wang Zixing was already in a suspicious situation.

Seeing her husband's gloomy face and ordering Wang Zixing to be summoned urgently, her expression became a little ugly, she stared at Zhao Dezhao and said, "Sir, you suspect that the concubine's Seventh Brother is engaging in fraud and corrupting the tax money of the Kaifeng National Taxation Bureau." ?”

Zhao Dezhao felt that this question was so stupid that he would lose if he answered it, so he turned his head away.

Unexpectedly, the lady's voice was heard next to her ear:

"My lord, my concubine's natal family is from the Wang family in Taiyuan, a famous family that has been passed down for 600 years. There are many children in the Wang family, including virtuous and foolish ones, some who are successful and some who are not. Yes, but there is absolutely no such thing as selling yourself for a few copper coins!"

Zhao Dezhao looked back in astonishment, only to find that Wang Xiuzhi had tears in his eyes, and his pretty face was flushed red, like a child's reaction after being wronged by an adult as a thief, feeling humiliated and full of indignation.

"Wife, where are you going? I really didn't mean that. I asked Brother Xing to come here, just to ask the matter face to face."

"You say that, you must be suspecting that our Wang family is a thief!"

"My lady, I really didn't mean that..."

"No, Mr. Xiang, that's what you mean in your heart!"

Zhao Dezhao didn't know whether to laugh or cry, thinking that no matter if it was a modern housewife in the 21st century, or the daughter of a prime minister in the Song Dynasty, or a princess of a county, once she got involved with her natal family, she would immediately lose her wits and become entangled. There is really no difference between ancient and modern times.

Feeling a little headache, Qian Niu'er came back in a hurry to report that he had been invited. He hadn't walked a few steps out of the palace when he bumped into Wang Zixing who was on his way to the county palace. He had already invited people into the mansion and was in the hall Waiting and asking if you would like to meet in the study or serve tea in the main hall.

Zhao Dezhao took the opportunity to start performing, raised his foot and lightly kicked Qian Niu'er, scolded with a straight face, "Are you a fool? How dare you let my uncle wait in the hall! What do you usually teach you? How much have I told you, my uncle is from my own family, even if I let the visiting Shangshu generals wait, I can’t let my uncle wait, why don’t you come here quickly?”

Qian Niu'er went to hire someone in a daze.

Zhao Dezhao turned his head to look at Wang Xiuzhi again, and found that she was no longer angry, but there still seemed to be a little worry on her pretty face, so he said with a smile:

"Miss, just relax, brother Xing must have figured out the problem, and hastened to report it to your husband-in-law, otherwise, with your seventh brother's temperament, he could still come here specially to visit us Relatives can't do it?"

Wang Xiuzhi was startled when he heard this, and then burst out laughing.

Sure enough, after Wang Zixing was led by Qian Niu'er and invited into the study of the county prince's mansion, he didn't bother to pay respects to Zhao Dezhao and his wife, so he immediately got down to business:

"There is a big problem with the Kaifeng National Taxation Bureau! I felt that something was wrong when I lost so much tax yesterday, but I couldn't see any flaws in the accounts. I didn't find out until today..."

Zhao Dezhao didn't wait for him to finish, he raised his hand and interrupted: "You found out that all the officials in charge of the sub-bureau have colluded with each other to cheat you, the person in charge."

Seeing the astonishment on Wang Zixing's face, Zhao Dezhao smiled and raised the two thin papers in his hand, and added, "I saw it from the daily account briefing you sent over."

Wang Zixing was horrified when he heard the words. He spent a lot of effort before finally finding out where the problem was. He never expected that Zhao Dezhao would find the answer with only a thin piece of paper. This made him doubtful. Does this brother-in-law of the county king have some kind of magical fortune-telling ability?

(End of this chapter)