This son-in-law is wicked in a good way!

A private room in a restaurant.

Empress Zhang Ping'an and Zhang Xiaoru sat around the table, with Mo Yu following behind the Empress.

"Brother Chu, did you come to see me this time to ask for a poem, or...?"

Zhang Ping'an personally poured the Empress a glass of wine and asked with a smile.

The Empress glanced at Zhang Xiaoru and nodded. Then she turned to stare at Zhang Ping'an.

"The reason I've come to see Young Master Zhang is to ask him something."

"Brother Chu, please speak freely. I will answer whatever I know," Zhang Ping'an said, patting his chest.

After careful consideration, the Empress said, "Lord Wan Yu, the Governor-General of the Yellow River, has been diligently managing the Yellow River for fifteen years and is a rare and incorruptible official."

"However, now that the Yellow River has breached its banks, Lord Wan has been impeached, and under pressure, His Majesty has had no choice but to imprison him."

"Do you have a way to save Lord Wan?"

Zhang Ping'an thought for a moment and asked, "What achievements has Lord Wan made in managing the Yellow River over the past fifteen years?"

The Empress shook her head: "No."

"If you achieve results, you won't be criticized."

Zhang Ping'an then asked, "So how did this Lord Wan manage the Yellow River floods?"

The Empress said, "Lord Wan advocates that river management should start with sand control, mainly by dredging silt and clearing the waterway."

Zhang Ping'an nodded.

The Yellow River during the Dawu Dynasty was almost identical to the Mother River of later generations, so it was indeed necessary to focus on desertification control.

This Lord Wan is on the right track.

But why haven't we achieved much in the past fifteen years?

"Brother Chu, could you possibly compile a list for me of the number of floods that have occurred on the Yellow River over the past thirty years?"

"Alright." The Empress turned to Mo Yu: "Xiao Yu, go and do it."

"Yes, young master!"

Mo Yu glared at Zhang Ping'an and turned to leave.

Zhang Ping'an's eyes lit up. As expected of a prince's heir, his connections were indeed strong; he could even retrieve thirty years' worth of records about the river channel.

In fact, in order to exonerate Wan Yu, the Empress had already had a list compiled of the number of Yellow River floods in recent decades.

Originally, I thought that after Lord Wan managed the Yellow River, the number of floods would be greatly reduced, and I would use this as an achievement to exonerate Lord Wan.

After investigation, it was discovered that despite Wan Daren's efforts in managing the Yellow River over the years, floods had not decreased at all.

Now it will be difficult for the Empress to exonerate him.

"If you want to prove Wan Daren's efforts by showing that floods decreased after he tamed the Yellow River, you're just wasting your time."

"Since Lord Wan began managing the Yellow River, the frequency of floods has not decreased."

Zhang Ping'an nodded: "No rush, let me look at the information first."

"drink wine!"

"Mr. Zhang, you should come too!"

Zhang Pingan refilled their glasses.

After a while, Mo Yu returned, carrying a large stack of books.

"These are the records of the Yellow River floods over the past thirty years."

Zhang Ping'an stood up and walked over: "Let me see."

He first selected the files from before Wan Yu took charge of the administration, and then the files from five years after he took charge.

After reading it, Zhang Ping'an already had an idea in mind.

"Lord Wan's efforts in managing the Yellow River have yielded remarkable results; it's just that you haven't noticed them."

The Empress and Zhang Xiaoru were very curious.

"Where did you find it? I didn't see it." the Empress asked.

Zhang Xiaoru also didn't believe it, saying, "I've also looked at the case files, and I didn't find any outstanding achievements by Lord Wan."

Zhang Ping'an smiled mysteriously: "You definitely won't notice if you just look at the case file like this. You'll see it at a glance later."

"Waiter!"

Zhang Ping'an called over the waiter and asked him to find paper, pen, and cosmetics for women.

The waiter accepted the order and left.

Mo Yu frowned and said, "Young Master Zhang, I understand you need paper and pen, but what do you need cosmetics for?"

"Are you trying to take advantage of my young master?"

It was obvious that Mo Yu was still holding a grudge about the incident where Zhang Ping'an suddenly spanked the Empress.

Zhang Ping'an smiled mysteriously: "Don't worry, you'll understand in a moment."

After a while, the waiter brought over what Zhang Ping'an had asked for.

Zhang Ping'an began to write and draw on his desk.

The Empress and her entourage, unable to contain their curiosity, went over and stood aside to watch.

Zhang Ping'an drew dozens of cylinders on the paper, wrote numbers on both sides, and then painted them with color using tobacco and grease.

Before long, a simple statistical table was completed.

What is this?

The three women, including the Empress, were completely bewildered.

Even Zhang Xiaoru, who was known for his extensive knowledge, looked completely bewildered.

"alright!"

"Now take a look!"

Zhang Ping'an said in a showy manner.

"This is..." the Empress asked, frowning.

"Brother Chu, you can call it a statistics table. It records the number of floods in the Yellow River over the past thirty years. The numbers at the bottom are the years, and the numbers on the left are the number of floods that occurred in that year."

With this explanation, the Empress and the other two immediately understood.

Even if you've never seen a statistical table before, you can understand it instantly through the intuitive bar chart.

"Here I have used different colors to distinguish the first fifteen years and the last fifteen years of Wan Daren's management of the Yellow River."

"As we can see, after Wan Daren tamed the Yellow River, the frequency of floods decreased significantly. In particular, in the last five years, the number of floods was halved compared to the previous fifteen years."

"This statistical table is sufficient proof of Wan Daren's great achievements in controlling the Yellow River."

"Therefore, Lord Wan is not only innocent, but also meritorious."

"The reason you can't see it is because although the number of floods is decreasing every year, the reduction is not frequent. Once it's listed in a statistical table, it will be clear at a glance."

After Zhang Ping'an finished speaking, the three of them kept looking at the statistics table, just like children who had discovered a fun toy.

"Young Master Zhang, how exactly did you come up with this idea?"

"If all the memorials from the Ministry of Revenue were to use this statistical table from now on, I would be dizzy from looking at it."

"Ahem!" Zhang Xiaoru suddenly coughed, reminding the Empress.

The empress realized she had been exposed and hurriedly tried to cover it up.

"I mean, this statistics table, it's really... amazing..."

Zhang Ping'an didn't actually think about it from any other angle; he never dreamed that his brother Chu would be an empress.

So, I didn't even notice the character "朕" (zhen, meaning "I" or "the emperor").

"The principle behind this statistical table is actually quite simple. Brother Chu, you can have your accountant learn it in the future."

The Empress breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "Definitely, definitely."

"By the way, there's something else I'd like to ask Young Master Zhang for help with." The Empress felt that there seemed to be no problem in this world that Zhang Ping'an couldn't solve.

I forgot to ask about the Yellow River floods last time, so I'll ask about them this time.

"Brother Chu, please speak." Zhang Ping'an was grateful to Chu Tian for standing up for him and for being so open with him.

"Young Master Zhang, the Yellow River has breached its banks in the Yuzhou section, causing widespread flooding and leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Does Young Master Zhang have any way to control the flood?"

Zhang Ping'an asked, "Do you have a map... no, a compass map?"

The Empress turned to Mo Yu: "Xiao Yu, the map!"

"Yes."

Mo Yu took out a sheepskin map from her bosom, treating it like a precious treasure.

"Be careful, this map is extremely valuable, don't damage it."

"Don't worry." Zhang Ping'an took the map and unfolded it to take a look.

Hehe... This map is rather rudimentary.

However, I can barely make out the mountains, rivers, and towns.

The Empress pointed to two city icons on the border of Yuzhou and said, "These are Feng County and Wei County, located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and are the main disaster-stricken areas."