The immortal of the Tang Dynasty, but the game starts at Xuanwu Gate?

"This humble official, Liang Bingyi, greets the Minister!"

Inside the Ministry of Revenue, Vice Minister Liang Bingyi bowed respectfully, while Chen Huai'an casually waved his hand, saying, "Sit down."

Liang Bingyi sat down properly, his gaze falling on the young minister.

Starting yesterday, Li Shimin issued an edict appointing Chen Huai'an as Minister of Revenue concurrently, giving no one a chance to object.

Liang Bingyi was not surprised at all by this, because this man had taken over the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue several months ago.

Today marks the official commencement of Chen Huai'an's tenure.

"I am not a person who likes empty formalities and nonsense. A couple of days ago, I was attacked on the street with the former Minister of Revenue. If I remember correctly, he was a big grain merchant."

Liang Bingyi nodded: "That's true. However, due to your special status, the Dali Temple has no authority to handle this case. The perpetrator is currently imprisoned in the Dali Temple jail, awaiting His Majesty's decision!"

Chen Huai'an was speechless. Others might not know, but surely he did?

Zhang Ming was supposed to kill Wang Bai that day; he just happened to be nearby.

Chen Huai'an deliberately said that Zhang Ming wanted to kill him that day, but he didn't expect the process to be so complicated, and that it really required Li Shimin's decision.

He thought for a moment and said, "Write a memorial and submit it to His Majesty, asking him to execute Zhang Ming in public. The charge should be downplayed, focusing on his assassination of a court official or a duke in the street, while emphasizing that he was raising grain prices."

"It doesn't have to be a crime; just tell us what he did."

Liang Bingyi understood: "Does Your Excellency want to make an example of someone?"

"Why not kill the chicken that's been brought up?" Chen Huai'an took a sip of his tea. "And while we're at it, let His Majesty confiscate his property."

"Such a large grain merchant must have a lot of grain in his hands. Isn't this a windfall?"

Liang Bingyi thought about it and felt it made sense.

Killing someone in the street, whether it was an attempt or not, is a capital offense. Zhang Ming assassinated two high-ranking officials, one of whom was a first-rank duke. This crime was enough to lead to the confiscation of his property.

"Yes, Minister, I will take care of it immediately." Liang Bingyi bowed and withdrew.

Chen Huai'an then began to examine the various accounts of the Ministry of Revenue. Only after he officially took office as the Minister of Revenue could he examine the various expenditures and inventory of the Ministry of Revenue.

But as he looked at it, he couldn't help but frown.

"What the hell is all this nonsense? What does it mean that on the fourth day of the third month of the first year of Zhenguan, two thousand strings of cash were spent on purchasing grain? Where did this expenditure come from? And what was the return on that expenditure?"

Chen Huai'an flipped through various account books and found that the Ministry of Revenue kept accounts in the same way, regardless of the type of account book. It was quite simple and crude.

Simply put, it mainly uses a single-entry cash flow account, only recording income and expenditure amounts by time, without detailed classification, making it impossible to distinguish the source of income and the destination of expenditure, resulting in a muddled general ledger.

The more Chen Huai'an flipped through the ledger, the more displeased he became. It was truly unpleasant to look at such a ledger!

Chen Huai'an simply stopped looking at it, grabbed a piece of paper, and started writing down his thoughts while referring to an account book.

Then, Chen Huai'an summoned Liang Bingyi again, as well as the directors of the four departments of the Ministry of Revenue.

How could the five of them dare to delay?

It's said that a new broom sweeps clean, but they're afraid that this fire will burn them.

After everyone arrived, Chen Huai'an didn't waste any words and directly passed down what he had just written: "From now on, no matter what the accounts are, you must use my method of bookkeeping."

"I call it the Four-Column Accounting Method. Take a look, and if you don't understand anything, you can ask me."

The five people breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this; at least they weren't there to start a fire.

But this led to doubts.

Accounting methods?

Liang Bingyi was the first to take the paper from Chen Huai'an and began to read it word by word.

After a while, Liang Bingyi suddenly realized, and casually handed the paper to his subordinates, saying, "Minister, you've divided all the accounts into four main categories: old accounts, new receipts, disbursements, and actual accounts!"

"The old management system includes everything from how much grain was left in the granary at the beginning of the year, how much silk was left in the warehouse, and how much money was carried over from the previous year."

"The new revenue includes rent, grain, silk, cloth, household taxes, fines and embezzlement, and materials allocated to the treasury from various prefectures."

"Dismissal refers to all money, food, and supplies that have been spent, consumed, or allocated this month or year."

"And the actual amount... the actual amount should be the most important. It refers to the amount that should remain in the books at the end of this month and this year. The amount derived from the first three columns must match the actual amount!"

"If they don't match up, you can immediately spot the problem with the accounts."

"Yes!" Chen Huai'an nodded slightly. The Four Pillars of Accounting is not a very advanced accounting method, and it has already shown some promise.

The original history is that this thing only appeared in the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty, and it was not widely promoted until the Song Dynasty.

Chen Huai'an did have better bookkeeping methods, such as double-entry bookkeeping.

However, good things alone are not enough; a good system is one that can be implemented.

Just like the "land tax reform," could the Tang Dynasty implement it now? Impossible. If it were implemented, the entire Tang Dynasty would be turned upside down in an instant.

Double-entry bookkeeping is certainly not that serious, but it requires bookkeepers to understand the correspondence between accounts, which current lower-level officials simply cannot do.

In comparison, four-column ledgers are much simpler.

Moreover, it is sufficient to prevent corruption and verify income and expenditure.

Chen Huai'an said calmly, "Simply put, the so-called Four Pillars are the sum of the 'old' and 'new', minus the 'expulsion', and the resulting number is the same as the 'actual'."

"It's a very simple method; you'll understand it at a glance."

Do you have any questions?

The five of them shook their heads in unison, and one or two of them who were originally somewhat dissatisfied with Chen Huai'an instantly gave up their little thoughts.

Even a simple four-column accounting method is beyond their capabilities.

Although they are young, they are indeed very capable.

"Very good." Chen Huai'an didn't pay attention to these people's little tricks. He would definitely reshuffle the Ministry of Revenue later, but not now.

"Next, we will explain the detailed classification. The simple four-column account is only a general account and is not enough to prevent corruption."

"From now on, all accounts must be accounted for separately according to the type of goods. Different categories such as grain, cloth, copper coins, ironware, and fodder must be recorded in separate ledgers, with four separate entries..."

Chen Huai'an's voice echoed throughout the Ministry of Revenue, and the officials below sat upright, listening attentively and taking notes.

The more they listened, the more shocked they became. Chen Huai'an's Four Pillars Tent Method sounded simple, but it contained an incredible amount of intricacies.

It's not as simple as it sounds!

With this accounting method, there will be far less embezzlement in the future. The Ministry of Revenue can practically make the accounts look perfect.

Not only is it convenient, but more importantly, isn't that a merit in itself?

They suddenly felt the same way as the officials in the Ministry of Works.

This is incredible!

"....."