Transmigrated into a minor official in a county government, with children at home waiting for rice t

Zhou Qianxing pushed the abacus aside: "Do as Brother Zhang says. If we can get it done quickly this year, I'll treat you to drinks after the autumn tax is paid."

Seeing that he agreed, Wang Tiesi stood up first and began to take account books from the shelf.

Liao Tiesi also started moving.

The room was filled with the sound of books being moved around; as the books were turned, a cloud of fine dust rose up and floated in the sunlight.

While they were dividing the books, Zhang Sanlang asked Zhou Qianxing about the general tax situation in Juancheng County.

Zhou Qianxing counted them, and Zhang Sanlang listened and pieced together the information: the county had more than 4,000 households, divided into four townships and thirty-six villages. There were about 700 households in the county town's outer wards, with merchants gathered on the east and west streets and at the docks, and artisans clustered in the south of the city.

The northern part of the city was mostly comprised of villas purchased by local gentry and residences for retired officials. The four chief clerks and their respective offices all owned properties there.

Only proper officials such as the county magistrate, county assistant, registrar, and county lieutenant were qualified to live in the backyard of the county government office.

Of the more than 3,000 farming households in the countryside, fewer than 40 are considered upper-class households, mostly owning more than 100 mu (approximately 6.7 hectares) of good land. There are about 600 middle-class households, and the vast majority are lower-class households.

As Zhang Sanlang flipped through the account books, he casually asked, "Brother Zhou, who are the largest households in the upper echelons?"

Zhou Qianxing counted on his fingers: "The Sun family in the east of the city, the Liu family in the west, the Zhao family in the south, the Ma family in the north, and Chen Youde from Chenjiazhuang. These families each own at least five hundred mu of land, and they have bought quite a lot more over the years."

Zhang Sanlang frowned upon hearing this: "Chen Youde? That name sounds familiar. Did he buy land through middlemen or directly from the sellers in recent years?"

Zhou Qianxing looked up at him, then glanced at the doorway.

The door to the house was ajar, and there was no one in the corridor.

He put down his pen, lowered his voice, and said, "Brother Zhang, I've told you this before: once it's outside the household registration office, I won't acknowledge it. The Chen family's land was most likely handled by a private broker from the criminal investigation department."

"This man is called Qian Laohei. He was originally an unofficial servant in the criminal investigation department, running errands for Clerk Kong. He was in charge of arrests and legal proceedings in the department, and he handled the most land disputes."

"He knew everything: who needed money urgently to sell, and which fields had disputes and were eager to be disposed of. Qian Laohei passed this information to Chen Youde, who then stepped in to negotiate a lower price for the land. These three each had their own way of doing things."

Zhang Sanlang put down the account book and looked at Zhou Qianxing: "How much has the Chen family bought in recent years?"

"At least two or three hundred acres."

"Two or three hundred mu," Zhang Sanlang repeated. "And this year alone?"

"This year alone, 80 mu of land have been transferred for property ownership."

"Eighty mu?" Zhang Sanlang memorized the number. "A good mu of land costs at least ten strings of cash. Eighty mu would be nearly a thousand strings. Where did Chen Youde get so much cash?"

Zhou Qianxing pulled out a tax arrears book from under the abacus, dipped his finger in saliva, turned to a certain page, and pushed it in front of Zhang Sanlang. "Take a look. Qian Laohei owns a total of three acres of poor land and owes taxes every year. This kind of shameless scoundrel is qualified to act as a middleman and handle thousands of strings of cash worth of land transactions."

Zhang Sanlang glanced down at the names in the register and understood the meaning behind Zhou Qianxing's words. "What did Clerk Tao say?"

"Tao, the clerk, has spoken. Don't keep too close an eye on Qian Laohei's accounts; after all, he's one of Kong's men." Zhou Qianxing pulled the tax arrears book back, closed it, and placed it under the abacus again.

Zhang Sanlang did not respond.

He lowered his head and found the Chen family's land tax account in the ledgers that Wang Tiesi had prepared.

In recent years, Chen Youde's land holdings have increased by a total of 270 mu, most of which were acquired through land disputes handled by Qian Laohei.

There is a case that looks very familiar: fifteen mu of paddy fields next to Guangji Bridge, originally owned by the surname Gu.

This farmer surnamed Gu is the one who cried out for justice outside the yamen. His case was held in the prison for half a year, and then somehow it was withdrawn.

The paddy fields were transferred to Chen Youde's name, and the household seal on the deed and the case closing document from the criminal investigation department were stamped on almost the same day.

He closed the ledger without making a sound.

The two clerks had already sorted out most of the account books, arranging them neatly by township, village, and household.

Wang Tiesi wiped the sweat from his brow, looking at the neatly stacked account books on the shelf: "In previous years, we just flipped through them like this, flipping to whichever page we found. Why didn't we think of categorizing them first?"

Liao Tiesi glanced at Zhang Sanlang: "It's not that no one wants to think about it, it's that we don't dare to. Brother Zhang, the first thing you ask when you open the first ledger is what order it's in. If it were us, we'd only be thinking about finishing quickly and getting it done; we wouldn't even think about that."

Zhou Qianxing nodded slowly. "Brother Zhang, what are we going to do after sorting them? Tell me first."

Zhang Sanlang stood in front of the shelf and looked it over. Upon hearing this, he turned around and cupped his hands in greeting. "Brother Zhou, now that the categories are sorted out, we need to establish a method for tax assessment."

"From now on, we'll check one village each day, and one township every ten days. After checking one village, Brother Wang and Brother Liao will each report the number of omissions they found. Only after verifying that everything is correct will we move on to the next village. This isn't about assigning blame; it's about having more eyes than one."

Zheng Tiesi, who was still holding a booklet, paused for a moment upon hearing this: "Does the Posting Department mean that we have to report progress every day? We used to check our own progress separately and then submit it to the weekly summary."

"This year is different. The county's account books are divided together, and if they are not checked by village, it will be easy to get confused when calculating the exemptions and rebates. So, Liao Tiesi checks the households, Wang Tiesi checks the villages, I check the townships, and Zhou Qianxing checks the final accounts."

"If Brother Liao finds that the acreage of a certain household does not match last year when he is checking the households, Brother Wang can immediately check it when he is checking the villages. The two processes intersect, so there are fewer errors and omissions. It seems slow but it is actually fast."

Wang Tiesi wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked at Liao Tiesi, and then at Zhang Sanlang, "Four people staring at the same booklet at the same time, this method is quite novel."

Liao Tiesi nodded: "In the past, everyone did their own thing. You had to flip through a booklet from beginning to end on your own. Sometimes you would make a mistake without even realizing it. You would only find out when you compiled the information to Zhou Qianxing. Then you would have to go back and flip through it again, which would take several days."

Zhou Qianxing stroked his rat whiskers, a hint of delight in his voice: "Alright. Brother Zhang's idea is excellent. We can try it once a day, saving us from a last-minute scramble."

"Following your method, this year's inventory list should be delivered to Registrar Gu half a month earlier. If we continue to use this method, our household registration staff will also have fewer hairs to lose. In previous years, it would take a whole month just to flip through the inventory lists!"

Zhang Sanlang opened the land tax register of the first township and handed the top one to Liao Tiesi, saying, "After classifying them today, we'll start with the first township tomorrow."

"Liao Tiesi checks the increase or decrease of each household's land area, Brother Wang checks the increase or decrease of village households, and I calculate the exemptions. Before we finish our shift each day, we'll finish checking the registers for the whole village."

Liao Tiesi took the booklet. "Well, I've finished checking one village, but Brother Wang hasn't finished yet. What's my progress...?"

Zhang Sanlang nodded with a smile, "No need to wait. After you've verified the figures for one village, fill them into this master ledger. Brother Liao, fill it in after you've verified yours too. I'll keep an eye on it from the center."

"If there are discrepancies in the acreage and number of households in the same village, the error can be easily found on the correct page. It doesn't matter if everyone's progress is different; Brother Liao and I are both monitoring this booklet, and our progress will naturally be aligned."