As a mathematician and a mature politician, Zhang Cang saw from this bamboo slip that there was much more than that—without Liu Hong saying anything, Zhang Cang had already thought of many scalable financial measures through this bamboo slip.

For example, in addition to the four columns of 'day, matter, take, and remainder', add a column of 'seal', stipulating that after each event, the official on duty needs to use a seal to express his agreement with the event and the balance of the government's treasury!

In this way, not only is there little money in the government treasury, but it can be shown through such an account book, and even when the money is scarce and who has problems in the person, all of which can be seen at a glance on the account book paper - in order to ensure that they are not blamed for the accounts, the officials will carefully check the money in the government treasury before using the seal, so as to ensure that the real surplus amount of money saved is consistent with the 'surplus' column on the account book!

"What does the Imperial Doctor think of this eunuch's edict and the account books that have been tried in the province?"

Liu Hong whispered softly, pulling Zhang Cang back to reality from surprise, but Zhang Cang was not in a hurry to answer.

After a little press on the agitation in his heart, Zhang Cang found that in fact, the bookkeeping method "invented" by Liu Hong was not completely different from the original bookkeeping method at this time.

In addition to the three parts of 'day, event, take, and remainder' in this new notation, three other than 'remainder' actually existed in the past recording methods.

It's just that in the past, the three items of 'day, matter, and take' were recorded as a whole declarative sentence, and they were redundant together.

Rationally analyzing the difference between the two, the new bookkeeping method that Liu Hong came up with is just adding a 'surplus' to the original three items, and no longer recording it in the form of a declarative sentence, but in a way...

Thinking of this, Zhang Cang found that he couldn't find a suitable word to describe this way of recording.

"This notation, I want to call it: financial map."

In fact, as one of the three oldest civilizations in the entire history of mankind and the only civilization that lasted for 5,000 years, the development of Chinese mathematics has been in a leading position in the world for a long period of time.

Whether it is the proposal and discovery of basic mathematical theories such as equations, positive and negative, and quadrants, or advanced mathematical foundations such as pi, calculus, and decay, they are generally at least 1,000 years ahead of the world when they were proposed in China!

However, from the beginning of the 'Common Era' of the Western chronology until the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, not only was the development of science and technology in China close to stagnation, but even mathematics did not make much progress, and the Chinese mathematics of the nineteenth century was almost exactly the same as that of the third century B.C.!

There are many reasons for this 'stagnation': the academic school's contempt for mathematics, the repeated wars caused by the dynastic cyclical law, and the low popularity of folk culture.

But the main reason, in Liu Hong's view, is undoubtedly the lack of a clear mathematical record method or system in the Chinese mathematical community.

Take the early Han Dynasty at this time, whether it is equation analysis or arithmetic operation, the process is very close to the elementary basic mathematics taught in primary schools in later generations; However, if you really ask a primary and secondary school student in later generations to watch the analysis process of a certain problem in the nine chapters of arithmetic, that student will definitely not understand.

Because the calculation process at this time is completely carried out in the way of Chinese character narration!

For example, a typical binary equation in later generations: x=y-2, 5x=3y, find x,y.

Anyone who has gone to school knows the process of analyzing this equation:

x=y-2，5x=5y-10

∵5x=3y 5x=5y-10

∴3y=5y-10 y=5

∵ x=y-2,

∴x=3

The analytic column provides a brief overview of the operation process.

At this time, such a question, not to mention the operation, just to understand the problem, it takes a lot of effort...

- There are two things, A and B, and A plus two coins can be exchanged for B; A is five, and B is three, asking: What is the price of A and B?

Not to mention the fact that there is no punctuation at this time, just extracting the question stem from such a sentence requires that the person doing this question not only needs to recognize words, but also has a certain ability to build a thinking system.

Maybe it doesn't seem so mysterious: from the perspective of the future world, there seems to be nothing different in such a text-only narrative?

That's because the thinking ability and system construction ability of later generations have been trained to a certain level of proficiency by simpler thinking tools such as symbols and numbers - even if the topic is a text, later generations can automatically generate an equation of 'x+2=y, 5x+3y' in their brains after reading such a question.

But at this time, when people solve this problem, they will not have such a subconscious thinking system construction, and all the processes need to be displayed in the form of words, such as 'A plus two coins can be exchanged for B thing, so B can be regarded as A plus two coins; A five in exchange for B three, that is, A five in exchange for a three and six coins...

Aside from other objective reasons, what really hinders the development of Chinese mathematics is such a complicated calculation process.

At this time, the bamboo slip in Zhang Cang's hand - to be precise: the statistical chart, is the first attempt that Liu Hong intends to make in response to this.

From the first appearance of the Nine Chapters of Arithmetic and its continued use to the present, Chinese mathematics has actually reached the peak of 'literal mathematics', and if Chinese mathematics is to develop steadily instead of stagnation as in history, the transformation from 'mathematical literalization' to 'mathematical symbolization' will be inevitable.

A more concise and easy-to-understand way of recording and computation can save a lot of time and energy, so that those who have reached the level of mathematical attainment and have the opportunity to contribute to the development of mathematics have more time to explore more profound questions.

——Just like Zhang Cang in history, to ponder: how far is the earth from the sun...

As long as someone is willing to make such an attempt, Liu Hong will do everything to save that person from being burned to death!

Even without taking into account such ambitious goals as 'for posterity,' a simpler way of mathematical documentation can greatly improve the efficiency of the regime's operation."

Just imagine: after the autumn harvest in the past, in order to record the grain tax and hand it over to the state treasury, the local county government spent almost several months, mobilized most of the officials, recorded the tax payment of each household in Chinese characters one by one, and then handed it over to the central government, and the central government spent more than ten days to check whether the agricultural tax sent by the county was correct with the account book - the account said that Zhang San paid ten stone of grain, and from the mountain of grain bags, he found a grain bag with 'Zhang San of a certain county', and weighed whether it was as heavy as ten stones...

After that, there is no need to be so troublesome: the local government only needs to add one item to the original account: how much grain has been paid by a certain person, and how much total grain has been reached.

In this way, when the central government checks, it only needs to check whether the total amount of the aggregate is consistent with the total amount of grain sent in the last column of the account book.

As for whether there is a difference in the accounts, the central government does not need to compare them one by one - take Liu Hong's account book as an example, it only needs to check whether the expenditure recorded in a certain account is equal to the difference between the original and existing amounts of the government treasury.

Just from 'holding the ledger to find the heavy food bag' to 'sitting in the office to calculate the ledger', you can improve the administrative efficiency by at least eighty percent - if there is really a wine bag and rice bag that can't be counted by addition and subtraction mixed into the center, then Liu Hong will definitely not let it go easily!

As a later generation, Liu Hong's pursuit was naturally centralization, which required a sufficient number of bureaucrats to ensure administrative efficiency; It is in this context that the idea of 'financial reform' appeared in Liu Hongdi's plan.

According to the current productivity of the Han dynasty and the financial situation of the central government, it is by no means a day's work to expand the number of grassroots officials on a large scale - within five years, Liu Hong's ability to raise the treatment of officials to the level of 'living comfortably without being greedy or taking money' without laying off employees is already very remarkable.

In this way, the increase in the number of bureaucrats is excluded from Liu Hongdi's short-term goals; Since there are only so many bureaucrats that can be used, Liu Hong can only start with the administrative efficiency of individual bureaucrats and use the existing bureaucrats to do more things.

In order to achieve this goal, Liu Hong can actually do a lot: replace bamboo slips with paper, push Zhang Cang to implement the 'audit' system earlier, and strengthen the examination of officials by the imperial historian, etc.

However, the least costly, the shortest time-consuming, and the most effective is the financial reform.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as Liu Hong can make all the local governments in the world record their finances in the way recorded in the bamboo slip in Zhang Cang's hand at this time, the administrative efficiency of the Han family can be visibly doubled!

And for Liu Hong at this time, what is most needed is this kind of political achievement - visible to the naked eye!

Regardless of Chen Pingping's 'highly respected' political enemies, Liu Hong's physical age at the age of fourteen put Liu Hongdi's political prestige in a disadvantaged position.

No matter how meaningful and blessed Liu Hong is, public opinion will inevitably think: Your Majesty is only fourteen years old, and he will definitely not be able to think of such a good strategy; This must be the conspiracy of the court, right?

This can be regarded as the sorrow of the young emperors - the courtiers did something wrong, and it was the emperor who failed to suppress the field; If you have made achievements, you will become the credit of your courtiers, and it is good for the emperor to be famous...

But if the mathematical reform is implemented, there will be no such problem - public opinion will at most think that such a novel way of 'counting' should be proposed by Zhang Cang, who has a deep study of the "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic", especially in the next few years, after the court implements the 'auditing' system under the auspices of Zhang Cang, the credibility of this statement will reach its peak.

It seems that the credit has become a courtier, and Liu Hong only has the name of 'humbly admonishing'?

In reality, this is not the case.

First of all, Zhang Cang alone took the credit, and the conspiracy with the 'court princes' had a different meaning for Liu Hong.

Zhang Cang is the sole leader, then Liu Hong knows people and makes good use of them; The court conspired, and Liu Hong was just 'driven by the general trend'.

The most important thing is that as a party concerned, Zhang Cang knows best in his heart whose thoughts this matter is.

Even based on this, when Zhang Cang formally implements the 'audit' system in the future, he will subconsciously believe that the 'audit' system is not his work alone, but has been 'enlightened' by Liu Hongdi - as a later generation, Liu Hong will of course improve the audit system proposed by Zhang Cang from the perspective of a 'prophet', and try to avoid the loopholes that may appear in the future or have appeared in history.

In this way, Zhang Cang is unlikely to have a bad relationship with Liu Hongqi, who is the emperor, as he did in history.

And the harmonious relationship between the monarch and the prime minister is very important for Liu Hong's future plan.

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