In addition to eating, the grain will be dehydrated if it is dry, and the amount will be lost, and if there is a strong man who transports the grain while eating and taking it, and secretly hiding it, these may cause the grain to be lost.

In short, before the monetization of fiscal taxation, there will be many problems with the physical fiscal tax collection and settlement system. Therefore, it is very common for the grain spent by the lower-level localities to match the grain or accounts received by the higher-level finances. As we just said, all localities at all levels need to go to the household department to settle accounts, and the accounts handed over by the state capitals and counties and the accounts of the political department do not match each other in the household department, so they cannot pass the examination, and the household department must return it, and then all localities will re-report the accounts, and then report and review them again, until all the accounts are completely consistent, and the verification work will be completed.

At that time, there was no fax machine, no photocopying of manuscripts, and no WeChat pictures were sent for color printing. In the process of returning the accounts that have not passed the examination to the various places and then submitting them, the local officials must go back to the counties and prefectures to write a new one, affix the official seal and send it again, this time and again, it is good to say that it is close to the capital, and it is good to say that it is a month to go back and forth, if it is thousands of miles away from the capital, there is no one to send you away, and there is no high-speed rail plane to let you gallop, and there is no 9527 and 2587 national highways to let you gallop across the country, and the officials must walk back with both feet, by horseback, by boat, back and forth is three or five months, if you run two back and forth, It is likely that the accounts of the previous year have not been reconciled, so they will directly bring the accounts of the next year to redeem together. To sum up, cashing is hard work, physical work, and a thankless fuck job.

Fortunately, the Chinese nation has many talented people since ancient times, and they not only have the enterprising spirit of reform and innovation, but also know the pragmatism of expediency and flexibility. I don't know which genius first thought of a good way to save time and effort, when cashing the accounts, in addition to the first-hand account books of the account, and then bring a few more blank account books stamped with the official seal, once the accounts do not match, then re-enter the new accounts in the blank account books, so that they are not used to go back and forth to return to the local area.

In the recital, Fang Keqin reported the matter in detail, calling this matter a major tumor of the imperial court and a major malpractice of the court, and listed the three major drawbacks that will be derived from this matter in one fell swoop: Drawbacks 1, chaotic accounts, and endless false accounts. The purpose of the blank account book is to be consistent with the household department, and as long as the account is finally cashed in the household department, the magistrate in charge of finance will have no responsibility, so that no one will keep accounts seriously, no matter how much income and expenditure, no matter what the difference is, as long as you finally go to the household department to use the blank account book to change, everything will be fine. The second disadvantage is the outflow of account books and the falsification of adulterers. Once the blank account books are leaked out, there will be people who create false accounts, and it will be impossible to avoid the fact that some people will take advantage of the loopholes in the finances, and there will be an endless stream of embezzlement and corruption, and the state's financial system will become a virtual void in the future. Disadvantage three, deceive the monarch, Fang Keqin believes that the generation of empty printed account books is actually the local magistrate in order to cope with the review of the superior and exploit the loophole of the system, in fact, it is to reduce trouble, in order to run less errands and deliberately deceive the monarch, if this matter is allowed to develop, then everyone can deceive the monarch, everyone knows that the monarch is not guilty, so where is the law of the court, where is the majesty of the monarch? In the future, everyone will compete to follow suit, and in the long run, the law will be lawless, and the country will not be a country.

After listening to Fang Xiaoru's narration, Yao Guangqi asked the question that had been held back for a long time: "Then why did Lord Fang say last night that he wanted to sacrifice his life for righteousness?" ”

"Because of my father, he is also printing the books of accounts empty." Fang Xiaoru said sadly.

Yao Guangqi understood, Fang Keqin exposed this drawback, and he would be involved in it, in order to get rid of this drawback, he did not hesitate to die at the expense of his life, thinking that this person must have made the determination to die to do so, thinking of this, Yao Guangqi sighed and sighed, so it seems that Fang Keqin is simply a saint who was martyred.

However, he was arrested, what should I do with Rou'er? No, you must try to meet Fang Keqin, and you must ask for clues about Rou'er.

Just when Yao Guangqi was trying his best to find a way to meet Fang Keqin, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was personally interrogating Fang Keqin.

The location is the Mandarin Hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang has been very tired recently, he feels that he is old, and his energy is not as good as before, when he fought the world, it was not uncommon to sleep only one or two hours for a few days, and during the days of the Poyang Lake War, he didn't even sleep, and studied the battle situation and tactics day and night, but now, it is difficult to concentrate for a long time, and he will feel tired after reading a few pieces in a row, and his eyes are dry, and he has to go out for a walk before he can come back and continue to work. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang has often lamented that the years are not forgiving, but he knows that he is fifty-five years old after all, and in the people, living to fifty-five is already considered a long life, and it is already rare that he can still have a relatively healthy body at fifty-five.

In order to make it easier for himself and to exercise the prince's ability to handle political affairs, in the past two years, Zhu Yuanzhang has often handed over some government affairs to the prince to handle, reducing his own burden, and also hoping to test and exercise the prince's ability.

But Fang Keqin's case alerted Zhu Yuanzhang, and at the same time questioned the crown prince Zhu Biao. Such a big thing, Zhu Biao didn't report it, he was angry, sad, and even more afraid, the three drawbacks proposed by Fang Keqin, Zhu Yuanzhang was most afraid of the third, and the most worried was also the third, these courtiers were bullied and not hidden, but they were bullied, only they were deceived, and everyone else knew about it, that is to say, the government and the opposition, only they were kept in the dark.

If one day, where there is a popular uprising, or which general in command of the army launches a military admonition, and the government and the opposition still only hide themselves, then what will be the fate of themselves? Zhu Yuanzhang didn't dare to think about it, he couldn't bear such deception, and he couldn't accept being deceived like a fool, he was shrewd all his life, no matter how powerful the enemy was, he fell in front of him, every opponent was a stepping stone for him to move forward, he couldn't allow himself not to know, let alone accept defeat.

At this moment, he looked at Fang Keqin kneeling below, Zhu Yuanzhang was both angry and extremely entangled, angry because of the case of the empty printed account book, and the entanglement stemmed from the gratitude of the other party, he was grateful to Fang Keqin for letting him know the truth, if there was no such person, he would still be in the dark, maybe the people below would even hide it from the prince until he died, and he would be a stupid emperor until he died; But in addition to gratitude, he felt that Fang Keqin was also guilty, because this person had also used empty books before. At the moment of entering the Wenhua Palace, Zhu Yuanzhang had thought about exculpating Fang Keqin and exempting him from his sins, but from the moment he sat on the dragon throne, Zhu Yuanzhang changed his mind and exonerated Fang Keqin, how should others deal with it? How do you establish your authority?

"Over the years, all the magistrates have been using this method to go to the household department to settle the accounts?" Zhu Yuanzhang flipped through Fang Keqin's recital, thinking quickly in his mind.

Fang Keqin secretly glanced at the emperor above, it was not the first time he saw Zhu Yuanzhang, the last time he met, he still received the banquet as a model of local officials, at that time, the emperor commended himself for his outstanding political achievements as an honest official, and specially ordered the Ministry of Rites to reward a seat of imperial meals, and personally praised himself as a "model of honest officials", thinking about that time, the emperor appreciated himself so much, and patted his shoulder, and said casually: "Do a good job." Kind as a division commander, thinking about the situation at that time, Fang Keqin couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion.

"Answering my words," Zhu Yuanzhang's words pulled Fang Keqin back from his memory: "Since you know that there are many drawbacks in this matter, why do you still do this?" ”

Fang Keqin had tears in his eyes: "The minister doesn't want to do this, but he has to turn a blind eye, if he doesn't do this, those officials who have a department will have to go back and forth between the household department and the yamen, sometimes they can't do errands in the yamen for more than half a year or even a year, and they have all other official affairs on hand backlogged, and many things in the local area can't be done, so the minister can only acquiesce to them doing this in order not to delay the local official business." ”

Fang Keqin's words were sincere and reasonable, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but be a little moved, this is a good official, he did this really to facilitate the handling of official business, so that local affairs would not be backlogged, but Zhu Yuanzhang had already made up his mind to set this matter as a model, so he said with a cold face: "You are here to facilitate official business, but is everyone for the convenience of official business?" ”

Fang Keqin kowtowed again and said: "This is exactly what the minister is worried about, not all local officials and officials are doing this for the convenience of official business, some profiteers will definitely follow this to find loopholes in the court system, once this trend grows, then the court law and discipline will be in vain, and the blood and sweat of the people will flow into their private pockets, resulting in the emptiness of the treasury and the decline of national strength, corruption and ruin. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, this is not only a loyal minister, but also a loyal minister who only has the court, only the monarch's father, and no own in his heart, but such a loyal minister, he has to kill him.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt that his eyes were a little hot, he often felt that he was very sad in the past two years, and it was very easy to recall the years of the year, and he was particularly easy to be moved, he didn't dare to think about it anymore, so he waved his hand: "Take it down, don't be detained in the Criminal Department, eat and drink and treat it well, don't be embarrassed." ”

Looking at Fang Keqin's back as he walked down, Zhu Yuanzhang sighed. Then he stood up with difficulty, slowly came to the Danxi, paced back and forth, suddenly, he stopped, and then walked quickly to the gate of the Wenhua Palace, raised his head and stared at the sky for a long time, and after half a meal, Zhu Yuanzhang came back to his senses and said to the prisoner beside him: "Pass the prince over." ”

When someone summoned him, Zhu Biao was studying in the East Palace, and when he heard that the emperor summoned him, he was a little panicked, thinking that Fang Keqin's matter implicated him? At this moment, the prince was accompanied by the four auxiliary officials of the East Palace, namely Wang Ben, Du Yi (xue, pronunciation is the same as "learning"), Zhao Minwang, Wu Yuan, these four are all Confucian scholars, a few years ago was recommended to the court, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that these four people were knowledgeable, square character, so they were specially appointed as the prince's assistants, after these four people entered the East Palace, diligent, dedicated to assisting the prince, and were soon introduced by the prince as a confidant.