Chapter 82: The Genius

Once Fang Jifan exposed him, Zhu Houzhao’s face reddened slightly. “Why are everyone else’s fathers so good?”

Fang Jifan asked curiously, “Whose father is Your Highness referring to?”

“Your father!” Zhu Houzhao glared at him again, then shook his head. “Imperial Father is becoming more and more tyrannical. He treats the Hundred Officials with such kindness, yet he is increasingly strict with This Palace. This Palace’s life is simply unbearable.”

He sighed once more.

Fang Jifan hurriedly said, “Your Highness has gained another scar. How remarkable—it’s the mark of a true, iron-willed man.”

Zhu Houzhao squinted, still seeming unable to cheer up.

It appeared that this tactic no longer worked on him.

Fang Jifan sighed and silently mourned for him. “Your Highness, being beaten is common for soldiers. It tempers the muscles and bones, and it strengthens the body.”

“…”

Fang Jifan let out a dry chuckle. Uh… it was a bit awkward… He lowered his head and noticed Zhu Houzhao’s desk was piled high with stacks of densely written manuscripts. Fang Jifan grew suspicious—he had never seen the Crown Prince work so hard before. “What is Your Highness doing?”

“Calculations!” Zhu Houzhao bared his teeth. “Do you know why This Palace was beaten yesterday? It was because of these calculations! Year-end is approaching, and the National Treasury needs to calculate money and grain. The Ministry of Revenue must audit the accounts. Yesterday, This Palace was accompanying Imperial Father in the Warm Pavilion and overheard him and Tutor Liu discussing the matter. This Palace thought, ‘How wonderful! This Palace is also interested in calculations.’ So This Palace told Imperial Father, ‘Let Your Son and Servant handle the calculations.’ As soon as Imperial Father heard this, he was displeased. He said, ‘Why are you not focusing on studying the Four Books? What is the point of learning calculations?'”

Fang Jifan frowned. That didn’t seem right. Although the status of calculations wasn’t high in the Great Ming, it was still better than being uneducated. Surely it shouldn’t have led to a beating.

Zhu Houzhao, reaching this point, couldn’t help but lightly pat his own face. With a frustrated expression, he said, “This Palace was foolish…” He became deeply regretful. “This Palace misspoke and replied to Imperial Father, ‘How can one lead troops into battle without understanding calculations? Otherwise, how could one estimate the enemy’s numbers from their cooking fires? How could one calculate supplies and allocate infantry and cavalry appropriately?’ This Palace told Imperial Father that the art of commanding troops is essentially the art of calculations—deploying soldiers and arranging formations are also matters of calculation… And then…”

This showed low intelligence. Fang Jifan studied Zhu Houzhao seriously, muttering to himself, “Could it be that the Crown Prince has also contracted the brain-rot disease?”

Hmm… it was possible!

In the Great Ming, aside from Emperor Taizu and Emperor Wen, who had achieved great military feats, especially after the Tumu Fortress Crisis, it had become taboo for the Emperor to lead campaigns. For an Emperor to neglect the Art of Rulership, to disregard the Four Books and Five Classics and the teachings of the Sage, and instead fixate on fighting and killing—that was even more irresponsible.

The prevailing mindset was like this, and it couldn’t be changed.

Zhu Houzhao gnashed his teeth. “This Palace must figure it out. Even if This Palace gets beaten, This Palace will still figure it out.”

As year-end approached, even during the auditing period, the Ministry of Revenue had specialized personnel handling the calculations. Fang Jifan curiously picked up a ledger and skimmed through it rapidly.

It roughly contained entries like: “11th Year of the Hongzhi Era, Third Month: 110,000 jin of silk entered storage, 330,000 bolts of cloth entered storage, 92,423 taels of silver entered storage, 540,000 dan of grain entered storage…”

The dense data made Fang Jifan’s scalp prickle.

The so-called taxes of the Great Ming were primarily in kind. Thus, when historians look at the annual silver revenue of the Great Ming, it generally amounted to only a few million taels, shockingly low compared to other dynasties. But in reality, Tax Silver was only a tiny fraction. The bulk of the revenue consisted of silk, tea, grain, porcelain, and countless other supplies. These various materials were the true important financial resources of the Great Ming.

However, the calculation methods for income and expenditure in this era were excessively primitive. The auditors in the Ministry of Revenue merely added and subtracted item by item.

But think about it: a single Jiangsu Prefecture had such a massive amount of calculations. What about the Two Capitals and Thirteen Provinces? That wasn’t even the most frightening part. The truly daunting aspect was that during the transportation of goods, there were losses. Since there was income, there was naturally expenditure during the process. Thus… by year-end, the Ministry of Revenue’s accounts were extremely voluminous. Moreover, this method of addition and subtraction wasn’t necessarily accurate, requiring repeated verification. Because the calculation volume was staggering, specialized personnel had to work separately, each auditing their own portion before finally consolidating the results.

Fang Jifan squinted, looking at the stacks of ledgers on the desk, and couldn’t help but feel his scalp tingle.

Zhu Houzhao’s eyes were bloodshot. It seemed that, in his determination to prove a point, he had stayed up all night.

Zhu Houzhao did have a stubborn side. Historically, his repeated attempts to sneak off to Datong, clamoring to fight the Tatars, demonstrated this.

But… these densely packed ledgers made even Fang Jifan’s scalp prickle. Even the Ministry of Revenue, with over a dozen people constantly rechecking the calculations over many days, might not necessarily arrive at accurate figures. How could the Crown Prince alone manage to compute them?

It was futile effort.

As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao buried his head in the documents again. He couldn’t help but complain quietly, “Where was This Palace in the calculations just now? It’s all your fault, Old Fang. You distracted This Palace.”

“I’ll do the calculations!” This troublemaking kid, Fang Jifan couldn’t help but grumble inwardly. Yet, he felt somewhat sorry for him. Although they were roughly the same age, Fang Jifan had lived two lifetimes—his mental age was easily that of an elder brother to Zhu Houzhao. Seeing Zhu Houzhao in such a state, Fang Jifan calmly said, “Bring the ledgers. Show them to me one by one.”

Zhu Houzhao looked at Fang Jifan in surprise. “You know calculations?”

“I’m a math prodigy!” Fang Jifan sat down and first picked up a ledger.

In terms of calculation skills, although Fang Jifan was an arts student, he still had a significant advantage over people of this era. To put it bluntly, casually introducing calculus or the Pythagorean theorem could advance ancient arithmetic by centuries.

Of course… Fang Jifan didn’t plan to use arithmetic. Even if he used his best skills to verify, it would still take him at least a day or two to sort out these ledgers. So… how could he arrive at the real answer?

Actually, it was simple—the revenue and expenditure figures for the 11th Year of the Hongzhi Era were already stored in Fang Jifan’s mind.

Those who studied Ming history didn’t just focus on individuals. As a scholar, merely starting from personalities was amateurish. In his previous life, materialism was emphasized. What did materialism mean? It meant deriving the social context from the level of productive forces. The so-called economic base determines the superstructure.

Therefore, to study the Great Ming, one first had to understand its productive forces. How could one deduce productive forces? Naturally, from the national revenue and surplus.

Thus, a true researcher differed from ordinary enthusiasts. Enthusiasts often emphasized personalities, judging history based on the merits or flaws of individuals. Researchers, however, leaned more toward tedious data. Take Zhang Juzheng’s reforms, for example—their success or failure was closely tied to the vast amounts of grain, silk, and silver recorded in the Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty.

Fang Jifan remembered these figures vividly, partly due to his good memory and partly because it was his professional focus.

But even though he knew the actual revenue data for this year, Fang Jifan couldn’t just blurt it out immediately. Since he wanted to help Zhu Houzhao, he had to put on a show.

So he began to look down at the ledger, muttering to himself, spouting nonsense like “one times three is three, two times three is six,” all while maintaining a composed demeanor.

Zhu Houzhao couldn’t help but look somewhat skeptical. Could Old Fang… really do calculations?

He seemed quite professional.

Looking down at the tedious piles of ledgers on the desk, he decided… to leave it to Fang Jifan.

And so, Fang Jifan pretended to verify the calculations ledger by ledger, while Zhu Houzhao eagerly served him tea and water beside him. “Old Fang, are you cold? Should we add more coal?”

“Step aside.”