A special thank you to my patrons:
—Cain, Shahzaam, kevin Williams, Jose Carrillo, Jose Sierra, Salim, Silver, Archer, ManyEB, Acedia, Zhandos Kauzhanov, Mursuland, Vora, kurtis newman, 66835, Alex Rushing, Fredrik Dahlman.
You can read 50 chapters ahead of everyone on p@treon.
P@TREON - [email protected]/lessaservantofcosmos
(just replace the "@" with "a")
ps: Please support me on P@treon. I can really use your help!
—————————————————————
The first to enter was the Cui family shopkeeper from the market, holding several bamboo scrolls in his hands. Upon reaching the front, he seemed unsure where to put his hands and feet. He wanted to perform a formal bow of greeting, but his hands were full; yet, not bowing made him fear offending Fei Qian. It was utterly awkward…
"No need for formalities. State your business directly." Fei Qian smiled.
"Ah… ah, yes, Inspector… Inspector Fei, this… this is yesterday's accounts…" The Cui shopkeeper was initially nervous, but as he spoke about his area of expertise, his words gradually became more fluent. "…Yesterday, total sales included 173 jin and 6 liang of tea bricks, 41 bolts of coarse hemp cloth, 17 bolts of fine hemp cloth, 4 bolts of silk, 28 dan and 6 dou of coarse salt…"
"…Incoming goods included 222 large sheep, 159 small sheep, 473 high-quality sheepskins, 380 ordinary sheepskins, 2 mares, 7 stallions…"
As the Cui shopkeeper spoke, he presented the records for Fei Qian to see.
It was a ledger of income and expenses.
One bamboo scroll recorded incoming items, another recorded outgoing items. These were the transaction accounts.
Then there were inventory accounts for various goods, tallying income and expenses. For example, for sheep: when and how many were received, then when and how many were shipped out, how many were consumed…
Simple. Primitive.
Fei Qian took a piece of paper, divided it into four sections, and wrote on each section: "Previous Balance," "New Income," "Deducted/Disbursed," and "Current Balance." He briefly explained the meaning of each section to the Cui shopkeeper, then instructed him to record each entry from the ledger according to these four categories, converting the original transaction ledger into this "Four Pillars" accounting method.
Back when he solved Zhang Liao's confusion over military supply accounts, Fei Qian had introduced this "Four Pillars" accounting method. Now that he had his own trade, there was no reason to keep it hidden. Compared to the primitive accounting model, its most direct benefit was providing a very intuitive numerical representation for auditors, eliminating the need for cross-checking between different account books.
The Cui shopkeeper took the "Four Pillars" accounting method, pondered it carefully, and couldn't help but feel both astonished and delighted, his hands trembling slightly…
"What is your name?" Fei Qian asked.
"This humble one's lowly name is… Youcai. I was granted the Cui surname by the old master Cui."
"Hmm, Cui Youcai. I give you three days. Can you reorganize the accounts using this method?" Currently, trading at Beiqu hadn't been going on for too long, so the accumulated accounts weren't excessively voluminous. Changing the accounting method now wouldn't be an overwhelmingly large task.
"Yes! This humble one can do it… Inspector Fei, this accounting method…" Cui Youcai realized his throat had gone dry. As a shopkeeper with over a decade of experience in the Cui family, holding this accounting method in his hands, he immediately grasped its significance…
"Yes, it's granted to you. Also, copy one set and report it to your master, the Cui family young lord." Fei Qian understood what Cui Youcai was thinking and added, "…Do your work well. Understand that this northern market is going to become very large…"
Suppressing his inner ecstasy, Cui Youcai knelt, kowtowed to Fei Qian in a grand gesture, then left the tent holding the bamboo scrolls, his entire body seemingly brimming with energy.
××××××××××××××
Matters in the rear camp mainly concerned military grain consumption, requiring documents that needed Du Yuan's review and approval…
Convoys of carts and horses bound for Anyi needed coordination, requiring documents that needed Du Yuan's review and approval…
The iron smelting workshop's materials and products needed to be accounted for, requiring documents that needed Du Yuan's review and approval…
And so on, similar matters.
In truth, none of these matters were difficult. It was just that Du Yuan held all decision-making authority in his own hands, leading to this overwhelming workload. In Fei Qian's view, many items didn't need to be managed in such minute detail.
From Fei Qian's perspective, Du Yuan's problem was not understanding delegation of authority, or perhaps not even having formed that concept, which was why he had exhausted himself.
Of course, it was also possible that Fei Qian himself hadn't granted Du Yuan the authority to utilize personnel.
Fei Qian assigned rear camp matters to that Platoon Leader: draw provisions and materials as needed, maintain proper records, and submit accounts every three days. For cart and horse goods coordination, he was to go to the market shopkeeper Cui Youcai and arrange shipments based on current inventory shortages, with accounting done for each round trip. The workshop was even simpler: he directly instructed Huang Dou to be responsible for recording, with account verification every five days…
Modern management is actually simple, yet also complex, because it manages tasks through managing people. Managing people well naturally leads to well-managed tasks, unlike Du Yuan's approach of grasping tasks without managing people. Like new employee training, conceptual courses always occupy the majority, while so-called detailed practical operations are only a small part, often left for employees to gradually grasp through actual work.
This was another problem Fei Qian discovered upon arriving at Du Yuan's location.
There weren't enough scions of scholar-official families.
Scions of scholar-official families formed one circle. People like Cui Youcai, who were attached to scholar-official families, formed another circle. Then came ordinary soldiers and personnel.
There weren't enough scions of scholar-official families, so some document-related tasks had to be handled by Du Yuan himself. That was unavoidable, at least at this stage. However, Fei Qian could expand the second circle—people like Cui Youcai…
Not knowing how to write doesn't matter; surely they can recognize symbols?
Not knowing how to count doesn't matter; surely they understand pressing a fingerprint?
Often, it's not that these people aren't smart enough to learn writing and mathematics, but that they previously had no opportunity to learn, and no one was willing to teach them.
But now, Fei Qian didn't require these people to write flowery, ornate essays, nor did he need them to constantly quote the Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures. So, it wasn't actually a very difficult matter.
Therefore, for Fei Qian, the shortage of scholar-official scions was instead an opportunity to be utilized.
The monopoly on knowledge by scholar-official families was too strong, completely contrary to Confucius's advocacy of "teaching without discrimination" during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. The entire circle had formed a closed loop, ultimately leading these families to reach peak isolation during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, followed by decline.
So, seizing this opportunity where Du Yuan's personnel utilization problems erupted, Fei Qian appointed a large number of people originally from lower-level positions, implicitly increasing the number of mid-level personnel.
After all, everyone knew the current situation: there were no available scholar-official scions to use. This was precisely the best opportunity to do this…