Chapter 262: Yuan Tiangang: My Fuck

"Alright, alright, I'm just a heartless decoding machine, alright?"

Chen Yan was truly helpless, wanting to skip the wine and take a wife—why was that so hard?

"Brother Zi An, we have no choice either; after all, this method was proposed by you, and if there are loopholes you can't not fill them, right?" Li Chengqian said.

Li Shimin and his wife remained silent, staring at him intently.

Only Li Lizhi was pondering what the "machine" Chen Yan mentioned actually was.

"To prevent supervisors from being bribed is actually simple," Chen Yan said. "The annual reports submitted by County Magistrates across the regions contain many items—taxes, population growth, land reclamation—it's too cumbersome to list, so we'll just call them the 'visible results' of each County Magistrate."

"Since we require County Magistrates to provide an annual list of achievements, enumerating all visible results, and must prevent any falsification, this visible result must be signed by every local gentry and village head beneath the county seat."

"The base number is huge, making it hard for a County Magistrate to bribe them all. We'll use itinerant Imperial Inspectors for verification—people personally trusted by His Majesty—who, every three months, go incognito to conduct private visits, gather data, and submit it. Different agents are sent each time, so even if anyone dares to falsify, their numbers can be cross‑checked against the itinerant inspector's data, making discrepancies easy to spot."

"Itinerant Imperial Inspector…" Li Shimin stroked his chin, thought for a moment, then nodded gravely.

"Let's do it that way!"

"What about the problem of varying conditions across regions?" Li Chengqian asked next.

"That's easy to solve as well," Chen Yan explained patiently. "Don't focus on the raw numbers—don't compare the tax revenue of a fertile region with that of a barren one. Look at the increase or decrease, expressed as a percentage of change."

"Population is the same; it's not the specific increase or decrease numbers you examine, but the percentage change."

"Moreover, the itinerant Imperial Inspector must also covertly gauge public sentiment, traveling around to collect locals' opinions of the County Magistrate, investigating whether he used any unsavory methods to make the report look good."

His words awakened those still in a dream.

After hearing it, everyone wore an expression of sudden enlightenment; Li Shimin burst into hearty laughter, looking in high spirits.

"Good, good—specific percentage change, marvelous, truly marvelous!"

"With this 'chasing‑the‑sheep' method, I won't have to worry about County Magistrates being inactive."

"Hmm… I'll have Ke Ming and the others come for a thorough discussion, to see how to implement it concretely and refine it."

He patted Chen Yan's shoulder gratefully, "Brother Zi An, you've helped me a great deal again."

At that moment, Li Shimin even felt an impulse: rather than let Chen Yan handle that nonsense of the Weinan County Magistrate, perhaps he should bring Chen Yan back to his side to devise strategies for him.

But after the excitement faded, he calmed down and didn't act on it.

Weinan County, as a pilot, is of great significance and cannot be abandoned lightly.

Moreover, Chen Yan isn't far away; if I have a problem, I can summon him at any time to brainstorm.

"No problem. If I can ease His Majesty's worries, I'm so glad I can't even keep up," Chen Yan said with a smile.

"Alright! I'm pleased today—come, drink!"

Chen Yan: "......"

Why do we still need to drink?

I said so much just to avoid wine, didn't I?

But seeing Li Shimin like this, more excited than at the start, I guess we'll have to drink even more.

This is damn ridiculous!

Chen Yan's mind raced wildly, recalling something. "Your Majesty, hold on a moment; I have something I'd like to ask you."

"Hmm?" Li Shimin paused, hand holding the wine cup, teasing, "Yo, that's not easy—usually it's me and others asking you questions; I didn't expect the day you'd ask me."

"It does give me a certain feeling inside…"

"What do you want to ask? Ask away."

"Um…," Chen Yan said, "The thing is, the Grand Historian told me he wants to go to Weinan County with me, saying this was approved by you. I wanted to ask—does that really happen?"

"Ah, that." Li Shimin understood, also knowing what Chen Yan was worried about, waved his hand grandly, "Indeed, I promised that; you can relax."

"The Grand Historian and the National Teacher usually have little to do, and since they've helped the Tang Dynasty and me a lot without seeking reward, a small request like this—how could I refuse?"

"That's good." Chen Yan whispered, then paused, noticing Li Shimin's wording, hesitated, "Your Majesty, you just mentioned the National Teacher… who is that?"

"You don't know?" Li Shimin hadn't spoken yet when Li Chengqian exclaimed in surprise.

Chen Yan's expression turned odd, "I think I've heard a bit, but I'm not quite sure."

"The National Teacher…" Li Shimin sighed, "The National Teacher is the Grand Historian's close friend, a master of physiognomy, named Yuan Tiangang."

"Come to think of it, before the start of this year the National Teacher came to see me once, saying he wanted to divine something, but he's vanished since, and I have no idea what happened."

"That's really him…" Chen Yan clicked his tongue, feeling unable to describe his feeling.

Since meeting Li Chunfeng, he realized that there truly are people with genuine talent in this world.

Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang are undoubtedly among the best.

The two of them together even produced the Tui Bei Tu, something almost unbelievable.

Speaking of which, could it be that Yuan Tiangang's long absence is because he's been working on the Tui Bei Tu?

"......."

"Brother Yuan, how are you doing?"

In a secluded mountain courtyard, Li Chunfeng looked anxiously at the pale, occasionally coughing, white‑haired man before him.

That man was also Li Chunfeng's close friend, Yuan Tiangang.

"I've made Brother Li worry," Yuan Tiangang said with a wry smile. "I truly didn't expect the Tang Dynasty to encounter such a huge variable; the results I previously calculated have now been completely ruined."

"I… I'm truly unwilling!"

"Brother Yuan, you're being superstitious." Li Chunfeng shook his head. "I told you before that since such a massive variable has appeared, causing the heavenly mechanism to scramble, you should stop further calculations."

"But you stubbornly persisted, and now look, you… sigh~"

At the end, only a sigh remained.

"Brother Li, it's not me being superstitious!" Yuan Tiangang's face turned ashen. "We had already reached the final stage of calculation; just as the results were about to materialize, a variable emerged at the crucial moment, and all my years of effort went down the drain. How could I abandon it?"

"You say… if the variable had appeared at the very beginning, or after I finished, I'd accept it, but it showed up when I was about to succeed."

"Fine, if it appears, it appears; I'll accept it! Let it be destiny!"

But I, because his blood and effort were ruined in a single day, was only trying to calculate who this variable is, to calculate how much change he would bring to the world, and because of that, I... I almost got back‑fired to death, Brother Li!

Damn it, is there anyone who would bully like this?

My fuck!!!

PS: There will absolutely be no cultivation elements, so everyone can rest assured.

As for Brother Gangzi, uh... he's that awesome in the official histories; if everyone knows the Prophecy of the Back‑Turning Diagram, you should know how outrageous he is.