Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 285: Become a Disciple
Benford's Law, an "interesting" law discovered by Frank Benford...
In many kinds of statistical data, the frequency of occurrence of the nine numbers "1-9" is not even. The frequency of "1" is the highest, reaching 30%, and then decreases successively, with the lowest "9" being only about 5%!
Except for completely random numbers and data arranged in sequence such as numbers, almost all statistical data in decimal system conform to this rule.
Including birth rate, death rate, physical constants, chemical constants... and naturally accounting data!
As for the principle...
Some data types can be explained, and the principles of some data types are currently unknown. However, from a purely practical perspective, this is the most basic way to determine whether the data has been manually modified.
When Zhang Chunhua first saw the "One-Maximum Law" in a book in the library, she felt puzzled. How could such a thing exist? Could it be written randomly?
Afterwards, Zhang Chunhua experimented with the accounts at home and found that the data patterns in some unimportant accounts did conform to this law.
Even... Zhang Chunhua also discovered that some accounts that do not conform to this rule often cannot withstand close scrutiny!
The Ministry of Revenue had long ago begun training on the "income and expenditure accounting method," which was not only more efficient, but also... compared to the accounting method popularized by Bai Tu, the method of falsifying accounts was already seriously outdated, so a careful examination would always reveal some loopholes.
After all, in Bai Tu's opinion, the previous account books were basically "muddy accounts" and it was easier to falsify them. Forgers who were accustomed to this environment would be crushed by the new accounting and auditing methods for a long time.
When checking the accounts at Fuyang just now, Zhang Chunhua was indeed just flipping through them casually.
However, after taking a rough look at the regular pattern of "1-9" in the data, I easily found some abnormal accounts!
Some of them are the most typical false accounts, with the data mostly consisting of numbers such as 4, 5, 6, and 7 that don't make sense. Psychologically, humans instinctively feel that 4, 5, 6, and 7 are safer, and other numbers are "too big" or "too small."
There are also some other ones, the probability of "1-9" appearing is balanced...
This shows that people who cook the books have excellent psychological qualities and are not affected by subjective factors at all, which is different from ordinary people. However... unfortunately, they still do not conform to the "one-most law", so they were also caught by Zhang Chunhua.
Moreover, from the characteristics of the two types of false accounts, Zhang Chunhua could easily judge that the ones that were "different from ordinary ones" should have been written by Jia Xu!
This was also true in terms of the types of accounts - accounts of loss of military supplies, registration of spoils of war, and the like.
In comparison, the other pile of accounts was much more vulgar, some of them even targeted ordinary people...
Zhang Chunhua used the income and expenditure accounting method to easily find the imbalance between income and expenditure, and then put the pile aside.
"These guys are not important now. After we submit the evidence, people from the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Justice will naturally come to deal with them." Zhang Chunhua said with disdain.
"Well, the lord's six ministries are very good." Jia Xu said with his eyes half open and half closed.
"That's right, but these accounts...it seems that they can only be submitted to the Privy Council..." Zhang Chunhua deliberately said to the other pile.
"So...what exactly does Zhang Gongcao want to do?" Jia Xu asked in a tone pretending to be confused.
However, what Jia Xu did not expect was that Zhang Chunhua stood up, walked to the front of Jia Xu, bowed deeply and said: "I have just entered the officialdom, and I feel that I was arrogant and had many vulgar things before... I hope that 'Teacher Jia' can teach me in the future."
Jia Xu:!!!
Even Jia Xu, who always remained calm in the face of adversity, was stunned by this scene...
I didn’t expect Zhang Chunhua would come up with such an idea?
However, in the next few seconds, Jia Xu thought of definitely more than Zhang Chunhua!
After Zhang Chunhua read Jia Xu's resume, she felt that this old fox not only possessed "terrifying" talent, but also had the ability that she had always dreamed of, to blend in with the world...
Compared to the fact that Zhang Chunhua is a woman, Jia Xu, as the planner of the Guanzhong Incident, the gravedigger of the Han Dynasty... and the brain, should be regarded as a heretic!
However, Jia Xu was able to minimize and openly hold an important position in the General's Mansion. Even if some "outsiders" were dissatisfied with him, Jia Xu had Bai Tu's trust and his subordinates' obedience, so there was no need for him to care about others. Moreover... Jia Xu could also quietly reduce his "hatred value".
Zhang Chunhua felt that if she could learn 60% to 70% of Jia Xu's skills, and add her own complementary abilities, she would be able to dominate the world. If the General's Mansion could make further progress, she could even become the third female minister in the future...
But Jia Xu was thinking about something else.
According to Jia Xu's intelligence, "female officials" are related to the "inner house" of the general's mansion. So if Zhang Chunhua wants to become his disciple, does it mean that he wants to recruit him to serve as an aid to the outer court?
Perhaps for some "thoughtful" people, being able to establish a relationship with the master's harem is a very beneficial thing - after all, there are people in the harem who whisper in their ears, and they can also be a good help to the ministers outside the court.
However... this also means taking sides, which means participating in the struggles among external relatives and even the struggle for the crown prince in the future!
This was obviously not a good thing for Jia Xu , so he said with a droopy look: "Mr. Zhang has misunderstood. I am an old man with a confused mind. I am only giving advice to the generals in the army because my lord has not abandoned me. How can I be Mr. Zhang's teacher?"
Jia Xu directly rejected this request which sounded more dangerous than “false accounts being discovered”!
"Teacher, do you think that if I submit these to the Privy Council, I probably won't be severely punished?" Zhang Chunhua called the teacher with a smile.
"Of course, my lord will make a wise decision." Jia Xu did not respond.
"No, if I go through the Privy Council, I also think so, but... I am just a woman, if I am eager to make achievements and make this matter public without authorization, causing dissatisfaction among other troops... I think I will only be dismissed for my poor performance.
Of course, given the Lord's temperament, I believe he will not do anything to the teacher. At most, he will just leave her idle. After all, without the teacher, there are still Lu Sibu and Chen Sibu. But... considering , it would be very troublesome if he was left idle, right? Some people may not want the teacher to live so peacefully. "Zhang Chunhua continued to smile.
Hearing this, Jia Xu slightly opened his eyes and said, "Why is Zhang Gongcao doing this? The Zhang family is also a great family in Henei. After they have established a good relationship with the lord, even if they don't have a strong backing for the time being, but... in the future, when the lord is powerful, the great families in the north will definitely regard Zhang Gongcao as the most glorious. Why do they have to drag an old man like me into this?"
Zhang Chunhua was stunned when he heard this, then his face turned red, and his eyes were raised like when he first saw Bai Tu, and he said, "Bah! Old man, who spread this rumor to you? And it has spread to the front line?"
Jia Xu obviously didn't think this was a rumor, even if the person involved denied it...
Since her true nature had already been exposed, Zhang Chunhua immediately looked at Jia Xu and threatened him directly: "Old man, are you going to accept me as your student? Just give me a straight answer!"
