Calculating the Ming Dynasty: Mi Zhiyi Cheng's Account Revealing Records

In February of the third year of Chongzhen, the post order was ordered to be cut off in Xiangfu County. Li Shouzhuo - a native of Mizhi, Shaanxi, a postman from his father's generation, promoted to postmaster by himself - is unemployed. There is a fellow named Li Zicheng from Mizhi, who was laid off from his job at Yinchuan Post last year and now works for Gao Yingxiang. He originally just wanted to settle the last account, go to the south of the city to have a bowl of spicy soup, and then accept this era. But he miscalculated one thing - there were two children waiting for rice to cook in the village house squatting outside the door, and he, "a postman who was poorer than a postman", was no longer even a postmaster. That night, he wiped out the thirteen-fold old abacus handed down by his grandfather and reopened the old accounts that he had not dared to touch for three years. One night, six hundred and fifty-eight taels. On the second night, Director Wu from the Military Affairs Department of the Ministry of War came to visit: "There are 137 counties in the province, 170,000 taels - Li Yicheng, can you count it by yourself?" On the third night, under the Guanfang seal that had been erased by ink, he recognized a word. That character's surname is Wei. And the man in the capital is also named Wei. There is an old saying from Mizhi: Those who settle accounts will sooner or later include themselves.