Zhang Chao sat on the kang and wrote and scratched. Before the account was found, the Finance Department was naturally not built. Zhang Chao himself had to do the financial books.

The Zhang family’s accounts are not difficult, but they are very tedious. They sell all kinds of materials and make payments, one by one, especially Zhang Chao, who doesn’t even have a financial assistant. No matter how big or small the accounts are, they have to sort them out and summarize them by themselves, and they don’t even have a person who makes a table.

It would be great if there were two financial interns.

There was no choice but Zhang Chao had to train himself, but he found that there was a big problem. He couldn't find anyone around him who knew the words. The maid in the family, Da Ya Er Ya, was very diligent, and they were very skilled in boiling water and cooking, washing and serving tea, and even sewing clothes, but they couldn't read a single word. They recognized it as a shoulder pole, and as for the Arabic numerals used by Zhang Chao to keep accounts, they didn't understand it at all.

It is not realistic to want to add a lot of money to Hongxiu, cultivate a maid to be a financial assistant, and help manage the accounts.

The same goes for the two followers of Xiao Ba and Xiao Shi San. They don’t know one of them in their lives. They have never even touched a book once. Qian Shuanzi is a diligent young man. He has learned the true teachings from his father when he drove a car and fed a horse, but he is also illiterate.

The literacy rate of ordinary people in the Tang Dynasty seemed to be surprisingly low. The literacy rate of people in the Song and Ming dynasties was very high, especially in the late Ming Dynasty, even women were mostly literate.

But now it was the early Tang Dynasty, and studying was only the capital and privilege of the gentry.

In the end, there was no choice but to arrest Cheng Chumo as his financial assistant. Cheng Chumo could write and calculate, but he was also a complete layman in financial accounting, so Zhang Chao could only start from scratch.

Zhang Chao taught Cheng Chumo Arabic numerals and double bookkeeping methods, two simple things, Cheng Chumo has already had too much information to accept.

Now Cheng Chumo honestly did the number collection statistics for Zhang Chao and entered the form made by Zhang Chao.

The Tang Dynasty did not even have a dedicated account book, so Zhang Chao had to make it himself. He asked Cheng Chumo to buy the account book from Chang'an, but there was no ready-made account book at all. The account book he bought was actually scrolls and folded pages.

When Zhang Chao got the scroll, he thought Cheng Chumo had bought someone else's scroll, but after asking, he found out that it was really Tangren's account book.

The scroll is also the style of the Tang people's books, and there is another type of album, which is the style of the memorials that the emperor watched in TV before. With his hands, he could be pulled apart for a long time and then folded.

Line-bound books and line-bound accounts have not yet been invented these days.

To be precise, there is not even a separate paper page after page, either a rolled scroll or a folded album. Looking at the special account books that Cheng Chumo bought, Zhang Chao was speechless.

It is actually a large piece of paper. The difference is that one is rolled up and the other is folded up. There are neither tables nor page numbers.

But such an account book is still expensive.

A white scroll with an ordinary wooden scroll costs two thousand yuan. A white album with a price of about twenty percent also costs one thousand yuan.

Anyway, just count it, about a page of paper costs about a hundred cents.

Cheng Chumo also said that what he bought was just ordinary, and if it was better, the price would be higher. Of course, there were also more ordinary ones, but at least it would cost thousands of volumes or volumes.

No wonder the Tang people were not well educated these days. Paper is so expensive, so who can read books? Paper is expensive, so books will definitely be even more expensive.

It turns out that although papermaking was relatively developed during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and paper finally replaced bamboo slips, the cost was still very high, especially since there was no woodblock printing these days, and books were mainly hand-copying.

Many scholars from poor families, well, their way out is to be a copywriter, copy books for temples, bookstores, and wealthy families.

Even if Zhang Chao has money, he can't buy a useful account book.

He could only ask Cheng Chumo to buy some cheaper large white paper, which was not processed into scrolls and albums. Zhang Chao himself took the initiative to cut the white paper into the size of a normal account book in his later generations, then bound it with needle and thread on one side, and finally made the cover with blue paper.

The binding was done by Da Ya and Er Ya. Their female worker was very good and completely met Zhang Chao's requirements. The book was bound neatly.

Originally, Zhang Chao planned to carve a plate and directly engrave the format of the detailed account, but he found that it was not so easy to carve a plate. It was necessary to have a special carpenter to have this kind of engraving skills. In addition, it was not enough to have a plate. It also had to be equipped with carving and printing ink, which could not be printed with ordinary ink.

Zhang Chao couldn't get a new and easy-to-use account book at once, so he could only temporarily use the first version of the account book. After the account book was installed in line, there were blank pages inside, and then manually tabulated.

The brush was too soft and it was not easy to draw the table. Zhang Chao learned to learn from the carpenter and used a ruler and wooden strokes to draw lines. Finally, he pulled out feathers from the goose raised by Qi Niang's home and made a simple quill pen. In the simple account form, he wrote down the debit, credit, balance, year, month, day, summary, account number, account number, and other items.

After a lot of effort, I finally made a standard detailed account book full of advanced flavor.

"Chumo, you set up a separate account book for each of our businesses, such as the Engineering Office, the Catering Office, the General Affairs Office, the Soap and Alkali Office, the Sales Office, and the Purchase Office, and they also set up an account book to separate their accounts. Remember, each account book is a borrow on the left and a loan on the right. And if there is a borrow, there must be a loan, and if there is a borrow, there must be a loan, the borrow must be equal."

"For each business, you must record the debit of one account and the credit of another account, that is, there must be a credit for debits; the amount recorded by the debit of the account must be equal to the amount of the credit of the account, that is, the debits must be equal. As long as you record the accounts according to this, you will not be wrong."

Cheng Chumo looked at the detailed accounting form, not understanding it.

He usually reads classics, history, and collections of classics, history, and sages. He only learned some simple arithmetics. He knew how to multiply nine and nine, but he really couldn't keep accounts and settle accounts.

"Hey, let me tell you this way. The accounts you keep must be in two accounting directions. You cannot both be recorded in the register or credit. Secondly, the amount you record in the debit must be equal to the finance that is recorded in the credit."

"This is called the double-entry accounting method. Such accounting method can be more accurate, less prone to errors and easier to check. It also allows you to know the ins and outs of each business more simply and clearly when looking at the accounts. Do you understand?"

Cheng Chumo nodded, shook his head again, nodded again, and shook his head again.

Zhang Chao was helpless and couldn't care about this anymore. Anyway, Cheng Chumo was just called to take action now, and at most he was an intern in the entry.

The real account must be done by yourself, at least before recruiting a professional account, you have to rely on yourself.

Zhang Chao himself also has a general ledger, which can provide him with a clear understanding of his funds.

"Little Langjun, Ke Dalang is here." Daya came over to inform.

"Please come in."

"Sanlang, the foundation is laid and the cliff is scraped. Next, we will start building a cellar. According to the customs and old practices, we have to pay tribute to the gods, and then choose an auspicious day to start building a cellar."

Jiangtou, who is in charge of the new cellar of Zhang's family, is the village chief, but now the village chief is the director of the engineering department of the Zhang family, mainly responsible for building steaming rooms and steaming stoves. The new cave is handed over to his eldest son Ke Dalang. Ke Dalang is Ke Wu's brother. He has learned to repair the cellar with his father since he was a child. Now his skills are perfect and have been deeply influenced by his father's true teachings.

After taking over the repair of the cellar, Ke Da worked very hard and dedicatedly. He led a group of villagers to dig the foundation and scrape the cliffs. The preliminary work was completed several days earlier than the expected construction period.

Zhang Chao was very happy to hear this news.

It is easy to repair a cave, but it is troublesome to say.

The foundation of the Zhang family’s cave has only been laid yet, because the Zhang family’s cave has been built in large quantities.

Ordinary houses have three rooms in one cellar, but Zhang Chao designed one cellar, three in nine rooms, and two rooms in each kiln, which is equivalent to three suites.

However, after starting the repair, Zhang Chao made several design modifications.

Because there was a servant in the family, Zhang Chao changed three to nine rooms and finally changed it to five to fifteen rooms. This was already a long row of caves.

In addition, Zhang Chao also made some other minor modifications, such as adding some small crutches to the cave to store grain, debris, etc.

The yard has also been expanded, and we have to drill wells, build kitchens, horse sheds, tool rooms, toilets and bathrooms.

The project volume has increased greatly. Fortunately, the Zhang family now has money and food, so it is very generous to hire people. When people repair cellars, they will always repair them before and after meals, during the slack farming, or even in rainy days. The whole family may have to repair them for several years.

But the Zhang family directly hired several cellars, and there was a large group of people alone and their apprentices. What's more, the Zhang family also invited hundreds of people to help from various villages.

With so many people working together, the Zhang family’s cave was built in big ways, and it was not a big problem.

Now that the foundation has been dug, a large empty space has been filled in front of the cave, and it has been compacted. The cliff surface on the slope has been neatly repaired, and the cellars call this a face-saving cliff.

Now the foundation has been flattened and the cliff has been flattened. I’m just waiting for the official cellar to be built.

Dig out the shape of the cave on the surface of the scraping cliff, transport the soil away, and after digging out the shape of the room, then give the cellar. Start by giving the arch shape from the top of the cellar, scraping the cellar to smooth it out, and then making the cellar is completed.

Next, he has to wait for him to dry, and then he has to use loess, broken wheat straw and mud to use it for mud cellars, which is equivalent to indoor painting. Mud cellars are the same as painting, and they have several layers of mud.

Finally, we will build gables and doors and windows, then build kangs and stoves and chimneys, build walls and door courtyards, even if it is officially completed.

According to the rules, people must be asked to check the Feng Shui direction before diving the ground.

After the foundation is laid and the cellar is officially laid, we will also salute and pay tribute, set off firecrackers, and invite people to dance Nuo dance.

"Well, then choose an auspicious day and worship the gods." Zhang Chao said with a smile, "Not only that, we also want to kill pigs and treat them. Thanks to the craftsmen and the villagers who helped!"
Chapter completed!