"Xu Wenzhao, you dressed these accounts up like a riot of flowers—several thousand ledgers in all, with every kind of income and expenditure, hundreds of entries every single day." Young Master Shen said, "You wanted to bury the truth beneath these tangled accounts. What wishful thinking."
"No matter how flamboyantly you dress up the accounts, it is useless. I only need to seize hold of the core figures: the Earl's Manor's annual income and expenditures."
"The Xuanwu Earl's Manor has four major sources of income: grain and silk from the fief, and iron and salt from Wangya Island!"
"The Earl's Manor's expenditures also fall mainly into six categories: personnel salaries, taxes paid to the Feudal Lord, military expenses for the 2,700 troops, expenses for various festivals, celebrations, and entertaining distinguished guests, procurement of daily necessities, and construction projects in the fief."
"The focus of your embezzlement lay in recurring personnel salary payments, construction projects in the fief, and purchases of daily necessities."
"Of course, those were merely your early methods of embezzlement. Later, your ambition grew ever greater, and you actually extended your thieving hands into the Earl's Manor's army, salt, and iron."
Young Master Shen said sharply, "The army remained at around 2,700 men. The composition of infantry and cavalry did not change much either. Even factoring in changes in prices and warrior salaries, why did the army's expenditures increase every year—and at an ever faster rate?"
Xu Wenzhao's face turned pale. Hearing this, he shouted, "Earl, no matter how deranged I may be, I simply have no authority to interfere with the Earl's Manor's private army. Saying that I embezzled military funds is utterly ridiculous."
"That is right. You had no authority to embezzle military funds." Young Master Shen sneered. "But every year, the army's warhorses, armor, weapons,