Opening a Fake Escape Route
I wore a satisfied smile as I reached for the abacus that Jang Yeong-sil had placed on the table moments ago.
Clack-clack-clack!
The beads, meticulously carved from animal bone, slid with a crisp, satisfying friction, instantly aligning to zero. At that clear, unfamiliar sound, Gaetdong-i and the other accountants, who had been groaning in the corner of the room while rolling their bamboo counting rods back and forth, simultaneously snapped their gaze to my fingertips.
I gestured with my chin toward Gaetdong-i, who was sitting on the floor.
"Gaetdong-i, come over here."
"Yes, Assistant Minister, sir!"
"Bring over the Gungigam's expense ledgers and charcoal purchase receipts we pulled from the Ministry of Taxation's archives earlier as well."
Looking dazed, Gaetdong-i gathered the pile of documents and shuffled closer. I set the abacus down firmly in the center of the desk, my eyes gleaming.
"Keep your eyes wide open and learn this well. From now on, our entire method of calculation will change because of this tool."
"Pardon? You... you mean with this board strung with beads, sir?"
"Indeed. It is a calculating tool that will finish computations in half an hour—computations that would normally take days with counting rods." I tapped the stack of expense ledgers Gaetdong-i had brought over and instructed, "Open the fake charcoal purchase receipt at the very top. Read the merchant group's name and the payment amount from start to finish, loud and clear."
"Uh... well, the Chilpae Market Three-Way Charcoal Inn. The payment is... three hundred and forty-five bolts of cotton cloth..."
As soon as Gaetdong-i stammered out the numbers, I lightly rested my fingers on the abacus.
"Watch closely. A single upper bead represents five, and each of the four lower beads represents one. If it is three hundred and forty-five..."
Clack, tap!
With a light flick of my fingers, the beads danced within the ebony frame, instantly forming the number.
"N-next is... two hundred and seventy-nine bolts..."
"When carrying over, you slide up one bead in the next column and subtract the remainder."
Click-clack, tap!
"And one thousand two hundred and five..."
Clack, slide!
My fingers flew across the abacus at a speed almost too fast for the naked eye to follow. Every time a number was called, a crisp, rhythmic cadence of clack, click-clack, tap! filled the office.
"W-what in the world..."
In a mere fifteen minutes, the calculations for dozens of fake expense ledgers were completed flawlessly, without a single error. I flicked the beads one last time to tally the final sum, then casually pulled my hands back.
"The total, when converted to silver, is twelve thousand five hundred nyang. This is the exact sum of national funds those bastards at the Gungigam embezzled under the guise of purchasing charcoal."
My voice echoed through the silent headquarters of the Ministry of Taxation. Jang Yeong-sil, who had been standing there with eyes as wide as a startled rabbit's, leaned over the table until his face was inches from mine. Caressing the very beads he had carved, he asked:
"Assistant Minister, sir, where on earth did you learn such a miraculous method of calculation? Did you perhaps secretly study abroad in the Ming Dynasty? I have seen a few Ming merchants handle such things before, but..."
Ming Dynasty, my foot. I learned this at an abacus academy on the second floor of a commercial building in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam.
Swallowing a chuckle, I rested my chin on my hand and replied with a sly grin.
"Well, let's just go with that. It's easier for me to explain, and easier for you to understand."
"L-let's go with that?! How could you hide such an astounding talent all this time—"
"More importantly, Daehogun." I cut off Jang Yeong-sil before he could pry any further, tossing out a proposal instead. "Regarding this abacus you just carved. Can you mass-produce enough of them to match the number of accountants working here at the Ministry of Taxation?"
"M-mass-produce? If that is the case, it would be much faster to hand the blueprints over to the local merchant groups or carpenters and outsource the work..."
"If we leave it to common merchants, the blueprints will leak everywhere. Besides, there isn't a single craftsman in the market with the precision to carve beads that roll as smoothly and seamlessly as yours."
I grinned, leaning in to whisper conspiratorially into his ear.
"Above all, as for the payment... once this Gungigam business is cleanly resolved, I will pay you handsomely using the special operational funds His Majesty will personally grant me."
Jang Yeong-sil's eyebrows twitched violently.
"It means it is completely off-the-books money, with absolutely no need for the Ministry of Taxation's tedious budget approvals or ledger audits. Whether you use that money to boil molten iron all night or smash hundreds of gears, no one will touch—I mean, interfere with you. You can spend it however you please."
Unlimited R&D funding with zero interference. At that sweet proposal, Jang Yeong-sil's eyes flashed once more like a hungry tiger's.
"Hahaha! I never dreamed there would be someone in the royal court so reasonable! Very well! Whether it is a hundred or two hundred, I shall carve them even more perfectly and present them to you!" Jang Yeong-sil roared with laughter, thumping his chest.
I wore a satisfied smile as I looked down at Gaetdong-i.
"Now that we have secured a reliable supply of equipment, shall we summon those bastards and watch them sweat blood?" My eyes gleamed coldly, like a predator eyeing its prey. "Send a messenger immediately to summon the military officers in charge of the Gungigam's accounting to the Ministry of Taxation. Tell them we are conducting the budget review for next year, so they had better get their asses over here right now."
Half an hour later. In front of the office of the Assistant Minister of Taxation.
"Assistant Minister, sir. We have arrived as ordered."
A voice thick with tension drifted from outside the door. When I told them to enter, two burly men from the Gungigam, dressed in their official robes, stepped cautiously into the room.
Keeping my eyes fixed on the documents, I spoke casually. "Take a seat. This shouldn't be your first budget review with the Ministry of Taxation, yet your faces look terribly pale."
"Haha... We have been overwhelmed with heavy duties lately regarding the casting of the new cannons, which is why we look this way." One of them forced a smile as he made an excuse.
Heavy duties, my foot. They're sweating blood because the managers of the Daedong Merchant Group, who were supposed to launder their stolen goods, were all dragged away yesterday.
I smirked and tossed the ledger I had just calculated with the abacus right in front of them.
"Heavy duties, indeed. Casting cannons is no ordinary task. According to this ledger, you purchased twelve thousand nyang worth of top-grade oak charcoal in silver from the Chilpae Market branch of the Daedong Merchant Group. Was all of it truly used to melt down the twenty thousand geun of copper bestowed by His Majesty?"
"Of course, sir! Not a single geun was wasted; it was all burned and poured into the molds."
"Is that so? Then where are the dozens of new cannons made from those twenty thousand geun?"
At my interrogation, their eyes wavered. However, as if they had anticipated this very question, they put on shameless faces and poured out their rehearsed excuses.
"W-well... the casting method for the new cannons is incredibly difficult, so failures were frequent! The cauldrons cracked and the molds burst, causing the molten metal to spill and harden all over the dirt floor. The finished products we managed to salvage amounted to a mere three or four cannons, and the rest became black, impurity-ridden slag that we had no choice but to discard on the mountain behind us!"
A shallow trick to sweep everything under the rug as a technical failure. Swallowing a sneer, I feigned a grave expression and asked back.
"A mere three or four cannons. Because of a lack of skill, the casting failed, and twenty thousand geun of copper turned entirely into slag and was thrown onto the mountain?"
"Y-yes, sir! Though the casting failed, it is an undeniable fact that the twelve thousand nyang worth of charcoal and all the copper were poured into the furnace and consumed!"
Perfect. Having secured their confirmation, I slid out Jang Yeong-sil's written opinion, which I had kept hidden beneath the stack of documents.
"But what are we to do? Yesterday, Daehogun Jang dug up the ash heap on the mountain behind the Gungigam, and he found only enough ash to account for baking one or two cannons at most."
"H-he must have misseen it! The oak charcoal we used was of such superb quality that—"
"So yesterday, I quietly summoned the owner of that Chilpae Market inn who received the charcoal payment and asked him myself." I cut off their excuses in a gentle, soft voice.
The Gungigam officers' breath hitched instantly.
Of course, it was a complete bluff. I hadn't even seen the face of that innkeeper.
Mixing a spoonful of a lethal lie into undeniable facts that they couldn't refute. When the opponent cannot gauge how much of their hand has been read, that is when absolute terror is forged.
I rested my chin on my hand, admiring their pale, freezing complexions as I slowly continued.
"He told me a very interesting story. He said they had never sold any charcoal. They had merely done a favor, laundering the twelve thousand nyang of silver that came down from the Gungigam and taking a cut as a transaction fee."
"A-Assistant Minister, sir! That... that must be a slanderous lie by those merchants—"
"I know. I think so too."
At my unexpected response, their mouths fell open just as they were about to jump up in protest. Instead, I wore a warm, benevolent smile, soothing them as if to put them at ease.
"How could honest military officers, who protect our nation, ever embezzle state funds? No doubt you were simply deceived by those wicked merchants."
"Pardon...? D-deceived, you say...?"
Bewildered by my sudden sympathy, they stammered. I maintained my friendly smile and tossed them an exquisite scapegoat.
"I am talking about the precious twenty thousand geun of copper bestowed by His Majesty. Isn't it obvious? Those Chilpae Market innkeepers, who treated the Gungigam like their own backyard under the pretext of delivering charcoal, must have stolen all the real copper behind your backs and swapped it with worthless scrap iron and stones! Unaware of this, you poured that fake metal into the furnace, which is why only black slag remained."
At the brilliant excuse I handed them, their pupils dilated wildly. It was a logic that transformed the capital crime of embezzlement into a tragic case of fraud perpetrated by a merchant guild. Realizing they had found a lifeline, they swallowed hard and nodded frantically.
"Ah...! Y-yes, that is exactly it! For the Assistant Minister to recognize our wronged loyalty like this...! Those wretched merchants must have dared to deceive the Gungigam and steal His Majesty's copper!"
A fleeting look of relief washed over their faces. Swallowing a cold, mocking laugh, I slammed the fake Gungigam ledger shut with a sharp thud.
"Which brings me to my next point." I threw out the most lethal bait in a warm, gentle tone. "As soon as the sun rises tomorrow morning, I plan to mobilize the Uigeumbu to thoroughly raid every single secret warehouse belonging to the merchant groups in Hanyang. The twenty thousand geun of real copper they stole from you must surely be hidden in one of their warehouses."
"......!!"
The color drained from their faces instantly. Thick beads of cold sweat began to pour down their foreheads.
"So, let us conclude today's budget review here. Since you are merely the unfortunate victims of fraud, go on home and rest easy tonight. Tomorrow morning, the Ministry of Taxation will personally ransack their warehouses and retrieve the copper you lost."
"A-Assistant Minister, sir...! That... about that...!"
"You may leave." I waved my hand, my smile never wavering.
Frozen solid, they couldn't squeeze out another word of excuse. The relief of being cleared of suspicion warred with the sheer terror that the very warehouse where they had hidden the copper would be raided tomorrow morning. Ultimately, trembling like aspen leaves, they practically fled the office in a daze.
The moment the door clicked shut and their hurried footsteps faded into the distance, I turned my gaze to Jincheol, who was standing beside me.
In my past life, catching countless tax evaders taught me one absolute truth. If you block their escape routes and threaten them, they will burrow deep and hide. But if you open a fake escape route and put them at ease, nine times out of ten, they will immediately move to relocate their hidden assets.
There was no need for me to get my hands dirty searching every single warehouse in Hanyang. With one simple bluff, those panicked rats would kindly guide me straight to the warehouse where the real copper was hidden.
"Are we going to catch them tonight, brother? Even if they are just pencil-pushing civil officials, moving twenty thousand geun of heavy metal in the dead of night means they will surely bring a crowd of burly guards from the Ministry of Military Affairs or thugs from the merchant groups."
"Why would the two of us be foolish enough to waste our energy in a sword fight against so many men?"
I pulled a heavy scroll from my robes and tossed it onto the table. It was the royal decree for a special audit, stamped with the royal seal, which I had personally received from His Majesty in the Pyeonjeon this morning.
Jincheol's eyes went wide. "Ah...! You mean the royal palace guards His Majesty promised to lend us?"
"Yes. I will send a letter to the Commander of the Royal Guards immediately. Tell him to have his soldiers armed and waiting outside the palace gates." My eyes gleamed coldly. "And Jincheol, tail those bastards who just left the palace gates. Stay close."
[Title: The Ultimate Strategist]