"General, I am Lin Yu, the one you sent for." Lin Yu replied with a surprised expression.
"Are you Lin Yu?" Cao Hong couldn't help but be taken aback. The last time they met, Lin Yu was dressed in rags and looked like a beggar. But today, after tidying up, he revealed a handsome face, complemented by the attire of a scholar, resembling a dashing gentleman of great talent and grace, the only minor flaw being his slightly short hair. Cao Hong's previous impolite attitude towards Lin Yu was partly due to his appearance, as the ancients also valued looks, just as the short and unattractive Pang Tong was initially rejected by Sun Quan because of his appearance.
Upon seeing Lin Yu's true appearance, Cao Hong's demeanor became noticeably more respectful: "Mr. Lin, please have a seat."
After Lin Yu sat down, he asked with a light smile, "I wonder why the general has summoned me today?"
Cao Hong hesitated for a moment and asked, "I wonder if Mr. Lin is accustomed to living in the camp?"
"Of course, I am very accustomed to it!" Lin Yu nodded with a smile. These past few days, he had either been practicing martial arts with Dian Wei or resting in his tent, leaving the task of guarding the provisions entirely to Dian Wei, which was quite relaxing.
"I'm glad to hear that. If Mr. Lin has any needs, please don't hesitate to tell me." Cao Hong also said with a smile.
"The general didn't just call me here to show concern, did you? Let's get to the point." Lin Yu, perceiving Cao Hong's insincerity, decided to be direct.
"Mr. Lin is truly astute; nothing can escape your notice." Cao Hong said with some surprise.
Lin Yu, however, curled his lips, thinking to himself, as the saying goes, "No news is good news," and "When the weasel pays respects to the chicken, it's not out of goodwill." A few days ago, Cao Hong was indifferent to him, but today he took the initiative to call him over and show concern, which clearly indicated that he had a request to make.
"The matter is as follows." Cao Hong composed himself and slowly said, "Didn't Mr. Lin recently advise Lord Cao to establish the position of 'Gold Digger Commander'?"
"Yes, hasn't Lord Cao already done so and achieved great success?" Lin Yu countered with a smile.
"How did Mr. Lin come to know this?" Cao Hong looked at Lin Yu in astonishment.
Lin Yu remained calm and picked up the tea cup on the table to take a leisurely sip. The day after he joined Cao's camp, the camp stopped recruiting refugees, but recently it began to actively recruit again, and the soldiers in the camp had acquired many fine armors and weapons. Without successful tomb raiding, where would Cao Cao get the military funds?
"Mr. Lin is indeed intelligent; nothing can escape your notice!" Cao Hong was completely impressed by Lin Yu, and after a sigh of admiration, he continued, "As Mr. Lin has said, Lord Cao has obtained a large sum of money and entrusted it to me to handle, responsible for purchasing provisions and armor. But this sum is enormous, and the amount of supplies that can be purchased is vast, making the logistics extremely troublesome. The people under my command are all rough and uncultured, and the accounts have become a mess in the past few days, so I would like to ask Mr. Lin for your assistance!"
"I thought it was something serious; this is a minor matter, not worth mentioning." Lin Yu smiled nonchalantly.
Upon hearing this, Cao Hong was overjoyed: "Mr. Lin is willing to help me?"
"Naturally." Lin Yu nodded with a smile. To get ahead under Cao Cao, it was necessary to maintain a good relationship with the senior generals like Cao Hong and Xiahou Yuan.
"That's great! Bring the accounts here!" Cao Hong ordered, and soldiers outside the tent carried in baskets of bamboo slips.
Seeing the mountain of bamboo slips, Lin Yu was taken aback by the sheer volume. It seemed that sorting out the logistics accounts would take at least three to five days.
Lin Yu stepped forward and picked up a bamboo slip at random: "On the morning of the third day, 319 shi of grain were consumed, and in the afternoon, 1200 shi of grain were purchased…" After a moment of contemplation, he had an idea: "I have a method that can solve the accounting problem once and for all."
"Please, Mr. Lin, tell me!" Cao Hong looked at Lin Yu eagerly.
"This old-fashioned bookkeeping method is too complex and chaotic, not conducive to statistics." Lin Yu pointed at the content of the bamboo slips and spoke confidently, "From now on, the accounts will be divided into two books, one for the consumption of supplies and one for the storage of supplies. In this way, when reconciling accounts in the future, simply subtract the amount of consumed supplies to find out the remaining amount, and then compare it with the amount of supplies in the warehouse to see if there are any discrepancies."
Cao Hong's eyes lit up! Recently, he had been put in charge of logistics and supplies by Cao Cao and had some experience in this area. He immediately saw the brilliance of Lin Yu's accounting method, separating income and expenses, making the accounts much clearer and less chaotic!
"In addition, General, you can use new numerical symbols for bookkeeping." Lin Yu said with a smile.
"What are new numerical symbols?" Cao Hong asked curiously.
Lin Yu casually picked up a stick, stooped down, and drew on the ground: "This is 1, this is 2, this is 3…" He showed all the numbers from 1 to 0 to Cao Hong and also explained the methods of addition and subtraction.
Cao Hong frowned in thought for a moment, then suddenly widened his eyes! Compared to the previous method of using myriads, thousands, and tens for bookkeeping, these new numerical symbols were clear at a glance and much simpler! Most importantly, they were easy to understand, and even soldiers who were illiterate could master them after a few practices! With the accounting method Lin Yu had mentioned earlier, Cao Hong would no longer have to worry about the logistics accounts?
"Mr. Lin is indeed talented, thank you so much!" Cao Hong grasped Lin Yu's hand, extremely excited. He didn't expect that Lin Yu's simple strategy could easily solve the problem that had been troubling him. He was glad he hadn't been too rude to him.
"General, you're too polite. I am your subordinate, and this is all part of my duties." Lin Yu waved his hand with a smile.
Without hesitation, Cao Hong immediately found several intelligent soldiers and taught them the new accounting method and numerical symbols, putting them in charge of handling the accounts, while he personally hosted a banquet for Lin Yu.
…
A few days later.
Cao Cao was in the central military camp, reading a letter in his hand. After a while, he looked up at Xiahou Dun, Yue Jin, and others: "Yuan Shao has contacted the troops from all towns and will meet at Suan Zao to discuss the matter of dealing with Dong Zhuo. Time is of the essence, and our army should set out immediately. Do any of you have any objections?"
"We have no objections." The generals responded in unison.
"That's good." Cao Cao nodded with satisfaction and then looked at Cao Hong: "General Zilin, how is the situation with our logistics and supplies now?"
As soon as he said this, the faces of the people present showed a bit of sympathy.