Inside the council chamber of the Banan Prefecture yamen, the charcoal fire crackled, yet it failed to dispel the gloom lingering on everyone's brows.
Zha Zhonghe clattered the abacus so loudly it seemed to shake the ceiling. When the final bead snapped into place, cold sweat beaded on his temples. "Master! Xia Family Village ran a net deficit of eighty thousand taels last month! Right now, we only have fifty thousand taels left in the accounts. We might not even be able to scrape together next month's wages!"
The Lame Scholar took off his wooden-framed glasses, his fingertips gently rubbing a crack in the frame. "Just the two hundred thousand commoners newly hired in Banan Prefecture require nearly two hundred thousand taels a month in wages. Not to mention that we've also rented nearly a million mu of paddy and dry fields. At an average rent of two qian of silver per mu, this hole—"
Chapter 122