Bazhou, Jincheng, Huaxia Army Grand Camp.
Xia Huai'an stood in the center of the military tent. On the long table before him lay a sheet of snow-white Xuan paper, ink already ground and the brush tip fully saturated. Outside the tent, the wind howled, whipping the military banners so fiercely they snapped in the air, as if heaven and earth itself were lending momentum to the words about to be written.
Main Bookkeeper Zhou stood off to one side, holding a stack of confidential reports, and said in a low voice, "Master, it has been verified. The Prince of Qin burning the grain and destroying the salt was a sham; secretly reselling them is the truth. Six million shi of grain and one million catties of salt were allocated to Qinzhou under the guise of 'disaster relief,' but in reality, they were sold in batches at high prices to grain merchants across various regions, netting a profit of no less than ten million taels of silver."
Chapter 198