Chapter 459

Ministry of Revenue. Although night had fallen, the year-end deadline was approaching with each passing day. A difficult year-end was the norm for the common people, and this year, it was no different for the gentlemen of the Ministry of Revenue. Chaos had reigned throughout the year: droughts, floods, and military unrest. On top of that, there were the astronomical costs for the Great Xia Emperor’s construction of the Daoist palaces. Even after accounting for the surpluses of previous years, there was still a shortfall of nearly twenty million taels. That was not even considering the recent petition from the Office of the Left General to construct a railway across the five northern provinces, which required an initial injection of ten million taels of silver, with no telling how much more would be needed thereafter.