A lotus in the mud? Hu Zongxian's entrance / The Yan Faction's deranged decision: destroy the dikes and flood the fields! Drive the people into a corner...

"Did you lead the people to cover up these seedlings?"

"He is my subordinate."

However, no sooner had the leader finished speaking than a whooshing sound rang out! Chongyue's long whip struck the leader's face, leaving a fresh, bloody mark!

"Okay!" XN

Chongyue's actions immediately drew cheers from the officials. But Chongyue didn't stop there; he immediately shouted:

"Who else covered up the seedlings just now? Step forward!"

Chongyue's portrayal of Qi Jiguang clearly exudes immense authority within the army, and under Chongyue's stern shout, all the participating Daoist priests stood in a neat row. Without further ado, Chongyue passed by each person and lashed them across the face with his whip!

While Chongyue was doing this, Chen Qi deliberately reviewed the previous actions of these Celestial Masters in the TV series, so that the audience would not feel any pity for these people, but only the pleasure of applauding!

After giving each of them a whip, Chongyue's anger finally subsided slightly, but looking at the people in front of him, he still couldn't hide his fury and shouted, "Cutting off water, burying seedlings, and soldiers eating rations—whose rations are you eating?!"

"Of course it's imperial grain!" At this moment, Ma Ningyuan also challenged Chongyue. He realized that he absolutely could not let Chongyue transfer the troops away like this, otherwise his subsequent work would be impossible to carry out.

Faced with such a treacherous official, Chongyue naturally showed no kindness, coldly asking, "Where did the imperial grain come from?"

"--Under the whole heaven, all land belongs to the emperor?" Ma Ningyuan also being unreasonable, completely ignoring his troop deployment to cover up the farmland, and even trying to justify his actions by invoking the emperor, saying, "The imperial grain naturally belongs to the emperor!"

"Hmph... Well said!"

Ma Ningyuan's words were difficult to refute, because his views were indeed correct under the Great Yan system. However, Chongyue still found a way to refute them, saying:

"Then you are cutting off the Emperor's water supply and burying his offspring! Do you know what kind of crime this is?"

"Death penalty!" XN

Chongyue's words immediately won the support of all the soldiers present. Ma Ningyuan, who was already returning to the barracks in squads under Chongyue's command, knew that he was unable to carry out any missions without soldiers, and immediately tried to stop Chongyue.

"Qi Jiguang, these soldiers were assigned to me by the Ministry; you have no right to take them away!"

"--My soldiers are ordered to fight Seaborn!" Chongyue responded to Ma Ningyuan without any politeness, but he was not afraid of Ma Ningyuan's threat at all. Instead, he said to him with disdain:

"I advise you to release these people, otherwise, once my soldiers leave, they might just throw you into the river!"

As expected, as soon as Chongyue and his soldiers left, the people, seeing that the soldiers were not present and with Chongyue's words of support, suddenly felt much more confident and all walked towards Ma Ningyuan's direction, as if they wanted to devour him alive.

Upon seeing this scene, the officials all revealed smiles that they hadn't seen in a long time, and some even rubbed their hands together as if they wanted to join the people in beating up Ma Ningyuan.

"This kind of scum should be thrown into the river to fill it up!"

"Hmph! He might be useful if he were a brick, but this kind of beast isn't even as good as a brick! Letting him in will only destabilize the dam!"

The official was filled with righteous indignation, but to everyone's surprise, when faced with the rioting crowd, Ma Ningyuan did not turn tail and run as they expected. Instead, he remarkably showed backbone by saying to his colleagues who were considering retreating, "Afraid of death? If you're afraid of death, then leave your official hat behind!"

The next moment, Ma Ningyuan, facing the angry crowd, showed no fear whatsoever. A resolute glint flashed in his eyes as he shouted:

"I, the Prefect, stand here alone! Anyone who dares to rebel, come over here! Throw me into this river!"

Ma Ningyuan's shout actually silenced the crowd of people. After all, not everyone could bear the stigma of "rebellion." Even though these people lived in poverty, they still had things they couldn't let go of.

"Converting rice paddies to mulberry fields is a national policy! You either convert them yourselves, or sell your land to others for conversion!"

Prefect Ma Ningyuan also issued an ultimatum, and the words he uttered were chilling:

"Even if a thousand people die, ten thousand people die—even if the entire population of Zhe City dies—it must be changed!"

As soon as Ma Ningyuan said this, the entire hall fell silent. However, the officials' faces were so gloomy that they didn't even want to curse anymore. If looks could kill, Ma Ningyuan on the screen would have been executed by the officials with the most cruel torture by now.

"Every word is like a knife to the heart..."

The Grand Tutor also tilted his head back slightly and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He felt a deep sorrow for the Great Yan depicted in Chen Qi's script.

The eradication of "Sui" solved a major internal problem, but it also created countless more internal problems. The Great Yan did not prosper because of the eradication of "Sui". Instead, it became riddled with holes and had no backbone to serve as a benchmark.

The Grand Tutor guessed that this was probably one of the reasons why Chen Qi had Chongyue play Qi Jiguang. Chen Qi wanted to tell them that "the years" were never the biggest internal threat. The biggest internal threat was always these treacherous and corrupt officials who ate the people and fattened themselves up.

Chapter 280: A Lotus in the Mud? Hu Zongxian's Appearance

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Chapter 281: Yan Faction's insane decision to destroy dikes and flood fields! Driving the people to their doom.

"Unexpectedly... It's not surprising to find a plump, live fish in clear water; but now that the Great Yan Dynasty is like a quagmire, such a tenacious live fish seems so precious."

Inside the main hall, the Emperor of Great Yan looked at Hu Zongxian, played by Zuo Xuanliao, and a long-lost smile finally appeared on his face. All the officials he had seen before, from Yan Shifan to Ma Ningyuan, were all hypocrites who were not worthy of their positions. Now, he finally had someone who seemed like a pillar of the state, and he felt more at ease than ever before.

"Your Majesty, corrupt officials and treacherous ministers must be severely punished, but virtuous and honest officials should not be overlooked." Upon seeing Hu Zongxian, the Grand Tutor's previously sorrowful outlook on the future of the Great Yan was rekindled, and Grand Tutor immediately spoke to the Great Yan Emperor beside him:

"The future of the Great Yan needs more Hu Zongxian. If we had more pillars of society who care about the people, why would our Great Yan have fallen to this state?"

"If the Great Yan were a tall building, then even if the surrounding brick walls were broken and the interior filthy, as long as there are these beams, it could still support the building. Sooner or later, someone would come and clean up the filth of this building."

"... We cannot leave all the problems to our descendants." Upon hearing this, the Emperor of Great Yan shook his head and said calmly to the Grand Tutor:

"We need pillars of the state, and the interior of the Great Yan must be kept as clean as ever. How can we sweep the world if we can't even sweep our own house? Cleaning the house is not the job of these pillars of the state, but rather the job of everyone in the house."

"... Moreover, I am still unaware of the owner's attitude."

The person the Great Yan Emperor was most curious about was the Emperor Jiajing, played by Wei Yenwu. According to Chen Qi, although the Emperor Jiajing did not attend to state affairs, he was fully aware of all matters concerning the court. He should have been aware of the actions of the Yan Faction, so why had he not taken any action so far?

The Emperor of Great Yan now had some answers in his heart, but he was still not sure, nor did he want to be sure... He dared not think about what Great Yan become if the ruler of a country was the real reason for its decline.

The thought that this Great Yan Dynasty might be the future of Great Yan filled the Great Yan Emperor with sorrow. Perhaps all he could pray for now was that the Emperor Jiajing was merely an emperor obsessed with becoming Feranmut, indulging the Yan Faction and the Purists faction in order to maintain balance and allow them to stagnate.

And so that he wouldn't end up like he imagined, becoming the most corrupt person in the Great Yan Dynasty, above the Yan Faction.

If even the ruler disregards the people, only thinking of his own ends, and makes the world pay the price for his selfish desires... then the foundation of the Great Yan Dynasty is already unstable, so how can it possibly create another golden age?

"At least from today's perspective, Jiajing used Yan Faction because it could replenish the national treasury, and the money for Jiajing's palace repairs was all paid from transparent accounts... so he probably didn't embezzle funds, probably."

However, the Great Yan Emperor could not convince himself with such an excuse. After Jiajing, apart from the money for repairing the palace, the money for the elixir that Chen Qi mentioned to help him become a Feranmut beast, as well as the money for various facilities and equipment, had not yet appeared in the allocation of funds in the first episode.

If all this money came from the Ministry of Revenue's clear accounts, that would be fine. But if this money didn't come from the Ministry of Revenue, but from Jiajing's own money... where did his money come from? From the Yan Faction? Then where did the Yan Faction's money come from? The answer is obvious.

"Please don't think like me!" The Emperor of Great Yan felt a pang of sorrow, his gaze remaining fixed on the screen. Meanwhile, Hu Zongxian, played by Zuo Xuanliao, had made up his mind to postpone the national policy of converting rice paddies to mulberry fields.

At the very least, they must wait until Zhe City is fully prepared to avoid a situation where officials force the people to rebel. Therefore, Zuo Xuanliao made his own choice, saying:

"Immediately urge all rice merchants to lend us grain. I, Hu Zongxian, will affix the seal of the Governor-General's Office to all the IOUs. The Grand Canal is teeming with grain ships every day. With loans being repaid, how could we possibly not be able to borrow?"

"Those who refuse to lend grain will be punished for hoarding and speculation—forcing them is better than forcing the people to rebel!"

Zuo Xuanliao's words at this moment were also approved by the officials. As long as it didn't incite a popular uprising, it was acceptable to wrong either the officials or the merchants, especially since it wasn't a forced requisition and there was a repayment agreement. These rice merchants were hoarding grain; if they didn't contribute when it was crucial, were they supposed to wait until the people of Zhe City had no food before being forced to buy and sell at inflated prices?

What impressed the officials even more was Zuo Xuanliao's responsible attitude towards the matter; he took the blame when problems arose. Such a responsible official is extremely rare, even in the present-day Great Yan.

However, in a sudden shift in the scene, Hu Zongxian's memorial to the Jiajing suggesting a delay in converting rice paddies to mulberry fields was naturally suppressed by Yan Faction. Yan Shifan, played by Lin Yuxia, was quite furious after reading the memorial.

She believes this is a signal from Hu Zongxian to Prince Yu. After all, the policy of converting rice paddies to mulberry fields was established by them, which involves the interests of Yan Faction. Hu Zongxian was promoted by Yan Song himself, and now he is trying to strangle them at this time. It is inevitable that people will think that this is Hu Zongxian's way of finding a way out for himself.

"That Tan Lun has a past relationship with Hu Zongxian, and is now a confidant of Prince Yu. Hu Zongxian is eyeing Prince Yu's succession, and the Grand Secretary is getting old, so it's to be expected that he'll leave himself an escape route."

Inside the Yan Residence, a trusted confidant offered the same analysis. His words seemed to present everything logically and well-founded, but he made no mention of the suffering of the common people.

It is clear that in the eyes of Yan Faction today, the word "common people" simply does not exist. They have never even considered the possibility that Hu Zongxian was trying to prevent the people of Zhe City from rebelling; they are only concerned with their own interests and their own missions.

However, compared to his daughter's impatience, Yan Song, played by the Rat King, reacted differently at this moment, saying:

"Hu Zongxian isn't that kind of person. He puts himself in others' shoes when discussing people and matters. Tan Lun's visit means that he has Prince Yu behind him, and Prince Yu has the Emperor behind him. Even if he's thinking of me, he can't be completely without consideration."

"To be honest, I read this memorial several times last night... and I think what Hu Zongxian said was truly the wise and insightful advice for governing the country."

"So much land, so many people, and this is the place where the Church of the Deep is causing trouble. If it really incites a popular uprising—it will not be a blessing for either of us!"

As he spoke, the Rat King couldn't help but slap the table, startling Lin Yuxia. She remained silent for a long time, unsure how to respond.

Ultimately, the Rat King understood that the burden of replenishing the national treasury now rested on the shoulders of the Yan Faction. They had to find a way to achieve the best of both Yan Faction: fulfilling Jiajing's targets without inciting a popular uprising.

Lin Yuxia was at a loss. She knew that inciting a popular uprising was not a good idea, but the problem was that she couldn't think of any good solutions other than having the wealthy silk merchants annex the people's farmland and convert it into mulberry fields.

"The purpose of converting rice paddies into mulberry fields is to increase silk production, which in turn can be exchanged for silver. But if the silk is of poor quality, the western countries won't want it."

"If the people are allowed to change their ways, and they sell all the silk they produce to other small workshops, they won't be able to weave good silk, and they won't be able to sell it for a good price."

"At the time, the national treasury was empty, but the palace's expenses were so high! That's why we came up with this idea." Lin Yuxia was also extremely helpless. The Yan Faction, which seemed to have immense power, was now walking on thin ice under the shadow of Jiajing and the impending crisis of Prince Yu's ascension to the throne.

"If we can't grit our teeth and hold on now... Dad, we'll collapse on our own without anyone else having to bring us down."

"... What the Junior Grand Secretary said is both reasonable and based on the prevailing trend." At that moment, another confidant chimed in, "A strong medicine is needed to cure a serious illness."

"The national policy we initially adopted was precisely to change the current predicament and make the Emperor indispensable to us. Only by having the major silk merchants in Zhe City change their mulberry fields can they generate an additional few million taels of revenue each year."

"The land designated for mulberry cultivation—the people have no choice but to sell it, whether they want to or not!"

As soon as the man finished speaking, the officials in the hall, as well as Chongyue Gouwu, felt a chill run down their spines, even after they had finished filming the whole thing.

And with this, the second episode of "The Great Yan Dynasty" finally finished airing. The officials in the hall were completely unaware; how had it ended so quickly without them noticing?

"That's it? That's way too short!"

"What happened next? Those beasts of the Yan Faction, how were they going to force the people to sell their land?"

The officials were also left wanting more. This TV series might seem a bit bitter and difficult to understand for ordinary people, but for these officials, many of its intricacies were immediately apparent, and they couldn't help but follow the situation in the drama to guess what would happen next.

Many of the problems currently plaguing the Great Yan Dynasty are things that rarely occur in the Great Yan today, but rare doesn't mean nonexistent. All officials hope that they can learn more from this TV series, because perhaps in the future, this experience can save their lives when faced with unexpected situations!

For example, in the drama, Hu Zongxian faces a choice between the interests of the Yan Faction and the survival of the people. How can he balance both?

"--Gentlemen, do you know why I made you watch this drama?"

At this moment, the Emperor of Great Yan finally spoke. Facing the puzzled officials, he slowly stood up and said, "I am not only trying to show you all the possible decline of Great Yan in the future, nor am I just trying to make you reflect on yourselves by seeing the treacherous and corrupt officials involved."

"I believe you are all loyal and virtuous ministers. However, we are all meant to serve the people of Great Yan. I hope you can consider this question: if Great Yan were currently in the era depicted in the drama, how would we clean up this mess?"

"For example, in the drama, how should we proceed with the disaster victims and the conversion of rice paddies to mulberry fields that Hu Zongxian encountered? I hope that all officials can take this as a topic and come up with more solutions."

"And a month from now, I presume the two new episodes will be filmed by Marquis Liewen. At that time, we will know the answers given by the people in the drama. I hope that the choices we make can be better than those of the officials in the drama!"

"Your Majesty is wise!"

"... Why does it feel like these officials aren't much better than we were back in the Great Yan era, when we were Feranmut?" At this moment, Nian, who had been somewhat silent because of Ling's lesson, couldn't help but ask Chen Qi as he watched this scene:

"So, what should we do next? Should we continue negotiating with the farmers to borrow their land for filming?"

"No, we can't film the next scene with real footage." Chen Qi shook his head, then turned his gaze to Xi not far away and said:

"Xi, could you please draw a picture in your painting?"

"Of course." Xi agreed without hesitation, her quick decision seemingly disregarding her previous principle of "never accepting commissions." But she still asked curiously, "But what do you want me to draw?"

"For the dikes, just draw them based on the dikes in Zhe City. We need these dikes for our upcoming scenes."

As soon as Chen Qi finished speaking, Liang Xun, Ning Ciqiu, Zuo Xuanliao, and other generals and officials of the Great Yan all stopped and turned their puzzled but serious gazes toward Chen Qi.

They all sensed that Chen Qi's sudden mention of the dam was definitely not a good thing, and considering Yan Shifan's determination in the drama, they vaguely guessed a possibility...

"Hey, you're not asking me to do something so heinous, are you?!" Lin Yuxia immediately realized what Chen Qi meant by the sudden suggestion of using the dam and was unusually startled. She quickly said to Chen Qi:

"If I destroy the dikes and flood the fields, I'll be condemned to death! People will talk behind my back in the Great Yan!"

"Then strive to become a good official, climb the ranks step by step from the sixth rank, and let everyone know you're a good official." Chen Qi had already prepared an excuse for this. While Chen Qi was calming the furious Lin Yuxia, Liang Xun couldn't help but swallow hard, saying with lingering fear:

"May everything we do truly be of use... May our Great Yan never again have such a heartless and treacherous minister as Yan Shifan..."

Chapter 282: The Clash Between Pragmatism and Imagination: Chen Huijie's First Encounter with Darkness

"Director Chen Qi... you really dare to think and act. Do you know what the officials in the palace would say if this scene were filmed? What would the common people think?"

In Gouwu, Chen Qi and his team were ready to film the third installment of "The Great Yan Dynasty." Now that everyone had received the script, the lead actors felt immense pressure regarding the plot of the third episode.

The most upset of them all was undoubtedly the prefect of Zhe City, Ma Ningyuan, whose name and position were the same as those of the characters in the Great Yan Dynasty. He already felt a lot of pressure playing a scoundrel official, and thought that his role was over. But Chen Qi gave him a much bigger opportunity.

Destroying dikes and flooding fields! Is this something a human being would do? Let alone an official like him. Ma Ningyuan could completely guess that after he finished acting out this scene, not only in Zhe City, but also in his hometown, his fellow villagers would be cursing him!

In contrast, the Rat King and Lin Yuxia felt immense pressure because they played the two biggest villains in the series! And the flooding of the fields and the destruction of the dikes were directly related to them.

After filming this scene, the gossip and criticism from the people of Great Yan are a minor matter. For the Rat King, the most important thing is that after this film, his entire family can be completely exonerated. As for playing a corrupt official... can a corrupt official be more infamous than the reputation of a gangster?

But what the Rat King and Wei Yenwu were worried about was how the people would view the Great Yan after this segment was filmed.

"Wei Yenwu, it's true that the Great Yan is currently in a golden age, but does that mean no one starves to death? Does it mean there are no beggars, no oppression, and no rebellions forced by officials?"

Chen Qi had already offered his explanation before filming. Faced with Chen Qi's explanation, Wei Yenwu and the others remained silent. Even these high-ranking officials, after so many years, couldn't claim to have acted with a clear conscience in every single thing they did; how much less could others?

"Oppression has always existed. It won't stop just because I didn't film it. On the contrary, because I filmed it, more people know about it, and more people dare to expose those things that the court doesn't know about and that have been suppressed, and to give the people of Great Yan justice."