A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

Yuan Jie's face was cold. Cui Huan's arrival at such a convenient time meant that he must be colluding with the Yangzhou aristocratic families.

This was an attempt to force him to comply, or to directly expel him from Yangzhou, so that Cui Huan could smoothly take over the disaster relief work in Yangzhou.

Yuan Jie could almost imagine how many people would die in Yangzhou if Cui Huan were to take over the disaster relief efforts!

"Lord Cui, the Changping granary in Yangzhou has been burned down, and the grain supplies from the surrounding counties and the imperial court will not arrive in the short term."

"Does Lord Cui have any brilliant plan?"

Yuan Jie looked at Cui Huan and asked.

"What! The Changping granary has been burned down!"

Cui Huan was "greatly surprised"!

"What are we going to do? If there's no grain from the Ever-Normal Granaries, what will happen to the hundreds of thousands of people in Yangzhou?!"

"Oh dear, Lord Yuan, what are we to do?!"

"This, this..."

"Ugh!"

Cui Huan sighed deeply, "It seems that our official careers are coming to an end here."

"Our official careers aren't important; what's important are the people of Yangzhou. Tsk tsk tsk, how pitiful! How pitiful!"

"Lord Cui, please don't make sarcastic remarks here. You should use this time to think about how to raise grain."

Yuan Jie said coldly.

"Alas, even someone as capable as Lord Yuan can't raise enough grain. What can I do?"

Cui Huan said in a sarcastic tone.

"The imperial court sent us here to provide disaster relief. Does Lord Cui perhaps think that if things aren't handled well, we can just delay and avoid responsibility?"

Yuan Jie flicked his sleeves and turned to leave.

He must find a way to continue raising money as soon as possible, otherwise the people will really starve to death.

Should we bow down to Cui Huan?!

If he were to back down, Cui Huan would never allow too many civilians to die or be injured in the early stages, for the sake of his official position.

Yuan Jie made up his mind that if he could not raise enough food within two days, he would save the people, even if it meant being humiliated by Cui Huan.

His personal pride is nothing compared to the lives and deaths of countless people.

Yuan Jie walked alone on a country road in Yangzhou, looking at the countless refugees by the roadside, his heart filled with sorrow.

He was especially enraged when he saw a large number of servants emerging from the mansions of powerful families.

Because he saw that after the group of people came out of the mansion, they went directly to the soup kitchen. Taking advantage of their numbers, they pushed the disaster victims in line to the back, took large bowls, and began to have the government officials distribute soup.

This is Yangzhou Prefecture, and if the servants of these powerful families are this arrogant, one can only imagine how they are in other places.

"What are you doing?!"

Yuan Jie stormed over and shouted angrily.

"This soup kitchen is for disaster victims who can't survive. Look at you, all plump and healthy, you don't look like disaster victims who can't survive at all!"

"Look at these ragged people around you, look at these pale, emaciated children, look at these elderly people giving their last bite of food to their children and grandchildren—don't you feel any shame?"

Yuan Jie was so angry that his beard stood on end. There were so many disaster victims who needed relief, but these powerful families not only refused to share their grain, but they even sent their servants to snatch food from the disaster victims.

Do these powerful and influential families have not a shred of compassion?

At this moment, Yuan Jie had just come out of the government office, and he had not yet changed out of his official robes.

These servants from powerful clans, upon seeing Yuan Jie's official robes, knew, though they didn't know who Yuan Jie was, that he was not someone to be trifled with.

One clever servant sat down on the ground, clutched his stomach, and pretended to be starving, howling loudly.

Upon seeing this, the others followed suit and sat down, joining in the shouting.

"We're so hungry! We're starving!"

"Someone, please save us!!"

"My child, you must live on! Your father is going first."

"My eighty-year-old mother and my eight-year-old child are starving to death. What should I do?"

"Sir, please save us!"

Some even knelt before Yuan Jie, pleading desperately.

Yuan Jie pointed at the group of people, trembling with rage: "Shameless scoundrels! Shameless scoundrels!"

Turning back to the government office, Yuan Jie wrote a letter to Li Bai telling him everything he had seen and heard.

He also wrote down his own solutions in the letter, hoping that Li Bai could maneuver in the court and at least allow him to wait for the grain sent by the court.

"Someone, please bring Lord Cui here."

"No, I will visit him in person."

Yuan Jie gritted his teeth, ordered someone to send the letter to Li Bai, and then rushed to Cui Huan's residence.

"Lord Cui, Yuan Jie has come to visit. Please grant me an audience."

Yuan Jie arrived at Cui Huan's residence with a broad smile.

Cui Huan looked at Yuan Jie, who was all smiles, with some wariness.

What's Yuan Jie up to?!

"Lord Cui, what are you up to?"

Yuan Jie laughed heartily, "Of course it's a life-saving medicine."

"Lord Cui, please forgive my mistake and save Yuan Jie's life."

After speaking, Yuan Jie bowed to Cui Huan.

"Lord Yuan, what are you doing?"

Cui Huan seemed to be taken aback by Yuan Jie's actions and was unable to react for a moment, so he accepted Yuan Jie's bow.

Only after receiving the gift did he realize what had happened and quickly helped Yuan Jie up.

Yuan Jie gave a wry smile and slowly said, "Lord Cui, only now do I understand what it means to be a wise man who knows when to yield."

"I finally managed to curry favor with Li Bai and get the position of Vice Minister of Revenue. I thought that with Li Bai's help, I could smoothly become the Vice Minister of Revenue and even the Minister of Revenue."

"But I never expected that my first experience in officialdom would teach me a lesson."

"Climbing the ranks to become an official isn't that easy."

"If you don't have a strong background, why would anyone support you?"

"And then there's Li Bai. He's latched onto the Prince of Yan, but to be honest, we're just drinking buddies. Why would he open his heart to me?"

"I've seen through it all now, and I don't dare to have such big ambitions anymore."

"I just want to live, to live well."

"If Lord Cui can save me this time, I, Yuan, am willing to follow Lord Cui's lead from now on."

After speaking, Yuan Jie bowed deeply to Cui Huan, almost at a 180-degree angle, showing his utmost sincerity.

Cui Huan's eyes flickered as he pondered how much truth and how much falsehood Yuan Jie had in his words.

Cui Huan pondered for a moment, during which Yuan Jie remained in a bowing posture, motionless.

Cui Huan ultimately chose to believe Yuan Jie, because in his view, Yuan Jie was indeed on the verge of death.

If grain cannot be drawn from the government, and the imperial grain cannot arrive, Yuan Jie will either have to slap himself in the face by only giving the people a little grain to keep them afloat, risking the starvation of a large number of people, and he will definitely be held accountable and punished afterward.

Anyone who dares to give disaster victims only a little porridge, regardless of the reason, will be criticized.

With their rivals adding fuel to the fire, Yuan Jie will surely be utterly disgraced and ruined forever.

This doesn't even take into account their underhanded tactics during the disaster relief process. If they had, Yuan Jie would have been dead without a doubt.

The only option is to surrender to oneself and rely on the power of a powerful family to overcome the crisis.

Cui Huan prepared to test him again.