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

"Yuan Jie also borrowed grain from local powerful families. As an imperial envoy representing the face of the emperor, he was only worth a mere two thousand shi of grain."

"Do you, scions of noble families, truly believe that my reputation is worth only this much?"

Li Longji said coldly.

The entire court was silent; everyone lowered their heads, not daring to look Li Longji in the eye.

"snort!"

"Yuan Jie was forced to resort to this desperate measure because he could not borrow grain and the local grain reserves were insufficient, in order to prevent the people from starving to death."

"Replacing some of the grain with coarse grains, bran, and rice was unpalatable, truly unpalatable, but at least people wouldn't starve!"

"There are also some powerful families who clearly have stored grain, but they refuse to donate it for free, which I can understand. However, they actually send their servants out to snatch food from the starving people!"

"They really have no shame whatsoever!"

"Yuan Jie's actions also eliminated these shameless people, allowing the truly hungry disaster victims to have something to eat."

"Yuan Jie is a genius!"

"He knew perfectly well that this move would inevitably plunge him into a vortex and ruin his reputation, but he still did it resolutely."

"A loyal subject indeed!"

Li Longji sighed.

If only this Yuanjie had nothing to do with Li Bai, he could have used it without worry. What a pity.

Li Longji felt very regretful because the relationship between Yuan Jie and Li Bai made him unable to trust Yuan Jie to give him important responsibilities.

……

After the court session, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, ordered Gao Lishi to summon Yang Guifei.

Not long after, a graceful, alluring, and charming noblewoman walked in. She came to Li Longji's side, placed her hands on his shoulders, and gently massaged them.

Yang Guifei's massage skills were excellent; the pressure was just right, neither too light nor too heavy.

Li Longji comfortably squinted his eyes, put aside the official business in his hands, leaned back, and rested his head on a soft spot.

After kneading for a while, Li Longji asked, "My beloved consort, I remember you seem to have a cousin named Yang Zhao (Yang Guozhong). How is he now?"

Consort Yang was delighted upon hearing this, and squeezed even harder, replying in a sweet voice, "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty."

"My elder brother has now been granted an official position by His Majesty and is serving as the Director of the Ministry of Revenue."

Li Longji nodded slightly upon hearing this. The position of Director of the Ministry of Revenue was only a fifth-rank official position, which was neither high nor low.

For Li Longji, this was just right.

He's only a fifth-rank official, with no power, easy to manipulate and control.

Moreover, a fifth-rank official can be promoted to the fourth rank with a little favor, and is only a hair's breadth away from the third-rank position of Minister of the Six Ministries.

Even though this line is an insurmountable barrier for many people from aristocratic families, for Li Longji, as long as he has his favor, this line can be easily broken.

Once you reach the third rank, you're not far from becoming a prime minister.

"I remember now. Your elder brother made a significant contribution to the construction of my palace."

"He's good at managing money and handles things in an orderly manner; he's a talented person."

"Gao Lishi conveys my decree: Of all the nation's most important affairs, none is more crucial than finance; those responsible for specific tasks must be chosen for their competence. Yang Zhao, the Director of the Revenue Department, is insightful and astute, deeply knowledgeable about finances, and has served in the Accounting Department with impeccable management, ensuring the smooth operation of military and national supplies. The Ministry of Revenue, which oversees the nation's registers and granaries, needs a second-ranked official; therefore, he should be promoted. He is hereby specially appointed as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, continuing to oversee the Revenue Department. The relevant authorities shall implement this decree."

"promise."

Gao Lishi accepted the order and went out.

"Your Majesty, I thank you on behalf of my brother. However, Your Majesty, my brother is, after all, a relative of the Empress Dowager. Will such a sudden promotion draw criticism from the court officials?"

Consort Yang asked worriedly.

Li Longji snorted coldly, "Who dares to object?"

"My dear consort, rest assured, I know what I'm doing. Please don't worry."

Consort Yang's face lit up with joy. "Thank you, Your Majesty. Your Majesty is wise."

"In the future, my elder brother will certainly devote himself to the affairs of state, do his utmost, and live up to His Majesty's trust. He will follow the imperial edict closely, be loyal and devoted, and share His Majesty's burdens."

"If he is even slightly negligent in his duties and fails to live up to the Emperor's grace, then it is because I have failed in my duty of teaching him, and I will certainly teach him a lesson."

"Yes, as long as he is loyal, he will surely enjoy wealth and honor in the future."

Li Longji spoke as if casually, yet also as if intentionally.

As Li Longji's bedmate for many years, Yang Guifei knew him very well and could naturally tell that Li Longji was deliberately targeting her.

"Your Majesty, I understand. From now on, I will do exactly what Your Majesty says without any deviation or error. I will obey Your Majesty's orders without question."

……

Meanwhile, in the disaster-stricken area of ​​Yangzhou.

After receiving Yuan Jie's letter, Li Bai immediately went to report to Li Longji and urged the already packed provisions to set off first.

Therefore, the supplies arrived earlier than expected.

Once the supplies arrived, Yuan Jie immediately turned his back on them.

In the past few days, he has already traveled to all the disaster areas in the three states and arranged manpower in each disaster area.

As soon as the new grain arrived, arrangements were immediately made to cook it into porridge and distribute it to the disaster victims so that they could eat their fill of real rice porridge.

After they had eaten, they were instructed to begin rebuilding their homes.

Cui Huan's face turned cold. He had originally planned to use Yuan Jie as a scapegoat, but he never expected to be outmaneuvered by Yuan Jie.

Although he couldn't guess Yuan Jie's plan, he could tell from Yuan Jie's actions that Yuan Jie wasn't truly loyal.

Although he earned real money, being calculated by Yuan still made him very unhappy.

He began to secretly contact these powerful families to obstruct Yuan Jie's disaster relief efforts. At the same time, he had these families unite their servants and some uninformed people to write a petition to impeach Yuan Jie.

At the same time, he made public the fact that rice porridge made with bran was used instead of disaster relief grain, intending to tarnish Yuan Jie's reputation.

In this era, reputation represents everything.

With his reputation tarnished, Yuan Jie never had another chance to rise to power.

This is more painful than killing a person with ideals and ambitions.

Driven by his deep hatred for Yuan Jie, Cui Huan used all his connections to write letters to his friends and associates across the country, asking them to do everything in their power to ruin Yuan Jie's reputation.

Two days passed after all the letters were sent out before the events in the imperial court took place.

News of the Cui family's actions reached the court immediately. When Cui Huan learned of Yuan Jie's purpose, he immediately realized that he had done something incredibly foolish.

This isn't ruining Yuan Jie's reputation; it's actually making him famous.

The worse Yuan Jie's reputation is now, the higher his reputation will be when the truth of the matter is revealed in the future!

But his letter had already been sent several days ago, and it was too late to retrieve it now.

It's estimated that various places have already started to do as he said!