I am a director in Ark. If I am not banned, I will be considered successful.

He also planned to take this opportunity to take a good look at the huge impact that the faction of officials who were united in solidarity and protected each other had on Dayan.

Chapter 288: The Yan Party is not a monolithic group, and Lin Yuxia is the same as at home

As Ma Ningyuan retreated to the back, Zheng Michang and He Maocai, played by Liang Xun and Ning Ci Qiu, also entered one after another. The following scene undoubtedly verified what Hu Zongxian had just said. These people never really thought about Hu Zongxian at all.

At the beginning, Ma Ningyuan was willing to agree to this matter because he heard from several people that his mentor, Hu Zongxian, was now being squeezed between the interests of the court and the people. The court wanted to change from rice to mulberry, and the Yan Party had been urging Hu Zongxian, but Hu Zongxian couldn't bear to forcibly confiscate the people's land. Ma Ningyuan didn't want to make things difficult for his mentor, so he agreed to do it with them.

However, as soon as the two entered the room, they found that Ma Ningyuan was not there either. They immediately knew what to do - that was to put all the responsibilities of themselves and others on Ma Ningyuan.

As for why they did this to avoid making things difficult for Hu Zongxian... that was just an excuse to trick Ma Ningyuan into taking the blame for them. Now that Ma Ningyuan was not here, he had already prepared to die. Since Ma Ningyuan was so aware, then he could clear their crimes and suspicions before dying, which would be a good use of his remaining energy.

Hu Zongxian, played by Zuo Xuanliao, saw through the two's scheme at once. In order to find out who was behind this, he said:

"I just want to remind you. The same river, the same Dragon Boat Festival flood, the neighboring Suzhou City and we both built dikes last year, but we spent the money to build dikes for one river as they did for two rivers. Their dikes are strong and the people are safe, but we have such a big flood here."

"You guys need to make up for this lie."

After Zuo Xuanliao said this, it was obvious that he did not believe that the dam collapsed by itself, but was destroyed by them. As expected, Ning Ciqiu, who played He Maocai, had to bring up Yan Shifan - before that, Yan Shifan had someone write a letter to them, asking them not to pay attention to Hu Zongxian and to destroy the dam and flood the fields without hesitation.

If this matter is thoroughly investigated, it is certain that Hu Zongxian is implicated in some way by Yan Shifan. He Maocai thought that if he brought up Yan Shifan, Hu Zongxian, a member of Yan's party who was promoted by Yan Song, would definitely compromise. However, he never thought that this would expose him. It was actually Yan Shifan's order to destroy the dike and flood the fields.

This also fell into Hu Zongxian's trap. Because Hu Zongxian only said that he did not believe that the dam burst on its own, but never said that the dam was destroyed, let alone guessing that the dam was destroyed by Yan Shifan.

He Maocai's words directly confirmed the fact that the dam was damaged. It also confirmed that this matter was related to the Yan Party and that no one could escape the blame. In this way, no one present could attribute the fault to Ma Ningyuan alone.

In order to cover up this, Yan Shifan would inevitably make a compromise. In this way, Hu Zongxian's plan to temporarily suspend the replacement of rice with mulberry would be considered a success!

"Hu Zongxian is so shrewd and calculating. He actually fooled everyone all at once, just to temporarily postpone the national policy of changing rice to mulberry and to protect the people of Zhejiang City as much as possible."

At this moment, the young people could not understand Hu Zongxian's operation, but Wei Yanwu, Wen Yue and others could fully understand this situation. Hu Zongxian had basically achieved his goal. Through this incident, he forced the iron-clad Yan Party to ask Jiajing to postpone the replacement of rice with mulberry in order to protect themselves.

In this way, the people of Zhejiang City had enough time to slowly change, and Hu Zongxian himself could spread the mulberry fields to be changed to several other cities in Gou Wu. This way the burden was reduced, the people had food to eat, and the court's targets could be met, killing two birds with one stone.

"The national policy of replacing rice with mulberry trees has nothing to do with this flood." Liang Xun, who plays Zheng Michang, also understands that their tricks have been caught, so he has to compromise and say:

"But it's a bit unreasonable to say that this flood was caused by the Dragon Boat Festival flood."

"I think the dike must have been not repaired properly last year, and the people from the river department embezzled the public funds for river repair when they were repairing the dike."

"As for whether Ma Ningyuan embezzled public funds for river repair, we can investigate it slowly later - now, just the fact that the dam broke is a serious crime."

"With the 'Royal Order Banner', the Ministry can enforce the law on the spot for the relevant personnel, and this way we can also give an explanation to the court."

Liang Xun and Ning Ci Qiu spoke to each other one by one, and everyone saw on the screen that after a moment's silence, Ma Ningyuan suddenly smiled with tears in his eyes and a self-deprecating and relieved smile.

At that moment, everyone understood that Ma Ningyuan finally saw clearly that he had been just a pawn from the beginning, a pawn used to take the blame for other vested interests. They had wanted him to commit this capital crime from the very beginning, not to exonerate Hu Zongxian, but to do it for them.

In the end, he was unable to help his mentor at all... He was just a rag, used and thrown away, and what could he say? What could he say after things came to this?

"...He must be extremely disappointed right now, right?" At this moment, Chen Huijie looked at the screen and saw Ma Ningyuan's self-deprecating expression as if he had suddenly realized his mistake. She couldn't help but say:

"Originally, he only had one 'righteousness' left, which was to help his mentor bear the blame, to convince himself to harm so many people. But now, he has even lost this last 'righteousness'. He has become just an executioner who harms the people and died with countless insults on his back."

How can this not make people feel discouraged? This kind of Da Yan forces people to become bad people, forces officials to become evil people... Who can really have "righteousness" in their hearts?

Now, Ma Ningyuan can't escape the blame anyway, and he deserves it the most. But at this moment, Hu Zongxian, played by Zuo Xuanliao, intends to hold Li Xuan, Yang Jinshui's godson, who is in charge of the river, accountable as well.

However, when it comes to people with real backgrounds and those who rely on the palace, Zheng Michang and He Maocai, who had originally judged Ma Ningyuan very tough and easily, began to look embarrassed.

"If we want to punish him, we need the advice of Lord Yang." Zheng Michang, played by Liang Xun, began to practice Tai Chi, and said with embarrassment: "We have to report to Lord Lu of the Imperial Household Department."

"——That means that this flood still cannot be reported to the court."

When Zuo Xuanliao said this, his eyes were filled with contempt and sadness. This is the officialdom. People without background are just rags, and can be thrown away at will. But those who really have someone behind them, even if they are involved, can still fight for a glimmer of hope for themselves. Even if they encounter someone who is not firm in his position, they may just muddle through.

Then the so-called "royal command" given to him by the imperial court, wouldn't it mean that he could only kill people without background? And the officials in Da Yan protected each other, so how many people didn't have background? In the end, the only people he could kill were some grassroots.

Fortunately, in the end, Zuo Xuanliao called out Ma Ningyuan who was waiting in the backyard, and Liang Xun and Ning Ci Qiu knew that something bad was going to happen the moment they saw Ma Ningyuan.

They just put all the blame on Ma Ningyuan, and everyone was listening. If they gave everything away before they died, they would all be implicated.

Therefore, in order to prevent Ma Ningyuan from speaking, Liang Xun and Ning Ci Qiu immediately changed their expressions and said:

"We will both go to see Lord Yang together."

"If we file a petition for the crime of river disrepair and only punish our people, but Li Xuan is spared, that is totally unacceptable."

"——Then go ahead and tell them." Zuo Xuanliao no longer wanted to pay attention to these two people whose expressions changed several times in just a few minutes, and then slowly said:

"The relief grain in the charity granary must be transported to the two counties as soon as possible."

"Also, with such a severe disaster, it will be difficult to implement the rice-to-mulberry policy this year. This must be clearly stated in the memorial, asking the court to delay it, and Lord Yang must also sign it. Once you have signed, I will take the lead in submitting the memorial."

"If there is not enough relief grain, the government will ask the court to transfer grain and borrow it, so that the people can hurry up to plant rice seedlings, and there will be some harvest in the fall. The borrowed grain cannot be repaid this year, and it must be repaid in three years. Therefore, you cannot change rice to mulberry in the next three years - write it down like this."

In summary, all of Hu Zongxian's goals have been basically achieved. He delayed the rice-to-mulberry policy and solved the problem of land annexation by grain and silk majors. In just three years, he could take care of everything and distribute the rice-to-mulberry policy to all regions of Gouwu, instead of concentrating the pressure of the policy on the people of one city.

It would be fine if a city became a model and succeeded, but this kind of policy would inevitably cause huge turmoil, and the people would become victims. The policy must be responded to, so Hu Zongxian could only minimize the impact as much as possible.

"If all the local government officials were Hu Zongxian, Da Yan wouldn't have to worry about the local government..."

When the Great Yan Emperor saw this scene, he couldn't help but sigh. However, he knew that this was impossible, because although Hu Zongxian was a good pillar of society, he was also caused by a different environment.

If it were in today's prosperous Yan Dynasty, and if the government of the imperial court was delayed every time by officials like Hu Zongxian using various excuses, then Hu Zongxian would go from being a virtuous minister to a tough nut to crack for the imperial court, and would become the "incompetent local government" in "Yes, Prime Minister".

The Great Yan Emperor sighed with emotion. In his ears he heard Chen Qi arranging the next scene after this scene ended. It was not until Chen Qi's order came down and the filming began again that he cast his gaze on the screen again.

The camera then turns and we see Yan Song, played by the Rat King, returning to the Yan Mansion. After reading Hu Zongxian's memorial, Yan Song, who was completely unaware of the destruction of the dikes and the flooding of the fields, immediately realizes that someone had done this behind his back and feels dizzy.

Yan Song knew very well that if this matter were to be exposed, the Yan Party would probably be overthrown, and even Jiajing would not be able to save them by then. This would be a heinous crime that would be condemned by both humans and gods!

However, Yan Shifan, played by Lin Yuxia, did not care at all about the exposure of this matter. What made her even more angry was Hu Zongxian's memorial, which almost made her certain that Hu Zongxian wanted to side with Prince Yu.

"We can lift him up, but now we can also stomp him to death!"

"Instigate the Imperial Censor to impeach him immediately!"

Lin Yuxia immediately gave orders to the staff around her, and accidentally revealed another message to everyone. The power of the Yan Party is now so great that it can mobilize all the censors.

What does a censor do? In Dayan, censors are a general term for the supervisory department. These censors have the power to make death-defying remonstrations. Any king, facing a group of censors who make death-defying remonstrations, no matter how powerful he is, will have to hesitate and think about whether his actions are really correct.

It is conceivable that if the imperial censors can be mobilized, many decisions of the Great Yan court can be affected. The power of the Yan Party is so great that even the Great Yan Emperor is dumbfounded.

"Shut up!"

However, at this moment, Yan Song, played by the Rat King, was more concerned about the fact that someone in the Yan Party was doing something behind his back. He vaguely guessed that it was his daughter who did it, but he still held on to a glimmer of hope and asked:

"I want to ask you... I want to ask you all. What happened to the dikes being destroyed and the fields being flooded?"

"——Just say it!"

However, Lin Yuxia was silent for a moment, and then she had no worries and immediately said to her father: "The national policy of changing rice to mulberry trees cannot be implemented, and Hu Zongxian is indecisive. He will not change unless the fields are flooded, but he will change if the fields are flooded. That's it."

Lin Yuxia's performance was natural. She completely followed Chen Qi's advice, which was to "talk to your dad the same way you talk to him at home when acting."

But what's interesting is that Lin Yuxia's behavior, at home, is just a stubborn daughter who doesn't listen to her father. But in the court and within the faction, Lin Yuxia's behavior has a different meaning.

"Interesting... The Yan Party is not a monolithic group." The Great Yan Emperor also saw the clues and couldn't help but chuckle and mutter to himself:

"The Yan Party protects each other, but the relationship between Yan Song and Yan Shifan, the father and daughter, is tense. Now, Yan Song doesn't even know about the damage to the dikes and flooding of the fields. That means Yan Shifan has basically taken over all affairs of the Yan Party and sidelined his father."

"But Yan Shifan... Humph, his emotions, words and expressions, if he doesn't have deep scheming, he will surely destroy himself."

From this small matter, Emperor Yan and others immediately saw the final outcome of the Yan Party. Yan Shifan was too young, and was nowhere near as cunning as his father Yan Song. If this continued, he would surely be abandoned by Jiajing when he could not get rid of the blame he had taken!

Chapter 289: The endless nonsense and the fury of Emperor Da Yan!

"It seems that Yan Shifan feels that her father is old and she should take over all of his connections and power. Her father's age can no longer keep up with her ambitions."

Wei Yanwu also saw through the reason for the discord between Yan Shifan and Yan Song in the play. However, what is interesting is that before Lin Yuxia was whitewashed, the biggest reason for her discord with the Rat King was because the Rat King did not allow Lin Yuxia to interfere in the family business. Lin Yuxia was very dissatisfied with the Rat King for letting her whitewash and for this reason she was always under the command of Chen Huijie.

If it weren't for the relationship between the Rat King and Wei Yanwu, and if Chen Qi had helped Lin Yuxia to successfully clear her name, the relationship between this father and daughter might not have been much better than that between Yan Song and Yan Shifan in the drama.

However, almost everyone believes that no matter whether it is Lin Yuxia or Yan Shifan in the play, at least now they are still a long way from being their fathers. Although the Rat King and Yan Song seem to be dying, when they really need to show their strength and ability, they are definitely not comparable to young people.

"Yan Song was greedy, but he knew the bottom line of Emperor Jiajing very well and knew what to do and what not to do."

"And Yan Shifan... he is even more greedy than his father, but his ambition is totally inconsistent with his ability. If he had practiced for 20 to 30 years, he might have become a more terrifying Yan Song. But now..."

Wei Yanwu also squinted his eyes, watching the confrontation between Lin Yuxia and the Rat King on the screen, and revealed a hint of cold smile - in this smile, there was a sense of pleasure in the future of the Yan Party's doomed demise. The Yan Party's previous decision to destroy dikes and flood fields, if Wei Yanwu became emperor, he would definitely execute all members of the Yan Party from top to bottom at all costs.

However, this is just Wei Yanwu's wishful thinking. After all, in the prosperous era of the Great Yan Dynasty, as long as the crime is convicted, his brother will definitely have the determination and ability to execute the entire Yan Party. However, in the play, it is definitely not that easy for Emperor Jiajing to bring down the Yan Party. After all, the Yan Party can mobilize so many censors to die, which is troublesome enough.

Therefore, Wei Yanwu and Emperor Da Yan were very curious. Obviously, Yan Song was no longer the only one who had the final say in the Yan Party. Therefore, the Yan Party was bound to fall. But how would Emperor Jiajing finally overthrow Yan? What methods would he use to make the Yan Party fall without any injustice? And make all officials convinced?

They couldn't think of the answer for now. In the play, facing the rat king who was obviously a little anxious and angry after being scolded by his daughter, Luo Wenlong, the staff member beside him, also spoke up in time to smooth things over:

"It's our fault for not asking the Lord for instructions on this matter. We originally wanted to report to the Lord in detail after we finished the work because we didn't want to worry about him."

Obviously, Luo Wenlong is now speaking for Yan Shifan, which also shows that his current position is on Yan Shifan's side, which invisibly confirms the situation that the aging Yan Song is gradually losing his previous voice.

"For the fields in the nine counties of Zhejiang, the young seedlings will eventually be replaced with mulberry seedlings this year. Whether they are flooded or not, they will be replaced. The people can be made to follow it, but they cannot be made to know it."

Yan Song, played by the Rat King, waved his hand speechlessly, motioning Luo Longwen to sit down and continue talking. At this moment, after receiving Yan Song's affirmation, Luo Longwen's words became more confident and more rude.

"Originally, Hu Zongxian, Zheng Michang, He Maocai, and Lord Yang all had the same story and could have just called it a natural disaster. Who would have thought that he would be so unreasonable this time?"

"Fortunately, he finally had some scruples and only reported that the riverbank was in disrepair. It was nothing more than a difficult problem."

"As for why we did this, Lord, we have no choice."

"Who made the people not understand the court's difficulties?"

As soon as Luo Longwen said this, the entire studio fell silent for a long time. However, even though most of the people present were officials of the Great Yan court, when Luo Longwen said this, many people still took a deep breath and suppressed their anger for a long time.

The reason is simple: this sentence... is a bit too assholeish.

"Don't get angry and get yourself sick." Wen Yue also noticed that Wei Yanwu was smoking beside her, and the strength of his fingers holding the pipe increased a little. She just held down Chen Huijie, who was almost unable to control his emotions, and immediately held down Wei Yanwu.

Looking at this uncle and nephew, Wen Yue certainly knew why they were angry. In fact, Chen Huijie's personality was very similar to Wei Yanwu when he was young, and he was even more upright than Wei Yanwu. It was understandable that he found it difficult to accept such nonsense.

This set of shots has ended, and Gou Wu's filming has also come to a temporary end. The next few scenes were all completed in the palace.

Chen Qi arranged for Wei Yanwu to play the role of Emperor Jiajing, while on the other hand, he planned to finish Wu You's role as Yang Jinshui as soon as possible.

"My master kept urging me to do my job, saying that I was not doing my job properly. I said I would practice boxing and fan, but I ended up acting. I spent a lot of effort to convince her. I praised your play, Director Chen Qi, as 'Da Yan's No. 1 play'."

"My master also highly respects you, Director Chen Qi. She said that your movies have improved the situation of Dayanwuxing, so she agreed to let me act. I also promised my master to perform well. You should strike while the iron is hot. I will definitely act well."

Wu You assured Chen Qi in this way, and looked so confident, obviously thinking that the role he took was not difficult. However, Chen Qi did not tell him that the test of his acting skills was still to come, and it was normal for him to think so since he did not have the full script.

"Then let's shoot your scenes first. It just so happens that the rest of our scenes will basically be shot at night, so go and get ready."

"It's your order~"

While Chen Qi was arranging Wu You's part, on the other side, the rest of the people except for this rival scene were also seated in the lounge in a row, waiting for their parts to come.

Soon, the screen lit up again, and Yang Jinshui, played by Wu You, reappeared in front of everyone. This time he returned to the imperial city with Hu Zongxian, Tan Lun and others.

The news of the dike destruction and flooding of fields had already reached Jiajing. If Jiajing wanted to know the specific situation, he needed to have a thorough understanding of the three parties: the Yan Party, the Qingliu Party and the Silijian. Yang Jinshui, as a member of the Silijian, was a loyal figure to the emperor, so he would naturally be the first person to be interrogated by Jiajing.

Wu You, who played Yang Jinshui, seemed a little flustered, so he found his godfather, Lu Fang. As soon as he returned to the Silijian, Wu You saw Lao Li, who played Lu Fang, sitting there.

"Godfather."

Seeing Lao Li, Wu You knelt down without hesitation and bowed. After that, he picked up the tea beside him and handed it to Lao Li in the manner of a disciple.

"You drink it." Facing the tea handed to him by Wu You, Lao Li answered casually, but Wu You smiled happily when he heard it and drank the tea in one breath.

Just like toasting wine, offering tea also has its own rules. If you don't drink the tea offered, it's basically a death sentence; if you drink the tea offered, it means you are teachable; if you are offered tea, it means you are close to him.

As a martial artist, Wu You certainly understood this principle, and therefore he also realized that the matter of destroying the dike and flooding the fields did not seem to be as serious as he had imagined, so he was naturally happy.

And things turned out just as Wu had expected. He only heard Lao Li slowly say, "You haven't hidden anything from me, so I naturally won't hide anything from the emperor."

"The Emperor already knows about the destruction of the dikes and the flooding of the fields. You just need to tell him the details in detail."

"Then my son's sin this time--" Wu You was a little worried when he heard this, but he was inexplicably unwilling in his heart... Maybe it was because apart from the role, Wu You himself was just an ordinary citizen. After witnessing the entire process of filming the destruction of the dikes and the flooding of the fields, Wu You was deeply touched.

In Gouwu City, the government didn't care much about the martial arts. Therefore, in Wuyou's eyes, the authority of the government and officials was a little weak. Now, after joining the filming of "Dayan Dynasty", Wuyou saw many corrupt officials who had lost their conscience.

However, he was still struggling in his heart - could the imperial court just ignore such a serious matter as the destruction of dikes and flooding of fields? Wu You didn't show it on the surface, but in his heart he really wanted to know the answer.

However, Lao Li just didn't take it seriously after hearing this. He put down the things in his hands, turned around slowly and said:

"You are also doing this for the good of the palace. The difficult part is that you don't hide anything. This is the greatest loyalty."

"It's just one or two counties. The emperor has the whole country in mind."

"boom!"

However, just as Lao Li finished speaking, everyone in the lounge of the palace only felt a flash of red light, and the next second, they saw that the big screen was suddenly split in half! All the images in it were lost at once, causing many people who had not reacted to tremble in their hearts.

However, some people did not see it clearly. The only one who saw the action clearly was Wei Yanwu. When everyone's eyes unconsciously turned to Chen Huijie, only Wei Yanwu turned his eyes to his brother who remained calm.