The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 8: Porridge Pot Raising Dust

As soon as Longkodo left, Li Wei flashed in. After greeting him, he said, "Master Ten, I have found the person you asked me to find. He is in the prison of Yangzhou Prefecture. I have brought him out as you ordered. Now Yangzhou Prefecture is ruled by Lord Tian Wenjing. When he heard that this person was the one you wanted, he handed him over to me. Now he is arranged in a small courtyard not far from the headquarters. Do you want to go over and meet him?"

"found it!"

Li Yan clapped his hands excitedly. This is a top strategist!
With him, it was much easier to complete the task. He suppressed his excitement and ordered: "No need, you will set off tomorrow, take a few guards, and send this person safely to the Tenth Master's Mansion in the capital. Ask the housekeeper to arrange for him to be the young master's teacher. I will talk about the rest after I return to the capital!"

"You don't have to come back. Just stay in Beijing and get familiar with the place. You will be indispensable in running around in the future. If you don't even know which direction the gate of a mansion opens, how can you survive?"

"嗻"

"I will follow your instructions and learn all the places in the capital."

When Li Wei heard that the Tenth Master wanted to take him back to the capital for resettlement, he was overjoyed and happily accepted the order and left!
On the second day, Li Yan led people to inspect the disaster relief work outside the city. Porridge stalls were set up outside the four city gates to ensure that the victims could at least fill their stomachs. There were also soldiers to maintain order and ensure safety.

When he arrived at the north gate, he saw a long queue of people in front of him and asked, "Wen Jing, are you having any difficulties now?"

"Tenth Master, I require all porridge stalls to provide porridge that will not fall over even if chopsticks are inserted into it, and will not leak out even if wrapped in a towel, to ensure that the hungry people can fill their stomachs. But there are still too many refugees. Although a lot of food and silver have been raised, there are more than 100,000 victims in Yangzhou alone. The news of Yangzhou's relief has spread in the past few days, and victims from all directions are slowly gathering here. By then, I'm afraid there will be too many people and too little porridge. No matter how much supplies there are, it will not be enough." Tian Wenjing said worriedly.

Li Yan looked at the people queuing for porridge in front of the porridge stall for a while. Most of them were in ragged clothes, carrying the elderly and children, and were skinny and pale from hunger. However, there were also many people who were obviously dressed cleanly and had rosy faces. He asked thoughtfully, "Wen Jing, are all these people disaster victims?"

"Most of them are starving people without clothes or food. There are indeed some people from well-off families who still have some financial resources despite the disaster. There are even some idle people from Yangzhou mixed in with them."

"I also discovered this situation and sent people to drive a group of them away. But these people changed their clothes and came back, or went to another place. It was really hard to tell. And after all, this is just a free meal, and it can't be considered a big evil, enough to harm the world. I have no choice. All the people in the yamen have been sent out. If I really want to use force, I am afraid of hurting the real victims and causing trouble." Tian Wenjing said helplessly when he saw many people in the crowd avoiding his gaze.

"Wen Jing, this is no small matter! It concerns the survival of countless disaster victims!"

Li Yan frowned and thought for a while, then an idea flashed in his mind, and he remembered an interesting story he saw on the Internet about Heshen's disaster relief. Because it was rather strange, it left a particularly deep impression on him.

So he waved his hand and Longkodo walked to the side: "Master Shi, what do you want?"

Li Yan whispered to Longkodo for a while. Longkodo listened with his eyes flashing. He nodded, left the few people and walked to the porridge pot. The officers around him all knew the favorite of the imperial envoy, so they were also careful to please him.

Longkodo squatted down, grabbed two handfuls of dust and sand from the ground and sprinkled them into the porridge pot. The fragrant white rice porridge suddenly turned white and gray.

Not only were the officers stunned, but even the refugees queuing in front of them started to clamor in dissatisfaction and looked at Longkodo angrily.

"You are such a bad person. You just wasted such good porridge."

“They really don’t treat us disaster victims as human beings”

"Dog officer."

Everyone was talking at once, criticizing him. If they hadn't been looking at the soldiers around them, they would have wanted to eat Longkodo.
Xiao Duozi ignored everyone and picked up a long spoon to stir the pot. After a while, the porridge and sand were mixed together. Then he handed the spoon to the officer and asked him to continue serving the porridge.

Tian Wenjing on the side was immediately furious. He turned to Li Yan and asked, "Master Shi, what are you doing? Refugees are also human beings. What you did is too immoral. I, Tian Wenjing, thought you were wholeheartedly serving the people. I..."

"Why are you in such a hurry? Just keep reading," Li Yan said calmly without changing his expression.

"The court doesn't treat us as human beings, so we leave."

"Damn these officials, they are so wicked!"

'.' I saw a small number of people in the team cursing and complaining and left the team.

After a while, half of the people were gone. Although the others were dissatisfied, it was not a big deal that there was sand in the rice porridge. The rice at home was also mixed with stones and sand, and it was difficult to clean it out. In this day and age, it was good to have something to eat. It was much better than grass roots, tree bark, and Guanyin soil. Therefore, although most people looked unhappy, they still lined up to get porridge honestly.

Tian Wenjing looked at the team that was missing half of its members, and seemed to have thought of something. He was no longer angry and asked, "Master Shi, what is this?"

Li Yan looked at the departing crowd and said with a smile: "Real disaster victims would even eat tree bark and soil to survive, not to mention rice porridge mixed with sand. Even such porridge is a life-saving medicine for them. But for those who have food at home and the people nearby, asking them to drink these things that are hard to swallow is unbearable pain for them. They come here to eat and drink for free just to take advantage, not to suffer."

"They drank all the life-saving porridge, and the real disaster victims would starve to death. So, mixing sand into the porridge may seem to hurt them on the surface, but in fact, this is the real way to save them. Wen Jing! If you continue to distribute porridge in the old way, even if the court gives you one million dan of grain, it will not be enough."

Tian Wenjing had completely understood what Li Yan meant by this point, and bowed sincerely: "Master Shi, this is great, Wenjing understands! From now on, Wenjing will follow this method to distribute porridge."

"Well, not only the porridge, but also other materials to help the victims should be replaced with the worst ones. The more broken the better, and the lowest standard should be used. Only in this way can these materials really reach the hands of the victims. The better the things you use, the more people will want to ask for them, and the harder it will be for the victims to get them."

"Wen Jing! I know you hate evil and cannot tolerate any injustice. You hate corruption in the officialdom. You have been an official for more than ten years, working diligently and conscientiously, and serving the people wholeheartedly. Just like the pot of porridge just now, the white wall is flawless."

"But the higher you go, the more serious the influence of the officialdom becomes, and in the end you can't move forward. When you are suspended from office and sent back to your hometown, you become a powerless commoner. What can you do for the people and the country? Are you going to leave all these people to corrupt officials like Ren Bo'an and Che Ming? At that time, these people will only suffer more, and there won't even be an adult willing to speak for them."

"Only by blending in with the dust and sand appropriately, making some sacrifices and compromises, and blending in with the dust, can you gain a better foothold in the officialdom. Once you have a position and power, you can display what you have learned in your life and live up to the hard work of more than ten years. This is not only for you personally, but more for the ordinary people living at the lowest level. They are the cornerstone of the court and the guarantee of national stability. We cannot allow people like Ren Boan and Che Ming to harm the people!"

Tian Wenjing had a complicated look on his face and sighed. He felt that he had been an official for more than ten years, but there were some things he didn't understand as well as Shi Ye. He asked, "Shi Ye, you also think Ren Bo'an and Che Ming are troubles, then why do you..."

Li Yan had a faint smile on his face: "Why should I mix with them, even become one with them, and accept their bribes?"

Although Tian Wenjing was busy with disaster relief during this period, he still knew a lot as he was the prefect of Yangzhou.

Li Yan hung out with Ren Boan and his people all day long, and Che Ming also spread the word that the Tenth Master was one of their own and had received many benefits from them, so he would not touch the officials in Yangzhou. Tian Wenjing was just a temporary worker and could be fired at any time.

Hearing these rumors, Tian Wenjing felt a little uncomfortable. He thought that the Tenth Master was a good man who was dedicated to serving the people, but he didn't expect that he was the same as those people.

Li Yan looked at Tian Wenjing seriously: "The affairs of the court are very complicated. Behind Che Ming is the Eighth Master, and behind Ren Boan is the Ninth Master. The roots are all above. Even if Ren Boan and Che Ming are replaced, the new people will still be their people. What difference does it make!"

"What is the most important thing now? Is it to investigate and punish a few corrupt officials?"

"no."

"It's to provide relief to the victims, so that these hundreds of thousands of refugees can get through the current difficulties and survive this disaster. Compared with them, one or two corrupt officials are nothing."

Li Yan said earnestly, "Whether it's you or me, our real goal is to serve the people, not to focus on Che Ming and his people. As long as they don't get in the way of helping the victims, we should ignore them for now. On the surface, I was the only one who came to Jiangnan during the flood, but in fact, whether it was the emperor, the prince, or the ministers, their eyes were all on Jiangnan, so when I pushed you out, I was actually putting you under the emperor's nose."

"I dare say that your current actions and performance will be placed on the emperor's desk every day. It can be said that you have entered the court's field of vision, and Ren Boan and Che Ming's performance is also in the emperor's eyes."

Tian Wenjing suddenly felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, as if there were many invisible eyes around him, and he felt uncomfortable all over: "Master Shi, I really didn't expect this."

"Haha, don't worry, you've done very well. The emperor knows that I, a prince, have never done anything practical. Going to the south of the Yangtze River is just a way to keep the pressure on. You are the ones who really do things. More than one million disaster victims are no joke. If things go wrong, it will be a civil uprising, which will cause chaos in several provinces. The court will not let it go. Since the emperor has not issued an order yet, it means that you have done a good job and have been recognized by the emperor. This is a good thing!"

"Go ahead and do it. The Emperor and I are here to support you. Don't pay attention to Ren Bo'an and Che Ming. They have also received letters from their masters and dare not hinder you. I will hand over the more than 1.2 million taels of silver and 200,000 dan of grain and grass that we raised a few days ago to you. You can arrange them. To be honest, I can't do these things. I still have to rely on you."

Li Yan became a hands-off boss. Others worked for him and he only needed to eat and drink and give strong support to people like Tian Wenjing and Longkodo. He didn't want to care about anything else.

(End of this chapter)