You were asked to write a political intrigue drama, but you wrote "Da Ming 1566".

Chapter 114

At this moment, in the bright and clean yet tense conference room on the top floor of the Screenwriters Association, everyone's eyes were fixed on the huge projection screen in the center, watching the textbook-level masterpiece scenes of the twenty-sixth act of "The Ming Dynasty" written by Chen Yu appear word by word. Guo Gang's expression, which was originally holding a purple clay teacup and pretending to be calm, suddenly changed drastically.

He was once a recognized master in the screenwriting world of China. Twenty years ago, he burst onto the scene with a magnificent historical drama that swept all the TV drama awards that year. He also fought his way into the top ten of the most prestigious drama list and finally secured the fifth place, setting a record for the highest ranking of a historical drama at that time.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been chosen as the president of the Screenwriters Association, a position that holds industry power and determines the life and death of countless screenwriters. He also wouldn't have been able to join forces with a group of confidants three years ago and use all sorts of means to forcefully oust the highly respected and revered "Mount Tai and Bei Dou of the screenwriting world" teacher, Shu Ping, from the Screenwriters Association that he founded.

Although he hadn't written a complete script in eight years, spending his days embroiled in the association's power struggles and various social engagements, Guo Gang's decades of experience and insight into the industry hadn't completely faded. Chen Yu, at this moment, wrote with divine inspiration...

In his view, the state of resonating with the soul of the characters in the play was a typical example of "writing madness." If one did not enter this extreme state of forgetting oneself and being completely immersed in the world of the script, how could one achieve such a climax in every scene, such a powerful dialogue, and such a continuous stream of memorable scenes as if they were free? As soon as this thought arose, the sense of crisis that Guo Gang had been feeling was growing stronger like a tide. His fingers, which were gripping the teacup, tightened involuntarily until his knuckles turned pale.

However, as he subtly glanced at the real-time updated list of popular TV dramas on the projected screen, he saw "Da Ming Dynasty".

With his ranking firmly fixed at ninth place without any change, Guo Gang finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. He calmly put down his teacup, cleared his throat, and maintained his usual arrogance and composure, forcing out a stiff, disdainful smile.

"Having reached the top ten of the best drama list, how can you easily improve your ranking by relying on a few sensational scenes or a few pretentious lines?" "If you only know how to write so-called famous scenes and divine lines, and only pursue sensory stimulation, you will never get the true essence of scriptwriting. It is just a side path and cannot be regarded as high art!"

Just as Guo Gang finished speaking his disdainful words, which he deliberately raised his voice to show those around him, a series of even more rapid and intense keyboard clicks came from Chen Yu's men. The crisp sound was particularly clear in the quiet conference room, and the black text that slowly reappeared on the projected screen instantly attracted the attention of everyone present. Even the few confidants who had just been echoing Guo Gang couldn't help but turn their heads to look at the big screen.

In the script, after Yan Shifan's furious and resentful, almost treasonous, low roar echoed throughout the hall, Yan Song, who had been sitting upright in his armchair with his eyes closed, suddenly opened his cloudy yet still sharp eyes and let out a deep roar like that of an enraged old lion. 【Guards!】

【Bring me a knife and give it to Yan Shifan. Let him kill me!】 Seeing that the conflict between the father and son had escalated to an irreconcilable point, all the advisors and servants who were originally standing in the hall were terrified and knelt down on the ground with their heads bowed, not daring to even breathe.

Luo Longwen and Yan Maoqing crawled on their knees to Yan Song, their foreheads pressed tightly against the cold ground. Their voices trembled uncontrollably as they carefully tried to comfort the furious Yan Song, saying that it was pointless for father and son to be angry now. The most important thing was to find out who was so audacious as to use the name of the Textile Bureau to sell land in Zhejiang.

While stealing glances at Yan Song's expression, Yan Maoqing cautiously offered his guess: either Hu Zongxian, located in Zhejiang, was secretly plotting against Yan's faction, or it was someone within the Textile Bureau trying to shift the blame onto them. Upon hearing his guess, Yan Shifan, who had been stunned, erupted in another deafening roar of rage, pointing at Yan Maoqing's nose and hurling insults, demanding that his brain be completely saturated with the money he had amassed over the years.

Immediately, Yan Shifan suppressed his anger, paced back and forth in the hall, and his eyes suddenly became clear and sharp, revealing the amazing shrewdness that was usually hidden by his irritable temper. He succinctly revealed the core of the whole matter.

Hu Zongxian would never do such a thing, because in Yan Shifan's view, what Hu Zongxian valued most in his life was his reputation. The reason he obstructed the conversion of rice paddies to mulberry fields was ultimately to gain a reputation for caring for the people. Doing something like using the name of the Textile Bureau to harm the people would not benefit him at all, but would instead ruin his reputation for life.

The Imperial Textile Bureau was even less likely to be involved. It was the Emperor's private workshop, staffed by people more cunning than monkeys. They wouldn't dare throw dirty water in the Jiajing Emperor's face, not even if they had a hundred lives. This whole affair was orchestrated step by step by Prince Yu's men. At this point, Yan Shifan's rage gradually subsided, replaced by deep resentment. His eyes reddened as he looked at Yan Song, who sat in the grand chair.

[My father doesn't understand. He even went to talk to Xu Jie, still believed that Xu Jie would ask Zhao Zhenji to allocate grain to Zhejiang, and still hoped to pass the position of Grand Secretary to Xu Jie, hoping that Xu Jie would protect you from the wind and rain...]

These tearful words fully exposed Xu Jie's hypocrisy—his outward obedience masking his true intentions—and his failure to properly secure Zhao Zhenji's request for grain from Zhejiang. It must be said that Yan Shifan, though a notoriously impulsive and argumentative ruler who seemed utterly devoid of cunning, possessed a remarkably sharp and insightful understanding of the situation. Yan Song, slowly recovering from his extreme anger, looked at his aggrieved son and then at his kneeling, trembling subordinates. After a long, weary sigh, he waved his hand, instructing his servants to prepare hot water and dry clothes so he could change before sitting down to discuss the matter properly.

After changing out of their soaked court robes and taking a hot bath, Yan Song and Yan Shifan, who had been exuding anger and exhaustion, regained their former energy. The group sat around a round table in the inner room, discussing the matter of land purchases in Zhejiang under the guise of the Weaving Bureau. Zheng Bichang and He Maocai had already known about the Weaving Bureau lanterns on the grain ships when they submitted their memorials to the cabinet.

They weren't unaware of the seriousness of the matter; rather, they knew it but deliberately concealed it.

As for why they did this, the men quickly realized the reason: they wanted to use the prestigious reputation of the Textile Bureau to intimidate people. As long as they could force the people to sell their fields and complete the task of converting rice paddies to mulberry fields, they could cover up all their mistakes. Even if things really got out of hand, Shen Yishi, the richest man in Jiangnan, would take the blame, and the two local officials would have nothing to do with it.

As they meticulously analyzed the situation from the concise memorial, millions of viewers outside the script were truly stunned, speechless with awe. Was this the analytical ability of those at the very top of the power pyramid?

Viewers, with an omniscient perspective outside the script, know the motives of all the characters and the causes and consequences of all the events, finding the whole affair intricate, confusing, and tangled with various interests, making it impossible to make sense of it all. However, Yan Shifan and his team, relying solely on a few vague memorials, navigated the fog of mystery and accurately analyzed the entire situation. This demonstrates their exceptional ability to read the situation and understand people's hearts—a skill far beyond the reach of ordinary people! At this moment, Yan Song, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke, offering his carefully considered solution. He declared that Zheng Bichang and He Maocai were utterly unreliable and immediately sent a court edict in the name of the cabinet to Hu Zongxian, ordering him to thoroughly investigate the matter and first resolve the mess of buying land under the guise of the textile bureau.

As for the core issue of converting rice paddies to mulberry fields, Yan Song made an unusually large compromise, explicitly demanding that the silk merchants involved in buying the fields not drive the prices down too low, and that they must leave the people a way to survive, so as not to incite a popular uprising.

The Yan Party is now truly on the verge of collapse, facing relentless pressure from the Yuwang Party internally and a disastrous failure in its rice-to-mulberry conversion project externally. It simply cannot withstand the slightest disturbance. If a large-scale peasant uprising were to erupt in Zhejiang at this critical juncture, the entire Yan family would be better off dead. Yan Shifan, frowning, posed the biggest and most pressing problem facing this plan.

What if those wealthy silk merchants are unwilling to pay high prices for the land?

After all, people die for wealth, just as birds die for food. The wealthy silk merchants poured real money into buying land, aiming to maximize profits. Paying an extra bushel of grain per acre, even for hundreds of thousands or millions of acres, adds up to a considerable sum. If they could find ways to drive down prices, why would they willingly raise them? The fate of the Yan Party was their concern; those profit-driven silk merchants weren't their slaves.

At this moment, Yan Song, who had been overshadowed by Yan Shifan's eloquent speech, picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and with eyes as calm as an unfathomable ancient well, uttered a profound statement that no ordinary person could possibly say, a statement that revealed his profound understanding of human nature and history.

He completely disregarded Yan Shifan's concerns about the wealthy silk merchants' refusal to pay high prices for land, not taking it to heart at all. He casually remarked, "Then let the government intervene and pressure them to buy." Upon hearing this, outside the script, Chen Yu's livestream room, which had been flooded with comments, suddenly fell into an eerie silence for a few seconds. Immediately afterward, countless viewers exclaimed "Holy crap!" in unison, their faces filled with astonishment and uncertainty.

"Hiss, the meaning behind Yan Song's words is really too profound!" The business tycoons who were watching the live broadcast room at that moment broke out in a cold sweat the moment they saw this line. A chill ran from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads, and their whole bodies were uncontrollably cold.

This seemingly casual line truly exposed the true nature of these businessmen.

Don't be fooled by their glamorous lives, with luxury cars and entourages. The bigger their businesses become, the more constraints they face, and the more they understand what it's like to be forced to do things against their will.

Only a few newly rich businessmen who suddenly became wealthy by riding the wave of opportunity remained immersed in the halo of money, smug and arrogant. Yan Song's words, along with his accurate judgment of the nature of businessmen, truly struck these newly rich businessmen like a slap in the face, instantly waking them from their illusory halo.

"Keep a low profile, you really have to keep a low profile from now on."

"Don't be fooled by how successful we seem on the surface. If something really happens, we'll be the first ones to be put to the test. Better safe than sorry, as the old saying goes."

As they watched the script for "The Ming Dynasty" projected onto the screen, and the young figure diligently writing at the computer, their eyes grew increasingly filled with both horror and profound respect. This seemingly historical script held a profound and enlightening significance for those of them, adrift in the world of business!

It truly deserves the title of a masterpiece!

At that very moment, on the list of legendary dramas, the name of "Da Ming Dynasty," which had remained unchanged after several iconic scenes had bombarded viewers, slowly and steadily rose one place with the appearance of Yan Song's earth-shattering line.

Eighth on the list of best TV series!

At this moment, the Ming Dynasty has reached the eighth position on the list of divine dramas!