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

Chapter 21 How can I, Grand Secretary Yan, be compared to Xu Jie?

[It wasn't just Yan Shifan who was anxious about the three million taels of silver; a closer look would reveal that Lü Fang, who usually appeared calm and composed, was genuinely panicked at this moment.]

Before this incident, Lü Fang always spoke slowly and deliberately, but after it happened, he not only breathed a heavy sigh of relief, but his attitude towards Gao Gong and the others also became extremely cold and hard, not giving them a chance to speak at all.

Could it be that Lü Fang was also involved in this three million tael deficit? Did he embezzle some of it, which is why he acted so distraught?

Logically, Chen Hong, who was determined to bring down Lü Fang, should have been overjoyed. However, in reality, after making eye contact with Lü Fang, Chen Hong immediately smoothed things over, echoing Yan Shifan's words.

[From Chen Hong's actions alone, it can be concluded that the true destination of the three million taels of silver was in the hands of the Jiajing Emperor. This is why Yan Shifan, Lü Fang, and Chen Hong tacitly cooperated to cover it up.]

But then again, did Yan Shifan actually profit from this list of "thirty warships"?

[One detail reveals just how Yan Shifan was in these kinds of matters.]

Later, he seized upon this opportunity to make a big fuss, using Jiajing's name to lament how much he had toiled, specifically mentioning that several large ships had sunk in the effort to seize timber for the palace repairs. No sooner had he finished speaking than Jiajing struck the gong, and the sunken ships were thus tacitly acknowledged.

Could these sunken large ships be the ten that the Ministry of Works "borrowed" but was supposed to return in full?

[With just a few words, he could use this as an excuse to cover up the losses on several large ships, demonstrating Yan Shifan's greedy and stingy nature.]

[From his constant references to the Emperor, it's clear that Yan Shifan has long been adept at using the Emperor's name for his own selfish gain.]

[Yan Shifan, outwardly loyal to the emperor and protectors, secretly uses his position to line his own pockets!]

As soon as this analysis came out, the audience who had been clamoring to defend the incorruptible young Grand Secretary immediately fell silent.

Their eyes were filled with undisguised shock and astonishment.

They never expected the truth to be like this.

Yan Shifan, to put it bluntly, was Jiajing's henchman.

At the same time, he also secretly used Jiajing's name to gain benefits for himself.

This is a corrupt official, a thoroughly corrupt official, and even a greedy and insatiable one!

Even whether he was truly loyal to the emperor remains a big question mark!

What kind of incorruptible young Grand Secretary is he? They used to insist that Yan Shifan was a loyal minister, a pillar of the Ming Dynasty, and capable of supporting half of the Ming Dynasty. Now, looking back, it's just a huge joke!

"That was damn well hidden!"

"If Chen Yu hadn't exposed him, who the hell would have known Yan Shifan was this kind of person?"

"Damn, I've figured it out now. You can't believe a single word the characters in this script say. You can't just look at the surface meaning of anything."

"All those high-sounding words are empty rhetoric; beneath the surface, there are all sorts of shady undercurrents."

"This is mind-bending, absolutely mind-bending. I don't trust a single person in this group anymore."

In the Xiaoge Lao forum, countless users immediately wailed upon seeing this analysis.

Those who had previously transferred from the Jiajing Bar were so frustrated they were almost ready to vomit blood on the spot.

"No way, we just moved here, how come even the young master's house has collapsed?"

"Where can we go now?"

"I told you long ago that this young Grand Secretary is unreliable, just a spoiled brat who only got his position because of Grand Secretary Yan's protection."

"How about we go back to Elder Yan's side?"

"Even if you can't trust anyone else in the world, you should be able to trust Grand Secretary Yan."

"At the advanced age of eighty, he still works so hard and is so fair and prudent. He is so tolerant and supportive of the younger generation. He must have devoted all his energy to national affairs, which is why he neglected to discipline Yan Shifan and allowed Yan Shifan to become such a corrupt official."

"But I still firmly believe that if there is even one good person in this drama, it must be my patriotic and compassionate Grand Secretary Yan!"

"Putting everything else aside, would Grand Secretary Yan have proposed such a national policy—converting rice paddies into mulberry fields—if he had even the slightest selfish motive?"

"That's right, any persona can crumble, but Elder Yan's unyielding integrity will never crumble!"

"Otherwise, what good people are left in this Ming Dynasty? Are Xu Jie and his gang good people? Damn it, I don't believe it. If someone as cunning as Xu Jie can be considered a good person, the Ming Dynasty might as well just perish!"

Just then, Chen Yu typed out the name Yan Song.

The hearts of all the viewers instantly tightened.

If even Grand Secretary Yan Song has problems, then their values ​​must be completely shattered.

If even Grand Secretary Yan isn't a good person, how can there be any good people in this damned "Ming Dynasty"?

Just as everyone held their breath, staring intently at the words on Chen Yu's screen, Chen Yu paused for a moment, then typed a line after Yan Song's name.

-

[We'll discuss Yan Song later.]

Let's start by talking about Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng.

Chen Yu made this arrangement because he felt that Yan Song, and the idea of ​​converting rice paddies to mulberry fields in the script, were inextricably linked to the overall political situation of the Ming Dynasty at that time.

If we were to analyze it thoroughly, we would have to explain the conversion of rice paddies to mulberry fields in detail, which is why I plan to write about it later.

But what does this mean in the eyes of the audience?

This clearly shows that Yan Song was completely innocent!

How many sentences did Grand Secretary Yan actually speak in the third act of the script? Every sentence he uttered was either to resolve disputes in the court or to propose economic reform strategies that would benefit the country and its people.

What could be wrong with that?

Steady!

Grand Secretary Yan's image as someone who holds up half the sky of the Ming Dynasty is completely secure; his reputation hasn't collapsed at all!

At this point, the audience finally breathed a sigh of relief, watching with delight as Chen Yu continued writing his analysis of Xu Jie and the other two.

At that moment, a complex expression flashed across Chen Yu's face.

When he first watched "Ming Dynasty", he thought the same as the audience today: Yan Song and Yan Shifan were not good people, and the upright officials who opposed them must be good people.

But later he realized, bah, they're all cut from the same cloth!

Yan's faction is no good, and neither are the Qingliu faction!

To put it bluntly, they're all the same kind of people, just wearing different official robes and standing in different interest camps.

Take the matter of destroying dikes and flooding fields, for example. Because the policy of converting rice paddies to mulberry fields encountered great resistance, Yan Shifan dared to order the destruction of dikes and flooding of fields in Zhejiang, forcing the people to convert rice paddies to mulberry fields and accelerating the implementation of the national policy.

This is an utterly heinous and beastly act.

But at this very moment, Zhejiang was hit by a disaster and needed to borrow grain from the imperial court. What was the solution that the upright officials came up with?

No, that's right, we absolutely refuse to lend grain.

They didn't care how many disaster victims would starve to death; it didn't matter if they did. Some even made a grand statement.

We need to start a fire in Zhejiang, a raging inferno, to completely overthrow Yan's faction.

They want Zhejiang to be thrown into complete chaos; the more chaotic, the better.

Under the guise of justice to overthrow the Yen Party, what are the differences between what they are doing and what the Yen Party is doing?

Later, the Yan faction fell from power, and the Qingliu faction took over. Everyone thought they would carry out sweeping reforms of the Ming Dynasty.

And what was the result? Didn't they still write Qingci (a type of Buddhist prayer) and send congratulatory memorials, trying every possible way to sing praises to Jiajing? Didn't they still rack their brains to make money for Jiajing and try every means to please him?

Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng—putting aside their abilities, which one of them was truly incorruptible?

A clean stream? Bah! They're just Yan's faction members who haven't even come to power yet!

This is also the fundamental reason why Chen Yu always felt that "Da Ming Dynasty" deserved the title of the number one divine drama in his previous life.

It is precisely because it completely breaks the established pattern of black and white, good and bad in film and television dramas.

Everyone in the drama is a pawn trapped in a power game, wearing a cloak of noble justice while engaging in despicable and shameful acts.

Wearing this official robe, aren't we all hypocrites, sanctimonious beasts in human clothing?!

It's really not good for audiences to still hold onto this old-fashioned black-and-white view.

If they're not intellectually stimulating or brain-teasing enough, then let "The Ming Dynasty" teach them a lesson!

At this point, Chen Yu also officially began his analysis of Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng.

[Firstly, in this imperial court debate at the Golden Palace, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs was ostensibly neutral. The real opposing forces were the Yan faction and the Qingliu faction, represented by Xu Jie and two others.]

[Here's an interesting detail: in this scene of the script, Yan Song's opponent is Xu Jie, while Gao Gong's main opponent is Yan Shifan.]

As the old saying goes, the person you hate the most often reflects a part of yourself.

Let's start with Gao Gong and Yan Shifan, who have the most screen time in this scene. The two are at loggerheads in this court debate in the Golden Palace, with completely opposing positions. However, upon closer inspection, you can find that they use almost identical speaking patterns.

[Yan Shifan kept blaming Zhou Yunyi's case and the crime of slandering the court, and Gao Gong was doing the same, making every word a move towards escalating the situation.]

Not only do the two speak in exactly the same way, but they also share the same impatient and fiery tempers; they are practically mirror images of each other.

The only difference between the two is that the young Grand Secretary has already married his ninth concubine, while Gao Gong still only has his first wife by his side. In other words, their pursuits in women, money, and material enjoyment are different.

Is it possible that Gao Gong harbored a similar obsession and desire for material enjoyment as the young Grand Secretary?

This obsession is about power.

What did Gao Gong repeatedly say during this court debate in the Golden Palace? It was that he didn't want to continue his duties, that he wanted to resign and step down.

[It's the same principle we've discussed before: the more someone lacks something, the more they talk about it.]

[Emperor Jiajing himself could not practice benevolence and frugality, yet he insisted on hanging plaques in the palace that read "Benevolence and Frugality."]

[Gao Gong's constant pronouncements that he didn't want to continue his official duties and wanted to resign also demonstrate his extremely strong obsession and desire for power.]

[Judging from the character comparisons in the script, Gao Gong is essentially Yan Shifan who transferred all his material desires to power. Beneath his righteous and dignified exterior, he is not as clean and pure as he seems.]

When this analysis was released, all the viewers gasped in shock.

"Holy crap, you can interpret it like that?"

"Are the two characters in the script, who are at odds with each other, actually like the opposites of light and shadow?"

"That's amazing! That's absolutely a stroke of genius in the script."

"Gao Gong and Yan Shifan argued fiercely in court, but according to Chen Yu's analysis, they are essentially the same, only their positions and interests are different?"

"I don't understand all this jargon. All I know is that if the young Grand Secretary isn't a good person, then Gao Gong definitely isn't a good person either, right?"

"That settles it now. Gao Gong was always in cahoots with that old scoundrel Xu Jie; he's a complete traitor!"

But at that moment, after the initial shock, many viewers' eyes were drawn to the particularly striking line, "Yan Song's opponent was Xu Jie."

In an instant, the audience was about to explode.

"What?"

"Grand Secretary Yan is actually paired with Xu Jie?"

"Chen Yu, don't you want to look at what you're saying?"

"That old scoundrel Xu Jie, what kind of wretch is he? I, Grand Secretary Yan, am a man of unyielding integrity, how could I possibly be compared to such a sinister creature?!"

"Chen Yu, don't talk nonsense and ruin my reputation, Grand Secretary Yan!"

At this moment, Chen Yu's analysis shifted to Zhang Juzheng.

Following the logic of character comparison in the script we discussed earlier, we can see that Yan Song corresponds to Xu Jie, and Gao Gong corresponds to Yan Shifan; they are essentially similar in essence.

[Zhang Juzheng was the most unique person in this court meeting in the Golden Palace. He was unique because he didn't correspond to any single character, yet he corresponded to almost everyone present.]

Moreover, he could not only explain the affairs of the Ministry of War clearly and logically, but also take into account the difficulties of the Ministry of Revenue, and thus propose practical and feasible fiscal reform plans.

In other words, Zhang Juzheng was not only the youngest official present, but it could also be said that he possessed the qualities of everyone present.

He was lustful, greedy, and power-hungry—he possessed none of these traits.

At the same time, he also possessed extraordinary talent that surpassed all others of his time.

Although Zhang Juzheng was still too young at the time, only just beginning to make his mark in the court, and not yet at the point where he could shoulder the main responsibility, in this era of widespread disillusionment, Zhang Juzheng would later become the unparalleled powerful minister who revitalized the Ming Dynasty.

[Even the kind where he could sleep in the same bed as the Empress Dowager, cough cough, but that's not part of our script, so I won't go into details.]

In short, the actor playing Zhang Juzheng should highlight one core quality: he must appear at first glance to be highly learned and capable of great things.

After Chen Yu typed out this content, the audience was also full of surprise.

Chen Yu actually gave Zhang Juzheng such a high evaluation?

But soon after, just like the previous reaction to Gao Gong, the audience scoffed at them.

"They can even sleep in the same bed as the Empress Dowager?"

"Even what happened later is enough to show that Zhang Juzheng was a treacherous minister with talent but no virtue."

"This is definitely confirmed!"

As for Xu Jie, Chen Yu didn't have much to say.

This cunning old man barely uttered a word in the third act, and anyone could tell that he was a deeply scheming and sinister person.