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

As Chen Yu started his live stream and entered the editing interface, the long-waiting viewers instantly erupted in excitement. "He's here!"

"Chen Yu is here!"

"Waaaaah, I've been waiting so long! I can't see the next scene of 'Ming Dynasty,' I feel like ants are crawling all over my body!" "Yesterday I got to watch it all in one go, I hope Chen Yu will give me the same enjoyment today!" "I've been arguing with those idiots who were saying 'Ming Dynasty' was going to fall apart for ages, I hope Chen Yu will slap them in the face!" But at this point, many viewers couldn't help but feel a little worried for Chen Yu.

The reason is simple: those who tout the plot of "Da Ming Dynasty" as collapsing seem to make very reasonable and professional claims. Ordinary viewers like them find it difficult to find any evidence to refute them. What if they're right? What if "Da Ming Dynasty" really does collapse today?

The judges on stage were now focusing their discussion on "Ming Dynasty," and the host even asked Professor Shuping and others about the widely discussed issue of whether the plot of "Ming Dynasty" would collapse.

Teacher Shuping's expression was quite solemn. After pondering for a long time, he carefully considered his words before speaking.

"It can only be said that although such a statement is a bit exaggerated, the basis mentioned is still somewhat reasonable." "How the story of the Ming Dynasty will develop is indeed still a bit unpredictable." However, Teacher Shuping added a sentence immediately afterward.

"But I have faith in Chen Yu. He has already brought me many surprises so far. I think there might be some unexpected plot developments. Let's wait and see."

Although Professor Shuping's words were tactful, it was clear that he felt the upcoming plot of "The Ming Dynasty" was a bit unpredictable and needed Chen Yu to bring about some unexpected developments.

This has made the audience and fans who support "Ming Dynasty" even more nervous, fearing that they will witness the collapse of "Ming Dynasty" and that the god-like impression left in their minds by the first seventeen acts will vanish.

At that moment, under the watchful eyes of everyone, Chen Yu typed a line of text: 【The Nineteenth Act of the Ming Dynasty, Begin!】 Immediately, a drama of intrigue and treacherous intrigue focusing on the local officialdom of Zhejiang slowly unfolded before the audience.

The story begins in the Zhejiang Provincial Governor's Office.

The newly appointed Hangzhou Prefect Gao Hanwen, Chun'an Magistrate Hai Rui, and Jiande Magistrate Wang Yongji met in the gatehouse. On his way here, Gao Hanwen had encountered Hu Zongxian at the post station, where Hu Zongxian enlightened him, revealing the shady dealings behind the so-called "reform and disaster relief" scheme and the self-reconciliation of a dilemma.

Although he was promoted by Yan Shifan, he wasn't considered a member of Yan's faction, nor had he lost his conscience. He wanted to implement the conversion of rice paddies to mulberry fields, but not in the way that allowed powerful families to acquire land at low prices. At this time, he deliberately concealed his identity, hoping to learn from Hai Rui and Wang Yongji their views on land conversion and disaster relief.

Unexpectedly, Hai Rui's opening remarks were almost identical to Hu Zongxian's. Moreover, judging from Hai Rui's demeanor, it was clear that he already knew Gao Hanwen's identity.

Immediately afterwards, the gatekeeper, who had been extremely cold to Hai Rui and Wang Yongji, finally came to change their tea and water because Gao Hanwen had given them a jade pendant.

But Hai Rui coldly remarked, "This tea is unclean." The gatekeeper's eyes widened as he spoke. "This is the governor's office!" Hai Rui replied coldly.

"Even having a cup of tea in the governor's office requires bribery?" This dialogue immediately caught the audience's attention. "Wow, Hai Rui is so upright!"

"As expected of Hao Gangfeng's men, he still doesn't show the slightest fear even in the governor's office." "He directly confronted the gatekeeper about the bribery, saying it was bribery and accepting bribes, without even giving face to his superior, the Hangzhou prefect."

"That was awesome, so awesome!" But just then, someone in the live chat said.

"The officialdom is no ordinary place; how can you act like this?"

"Anything that is too rigid will break easily; with his temperament, he'll probably suffer a great loss sooner or later."

"With this kind of hotheadedness, how can he possibly compete with those cunning old foxes in officialdom? I'm starting to worry more and more about him."

In the comments section, the discussion about whether the plot of "Ming Dynasty" would collapse gradually became heated again.

Chen Yu paid no attention to the heated debate in the comments section.

Whether the plot has fallen apart or not, the subsequent content will naturally provide the answer!

Before long, Gao Hanwen, Hai Rui, and Wang Yongji walked toward the main hall of the governor's office, preparing to attend an important decision-making meeting urgently convened by Zheng Bichang, He Maocai, and others regarding the national policy of converting rice paddies to mulberry fields.

In the brief moment as they walked toward the lobby, the camera subtly shifted, revealing the true scene inside the lobby to the audience and exposing just the tip of the iceberg of the corrupt practices within Zhejiang's officialdom.

In the main hall of the governor's office, the high-ranking officials of Zhejiang were all bored. Some were yawning and drowsy, while others were huddled together with their colleagues, carefully admiring a valuable official kiln chicken cup.

Some were even more absurd, actually humming newly copied Kunqu opera scores to their colleagues in the main hall.

The people of Chun'an and Jiande counties are suffering a devastating disaster, with displaced people everywhere, while these high-ranking officials in Zhejiang are living such extravagant and leisurely lives.

Chen Yu didn't need to type another word to explain; the audience immediately saw the shocking contrast, gasped in shock, and felt an uncontrollable fire of anger ignite in their chests.

However, what followed was an even more astonishing conversation that had only just begun.

He Maocai casually asked a question from the seat in the main hall.

I've heard that some troublemakers in Chun'an and Jiande are inciting the people to refuse to sell their land, and that each household is pooling together silk and other fabrics to buy grain. Have you dealt with these matters?

Upon hearing this, all the audience members were instantly stunned, their minds went blank, their ears rang, and they could hardly believe their eyes.

The next second, the chat room exploded with comments.

"So, refusing to be forced to sell your land at a low price makes you a troublemaker inciting the people?"

"What the hell? You were the ones who orchestrated the breaching of the dikes and flooding of the fields, causing countless families to be torn apart and people to be displaced. And now you don't feel the slightest bit of remorse? How dare you utter the words 'troublemakers'?"

"Furthermore, what's wrong with ordinary people pooling their money to buy food to survive? They've suffered such a terrible disaster, and there's a food shortage everywhere in Zhejiang. If they don't find a way to buy food themselves, are they just going to sit here and wait to die?"

"You even want to control this? What gives you the right?!"

Then, lines that further enraged the audience came out of the mouths of those officials.

The official who was just playing with the chicken cup, who was indifferent to the lives of ordinary people, was unusually enthusiastic about suppressing the so-called "troublemakers" and immediately responded.

[We've already assigned people to keep an eye on it.]

I heard there are over a dozen grain ships waiting to trade on the canal, and they're currently negotiating prices.

Tomorrow, when they load the grain onto the boats and are ready to transport it away, have the river management office seize all the grain boats.

Zheng Bichang, who had been resting with his eyes closed, slowly opened them and said something in a low voice.

Food supplies must be strictly controlled.

All grain must be prioritized for the national policy of converting rice paddies to mulberry fields. Anyone who dares to privately buy or sell grain will be arrested for disrupting national policy.

The officials below immediately responded in unison.

He Maocai, who was in charge of criminal justice in Zhejiang Province, nodded repeatedly and said approvingly.

This is the correct approach.

This exchange sent a chill down the spines of all the viewers.

Previously, watching the court discussions in the Golden Palace, the dialogues between the emperor and his ministers, including Lü Fang's line "The emperor's heart is filled with the whole country," and the words of the upright officials "Just consider Zhejiang as a piece of rotten flesh," viewers felt a chill in their hearts after watching.

But that coldness is abstract; it's a distant chill felt towards the ruthlessness of those powerful figures standing at the pinnacle of power.

Now, witnessing these ugly scenes in Zhejiang's officialdom firsthand, the chill in the hearts of the audience has become incredibly real, as if it can penetrate the screen and pierce to the bone.

Because all of this, all of this happening to the people of Chun'an and Jiande, is real and tangible.

The people had suffered a great disaster and were displaced, and their lives were already unbearably miserable. However, as long as they refused to sell their land at a low price according to the officials' wishes, they would be regarded as wicked and unruly people.

Not only that, even when villagers pooled their money to buy grain in order to survive, these officials would arrest them and accuse them of disrupting national policy.

"Hahaha, what kind of shitty world is this?"

"Wanting to survive, not wanting to starve to death, and scraping together money to buy food, is actually considered disrupting the national policy of converting rice paddies to mulberry fields?"

"This isn't disrupting national policy at all; it's clearly blocking the path for local tyrants to buy land at rock-bottom prices and profit from the national crisis!"

Some astute viewers even discerned a deeper, more sinister intent in the words of Zheng Bichang and others.

They won't arrest them now.

Instead, we'll wait until tomorrow, until the disaster victims have paid all their money, before we take action!

"Those are more than a dozen grain ships! They're life-saving grain for countless disaster victims. They've probably sold everything they own just to raise enough money to buy this grain."

"But by tomorrow, the disaster victims will have paid off all the money they had saved by selling their entire fortunes, only to have their grain confiscated by the government. These people, who have tried so hard to save themselves, will end up with nothing but their money gone and nothing to show for it. They will truly be left with no way out."

"At that time, the only way out for these disaster victims who still want to survive is to sell their land to the powerful and wealthy in exchange for a bite of food to live on."

"That's incredibly vicious!"

"He Maocai, who was in charge of criminal justice in Zhejiang province, actually nodded in approval, saying that this was the right thing to do?"

"They're so corrupt! These people are a den of snakes and rats, completely in cahoots, rotten to the core!"

The audience's pent-up anger was completely ignited at the very beginning of this nineteenth act by this explosive dialogue between officials in Zhejiang.

In Chen Yu's live broadcast room, the already astonishing popularity soared again, surpassing the peak set last night in the blink of an eye, breaking the popularity record of all variety shows in the past five years!

The staff of the "Creator Competition" program couldn't stop smiling when they saw this scene. All their previous worries about the plot of "Ming Dynasty" vanished instantly.

The director couldn't help but mutter a curse under his breath.

"Damn it, who are these idiots spouting nonsense, saying the plot of 'Ming Dynasty' is going to fall apart?"

"It kept me up all night, I was afraid that yesterday's peak popularity was just a flash in the pan."

"And the result? How badly did it collapse? It broke the trending record again!"

"Some people actually call this a plot collapse?"

"I'll blow your head off, you big dummy!"

At this moment, watching the popularity of "The Ming Dynasty" easily rise further in Chen Yu's live stream, the contestants who had been expecting the show's popularity to plummet were now wide-eyed. The scene before them seemed strangely familiar. From the very beginning yesterday, they had felt that the plot of "The Ming Dynasty" was going to fall apart.

What happened next was a tragedy. "Da Ming Dynasty" soared to the top and became something they could never reach.

Is this happening again today?

They now have a top-tier team of screenwriters guiding them!

The members of the screenwriting team who made pronouncements about "Ming Dynasty" had mixed expressions at that moment, but they quickly regained their composure.

"It's just the afterglow of the setting sun." "Though vibrant red, it will soon fade and disappear."

"The more light and heat are released at this time, the colder the coming night will be." The more detailed Chen Yu's description of the darkness of Zhejiang's officialdom, the more explosive the dialogue, and the more indignant the audience, the more difficult it will be for Hai Rui to break through such darkness, and the more extraordinary methods he will need to use to allow the audience to vent their emotions.

"The higher you're lifted, the harder you fall!" On Chen Yu's screen, the plot continued to unfold like a surging river. After the high-ranking officials in Zhejiang revealed their true colors, Gao Hanwen, Hai Rui, and Wang Yongji then took the stage. Hai Rui and the others immediately gave the Zhejiang officialdom a small shock.

First, when faced with the seating arrangement made by Zheng Bichang, Gao Hanwen did not show any humility and accepted it readily, without even glancing at those below He Maocai.

In Chen Yu's previous life, many people explained this by saying that Gao Hanwen was ignorant of officialdom and was a hothead. But Gao Hanwen was, after all, from a scholarly family and had spent a considerable amount of time in the Hanlin Academy.

The possibility that he was unaware of these official rules is extremely low. The only explanation is that Gao Hanwen exuded a sense of ill intent. He wasn't there to be polite and courteous with these people! This can also be confirmed by He Maocai's inner thoughts later on.

He Maocai originally wanted to send Hai Rui and Wang Yongji, the two county magistrates, away, as county magistrates had no right to attend meetings according to custom. In addition to this reason, Hai Rui and Wang Yongji were people sent by the Qingliu faction, while the topic of converting rice paddies to mulberry fields that they were discussing was a task assigned by the Yan faction, so he did not want Hai Rui and the others to get involved.

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