Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

Gu Yannian remained as gentle and refined as ever, and even sighed innocently.

"Chief Li, I have said before that the things in this pavilion should be handled with care. If you hurt yourself by using too much force, I really don't know how I will explain it to the Chief Supervisor."

At this moment, Li Jin had absolutely no intention of searching.

This place not only had an alarming number of rules, but it was also eerie; he felt a chill run down his spine.

"Fine! Fine, you Gu Yannian! You just wait!"

Li Jin angrily pushed away the servants who were helping him up, his harsh words barely audible, and stumbled downstairs to escape.

"Let's go! Let's search somewhere else!"

A group of agents from the Eastern Depot fled the library in a sorry state, like stray dogs.

Watching the door close again.

Gu Yannian slowly and methodically put the brass paperweight back in its original position.

Then the inventory list was rearranged and organized.

Without shedding a drop of blood or revealing even a trace of internal force, they wiped out the vicious guards and their henchmen.

This is the wonderful application of combining pure strength and wisdom.

One hour later.

Footsteps sounded again outside the library.

This time, the footsteps were heavy and carried a clear sense of fatigue and anxiety.

With the help of two personal eunuchs, Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi struggled to climb to the second floor.

The Crown Prince, who was acting as regent, looked even more grim than the dark clouds outside.

His chubby cheeks were covered with fine beads of sweat.

"Your Highness, this humble subject pays his respects."

Gu Yannian immediately put down his book and stepped forward to pay his respects.

"No need for that. Yan Nian, I heard from my subordinates that those bastards from the Eastern Depot have come to your Bureau of Justice to cause trouble. Have you been wronged?"

Zhu Gaochi sat down on the armchair beside him, waved his hand wearily, and asked breathlessly.

Gu Yannian got up and skillfully went to the side to make tea.

"Your Highness, the Imperial Guards were just following orders. I only explained the rules of the palace to them, and when they saw that there was nothing amiss, they left on their own and did not make things difficult for me."

Gu Yannian handed a cup of calming Longjing tea to Zhu Gaochi, speaking in a gentle tone.

He made no mention of how he had embarrassed the leader.

Zhu Gaochi took the teacup and angrily slammed his hand on the armrest.

"These spineless eunuchs! Relying on Father's favor, they're utterly lawless! They even dare to search my Eastern Palace! Do they even respect me as the Crown Prince?!"

Zhu Gaochi gritted his teeth, but his tone revealed a strong sense of powerlessness.

The Eastern Depot was established by Zhu Di.

As his son, all he could do was sulk and couldn't stop the expansion of the Eastern Depot.

Gu Yannian stood aside, his eyes downcast and his mind focused.

After venting his anger, Zhu Gaochi let out a long sigh.

He slumped in the chair like a deflated balloon.

"Yan Nian, I've come to see you today not only because of the Eastern Depot. The situation in Shandong is making me sick with worry."

Zhu Gaochi rubbed his throbbing temples, his voice heavy.

Tang Sai'er's White Lotus Rebellion dealt a heavy blow to the Ming Dynasty in the spring of the eighteenth year of the Yongle reign.

"Marquis Liu Sheng of Anyuan led the capital army south. Although he defeated the White Lotus Army in Yidu and killed the rebel leader Liu Xin, the witch Tang Sai'er mysteriously escaped and her whereabouts remain unknown to this day."

Zhu Gaochi closed his eyes in pain.

"The Emperor was furious and issued an edict to severely reprimand the local officials in Shandong. Now, not only are the generals leading the troops committing mass killings to claim credit, but the local officials are also frantically searching for so-called accomplices of Tang Sai'er in the countryside in order to complete their tasks."

"Better to kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free."

Zhu Gaochi suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes bloodshot with pity.

"The entire Shandong province is now awash in blood. Tens of thousands of innocent people have been implicated and driven to the brink of death and ruin."

"I am the Crown Prince, the future ruler of the world. To see my people suffer such slaughter is like a knife cutting into my heart!"

This is Emperor Renzong Zhu Gaochi in history.

He may not have been as ruthless as Zhu Di in military strategy.

However, he was deeply rooted in Confucian ideals of benevolent governance and cherished the lives of ordinary people.

But faced with Zhu Di's ruthless decree of suppression, he, as the Crown Prince regent, felt helpless.

Gu Yannian listened quietly, understanding in his heart.

The root cause of such a large-scale popular uprising in Shandong was not Tang Sai'er's illusory White Lotus Sect magic.

Rather, it lay in the heavy corvée labor and taxes.

In recent years, efforts have been made to build the Forbidden City, dredge the Grand Canal, and launch expeditions to the northern deserts.

Shandong, as the province closest to Beijing, suffered horrific exploitation.

The people were forced to sell their children and had nowhere else to turn, which is why they were easily incited by the White Lotus Sect.

"Your Highness's concern for the common people is a blessing to the world."

Gu Yannian spoke slowly.

Zhu Gaochi gave a bitter smile.

"What use is it to care about the common people? I can't even get a single memorial of advice to be submitted. My father is furious right now. If I were to plead for him now, he would think I was trying to win people's hearts and condoning rebellion."

Gu Yannian walked to the desk and naturally picked up the sandalwood abacus he often used when checking accounts.

He slowly moved the abacus beads a few times with his fingers.

"Crackling, crackling."

The crisp sound echoed in the quiet second floor.

"Your Highness, when I was in the countryside, I saw farmers working to control floods."

Gu Yannian did not directly discuss the military and political situation in Shandong.

Instead, he skillfully delivered his seemingly casual, yet subtly profound, rural stories.

Zhu Gaochi's spirits lifted slightly.

He was all too familiar with Gu Yannian's unique way of giving advice.

He immediately sat up straight and listened carefully.

That summer, the river next to the village swelled abnormally and flooded the farmland. The young men in the village were furious and desperately tried to fill the river with soil and stones to forcibly block the flood.

However, the higher the earth and rocks were piled up, the more turbulent the water flow became. Instead of decreasing, the water overflowed everywhere, relentlessly destroying even more crops.

Gu Yannian spoke in a calm tone, as if he were recounting a trivial past event.

Zhu Gaochi frowned and asked anxiously, "Then how did we break the deadlock?"

"Later, the village's eldest village chief stepped forward."

Gu Yannian stopped fiddling with the abacus.

"He didn't reprimand the young men who were filling in the water, nor did he directly order them to stop blocking the river. He simply calmly had people dig a channel downstream, along a low-lying wasteland."

"The floodwaters found a smooth outlet and naturally stopped crashing against the dikes, and the water level quickly receded. Only then did the old village chief send people to reinforce the original riverbanks."

Gu Yannian looked at Zhu Gaochi with a deep gaze.

"The old village chief said that floods are like ferocious beasts; you can't stop them by blocking them. You can only guide them by channeling them."

"To stop the boiling water by removing the fuel, the fundamental solution is to address the root cause."

The main hall was quiet.

Zhu Gaochi fell into deep thought.

"Filling in the gaps with earth... is like the brutal suppression and slaughter by the army today. Although it can suppress the situation temporarily, it easily incites even more frenzied resistance from the people, allowing this flood of public resentment to spread everywhere..."

Zhu Gaochi muttered to himself, his eyes gradually brightening.

"And the breach that diverted the floodwaters..."

Zhu Gaochi suddenly looked up at Gu Yannian.

Gu Yannian calmly took half a step back and bowed slightly.

"Your Highness, the reason why the people of Shandong were bewitched by the evil cult is because they were suffering from hunger and cold, and were burdened with heavy corvée labor. This is the source of the terrible flood."

Gu Yannian pinpointed the crux of the problem accurately.

"If Your Highness were to offer advice under the pretext of pitying the rebels, you would naturally anger the Emperor. But what if Your Highness were to phrase it differently?"