In the spring of the fourth year of Qingli, Teng Zijing burned his last account book on the way to relegation.
In the light of the fire, the fragments of "Three Thousand Iron Tributes from the Qiang Tribe" fell from the edge of his boots, and he crushed them into the cracks of the blue bricks.
At that moment, he understood: his being demoted to Yuezhou for "wasting the minister's money of 160,000 yuan" was just the first step in the chess game.
What awaits him in Yuezhou is not only the monstrous flood of Dongting Lake, but also a large network intertwined with party strife, smuggling and assassination.
The struggle between the New Deal and the Old Party spread to the arena in the Bianjing court. Xixia Iron Armor secretly flowed northward via water transport. A killer organization called the "Black Crow" showed its blade in the dark - they all wanted him dead before he could rebuild the Yueyang Tower.
But Teng Zijing just wanted to build a building.
They used the name of the Confucian Temple to raise money and secretly strengthen the city embankment; they used the name of the Confucian Temple to extend the construction period and drag down the mastermind behind it; they used the power of old friends such as Ouyang Xiu and Fan Zhongyan to pry a glimmer of hope in a desperate situation.
The building is the cover, the embankment is the conscience, and the account book is the blade.
He wanted to defend the city before the flood came, and uncover the "iron-armored business" that spanned the northwest and the Central Plains before the conspiracy was closed.
This is a solitary showdown between a demoted official and an entire interest group.
When the building goes up, it may be the day of success, or it may be the moment when the death knell rings.
The only thing he could believe was the half-page truth that was not burned out in the fire, and the crumbling Yuezhou City under his feet.
The hard-core official career in the gaps in history is daily, and thunder is heard in the silent place.
