Emperor Yongkang, Xiao Yan, ascended the throne at the age of sixteen. After seven years, he had enough of the memorials saying "the country is peaceful and the people are safe." Li Zheng, the imperial censor of Zuodu, exchanged his life for the irrefutable evidence that 270,000 taels of silver in Qinghe County, Jiangnan, evaporated out of thin air in three years. After Li Zheng died suddenly, Xiao Yan made a decision that no emperor had ever made - to go and see it himself.
