Song Dynasty: the Censor Who Smashed the Pot

During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, Shen Yan originally wanted to follow the unspoken rules and keep his family safe. Until he witnessed with his own eyes that the magistrate who advocated the New Deal was dismissed from office and exiled because he was accused of "breaking the pot" because he touched the interests of the powerful. And he was also on the verge of being involved in the reform camp because of the Caoqu floating corpse case. At that moment, he was shocked to realize: If I don't smash this "pot", there will never be peace in this world! After the imperial examination, he gave up on safe strategies and wrote a ground-breaking "Admonishment and Elimination of Redundancy", which thrust him into Zhao Xu's field of vision and into the turbulent whirlpool of party strife. From then on, the Song Dynasty had an "official alien". When he impeached the prime minister, he had solid evidence; when he rectified water transportation, he cut off people and money; and when he implemented new laws. Colleagues scolded him: "Whenever Shen Yan comes, people will fall on their backs. This is especially true for smashing pots!" However, the emperor wrote in his resignation memorial: "The whole dynasty is full of rotten wood, but you are the only one who can break the situation. I will allow you to smash this pot to the end." But Shen Yan knew in his heart that what he wanted to smash was never the jobs of a few corrupt officials, but the centuries-old disease that was hard to recover from.