That Little Official Broke the Sky

One wolf hair can count all the money and food in the world. A ruler can measure thousands of miles across the country. Jiang Yan is a young scribe in Chengjiang County. His biggest problem is being stubborn. When checking the county annals, he was able to find out the false reports of disasters in the fields three years ago; when building river embankments, he dared to use a reed pole to pierce the corruption of five thousand taels of silver. Song Che, the imperial censor, said: "Follow me to the capital, and I will ensure that you enter the Ministry of Industry." His colleagues laughed at him: "Isn't it worthy of a copywriter?" Jiang Yan just bowed his hands to the ground and said, "The pen I am in charge of is for the common people to keep accounts, not for the adults to paint on them." From then on, he worked as a clerk in the county government and then stepped into the court. When the Yellow River burst, he blocked it; when the prince set up a trap, he defeated it; and when the court fought with factions, he won it. He spent his whole life realizing those four words—— He Qing Haiyan.