"You..." Peng Lide thought for a moment and then lowered his head, "Ye Zi'an, your only purpose is to dig the canal. What do you think about this? I'll send people to help you dig until it's finished. As for the money, we'll keep it as it was. How does that sound?"
"Peng Lide, let's not beat around the bush. Your people should indeed cooperate with us to smooth the digging of the canal. But the main issue now is this sum of money. If you don't give it out, once we've dug the canal and our people leave, what if the villagers block it up again?"
"So shut your mouth and go raise the funds, and don't even think of distributing it to the people yourselves. I'm afraid that as soon as I leave, you'll just take the money back. That's why you need to bring out the money."
It's not that Peng Lide hadn't actually planned to do just that — distribute the money among the people to placate Ye Zi'an and then take it back after the fact.
But Ye Zi'an had already seen through his plan.