Zhao Jun waved his hand.

Lin Zhu happily took the new task and left.

After he left, Zhao Jun did not stay for too long. He asked the remaining deputy officials who were not involved in the corruption case to take charge of Shouzhou affairs temporarily, and he ordered them to set off for Hangzhou immediately.

It is quite easy to get from Shouzhou to Hangzhou. The Huai River is just outside Xiacai County. You can take a boat eastward along the Huai River and enter Chuzhou.

Then in Chuzhou, which is Huai'an City in later generations, go south along the canal and cross the Yangtze River to reach Jiangdong.

Zhao Jun set out in mid-April and reached Yangzhou in just five days, thanks to the southeasterly spring winds. If the southwesterly and northwesterly winds had prevailed, historical records show that the journey from Bianliang to Yangzhou would have taken only twelve days.

Wantou Town, Yangzhou. Since Yangzhou and Zhenzhou were important hubs for grain transport and salt transportation, during the Zhen and Ren dynasties, the annual grain transport volume reached 8 million shi, accounting for three-quarters of the country's grain transport.

Even the offices of the Huainan East Road Transport Commissioner and the Shipping Commissioner were located in Yangzi County, Zhenzhou, which was originally the place Zhao Jun wanted to inspect.

However, since Zhao Jun went south this time mainly to deal with Sun Mian, the governor of Hangzhou, it was inconvenient for him to go to Yangzhou and Zhenzhou, so he had to go directly south from Wantou Town into the Yangtze River, without going to Jiangdu and Yangzi.

But he had only known Jiang Tang before, so he didn't expect that he was already waiting in Wantou Town with officials of all ranks from Huainan East Road.

Zhao Jun had no choice but to get off the boat and have a meal with them.

The participants were all officials of all ranks from Huainan East Road. In addition to Jiang Tang, there were more than ten officials including the Deputy Transport Commissioner of Huainan East Road, the Transport Judge, the Director of Grain and Grain, the Prefect of Yangzhou, the Prefect of Zhenzhou, the Magistrate of the two places, and the Magistrate of Hailing County.

At the meeting, Zhao Jun had a great time chatting with everyone. They talked about the management of Huainan East Road, some of the current problems encountered in the Liangjiang Canal Transport, etc.

Among them, Hailing County Magistrate Zhao Pin attracted Zhao Jun's interest.

Because Jiang Tang's words, intentionally or unintentionally, were all about recommending this person to Zhao Jun.

After asking about his political achievements, I learned that he was a second-class Jinshi in the first year of Jingyou, and had previously served as the magistrate of Chong'an County, with outstanding political achievements.

He was transferred to Hailing at the beginning of last year. In just over a year, he brought Hailing's public security, agriculture, and economy to a higher level. Although Jiang Tang didn't know him, he admired him very much, so he specially called him to introduce him to Zhao Jun.

Zhao Jun naturally didn't know that this man was also a great talent in history. He served as Vice Prime Minister when Wang Anshi was the prime minister. He just firmly opposed the Qingmiao Law, but he could not deny his ability to govern the local area.

So Zhao Jun took note of this person's political achievements, and when he returned from Hangzhou and inspected the Huainan East Road, he would take a closer look at the situation in Hailing.

After lunch, Zhao Jun set off again, taking the fork in the waterway from Wantou Town into the Yangtze River estuary, and then heading south to Hangzhou.

Another ten days later.

It was evening in Linping Town, early summer in April, less than twenty miles away from Hangzhou.

On the Grand Canal, two large ships slowly sailed south.

The journey from Shouzhou to Yangzhou, which is more than 200 kilometers, only takes five days, but the journey from Runzhou (Zhenjiang) to Hangzhou, which is 270 kilometers, takes ten days.

This is because most of the journey from Shouzhou to Yangzhou is along the Huai River. When the water flows smoothly, the boat can travel at extremely high speeds, reaching more than ten kilometers per hour. It only takes one or two days to get from Shouzhou to Chuzhou.

There is a canal section about 100 kilometers south of Chuzhou. The water flow in the canal is relatively slow. Without the help of track trackers along the coast, the water flow can only reach 4 or 5 kilometers per hour. It took almost three days to get from Chuzhou to Yangzhou.

However, the section from Runzhou to Hangzhou is entirely paved with canals, and it only takes ten hours to travel about 40 kilometers a day. Sometimes there are traffic jams or bad weather that makes it difficult to sail, so delays are common.

Therefore, from the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, there are many records that the journey from Hangzhou to Bianliang by ship basically took 15 to 25 days, while from Hangzhou to Beijing, it took more than 50 days.

It was the end of April, approaching May, and the weather was getting hotter. Standing at the bow of the boat, you could see the fertile farmland stretching for thousands of miles outside the town.

The farmland is lush and green, the rice seedlings sway in the wind, and occasionally you can hear the croaking of frogs.

Unlike the north, which is currently undergoing an agricultural revolution of alternating rice and wheat planting, the south completed the alternating planting of Champa rice and native rice during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, so the south is basically all paddy fields.

The Taihu Lake basin in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River is the granary of the Song Dynasty. It is full of flowing rivers, lakes scattered across the wilderness, and crisscrossing canals.

With their nourishment, the densely packed farmlands in the wilderness are filled with the faint fragrance of rice flowers, and in the turbid rice fields, fish can be seen frolicking from time to time.

Zhao Jun hadn't seen such beautiful scenery in the south for a long time.

The last time I saw him was the year before last when he graduated from university and returned home. Then in the second half of the year before last, he left home and went north to look for a job. He didn't find a suitable one, so he wanted to take the civil service exam. That's why he participated in teaching in the hope of getting preferential treatment after taking the exam.

By this calculation, he has not seen his parents for more than two years, nor has he seen the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River.

I just don’t know whether there were people living in that mountain valley in Hunan before the ancestors of the Southern Song Dynasty migrated there, and whether there was that long-awaited little village.

"Dean, the dock ahead."

Jiang Dalang noticed that there was a large group of people standing at the dock of Linping Town in front of him. He thought they were officials from Liangzhe Road.

After all, when they passed through Runzhou, Changzhou, Huzhou and other places, the local officials could not have been unaware of it. It was just that Zhao Jun refused all the social engagements from the local officials and went straight to Hangzhou, so he was able to come here so quickly.

But the local officials would definitely send a fast horse to Liangzhe Road to report the news first, so the four government offices in Liangzhe Road would naturally react.

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