From Hongzhou, you can also take the Gan River to Yuanzhou, which is Yichun, Jiangxi in later generations.

Once you reach Yuanzhou, you can only travel by land.

However, it is not impossible to travel by boat after that. You need to enter Tanzhou and take the Xiangjiang River shipping. You can go to Guangzhou via Lingqu Canal in the south and to Hubei via Yangtze River in the north.

But at least this section does have to be traveled overland, and without the boat trip of more than ten hours a day, the speed is much slower.

After all, the speed on the Grand Canal is relatively slow, but if you enter the river system, the speed will be much faster. For example, if you go down the Yangtze River, you can travel more than 300 kilometers a day.

Zhao Jun arrived in Yuanzhou in early December. With a total of more than 1,500 infantry and cavalry, they arrived in Liling, Tanzhou in two days under the escort of the Jiangnan West Route Army.

Almost as soon as they passed Pingxiang, Wang Yao, the transport commissioner of Jinghu South Road, Li Suzhi, the chief judge of criminal justice, Wang Han, the prefect of Tanzhou, Liu Yuan, the transport judge, and other officials, together with more than 2,000 troops from Jinghu South Road, were already waiting at the border to greet them.

It happened to rain in Hunan these two days. It was late winter and the weather was damp and cold. When Zhao Jun got out of the carriage, the cold wind blowing in his face almost made him runny.

You have to know that he was wearing the long-sleeved shirt and long-padded clothes given by his mother, and he also wore a cotton coat on the outside, but even this was a bit too much for him to withstand the winter in Hunan. This shows that the damp and cold weather in the south is terrifying under the magic attack.

Zhao Jun stood in the carriage and glanced around. This was the foot of Wangqiao Mountain outside the east city of Liling. The Tang Dynasty poet monk Huguo once wrote the "Song of Liling Yuxian Temple" here.

I saw a dense crowd of people standing on the official road ahead to greet us. Dense forests like the sea were on both sides of the road. Looking into the distance, there were undulating mountains, shrouded in clouds and mist, and the sky was gloomy and drizzling. Surrounded by mountains, there was a peak towering into the clouds in the northeast.

These are the Hunan mountains and forests that he has been concerned about for a long time.

"This humble official greets the Magistrate!"

Wang Yao and others, all wearing straw raincoats, came forward and bowed to Zhao Jun.

Zhao Jun looked at the familiar Hunan appearance, and a rare smile appeared on his originally stern face. He nodded slightly and said, "Thank you for your hard work."

The Liling County Magistrate came forward flatteringly and said, "Your Excellency, I have already prepared a banquet in Liling County. I hope you will honor me with your presence."

"Well, it's time to let the soldiers have a good rest."

Zhao Jun nodded.

Then the large army set off, heading all the way to Liling.

Historically, the emperor's tours often cost a huge amount of money. For example, Emperor Yang of Sui made several tours to the south, which were extremely extravagant and consumed a lot of financial resources.

But Zhao Jun's trip was still quite simple, and the travel expenses were basically the food and accommodation for more than a thousand people.

Then there is the cost of hiring a boat.

Under normal circumstances, even if there are more than a thousand people, the daily food and drink expenses are not small. If the burden is placed on the local government, it will definitely cause a burden on the local finances.

But Zhao Jun had been on tour in the south for almost a year. Not only did he not let the local government spend a penny, he even made a lot of money. The baggage boxes pulled by his team contained hundreds of thousands of strings of cash.

Most of them were relatively light gold and silver, with a smaller amount of copper coins, about 50,000 strings, which was basically enough for more than a thousand people to use for three to five years.

If it weren't inconvenient to carry too much money, I would have more assets.

no way.

They confiscated a lot of property along the way. Sun Mian alone made about 500,000 to 600,000 strings of cash over the years, not including the many antiques, calligraphy, paintings, and jewelry that were auctioned off.

If we were to take away all the money seized from corrupt officials, profiteers and landlords in Huainan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it would probably be worth millions or even tens of millions of strings of cash.

I can't bring it at all.

Therefore, most of them were sent to Bianliang via the canal by the Jianghuai Transport Office, and only a little could be taken on the way.

It can be said that Zhao Zhen does not need to worry about this year's financial expenditure while sitting in Kaifeng.

As long as Zhao Jun continues his inspections, kills more corrupt officials along the way, and deals with more bad landlords, he will have enough money to fight the war next year.

The team continued to cross mountains and hills, and finally arrived in Liling County before it was completely dark.

The soldiers found tents in the wild. Zhao Jun ordered people to go to the city to buy pork, beef and mutton, and set fire on the spot to let the tired soldiers have a good meal.

He himself entered the county town under the protection of many guards and attended a banquet in a restaurant.

Although social engagements are inevitable in official circles, Zhao Jun actually does not dislike this kind of engagement, because through such engagements he can understand the local official situation and governance.

There were not many officials coming this time, just over ten people. They were divided into two tables. One table was for officials from the Lu Si Yamen who accompanied Zhao Jun, and the other table was for local Liling officials.

Zhao Jun arrived at the table and exchanged a few pleasantries. The dishes were actually already prepared, and they were immediately heated up and served when people arrived.

After the dishes were served, no one dared to pick up their chopsticks. Zhao Jun stood up and said a few words. He looked around at everyone and said, "Everyone, it has been nearly a year since our court traveled around the world. People think that our court is out to punish corrupt officials, but that is not the case."

Many officials looked at him, and then they heard Zhao Jun continue, "Our court is most concerned about the people's livelihood. Every province has its own livelihood management issues. Every place is different, and the problems are also different. If I sit in the high and mighty political system court in Bianliang, how can I understand the suffering of the people?"

"That's why our court visits every place, every area, to understand the people's livelihood and any problems there. This way, we can provide targeted solutions, alleviate the increasingly severe poverty in the Song Dynasty, and reduce the burden on the people."

"As for rectifying the administration of officials."

Zhao Jun looked at everyone and smiled. "To be honest, the reason I can sit here and have a serious chat with you all today, speaking freely about local governance issues, is because I investigated you all before I came here. You are all clean officials, and there is nothing wrong with you. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be sitting here, but would be imprisoned."

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!