Since he had a bad experience with the postmaster, Ruan Shihao decided to go for a walk on the street.

He still remembered the instructions from the Left Prime Minister before he left: "While we were doing some small private actions with the bandits in Qitian Village and getting some pig iron, Qinghe County quietly made such a big move.

You have to know that the kingdom was not content to be an ally of Qitian Village at the beginning.

Humph, a bandit den and a bandit leader, how can they have the qualifications to cooperate with the kingdom?

Even if the Kingdom wanted pig iron, it's easier to rob than buy it. It's a shame the Right Prime Minister's men are a bunch of incompetents. Five thousand men couldn't defeat a bandit army of just over two thousand, and they're still talking about reorganizing the army and starting over. That's just bullshit. With war imminent, how could the Kingdom waste its limited military resources on a force that claims to be our ally?

But this right prime minister had a force that he had no way to deal with, and it was destroyed by Qinghe County in such a short time. There must be something fishy about this.

This time, besides negotiating, you must also ascertain their strength. Otherwise, if you continue in the dark, even if they manage to pull out the Taijing garrison, they'll likely be killed."

Facing the trembling Ruan Shihao, Zuo Xianglin finally said as he left the room: "No matter how stupid you are, you should know why I chose you. If you don't want to die, then bring back the correct information. I can protect you from death and even allow you to safely serve as the Minister of Revenue."

"Let's go and take a look at the street." Ruan Shihao gave this instruction as soon as the servant boy came in and put down his luggage.

"Oh, this luggage...Okay, sir." The servant boy seemed a little overwhelmed by the sudden order. After all, he had just put down his luggage and was about to pack up.

After walking out the door, Ruan Shihao finally had time to take a closer look at this city that had belonged to Cambodia not long ago.

Although he had never been to Mengyang, he believed that Mengyang should be no different from other Khmer cities. The roads extending from the post house and other major buildings were paved with bluestone slabs, and most of the two or three-story buildings were on both sides.

Although the humid and hot weather has made the bluestone road covered with moss, if you walk on the street where people don't often step on it, you will fall down accidentally. The small buildings on the side are mostly high-end restaurants or teahouses. After all, rich people don't want to walk too far when they consume.

If you go farther, it will not be a place that officials would normally go.

Ruan Shiping didn't think it was that bad. The road was just a little narrower and there were no stone slabs on it, but there was a lot more filth. Most of the small buildings on both sides had become one-story adobe houses, with at most some wooden boards making a storefront to facilitate business. The pedestrians coming and going were in a hurry, most of them were dark and thin, giving off a smell of dirt and poverty.

This smell was familiar to Ruan Shiping. The Ruan family was a large family, judging by its population, but in terms of influence, it had only grown since his cousin Ruan Shiping became an official.

This cousin had many faults, but at least he had paid for several children in the family, including himself, to go to school and take the imperial examinations, which was how Ruan Shihao became what he is today. For this reason alone, Ruan Shihao would always remember his cousin's kindness, although he never wanted to admit it.

Therefore, Ruan Shihao, who moved out of the slums as an adult, is not averse to this kind of taste, and sometimes even misses it vaguely.

So when he walked from the main street to the junction with the slums, he felt a little bit unbelievable.

As far as the eye could see, the street and the houses lining it had become a massive construction site. Several people who looked like managers were pointing and gesturing at the site, referring to a large blueprint. Sometimes they would lower their heads to discuss something, sometimes they would look up to give instructions. Then someone wearing a cane hat shaped like a pot would come over to direct the workers.

Ruan Shihao was a veteran in officialdom, and he could tell at a glance that these people not only had different divisions of labor, but also had very different statuses.

For example, the largest group of people, those with their upper bodies naked and digging everywhere, all wore yellow rattan hats, while the few people with blue hats looked more like foremen, directing people to do some more difficult tasks, such as burying a pipe of unknown material in a ditch that had just been dug on the street.

As for those men in red hats, they should be the supervisors. Ruan Shihao was very confident about this. After all, looking at their ferocious expressions, it would be impossible for them to meet such standards without several years of experience in bullying others.

Finally, there should be those white hats who are looking at the blueprints, all talk and no action. Well, from this point of view, they might even be a few educated people.

Ruan Shihao stood aside and watched for a whole hour, watching this group of people demolish the parts of the houses on both sides that extended to the middle of the street, and then dug up both sides of the street. Not only did they bury pipes of unknown purpose, but they also left the appearance of drainage ditches when backfilling. Finally, they leveled the road and even sprinkled lime on the street.

To be honest, there were some things that Ruan Shihao wanted to do but failed to accomplish when he was in the Ministry of Revenue.

The Khmer city of Taiping is also a centuries-old city. It is said that during the construction of this city, the founding king of Cambodia attached great importance to it, not only allocating a large amount of money and grain, but also mobilizing tens of thousands of slaves. The king, known for his kindness, even explicitly ordered for the first time that the construction of the city be the priority, without excessive concern for the lives of the slaves.

That's why the newly built city of Khmer is so prosperous and beautiful, with clean and tidy streets and neatly arranged shops on both sides. Even in a rainy place like Cambodia, Khmer has experienced many rainstorms.

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