Finally, even the Wuhu Medicinal Materials Industry Guild was directly restructured into the Wuhu Medicinal Materials Company and merged into the Jiangnan Medical Group...

Mr. Zhao's trip to Wuhu was a fruitful one.

Even he himself was quite surprised at the enthusiasm of Wuhu industrialists and businessmen in competing to join the Jiangnan Group.

In fact, he had forgotten the pain after the wound healed. It had only been a year or two and he had forgotten why he had been begging for the princess's favor.

Without the protection of his godmother, would he dare to engage in the coal lotus business? Would he dare to acquire hundreds of coal mines in Xishan? Would he dare to issue Xishan company stocks and make money crazily? He would have been killed a hundred times by those powerful and wealthy people who eat people without leaving any bones!

In a society ruled by man like the Ming Dynasty where merchants generally had low status and the legal system was extremely imperfect, having a lot of wealth without sufficient power to protect oneself would only bring disaster upon the whole family.

Therefore, the businessmen's desire for a sense of security has reached a perverted level. That's why they have to lick the officials, they have to stick together, and they generously help students and force their children to study hard. All of this is to obtain the capital for self-protection.

Now, Zhao Hao has established such an unprecedented community of interests. Although its top layer is still composed of powerful families, it is essentially a group of businessmen, which is naturally friendly and attractive to businessmen.

Moreover, Jiangnan Group has proved its strength by overthrowing Xu, and is strong enough to provide all members with the sense of security they need most.

Compared with this, the development prospects are secondary. Besides, the prospects of joining Jiangnan Group are already very bright.

This is why the businessmen's enthusiasm for Jiangnan Group far exceeds Zhao Hao's enthusiasm for them. They are eager to become a part of this group and get the protection of the group. Of course, the earlier you join, the better position you can get. This simple truth is that all businessmen will not be confused.

Therefore, it is understandable that before Mr. Zhao left Wuhu, Ruan Bi and Wang Yu had already held guild meetings and determined the general policy of collective restructuring and integration into the Jiangnan Group.

Since you want to join, of course you should be quick and active. Being hesitant and hesitant will only make Mr. Zhao look down on you, which will not be worth the loss.

When Master Zhao came, the streets were lined with people to welcome him; when he left, thousands of people saw him off. The Hui merchants took a boat and sent him all the way to the Yangtze River for 20 miles, and only then did they say goodbye reluctantly and in tears.

How could Mr. Zhao not love Wuhu? After this trip, the status of this city in his heart quietly rose to a higher level.

~~

The Science sailed smoothly, braved the wind and waves, and sped across the Yangtze River. In less than half an hour, it entered Dangtu County.

Looking at the Tianmen Mountain that stood by the river like two tigers, Mr. Zhao could not help but recall the time two years ago when he and Fatty Tang came to the countryside to collect silk.

At that time, his capital was obtained by asking Mr. Zhao to perform as a real person in Deheng. When collecting silk in Dangtu, Fatty Tang used all means to lower the price and bought a full 10,000 kilograms of silk with 5,000 taels of silver!

One pound of raw silk was only worth five cents of silver.

Just one or two months later, the price of raw silk soared to two taels per catty. Zhao Hao heard that in the summer of that year, there were often country people with Dangtu accents who went to Tangji Southern Goods Store to make trouble, asking him to pay more money, and almost beat up Fatty Tang.

Fortunately, the price of silk later dropped back to one or two taels, and no one bothered Tang Youde anymore.

Although the people of Dangtu didn't know that Zhao Hao was the instigator and had never caused any trouble at Wei Ji Xian, Master Zhao still felt guilty and ashamed to face the elders of Dangtu. He ordered to leave Dangtu quickly from the west bank of Jiangxinzhou.

As a result, Huang Jinse, the magistrate of Dangtu, who had been waiting for Mr. Zhao on the east bank, was disappointed. Fortunately, the magistrate Huang, whose name was very domineering, was also a Jinshi in the second year of Longqing. He was sent to Taiping Prefecture together with Shuai Ji. They were all family members and would not think too much about it.

The Science went downstream and arrived at Jinling City before dusk. A misty spring rain fell from the sky, shrouding the distant Jinling City in mist and rain.

Seeing that the weather was bad, Zhao Hao planned to go into the city first tonight, stay in a villa halfway up the mountain for the night, and then go to the Longjiang Shipyard for inspection tomorrow morning.

But after getting off the boat at Jiangdongmen Wharf, Xu Bangrui who came to greet him told him a piece of important news - peach blossom floods broke out in both the Yellow River and the Huai River at the same time, destroying a large section of the river embankment in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Huai River.

As the river water flowed outward, the water level in the entire Pei County, Xuzhou, Suqian and Huai'an areas dropped, causing the siltation of a river channel of more than 600 miles. More than 2,000 grain ships of the grain transport office were blocked in Xia Pi and could not move forward!

Zhao Hao was not surprised by this, because nearly four hundred years ago, the Yellow River diverted the Huai River into the sea, causing serious disruption to the originally formed Huaihe River system. The ecological environment of the entire Jianghuai region also suffered fatal damage. Countless rivers and lakes sometimes dried up and sometimes flooded, bringing endless suffering to the people of Jianghuai.

The great flood in the third year of Longqing was just the beginning. From then on, the Yellow River would flood year after year until the man named Pan stood up and fought it to the death...

Zhao Hao had been waiting for this news for a long time, but when he finally got it, he was not happy at all. Although the damage caused by the peach blossom flood was not as serious as the summer flood, at least the people had enough time to escape. But he knew very well that in the next few years, a large area of ​​flooding in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and Huai River would become uninhabitable and uncultivated, bringing heavy suffering to the millions of people living there.

However, Hai Rui, the governor of Yingtian, had no jurisdiction over the area north of the Yangtze River, and private disaster relief was a taboo for the court, so Zhao Hao could not lend a helping hand directly and had to think of a proper way to avoid suspicion.

And the most important thing is to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the blockage of water transport and open up the barriers for sea transport!

All Zhao Hao's efforts have been in preparation for this moment.

"Don't go into the city, go directly to the Longjiang Factory." Master Zhao gave the order decisively.

"So anxious?" Xu Bangrui had also participated in the group meeting, so he naturally knew that the top priority of the First Five-Year Plan was to strive for the transportation of grain by sea and take the opportunity to open up maritime trade!

But he never expected that the opportunity would come so suddenly.

"The entire group, the entire Jiangnan, is eagerly looking forward to the opening of the sea." Zhao Hao said with an unprecedented firmness: "The sooner we strive for it, the sooner it will be realized, and the sooner Jiangnan will regain its vitality!"

"Young Master is really worried about the people of Jiangnan." Xu Bangrui couldn't help but sigh: "Fortunately, God is helping us this time, so it shouldn't be a big problem."

"It's not that easy." In the bumpy carriage, amid the increasingly heavy rain, Zhao Hao said slowly: "Now that they heard that the grain transport was cut off, the officials in the court must be panicking, worried that the capital will be trapped. But after all, the grain stored in Taicang can still be used for two years. They will soon start to make their own plans again, and there will be hard bones to chew."

As he said this, he smiled and said, "So it's better to finish the affairs in Jiangnan as soon as possible and go to Beijing to lobby as soon as possible."

ps. This is the third update, I will write another one.