The sky was gloomy, but the Banshan Bridge in Kunshan County was crowded with people. Kunshan people gathered, craning their necks to look at the dock under the bridge waiting for the grain ship.

Since the master took office, five grain ships have been coming to Kunshan to deliver grain every day, rain or shine.

This commonplace scene makes the people of Kunshan feel at ease.

Even when they learned the day before that the reserve warehouse had been burned and the stored grain had been destroyed, the citizens did not panic.

Burn it if you want, it's not your own food anyway. As long as the food ships keep coming every day, everyone will not starve.

But today, an air of unease is spreading.

Rumors suddenly spread throughout the county. People were saying that the county magistrate had not gotten that much food, but County Magistrate Zhao exaggerated the amount by half to avoid panic buying.

In fact, of the five grain ships that arrived in Kunming every day, at least half were loaded with sand!

In other words, only 1,000 dan of rice was supplied to the county every day. This amount of food was just enough for the work-for-relief program, but how could it be enough for the citizens?

The rumors were very credible, saying that the inspector was specifically here to investigate the case. It was also said that inspector Lin had already obtained solid evidence after inspecting the reserve warehouse.

He also said that he would inspect today's five grain ships at the dock, exposing County Magistrate Zhao's trick of fooling the people on the spot!

How could the people in the county not panic?

That is, Zhao Shouzheng had just arrived and was extremely effective in flood control and disaster relief, which made the people of the county have a very good impression of him. The two sides were at the stage where County Magistrate Yi described them as "sweet as honey".

So everyone was able to keep things from getting out of hand, and they just rushed over to see what was going on.

As a result, I really saw that the Banshan Bridge Pier was already on high alert, and a seventh-rank official was sitting in the pavilion.

Inspector Zheng, who usually shows off his power, acted like a grandson in front of that man.

It turns out the rumors are true!

"Oh, if it's really found out that it's fraud, my parents' days in Kunshan will be over..."

The citizens sighed and groaned, thinking that Kunshan had finally found a top scholar to serve as the county magistrate, and they thought they had finally met a rare good official.

Is it possible that everything is just an illusion? So-called good officials do not exist in this world at all?

"I'd rather the inspector not investigate!" one citizen shouted, "Just trust your parents blindly."

"How could we believe him if he was a liar?" Someone immediately protested. "We all believed his lies, that's why we didn't store any food. We can just wait for our whole family to starve to death!"

No one could refute this statement. Everyone was indeed too optimistic about the sight of five ships of grain every day, and no one was willing to pay a high price to grab the grain.

If this were true, I don’t know how many people would have starved to death in Kunshan County…

~~

Fortunately, Inspector Lin had anticipated that the common people would flock to the area, and he ordered Inspector Zheng Qian of the Jinxi Town Inspection Office to bring his archers to block the wharf.

In the shelter, Inspector Lin sat upright on a high-legged chair, holding the teacup in one hand and gently skimming off the foam with the cup lid with the other. His calm and composed appearance was in stark contrast to the panic-stricken Inspector Zheng.

To be honest, Inspector Zheng didn't want to get involved in this mess. His station was in Kunnan.

Hundreds of thousands of Kunnan people depend on the master for their livelihood, but he brought Kunnan soldiers with him to stir up trouble with Inspector Lin.

If any unfavorable evidence is found and the master is harmed, how can I survive in Jinxi Town in the future? I am afraid that my brothers will hate me.

But what could he do? Although there was only a single letter difference between Xun An and Xun Jian, their status was worlds apart.

He dared not disobey Lin Xun's order, otherwise he would be beaten with a stick on the spot, and then he would ask to be stripped of his official robes...

Originally, Inspector Hua could have sent Deputy Inspector Hua Qian to take the blame, but because Deputy Inspector Hua had no distant relationship with the Hua family, the master sent him to Wuxi on official business.

At this moment, he must be enjoying a good life, and maybe even have a rich relative. From then on, he would be living on a high branch, on the peak of his life, leaving his former boss far behind...

Thinking of this, Inspector Zheng sighed dejectedly.

Alas, Hua Qian is easy but Zheng Qian is difficult.

Just as he was feeling sad, he suddenly heard the people on the bridge protesting.

"Here it comes, the grain ship is coming!" the citizens shouted.

Zheng Qian also leaned over to look, and indeed saw a grain ship flying the flags of "Wu Ji" and "Kunshan County Public Service" slowly passing through the bridge hole and heading north towards Zhihetang.

The reserve warehouse has a special dock, so grain ships do not have to stay here.

Inspector Lin chose to conduct the inspection here because he intended to let the people of Kunshan witness with their own eyes how the great lord whom they trusted was treating them like fools.

"Stop the boat and dock!" A patrol boat was lying across the river, and archers in green uniforms were holding patrol tokens. "Patrol Inspection!"

"Didn't you see? We are the ship that transports grain to the county!" On the grain ship, the person escorting the ship was Uncle Mi, the manager of Wu Ji.

"We are investigating you!" Yuan Fang shouted at the dock. "The inspector is here, why don't you dock immediately!"

"Ah?" Uncle Mi showed a horrified expression and whispered to the waiter beside him: "Let the boat behind retreat quickly!"

Seeing that the old man was panicking, the last bit of doubt in Lin Xun'an's heart disappeared. He slapped the table and stood up and said, "Stop them!"

Two patrol boats crossed over to the south of the bridge, blocking the way of the grain ship behind.

In fact, these five grain ships were targeted by Inspector Lin's men as soon as they left Suzhou.

At that time, apart from the Xu family, no one in Kunshan knew that he was going to inspect the grain today!

"Where are you going to run?!" The ambitious Inspector Lin felt that he had become more capable and could already be called a 'capable official'.

In fact, the grain ship is clumsy and heavy. Even if there is no ambush to stop it, where can it go?

~~

In a moment, five huge grain ships all docked, filling the dock.

Zheng Qian took the archers on board and was on guard to prevent Wu Ji's men from becoming desperate and harming the inspector.

Patrolman Lin stood in the pavilion, watching Yuan Fang directing Wu Ji's men to start unloading the boat.

Behind him stood a group of gentry, most of whom were vassals of the Xu family. However, in the Xu family's three-level lackey system of "family members, adopted sons, and adopted sons", they were still at the bottom stage of "family members".

Family members are slaves.

Therefore, they were all servants of the Xu family, and naturally they were not more valued by the Xu family than those godsons who set the fire.

They can only play a supporting role and are not entitled to know the secrets like the righteous men.

Well, this doesn’t seem to be a bad thing…

Today, Inspector Lin wants to gather the gentry in the county to build momentum for him and witness the glorious moment when he becomes a hero in fighting against counterfeiting.

However, for the sake of confidentiality, he did not inform the five famous families of Gu, Dai, Mao, Zhou, and Zheng in Kunshan County, nor even the Zhi family, Gui family, and other gentry of the second-tier. In the end, he only brought all the servants of the Xu family in Kunshan to the dock to support the business.

Although this meant that there would be no major county gentry to support him, Inspector Lin felt disappointed.

But now he found that the presence of someone in a silk gown and a big hat was enough.

I need to be called a "country squire" instead of a particular country squire.

No one gets in the way, it’s better!

ps. The second of three consecutive updates, please give me monthly votes and recommendation tickets!!