Zhao Jin's mansion is divided into two courtyards, east and west. His family lives in the east courtyard, and the entire west courtyard is vacated to accommodate Zhao Hao and his sons, master and apprentice.

The group had been running around all day and were tired and sleepy. They forced themselves to talk for a while, then, led by Zhao Shizhen, went to the west courtyard and went to bed early.

The next day, Zhao Jin took a leave of absence and stayed at home. After breakfast, he called Zhao Hao into the study to talk.

After Yu Peng served tea, Zhao Jin asked him to go out and guard the door.

Seeing Zhao Jin's mysterious look, Zhao Hao couldn't help but laugh and said, "It seems that my elder brother has good things to do again."

"I really can't hide anything from you, my dear brother." Seeing that Zhao Hao had guessed most of what he had said before he even opened his mouth, Zhao Jin couldn't help but smile in admiration and said, "My dear brother, you are right. The magic bag you gave me has helped me a lot."

As he said that, he opened the drawer and pulled out a piece of paper from the envelope that Zhao Hao had given him before.

There were only four words written on it: 'Good luck in the southwest'.

Zhao Hao smiled mysteriously and said, "It seems to have come true."

"Yes." Zhao Jin nodded, looking at Zhao Hao with awe, and said, "At the beginning of the month, Wang Tongnian called me to his house and said that there was a good opportunity. He might promote me to a higher level and let me go out to be a frontier official."

After a pause, he smiled bitterly and said, "But the only drawback is that the place is not very good...Governor of Guizhou."

"That's indeed tricky." Zhao Hao smiled and nodded. In this era, Guizhou was not only remote and wild, but also had chieftains of all sizes causing trouble all the time.

If you are an official in other places, you will lose your job at most if you fail to do your job well. But if you are an official in Guizhou, you will lose your life if you fail to do your job well.

Zhao Jin had served in the army in Guizhou, so he was naturally aware of the dangers there. However, he had wasted half his life and too much time, so he was very eager to seize this rare opportunity to make achievements for the court and make up for his lifelong regrets.

But he had only served as a county magistrate before, and lacked the necessary experience to run a region. If he were to serve as a governor in a peaceful province, he could learn while working, and if he gritted his teeth and worked for a year or two, he would be able to get the hang of it.

But would Guizhou give him the opportunity to learn slowly? I'm afraid he would lose his job before he learned how to be a governor...

Of course, if it weren't for the difficulty of being the governor of Guizhou, he would not have been promoted.

Zhao Jin endured for more than ten years before finally seeing the light of day again. Naturally, he cherished the official hat on his head very much. Therefore, he did not reply to Wang Tongnian on the spot, but only said that he would come back and think about it for a few days.

~~

"After returning home, I thought about it over and over again, but it was really hard to make a decision. Suddenly, I remembered the lucky bag that my brother gave me," Zhao Jin said, looking at Zhao Hao with a look of amazement. "When I opened it, I saw the words 'Good Luck in the Southwest' written on it, and my mind was made up immediately."

"Brother has agreed?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile.

"I haven't received an official reply yet. Besides, I can't be promoted to the governor of a province just because I agree." Zhao Jin smiled and shook his head, saying, "I thought that my brother would be going to the capital soon, and a few days wouldn't be a big deal, so I wanted to discuss it with you before making a decision."

"How can a little kid like me interfere in military and national affairs?" Zhao Hao said with false humility.

"Alas, do you and I need to be modest, brother? When I was in Nanjing, you knew the current situation in the capital very well. Whether it was Gao Xinzheng's resignation, the proposal to open the sea, or even my little matter, you predicted everything. People say that Zhuge Kongming had already divided the world into three parts before he left his thatched cottage. I thought it was embellishment by later generations, until I met you, I realized that it was not an exaggeration - there really are geniuses in this world that ordinary people can't imagine!"

"I hope you can give me some advice to help me solve the problem." Zhao Jin said as he stood up and bowed to Zhao Hao for help.

Zhao Hao quickly stepped aside, feeling a little embarrassed by Zhao Jin's flattery. He thought to himself, how can I compare with Zhuge Liang? He is really capable, but I am just a foresighted person, and it's all just a routine.

He knew long ago that Zhao Jin would be appointed as Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief and Governor of Guizhou at the end of this year.

Anyone would be worried about such a big thing, not to mention going to Guizhou, a hell of a place, to be the governor. Zhao Hao could guess with his toes that Zhao Jin would be undecided.

But Zhao Hao also knew that Zhao Jin finally went and did a great job, achieving his life's work.

Therefore, those four words of Zhao Hao were just to help Zhao Jin make up his mind, and at the same time, to establish his image as a wise and resourceful expert in his mind.

To put it bluntly, they are afraid that the elder brother will become too powerful and arrogant to recognize the younger brother who has been through thick and thin with him...

Although this was a bit dishonest, hadn't Young Master Zhao done many dishonest things? At least this was not the first time he had used the method of using one's own spear to attack another's shield.

However, the effect is still so immediate.

~~

After sitting down again, Zhao Hao explained the strategy of pacifying the Miao people to Zhao Jin.

Each of these was done by Zhao Jin in another time and space, and he did it very well. It naturally sounds like he was very skilled...

"The situation in Guizhou may seem tricky, but it's actually not that difficult to sort out. Since Emperor Chengzu abolished the two Xuanwei offices of Sizhou and Sinan, the two chieftains that once dominated eastern Guizhou no longer exist. Now, what my brother has to deal with are only two weak chieftains, the Guizhu Chieftainship and the Pingfa Chieftainship."

"Oh, I finally believe today that some people are born with knowledge." Zhao Jin was stunned. He had served in Guizhou as a soldier and had spent every day in the Ministry of War to look up information, so he barely had a comprehensive understanding of the situation in Guizhou. He didn't expect that Zhao Hao would immediately give him a general outline of the complicated situation as soon as he heard that he was going to Guizhou to be the governor.

"Obviously, my dear brother has been keeping an eye on the situation in Guizhou!"

And the result was exactly the same as what he had been thinking about for half a month. This made people bow down to him, and there were no words to express the respect in their hearts at this moment.

Zhao Jin couldn't help but feel ashamed of his superficiality. I thought that I thought you were wasting your precious time by eating and drinking all day and doing nothing. I only saw the surface. In fact, you care about the world and have been studying the various problems of the Ming Dynasty...

It’s just that your efforts were all put in places that I didn’t see... It turns out that all good students have this problem!

~~

Realizing that his brother had a profound understanding of Guizhou, Zhao Jin no longer dared to just listen. He quickly took out a pen and paper and wrote down the key points of what Zhao Hao said while listening.

"Officials should focus on the main contradictions. Once the main contradictions are grasped, the key to solving the problem is grasped." Seeing a third-rank official take out a small notebook and look like he was willing to learn, Zhao Hao's self-esteem was greatly satisfied. He worked harder to give advice to his elder brother:

"Brother, you are lucky because your predecessor, Du Zhongcheng, is a rare good official with vision and ability. Not only did he realize this major contradiction, but he also proposed two solutions. One is to change the two chieftains into officials, and the other is to set up two counties under the jurisdiction of the two chieftains and make them under the jurisdiction of Chengfan Prefecture, and then move the Chengfan Prefecture to the provincial capital... Under his unremitting efforts, these two things have made considerable progress."

"But he also forced the chieftain to rebel, and the situation got out of control, so he was transferred out of Guizhou." Zhao Jin looked at Zhao Hao in distress and said, "Brother, what you mean is, should I continue on the path of my predecessor, or take a step back and see the bigger picture?"

"Take a half step back." Zhao Hao smiled and said, "First, focus on moving the government, and temporarily put the policy of returning the natives to the officials on hold. We will implement it when the time is right..."

"Yeah." Zhao Jin nodded. He understood what Zhao Hao meant, which was to do the easy things first and leave the difficult things to others.

ps. The eighth update... 2300 votes plus more updates, continue to ask for monthly votes and recommendation votes...