In the second hall of the Governor's Office.

When Lin Zhongcheng asked about the disaster situation in Kunshan County, Governor Cai hesitated for a moment before saying softly, "Nothing is wrong."

"Oh?" Lin Run was surprised. Wu County suffered such severe damage, how could Kunshan County be safe and sound?

"Are you sure?"

"It's absolutely true." Prefect Cai also said in disbelief, "Not only did the county report it this way, but the officials sent by the prefecture to inspect also reported it this way. Although the 62-li levee collapsed in many places, they built another levee inside to block the flood."

"As expected of the No. 1 Scholar, he is very accomplished." Lin Run couldn't help but praise him, "When Magistrate Cai suggested that he come to act as the governor of Kunshan, I thought you didn't want this magistrate with such a big background to enter Suzhou City."

As he said this, he stood up and bowed to Cai Guoxi, saying, "Prefect Cai, this court wants to apologize to you. You are using your best steel on the blade."

"Thank you for your compliment, Zhongcheng." Prefect Cai quickly became humble.

Yang Chenglin and County Magistrate Zhang on the side secretly complained in their hearts. He was just afraid that he couldn't suppress the man named Zhao, right?

Zhao Shouzheng was born as a top scholar, and he was also very hot-tempered. He dared to beat up the young cabinet minister in the streets. Such a god was demoted to be a county magistrate. He had to meet each other every day. How could Magistrate Cai bear it?

In fact, not to mention Prefect Cai, even the two county magistrates were unwilling to let Zhao Shouzheng come to Suzhou.

Even though Yang Chenglin complains all day long, such as not cultivating in his previous life and being unlucky in three lives, being a parent official in the most prosperous city in the world, even if you are not greedy or take advantage of others, one year of work is equivalent to three years of work elsewhere.

Moreover, you can establish good relations with many well-connected gentry, which will be of great benefit to your future career.

As for Changshu County Magistrate Zhang Defu, he originally ruled a separate city from Yang Chenglin, and they were equals, and he could even suppress the other.

If it was Zhao Zhuangyuan who came to Wu County, even the prefect would have to give him some respect. How could he play a rival role? He would just be his younger brother.

"Come to think of it, Kunshan is very different from previous years." Lin Run stood up and said with increasing interest in Kunshan, "At this time of year in previous years, the streets should be full of disaster victims from Kunshan, right? This year, I didn't see a single one. I heard that most of those who had left before have gone back?"

"It seems so." Prefect Cai felt guilty and subconsciously did not want to meet Zhao Shouzheng, so he never cared about Kunshan.

Naturally, the people below would not bring bad luck to him, so they basically did not report the situation in Kunshan.

But at this time, you have to pretend to be rich. How can you say that you don't know the situation in your jurisdiction?

He guessed uncertainly, "Last time, Kunshan County invited me to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of their new dike. It seemed that they wanted to build a stone pond every month. Whether others believed it or not, the people of Kunshan believed it, so many people went back to build the dike."

"Repair a stone pond in a month?" Lin Run had visited Huizhou and other places after the plum rains last time. This was the first time he heard this statement when he just returned to Suzhou. "How long?"

"More than sixty miles."

"How is that possible?" Lin Run's first reaction was disbelief, but then he remembered that the dike they built had blocked the hurricane flood the day before, so it seemed that he could not question it casually.

He then asked Magistrate Cai with great interest, "When you attended the ceremony, didn't you ask him who gave him the courage to say such a thing?"

"This..." Prefect Cai couldn't help but said awkwardly, "As the chief official of a prefecture, I can't just harass the county casually, so I asked Chen Tongzhi to be the representative."

It was an unspoken rule in the officialdom that the prefect would not easily go down to the county. Lin Run could not say anything to him.

But the word "Xun" (the governor) is the first character of the name, so Lin Run didn't have such concerns. He smiled and said, "Well, I will go and visit Zhao Zhuangyuan in person to see if he is really supernatural and how he can outshine his colleagues right away."

"I am ashamed." Cai Guoxi sighed, thinking that it was indeed the case that 'the dragon will rise and cannot be stopped'. Fortunately, he did not join the Xu family to deal with Zhao Shouzheng, otherwise he would have to worry about whether that guy would report him to the governor.

Lin Run still had something to say to Prefect Cai, so after the two county magistrates finished their report, they were sent out.

The two men walked towards the yamen gate while talking in low voices.

"You really don't know why Kunshan was able to build the dike so quickly?" Zhang Defu asked.

"I don't know." Yang Chenglin rolled his eyes.

"That's it." Zhang Defu said with a smile.

"Cement." Yang Chenglin spit out two words from his nose in frustration.

Over the past half month, a fleet of two to three thousand large and small ships from Kunshan County has been circling the two counties day after day. It is impossible for him not to know about it.

The prefect must know about this, but he just doesn't want to mention it.

Yang Chenglin was even more reluctant to mention it.

Because of their relationship, he was inevitably compared with Zhao Shouzheng. This time, one of them showed his face and the other showed his butt, and Yang Chenglin felt so embarrassed.

I guess there must be people laughing at him behind his back, saying that he has pushed others away but cannot do his job well himself.

Coincidentally, Zhang Defu was one of them. Seeing him look so depressed, I felt so happy and kept rubbing salt into his wounds.

“Do you know where cement comes from?”

"..." County Magistrate Yang remained silent.

"Xishan Island." Magistrate Zhang answered for him, "I heard that the stones for building the dike were all mined from Xishan."

"..." Magistrate Yang said with a dark face: "You know it, but why are you asking?"

"I'm just curious." Zhang Defu said, "Isn't Xishan Island owned by your county? Why don't you use the cement first? You're building a dike along the Taihu Lake, and you deserve this criticism?"

He said with envy on his face: "This is a chance to leave a name in history. 'Yang Gong Dike', just thinking about it makes me jealous."

"..." Magistrate Yang wanted to strangle Zhang Defu to death, and said angrily: "Stop playing dumb here, don't you know what's going on in Xishan Island?!"

Seeing that he was about to get angry, Zhang Defu put away his teasing smile and lowered his voice:

"Do you think I'm teasing you? I'm just worried about you. To tell you the truth, I've been taking a boat along the Wusong River a lot recently. It's like magic. I can repair two or three miles a day!"

"That's a stone embankment that's more than ten feet high and really thick! And they built lattice embankments every mile. Can you imagine how big a project this is? They can really finish it in a month!"

"Oh, that's amazing..." Yang Chenglin lowered his head like a deflated ball, completely giving up the idea of ​​competing with Zhao Shouzheng. "I can't compare, I just can't compare."

"I also managed to get a few bags of cement back for research." Zhang Defu said to him in a deep voice: "No kidding, cement is a magic weapon for achieving political achievements and a sharp tool for promotion. If we are not close to the water and get the moon first, then we will have two of these..."

Zhang Defu stretched out his hand into a claw and raised his middle finger.

"You are the cuckold." Chenglin Yang rolled his eyes at him.

ps. The fourth update. I wrote for a day with one eye, and the other eye was in Sharingan mode... I'll write another chapter...