After they separated from the governor's official ship, Wang Shimao, Hua Bozhen and others said angrily: "These fence-sitters, as soon as they saw Gao Huzi baring his teeth, they pretended not to know this place!"

Liu Zhengqi and others were even more worried. Speaking of which, Liu Zhengqi Liu Yuanwai was like a frost-bitten eggplant today, and he couldn't lift his spirits. I don't know what happened?

"It's okay, it's okay. This situation won't last long." Young Master Zhao reassured everyone and said, "Everything will be fine soon."

"That's great..." All the senior executives of the group smiled. With just one sentence from Master Zhao, they felt relieved after half a year.

They didn't ask Zhao Hao what he was going to do. Anyway, the young master must have his own way, so they just had to wait and see...

Over the years, facts have proven time and again that it is right to believe in you, Master!

Especially those close friends who have witnessed him step by step to where he is today, their confidence in Master Zhao has reached a blind level. Even if Zhao Hao said that he would make men give birth to children tomorrow and make the sun rise at night, they would still believe it...

~~

Hundreds of colorful boats formed a long fleet, surrounding Master Zhao's wedding boat, which left the moat and headed east along the Lou River.

The night-time fireworks show before dawn had spread all over Suzhou. People along the way came to the riverside to see Mr. Zhao's bride, bringing along their elders and children. Some even packed Suzhou snacks in food boxes and baskets, hoping to ask them to take them along the way. Some also gave Suzhou embroidery, jewelry, and Suzhou gouache as gifts. Although they might not be worth much, they were the love of the folks.

Thanks to Jiangnan Group, Loujiang River has been widened to three times its original width, making this river connecting Suzhou, Kunshan and Taicang and directly flowing into the Yangtze River no longer congested, and its transportation capacity has been greatly improved. Now, along the Loujiang River, ten miles eastward all the way to Lujing River, there are commercial areas with many shops.

Not far to the east of Suzhou City is Zhenyi Town, where handicrafts flourish and hundreds of merchants gather. Less than ten miles to the east of Zhenyi Town is Kunshan County, which is rapidly rising. It is estimated that in a few years, these three places will be completely connected.

The feelings of the people of Kunshan towards the father and son of the Zhao family are naturally far beyond what can be found elsewhere. There is no need to elaborate on the bond between them. The people regard Mr. Zhao as their father, and Mr. Zhao as their relative. Zhao Shouzheng's departure without saying goodbye had left the people of Kunshan with deep regrets, so of course they had to take this opportunity to make amends.

When Zhao Hao's boat entered Kunshan County, the people on board were stunned by the scene before them.

On both sides of the Loujiang River, there were long tables, low tables, round tables, square tables, and eight-immortal tables, connected end to end all the way to the county town.

Without exception, the tables were all decorated with incense, candles, red dates, chestnuts, longans, and lotus seeds. People knelt in front of the tables and prayed devoutly for the newlyweds. Some people stood beside the tables and threw the grains in the winnowing baskets onto Zhao Hao's boat.

Scattering beans can get rid of the three evil spirits, ward off evil spirits and disasters, and welcome good fortune. It is a necessary custom for the wedding in Wuzhong. This shows that the people of Kunshan are not just watching the fun, but really taking it as their own business, praying that everyone's blessings will be bestowed on Mr. Zhao!

On behalf of the people of Kunshan, County Magistrate He, County Magistrate Bai, as well as Zhu Dashou, Zheng Ruozeng and others presented a special wedding gift to Master Zhao - they renamed Dianshan Lake to Dazhao Lake, Cheng Lake to Xiaozhao Lake, and used the two largest intact Kunshan Linglong stones on Yufeng Mountain to carve an article on the lakeside, describing the difficulties the father and son had in leading Kunshan along the way.

For He Wenwei, the current magistrate of Kunshan, it is not easy to achieve this, especially in these turbulent times, which further demonstrates his determination to follow the Zhao father and son.

Zhao Hao was deeply moved, but he couldn't help but worry about Lao He and asked, "Half of these two lakes belong to Wujiang County. Will they agree if you change their names?"

"Don't worry, sir. This has been discussed. Which county in Suzhou does not receive your kindness? They are so happy to be associated with you and your son." He Wenwei smiled and lowered his voice, "The two inscriptions were written by Niu Fuzun himself."

"I was wondering why it was so corny." Zhao Hao looked at the rubbings and couldn't help laughing: "So it was the old cow who came out to help."

This incident made him feel particularly happy. Niu Mowang's move clearly showed that he was determined to stand on Zhao Hao's side. If Zhao Hao fell in the future, Gao Huzi would settle the score later. These two inscriptions would be enough to brand Niu as a member of the Zhao Party, and he would never be able to wash it off for the rest of his life.

Niu Mowang knew that for a person like him who had no foundation and no background to become the governor of Suzhou, it must be because of Mr. Zhao's help behind the scenes. If he continued to be indecisive, he would not be a cow anymore...

It would be better for the county magistrate to be in charge now. As long as the Suzhou prefect does not waver and does not act recklessly, the situation in Suzhou will not be chaotic.

~~

Because the people of Kunshan were too enthusiastic, Zhao Hao had to stay in the county for one night before setting off the next day. It was like the son paid off his father's debt.

As a result of the delay, it was already the afternoon of the 11th when we arrived in Chongming.

We have to reach the capital on the 25th at the latest, so there are only 14 days left.

Normally, due to the wind direction in this season, the Royal Shipping Agency would take a full twenty days to travel 3,000 miles from Chongming to Tianjin.

Of course, the speed of a large fleet is definitely slow. If it were replaced by the coast guard's speedboat squadron, it would reach Tianjin in sixteen or seventeen days.

But it was still a serious overtime. And when we got to Tianjin, it was still more than 300 miles away from Beijing...

Zhao, the master of time management, chose the shortest straight line between two points, so he went directly from Chongming to Weihaiwei in the north without going through any other routes!

This can save a full 700 miles of travel!

He couldn't do this before because the geography knowledge he learned in middle school told him that cold currents along the coast of China flow from north to south, and if he stubbornly went north in the winter when the north wind was prevailing, he would suffer.

But his geographical knowledge was obviously too shallow. In recent years, the Royal Shipping, Tamra Garrison and Gangnam Meteorological Bureau have jointly carried out large-scale route exploration activities in the East China Sea.

Through numerous voyages and observations, they found that although there is indeed a coastal current flowing directly from the north to the south within a few kilometers of the coast, in the deep sea far from the shore, the sea water will form several large closed circulations under the combined effects of cold currents, land and the Yangtze River entering the sea.

In short, in the northern part of the Yellow Sea in later generations, that is, the southern waters of Shandong Peninsula, there is a large closed circulation that runs counterclockwise... In fact, that is because the Kuroshio rushed to the Korean Peninsula and returned to form the Yellow Sea Warm Current.

In the southern part of the Yellow Sea, that is, off the coast of Chongming to Huai'an, there is also a large closed circulation that runs in a clockwise direction. This is caused by the abundant water from the Yangtze River flowing into the sea.

Therefore, ships departing from Chongming do not need to go deep into the Black Water Ocean to take the Kuroshio Current to Tamra, but can directly rely on the Yangtze River's fresh water to go north along the southern gyre of the Yellow Sea. When they reach around 35.3 degrees north latitude and 121.6 degrees east longitude, they can then take advantage of the northern gyre of the Yellow Sea to go north until they reach Chengshantou, Weihai.

In this way, even in winter, it takes only ten days to reach Tianjin Dagukou.

However, the location where the two major cyclones intersect is located deep in the Yellow Sea, with no landmarks to refer to. Therefore, one must have the ability to measure longitude and latitude relatively accurately in order to utilize this 'S' shaped route.

At present, with the level of the Royal Shipping and Jiangnan Coast Guard, the latitude can be determined very accurately, but the longitude measurement is not very optimistic, and we cannot guarantee that it will be accurate every time.

Fortunately, the consequence of the uncertain measurement is that it will be sent back to Chongming by the circulation, which is not a big deal.

In this case, Mr. Zhao would definitely take this newly opened route. After all, luck is also an important factor in time management if you want to avoid mistakes.

Young Master Zhao was lucky. For the next period of time, there was no strong wind on the sea. In addition, Elder Niu, who was in charge of steering the ship for him, accurately found the longitude with the assistance of the chief navigator of the Royal Shipping. In the end, it took only nine days to send him to the Dagukou waters.

It took another day to carefully cross the ice floes near the coast, and Master Zhao finally got off the boat on the frozen Dagu River.

When he left Guangzhou, he was still wearing a single layer of clothing and sweating from the heat, but now he is wrapped up like a dumpling in three layers of mink fur cloak. Now he doesn’t mind his hair being too long, and he still feels cold wearing a sea dragon hat and ear buns…

After getting off the boat, we saw a long ice sled parked on the ice. It was a luxurious version of the one the princess used to pick up her daughter. There were two steel rails under the carriage, each pulled by eight drivers on ice skates.

Young Master, Zhao Shizhen, Eunuch Ji, Zhang Jingxiu, Zhu Shimao, Sun Dawu, Wu Yu and others, as well as a large group of disciples, got off the ice sled to greet them.

There is a smooth pigeon system between Jiangnan and the capital, otherwise they would not have expected Zhao Hao to arrive so soon.

After the disciples greeted Zhao Hao, Eunuch Ji said happily:

"Thank God, you are not going to be late. When His Highness heard that you would be able to reach Tianjin on the 21st, he thought he had heard wrong for a moment."

Now we can reach the capital by the 23rd at the latest, so we can have two days to prepare calmly.

"That's how it works on the sea. If you're lucky, it'll go fast." Zhao Hao said with a vague smile, "God is helping me this time."

"Humph." Li Chengen said without a good tone: "Shit luck!"

"What's going on?" Zhao Hao couldn't help but smile bitterly, not knowing how he had offended his future brother-in-law.

"Uncle, don't pay attention to him. He has been losing his appetite and feeling absent-minded these days, as if a piece of flesh has fallen off his body." Zhao Shizhen walked over with a smile and kowtowed to Zhao Hao and the three aunts who were not married yet.

"He wants to take my only sister away, and I have to come to pick him up in the snow!" Li Chengen said with a depressed face: "Should I be happy? Am I cheap? Right, Mr. Zhang?"

Although Zhang Jingxiu also wanted to marry his sister, Zhao Hao was still his science teacher, so how could he be so disrespectful? He greeted Zhao Hao and smiled, "I am very happy."

"Tsk..." Li Chengen was annoyed and kept silent.

The wind on the ice was as sharp as a knife. After a few greetings, everyone quickly got on the ice sled.

Seeing that Zhang Jingxiu seemed to have something to say to him, Zhao Hao invited him to ride in the same car, while Jiang Xueying and the other two got on the car at the back.

At the command, the well-trained drivers stepped on the ice skates and slowly pulled the ice cart, the speed gradually increased, but it was very stable. The people in the carriage could hardly feel the vibration.

p.s. I will write one more update.

ps2. The editor asked me to prepare a side story for 515. It took me half a day to figure out what to write. I wrote half of the side story today and will try to finish it tomorrow.