Let me explain this on two sides.

After the eldest master took Master Zhao away, the couple under Shen Chen also called over Captain Liu, the leader of the Sand Ship Gang in the Xisha Islands.

Captain Liu then realized that Madam Shen had been attacked. Fifteen people went out, but only seven returned.

Of the remaining eight people, only half brought back bodies, while the other four were buried at the bottom of the river without a trace left.

Mrs. Shen stopped Captain Liu, who was jumping and shouting in the middle of the night, and asked him to quickly arrange a boat to take her and his group back to the Sand Boat Gang’s base in Sansha.

By the time Mrs. Shen and her party returned to Sansha, it was already dawn.

Sansha is the largest piece of land in Chongming after the collapse of Yaoliusha and Dongsha. It is 20 miles from east to west and from north to south, and is as big as several towns.

When the Sand Ship Gang saw the tragic situation on the ship, there was an uproar at the dock.

The gang members gathered around and looked at the bodies of their fellow gang members being carried down from the boat, their eyes tearing up.

"Who did this? How dare you kill someone from our Sand Ship Gang!"

"Anyone who dares to touch my wife will become an enemy of our entire Sand Boat Gang!"

"Kill his entire family! Revenge!"

The dock was filled with angry shouts.

"Be quiet and make way!" Suddenly, a shout was heard, and someone sang in a long voice: "The leader is here..."

The gang members finally quieted down and quickly made way.

Led by a group of warriors with swords, eight burly men with bare chests came to the dock carrying a sedan chair.

Sitting on the sedan chair was a man in his thirties wearing a brocade robe and a Tang Dynasty scarf. He was not bad looking, but his skin was too white, almost as white as Mrs. Shen's. He looked a bit out of place with the bronze-skinned men at the dock.

Shen Chen looked calmly at the sedan chair coming towards her, and whispered instructions to the couple behind her who looked angry.

"Remember what I said, don't let on."

The couple quickly lowered their heads and relaxed their tense faces.

Fortunately, the white-faced gang leader didn't pay any attention to the two of them. His eyes were on Shen Chen, who was as beautiful and strong as a white witch.

"Oh, sister-in-law, what happened?"

The leader ordered his men to get off the sedan quickly and stepped forward to console Madam Shen, "Are you not injured? Are you frightened?"

"I'm sorry to have worried you, but on the way back we ran into some Japanese pirates. The brothers fought desperately, but the gap in strength was too big, and most of them were killed or injured."

Madam Shen said with a sad expression, then returned to her indifference and said, "Thanks to Prince Qian, I'm fine."

"That's good, that's good." The gang leader smiled happily, "Otherwise I won't be able to explain to my eldest brother in the afterlife."

"You don't have to be like this, Gang Leader. The people of the Sand Boat Gang are born in water and die in water. Everything is fate." Madam Shen sighed as if resigned to her fate, and bowed to him, saying, "I've been out these days, and I miss little brother Teng very much. I'll go see him first."

"Xiao Teng is fine. I go to see him every day." The gang leader smiled and said, "Sister-in-law, please take my sedan chair back."

"It's only a few steps. Just walk back." Madam Shen declined the offer and said to the gang leader Fu Yifu, "Please help me take care of the brothers' funeral."

"It's our duty." The gang leader said seriously.

"Thank you." Mrs. Shen politely but distantly led her people away from the dock.

The gang leader watched her walk away with a smile on his face, and then his eyes gradually became gloomy.

Xisha Sea Temple.

Zhao Hao slept until noon and was woken up by hunger.

The disciples prepared a sumptuous lunch to welcome their master.

The table was full of fish, shrimp, crabs, chicken, duck and fish. Although the appearance was not very good, the taste was still very good.

The two men asked the maid to send a table of food to the girls in the backyard, and then poured freshly squeezed juice for the master and drank it with him.

After Zhao Hao had filled his stomach, Jin Xuezeng could not help but scratch his head and asked, "Master, I heard on the island that our master built a dike in Kunshan County in one month. Is this true?"

"Of course." Zhao Hao patiently dealt with a swimming crab. Swimming crabs were fat in this season, and he preferred the delicious swimming crabs with a hint of seawater to the fragrant river crabs.

"Not only did we repair the north embankment of the Wusong River in January, but we also repaired the embankments of Yangcheng Lake, Jiepu River, and Yanglintang in the second month."

"Really?" Jin Xueceng and Yu Shensi looked at each other and saw anxiety in each other's eyes.

The two of them offered a peeled crab claw each and asked flatteringly, "Master, should Jiangnan Company develop Chongming next?"

Zhao Hao swallowed his mouthful of white crab claw meat, squinted his eyes comfortably and said, "That's hard to say. The company's affairs need to be studied and decided by the shareholders. I alone can't make the final decision."

"Master..." Jin Xuezeng wagged his tail like a puppy and begged for mercy, "Can you bear to see your disciple living in the temple forever? Among the more than 1,400 county magistrates in the Ming Dynasty, is there anyone as miserable as me?"

"Yes, Master. If the levee is not built well, we dare not even mention building a government office." Yu Shensi also nodded and agreed: "If it collapses again, we can't afford to be blamed."

"Hahaha, don't worry, Sansha won't collapse." The teacher said calmly.

Jin Xuezeng and Yu Shensi's heartbeats suddenly accelerated, and they cried out in unison:

'It's coming, it's coming! The long-lost great prophecy is here! With the master's boundless power, Chongming Island finally sees hope!'

"That's great, Master!" Jin Xuezeng jumped three feet high, tears streaming down his face, "A county magistrate without a county office is like a prostitute... oh no no no no, like a bandit without a base, there is no way they can grow and develop."

"But why does it have to be Sansha..." Yu Shensi said worriedly, "That's the territory of the Sand Boat Gang. They will definitely not allow us to build a county government there."

"Oh, the Sand Ship Gang is so powerful?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile.

"Oh, that's right. Master, please look, this is Chongming Island a hundred years ago." Jin Xuezeng hurriedly cleared a space on the table and placed a map of Chongming from the Chenghua period on it.

On the map, the Taicang-Shanghai line south of the Yangtze River estuary was fine. The northern bank of Nantong looked completely different from what it looked like in later times. The entire Qidong area did not exist at all, and the distance between the north and south of the estuary was more than 120 miles.

There are more than 100 sandbars of various sizes scattered across this vast water area of ​​120 li. The largest of them are Sansha, Yaoliusha and Dongsha. At that time, 90% of the population of Chongming County lived in these three places.

Jin Xuezeng told Zhao Hao from the map that the three major forces in Chongming were originally located in Dongsha, the Chongming County Office was located in Dongsha, the Tianci Salt Field and the garrison were located in Yaoliusha, and the Sand Boat Gang was located in Sansha. The three parties kept to themselves and maintained a three-way balance of power for a long time.

But with the collapse of Yaoliusha and Dongsha, the Tianci Salt Field was withdrawn, the garrison moved to Jinshanwei, and the county government office also sank into the water. The county magistrate could only move to Xisha to live in peace in a corner.

Only Sansha remained intact.

Moreover, the Sand Ship Gang was engaged in shipping business and was not affected by the collapse of the sandbar at all. More and more people from Chongming came to join them.

The Shachuan Gang has become the largest force in the entire Chongming.

At present, they have more than 500 sand boats and more than 3,000 sailors. The 40,000 to 50,000 people in Sansha are either family members of the sand boat gang or depend on the sand boat gang for their livelihood, so it is easy to imagine who they regard as the boss.

As the saying goes, there can't be two tigers in one mountain. How could the Shachuan Gang agree to the county to interfere in their territory?

P.S. Please vote for the fourth update. I have to send my kids to school tomorrow, so I can't stay up late. I'm going to sleep. Good night, everyone.