Governor Lin has a quick mind and always sees things directly.
But after listening to Zhao Hao's long speech, he was a little confused this time.
I always feel that what this kid said is right. The prospects he described are very bright, and what is more commendable is that he has prepared patches for possible drawbacks in advance.
This strong sense of responsibility is rare among the business community.
But Lin Run's intuition told him that behind this impeccable arrangement, there seemed to be a deeper plot.
However, due to the limitations of his knowledge, he only saw that Jiangnan Company wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to control Suzhou's money lending business.
Lin Run could foresee that as long as he gave the nod, the future money transactions between officials, civilians and merchants in Suzhou Prefecture would have to go through the soon-to-be-established Jiangnan Bank.
Although the national big money houses such as Wanyuanhao, Hengtongji, and Xinlong are far more powerful than Wuji, with the silver notes supported by Suzhou Prefecture, Wuji will definitely be able to defeat them, at least in Suzhou.
But the problem is, based on Lin Run's understanding of Jiangnan Company, he always feels that their plans are far more than just this.
While I was thinking, Suzhou City was already in sight.
When Mr. Zhao came the day before yesterday, he saw that although the streets outside the city were all closed, most of them were safe and sound.
However, within just two days, the situation deteriorated rapidly, and fires could be seen from afar on the streets along the moat.
Faint sounds of cursing and crying could be heard on the wind; it was some thugs taking advantage of the situation to set fire and rob people.
Lin Run saw with his own eyes that several thugs smashed open the floor planks of a southern goods store.
The elderly shop owner and several of his employees waved iron bars and tried to stop them.
However, the broken store door attracted a larger number of thugs, and the people in the store were eventually outnumbered and knocked to the ground.
The thugs swarmed in and immediately rushed out of the store carrying piles of various beautifully decorated packaging boxes.
The shop owner hugged a thug's leg distressedly, but was beaten again...
Such atrocities actually happened right under the nose of the Governor of Yingtian!
Lin Run stood up suddenly and shouted, "Captain Feng!"
"Here!" A burly officer immediately responded in a deep voice.
"Take the troops off the boat immediately and clear out the criminals here!" Lin Run ordered sternly.
"Yes, sir!" Captain Feng immediately took the order and ordered the sand boats carrying his subordinates to dock, and then issued an order to clear them out.
Without waiting for the planks to be lowered, the soldiers jumped off the boat one after another, without even forming a formation, and rushed straight towards the thugs who were setting fire and looting.
Seeing the sudden appearance of a large group of soldiers, the rioters quickly scattered with their trophies.
Of course, there were also those who were short-sighted and slow-footed, who were pinned to the ground and beaten by the soldiers who rushed up.
The three or four mile long street was filled with soldiers and thugs chasing each other. The sounds of shouting, cursing and screaming were a mess, and the scene became more and more chaotic.
The shop owner and his employees did not dare to rush out to seek revenge, but instead quickly tried to block the shop door again.
In the eyes of ordinary people, soldiers and officials are as scary as thugs, or even more terrible...
The tense atmosphere was not eased until Prefect Cai and Zhang Defu got off the boat and loudly announced to the citizens that the governor had come to quell the rebellion and that the government troops would protect the territory and the people without harming anyone, that the tense atmosphere eased a little.
Seeing the soldiers tying up the captured thugs, stringing them together and walking them through the messy streets, Lin Run's tense face finally relaxed a little.
He turned around to look at Zhao Hao and said in a deep voice: "This court agrees to the agreement between Suzhou Prefecture and Jiangnan Company. Let's sign the contract and execute it as soon as possible."
There was no time to lose in quelling the riot, and Lin Run had no choice.
"Don't worry, Zhongcheng. The first deposit of Jiangnan Company will be in place tonight." Young Master Zhao assured softly.
"Well, our hospital is going to deal with the riot. You little kids, don't get off the boat." Lin Run nodded, looked at Zhao Hao deeply and said, "After this matter is over, we can talk about it later."
"Okay, I also have a gift for Zhongcheng." Zhao Hao bowed and saw Lin Run off the boat.
When Lin Zhongcheng got ashore, Zhao Hao stood up straight and stared at the messy street in a daze.
Jiang Xueying stood beside Zhao Hao and asked softly, "Brother, are you feeling bad?"
"It's always uncomfortable to witness this kind of chaos." Zhao Hao said in a hoarse voice.
"In fact, this happens every few years in Suzhou." Jiang Xueying said calmly, "It's just that the scale this year is unprecedented, and there are many people who take advantage of the chaos to cause trouble."
"Weren't there so many people taking advantage of the situation in previous years?" Zhao Hao asked with a frown.
"Of course it's unavoidable, but it's rare to do this kind of thing in broad daylight." Jiang Xue said with a hint of anger:
"In fact, Suzhou people are very measured in making trouble. No one intends to rebel. Life has to go on. So they are just venting their anger. Aren't they afraid of being punished for openly smashing, looting and robbing like this?"
As she spoke, she glanced at the officials who were comforting the victims and said in a low voice, "Don't think the government is easy to talk to now. When the situation calms down, they will definitely settle the score in the autumn."
"You mean someone added something to this civil uprising?" Zhao Hao's expression changed.
"I was just about to report to my brother that Wu Ji from Suzhou just sent us a report on the civil unrest." Jiang Xueying handed a folded leaflet to Zhao Hao.
The predecessor of Wu Ji was an intelligence agency disguised as a carriage and horse trading company. After the death of Wang Zhi, with the help of Zhao Liben, it was transformed into a trading company mainly engaged in money trading and logistics, but it never lost its original business.
Zhao Hao opened the folded leaflet and browsed through it while listening to Jiang Xueying say:
"At first, it was just a small disturbance by weavers against the weaving bureau. If the eunuch in charge of weaving had not asked for help from Prefect Cai, the Suzhou government would not have intervened. But they only arrested a few weavers who were the leaders, and did not arrest anyone randomly."
"Yes." Zhao Hao nodded. Prefect Cai was a famous official of Neo-Confucianism and was extremely careful about his reputation. Liu Zhengqi said that he was planning to build a shrine for him in the White Horse Temple in Dongshan.
At this time, he certainly did not want to be branded as aiding and abetting the evil and harming the people.
Moreover, Cai Guoxi is quite capable and has rich experience in governing a region, so he naturally knows how to calm the situation.
Zhao Hao asked the prefect Cai, who originally planned to lock up those weavers for one night and then release them as a warning.
But who would have thought that that night, someone brazenly broke into the prefectural government office, not only opened the cells and released all the prisoners, but also burned the government office down.
"The report said that people everywhere incited the weavers to attack the government office that night, and there were 200 masked gangsters leading the way." Jiang Xueying said in a deep voice: "Although the mastermind behind the scenes has not yet been found out, it is certain that this uprising was premeditated and organized."
"It's probably the Xu family." Zhao Hao sighed and said, "Before the incident, the Minister of Justice was surveying the land in Songjiang."
"My younger sister thinks so too." Jiang Xueying nodded and agreed, "Among the ten prefectures in Jiangnan, only Songjiang has not yet been cleared of land. This shows how arrogant the Xu family is. How could they easily bow down to Lin Zhongcheng?"
Zhao Hao slammed his palm heavily on the railing and said with a straight face: "The Xu family has crossed the line!"
What Mr. Zhao hated most in his life was that officials and gentry ignored the lives of the people for their own selfish interests.
Not to mention taking advantage of the people to achieve ulterior motives.
P.S. Sorry everyone, I was busy with other things over the weekend, so I can only update twice today. The third update will be made up tomorrow morning.