According to the rules, when a governor is absent, officials of the six ministries, the Censorate, the Ministry of Public Administration and the Supreme Court will jointly recommend officials of the third rank or above.

Among the six ministries, there are only Shangshu and Shilang who are above the third rank, a total of eighteen people.

The Dali Temple and the Tongzhengsi each had only one chief official above the third rank.

There were many people above the third rank in the Censorate, including the Left and Right Censors-in-Chief and the Left and Right Deputy Censors-in-Chief, totaling more than thirty.

However, most of them were additional titles for governors and governors-general who were sent to other places. According to the rules, only the Left Censor-in-Chief and the Left Deputy Censor-in-Chief participated in the imperial recommendation.

Therefore, a total of twenty-two senior officials participated in this imperial examination.

If you can get more than half, that is, the first votes of the twelve people, you can be guaranteed to be elected.

This is really difficult. Fortunately, the rank of the governor is still a little low. If the governor-general and ministers of various ministries are recommended by the court, the heads of the six departments and the thirteen censors will also participate.

In that case, no matter how hard they try, it will be in vain. With the Xu family's influence on Kedao, there is no possibility of losing.

It was precisely because the Kedao did not participate in the court recommendation for the governor-level position that Master Zhao had the confidence to compete with the Xu family.

However, the result was still not optimistic. Among the 36 people present, only seven were sure to get the first vote.

I’m afraid even Lord Xu’s family can’t compare to them.

However, Zhao Hao was not surprised, because Lin Run had said long ago that once Xu Jie fell, the influence of the Jiangnan gentry on the court would be interrupted for ten to twenty years.

If it weren't for seeing this gap, Master Zhao would not have had the opportunity to emerge as a dark horse and become their leader in no time.

Of course, having said that, at a time when there is a lack of young people, it is actually quite scary that a senior official in the capital can still influence one-third of the power.

Young Master Zhao also needs to show his trump card at the right time to suppress those guys who were half-forced to join the gang.

So amidst the sighs of people complaining about the decline in strength, Master Zhao laughed loudly and announced brazenly: "Seven votes are enough, I will take care of the rest!"

"Scary..." Upon hearing this, everyone looked at Master Zhao in awe. They all knew that Zhao Hao had a strong background, but they didn't expect him to have such influence on the court.

But on second thought, it made sense. After all, the shareholders of Xishan Company, although poorer than them, were in a high position and had more power than the Jiangnan gentry.

But no one expected that Mr. Zhao and his shareholders had such a close relationship. It really made people have to improve their evaluation of this young leader.

As long as Jiangnan Company and Xishan Company work together, what can't be done? The governor of Yingtian, overthrowing Xu, opening up trade, all can be done!

Now the comrades have more confidence in Mr. Zhao...

Little did they know that this was just their overthinking. Zhao Hao had no intention of bothering the shareholders of Xishan Company at all.

First of all, his influence on the shareholders of Xishan Company was not as great as they imagined.

Because most shareholders have very limited shares, they will stand with him when it comes to the interests of Xishan Company. But this matter has nothing to do with the interests of Xishan Company, so it is not so easy to get others to help.

Of course, if Mr. Zhao is willing to exchange Xishan Company's stocks, they will definitely be willing to help. After all, after the stock split, the price per share has become 10% of the original price, which has greatly activated the stock trading volume, and the stock price has also risen sharply, doubling again in less than half a year.

Is there any vote in this world that cannot be bought with Xishan Company shares? Not true.

But Zhao Hao couldn't do that, because it would be too conspicuous. Xishan Company was under the emperor's feet, unlike Jiangnan Company, which was far away from the emperor, so it could take bigger steps.

Once it was discovered that Xishan Company's political influence could influence the court, it would inevitably arouse the court's vigilance and targeting. That would violate the strategy he had set for Xishan Company: "focus on making money and don't talk about state affairs."

Mr. Zhao is counting on someone else.

As night fell, the first anti-Xu conference concluded successfully.

Mr. Zhao personally escorted his comrades to the carriage and personally presented them with souvenirs. Fortunately, this time it was not a bag of cement, but a bag of "Runcha".

On the return carriage, the comrades were excited and had mixed feelings.

After a hard day's work, Master Hua sighed to Hua Bozhen:

"I knew this day would come, but I didn't expect it to come so soon and so naturally."

"Yes." Hua Bozhen sighed with endless emotion: "Half a year ago, when I first met Master Zhao, my father said that in a few years, he would replace the Xu family and become the new king of Jiangnan, so he let his son follow him to ensure that the Hua family would continue to be safe for three generations... In the end, my father's prediction was too conservative."

"It's all about luck and situation. Who could have thought that Lord Xu would make such stupid moves?" Hua Cha said with a pair of dim eyes that showed his wisdom and insight into the world:

"Although the Xu family seems to have fallen into a desperate situation by accident, in fact, from the day when Lord Xu decided to confront Lin Run, this result was inevitable."

"Yes." Hua Bozhen nodded and said, "Back then, our family also encountered a similar situation. But my father personally gathered the tenants, burned the surrender documents and land deeds, and returned all the land to the people, and we survived the disaster safely."

"Later, when Taicang was conducting land surveys, my father persuaded the Second Wang family to give up half of their land in exchange for Lin Zhongcheng's forgiveness. At the time, they all said that our three families were too timid, but now it seems that they were right."

"Haha, your father has experienced a lot and realized that humility is the best way to protect oneself." Grand Master Hua smiled faintly and said, "But for a family like ours, blindly being humble is not a solution. We need to keep making progress to stay strong."

"But I don't agree with the original path of the Nine Families. So when Mr. Zhao proposed the idea of ​​'do no evil, do not break the law', I immediately decided that this was the path we should take. So I was the first to stand up and support him." He said with a look of relief:

"Now it seems that this step is the right one, huh?"

"Not only did he make the right decision, he was so wise." Hua Bozhen praised him profusely, "Young Master obviously went to Taicang first, but he ended up relying on our Hua family the most. This is all due to father's foresight."

The Hua family was the first to fully support Zhao Hao and gave him great help in the early stages of Jiangnan Company. Mr. Zhao also reciprocated the favor by not only inviting Master Hua to serve as the chairman of the group, but also letting Hua Bozhen be the general manager of the company's headquarters, Xishan Island.

Moreover, the Hua family is not only the second largest individual shareholder of Jiangnan Group, Hua Bozhen also personally owns 20% of Jiangnan Building Materials' shares.

Jiangnan Building Materials Company currently owns Jiangnan Cement Plant No. 1 and Plant No. 2, as well as the Jiangnan Quarry. It is the core asset of the group and even Jiangnan Bank cannot compare to it.

But he deserved it, and no one could be jealous of him. As the head of the Hua family, he left his family and business to start a business on a deserted island with Zhao Hao after meeting him for the first time. Who could have such courage?

Although wealth and glory are given by God, one must seize the opportunity when it comes.

ps. The first of three consecutive updates.