Looking at the official ship that was gradually going away, Zhang Tongpan shook his head and chuckled, "It's not that scary."

He lost the draw, so he had to come here to stop Zhao Shouzheng and prevent him from entering Suzhou City.

In fact, Kunnan is overflowing every year, and even the entire Kunshan is flooded from time to time, but the masters of Suzhou City are not in a hurry at all.

It's not as strong as the fear of Zhao Shouzheng.

After all, they joined forces to bring the top scholar from Suzhou City, a paradise on earth, to Kunshan County, a hell on water.

According to legend, the top scholar is all-powerful, lawless and arrogant.

After all, he was a man who had beaten the young cabinet minister and been caned in the court!

What if he gets so angry that he makes a scene in Suzhou City?

Even if you don't make a fuss, it's inevitable that you'll give the prefect a cold shoulder and say weird things, right?

Why should the prefect be the only one to suffer for the good things that everyone has done?

Therefore, the prefect ordered these evil spirits and monsters under him, no, you have to stop him.

We dare not...cannot see him now, so let him go to Kunshan first, and we will deal with it later when he makes any mistakes and loses his arrogance.

What, no mistakes? How is that possible? Kunshan is a mess.

How can a rookie county magistrate know how to provide disaster relief? It would be strange if he didn't make mistakes. It would be strange if he did it right!

When the official ship had completely disappeared, Judge Zhang turned around and got on a gorgeous mahogany and silver-inlaid carriage behind him.

A tall, thin man in his forties with gray hair and beard sat in the carriage with a gloomy face.

Judging from his appearance, it was Liu Zhengqi, the vice president of Dongting Chamber of Commerce.

However, this man who almost became Zhao Hao's father-in-law has become completely thinner than last year and looks ten years older.

Obviously, he didn't have an easy year.

In the fall of last year, when silk prices plummeted, Mr. Liu lost a total of 400,000 silver coins, and his capital chain was broken. He had to sell off all his assets in Jinling and even sold his 100,000-acre mulberry garden in Huzhou at a low price, which was really a huge loss.

To make matters worse, his reputation was severely damaged. The Huizhou merchants, Fujian merchants, and Zhejiang merchants in Jinling all laughed at him, saying that he was almost bankrupted by a child who hadn't even grown up yet.

In fact, Zhao Hao only caused him to pay more than 40,000 taels of silver. However, people were more willing to believe those exaggerated and bizarre statements because of the spread of rumors.

Mr. Liu was too embarrassed to stay in Jinling any longer, so he resigned from the position of president of the Nanjing Suzhou Chamber of Commerce and returned to his old nest in Suzhou to lick his wounds.

However, the merchants from Dongting in his hometown also laughed at him behind his back and squeezed him out in business, making him miserable.

If he hadn't clung to the thigh of Xu Kun, the second son of Xu Ge Lao, last winter, he would have been driven out of the vice president's throne by those bastards when the Dongting Chamber of Commerce held its election at the end of the year.

But Mr. Liu's backwords were not over yet. Although Xu Kun helped him stabilize the situation, the Xu family were all vampires!

In less than half a year, Xu Kun had already embezzled more than 200,000 taels of tribute from him, leaving Liu Yuanwai, who had just recovered, strapped for cash again.

This is because they have a strong business foundation from generation to generation, otherwise they would have been tortured to death long ago.

Unexpectedly, at this time, news came that Lord Xu had retired.

Mr. Liu was immediately shocked, as if he had eaten a fly. How could he be so unlucky? Why did he always make the wrong choice?

To make matters worse, news came one after another that Zhao Shouzheng was appointed magistrate of Wu County.

The foundation of Mr. Liu's business, and even his home, are all in Wu County.

Liu Zhengqi was completely panicked now, and he quickly used his money ability again to coordinate with people at all levels, hoping to move Zhao Shouzheng to another place.

In addition, the Xu family also had a feud with the Zhao family. Xu Fan's two younger brothers, Xu Ying and Xu Kun, also spared no effort to exaggerate the evil and tyranny of the Zhao father and son.

With their concerted efforts, they finally triggered the "Zhao phobia" in Suzhou's official circles, which led to Mr. Zhao's trip to Kunshan to fight the flood...

~~

Zhang Jiong sat on the soft seat with his legs crossed, and said to Mr. Liu with a teasing smile: "You finally got rid of your anger, right?"

"Not bad." Mr. Liu let out a long breath and looked away from the river. "I'm just worried what if he comes back to kill me?"

"Don't worry. Over the years, none of the Kunshan county magistrates, one after another, has been able to extricate themselves from that quagmire. He, Zhao Zhuangyuan, is no exception." Zhang Jiong scratched his ears and no longer took Zhao Shouzheng seriously.

"I'm still worried, I have to put another rope around his neck." Mr. Liu was not afraid to be careless and said, "I want the Chamber of Commerce to stop allowing any grain to enter Kunshan."

"So cruel?" Zhang Jiong couldn't help but gasp.

"When I begged for mercy, they didn't let me go." Mr. Liu gritted his teeth and said, "Things have changed. This time they have fallen into my hands. I will make them live a life worse than death!"

"Don't go too far." Although Zhang Jiong had received a lot of favors from Mr. Liu, he had not forgotten his status. "The people of Kunshan are also the subjects of the Lord of the Palace. If too many people starve to death, the Palace will also suffer."

"Don't worry, we just don't enter Kunshan, and the counties will not be affected, and the supply will increase." One of the pillar industries of the Dongting Merchants is to sell grain from Huguang to Nanzhili. Especially the grain transportation in the Susong area is completely monopolized by them, so Mr. Liu certainly has the confidence to say this.

"Ordinary people have legs. As long as they leave Kunshan, they won't starve to death."

"Haha, that's right." Zhang Tongpan laughed relievedly: "They are used to begging anyway!"

"Hehe..." Mr. Liu sneered twice. He wanted to see what curses the Zhao father and son would have when the common people ran away.

By then, Kunshan will be in ruins and become a desolate place. Lin Run will definitely strip him of his official title.

Still thinking about going back to Suzhou? Dream on!

~~

'A-choo!'

Zhao Shouzheng, who was standing at the bow wearing a bamboo hat, sneezed loudly.

"It's damn cold." With Mr. Zhao's kind nature, he naturally didn't think that someone was cursing him. He tightened his raincoat and asked Zhao Hao who was standing beside him: "Son, did you see anything?"

However, not long after the official ship left Suzhou City, it arrived at Guajingkou in the North Taihu Bay, and the Wusong River leading to Kunshan also originated here.

This can also be said to be the source of Kunshan’s floods.

Zhao Hao then took Zhao Shouzheng and the two gentlemen to the bow for an on-site inspection.

Without investigation, you have no right to speak.

Unfortunately, sometimes, even after investigating, I still can’t speak…

Master Zhao smacked his lips when he heard this. He saw a vast expanse of water in front of him, with the water rolling eastward.

What can you see?

He smiled at Wu Chengen and said calmly, "Mr. Sheyang has been an official in Changxing County near Lake Tai for many years. He sees things much more clearly than I do."

Well, a little more is a lot, ten thousand more is also a lot, so what I said is absolutely correct.

Wu Cheng'en was a down-to-earth man, so he nodded and pointed to the obviously narrow river surface on the west side and said, "Guajingkou is a long and narrow trumpet-shaped mouth with the lowest terrain. 70% of the water in the entire Taihu Lake will be discharged from here."

"Guajingkou." Zhao Hao had an impression of it. He pointed to the chessboard-shaped paddy fields on the south bank and asked, "Is that the Jinggang paddy field?"

"Yes, our Kunshan is going to be killed by this thing." Wu Chengen said with a wry smile.

"Oh?" Zhao Hao was a little surprised when he heard that. He remembered that the high school history book said that this thing was a water conservancy project with many benefits.

P.S. I spent the whole morning studying hydrological data. Ah, kill me, I only wrote one chapter. I will continue...