On the way back, the trial fleet also made a special trip to Busan and fired a few shots to intimidate the shameful "smuggling pigs".

As a result, when we returned to Chengshan Port, it was already the tenth day of May.

The logbook showed that the total distance traveled by sea since the return voyage from the Tsugaru Strait on April 25 was 1,767 kilometers. Including the previous outbound voyage, Mr. Zhao had been drifting on the sea for more than a month, and only stayed ashore for a few nights when visiting several water police stations.

After such a long voyage, Mr. Zhao and his two sisters were very tired. He originally planned to rest here for a few days before doing anything else. However, as soon as the ship docked, Chang Kaiche, the general affairs section chief of the security department who stayed in Xingang to receive the news, brought a series of urgent messages.

Because the fleet was out at sea, communication was very poor, especially on the return journey, when they never docked, so they lost contact for 15 days and basically lost contact for nearly a month...

It seems that the development of wireless telegraphy needs to be put on the agenda. Even if it cannot be built for the time being, carrying out a series of preliminary work first will be of great benefit to the development of science.

Well, the wired telegraph seems to be simpler. Why not start working on it together? Anyway, the disciples have all learned electromagnetism, so let them split up and study it slowly. Who knows which one will be successful first and both will be of great use!

~~

Behind the Tamra Garrison Command, there is a row of small villas in the Jiangnan style, which are the dormitories for senior police officers. Jin Ke, Wang Rulong, Ma Yinglong, Tong Zigong and others all live here.

Among them, the largest and most prominent one is naturally the commander-in-chief's courtyard of Mr. Zhao.

The pink walls and black tiles enclose a spacious courtyard, with carved railings reflecting green bamboo and stone tables covered with fallen petals. Being in it, one feels as if returning to one's hometown, and both body and mind will be greatly relaxed.

Mr. Zhao took off his police uniform, which he had grown tired of wearing, and changed into his home robe. He sat under the cherry tree, which was only left with the last traces of red, and drank tea while listening to Chang Kaiche's report:

"Ten days ago, I received a letter from the master. The situation in Chaozhou is very bad. The master said that he might not be able to handle it. Please go and help as soon as possible."

"Oh, didn't my father say that he didn't need my help this time? Why did he change his mind so quickly?" Young Master Zhao said with a bit of gloating. Parents always have mixed feelings about their children's growth. They are happy, but secretly unwilling to accept it. Young Master Zhao is no exception.

"Besides, he has Mr. Wu and Mr. Xu, as well as a large group of helpers following him. What can't he handle?" Young Master Zhao asked curiously in a long tone.

"The problem the master is facing is indeed very difficult. I'm afraid it can't be solved by wisdom alone." Chang Kaiche swallowed his saliva and said, "His prefect has been arrested..."

"Puff..." Zhao Hao sprayed a mouthful of tea all over him. "You, what did you say? Magistrate Hou was arrested?"

As he spoke, he took out a cotton handkerchief from the silver box on the table and handed it to Chang Kaiche, motioning him to wipe the water off his body.

"No, the prefect has been promoted to Jiangxi Provincial Deputy Commissioner and appointed as the Military Commissioner of Ganzhou." Chang Kaiche held the handkerchief with both hands but refused to wipe it. This was the tea sprayed by the young master, how could he wipe it off? He had to preserve this most beautiful pattern as a family heirloom.

"The successor is called Li Zuoguo. He is a former councilor of Yin Zhengmao, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi... Oh, by the way, at the beginning of last month, Yin Zhengmao was promoted from the Governor of Guangxi to the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi for his contribution in pacifying Wei Yinbao. Then Councilor Li was also promoted to the prefect of Chaozhou."

"Gao Huzi has no moral principles!" Young Master Zhao felt something was wrong.

In fact, one of the reasons why he chose Chaozhou Prefecture for Mr. Zhao was that the prefect, Hou Bideng, was devoted to the people and had a very good reputation as an official. Hai Rui had personally verified this, so it should not be false.

Moreover, I heard from my father-in-law that Gao Gong had asked Yang Biao, the Guangdong inspector who was returning to Beijing, about the official style of Guangdong Province. Yang Biao said that the official style of Guangdong Province was corrupt, and all officials colluded with profiteers, were greedy and derelict in their duties. However, "the prefect, Hou Bi Deng, was loyal and capable, worked hard and was willing to work hard, and the people relied on him for peace. But he was unwilling to serve his superiors. Therefore, when he asked the people, everyone loved him; when he asked his superiors, everyone disliked him."

Gao Gong was shocked when he heard this. He thought, "Oh my god, we are like-minded people." Therefore, in June last year, he asked the emperor to commend the honest and capable prefect Hou Bideng, and to increase his salary to the third rank, and still manage Chaozhou Prefecture.

This year, Hou Bideng was ordered to come to the capital for external inspection, and the Ministry of Personnel recommended him as "outstanding". In the first month of the year, he was given a dragon robe, 100 ingots of banknotes, and a banquet at the Ministry of Rites.

Even a blind man could see that Hou Bideng was going to be promoted. All the Chaozhou officials serving in the capital were now restless... Considering the corruption in the Guangdong officialdom, it was a blessing for Chaozhou Prefecture to have a prefect named Hou. Ninety-nine percent of the successors would be a disaster!

They were afraid that Hou Bideng would be transferred to another place, so they repeatedly advised Gao Gong that Chaozhou could not be without Hou Gong for a day.'

There were also candidates from Chaozhou who were going to Beijing to take the imperial examination. They joined forces with dozens of Chaozhou students and blocked the road at the entrance of the Ministry of Personnel, shouting: "The prefect has been promoted for a long time. If he is promoted, the people will be left without a master and will follow him!"

Seeing this, Gao Gong had no choice but to let him continue to serve as the prefect of Chaozhou temporarily in order to reassure the people.

So Zhang Juzheng privately suggested to Zhao Hao that he let his father serve as Hou Bideng's deputy and learn how to deal with the terrible Chaoshan area. And Hou Bideng would definitely not stay in Chaozhou for long.

The commotion caused by those Chaozhou officials and scholars in Beijing seemed to have brought fame to Hou Bideng, but in fact it harmed him.

If a commotion could force the court to change its ways, where would the court's authority be? Would the gentry have to approve the officials' stay or departure in the future?

Gao Huzi was an arbitrary and dictatorial person, and he would never tolerate such a situation. Therefore, the court's decision to let Hou return to Chaozhou was just a delaying tactic. The more the people tried to keep him, the more the court would not allow him to continue working in Chaozhou. At the latest, he would be transferred to another place next year.

By that time, Mr. Zhao would have been the son-in-law of the current Prime Minister, and he would be familiar with the situation in Chaozhou, so it would be almost certain that he would succeed the prefect of Chaozhou!

Well, wearing a red robe after four years of service seems a bit fast even for the top scholar. It doesn't matter, you can act as the prefect first, work steadily for a year, and then you can be promoted to a regular official!

'It's easy to be an official if you have people in the court, and it's not good to be an official if you don't have people in the court', it's really a wise saying...

~~

Because everything was arranged properly, Zhao Hao felt relieved and didn't follow his father to take office. How come everything was fine before he went to sea, but when he came back, the prefect of Chaozhou was replaced?

After thinking for a while while sitting in the rocking chair, Zhao Hao suddenly slapped his forehead, fearing that he had let his father down.

The root of the problem is probably that the Grain Transport Office changed to sea transportation!

Gao Huzi wanted to meet him, but he ran away to the sea and played the missing game. How could he not be angry?

Gao Gong is now the unprecedented cabinet chief minister and the minister of the Ministry of Personnel. His power is unprecedented in this dynasty, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is a regent. Coupled with his temper of being rebellious, he will definitely not allow anyone to pretend to obey him!

Although Gao Gong couldn't deal with Zhao Hao directly because of the favor he had helped pass the "Altan tribute", it was understandable that he made trouble for his father and blocked his father's chance to ascend to the sky.

~~

But what happened to Magistrate Li?

"He is a member of the governor's team, so no one dares to mess with him. Who is so bold as to arrest him?" Zhao Hao asked curiously.

"I have no idea about this." Chang Kaiche replied, "Based on the news from the master, the six departments, and the Penghu trading post, it was probably like this... The people of Chaozhou were very happy to hear that Hou Bideng would stay in office. But before he returned to Chaozhou, he received a transfer order in Fujian to Jiangxi. The people of Chaozhou felt that they were fooled, and they were all furious, so they took their anger out on the new prefect."

"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded, thinking that from this perspective, my father could be said to have had a blessing in disguise.

"How can they give him a good look?"

"They ambushed him on the road he had to take to take office, and planned to kill him." Chang Kaiche said helplessly, "They also said that if the court sent one person, they would kill one, and if two came, they would kill a pair, until Hou Bideng was returned to them."

"Oh my god, does Li Zuoguo dare to go?" Zhao Hao said in disbelief.

"I didn't know it at the time. This is what was said afterwards." Chang Kaiche then said:

"It is said that Governor Yin also knew that the people of Chaozhou were fierce and resentful, so he specially sent 500 personal soldiers to escort Li Zhifu to his post. But as soon as the team entered Jieyang County, they encountered an ambush in a place called Maotangao."

"How many people are in ambush?"

"Some say 20,000, some say 2,000. Anyway, there were a lot of them, and they were all armed with muskets and bows and arrows. It is said that there were also many Portuguese. Their firepower far exceeded that of the government troops. They were in a dominant position and fired fiercely, and then they dispersed the government troops." Chang Kaiche continued, "They protected the prefect Hou and tried to retreat desperately, but their retreat was blocked, so they had to flee to the mountains."

"Isn't that courting death?" Zhao Hao covered his face. The wisest choice at this time was to surrender, and then express his willingness to be their hostage in exchange for Hou Bideng. Or he could try to break through the encirclement, and if he was lucky, he might be able to escape.

Anyway, we can't escape to the mountains...

Although he had never been to Chaoshan during the Ming Dynasty, he knew that the people in the mountains there all lived in walled houses. They were oversized bunkers!

Because the bandits over there are too fierce, the mountain people don’t live together like this and build villages to protect themselves!

But the surprising thing is that when the mountain people conduct military training as a clan unit and live in this highly defensive earthen building, they often become impoverished due to the construction of the earthen building and start to engage in the promising sideline of banditry.

Because they hid in the walled house after committing the crime, the government was powerless to do anything!

As a result, the more walled houses there are, the more bandits there are; the more bandits there are, the more walled houses there are. Eventually, all the mountain dwellers will move into walled houses, and all of them may become bandits in an instant...

Li Zuoguo still dared to run into the mountains? Isn't that like a beautiful woman with her butt naked running into a den of perverts?

"That's right." Chang Kaiche echoed, "It is said that a wealthy man has issued a reward for his capture, and as a result, mountain people from all over the place have been mobilized, holding torches and weapons, searching the mountains for fat sheep."

"Then what?" Zhao Hao asked.

"Then there were many different opinions." Li Zuoguo spread his hands and said, "Some people said that he was captured by the mountain people and beheaded, and the reward for his head was secretly received. Some people said that he fled in the opposite direction of Guangzhou, went to Chaoyang to find Lin Daoqian, and wanted him to send a boat to send him back to Guangzhou, but was killed by Lin Daoqian. But Lin Daoqian denied that he had seen him. Others said that he fled to the seaside, hired a boat to go back to Guangzhou, and met pirates, was captured and sold to Southeast Asia to do hard labor... Alas, in short, there has been no news since then!"

After listening to this, Mr. Zhao had only one thought: Is this a place for people to stay?