In the evening, Wang Shimao and his family held a grand welcome banquet for Zhao Hao in Yanshan Garden.

At the banquet, Zhao Hao met Wang Shimao's nephew and son. Although they were still young, they were all talented and beautiful.

The oldest among them, Wang Shiqi, is already twelve years old and in fourteen years he will pass the imperial examination and become the top scholar in Yingtian Prefecture.

But Wang Shizhen was not there, so he couldn't rashly abduct the child. He had to swallow his saliva and think about it another day.

It was already three o'clock in the morning after the dinner, and Zhao Hao was arranged to stay in Tingyuxuan next to the peony garden.

The lights outside the building were bright, illuminating the clear water in front of the pavilion. There were lotus flowers planted in the pond, and more than a dozen kinds of flowers and trees planted beside the pond, such as banana, bamboo, hydrangea, peony, etc. When raindrops fell on different plants, you could hear the sound of rain with different charms, which was a wonderful scene.

Ma Xianglan and Qiaoqiao sat side by side on a bamboo bench under the eaves, listening to the sound of rain and waiting for Zhao Hao to come back, and they fell asleep without realizing it.

Zhao Hao felt warm in his heart. Why did he bring them both out?

Because wherever I go, I feel like home.

He walked over lightly, but still woke Ma Xianglan up.

She quickly rubbed her blurry eyes and stood up.

"I'm back now. The bath water has gotten cold."

"Then heat it up again." Qiaoqiao said casually in a daze. Then she opened her eyes and saw Zhao Hao standing in front of her. She stuck out her tongue embarrassedly.

"Oh, you're back. I'll go boil some water."

"Just make do with it." Zhao Hao smiled and pointed at the corner of his mouth. "It's rare for me and my apprentice to meet, so we have to talk all night long tonight."

Qiaoqiao quickly reached out to touch the corner of her mouth, only to find a strand of black hair stuck to her lips. She turned around shyly and went inside.

Ma Xianglan sighed secretly when she saw this, what a foolish young man...

~~

The two girls lit incense in the study room, brewed some fragrant tea, set out some fruit snacks, and then went upstairs to sleep.

Zhao Hao took this opportunity to take a shower with the still warm water and changed into a loose and breathable silk dress.

When he returned to the study wearing slippers, Hua Shuyang had already come in with Jin Xueceng and Yu Shensi.

"Master." The three of them quickly stood up to greet him.

"Where is General Wang?" Zhao Hao looked around but didn't see the purple-bearded man.

"General Wang is very sleepy, so he went back to sleep." Jin Xuezeng replied, "Just tell him tomorrow if there is anything."

"Well, that's fine, let's just be casual this way." Zhao Hao thought to himself, General Wang looks quite rough, but he actually has a very considerate heart.

He sat down on the armchair, sighed comfortably, and asked habitually: "How is your homework going?"

"Master, Conic Sections is much more difficult than Elements of Geometry." Jin Xuezeng and Yu Shensi, two students who are good at mathematics, smiled bitterly at each other:

"If it weren't for Second Senior Brother leading us, I'm afraid we wouldn't even have finished the first chapter."

"That means you have learned the second chapter by yourself..." Young Master Zhao's mouth twitched secretly. Beast, it's only been a month...

"I've finished learning the second chapter." Hua Shuyang said with a distressed look, "But the third volume is a bit difficult. The trajectory is three-dimensional, which is different from the previous concept. I can only understand it roughly. It will take some time to fully understand it."

In other words, the third volume is almost finished?

"Cic Sections" has only seven chapters in total, so it seems that I will have to graduate gloriously if I can't make it through the flood season.

Young Master Zhao groaned in his heart, "I shouldn't have taught Hua math! He was asking for trouble."

He plans to tell his students today that the mathematical methods in this book are outdated. They only need to have a general understanding and can study "Mathematical Principles of Natural Sciences" by themselves.

But after asking, I realized that the so-called difficulty is really just a relative concept.

What you think is difficult may not necessarily be difficult for others.

He then smiled and changed the subject: "Then think about it more. It won't hurt to understand it more thoroughly... This volume is the key to studying that book."

"Yes, Master." The three disciples nodded together, all with excitement on their faces, "This kind of problem is really exciting to solve!"

"Very good." Mr. Zhao held back his tears and said to Jin Xuezeng and Yu Shensi, "You should stop being obsessed with studying and focus on Chongming first."

"Yes, Master." The two of them nodded quickly in response.

Zhao Hao was afraid that Jin Xuezeng would not be able to stand alone in Chongming, so he asked Yu Shensi to be his military advisor. With Wang Rulong as the military advisor and Yu Shensi as the literary advisor, with these two right-hand men helping him, Jin Gongmen's career as the island owner should not be a problem.

"By the way, have you visited the pier in Suzhou Prefecture?" Zhao Hao picked up the teacup and blew away the hot air.

"I went there yesterday." Jin Xuezeng nodded and said angrily, "Prefect Cai didn't take me seriously at all. The first thing he said was that the court actually sent two newcomers to be county magistrates. It was really ridiculous."

"He just said bad things about my father behind his back." Zhao Hao blew away the foam and said indifferently: "I don't even dare to see him in person."

"I guess he's afraid of being beaten by the master." Jin Xuezeng chuckled and said, "These days, everyone who knows that I'm a newly-appointed Jinshi will ask, 'Did the master really beat the young cabinet minister?'"

"Xu Fan is just a piece of shitty little cabinet minister. Now the little cabinet minister is our junior fellow apprentice." Yu Shensi corrected angrily.

"It's OK as long as you understand what I mean." Jin Xueceng looked at his master helplessly, worried about the next three years.

Oh, yes, it was two years. Because Yu Shensi had to go back to Shandong to take the provincial examination... Fortunately, it was okay.

~~

"His second sentence was, fortunately Chongming Island is already a mess, I can do whatever I want..." Jin Xuezeng complained to his master again: "Master, listen, is this human language?"

"It's not nice to hear, but it makes sense." Zhao Hao smiled and said to his seventh disciple, "I heard that your county government office collapsed?"

"Hehe, it seems to be the case." Jin Xuezeng scratched his head and smiled awkwardly, "It's not the first or second time, it's no big deal."

"That's true." Zhao Hao nodded. He liked the optimism, or rather the heartlessness, of Golden Monkey.

At that time, Chongming Island was still very young, and was far from being the third largest island in the country four hundred years later.

During the Tang Dynasty, two sandbanks emerged at the mouth of the Yangtze River 40 miles north of Taicang. These were the predecessors of Chongming Island.

Afterwards, the Yangtze River continued to carry large amounts of silt, constantly forming new sandbars, which were then gradually connected to form the three major sand islands of Dongsha, Xisha and Nansha.

The largest salt field in the country was located here at that time, and it was named Tianci Salt Field in the Song Dynasty. Chongming was upgraded to a prefecture in the Yuan Dynasty because of its thriving population and business.

But in this dynasty, the imperial court strictly enforced the maritime ban, and Chongming suffered a devastating blow. Not only was it downgraded to a county, but also due to the changes in river tides, the originally excellent salt fields collapsed, and the salt workers also took advantage of the Japanese invasion to flee to the interior, and never returned after the victory against the Japanese.

Finally, last year, in the first year of the Longqing reign, the imperial court abolished the 350-year-old Tianci Salt Works, and a large number of officials, troops and their families were evacuated.

The island’s population is already 80% gone…

ps. The third chapter has been delivered, but it will be gone tonight.