"I have met the young lord, and I wish Her Royal Highness the Princess the best of health..."

Cao Sanyang bowed first.

"Greetings, Lord Cao." Li Chengen returned the greeting with a fist, and asked with a smile, "I see it's quite lively outside."

"It's just a misunderstanding. Once it's explained, it'll be fine." Cao Fu Yin laughed awkwardly and said, "I wonder what brings you here, young lord?"

"Isn't it just because of your misunderstanding?" Li Chengen played with his mother's jade token helplessly, and said to Cao Fuyin with a pout: "It made me run all the way in such a cold weather."

"Oh?" Seeing the jade token that the boy kept throwing up, Cao Fu Yin was really worried that he would smash it to pieces. Hearing this, he couldn't help but asked in confusion: "How come the young master also knows Zhao Xiaolian?"

"Yes, the last time I was skiing in Miaofeng Mountain, I happened to encounter an earthquake." Li Chengen explained:

"His son saved my sister's life. My mother has always remembered it and wanted to find a chance to repay him. When she heard that something happened to his family, she asked me to come and ask about it."

Li Chengen is not a country boy like Zhao Shixi. Although he is a playboy, he knows clearly what to say and what not to say.

Anyway, I said this, you definitely won't think I'm just asking. You can't accuse me of interfering in the affairs of the Princess's Mansion later, because I'm just asking...

And indeed he succeeded in doing so.

Cao Fuyin was already wavering, and now he completely gave up his dignity...

Cao Sanyang's mouth twitched for a long time, and he turned around and glared at Ni Tuiguan fiercely, cursing: "You don't even know the relationship between Zhao Xiaolian and the princess, and you made the young master go all the way in vain!"

"Yes, yes, yes." Ni Tuiguan's legs went weak. He thought that Zhao Zhongcheng was Zhao Shouzheng's backer, so he waited until Zhao Jin left Beijing before taking action. Who knew that his real backer was actually the dignified Princess Ning'an!

Ni Dahong just couldn't understand why Zhao Shouzheng, a mere juren, had so many important people as friends?

But he had figured it out. Zhao Hao was not just bragging when he said, "You provoked someone you shouldn't have provoked."

"Young Lord, this is indeed a misunderstanding." Seeing that Cao Fuyin and Ni Dahong were both a little confused, Wu Shilai quickly took over the conversation and said:

"We in Shuntian Prefecture only invited Zhao Xiaolian to be our guest. Now that we have finished asking questions, he can go home anytime."

"Really?" Li Chengen glanced at Cao Sanyang when he heard that.

Cao Sanyang forced a smile and nodded slowly, saying, "What the Shaofu said is right. I am going to send him home."

He glanced at Wu Shilai and said, "Let's go to the Shaofu now."

"Please come in, sir. Please come in, young lord." Wu Shilai said with a smile.

~~

In the yamen of the prefect.

Zhao Shouzheng was pacing back and forth in the third hall anxiously. Zhao Hao was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. He looked like a firecracker thinking quietly, not at all like the one who was about to ignite at the slightest touch.

To be honest, Zhao Hao has always felt uneasy.

That was a smuggling empire worth tens of millions of taels of silver. Inside and outside, upstream and downstream, countless people were involved... bureaucrats of all sizes, landlords, businessmen, and hundreds of millions of people in the southeast.

Although these people are definitely scattered and fighting each other and scheming against each other on a daily basis.

But if someone dares to take away their jobs, they will definitely unite in an instant and work together to kill that person first.

For example, Zhu Wan, the former governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and Hu Zongxian's predecessor, Zhang Jing, the governor of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, and Li Tianchong, the governor of Zhejiang...

After Zhu Wan took office, he noticed a strange phenomenon - although the landlords and gentry in Fujian and Zhejiang shouted in support of the maritime ban on the surface, they were secretly colluding closely with the maritime smuggling groups.

After investigation, Zhu Wan discovered that their purpose in supporting the maritime ban was simply to monopolize overseas trade and enjoy the huge profits from smuggling.

Moreover, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces have formed interest groups with armed smuggling gangs such as the Portuguese and Japanese; the Ming Dynasty's grassroots management agencies are non-existent; the people of Fujian and Zhejiang are competing to send their children to join the smuggling fleets of maritime merchants; pirate sailors parade through the streets, maritime merchants enter and leave government offices, and are treated as guests of honor by court officials; some islands have even become independent kingdoms!

Faced with this grim reality, Zhu Wan resolutely decided to strictly enforce the maritime ban. He destroyed Shuangyu Port, the world trade center at the time, and punished those who tipped off and supported maritime merchants. He hoped to eliminate smuggling through a series of severe measures and then restore the government-controlled trade.

As a result, he was attacked by local and court officials from Fujian and Zhejiang, and was eventually forced to dismiss him from office. Then Zhu Wan inexplicably committed suicide...

From then on, Chinese and foreigners dared not talk about the maritime ban, so the coastal defense was neglected, the Japanese pirates became more rampant, and plagued the southeastern coast for more than ten years.

Later, Zhang Jing was ordered to fight against the Japanese pirates. He and Li Tianchong, the governor of Zhejiang, refused to believe in evil and resumed the maritime ban. As a result, they were again framed and executed...

It was not until Hu Zongxian came to power that he learned from the bloody lessons of his predecessor and treated maritime merchants and Japanese pirates differently, adopting the strategy of winning over one faction and destroying the other... As long as the maritime merchants could help him fight the Japanese pirates, he would turn a blind eye to smuggling. Only then was he able to eliminate the Japanese pirates with great difficulty and restore peace to the southeast of the Ming Dynasty.

Even the great Hu Zongxian had to humble himself and try to please the Haishang Group. With Zhao Hao's petty appearance, no one would dare to provoke him...

It's really terrible.

He would rather rush into the palace to tease Empress Li than to provoke this hornet's nest.

Therefore, in the past two days, Zhao Hao has been thinking about how to eliminate the disaster before it happens.

After thinking about it, the answer is still the same answer - I don’t, it’s not me, I haven’t seen it...

Today, his father was summoned by Shuntian Prefecture. In fact, Zhao Hao could have handled the situation calmly and not reacted so violently.

But after his initial panic and worry, he quickly calmed down and realized that this was a good opportunity to pull his family out of the vortex.

So today, on the one hand, he had to express his state of being wronged to the fullest.

On the other hand, we should also make the matter as big as possible, until it is safest to make it big enough to reach the sky...

~~

While he was daydreaming, Zhao and his son heard the sound of hurried footsteps outside.

Then Wu Shilai and Ni Tuiguan came in with two people. One of them was an old man wearing a scarlet official robe with a peacock patch on the chest, and the other was actually the young master of the Princess's Mansion.

"Why is he here?" Zhao Hao muttered softly.

"Who is he?" Zhao Shouzheng asked in a low voice.

"He is the son of the eldest princess you have met before." Zhao Hao coughed dryly and said, "He is the son of the eldest princess you have met before."

"Oh? Young Master." Zhao Shouzheng immediately felt guilty and looked at the person who came with an awkward smile on his face.

"You two, this is our prefect, Cao Mingtang." Wu Shilai hurriedly introduced them.

"So it's Cao Gong. I'm honored to be here." Zhao Hao smiled and bowed, saying, "I've often heard my elder brother mention the story of the time when you two were observing the administration of the Dali Temple together."

"Oh?" Zhao Shouzheng and his son's cooperation had reached a seamless level. Hearing this, he naturally showed a surprised expression and said:

"It turns out that Prefect Cao and my old nephew are both Jinshi in the same class? What an unexpected fate."

"Uh..." Cao Sanyang let the father and son sing the same tune. His old face turned red from the pressure. He didn't know where to start for a long time.

But Li Chengen who was standing by was amused, thinking that these two men were interesting and they looked like kindred spirits.

Seeing the prefect in such an awkward situation, Wu Shilai hurried to smooth things over, saying, "It was a misunderstanding, a complete misunderstanding. It's all the fault of the subordinates for not explaining it clearly. The prefect just found out that you two also have the surname Zhao."

"Yeah, that's right." Cao Sanyang finally had a way out, and he forced a smile and nodded, saying, "It's true that the flood washed away the Dragon King Temple."

As he said this, he glared at the Magistrate Ni fiercely and cursed: "Look at what you have done, I will not forgive you later!"

"Yes, yes, it's all my fault for not doing my job well and being too reckless..."

Ni Tuiguan had no choice but to silently bear the second blame and had no chance to apologize to Zhao Shouzheng and his son.

I almost kneeled down and called daddy...

ps. Chapter 5 is here. 6000 votes plus more!

Now you understand why I want to write about Longwan again? Because I was too young when I was in office, and I didn't have access to many historical materials, so my focus was only on the court and the anti-Japanese war itself. This time I will use a higher perspective to write about the stories that I didn't write back then. Well, it's a big game. Please give me monthly votes and recommendation votes! ! ! !