The Science slowly sailed along the Qingyi River into Wuhu. Zhao Hao stood at the bow and saw boats coming and going on the broad river, thousands of sails racing, shops lined up on both sides of the river, and businessmen and travelers came one after another, what a prosperous scene of the Yangtze River megacity!

What is even more amazing is that such a wealthy place actually has no city walls. The whole Wuhu is like a modern city, growing without limits. Hundreds of shops stretch all the way to the Yangtze River, forming a jaw-dropping 10-mile long street.

The impact of this ten-mile long street is too strong. Even in Jinling City, there is no such a long and prosperous commercial street. Only the world's number one commercial street outside Changmen in Suzhou can be better than it.

Compared to Shanghai, which was still a small county town, Wuhu was so prosperous that he didn't need to worry about it. Zhao Hao even suspected that as long as he gave it another 100 or 200 years of peace, it would be able to evolve naturally without his intervention.

Not bad, not bad, this place is better than expected. Zhao Hao couldn't be more satisfied.

At this time, the Science slowly sailed towards the Huizhou Wharf.

As the name suggests, this is a place for Huizhou merchants to dock. There is no other way, the rice market, steel mills, and pulp and dyeing bureaus in Wuhu are all controlled by Huizhou people, so Huizhou merchants naturally have some privileges here.

Strictly speaking, I am also a Huizhou merchant.

Thinking of this, Zhao Hao felt at ease docking.

~~

Seeing that the Science was about to enter the berth, several government patrol boats hurriedly blocked other civilian ships from entering the berth to prevent them from colliding with this incredibly beautiful white sailboat and the incredibly beautiful young man on the boat.

With the blessing of various halos, people see him with a natural beauty effect.

At the dock, the Wuhu County officials, wearing red uniforms with black edges, had already dispersed the crowd and put the entire dock on alert.

The magistrate of Wuhu led the plane, and a group of local gentry and wealthy businessmen were eagerly waiting. The reception was ten times more exaggerated than the previous receptions in Changxing and Liyang.

There was a red carpet on the ground, colorful pavilions towering high, dragon and lion dances, and gongs and drums roaring. If you didn't know, you would think some minister had returned home or some governor had come to visit.

In fact, the one who came was just a little boy who was a little extraordinary...well, not so little anymore.

Even though he was picked up and escorted by high-ranking officials from various counties along the way, Master Zhao was still shocked by the exaggerated scene.

What is going on? Can you be so willful just because you have money?

As he watched in amazement, the Science came to a stop and the sailors dropped the rope.

Eight strong men from the shore carried over a luxurious plank with handrails on both sides.

Amid the warm welcome, Master Zhao walked off the boat somewhat uncomfortably, holding onto the railing.

County Magistrate Shuai and two old men came forward, and after both sides exchanged polite greetings, Zhao Hao couldn't help but smile bitterly and said, "Mrs. Shuai, Lord Chang, Uncle Wang, what the hell are you doing?"

He actually knew all three of them.

Shuai Ji was a Jinshi in the second year of Longqing's reign. After observing government affairs in the Ministry of Revenue for a few months, he was sent to the magistrate of Wuhu, a wealthy county. Needless to say, everyone knows who made the contribution.

In fact, Master Zhao used his connections in the Ministry of Personnel to arrange for more than a dozen of Mr. Zhao's peers to be sent to various counties in the south of the Yangtze River!

Zhao Hao admitted that he acted a little hastily.

But there was no other way. He could help Li Chunfang stop Gao Huzi temporarily, but he couldn't stop Gao Huzi forever. When that bandit returned to the capital, he would become the chief minister and the official. Master Zhao, let alone arranging people, would be thankful if he could keep his father from being driven away to serve as the magistrate of Linggao.

~~

As for the "Prince", he was the famous dyeing magnate Ruan Bi.

This man is extremely legendary, and together with his fellow villager from She County, Wang Zhi, they are known as the two pillars of Huizhou merchants.

Back then, both of them, like thousands of other Huizhou merchants, left their hometown wearing old cloth shoes, carrying oil-paper umbrellas, and tattered cloth bags on their shoulders, carrying the hopes of their entire family.

Although he also started from scratch, Ruan Bi never engaged in illegal activities. He first worked as an apprentice and shopkeeper in a shop of his fellow townsman in Huizhou, saving some capital while thinking about what kind of business he should do in the future and where to do it.

After careful consideration, he came to Wuhu, where business opportunities were everywhere, and started a small business of dyeing paper.

Because he valued credibility and quality, he quickly expanded his business and gained the respect of his peers, gradually becoming the leader of Wuhu's dyed paper industry.

After taking charge of the industry, he quickly led the entire dyed paper industry to grow bigger and stronger, and his products were sold well across the country. Even the colored paper used by the six ministries in Nanjing was supplied by him.

During this process, he met a fellow villager named Zhao, who later became the right vice minister of the Southern Ministry of Revenue.

With the backing of Nanjing, Ruan Bi could finally move forward boldly into the pulping and dyeing industry, which had a market a hundred times larger, and once again achieved great success.

Afterwards, he initiated the establishment of the Wuhu Dyeing Bureau, organized the dyeing workshop owners who had previously worked independently, ended the vicious competition among peers, and forced the Dongting merchants to allow them to buy silk and cloth, dye it, and then sell it on their own.

Before that, they could only make money from dyeing and could not get involved in the huge profitable sales market.

Naturally, operating efficiency increased greatly, and all dyeing factory owners made much more profit than before.

He also used the commercial network of Huizhou merchants throughout the country to set up multiple pulp and dyeing branches in major cities, making Wuhu Pulp and Dyeing Bureau the leader of the national pulp and dyeing industry and exporting its products overseas.

Ruan Bi's reputation naturally soared and he became the president of the entire Wuhu Chamber of Commerce.

He has been kind and generous for many years, bringing benefits to the people in his hometown. He is deeply loved by the people in Huizhou and Wuhu, so he is respectfully called "Chang Gong".

~~

As for the other Uncle Wang, Wang Yu, his relationship with the Zhao family is closer than that of Ruan Bi.

Because he was from Xiuning. Since the youth, the Zhao family of East Gate and the Wang family of West Gate have always been the representatives of wealth and nobility in Xiuning.

But the Wang family has been rich for much longer than the Zhao family. During the Zhengde period, his family became one of the eight major salt merchants in Yangzhou, and now they still hold the license that makes a fortune every day.

However, the one who worked as a salt merchant and raised skinny horses in Yangzhou was Wang Yu's uncle Wang Shangju. Wang Yu's family's million-dollar fortune was not earned by selling salt, but by his father Wang Shangquan who went to Wuhu fifty years ago and invested in a steel mill.

Speaking of Wang Shangquan, he was as famous as Ruan Bi in Wuhu. He took advantage of his financial strength and spent a lot of money to recruit many skilled craftsmen from Suzhou. He strictly managed and innovated technology, and soon made Wang's steel mill stand out. Then he successively merged more than a dozen steel mills and finally controlled the entire Wuhu steel industry.

Then he used the connections of Huizhou merchants to market Wuhu Sugang throughout the country. He also took advantage of the opportunity that the imperial court needed a large amount of wrought iron and refined iron to make guns and cannons to fight against the Japanese invaders, and raised Wuhu's steel production to the first place in the country, higher than the second-ranked Guangdong Province.

From then on, whenever people mentioned Sugang, they would think of Wuhu and Wang Shangquan, and would never think of Suzhou again.

As a result, he became the president of the Wuhu Chamber of Commerce and became the most famous person at the time.

After Wang Shangquan passed away, Wang Yu inherited the family business and managed it for more than a decade, but he did not let his father down. He is now the vice president of the Wuhu Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, his cousin Wang Shangju was a long-time friend of Zhao Liben. The fact that the old man could become the leader of the Yangzhou Salt Industry Association as a retired minister was inseparable from the support of Wang Shangju and his cheap brother-in-law Ye Xixian.

After Zhao Shouzheng won the top spot in the imperial examination, he and Ruan Bi both went to Kunshan to congratulate him in person, so Zhao Hao could naturally identify with him.

ps. It’s not easy to write today. My eyes hurt from looking up information. There are only three chapters.