After Lin Zhongcheng's confirmation, Mr. Zhao's image suddenly changed from a second-generation official, tall (compared to Hakka people), rich and handsome, to the reincarnation of Confucius, the living Emperor Wenchang.

So the matter was settled and the Lin family was satisfied.

In fact, they were a little too optimistic. How could Zhao Hao specially send the already precious teachers from the academy to teach in such a remote mountain village?

He planned to have the Agricultural College build a tea research institute in Phoenix Mountain and have researchers teach part-time.

But don't look down on the researchers at the Agricultural College, they are all from serious scholarly backgrounds, of course most of them failed to even pass the examination to become a tongsheng (a scholar-official). In the Jiangnan region where culture and education flourish, there are at least 100,000 such scholars who have failed in life.

They had no privileges at all, and were not even qualified to be teachers in Jiangnan. They could only make a living by copying and writing for others, or working as accountants. Naturally, many of them put down their pens, picked up hoes and went home to farm. These people were the targets of Kunshan Agricultural College.

The Agricultural College not only does not charge tuition, but also provides food and accommodation, clothes and bedding, and a monthly allowance of one or two taels of silver. In addition, it is always said that "agriculture is the basis of agriculture", and it is easier to comfort oneself if one fails to study and enters the Agricultural College, which is better than doing business and working. Therefore, from the first period, students flocked to it and the quota was quickly filled.

After two years of graduation, most of the students were assigned to development companies in various counties and worked as technicians on farms. A small number of good seedlings were retained by Ma Yilong to teach and work as part-time researchers to pass on the tradition of agricultural science.

So the teachers at the Agricultural College are not bad, they are all scholars with good character and solid character, more than enough to be teachers for these mountain kids. If there is really a promising talent, at worst they can teach for a few years in the future and then send them to Phoenix Academy for further study. In short, they will not mislead the students...right?

Researchers should also be willing to teach and learn in the classroom...right? Being called "sir" by students is a respect they don't get in Jiangnan.

The most important thing is that you can receive double salary!

~~

Finally, under the witness of Lin Run, the Hakka and the natives swore an oath of blood in the temple of their common patron saint, the King of Sanshan. Both sides swore a poisonous oath that no matter what happened, large-scale fighting would be prohibited. Whoever started the war first would bear all the responsibilities and be punished by heaven and destroyed by earth!

After the signing of the agreement, the Lin family held a grand luncheon to celebrate the new beginning and welcome a bright future!

Lin Run and his party simply drank a glass of celebratory wine to quickly fill their stomachs, then took the old patriarch's third son Lin Yichen and left Daliao and returned to the provincial capital.

Lin Zhengying's second son, Lin Yilun, also set off. He would stay in the provincial capital for a period of time and would be responsible for coordinating the implementation of various agreements.

The return journey was smooth and naturally much faster than the way there.

At dusk, they arrived at the city. Lin Run declined the farewell banquet arranged by Liu Zixing and others, and did not even go back to the station. He directly changed to his own ship at the official ship dock and prepared to return to Guangzhou.

He had wasted more than a year, and in the blink of an eye, only half of his term was left. If he wanted to accomplish something, time was extremely tight. Naturally, he was eager to return home and wished he could fly back to the provincial capital.

Before leaving, Lin Run dismissed his attendants and asked Zhao Shouzheng what he thought.

Lin Zhongcheng had gone all the way to the mountains for his son's matter, and even recognized a group of mountain people as his relatives. How could Zhao Shouzheng dare to make trouble again? He didn't drag it out this time, and directly said I am willing.

Lin Run happily took out the ring... No, it wasn't. Lin Zhongcheng happily called the officials and gentry who were seeing him off to the bow and announced to them that Zhao Sima would temporarily hold the prefect's seal and act as the prefect from now on. He also told them clearly that given the situation in Chaozhou, there would be no more prefects appointed in the short term.

This period may be two years or three years, but it will definitely not be less than one year. So they must unite with Mr. Zhao, vigorously develop economic construction, and quickly lead the people of Chaozhou out of poverty and into prosperity. There must be no more trouble, otherwise no one can protect them!

Everyone agreed to it, and they were not surprised by this result. Those who could have a seat here were all discerning people, and they naturally knew that after the defense of Chaozhou, as long as Sima Zhao was still alive, no one else could be the prefect of Chaozhou.

The gentry had previously taken great pains to incite the people and retain Sima Zhao. Now that they had gotten what they wanted, what else could they be dissatisfied with?

Perhaps the only one who was not satisfied was Shu Tongpan, who had hoped that Mr. Zhao would go to Anbu and he would be the one to take charge of the prefectural city. But after seeing the relationship between the governor and the Zhao family father and son, he knew that he was missing Taozi.

So Shu Tongpan took another step back, thinking that he couldn't compete with Zhao Sima for the position of acting governor. Then, the position of the powerful and lucrative Coastal Defense Co-governor should be his turn, right?

But before leaving, Lin Run made it clear that he hoped Zhao Shouzheng would work harder and take care of both the prefectural city and Anbu. It turned out that Zhao Sima, the acting prefect, had more power than the official prefect. How could he not feel aggrieved when he got neither?

However, Mr. Zhao was not fighting alone. He also had 500 relatives and friends, as well as a son who could be called a cheat. Shu Fu knew that if he tried to go against him, it would only make him more uncomfortable. So it was better to adjust himself.

'You may feel stung by his roughness at first, but once you get used to it, you'll feel comfortable. Isn't this how it's always been over the years?'

Shu Tongpan, who had served five superiors and had always been an assistant, comforted himself in this way.

~~

Zhao Shouzheng had intended to personally escort the Minister of Justice out of the country, but was rejected by Lin Run. Chaozhou City was in ruins, and as the acting prefect, he should race against time and not waste time on these trivial matters.

Therefore, Zhao Hao and Shu Tongpan, on behalf of Zhao Shouzheng and the government, sent Zhongcheng out to sea.

On the night of the ship, Lin Run and Zhao Hao had a secret talk about the next big move of the two sides, and agreed to cooperate and support each other. Both sides tried to open up the situation as soon as possible.

"I hope that by the time I leave office, Guangdong will have been completely transformed by us." Lin Run imagined his grand ambitions and could hardly suppress his surging emotions.

"It won't happen so fast. Just lay a solid foundation. The success doesn't have to depend on me." Zhao Hao was not in such a hurry.

Of course, his requirements for transformation were much higher than those of the local government. According to his requirements, Jiangnan, which had been cultivated for four or five years, had only just begun to be transformed. Without more than ten or twenty years, it would be impossible to achieve a qualitative change.

What Lin Run wanted was to clean up the bad practices in the officialdom, improve the national economy and people's livelihood in Guangdong, reduce the burden on the people, and restore peace to the whole province. These things could be achieved in one or two years.

"By the way, Minister Yin prepared a memorial on coastal defense and sent me a copy, hoping that I would sign it with him." Lin Run opened a small red box on the table, which was where he kept confidential documents... He casually picked out one of the documents and handed it to Zhao Hao, saying, "Take a look first."

"Aren't you going to fight the bandits? Are you still thinking about the pirates? Are you preparing to attack on both fronts?" Zhao Hao couldn't help but laugh.

"With Zeng Yiben attacking Chaozhou, how can he not show his attitude?" Lin Run smiled faintly, "It is certain that we will suppress the bandits first, but it is a matter of fact and false. Making the subordinates unclear about the intention is also a way to control them."

"I understand." Zhao Hao nodded, took the memorial and opened it. Yin Zhengmao linked Zeng's invasion of Chaozhou with his attack on Guangzhou the year before, emphasizing that the pirates in Guangdong and Guangxi were rampant and had reached a point where they had to be wiped out with determination.

In fact, Yin Zhengmao was using this method to explain that Zeng Yiben's invasion was a historical account, not his own responsibility, so as to prevent some people from taking advantage of the issue and blaming the responsibility for the chaos in Chaozhou on his mistake in appointing the prefect.

As for asking Lin Run to sign the petition, one reason was to use his reputation to suppress the noise, and the other was to make Lin Run shut up... Yes, he was worried that Lin Run would take advantage of the issue.

It was not necessarily Yin Zhengmao who calculated the accounts in such detail. But the Governor's Office had a group of advisors who were dedicated to helping him figure out all these details, so the memorials they wrote were naturally flawless and comprehensive.

Afterwards, Yin Zhengmao put forward his coastal defense program. In addition to the old suggestions such as "dividing the territory, setting up watchtowers, increasing the number of lieutenant generals, building warships, discussing recruitment...", three of them caught Zhao Hao's attention.

First, a deputy commander-in-chief was appointed on Nan'ao Island to oversee the coastal defense of Zhangzhou and Chaozhou, thus completely resolving the dilemma of Fujian and Guangdong guarding this sea area separately and shirking responsibility, which always gave pirates opportunities to take advantage.

The second suggestion was to order the patrol officers to divide the area and relocate the people exiled to the coastal areas to inland areas such as Huguang, Yunnan, and Sichuan, in order to prevent these people who had always been dissatisfied with the court from becoming guides for pirates.

The third is to boldly use foreign soldiers, recruit sea merchants to join the official navy, and dare to use the sea lords who were recruited. In short, unite all available forces to fight against pirates together... After this, Yin Zhengmao also took Lin Daoqian as an example, saying that because of his trust in Lin Zhongcheng, during Zeng Yiben's invasion of Chaozhou, this person not only did not help the bandits to cause chaos, but was ordered to send troops to cut off Zeng Yiben's retreat, and finally forced the bandits to retreat, making the first contribution to Chaozhou's escape from danger.

For this reason, Yin Zhengmao petitioned the court for rewards to encourage future generations.

"Lin Daoqian knows whether he is flat or round? He didn't mention my father at all and directly took away his credit." Zhao Hao put down the memorial, feeling angry and amused. There was something in his mind that he was saying, but he didn't know whether to say it or not. He is so shameless, no wonder he could become the governor.

"Fortunately, he mentioned the name of the Zhongcheng."

"That's because I need to sign the petition this time. If you don't believe me, just look at the time when we defeated Wei Yinbao. I had nothing to do with it." Lin Run smiled and comforted Zhao Hao while drinking the Phoenix Narcissus he brought back, "Our Governor is just like that. You'll get used to it."

"That's right. Not only did he steal the credit from General Yu, he also took the blame for him." Zhao Hao nodded helplessly. "Compared to Old Yu, we are lucky."

There are many kinds of people in the world, and it is inevitable to run into such bad people wherever you go. The reason why Mr. Zhao made a fuss is that he has become one of the top few people in the Ming Dynasty. Most people would rather put themselves in a difficult position and have every pore of their body taken care of meticulously.

For example, Shu Tongpan felt so wronged, but he still had to put on a smile and call the boy his brother... The last time they traveled on the same waterway, they were clearly two generations apart and treated each other as uncle and nephew.

You see, the higher this person moves up, the more gently he will be treated, and naturally, the less likely you will see such faces.

Maybe, this is life.

p.s. There are only two updates today, have a nice weekend everyone.