Chen Xi was not in a hurry to leave, but Tang Yin couldn't stay.

After Tang Yin arrived in Wuzhou, he suffered from the shock of the earthquake. He complained more often, especially now that he had to rest in a tent every night. The weather was fine. If it was raining and was soaked and extremely embarrassed, this was something that the arrogant Tang Yin could not bear.

On that day, when Chen Xi wrote a memorial to the court in his study, Tang Yin rushed in and shouted, "Is Shen Zhongcheng coming to Wuzhou Prefecture to deal with disasters, or may he suppress the bandits?"

Chen Xi was still busy writing official documents and said, "Of course, it's a bandit suppression."

Tang Yin asked: "Since it is to suppress the bandits and bandits, why did Shen Zhongcheng stay here for a long time? The coastal people are still harassed by bandits and live in the heat of water... What Shen Zhongcheng does now can be said to be inconsistent with the priority!"

Chen Xi raised his head and looked at Tang Yin with half-squinted eyes. He thought that the arrogant Tang Bohu would even use the principle of being a big shot! Now, I have only been delayed for two days because of the earthquake. You only complain so much. Do you have to find a house for you and come back to accompany you to be satisfied. Do you have to do things for me honestly, instead of always pulling me back?

"After the disaster is calm, I will go to Guangzhou." Chen Xi said angrily, "It's not the turn of Brother Tang to point fingers at my itinerary."

Tang Yin said: "When will the disaster be calmed down?"

Chen Xi thought for a while and replied: "It can be as short as ten days and half a month, and it can be as long as menstrual periods. Brother Tang is waiting with peace of mind."

Tang Yin left angrily, Chen Xi stared at his back and shook his head. Since he invited Tang Bohu back, Chen Xi felt that he had invited a ancestor who had eaten for free. Tang Yin had not made any practical suggestions to him so far. It was just a discomfort to bring such an aide by his side.

But after all, he is a famous talented man with great talent and knowledge. Chen Xi cannot sweep him out just because of a few complaints now. Besides, even if he wants to drive Tang Yin away, he has to extract his value first, such as drawing dozens of paintings or something.

Chen Xi came up with a practical and effective disaster relief plan. Wuzhou magistrate Cao Ju was very impressed and ran to the governor's office every few days to discuss disaster relief with Chen Xi. In fact, Cao Ju hoped to use Chen Xi to fight for more disaster relief funds with the Guangxi Provincial Administration and the General Office, so as to make up for the deficit of Wuzhou Prefecture in recent years.

Chen Xi never expected that he would be used as a tool for disaster relief and filling in the gaps. This made him feel very upset and asked: "Why didn't the prefect Cao go to collect money and grain from local gentry and merchants?"

The rules of history: Once there is any natural disaster, the government will ask local gentry and merchants for money, which is called donation. Anyone who does not give money will be suppressed by policies. If they donate money, they will be named various good names and even monuments. Under traditional moral norms, this kind of post-disaster fundraising is accepted by most gentry and merchants.

But Chen Xi observed Cao Ju’s recent actions and seemed to have no idea that he could ask for money from local gentry.

Due to war and natural disasters, Wuzhou City looks a little dilapidated, but after all, it is the throat of water transportation between Guangxi and Guangdong. It is located on the side of Xunjiang River, connecting Yujiang, Qianjiang River, Guijiang River, Hejiang River, and Xijiang River after the convergence of Jijiang River can reach Foshan, Guangzhou, and there should be many rich merchants and wealthy families in the city.

Cao Ju sighed: "Shen Zhongcheng may not know that poor mountains and rivers are out of troubled people. Wuzhou has been in constant disasters in recent years, and the government has also called for donations. However, local gentry hid in the earthen fort, and even the yamen officers could not open the door. This official could not force the donation, but could only ask for help from the vassal officials..."

Chen Xi thought to himself, no wonder half of the Wuzhou city is full of the earthen buildings with deep courtyard walls. It turns out that in addition to resisting bandits, it is also effective in fighting against the government.

After doing business and doing business, you will first go back to your hometown to build a dirt building. All a large family live in the dirt building. Close the door and turn a blind eye to external affairs. You will care about your natural disasters.

When the grain harvest is bumper, I find someone to go out of the city to collect the grain, and I don’t even have to open the door. I find someone to send the grain into the city and hang it directly into the earthen building with a rope.

After several generations of repairs and reinforcement, this kind of earthen building is as solid as a god. Even if it is an earthquake, no earthen building collapsed.

Chen Xi asked, "Where is the Sun family in the north of the city?"

Cao Ju sighed and said, "The Sun family had been engaged with local bandits. When the city was broken a few years ago, they secretly helped the bandits. Later, the bandits were recruited by the court, and the Sun family's business grew around them. However, somehow, they offended the people of Guangdong vassals and the head of the family was detained. Before, they asked the official to plead with him, but as a local official in Guangxi, why should he negotiate with the Guangdong vassals for his Sun family?"

Chen Xi nodded and said, "So that's it."

Cao Ju said: "I think the Sun family is also hoping that Shen Zhongcheng will plead for them. The subordinates advised Shen Zhongcheng. The Sun family is snobbish. I heard that they had visited Yingtian Mansion to do... It's better not to pay attention!"

Chen Xi nodded, but was muttering in his heart that the Sun family is just a merchant family, and its power is quite strong. It can actually extend its tentacles to Nanjing City to deal with the nobles and court officials. But since the Sun family has high-ranking officials to support them, why can't they even handle the Guangdong Provincial Administration and the Guangdong Provincial Administration and cannot be redeemed for more than half a year?

Chen Xi had just sent the magistrate of Wuzhou away, and the magistrate of Cangwu County came again.

After the earthquake, Chen Xi's governor's yamen became an earthquake relief command center. In order to solve the trouble earlier, Chen Xi listed the funds for the disaster relief in detail. As long as the local government implemented the plan according to the plan, it would not take long before the city and outside the city would settle down. However, Chen Xi could not wait until the disaster situation was completely calmed down and sent a memorial to the court to submit the local disaster situation, and then sent a letter to the Guangxi Administrator's Office in Guilin Prefecture, asking for the allocation of grain to the disaster area as soon as possible, even if the task was completed successfully.

After that, Chen Xi began to set off for Guangzhou Prefecture.

Chen Xi did not care about the disaster in Wuzhou Prefecture. As Tang Yin said, his main task here to come to the southeast was to wipe out the bandits, and the rest should be temporarily put aside.

Of course, the most important thing is that Chen Xi was unbearable to see the female relatives around him living in a tent in this remote village. Since he had done everything he should do, it would be better to go out earlier. He also wanted to go to Guangzhou Prefecture to see how Hui Niang and Li Jin's business were preparing.

...

...

From Wuzhou to Guangzhou Prefecture, it is naturally a waterway.

Wuzhou is adjacent to the Xunjiang River. Xunjiang River is a section of the Pearl River water system. The upper reaches are formed by the convergence of the Yujiang River and Qianjiang River. It flows directly into the Xijiang River, the main water system of the Pearl River, and goes southeast all the way to reach Guangzhou Prefecture.

There was no official boat in the Governor's Office, but they could borrow boats from the Wuzhou Prefecture Office. Two two-story building boats were specially sent by Cao Ju, the governor of Wuzhou, to escort the two yamen along the way.

Chen Xi had few houses and brought all the soft and soft things with him. He was not prepared to return to Wuzhou. After arriving in Guangzhou, he settled there. The future bandit suppression work will be carried out mainly on the coastal line.

July 14th, if the weather is smooth, you can arrive on July 20th. You could have visited the local prefectures along the way. After all, the main water system of the Pearl River is considered a relatively prosperous place in Lingnan.

However, due to the earthquake, disasters have continued over the years, and the resentment of all ethnic groups has been deep. In addition, bandits on the water are rampant, so they must go ashore to stay at night. The boatman on the official boat said that "water ghosts" are rampant on the Xijiang River.

The "water ghost" in the boatman's mouth is river robbers and water bandits.

Like pirates, they make a living by hijacking ships.

These people may be just fishermen along the river, thieves, or have their own jobs, such as workers picking up goods at the wharf or farmers farming. They usually take advantage of the early morning or evening to show off their fishermen, and when they approach the big ship, they suddenly rush up and kill people and rob goods. Some attack the ships on night sailing or berthing at night.

Because river pirates are dressed like fishermen and boatmen on weekdays, and there are many ships coming and going on the Pearl River system, the government has no way to track them down, making river pirates on the Xijiang River very rampant.

According to the boatman, sometimes there will be several ship hijacking incidents a day, and river robbers are more ruthless than bandits on the 6th route. In order to establish their authority, they will kill one or two people almost every time they board the boat.

The robbers rely on many people to rob the ship, while the robbers have insufficient personnel to rob the ship, and they rely on their skilled weapons to act ruthlessly. Not only are there many cases of murder, such as burning ships and ****, but there are also many cases of kidnapping. Some ships were directly burned into empty shells. As for whether the people above died in the river or were robbed and sold, there is no way to know.

There are many ethnic minorities in Lingnan. If people are tied to a parody hamlet as slaves or coolies, living is equivalent to death, and the government has no way to investigate.

The official ships that Chen Xi and his party were generally safe. After all, there were officials who followed the boat, but they were afraid that those vicious river thieves would even dare to hijack the official ship.

Like the 6th carriage, you usually have to find a dock before nightfall to rest at the inn on the shore, and be protected by local inspection officers and soldiers. The inn is considered a pure land in this chaotic world.

Along the way, Chenxi was observing the situation along the river.

The imperial court set up not many checkpoints on the Xijiang River. Even if there are official ships in some places to check the passing ships, they are basically responsible for official business. However, checkpoints can be seen from time to time on the dock where you stay. Local yamen and inspection departments will send yamen soldiers to inspect. Passing merchants need to pay taxes. Usually, they can be released by paying money. If they don’t pay money, they will be suspected of being detained by bandits.

The government pretended to be deaf and dumb when dealing with water bandits, but it had a lot of experience in how to exploit the people.

The official ship naturally does not need to be inspected. Even if Shen Xi carries private goods on the two ships, it is not something that the local government and the inspection department can handle.

When he arrived at the dangerous area pointed by the boatman, Chen Xi usually made detailed records of the surrounding environment. He was preparing to eliminate the bandits along the river, but after careful study, he realized that these river pirates were like Somali pirates. Unless they adopted the escort mode, there would be no way to deal with these desperadoes.

Chen Xi asked the fishermen and boatmen along the way and learned that these river robbers did not have specific strongholds. Many people may fish on weekdays and transport goods on boats. If they are short of money, they will take risks and become river robbers. Anyway, the cost of crime is very low. It only takes a few people, a few knives, and a small boat can start construction. Moreover, the profit is not cheap. If you successfully hijack the ship, you may earn dozens or hundreds of taels of silver. You will have to have a vote to get married and have children for half a lifetime.

The water bandits are very familiar with the hydrology and geographical environment along the Xijiang River. They know where the environment is slower, so they are easy to grab. They are even faster when they run away. As long as they are not caught, they cannot be investigated.

Being a demon, enjoying a lifetime of wealth and glory. Some people even have capital to become merchants who run boats along the Pearl River, and their business is getting bigger and bigger.

Chen Xi originally regarded the Pearl River system as a golden river channel and planned to let Huiniang and Li Jin use convenient ships to operate the business, but now it seems that this is a place where danger and wealth coexist.

Even in a civilized society hundreds of years later, the rivers of many countries could not guarantee the absolute safety of ships, let alone the Ming Dynasty, which was poorly ruled and lagged behind in the transportation industry.

ps: The second update is here!

I am really sorry today, and it will return to normal tomorrow. The emperor strives for the fourth update! Please subscribe and monthly ticket support! (To be continued.) 8
Chapter completed!