After Lin Tailai left Yangzhou City, he was escorted by dozens of servants and 300 soldiers returning home to Suzhou, and slowly headed south along the canal.
It's already mid-July and the weather is starting to cool down.
Most of the "housekeepers" who followed Lin Tailai to the north were very happy. For them, returning to Suzhou was like going home.
And they know that as long as they return to Suzhou, they will definitely become the most popular people.
After all, they have experienced and witnessed many things. I am afraid that all the people in Suzhou want to hear first-hand legendary stories from their mouths.
Then these legendary stories such as "Scholar Lin vs. the Queen Mother of Beilu" will become the latest storytelling materials and become popular throughout the city.
They can't wait to show off to their relatives, friends and colleagues what they have learned over the past year.
Lin sat in the boat, looking at the scenery on the shore. It seemed that he was approaching Xushuguan, and he sighed deeply.
The guardians guarding the cabin door asked: "We are almost home, why do we sigh when we are sitting in the restaurant?"
Lin Tailai replied: "Every time I think about the countless trivial things that will be entangled in me after returning to Suzhou, I feel very troubled."
Lin Tailai had no idea about returning home in fine clothes or anything like that.
Returning to one's hometown with fine clothes is a mentality that only poor people have after becoming rich. Lin Tailai was already very successful in his hometown and did not need to show off again.
No matter how beautiful he is outside, once he returns to Suzhou, he is the unique Lin Daguan.
In Suzhou in the second half of this year, Lin Daguan only wanted to do two major things. One was to start the project of dredging the old road downstream of Wusong River, and the other was to hold a literary conference.
But there will definitely be countless other things that come to your door, and there is nothing you can do about it. As the saying goes, wealth in the mountains has distant relatives, and this is how people are in the world, and it cannot be avoided.
Then Lin Tailai gave another order: "Stay in Xushuguan for one day and set off again tomorrow morning!"
Protector Zuo Zhang Wen asked in surprise: "Why is this? According to the plan, we can make it to the city today."
Lin Tailai complained: "Your Queen Mother sent a message that tomorrow is the child's 100th birthday, so it makes more sense and is more impressive for me to be home at the same time tomorrow."
Lin Daguan was unable to complain about this. Wang Shiwu seemed to pay special attention to formalism, especially when it came to his son.
Although the Zhang brothers all wanted to go home early, their mistress had spoken and they said nothing.
Then he rested for a day in Xushuguan, accepted the tax official's hospitality, and then set off on his way early the next morning.
Near noon, the fleet finally arrived at Fengqiao, which is about ten miles outside the city.
In terms of social etiquette in Suzhou City in this era, the more formal greeting and sending points were all at Fengqiao.
Previously, after Lin Tailai became famous in Suzhou, he also participated in welcome or farewell ceremonies in Fengqiao several times.
Of course, it seems that Lin Daguan has an ominous aura, and it is true that accidents often happen at every welcoming ceremony.
Today, the shore under the Maple Bridge was crowded with people, and the sound of gongs and drums was standard. What was surprising was that Governor Zhou Ji also appeared here.
Zhejiang Deputy Inspector General and Acting Suzhou Prefecture Wang Zhiyou thought that at today's welcoming ceremony, as the prefect and Lin Tailai's wife's brother, he must be the most handsome boy, until Governor Zhou showed up.
Wang Fuzun asked in surprise: "How dare you condescend to Dazhong Cheng for today's gift? If you have anything to ask, just ask Lin Jiuyuan to pay a visit to the Procuratorate tomorrow."
Governor Zhou waved his hand and said, "I'm not here to greet Bachelor Lin, but Kui Yuan, the best in the world!"
The main organizer, Wang Fuzun, had to temporarily adjust his position and let Governor Zhou stand in the first place.
After a while, the sound of trumpets and suonas soaring into the sky spread from the canal to the shore. It can be said that the sound of the ship was heard before the ship was seen.
Anyone with experience will know that a big shot is coming.
And who dared to make such a loud noise outside Suzhou today except Lin Daguan who returned to his hometown?
The guardians on the left and right have been sitting in the pavilion with Lin for a long time, and their eyesight has also been improved.
After looking towards the shore for a few times, he reported to the cabin: "Sit down! The leader on the shore is an old man, maybe the governor! The official position is still behind him!"
Upon hearing the news, Lin Tailai had to come out of the cabin in advance and stand on the bow of the ship waiting to dock.
After getting off the boat, he took a few steps forward to greet me - others gave me face, so I couldn't be too rude on my part.
"I don't want the prime minister to be in charge of labor! It would be a disgrace to the younger generation!" Lin Tailai said modestly.
Governor Zhou can also speak: "What this court respects is not the clothes, but Kuiyuan!"
Lin Tailai also praised it very strongly: "I heard that Zhou Zhongcheng caressed my land of Wu, and my official reputation is outstanding, just like Hai Qingtian twenty years ago!"
Damn it! Governor Zhou almost couldn't catch it. You, Lin Tailai, said you were using too much force!
My family knows my own affairs, and I am a mediocre one among the feudal officials. How can He De compare with the world-famous Hai Rui?
Of course, Governor Zhou also knew very well that if he was not mediocre, the court would not let him be the governor of Jiangnan.
After all, among the first three governors of Jiangnan, two of them did not want to be mediocre and did not end well.
In particular, the previous Governor Li committed suicide inexplicably after being repeatedly besieged by civil uprisings.
The first one was Zhao Zhigao, who had been blessed with good fortune. He was incomparable; the next one was Governor Wei, who caused a scandal over tax resistance and was forced to resign voluntarily. He then strangled Bai Glove to death before he could return to his hometown safely.
That's why Zhou Ji, a mediocre person like Zhou Ji who didn't like to cause trouble, had the opportunity to take up the important position of governor of Jiangnan. The court only wanted stability.
But even if you, Lin Tailai, appreciate it, don't compare it with Hai Rui, that would be sheer embarrassment!
But Lin Tailai continued: "What happened to Hai Qingtian? As the saying goes, no one is a saint, and no one can make mistakes.
Even Hai Qingtian did something wrong during his term as governor of Jiangnan!
Now, Zhou Zhongcheng, your opportunity has come! If you can correct Hai Qingtian's mistakes, wouldn't you surpass Hai Qingtian?"
Governor Zhou: ""
I bet you a hundred cents, Lin Tai is definitely talking about the problem of the lower reaches of the Wusong River!
We have already received the news. Last month, Shandong fellow Shandong fellow Wang Situ wrote a letter about the matter.
I just didn't expect that Lin Tailai would forcefully bring up the topic as soon as he got off the boat and start talking about it.
Governor Zhou had only recently begun to hear about the idea of dredging the lower reaches of the Wusong River. He had no idea at the moment and didn't know what to say at this time.
Wangfuzun next to him came to the rescue and said: "This matter cannot be finished in an instant, so we should find another time to explain it in detail."
So Lin Tailai let Governor Zhou go and met the others one by one.
No matter what they were thinking in their hearts, most of the others were beaming with joy. Only Yuan Hongdao, the magistrate of Wu County, had a droopy face.
It is understandable that great writers are all gentlemen, and Yuan Zhixian is a representative figure of the public security faction, a new force in the literary world.
Official Lin said jokingly: "What's wrong with Yuan Xianzun? Who provoked you? Or is there too much official work backlog and you are being held accountable by your superiors again?"
Yuan Zhixian said angrily: "I have been working as a county magistrate in Suzhou for four years. The official affairs here are too busy. I wanted to change to a more leisurely position, but the court refused."
Lin Tailai immediately shied away from responsibility: "I didn't do this! It was your father who didn't want you to leave Suzhou City! After all, your family's food store and the business here are getting bigger and bigger!"
Yuan Xianzun snorted coldly: "But my father said that you don't want me to leave Suzhou.
Whose idea was it? Can you two discuss the words first?"
"Hahahaha!" Lin Tailai changed the subject again and said: "Because in the second half of the year, I plan to hold a literary conference in Suzhou. Don't you want to participate?"
Lin Tailai said: "When the time comes, please send a group of police officers to advocate for me and elect me as the leader of the alliance!
Invite a few more comrades to come, and I’ll cover the travel expenses, food and accommodation!”
Yuan Xianzun said a little uncertainly: "The leader you want to fight for is not from the martial arts world, right?"
He arrived in Suzhou four years ago and saw with his own eyes how Lin Tailai conquered the city from east to west, defeating invincible opponents all over Suzhou City with his iron fist and golden whip.
At that time, he never dreamed that the most heroic man in Suzhou City would covet the position of the leader of the literary world a few years later.
In just a few years, the world has changed like a sea of change.
After the welcoming ceremony at Fengqiao ended, Lin Tailai waved to the people on the shore, made a bow, and prepared to board the boat and enter the city.
Although Governor Zhou came to Fengqiao to greet him, he would not accompany Lin Daguan into the city, as that would be too flattering.
Therefore, it would be most appropriate for Wang Zhiyou, the royal family official and relative, to come forward and accompany Lin Daguan home.
On the boat, Wang Zhiyou said to Lin Tai: "Changmen is too blocked and Xumen has no waterway, so we enter the city through Kuimen."
"Kuimen?" Lin Tailai was unfamiliar with this name.
Wang Fuzun then introduced: "It's the city gate you opened a few years ago! It was renamed Kuimen in the first half of this year to commemorate your feat of winning the title of Nine Yuan in succession."
Speaking of the current congestion situation in Suzhou's waterways, it's hard to describe. Sometimes a boat can't cover even a few miles in an hour.
The newly opened Kuimen is said to be better than Changmen, but not much better.
If he hadn't wanted to save trouble and be too lazy to get off the boat and change horses, Lin Tailai wouldn't have thought of taking a boat into the city and going home.
After entering the city, the boat wandered in the waterway for an unknown amount of time before seeing the familiar Yinma Bridge.
As the boundary bridge between the two counties in the city, Lin Daguan also has many memories here, beating people and writing poems.
Wang Fuzun continued: "Today, the Central Axis Street is bounded by Yinma Bridge. The northern section is still called Wolong Street, but the southern section has been renamed Jiuyuan Street."
Lin Tailai knew that his nine-year succession would cause some physical repercussions in his hometown.
The ancestor of Wang Yusheng in the same year, Wang Hao, left behind the name Xueshi Street seventy or eighty years ago.
But Mr. Lin did not expect that the response would be so great.
Wolong Street is the north-south central axis of the whole city of Suzhou. This name should have been used for nearly a thousand years.
Historically, it was not until Qianlong went to Jiangnan that the name was changed to Hulong Street in order to please Emperor Qianlong.
And how could I possibly change the name of Wolong Street?
So Lin Tailai sighed: "After all, this is a central axis main road. How can there be a reason to use one name for the northern half and another name for the southern half?
I don’t think it’s appropriate to change the name like this. It’s really inconvenient for people to use two names for one street.”
After Wang Fuzun thought for a while, he said: "So what you mean is to abandon the name Wolong Street and rename the entire street from north to south to Jiuyuan Street?"
Lin Tailai: ""
Could it be that in history, Emperor Qianlong never thought of changing Wolong Street to Hulong Street, and the name change was just a matter of local officials' own initiative to flatter themselves?
People in high positions really cannot express their opinions casually!
"Forget it, let's go to the north of Wolong and the south of Jiuyuan." Lin Tailai finally had no choice but to succumb to the status quo, "The name that has been used for thousands of years cannot disappear when Lin Tailai is here."
Going south from Yinma Bridge, you are close to Canglang Pavilion.
Lin Tailai, who was sitting in the cabin, immediately saw from a distance that in the southern half of the original Wolong Street, now known as Jiuyuan Street, there were two large black objects, standing across the street in an extremely domineering manner.
Wangfuzun, who felt like a tour guide today, had to explain again: "Those are two stone archways, one civil and one military, to show your great achievements."
When he got closer, Lin Tailai could see clearly that each archway had thick eight-legged stone pillars, which were nearly 20 meters wide in the horizontal direction, six to seven meters in the vertical direction, and more than ten meters high overall.
Said to be a stone archway, it is more like two large stone buildings. From the perspective of people of this era, they are definitely huge.
"What a prodigal. How much money did this cost? Who built it?" Lin Daguan felt inexplicably distressed.
There was no shortage of money in the first place, but since I decided to start dredging the lower reaches of the Wusong River this year, I found that I was short of money again.
Otherwise, he would not have taken the idea of Yangzhou salt merchants and asked Wang Yuan to go out to raise money.
Wang Fuzun replied: "The styles of these two stone archways were designed by your steward Gao Changjiang, and their locations were determined by Zhou Futai himself, and then they were constructed by your elder brother."
"Wait!" Lin Tailai said doubtfully: "Zhou Futai personally surveyed the site? Is he so idle that he even does such a thing?"
Wang Fuzun smiled and said: "Our Zhou Futai comes from Shandong, and I know his details very well.
What you may not know is that Zhou Futai is one of the top experts in political education today. He has written ten volumes of "Yang Zhai Encyclopedia", and the governorship is only a side job.
So when your Lin family wanted to build these two archways, Zhou Futai personally inspected the Feng Shui and surveyed the site."
Lin Tailai: ""
I really didn't realize it just now, but Governor Zhou is quite versatile. He is actually a Feng Shui master and can be considered a technical talent.
After being stunned, Lin Tailai joked: "It would have been better if Master Zhou had come a few years earlier. When the construction of Canglang Pavilion Lin Mansion starts, I can ask him to give advice."
Wangfuzun replied: "It's not too late now. Your father has asked Zhou Futai to help rebuild the ancestral house in Linsong Village and the Lin family ancestral hall."
While talking, he abandoned the boat and landed on the shore, entering the house through the main entrance.
To be honest, Lin Daguan, who returned to Suzhou, would rather go to Hengtang Town to inspect Hengtang College or go to the opposite side of Mudu Town to inspect the industrial park.
In Lin Daguan's mind, those places are the foundation of his career, while the city is more about exaggeration and vanity.
But now that he has a wife and a legitimate son, no matter what he thinks in his heart, he must first return to the Canglang Pavilion in the city.