By a twist of fate, the illegitimate son of the Marquis's family marries the county princess.

The next day

After resting for a night, Wen Zongji got up to wash up and handed the letter he had written to Changdong, asking him to ask someone at the post station to send it out.

During his two-week stay on the ship, unable to write to Pei Rujing and to avoid trouble from the county magistrate, Wen Zongji wrote several pages, detailing all the interesting things that happened on the ship.

After having breakfast, Wen Zongji took his guards to the Yangzhou branch office.

Yangzhou was wealthy, and its branch office was larger than those in other places, with a three-courtyard complex serving as the office's premises.

Lu Yiyang had been waiting for Wen Zongji for a long time. Upon learning that Wen Zongji had left from the post station, he immediately led his men to wait at the entrance of the branch office.

After Wen Zongji alighted from the carriage, Lu Yiyang cupped his hands and said, "This humble official greets Your Excellency."

Behind him stood a dozen or so editors, all recruited locally in Yangzhou, who accompanied him to pay their respects.

Wen Zongji raised his hand: "No need for formalities."

Lu Yiyang greeted Wen Zongji as he entered the yamen: "I have prepared the account books, and I have also compiled the official documents I handled after arriving in Yangzhou for your inspection, sir."

Wen Zongji nodded: "You are very thorough in your work, and I am very reassured."

That being said, when Wen Zongji arrived at his office, he first looked at the account books.

Seeing the string of amounts in the ledger, one can't help but admire the wealth of Jiangnan. The silver for selling quotas is more than double that of other places. In addition, there are many people in Yangzhou, and the income from selling the Beijing Gazette is also considerable, almost equivalent to two months' income elsewhere.

Lu Yiyang dismissed the others to attend to their own business, while he waited aside for Wen Zongji to ask him questions.

After reviewing the account books and official documents, Wen Zongji understood what Lu Yiyang had done in Yangzhou.

When it comes to spies, Lu Yiyang is much more cautious than Shan Zengnian. The spies he finds are all from the lowest rungs of society, and they have all been rigorously vetted. They are not the kind of people who just throw money at anyone and do things for him.

In other words, the informants Lu Yiyang developed were all very reliable.

More precisely, given Lu Yiyang's cautious nature, it's unlikely that his informants were only used to gather information about the lives of ordinary people in Yangzhou or to gather gossip.

Wen Zongji closed the official document, tapped his fingers lightly on the table, and said, "Just maintaining those spies costs a lot of money, and I haven't seen them provide any valuable information yet."

Wen Zongji's words seemed to be an accusation that Lu Yiyang had spent too much money cultivating informants.

Lu Yiyang remained expressionless and respectfully said, "Last night, you mentioned the breach of the Tongzhou dike last year. After I returned, I ordered them to investigate overnight, and we received the news this morning."

"In the middle of last year, the prefectures in Jiangnan experienced torrential rains for half a month. One night, a loud 'boom' was heard as the Tongzhou Dam breached, flooding all the villages behind that section of the dam. The lucky people who managed to escape were displaced and flocked to the cities of Tongzhou and Yangzhou. Upon learning of this, the government offices of both prefectures immediately opened their granaries to distribute grain to relieve the people and reported the matter to the imperial court."

"In addition, the Tongzhou government immediately sent people to investigate the cause of the Tongzhou Dam breach. They eventually found that it was caused by continuous heavy rain and flood accumulation, which continuously impacted the dam and eventually led to the breach."

Wen Zongji questioned, "I recall that the Tongzhou Dam was personally overseen and repaired by the Ministry of Works three years ago. How could it fail to withstand a flood after only three years? Could it be that the stones used were of poor quality?"

Lu Yiyang shook his head: "It's not the stone material. The Tongzhou Dam used high-quality stone material. The reason the Tongzhou Dam broke seems to be because the mud used to build the dam was not right. Under the continuous erosion of the flood, the mud that connected the stones was washed out with several small holes. In the end, because the rainstorm lasted too long, those small holes became bigger and bigger, which led to the dam breaking."

"The stones are fine. After the flood, we found those stones that had been washed away, and they were still intact."

Wen Zongji was stunned: "There's a problem with the mud? What could be wrong with the mud? Over the years, whether it's building dams or city walls, haven't we always used lime and fine sand mixed with some loess to act as an adhesive, making the dams and city walls strong and durable?"

The recipe for the mud has always been the same; even ordinary people know it.

Lu Yiyang shook his head: "I don't know either. This is just information gathered by my informants. I was surprised to hear it; I've never heard of mud causing problems before."

"Is this news reliable? Because of the Tongzhou Dam breach, the official in charge of supervising the construction of the dam, a senior official from the Ministry of Works, committed suicide in the Ministry of Justice prison out of fear of punishment. When he was convicted, the mud was not mentioned."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yiyang's expression changed drastically, and he stared blankly at Wen Zongji.

He understood the unspoken meaning in Wen Zongji's words.

If it really is related to mud, then there's something wrong with this case.

Did he stumble upon a wrongful conviction by accident?

Lu Yiyang's original intention was simply to prove to Wen Zongji that his informants had not been wasted, which is why he took the initiative to investigate the Tongzhou Dam breach.

Who knew it would lead to such an unexpected turn of events?

Lu Yiyang dared not give a guarantee: "This humble official is not certain either. Why don't we summon that person and ask him yourself, sir?"

Wen Zongji nodded: "Alright."

He was eager to know why, when the imperial court had specifically sent people to thoroughly investigate the breach of the Tongzhou Dam, they hadn't found out it was due to mud, while Lu Yiyang's informants had managed to find out.

Was the investigator sent by the imperial court incompetent? Or is there more to the story?

Wen Zongji never expected that the case would have a lead in Yangzhou.

He thought that only after obtaining Tongzhou and investigating carefully could he find any clues.

Lu Yiyang acted quickly, and soon the informant who provided him with the information arrived.

He was a tall, thin young man, dressed simply but cleanly. Standing before Wen Zongji, he was somewhat nervous but tried his best to remain calm: "This humble one, Liu Zi, greets Your Excellency."

Wen Zongji smiled gently: "No need to be nervous, I just want to ask you some questions."

Liu Zi glanced at Lu Yiyang, pursed his lips, and said, "Since Lord Lu has already told me, I will tell you everything without hesitation and would not dare to deceive you in the slightest."

Are you a local from Yangzhou?

"Exactly."

"Then why are you so clear about the Tongzhou Dam breach?"

Liu Zi said, "My elder sister married into Gukou Village in Qingcheng County, Tongzhou Prefecture. Last year, the Tongzhou Dam breached, and my sister's family was waiting for Gukou Village to be flooded. My brother-in-law also disappeared in the flood. My sister's husband's family disliked that she had not given birth to any children for him and refused to let her return to Gukou Village. My sister had no choice but to come back to her parents' home."

"I see," Wen Zongji said, then asked, "How did your elder sister, just an ordinary person, know the reason for the Tongzhou Dam breach?"

Liu Zi said, "When the dam was being built, the local people were all recruited by the government to work on it. The bigwigs from the capital paid a lot of money, so my brother-in-law went too. After the dam was finished and he returned home, he told my sister that the stone they used for that section of the dam was of very high quality, but to make such good stone adhere firmly, they had to pour several more layers of mortar than they would for a regular dam."

"But the officials overseeing the project still followed the usual methods for building dams and did not pour much mortar."

Lu Yiyang asked, "Has no one raised any questions?"

Liu Zi shook his head: "This humble one does not know."