Transmigration: I, the Dragon Overlord, start by protecting my beautiful bride!

Despite Luo Hongyan's worries, Long Aotian's eyes remained firm: "Beichuan has fallen into the hands of those bandits. The longer we delay, the greater the danger he will be in!"

Long Aotian held the knife of the man who had just tried to kill him in his hand. "He was my subordinate, willing to risk his life for me. If I don't save him now, what will the people of the Zhenye Division think of me, Shen Congxin?"

Long Aotian said solemnly, "Lord Luo, if you are unwilling to come with me, you may turn back now." After saying that, he walked alone with his sword, without looking back, towards the dilapidated village.

A moment later, sparse footsteps came from behind Long Aotian. It was Luo Hongyan, who finally caught up.

"I never expected that Lord Shen would value my life so much." She clasped her hands in a fist salute to Long Aotian and said, "Hongyan truly admires you!"

"Thank you, Chief Inspector Luo." Long Aotian also clasped his hands in a gesture of respect, saying, "I owe you a favor for what happened today. Please don't hesitate to ask if you ever need my help in the future."

Although Luo Hongyan is loyal, he and Shen Congxin met by chance at the Zhenye Division.

So of course, her intentions weren't simply to help Long Aotian.

More importantly, her boss told her that she must win over Shen Congxin.

After all, he now has the Left Commander of the Huayi Prefecture as his backer. Anyone who can get his help in Qianzhou City will have their career path greatly enhanced!

……

"I'm telling you, Mr. Dong, as you can see now, there's absolutely nothing on this dock..."

At the southern dock of Qianzhou City, Prefect Liu was dragged here by Dong Fuguang.

When I last came here, several large ships were brightly lit, with not only various vendors, but also many wealthy merchants from the surrounding counties and prefectures of Qianzhou City who came here to conduct illegal transactions.

But in just one day and one night, everything here was gone, as if what I saw that night was just a dream...

"You must have arranged this in advance, making them all hide, right?" Dong Fuguang looked at the scene before him, very angry, and drew his sword, pointing it at Liu Zhizhou who was lying on the ground.

"Lord Dong, you need evidence to support your claims!" The disheveled Prefect Liu was also furious, patting his soiled clothes and saying, "I am, after all, an official of the Celestial Empire! You're making baseless accusations against me without any evidence. Be careful, or I'll report you to the court and impeach you for abusing your power!"

"I'm framing you?" Dong Fuguang laughed, his blade flashing, his eyes sharp. "Do you think what I saw with my own eyes that night was all a lie? Or do you think I came all this way just to target a mere prefect like you?!"

Prefect Liu, “This…”

Just as Dong Fuguang was interrogating Prefect Liu, his deputy arrived in time with personnel from the prefectural government and the night watchman's office.

"Lord Dong, this matter truly has nothing to do with my master!" The deputy hurriedly stepped forward and said, "He is engrossed in building waterways all day long. If he were truly running this maritime trading market, how could he possibly have the time?"

"Since he can entrust all the affairs of Qianzhou City to you, can't he entrust the affairs of this maritime trade market to someone else?" Dong Fuguang said with great certainty, "Prefect Liu, these large ships under your feet were once official cargo ships. If it weren't for your permission, who else could lease them from you? Am I right? In the entire Qianzhou City, besides you, Prefect Liu, who else has such authority?!"

"I...I didn't!" Prefect Liu cried out, his face pale. "No, it wasn't me..."

Just as everyone was arguing, two ragged children suddenly ran out of the cabin of a large ship.

"What are you two doing here?" Lin Boguang immediately stepped forward to stop them upon seeing this.

"I..." the child answered timidly, "We live on this ship..."

Upon hearing this, Dong Fuguang immediately sheathed his sword and walked over, bending down to ask, "Living on this ship? But this ship is clearly an official vessel, how can you live here?"

"This ship has been moored here for several years. We came aboard with other people who said we could get food here..."

"My lord, spare my life! My lord, spare my life!"

Suddenly, two more people were dragged out of the cabin by the Night Watchmen. They were also dressed in tattered clothes, a man and a woman.

"The children are young and don't know any better. If you want to punish someone, punish us instead. They are innocent." The woman knelt on the ground, crying and begging for mercy.

Dong Fuguang reached out and helped him up, asking coldly, "And who are you?"

"We are merchants from this maritime market," the two men said in a startling way. "We are not originally from Qianzhou City, but from the surrounding counties and prefectures. We only heard that the profits from this maritime market in one year could equal the earnings of an ordinary person working hard for three years, so we came here because of its reputation..."

Upon hearing this, everyone on the ship feigned surprise...

"What did you two say?" Liu Zhizhou's deputy was furious, pointing at the two men and shouting, "The maritime trade has long been explicitly prohibited by the Emperor of our dynasty! How could there be any maritime trade in our Qianzhou City?!"

"If you two dare to talk nonsense again, I'll smash your mouths!" the deputy threatened anxiously.

With a quick glance, Dong Fuguang flicked his wrist, and the knife in his hand flew out, landing precisely at the feet of Liu Zhizhou's deputy, who turned pale with fright and retreated repeatedly.

"You've got quite the airs of a high-ranking official," Dong Fuguang said, looking at him dangerously. "With me here, you have no say in this!"

"Yes..." The deputy nodded hastily.

"Is there a maritime trading market within Qianzhou City?" Dong Fuguang turned around and continued to ask the couple.

But after being intimidated by their deputy, they no longer dared to speak up easily.

Until Dong Fuguang said, "Speak with confidence. I am Dong Fuguang, the Left Commander of Huayi Mansion. As long as you tell the truth, I will not punish you."

“But…” he drawled, “if you refuse to confess, or if you deceive me with lies, then I will punish you severely!”

Lin Boguang, who was standing to the side, also cooperated by drawing his long sword from his waist to scare them.

The couple were immediately terrified and trembled with fear. They replied hastily, "Reporting to your Excellency, there is indeed a maritime trading market in Qianzhou City; otherwise, we wouldn't be here..."

“But when I came here a couple of days ago, the lights were on and people were coming and going. Today, they’ve all vanished without a trace. They all got wind of it and ran away. Why are you still here?” Dong Fuguang asked again.

"This..." The couple knelt on the ground and replied, "Indeed, we received news that an important person is coming here to inspect."

“But…” The couple looked at each other, “We’re not from Qianzhou City, and we have two children with us. They can all run home, but we…” The man paused, then answered tremblingly, “We were just thinking of seeing if we could hide on this boat and wait for things to calm down…”