Chapter 14: Drinking

Half an hour later, Tang Zheng returned, but with a small bundle on his back.

Lin Zuo asked him curiously what was in the bundle, but he refused to say mysteriously, just urging Su Xiaoxi to lead the way.

The party went to the Zhenjiang Prefecture prison. The jailer's news was quite sensitive. Hearing that the Commander had secretly come to Zhenjiang and seemed to be investigating Su Shanhe's case, he guessed that Tang Zheng and the others were coming, so he made preparations early to welcome them.

"Commander, this is Su Shanhe's cell." The jailer respectfully led Tang Zheng and the others to the outside of Su Shanhe's room.

Through the thick iron bars, one could see Su Shanhe sitting alone in the corner, eyes closed, seemingly resting. There were some scars and bloodstains on his body, not knowing if he was injured in the previous battle or suffered any torture after coming in.

"Brother!" Su Xiaoxi pounced on the bars, her voice suddenly choked.

"Xiaoxi, why are you here?" Su Shanhe was stunned, then discovered Tang Zheng and the attendant-like Lin Zuo, and said respectfully: "Grain Transport Supervisor Commander of Zhenjiang Prefecture, Su Shanhe, pays respects to the Commander. Earlier on the ship, the small one had eyes but didn't recognize Mount Tai. I hope the Commander will not be surprised."

"No surprise, no surprise." Tang Zheng shook his head repeatedly: "Su Commander is brave and upright, and I admire him very much."

Then he turned and said to the jailer: "Why don't you open the door?"

"This..." The jailer hesitated and said: "I'm sorry, Commander, Prefect Zhou specifically ordered that unless he comes in person, no one is allowed to open Su Shanhe's cell door."

"Mm?" Tang Zheng glared at the jailer fiercely: "Don't you know my identity?"

The latter bowed repeatedly: "The small one knows, but the Prefect specifically emphasized that even the Commander is no exception, so..."

"Eh, you guy..."

Tang Zheng rolled up his sleeves, pretending to hit him, while the jailer covered his head in fear. Fortunately, Lin Zuo pulled Tang Zheng from behind in time.

"He is also acting on orders, so don't make things difficult for him."

"Alright, consider yourself lucky." Tang Zheng said to the jailer: "Follow me, I have something to say."

"Yes, adult."

Tang Zheng took the jailer away. After walking a few steps, he suddenly turned around and winked at Lin Zuo and Su Xiaoxi: "I'll be back soon. If there's anything that needs to be prepared, hurry up."

The jailer took Tang Zheng to the room where the jailers usually rested. There was a table, a few chairs, and some leftover food and bowls and chopsticks on the table.

Tang Zheng went straight to find a chair and sat down, put the bundle he was carrying on the table, and then asked: "How many people are on duty today?"

"Returning to the adult, including the small one, there are five people on duty today."

"Go and call them all for me."

"Yes, adult."

The jailer replied and ran away happily. Hearing his footsteps run far away, Tang Zheng quickly opened the bundle on the table, took out a bottle of wine from it, pulled out the stopper and smelled it, and a lewd smile appeared on his face.

Then he took out a small paper bag from his arms, opened it, and it was full of white powder.

Tang Zheng poured it all into the wine bottle, then shook it hard, and put the wine bottle on the table.

A moment later, the jailer also brought the other few jailers. Five people stood in a row in front of Tang Zheng, all looking trembling.

"Calling you here today, there is only one requirement! That prisoner Su Shanhe who is locked up is my friend. I promised to find out the truth within three days, so within these three days, you must take good care of him." Tang Zheng's gaze swept over everyone's face. Those who were seen by him felt their legs trembling.

"If I find out who dares to give him trouble in private, you should have heard of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's means."

"Adult, don't scare the small ones. Even if we had the courage of a bear, we wouldn't dare to go against the Embroidered Uniform Guard." The jailer said with a smiling face: "Except for the rule that he can't be released, we will do whatever the adult says for other things. We will treat Su Commander as our own father."

"Mm, you are sensible." Tang Zheng nodded, picked up the wine bottle on the table, and poured a bowl of wine for each of the five people: "To express my gratitude, I invite everyone to drink, come!"

"This..." Several jailers looked at each other, and no one dared to go up to hold the bowl first.

Tang Zheng's face sank: "What? Look down on me?"

"Don't dare, don't dare." The jailer hurriedly said: "We drink, drink!"

As he spoke, he picked up the wine bowl himself and drank it in one gulp.

And under his lead, the other jailers naturally couldn't refuse.

Watching the jailers drink the wine with the Monghan Drug, a smile appeared on Tang Zheng's face.

A moment later, all five jailers fell softly to the ground.

"Brother, did you embezzle the silver allocated by the imperial court to the water transport?" Su Xiaoxi asked Su Shanhe across the iron bars.

"Of course not."

"Then the account book?"

"I hid it."

"Why did you hide the account book?"

"Because a thief came to the house not long ago, and the thief turned the house upside down, but didn't take any property." Su Shanhe paused: "I was worried that someone wanted to steal the account book. The water transport accounts are of great importance, so I hid the account book in advance to be safe."

"Why didn't you hand it over to the government?" Lin Zuo couldn't help but interject.

And Su Shanhe looked him up and down before saying: "The person who stole the account book had an unknown identity. I don't know if it has anything to do with the government, so I don't dare to trust others easily."

"So you seem to know some inside story?"

"What if I know? I don't have evidence."

"Then where is the account book hidden now?"

"Unless it's an Imperial Envoy sent by the Holy One, I won't tell anyone."

Looking at Su Shanhe's stubborn eyes and firm tone, Lin Zuo was moved in his heart. Vaguely, he thought of ten years ago. Su Shanhe was only a seven or eight-year-old child at that time, but he dared to stand in front of his wounded Master and face Yagyu Ichiro directly. How much courage would that need?

From the bottom of his heart, he believed in Su Shanhe's character, but to help Su Shanhe clear his name and find out the truth, he still needed some evidence.

He was a bit hesitant about whether to tell Su Shanhe his identity, and he didn't know if Su Shanhe and Su Xiaoxi still remembered what happened back then after so many years?

In addition, he still had a concern in his heart—what if his judgment was wrong and Su Shanhe had really become a corrupt and bad person? Then he would never be able to find out the truth after telling him his identity.

And just then, a rapid sound of footsteps came from behind, and he saw Tang Zheng walking over in a hurry with a bunch of keys, calling out to Lin Zuo and Su Xiaoxi while walking: "I got the keys, let's take the person away quickly, it will be too late if we are late." ===== CHAPTER 15 =====