Chapter 22: Grain Transport

"Be careful, follow me." Tang Zheng said to Su Xiaoxi behind him with concern.

Unexpectedly, before he finished speaking, he stepped into the air and almost fell. Fortunately, Su Xiaoxi pulled him from behind.

"Commander, you are the one who needs to be careful."

"This... it's too dark, the ground is too slippery, I will." Tang Zheng replied, only feeling that he had lost face, and his face was burning. Fortunately, the light was dim, and Su Xiaoxi shouldn't have seen it.

At this moment, they were in a large warehouse. Moonlight shone into the warehouse through the windows, and they could see bags piled up all around, with the word "Grain Transport" written on them.

Su Xiaoxi tore open the mouth of a bag and found that it was indeed full of grain.

"It's all grain transport. The quantity is at least several thousand shi."

Suddenly, a noisy sound of footsteps came from outside. Tang Zheng hurriedly pulled Su Xiaoxi and hid behind a pile of rice bags.

They saw a person who looked like an accountant walk in first, directing several workers behind him to carry bags of grain transport in and stack them in the corner. Those workers then left, and the accountant took out paper and pen and began to record.

Seeing that there was no one around, Tang Zheng and Su Xiaoxi quietly walked out from behind the pile of rice bags and walked behind the accountant. Tang Zheng asked in a seemingly casual tone: "What are you recording?"

The accountant subconsciously said: "The grain transport that entered the warehouse yesterday."

After speaking, he realized something was wrong. When he turned his head, he found two unfamiliar people standing behind him and was immediately panicked.

"Who are you? How did you get in?"

However, before he could finish speaking, Su Xiaoxi had already picked up a stick from the side and hit him on the head.

The accountant fell to the ground, and the account book in his hand also fell to the ground.

Tang Zheng picked it up and flipped through two pages by the dim moonlight, finding that it recorded all the grain transport that entered and left the warehouse. The dates corresponded exactly to the dates of the sunken ships in Su Shanhe's account book before.

This proves that their previous speculation was correct. The grain on those sunken ships was actually pulled here in advance. Someone was eating the deficit of the national treasury while selling this grain to the common people at a high price, making money from both ends.

"With this account book, we finally have evidence." Tang Zheng put the account book into his pocket and said to Su Xiaoxi: "This place is not suitable for staying long. Let's leave here first. I will go find the Prefect tomorrow morning to restore your brother's innocence."

"Good."

The two turned to leave, but as soon as they turned, they found a person just coming in from the outside, bumping into him and Su Xiaoxi head-on.

"You are..." The person showed a puzzled look on his face, glanced at the accountant lying on the ground, and suddenly woke up like a dream: "You are that Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

And at the same moment, Tang Zheng also recognized this person—it was one of the three people who had followed them not long ago, it seemed his name was Abao.

Time was short, and Tang Zheng's hand reached into his bosom like lightning, then suddenly flung it, and a large handful of white powder splashed on Abao's head and face.

The latter immediately let out a scream, and Tang Zheng and Su Xiaoxi took the opportunity to bypass him and run out. Su Xiaoxi even kicked him on the butt.

However, his scream also alerted others, and a shout came from outside immediately.

"What's going on?"

"There's a spy who sneaked in."

"Catch them."

Immediately after, torches lit up all around, and dozens of people who looked like porters surrounded them from all directions, surrounding Tang Zheng and Su Xiaoxi, who were unfamiliar with the environment, in the middle.

This was the first time in Tang Zheng's life that he had encountered such a situation. In the past, when he was hanging out on the street, although there would be disputes and fights, they were basically small scenes. Besides, if he couldn't beat them, he could run.

And now, he and Su Xiaoxi were surrounded by dozens of people. These people looked like porters, but they all had a fierce aura on their faces, and some even had weapons in their hands. It looked like they were not just "workers".

To be honest, Tang Zheng's legs were a bit soft. If it were just him, he would have knelt down and shouted "Spare me, hero" by now.

But Su Xiaoxi was standing behind him, and she was holding his sleeve tightly, not knowing if it was because of nervousness or fear, which made Tang Zheng feel a sense of heroism for no reason.

No matter what, he couldn't lose face in front of the woman he loved.

He suddenly took out the Gold Medal of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander hanging from his waist, held it in front of his chest, and shouted: "Whoever is not afraid of death, come over. Do you know what the crime of colliding with an Embroidered Uniform Guard official is?"

That group of people was originally eager to try, but when Tang Zheng shouted the three words "Embroidered Uniform Guard", these people seemed to be shocked. For a while, no one dared to come up, but it seemed that due to the lewd power of the superiors, no one dared to retreat.

So the two sides fell into a brief stalemate.

……

The flickering firelight flashed on the window, and a noisy shout came from his ears.

Yagyu Ichiro in the room stood up abruptly and asked in stiff Chinese: "Li Sheng-kun, what happened?"

Li Sheng also stood up, his face gloomy: "I don't know, let's go out and see."

The two walked out of the room one after another, but neither of them noticed that on the beam above their heads, Lin Zuo was lying with his limbs spread out, like a big spider.

And after the two walked far away, Lin Zuo jumped down from the beam quietly, landing without a sound, like a cat.

He looked at the firelight in the distance, a trace of worry appearing in his eyes.

……

Abao covered his eyes, his face was white, looking very embarrassed, and ordered his men to bring a basin of water, preparing to wash his eyes.

"Don't use water!" A voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting Abao's movement.

Then he saw Li Sheng walking over in a hurry, followed by Yagyu Ichiro wearing a bamboo hat, but he deliberately pressed the brim of his hat very low, so that the crowd present could not see his face.

"This is lime. If you use water, your eyes will be blind. You must use vegetable oil." Li Sheng ordered his men to find vegetable oil while asking Abao: "What happened?"

"It's that Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander, and he also brought Su Shanhe's sister." Abao said with his eyes closed: "They knocked out the accountant and snatched the account book."

Hearing Abao's words, Li Sheng was a bit surprised, while Yagyu Ichiro sneered from the side: "Li Sheng-kun, didn't you say you had settled that Embroidered Uniform Guard?"

As soon as this sentence was spoken, a trace of murderous intent appeared in Li Sheng's eyes.

"Yagyu Ichiro-kaku, please don't worry, everything is still under my control."

"It's best if it is." Yagyu Ichiro said faintly, turned and left, walked to the wall, stepped on it, and his body had landed on a big tree by the wall, and then his figure disappeared into the darkness.

"Boss, what should we do?" Abao asked with his eyes closed.

"Taking my money and still wanting to play me." Li Sheng said with a vicious face: "Since they are looking for death, don't blame me!"

Abao was stunned: "But that is an Embroidered Uniform Guard..."

A ferocious smile appeared on Li Sheng's face: "After killing them, tie them to a stone and sink them into the river. Who would know?"

After speaking, he whispered a few words in the ears of several subordinates. After listening, several subordinates mixed into the crowd, and immediately after, those "workers" began to press toward Tang Zheng and Su Xiaoxi. ===== CHAPTER 23 =====