Chapter 012: Really Not Afraid of Death
Zhao Yulin had seen such execution scenes in later life. It was said that this interrogation method would not cause much physical harm to the prisoners and would not cause the death of the criminals during interrogation.
However, it is very easy to cause extreme fear in criminals.
Sure enough, after Lei Man covered the table with the third piece of cloth and used only half a pot of water, Captain Niu struggled to confess the fact that they were smuggling salt and the major case of using the water fort to smuggle green lychees tonight.
Moreover, he asked Lei Man to step aside and tell him where he hid his gold. He knew that he was in danger of death, and after seeing what Zhao Yulin did, he thought that he was a man who dared to act and keep his word, and he even asked Zhao Yulin to take care of his family.
But this guy was a real brother and refused to mention anything about his relationship with the county lieutenant Zhang Baopi. He said he did it all by himself. The soldiers in the water fort were paid to do the job and they obeyed his orders directly, so that was all they knew.
Captain Niu did not mention it, but the water stronghold was also Zhang Xianwei's army. This problem became a big deal, directly implicating Zhang Bapi and the Wang family, as well as the two salt merchants.
Captain Lei looked at Zhao Yulin anxiously and asked what to do?
They suddenly entered the water fort, and although they controlled everyone, there was no guarantee that the Wang family did not have other spies.
Zhao Yulin could not care about so many things. His main task was to solve the problem of smuggling lychee greens from the Wang family tonight. He saw that it was almost time for the Wang family to ship the goods, so he asked Lu Youpeng and Ma Jin to check carefully for any abnormalities, and asked Lei Man and Ding Er to get ready to contact and receive the goods.
After a short rest, Lu Youpeng and Ma Jin came back to report that everything was normal at the dock. Zhao Yulin asked Lu Youpeng to stay at the dock, while Lei Man led his men to pretend to be water fort ships and set out to pick up the goods. He personally led Ma Jin and a hundred brothers to the east gate to attack the rear of Wang's smuggling team.
It is said that Mr. Wang is definitely a very cautious person. He loves money, but he values life even more.
Liu San was not a foolish person. He originally planned to smuggle 5,000 kilograms of wine. However, he said that things had not been going well recently, so he would try smuggling 2,000 kilograms first. After nightfall, he arranged for three large carts to be loaded with wine and set off. According to the original plan, they went out of the east gate and headed carefully towards the small pier by the river.
Liu San knew that if he was caught, his crime would be unforgivable and his face would be branded as a thief. He was extremely careful and stopped frequently along the way, which wasted a lot of time. When he arrived at the riverside, he did not see Captain Niu's boat. He became nervous and became more cautious.
Lei Man had just set out at this time. Zhao Yulin and his men had wasted a lot of time in arresting and interrogating Captain Niu, and the boat was naturally not fast enough at night. By the time the light on their boat appeared, it was already half an hour late.
Liu San shook the torch vigilantly to get the secret signal, and asked the servants to divide into three teams of two, and step forward to greet the connection every five steps.
This trick really worked. Although Lei Man easily controlled the first team of servants, Ding Er was panicked and careless when controlling the second team of servants. Someone in the middle shouted, and the servants on the shore realized that something was wrong and ran back immediately.
Liu San knew that Captain Niu was in trouble, so he dared not stay. He shouted to his servants to run away, and he himself slipped away into the woods.
This thief was too smart. He knew how powerful Zhao Yulin was. Seeing that the plan had been exposed, he estimated that there must be an ambush on land. So he simply asked the servants of the Wang family to cover him while he found a small path alone to sneak towards the north gate.
At this time, Zhao Yulin hurried to the outside of the east gate. He led his men carefully towards the river. Soon he heard hurried footsteps and quickly dispersed and ambushed.
However, when he surrounded the crowd and lit the torches, he found that all he caught were small-time servants and retainers. He only knew that the leader was Liu San, but he could not see Liu San himself.
Zhao Yulin waited until Lei Man came back. The two of them discussed it and decided that it was impossible to catch Liu San, so they took the stolen goods and the criminal to the city.
At this time, the Wang family already knew that the smuggling in Shuizhai had been exposed.
Zhao Yulin was arresting people outside the city. From the east gate tower he could see torches flickering, people talking and shouting from afar. Someone ran to the Wang family to report the news.
Mr. Wang and County Lieutenant Zhang were still drinking tea and waiting for news, but what they got was this devastatingly bad news. Mr. Wang slumped in his chair and looked at County Lieutenant Zhang in an idiot manner.
Zhang Baopi, however, looked relaxed and said that this matter was easy to handle. He just needed to put the blame on Liu San, as it was Liu San who did it in the first place.
After saying this, he immediately went home through the small door.
Although Mr. Wang looked like a Buddha, he also understood the importance of sacrificing the car to save the driver. He immediately called the butler Du Wei over and gave him instructions.
Not long after, the county magistrate Chen Yun sent someone to invite Mr. Wang to the court for questioning.
Mr. Wang rushed to the county government office, and the chief clerk, the county lieutenant and everyone else arrived.
Earlier, the county magistrate interrogated the servants of the Wang family in court, and they all said that it was Liu San who ordered it to happen. Now, after Mr. Wang arrived in court and saw Liu San escape, he said with confidence that this matter had absolutely nothing to do with him, and that it was Liu San who stole his family's wine and sold it. Moreover, with the testimony of Wang family's butler Du Wei, all the chains of evidence were complete.
Zhao Yulin knew this would be the result and smiled helplessly.
Lei Man wanted to re-examine the case, but the county magistrate stopped him. He had already arrested the salt merchant and ordered the jailer to take all the suspects into prison. He also ordered the county lieutenant to preside over the case and close it as soon as possible.
During this period, Yibin has encountered incidents one after another, which have had a huge impact. The Xuzhou provincial capital is in the city, and the county magistrate does not want to make a big deal out of it, since he has no evidence against the county lieutenant anyway.
Lei Man wanted to help interrogate the prisoners, so Zhao Yulin said goodbye to the county magistrate and led his beggar soldiers back. After a night of tossing and turning, Zhao Yulin went into the White Pagoda and fell asleep on the bed. After waking up and taking two sips of tea, Lei Man came back.
Seeing Lei Man looking listless, Zhao Yulin asked with a smile what was wrong, whether Captain Niu had died and the clues were gone.
Lei Man smiled and said that what he said was right. Captain Niu took all the blame on himself in front of County Magistrate Zhang, and said that he had harmed others and himself, and delayed the important affairs of the court. He was willing to die, and then he bit his tongue and committed suicide on the spot.
This made Zhao Yulin stunned .
Damn, there really are such heroes.
Lei Man said that Niu Butou was smart. He knew Zhang Baopi's methods and did not want to implicate his family, so he simply died.
Zhao Yulin said that we must keep our word, and asked him to take his confidants to the water fort to retrieve the gold hidden by Niu Butou. If the gold is accurate, he will arrange for someone to contact him regularly and take good care of his family.
Captain Lei nodded and said that after Captain Niu was dug out this time, the county magistrate followed the clues and brought two salt merchants to justice. Three other salt merchants voluntarily paid the additional taxes, and the county earned a large sum of money. Magistrate Chen said that there would be a generous reward, and Xiao Qijin would be well compensated.
Zhao Yulin was not interested in whether there would be a reward or not. He said that it was a good thing to investigate the water fort this time, as it would make the anti-smuggling officers feel at ease after their work was cleaned up.
He asked Lei Man to go back and expand two more ships as he wanted to go to the Jinsha River to look for minerals.
Lei Man hesitated for a moment and said that the Ma Lake upstream of the Jinsha River was mostly inhabited by tribes and was not very safe. It would be better for Chen Xian to arrange for people to go in and buy ore and bring it back to smelt iron. Chen Xian was already considering building a small vertical furnace to smelt refined iron.
Zhao Yulin had no choice but to give up and asked Lei Man to supervise the opening of a night school at the dock to teach cultural subjects every night.
At this time, Chen Zhongshun, the owner of Chengyi Restaurant, came and bowed to Zhao Yulin as soon as he saw him. Zhao Yulin immediately stood up and saluted. The owner of the restaurant was almost fifty years old, and he was only sixteen or seventeen years old. How could he be responsible for this?
Zhao Yulin asked the old man to sit down and talk, and Lei Man also told Chen Zhongshun not to be polite. After Chuan'er brought the tea bowl, Manager Chen took a sip and then said slowly: I want to ask Zhao Yulin for help.
Zhao Yulin asked what help he needed?
His restaurant and cooking shop are both doing well, and he is a wealthy family in Yibin. What can he do to help?
Shopkeeper Chen sighed and said that his family had been making multi-grain wine for three generations, but they had never figured out how to make it right, so he asked the third young master for some advice.
Zhao Yulin was confused. What did Chen Zhongshun mean? Why did he think of asking him for help?
How did he know that Zhao Yulin could brew wine?
Old Chen is almost fifty years old. He is seven feet tall but very thin. People at the dock jokingly call him Chen Zhugan.
Seeing that Zhao Yulin did not express his opinion, and often hearing Zhao Yulin talk down on the fine wines he brought, Lei Man smiled and said that since Manager Chen had come to ask the gods for favors, the third young master might as well brew a pot to help the manager.
He rolled his eyes at Lei Man and said, "If you want to drink the wine I brew, you have to take good care of the dock."
Lei Man stood up and said with a smile, "Yo, yo yo," that he was looking forward to it very much, and that he would go to the dock to work right away.
Shopkeeper Chen was even more eager to tell him that as long as he could help him brew good wine, he would do whatever he was asked to do.
Zhao Yulin began to think. Making distilled liquor is a high-tech that is at least two hundred years ahead of the others, but the technology tree has to be lit up in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Seeing that he was silent, Shopkeeper Chen nervously said that he had always been doing legitimate business and didn't care how much money he made, he just wanted to brew a good wine. As long as the young master was willing to help him, his family's distillery and restaurant could be named Zhao.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said that he was not Zhang Baopi and was not so greedy for money. Everyone said that Manager Chen was a kind and honest man, so let's cooperate for once. Wine can brewed, it's very simple, and he is guaranteed to make a lot of money, but the technology must be kept secret, and after brewing, you have to follow his arrangements.
Chen Zhongshun was delighted to hear this and said with a smile that he would do whatever he said.
Zhao Yulin went into the tower and wrote down a list of some tools and items. He gave it to Chen Zhongshun and asked him to prepare them and go with him to the distillery to brew wine the next day.
Shopkeeper Chen agreed repeatedly and left happily.
Zhao Yulin asked Chuan'er to take out the information box he had sorted out, and he began to look for technical information on winemaking. While searching, he thought about it and sorted out a set of simple and easy-to-use methods for future use.
In the evening, Lu Youpeng came to pick him up to go to night school, saying that everyone wanted to listen to his lectures. Zhao Yulin arrived at the Labor Club and saw that it was indeed full of people. Did the leaders come? Some beggars who had nothing to do were leaning on the windows to look in.
He called Lei Man and asked him to teach everyone to read. In the future, anyone with literacy could become a teacher. After that, Lu Youpeng took him to see the laborers' accommodation. It had been greatly improved. The new shed was taller and more spacious. There were also windows.
Zhao Yulin asked them how the food was and whether they were full.
