Struggle in the early Tang Dynasty

Chen Jitao let out an oh, stopped the conversation and stopped talking.

Liu Zhenxuan also nodded in agreement with Guo Ye's statement, saying: "Master Hou is right, our people have already started to salvage the corpses in Jiangxin, as for the people who saw the scene of the incident, we haven't found one yet. Sigh , It was already late at night, and the fishermen nearby were all sleeping, and no one sailed to the center of the river.”

At this time, a few wet soldiers came running suddenly, and one of them came to Liu Zhenxuan and shouted: "Master Captain, the vicinity of the sunken ship has been salvaged, except for the body of the ship's boss, no one else All the dead bodies have been found. The three men on board, a man and a woman, are exactly Xue Hao and Miss Yuru. Now the officials of the government office are conducting an autopsy there."

Liu Zhenxuan nodded and gave a hum, looked at Guo Ye and said, "Master Hou, do you want to go and have a look?"

Guo Ye nodded and said: "Of course I have to take a look. I really want to know whether Xue Hao and his wife drowned in the shipwreck, or they lost their lives on the boat. Let's go, lead the way, and take me to the place of the mortuary." .”

After finishing speaking, he suddenly turned his head to look at Chen Jitao again, and asked inexplicably: "Chen Juncheng, do you know the boss of the ship you hired? Or, do you know the boss of the ship?"

Chen Jitao was confused by Guo Ye's question for a while, and asked in puzzlement: "My lord, do you mean that the boss of the boat has a problem?"

Guo Ye suddenly shook his head again, and said, "I'm not sure. The investigation should be done with a skeptical attitude. Let's go, first go to see the bodies of Xue Hao and his wife before making a decision."

With that said, led by several government soldiers, a group of people came to an open space near the river.

When he arrived at the place, Wu Zuo just finished examining the corpses. When he saw Mr. Inspector approaching, he immediately went forward and said, "I have seen Mr. Inspector. There are five corpses, four men and one woman. None of them survived. As for the specific cause of death, the subordinate Don't dare to make a conclusion yet, I have to bring the body back to the government office for re-examination."

Guo Ye nodded, and then asked: "Wu Zuo, I want to ask you, did you find any superficial wounds on these corpses after the round of inspection just now? Or, did they not die from drowning at all?"

"what?"

Wu Zuo exclaimed, looked at Guo Ye as if he had seen a ghost, stared at him, and Yan Zhi shouted in disbelief: "Lord Inspector, how do you know?"

Guo Ye thought to himself, as expected, everything was weird.

Immediately, he prevaricated: "The guys on the boat ran the boat all day, how could they drown so easily? It's possible that the ship sank, but you said they were drowned in a short time, and I wouldn't believe it if you said it. Tell me, tell me everything you found in the first round of inspection."

Wu Zuo wiped his hands with a quick-drying cloth, pointed to the corpses of the three men, and said, "Sir, these three people did not die from drowning. They were all stabbed in the back, piercing their heart and lungs. Obviously, they were all killed by one blow." Fate. As for the man and the woman..."

Wu Zuo pointed to Xue Hao and Yuru and his wife again, and said: "This woman should have drowned and drowned, but this man was not. This man was stabbed in the lower abdomen and under the left rib." , but these are not fatal wounds. His fatal wound was at the position of the throat bone, which was severed by someone. Judging from the few fist bruises on his body, he had fought with someone before his death. And , this subordinate also discovered this thing. Sir, please take a look..."

As he spoke, he took out something from the cloth pouch at his waist, and presented it to Guo Ye respectfully.

Before Guo Ye took it and looked at it carefully, Chen Jitao who was beside him shouted loudly: "This, I have seen this thing before, yes, yes, it belongs to the boss of the boat!!"

Chapter 769 Doubtful Points

Chen Jitao shouted in shock, and quickly stepped forward to snatch the things in Guo Ye's hands, looked at them carefully, and confirmed again: "Yes, this is the money bag of the boss of the boat. The lower officials asked him to give Xue When Hao and his wife left Yangzhou and paid him the money for the ship, they saw him put the money into this money bag. Look, my lord..."

While talking, Chen Jitao opened the pocket of the purse, handed it to Guo Ye, and pointed out: "Lord Inspector, there is a word 'Huang' embroidered here with needle and thread, and the boss of the boat is surnamed Huang. This purse should be embroidered by his mother-in-law." .”

Sure enough, once the pocket of the money bag was opened, there was a crooked yellow character embroidered on it.

Guo Ye let out a foul breath in his chest, took the money bag from Chen Jitao's hand again, looked through it carefully, and asked: "Mingren, are you really sure that this money bag belongs to the boat boss?"

Chen Jitao patted his chest, and said loudly: "Your official dares to guarantee with his head, he will never be wrong."

Guo Ye pointed to the thin rope on the money bag and said: "This thin rope is used to tie the money bag around the waist. Look at the break of the thin rope, it was obviously broken by external force. It seems that This money bag was snatched from the waist of the boat boss by Xue Hao before he died."

"Huh? Lord Inspector is really observant!"

There was admiration in Wu Zuo's eyes, and he praised: "My lord has even discovered this clue, and my subordinates are extremely impressed. That's right, the fracture of this thin rope will not be broken unless it is torn off by a huge external force. It is so uneven and broken in an irregular shape. Judging from the many years of work experience of my subordinates, this purse should be torn off by Xue Hao before he died or during the fight with the boss of the boat. You want to tell us the identity of the murderer."

Liu Zhenxuan, who was on the side, finally realized his previous misjudgment, lowered his head and said to Guo Ye: "Master Hou, I know my mistake."

Guo Ye shrugged, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Zhenxuan, in addition to thinking too much about the case, you also need to have the attitude of daring to doubt everything."

"Zhenxuan is taught!"

Liu Zhenxuan bowed to Guo Ye again, and then asked Guo Ye: "Master Hou, so the murderer is the boss of the boat?"

Guo Ye suddenly shook his head again, and said, "It's too early to conclude that he is the murderer. Zhenxuan, let me ask you, if the murderer is the boss of the boat, what is his purpose? To seek revenge? Or to see him?" For money?"

Liu Zhenxuan pointed to the side of Xue Hao and his wife, and said: "Naturally, it was because of wealth. Miss Yuru left Yangzhou with her years of savings and treasures. Maybe it's because of money that moves people's hearts. How about it? Lord Hou, we have only salvaged the corpse so far, but we have not salvaged the gold, silver, jewelry and soft goods carried by Xue Hao and his wife. Now the owner of the boat has disappeared, and the money of Xue Hao and his wife has not been found. Is everything all right?"

Guo Ye nodded, and said: "This is not an inference. But let me ask you, since the boss of the boat saw the money and wanted to murder Xue Hao and his wife, why did he want to kill the three guys again?"

Liu Zhenxuan blurted out: "This is a better explanation, the spoils are not evenly distributed."

As soon as these words came out, even the county magistrate Chen Jitao couldn't help nodding his head in agreement, and echoed: "Yes, Liu Duwei's deduction is reasonable. The boss of the boat first killed Xue Hao and his wife together with a few of his men because of money. The loot was not evenly distributed, and the three men on board were poisoned. All the truth is now known."

"Haha." Guo Ye twitched his lips and said with a smile, "Is it really that simple? Could it be that the two of you didn't hear clearly what Wu Zuo said just now? The three guys were all stabbed in the back, piercing their heart and lungs to death. There was no trace of struggle at all." What does this mean? It means that they are powerless to resist at all. The boss of the boat is so old that he can easily kill three young and strong boatmen on the river, isn't that too flattering to him?"

Liu Zhenxuan and Chen Jitao were stunned for a moment, and were puzzled by this doubt.

Wu Zuo said again and again: "Master Inspector is right. If these three guys really died at the hands of the boat boss because of the uneven distribution of spoils, there should be some traces of struggle and resistance."

Guo Ye suddenly walked up to the corpses of the three men, squatted down and untied their clothes one by one, and then Xue Hao's clothes, compared the wounds among the men, and suddenly realized: "Wu Zuo, come and check Take a moment, are the wounds of these corpses all caused by the same sharp knife?"

Wu Zuo was startled when he heard the words, and said in surprise: "Damn it, why did I forget this?"

After finishing speaking, he quickly squatted down to re-examine and compare the wounds of several people one by one. After a while, Wu Zuo gave the answer.

Of the five corpses, except Miss Yuru who died by drowning, the other four died of being stabbed.Although the four of them were all killed by the knife, the gaps of the knife wounds were different.

The three guys were pierced through the back by the sharp blade of the short knife, and passed through the chest, but it was different from the knife wound in Xue Hao's abdomen and left rib, which was obviously caused by short knives of different widths.

Moreover, Xue Hao's fatal injury was at the position of the throat bone, which was forcibly cut off by someone. This is not something an ordinary boatman can do, at least he must be a Lianjiazi.

At this time, even Liu Zhenxuan made a sound, saying that he could not guarantee that he could crush the enemy's throat with one hand.

Guo Ye's face was as heavy as water, and he took another long breath, and said slowly: "At present, the basic doubts have been clarified. Obviously, the owner of the missing ship is the most suspected, but he is definitely not responsible for this murder case alone. That is to say, he still has accomplices. Moreover, when he received the business of sending Xue Hao and his wife away from Yangzhou by boat, he notified his accomplices to wait near Jiangxin and commit crimes at night."

After finishing speaking, he suddenly looked at Chen Jitao, the prefect who was in charge of arranging the departure of Xue Hao and his wife.

Hey~

With a dragon cry, the horizontal knife was unsheathed!

Liu Zhenxuan suddenly drew out the horizontal knife at his waist, pointed the blade at Chen Jitao, and sternly said: "Chen Juncheng, as far as I know, Lord Hou asked you to be responsible for the departure of Xue Hao and his wife. Hmph, you are also the most suspicious. Someone, take Chen Jitao down!"

puff~

Chen Jitao's complexion changed drastically and he knelt down on his knees, shouting in a panic: "Lord Inspector, it's not me, definitely not me. I have no grievances with Xue Hao and his wife in the past, and I have no enmity in the present, and the officials are not short of their couple's money. Why bother with them?"

Although Guo Ye had suspected Chen Jitao in his heart, as Chen Jitao said, he had no motive to murder Xue Hao and his wife at all, no matter what aspect he had, he had no motive to kill them, so it was untenable.

Immediately, Guo Ye raised his hand to stop the soldiers from all around, and then walked up to the murderous Liu Zhenxuan, patted his arm holding the knife and pointed it at Chen Jitao, and said in a low voice, "Zhenxuan, put down the knife!" , I believe Chen Juncheng would not do such a thing."

After finishing speaking, he bent down and held the other party's shoulder, helped Chen Jitao up, and said, "Mingren, get up, I believe you are innocent."

Chen Jitao tremblingly stood up under Guo Ye's support, weeping with gratitude, he choked up and howled: "I, Chen Jitao, hereby thank you for your trust. I, Chen Jitao, swear to God, I will take my own head as a guarantee." , absolutely never did that.”

Guo Ye stopped him from swearing, and suddenly asked: "Mingren, again, I only asked you to arrange the matter of Xue Hao and his wife leaving Yangzhou by boat at night. You also personally found the boss of the boat. If you say that you have nothing to do with this matter, it is really hard to be convincing. And now that the boss of the ship has disappeared, even if you jump into the Grand Canal now, you will not be able to clear yourself of the suspicion."

Chen Jitao's face was full of pain, he stomped his feet fiercely, and said with self-pity: "Oh, why am I so unlucky? I just happened to be in such a bad situation. Who should I turn to, but the boss of the boat who harbors evil intentions? It's all over, how can I wash away the suspicion on myself?"