Criminal investigation in ancient times

Zhang Rui has also been troubled by Xu Chao's case these days.Xu Chao's ancestral home is from Chongzhou, and he has no relatives in Tongzhou. Only his family and his family moved to Ren with him.Now all the people he brought have died tragically, leaving no one alive, making it impossible for Zhang Rui to know this person.

Early this morning, after Zhang Rui washed and washed, he changed into normal clothes and took Lin Xiaoze and two guards to walk around the street, observing the customs by the way.The land of Tongzhou is almost inland like the Northwest region in the previous life, and it belongs to a typical temperate continental climate. It is cold in winter and hot in summer. Most live by raising sheep.Regardless of the ancient breeding industry, the death rate accounted for more than [-] to [-]%. If there was a plague, even more people would die.This is the reason why Tongzhou has been poor.

Zhang Rui recalled that in his previous life, he and some friends had been to the Northwest, where two drought-resistant crops, cotton and potato, were planted on a large scale. Presumably these two crops should also be grown in Tongzhou. Yes, but there are quite a few planted in Tongzhou. I don't know if it can be successfully introduced here.

Just as he was thinking, there was a sudden noise in front of him, and Zhang Rui walked over.

It turned out that two people were fighting for a lot of money.One of them looked ferocious, pointed at the man who took the money with a hatchet in his hand, and said, "I got it by selling firewood, but you accidentally dropped it on the ground and you picked it up, how can you say that the money is yours? !"

The other is of medium build, carrying bamboo buildings one by one, and there are a few small fish left over from the bamboo buildings.The man said: "I obviously got this hanging money from selling fish. Look, there are fish scales on the money. If you are so overbearing, I will sue you to the government!"

Zhang Rui stepped forward to take a look, and sure enough, the penny in the hand of the man holding the hatchet was still covered with fish scales.The man said angrily: "This is my money! I still have to use this money to buy medicine for my mother, so stop talking nonsense!"

The two started arguing, and the man with the hatchet swung the knife and said, "I will take the money today! If you dare to mess around again, I will kill you with one blow!"

The fisherman who sold the fish was taken aback and shouted angrily, "Are you threatening me? I want to report to the police and take you into prison!"

With a sneer, the big man put the money in his pocket and started to leave with the hatchet in his hand.

Zhang Rui turned his head and said to Lin Xiaoze who was behind him: "Take a look at who the money should belong to?"

Lin Xiaoze frowned and said, "I think it should be the fish seller. You see, people say that love comes from the heart. This woodcutter looks fierce, and there are indeed fish scales on the hanging money."

Zhang Rui shook his head and smiled, "Look again."

The man with the fish basket on his back looked at the money being taken into his arms by the big man, stomped his feet and sat on the ground angrily, saying: "It's money robbed in broad daylight! I can't live anymore! The sky is unreasonable, people are inhuman~" The crowd watching All accused the man of brazenly robbing.

Zhang Rui: "Brother, stay here."

The man turned around to see Zhang Rui and said, "What are you doing! I said that this hanging money is my mother's life-saving money, so don't try to steal it!"

Zhang Ruidao: "Since my brother believes that the hanging money belongs to you, and this brother on the ground believes that the hanging money belongs to him, I am not a good official, how about helping you two to distinguish?"

The man half-believingly said: "Are you an official? Well, you can help me distinguish." After that, he took out the hanging money from his lapel and handed it to Zhang Rui.

Zhang Rui took the money and looked at it carefully, and then said to the man on the ground: "You said that the hanging money is yours, but let me ask you, how many catties does your fish weigh, and how much does one cost.

The man on the ground hurriedly got up and said: "Everyone who sells fish on the street knows Caomin. The big ones sell for ten yuan and weigh five or six catties, and the small ones sell for five yuan and weigh two or three catties.

Zhang Ruidao: "Oh? So, you sold more than ten fish today?"

The man was stunned and said: "This... the small ones don't count, probably about the same."

Zhang Ruidao: "Let me ask you, are you selling live fish or dead fish?"

The fish seller hurriedly said: "They are all live fish caught yesterday, they are fresh." Zhang Rui smiled and said nothing.

Zhang Rui asked the man with the hatchet again, "How much did you pay for this bundle of firewood?"

The man put the knife in his waist and said: "My bundle of firewood is six pennies. Today is the firewood that Mr. Liu specially asked for. It costs one penny more than usual. It's sixteen coins in total. It's 110 two big coins. You may wish to count them." number."

Zhang Rui nodded and handed the big money to the man, saying, "This money is yours."

The surrounding people said: "How do you know it belongs to him? Could it be that you are with him?"

Zhang Rui laughed and said, "I'll understand it when I talk to everyone. Let me talk about the big money first. Although there are fish scales on it, the space between the coins is very clean, which means that the fish scales were attached later. If this string of big money is sold If he sells a fish, the big money he gets back will inevitably be somewhat dirty. Secondly, there is no cover on the fish basket carried by the fisherman. I don’t see how such a shallow bamboo basket can hold ten A lot of big fish that are alive and kicking."

When the people around heard it, they suddenly realized that the fish seller was the bad guy who extorted money from others.

The man carrying the fish basket turned red and hurriedly knelt down begging for mercy, "I was obsessed with money. I saw that man lost a lot of money and picked it up and hid it in the fish basket. I didn't expect him to find out."

The man took the money and kowtowed to Zhang Rui, "Thank you so much for returning the villain's innocence today."

Zhang Rui helped him up and said, "There's no need to be too polite. The money should belong to whoever it is. I will definitely not let the bad guys get their way, and I won't let the good people be wronged for nothing. And you fisherman, blackmailing people Money, spread rumors and make trouble, and go to the government office to get [-] boards for yourself as a warning."

After hearing this, the fisherman kowtowed and begged for mercy, and a guard pressed him back to the government office.Seeing that the matter was settled, the rest of the people lost their interest in watching the excitement, so they dispersed. Only one person stood still and hesitated to leave.The man bowed, wearing a thick cloak, and raised his head slightly to look at Zhang Rui.

Zhang Rui glanced at it from the corner of his eye, and felt that this person seemed to have something to say, so he asked the guard next to him to go up and ask. Before the guard came to this person, the person ran away in fright.This person must be unusual, Zhang Rui hurriedly shouted to the guards: "Follow him!"

The man had a limp on one leg, and he didn't run fast, but he was very familiar with the nearby roads. He turned left and right, turned into an alley, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

The two guards returned without success and confessed to Zhang Rui.

Lin Xiaoze: "This person has a problem with his legs and ran a long distance, he should be hiding nearby."

Zhang Rui looked into the alley and nodded, "Since we didn't catch up, let's go back first." Several people walked towards the government office.

The man at the corner at the end of the alley stuck his head out slightly, patted his chest and sighed.The cloak wrapped tightly around his body limped and walked the other way.

Back at the mansion, Zhang Rui always felt that there was something wrong with that person, as if he wanted to say something but was afraid to say it.It suddenly occurred to me that this person might be related to Xu Chao's case? !Although there were 37 corpses during the autopsy, they were burned and their faces could not be recognized. It was impossible to tell which was which. What if someone escaped by chance?The extra corpse belonged to someone else...could it belong to the murderer? ...Probably not, the murderer will definitely take away his companion's corpse without leaving any clues, so this corpse is likely to be an innocent passerby, or... a beggar? !

Thinking about it like this, suddenly all the clues are connected together. If his reasoning is correct, there must have been a fish that slipped through the net and escaped from the mansion without being killed. In order to bury his identity, he found a beggar's body and threw it into the fire. ...In the end, it created the false impression that none of the 37 people survived, so that the murderer could relax his vigilance.Why did he sneak out again now? Could it be that he had something to say to himself, or he knew who the murderer was!But how can I find this person?

The guards around me can’t be said to be useless. After all, what are their skills? It’s okay to do some ordinary things. Doing this kind of people-hunting thing is like finding a needle in a haystack. If it doesn’t work, it will arouse the vigilance of the murderer and kill the only survivor. , Zhang Rui had no choice but to use the hidden guards arranged by Zhou Yin around him.

The way to call the dark guard is very simple. Write a letter and put it on the table. The dark guard will protect Zhang Rui by his side every night. If he sees a letter on the table, he will show up.

In the evening, Zhang Rui did not go to bed after washing up, but put the empty envelope on the table, turned off the light and sat on the bed.When they passed by, they heard a "thump" sound from the window. Zhang Rui knew that it was the dark guard who came, so he lifted the quilt and lit a candle.

The hidden guard knelt on one knee and said, "I don't know what the young master has ordered."

Zhang Ruidao: "You... Please, I called you here today to ask you to find someone for me."

The hidden guard: "Sir, please tell me."

Zhang Rui: "I don't know how old this man is. I only saw him wearing a black cloak. I saw him sneaking around. He had a limp on one leg. He might have knife wounds or burns on his body. I saw him on North Street today. You can find it here."

The dark guard nodded and said: "We will try our best to find this person, Young Master, do you have anything else to do?"

Zhang Rui shook his head, and the dark guard jumped out of the window with fists in his arms, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.Zhang Rui walked to the window and frowned while looking at the moonlight outside.

***

In Dali Temple, Lin Xiaoqing was sent to investigate the case of An Yunsheng. The older Tui Cheng finally couldn't bear it and resigned. He was promoted to a sixth-rank Tui Cheng.Master Lin was not so lucky, because Lin Xiaoze's matter was implicated, the Taichang Si Qing who was about to get his hands was taken advantage of by another person, he was so angry that he wished to call Lin Xiaoze who was thousands of miles away to come back and beat him up.

When Lin Xiaoqing came to Mr. An's mansion, he saw white sails hung at the entrance of the mansion, and a coffin was placed in the mourning hall. His wife was kneeling in front of the coffin, and beside him were two little dolls, the older one was seven or eight years old, and the younger one was four years old. At the age of five, both of them wore hemp and filial piety.

Seeing Lin Xiaoqing coming, the butler asked why, knowing that it was someone from Dali Temple who hurriedly invited him in to serve tea.

The main room of An Yunsheng was not very old, with white flowers on his head, pale complexion, tears in his eyes, and the fluffy willows in mourning clothes. Even Lin Xiaoqing, who was usually less feminine, couldn't help but look at it a few more times. Eye.

Feeling a little impolite, he coughed lightly and said, "My condolences, ma'am, today I would like to ask Mr. An about the situation on the night of the accident."

Mrs. An nodded, stretched out her arms and asked the maid beside her to help her get up and sit on the chair opposite, and said, "Mommy, take Shun'er Jing'er to the backyard first."

The old nanny who was kneeling beside and burning the paper nodded, and led the two children out of the mourning hall.