Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 164 The End of Operation Thin Horse

After a night of drizzle, Yangzhou City ushered in another sunny day.

In autumn in the south of the Yangtze River, the vegetation withers slowly, and the color of the sky appears a little pale in the humid air.The dense reeds on both sides of the canal guard the canal like guards.At this time, the reed leaves are swaying the fading green without hesitation, setting off the whiteness of the reed flowers, creating a mighty autumn scenery in the south of the Yangtze River.

At noon, a piece of earth-shattering news quickly spread throughout the streets and alleys of Yangzhou City.Salt merchant Mr. Wang's house was robbed last night. Except for a few female relatives and maids who survived, even Mr. Wang himself was killed by the robbers!
As soon as the news came out, the whole city was shocked.In particular, the wealthy salt merchants immediately sent people to hire Cao Gang and beat them up. The servants at home also distributed knives, guns and sticks, raising the level of guards in their courtyards to the highest level.At the same time, each family also sent people to the county government office to inquire about the news, which gangsters dared to attack the salt merchants.

In the Ermeixuan Teahouse next to the Yuanmen Bridge, a group of old tea-drinking customers were smoking dry cigarettes and discussing with each other.

"Have you heard about the Wang family?"

"My mother! There are more than 50 members of the family, except for the children, women and maids, all of them are dead."

"Hey! This master Wang doesn't know who he has offended? Why did such a catastrophe happen? The Wang family is over!"

A tea drinker accidentally saw Jia Wang by the window burying his head in his food, so he turned his head and asked, "Jia Er, you are a skinny businessman who runs outside every day, did you hear anything?"

Satisfied, Jia Wang put down his chopsticks, picked up the bowl and drank the noodle soup, then wiped his mouth and said, "Who am I, who is Mr. Wang. We are turtles who eat their own food—it's our own."

After he finished speaking, he got up and threw the two elders on the table, and said to several familiar tea customers: "There is still business in the afternoon, so I will leave." After speaking, he strode out of the teahouse.

Seeing him walking away, a new tea guest asked the person at the same table, "What is Jia Er's business?"

"Him? Shit business! This kid is a guy with sores on the top of his head and pus on the soles of his feet. He is looking for a buyer for a skinny horse!"

Jia Wang made an appointment with Chen Songyuan yesterday afternoon, and this afternoon he brought a wealthy businessman from Haizhou to choose a concubine.At the second quarter of the first day of the new year, Jia Wang arrived at the inn in the south of the city, ordered the carriage, and when the rich merchant came out, the two went to the north of the city together outside the Bianyi gate.

When he arrived at the gate of Chen Songyuan's house, he got out of the car first as usual, and patted on the gate of the courtyard, but no one agreed for a long time.Jia Wang looked into the yard through the crack of the door, and could only see a person's feet on the ground in the yard.

He patted it a few more times, but there was still no answer in the yard, and the feet in the crack of the door did not move.Jia Wang felt that something was wrong, and was going to find Lizheng nearby.The wealthy businessman in the carriage grew impatient, opened the curtain and urged, "Jia Er, are you worthy or not? How long do I have to wait?"

Suddenly, the rich businessman's expression changed, he took a few inhalations with his nose, and cried out, "Something's wrong!"

Jia Wang apologized and said with a smile: "Master, what's wrong? This old Chen is not like this on weekdays."

The rich businessman stared and cursed: "Fart your mother, this yard smells of blood!"

"What?" Jia Wang was stunned, and took a few breaths with his nose, but he didn't smell anything. "No?"

"My family used to butcher pigs. There must be something wrong with the Chen family. You should report it to the police immediately." After speaking, he patted the shoulder of the driver in front of him. "Go, go back to the inn!"

Jia Wang looked at the carriage driving away, and was suddenly shocked.He turned his head and looked around. There were many pedestrians in the streets and alleys just after noon, and several passers-by saw him.Jia Wang had no choice but to sigh, then turned around and headed towards the Ganquan county government office.

At the same time, in Wang's house, as soon as he entered the front hall of the main entrance, a mat shed had been set up, and a row of corpses covered with white cloths were placed in the shed, waiting for his relatives to collect the corpses after inspection.As for the corpses of those guardians, those whose families are not in the local area can only be sent to Yizhuang outside the city first.

Two police officers were sitting outside the gatehouse, questioning several nearby residents; a book office next to them was in charge of recording, and Li Zheng was also standing aside.

"I heard that you saw three people coming out of Wang's house?" A middle-aged policeman asked a man.

The man turned pale with fright at the pile of corpses in the courtyard, and replied tremblingly: "The villain lives diagonally opposite the door. The dog started barking in the early morning, which woke the villain up, and the villain went to the gate of the courtyard to think about it." See what happened on the street. It happened that three people came out of Wang's house."

"Wait a minute, what time did you see those three people?"

"The villain can't remember either. But it was still dark at that time."

"It seems to be Yinzheng. When the dog barked, the watchman on the street behind just knocked on the clapper." A woman in her 30s next to him interjected.

"That's right! It's Yinzheng."

"Go on."

"Those three people just walked past the door of Xiaoren's house. I didn't see anything at that time, but the clothes of those three people were very strange."

"Oh?" The two police officers looked at each other and asked, "What's so weird?"

"Master Xu, there are many merchants traveling from south to north in Yangzhou City, but I have never seen that kind of dress. They wear strange dark hats on their heads, which even cover their faces. Two eyes. A bunt suit about the same color as that hat. Whoops!"

The catcher kicked the man's calf angrily, causing him to stagger. "Idiot! What a shit hat, that's a fucking mask!"

"Ah! Yes, yes. The villain is short-sighted, so he takes that as a hat."

The catcher quickly asked: "Where did those three people go after going out?"

The man rubbed his calf and recalled, "It seems to be heading west."

The middle-aged woman on the side retorted: "No! I saw it too. They are heading east."

The policeman slapped the table angrily, and asked, "Damn! Where did you go?!"

The man quickly bowed and said, "It's the east side, the villain remembered."

Going east, that is the direction of Bianyimen or Dongguanmen.

"Well, tell me about the figures of those three people."

The middle-aged woman suddenly interjected: "My mother! I heard that the book said "height is eight feet", I always thought it was a bragging, but it turned out that I really ran into it. One of them was about nine feet tall. It is as tall as a foot and as strong as a bear!"

"What?! Nine feet! That must be almost ten feet tall?" The two policemen quickly heard this, are they talking about human beings?The city wall of Yangzhou is only one foot and five feet high.

If Zhao Xin was present, he would immediately embrace the middle-aged woman and give her a kiss. What an assist!
"Say it!" the policeman interrupted the woman's humming, pointing at the man and said.

"It's too dark for the villain to see clearly. But there are always those three people who are eight feet tall."

Another police officer asked: "When the three of them went out from the yard, did they take anything in their hands?"

"It seems to be taken. But the shape is not big, it's just this big." The man gestured with his hand for a long time, and the two arresters took a quick look, and it was a curved object a little longer than a palm.

"They don't have a bag or something in their hands?"

"No. Really not." The woman and the man replied simultaneously.

In later generations of experimental psychology research, in order to obtain effective information from witnesses, investigators must guide and inspire witnesses’ memories through language communication; in order to allow witnesses to provide clues related to suspects to the maximum extent And it is completely and accurately expressed.

However, the clues provided by many witnesses at the crime scene are often full of mistakes.The reason is that when the witnesses describe the information afterwards, they will not only be affected by memory, but also by the reasoning process, the hints received by the narrator, self-confidence, authority obedience, group influence and other aspects.

It is easy for witnesses to use habits and imagination to speculate on the facts, instead of fully expressing what they have seen and heard in words.Description is not only a memory recall process, but also involves the communication behavior itself; the former is used to answer "what I saw", and the latter is used to answer "what should I say".Judging from the motivation of describing the content, the main determining factors are memory effect, subjective consciousness and communication strategy.

For example, light, touch, hearing, vision, distance, angle, orientation, and the purpose of the witness's observation will all affect the final description.Everyone has different interests in things, and the effect of observation will also vary greatly.Many observers appear to be very active and active on the surface, but they are looking forward and backward and worrying inwardly.

Ordinary people generally hold the mentality of "one more thing is worse than one less thing", and have an attitude of avoidance or boredom towards communication activities themselves.Because of worrying about getting angry, it often affects the final description.

As for the Qing Dynasty in the eighteenth century, the discipline of experimental psychology did not even have a shadow.How much can two detectives who are proficient in writing know?

At this time, hearing that several witnesses insisted that they did not see the three people leaving Wang's house with their bags, the two couldn't help feeling troubled.

According to the dictation of the female family members of the Wang family, the gold and silver antiques in the cellar of the inner house, as well as the wooden boxes and wooden shelves are all gone, not to mention that the study of Mr. Wang is completely empty, so clean that even mice will not go there.

So many things, where did they go?How did the murderer get out of Wang's house?
When the two were in trouble, a fast hand suddenly ran in panting.

"Master Xu, no, it's not good! There's a big case in Yanyicang! The old man told you to hurry over there."

"what?!"

"Chen who raised the skinny horse, the Chen family were all killed! More than 20 girls in his family have also disappeared!"

"Ah!" Everyone present was stunned.What happened in Yangzhou this night? !

In the afternoon, with the news that the Li Family Courtyard in Hedong District under Jiangdu County was robbed, the entire city of Yangzhou became a sensation.This is also a family that raises lean horses; it is said that there are as many as sixteen lean horses in the family.

Now those people in the city who raised skinny horses panicked, for fear that robbers would visit their homes.So many people fled to Suzhou, Zhenjiang and Jiangning by boat with their money and thin horses that day.After one night, "thin horses are hard to find" inside and outside Yangzhou; even people like Jia Wang and Mrs. Chen fled to relatives' homes in the countryside to hide.

In the afternoon of the same day, the two groups responsible for inspecting the victims of the Wang family robbery and the Chen family robbery each found the copper-coated lead core projectiles that killed the victims at the scene.After comparison, it was found that the projectiles were basically the same size.Facing this kind of "fire gun" projectiles that had never been seen before, the history of Ganquan County and the county magistrate determined that the robbery of the Wang family and the robbery of the Chen family were committed by the same group and could be dealt with together.

In the evening, news came from the Jiangdu County Government that copper-lead-core bullets were also found at the scene of the murder in the Li Family Courtyard.The magistrate of Ganquan County heaved a sigh of relief when he heard about it, and finally one of them was responsible for it!
After nightfall that day, the entire city of Yangzhou, including the city walls, was brightly lit. The county government officials, policemen, fast hands, and guards employed by various salt merchants carried lanterns and patrolled around the houses of salt merchants in various places in the city all night long. until dawn.

On the morning of the second day, the famous criminal master from Ganquan County went to the famous criminal master from Jiangdu County with the "gun" projectile evidence. The two Shaoxing people were shocked when they compared the two sides.The three cases were actually committed by the same group of people. This is clearly a big case!I don't know how many black hats will fall to the ground, and everyone's heads will be lost!

The two talked in detail again, and found that the soldiers in charge of guarding the city wall in Jiangdu County and someone from Hedong District had proved that a white fast boat ran along the canal towards Shahe on the night of the incident; Surprisingly fast.

The next day, the Yangzhou magistrate who heard the news couldn't sit still.Three major cases happened one after another overnight, which is bound to shake the south of the Yangtze River and even the ruling and opposition parties!Next year will be the Emperor's Longevity Festival, and if such a big event happened in the richest man in the south of the Yangtze River, if it affects the donation of Yangzhou salt merchants, I'm afraid it will be difficult to protect my black hat.

So the magistrate severely reprimanded the county magistrates Jiangdu and Ganquan, and ordered them to solve the case within ten days and arrest the murderer.That night, both the governor's yamen of Jiangsu and the governor's yamen of Liangjiang received reports from the Yangzhou government.It's just that Sa Zai, the governor of Liangjiang, is busy with water control in Pizhou and Suqian at this time, and doesn't care about the criminal cases in these places.

On the morning of the third day, Suzhou, Jiangsu governor's yamen.

After reading the urgent report from Yangzhou Mansion, one of Min Eyuan's staff members who was in charge of handling official documents from various places found out the urgent report he received yesterday from the Jiangnan Water and Land Admiral's Yamen.The two reports were placed on the table together, and on one side was the evidence sent by the admiral's office in the south of the Yangtze River, a deformed bullet; it was dug out from the bullet hole on the outside of the ship's plank.

The staff looked back and forth for a long time, finally made up their minds, and found Min Eyuan with two letters and evidence.

"Dong Weng, there are two urgent reports here."

"Oh? Where is it from?" Min Eyuan raised his head from the table, wearing a pair of glasses on his face, and asked with a straight face.The governor of Jiangsu, who is well-known in the government and the public for his literature, is also good at managing prisons, and is known for clearing up accumulated cases. He is over 50 this year.

The staff first talked about the incident of the Clippers crossing the border reported by Admiral Jiangnan, and after the shocked Min Eyuan read the report, he then explained the Yangzhou case.

"What do you think?" Min Eyuan leaned forward and asked.

"The subordinates thought that this group of thieves first committed crimes in Yangzhou and robbed the Wang family, Chen family and Li family. Then they took the white fast boat to rush to the sea. It is clearly stated in the Jiangnan admiral's report that patrolling the river All the officers and soldiers saw a group of beautiful young women on the boat. I think it must be those skinny horses that were looted."

Min Eyuan nodded, and then ordered someone to bring Fubiao's firearm, Boss Qian.After a meal, Mr. Qian Qian, who was sweating profusely, arrived panting.

"Under the mark, I have seen adults!"

"Get up. Come and see, have you ever seen this kind of gun before?"

After taking the firearm from his staff, Mr. Qian looked at it for a long time, and said in embarrassment: "My lord, this is different from my regulations on muskets and blunderbusses!"

"Oh? Tell me." Min Eyuan asked calmly.

Mr. Qian, pointing to the broken copper bullet tip, explained: "The muskets in the battalion are all made of one-cent iron; even the muskets used by the Eight Banners are made of iron. I've never heard of it. Who ever made guns out of copper skin and lead, and the work alone cost a lot of money."

Huoqi Qian added another sentence in his heart: "This is too prodigal! Copper is so expensive!"

"Okay. You back off."

"Crack!" Min Eyuan suddenly slapped the table with his palm, and said angrily: "Lang Lang Qian Kun, in a peaceful and prosperous age, how can Xiao Xiao jump on the beam?!"

"Pass down my order to order all states and counties to strictly check firearms of the people. If there is any violation of the prohibition, it will be seized and confiscated immediately. Then send someone to the admiral's office in the south of the Yangtze River to inquire about the search situation along the ocean!"

(End of this chapter)