conspiracy crime 4

Chapter 17
The girl in black raised her eyebrows, screamed coquettishly, and was about to chase after Su Bi'e jumped off the bed, took a few steps, grabbed her hand, and looked her up and down in the dark, her eyes filled with tears, her expression Excitedly said: "Yueyue, Yueyue, is it really you? In fact, mother has already guessed that it is you! Good boy, you, you have grown so tall, mother really miss you, let mother take a good look you……"

It turned out that the girl in black was her daughter Qin Yue. Even though it had been three years since mother and daughter separated, and even though the room was dimly lit with no lights on, she still recognized her daughter at a glance.

The girl in black shook off her hand, took a step back, and said in a cold voice, "That's right, my name is not Qin Hen, I am Qin Yue, but you are not my mother. My mother died three years ago."

Su Bi'e felt a pain in her chest, she couldn't stop crying, and said: "Yueyue, mother knows that mother should not have abandoned you three years ago, mother is sorry for your father, and also for you brothers and sisters, now mother understands, mother is in this world The closest people in the world are you. For the past three years, Mother has been thinking about you all the time... Now that Mother has come back to make amends, you, can you really not forgive Mother?"

Qin Yue sneered, turned her head to one side, turned her face away, and ignored her.

Su Bi'e took her hand again, with a trembling voice, and mournfully said: "Yueyue, people say that mother and daughter are heart-to-heart, mother knows that you love mother, otherwise you wouldn't have been protecting mother in secret, would you? ?”

"Protect you?" Qin Yue suddenly became agitated, turned her head, her cold apricot eyes shone with a cold light, stared straight at her, and said through gritted teeth, "Don't have sweet dreams." She swung her sword suddenly, " If it wasn't for keeping you to avenge your father and grandparents, I, I really wish I could kill you right now."

Su Bi'e was startled, and hurriedly asked, "Avenge your father? What happened to him and them? What happened?"

"They, they..." Qin Yue gave her a bitter look, then burst into tears, and stomped her feet, "You killed them all."

It turned out that three years ago, that is, in the 19th year of Chenghua, on the tenth day of June, the seventh day after Su Bi'e eloped with Zhou Hanshan, a female corpse suddenly appeared in Meijiakeng in Qingyang City.

Meijiakeng is actually not a pit, but a lake, with a radius of more than ten miles, and the depth of the lake is unpredictable.

It was the hottest time of the year, and when the corpse was discovered, it was already indistinct and decayed, and the stench could be smelled miles away.

Wu made an on-site inspection and found that the deceased was about [-] years old, of medium build, neither fat nor thin.The fingers of the corpse were stiff, the nails were clean, and there were no traces of struggling and scratching after falling into the water, and the belly was not swollen, and there was no dirty water flowing out of the mouth and nose. When he raised his forehead, he found a finger-wide bruise on each side of the neck.

From this, it can be concluded that the deceased was pushed into the lake after being strangled to death during his lifetime.

After another re-examination, the deceased was dressed in a red dress with an ordinary style, and there were no clear features that could prove his identity. It seemed to be the corpse of an unknown woman.

Tong Ziang, the magistrate of Qingyang, after reading the list of corpses filled out by Wu Zuo, he immediately ordered a careful visit to the whole city to check if there were any women missing in the city within the past ten days. The unnamed female body found in Meijiakeng was found to be of the same age, shape, and clothing as the missing woman. There was only one missing woman, and that was Su Bi'e, the daughter of Qingyang chieftain Suge Lao and the wife of Qin Jutian, the chief arrester of the magistrate's yamen.

When the news reached the Su family, the whole family was shocked.

A while ago, there were rumors in the city that Su Bi'e, the wife of Qin Jutian, the chief arrester of the magistrate's yamen, couldn't bear the loneliness, and cheated on a good-looking boy outside behind her husband's back. Wearing a green hat.

From this, the Su family concluded that Qin Jutian must have listened to the rumors, suspected that his wife Hongxing was cheating, and in a fit of rage killed his wife to vent his hatred.

Mr. Su Ge was always old and sick in bed. Hearing the sad news, he immediately left a suicide note and passed away sadly.

Su Bi'e's elder brother, Su Bicheng, bears the grief. While taking care of his father's funeral, he is busy delivering papers and money to Tong Zhifu, telling the chief arrester of the government office that Qin Jutian believed the rumors and killed his wife and abandoned his body.

Tong Zhifu has always been self-righteous and self-proclaimed as an upright official. When he saw the pleadings, the facts of the case were clear, and Qin Jutian had both the time to commit the crime and the motive for the murder. He did not conduct a detailed investigation, and immediately ordered Qin Jutian to be arrested.

Qin Jutian did not kill anyone, so he naturally refused to plead guilty during the trial.

Tong Zhifu asked him that since he didn't kill his wife, where is the Su family now?
Qin Jutian has always been busy with business, he didn't know anything about Su Bi'e's elopement, how did he know where the Su family is now?What's more, the unnamed female corpse did resemble Su Bi'e in seven or eight points. Whether it was true or not, he was not sure. He was about to investigate and confirm it himself when Tong Ziang arrested him.

Tong Zhifu has been an official for many years, and he has always believed in the saying "A man is a woodcarving, if you don't beat him, you can't recruit him, and a man is a bitter insect, if you don't beat him, he can't be beaten" as the most reasonable saying. Seeing that he is stubborn to the end and refuses to plead guilty, he will be tortured in court to force his confession.

Qin Jutian was a tough guy, he used all kinds of torture for several days, but he just gritted his teeth and didn't say a word.

Tong Zhifu got a lot of benefits from the Su family, and Su Bicheng came to urge him to ask about the case every day, which made him very annoyed. Torture means placing an iron hoop on the prisoner's head, inserting a wooden wedge into the gap between the hoop and the scalp, and hammering it in with a hammer, so that the hoop gradually tightens. , In severe cases, it can cause brain rupture and death.

It is said that this kind of instrument of torture was invented by Lai Junchen, a cruel official during Wu Zetian's time in the Tang Dynasty. Anyone who is sentenced to prison, even if you are a tough guy made of iron and steel, it is difficult to bear.

5
Qin Jutian was tormented by Tong Ziang and the jailer in turn. He didn't eat or sleep for seven days and seven nights.After using this "brain hoop" torture for only half a day, his mouth and nose were bleeding, life was worse than death, and he fell into a coma for several times.After being woken up by the splash of cold water, all thoughts were lost and all he wanted was a quick death.Finally, with grief and tears, he pleaded guilty on the confession prepared by the master. Against his will, he admitted that on the third night of this month, because he misunderstood the rumors, he suspected his wife Su Bi'e was unfaithful to him. Move his body to Meijiakeng and throw it into the lake.

When the news came out, the people in the city talked a lot. On the one hand, they demanded that the murderer who knew the law be punished severely.

Su Bicheng even united more than a dozen squires in Qingyang City to make a gold plaque with "Tong Qingtian", and sent it to the magistrate's yamen with drums and gongs.

However, Qin Jutian's old parents did not believe that his son, who had always been vicious and vengeful, would do such an outrageous thing, so he asked someone to write a complaint and handed it to the magistrate's yamen, asking the magistrate to re-investigate the case and redress his son's grievances.

Because Tong Zhifu received money from the Su family, coupled with his self-righteousness, he had already preconceived that Qin Jutian was the murderer, and ignored the complaints from the two old people.

The two old men came to Wuchang, the provincial capital, and handed the case to Hu Guangcheng to announce the political envoy, and the chief political envoy Mr. Liu read it and sent the case back to Qingyang government for retrial.

Tong Zhifu dealt with the matter, and still upheld the original sentence. Qin Jutian was sentenced to death and sent to death row. He will be executed immediately after being reported to the Ministry of Punishment for approval.

Grieving and indignant, the two old men wanted to go to the capital to beat the Dengwen drum and sue the imperial court.

Tong Zhifu was afraid that the matter would become too big and difficult to deal with, so he charged the two with the crime of causing trouble and provoking trouble, and arrested the two men and put them in prison.

As a result, only the 15-year-old Qin Ming and Qin Yue brothers and sisters were left in the Qin family without being implicated.

The brothers and sisters firmly believe that their father is definitely not the murderer, and according to various signs, the unnamed female corpse found in Meijiakeng is most likely not their mother Su Bi'e, and Su Bi'e should still be alive.

The brothers and sisters discussed that as long as they found their mother, or found evidence that their mother was still alive, the rumors would be self-defeating and the charges against their father would not be cleared.

In order to avenge their father's grievances, the brothers and sisters asked someone to draw a picture of their mother's face, holding the portrait and asking around in and out of the city. More than two months passed, but there was no news at all.

Seeing that the Ministry of Criminal Justice was about to approve the death penalty for their father, the brother and sister were so anxious that they wanted to cry but had no choice but to expand the scope of the search and run around to inquire with the last hope.

The emperor paid off, and the brother and sister finally found an eyewitness who could prove that their mother was still alive in a town called Shaxi Town, dozens of miles north of Qingyang.

According to the storekeeper Feng of the Yuelai Inn in the town, he had seen the woman in the portrait before. Not long ago, he stayed at his inn with a young man for one night. It seems that the relationship is quite unusual.They took a room at the inn, stayed for one night, then checked out and left. As for where they went, it is unknown.

Qin Ming and Qin Yue were overjoyed, and hurriedly asked when did this happen?
Shopkeeper Feng took out the account book and checked it. He said that it happened on the fifth night of June. Several employees in the store were present at that time, and everyone can testify.

According to Wu Zuo's speculation based on the degree of decay of the unknown female corpse, the woman had been dead for at least seven days, and the body was discovered on the tenth day of June, which means that the woman died before the third day of June.On the fifth day of June, someone had seen Su Bi'e, so it can be concluded that the female body found in Meijiakeng was definitely not Su Bi'e, and Qin Jutian was certainly not the murderer.

Brother and sister Qin Ming and Qin Yue wept with joy, and frankly told shopkeeper Feng about his father's grievances, and begged him to bring all the clerks in the inn to testify.

Shopkeeper Feng is an enthusiastic person, so he naturally agreed.

When Su Bicheng heard about this incident, he suspected that the brothers and sisters of the Qin family were in collusion with Shopkeeper Feng. They wanted to get rid of the murderer who killed his sister.

Mr. Su Ge has been an official in the court for decades, not only has he been the teacher of the current emperor, but also many important ministers in the court are from his sect.

In the name of his father, Su Bicheng cleared his joints and finally submitted his father's suicide note to the emperor's case.

Back then the emperor listened to Concubine Wan Gui's words and demoted Mr. Su Ge out of the capital, he felt regret soon afterward, but he was afraid of Concubine Wan Gui's presence, so he didn't dare to use him again.At this time, when I read the teacher's last suicide note, the friendship between the monarch and his ministers in the past is vivid, and I feel very cordial. Finally, in the suicide note, I learned that the teacher Fengzhu had lost his daughter in his later years, and he was even more sad and indignant.

In the early morning of the next day, the emperor asked the Minister of the Ministry of Punishments to personally intervene in the case of the murder of Su Ge's daughter in Qingyang Mansion, and urged the Ministry of Punishment to issue a document as soon as possible, demanding that Qingyang Mansion severely punish the murderer.

According to Su Bicheng's words, Zhifu Tong delayed for a few days before accepting the testimony of the brothers and sisters of Qin and shopkeeper Feng in the courtroom. They were given [-] slaps each for the crime of false testimony, and then arrested the Qin brothers and sisters for contempt of the court and gathering crowds to make trouble.

Qin Yue's martial arts skills are in her body, seeing that the situation is not good, she overturns two Zaolis and flees away.

Qin Ming, a weak child, had nothing to do but be arrested and imprisoned.

The approval document from the Ministry of Criminal Justice reads: Qin Jutian, chief arrester of Qingyang prefect’s yamen, murdered his wife and abandoned his body, violated the law by enforcing the law.

On the day of Qin Jutian's execution, it was the beginning of winter, when he was beheaded, suddenly the wind blew, the snow fell, and the sky and the earth were dark.

When the old parents heard the sad news in prison, they hugged each other through the wooden bars of the prison and wept bitterly.It was night, both hit the wall and died.

Before he died, Father Qin bit his finger and wrote a big word "injustice" on the cell wall.

Zhifu Tong was worried that Qin Ming would cause trouble after he was released from prison, so he kept him in prison and refused to release him.

Qin Jutian's wife murder case lasted for more than a year from the initiation of the case to the conclusion of the case, and then to the end of the aftermath. It shocked the court, and the Emperor of Labor personally intervened, which had a great impact. .

Tong Ziang was rewarded for overcoming the pressure and being successful in solving the case. He is expected to be promoted.He has already opened up his joints, and hopes to take advantage of this opportunity to be promoted to three ranks in a row, and to sit on the position of the governor of Huguang. That is a second-rank official who is in charge of the government of a province, which is not the same as the small fourth-rank magistrate today. .He has been secretly promised by the important officials of the Ministry of Officials that he can be promoted to the award only after the three-year term of this term expires.

This August, he just completed his third term.In mid-August, it was the period of "exams" for foreign officials of the imperial court. Officials from the four provinces of Sichuan, Huguang, Zhejiang, and Fujian were patrolled and supervised by the imperial inspector of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Mr. Wei Zaihou.Patrol wherever the censor goes, comment on political achievements, discuss merits and demerits, decide and dismiss officials, make decisions on major events, and make decisive decisions on small matters.As long as he passes Master Wei's test, he will be promoted without any hindrance, and he can sit back and relax.

Unexpectedly, it was just in August, when Master Wei had already arrived in Zhejiang and would arrive in Huguang in the near future, news came that someone had seen Su Bi'e in Sichuan, and what was even more ominous was that Su Bi'e was going to Qingyang's hometown has rushed over, and will appear in Qingyang City in a few days.

Tong Zhifu's surprise was really serious, and he immediately sent someone to investigate to see if the rumors were true.

The spies reported that there was indeed a real person and a real thing.

Zhifu Tong panicked immediately, and only then did he realize that he had been an official for three years, and the most proud and influential case he handled was actually a huge injustice.Although only Qin Jutian was killed in this case, his father and mother died in vain, his son was imprisoned, his daughter could not return home, and it even implicated shopkeeper Feng and several other people who were innocently tortured. As long as Su Bi'e really appeared on the streets of Qingyang, then Not only is my reputation ruined throughout my life, and I have no hope of promotion, but I'm afraid I won't even be able to keep this fourth-rank black yarn. If the public is aroused, things become serious, and the court is disturbed, I'm afraid that my life may still be in danger.

How to do it?At this moment, what he was thinking in his mind was not how to take remedial measures to reverse the case for the Qin family as soon as possible, quell public anger, and restore the truth to the world, but how to stop Su Bi'e's footsteps, how to cover up the truth, deceive the inspector censor, and save To protect his reputation as "Tong Qingtian" and keep his bright future.

As the saying goes: If you don’t do anything, you will never stop. When the matter has come to this point, there may be only one best way to save it, and that is to kill Su Bi’e, so that she will never have a chance to return to Qingyang City, and the Qin family will never have a chance to reverse the case. Chance.Only in this way can it be done once and for all without any worries.

He decided to send Yao San to do this.

Yao San was originally a catcher under Qin Jutian. After Qin Jutian's death, Tong Zhifu made him the chief catcher of the prefect's yamen without accepting any benefits from him.

So Yao San became his confidant, not only grateful to him, but also serving him wholeheartedly.

He asked Yao San to take someone to kill Su Bi'e, and he must make her disappear from this world completely before she stepped into the Qingyang Mansion, and then let him find a way to kill the person who went with him, and then come back to report to Su Bi'e. He returns.

All of this must be completed before the arrival of Lord Censor Wei.

But Qin Yue, ever since her father went to death wronged, her grandparents died in grief, and her brother Qin Ming was imprisoned innocently, she has been enduring her grief and running around, trying her best to find the whereabouts of her mother Su, hoping to find her soon and prove her father's innocence, Rescue his elder brother who was imprisoned, and clean up the Qin family's grievances.

But three years later, she has grown from a 15-year-old girl to a young girl, but her mother has been missing.

In August of this year, she accidentally got the news from a tea dealer who was traveling all over the country. He had seen the woman in the portrait she was looking for in Sichuan Province and knew that she was now heading towards Huguang.Moreover, the tea dealer also told her that the prefect's yamen also asked him about this matter.

This ice-snow-smart girl who has been tempered for a long time guessed the mind of Tong Ziang, the black-hearted magistrate.

She decided to rush to Sichuan overnight to find her mother, and use her own strength to protect her all the way back to Qingyang safely.

When Su Bi'e was entangled by two "carriers" at the foot of Luoyun Mountain, the black shadow hiding in the woods and shooting a willow-leaf flying knife to save her life was her biological daughter Qin Yue.

Diao Qi was killed, Yao San lost his arm, and after the first attempt to assassinate Su Bi'e failed, Yao San immediately organized and planned the second hunting operation carefully, and the location was in the teahouse outside Zaolin Town.

Unexpectedly, this seamless murder plan was destroyed by Qin Yue, a girl in black.

At this time, Su Bi'e was already aware of the murderous intentions everywhere, but she never dreamed that behind this ruthless pursuit, there was actually a huge conspiracy hidden, and she became the one who exposed the plot without knowing it. The only key to this conspiracy.

She thought that Zhou Hanshan, a ruthless man, did all of this, so she wanted to ask this martial arts girl in black to escort her all the way.

But even though Qin Yue came here to protect her, he rejected her request face to face.

There are two reasons for her to do this: first, if she stays by her side all the way, the situation is not good;
Second, although Su Bi'e is her mother, she directly caused this tragedy because of her betrayal of her father and the family. She hates her and will never forgive her. She would rather suffer more Protecting her in secret, and unwilling to walk with her.

Yao San fled back to Qingyang in a hurry. Tong Ziang heard that because of the appearance of a girl in black with strong martial arts, the Su family not only escaped two catastrophes, but also got closer and closer to Qingyang Mansion. A poisonous plan, decided to pay a high price to hire a professional killer with strong martial arts to intercept and kill Su Bi'e, and deal with the nosy girl in black by the way.

As soon as the news spread on the underworld, a black-clothed masked man who claimed to be the No. [-] gold medal killer in Jianghu, "One Sword Seals His Throat" Ye Fenghou, appeared.

Of course Tong Zi'ang has heard of the name "A Sword to Seal the Throat", and he also knows that this person has a weird temper. He has covered his face with a black scarf all year round and never shows his true colors to others.At first, he still had some doubts in his heart, but when he saw that the young man cut off a fly's leg with a sword, and the fly was still buzzing, he believed him.Who in the world has such a good swordsmanship other than "seal the throat with one sword"?
(End of this chapter)