The Four Great Cases of Wu Zetian

Chapter 23

The murderer heard the news and reported the poisonous snake and released the innocent

But Hong Liang saw that Di Gong asked He Kai if he had been visiting the person surnamed Xu for several days. There are more than half of the people in the town, and the rest are not old people. They opened a store in the town, but they are children. They can't be involved in this case, so they haven't filed a report." Di Gong said: "according to your two opinions, what is going on now? What is the solution?" Hong Liang said: "Although the villain heard the sound, he didn't dare to go down because he didn't see the place where he came in and out. At this time, I told the Lord Ming that he wanted to go to the neighbor's house. Because Bi's house The back wall is shared with the people on the next wall, or there is some reason for this wall. This villain has investigated and found out that although he lives in the countryside, he is a well-known local family. His surname is Tang and his name is Tang Dezhong. His father once worked in Jiangxi Province. In Wanzai County, he himself is a low-ranking candidate. He is currently living at home and studying, and the villain sees that he is a gentleman, so he dare not take the liberty to do it." Di Gong thought after hearing this: "It may not be true, this wall Is it a place of entry and exit?" He didn't speak at that time, but after thinking for a while, he asked again: "Do you think this wall is a public wall, or is it behind her bed, or on both sides?" Hong Liang said: "The villain was at that time Open the house and look carefully, because both sides are empty, only the back of the bed is against the wall, but the bed curtain is covered, so you can't see clearly. Except for deduction on this, there is no other flaw." Di Gong patted the table and cried: "This matter is over, you just take my name card and go to Huanghua Town tonight. Tomorrow morning, I will go to Tang's house with He Kai and say that I have business in the local area, so I invite Tang Juren to come to discuss. See what he looks like." Jing Yanyan, come and report back, and the county guards will go to Hua's house tomorrow morning to handle the case." Hong Liang agreed, received the name card at that time, turned around and retreated, without any problems.

In the early morning of the next day, Mr. Di Qingyi and Xiaomao took two guards on duty, together with Ma Rong and Mrs. Qiao, to Hua Guoxiang's house and all the way to the front of the hall.At that time, Hua Guoxiang was asking people to clean the hall. Seeing that the county magistrate Di Gong had entered, he had to sit down with his colleagues and ordered them to take his crown and belt.Di Gong said with a smile: "This county is still informal, so why do you need to work. But the matter of your daughter-in-law can always be clear today. And please order the tea-making servant to come, if you have anything to ask in this county." Hua Guoxiang didn't like it Xie Heyi, seeing that he came so early, it was inconvenient to hinder him, so he had to call out the girl who made tea.Seeing that Di Gong was an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl, he went to the front, kowtowed and knelt down.Di Gong said: "This is not a court, why should it be so? What's your name? Have you always been dedicated to lighting fires?" The girl said: "The little girl's name is Caigu, and she has always served her wife because she married a young lady recently. , so he ordered to be in charge of tea." Di Gongdao: "That day Gao Chen poured tea in the afternoon, can you be in the kitchen?" Cai Gu said: "I am boiling water there. Later, when the lights were on, I went back to the upper room, because Something happened, Grandma Gao came to make tea, but she didn’t see it. After the little girl had something to do, she went back to the place where the tea was made, and the tea in the stove had been spilled on the ground. Afterwards, the little girl came in and asked about it, only then did she know When Grandma Gao was making tea, there was no boiling water in the stove. She took the stove down and put it on the cornice, then added charcoal, and used the fire to boil a pot of boiling water. Only half of it was used. The other half was going to the courtyard to add cold water. He stumbled and splashed the water on the ground. Afterwards, the little girl added some water before she left. This is the whole story of making tea that day, and the little girl didn’t know anything about it.” After hearing this, Mr. Di ordered When Ma Rong returned to the Yamen, he immediately brought Mrs. Gao Chen up.When Di Gong saw it, he shouted loudly: "You bitch, you acted so cunningly! The day before yesterday, I confessed in court that Xiangwan made tea with ready-made boiled water. Today Caigu confessed that it was you who moved the stove to the cornice. , poured cold water, only poured half of it, and the water did not go half before the eaves, it is obvious that your confession is true and false, how can you argue?" Gao Chen was frightened by this refutation, kowtowed, but Said: "Please forgive me, my lord. Because I was afraid in the hall, the old slave was distracted for a while, and I made a nonsense confession. I am afraid that the lord will ask him. In fact, the old slave has no other reason." Di Gong said angrily, "I know you only want to You are cunning for a while, your young lady's wrongdoing has been delayed for you for a long time. If the county didn't understand it, wouldn't it be unfair to that foolish guest again? I can't think of a reason why I can't think of such a truthful confession long ago. At this time, the palm is temporarily suspended, and when the case is clear, the punishment will be determined." At that time, he got up and said to Hua Guoxiang: "This county, please drive to the kitchen with your honor, so that people can do things." When Hua Guoxiang arrived at this time, he also Had to go with him.

At that time, Mr. Di went inside and saw three main rooms facing the east, where the pots and stoves were located, and four wing rooms in total, north and south.Di Gong asked Cai Gu, "you wait for that day to make tea, but is this in the north wing?" Cai Gu said, "it's this wing. Now the clay stove is still in it." It was really good, but seeing that the kitchen house was very old and the tiles and wood were mostly decayed, he asked Gao Chen, "Where did you move the stove to the cornice that night?" Gao Chen pointed forward: "It's on top of this bluestone.

"Following the location he pointed out, Di Gong looked carefully at the eaves, and saw that half of the rafters had collapsed, and the tile eaves were all damaged. Then he said to Mrs. Gao Chen: "Your confession is not true, and you should be in charge. Two cheeks, I think you are old and faint, and punish you to boil water at the same place for a day so that the county can drink tea here. "Hua Guoxiang saw that Di Gong looked at it once, but he couldn't explain the reason. At this time, he suddenly ordered Gao Chen to make tea. For this expedition, refreshments should be prepared respectfully, if you wait for this old dog to boil the water, it may be too late.Since her confession was not true, she should be brought back for severe punishment so that the truth can come to light.If this nonsense, wouldn't it be a joke? " Di Gong sneered and said: "It seems almost joking in the eyes of the honorable man, but we know that the county is going to investigate this matter here.I have my own county lord, so don't say too much, Your Excellency. " Immediately ordered people to take two tables and chairs, sat down in the kitchen, and chatted with the cooks and servants. After a short pause, he urged Mrs. Gao Chen to add fire, or to raise the fan, or to pour tea, and make a fuss. No. When the water was boiled and the tea was made, he refused to eat it, and this happened more than ten times.

Mrs. Gao Chen was lighting a fire there when suddenly a few pieces of mud fell from the eaves and landed on her neck, so she quickly brushed it away with her hands.Di Gong had already seen it, and immediately shouted: "Come here!" Seeing him yelling, Gao Chen had no choice but to walk past him and came to him.Di Gong said: "Just wait here for a while, the poison that harmed your young lady will be gone in no time."

Gao Chen didn't dare to speak, Hua Guoxiang didn't think so, got up and went to the room instead.Duke Di didn't stop him, and sat on the chair, looking straight at the cornice.After another cup of tea, I saw a ray of red light shining from the place where the mud fell, shining on the cornice, appearing or hiding, but I don't know what it is.Di Gong was overjoyed, and hurried to Ma Rong and said, "What do you see?" Ma Rong said, "I see, or should I take it out at this time?" Di Gong hurriedly said, "Don't do anything, since you have this object , First invite his master to watch together, and then he will be convinced exactly how the poison entered. I have never judged the case in this county and refused to wrong people. If you don’t investigate thoroughly, how can you be the parents of the people?” At that time Seeing this, Caigu hurried to the upper room and reported to Hua Guoxiang.When everyone inside heard it, it was really an accident, and they were all amazed by Di Gong's god.

Di Gong also went with Hua's family to invite Hua Guoxiang to come out to watch, and Hua Guoxiang also came out to have a look.Di Gong said: "You can understand this case, please sit down for a while and see what this thing is like."

At that time Hua Guoxiang looked up, but saw a stream of hot air rushing into the stove, the red light was squirmed by the smoke, suddenly stretched out a snake's head, looked around, drooling in his mouth, only to see dripping from the stove.Seeing someone here, the snake shrank back in immediately.At this time, everyone was all concentrated and breathless, too frightened to open their mouths.Di Gong said to Hua Guoxiang: "It turns out that the reason why your daughter-in-law was injured by this poison is that this is what your lord saw with your own eyes. It's not that this county is protecting Hu Zuobin. The house where you live is broken and has not been repaired for a long time. Since this poisonous substance is born, it is better to destroy it." After saying that, he ordered those idlers to go away, so that Ma Rong, the police on duty, and the miscellaneous people of the Hua family, each with their own utensils, rushed into the room first. , drag down all the rafters of the cornice.There was a sound from above, and the bricks and tiles rolled down with mud. Inside, there was a two-foot-long flaming chain, which swam out of the mud and ran into the courtyard alley. If he wanted to escape, Ma Rong had already seen him. Going forward to mention it, Mrs. Qiao took a fire fork in her hand, and hit the snake's head. The snake couldn't move immediately, and then killed it with another fork.Everyone was afraid that there would still be little snakes inside, so they all went forward to demolish that house and cleaned it up.Di Gong ordered people to bring the snake to the front of the hall.At this time, the inside was believed, and Li Wang's family had been picked up early.

Di Gong sat down and said to Hua Guoxiang: "This case has been investigated for the first time in this county, and I know that your daughter-in-law is not a human poison. No matter whether Hu Zuobin is a refined scholar, he will definitely not do such indecent things. But before entering the room, he heard someone There was a foul smell, and doubts arose at that time. Later, when he came to test, someone said that his stomach was stirred. The county thought that poisoning people is nothing more than arsenic stones. Even if you take it, the seven orifices bleed. The foul smell? That's why the county didn't dare to stop it. I've been thinking about it for a long time. When I interrogated Mrs. Gao Chen's statement, she only said that she made the tea herself. After making the tea, Hu Zuobin didn't enter the room; The rest did not leave their original places. I saw that no one else went in. Could it be that the newcomers poisoned themselves? According to Caigu’s words today, it was evident that when the Gaochen clan was cooking tea, they added fire to the eaves, and the smoke rushed into it, and the snake saliva Dripping. At that time, Mrs. Gao Chen was not aware of it, so she poured boiling water into the teapot, and the other half happened to be because she did not go, so that no one was harmed. It is poisonous. She should be punished, but she happened unintentionally. She is sympathetic to old age, and she should be dealt with lightly. It is also a destiny to let her daughter-in-law die for no reason. Please respectfully call the eminent monk to repent and save the soul of the dead. Hu Zuobin is innocent Aggrieved, he should have been released, but he is playful, and he is not a genuine product of Shilin. The teacher of the school will warn him to do it next time." After speaking, he said to Li Wang: "The reason for your daughter's death is today. I already understand that the county is so broken, can you wait to accept it?" Li Wang cried: "From this point of view, it was caused by mistaken poisoning. This is all because of my daughter's life. It is also fair for the grandfather to make such a knot. As for that, what else can I say?" Di Gong saw Li Wang's consent.Immediately order everyone to close the case.

I don't know what will happen next, let's see the next chapter.

(End of this chapter)