During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, a massacre occurred in a village on the outskirts of Wenshui County in Taiyuan Province:
One morning, the earth security guard hurriedly ran into the county court and knelt down in front of the lobby and shouted, bluntly saying that there had been a serious murder in the village, and asked the elder master to move to the car to go to the investigation. The new county commander Xia Di heard the news and immediately rushed to the scene of the murder with all the servants.
In wangchengpo village on the outskirts of the city, a three-room large wooden house was burned to the ground, and the ruins and broken walls could be seen everywhere, and the large beams and pillars that had not yet been burned fell to the side. Di Bao cried and said with a sad face that the villager Qi Kongyang's family of seven old and young people were burned to death by the fire, and the bones were buried under the ruins, and they did not know why the fire was caused, so they asked the grandfather to come and solve the case.
Xia Xian ordered Ya Gong and Di Bao to work together to remove the broken bricks and tiles on the ruins, and found that the corpses were stacked inside the ashes, and the seven mouths of the old and the young were burned into charcoal, and the appearance was no longer recognizable. More adults were burned to death in order to save their children holding their children, and their appearance was so miserable that everyone who saw them wept.
After the whiskers, the servants scooped out the bodies from the ash pile and placed them on the bed board. Xia Xianling asked the neighbors of qi Kongyang, the bitter lord, why did the Qi family burn to the ground overnight, and the family of seven was burned to death by the fire? Neighbors have replied that the sudden fire in the Qi family last night should have been caused by not paying attention to the fire and cooking.
The neighbors unanimously believed that it was an accidental fire, but Xia Xianling felt that the matter was quite strange, because even if the fire suddenly occurred, someone should wake up on the spot and call for help, so that the whole family of seven would be buried in the sea of fire. There may be hidden secrets in this, and the secrets can only be known after a detailed investigation.
Xia Xian ling told everyone to retreat and patrolled the house of the left family alone, trying to find a clue to the case. On the side of the wall of the neighbor on the left, there is a long ladder, and the ladder is built on the wall of the neighbor's house and extends to the yard of the left family. Xia Xianling asked a neighbor whether this ladder had been parked by this wall, was it used to put out the fire yesterday?
Neighbors said the ladder was never placed against the wall, but always under the eaves. When the fire started yesterday, at first I did not notice that the fire was burning the house, and when I found that the fire rushed out to the rescue, the Qi family's house had burned most of the time, and the fire was so fierce that people could not get close, and although the neighbors tried their best to carry water to save it, it was useless. Therefore, the people only knew how to carry water to extinguish the fire, and did not use a wooden ladder to go to the house. Xia Xian ling groaned for a moment, asked the servant to carry the wooden ladder back to the county court, and then asked the neighbors to bury the seven corpses of the Qi family first.
Early the next morning, di bao went to the village to knock on the gong door to door to notify: Xia Xian Ling interrogated the ladder in the yamen lobby today, and let the murderer appear on the spot. Everyone saw the rumors, and they all thought that Xia Xian made fools dream, and how to judge the wooden ladder as a ruthless dead thing? Is it difficult for a wooden ladder to speak? The crowd was puzzled and curious about the county order's move, so they went to the county together to see what was going on.
That morning, Xia Xianling changed into a brand new robe and was sitting on the top of the lobby, his eyes closed without a word, as if he were sleeping. In the middle of the lobby, there was the wooden ladder, which was tied with red cloth belts at both ends, and a large living rooster was tied to the middle of the wooden ladder, and the feet of the big rooster were also tied to the wooden ladder by red ropes.
More and more people were watching, and the local security and servants registered one by one at the door, and every household, old and young, came to register and watch, and no one was allowed to be missed. Half an hour later, the crowd had gathered, and a crowd of people stood in the middle of the hall, and the wide county courtyard was also full of people.
Master Shi whispered a little next to Xia Xianling, and Xia Xianling opened his eyes before he angrily slapped Tang Mu and said to the crowd: This official interrogated the wooden ladder last night and got a hint from the wooden ladder, and it had already told the official who the murderer was. Today, the wooden ladder was retried, and everyone walked past the edge of the wooden ladder to reach out and touch the three red ropes, and then walked out of the county gate and was not allowed to turn back. If you do this, the murderer will surely appear on the spot.
Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what medicine Xia Xian ling hulu was selling. But the servants had already asked everyone to line up to touch the red rope, and the crowd had to touch the red rope one by one according to the requirements, and then walked out of the county gate without turning their heads. Everyone walked again, and the small village of more than a hundred people quickly finished touching the rope. Xia Xian ling asked ya gong to tell the villagers what to do when they went back, and he would soon reveal who the murderer was.
After the crowd retreated, Xia Xian ling asked if there were any thieves and thieves in dibao village? Di Bao said that there were many thieves in the village, of which Chen Wu was the most rogue. Xia Xian ordered Ya Gong to arrest Chen Wu, and Chen Wu was quickly arrested by Ya Gong. As soon as he arrived at the county court, Chen Wu knelt in front of the hall and cried out that he had been wronged, and Xia Xian ling angrily rebuked Chen Wu for all kinds of crimes in his daily life, and asked the servant to rebuke him for twenty times to show punishment.
Xia Xianling asked Chen Wu, do you know the power of the law now? Chen Wu said that he knew, and Xia Xianling asked Chen Wu according to the law that he would be put on a shackle and paraded to the public at the city gate for three days to make an example, but nian nian had not yet married and had children, and there was a sick and weak old mother in the family who needed to be taken care of, so he did not beat him much, but the price was to wear the sin and make meritorious deeds and do a thing for Xia Xianling.
Chen Wu didn't know what Xia Xianling had said, Xia Xianling whispered something to him, chen Wu was overjoyed when he heard it, and he quickly prostrated his head and expressed his willingness to serve...
On the third day, Xia Xian Ling ascended to the church again, and the earth security guard went door to door to send a message: Today, the big master is going to announce that the case has been solved. When the crowd heard the news, they went to the county court to watch. In the county hall, the habitual thief Chen Wu had already knelt in front of the hall, and there was a wooden ladder next to him, and Xia Xian Ling was sitting on the hall in danger, and after slapping the hall wood, he angrily rebuked Chen Wu:
"Bold Chen Wu, you are a thief at night, and you naturally know best what happens at night." The night before, the Qi family was on fire, and people said that you were discovered by the Qi family because you stole property, so you set fire to the Qi family. The wooden ladder tells the officer that this ladder is what you have removed to commit the crime. Do you recruit or not? ”
Chen Wu's face changed drastically, and he prostrated his head and shouted injustice. He said that he was not fake to be a thief, and he went out in every house every night to steal chickens and dogs, but he never did anything to kill people and set fires. That night, he personally saw the villager Zuo Zhixiang put a wooden ladder on the wall of the Qi family's neighbor, and then climbed the ladder into the Qi family and set it on fire. So it wasn't him who set fire to the killer, but Zuo Zhixiang.
At this moment, Zuo Zhixiang was watching in the lobby, and Chen Wu said that he had set fire to kill people, and his face was pale and cold sweat. Ya Gong stepped forward and pulled Zuo Zhixiang out and knelt in front of the hall, and Xia Xian ling asked Zuo Zhixiang if he admitted to killing people? The servants on both sides were holding water and fire sticks and staring at each other, and before they could charge the twenty large plates to kill the mighty sticks, Zuo Zhixiang patted his chest and said in a loud voice, "I killed people, but I didn't do anything wrong, my relatives and family members deserve to die!" Immediately after, Zuo Zhixiang told the truth of the case:
Originally, Qi Kongyang's family had a tomb hill adjacent to Zuo Zhixiang's house. After the Qi family had money in business, they wanted to build a new tomb for their mother, so they invited the famous feng shui master in the county to choose a cemetery, and the feng shui master walked on the grave hill, bluntly saying that if the Qi family moved the tomb to the east for a few inches, it would be able to become rich for generations, and there would be many officials in the future.
Qi Kongyang listened to his husband's words and was overjoyed in his heart, so he buried his mother's coffin into the cemetery of the Zuo family without greeting the rich family. The tomb of the Qi family was built so large and luxurious that the tomb of Zuo Zhixiang's father was occupied, and the bones of Zuo Zhixiang's father were dug up by the Qi family, and even the coffin was thrown into the river ditch under the mountain. Zuo Zhi saw the remains of his father being treated like this, and ran to stop the Qi family father and son. The father and son of the Qi family said that the tomb hill was a wasteland, and the coffins and remains dug out were also unowned things, and there was nothing wrong with what the Qi family did.
Zuo Zhixiang's family was poor, his father died of illness more than ten years ago, and the Zuo family had no money to build tombstone gravestones, so Zuo Zhixiang's tomb was therefore just an earthen bag. From a distance, it doesn't look like a tomb, but Zuo Zhixiang is a filial piety, and every year in the Qingming Dynasty, he will go to pay tribute to his father, so almost everyone in the village knows that the mound is his father's tomb, and the grave hill is owned by the Zuo family.
The Qi family has money and some people, and they want to occupy the treasure land of feng shui, and Zuo Zhixiang went to stop it, and instead of stopping, the Qi family beat Zuo Zhixiang violently. After the Qi family buried the grave, they planted pines and cypresses in the border area, and the Zuo family's grave hill was almost completely occupied. After Zuo Zhixiang was injured, he went to the door to claim the money occupied, and the Qi family said that it was their family's ancestral grave, so why should they lose money to Zuo Zhixiang? Zuo Zhixiang said a few more words, and Qi Kongyang slapped Zuo Zhixiang twice in the mouth and pushed him out of the house.
Zuo Zhixiang was angry and annoyed, and he lamented one after another: The qi family is running amok and bullying the poor and the living, and even the dead have to be insulted, which is really shameless and hateful. Zuo Zhixiang was resentful in his heart, and he went to the county court to complain to the Qi family, but he was beaten badly without handing over the papers. The officials of all sizes in the county have benefited from the Qi family, and Zuo Zhixiang has no way to complain about the injustice, and his heart is full of resentment. He decided to fight for his life and avenge himself.
A month later, it was November 20th. Zuo Zhixiang carried a sharp blade, carried a wooden ladder from the neighbor's house and put it on the wall, climbed over the wall and entered the Qi family. At this time, the Qi family was sleeping sweetly, Zuo Zhixiang rushed to open the door, and first killed Qi Kongyang's two sons and a daughter-in-law with a sharp blade, these three people were young and powerful, after killing these three people, the rest of the old and weak women and children were like lambs.
Zuo Zhixiang then rushed into Qi Kongyang's room, stabbed Qi Kongyang and his wife to death, and killed two younger grandsons. Zuo Zhixiang killed seven members of the Qi family in one breath, and his body was covered with the blood of the Qi family's old and young. After the Qi family's door was destroyed, Zuo Zhixiang set fire to the Qi family's house.
After setting the fire, Zuo Zhixiang climbed over the wall and left the Qi family, at this time he felt a little scared, there was no feeling of fear at all when killing people, and when he watched the raging fire engulf the Qi family, he realized that he had just killed seven people in a row. Zuo Zhixiang carried the ladder back to its original place and put it on the wall of the Qi family's neighbor. After doing this, Zuo Zhixiang went home to wash and sleep, as if this had not happened. After the fire burned, the neighbors got up to help put out the fire, but it was useless to pay a cup of water, and the seven members of the Qi family were burned into coke.
This is the truth of Zuo Zhixiang's murder, the Qi family deceived people too much, he had no way to sue for injustice, and had to use this means to avenge. Now that he was recognized by Xia Xian Ling, he didn't care if he wanted to kill him, but there was one thing that was unclear, did Xia Xian Ling really judge the truth from the wooden ladder?
Xia XianLing smiled slightly and said to Zuo Zhixiang: The wooden ladder is just a dead thing, where can a wooden ladder talk? After the original crime, he went to the scene to look for evidence to solve the case and found this wooden ladder. The owner of the wooden ladder said that he did not put it on the wall, which aroused his curiosity. He walked around and found that the door of Zuo Zhixiang's house was closed. At this time, it was already noon, and Zuo Zhixiang only got up when the ground security door slammed the door.
The neighbor's family was extinguished, and everyone went out to fight the fire, but Zuo Zhixiang slept deeply at home, which was really puzzling. Xia Xianling asked Zuo Zhixiang why he was still sleeping at noon, and Zuo Zhixiang's answer at that time was that he had drunk two pounds last night, so he overslept today. However, Xia Xianling could not smell any wine on Zuo Zhixiang's body, and the village tavern also said that he had not gone to the tavern to buy wine recently.
Xia Xianling suspected that the murderer was Zuo Zhixiang, but he was not sure whether his suspicions were accurate. So he lied about the wooden ladder to find the murderer, and three red threads were tied to the wooden ladder, and a rooster was tied. This practice is known locally as the "soul chicken", and legend has it that the soul of the wronged is placed on the body of the chicken, and the murderer can reach out and pull the red rope to identify it. The ancients handled cases, and many people used this mysterious method to solve cases, so the villagers all knew this technique. Therefore, the Xia County order to judge the wooden ladder is false, and it is true to let people pull the red rope to distinguish the murderer.
On that day, when Zuo Zhixiang pulled the red rope, Xia Xianling deliberately observed his actions. It turned out that Zuo Zhixiang did not dare to look directly at the rooster, and his hands trembled a little when he reached out to pull the red rope. These subtle changes in expression were instantaneous, but they were still seen by Xia Xianling. Zuo Zhixiang's suspicion is another layer deeper, but this psychological hint is not necessarily accurate, if someone is born timid and afraid of roosters, so they dare not look directly, it is also possible that the hand pulling the rope will tremble with it. Therefore, to truly determine whether Zuo Zhixiang is the murderer, we must make one last test.
Xia Xianling found Chen Wu, a habitual thief in the village, and asked Chen Wu to lie above the court that he had personally seen Zuo Zhixiang climb over the wall and enter the Qi family, kill seven people in a row, and then set fire to destroy the corpses. As a result, Zuo Zhi's psychological defense line collapsed, believing that Xia Xianling really had all the evidence, and Chen Wu really saw himself that night, so he honestly confessed to the murder.
Since then, the truth of the case has come out. The Qi family bullied others, occupied the cemetery of Zuo Zhixiang's family, and destroyed the coffin of his father's bones. The former county order allowed the Qi family to be left unattended, and zuo zhixiang had no way to seek justice, and there was no place to appeal grievances. Finally, he carried a sharp blade and killed seven members of the Qi family, and then set fire to destroy the corpses. Zuo Zhixiang's revenge for his father is commendable, but he acted too aggressively to kill innocents, and the two young sons and daughters-in-law of the Qi family did not bully Zuo Zhixiang, they were all innocent people. Zuo Zhixiang killed innocents indiscriminately in order to avenge himself, and his methods were extremely cruel. Although there is filial piety, it is difficult to hide the crime of murder. In the end, Xia Xian ordered Zuo Zhixiang to be hanged, leaving him a whole corpse.
Ancients Cloud: Don't deceive the poor. The Qi family has done too much evil, and it is really unkind to be rich and unkind to bully Zuo Zhixiang in this way. The former county order was greedy and confused, allowing the Qi family to do wrong, and was also the main driver of the tragedy. Zuo Zhixiang killed innocents indiscriminately in revenge, killing seven people with a knife, not even sparing the infant in the swaddling, and finally setting fire to destroy the corpse. Although his behavior has the element of filial piety, he is too fierce, and it is difficult to escape death in the end. Rich and noble people, when they do more good deeds, the poor are easy to deceive, the honest people are easy to deal with, and if the honest people resist, they are flood beasts, and it is too late to repent.

Since then, the Ming Dynasty extinguished the door and set fire to the case, and the case was closed.