Twenty-three years after jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, on the seventh day of march, Zhang Chengxian, the county commander of Wujin County, the capital of Changzhou, was discussing a case with Liu Mao, the master of the execution chamber, when suddenly an old woman's cry of injustice came from the county gate.
Zhang Xianling immediately asked ya to take the old woman into the second hall, and a woman over fifty years old walked in, and when she saw the county order on the throne, she immediately fell on the ground and cried. Her surname is Ma, her husband's family is a Luojiazhuang person, her husband died early, and she first lived in Cold Lane. She had a daughter named Luo Linxiang under her knees, yesterday was the day of the deceased husband's sacrifice, she stayed in the temple to chant, did not want to go home this morning, found her daughter Luo Linxiang dead in the room.
Zhang Xianling heard about the death case of Zhi Zhi, ordered two shifts of servants, and came to the scene of the crime under the leadership of Ma Widow. Master Liu took the lead in entering the house and found that Luo Linxiang's hands were tied with foot-wrapped cloths, her clothes were lying on a stool in an untidy manner, and there were pinch marks on her neck, and it was obvious that she had been insulted before she died.
The room was very messy, Luo Linxiang had a dispute with the gangsters before he died, next to the corpse, he found that there was a half-cut tongue on the ground, and he went forward to check, Luo Linxiang had blood in his mouth, but his tongue was intact.
Master Liu returned to the county court and told Zhang Xianling about this matter, and Zhang Xianling heard the news and said: "The murderer of Luo Linxiang must be the one who broke his tongue." So he issued a city-wide wanted document and asked the servants to search for the man with the broken tongue.
On this day, Ya Gong came to the medicine shop to find the treasurer and asked if anyone had recently bought hemostatic drugs, and the guy suddenly said: "Not long ago, Yang Mazi, who lives in Lengxiang Hutong, came to the store to buy hemostatic cream."
Under the careful questioning of the servant, the time when Yang Mazi came to buy medicine was the day that Luo Linxiang was killed. Ya Gong immediately called out to Lizheng Shen Taigong in the cold alley, and learned from him that Yang Mazi's full name was Yang Gui, because he had chicken pox when he was a child, and there were pox pits on his face, like a hemp, he was often teased, and because of this matter, he did not marry a relative in his thirties and had been playing with bare sticks.
Yang Gui is a cargo man, who walks the streets and alleys to sell goods for a living on weekdays, and often leaves early and returns late. Therefore, a group of servants ambushed outside Yang Gui's house, until in the evening, they saw Yang Gui carrying a container from a distance.
As soon as Yang Gui appeared, he was thrown to the ground by the rushed out Ya Gong, who pried open his mouth and found that only half of his tongue was left in his mouth, and he was tied up and escorted to the county court.
Zhang Xianling caught the "man with the broken tongue" and immediately ordered the ascension hall, and he invited Lang Zhong, a famous man in the city, to check whether Yang Guikou's broken tongue was a new injury. Lang Zhong replied, "If you go back to the adult, the appearance of the wounds in the prisoners was caused in recent days." ”
Ya Gong then took the broken tongue at the scene of the crime and compared it with the broken tongue in Yang Gui's mouth, and concluded that Yang Gui was the owner of the broken tongue. Zhang Xianling shot seven or eight consecutive shocking wooden shots and said to Yang Gui: "Now the evidence is conclusive, the prisoner Yang Gui coveted Luo Linxiang's beauty, took advantage of his mother's outing, and waited for the opportunity to enter the house to commit murder. ”
"In the process of yang gui's evil deeds, his tongue was accidentally bitten off by Luo Linxiang, so he strangled Luo Linxiang to death in anger, Yang Gui, are you denying sin?"
Yang Gui danced in the hall, and he said with tears in his eyes and incoherently: "Wronged." Zhang Xianling's eyes showed disgust, and he saw that Yang Gui denied it in the hall, but the evidence was conclusive, and all pointed out that Yang Gui was the murderer, so Zhang Xianling pronounced a sentence of Yang Gui's beheading in the hall, and Master Liu drafted a document and sent it to the Cha Si Yamen for review.
During this period, Zhang Xianling's term of office expired and he was transferred to another place. The new county order was called Du Shangyi, and because Zhang Xianling was a clean and honest official, there was no backlog of cases when he left office, except for one "Luo Linxiang case" that was still in the review period.
Du Xianling carefully read the case and repeatedly deliberated it several times, feeling that there were doubts about the case. Therefore, he interrogated Yang Gui, but no matter how Du Xianling asked, Yang Gui insisted that he had killed Luo Linxiang.
Du Xianling looked closely and found that Yang Gui had many old and new wounds on his body, which should have been beaten in prison, so he asked the cell boss to change Yang Gui into a separate cell, and when he left, he said to him: "It is your offense that cannot escape, it is not your guilt that is wrapped up, it will only allow the murderer to go unpunished." ”
After leaving the cell, Du Xianling called on Him to recall whether anything unusual had been found during the investigation of Luo Linxiang's corpse. "Luo Linxiang's hands are tied back by a foot-wrapper, but according to my observation, the person who tied the knot is a right-handed, but Yang Gui is a left-handed, and the direction of the knot is not right." ”
When interrogating Yang Gui just now, Du Xianling also found that Yang Gui frequently wiped sweat with his left hand, so he visited Yang Gui's neighbors and said that Yang Gui had been left-handed since childhood. Du Xianling's doubts in his heart were solved, but another trouble ensued, so who was the murderer?
Du Xianling approached the headhunter and asked him, "I heard that you have been working as a servant in this county for many years, and regarding this case, do you have anyone in your heart who is worthy of suspicion as a murderer?" ”
The headhunter was silent for a while and said, "Back to your lord's words, the other day, we targeted two people, they are from outside the county, they often steal, because there is no evidence, they can't be convicted, so they have to send someone to stare at them, but since the case of Luo Linxiang, they have disappeared." But after we caught Yang Gui, they appeared again. Now that I think about it, it's a bit weird. ”
Du Xian ordered the head catcher not to hit the grass and snake, and he had a plan in mind. On the second day, there were rumors that Yang Gui was not the murderer, and the new county ordered that "a foot-wrapper" be interrogated in the county court all day, and the people heard about this strange incident and went to the county court to watch.
As a result, the county gate was surrounded by people. I saw a few big men standing in the lobby with whips, and beside them there was a wooden shelf on which a foot-wrapper was hung.
Du Xian Lingduan sat on the main seat and said: "This official was instructed by the gods yesterday, he said that Yang Gui is not a murderer, so if this is the case, the shroud is an accomplice, today, this officer wants to punish the shroud, come on, give me thirty whips." ”
As soon as the words fell, several big men picked up their whips and hit the shroud, and the sound of the braids falling to the ground resounded throughout the hall. As if each blow was hitting the onlookers, Du Xianling looked at the onlookers and said, "The gods have told me that there were two murderers of Luo Linxiang, and they were hidden in the crowd." ”
In a few moments, the pot exploded in the crowd, and everyone looked at each other. At this moment, a hundred Jinyi guards surrounded the county under the leadership of a hundred households, and Du Xianling said: "Don't be afraid, in order to verify whether you are a real murderer, everyone must circle around the shroud, if you are a murderer, the shroud will wrap around your body on its own." ”
Therefore, at the urging of the Jinyi guards, the people lined up in turn to circle around the wooden frame, during which two people always found a reason to let others go first, no matter how they pushed and shoved, and finally it was their turn.
Just at this moment, the two had a dispute over who came forward first, and Du Xian ordered Ya Gong to take the two down and said to them, "You are the murderers, and there is no need to push back any longer."
Du Xianling said: "Today is a special bureau set up for you, during which I observed you for a long time, and when you heard me say that the murderer was in the crowd, you pretended to be very curious and wanted to find an opportunity to escape, and I was discovered, so there was a trick of the shroud to verify the real murderer, just to make you reveal your original form."
The two heard the rumors and knew that the matter had been exposed, so they had to confess the truth, they were from other counties, one was called Jin, the other was called Liu Yin. Wanted for theft in their hometown, they came to Wujin County and continued to do their old business. The two of them were veterans, doing things cleanly and leaving no handles.
They learned that there was a mother and daughter living in the cold alley, and this family lived with The Widow Ma and Luo Linxiang, and the two of them hid in the shadows to step on the spot, just at this time, Yang Gui picked up the container to sell. Luo Linxiang opened the courtyard door and bought some needle and thread.
This Yang Gui walked the streets and alleys, he knew the situation of Luo Linxiang's family very well, he had long liked the white and beautiful Luo Linxiang, he and Luo Linxiang learned that the widow Ma was not at home, suddenly evil was born from the side of the guts, seeing that there was no one around, he suddenly covered Luo Linxiang's mouth and entered the house.
Luo Linxiang was fierce and vowed to die. She took the opportunity to bite down on Yang Gui's tongue, and Yang Gui's tongue was bitten off, and she screamed in pain. He suddenly woke up, saw that the matter had been exposed, and had to flee in a hurry. This scene was just looked at by Jin Jin and Liu Yin.
When they saw the beauty of Luo Linxiang, they also had crooked thoughts, and when they saw that the courtyard door was not closed, they entered the house. At this time, Luo Linxiang had not woken up in panic, sitting on the bench in a daze, and suddenly saw two strangers entering the house, and before she could call for help, she was restrained by the two.
Gold tied her hand with a foot-wrapper of Luo Linxiang, and the two defiled her, and afterwards, Liu Yin was worried that Luo Linxiang had seen their faces, so he strangled Luo Linxiang to death. Jin saw a severed tongue not far away, and he placed the broken tongue next to Luo Linxiang's corpse in order to make people mistake the murderer for Yang Gui.
Later, as they wished, Ya Gong quickly captured Yang Gui. In order to keep Yang Gui from talking nonsense in prison, they claimed to be Luo Linxiang's relatives and friends, and they bought the servants in prison and asked him to put Yang Gui in the cell of the most evil people.
Because the most shameful act of the prisoners was to pollute women, after the prisoners knew Yang Gui's guilt, they often taught him a lesson and almost beat him to death, fortunately, Du Xianling changed him to a separate cell in time.
The demon was a foot tall, but they did not expect that they would be arrested and targeted very early, and under the repeated interrogation of Du Xianling, they confessed to killing Luo Linxiang. As a result, Yang Gui attempted to commit defilement and was sentenced to twenty scepters. Jin And Liu Yin were sentenced to be beheading for both crimes and punishments.
A month later, according to the review of the Cha division, Huang Liu and the two were asked to be beheaded at the mouth of the vegetable market. The servants in the prison were dismissed from their posts, and the predecessor Zhang Xianling was fined one year for handling the case unfavorably. At this point, a strange case of the Ming Dynasty ended.
Write at the end:
When I was a child, I watched a TV series called "Don't Talk to Strangers" until now, and the male protagonist often appeared in my dreams, and it had a profound impact on me.
Girls when they go out, they must have a sense of prevention and do not pay attention to the conversation. When staying, be sure to lock the door tightly and don't go out alone. Refuse food to strangers, and as long as you leave your seat, the water on the table can no longer be drunk.
The heart of harming others must not be there, and the heart of preventing people must not be without.