This article is a real case account and aims to:
"Crack the criminal mind and defend human justice!"
"Explore the darkness of human nature and prevent crime from happening!"
Before the Song Dynasty, the prison officials decided the case, the wise used the scheming, and the stupid used the punishment. However, there are too few intelligent prison officers, so it is not uncommon for unjust cases to be beaten into confessions. However, starting from the Song Dynasty, under the guidance of Song Ci's "Collection of Washed Injustices", the prison officials had one more way to handle cases. It not only greatly reduces the occurrence of unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, but also solves many difficult and strange cases.
So is the Song Dynasty's method of identifying corpses really so magical? Today, we may wish to take a look at a case of scorched corpses that occurred during the Jiaxi period of the Song Dynasty, and see how Song Ci solved the case by identifying corpses.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > charred corpses were found </h1>
In the fifth year of Jiaxi, Song Ci was transferred from Guangdong Prison to Zhizhou, Changzhou. Here he encountered a bizarre case of scorched corpses, which was different from the scorched corpse case in Jianzhou, Fujian province two years ago, the process of this scorched corpse case was tortuous and bizarre, if he had not found the clues in the eyes of the deceased, I am afraid that the grievances of the deceased would never have been revealed.
It is said that on the evening of the second day after Song Ci's arrival, he was going through the files left by his predecessor Zhizhou in the palace. Soon a messenger hurried to report that a family on the outskirts of the city was on fire and that a charred corpse had been found in the house.
Song Ci quickly put down the scroll in his hand, briefly sorted out his clothes and hat, and then followed Ya Cha to the place of the incident.
Song Ci carefully observed the burned house, then looked at the corpse again and found that the deceased was lying prone, with his hands forward and a wine bottle in his right hand.
After reading this, Song Ci then began to understand the before and after.
According to the neighbors who came to fight the fire and the servants, the person who burned to death was surnamed Wang, and because he was the third oldest in the family, people called him Wang San.
Wang San's family was barren, and it was only in his thirties that he got a wife, Liu Shi. But fortunately, Liu Shixianhui not only did not dislike the Wang San family poor, but also worked hard and was a rare good woman.
Unfortunately, a few days ago, Liu Shi was killed by bandits on the way back to his mother's house, after which Wang San spent all day in a daze and borrowed wine to dispel his sorrows, until the fire broke out, and Wang San still held a wine jug in his hand. I think it must have been a fire after drinking, which led to this tragedy.
However, Song Ci felt that it was not simple, because the same was true of the Jianzhou Jiao corpse case two years ago, which was ostensibly a fire after the deceased was drunk, but behind it was a murder and arson case.
Sure enough, when Song Ci inspected the body, he found that there was no soot in the mouth and nose of the deceased, which proved that the deceased was killed and burned, which was very similar to the previous Jianzhou jiao corpse case.
But the previous deceased was a bricklayer who was killed because he knew a secret of a rich merchant. And this Wang San, because he usually speaks little, has no friends, nor has he had quarrels or feuds with other people. So who was going to kill him?
Although it is known that the deceased was killed, it is impossible to find the reason for the killing, so it is impossible to carry out the next step of investigation, and the case has reached a dead end.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > flaws were found </h1>
Song Ci was not reconciled, so he tested the body again, this time he was more careful, and checked some of the places that he had ignored before, and sure enough, he found the clues.
It turned out that the deceased was lying on the ground at that time, so the eye loss was not serious, and it could be seen from the color of the eyes that the deceased was actually an old man over sixty years old, not a young man like Wang San.
In addition, Song Ci only paid attention to the soot in his mouth and nose when he examined it before, and did not check too much about the decay of the deceased's teeth. After re-examination, the degree of decay of the teeth is also more serious, in line with the characteristics of old age.
Therefore, after this examination, Song Ci determined that the deceased was not Wang San, but someone else.
So how did Song Ci find the problem in the eyes of the deceased?
Because there is a transparent film in the human eye, and the film layer will gradually change from white to yellow over time. According to today's scientific explanation, this is called "pigmentation", which is a natural phenomenon after years of precipitation.
It can be said that even if the body becomes coke and cannot be recognized, then without dissecting the corpse, just look at the color of the eyeballs and the degree of decay of the teeth, you can infer the approximate age of the deceased.
After finding out the age of the deceased, the case is even more confusing. Who is the old man who burned to death? How could he die in Wang San's home. And where did Wang San go? Was he the one who killed the old man?
Thinking of this, Song Ci immediately summoned the servants and asked them to post notices to see if there were any old people missing in Changzhou City.
But there was no news for several days, which made Song Ci very strange, was the deceased not from Changzhou? If you are not from Changzhou, how did an old man in his sixties come to Changzhou? How did he appear in Wang San's home? Did this person know Wang San?
Thinking of this, he summoned Ya Gong again and inquired more about Wang San's family situation.
Naturally, ya gong was very familiar with the situation of the local people, and he replied: "Wang San has an old father, because his wife died early, so he raised three sons and a daughter alone. ”
"Among these children of Wang Laohan, the eldest sons are somewhat prominent, doing some small business in the next county, and living a good life." The second son chose to join the family because of his family's poverty, and now lives in Changzhou City. The situation of this third king has been mentioned before. As for the younger daughter, for some reason, she committed suicide by throwing herself into a well at the age of 15. ”
Song Ci continued to ask, "How old is Old Man Wang now?" ”
The servant replied, "Now there are more than sixty."
Song Ci then asked, "Where is old Man Wang now?" ”
Ya Gong replied, "I heard that A few days ago, I was picked up by the eldest son of the next county to enjoy my blessings." ”
Song Ci immediately said, "No, you should quickly go to the home of Wang Laohan's eldest son in the next county to find Wang Laohan, if I guess correctly, this deceased is actually Wang Laohan." ”
As soon as he heard this, he did not dare to be sloppy, and immediately went to the next county to look for Wang Laohan.
Two days later, Ya Gong returned and reported to Song Ciyu that Wang Laohan was seriously ill and could not come now.
Song Ci asked strangely, "Then have you seen Old Man Wang with your own eyes?" ”
Ya Gong replied, "I didn't see it, but it was the eldest son of the Wang family who said that." ”
When things came to this point, Song Ci felt more and more that things were not simple. But everything seems to be normal, so what's the problem?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > peak loop rotation </h1>
The case once again fell into a dead end, and Song Ci could only piece together all the details of the discovery and think about it repeatedly. Suddenly he thought of Wang Laohan's little daughter who committed suicide by throwing herself into a well, and perhaps there was the answer he wanted to know.
Song Ci then conducted a comprehensive investigation of Wang Laohan and his young daughter. After many aspects of understanding, the matter of Wang Laohan's young daughter committing suicide by throwing herself into a well was finally understood.
It turned out that Wang Laohan's daughter did not commit suicide for no reason, but was forced to be helpless. The reason is that he was bullied many times by Wang Laohan before he died, so he would make a move to take his life lightly.
Then this shows that Wang Laohan is an unethical person, and since this is the case, his sons must have known about it.
Therefore, after combining the facts of the case, it can be boldly speculated that if the person burned to death is Wang Laohan, then Wang San must be the murderer. The reason why Wang San wanted to kill his biological father was probably because his wife was also bullied.
If all this is true, then Boss Wang knows that his father has such bad habits, so he lies for Wang Sanyuan, and even Wang San is likely to hide in Boss Wang's home.
After deducing this, Song Ci conducted a surprise search of Boss Wang's mansion on the pretext of investigating the case, and sure enough, wang san was found in the back compartment.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the truth is revealed </h1>
After interrogation, the course of the case is the same as Song Ci's speculation. The reason why Wang San killed people was because Wang Laohan bullied the Liu family, so the Liu family wanted to break off relations with the Wang family, so he packed up the package and went home alone, but he was intercepted and killed by bandits halfway.
After his wife's death, Wang San hated his father so much that he tricked his father into going to the house and took a thick cloth to cover him to death, then put a wine pot into Wang Laohan's hands, and finally lit the house and burned Wang Laohan into a scorched corpse, disguised as the scene of Wang San's own drunken fire.
Because he had already spread the news that Wang Laohan had been picked up by Wang Laohan beforehand, he found the eldest brother and told him about his crime. The eldest brother also expressed helplessness about this, but after all, his father was at fault first, so he decided to help his brother to lie.
The case came to light. I have to say that this case is indeed tortuous and bizarre, and if it is an ordinary prison officer, it will certainly be impossible to solve the case. And Song Ci found the flaws only by the eyes of the deceased, and traced them all the way with the flaws, which allowed the truth to be revealed.
Since then, the experience of the old man's yellow eyes has also been widely circulated, until the Ming Dynasty was written into the "Golden Bottle Plum" by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng, and the idiom of "people old pearl yellow" was born.
References: "Collection of Washed Grievances", "Golden Plum Bottle"