On the second day of July in the tenth year of Ming Chenghua, a murder occurred in Guichi County. The deceased was the daughter-in-law of Zuo Shanghong, a servant of the local official who had returned to his hometown. After the county order Zhang Huai inspected the scene, he found that Zuo Shanghong's younger son Zuo Ziyun was seriously suspected, but the prefect Jia Kui did not think so, but another person made him suspicious.
Zuo Shanghong, a five-year jinshi of Xuande, went through the four dynasties of Xuande, Zhengtong, Jingtai and Chenghua, originated in the Tianshun period (the restoration of Emperor Yingzong), from a last official to a tianguan (吏部侍郎), he peach and plum all over the world.
Image from the web
After Zhang Huai heard that the deceased was Zuo Shanghong's daughter-in-law Sun Shi, he immediately asked his master Ma Ming to find the household registration book and check the household registration relationship of the Sun family. After reading it, it was found that the twenty-three-year-old Sun Shi was actually a widow and had been widowed for three years.
Sun's husband was named Zuo Ziling (左子凌), the son of Zuo Shanghongdi's wife Du Shi (杜氏). He did not like to read since he was a child, but he liked to make a living as a businessman, so he used his father's influence to become a grain merchant. Zuo Ziling had never married a middle-aged widow until three years ago, when he saw the twenty-year-old Sun Shi in the painting and married her despite her father's objections.
A month after the two became intimate, Zuo Ziling went out and accidentally fell off his horse and died, so the twenty-year-old Sun Shi became a widow. Zuo Shanghong fell seriously ill after hearing the news, and after being discouraged, he told the old man to return to his hometown and returned to his hometown Guichi County with his daughter-in-law Sun Shi.
Zhang Huai's palanquin stopped at the gate of Zuo Fu, he bent down and came out of the palanquin, and Yang Biao, the head catcher who was waiting outside, immediately stepped forward and said: "Your Honor, there are 42 people registered in Zuo Fu, and after we took stock, we found that there was one less person. ”
"Oh? Who is missing? Zhang Huai asked doubtfully, and Yang Biao took out a household registration book on the last page, pointed to a name and said, "Lord Hui, this person's name is Zuo Ziyun." He was the newly recognized son of Zuo Laoshi, and his husband Zhao Si saw him sneaking out the back door last night. Yang Biao introduced.
"Didn't The son of The Left Elder die three years ago?" Zhang Huai asked, "Lord, you don't know anything, this Zuo Ziyun's life is debatable." So Yang Biao told the story about Zuo Ziyun.
It turned out that Zuo Ziyun's mother was Zuo Shanghong's wife Du's dowry Qianshi, and once Zuo Shanghong was drunk, he mistakenly regarded The Qianshi as Du's, and soon after, Qian was pregnant. Du Shi was a jealous person, sent Qian Shi to Zhuangzi and locked up, and after the birth of the child, her husband was not allowed to see him, and Qian Shi had to raise the child alone.
In the seventh year of Chenghua, Zuo Ziling died unexpectedly, because he had no heirs during his lifetime. Zuo Shanghong did not want zuo to have no queen, so he took back the son of the Qian clan, asked him to recognize his ancestors and return to the sect, and named him Zuo Ziyun.
As the two of them talked, they entered the Zuo Mansion and went down to the living room under the leadership of Xiao Wei. After a while, an old man with a slender figure came in with the support of the housekeeper Zuo Fu, and Zhang Huai stood up and said, "Lower official, Zhang Huai of Guichi Zhi County, meet the waiter Zuo Daren." ”
The old man was Zuo Shanghong, only to see that he was full of tiredness, and he smiled with a strong smile: "The old decay has already told the old man to return to his hometown, and he just wants to be a Tian JiaWeng quietly, Lord Zhang, you are the parent official of this county, I should salute you." After saying that, Zhang Huai immediately turned sideways and avoided Zuo Shanghong's gesture.
Zhang Huai said, "Lord Zuo is nagging, I will definitely find the murderer." Zuo Shanghong could not hide his worries, his son and daughter-in-law died one after another, and let him send a black-haired person, which was too much of a blow to him.
Zuo Shanghong did not chat too much with Zhang Huai and ordered Zuo Fu to take Zhang Huai to the scene of the crime. After Zuo Shanghong learned of his daughter-in-law's death, he immediately had people seal off the entire mansion, only allowing them to enter and leave, and sent a nursing home to guard Sun's courtyard, and no one was allowed to enter the scene without his orders.
Since the scene of the crime was in Sun's house, the first person to find Sun's body was her personal servant Mo Lian. Zhang Huai and Shu Zuo entered the house together, and the room looked a little dark, and it was a little cold in the hot summer, and Sun Shi died on the ground.
Zhang Huai's eyes pointed out that something was pressed under Sun's corpse, and Hezuo stepped forward to turn Sun Shi over and found that she actually had a dagger inserted in her back.
After making some inspections, Tang Sheng said, "Lord Hui, the time of death of the deceased is probably in the ugly time." Zhang Huai walked around the house and found no clues, but there were many water stains around the corpse.
Yang Biao, the head catcher, escorted a middle-aged man in, and then said, "Lord Hui, I found a suspicious-looking person at the door, so I detained him." The middle-aged man desperately broke free: stuff, do you know who I am? Dare to do this to me, be careful that my father cleans you up. ”
The middle-aged man is wearing a Chinese costume, with two pieces of high-grade jade pendants hanging on the left and right of his waist, and he also wears jade wrenches in his hands. What is even more surprising is that the man hangs a gold necklace around his neck, and "wearing gold and silver" is to describe his outfit.
Zhang Huai asked sharply, "Who the hell are you?" Why wander outside the left house. The middle-aged man said weakly: "I just arrived at the door, saw the servant guarding the door, heard that my sister-in-law was killed by thieves, I was a little afraid, so I just looked out the door." ”
Zhang Huai's eyes lit up and he asked, "Are you Zuo Ziyun?" The middle-aged man nodded and said yes, and Zhang Huai continued to ask, "Where were you last night when you were ugly?" Zuo Ziyun said: "My friend and I are drinking in the painting boat. Yang Biao immediately said, "You are lying, and zhao si saw you with his own eyes and came out of the back door of zuo mansion when he was ugly, how do you explain it?" ”
Zuo Ziyun heard the words and panicked: "Lord, Sun Shi asked my son to go to the courtyard to find her." But when I arrived, the lights in her room were already off, and I didn't want to bother him to ask, thinking that I was not having enough of drinking outside, so I came out of the back door and returned to the painting house to drink. ”
This Zuo Ziyun has a very bad reputation, grew up on Zhuangzi, and is a miscreant who acts as an illegitimate child. Nowadays, after he was recognized as his ancestor and returned to the sect, he became even more fierce, and the villagers were afraid that Zuo Ziyun was the son of the Shilang Mansion and chose to be silent. This made Zuo Ziyun even more unscrupulous.
Once, Zuo Ziyun was drunk and broke into Sun's courtyard, but fortunately he was stopped by Mo Lian desperately, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable. After Zuo Shanghong learned about it, he was so angry that he used the family law, but he was such a son, and he was really reluctant to fight hard. So he was imprisoned at home, and ordered Sun Shi not to go out without a problem. Zuo Shanghong complained that his daughter-in-law was too beautiful, and the red face and water killed one of his sons, and now he wanted to kill the second.
After Zhang Huai heard this, he immediately detained Zuo Ziyun. After returning to the county with everyone, Zuo Shanghong heard that his son had been arrested, and immediately led someone to stop Zhang Huai and said, "Lord Zhang, why did you arrest my son, and was there a misunderstanding?" ”
Zhang Huai hugged his fist and said, "Old Master Zuo, Ling Gongzi is related to the murder of Sun Shi. Zuo Shanghong almost stood unsteadily, but fortunately Zhang Huai's eyes quickly supported the other party. Zuo Shanghong immediately pleaded bitterly, "Lord Zhang, my son cannot be a murderer, and an honest person like him would never do such a thing." ”
Zhang Huai snorted coldly: "This Zuo Ziyun must be a bold bag of heaven, last night when he was ugly, he sneaked into Sun's room to try to misbehave, only to be discovered by Sun Shi, she desperately resisted, the two were struggling, Zuo Ziyun was angry and killed Sun Shi." He then escapes through the back door, only to be discovered by his brother-in-law Zhao Si. Today, I returned to Zuo Fu in an attempt to pass the customs in a confused manner. However, Skynet was restored without leakage, and it was still caught by this officer. ”
Zuo Shanghong still wanted to say something but was interrupted by Zhang Huai waving his hand, saying: "Needless to say, Zuo Ziyun's case I will ask the Punishment Department to report to Zuo Ziming for beheading, please mourn." After saying that, he took everyone and Zuo Ziyun back to the county court.
Zuo Shanghong was lying on the door frame in tears, and Zuo Fu carefully asked, "Lord, do you have a letter to Jia Kui, the governor of Chizhou, asking for help?" Ask him to come forward and do some around. Zuo Shanghong remembered that his proud protégé was now the new governor of Chizhou, and he had visited the palace a few days ago.
Zuo Shanghong hesitated, "Although Jia Kui is my student, he has always been a clean and honest official, and I am afraid that he will not help me." Zuo Fu said, "Although the Second Young Master usually makes some nonsense, he definitely can't do anything to kill people." This Zhang Huai obviously wanted to use Sun's case to raise this year's Beijing inspection results (the evaluation of officials), and had to guard against it. ”
Zuo Shanghong heard that it was reasonable, Zhang Huai's term of office was about to expire, Guichi County was the first county in Chizhou, and if he used his political achievements in cracking sun's case, he was likely to be promoted to the prefect of a certain province in the north. So he immediately returned to the study to repair a letter, and asked the family to quickly send it to the Chizhou capital.
Zuo Shanghong thought correctly, Zhang Huaixi, who was sitting in a palanquin and returning to the county court, was overjoyed, but he did not expect that he could easily crack the murder case of Sun Shi, and he had already prepared a draft of the song text that was to be sent to the Punishment Department for approval of the death penalty, and he was waiting to return to the county to write, and he was very happy in his heart at the moment, and he actually hummed a small tune in his hometown.
On the fifth day of The first month of July in the tenth year of Chenghua, Zhang Huai, who was working in the county office, heard the news that Jia Kui, the prefect of Chizhou, had come to Guichi County and went straight to Zuofu. When he was hesitating whether to go to see him, Ya Gong came in with a scholar, and Ya Gong said, "Lord Hui, Lord Jia sent his master Liao Jun to invite you to Zuo Mansion, saying that he wanted to talk to you about the case." ”
When Zhang Huai went to ZuoFu in Jia Kui, he asked someone to inquire about the relationship between the two. Knowing that Zuo Shanghong was Jia Kui's seat master (scholars generally called the examiner who would take the test as a seat master), he thought in his heart: "Zuo Shanghong definitely wants to intercede with Jia Kui and me." ”
A moment later, Zhang Huai came to Zuo Mansion and was led by Liao Jun to Sun's courtyard. Jacques was not tall, dark-skinned, and had dimples when he laughed. After the two of them saw the ceremony, Jia Kui said: "Lord Zhang don't have to worry, I am not interceding for the teacher, but I just went through the file and found a few doubts in this case, so please ask Lord Zhang to discuss it." ”
Zhang Huai was astonished: "But Lord Jia said that it was okay, I must know everything and say everything." Jia Kui smiled, "Does Lord Zhang feel that this room is a little cold?" Listening to Jia Kui's words, Zhang Huai's already soaked clothes stood in this room for a while, and some of his backs were cold.
Zhang Huai nodded and said yes, Jia Kui said: "I asked the housekeeper Zuo Fu, he told me that this room is next door to the ice cave, Sun Shi was afraid of the heat so he moved here, she ordered the craftsman to punch a few small holes between the two walls, the cold air next door will flow along the hole in this room, so this room is relatively cold." ”
"I didn't expect this Sun Clan to be so smart." Zhang Huai did see many small holes in the wall. Then he asked, "Lord Jia, is all this related to this case?" ”
Jia Kui went to the position where Sun Shi was lying on the ground with his back to his hand, and HeZuo had already outlined the location where Sun Shi had fallen to the ground with a white line. Jia Kui pointed to the ground and said, "Don't you think Sun Shi is a little strange?" I asked him what was unusual, and he told me that Sun's body was cold. ”
Zhang Huai smiled, "Of course, the corpse is cold, what's so strange about that?" Jia Kui shook his head, "Lord Zhang, the degree of coldness of the corpse will affect the time of death of the deceased." It was a coincidence that the weather was hot in July, but the body was cold, and she happened to die next door to the ice cellar. I think the extent of the corpse's coldness was deliberately faked so that we could mislead the time of her death. ”
Zhang Huai chuckled in his heart, if the time of death was wrong, then one of the evidences that identified Zuo Ziyun as the murderer would be invalid. Jia Kui took a piece of paper from Liao Jun's hand and said, "This is the recalculated time, and the real time of her death should be Yin Shi." ”
Zhang Huai saw that the result was a little difficult to accept, and Jia Kui took the file of Sun's murder and said: "I saw a record on the case, "There are many water stains next to the corpse" The sentence makes me wonder, if Sun Shi broke the water poured out of the tea bowl when he died, but there was no fragment at the scene, then where did the water stain come from? Don't you think that's weird? ”
Zhang Huai was asked a little unable to answer, and the sweat on his forehead confused his eyes. Jia Kui laughed dumbly, "Lord Zhang doesn't need to be nervous, we are just suspicious points in the discussion case." ”
Zhang Huai quickly nodded and said yes, and Jia Kui suddenly pulled Zhang Huai to crouch on the ground, pointed to an inconspicuous square hole in the ground, and said, "When I saw this square hole, I knew who the murderer was." ”
Zuo Fu came to the house with a basin of ice, and Jia Kui asked Ya Gong to take the dagger behind Sun's back. The dagger is a wooden handle with a protruding square piece of wood at the top that fits exactly with the square hole in the ground.
Jacques fixed the dagger around with ice cubes, and after doing all this, he got up and turned his back on the tip of the dagger, pretending to fall backwards, and everyone stopped him. Jia Kui pushed everyone away and sighed, "What is it for?" Let a woman with a prosperous style use death to frame Zuo Ziyun? Merlin, can you tell me the truth? ”
Zhang Huai was stunned: "Sun Shi committed suicide?" ”
The crowd heard the words and looked at Sun's close-knit mo lian, who was standing nearby. Mo Lian panicked, "Lord, the minnu don't know what you're talking about." Jia Kui said sharply: "The case report says that you are the first person to find out that Sun Shi is dead, and you are also the first person to enter this room." What did you see and do that you didn't know in your mind? ”
Jia Kui was not angry with himself, frightened Mo Lian to kneel on the ground, Jia Kui said: "Sun Shi deceived Zuo Ziyun and asked his son to come to the courtyard to meet him, and when Zuo Ziyun put on the sleeve, he pretended to turn off the lights, and when Zuo Ziyun left, Sun Committed suicide in the room." Zuo Ziyun left Zuo Mansion just in time to be seen by zhao si, the more husband, and in the eyes of outsiders, all this evidence pointed to Zuo Ziyun as the murderer of Sun Shi. But it was this perfect evidence that revealed the flaws that made me decide to look it up. ”
"Mo Lian, what did you and Sun Clan conspire to frame Zuo Ziyun for?" Jia Kui asked, "My Lord, Merlin has been wronged, our lady was killed by Zuo Ziyun." Merlin sobbed.
Jia Kui continued: "You were the first to walk into the scene of the crime, and you should have found the ice cubes under Sun's body that would have had time to melt in the future. So you move them out and put them aside, because the room suddenly added ice cubes, people will feel cold when they come in, and after the ice melts, the water stains remain in the room. ”
Mo Lian slyly argued, "Lord, what are the ice cubes you are talking about?" The people's daughter couldn't understand a word. ”
"Sun Clan tricked Zuo Ziyun in the front, you help Sun Clan pick up the slack and fill in the gaps, and if you don't honestly recruit again, I will punish you for the crime of cheating and not reporting." Jia Kui turned his back on his hand and looked at Merlin, who was kneeling on the ground, and said.
A burst of laughter, creepy and creepy. Mo Lian stood up and pointed at the crowd and said, "My lady avenges her husband, you officials and officials are mutual, even if I die, I will not let you go." After saying that, he was about to hit his head against the wall, but fortunately, Yang Biao's eyes quickly stopped her.
Yang Biao advised, "Miss Mo Lian, if you have any grievances, just say it, and Lord Zhang and Lord Jia will be wronged for you." After stabilizing her emotions on the side, Merlin told the truth.
After Zuo Ziling accidentally fell off his horse and died, Sun Shi always felt that her husband's death was strange. Under the inquiry of many parties, it was learned that the horse that her husband rode that day was fed by "Qian Ziyun", who had not yet recognized his ancestors and returned to the ancestors.
Once, Sun Shi deliberately persuaded Zuo Ziyun to drink, and the latter told the truth after drinking, it turned out that he had always been jealous that the eldest brother Zuo Ziling was the son of the Shilang Mansion, and he was just an illegitimate son who could not be on the table. So he was ashamed and angry and fed croton to the horse, which caused Zuo Ziling to fall off the horse and die.
Sun Shi told the truth to his father-in-law, but Zuo Shanghong, in order to have a son to die for the elderly, and left heirs to the Zuo family, instructed Sun Shi not to pass on the story of Zuo Ziyun's killing of his eldest brother, and what was even more excessive was that Zuo Shanghong was worried that there were people outside Sun's beauty, and even asked Sun to marry Zuo Ziyun.
Sun Shi, who was in pain in his heart, set a trap in order to avenge her husband, and when he introduced Zuo Ziyun to meet, after determining that Zuo Ziyun was gone, he fixed the dagger with ice cubes, and then committed suicide, so that the evidence of the "murderer" pointed to Zuo Ziyun.
Jia Kui sighed and took the case file recorded by Liao Jun, asked Mo Lian to take her into custody, and temporarily imprisoned her. In the name of the prefect of Chizhou, Jia Kui summoned Zuo Shanghong, Zuo Ziyun, Zhao Si, and Ya Gui Molian. Above the lobby, give Mo Lian's mouth to Zuo Ziyun to see.
Zuo Ziyun said angrily, "The poisonous woman mistook me!" Zuo Shanghong stood in the lobby with sad eyes. In the end, Jia Kui reported to the Ministry of Punishment for the crime of "killing his brother" and sentenced Zuo Ziyun to death, zuo Shanghong deliberately hid the murderers to report to the Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of Officials, and the emperor was disappointed, confiscated his mansion, and reduced him to a commoner.
Although Zhang Huai's motives in the murder of Sun Shi were not pure, but remembering his three years of conscientious work in office, Jia Kui signed with him on the completed case file, which was regarded as a meritorious contribution, and a year later, he was transferred to a certain place in Nanzhi as a prefect.
Jia Kui sent someone to find Zuo Shanghong, a common man living on the street, and took him to his home to support him and enjoy his old age.
The story is Xiaoshu's original short story "Ice Cube", which tells the story of Zhixian's judgment of the case, fortunately, the prefect's wise eyes are like torches to find out the truth.
The moral of this story:
Sun Shi was undoubtedly a poor woman, in that era, she was powerless to resist the magnates, and could only use this "life for life" method to avenge her husband.
Zuo Ziyun is also a sad character, who lost his father's love when he was a child and was blinded as an illegitimate son. Jealousy causes him to lose his mind and do evil things, which can also be regarded as self-inflicted.
Zuo Shanghong, who had read so many sage books in vain, in order to have his son to die, actually disregarded the law, concealed the fact that the younger son was a murderer, and even more excessive things, afraid of his daughter-in-law's cheating, and actually wanted his uncle and sister-in-law to become a relative.
Hatred, jealousy, greed are the main culprits in the destruction of the good life.
【Disclaimer】
This story is an original folk tale, purely literary creation, the plot and names in the story are fictional, the moral is to hope that readers will find the truth in the story, please do not sit in line with feudal superstitions.
My readers are all dragons and tigers, the comments are more exciting than the story, welcome to leave your opinion in the comment area.