In August of the fifth year of the Yongzheng Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (1727 AD), outside the city of Puning County in Guangdong Province, a Hanzi named Wang Shiyi hurried to the county to report the case. After the three drums sounded, Puning ZhiXian Landing Yuan Li Guan Sheng Tang questioned the case.
Wang Shiyi knelt down in the hall and said the reason for the report: Wang Shiyi, a member of the Chaozhou clan, accused Chen Tianwan's wife, Xu Shiyi, of being a fierce and vicious person, abusing the concubine Ah Xiong's mother and son, often beating and cursing them, and recently poisoning Ah Xiong in his meals and poisoning Ah Xiong to death. When Ah Xiong died, his ten fingers were hooked, his face was iron blue, his lips and teeth were black and purple, and the symptoms of poisoning were very obvious. Please know that the county lord opened the coffin to examine the body and severely punished the murderer and avenged the deceased.
Lan Ding Yuan
Wang Shiyi's words were earnest, and it was a major case in which human life was at stake. Lan Dingyuan sent Ya Gong and Shu Zuo to the Ah Xiong cemetery to dig up the grave and open the coffin for autopsy, and after digging up the grave, it was an empty tomb inside. Wang Shiyi saw that it was an empty tomb and jumped like a thunderbolt on the spot, saying that this must be Chen Tianwan's early destruction of the body in order to avoid inspection.
The servants arrested Chen Tianwan's family in the church, and the Chen family was so frightened that they fell to their knees and cried out for wrongs. After Lan Dingyuan tried the case, he sent someone to carefully investigate. The investigation revealed that Ah Xiong had suffered from dysentery for up to two months. During these two months, Ah Xiong has been taking medicine, but it has not improved.
Lan Dingyuan came to LangZhong to inquire, and Langzhong said that Ah Xiong did suffer from dysentery, and the medicines he prescribed at that time were Cangshu, Magnolia, Ze diarrhea, cinnamon, Poria and Baishu, and the main effect of these herbs was to warm the cold and dampness, and to disperse the cold. Even if you take a hundred doses of this medicine, it will not kill people.
Lan Dingyuan also asked Chen Tianwan's wife Xu Shi, Xu Shi's yellow muscles were thin, bloated like a drum, and needed several people to come to support him before he could walk. It turned out that she had been suffering from swelling disease for nine years, bedridden all year round, with a miserable look, unlike the kind of mean person who could hardly equate it with a murderer.
Lan Dingyuan asked the neighbors again, and everyone said that Ah Xiong had indeed died of dysentery. However, the people who sent the funeral that day were summoned, and none of them knew where Ah Xiong's body had gone. Lan Dingyuan felt that this matter was strange, so he asked Ah Xiong's birth mother Lin Shi to inquire.
According to Lin, Wang Shiyi was not present at the time of Ah Xiong's death. On the day of the funeral, the Lin clan invited Wang Shiyi, but Wang Shiyi did not come. The next day, Lin Shiyi saw Wang Shiyi walk to the door of the house and invited him to come into the house and sit down, but Wang Shiyi did not go in, but went directly to his cousin's house.
Lan Dingyuan asked: Does Wang Shiyi's cousin have a husband and children? Lin said that Wang Shiyi had a son named Ah Xi, who was fifteen years old this year. Lan Dingyuan called Ah Xi again to ask, what did Wang Shiyi do when he went to his house that day? Ah Xi said that he only met Wang Shiyi on the road, he did not go to the house, but he asked where Ah Xiong's body was buried? Ah Xi pointed to the back mountain and said that the body was buried in the back mountain, so Wang Shiyi hurriedly left.
Lan Dingyuan immediately realized that the person who stole the body was Wang Shiyi, and his complaint to the county court was purely false accusation. Lan Dingyuan blamed Wang Shiyi heavily, and Wang Shiyi shouted that he had been wronged. Lan Dingyuan asked Wang Shiyi, "After Ah Xiong died, you didn't go to her home, how did you know that the corpse had ten fingers twisted and its face was livid?" Wang Shiyi stammered, unable to say a word for half a day.
Lan Dingyuan also asked, on the day ah xiong was buried, he ran to his cousin's house to inquire about ah xiong's cemetery, what was his intention? Wang Shiyi was dumbfounded when asked, and there was no answer. At this time, the people outside the gate were crowded, and Lan Dingyuan was worried that someone was peeking, so he beat Wang Shiyi with thirty rods and took the shackles to parade the streets to show the public, and Chen Tianwan's family was acquitted.
When the people saw that Lan Dingyuan's case was justly decided, they applauded and praised Lan Dingyuan for his good judgment. Although Lan Dingyuan reprimanded Wang Shiyi, he acquitted the Chen family. But he knew in his heart that this case was not so simple. Behind Wang Shiyi, there must be people who have come up with advice.
In order to find out the truth of the case, Wang Shiyi asked Ya Gong to change into civilian clothes and go to the inn where Wang Shiyi lived, to check which people Wang Shiyi had lived there for a few days, and who he was dealing with, and if anyone was found in the room, he would be arrested and questioned on the spot. A moment later, Ya Gong did indeed arrest a person, this person was a lawyer named Wang Jueting. Wang Jueting was a shrewd and cunning man, acting calmly above the lobby, saying that the case had nothing to do with him, and repeatedly claiming that he did not know Wang Shiyi.
Lan Dingyuan knew that Wang Shiyi could not write a decent piece of paper, and the paper on which Wang Shiyi complained might have been written by Wang Jueting. So Lan Dingyuan did not move, let Wang Jueting write down the confession just said, Wang Jueting took the paper and pencil and waved it, and quickly wrote the confession.
Lan Dingyuan compared and found that the handwriting was exactly the same, and Wang Shiyi's paper was indeed written by Wang Jueting. Lan Dingyuan angrily slapped Tang Mu and asked the servant to scold Wang Jueting fiercely. Hearing the command of the county commander, the servants shook the chains, and several shirtless men lifted their sticks and stepped forward to press Wang Jueting down on the bench.
Wang Jueting was frightened by this scene, and he knew that the stick had to be beaten down without opening the flesh. So he pleaded with him to confess. He said that the case was planned by an old lawyer named Chen Weiwei, who had smuggled the body out of the country and moved it to Mashizhai in Chaoyang County, and the specific burial location was known only to the old lawyer.
Lan Dingyuan received a confession and immediately sent an errand to arrest Chen Huiwei overnight. Five days later, Chen Weiwei was arrested and arrested, a man who was more cunning and shrewd than Wang Jueting. When he came to the lobby, his face did not change color, and he looked as if he were at home. Before Lan Dingyuan could speak, he took the lead in asking, "I don't know what happened to the old master who summoned the little one?" Lan Dingyuan did not say a word, and asked the servant to escort the prisoner to the church.
A moment later, Chen Tianwan, Wang Shiyi, and Wang Jueting were escorted to the lobby. When Chen Weiwei saw that the three of them were escorted to the church, he immediately cried out with grievances on his face: "Your Honor, Chen Tianwan is my cousin of my own family, but unfortunately he met these two guys who had no heart and liver, and they actually wanted to harm my cousin. Who knew that the two of them were not reconciled, and actually put the blame on me, if it were not for the wisdom of Lord Lan, my brothers and brothers would have died at their hands! ”
Chen Weiwei said poignantly, and there was no leakage between the words, and Lan Dingyuan also had some sympathy when he heard it. At present, it is impossible to determine who the mastermind is based on Wang Jueting's confession alone, because Wang Jueting is likely to be a false accusation, and more evidence must be found. Lan Dingyuan did not move, he secretly thought about it, and began to laugh and talk to Chen Weiwei, as if he was talking about family, as if the two had known each other before, and the trial scene seemed to have become a gathering of friends.
The three people in the hall listened to Chen Wei's cunning argument and knew that Chen Wei's blame had been pushed to Wang Jueting and Wang Shiyi, and now that Chen Wei and Lan Zhixian had talked and laughed, it seemed that they had easily escaped this disaster. Wang Jueting and Wang Shiyi did not want to confess their sins, and one by one they gritted their teeth in anger, so they decided to simply tell the truth and take the initiative to atone for their sins and strive for leniency. So the two accused Chen Weiwei of being the mastermind, and Wang Jueting said:
On the twenty-eighth day, we discussed this matter together on the gate tower of Mashizhai, and you asked us to steal the body and transfer it. You said that moving the body to Chaoyang County is not under the jurisdiction of Puning County, and you are no longer afraid that things will be exposed, let alone worry that Zhixian county will be unharmed during the autopsy, which constitutes the crime of false accusation.
We insisted that Chen Tianwan had destroyed his body and destroyed the evidence of the crime, calling him a difficult to argue. If he refuses to confess, he will inevitably be punished, and ordinary people who are not afraid of the suffering of flesh and skin will inevitably bribe us with heavy money. Without any evidence, the county magistrate cannot decide the case and can only fail to do so, so if he wants to get rich, it will all depend on the success of this case. After the fact, as long as the three of us strictly guard the style, we will have no worries.
Wang Jueting and Wang Shiyi scrambled to tell the truth in front of everyone, and Chen Weiwei's face was red and white, quite embarrassed and speechless. Wang Jueting angrily scolded Chen Weiwei: "You Chen Weiwei have made poisonous plans to harm people, but you have pushed things on others, but you have ended up innocent." ”
When Chen Weiwei saw Wang Jueting and Wang Shiyi tell the truth, he immediately knelt on the ground and cried out that he had been wronged, accusing them of framing himself and pleading with Lanzhi County to take the initiative for him. Lan Dingyuan asked Chen Weiwei that even if he did not conspire with Wang Jueting and Wang Shiyi, he clearly knew that Wang Jueting and Wang Shiyi had a vendetta against his cousin Chen Tian, so why did he conspire to drink with them?
Chen Weiwei was still crying very sadly, he said that Wang Jueting and Wang Shiyi and Chen Tianwan had a vendetta, but as a lawyer, there would always be some communication between them, so it was normal to eat and drink together. And it's only once in a while.
Lan Dingyuan retorted, "This is not once, you have been drinking at the same table for three consecutive days, how can you say that you don't know each other, and you are only together occasionally?" If we were only together occasionally, the relationship would not be so intimate. Chen Weiwei said: "There are very few restaurants in the county, so they can often meet together." Moreover, he spoke with Wang Jueting and Wang Shiyi, mainly to persuade them. ”
Lan Dingyuan also said that in addition to being in the restaurant, you also went to Wang Shiyi's room at the inn. Lan Dingyuan took out the registration book of the inn, which indeed had the names of three people written on it. According to the account book presented by the inn, the three of them did stay in a room at the East Gate Inn, stayed for three nights, and made the same confessions as Wang Jueting and Wang Tuyi. Chen Weiwei saw the account book and the confession of the innkeeper, and he could not speak for a while.
The case is not complicated, Lan Dingyuan probably understands the truth of the case, this case is chen weiwei mastermind, the three people colluded to steal the body, Wang Shiyi went to the county court to file a complaint, in order to frame Chen Tianwan, they then profited from it.
The facts of this case are clear, but the old lawyer Chen Weiwei has sharp teeth and always refuses to admit the crime, and Lan Dingyuan sees that he refuses to confess and orders the old lawyer to be tortured. The old lawyer could not bear the punishment, and only then did he tell the truth:
It turned out that Chen Weiwei and Chen Tianwan were cousins of the same clan, but the two caused disputes because of the ancestral property, and the ancestral property was eventually divided between Chen Tianwan and Chen Tianwan. Chen Weiwei held a grudge against this, and he had planned in his heart to kill Chen Tianwan. Chen Weiwei was an old lawyer, he was familiar with the law and the matter of planting bribes and framing, but for so many years, Chen Tianwan's family was cautious and cautious, and never left the handle in his hands, so Chen Weiwei never had the opportunity to start.
Not long ago, Chen Weiwei heard that Chen Tianwan's concubine had died of illness, and he felt that the time had come, so he set up this poisonous plan to vent the hatred in his heart. He found Wang Shiyi and Wang Jueting, and the three conspired to steal Ah Xiong's body, and then asked Wang Jueting to write a complaint and let Wang Shiyi file a complaint.
After Wang Shiyi went to file a complaint, Chen Weiwei found someone to dig up the body and secretly buried it in the Xiaxi House outside Chaoyang Mashi Village. Half-cut pine branches were cut on the side and inserted on the grave as a marker. The specific location of the burial, Wang Jueting and Wang Shiyi did not know, but according to the agreement of the three people in advance, moving the body to Chaoyang County was a necessary move for them to frame and marry. The body was moved to chaoyang county, they could avoid the coffin when the autopsy could not find the body without scars, or they could bite back and say that Chen Tianwan's family had destroyed the body.
According to the law at that time, the corpses of the Chen family, the local security and related personnel who disappeared for no reason were bound to be punished, and the bodies were lost in the case of murder, and if the government wanted to close the case and calm the people, it had to spend money to quell the troublemakers. In this way, the plaintiff, the defendant and the government can enjoy the money, and this trick can make a fortune.
The three people's wishful thinking played very well, but the result backfired, Lan Dingyuan was as wise as a torch, and through investigation and observation, it was soon discovered that Chen Tianwan's wife Xu Shi was not a brutal and fierce person, and it was impossible to force the concubine to die. He also learned from Ah Xi that Wang Shiyi had gone to inquire about the burial location of Ah Xiong, and after Wang Shiyi dug up the body, Chen Weiwei secretly buried the body for a second transfer.
After Lan Dingyuan's interrogation was completed, he immediately wrote a letter to Chaoyang Zhixian and asked Ya Gong to escort Chen Weiwei to find the body. In a wasteland under the Creek House of MaShiZhai, the servants dug up Ah Xiong's body according to Chen Weiwei's identification. After the identification of Chen Tianwan's family, it was confirmed that the body was Ah Xiong's, and Ah Xiong's body was transported back to Yamen for autopsy, and indeed there was no sign of poisoning but died of dysentery. Since this person has obtained everything, the truth of the case has been revealed.
This is a bizarre case of corpse theft, Chen Weiwei because he has a vendetta against Chen Tianwan, in order to retaliate against Chen Tianwan also in order to extort a sum of money, so when he learned that Chen Tianwan's concubine died of illness, he found Wang Shiyi and Wang Jueting to help, first let Wang Shiyi, a Chaozhou man, come forward to steal the body, and Wang Jueting wrote down the complaint, and then Wang Shiyi went to the county court to file a complaint.
When the county magistrate receives the report, it is bound to open the coffin for autopsy. After the coffin was opened, the body did not fall, and Chen Weiwei and others framed Chen Tianwan's family for destroying the corpse. If the body disappeared for no reason, the county order would inevitably torture Chen Tianwan, and if Chen Tianwan wanted to get away with the crime, he would have to find help from the lawyer, and he was bound to spend a lot of money. The local security and related personnel are worried about being implicated, and they will also spend money to ask the litigation division for help, and the county officials cannot find the body, and if they want to calm down the matter, they must not give the litigation division benefits. Chen Weiwei can be described as killing two birds with one stone, both revenge and money, and this plan is extremely fierce.
According to the law, Wang Shiyi and the three men must be severely punished. However, the local harvest has failed for three consecutive years, floods and droughts have occurred one after another, and the people are living in poverty and helplessness. Lan Dingyuan did not want to implicate others again, so he did not report the case in detail, but only reprimanded Wang Shiyi, Wang Jueting, and Chen Weiwei and paraded the streets for a week as punishment. After the verdict of the case, the local people clapped their hands and praised it, praising Lan Dingyuan as "Blue Blue Sky".
Tomb of The Landing Yuan
Ancients Cloud: Gentlemen love money and have a way to get it. Wang Shiyi and the three stole corpses for money and revenge, in an attempt to frame and squeeze money, if they encountered a dim-witted county official, Chen Tianwan's family would be doomed, and they might even be killed again. Chen Weiwei's poisonous plan failed, avoiding a disaster. Lan Dingyuan opened up to them, and he was also benevolent and righteous...