Today I would like to tell you about a case that occurred during the Qing Jiaqing period, which was a real case and caused a great sensation at that time.
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It is said that in the first year of Jiaqing, that is, in 1796, a strange thing happened in Xingzi County, which is under the jurisdiction of the present-day Jiujiang City in Jiangxi Province: Yang Wuyang, a rich man in the county town, died suddenly.
Yang Yuanwai usually looked good, and suddenly one day it was rumored that Yang Wu was dead.
Because Yang Wu is usually a kind and charitable person and has a good reputation, people suspect that he is a ghost made by wang shi, his second-room daughter-in-law who has just passed the door.
Wang Fang was 26 years old and very beautiful, Yang Wu was 60 years old when he died, and people rumored that Wang Had an outside heart to kill Yang Wu.
Whether it is ancient times or now, once the young wife and the old husband have an accident, people first wonder whether the young wife has an affair and kills her husband in an attempt to plot family property.
Doubt is doubt, but there must be evidence. Someone went to the county court, and after an autopsy and interrogation, Wang said that her husband had suffered from tuberculosis earlier, saying that if a person took off his shoes at night, who can guarantee that he can still wear them in the morning? It also said that people were jealous of her chewing her tongue...
That being said, Gong Zuo did not take it lightly, he should have checked it, he should have checked it, and in the end he did not find anything abnormal about Yang Wu's body.
Wang insisted that her husband was seriously ill, and the government had to produce evidence of Yang Wu's normal death, and then Wang buried her deceased husband.
Fast forward a year, that is, in the second year of Jiaqing, Li Shixu, a native of Luoshan County, Henan, was appointed by the imperial court as a jinshi as a county commander of Xingzi County.
I would like to add here that Xingzi County is now under the jurisdiction of Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province. Li Shixu was a famous minister of the Qing Dynasty, a high school scholar in the first year of Jiaqing, and later became famous for curing river troubles, and was promoted to the governor of Jiangnan River, and was posthumously recognized as the crown prince Taibao JiaShang Shu. Of course, this is all an afterthought, not to mention for the time being.
Shan said that this year, Li Shixu took up the post of Xingzi County Commandery, and on the road, he saw two teenagers worshiping in front of a lonely grave. Out of sympathy, Li Xianling walked forward and asked softly: Is this the grave of your father or mother?
The next child's answer surprised Li Xianling, and the two children said, "This is not my family's grave, this is the grave of Uncle Yang in our village." ”
The child told Yang Wu about his good kindness and charity before he died, saying that Uncle Yang often gave them good food, Uncle Yang died suddenly without illness or disaster, and also said that Uncle Yang's daughter-in-law usually dressed up with flowers and branches, and Uncle Yang never went to the grave after his death...
It is said that children do not tell lies, and Li Xianling feels that Yang Wu's death is very strange, so he takes this matter to heart.
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After arriving at the county court and completing the formalities for taking office, Li Shixu began to investigate this bizarre matter.
First of all, he summoned Yang Wu's daughter-in-law Wang Shi and said that he would open a coffin to retriate Yang Wu's death.
Wang Shi was anxious when he heard it, and while crying, he said: "Lord, you can't bully me this weak woman, my husband is dying of a violent illness and can't go into the ground for safety, whining...
Wang Shi peeked at it and found that Li Xian Ling was not moved, so he changed his tactics, stopped the sad voice and said softly and hardly: "If the new county order is put on my head by three fires, the little girl is not a vegetarian." If there is no solid evidence, then don't blame me for suing you for selling your reputation and disturbing the deceased. ”
The more Wang shi obstructed, the more suspicious Li Shixu became, and he firmly believed that most people would not lie. In this way, Li Shixu insisted on opening Yang Wu's coffin unshakably.
However, after an inquest, no signs of trauma or poisoning were found. At this time, the Wang clan stopped doing it, crying and threatening to go to Li County To disturb the deceased, saying that Li County Ling wanted to learn from the Bao Gongju case and make a name for itself.
Since there was no evidence to prove that the Wang clan had committed illegal and criminal acts, Li Xianling did not say a word and let the Wang clan sneer.
This was not the end of it, the Wang clan took Yang Wu's body to the county court, claiming that they wanted Li County to order Phi Ma Dai Xiao to be reburied. Of course, Li Xianling could not accept this condition, and the two sides could not stand each other.
Forced to be helpless, Li Xianling froze Yang Wu's body with ice cubes and stored it in a temple outside the city, and Wang Shi asked people to write a good complaint and go to the mansion to complain to Li Xian Ling for disturbing the people.
The prefect took Wang's letter and sent someone to investigate the matter, so he summoned the Li County Order to the provincial capital lobby.
The prefect blamed Li Shixu for being confused, and why did he just take office and encounter a tricky case? Yang Wuzhi's predecessor did not understand it, could it be that you have three heads and six arms?
In the future, you add new evidence and it is better to say, otherwise the Wang clan will not be spared, and then this official will have no other way but to impeach you for abusing your power in accordance with legal procedures...
Li Shixu decided that the target nine cows could not be pulled back, and he believed that Yang Wu's death must be catty, but he could not find evidence for a while.
After pondering for a moment, Li Xianling finally firmly said to the prefect: "This official asks the lord to give me a one-month time limit, and if no more evidence can be found, a certain official is willing to resign and take the blame."
The prefect saw that Li Xianling was so persistent, so he promised to give him a month.
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Subsequently, Li Xianling disguised himself as Mr. Suangua and began an overt inspection and covert visit. Long story short, in more than twenty days, he almost traveled throughout the county, secretly visited no less than a hundred people, and did not get any effective clues, Li Xianling was a little desperate.
One evening, Li Xianling was drenched in a wet water chicken by a sudden heavy rain, and hurried to avoid the rain and came to a house.
The person who opened the door was an old father Qiao Gong, Li Shixu said that the heavy rain blocked the road and asked for a temporary stay, the old father said that there was no one else in the family, only one son Qiao San had not yet returned home, you would stay in my son's house for a while.
At dawn, ShiXu was awakened by the noisy footsteps, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that it was a thin young offspring standing in front of him.
Only to see him holding a roast chicken in his left hand and a bottle of wine in his right hand, it turned out that Qiao San, the son of the old father, had returned home.
The county order quickly introduced himself and said that he was a fortune teller, and he could not return home to live for a night in the heavy rain.
Before Li Xian ling finished speaking, Qiao San laughed and said, "I said that I had so good luck last night?" The old saying "Noble people enter the house on rainy days, and this statement is indeed true." ”
"Come here, call my father, and the three of us will drink a pot." It turned out that Qiao San was a gentleman on the beam, who stole twelve pieces of silver from a large family in the east of the city last night, so he bought a roast chicken and a bottle of shochu.
At this time, Li Xianling listened, just took the opportunity to inquire about the news, so he called Father Qiao along the water, and the three of them sat around and drank wine.
Coincidentally, it rained for three days and three nights, the county order lived in his house for three days and three nights, Qiao San braved the rain to go out for three nights, and every time he came back, he could return with a full load.
Folk often say "steal the wind and don't steal the rain", who knows that Qiao San did the opposite, but his luck was surprisingly good. I guess the owner felt that no one was coming to steal something when it was raining, so he let down his guard. Qiao San wrote the credit for his success on the head of Mr. Fortune Teller, believing that Li Xianling was a nobleman.
On the 4th day, the rain lived in a clear day, the county order in order to thank the Qiao family father and son for these days of warm hospitality, cut a few pounds of meat, personally cooked a few dishes, Qiao Daddy had something to go out, he and Qiao San drank wine.
Half drunk, Qiao San had to worship with the county order as a brother, saying, "You are a noble person in my life, and I want to be blessed with you as a brother."
The county order used this to persuade Qiao San to change from evil to righteousness in the future, to be a thief and be afraid, to do some legitimate work, and to earn money to marry a daughter-in-law in the future.
Speaking of "being afraid and marrying a daughter-in-law", Qiao San opened the conversation box, saying that being a thief is indeed dangerous, but it is much safer than marrying a daughter-in-law...
Xian Ling casually asked, "Could it be that the daughter-in-law is a poisonous snake beast?" ”
Qiao San poured himself a glass of wine, drank it all, and then said, "Brother, I don't know if you've heard of a sentence?" ”
"Which sentence?" Li Xian Ling asked.
"The green snake's mouth letter, the wasp tail needle, both are not poisonous, the most poisonous woman's heart", Qiao San shook his head and said, and then sighed: "I can see through, the most difficult thing to figure out is the woman's heart." You say, the daughter-in-law of Yang Wu, the rich man in the county, is not beautiful? So what? Qiao San seemed to be talking to himself.
"If Yang Wu is a poor egg, he may be able to die a good death, and as a result, he married a beautiful daughter-in-law, but he was killed by a beautiful daughter-in-law." Qiao San was extremely sorry.
Li Xianling was shocked when he heard it, stepping on the iron shoes and finding nowhere to go, it took no effort at all, and it turned out that the brothers knew the inside story.
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Li Shixu pretended to be calm and said, "Brother, have you drunk too much?" Don't talk nonsense outside."
Qiao Sanyi shook his head and said, "You don't know the amount of wine for your brother, the whole pound is no problem, I didn't drink much, I said the real thing." ”
Li Shixu further asked, "I heard that The county magistrate has experienced corpses, not murder, how can you be sure that Yang Wu will not be able to die well?"
You can drink wine at will, but you can't say it casually, brother, be careful of saying the wrong thing and being caught. ”
The Li County Order made an aggressive general law.
Qiao Sanyi saw that Brother Yi didn't believe it, so he patted his chest and said, "Except for me, even if Zhuge Liang is alive, he can't figure out how Yang Wu died." ”
Li Xian ling saw the fire and was busy asking about the course of things, and Qiao San said that if he walked at night, he would always encounter ghosts. Li Xianling asked, "Could it be that the elder brother has met a female ghost."
The brother was sure to be able to pinch and calculate, and then Qiao San talked about the experience of that night:
It was a dark night, I climbed over the wall into Yang Wu's house, sneaked outside Yang Wu's bedroom, wet the window paper with my tongue, and peeked inside through the small hole...
I saw a stout man holding Yang Wu on the bed, at this time Yang Wu's hands and feet were tied with ropes, and a towel was stuffed in his mouth. He looked up desperately, and the strong man squeezed the back of his neck and pressed it down.
Only to see Yang Wu's daughter-in-law Wang Shi grab a small snake with bamboo leaves from the porcelain basin, Ma Li stuffed the snake's head into Yang Wu's anus, and then the woman used scissors to cut off the tail of the small green snake.
It is estimated that the little snake was in extreme pain, so it burrowed into Yang Wu's stomach along the anus, and Yang Wu screamed twice and died on the bed on the spot.
Seeing that Yang Wu had lost his breath, Wang Shi and the strong man put the snake's tail and scissors into the porcelain basin and buried them in the corner. Hanzi hugged Wang Shi and turned away.
Speaking of this, Qiao San glanced at Li Xianling and said, "Brother, can you pinch and calculate, can you think of such a way?" ”
It turned out that Yang Wu's daughter-in-law was more poisonous than the poisonous snake, and in order to seize Yang Wu's family property, he teamed up with the adulterer to kill Yang Wu with a poisonous snake, and then pretended to be pregnant with Yang Wu's widow, but in fact he was the evil breed of the adulterer, and used this method to seize Yang Wu's family property.
"I heard that the new county official was fair and honest, and I heard that the coffin was opened and the autopsy did not find any suspicious points, hey! It's hard to solve this case! ”
Li Xianling was shocked out of a cold sweat, secretly wiped a cold sweat on his forehead, and pretended to be calm, saying, "Brother, you can rest assured, there is a head for wrongs, there is a master in debt, and the heavens are clear, and the murderer cannot escape punishment after all." ”
After saying that, Li Xianling pretended to be mysterious, pinched his finger and said, brother, you will make a small fortune in half a month, Qiao San laughed and said: "Borrow your brother's auspicious words, then I will invite you to eat and drink." ”
Despite all the reluctance, Li Xianling still said goodbye to Qiao San.
Back at the county court, Li Xianling sorted out his thoughts: "Such a strange killing method, with ordinary thinking, I really can't find a clue." ”
Li Xianling thought to himself: "Snakes are cold-blooded animals, and after being frightened, they must not be able to withstand the body heat of people, so they will drill around in the body and bite randomly, and the victim will be poisoned and die." Because the location of the poisoning was extremely hidden, it was not detectable at first.
Everything was clear, and Li Xianling rushed to the provincial capital to meet the prefect, saying that he had found new evidence and asked the prefect to try the case together.
The prefect issued a retrial document, which was one day away from the agreed one-month deadline.
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To make a long story short, under the auspices of Li Xianling, Yang Wu's body was dissected, and after a year the body had decayed, but the small snake skin in Yang Wu's stomach was impressive.
It turned out that the snake skin was not easy to decay, and the evidence that Yang Wu did not die of a violent illness was fixed.
Immediately after that, Ya Gong planed out the porcelain jar under the corner of Yang Wu's bedroom, and the small snake tail inside was still there.
All the evidence was fixed, and Qiao San was subsequently summoned.
Qiao San, who arrived at the church, was horrified to find that the county order was actually his righteous brother Mr. Gua Gua.
At this time, Li Xianling hurriedly walked down and told the process of dressing himself as Mr. Fortune Teller and collecting evidence, and Qiao San woke up like a dream.
At Qiao San's behest, Wang and her adulterer eventually confessed to the crime of killing Yang Wu.
It turned out that the Wang clan had already had an affair with his cousin Zhang Gao, Zhang Gao was a master of taming snakes and playing with snakes, and Wang saw that the little green snake remembered the way to kill people with snakes, and then claimed to be pregnant with Yang Wu's widow, and finally naturally inherited Yang Wu's family property.
Who knows if it is calculated, or it was inadvertently broken by Qiao San'er.
Wang and his cousin were eventually sentenced to death, and after the autumn was beheaded, Qiao San provided clues and rewarded silver with fifty taels.
At this time, Li Xianling quipped: "Brother, I said that you have a small fortune in half a month, and this time I am right." The two laughed.
Li Xianling instructed: "Go back and use these 50 taels of silver to make a small deal, don't steal anything again, and marry a daughter-in-law to live a good life in the future, but don't marry a too beautiful daughter-in-law.
Text/Reading Spring and Autumn by Candle