In ancient China, there was no perfect judicial and criminal investigation system, and magistrates such as county commanders assumed almost all the functions of the public security bureau and the court today. Since the prefectural order is also very busy on weekdays, it is difficult for him to pay attention to all the details of the case, and some special talents are needed to assist them.
Among these people, in addition to the manual work of the servants, the most critical is probably the autopsy. Because in ancient times, people did not have the awareness of protecting the crime scene, and the speed of detection of cases was no faster than now, many corpses were almost unrecognizable. Therefore, he must rely on his outstanding ability and rich experience to make judgments and help the work of the prefectural order.
During the Qing Dynasty, there was a sensational case that even alarmed the Yongzheng Emperor in the middle of the dynasty. And the crux of the case is a highly corrupt corpse, a righteous servant who even paid for the truth.
Ancient servants are used as images
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During the Yongzheng period, there was a wealthy family in Macheng County with the surname Tu, and their family had been doing business in the local area for many years, and gradually became the richest family in Macheng.
In that era, the social status of merchants was not high, so most merchant families would choose to let their descendants take meritorious titles after completing the early accumulation of capital, in order to gain power to consolidate their position.
This Tu family was no exception, and after they became the richest family in Macheng County, they let the young Tu Rusong abandon Shang Congwen, but his talent was not very outstanding, and he did not achieve meritorious fame after taking many consecutive examinations.
When his family saw this, they married a woman surnamed Yang for him, hoping to make him calm down.
Statue of a Scholar in the Qing Dynasty
However, the relationship between Tu Rusong and Yang after they became relatives was not harmonious, Tu Rusong as a reader had many restrictions on Yang's behavior, but Yang was originally playful, often fighting with Tu Rusong's friends, especially with Feng Da, Yang's shamelessness made Tu Rusong quite angry, so he often beat his wife.
Yang Shi is also not a good lord, every time he is beaten, he will run back to his mother's house, waiting for Tu Rusong to carry the big car to invite her back, then Tu Rusong's mother will take Tu Rusong and prepare a generous gift to personally go to the family home to take the daughter-in-law back, and over time this has almost become the norm.
One day, Tu Rusong and Yang Clan quarreled again over trivial matters, and Yang Clan ran away again.
However, at this time, Tu Rusong's mother was lying sick in bed, tu Rusong was busy taking care of his mother and had no time to take care of his wife's affairs, anyway, he felt that his wife was just returning to her mother's house as usual, and there would be no danger.
After a period of time, Tu Rusong's mother recovered, so she prepared a generous gift and went to the Yang family with Tu Rusong.
Qing Dynasty couple
Who knew that the Yang family was very surprised after seeing their arrival, because the Yang family had never returned at all, and the Tu family's mother and son felt that things were not right, and hurriedly paid a lot of money to ask people to search for the whereabouts of the Yang family.
At that time, Yang had a younger brother named Yang Wurong, who was idle all day, and he knew that the relationship between his sister and brother-in-law was not good, so he felt that his brother-in-law had killed his sister. When Yang Mu heard this, she was so frightened that she almost fainted, and loudly accused Tu Rusong.
So Yang Wurong went to the county court all day to file a complaint, hoping that the county commander Tang Yingqiu could arrest Tu Rusong and bring him to justice. But Tang Yingqiu felt that there was no evidence that Tu Rusong was a murderer, so he asked Yang Wurong to spend his time looking for his sister instead of wasting time with himself.
Yang Wurong really found his sister after hearing this, he knew that his brother-in-law had a property in Jiukoutang, so he felt that his brother-in-law must have killed his sister there, so he rushed to the local area to look for evidence.
When Yang Wurong was resting in a tavern, a bastard named Zhao Dang'er saw that he had been looking at him, so he came up to him and asked him if he had encountered any difficulties.
Qing Dynasty tavern
After Yang Wurong said his purpose, Zhao Dang'er was an idle, and the lie came at will, so he made up a lie at random, saying that he had seen Tu Rusong and Yang Shi a few days ago and had indeed come here to stay, and later he also found a friend named Chen Wen, and the two joined forces to kill Yang Shi.
After Hearing this, Yang Wurong asked him if he was sure that he was telling the truth and whether he dared to help him testify in court. Zhao Dang'er thought that Yang Wurong had heard his own joke, so he was also joking, so he said of course.
Yang Wurong then revealed that he was Yang's younger brother, and asked him to follow him to the county court to accuse his brother-in-law, and Zhao Dang'er knew that he had run into a catastrophe and hurriedly used all methods to resign.
However, Yang Wurong said that he would be given sixty-two silver rewards after the matter was completed, and zhao Dang'er, who was eager for profit, agreed, and soon Tang Yingqiu received Yang Wurong's complaint, because there were witnesses present this time, Tang Yingqiu also treated him cautiously, and hurriedly recruited Tu Rusong for interrogation.
Qing Dynasty county order image
During the trial, the housekeeper of the Tu family said that Tu Rusong had not been to Jiukoutang this year, and the local Langzhong also said that at that time, he would go to the Tu family every day to see Tu Rusong's mother, and Tu Rusong did receive himself every day, which made Tang Yingqiu have no way to draw conclusions, so he had to temporarily imprison Tang Yingqiu in prison.
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Yang Wurong was very dissatisfied with Tang Ying's punishment, but in the absence of key evidence, he had no way to testify against Tu Rusong's crime. But just as he was walking out of the lobby, an old woman approached him.
She said that she was Feng Da's mother, Yang Shi had actually been mixing with her son after running away from home, she had wanted to sneak back to the Tu family for a while, but she did not expect Yang Wurong to sue Tu Rusong in court, and now Tang Yingqiu was looking for Yang In the whole city, I am afraid that she will soon find her own home, she really does not know what to do, so she found Yang Wurong to discuss.
Yang Wurong was immediately stunned when he heard it, he immediately realized that he had been deceived by Zhao Dang'er, he knew that he was likely to bear the charge of filing a false complaint, he did not want to have a prison disaster, but he did not know how to be good for a while.
At this time, he thought of a gambling friend named Yang Tongfan, who was also a reader, and maybe there was some way, so he hurried to Yang Tongfan's house.
Qing Dynasty Xiucai image
Yang Tongfan immediately proposed that there was a wall in his home that allowed Yang to hide in it, and he had a meritorious name, and the general servants did not dare to come to the door to check at all, Yang Wurong heard that he was, and hurriedly took his sister to Yang Tongfan's mansion.
Why is this Yang Tongfan so concerned about Yang Wurong's affairs, this is entirely because he covets the beauty of yang's family, on the night of Yang's arrival, the two became a good thing half pushed and half on the spot, and Yang Tongfan also willingly did the work of Jinwu Zangjiao.
Yang Clan also knows what calculations Yang Tongfan has played, plus Yang Clan is inherently debauched, so she is also willing to live with the man in front of her, which makes Tang Yingqiu always unable to find yang's whereabouts.
Just when the case reached an impasse, someone found a highly decomposed body on the river beach outside the county town, and Yang Tongfan felt that this was a great opportunity to falsely accuse Tu Rusong, so he hurried to find Yang Wurong to ask him to bribe Qiu Zuo and identify the body as Yang's, so that Tu Rusong's murder could be convicted.
The autopsy is underway
Yang Wurong hurriedly found dozens of taels of silver and entrusted him with a gift to Li Rong, the servant of the county court, hoping that he could identify the corpse as a young female corpse, and had been seriously injured before his death. But Li Rong was a just-in-a-handed man, and on the spot he angrily rebuked the briber, saying that he had rushed to the river beach in the rain.
When Li Rong and Tang came to the river at the request, Yang Wurong and a group of villagers watching the liveliness were already waiting there, Yang Wurong did not wait for Li Rong to examine, he cried out his sister's name, and also believed that this was Yang's body, which made the audience present unmoved.
However, Li Rong was not disturbed by him, he carefully measured the skeleton with the copper ruler and other tools he carried with him, and after the examination, he told Tang that it was the corpse of a young boy, most likely died of disease.
Yang Wurong immediately refuted after hearing this, but Li Rong's statement was reasonable and well-founded, which made Yang Wurong have no way to reverse Tang Yingsu's view.
At this time, Yang Tongfan in the crowd stood up, saying that Yang Wurong must have his reasons for believing that this corpse was his sister, and although Li Rong was a servant, Tang Yingqiu should not believe his statement, and asked Tang Yingqiu to retry him, so as not to hurt the hearts of the people.
Because of Yang Wurong's excellent acting skills, the people present did not know that Yang Tongfan was with Yang Wurong, and many people also followed suit, which made Tang Yingqiu have to postpone the conclusion, so he had to order someone to bury the body first and wait for a later investigation.
Image of the Viceroy of the Qing Dynasty
At this time, an idle official named Gao Renjie had a huge impact on the movement of the case.
After this person was a wealthy businessman in Sichuan, he did not learn any techniques since he was a child, and would only use money to get what he wanted, and he had no ability. When he grew up, he also bought a meritorious name by using money, but there was no vacancy in Hubei Province at that time, so he never had an addiction to officialdom.
Gao Renjie, who was eager for power, was dissatisfied with the status quo and wanted to use money to buy officials again, so he spent a lot of money to buy the staff around The Governor of Huguang, Mai Zhu, hoping that he could help him say a few kind words.
Just at this time, the file of Tu Rusong's wife murder case came to the hands of this staff member, and he had a plan. He told Maizhu Macheng that there had been a egregious wife killing case in recent days, and not only had witnesses in this case, but also the bones of the deceased had been found a few days ago.
However, the county order Tang Yingqiu and ShuZuo accepted bribes from Tu Rusong, the richest man in Macheng, so they were reluctant to decide the case, and seemed to want to acquit Tu Rusong, which had a very bad impact on the local area.
Mai Zhu was furious when he heard this, and immediately decided to send an official to retry the case, at which time the staff member duly recommended Gao Renjie to him for his post, and the errand fell on his head.
When Gao Renjie went to Macheng, he also took a trickster named Xue Wuji with him, and Yang Wurong knew that the test results of this corpse were the key to the case, so he sent someone to secretly take money to bribe Xue Wuji.
Unlike the upright Li Rong, Xue Wuji is a villain who sees money and quickly agrees to Yang Wurong's request and memorizes the lines they tell him.
In the next day's autopsy, Xue Wuji simply walked through the scene, and then told Gao Renjie that this was a young female corpse, and there was a serious injury in her right rib, Yang Wurong listened to it and once again performed a crying cry, Gao Renjie would not have broken the case, he immediately determined that this was Yang's body, and Tu Rusong and Chen Wen were the murderers.
A servant who is being tortured
Soon Mai Zhu received Gao Renjie's investigation report, and Tu Yingqiu's file also happened to be sent, which contained an application for Tu Rusong's release, which made Mai Zhu furious, and he determined that Tang Yingqiu and Li Rong must have accepted bribes from the Tu family and were unforgivable corrupt officials, so he asked Gao Renjie to deal with Tang Yingqiu and others.
After Gao Renjie gained power, his psychology was greatly satisfied, and he immediately punished Tang Yingqiu, Li Rong, and Tu Rusong, tu Rusongben, a son of a rich family, could not bear it at all, and soon became a confession.
However, Tang Yingqiu and Li Rong were still reluctant to give false testimony, and Gao Renjie had to increase the intensity of the punishment, and even used the burning of them, and as a result, Tang Yingqiu was tortured by him, and Li Rong died tragically under his soldering iron.
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However, the main culprit, Tu Rusong, has already confessed after all, so Gao Renjie feels that he can already close the case. However, the previous staff member gave him an idea, saying that the body found now had no hair, so it was difficult to determine that it was a female corpse, and the blood coat was not found, which could become a loophole in the review.
After hearing this, Gao Renjie thought it was reasonable, so he found Tu Rusong again, hoping that he could come up with evidence, but where Tu Rusong had blood clothes, he had no choice but to ask his mother for help.
The Tu family's mother loved her son and did not want her son to be tortured again, so she cut her own hair and found a neighbor to help make a blood coat and give it to Gao Renjie.
Qing Dynasty official in office
Just when Gao Renjie thought everything was ready, the new county order turned the case around. The new county magistrate, named Chen Ding, had received many petitions pleading with Tu Rusong when he first arrived in office, which made him suspicious of the "conclusively proven" case.
But at this time, the body had been washed away by the water, and without this key evidence, the case seemed to have no possibility of overturning. As a result, at this time, a young man suddenly came to the county court and handed Chen Ding fifty taels of silver, Chen Dinggang wanted to ask about the origin of the money, but the young man spoke first.
He said that his mother was the most experienced midwife in Macheng and had gone to Yang Tongfan's house a few days ago to help his wife deliver the baby.
As a result, mrs. Yang suffered a difficult delivery during childbirth, and the scene was suddenly understaffed, at this time, the Yang family shouted Sangu, only to see a young woman walk in from outside the door to help her mother complete the task of delivering babies.
It was at this time that his mother noticed the young woman, who thought she was recognized, and immediately fell to her knees, saying that she was the missing Yang Clan, and begged her not to tell her about herself, and said that she had taken out fifty taels of silver and stuffed it into the old woman's hand.
Ancient midwives
This old woman originally wanted to keep secrets, but the Tu family did a lot of good deeds in the local area, and they also took good care of their family, she did not want to see this good man wronged, let alone help abuse, so she told her son the ins and outs of this matter.
The old woman told him not to tell Gao Renjie the county order, the world knows that he will not judge the case, they are all officials bought by money, if you tell him the truth, he will not only not believe it, but also sentence us two to a crime.
He had to wait for the next county order to come and tell him the truth, that is, Chen Ding.
After Chen Ding listened to the ins and outs of the story, he couldn't believe that Yang Clan could do such a reckless thing, nor could he believe that Yang Wurong had sent his brother-in-law to the execution ground in order to avoid the disaster of imprisonment.
Soon Chen Ding found Yang And took her to the court, and after interrogation, she confessed the conspiracy between Yang Wurong and Yang Tongfan, which made the truth of the whole case come out.
However, Mai Zhu knew that once the case was overturned, his position as governor was likely to be unsafe, so he instructed his subordinates to tell Yang that she was a secret prostitute and not a Yang family, and the next day Yang clan overturned the previous confession, which made Chen Ding fall into a dilemma again.
However, the Inspector of Hubei had already submitted his investigation report to Yongzheng, who vaguely remembered that he had read the case file a few days ago, but the result was completely opposite to this time, so he immediately sent Shangshu Shi Yizhi to Hubei to investigate the case.
After Shi Yizhi arrived in Hubei, no one was seen, but he locked himself in his room and carefully reviewed the file, and he soon discovered two suspicious points, the first was that there were wisps of white hair in the hair of the corpse, which did not match Yang's age, and the bloody clothes looked very new, not like the clothes of a year ago.
At this time, he sent someone to investigate by the river, hoping to find out the information of the deceased in the past two years, and soon he got an important clue, a landlord surnamed Huang said that his family's book boy died of illness two years ago, and he buried his body hastily under the river beach, only to be washed out because of heavy rain.
Qing Dynasty court
Originally, Li Rong had already verified his identity, but later Gao Renjie pointed it out to be the Yang clan, and the landlord surnamed Huang wanted to explain, but when he thought about it, he could only give up on the special envoy sent by the governor.
When Shi Yizhi heard this, he understood the truth of the matter, and soon he went to the church to reiterate the case, and eventually Tang Yingqiu and Tu Rusong were acquitted, while Yang Tongfan, Yang Wurong, and Xue Wuji were sentenced to capital punishment, and Zhao Dang'er, who gave false testimony, was exiled to the army.
The macheng Tu family wife murder case is a relatively clear evidence among the many major cases in ancient times, but due to the struggle for power among the officials in the official field, Tu Rusong and Tang Yingqiu were unjustly imprisoned, and the upright Li Rong was killed.
This made us have to lament the darkness of the officialdom at that time, although the truth was finally revealed to the world, but such a court was ultimately untrustworthy.
concentrate:
The relevant content of this article about the macheng Tu family wife murder case is referred to from the "Ten Strange Cases of the Qing Dynasty"; Ke Yuchun published by People's Daily Publishing House in 2011.
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