Ghost marriage, as the name suggests, is to marry a dead unmarried man. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info According to the saying that has been handed down since the previous dynasty, a man who is over 15 years old and dies early without marriage is unable to reproduce incense because he has never married a wife, and he cannot rest in peace after entering the earth, and his soul will return to the family to breed trouble. In order to keep the family safe, the parents and clansmen of the deceased would marry a woman from a poor background (in fact, buying and selling young girls) for the man who died young, and then extend incense for the deceased's heirs of the same clan. In this way, the soul of the deceased will be fulfilled and the family will be blessed. According to this theory, the custom of ghost marriage was widespread in the previous dynasties, and almost every family of those who were wealthy and could afford the bride price had a secret marriage.

After the Great Xia overthrew the former dynasty, because of its admiration for Confucianism and belief in the "Zhou Li" ("Zhou Li" explicitly opposes ghost marriage), it enforced a decree prohibiting secret marriage throughout the country. Since then, the situation of "the living marrying the dead" has disappeared in Great Xia, but the secret marriage has not completely disappeared.

Take the wife of the prince of Dingguo Mansion Xu as an example: Xu once said that if Lu Shaoyun had a chance at the border pass, she would let Xia Shuanghan enter the door to observe the festival for Lu Shaoyun and pass the stepchildren. Of course, it is impossible to let Xia Shuanghan enter the door after Lu Shaoyun's death in Huangquan, and the Xu family has the idea of "Chongxi".

The people of Great Xia, but all parents who still want to do a secret marriage for their son now, will always use "Chongxi" as a reason to arrange a marriage for their son when their son is terminally ill or when the war situation in the military camp to which they belong is tragic. In this way, if his son dies of illness or dies in battle, his daughter-in-law is equivalent to a widow and cannot be considered a secret marriage. But the disadvantages of this are obvious, one is that if Chong Xi really rushes people to "get sick and the war has subsided", then the daughter-in-law from a poor background is obviously not worthy of her son. Second, if the groom dies when Chongxi's daughter-in-law's sedan chair is approaching, then according to the law, the family affairs can no longer be done, and the man still does not marry a wife after going to Huangquan. Therefore, in order to make up for the second shortcoming of "Chongxi" and achieve the purpose of "secret marriage" in disguise, the phenomenon of unmarried female corpses and unmarried male corpses quietly appeared in Daxia.

The marriage of two corpses, in the final analysis, is also a secret marriage, which is forbidden by the government. But as long as the two families reach a consensus on the bride price and keep the marriage a secret, then outsiders will not know that the coffin buried in the woman's family is actually empty, and the man's family actually has two bodies buried in the grave. Of course, this way of marriage also has disadvantages, one is that although the woman can be recorded in the genealogy of the man's family, she cannot get the name on the tombstone. Second, if you don't have a living wife, you can't have stepchildren. But in any case, many parents still believe that as long as their son has a company underground, even if he does not have a stepchild for him, his soul can rest in peace. As a result, with the quiet rise of the form of underworld marriage in which two corpses marry, corpse theft and murder and corpse sales also began to appear.

For the corpse of the funeral marriage, the bride price will be graded according to the "freshness" of the corpse, the degree of beauty before death and other conditions, the fresher and more beautiful, the higher the bride price received. Therefore, in order to earn a high amount of bride price, there were cases of tomb robbers stealing fresh corpses and kidnappers killing people and selling corpses in the territory of Great Xia, which are collectively referred to as "ghost marriage murder and corpse theft cases".

"Lin Gongzi, last autumn, you happened to be investigating the murder and theft of corpses in the suburbs of Beijing, right?" When he asked this sentence, Xia Shuanghan was really just a flash of inspiration, who made them stand next to the cemetery in a group of three, and among the three, there was also Lin Xiran, who was once famous for handling the "Secret Marriage Murder Case"? "I remember that when the Zhenqu Pavilion held a calligraphy and painting competition last fall, you were still troubled by this case for a long time, so you asked Zhuo Gongzi and Zeng Gongzi to go to the West Market to relax."

"Miss Xia has a good memory." Lin Xiran nodded, and responded to Xia Shuanghan: "I just don't know, this case of the secret marriage is the same as now-" Lin Xiran stopped talking here, and instantly understood the meaning of Xia Shuanghan's unfinished business. "Miss Xia means that the reason why there are traces of renovation in this cemetery is because someone came to steal the corpse?"

"Probably not, right?" Uncle Li, who was standing beside Lin Xiran, said: "The fresher the corpses of the underworld marriage, the better, these villagers have been buried underground for seven years, even if they were really stolen, they should have been stolen seven years ago!" ”

"No, seven years ago, there was no case of corpse theft. At that time, people had not given up their obsession with their stepchildren, so they were all ******** to be happy, and the theft of corpses and the murder and sale of corpses only appeared in the past two years. Lin Xiran rejected some of Uncle Li's opinions, but he agreed with the rest of the opinions, "But as Uncle Li said, the corpse that has been buried for seven years has long been corrupted, and a bare skeleton is really worth stealing?" ”

"It's worth it!" Xia Shuanghan was very sure of this, because in her previous life, she had heard that not long after the theft of corpses and the killing and selling of corpses were strictly arrested, the theft of bones also appeared. "Isn't this the case that some families have a lot of bad luck in their homes, but in recent years there has been no early death of an unmarried man. For the sake of peace of mind, these people blamed the matter on their ancestors, believing that an ancestor had come back to cause trouble without taking a wife. In order to appease the undead of their ancestors, they insisted on holding a ghost marriage for their ancestors regardless of whether they could really find such an ancestor on the genealogy. It's just that they have no feelings for their ancestors who have never met, and they don't want to spend so much money, so they give up the corpse and marry the skeleton. In this way, it is not surprising that the remains of those who have been buried for seven years will be dug up by the body thieves! ”

"Probably not, right?" Uncle Li looked at Lin Xiran and disagreed: "Miss Xia also knows that since the eldest prince Lin sent the gang that killed and sold corpses to the execution ground last year, the theft of corpses and the murder and sale of corpses have been extinct in the suburbs of Beijing. It's only been a few months now, and who has the audacity to come and steal the bones? ”

"Uncle Li's words are wrong." Xia Shuanghan retorted: "The reason why corpse theft and murder and selling corpses can become major cases is because the relatives of the victims are still alive, and they went to the yamen to report the case, which made everyone known. But the village in front of us is different, this village is a dead end, and there are no descendants! So, even if all the bones were exhumed, who would know? If no one knows, no one will report the crime, and if no one reports the crime, why should they be afraid of being arrested? So, I think ......" Xia Shuanghan said and turned to Lin Xiran and said, "Lin Gongzi, why don't we go down and have a look?" If the bones of the villagers were not stolen, it would be better to say, but if they were really exhumed, we would have reported the crime, right? ”

"What Miss Xia said is very true." Lin Xiran agreed with Xia Shuanghan's opinion and said, "I can't imagine that Miss Xia is still a warm-hearted person, and she can think so much about these villagers who have never met. ”

"No, no, no." Xia Shuanghan took the wooden stick used to "beat the grass and startle the snake" from Lin Xiran's hand, and took the lead to knock and beat all the way to the cemetery under the hillside. "I'm not a hot sausage, I'm just going for the silver. Who asked the government to not only give a bounty to the whistleblower in order to put an end to the secret marriage, but also keep their identities secret? If you don't make money, that's a fool! Xia Shuanghan said this, turned around and said to Lin Xiran and Uncle Li: "If it really happens, let's divide the silver in three equal parts, okay?" ”

"I guess it's still divided into two." Lin Xiran was amused by Xia Shuanghan's honesty and love for money, he shook his head and said helplessly: "Below is the arrest of Jingzhao Yin Mansion, and the investigation is on official duty, and you can't get the silver." ”

"It's okay, I'll ask my father to help you talk to Master Yao, and just say that today is your turn off, and the clues you find on your rest day are not official business, so you will have a reward." Uncle Li, do you think so? Xia Shuanghan said and smiled at Uncle Li.

"yes, yes." Uncle Li also smiled, "I just don't know, how will the government sentence this thief digging up bones, stealing corpses is ten years of hard labor, but I don't know how to count the bones thieves." ”

"I guess it's lighter than robbing corpses." Lin Xiran guessed: "But the hard labor is all working day and night in the salt mines, coal mines and iron mines, let alone ten years, three or five years will be exhausted." Even if the bone thief is only sentenced to five years of hard labor, and the person sentenced is still a strong young man, I estimate that only half of them will come back alive! ”