"Oh, you see that the officials are confused," the county commander pretended to smile and said, "Lord Qincha, do you have any clues about this case?" ”

He Jiehao stood on the lobby, and several officials took the eighteen corpses and bones on the stage in the county hall and lined them up in turn, saying: "Lord County Order, according to the observation of this official, there are many traces of being cut by knives on these eighteen corpses, presumably there has been a fierce battle here, look at these corpses and the bones are wide, thinking that the eighteen corpses are all male corpses, the county commander, pass it on to the court to verify, see if the official's opinion on this is correct?" After that, he ordered the official to put a few female corpses that were not decomposed at all on the county government hall, and said: "Observing these female corpses, it must be the little maid of the Heyuan family or something?" ”

"Okay, I'll come to the autopsy."

The officials standing on both sides shouted, "Pass it on." ”

He hurriedly entered the county government hall, and the officials on both sides shouted: "Mighty——。 ”

He looked at the officials standing on both sides, knelt down and clasped his hands, looked at the county order above the hall and said, "The little one is here to meet the county commander," and then looked at He Jiehao standing next to him, and said, "Lord Qincha." ”

"Please get up," He Jiehao stepped forward to uncover the hundred gauze and said, "Please come and verify it." ”

The scribe sat aside, and the brush dipped some ink and began to record. After getting up, he squatted beside these corpses, stretched out his hands and gently stroked and watched, and said for a long time: "Two adults, the autopsy has been completed, except for a few female corpses, these eighteen corpses are all male corpses, and the toughness of the bones can be judged, all of them are young and middle-aged, about twenty to thirty years old, and there are knife wounds on the bones. Judging from the time when the body was buried in the ground, this incident should have occurred around the 60th year of Qianlong, the first year of Jiaqing, which was enough to decompose into white bones. ”

"Except for the female corpses, all the people who died were young adults, so what happened back then?" He Jiehao continued to ponder and looked at the county order.

"This, this subordinate doesn't know," At this time, the county order was a little blind.

"Except for a few female corpses, the dead are all male corpses, and they are young adults, so could it be officers and soldiers? Obviously not, because according to the number of the dead, it can be concluded that these are the government soldiers of Heyuan. At first, the official was wondering, could it be the lost population in Chengdu and its surroundings? After some investigation and comparison with the old and new accounts, this doubt can be ruled out. This official has checked the old files of Heyuan and inquired about many aspects, and Heyuan is Heshen's Xingyuan, which is a gift from the magistrate to bribe the ministers and Shen. In 1794, He Shen's brother He Lin was awarded the governor of Sichuan and lived here; In 1795, he suppressed the Miao uprisings in Guizhou and Hunan; In 1796, due to the siege of Pinglong, he died of miasma here; In 1799 A.D., Niu Co Lu. He Shen was punished, this garden was confiscated, and according to the local people, hundreds of officers and soldiers rushed into the house and there was a fierce battle, and then they were inevitably killed. Why don't you see the old and young from these bones, eighteen government soldiers fought desperately to cover the escape of the old and the young, and the maidservants buried nearly thirty people hastily in the dense forest in the backyard, in order to cover up the killing of the year, and then there were drunken people who came here to see the ghost fire for no reason. The official thought that the situation at that time was like this, that night was the day of the official's wedding, there was a drunk man who was drunk and talked nonsense, and then entered the dense forest in the backyard and died for no reason, so what was the cause of his death? , whether he killed or committed suicide, his murder is also a deliberate murder, and at first the official suspected that it was my father who did it, so what was the motive for the killing? Is it because of hatred? Why did my father hate a drunkard he didn't know? It's because the drunk man said something he shouldn't have said at the banquet, which made my father murderous, of course, this is only a hypothesis, may I ask the prefectural magistrate, if you were my father, what kind of means would you take to make this drunk man shut up forever? ”

"Lord Qincha, the lower officials will never believe that this is the Taigong's doing, you have wronged the Taigong," the county order immediately vetoed He Jiehao's question.

"Until the truth comes out, that's just a hypothesis."

"If the lower official is a prince, order a subordinate to follow him and lead him to the dense forest, kill him and destroy his body."

"Well said, destroying corpses is enough to be unconscious, if I were my father, and after killing someone, destroy the corpse and destroy the traces, this is one of them; Second, it is to create a fake scene, what kind of fake scene, that is, a fake scene where a drunk man is drunk to death, why hang the dead on a high treetop? Isn't that redundant? Let's take a look at this rattan and the broken branches, obviously the rattan and the branches rubbed each other to wipe off the skin, such a realistic scene takes a long time to prepare, the official asked a lot of eyewitnesses that night, most of them said they didn't pay attention, and some people said that the drunk man said some nonsense on the banquet, and then went to the backyard, and saw Gou Cai trailing away, what fake scene and time are not suitable. The county magistrate can summon witnesses to the court for questioning. ”

"The witness goes to court for questioning."

The officials on both sides preached: "The witnesses have come to the court for questioning. ”

Because He Jiehao knew that there were only many officials such as the prefect Yu Qinglong at the wedding banquet that day, so He Jiehao invited some officials such as the prefect Yu Qinglong. The prefectural commander stood up and saluted, "Your Excellency." ”

Lord Yu smiled and said, "The county magistrate doesn't have to be polite," and then led the magistrates to salute He Jiehao and said, "This government and all the officials greet Lord Qincha." ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, please sit down," the prefect and the officials sat aside, and He Jiehao stood among them and said eloquently: "Your Excellency and my father are sitting at the same table, and they know the situation that night very well. ”

The county magistrate sat down in the lobby and said, "Quickly pass on Zeng Asan." ”

"Chuan Zeng Ah San," the officials shouted.

Zeng Asan walked into the lobby, looked at the adults above the hall and He Jiehao, the lord of Qincha who was standing next to him, knelt down and said, "The grass people are here to kowtow to all the adults." ”

"Zeng Asan can get up and reply," He Jiehao faced the county magistrate above the lobby and the prefect and his magistrates sitting next to him, and said: "The county magistrate, the prefect, the lords, Zeng Asan is the people around Chengdu, and the drunkard Hu 13 is the same villager and sits at the same table, I believe he will not be suspected of colluding confessions." ”

After deliberation, the adults nodded and said, "Well, he will not be suspected of collusion. ”

He Jiehao turned around and walked forward to face Zeng Asan, and said, "Zeng Asan, you can tell me the details of Hu Shisan's death before his death, and tell me in detail." ”

"That night, Hu Shisan drank a lot of wine, some drunk, said some drunken words, and the people around him persuaded him to sit down, Mo was talking nonsense, and then he said that he was going to pee, and left the table."

"And after that?"

"I don't know what happened after that."

"Think about it, after Hu Shisan left the table, did someone follow."

Zeng Asan pondered for a long time, and suddenly thought, "Oh, oh, there is a person who follows. ”

He Jiehao turned to face the adults: "Everyone, is this the case?" ”

"Yes, that's right," added the prefect, "and it was your subordinates who followed me at that time." ”

"Zeng Ah San, you can go down."

"The grass people retreat," Zeng Asan then exited the lobby and left.

After Zeng Asan exited the lobby, He Jiehao said: "The next person Gou Cai followed, if it was a deliberate murder and created a crime scene, then the time required coincides, such a scene layout drunk man drunk to death," so he ordered someone to pass the rattan and tree branches to the adults to watch, and then asked: "What can you see?" ”

Ladies and gentlemen: "I haven't seen it. ”

Lord Yu, the prefect, held the rattan and the tree branch in his hand, and carefully pondered: "There are traces of friction between this tree branch and the rattan. ”

We can imagine that a large living person hanging from a tree will inevitably struggle, according to the officer's observation that the deceased is black-eyed and protruding, and the murder that has been planned for a long time can be ruled out, and the murder that has been planned for a long time is a crime scene carefully set up with it before the murder and is not contradictory? My father didn't have a deep grudge against him before that, so where did the murder come from? If it is a crime scene laid out after the murder, how much time does it take to set up the crime scene? It takes at least half an hour for the official to walk from the front yard to the back yard, and the time period from following the drunk to the front yard is also an hour. The official and the county order repeatedly went to the scene of the crime to check it like a force of nature, so it can be concluded that Hu Shisan was drunk to death, from which it can be inferred that the deceased used drunken nonsense on the banquet, and then because of the urgency of urinating in the backyard, the father of the family was worried that he would be so reckless and fearful that another incident would arise, so he sent Gou Cai to follow the drunk into the backyard dense forest, the dense forest was mostly entwined with rattan, and suddenly saw a ghost fire floating in front of him, mistaken for a ghost, and was entangled in the neck by rattan in a panic, hanging in the air, so far dead, Do you have any objections? ”

"Lord Qincha's analysis is exquisite, and we have no objections, so the case can be decided."

He Jiehao looked at the county magistrate sitting in the lobby, and the county magistrate picked up the waking wood and slapped it on the desk, and pronounced the verdict: "Hu Shisan died drunk in the dense forest in the backyard of the He family, and there was no suspicion of him being killed. ”

"Lord of the county order, and slowly retreat."

The county commander turned around and asked, "I don't know what else Lord Qincha commands?" ”

"The deceased Hu 13 died drunk in the backyard of the official, and the official should compensate 200,000 taels to comfort the family of the deceased, and also ask the county magistrate to convey it."

"Master," Gou Cai cried when he saw He Jiehao standing in the lobby.

"Gou Cai, you are acquitted."