It would take some time for the corpse to be transported from the yamen to the warehouse, so Sun Shaozong first investigated the scene of the crime.

This Tianzihao warehouse is about eight zhang [25.5 meters] long from east to west, and about three zhang five feet [11 meters] wide from north to south, and the gate is open in the middle of the east wall; On the south wall, there are two transoms with a mesh iron fence.

On the left side of the gate is a public desk with pen, ink, paper, inkstone, and three booklets with wooden shell covers.

Sun Shaozong flipped through it casually and found that one of them was a record of Du Ning's daily inventory check, and the other recorded the time and purpose of other people entering and leaving the warehouse.

In the last booklet, there are some important things to do.

For example, on the page of March 27, Zhu Shanyou recorded an important instruction on 'carrying out artillery maintenance half a month in advance' - yes, this warehouse was always used to store prototype guns before the arrival of new muskets, and until now there are still several 'big' cannons in the innermost part of the warehouse.

On the right side of the gate, there are four special lanterns and slogans that say 'fire and burglar prevention'.

Sun Shaozong picked up a lantern and looked at it carefully, and found that this thing was made of double-layer copper mesh, even if the candle inside fell off the base, with the barrier of these two layers of copper mesh, it would not burn the outside thing.

"Which lantern was used by Dunin last night?"

"It's this one!"

Zhu Shan hurriedly took out another lantern from under the case, and put it in front of Sun Shaozong with both hands.

Sun Shaozong was not in a hurry to pick it up, but turned his head to look at the four hooks on the wall, frowned, and said, "These are all dead, and you have specially replaced them with new lanterns?" ”

"No way."

Zhu Shan smiled helplessly: "The most important rule in our gunpowder bureau, according to the regulations drawn up above, but if the lanterns in the important warehouse are damaged, they must be replaced with new ones as soon as possible, otherwise it will be a crime of dereliction of duty." ”

It is estimated that this system was also set by Prince Yizhong at the beginning.

Sun Shaozong took the lantern and found that only the copper mesh on the outside was a little deformed, but the inside was basically intact.

After carefully observing the sound for a while, and then asking Na Dunin's height, he raised the lantern in front of him to a height of about one meter and two, and then let go of his palm and let it fall freely.

Syllable~

The lantern smashed against the bluestone floor, rolled in a circle and a half, and then staggered to a halt.

Sun Shaozong picked it up and took a look, and saw that although the lantern was slightly deformed, it was much less damaged than Du Ning's.

So he raised it by twenty centimeters and tried again.

Then there is an increase of thirty centimeters in height......

Then it's a little harder......

It wasn't until the four lanterns on the wall were all smashed that Sun Shaozong was under Zhu Shan's inexplicable gaze, and Shi Shiran launched the next step of investigation.

About a foot and a half feet from the gate, two rows of long tables were placed against the wall, and countless wooden shelves were nailed to them, and a total of two hundred and eighteen Megatron-style muskets were neatly placed on these shelves.

That is, at the beginning of the long table on the left, the two empty shelves stand out from the eye.

And the same eye-piercing was the black-brown blood stain on the ground.

Sun Shaozong first carefully observed the messy traces near the empty shelf, and then squatted on the ground to look for a long time, and circled the traces of the suspected lantern collision one by one with a cinnabar pen.

"My lord, the body has been transported."

At this time, Jia Shanyao and Lu Yuan led four dragon guards and hurriedly brought in a corpse, which was naturally the body of Du Ning, the deputy supervisor of the Gunpowder Bureau.

"Rearrange the body as it was when you found him yesterday."

Sun Shaozong didn't look at it, he gave a casual order, and then as if slowing down, he checked the gun racks on the long table inch by inch.

Seeing that he was so meticulous, Lu Yuan naturally didn't dare to fool around, and checked with Zhu Shan to fill in the gaps, so it was not easy to restore the body to the appearance it was at the time of the crime.

But seeing that Sun Shaozong hadn't finished slowing down' yet, they didn't dare to step forward and disturb indiscriminately.

After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, he saw Sun Shaozong coming over with a solemn face, not in a hurry to check the corpse, but asked first: "What repair tools can be placed in this warehouse?" Like a hammer and an axe? ”

"It didn't."

Zhu Shan immediately shook his head and said: "Only Lord Du enters and exits here on weekdays, even if something really breaks, there is no need for him to do it himself-some of our gunpowder bureau are craftsmen." ”

After speaking, Zhu Shan was a little puzzled and said, "My lord has found something suspicious, otherwise why did he suddenly ask about it?" ”

Sun Shaozong didn't answer his question, but asked rhetorically: "You said before that even Du Ning, who is in charge of the warehouse, has to be searched and checked when he enters and exits on weekdays - is this search once when he goes in and out once, or will he only be searched when he comes out of the warehouse?" ”

"This ......"

Zhu Shan and Lu Yuan exchanged glances, and then said: "According to the regulations, naturally you have to check when you enter and exit, but generally when you enter the door, you will only check what is outside your body, and when you come out, you will be carefully searched." ”

Sun Shaozong immediately asked: "In other words, if he brings something in, he won't be discovered?" ”

"This ...... I guess so. ”

Zhu Shan hesitated slightly, but nodded.

"Someone's coming!"

Sun Shaozong immediately gave an order and ordered: "Rummage through it for me carefully to see if there are any things in this warehouse that shouldn't be there!" ”

Jia Shanyao and the four dragon guards hurriedly responded, and then called a team of people from outside, and launched a carpet search according to Sun Shaozong's intentions.

And Sun Shaozong himself was not idle, he squatted in front of the corpse and carefully examined it.

This Du Ning is about forty years old, very thin, but with a big face - in addition, there are obvious black circles around his eyes, and he should not have been sleeping very well recently.

The corpse lay on its back on the ground with its head and feet on its feet, and there was only about half a meter between its feet and the gun carriage on the south side.

The fatal wound was a bloody hole the size of a copper coin in the heart—as for the murder weapon, it was naturally the bayonet that was sent with the corpse.

By the way, there was also a separate holder for bayonets on the gun rack, and on the third gun rack there were only muskets, no bayonets - apparently, the murderer stole two more complete muskets, including the bayonets.

Both hands of the deceased were irregularly curved, and there were calluses and blisters that had recently been rubbed out of the tiger's mouth—the blisters had begun to swell, and it is estimated that they had not been subjected to the same friction in the last day or two.

In addition, the cuffs of the deceased's hands were stained with a lot of splattered blood.

Looking further down, there was nothing unusual about the legs.

Bipedal ......

"It's!"

When he checked the sole of the deceased's left foot, Sun Shaozong's eyes suddenly lit up, but he saw that a translucent object the size of a sesame seed was sticking to the heel of the foot!