Cheng Qi and others asked the prosecutor to see Gong Dingyu, and unexpectedly they were agreed to quite smoothly. Perhaps the prosecutor is also considering that the corpse of the old man has not yet been found, hoping to influence a certain madman who is "extremely vicious" and "extremely evil", so that the old man can be buried in peace.

came to a firewood room in the backyard of Guandi Temple, and Gong Dingyu was locked up inside. According to the practice of preferential treatment of scholars in the Great Song Dynasty, even at the moment when the "crime" was confirmed, he was still not given a torture instrument, but the two officers guarding him at the door obviously did not treat him as a scholar.

Gong Dingyu obviously didn't care about this, he didn't regard himself as a scholar, for a person like him, fifty years ago, when the royal gate frenzy was flooding, it was obviously the most suitable time for him to survive, at that time, the scholars and doctors in the capital were all carnivals, feasts, prostitutes and promiscuity, but the tide of the world changed once in twenty or thirty years, and now the atmosphere tends to be conservative, Gong Dingyu is obviously a little out of place with the times.

He was sitting calmly on the ground, his knees crossed, his heart facing the sky, and he was closing his eyes and recuperating. After the three strangers entered, they first shouted: "Hello Mr. Gong." Gong Dingyu opened his eyes and said, "I'm not your husband, and you don't have to be so polite." With my beloved concubine, if this really doesn't work, she should make plans early. ”

This old man can see it, Cheng Qi squatted down: "Are you really not afraid of death?" ”

"Animals are afraid of death, am I not even as good as animals?" Gong Dingyu didn't know what to practice Wild Fox Zen: "Of course I'm afraid of death, but now someone is deliberately framing me, what can I do?" Several Xiaolang gentlemen must have confidence in the Great Song Dynasty. If the opponent only has this little bit of a superficial trick, then my old Gong can't die. If the opponent is too powerful to blind the magistrates and prosecutors in Bianjing, it will be useless for me to shout that I am wronged. It's better to save some effort and wait for the appeal with peace of mind. ”

Well, this madman is a staunch supporter of the rule of law in the Great Song Dynasty, he knows that if he is accused of being a murderer, then he still needs to go through the procedure slowly, find evidence and then file a public prosecution, and he also has the right to ask a lawyer and file an appeal, if he is sentenced to death, then he will have to go through the review of the death penalty reviewer, and a set of judicial procedures will take more than half a year or even a year at the earliest.

Is he in a hurry? There's no rush at all!

Cheng Qi didn't go, seeing that this master's face was calm, he didn't look like a criminal suspect at all, and he began to doubt his judgment: Maybe the murderer is the murderer who is the least like him?

After saying goodbye to Gong Dingyu for the time being, the three strangers told Gu Mei of his request. Gu Mei immediately wrote to an old friend of hers who was in a high position in the city...... Well, the one surnamed Qian, but this big man also seems to think that Gong Dingyu is very suspicious, so he didn't reply for a long time.

Because this criminal lawsuit escalated to homicide (in the New Song Law, homicide is divided into homicide, intentional homicide, fighting-killing in a fight, similar to manslaughter, homicide - killing a person by particularly cruel means, or intentionally killing a close relative; etc.), the prosecutor then transferred the whole case to the jurisdiction of Xiangfu County for criminal prosecution. The Xiangfu County Commander sent officials to search back and forth on the main road, and finally found the body of Sun Laoyuan in a dry well.

It was really miserable, although it was the weather of early spring, and the corpse had not yet decomposed, but because of this, the tragic situation of the old man before his death was particularly worrying. It also made the three strangers who were watching the scene feel bad secretly

About a month and a half later, the first instance of this case was tried in open court at the Xiangfu County Magistrate's Court, and the Xiangfu County prosecutor appeared in court to file a public prosecution on behalf of the imperial court, accusing the defendant Gong Dingyu of having an argument with his distant cousin Sun Luda because of a quarrel, using cruel means to hit the victim on the head and causing her death, and throwing him into a dry well with traces of destruction of the body. Accordingly, the court requested that Gong Dingyu be sentenced to 25 years in prison in accordance with the Great Song Dynasty Criminal Law.

The accusation of criminal affairs was ruthlessly refuted by Cheng Qi, who served as the defender. First of all, Cheng Qi put forward the following opinions: First of all, Mr. Sun Lao had multiple head injuries, and what the murder weapon was has not yet been verified. Second, among the items seized by the Xiangfu County officials was a shotgun of Gong Dingxiao, according to the opinions of the servants, the lead bullet used in this gun was the same as the lead bullet dug out of the neck of Mr. Sun's mount, and it was of the same model, which was also an important evidence that involved Gong Dingyu in the murder case in this issue, but the problem also came -

Cheng Qi stood on the defender's bench and looked left and right, his expression fluttering, as if he had found the feeling of debating in the law school in his previous life: "This gun is now placed here as evidence in court, I think you can see at a glance how clean the handle of the gun here is, and there is no trace of blood or collision with hard objects." If Gong Dingyu was holding this gun to commit murder, then it would be impossible not to leave a trace on this gun. But to this day, the gun has been tested three times by the Department of Physics of Xiangfu County, Kaifeng Prefecture and Jinghua University, and no blood stains have been detected on the gun or evidence that it has been used to hit the victim. ”

"And, there is another small detail that I would like to draw your attention to - when the mount of the old man Sun returned to the Sun Mansion, we and the subordinates of the Sun Mansion discovered that the wound of this horse was a penetrating wound, which entered from one side and flew out from the other side, forming a transparent wound. I once consulted an expert in horse breeding, and he said that it was this special wound that allowed this poor beast to run home - and then the problem! Since this was a penetrating wound, the bullet should have flown away, so why did he find another bullet in the horse's neck, and this bullet happened to be Mr. Gong's? Obviously, I think everything already speaks for itself! ”

Cheng Qi sat down proudly and watched the magistrates talk to each other.

The prosecutor stood up and asked for the applicant witness to testify.

The first witness was Li Yang, a friend of Mr. Sun's outside, and when he went to court, his eyes were full of anger, and his muscles were bursting up, like a lion who eats people.

After taking the oath to the Buddha and Emperor Guan, the witness began his testimony in the hall: "As a good friend of Sun Lao, I should not have stood here to accuse him of being his only relative in the world. But when I think of the old man, he died miserably! I'll just ...... I'll just ......"

The magistrate lifted his glasses and reminded him: "Witnesses should pay attention to their emotions. You only need to state the facts that you say you know to the court. ”

After Li Yang listened to the words of the magistrate, he confessed his guilt, and began to tell endlessly what kind of swinger the defendant was, disrespectful and amorous, so that he annoyed Sun Yuanwai not only to drive him out, but also to deprive him of his inheritance.

The villagers who were listening all nodded, and some even stood up and said, "That's it!" What he says is true! ”

The magistrate had to bang the alarm again and again, and ordered the magistrate to maintain order on the scene and take out all the disobedient people.

After Li Yang testified, the magistrate asked, "Defendant, do you have anything to say?" ”

Gong Dingyu still looked indifferent: "What he said is the truth." ”

Cheng Qi hurriedly said: "Tell the magistrate, there is another inside story in this." ”

"You say."

"As far as I know, the reason why Li Yang has a bad relationship with Mr. Gong is because Li Yang once molested Mr. Gong's concubine Ms. Gu Mei after getting drunk."

This time it was so energetic that the magistrates all sat up straight: "Do you have a credential?" ”

"Ms. Gu Mei is willing to testify in court."

The officials exchanged their heads and exchanged opinions: "Agree to testify in court." ”

Li Yang's face turned blue and white for a while, and suddenly said, "No need...... Yes, there is such a thing...... I drank too much that night......"

The crowd of onlookers was in an uproar, and Gong Dingxiao narrowed his eyes slightly, but it seemed that this matter had nothing to do with him.

The pusher patted the shocked wood: "Take the witness Li Yang down the hall." The affair between you does not fall within the scope of this case. Public prosecutor, when you apply for witnesses to testify in court in the future, you should strictly review them in advance. ”

The prosecutor also took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his head, thinking to himself, how did I know there was such peachy news here...... It's just a pity, I heard that Gu Mei is one of the eight Yans in the south of the Yangtze River, and I can't see it today, I really feel like I have to live 20 years less.

The second witness was Sun Fu, the housekeeper of the Sun Mansion, and the main content of his testimony in court was that when Sun Lao Yuan went out, he carried about 200 taels worth of silver tickets and silver ingots, but these things were not found near Sun Yuanwai's body.

The defendant had no problem with this, saying that he did not know when his cousin left the house or what he took with him when he went out. In fact, he was so engrossed in tracking the hare that he didn't even notice what was happening two miles away.

Cheng Qi also reminded everyone that this is likely to be a case of interception and murder caused by leakage of wealth, and the possibility of the old man being robbed by gangsters halfway cannot be ruled out.

After the witnesses and exhibits were presented, the magistrates also felt that the case was full of suspicions, and the verdict was not pronounced in court.

Mr. Gong and Gu everyone, who haven't seen each other for many days, finally met, and it was Xiao Biesheng's newlywed. Huang Yang said: "It is estimated that there will be a lot of indescribable things happening tonight. ”

Gu Mei saw the three strangers laughing on their shoulders, wiping away their tears, and hugging them one by one, especially kissing Cheng Qi well, which made the young man's face red: "No merit is not a benefit, no merit is not a benefit." ”

Gu Mei bit his ear and blew like a land: "This should be regarded as an advance payment." ”

Xiao Chengqi was refreshed all of a sudden!