In the distance, I heard a big man running with more than a dozen catchers, and the big man said: "Big man, the villain has arrived!" ”

Say goodbye, bow down. The dozen or so catchers also followed suit.

Leng Yi snorted coldly and said: "This time, this county went to the government to meet the prefect, and I originally went to ask for a few days of leniency, but the county thought about it again and again, the murder case cannot be delayed for a single day, and if it is delayed for a while, the bitter lord will have more pain, and this shore happened in this yamen, which is the murderer's challenge to our county government!" Asking for an extension is admitting defeat and surrendering! Therefore, this county is determined to solve this case within the time limit, bring the criminals to justice, and avenge the deceased! Only then can our yamen raise their eyebrows! ”

These words were sonorous and powerful, and drew a round of applause from all the officials. However, Leng Yi could hear that these applause were a little sparse, as if they were dealing with an errand. I thought to myself, it seems that the prestige of this magistrate who I am imposting is not high.

Leng Yi didn't care about thinking about this, waved his hand, and said to Wu Zhutou: "You bring the arrester who participated in the case and re-investigate the scene with the county." Study the case together, and the rest of the people go back to work. ”

After that, he walked off the platform and said to the head of the martial catcher: "Let's go!" ”

The head of the Wu Catcher hurriedly agreed, led the way sideways, and went to the scene of the murder.

When they were far away, the head of the house sneered and said, "Who wouldn't say beautiful words?" It depends on the real thing! ”

The master of the ceremonial room took over the conversation and said, "Real skills? If he had real skills, he wouldn't have made a mess of the yamen, and he wouldn't have been in debt, and our scribes' food and silver would not have been paid. ”

The secretary of the torture room said: "You can't say that, the eldest master has no choice, who would have thought that in the past few months since he took office, it will be like a ghost, and unlucky things will happen one after another." First of all, those big households did not pay taxes, which made his head big, and the taxes collected from those people were stolen again, so he could only lose money himself. But the silver taels he brought from his hometown were also stolen, and he had no money to compensate, and he was scolded by the prefect, so he could only smash the pot and sell iron to make up money for compensation. Their parents' families are not wealthy and can't help them. Now, he encountered a murder again, and he was killed in the yamen, and he was the concubine of a squire and celebrity. In order to dredge up the relationship, the grace period said, the ten taels of silver he scraped together were still loan sharks borrowed from others, and the big families in the county seemed to have made an appointment, and no one would lend him money. I can only go to Bazhou to borrow usury, and I heard that the interest rate is six cents! Let's see how he returns! ”

As soon as he said this, the other secretaries wanted to follow the hair and scratch it, but now they didn't say anything.

A few of the clerks didn't speak, but the scribes who came with them didn't care about this, and muttered: "The scribes follow the good county master, eat fragrant and drink spicy, what about us?" Not only no, but even our food and silver he has to deduct, after he came, the silver has not been issued, always said that it will be sent next month, but it will not be issued. I don't care, our family is almost out of the pot. If I don't send it again, I'll come to the door to ask for it! Anyway, it's a big deal, if there is no money, who will work for him? ”

Another scribe said, "I heard that he used all our food and money to fill the hole in the stolen tax money." ”

The workshop secretary said: "Of course he has to fill it in, the murder case can't be solved, at most he can't be promoted due to poor political performance, or even demoted, but he won't lose his job, but if he loses the tax, he must make up for it." Otherwise, they will be dealt with according to the law of corruption and dismissal. His family is poor and unable to fill the shortfall, so he can only embezzle our food and labor money. ”

The scribe said, "He is in charge of his taxes, so why use our food and labor to keep us alive!" ”

Another scribe muttered in a low voice, "He said that the tax was stolen, who knows if it's true!" Maybe we will misappropriate it for something else, and find an excuse to deduct our work and food. ”

The master of the ceremonial room said: "Let's take care of it, I secretly asked Master Dong just now, what is the matter with the eldest master's hair." Master Dong said, the prefect did not agree to the grace, nor did he accept the gift money of the eldest master, so the eldest man was so anxious that he cried, asked the shop guy for scissors, cut his hair, and prepared to find a place to become a monk. ”

When everyone heard this, they all looked at each other, wanting to laugh but couldn't. I know in my heart that it seems that the county master is in a hurry, and he has reached the point of burning all his thoughts, otherwise, how would he think of going on the road of becoming a monk?

The scribe of the torture room sighed and said, "Okay, don't talk about it." Let's get back to work! ”

Then they went their own ways.

Master Dong saw Leng Yi return to the Yamen, and he didn't even go back to the inner house to put his luggage, so he directly began to investigate the case, and he was very impressed, and he hurriedly asked the two soap subordinates with their luggage to follow, and followed the county magistrate to the place where the toilet in the front yard of the yamen occurred.

This thatched toilet is in the corner next to the gate of the yamen, it is a separate courtyard, and there is only one thatched toilet in it, which is shared by men and women, and those who enter can only bolt the door.

Leng Yi followed the three catchers to the door of the courtyard of the latrine, and saw a local dog squinting and pulling its ears, with a dog chain around its neck, lying in the grass on the side of the road in front of the latrine. When he saw them coming, he raised his head and let out a low roar of menace from his nose.

A tall deputy who followed behind scolded, and the dog stopped growling, wagged his tail and welcomed him, and surrounded him with joy.

"It's true that the dog can't change its, so it's lying in the toilet and waiting." Leng Yi muttered.

Wu Zhutou smiled: "This dog doesn't eat, Ding Zhutou and they will feed it with leftovers every day." ”

"Really?" Leng Yi glanced at the tall deputy head catcher who surrounded Sa Huan with the yellow dog, and estimated that he was the head catcher of Na Ding, and said with a smile: "Still so caring?" ”

The catcher smiled, crouched down and touched the yellow dog's head.

Leng Yi had already asked Master Dong to bring the case file of this case and stood at the door of the toilet to watch. There are not many files, only the autopsy compartment filled in the inquest of the body, a schematic diagram of the scene, and a transcript of the interview with the person who found the body and a simple interrogation record of the deceased's family.

The courtyard of the thatched toilet is not big, there are high walls on three sides, on the side of the courtyard gate, is the fast catching class room of the yamen, leaning on the side of the thatched toilet, it is the back window of the class room of the head catcher and the fast catcher, but it may be for fear of the smell entering the house, the back window is tightly closed.

In addition to the thatched toilets, there is also a small vegetable patch with some cabbage. In the frost and snow of early winter, it was almost frozen to death. There is a small manure tank in the corner of the vegetable patch against the wall, and a pair of manure buckets are placed next to it. There is no other building.

There is a wooden door in front of the latrine, and there is a latch in the door that can be latched from the inside. The manure pit in the latrine is a large closed wooden barrel, half buried in the ground, covered with wooden planks, and there is only one squatting position, and the inside of the latrine is relatively spacious.

Leng Yi looked at the scene and looked at the schematic diagram of the crime scene on the file. The schematic diagram shows that the latch was latched from the inside at that time. The body of the deceased was lying behind the door, his pants had fallen to the crook of his leg, and there was a sharp wound to his lower body. A dagger was salvaged from the pit.

What a secret room killing!

Leng Yi thought to himself, the door of the toilet was locked from the inside, and the body of the deceased was lying behind the door, and he was stabbed in the lower body. How did this murderer commit the crime?

Leng Yi couldn't figure it out. The thatched toilet is a wooden structure, made of wooden planks, like the whole yamen, although it is also very dilapidated, but the splicing is very familiar, he has checked, it is impossible to take down the wooden planks and get into it to kill, the only few gaps are also very small, it is impossible to put your hand in to kill, let alone people get in.

Leng Yi walked around the latrine, and the head of the Wu Catcher followed him.

When he turned to the back of the latrine, Wu Zhutou screamed. Leng Yi looked back, only to see Wu Zhutou scolding and scolding with a foot, which was full of dung water, it turned out that the dung water was frozen on it, and there were weeds covering it, Wu Zhutou was not careful, stepped on it with one foot, and dipped a boot of dung.

The two deputy catchers wanted to laugh but didn't dare to laugh, and their faces were strained, which made people laugh even more.

Leng Yi asked everyone else to retreat to the front, and stood there by himself, looking at the puddle of dung and water.

After a long time, he continued to circle around the latrine, and even climbed to the top of the latrine, but there was no place to enter, this was indeed a tight secret room. He couldn't think of how the murderer had entered and killed the poor concubine.