The villagers looked at each other and muttered, wondering what had happened.

However, no one admits it.

"Since no one admits it, the official has to find out by himself." Kang Xu glanced at the villagers majestically, turned to Baojia and asked, "How many fishermen are there in Hetou Village?" ”

Bao Jia hurriedly bowed his head and replied: "Lord Hui, because this village is close to Luoshui, it relies on water to draft, and more than eighty percent of the laborers in the village are fishermen. ”

Kang Xu nodded and said indifferently: "Let all the fishermen come out." ”

Although Bao Jia didn't know why, he still followed what he said and let all the fishermen in the village stand up.

Kang Xu roughly counted them, and there were about dozens of people.

The fishermen didn't know why Kang Xu asked them to stand up and whisper to each other.

"I haven't fishered for nearly ten days, and I took ten steps back." Kang Xu glanced at them and said lightly.

Several fishermen immediately retreated.

"Those who haven't fished for five days have taken three steps back." Kang Xu continued.

Everyone felt very inexplicable, but they didn't dare to disobey the order of the county commander, so they had to follow his orders.

There are more than ten more people who retreat this time than last time, and there are less than ten people left who have not moved.

Kang Xu looked at the ten people who had not moved, touched his chin, and suddenly changed his question: "Among you who have not fished for more than two days, stand up." ”

Those people were even more puzzled, and they all speculated in their hearts, didn't this county magistrate treat us as monkeys?

Although they were a little unhappy in their hearts, they still obeyed orders.

Only three people came forward this time, and one of them was Zhou Aliu.

Kang Xu looked at those people, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, he pointed to the remaining two, and shouted: "You are so bold, you dare to pretend to be stupid when you commit a crime." Trying to fool around, someone, tie me up! ”

The sudden change caught everyone off guard, and the two fishermen standing in front of Kang Xu were thrown to the ground like hungry tigers before they could react.

"Your Excellency. This...... Why is that? Bao Jia said in a daze.

"These two people are related to the murder case, and this official will take them back to the yamen for a detailed trial." Kang Xu said lightly.

"They have something to do with the homicide? My lord, where does this begin? Bao Jia was a little confused, and asked with a puzzled face.

The two men fell to their knees and cried out for injustice.

"Wronged? Then the official will convince you. Kang Xu snorted coldly and said, "Three days ago, the two of you went fishing, during the fishing period. You fished out a female corpse from the river. However, you did not go to report to the police, but had bad intentions and started the idea of the corpse, and you dragged the corpse to the shore, looted the jewelry from the corpse, and then threw the corpse into the river again. ”

The two of them trembled slightly. The two did not admit it, but shouted, "Master." Wronged! The little one is just an ordinary fisherman, how dare he do such a lack of morality? Wronged, big man! ”

"Hmph, even now, you still want to deny it? Someone, present the evidence! Kang Xu raised his eyebrows and shouted majestically.

Immediately. A servant came up with an exhibit bag and placed half of the fishing net in front of them.

"You use fishing nets to recover corpses, and in the process of dragging the corpses, you accidentally tear the nets, just take the nets. Compare it with the net you use, and you will know what the result is. So far, do you still want to deny it? Kang Xu stared at the two of them and shouted in a deep voice.

Cold sweat oozed from the foreheads of the two fishermen, and their bodies trembled.

"It is already disrespectful for you to steal the property of the deceased, and you don't report the corpse, but throw the corpse again, which has violated the law of the Tang Dynasty, do you know what the crime is?" Kang Xu shouted.

Hearing that the law was violated, where did the two fishermen dare to deny it, they immediately kowtowed desperately, and said in fear: "The big lord spares his life, and the little one admits what the big man said, but the little ones really don't know that this will violate the law, I hope the big lord will be gracious!" ”

Bao Jia was not surprised when he saw the two admitting it, he really didn't understand how Kang Xu found the two of them among so many people.

"My lord, how do you know that the two of them are salvaging the bodies and not the others?" Bao Jia asked cautiously.

Kang Xu said lightly: "At first, the official didn't know who salvaged the body, but after Fang Cai's screening, the results were clear at a glance. It has only been three days since Tao Zhaoxue's death, and the body was found yesterday, but before it was discovered, it was in the downstream of Hetou Village, and there were traces of the body. Based on the fishing nets, the official concluded that the corpse must have been salvaged, and when the official conducted the autopsy, he did not find anything valuable on Tao Zhaoxue's body. ”

"But my lord, there were still seven or eight fishermen that day, how can you be sure that it was the two of them?" Bao Jia never figured this out.

"Tao Zhaoxue is the daughter of the Tao family, and the jewelry she wears is naturally worth a lot of money, and these two people made a windfall after looting the corpse, and they don't want to go fishing anymore, and they suffer from the wind and sun."

Bao Jia suddenly realized, he finally understood why Kang Xu finally let him, he had fished in five days, but no one from the boat had come out in the past two days.

"Is this official wrong?" Kang Xu stared at the two fishermen and asked.

The two fishermen were already in a cold sweat, and they nodded again and again: "What the eldest master said is not wrong at all, just as the eldest lord said." ”

"In that case, don't you hurry up and recruit from the truth! You have not even spared the belongings of the dead, and the face of this village has been lost to you! Bao Jia shouted angrily.

The two fishermen said with bitter faces, almost begging: "The eldest master spares his life, and the younger one is willing to do all the tricks, but it is the greed of the two of us that provokes this right and wrong." Three days ago, we went out to fish, and happened to meet Zhou Aliu holding a jade pendant, and the two of us saw that the jade pendant was delicate and clear, and it seemed to be worth a lot of money, so we asked him where to get it. He said that the jade pendant was fished out by him when he was fishing. The two of us helped people salvage the wreck, and at a glance they could see that the jade pendant was newly sunk into the water, and thought that there might be other treasures, so they salvaged it along the place that Zhou Aliu said, and never thought that a female corpse was fished out at the end of the village. ”

At this point, the fisherman shrunk his neck, he swallowed his saliva, and continued: "At that time, the two of us were startled, and we thought of going to report to the official, but when we saw the gold and silver jewelry on the corpse, we immediately became greedy. I thought to myself, this person is dead anyway, so it is better to search her jewelry and sink it to the bottom of the river. In this way, the two of us have made a windfall without getting into trouble. So the two of us dragged the body to the shore, searched for jewelry, and threw the body into the river again. ”

Kang Xu touched his chin, and he listened carefully to what the two fishermen had to say.

It wasn't until the two finished speaking that he muttered, "When you fished out the body, what was the condition of the body?" ”

"The body was tied up with hemp rope and there were boulders falling underneath, and we guessed that the lower riverbed at the end of the village caused the body to roll from the head of the upstream village to the end of the downstream village." The fisherman didn't dare to lie, and replied honestly.

"Why did you two cut the hemp rope when the body was tied up with hemp rope?" Kang Xu asked with a serious face.

"Back to the old man, although the two of us are greedy for money, they are guilty of looting the deceased's property after all. I thought it would be better to cut the hemp rope, throw away the boulder, and let the corpse drift away, maybe it would be found, so that the two of us would feel better on our conscience. The fisherman sighed and said very sincerely.

Kang Xu glanced at them in surprise, and said in his heart, these two people still have such thoughts.

However, thanks to the two of them, they cut off the boulder where the body fell, otherwise Tao Zhaoxue's body would have sunk to the bottom of the river forever and fed the fish and shrimp.

"Although the two of you have bad intentions, but fortunately, your conscience is not clear, the official will let you wait for a horse, and hand over all the jewelry found, don't be greedy again in the future, and if there is such a thing, you will be severely punished!"

As he spoke, Kang Xu waved his hand and ordered the two to let go.

"Thank you for your kindness, the two of us will never dare to be greedy again in the future, thank you, my lord!"

"Thank you, sir!"

After the two kowtowed to Kang Xu a few times, they got up tremblingly.

Kang Xu turned to look at Zhou Aliu, Zhou Aliu was suddenly trembling with fright when he saw this, thinking that he had just been hit by the board yesterday, and his butt felt a piercing pain.

"Zhou Aliu, this official asked you, what they said is true?" Kang Xu asked.

"Yes, it's true." Zhou Aliu replied tremblingly.

"The official asked you, where did you get the jade pendant?" Kang Xu asked in a deep voice.

Zhou Aliu shrank his neck and said, "Master Hui, it's upstream of the village." ”

"Take the officer with you."

Zhou Aliu nodded yes, stood up hurriedly, and led the way in front of his head.

Kang Xu held his hands behind his back, pondering as he walked, while the Chow Chow followed him with his head shaken, constantly jumping, and seemed to be in a good mood.

Combined with the confessions of the two fishermen, as well as the statements of Zhang Hebi and Zhou Aliu, he can now determine that the place where the body was dumped was near Hetou Village.

Now, the whole murder case is shrouded in a fog, there are very few clues about the murderer, and Kang Xu can only take one step at a time, first find the place where the body was dumped, and then look for clues from the place where the body was dumped.

Zhou Aliu led everyone to the upper reaches of the village, and near the shore, there was a reed growing upstream.

"My lord, the place where I found the jade pendant is in the river two feet in front of this reed." Zhou Aliu pointed to the river behind the reeds and said respectfully.

Kang Xu squinted his eyes and saw that behind the sparse reeds, there was a vast body of water.

"What's the depth of the water here?" Kang Xu asked.

"Back to my lord, there is a depth here, and the riverbed here is quite steep." Zhou Aliu replied. (To be continued.) )