Chapter 83: My brush, I'm in charge

Xiao Jiading left the Yamen Prison, first went back to the signing room and called the scholar Wen Yan, asked him to prepare pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and followed him out to investigate the case. Then, the two went to the class room.

Dai Zhutou and others were interrogating a captured thief in the house, and when they heard that Xiao Jiading was coming, they hurriedly came out to meet them. Xiao Jiading said: "You take a few people, follow me, and go to investigate the case!" ”

Dai Zhutou hurriedly agreed, called five catchers, pulled the horses out, and a few people got on the horse, Xiao Jiading said: "First go to Kuliu Village, where Cai Laoshan is located!" ”

Dai Zhutou is an old catcher and knows all the villages in the county well. At that moment, he took them to Kuliu Village.

When I arrived at Kuliu Village, I first arrived at the village Zheng's house, which was also named Cai, and he was still Cai Laoshan's distant cousin.

After Xiao Jiading learned about it, he immediately laid out a pen and paper and began to record while asking. said: "That's right, I'll ask you first." Cai Laoshan said that he and the Liu family grew up together and have always had a close relationship, isn't that so? ”

Cai Cun Zheng immediately said: "Yes, the two of them are very close, I heard that the two families had the intention of getting married at that time." It's just a pity that Cai Laoshan's family is relatively poor, and Liu's father has been sick for many years and has no money for treatment. That's why he agreed to the Su Laocai family's request for a concubine, and gave his daughter to the Su family as a concubine. Many people knew about this at the time. ”

"Then have you ever seen them make out together?"

"This is not enough, but, young people, it's normal to like to sneak together, and many people in the village are like this."

When Xiao Jiading was recording, he recorded Cai Cunzheng's sentence in a crepe manner: "The two are happy with each other, and they meet the countryside privately, and it is understandable that people are in common feelings." In this way, it seems that Cai Cun can prove that the two are cheating together.

After the record, Xiao Jiading did not show him the transcript, because Tang Lu did not have a request for the person being questioned to read it. directly asked Cai Cunzheng to sign and draw.

The testimony of a village is very probative.

Then, Xiao Jiading took out the portrait of Su Yunxia and showed it to Cai Cunzheng, and said: "They say, Su Yunxia looks like Cai Laoshan when he was young, don't you look like it?" ”

Although Cai Cunzheng knows Cai Laoshan, but for what a person looked like when he was young, in ancient times when there was no photographic skills, in fact, he couldn't remember accurately, only a hazy impression, and sometimes even this impression was not there, there were many people surnamed Cai in this bitter willow village, more or less there were some relatives, Cai Laoshan's family was very poor, as the saying goes: "Poor in the downtown no one asks, rich in the mountains have distant relatives." A poor family, Cai Village, who is a rich man, rarely sets foot in Cai Village, so he has no deep impression of Cai Laoshan, he has never seen Su Yunxia, and looked at the portrait that has been painted by Xiao Jiading's hands and feet, tilted his head and thought about it, and he was not sure, but he was hinted by the words "They all say it is very similar" just now, so he also nodded and said: "It's quite similar." ”

Xiao Jiading immediately made an identification record, stating that after Cai Cunzheng's careful identification, it was concluded that Su Yunxia was very similar to Cai Laoshan when he was young. He also asked Cai Cunzheng to sign and draw the pledge.

With these two pieces of evidence, Xiao Jiading felt much more at ease.

Then, Xiao Jiading asked Cai Cunzheng to call some old people in the village for questioning and then identify them.

Ancient law emphasizes substance over procedure, which is a tradition for thousands of years. This was especially true in the Tang Dynasty, where there were few specific regulations on procedural matters, such as how to inquire, how many people inquired, who made the record, there were no regulations, and when the case arrived at the torture room, in many cases, the inquirer, that is, the scribe of the torture room, asked himself to make a record alone, so there were many opportunities for cheating. In addition, there is no requirement that the examination of witnesses be conducted separately, so there is no problem in calling people together for questioning.

The reason why he chose the old man to come is that these old people have seen Cai Laoshan when he was young, and at the same time, he is old and serious, and his testimony is more reliable. However, years of experience in representing cases made him realize that the old man's memory has seriously deteriorated because of his age, and it is difficult to remember unless it is something that is particularly impressive, and he is more face-saving, and it is easy to be hinted by others and follow the crowd, which is exactly what he wants.

Waiting for these old men in their seventies and eighties to come in tremblingly, standing in the hall solemnly, Xiao Jiading said in a majestic voice: "Everyone, I came today on the order of Kang County to investigate the rape of the Liu family's daughter Liu by Cai Laoshan in your village, tell me about the situation of your knowledge of the Dao." ”

He set the tone as soon as he came up, and directly affirmed Cai Laoshan's rape of the Liu family, but this sentence was not recorded, and the people in the yamen did not know what to do at that time, and for the people present, it was a powerful mental hint, which made them unconsciously recall from this angle.

Sure enough, some old men said that this Cai Laoshan is not authentic, he once saw Cai Laoshan hugging Liu, and some said that he saw Cai Laoshan peeking at Liu's river to take a bath, and some people said that they saw Cai Laoshan coming out of Liu's house, and Liu's crying at the door, etc. In fact, these things may have been really seen, but they are far-fetched. After receiving Xiao Jiading's hints in his heart, these old people also thought about it in that direction. So he added his own inference, and said that what was originally normal was full of peach and even **.

Xiao Jiading naturally recorded the descriptions of these old men and inferences, which became ironclad evidence that Cai Laoshan attempted to rape the Liu family.

Then, Xiao Jiading took out the portrait again to identify these people, and naturally none of these people had ever seen Su Yunxia. The most important thing is that these old people are basically old and dizzy, and they can see clearly. Xiao Jiading said in his opening remarks, many people say that the person in this portrait is very similar to Cai Laoshan when he was young, do you see it? ”

This hint naturally played a leading role, and there was nothing particularly unusual about the portrait, so these old people all said that it was very similar, really similar.

In this way, as Xiao Jiading expected, he obtained the evidence he hoped for.

Cai Village is setting up a banquet to entertain Xiao Jiading and them. Because he was in a hurry to handle the case in the afternoon, Xiao Jiading did not eat and drink at noon. After eating in a hurry, he took his leave, and took Dai Zhutou and left Kuliu Village.

The next target is naturally Su Laocai.

Dai Zhutou went to Su Laocai's house to preach the news, so he knew the road. The group returned to Yizhou City and came to Su Laocai's house. The porter saw that the yamen was coming, and hurriedly let it go to the living room. At the same time, let people quickly report to the master.

Soon, Su Laocai came. Nodding vigorously and smiling with a smile.

Xiao Jiading stabbed and said, "Call out all your concubines, I want to question!" ”

Su Laocai hurriedly went to call someone in person.

Xiao Jiading asked Dai to catch the first and wait to go to the gate to be on guard, Wen Yan prepared the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, studied the ink, prepared the pen, and then went out.

The crowd soon arrived. Su Laocai had a total of nine wives and concubines, one of the Yuan Peiwu family and the fifth aunt Liu family went to prison and one was killed, so there were only seven. They all stood behind Su Laocai honestly.

Xiao Jiading said: "I am ordered by Kang County to investigate the case of Su Yunxia's lawsuit against her mother-in-law today. When he ascended to the hall in the morning, suddenly a villager named Cai Laoshan said in the court that Su Yunxia was not from your Su family, but his daughter, and he was born to the Liu family the night before he entered the Su family. In the morning, we had already gone to Kuliu Village, the village where Cai Laoshan was located. Local villagers confirmed that before the Liu family entered your Su family, Cai Laoshan did covet the Liu family, and he also had the behavior of the Liu family. We took Su Yunxia's portrait for them to identify, and many people said that it looked like Cai Laoshan when he was young. I still have to ask for your opinion on this matter, what do you think? ”

As soon as these words came out, it was like pouring a scoop of water into the oil pot, and it was immediately fried, and there was a saying that a woman was equal to five hundred ducks, and there were seven here, which was simply entering the duck farm, chirping. The second aunt spat on the ground vigorously: "Bah, bah! I'll just say this little isn't a good thing! At first glance, it's a fox, what rape? I'm afraid she found the door by herself, right? Her daughter is also a fox! How can there be such a person in our Su family? It doesn't look like it! It turned out to be a wild seed born of her mother's fornication! I said, no wonder! Phew! ”

Soon after the fourth aunt entered the door, Su Laocai married the fifth aunt Liu, taking away her favor, before the fifth aunt gave birth to her daughter, Su Laocai was still more fond of the Wu family, and the four aunts have always held a grudge, and now after hearing Xiao Jiading say this, they immediately shouted: "Yes! I looked at her daughter's charming appearance, and I have long suspected that she is not the seed of our Su family, and I told you that you still don't believe it, but now look, I'm right, right? ”

The seventh aunt also said: "Why don't you believe it? I said yes at the time, didn't I scold the Liu family, saying that she must have had an affair with someone as a fox, and her daughter might be a wild seed? ”

The eighth aunt also said: "I'll just say, our lord doesn't treat her like this, he must know that she stole people outside, and he didn't expect to give birth to a daughter." Now it's okay, the old man has raised wild seeds for more than ten years! This is a big deal! ”

At this time, the third aunt spoke, she was a more responsible person, frowned and said: "You can't say that, I believe that Liu's she is not that kind of person, then Yunxia must be the master's child......"

"Nonsense!" The second aunt roared, pointing at the third aunt's nose: "What do you know?" You eat fasting and chanting Buddha in the house all day long, how do you know about the Nasao fox? Zhilu said that you are good with her, are you secretly matching with her to steal wild men? ”

Immediately, the fourth aunt, the seventh aunt and others all spoke and scolded the third aunt.

The third aunt has a general relationship with the fifth aunt Liu, but she is more sympathetic to her experience, so she wants to say a few fair words, but she didn't expect to be put on such a hat by the second aunt, where do you dare to say it again, shut up quickly.

The sixth aunt also has a good relationship with the Liu family, and when she saw the third aunt speaking fairly, she was besieged by the second aunt, and she bowed her head and said nothing. The youngest ninth aunt had just entered the door not long ago, and she was being favored, and the fifth aunt, who had been bullied by the eldest lady at that time, did not pose any threat to her, so it was not her business to watch the excitement.

Xiao Jiading recorded quietly, he only remembered those words that said that Su Yunxia was not a child of the Su family, but he did not remember the words of the third aunt on the contrary.

That's what calls my brush, my hands.