During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, a strange murder case occurred in Hanoi County.

On this day, Tang Zhixian, who had just taken office, was sitting in the lobby talking with the master, when the drum of grievances outside the hall suddenly sounded, and Tang Zhixian immediately ordered the officials to bring the grievances in.

The one who was ushered into the lobby was a well-dressed middle-aged man with a rich face. Seeing Tang Zhixian, he knelt down and said, "I beg the eldest master to find out the cause of Xiao'er's death!" ”

Before Tang Zhixian could answer, the master on the side whispered: "This is a famous fortune proposition within a radius of 100 miles. ”

Tang Zhixian nodded, and said to the court: "What grievances can be explained in detail!" ”

Zhang Fuyuan, who was kneeling, wiped away his tears and said sadly: "My child was killed by a pheasant this morning......

Then he gave the details:

His son fell insane last year and sought medical treatment everywhere but did not get better. Later, he met a Jianghu Langzhong, who said that his son's illness was a lack of heart qi and needed to be treated with pheasant blood. This pheasant is also particular, the domestic pheasant is not good, it must be a pure pheasant caught, and after the pheasant is caught, it cannot be killed directly, it must be circled. Pheasants have a high heart, after being caught and losing their freedom, they will be angry and die, and some pheasants will be so angry that they vomit blood when they die, and the pheasant blood at this time can cure the disease, especially the pheasant is so angry that the blood spit out has a better effect.

Zhang Fuyuan followed this recipe and asked people to catch a lot of pheasants to collect blood, and after his son took this chicken blood, his condition did improve.

Just this morning, he bought a pheasant that vomited blood from a chicken catcher named Hou Sheng. Unexpectedly, after giving his son the blood stew soup spit out by the pheasant, his son also vomited blood, and died of anger before Lang Zhong arrived.

"Could it be that pheasants kill people?" Tang Zhixian muttered to himself, took the officials and servants, and went to Zhang Fuyuan's house.

Zhang Fuyuan's home is in a large mansion in the south of the city. When he got there, Tang Zhixian saw a young man with a bleeding mouth and nose, lying on the ground, and a soup bowl falling beside him.

Tang Zhixian gestured to the court, and he walked to the soup bowl, and took the silver needle to probe in the remaining soup in the bowl, and the silver needle quickly turned black.

"My lord, the soup is poisonous!" He turned around and bowed to Tang Zhixian and said.

"Where's that pheasant?" Tang Zhixian turned his head and asked Zhang Fuyuan beside him.

"In the kitchen!" Zhang Fuyuan replied, "After the child's violent death, I have instructed that no one should touch the things in the kitchen. ”

As he spoke, he took Tang Zhixian towards the kitchen.

In the kitchen, a naked chicken without a head was lying on the board, and Zhang Fuyuan pointed with his hand and said, "It's this pheasant!" ”

Before he finished speaking, he had already stepped forward, and took out a silver needle to probe the chicken all over his body, including its heart, liver and lungs, and after probing, he shook his head at Tang Zhixian.

Tang Zhixian continued to ask: "Where is this chicken head?" ”

Zhang Fuyuan replied: "Because Lang Zhongyan said that the blood coughed up by the pheasant was precious, I asked the cook to stew the chicken head together every time, so that the blood in the chicken's mouth also melted into the soup." ”

Tang Zhixian didn't say anything after hearing this, walked to the board, pinched the broken neck of the pheasant in his hand, looked at it, and said to the accompanying catcher: "Bring the chicken catcher here!" ”

After saying this, he glanced around the kitchen again: "Where is the cook?" ”

A fat man flashed out and replied tremblingly: "The villain is here—"

"Let me ask you, who was present when this chicken blood soup was stewed, and who sent it to your young owner's house after it was stewed?" Tang Zhixian's eyes were fixed on the cook's face and asked.

The fat cook said incoherently: "Hui--Hui-sir--the stewed soup and the soup--I did it all by myself--no one was present during the period--but-the poisonous soup really has nothing to do with me-"

After hearing this, Tang Zhixian waved his hand and asked the official to take him back first.

After a while, the catcher brought Hou Sheng, the chicken catcher, to the scene, and Tang Zhixian asked Hou Sheng instead: "You caught this chicken?" ”

Hou Sheng nodded: "It's the villain who caught it!" ”

"That's good!" Tang Zhixian nodded, "You can describe the scene when you catch chickens to this official, and who was present when you caught chickens?" ”

Hou Sheng thought for a while and replied: "Early this morning, I came to the south of the city and released the male pheasant I raised under the cover, and after a while, a male pheasant flew over. The male pheasant is aggressive by nature and cannot see other male pheasants entering his territory. Originally, it wanted to fight, but it never wanted to fall into my trap. Seeing that it was captured by me, it ran around in circles in anger and kept running, and finally couldn't bear it anymore, and vomited blood and died. I sent this bloody pheasant to the Zhang Mansion and asked for a good price. It's just that because it's early in the morning, there are few people in the wild, so no one else sees it. ”

After Tang Zhixian heard this, he stared at Hou Sheng and looked at it carefully: "Are you sure that this pheasant vomited blood and died?" ”

Hou Sheng replied: "The little people don't dare to deceive the adults, and they really vomit blood and die." ”

Tang Zhixian smiled: "Okay, you step back first, and I'll ask you when you need to." ”

2. The secret of chicken blood

Back at Yamen, Tang Zhixian sat in the hall and carefully interrogated the cook he brought back, but the cook always insisted that the poison in the soup had nothing to do with him. Tang Zhixian asked the official to put him in prison first, and then sat in the hall and secretly thought about this bizarre pheasant case.

Thinking of his doubts, he couldn't help but stand up, pacing back and forth in the lobby, and before he knew it, he had reached the door of the lobby.

Through the wallboard, he heard two officials standing outside the door talking, and one of them said: "That Zhang family son really deserves to die, after all, he didn't escape this catastrophe!" ”

Another replied, "That's not it, two more years to live!" ”

Tang Zhixian heard the meaning of the conversation between the two, so he asked, "Why did you say this?" ”

The two were about to answer, when the master came over and said, "My lord, this matter is a long story, you might as well read a file from previous years, and you should know it in your heart." ”

After saying that, he took the file and went away.

After a while, the master returned with a copy of the file, and spread it on the table in the hall for Tang Zhixian to see.

After reading it, Tang Zhixian suddenly realized that he couldn't help but nod his head frequently.

On this day, Hou Sheng came out of the casino, went to a wine shop to drink for a while, and as soon as he walked out of the door after settling the account, he was pulled aside by a man in Tsing Yi. After standing still, the man in Tsing Yi saw that there was no one around, so he said: "Our owner said that the chef of the Zhang family is going to bear the charge, so you must guard your mouth and remember that trouble comes from your mouth!" ”

Hou Sheng arched his hand towards the visitor: "Please tell your owner, you can rest assured, everything is seamless." The man in Tsing Yi nodded and left.

After Hou Sheng went around a big circle outside, he walked into an alley, and two catchers came over and took him down.

"Why did you arrest me?" Above the lobby, Hou Sheng still asked unconvinced.

Tang Zhixian smiled and said, "Do you know him?" ”

Looking over along Tang Zhixian's hand, Hou Sheng saw that kneeling on the ground on the side of the lobby was the man in Tsing Yi who had just met him, and the man in Tsing Yi was hanging his head at this moment.

Hou Sheng's wine woke up half on the spot, and he hurriedly shook his head: "I don't recognize it—I don't recognize it!" ”

Tang Zhixian slapped the shocked wood on the case: "He has already confessed, and you are still stubborn!" In Zhang's house, the official looked at the pheasant's throat, and there was no blood in the throat, but you said that the pheasant vomited blood and died, which immediately made the official suspicious. Now it seems that you will not be recruited without a great punishment, and someone will come—a great punishment will be served! Before the words fell, Hou Sheng said again and again: "Don't use torture - don't use torture - I will recruit you!"

Subsequently, Hou Sheng confessed one by one:

He was originally a farmer in the suburbs, and he used to catch some birds and wild animals to subsidize his family, but recently he became obsessed with gambling, but his luck was not good, and he owed a lot of money for gambling losses.

One day, after losing another gamble, he walked home dejectedly, and a middle-aged man stopped him halfway through.

The middle-aged man said that he could give him a large sum of silver, but he needed his help to do something. Hou Sheng, who was being forced impatient by the creditor, heard the silver, his eyes immediately lit up, and he hurriedly asked what he needed to do.

The middle-aged man said that the matter was very simple, and asked Hou Sheng if he knew that the son of the rich man Zhang in the south of the city needed pheasant blood to cure the disease.

Hou Sheng replied again and again that he knew, and said that he had sold several pheasants to Rich Zhang's family.

After hearing this, the middle-aged man told him that what he wanted him to do was very simple, that is, to apply a red liquid into the mouth of a pheasant and sell it to the rich man Zhang.

At first, Hou Sheng had doubts and asked why he sold the pheasants coated with that liquid to the Zhang family. But the middle-aged man told Hou Sheng that as far as he knew, pheasant blood actually had no effect on the illness of the Zhang family's son, and it was all psychological factors. This red liquid can be refreshing, and crucially, it can also make the person who eats it addictive, so that the Zhang family's pheasants can be supplied by them for many years to come, and then they can increase the price at will and make as much money as they want. And the middle-aged man also promised that after the deed, the pheasants offered to the Zhang family would be given to Hou Sheng.

After Hou Sheng heard this, he was naturally overjoyed, and even responded.

Subsequently, Hou Sheng got a pheasant, strangled the pheasant to death, smeared the red liquid into the pheasant's mouth, and sent it to Zhang's house. After learning that the young master of the Zhang family was poisoned and died, he had already realized that the red liquid was poison, but after all, he couldn't get rid of it, so when the government took him for questioning, he could only insist that the pheasant vomited blood and died, and concealed the red liquid matter.

"Do you know who the middle-aged man is?" After listening to Hou Sheng's confession, Tang Zhixian asked.

"The villain really doesn't know!" Hou Sheng said helplessly.

"Okay, you can describe the person's appearance, and wait for the official to draw him!" Tang Zhixian said, and began to spread paper and dip pen on the case.

With Hou Sheng's description, a middle-aged man's appearance fell off under Tang Zhixian's pen.

Tang Zhixian waved his hand and asked the official to take the portrait to Hou Sheng to see, and after Hou Sheng saw it, he nodded again and again and said that it was this person.

Tang Zhixian asked the master to look at the portrait confirmed by Hou Sheng, and the master said after seeing it: "Yes, this person is Lu Lian!" ”

After Hou Sheng signed the confession paper and was escorted away, Tang Zhixian said to the man in Tsing Yi who was kneeling on the side of the lobby: "Zhao Zhutou, the play is over, please hurry up and take this painting to arrest Lu Lian." ”

3. Borrowing a knife to kill

The Lu Lian that Zhao Zhutou wanted to arrest was a local medicinal herb merchant. After Zhao Zhutou rushed to Lu Lian's pharmacy, he learned that he had just gone to Linxian County to purchase rehmannia. Fearing that Lu Lian would learn that the crime was exposed and flee, Zhao Zhutou asked Lu Lian where he went, and rode his horse to Linxian County, and successfully arrested Lu Lian in Linxian.

After bringing Lu Lian back, Tang Zhixian began to pass the trial overnight, but Lu Lian denied that he "borrowed a knife to kill people".

Tang Zhixian seemed to have expected Lu Lian to reply like this, and he said unhurriedly: "Two years ago, your daughter was ruined by gangsters and committed suicide in shame, and before she died, she told you that the gangster who ruined her was the young master of the Zhang family. You came to the Yamen to report to the official, but the predecessor of this official initially put Zhang Shao in prison, but later released Zhang Shao on the grounds that the dead man could not confront him. Therefore, you have a grudge in your heart, and you tried every means to want Zhang Shao's life, until you finally killed him with the blood of a pheasant. Can you admit what this official said? ”

Lu Lian's test turned red, and he said loudly: "What the adults said in front is true, but what they say in the back is false!" ”

"Oh?" Tang Zhixian looked at Lu Lian, "Didn't you always want to kill Zhang Shao?" ”

"I really want to kill!" Lu Lian gritted his teeth and said.

"But after Zhang Shao was released from prison, he became insane because of excessive fright, and he shrunk at home every day, so that you can't see him, and of course you can't take revenge, is this statement reliable?" Tang Zhixian asked again.

"Reliable!" Lu Lian replied without hesitation.

"Then, when you learned that Zhang Shao needed to use pheasant blood to treat the disease, you felt that the opportunity had come, so you managed to send the poisonous pheasant into Zhang's house and poisoned Zhang Shao. Is this false? Tang Zhixian continued to ask.

"That's true!" Lu Lian replied, "I think it's really good to kill that villain, but this poisonous pheasant is not my doing, although I don't know who did it, but I still thank him for helping me avenge it!" ”

Tang Zhixian laughed twice: "Lu Lian, Lu Lian, if I were you, I would dare to admit it." It is also glorious to avenge the daughter, at least let the world know that his father is worthy of his daughter! ”

Lu Lian was silent for a moment, and then sighed: "Okay, I'll move, it's true that I sold the poisonous pheasant into the Zhang family and took that kid's life!" ”

Tang Zhixian smiled slightly: "I hope you will tell me in detail—"

Lu Lian nodded and said calmly: "After learning that the kid from the Zhang family needed to drink pheasant blood to cure his illness, I bought a pheasant from someone else, fed it with poison, and sold it to the Zhang family......"

When Tang Zhixian heard this, he restrained the smile on his face and said to the official: "Take Hou Sheng—"

After Hou Sheng was taken into the lobby, Tang Zhixian asked Lu Lian: "Do you recognize the person next to you?" ”

Lu Lian shook his head: "It seems that I have seen it somewhere, and I can't remember it for a while." ”

As soon as Lu Lian's words fell, Hou Sheng shouted: "My lord, this is the person!" Although his voice has changed, his appearance can't change, it's the ...... he asked me to send pheasants to Zhang's house."

Tang Zhixian "snapped" and patted the shocking wood: "Bold Lu Lian, what you do can't be hidden, you can't take the top if you don't do it, quickly recruit with this official!" ”

4. Trap the real culprit

On the morning of the second day, a large number of officials posted arrest notices everywhere in Hanoi County, which stated: When the criminal Lu Lian was taken into prison, he lured the prison guards and absconded, hoping that all those who saw the crime would inform the government. Below the notice, there is a portrait of Lu Lian. After the notice was posted, within two days, the officials arrested a number of people who were similar to the portraits, and then Tang Zhixian began to interrogate them one by one.

After the interrogation, Tang Zhixian walked into the lobby and asked Hou Sheng, who was hiding behind the screen: "There are only a few people, can there be anyone who matches that person's voice?" ”

Hou Sheng nodded and stretched out two fingers: "The second!" ”

Tang Zhixian re-entered the lobby and shouted, "Take the second one to re-enter the hall!" ”

The second person was brought to the hall again, and Tang Zhixian said: "People under the hall, report your name again!" ”

"Go back to the eldest master, the villain Zhang Changlu." This second person responded.

"That's good, Zhang Changlu, quickly confess to the poisonous pheasant!" Tang Zhixian said again.

The other party looked at Tang Zhixian with a stunned expression and said, "Xiaomin doesn't know the meaning of the old man's words. ”

Tang Zhixian sneered, and said to the back of the hall: "The people who are hidden in the back can come out." ”

Hou Sheng walked out from behind the screen. Seeing Hou Sheng, Zhang Changlu under the hall couldn't help but have a trace of panic on his face, which was firmly seen by Tang Zhixian.

Tang Zhixian asked, "Do you know the person who appeared behind the hall?" ”

Zhang Changlu shook his head: "Xiaomin is clumsy, I don't recognize it!" ”

"Okay, you don't recognize me!" Tang Zhixian shouted, "It seems that you don't need to be punished, you won't confess." Someone is coming—the great punishment is waiting! ”

As for the first ** punishment, Zhang Changlu sweated like rain, and he really couldn't bear it: "I'll move—"

Subsequently, everything was summoned:

Some time ago, a man found him and gave him a sum of money, asking him to go to Hou Sheng to talk about sending pheasants to Zhang's family. At first, he was still wondering why the man didn't send pheasants directly to Zhang's house, but found someone else to send them, until Zhang Shao died violently, he didn't know the reason why the man didn't send them directly. He went to the man to ask for an explanation, and the man gave him a hush money and warned him that they were already grasshoppers on a rope, and that if he told the truth, he would also have to suffer a lawsuit. He had no choice but to swallow the matter in his stomach.

"Who is looking for you?" After listening, Tang Zhixian asked.

"This person is Lin Hengsheng, the owner of the Immortal Herb Shop."

Tang Zhixian was busy calling for arrest and arresting Lin Hengsheng immediately.

When Lin Hengsheng was arrested and saw the scene in the lobby, he knew that he couldn't hide anything, so he simply vomited it out: he was against Lu Lian, because the business of his immortal herb shop was always at the bottom of Lu Lian's pharmacy, and he tried all kinds of ways to try to change this situation, but he couldn't change it. He realized that if he wanted to win over Lu Lian's pharmacy, he could only make Lu Lian unable to take care of the pharmacy. So he thought of letting Lu Lian eat a lawsuit, and took advantage of the hatred between Lu Lian and the Zhang family to find a person who looked similar to Lu Lian to do that thing, but he didn't expect to be recognized by Tang Zhixian.

"Aren't you afraid that after Zhang Shao's death, this official won't be able to find Lu Lian at all?" Tang Zhixian asked.

"It's impossible not to find out, if I can't find it, I will also create some incidents and try to lead Lu Lian, I'm not afraid that I won't suspect Lu Lian!" Lin Hengsheng replied, and after answering, he said, "It's just that I wonder what kind of reason made you give up Lu Lian and chase after me?" ”

"Okay, this official might as well talk to you!" Tang Zhixian said slowly, "When Lu Lian confessed to the crime under my persuasion, he said that he bought pheasants himself, fed them with poison and sold them to the Zhang family. These things were obviously done by Hou Sheng, and then I asked Hou Sheng to come out, but he was at a loss to Hou Sheng, and he didn't know him at all, but Hou Sheng insisted that the person who bought him was Lu Lian. I realized that it was likely that the hidden person was someone similar to Lu Lian. Under my interrogation, Lu Lian revealed that when the official persuaded him to confess his guilt, he remembered that he had sworn in front of his daughter's grave that he would avenge his daughter, or even if he couldn't, as long as God opened his eyes and let others kill Zhang Shao for him, he would rather bear the blame for that person. The words of my persuasion at that time made him feel that God had opened his eyes and took the blame away. figured out what happened, in order to lure out the real murderer, the official deliberately let the wind out, saying that the sinner Lu Lian had absconded, so as to search for people similar to Lu Lian. When interrogating those similar people, I asked Hou Sheng to hide behind the screen in the lobby, listen carefully to the voices of these people, and see if there was a voice from the person who bought him, but I didn't expect to really bump into it! ”

After Lin Hengsheng heard this, he sighed heavily and hung his head weakly.

Subsequently, Tang Zhixian ordered the release of the Zhang family's cooks and Lu Lian, who were used to confuse people's eyes, and imprisoned Lin Hengsheng, Zhang Changlu and Hou Sheng together