It takes about half a day to ride a horse from the capital in the suburbs of Beijing, and Tang Su and Yan Miao, who set off from the capital after breakfast, are dressed in regular clothes, and finally arrive at the outskirts of Beijing before evening.

The suburbs of Beijing are actually just a general name, to be exact, the northern suburbs of the capital, the capital of the Liang country is just in the center of the Liang territory, and the small villages in the north of the capital are gathered in the northern suburbs of the capital, and there are large towns in the north. Because the county towns in the southeast, east and west of the capital are all close to the capital, only the north is considered a suburb, so the suburbs of Beijing refer to some villages north of the capital.

Today, Tang Su and his entourage came to Zhaojia Village on the outskirts of Beijing, the village chief of Zhaojia Village is the father of a general under Tang Su, but the sword on the battlefield has no eyes, this general unfortunately died, Tang Su felt guilty and often came to visit, just in the name of the team leader.

After Tang Su got off the horse, he went to the village chief's house, the old man seemed to have been waiting at the door for a long time, Tang Su and his subordinates stepped forward to call their uncle, and after a few words of greeting, they were invited into the old mansion that was not too big, and Yan Miao also followed Tang Su and went in together.

After entering the house, Yan Miao stood beside Tang Su, and only then did she see the appearance of the old man, who was about fifty years old, with white hair and beard, his face was full of wrinkles, and he was wearing a pair of extremely worn reading glasses on his eyes.

It's just that at this moment, the old man was full of sadness, and he paced back and forth in the small room for two or three laps.

"It's good that uncle has something to say, don't worry about it." Tang Su said with relief.

"Tang Su, my uncle didn't want you to bother about this matter, but my uncle thought about it, and you were the only one who could find help." The old man frowned and said this.

"It's okay, Zhao Yan has been fighting with me for many years, and we are like brothers, and now that he is gone, you can just treat me as him." Tang Su changed his appearance from the past, and his affectionate appearance when he spoke at this time made Yan Miao see a little god, does Tang Su still have such a side, Yan Miao has a little respect for Tang Su.

"Hey, thanks to you... The old man wiped a handful of tears and continued: "Originally, it was just two days ago that a villager hanged himself, and everyone wanted to be buried after the funeral, but it was late at night, and there were many inconveniences, so I decided to bury this long work during the day the next day, but I didn't expect that a person was hanged again on the morning of the second day, and the villagers are now panicking." ”

"It's just that we in this poor country don't have an official government, and there is no pretense, and no one dares to touch the corpse, so we have to call you here. These two murders have not been solved for a long time, and the villagers are panicked, originally our Zhaojia Village was not closed at night, but now no one dares to go out at night except for the watch. ”

"Uncle, don't worry, I'll take my brothers to check it out now, can you please take us to see these two people?"

So the old man took Tang Su and his party to the grass house where the mortuary was placed, where the bodies of a man and a woman were placed, fortunately, the weather was high and crisp in the past two days, the room was dilapidated but also gout, the corpse did not stink, and it was generally well preserved.

The old man nodded to Tang Su and said, "The old man also knows that the ancients have a cloud: prison affairs are more important than the great love, the great love is more important than the first love, and the first love is not more important than the test. So I left the two bodies here completely, and I didn't let people move, and I thought you could find out something. ”

Yan Miao understood in her heart that the meaning of this sentence was: There is nothing more important in a criminal case than a death penalty case, there is nothing more important in a death penalty case than to find out the initial facts of the case, and there is nothing more important than testing to find out the initial facts of the case.

So it's very useful at times like these.

"This man is an old bachelor in the village, Boss Zhang, he is alone in his family, he helps people every day, and the few money he earns are used to drink, but he is a duty. This woman is Cuihua, the wife of our village butcher, who is greased and powdered on weekdays, and is worried about many old bachelors. The old man briefly introduced the two to Tang Su.

Tang Su nodded and said, "Uncle, this is my fellow villager's work, don't look at her as a girl, but she has real talent and learning, please rest assured." ”

"It doesn't matter if it's a girl, as long as you can find out the truth and give the villagers an explanation." The old man's brow finally stretched a little.

After Yan Miao washed her hands carefully, she stepped forward and whispered, "I'm offended." Then he looked at the clothes of the two of them, and then looked at the marks on their necks, then frowned and looked at Tang Su: "Wang ,,, Tang Gongzi, these two people definitely didn't hang themselves." ”

After hearing this, Tang Su nodded and motioned for her to continue.

"First of all, look at the man's neck, there are strangulation marks on the neck, but it is white, which means that the man was hung after death, and if he hanged himself, the strangulation marks must be blue and purple."

"Secondly, the man is neatly dressed, but there are a few scraps of grass and trees at the corners of his trousers, and his feet are wearing a pair of shoes that have just been washed and not yet on the ground, which is about a set of clothes and shoes that someone has changed into after killing him and moving him from somewhere."

Yan Miao pointed to the traces of grass and wood juice on the man's trouser leg and said: "The murderer probably got a lot of grass and wood debris himself, and he didn't pay attention when he changed clothes, so he got on the man's trouser leg." ”

Then Yan Miao checked the man's eyes, mouth, nose, and head, and found nothing abnormal, so she asked someone to take off the man's clothes, leaving only the dirty pants.

As soon as the clothes and tights were taken off, everyone saw that there was an extremely deep knife mark on the man's chest, but it didn't seem to be a frontal stab, and when they turned over, they found that the knife mark behind the back was even bigger.

It is recorded in the "Collection of Records of Clearing Grievances" that "if the wound is caused by a blade, the person who passes through must look at the internal and external sores, the large part is the blade place, and the small part is the place where the pass is through." ”

This means that if a sharp object is stabbed and the wound penetrates to the other side, it is necessary to examine the wound on both sides, the larger side for the entrance and the smaller side for the exit.

Yan Miao said again: "This murderer gave this man a fatal blow from behind, but with such a deep wound, the murderer must be a person with great strength, and this knife is not an ordinary knife, it should be a longer and extremely sharp knife." ”

"Uncle, is there a butcher who kills pigs in your village?" Listening to Yan Miao's words, Tang Su asked.

"This is natural, there are three butchers in our village, namely Zhang Ergou, Zhang Gouwa, and Zhang Goudan. The woman next to her was Zhang Ergou's wife. ”

"Why is it all related to dogs, aren't the three of them brothers?" Yan Miao wondered.

"These three men have similar names, but they are not brothers. The girl doesn't know, in a poor rural area like ours, most people are willing to have a relationship with pigs and dogs, because the villagers think that cheap names are easy to feed. The old man explained.

Yan Miao nodded, but she had also heard this kind of statement.