"Your Excellency. Wang Zhiyuan walked in, and Xie Huchen was sitting in the inner hall drinking tea, as if waiting for him.

"Zhiyuan, what's the matter?" Xie Huchen asked.

"My lord, according to your orders, I sold the furniture and antique calligraphy and paintings, a total of three thousand taels of silver. Wang Zhiyuan said.

"Hmph, three thousand taels, this is enough for hundreds of ordinary people to spend a year, corrupt officials are hateful. Xie Huchen snorted coldly.

"That'...... My lord, what to do with this money. Wang Zhiyuan asked.

"Confiscation and storage, many things in the county need money, now is the flood season, can be used to strengthen the river embankment, can repair one more meter is one meter. Xie Huchen said.

"My lord, this is the money bag you left in my house, I specially sent it back to you, you are really tormented by this. Wang Zhiyuan suddenly took out the money bag from his arms and handed it over with both hands.

"It's all a little bit of my heart, you can take it. Xie Huchen said.

"Thank you, my subordinates, but if that's the case, I won't have the face to stay in the yamen any longer, and there are still many people in the county who are more difficult than me, so please take it back." Wang Zhiyuan insisted.

"Well, in that case, I won't force it anymore. Xie Huchen took back the money bag, and only said in his heart that although Wang Zhiyuan was usually confused, he was also a high-minded person.

"Yes, my lord......" Wang Zhiyuan looked hesitant.

"Is there anything else you need? Zhiyuan. Xie Huchen looked up at Wang Zhiyuan.

"My lord, there is no other command, and the subordinates have retreated. Wang Zhiyuan seemed to want to speak and stopped.

"Okay, you go get busy. Xie Huchen did not continue to ask. He knew that if Wang Zhiyuan wanted to say something, he would naturally say it, and he just had to wait.

Suddenly, there was a loud drum in front of the yamen, and this was someone beating the drum.

"Ascension!" Xie Huchen wore an official uniform for the first time and slapped the shocking wood in his hand.

"Wei ...... Wu ......"

I saw an old woman rushing in, and Putong knelt down under the hall, crying and shouting, Xie Huchen hurriedly asked people to help her get up and speak.

Under careful questioning, it turned out that the woman had a daughter, sixteen years old, because her husband died early, the mother and daughter depended on each other, yesterday the daughter went out to pick tea, suddenly disappeared, can not be found, the woman is desperate, so she has to report to the official today.

"Come on, call Song Zhutou to come. Xie Huchen said.

"My lord, will you pass me?" Song Wu walked quickly up to the hall.

"This lady's daughter disappeared yesterday, and the clues to her appearance have been recorded, and she has to bother Song to catch her head. Xie Huchen said.

Song Wu took the case file, read it carefully, and said with a big change in his face: "My lord, I have something to report, I don't know if it has anything to do with this case......

"What's the matter?" Xie Huchen hurriedly asked.

"When the patrol of the fast shift was patrolling the city today, a female corpse was found by the river, who looked to be sixteen or seventeen years old, and had just been transported back to the mortuary, and she was being examined. Song Wu replied.

When the woman who reported the crime heard this, she trembled, and her eyes were full of fear.

Everyone immediately rushed to the mortuary, and the moment they saw the cold corpse, the woman immediately fainted, and when she woke up, she beat her chest and cried, and the corpse was indeed her daughter.

Seeing that the woman really couldn't control her emotions, Xie Huchen had no choice but to let someone accompany her out to rest first.

"My lord, judging from my years of experience, the time of death of the corpse should have been around the middle of last night, and the corpse showed signs of being violated. He said.

"Bastard, it's this flower thief again. Song Wu said indignantly.

"Song Zhutou, do you mean that more than one person has been killed?" Xie Huchen asked.

"Yes, my lord, before you arrived, there have been three young girls killed in this month, and today this girl is the fourth, and now the people of this county are panicking, we investigate day and night, but we have not been able to catch the murderer. Song Wu replied.

"With this incident, we can no longer let this murderer go unpunished, and the files of the previous cases will be transferred, and this official will personally handle the case. Xie Huchen said angrily.

In the class room, Xie Huchen summoned all the people on duty to come back to study the case, he had just arrived in office, and such a serious murder occurred, if the case is not solved, I am afraid that the future work in the county will be more difficult.

"Colleagues, we will first introduce the case to you by Song Zhutou, and then we will express our opinions and speak freely, there is no official position here today. Xie Huchen said.

Song Wu secretly wondered in his heart, he had always come to the county government to handle criminal cases, and he and the fast patrol were all handled by him, and he could report after the case was closed, and the previous magistrate never worried about it. As today, it is the first time that the county magistrate has personally taken command and summoned all the people from the county government to jointly handle the case.

Then the subordinate trespassed. Song Wu hurriedly recounted the three murders in detail in the past month.

After research, everyone found that these four murders have several things in common.

First, the time of the crime was concentrated in the child; second, the victims were all sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls; third, the victims had strangulation marks on their necks, and they were all violated before their deaths and then strangled to death; fourth, the places where the bodies were found were all by the river.

Looking at the file on the table, Xie Huchen touched his chin and fell into deep thought.

"Since the beginning of this month, I have been patrolling every night, and it is said that it is impossible for our brothers to ignore such a big movement of picking flowers and killing people. Song Wu said.

"Take a map of the whole county. Xie Huchen said suddenly.

"My lord, the map. Wang Da hurriedly took the map.

"Song Zhutou, please mark the location of the four corpses on the map. Xie Huchen said.

Song Wu hurriedly marked four points on the map and said, "I have also studied these locations, and there seems to be no connection, the murderer should have committed the crime in a random place, so it is difficult for us to find his pattern." ”

Xie Huchen looked at the four dots on the picture, and kept thinking in his mind.

"And according to the report of the neighboring county, there have been such murders in the past few months, presumably it was committed by wandering, and the murderer is not a native of our Yi County. Song Zhutou said.

"In other words, if we don't catch him again, he may run away and never commit a crime in Yixian again. Wang Zhiyuan said.

"Wang Xiancheng is in a word, so we must catch him, and we must not let the murderer escape from our Yixian. Xie Huchen said.

"The subordinates have pursued them with all their might, but there are no clues. Song Wu said.

"My lord, although Song Zhutou often makes some small mistakes on weekdays, he has always been reliable in handling cases, and he will never deal with the errands, and this subordinate can guarantee it. Wang Zhiyuan said.

Xie Huchen looked at the two of them and said, "Don't worry, this official didn't doubt Song Zhutou's ability, I was just thinking, if this murderer doesn't commit any more crimes, won't we never be able to catch him." ”

"What do you mean...... my lord," Song Wu asked.

"Lead the snake out of the hole......" Xie Huchen said word by word.

Everyone looked at each other, not knowing the meaning of his words.

"Tell everyone what the condition of the corpse is. Xie Huchen said.

"Lord Hui, the state of this corpse, it is obvious that there was fierce resistance before his death, and there are two strangulation marks on his neck, presumably he was strangled by the murderer first, and then strangled the victim after committing the crime. He said.

When everyone present heard these words, they were filled with righteous indignation, and their anger was overflowing.

"Song Zhutou, are there any traces of a fight at the scene of Chen's corpse?" Xie Huchen asked again.

"Back to my lord, the grass at the scene is neat, and there are no traces of fighting. Song Wu replied.

"Do you know what this means?" Xie Huchen said.

"The riverside is not the first crime scene. Wang Zhiyuan suddenly realized.

"That's right, this is also why Song Zhutou arranged manpower to patrol day and night, but there were no clues, it is said that these victims are all girls, and it is impossible to go out when they are young, so it can only be that they were tied up early, hidden somewhere, and only came out to throw their bodies after they were killed. Xie Huchen said.

"What the adults said is very true, and the subordinates also think so, so we arranged for people to strictly investigate near the place where the corpse was displayed, but nothing was found. Song Wu said stupidly.

"Song Zhutou, you missed a point, you focused on the corpse, but neglected to investigate the place where the victim was tied up before his death. Xie Huchen's eyes were shining.

"Oops, I didn't think of that. Song Wu slapped his thigh and stood up.

"When you look at the map, I read the testimonies of the victim's family and many witnesses in the file, and basically delineated the possible route of the victim's abduction, and see if there is any connection with the location of the body. Xie Huchen drew four lines on the map with cinnabar, and circled the four corpse sites.

"The places where the bodies were displayed were all on the west bank of the river, and the places where the victims disappeared were all on the east bank of the river. Wang Zhiyuan said.

"The victims were big people, and it was unlikely that the murderer would have gone too far from the hiding place to kidnap people, which would be too attention-grabbing, and the reason why the bodies were deliberately dumped on the west bank of the river at night was actually to divert the attention of our investigation, so that our investigation would find nothing. Song Wu groaned.

"What Song Zhutou said is right, so my idea is that along these four routes, we arrange slender yachas, men disguised as women, and after nightfall, lead the snake out of the hole, maybe there will be unexpected gains. Xie Huchen said confidently.

"The adult woke up the dreamer with a word, but there are so many of us, who will pretend to be a woman, my big black who is five big and three thick will definitely not be good. Song Wu said embarrassedly.

Xie Yicheng looked around and said, "Come on, go get a set of women's clothes and dress up Wang Xiancheng." ”

"Your Excellency...... How can this be. As soon as Wang Zhiyuan wanted to excuse himself, he was held down by a group of coaxing yacha and forced to change into women's clothes.

When everyone looked at it, don't say it, this Wang Zhiyuan has a delicate face, a thin body, and a scholarly weakness, this women's clothing is really a little similar, if you draw some heavy makeup powder, you can't really tell if you don't look carefully.