Since then, the story of the "water monster" cannibalizing people in the bayou of Beijiang has been solved.
The people praised one after another: The county magistrate has managed well, and Zhang Shaofei has done a great good deed for us by eliminating one harm.
Zhang Shaofei uncovered the case of "water monster" cannibalizing people. Carrying the bag of silver reward, as soon as he stepped into the door of his house, Wang Shaoxiang saw him and asked angrily: "Where have you been these two days? How many days have you been there? There is no news." None! You have hair, wings and can fly! Do you know how worried I am about you?!"
It turned out that Zhang Shaofei was about to say goodbye to the county magistrate Zhang Zhongchang at Dongkou Sidu that day. Zhang Zhongchang stopped him and got into his carriage, which took Zhang Shaofei back to the county government office. The county magistrate was eager to solve the case, so he kindly invited Zhang Shaofei to stay and continued to discuss strategies in the back hall. Since solving the case requires preparing relevant items in advance, Zhang Shaofei has to handle it himself. Therefore, he can only go home after the case is solved.
Seeing that his mother was so worried about his safety, Zhang Shaofei hurriedly knelt down in front of Lu Huilan and recounted the past two days. Finally, he handed the bag of reward money to Lu Huilan and said, "Mother, at that time, I was afraid that my mother would be worried about me, so I didn't come back to tell you."
What else can be said? Wang Shaoxiang looked at Zhang Shaofei in front of him, sighed, and murmured to himself: Well, it seems that Fei'er has grown up, and Youdao is a "big boy in the world". There are some things that you are worried about. Nothing to worry about.
…
Early the next morning, after breakfast, Wang Shaoxiang took out the bag of bounty money, divided it into three parts, and said to Zhang Shaofei: "Fei'er, take the time to go to the county government today and give these twenty taels of silver to Mr. Zhang." "The twenty taels of silver are given to Lu Huilan as a reward, and the remaining twenty taels of silver will be saved by my mother for you."
Zhang Shaofei nodded and said, "My mother is right, I will go to the county government first."
"Go back quickly!" Wang Shaoxiang looked at him and told Zhang Shaofei again and again.
"Well, don't worry, grandma." After Zhang Shaofei said that, he picked up a piece of money and went out.
Zhang Shaofei came all the way to the county government office. The two government officials in front of the door recognized Zhang Shaofei at a glance and introduced him to the back hall very politely.
Zhang Zhongchang had not arrived at the time to go to the hall, and was having dinner in the back hall. When he saw Zhang Shaofei, he immediately asked him to go over and have breakfast before talking.
Zhang Shaofei said politely: "Xiaomin has had breakfast at home. Mr. Zhang, please take your time. I will wait for you outside."
"No, you can sit on the chair on the table. It's more convenient for us to chat while eating." Zhang Zhongchang said as he poured a cup of tea for Zhang Shaofei himself and placed it in front of Zhang Shaofei.
Zhang Shaofei was once again moved by Mr. Zhang's courtesy and virtuous behavior.
After the meal, Zhang Zhongchang looked at Zhang Shaofei kindly, and started to chat with Zhang Shaofei.
When Zhang Zhongchang learned that the young man in front of him was the son of his mentor Pei Zhong's classmate Zhang Jinzhao, he was really sad and looked Zhang Shaofei up and down.
When Zhang Shaofei saw Mr. Zhang looking at him intently, he told Zhang Zhongchang his purpose.
After hearing this, Zhang Zhongchang said a little unhappy: "A Fei, your mother is worrying too much. It is my job to help you. You deserve this silver reward. Take it back and honor your mother. She has worked so hard." It is not easy to raise you! I will definitely visit your mother someday and thank her for raising a smart and capable person for the people."
After Zhang Shaofei thanked his mother on behalf of his mother, he was about to stand up and leave when he suddenly heard Zhang Zhongchang sigh softly, "Alas" and stopped talking.
Zhang Shaofei asked: "What are you sighing about?"
When Zhang Zhongchang asked, he hesitated for a moment and then said, "Well, it's not related to the case. This time I was transferred to Qiu County. I looked through old cases a few days ago and found that the verdict of a rape and murder case may be wrong. But I didn't have a clue for the moment. That’s why I sigh in depression.”
"Oh, that's it. I wonder if you have doubts about that rape and murder case?" Zhang Shaofei asked by the way.
So, Zhang Zhongchang told Zhang Shaofei the story of the case:
It turns out that there was an Orion in Ding Village near the county seat of Qiu County. His surname was Wu and his given name was Er. He lost his wife in middle age and did not remarry. He only had a daughter named Feiyan.
Wu Er worked hard to raise his daughter. Finally, Feiyan turned eighteen.
As the saying goes, eighteen girls are like a flower. Feiyan is also as beautiful as a flower, clever and very filial to her father.
Wu Er regarded his daughter as the apple of his eye and loved her very much.
When the matchmaker saw that a girl from the Wu family had grown up, she came to her door every day to propose marriage.
But Feiyan loves her lonely father very much, and Wu Er also thinks that her daughter is still young and is reluctant to leave her, so she has not discussed marriage.
Unexpectedly, in this year, something unexpected happened.
One day, Wu Er came home late from hunting in the mountains. When he saw the door of his house open, he knew something was wrong. He immediately shouted, "Ayan!" but there was no response from his daughter.
Wu Er hurriedly lit the lamp and saw his daughter tied naked to the bed and bench.
Wu Er hurriedly stepped forward and placed his hand on Feiyan's head. He found that he had stopped breathing, but half of his tongue was left at the foot of the bed.
Wu Er immediately ran to the county government to report the incident.
The former magistrate Tan was a sloppy person, so he ordered people to go to the scene to conduct an autopsy and ordered the search for the murderer.
A few days later, the police arrested a man with a severed tongue in a ruined temple.
This man's surname is Fu, and his name is Chong. He is from Duji Village, a neighboring village of Ding Village. He is a good food, lazy person, and a wanderer.
During the trial, the man's tongue was broken and his speech was slurred.
What he said roughly means: that evening, he passed by Wu Er's house and saw that the door was open, so he slipped in, hugged Fei Yan and kissed her, but she bit off her tongue. He was in terrible pain, so he ran away in a hurry without killing Fei Yan. Yan.
Tan Zhixian struggled to listen to Fu Chong's confession, but he didn't believe it, so he sentenced him to serve in prison.
Fu Chong was beaten into submission and had to admit to raping and killing Feiyan.
Based on this confession, the magistrate of Tan County sentenced Fu Chong to death and will be executed later in the year.
After listening to Magistrate Zhang's statement, Zhang Shaofei said: "Master Zhang is very aware of everything and it is quite reasonable to suspect that this case is an unjust, false and wrong case."
Then, Zhang Shaofei analyzed the doubtful points of the case:
For example, after Fu Chong had his tongue bitten off by Ding Feiyan, he must have been in agony and rolling on the spot. So, what mood does Fu Chong have in mind to commit violence again?
And judging from the scene, the murderer took off Feiyan's ankle straps, tied her hands, and then stripped her of her clothes. According to this reasoning, there must be more than one perpetrator, and the murderer cannot be a person who has cut off his tongue.
Zhang Zhixian listened to Zhang Shaofei's analysis and nodded in agreement.
After Zhang Shaofei finished his analysis, Zhang Zhixianyan asked sincerely: "Is there any strategy to solve the case?"
Zhang Shaofei pretended to be mysterious and said: "To catch the real culprit, it must be like this..." After Zhang Shaofei finished speaking, he whispered a clever plan into Zhang Zhixian's ear.
After hearing this, Magistrate Zhang came up with clever ideas.
The next day, Zhang Zhixian acted according to the plan, went to court to review the case, took Fu Chong out of the death row, beat him thirty times, and released him on the spot.
Fu Chong took up his pen and wrote the words "Thank you, Master Qingtian" under the court, kowtowed three times and left.
From now on, Zhang Zhixian went to court every day to interrogate the bed, bench and two leg straps in Wu Er's home.
It was determined that the bed and bench were circumstantial evidence in the murder case, and the leg straps were accomplices. These two items were required to be confessed and to be punished with meritorious services.
After the news spread, people who heard such novel news from far and near found it very ridiculous.
People who came to watch the excitement whispered, saying that the new county magistrate must be mentally ill. How could he try a case like this? What an anecdote for the ages.
A few days later, a notice was posted outside the Yamen: Tomorrow, the case of Wu Feiyan’s rape and murder will be reviewed. Men from Dingcun, Duji and Qiu counties within the jurisdiction must be present to observe, otherwise they will be punished as guilty of the crime.
Early that morning, there was already a sea of people outside the Yamen.
Because there were too many people, the government office lobby could not accommodate so many people, so the review had to be held in the county government compound.
As soon as the court opening time came, Zhang Zhixian sat high on the chair for the county magistrate placed on the steps. He was stunned and announced in public: In order to investigate this rape and murder case, this officer has shocked people. In the three realms of gods and ghosts, a god reported a dream yesterday, saying that today the real murderer could be caught and the case solved. I have ordered the officers to tie the deceased's two leg straps to the two stone pillars in the courtyard. All men who want to walk out of the Yamen must automatically line up and walk one by one with their hands on the straps. Whoever is the murderer will have the leg straps tied to them. Wring his hands.
People were not prepared for what Zhang Zhixian would do, and they became nervous and fell into silence.
People who had nothing to do with the case believed in gods and walked past calmly one after another.
About an hour later, the number of people staying in the courtyard gradually became less and less. But the murderer has not yet appeared.
The people who walked out of the Yamen refused to leave and wanted to see the county magistrate catch the murderer.
Zhang Zhixian seemed to be very confident and kept a close eye on the remaining people.
Strangely enough, at this moment, I saw two people hesitantly approaching the foot straps tied to the two stone pillars in the courtyard. Their hands were shaking violently before they even touched the foot straps.
When Zhang Zhixian saw this, he shouted: "These two people are murderers! Get them!"
Several government officials immediately went to catch the two men, and the scene burst into cheers.
Zhang Shaofei's clever plan worked.
Zhang Zhixian laid a suspicion array to interrogate the bed bench and leg straps, but secretly conducted an undercover investigation and got clues about the two suspects.
The two suspects, one named Yan Fakui and the other Cui Defu, were from Qiu County. They were the two scoundrels who punched and kicked the old beggar during the Mid-Autumn Festival and severely injured Zhang Shaofei.
Cui Defu and Yan Fakui usually get together. They are fond of prostitution, gambling and misbehavior. They are famous rogues in this area. They cheat, kidnap, plunder, bully men and women, and commit all kinds of evil. In the days when this case occurred, the two disappeared without a trace. .
After Fu Chong was arrested and sent to death row, the two men reappeared. They peeked at the magistrate's bench and the interrogation belt in the crowd, secretly laughing at the new magistrate for being a big idiot, but they didn't know that they were caught in the trap.
Under interrogation, the truth came out.
It turned out that Fu rushed into the door that day and asked for a kiss, but Feng Feiyan bit off his tongue and ran away in embarrassment. Cui Defu and Yan Fakui happened to pass by Feng's house, entered the house and tied up Feng Feiyan and raped her.
Afterwards, I was afraid that the Dongchuang incident would happen, so I simply strangled Feng Feiyan to death.
Cui Defu and Yan Fakui never thought that the sky network was so vast that they could not escape Zhang Shaofei's clever plan.
