"This is a good idea, Lord Tongpan!" Ye Duzheng couldn't help but praise after hearing this.
Chen Xiaomu laughed: "Since Master Ye has no objections, let's do it like this tomorrow! Now let's go to the office to look at the case files."
Seeing that Chen Xiaomu was about to leave, Ye Duzheng hurriedly shouted: "Master Tongpan, please go slowly!"
Chen Xiaomu turned around when he heard the sound, looked at Ye Du and said in astonishment: "What? Does Master Ye have anything else?"
Ye Duzheng smiled and said: "Sir, I asked you to leave some food in the dining room! It won't be too late for us to look at the case files after dinner."
Chen Xiaomu stood there and thought for a moment, then said: "Well, it will take a lot of time to go to the dining hall to eat again. Master Ye, please go to the dining hall and let them use the food boxes." The meal will be taken to the official room, and we will eat while looking at the case files."
"Yes, I obey." Ye Duzheng bent down and cupped his hands.
Looking at Ye Duzheng's hurried away figure, Wei Yu couldn't help but asked: "I don't think there is a good person in this government office. This Master Ye seems to be submissive, but in fact he is full of evil intentions! I really don't know why you still use him so much." he!"
Chen Xiaomu, "Oh! How can I see that?"
Wei Yu was dissatisfied and said: "Do you think I'm stupid? Everyone can see that in the court just now, he knew clearly that those servants were extorting money outside, and he still prevaricated you by saying that he wanted to find someone and verify his identity. , deliberately delaying time for them, and he has stayed in the Yamen for such a long time. Even you, a first-time judge in court, can tell that those Yamen servants were doing something wrong when they were dealing with the man named Huang. It’s a fake fight, I don’t believe he can see it?”
Chen Xiaomu chuckled and said: "He is just a master with a slightly higher status than the government officials. What can you ask him to do? If he doesn't play both sides, I'm afraid he will be ostracized in this government office. This is also a helpless move!"
Wei Yuxin sneered and said: "You know that he and those government officials are originally a den of snakes and rats, and you still ask him to investigate the government officials. Aren't you afraid that they will collude to deceive you?"
Chen Xiaomu smiled and pretended to be mysterious: "Miss Wei, how about we make a bet? I bet Ye Duzheng can arrest more than half of the yamen in Xinjing Prefecture in less than three days!"
Hearing this, Wei Yuxin's eyes widened suddenly and he said in surprise: "Master Tongpan, are you crazy? They are in the same group. It would be great if they could catch one or two unlucky people and give them a job in front of you. What else do you want? He caught more than half of them? What a fool’s errand!”
Chen Xiaomu didn't argue with her anymore and said: "Limited to three days, bet ten taels of silver." After that, he walked towards the office.
Wei Yuxin stamped his feet behind him and shouted unconvinced: "Just bet, whoever defaults on the bill is a puppy!"
Chen Xiaomu raised his hand and said, "It's a deal."
In the official room, Chen Xiaomu was sitting behind the desk, with a stack of case files on his left and a large food box with two layers on his right. Ye Du was opening the lid of the food box, and the smell of rice suddenly hit his face. There were three bowls of yellow millet porridge and a basket of steamed cakes placed on the top of the food box. After Ye Duzheng took them out one by one, he reached out and removed the middle partition. On the bottom of the food box were two plates of meat, vegetables and A small plate of pickled white shredded radish was prepared, and the dishes and chopsticks were set out. Ye Du had a troubled look on his face. He took a peek at Wei Yuxin, who was standing aside like a god of plague. He didn't know whether he should invite her to come over for dinner. When Chen Xiaomu saw this, He smiled at Wei Yuxin and said, "What are you doing, Captain Wei, standing here? Come and have a meal!"
Wei Yu wanted to refuse to eat with the two of them, but unfortunately her stomach was not satisfied and it made a growl after smelling the aroma of rice. She had not even had a drink of hot water since she came here in the morning, and her stomach was full of breakfast. I was already hungry, so I had no choice but to borrow the donkey from Poxia. I sat down at the table without saying a word, picked up my chopsticks, lowered my head and ate silently.
Chen Xiaomu breathed a sigh of relief. Originally, he was worried that Wei Yu would not be able to save face and would not dine with them, but now he was finally relieved! He casually picked up a piece of steamed cake with his chopsticks, put it into his mouth and chewed it slowly. Because he drank a lot of wine at noon, he didn't have much appetite at the moment. For him, eating was more about eating with Wei Yuxin. !
To be honest, the steamed cakes that the ancients liked to eat were not delicious at all when Chen Xiaomu ate them. He had no appetite to begin with, and the unpalatable steamed cakes now tasted like chewing gum in his mouth. To pass the time, Chen Xiaomu stretched out his hand from the On the pile of case files, I took down the top one and saw a few shocking words written in red cinnabar pen on the cover of the case file: "The Case of Zhang Xiuying's Murder of Her Husband!" There was a rule in the Zheng Guo government that all the criminals had been arrested. The cover of the case file that sentenced the death penalty must be written with a red cinnabar pen. Chen Xiaomu certainly didn't know about this rule when he first arrived. He had seen the cover and was about to open it. Ye Duzheng, who was always observing Chen Xiaomu's every move, saw this and quickly stretched his head and explained: " Sir, the case of Zhang Xiuying's murder of her husband has been reported to the Ministry of Punishment for review and approval by the government. Although Zhang Xiuying complained about her injustice in every possible way, it is useless for her to deny it in the face of conclusive evidence! Chen Xiaomu did not comment on Ye Duzheng's statement. , but opened the cover of the case file on his own. Sure enough, as Ye Duzheng said, the first piece in the case file was the beheading order approved by the Ministry of Punishment, ordering the Xinjing Prefecture Yatong to sentence Jia Gui within ten days of the beheading order. The criminal Zhang Xiuying was identified, taken to the execution ground, and beheaded. Her head was placed in a special wooden cage and displayed in public for three days. As long as Zhang Xiuying's name was on the entire beheading order, it was all written with a red cinnabar pen. Look again. Looking at the date of approval below the beheading order, today is already the seventh day, which means that in Chen Xiaomu’s short five-day term, as the successor to Jia Guitong, he will behead Zhang Xiuying in public during his term!”
Taking away the beheading order from the Ministry of Punishment, the following is the transcript of the confession when the Ministry of Punishment reported the case to the Ministry of Punishment in Xinjing Prefecture and sent people to interrogate Zhang Xiuying. The confession recorded above was very small, and it did not even fill a piece of paper. There is still a two-finger-wide blank space below, which is nothing more than a routine, just a formality! "
Chen Xiaomu continued to scroll down. Below were some witness testimonies with fingerprints, most of which were given by neighbors of Zhang Xiuying's family. Chen Xiaomu carefully looked at the content of these testimonies, and two testimonies caught his attention. These two testimonies were The testimonies of Zhang Xiuying's son Dong Ping and daughter Dong Xiao'e, but when he carefully read these two testimonies, he couldn't help but be disappointed. It turned out that what was recorded in these two testimonies actually listed the affairs between Zhang Xiuying and her husband Dong Wei in the past year. Time and frequency of quarrels! As for what it means? Chen Xiaomu estimated that this was probably what Jia Gui identified as Zhang Xiuying's motive for committing the crime!
Next, as expected, after going through the witness testimonies, Jia Gui extended the above witness testimonies to the following summary of the case to mean that Zhang Xiuying was resentful of her husband Dong Wei, so when Dong Wei went into the mountains to chop firewood, she took the opportunity to send him to him. Poison was put into the food and her husband Dong Wei was poisoned to death!
After turning over the entire case file, Chen Xiaomu had only one feeling. This case was incredible. In addition to the doubtful motive of the quarrel between the husband and wife, he still didn’t even know what poison Zhang Xiuying used to poison her husband Dong Wei. Chen Xiaomu put the case files together and put them away. He stepped aside and said to Ye Duzheng: "Zhang Xiuying's case is an unjust case and must be retried!"
"This...!" Ye Duzheng was shocked at first when he heard this, and then wondered: "Master Tongsheng, Zhang Xiuying's case has been approved by the Ministry of Criminal Justice. If it needs to be retried, there may be many difficulties!"
Chen Xiaomu said coldly: "Master Ye, this case is a matter of life and death. Once the head falls to the ground, it will be impossible to pick it up again! Let alone the approval of the Ministry of Punishment, even if it is approved by the emperor, it will have to be retried!"
Seeing this, Ye Duzheng quickly echoed: "Yes, yes, Lord Tongpan has a keen eye, and his subordinates will fully cooperate!"
Chen Xiaomu nodded slightly, "That's good."
As he spoke, Wei Yuxin put down the chopsticks in his hand and said, "I'm done eating. You guys eat slowly."
When Chen Xiaomu heard the sound, he put down his chopsticks and said with a smile, "I've finished eating too."
Ye Duzheng was only half-full at this time. Seeing that neither of them had eaten, he had to put down his chopsticks and said with a forced smile: "I've eaten too!" After that, he started to clear the dishes on the table.
Then Chen Xiaomu took down the second case file from the pile of case files. When he looked at the cover of the case file, there were several words written with a cinnabar pen on it. After opening the "Wang Lianshan Rebellion Case", the first page of the case file was the approval of the Ministry of Punishment. The beheading order was approved on the same day as Zhang Xiuying's case. She was also beheaded within ten days, and her head was placed in a wooden cage and displayed to the public for three days! In order to save time this time, Chen Xiaomu simply turned over the witness statements and went straight to the case summary. Only after reading the case summary did Chen Xiaomu understand. It turns out that Wang Lianshan did not just rebel in words, but actually killed a court official named Li Han. Speaking of which, Li Han, the court official, was not a big official, but he was the old emperor of Zheng Guo, Su Chengxuan. Su Chengxuan Long Yan was furious because he was the eighth-rank Xuanjie Colonel in the bodyguard, and ordered his portrait to be posted nationwide for arrest. Finally, one year after the incident, Wang Lianshan could not suppress the pain of homesickness and quietly lurked. After returning to his home in Xinjing City to reunite with his wife and children for a few days, he happened to be caught by Li Jiange, a police officer in Xinjing Prefecture, who took it down and handed it over to the government!
However, there are two points in this case that make Chen Xiaomu question. First, it is said that the kung fu of the guard Li Han of the emperor must be much higher than that of the Xinjing government official Li Jiange, but the result It was Wang Lianshan who could easily kill the guards, but he was captured by an ordinary police officer in the government office. This has to be puzzling! The second point is why did Wang Lianshan kill the guard Li Han? According to the reason stated in this case summary, when Wang Lianshan was drinking in a restaurant called Sijichun, he had a conflict with Li Han, who was also drinking in the restaurant, because of a woman who was a singer in the restaurant. After Li Han revealed his true identity, Wang Lianshan He still refused to give up and scolded Li Han for being so great, but he was just a dog kept by the emperor! When Li Han heard this, he felt that this was not bad. He called the guards around the emperor like dogs. Wasn't this a clear intention to rebel? He immediately pounced on him to arrest him and bring him to the official meeting. However, he stumbled because he had drunk too much. Instead, Wang Lianshan succeeded. He rushed over to grab him, pulled out the sword hanging from his waist, and stabbed Li Han with one smooth move. It was pierced into the chest, and a knife penetrated the front and back! Let Li Han die on the spot.
