When the interrogation was not sure how to proceed, a government officer suddenly came to report.
"Lord Qi, an unknown female body was found by the river outside the city!"
The moment they heard that the unknown female body was found, everyone was startled.
Wang Qingping, here, turned back and looked outside the government office, not knowing what he was looking at.
After Xu Zhiyuan came to his senses, he immediately said: "Take Wang Qingping into custody first, and the others will go to the scene with me!"
Now Wang Qingping can't ask anything at all. The most important thing is that he can't use torture.
In Yang Wuhui's view, the most important thing is not the issue of torture, but the lack of conclusive evidence.
Wang Qingping was taken into custody, and Yang Wuhui naturally followed Xu Zhiyuan to the scene to investigate.
After arriving at the scene, Xu Zhiyuan looked at a body wrapped in white cloth on the ground. He opened it and almost vomited it out.
Then he quickly covered the female corpse with a white cloth and walked away in disgust.
After he was far away, Xu Zhiyuan asked: "Who discovered this body?"
At this time, the yamen servant brought an honest farmer to Xu Zhiyuan.
The farmer still had a hoe in his hand. It seemed that he found the body when he was going to work.
Xu Zhiyuan said to the farmer: "Is this the body you found?"
The farmer was obviously still a little frightened at this moment, and when he saw the official asking him, he couldn't help but explain tremblingly: "Sir, it was the villain who discovered it!"
Xu Zhiyuan added: "Tell me in detail how you found the body, and you must not hide anything!"
The farmer replied: "Yes, sir!"
Then, he talked about the process of discovering the body.
"The villain went out to work this morning. When he was walking on the road over there, he noticed that there seemed to be a person lying here by the river. The villain quickly ran over to check and found the female body, so he immediately reported it to the official!"
At this time, Xu Zhiyuan looked at Yang Wuhui, and his meaning was self-evident.
"What do you think, Brother Yang?"
Yang Wuhui said: "What he said should be true. This matter has nothing to do with him!"
The farmer nodded his head like a chicken pecking at rice.
"Yes, yes, this has nothing to do with villains!"
At this time, Qin Shaoan also came with Wu Zuo.
Wu covered his nose with a cloth before he stepped forward to check on the body. After working for a while, Wu Zuo came to Xu Zhiyuan's side.
Xu Zhiyuan asked: "Old Zeng, did this person drown?"
Lao Zhao replied: "Master Qi, she probably drowned. I checked her mouth and nose and found that there was sediment in both her mouth and nose. Generally, this happens only after drowning. Judging from the edema on the surface of the corpse , her death time should be in the middle of the night yesterday, between midnight and midnight. I remember it rained heavily in the middle of the night yesterday. I guess it was when I was walking at night, the road slipped, and I accidentally fell into the water and drowned. ”
Hearing this conclusion, Xu Zhiyuan breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as it's not a homicide, it's fine.
He immediately said to Yang Wuhui: "Brother Yang, do you think this female corpse could be that Lady Zhao?"
Yang Wuhui did not answer Xu Zhiyuan, but asked: "What kind of woman would not sleep in the middle of the rainy night, choose to walk at night, and get drowned in such a place?"
This statement shocked everyone at the scene. In the middle of the night, a woman walked to the river even though it was raining. This seemed to be unreasonable!
When Wu Zuo heard this, he was stunned for a moment, and then became a little dissatisfied.
"Mr. Yang thinks that I made a mistake in my judgment. I have been in the gambling business for decades!"
Yang Wuhui and Wu Zuo were old acquaintances. Although Wu Zuo also knew that Yang Wuhui had helped the prefect solve many important cases, he doubted his professional standards, so he had a problem.
You know, the martial arts of Wu Zuo is generally passed down from one generation to the next, and most people really don't want to do this kind of work of dealing with corpses.
Either it is passed down from father to son, or from master to apprentice.
It can be said that this is an iron rice bowl.
It's just ordinary people who don't care about it.
Yang Wuhui approached the corpse, uncovered the white cloth, and looked at the swollen appearance of the corpse. The facial features were already unrecognizable.
After he reached out to ask for the tools, he carefully inspected the body and found that there was not much error in his judgment.
A person's behavior before drowning is definitely not waving, struggling and shouting for help, because he can no longer shout at this moment.
When a person is drowning, his head is immersed in the water, his mouth is on the horizontal surface, his head is tilted back, his mouth is open, his eyes are empty, his eyes are scattered, his eyes are closed, and his face is expressionless.
Moreover, during the drowning process, a large amount of sediment will be inhaled into the mouth and nose, seriously blocking the respiratory tract.
This woman's body had silt in her mouth and nose.
Therefore, Yang Wuhui judged that Wu Zuo's preliminary conclusion was correct.
But even so, the final results can only be obtained after taking the body back for a thorough dissection.
Because there were no other wounds on her body, generally speaking, if it was man-made, there would be wounds on the head and abdomen, or wounds and strangulation marks on the neck. Obviously, this body did not have these.
Therefore, we need to dissect the body and see if there are any residual toxic substances in her stomach.
If there are toxic substances, then it proves a homicide.
If not, then the government can determine that he drowned.
It's just that it's not normal for a woman to come to this wilderness in the middle of the night when it's raining.
Xu Zhiyuan looked at Yang Wuhui's solemn expression and asked, "Brother Yang, what should we do next?"
Yang Wuhui touched his chin and replied: "First find someone to identify the body, learn about the woman's background and identity, and see if she has any enemies."
Xu Zhiyuan frowned: "It's difficult to find someone to identify the body!"
Yang Wuhui said helplessly: "Master Xu, all you need to do is post a notice asking whose family a woman has disappeared recently. Please come to the government office to identify her."
At this point, Yang Wuhui added: "We can ask Wang Qingping to come and find out if she is his wife!"
Although the corpse was swollen and swollen, Wang Qingping and Zhao Hongluan got along with each other every day. If it was Mrs. Zhao, Wang Qingping would definitely be able to recognize her.
Xu Zhiyuan actually had doubts from the beginning whether this was the missing Mrs. Zhao.
Anyway, after returning to the government office, he had no intention of doing what Yang Wuhui said.
Let Wang Qingping identify the body first. If it is Mrs. Zhao, there will be no need to post a notice.
Because the death of a person is not suitable for publicity.
Xu Zhiyuan can serve as a prefect. Although he is not an expert in investigating cases, his shrewdness and abacus ability are still outstanding.
When he was about to return to the government office, Yang Wuhui walked up to Wu Zuo and asked: "Zeng Wuzuo, do you think there is a way that a person has been dead for many days, but for some reason, it looks like he has been dead for two days? The circumstances of Ricai’s death.”
Zeng Wuzuo looked at Yang Wuhui and felt that Yang Wuhui was amusing himself.
He replied coldly: "It's nonsense, there's no way such a thing could happen!"
But Yang Wuhui thought, he must have never read "The Collection of Redress of Wrongs"!
It can also be understood that this is the Northern Song Dynasty, and "The Collection of Cleansing Wrongs" was written by Song Ci during the Southern Song Dynasty.
The book clearly mentions that putting a body in cold water for a period of time, and then taking it out, can mislead others into judging the correct time of death of the body.
This book is a required course for law students!
