Wu Gongzheng saw that the headless ghost was scary, but it was not scary to listen to its words, so he slowly calmed down and asked the headless ghost what his name was, where he was from, and where the body was now. The headless ghost didn't answer that much. .
That's because when entering the yamen, a door god pulled out a polished sword from his waist, waved it and said, the God of Sheji only allows you to speak to Wuzhi County for one minute. If you continue to tremble after more than that time, you will not retreat. Don't blame me. I rush over and kill you with a sword, so that you are no longer a ghost.
Thinking of this, the headless ghost trembled and said that I was tricked into eating arsenic-laced pasta by a black man from Gaojiazhuang, Jiangnan Town, and died. He also cut off my head and carried it to someone to collect the reward.
Where is your body? Wu Zhengyi was not as afraid as he was at first. A sense of righteousness made him feel compassion for the murdered headless ghost and he followed the case to ask questions.
My headless body was carried to the mountain behind Gaojiazhuang by Heizi, and was thrown into a pit that had been dug long ago and buried hastily... The voice of the headless ghost became smaller and smaller, until the voice and the figure disappeared together.
Wu Zhengyi woke up in a cold sweat. He pushed his wife to wake up from her deep sleep. He only said that he had a nightmare, but did not tell her. He threatened his wife and asked her to light a lamp and bring a towel to wipe away the sweat on his body. Wu Gongzheng couldn't sleep after that, and the headless ghost and its crying still vaguely appeared in his mind.
Early the next morning, Wu Gongzheng called the police to go on an errand with the couple. He prepared his horses and left the city, heading for Gaojiazhuang, Jiangnan Town. Along the way, he thought: The headless ghost cried out the case in his dream. I don't know if it is true or not. Yan first went to check whether anyone had moved new soil on the hill behind Gaojiazhuang's house, and whether there were any traces of burial.
Everyone searched around in the forest on the mountain, but found no new graves or new soil. Just as they were about to leave, Wu Gongzheng noticed that the bay horse that served as his mount was raising its mane and licking its neck. Eat the green leaves hanging from the branches. Somehow, the layer of rotten leaves under its feet was kicked away, revealing the new soil covering it.
Wu Gongzheng immediately called several detectives to investigate, concluded that something was going on, and assigned an accompanying official to go down the mountain and borrow a hoe and shovel from a villager's house to dig up new soil. Within a few feet of depth, a headless corpse was exposed. come out. Wu Gongzheng thought that the headless ghost in his dream last night was the same as him, and he was even more convinced that the case in his dream was true.
At this time, many villagers came one after another on the mountain ridge behind Majiazhuang House, and they all came to look at the headless body. They all stared in shock with big eyes and small eyes.
Wu Gongzheng asked several villagers, which one of you can identify this headless corpse? What is his name? Are you from the village? Several villagers repeatedly observed the headless corpse, and most of them shook their heads and said that they could not recognize it. It did not look like people from our village and seemed to be an outsider.
Wu Gongzheng remembered the name of the perpetrator spoken by the headless ghost in his dream, so he called two detectives to whisper for a while. The two detectives rode down the mountain knowingly.
At this time, the man in charge of the autopsy - a man wearing a mask and gloves and a yamen uniform used a knife to cut open the internal organs of the unmanned corpse and took out the gastric juice. A disgusting and pungent smell made the villagers watching instinctively turn away. At first, some simply scattered.
Wu Zhengyi also wore a mask at this time. The man said to him, Wuzhi County, judging from the color of the turbid gastric juice, and based on my many years of experience in anatomy and autopsy, this headless corpse was poisoned by arsenic. In other words, it was poisoned after death. People cut off their heads. Why did the perpetrator cut off the deceased's head?
It will become clear to you then. Wu Gongzheng recalled what the headless ghost in the dream said about the reason why his head was cut off, and he confidently told the confused Wu Zuo.
The two detectives jumped down from the mountains and arrived at the Gaojiazhuang house. They followed Wuzhi County's instructions and did two things calmly and quickly:
A detective found the squire in the village and told him that a murder had been reported in the village. He asked him to write four notices with ink and paper, and posted them in four conspicuous places in the southeast, northwest and northwest of the village, roughly listing three matters:
First, any villager who knows the facts of the case must report the culprit, and cannot harbor or secretly provide the culprit with an escape convenience. If discovered, he will be regarded as an accomplice and arrested together;
Secondly, all men, women, children, and those with the ability to walk in Gaojiazhuang must gather at the ancestral hall on the village at noon that day and wait for the magistrate to interrogate the case before they can disperse. Those who do not show up for no reason will be arrested and imprisoned as suspects. ;
Third, from now on, the entrances and exits of Gaojiazhuang will be blocked. People outside the village are not allowed to enter, and people inside the village are not allowed to leave. The blockade of each intersection will not be lifted until the murderer is caught.
Another police officer was whipping up his horse and whip, and quickly mobilized a security team from the county government. They came down to Gaojiazhuang with powerful weapons such as swords and guarded the four entrances and exits in the southeast, northwest, and strictly prohibited people inside and outside the village. In and out.
About an hour and a half later, all the walking men, women, and children in Gaojiazhuang gathered in the ancestral hall. It was not like watching a play or joining in some fun, and everyone was shouting.
At this time, everyone read the notice and understood that a crime had been committed in the village. They were all enveloped in a tense atmosphere. No one spoke easily. Even though there were many people gathered, the entire ancestral hall was silent.
A pair of eyes were wide open and looking up. Behind the long table were a group of people from the county government. The one in the middle was the county magistrate Wu Zhenggong, who was wearing a seventh-grade official uniform. He looked around with a serious look. The villagers who crowded together on both sides of the ancestral hall finally took a few more glances at an old man with a beard.
There is an old mother beside the old man. The difference between the two of them is that they don't look towards the stage much, and they lower their heads slightly, as if they have something on their mind.
Wu Gongzheng glanced at the police officers sitting on both sides. Like him, they scanned the dense crowd of villagers alertly, as if subconsciously trying to accurately identify and uncover the murder suspect.
Look at the majestic appearance of a tall man in warrior attire standing on each side. They both have a long curved-handled sword on their waist. The scabbard is embossed with a pattern of a blue dragon flying in the clouds, as if it is a warning. Secret language: As long as I, Qinglong, take action, you, a murder suspect, will never be able to escape even if you go to heaven or earth.
Suddenly, Mr. Wu stood up from his seat and lectured——
Folks, you should know that the reason why you are summoned to the ancestral hall in Gaojiazhuang is because of a murder case.
This county magistrate has said it first. If the murderer is mixing in the crowd and surrenders as soon as possible, we will consider reducing the crime and punishment according to the law. If you persist in your obsession, you will not be spared once you are caught and brought to justice.
If the murderer is not here and there are villagers who know the case, they should take the initiative to provide clues to solve the case. If they know the case and conceal it or hide the suspect privately, once they are found out, they will be treated as harboring the criminal or an accomplice and will be imprisoned and punished.
One more thing, please listen carefully. There are more than a hundred households in Gaojiazhuang and a population of more than a thousand. Are all the villagers who can walk here? For those who are not present, their family members or relatives will explain the reasons, otherwise their family members or relatives will not be allowed to leave...
Wu Gongzheng paused for a moment and saw all the villagers looking at each other. The atmosphere was tense and quiet, but no one came out to say anything related to the murder.
Expecting that the murderer Xu was not here, or even if he was here, he would not be able to surrender, when Wu Zhengyi sat down, he winked at the policeman on the left.
The policeman stood up knowingly and called the chief of the Gao clan to come up and count the roster of more than a thousand members of the Gaojiazhuang clan. If he named one, he had to go to the front of the hall and make his appearance. After the magistrate and the policemen looked at it carefully, they felt that there was no doubt that Click to be allowed to return to the original position.
For those who are not present at the roll call, their family members or relatives must take the initiative to explain the reasons.
But when Gao Youneng was mentioned, he neither appeared in front of the hall nor his father explained the reason. Patriarch Gao stared at the old man with a beard and said, "Uncle Gao, tell me, your son didn't come, where did he go?"
