During the reign of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, ten miles away from Dongchang County in Shandong Province, there was a village called Archway Village. The village was not large, with only seven or eight households. One of the owners was Liu Gui, who ran a small business in Guangdong all year round, leaving only his wife Sun Fengxian at home. Sun Fengxian was quite beautiful, and because she couldn't stand loneliness, she secretly fooled around with others.
That day, Liu Gui rushed home in the middle of the night, and after shouting for a long time, he didn't see his wife open the door, so anxious that he kicked and slapped her. The door finally opened, and he found his wife looking flustered, and immediately became suspicious. He hurriedly ran into the house and found that the back window was open, and there were two footprints on the windowsill, so he turned around and asked. Yang Fengxian had a pungent personality and was not a fuel-efficient lamp at all. Not only did she refuse to admit her mistake, but she also rushed up to cry and made a scene, grabbing a few blood marks on Liu Gui's face. Liu Gui was so angry that he slapped her a few times, knocked her to the ground, and then slammed the door without looking back.
Liu Gui had a sister in the county seat. That night, he went to his sister's house, drank a lot of wine in anger, then covered himself with the quilt and slept soundly. The next day at noon, before he got up, several catchers broke down the door and put a string of chains around his neck with a "clang" sound. Liu Gui had never seen this battle? He was so frightened that he asked, "Master, what crime did the villain commit?" The leader of the catcher said with a straight face, "Stop pretending to be garlic, go, go to the lobby and explain it clearly!" Not allowing him to argue any more, he dragged it to the county office.
It turned out that Liu Gui had a neighbor named Niu San. He went to his house early this morning to borrow rice. As soon as he opened the door, he was stunned by the situation in front of him. He saw Sun Fengxian fall to the ground, his face ferocious and terrifying, and he had clearly died for a long time. Niu Sanhun was frightened and shouted, waking up the whole village. Niu San said, "Liu Gui came back last night, and I don't know what happened. The couple quarreled and fought in the house, but they didn't expect to cause a lawsuit for human life. Then Liu Gui must have poisoned people and fled in fear of crime!" Everyone said a lot, and quickly sent someone to report to the official.
Liu Gui was taken to the lobby of the yamen. The county magistrate was shocked and asked sharply, "Liu Gui, why did you poison your wife?"
Liu Gui knelt on the ground, kowtowed, and said with tears, "Master, I am wronged. When did I poison my wife? Please judge me!"
The county magistrate shouted loudly, "You dare to deny it! Neighbor Niu San clearly heard your husband and wife arguing in the house last night. Who did it if it wasn't you?"
Liu Gui had no choice but to talk about his wife's death, and finally said, "If you don't believe me, you can send someone to check it out. There are still two footprints on the back windowsill."
The county magistrate sent the catcher to ride a fast horse to collect evidence. After a while, the catcher came back and said, "Go back to the master, the windowsill is clean and there are no footprints."
When Liu Gui heard this, he thought to himself that it must have been after he left last night, that cheap man cleaned the windowsill, and he couldn't help shaking his head and complaining.
When the county magistrate saw Liu Gui's expression, he was even more convinced that he had killed someone, so he was tortured to death. Liu Gui couldn't bear it anymore, so he had to confess indiscriminately, saying that he liked the new and hated the old, poisoned his wife with the rat poison he brought back, and signed the confession.
Although there were many doubts about this case, Sun Fengxian's parents had lost their beloved daughter and felt Liu Gui had lost his ugliness in court. They hated him to the core, so they gave some silver taels to the county magistrate, wanting to kill Liu Gui. The county magistrate was originally a businessman and spent thousands of silver taels to donate an official and half-time position.
Soon, the case was reported to Jinan Mansion for review. The governor of Jinan Mansion was named Zhou Zhicheng, an honest and honest official, and he was also quite good at handling cases. He saw that Liu Gui did not look like a murderer, so he carefully checked the case file again and again, and felt that there were many things that could not be justified: for example, there were also people selling rat poison in Dongchang County, why did Liu Gui buy it all the way back from Guangdong? Besides, if it was really the person he killed, why didn't he go far away or hide in the mountains and forests, but went to his sister's house to sit and wait for death... So he said to Liu Gui, "This case is a bit unclear, don't be afraid, tell me what happened boldly, and this officer will make the decision for you." Liu Gui knew that he had met "Bao Qingtian", so he overturned his original confession and told his grievances in detail.
Lord Zhou decided to take the case personally.
When he came to Dongchang County, he first impeached the county magistrate, then summoned the police officer, Yang Zuo, and the witness Niu San together, asked many questions repeatedly, and then went to inspect the crime scene together, carefully collecting all kinds of clues. According to the report, Sun Fengxian was black and purple all over her body after her death, bleeding from her orifices, which was indeed a symptom of poisoning. The poison was placed in the egg soup she drank, but the courtyard walls of her house were very high, and the doors and windows were also very strong. How did the murderer enter the house and how did he commit the case... Lord Zhou deduced that the murderer might be very familiar with Sun Fengxian, so he sent her neighbors and relatives and friends for interrogation, but after many days of busy work, they finally had to rule them out one by one. For a time, the case reached a deadlock.
Lord Zhou had no choice but to bring his entourage back home, thinking hard all day, the tea and rice were not fragrant.
That night, Lord Zhou picked up the evidence he had collected again and looked at it carefully. Suddenly, he found a small hole in the tile basin that held the soup. He flicked it with his finger, and the sound was very dull. He carefully broke the tile basin and found the problem at once! It turned out that the tile basin was not different from other pots on the surface, but there was a big difference inside. Although its bottom was very thick, it was hollow, and in order to increase its weight and hardness, a few iron rods were cleverly installed. Lord Zhou came over and checked, and there was indeed a lot of severe poison left in the hollow tile!
It's really hard to find a place to break through iron shoes, and it doesn't take much effort to get it. Lord Zhou couldn't help laughing up to the sky: "Haha, what a cunning fox!"
This tile basin was made by a potter surnamed Wang, and Lord Zhou sent someone to arrest him immediately.
The potter Wang began to be stubborn. As soon as he saw the evidence, his face was pale with fright, and he confessed honestly without waiting for sticks of the yamen to fall. It turned out that he had loaned Liu Gui and his wife fifty taels of silver for his business, but he had never been able to pay it back. Seeing the interest rolling in more and more, he was very anxious and decided to poison Liu Gui and his wife. He thought of many ways and felt it was inappropriate, and he knew that if he couldn't get it right, he would lose everything. Once, he accidentally put a ball of hay into the tile basin, and when it finally burned out, a big hole appeared in the bottom of the basin. Inspired by this, he came up with a poisonous idea and designed a hollow tile basin, leaving only a small hole the size of a needle to lead to the bottom of the basin, and then filled it with poison, then sealed it with white wax and sold it to Sun Fengxian, so that Liu Gui could come back and kill them all. He didn't want to poison Sun Feng. Before he could make the second empty bottom tile basin, Lord Zhou discovered the secret.
"Alas," Kiln Wang knew that he could not escape the death penalty, so he let out a long sigh. "The debt in this life is completely forgiven, and we can only repay it in the next life!"
Lord Zhou solved the case, which was not only praised by the local people, but also appreciated by his superiors. Because of his cautious work, hard work and love for the people, he was later promoted to governor of Jiangsu. This case was gradually forgotten by people.
Five years passed in a flash of time. This summer, Lord Zhou passed through Suzhou for a visit to Hanshan Temple. The abbot in the temple admired him very much, not only took out fragrant tea to taste with him, but also accompanied him to watch the scenery in the temple. They unknowingly came to a courtyard in the back mountain, with a large bronze bell hanging in the center of the courtyard.
The two were talking about the past and the present with interest when suddenly the big bell buzzed from the side, causing the flowers on the tree next to them to rustle down.
Lord Zhou was very surprised and asked, "Why did this bell ring by itself when no one hit it?" The abbot smiled and said, "Lord Zhou doesn't know that this bell was cast in the previous dynasty, and there are two in total, and it is called'Yin and Yang Bell '. The Yang Bell is in the front mountain, and as soon as it rings, this Yin Bell will buzz in response." Lord Zhou suddenly became interested and sighed, "It's amazing!" The abbot said, "These two bells are cast in the same mold, and the lines inside are exactly the same, so they can resonate. In the previous dynasties, many temples had such bronze bells. If a Buddhist disciple committed a vice, they would be detained in this bell. As soon as Yang Zhong hit him, his eyes would fall off from the shock, his whole body would be black and purple, and his seven orifices would bleed to death, which is extremely cruel! "Lord Zhou listened to it and shook his head repeatedly.
Back at the yamen, the bell of Hanshan Temple still lingered in Lord Zhou's ears. The speaker was unintentional, and the listener was intentional. He always felt that there were some problems with the case in Dongchang County five years ago. The death of Sun Fengxian was exactly the same as what the abbot said, and her eyeballs fell off. Wasn't she poisoned to death? On second thought, it was impossible, the murderer himself admitted it, and the case was closed. He opened the "Collection of Wrongful Wrongments" and checked all the symptoms of poisoning. The eyeballs of the deceased were all sudden and did not fall off. Seeing this, Lord Zhou took a cold breath. The case five years ago was probably a misjudgment. How should this be done? If you go to Dongchang County to check again, your future will definitely be affected. If you don't , you will never be at peace for the rest of your life.
After a fierce ideological struggle, Lord Zhou resolutely decided to come to Dongchang County again. He brought an experienced man with him to pry open Sun Fengxian's coffin. He smeared his hands with a layer of wax oil, inspected her body carefully, and finally told Lord Zhou, "My lord, her bones are all white, so it is inferred that she did not die of poisoning."
Lord Zhou twisted his beard and pondered for a long time. He found that there was an archway temple nearby, so he took off his official uniform and pretended to be a pilgrim to visit.
The truth comes out
Soon, Lord Zhou discovered that there were two identical bells in the temple, one hanging in the courtyard and the other covered in dust and buckled on the mud floor of a side hall. There was an old abbot and three or four young monks in the temple. He thought that the bell weighed at least three or four hundred catties and could not be lifted without some effort. After careful observation, he finally targeted his suspicions on two tall and powerful monks, and took the opportunity to chat with the abbot to find out that one of them was called Jingkong and the other was called Jingjue.
Lord Zhou waved his hand at the entrance of the temple, and more than a dozen catchers rushed into the temple. They swarmed up and pressed Jing Kong and Jing Jue to the ground. Lord Zhou asked the abbot, "Where did you two bells come from, and why did you only hang one bite?" The abbot said, "Master Hui, they have been left in this temple for hundreds of years, and the bell has always been placed in the side hall. I don't know why, and no one has ever touched it." Lord Zhou said, "Jing Kong Jing Jue, someone accused you of stealing something, and this official will punish you and put you in the bell for a day." Jing Jue listened, and he was not afraid at all. It was not a big problem for him not to eat or drink for a day. But when Jing Kong heard this, he trembled with fright and begged for mercy. Lord Zhou suddenly changed his face and shouted, "Be bold Jing Kong, be honest, how did you kill Sun Fengxian five years ago?"
Jing Kong was stunned for a moment, looking blankly at Lord Zhou, knowing that he was in the middle of the trick, he suddenly slumped on the ground. Lord Zhou said, "The sky net is magnificent, but it is not leaked, do you have anything to say now?" Jing Kong sighed: "There should be such a calamity in the hit, but in the end, you still can't break free!"
According to Jingkong's confession, five years ago, he and Sun Fengxian hooked up and committed adultery. One night, they were making out together and didn't want Liu Gui to come back and knock on the door. He was so shocked that he quickly fled through the back window. But he didn't run far, so he hid in the bushes not far away. As soon as Liu Gui left, he folded his hind feet back. Sun Fengxian made egg soup to enjoy with him, and he said, "Let's go away without stopping." So the two of them didn't care about drinking the soup, so they hurried to the archway temple. Jingkong went to pack her luggage, and she hid in the side hall and waited for him. Somehow, Sun Fengxian accidentally made some noises, and the abbot just came out to relieve himself. When he heard the sound, he thought someone was stealing, so he called Jingkong to catch him. Jing Kong was afraid that the abbot would find Sun Fengxian, so he ran into the side hall first, opened the big clock and let her get in. The old abbot took a look at the oil lamp and found nothing suspicious, so he left with confidence.
At this time, the sky was already bright, and it was time to hit the morning bell. After a few minutes, Jingkong lifted the bronze bell and looked at it. He was so scared that Sun Fengxian was bleeding all over his face and had already returned to the west! He felt that if this happened, he could not wash it even if he jumped into the Yellow River, so why not plant it on Liu Gui's head? So he took advantage of the heavy fog and quietly carried her body back in a bag.
The abbot listened and stared fiercely at Jing Kong. Jing Kong said ruefully, "Master, I shouldn't have committed the vice of fornication, let alone the wrong, and put the blame on others!"
The whole case finally came to light. Lord Zhou had Jingkong beaten with a hundred sticks, sentenced him to exile, and repaired a document to report the case truthfully to the Ministry of Punishment, requesting that he be punished according to the law. Soon, this matter was passed on to the emperor, and he felt that Lord Zhou was a rare person. Not only did he forgive him, but he also rewarded him with a good Duan Yan.