At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there was social unrest, and people were struggling to make a living. Many farmers were cornered, dragging their children and daughters, fleeing famine in all directions.
Hainan Island, Qiongzhong County territory, a lot of mountains, and the soil is sufficient, easy to sow grains.
Therefore, many poor farmers from neighboring counties came here to reclaim the wasteland and grow grain to make a living.
One spring, there was a middle-aged man named Zhang Zuo who was about 40 years old. He came here from a neighboring county to open up the wasteland, and on a small hill, he chose a sunny slope, opened a few acres of land, and planted watermelons. Zhang Zuo also built a grass shed in the melon garden, where he lived to watch the melons.
Zhang Zuo has a younger brother named Zhang You. Every year when he encounters plowing, planting, and picking melons, his younger brother will come to help and live for ten and a half days. After a long time, the farmers who open the wasteland nearby are very familiar with him.
Once, after Zhang You went home, for some reason, the neighbors did not see Zhang Zuo for several days. A few wild children herding cattle took the opportunity to sneak into the garden to steal melons.
When nearby farmers saw it, they drove the urchin away, wondering why Zhang Zuo didn't come out to drive the child away. Everyone was curious, so they approached Zhang Zuo's melon shed together, looked up, and couldn't help but be surprised: Zhang Zuo's headless body lay on a bamboo bed, bleeding all over the ground, his body was stiff, and he had been dead for many days. Suddenly, the neighbors talked a lot, some said, "Go and report to the family!" Some said, "Report the case to the government immediately!"
However, an old man strongly objected, saying, "Today, in this chaotic year, it is better to do more than less, so as not to provoke trouble!"
What the old man meant was that he wanted everyone to donate some money and bury the dead on the spot. As long as everyone kept it a secret, everything would be fine.
Sure enough, everyone agreed, more or less, they opened the purse, pooled together to buy a cheap thin coffin, collected the corpse, human coffin, funeral, and buried Zhang Zuo hastily.
After about ten days, the younger brother Zhang You came to the melon garden to visit Zhang Zuo again. The melon farmers in the garden told Zhang Zuo's misfortune, but only said that Zhang Zuo died suddenly for unknown reasons.
Zhang You hurried to find Zhang Zuo's grave and wept bitterly.
The next day, Zhang You specially set up a banquet to thank the neighbors who helped with the funeral. At the banquet, Zhang You raised a glass and toasted frequently. When the meal was full, Zhang You said sadly, "I think of my brother's grave. Can you accompany me there?"
After drinking other people's wine, he was too embarrassed to refuse, so everyone accompanied him.
After arriving at the cemetery, Zhang You said, "I want to move my brother's tomb back to my hometown. Please help me lift the coffin.
Everyone was stunned when they heard it, and said in unison, "It's safe to die and go to the ground. Besides, the burial has just been completed, why bother moving back to your hometown?"
Zhang You sincerely explained: "When you take the coffin and go home, you are'returning to your roots!""
What Zhang You said was indeed human. Everyone thought: If you lift the coffin, you will lift the coffin. As long as you don't open the coffin lid, the matter will not be exposed, so they started to dig the tomb and lift the coffin. After the coffin was dug out, Zhang You took out a new dress he just bought from his cloth bag, and said emotionally with tears, "Please help me open the coffin, and let my brother wear new clothes and return to his hometown with a face."
In an instant, everyone was stunned, but they had no good reason to stop Zhang You, so they had to bite the bullet and open the coffin.
The lid of the coffin was opened, and a headless corpse was in sight! Seeing that the corpse was headless, Zhang You burst into tears and cried.
The neighbors wanted to settle the matter privately, so they planned to raise some more money for Zhang You, hoping that he would not sue the official. At this time, Zhang You was already crying so hard that he said, "How much is my brother's life?
Ten taels of silver can be settled! "Later, after being persuaded by everyone, Zhang You finally reluctantly agreed.
However, the amount proposed by Zhang You was too large for the villagers to bear, and the disputes could not be resolved. Therefore, this headless koan case was brought to the yamen.
The county official's surname was Hu Mingming. When he received the murder case, he couldn't decide for a while, so he had to take a "one-shot" plan, and asked the yamen to arrest all the farmers who had cleared the wasteland around Zhang Zuo's melon fields. After being interrogated for a few days, no one confessed.
In this way, the case was stiff and could not be settled. Hu County officials had to put all the villagers into prison cells and temporarily detain them.
The case dragged on for more than half a year, and the trial came and went, but the decision was pending. Among the farmers, three were injured due to execution, plus lack of food, clothing, and medical care, and died in prison...
At this time, it happened that the term of office of the county official Hu had expired, and the new county official was named Zhang Tianqing. He was resourceful and solved the case like a god, and was called "Zhang Qingtian". Therefore, the county official Hu handed over the "backlog" to the county official Zhang.
That night, in the light, county official Zhang looked at Zhuangzi again and again, without realizing it.
The next day, at noon, the drums rose in the hall, and the county official Zhang sat on the court. The plaintiff Zhang You knelt on the left, and the neighbors knelt on the right. The yamen on both sides stood solemnly and majestically.
The county official first asked the farmer, "When you see a dead person, why do you think it's Zhang Zuo?"
Everyone complained in unison: The matter was bizarre, and they were panicked and rushed for a while. How could everyone be in the mood to take a closer look? However, the old clothes worn by the deceased were indeed Zhang Zuo's.
"Pa -" County official Zhang was shocked and shouted loudly at everyone: "Your Highness, in this case, whoever killed and was innocent, this official already knows, now, as long as the criminal comes from the evidence, he can be lenient; if he refuses to confess, this official will not show mercy!"
Two rows of yamen, shouting and cheering, the atmosphere in the hall was terrifying…
The county official first asked the farmers, "Which one of you killed someone? Where is the head?"
The farmers said in unison, "Sir, we didn't kill anyone. How do we know about the head?"
County Official Zhang stroked his beard and said softly, "You didn't kill him, of course you don't know." Suddenly, he turned his face to Zhang You and shouted, "You killed him, you should know!"
Zhang You was stunned, at a loss, trembling, and whispered, "Master, I didn't kill anyone!"
"Pa -" The county official patted the tree again and shouted loudly, "Seeing that your family is so poor and has no overnight rice in the vat, you are unable to move the tomb and bury your brother. Instead, you blackmail everyone for money in the name of opening the coffin and changing clothes, right?"
Zhang You hesitated and said, "No."
The county official shouted angrily: "You are still stubborn, what a traitor who killed his brother for money! Left and right, give me torture!" The yamen shouted angrily, and the torture equipment was moved to the hall.
Zhang You was so scared that his whole body trembled: "My lord, forgive me, my brother, he... he is still alive!"
The county official smiled and said, "As expected. Let me ask you, where is he hiding now?"
Zhang You bowed his head and confessed: "He is hiding at home, living in Qiaotou Village, 80 or 90 miles away.
The county official raised his face and laughed, saying to the farmers, "You have suffered and suffered, but let us feel wronged again, because the murderer Zhang Zuo has not yet been arrested."
After speaking, the county official Zhang wrote the official document in court, stamped it with a big seal, and selected two capable hunters; at the same time, among the farmers, he selected two young people who knew Zhang Zuo and rushed to Qiaotou Village to arrest Zhang Zuo.
When he arrived at Zhang Zuo's house, it was none other than Zhang Zuo opened the door. The two farmers who came with him recognized him, and with a "click," the police shackled him, so the sky net was restored, and Zhang Zuo was finally brought to justice.
In court, the case came to light:
It turned out that that afternoon, a melon seller came here to buy watermelons. When it happened to be windy and rainy, he entered Zhang Zuo's melon shed to take shelter from the rain. He wanted to wait for the rain to stop and go back to the county inn to stay, but it was dark and the rain had not stopped, so he had to stay in Zhang Zuo's melon shed.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Zuo saw that there was a lot of silver in the merchant's leather bag, and immediately saw the money and became evil. He killed the man with a knife, cut off his head, and buried him. He took off the new clothes on the deceased and took them as his own. Then he dressed the corpse in his old clothes and used them as a substitute to frame others. Then he carried the money bag and sneaked back to his hometown overnight, telling his younger brother Zhang You what he had done.
After some time, Zhang Zuo secretly inquired and learned that the farmers who planted melons nearby had mistaken the deceased for himself and had collected funds to bury the deceased in coffins. He was immediately overjoyed and instigated Zhang You to extort money from everyone in the name of the funeral…
The mystery of the melon field was finally revealed.