Daming King of Punishment

As a prisoner on death row, Song Wuya could only enter through the "gate of hell".After passing the "Ghost Gate", it is the hall of the county government office, and one room further inside is the second hall with lesser regulations.According to the Ming system, the second hall of the county government office was regarded as an informal interrogation hall, which was generally used to hear and mediate relatively unimportant civil cases.This time it is considered an informal review, so it will be held in the second hall.

Situ Yi, the county magistrate, was wearing a seventh-rank official uniform and sat behind the official case. He had a stern expression on his thin face, and two icy eyes stared straight at Song Wuya from his triangular eyes. The corners of his mouth were slightly raised. From the beginning, the look is very complicated.When Situ Wen found him and begged for a retrial, she repeated what Song Wuya had said, but he just sneered and refused.Situ Wen didn't say much, she stretched out her hand and pointed upwards, then turned and left.Situ Yi suddenly changed color slightly, he understood what his niece meant: there is a god standing three feet above his head!

This simple gesture just hit a vague uneasiness in Situ Yi's heart.On the way back home from the execution ground, he kept thinking about that weird rolling thunder, and that tormenting thought repeatedly flashed in his mind: "What if, what if the lightning does not kill me, is it really a warning from heaven? ?” He is not a superstitious believer in ghosts and gods, and he also thinks that the case he handles will not go wrong, but what if this happens?That's not only to feel sorry for the murdered clan brother under Jiuquan - he has always regarded Song Wuya as his own son, and maybe he will face God's retribution in the future.

After much deliberation, Situ Yi finally decided to give Song Wuya a chance for a retrial, just to reassure himself and his niece.This is not simply a "superstition" that Song Wuya thinks, the ancients' reverence for gods and retribution is something that he can imagine as a modern person.

When the prisoner arrived, Situ Wen, the family member of the victim, and the police officer who was in charge of investigating the scene at the time, and Master Wuzuo were all waiting here.

All of these people looked solemn, as if they were ready to fight, and none of them were on Song Wuya's side.Song Wuya knew very well that this was his last and only chance.If I can't make it back today, I will lose my name and reputation, and I will never recover, and all the bones in my body will be ground into scum.

The presiding judge and public prosecutor Situ Yi who was in charge of this case spoke first: "Song Wuya, you claim to be able to produce evidence to prove that there is another real murderer in this case. Where is the evidence? If you are empty-handed and try to delay, I will teach you that life is better than death." !"

Song Wuya cupped his hands and said, "Lord Situ, if I can't produce evidence today, I am willing to be punished. Please allow me to ask relevant witnesses to clarify the case again."

Situ County Magistrate waved his hand and said coldly: "Ask as you please! I have already passed on the information to everyone involved."

"Thank you sir!"

Song Wuya turned around and asked Situ Wen who was standing under the case: "Miss Situ, please tell me in detail how you found the corpses of your father and the servant girl Xiaozhen that day."

Situ Wen said: "It was my father's [-]th birthday that day, and there were many guests who came to congratulate me. After nightfall, the guests had all dispersed, and the house was closed. Only a few guests who were far away and very familiar stayed overnight ..."

Song Wuya interrupted her and asked: "Besides me, who are the other guests?"

Situ Wen said: "There are four people, Mr. Jiang Sixing, Mr. Mo Yisanmo, Mr. Li Ming, Mr. Li, and Mr. Jin Shoujin. Mr. Jiang and Mr. Mo are Daddy's students, and Mr. Li and Mr. Jin are Daddy's former students." Subordinates. These four people are often in contact with my family. Because of the darkness, they stayed overnight. The four of them are rooms arranged by me personally, one for each person. You have your own room in this mansion , I'm too lazy to care about you."

Song Wuya smiled wryly. It seemed that his relationship with this fiancée had never been very good. He asked, "Have these four people stayed in the mansion before?"

Situ Wen said: "Yes, my father has a gentle temperament. He is always lonely and likes to receive guests. They also hang around in the mansion for a day or two from time to time. The four of them, as well as you, often come to the house. "

Speaking of this, she gave Song Wuya a contemptuous look, "It's just that you don't come here often to visit my father, but to beat the wind and hope that my father will give you some money. Hmph, I was bitten by a snake with good intentions!"

Song Wuya was a little embarrassed: "Go on, what will happen after you arrange a room for these four people to live in?"

Situ Wen said: "After arranging these four guests to stay, I thought that Uncle Liang, the old housekeeper in the mansion, had been busy all day, so I let him go to rest first, and I held the lamp to count in the middle hall. Gifts, checking accounts. There are many things to do, and I can’t finish them all at once. At the second watch, my father came from the backyard, talked to me in the middle hall of the front yard, and told me to go to bed early. Afterwards, I saw my father carrying a lantern and walking towards the East Wing, which is where the maids live. I didn't take it seriously at the time."

Song Wuya felt something was wrong sensitively, and asked: "Your father is the head of the family, so he should live in the main room in the backyard, right? What does he go to the East Wing at night?"

Situ Wen frowned and stared at Song Wuya, and said dissatisfiedly: "It's a pity that you often stay at my house and don't care about anything. My father has to go around the mansion with a lamp every night before going to bed. Years of unshakable habits."

Song Wuya could only smile wryly and said, "I'm a little confused, I don't remember anything. Then you said, what happened after your father went to the East Wing? What time was it?"

Situ Wen said: "At that time, the night watchman in the alley outside was knocking on the second watch. I remember it clearly. After my father went to the east wing, after a stick of incense, I saw you sneaking around Come out from the west wing, pass the door of the middle hall where I am, and go to the east wing."

"Me?" Song Wuya asked in surprise, pointing to his nose: "You mean, you saw me leave my room in the middle of the night and pass by you to the east wing?"

Chapter 5 Self-defeating

?Chapter 5 self-defeating

Song Wuya frowned, and asked: "I'm just walking, why am I sneaking around? Why can't I hold my head high and stand upright? You can see clearly that I'm going to the East Wing? Could it be that I wake up in the middle of the night? Go to the hut?"

Situ Wen sneered and said: "You left the room in the middle of the night, walked lightly and hurriedly with your head down, and when you passed the front of the middle hall, you didn't dare to turn your head to look at me. Of course you are sneaky! The huts in the mansion are in the front yard and the back yard. In the middle of the house, you often come to my house, how could you not know? What’s more, the nave where I live is in the middle of the east and west wings of the front yard, and you have to turn from the front of my eyes to the back when you go from the west wing where you live to the latrine Go, if you go to the east wing, you have to pass me straight. At that time, I was sitting in the middle hall, holding the lamp, opening the door, and bowing my head facing the aisle in front of the door. You probably have something in your heart Ghost, you dare not turn your head to look at me, but you don't know that I have already seen you go to the east wing from the corner of my eye, but I just don't bother to pay attention to you."

Song Wuya confusedly said: "Isn't that right? Since you said that I came out to wander around in the middle of the night sneakily, why didn't you bother to pay attention to me? Why didn't you call me and ask me why I was going? That's at your house!"

Situ Wen's white and tender face suddenly showed a sad expression, and sighed: "How can I control you? You have always behaved badly, but Daddy has always protected you and treated you like his own son. You have always been godly." God ghost, I don't know what I'm doing, so I can't be bothered to talk to you, who would have thought that you would kill my father so cruelly?"

Facing this beautiful fiancée with a sad expression, Song Wuya's heart was full of pity, and he really wanted to go up to hug her to comfort her, but in this situation, it is obviously impossible, the most urgent thing is to find out the truth , to clear his name.

"Miss Situ, you continue to talk."

"After Daddy and you went to the East Wing one after the other, I continued to focus on the calculation, and forgot about it. It wasn't until the night watchman knocked on the third watch that I was shocked. It was very late, so I went back to the backyard to rest with the lamp in hand. When I passed by the door of my father's bedroom, I found that the door was open and there was no one inside. Then I remembered that after he went to the east wing, I never came back. I was a little flustered. My father had no reason to go to the East Wing and not come back for so long. I ran back to look for it, but I didn’t see anyone in the corridor. Mr. Jinshou's door in the first room."

Song Wuya interrupted her and asked, "How many rooms are there in the east wing?"

"There are four rooms in total, including the West Wing Room."

Song Wuya thought for a while and asked: "Miss Situ, why did you first think that your father is in Mr. Jin Shou's room? Did you notice something unusual? Didn't you ever think that your father would enter the maidservant's room?" Xiaozhen's room?"

Situ Wen gave Song Wuya a white look, and said: "Of the four rooms in the East Wing, three rooms are usually occupied by maidservants in the mansion, and one room is occasionally used as a guest room. Among the guests staying overnight, only Mr. Arranged in the East Wing. My father is [-] times stronger than your character. He has always been upright and self-sufficient. After my mother passed away, he has never been married, nor has he been close to a woman. How could he run to the house in the middle of the night to serve as a maid? Humph, even if my father has something on his mind, he doesn’t have to go to the maid’s room by himself in the middle of the night. If he doesn’t go to the maid’s room, naturally he can only go to Mr. Jinshou’s room and spend the night with him. Small talk."

Song Wuya understood what she said, and knew what she meant, even if Situ Jian, the head of the family, had any plans for the maids in the mansion, he could call them into his room to serve them in a fair manner. There is no need to condescend to run into the maid's room.

"You are very thoughtful. You opened Mr. Jinshou's door, and your father is naturally not inside. Then?"

"Then, I explained the situation to Mr. Jin Shou, and he went to look for it with me immediately, and then found the dead bodies of my father and maid Xiaozhen in Xiaozhen's room in the east wing, sitting on the cabinet door You are unconscious. Everyone woke up at this time and rushed over. Then, my uncle led the police and Wu Zuo from the yamen to rush over overnight."

"Miss Situ, one last question." Song Wuya asked solemnly, "When you just found your father's body, you must have rushed over excitedly to call his old man, touched his body, and asked how his skin feels, right? Feeling cold?"

Situ Wen thought for a while, and replied, "I touched my father's hands and face, and I felt a little cold."

Song Wuya nodded, and based on the knowledge of forensic science he had mastered when he was a criminal policeman, he lowered his head and calculated in his mind: Calculated at a room temperature of 16 to 18 degrees, the surface temperature of a dead body is about 10 hours after death, and it will Hours drop by 1 degree.The deceased were young and middle-aged, and the cooling speed will be slightly slower, while children and the elderly will be slightly faster; the chest and abdomen covered by clothing, the face, wrists and other exposed parts will cool down slightly faster.According to the rule of thumb, the smallest difference in body temperature that a human hand can perceive is about 1 to 2 degrees.This is like a person who has a fever of 39 or 40 degrees, and others can feel the heat obviously when they reach out and touch his forehead.

Since Situ Wen could feel a chill on her father's face, it meant that Situ Jian's death time was roughly between one and two hours.Situ Wen found the body at midnight, that is, eleven o'clock in the evening.When Situ Jian walked to the East Wing, it was the second watch, that is, nine o'clock in the evening.This shows that Situ Jian was killed not long after he arrived at the East Wing.

Song Wuya lowered his head silently in thought, the county magistrate Situ Yi was already impatiently waiting.He originally felt that the case was so solid that there was no need for a retrial at all, but he couldn't stand his niece's pleading and persuasion, so he reluctantly agreed.

Situ Yi was unhappy, frowned and urged sharply: "Song Wuya! Have you finished asking? Have you found out the evidence? You have never been educated and incompetent, so how can you ask any case? Just ask a few questions like this , can you solve this mountain of iron case? It's ridiculous, delusional! If you deliberately play tricks on me, don't blame me for dealing with you, I guarantee that there will not be a single inch of good flesh left on you today!"

"Boom! Boom!" Two ferocious officials smacked the green brick floor of the courtroom with water and fire sticks. As soon as the county magistrate gave an order, they would immediately beat Song Wuya to pieces.

Song Wuya resisted Situ Yi's threats and ridicule, grabbed a heavy iron chain between his hands, and gave him an awkward salute with great difficulty, and said, "My lord, don't worry about it. I know what I know, just ask the policeman and Zuo again."

Situ Yi waved his hand and said, "Everyone is already here, hurry up and ask!"

"Yes!"

Song Wuya turned to Liang Yuzuo, who was in charge of the autopsy in the county government office, and asked, "Master Liang, is it you who inspected the corpse at the scene? Can you let me take a look at the corpse form you filled out?"

Mortuary is a form filled out by the ancients when they inspected corpses. It indicates the basic situation of the deceased’s identity, on-site investigation, examination of the deceased’s body form, and cause of death. It is similar to modern on-site inspection records and autopsy. Report.Song Wuya has dabbled in ancient judicial history, so he knows that there is such a thing as a "corpse case".

After Liang Yuzuo learned that the case would be retried, he was ready, and immediately took out two pieces of paper from his pocket and handed them to Song Wuya: "This is the corpses of Master Situ and the servant girl Xiaozhen, and they are all here."

Song Wuya took it and looked at it carefully. The vertical traditional characters were not easy to read. He even guessed and recognized that the first piece of paper was written: "The deceased, Situ Jian, male, suffered two severe injuries on the left and right sides of the head. , the scalp and hair were stained with ink, and there was an inkstone next to the corpse, and the corners were damaged. The deceased was obviously beaten to death by someone else holding the inkstone."

Look at the second corpse: "The deceased, Xiaozhen, female, had bruised lips, bleeding in the mouth, bruised nails, disheveled lower body clothes, and obvious signs of sexual intercourse. She obviously died of being raped and suffocated."

The criminal investigation technology of this era is obviously not very good. In Song Wuya's eyes, this autopsy report is very rough. At least the most important symptom of death due to suffocation "bleeding of the eye membrane" is not mentioned. .However, according to the description in the corpse, the conclusions drawn by the 50-year-old and seemingly experienced Liang Yuzuo on the cause of death and the lethal weapon should be correct.

Song Wuya asked: "Master Liang, when did you arrive at Situ's mansion for the autopsy?"

Liang Wu replied: "I rushed over immediately after receiving the report. It should be around midnight when I arrived at the scene."

Song Wuya asked again: "Based on your experience and observation at the scene, when is the approximate time of Master Situ's death?"

Liang Yuzuo thought for a while, and replied, "It's about a little later at the second watch."