Master Luo Cao

Kou Luoche looked at him quietly, and when Fu Yunshu gradually came back to his senses, he raised his head and met his bright eyes.Fu Yunshu took a deep breath, nodded at him, and said, "Let's get started."

Kou Luoche's eyes flicked slowly over the two corpses, and said: "The eyes and mouths of the two corpses are all open, their faces are blue, their lips are purple and black, and there is blood from the mouth, eyes, ears, and nose." He put one hand in front of his eyes for a closer look, then gently put it down, picked up Zhao Si's hand and looked at it for a long time, and then said: "The nails are blue and dark." Opening up the prison uniforms on both of them, revealing the bruised and swollen Xu Meng, who was holding the pen, couldn't bear to look directly at his skin, and turned around silently.Kou Luoche said: "The whole body is black and swollen, the abdomen is distended, it is also black, and there are blisters. All of the above are signs of death from poisoning. County Lord, in my opinion, I should use silver hairpins to test."

Fu Yunshu nodded, "OK."

Kou Luoche picked up the silver hairpin, washed it in the saponin water, inserted it into He Changfa's throat, sealed it with paper, and inserted a silver hairpin into Zhao Si's throat in the same way.Kou Luoche said: "It takes a certain amount of time for the silver hairpin to be inserted before it can be taken out, please wait for a while."

The four living people stood quietly around the two corpses.

He didn't notice it when his nerves were tense before, but now he gradually calmed down, and Fu Yunshu noticed an unspeakable stench at the tip of his nose. His face was expressionless, his eyes swept across Zhao Si's face, and he suddenly said: "Why are they poisoned?" , have you checked it?"

Zhao Ciji said: "He Changfa was in prison not long ago, and besides being in the same prison with Zhao Si, we only had lunch together. I came here after I invited twenty big boards, and it happened to be lunchtime , The prisoners’ meals are all shared by me.”

Fu Yunshu asked: "Do you still have the two bowls of rice that the two of them ate?"

Zhao Ciji said, "It's all still in place."

Fu Yunshu followed Zhao Ciji to the cell where the two were squatting. The cell was already in a mess, the ground was covered with messy straw, the rice bowl fell on the ground, one was split into several pieces, and the other was left with a whole body. The rice was scattered all over the floor, and the ground was stained with five bloodstains, which were not obvious, but it was shocking to look at, as if they were picked out with their hands when they were dying.Fu Yunshu took a few glances, and suddenly felt unbearable, lowered his eyes and turned his head, looked at the other empty cells, and asked, "Where are the others?"

Zhao Ciji said: "It may have caused panic among the other prisoners, so the officials took them to the innermost cell and locked them up together."

Nodding his head, Fu Yunshu said: "Keep it as it is and don't move it, and make plans after the master's inspection."

As soon as the words fell, Kou Luoche's voice came from the other end, saying: "Master, there is a result." Fu Yunshu hurried over, Kou Luoche was looking at the direction he came from, shaking the two silver coins in his hand. Hairpins—two originally bright white silver hairpins, the part that was inserted into the throat of the corpse has turned blue-black at this moment.In front of several people, Kou Luoche wiped the silver hairpin with soap locust water, and the blue and black color did not fade.Kou Luoche said: "Zhao Xuanfu and He Changfa were poisoned to death, county lord."

Zhao Ciji said: "Before the incident happened, the prisoners in the big prison were having lunch, and the two of them died of poisoning shortly after. The two bowls of prison food were very suspicious. Mr. Zhao dared to ask Mr. Kou to test it for him."

Kou Luoche secretly glanced at Fu Yunshu, saw Fu Yunshu nodded slightly, and said, "Where are Zhao and He's cells? Please ask County Captain Zhao to lead the way."

The four of them walked outside the messy cell again, and Kou Luoche did the same thing, inserting the undiscolored end of the silver hairpin into the food, and when he took it out, both of them changed color.

Fu Yunshu, who had been trying to be calm all this time, finally couldn't bear it any longer. He slammed his fist on the railing of the cell, gritted his teeth, and said, "Why was the food in my prison in Jiuhe County poisoned? County Chancellor Zhao, today's prison meal is made by Who made it and shipped it?"

Zhao Ciji said: "My lord, the food in the prison has always been taken care of by a special person, and the jailer on duty that day is responsible for delivering and distributing it. After I came today, the jailer saw that I was injured, so he went to fetch medicine for my sores. I am free. Nothing happened, so I divided the meal for him. I also ate this meal today, and it is the same as other prisoners."

"Why did Zhao Si and He Changfa get poisoned to death when others ate it?" Fu Yunshu said coldly, "Since there is a special person in charge of the prison meal, where is that person?"

Zhao Ciji remained silent, but his eyes flickered.

Fu Yunshu said: "Why..."

"My lord," Xu Meng, who had been watching silently all this time, suddenly said, "The lower officials have always been in charge of the prison meals."

Xu Meng’s house is very close to the Jiuhe County prison. Due to the shortage of funds in the warehouse in Jiuhe County, the prisoners in the prison had only a bowl of thin porridge every day, a few grains of rice floating on the clear soup and water, and a bowl of boiled medicine. The whole day's work was so hard that the prisoners screamed every night, which was very disturbing to the residents.Xu Xiancheng volunteered to take up this responsibility, allocated some money from the treasury to him every month, and then asked his servants to cook the food and send it to the prison.Fu Yunshu knew about this when he first came to Jiuhe County. The prison in Jiuhe County is sparsely populated, and the money allocated to Xu Meng is not much. Finally, when he mentioned it again, Fu Yunshu suddenly remembered that there seemed to be such a thing.

The prison, which was originally oppressive, suddenly fell into an unspeakable silence.

"Although the county magistrate is in charge of it in name, it is not prepared by the magistrate himself, and there are still opportunities to take advantage of it." Kou Luoche suddenly said: "Dare to ask Master Xu, who is responsible for cooking the prison meals in your house?" ?”

Xu Meng was silent for a moment, then said: "It's the maid who helps the kitchen, her name is Xiao Taozi."

"This matter is of great importance, and Xiao Taozi must be interrogated immediately. I hope Master Xu will forgive me." Fu Yunshu stared at Xu Meng and said.

Xu Meng bowed and said: "Your Excellency, please don't say that. If this matter happened in the lower official's house, the lower official will die."

Nodding his head, Fu Yunshu looked at Kou Luoche for a moment, Kou Luoche immediately understood, bowed and said: "Master Xu, Mr. Zhao and Mr. Zhao are inconvenient, why don't you go to Xu's mansion to interrogate the suspect."

Fu Yunshu pushed the boat along with the current, and said, "Alright, you go and come back quickly."

Kou Luoqiao turned around and walked out. When he was about to step out of the door, he stopped suddenly, looked back slowly, and his deep eyes fell on Fu Yunshu.Fu Yunshu looked at him, smiled very shallowly, and said "go" word by word with his mouth

The meal was prepared by members of Xu Meng's family and passed through Zhao Ciji's hands. Both of them were suspected.Recalling what he experienced in Ming County, Fu Yunshu suddenly heard a sentence he said at the time - "There are spies in my county government."

In the huge Jiuhe County, among the many subordinates, Kou Luoche is the only one he can trust completely now.

Kou Luoche also smiled at him lightly, then turned and went out the door.

Fu Yunshu watched his back gradually disappear until he could no longer see him, then slowly turned around and said: "Mr. Kou needs some time to go, it's not a problem for us to stand here, the jailer on duty today There are also suspicions, so bring it up and go to court for interrogation."

Xu Meng and Zhao Ciji said in unison: "Yes."

After walking out of the prison, I found out that the jailer on duty today was interrogated by the Marquis of Jinyang. Wang Xiaozhu grinned and said to Fu Yunshu, "I don't know if it was the first time Marquis of Jinyang was stimulated when he saw a dead person. That ugly one took people away with a vicious look, I think that brother may be more or less ominous."

"Shut up! Don't talk nonsense." Although Fu Yunshu reprimanded Wang Xiaozhu, his heart was in a state of turmoil. The autopsy did not know where Lu Tian was hit, and he even tore off his usual mask. He didn't dare to hesitate right now. , leaving people to guard the scene and not allowing others to come in and out at will, and took the others back home immediately.

Just as Wang Xiaozhu said, the jailer was in a terrible misfortune. Just as Fu Yunshu got off his horse in front of the gate of the county government office, he heard screams from inside. He rushed straight into the county government office in three steps at a time, and when he raised his eyes, he saw the jailer being pressed on a bench and being beaten by a board. An old man, he was beaten so hard that his face was full of tears.

"Stop!" Fu Yunshu rushed in, and the people who hit the board and those who were hit by the board were startled. The two executioners immediately stopped and called out respectfully: "Master Fu." When the jailer saw Fu Yunshu, he was greatly wronged Weeping, "Master of the county!" This fellow was not seriously injured, and he could still get off the bench, crawled to Fu Yunshu's side, hugged his thigh tightly, and cried, "Master Fu, You are so wronged! Master Lu must admit that I poisoned you, but you really didn’t do anything!"

Fu Yunshu stared coldly at Lu Tian, ​​who was sitting high under the plaque hung in a bright mirror, and said calmly, "Master Lu, what's going on?"

Lu Tian supported his head with his left hand, yawned lazily, and said: "As a jailer, two prisoners died suddenly in the prison while he was on duty. Naturally, it is hard to absolve him of the blame. Mr. Fu, this Marquis He is teaching his subordinates for you."

"He has dereliction of duty, the county will naturally not tolerate it." Fu Yunshu said: "But what he said just now, Lord Hou insisted that he admit that it was him who poisoned him. How do you explain this?"

"His suspicion is serious, and this is just a routine interrogation." Lu Tian said.

Fu Yunshu couldn't hold back the sneer from the bottom of his heart, and a mocking smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "Is it a routine interrogation, or is it intended to be tortured?"

Anger appeared in Lu Tian's eyes, and he said coldly, "Fu Yunshu, you are presumptuous."

Fu Yunshu was quick to admit that he was cowardly, and immediately cupped his hands, saying: "Please forgive me, Lord Hou, just now I was rude."

Lu Tian also turned his face back, coughed, and said: "Master Fu has only been an official for a short time, so it's normal if you don't know. Prisoners are mostly cunning, and they don't use any tricks, and they are often unwilling to recruit them honestly. This is also for the sake of the case. Let the truth come to light as soon as possible."

"Speaking of the case, I don't understand something, so I came here to ask the Marquis of Jinyang for advice." Fu Yun wrote.

Lu Tian asked, "What's the matter?"

"Hou Ye's father was former Dali Temple Minister Lu Feng Lu, and his attainments in autopsy must be much higher than that of the lower officials. Before the lower officials, the two corpses were examined in the prison. They were both bleeding from the seven orifices and their faces were blue. They were examined with the silver hairpin method. In other words, it is concluded that the two died of poisoning, what does Marquis Lu think?" Fu Yunshu said, raising his head quietly, staring fixedly at Lu Tian's face.

Lu Tian said without hesitation: "Since Mr. Fu has tested it, there must be nothing wrong. The seven orifices are bleeding and the complexion is blue. This Marquis has also seen these. It is indeed a sign of poisoning."

"Since it is poisoning, it is caused by someone poisoning. Our county has always managed the poisonous things, such as poisonous insects, rat poison, arsenic/cream, kudzu, etc., and each pharmacy has quantitative records every month. As long as you find out what kind of poison/medicine it is, you can go to various pharmacies to check and lock the suspect." Fu Yunshu sighed in annoyance when he said this, "It's a pity that I went to the official school They are not skilled enough to determine what kind of medicine they are taking, so I came here to ask Lu Houye for advice." He stared at Lu Tian, ​​slowly cupped his hands, and said word by word: "Please Jinyanghou, please clarify the confusion for this subordinate."