The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"The house where the crime occurred is a hundred steps outside the inner wall and ten steps away from the road. It faces south and has two rooms connected to each other. The main room has a door, and the female corpse lies five steps inside the door. The side room is southeast of the main room, with a bedroom in the middle, and the male corpse lies on it. There is a window on the south side of the side room, three feet wide and open. The murderer may have jumped into the house from the window..."

Just as Ling Shi Nu walked to the window to watch, Hei Fu was also carefully exploring the grass outside the window, and he soon made a discovery.

"Ling Shi, there is a footprint here!"

Nu immediately went around, but saw a very obvious footprint on the mud outside the window!

He carefully lay on the grass, staring at the footprint for a long time, and then measured it with a "Qin ruler". He immediately turned his head and said to the clerk beside him:

"Write it down. Half a step outside the south wall of the side room, there is a footprint. It looks like a Qin-style hemp shoe, one foot and two inches long. The shoe has signs of wear and tear, and it doesn't look new. The front part of the shoe has dense patterns, four inches long, the middle part has sparse patterns, five inches long, and the heel has dense patterns, three inches long..."

This made Heifu stunned. In the October robbery case, Nu's identification of the thief's wounds had already surprised him. And now the meticulous observation and record of the footprint in front of him is comparable to the footprint study of later generations.

But this is just the beginning. Next, Nu really told Heifu why the Qin prison guards, who can also be called "Lingshi", are called "China's earliest forensic doctors"!

After checking and recording the footprints under the window, Nu returned to the side room, where the murderer first committed the crime. He carefully examined the male corpse lying on the couch, but saw that his face was terrified, his eyes were wide open, and he didn't close them until he died.

Nu didn't dwell too much on the facial expression of the corpse, and asked the clerk to continue recording the love book.

"The deceased was a middle-aged male with yellow skin, 7 feet 1 inch tall, and 2 feet long hair. He died on a couch in the side room, lying on his back, head facing north, feet facing south. There was a knife wound on the back of his hand, four inches long and one inch wide, suspected to be cut when resisting. The fatal wound was in the throat, along the neck, three inches long and half an inch wide. Both wounds were horizontal, and the wounds were smooth, like knife cuts. The male corpse had heavy bleeding in the throat, which contaminated the bed, deerskin, back and ground, and the rest of the body was uninjured."

"The male corpse was naked on the upper body, and there were two old scars from moxibustion on the abdomen; he wore a single cloth short skirt on the lower body, but his lower body was exposed and the short skirt was stained with blood. Under the bed, there were two pairs of Qin-style hemp shoes. The slightly larger pair of shoes was put on the male corpse, which was just right. There were several pieces of clothing on the low table next to the couch, both men's and women's, including a wooden sword sheath. The ground under the collapse was hard, and there was no trace of the murderer."

After a set of inspections, Hei Fu could not help but be amazed. The level of autopsy and the standardized procedures of this Nu formed a "sealed diagnosis style" that was no less than modern judicial identification.

The so-called "sealed diagnosis style" refers to different judicial behaviors and execution requirements in Qin law. "Seal" means to seal, "diagnosis" means to investigate and examine, and "style" means judicial norms; autopsy is part of "diagnosis", which is the work of Lingshi.

The protection method of on-site trace evidence in later generations, in addition to Hei Fu pulling up ropes to prevent others from entering and destroying, and marking the trace evidence with white lime circles. It is nothing more than recording the bodies, bloodstains, handprints, footprints, traces, and damaged objects, tools used in the crime, etc., to protect them.

This is exactly what Nu did, but it was a pity that Qin had no cameras, and even no paper. The clerk could only hold the wooden board in one hand and write down every word of Nu with difficulty. Because of the limitation of the carrier, it must be concise and extremely accurate.

After recording the first corpse, Nu went to the female corpse in the main room without stopping.

The lower body of the female corpse was naked, and combined with the fact that the man was also naked with his lower body exposed, it was not difficult to imagine what they were doing at the time of the crime. But one thing is one thing, because the body was close to the door and could be seen from the outside, Heifu had someone cover her with a straw mat.

Nu lifted the straw mat, and under the fluffy black hair, a pretty face was revealed, but it was a little painful and twisted.

Heifu secretly complained: "Compared to the people in the village, she is indeed very beautiful. No wonder the prison guard committed adultery with her..."

Nu lifted it down again, but saw a knife inserted into her back, deeply stabbed...

Just like the identification record of the male corpse just now, Nu accurately described the characteristics of the female corpse and the location and shape of the fatal injury, and even checked the hair and perineum, whether there was bruises on the body, etc.! This is to find out whether she was violated again before her death.

Seeing the seemingly vulgar but actually very serious action of Nu, Hei Fu suddenly recalled some ancient crime-solving movies and TV shows he had watched. The official judged the case and found that there was no abnormality on the surface of the deceased, which seemed to rule out the possibility of homicide. Suddenly, someone around the official reminded him to check whether there were nails in the hair of the corpse. After checking, he found that there were indeed nails, and then he successfully found the murderer...

This kind of thing would not happen in the Qin State. The regulations of "Fengzhenshi" clearly stated that the hair and perineum were the top priorities of the autopsy!

After finishing the work of examining the body and recording, Nu took a piece of cloth, wiped his hands, and suddenly asked Heifu: "In Heifu's opinion, how did the murderer commit the crime?"

Heifu had been thinking for a long time, and immediately responded: "The murderer should have opened the window of the side room first, and found that the man and woman were making love in the room, so he took advantage of their unpreparedness, climbed in through the window, and stabbed the two with a short knife."

"At that time, the man was on top and the woman was on the bottom. After hearing the sound, the man turned around and blocked the first knife with his right arm. His blood dripped on the woman, and the woman panicked and fell off the bed. At this time, the man leaned back and retreated, trying to get the weapon beside the bed..."

The reason why he made such a judgment was that there was a scabbard on the low table in front of the bed, but the sword inside was missing. It might be the man's weapon, and there might be more than one item taken away.

"As a result, the murderer stabbed the man in the throat with a knife. Then, the murderer jumped off the couch and chased the woman who wanted to escape to the main room door. He caught up with her five steps away from the door and stabbed her in the back. The woman fell to the ground and died..."

"Well said! It's exactly what I thought!"

Nu looked at Hei Fu with some appreciation and asked him: "Have you learned the art of Lingshi?"

Hei Fu shook his head: "I was born in the military, with a humble status. I didn't have the opportunity to enter the school, and I didn't know what the art of Lingshi was. I just deduced it based on the characteristics of the corpse and the traces at the scene recorded by the Lingshi."

"You actually learned it by yourself? It's amazing. What's more amazing is that you can use ropes to prevent outsiders from entering, and also wrap the corpse with a white line. I have been a Lingshi for so many years and have examined countless corpses. How could I not think of such a simple thing?"

Nu sighed for a long time, saying that he must tell the prison official what he saw today. This good method must become a common practice in the prison of Anlu County, and can even be reported to Nanjun and Xianyang.

Next, Nu will collect all the physical evidence and murder weapons here and send them to the county. Because the village head went to find the husband of the dead woman, the current first suspect, the hunter, will not be back for a while, and the two bodies cannot be left there for a long time to create panic. They will also be carried away on wooden boards and sent to the village.

Nu and Heifu were talking happily about solving the case based on the traces, but the patrol officer Shuwu walked in and saw Heifu was still there, so he frowned and said, "Heifu Pavilion Chief, why haven't you left yet?"

Nu immediately replied, "Patrol officer, Heifu Pavilion Chief is just helping me investigate the case."

Shuwu was always unhappy. He and the township pavilion chief were outside asking the villagers about the relationship and grievances between the male and female dead before their death, and he couldn't get away for a while. However, Heifu took advantage of the situation and had a good chat with the county official, as if he was the official in charge of the matter and he was just a guard helping him...

In the last case in Blind Mountain, Shuwu felt that he had contributed to Heifu's work, and the limelight was all taken away by Huyang Pavilion. Now that this case was not under Heifu's jurisdiction, did he still want to intervene?

Shuwu was certain that this case must have been done by the hunter. When the man went home and saw his wife committing adultery with another man, he killed the adulterer in anger and then fled.

He believed that the case was clear and straightforward, and it was not difficult to catch the murderer by issuing a notice and searching everywhere. It was best to keep such an easy task to himself, and not let others take away the credit.

So Shuwu said with a stern face: "Heifu Pavilion Chief, this Liushuli is under the jurisdiction of the township pavilion, not your Huyang Pavilion! Since you have told Lingshi everything you know, you don't have to stay for long, just go back to the pavilion! You have no official business, if you don't come back for half a day, it will be dereliction of duty!"

Lingshi was only a 100-stone official, while Youjiao's salary was 150 stones, the highest official among the people present. This case should be under his jurisdiction, and Qin did indeed explicitly prohibit the behavior of overstepping authority.

So although he saw Shuwu's intention to drive him away, Heifu didn't argue, and bowed to Nu and said: "If Lingshi has anything to ask, you can ask someone to summon me at any time."

After that, he said goodbye and went out.

The sun was shining outside, sweeping away the death haze in the house. The crowd of onlookers had been dispersed one after another, leaving only some witnesses who needed to be questioned.

Hei Fu walked around them and prepared to lead his horse, but when he passed the ditch by the door, he glanced over and seemed to see something, so he stopped immediately.

There was a trace of blood on the grass leaves by the ditch. Hei Fu bent down, searched in the grass, and picked up something...

"Ling Shi, come and see, what is this?"

Hei Fu shouted, and Nu came out immediately and saw what Hei Fu was holding.

The thing was made of wood, two fingers wide and about three inches long, with some deliberately cut tooth-like grooves on it...

It seemed to be thrown out unintentionally, and it seemed to be deliberately discarded...

"Jing Coupon."

Nu recognized it immediately, and his face became more solemn: "It is a Jing Coupon used by merchants for trade!"

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