The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

At noon that day, Hei Fu was already sitting in the county prison office, and together with the two Lingshi Le and Nu, and the Weishi "An Pu" sent by the county lieutenant, they formed a four-person investigation team to discuss the murder case in Liushuli.

As for the leader of this investigation team, it is naturally the prison official Xi.

At the county level in Qin State, cases are often handled by the county lieutenant and the county prison. The county lieutenant provides military support, and the county prison provides professional investigation personnel, but who has the final say depends on the official position on the scene. This is why a few days ago, because the county lieutenant system has a higher level of township patrol officers, the investigation team went in the wrong direction.

So at the beginning of today, Xi said frankly that he did not use his official position to determine the right to speak, and everyone could speak freely.

"Gentlemen, I think the Jingquan is just a cover, the criminal wants to trick us."

Heifu, as the person with the lowest official position and the lowest title, is very courageous to speak.

Firstly, the county right lieutenant backed him up and temporarily transferred him to the county to participate in the case-solving work. You know, the pavilion chiefs are all assistants and rarely receive such a generous treatment.

Secondly, since Heifu took office, he has solved major cases one after another, and his achievements are obvious to all. As for criminal investigation and case-solving, Lian Nu praised Heifu for "knowing the skills of Lingshi".

After hearing what Heifu said, Ling Shile on the opposite side immediately laughed: "Heifu Pavilion Chief, didn't you find that Jingquan?"

Heifu also admitted: "It's true that I found it, but thinking about it afterwards, I felt that there were many suspicious points about the Jingquan falling at the murder scene."

"I agree with what Pavilion Chief said."

Nu, who had been silent for a long time, took over the conversation. He had been bullied by the local vagrant Shuwu in the past few days. For the sake of performance, the guy's mentality was unbalanced. He wanted to solve the case as soon as possible. He didn't care about the hunter's innocence and ordered severe torture. After that, he didn't care and jumped into the trap set by the thief. Nu's persuasion was useless and he had been in vain for several days.

Then, Heifu said the doubts about the Jing coupons one by one: "First, the crime should have happened after sunrise. At that time, all the men in the village went to work in the fields, and the women went to deliver meals. The whole village seemed empty. The deceased took this opportunity to commit adultery, and the murderer took advantage of this time to break into the house and kill people. At that time, the deceased may have shouted for help, but no one heard it."

"The murderer killed the deceased openly. He did not go through the window again, but opened the door and left. Since it was so orderly, how could the murderer panic and leave the Jing coupons behind? This is the first doubt."

"Second, although merchants are humble, they are often wealthy. Why would they become murderers and thieves? Just for money? According to the hunter and the family of the village guard, some money was indeed missing from the scene, but it was not more than 600 coins. Killing people for these 600 coins and abandoning 1,800 coins of Jing coupons are contradictory. This is the second doubt."

Xi said: "So, do you think this Jing ticket is forged? Was it deliberately left at the scene by the thief?"

Hei Fu said: "Yes, the thief is extremely cunning. He knows that Lingshi handles cases in detail and strictly. He wants to deliberately lure us into being deceived and let the government waste its efforts to track down those merchants who sell silk and silk."

He nodded angrily and said: "Hei Fu Pavilion Chief's words make sense. We have been ordered to track down this Jing ticket in the township and county for many days, but we have not found the right ticket of this Jing ticket, and there is no record of it in the city clerk's office. This Jing ticket does not have a right ticket at all, but is forged. We have worked in vain. It is impossible to find the murderer through the Jing ticket. We can only think of other ways."

This case has now reached a bottleneck, but Hei Fu is not desperate. According to the principle of material exchange learned in the criminal investigation class: once you enter the crime scene, you will definitely exchange materials with the scene, that is, you will leave evidence of the crime, so perfect crime does not exist.

Although the murderer was very cunning and knew to leave a note to mislead the government, and had a certain anti-reconnaissance ability, he was a thief from more than 2,000 years ago after all. In Hei Fu's eyes, he left too many loopholes!

The people present were all officials who had investigated many cases, especially Nu and Le. They had felt that the direction of the investigation was wrong these days, so they identified other evidence and prepared to change the direction.

"Perhaps, we can start with the knife used by the murderer!" Hei Fu and Nu said at the same time.

...

Le picked up the murder weapon on the table and showed it to everyone. It was a small knife with a handle about one foot long and a slightly protruding middle spine. The wooden handle was very short, less than two inches, and it was wrapped with some linen strips. The color was dull, and there was an iron ring at the end, which had cracked.

In this era, the army mainly used swords for short weapons, while the people used both swords and knives. People with a little status wear long swords, while people of humble status but fond of force can only carry short swords like daggers. There is also this kind of short knife, which is hung at the waist and slaps the thigh when it shakes when walking, so it is called "Paib".

Wei Shi Anpu questioned: "The officials and common people in the county all like martial arts. Every year, they will buy weapons for training. They are cheap, only a few dozen coins, so everyone has one, and there are no less than hundreds of people wearing it. How can we find it with just this thing?"

"Of course, it's not just relying on a knife."

Nu also put forward his own ideas: "According to the family of Li Jianmen, Li Jianmen did go out with a sword, but the sword was found to be taken away at the scene, leaving only the scabbard."

"The murderer is a smart man. He also knows that leaving with a knife will cause trouble, so he abandoned the knife and took the sword, but did not take the scabbard. Heifu Pavilion Chief, why do you think this is?"

Heifu had been listening silently just now, and now he immediately responded: "Because the scabbard is painted with conspicuous patterns, it is too conspicuous to carry it on the body."

"Then why do you have to take the sword?"

"If you only take the scabbard and the scabbard is empty, it will still not escape the eyes of the historian."

"That's right."

He nodded angrily: "We have tried it, and the scabbard can just hold a knife. Conversely, the murderer's scabbard can also hold a sword! In other words, the scabbard on the murderer's waist should contain the sword of the prison gate!"

"But what if... the murderer threw away the scabbard and the sword together?" Wei Shi Anpu was worried. In this case, they were going in the wrong direction again.

"Wei Shi is from the school, right?"

At this time, Xi suddenly spoke. This Anpu was only in his twenties, with fair skin and a surname. It was obvious that he had been well-fed and well-clothed since childhood.

So he could not understand the thoughts of the poor people at the bottom.

Xi did not need to ask people to search the bamboo slips, and he could slowly tell some of the cases he had handled.

"In the seventh year of the reign of the king, I was a clerk in Yan County. At that time, a robbery occurred in Yan County. The criminal was a poor man without any title. He robbed a wealthy family in the neighborhood with a shabby bow worth one stone, and took more than one thousand coins and filled his pockets with clothes. But when he was escaping over the wall, the bow slipped from his shoulder. The poor man was reluctant to part with the bow worth only thirty coins, so he jumped off the wall to pick it up. As a result, when he picked up the bow, the coins fell out again. This happened twice, wasting time. Finally, he was caught by neighbors who heard the news and was sent to the government to be beheaded and sentenced to life imprisonment."

"In the twelfth year of the reign of the king, I became a jailer in Yan County. I witnessed another criminal being arrested and sent to jail for the same crime. A public official dug a cave to enter a house and stole clothes, but when he came out, he accidentally dropped the cloth shoes he was wearing inside. It stands to reason that the cloth shoes were only worth twenty coins, and since he had already stolen the clothes and silk shoes, he could have just thrown them away. But the public official went back to look for them, and was caught on the spot by the owner, and was sent to the government to be tattooed and sentenced to life imprisonment."

After telling these two cases, he said happily: "These two thieves are stupid enough, but it's not that they don't know the difference between noble and humble, but they are used to being poor, and they would not be willing to give up even a pair of straw sandals. In my opinion, the murderer in this case is also of humble origin and poor family. After killing someone, he was tempted by money and plundered the room, taking away hundreds of coins. He could have obviously not taken the sword, but he insisted on taking it. Since he took the sword, he would not easily throw it away..."

"The prison official's words make sense!"

After listening to Xi's case, Wei Shi Anpu no longer had any doubts and stood up to ask for orders: "In this case, I hope the prison official will issue a document, and I will also ask the county lieutenant to immediately arrest all the people wearing swords in the county, lock them up one by one for examination, and we will definitely gain something!"

Upon hearing this, Hei Fu immediately objected: "In this case, the number of people arrested is too large, hundreds of people at a time, and the county's prison can no longer accommodate them."

While speaking, Hei Fu also glanced at Xi. The last incident in Blind Mountain was only a few months ago, and the bloodstains at the market entrance were still there. The county people still remembered it. If a large number of people were arrested again, it would definitely cause panic. If you are not careful, it will also force those young people wearing swords in the county to the opposite side.

If this group of people are bewitched and violently resist arrest, kill officials and run away, then the matter will be a big deal.

So he said tactfully: "It's just a robbery and murder case, there's no need to make such a big fuss. It will have a bad impact. The county magistrate, county magistrate, and county lieutenant will definitely be embarrassed. I think it's better not to publicize it. It's better to interrogate them privately one by one."

Wei Shi Anpu said: "How long will it take to interrogate? Maybe the criminal will be alarmed and run away."

Hei Fu smiled at this time: "I have an idea to continue to narrow down the group of people who need to be investigated. Can Xi Jun let me try it?"

Xi nodded: "Tell me about it."

Hei Fu stood up, walked to the center of the hall, lifted up his skirt, pointed to his feet wearing square-mouthed boat-shaped shoes, and said: "To be honest, I can calculate the height of the criminal based on the length of the footprints!"