The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

After the "special task force" in the county decided on the direction of solving the case, the prison officer and the county lieutenant immediately issued orders to the pavilions in Anlu County, asking the pavilion chiefs to check for men over eight feet tall in their respective jurisdictions. Although footprints can calculate the approximate height, it is inevitable that it varies from person to person and there will be slight deviations. Therefore, Hei Fu suggested that when investigating suspects, it is more appropriate to set the height at over eight feet.

During this period, Hei Fu further used his knowledge of footprints to find a feature that the suspect is likely to have.

"The front part of the footprint has dense patterns, four inches long; the middle part has sparse patterns, five inches long; the heel part has dense patterns, three inches long..."

Hei Fu raised his head and asked Nu: "Ling Shi, do you think there is anything wrong with this footprint?"

Nu touched his beard under his chin and thought for a while: "The thief should have worn a pair of double-mouthed boat-shaped cloth shoes, which are wide in the front and narrow in the back. But this footprint is narrow in the front and back and wide in the middle, which is really weird."

Hei Fu knew that the reason for this situation was that the suspect's forefoot and heel were under strong force. And the pattern on the arch of the foot was sparse, rather than showing a half-existent or no state. It can be inferred that this tall suspect has a low arch of the foot, or even a collapsed arch of the foot. It may be flat feet or even swollen feet.

"From this, it can be judged that the person who left the footprints was not only tall, but also had a problem with his walking posture."

After Heifu and Nu reached an agreement on this issue, they said to the pavilion chiefs who came to receive the order: "Gentlemen, you must strictly check those who are over eight feet tall, have gone out recently, changed swords, or wooden sheaths, and pay special attention to those who walk differently from ordinary people!"

"Yes!"

After the pavilion chiefs received the order and left, they began to whisper as soon as they walked out of the door.

"He, the pavilion chief Huyang, is also a pavilion chief. Why is he giving orders to us now?" Some people were unwilling to accept it.

Another pavilion chief said sourly: "It's because of the county's right lieutenant's support that he was allowed to handle cases with the lieutenant and the clerk. He looks like our superior."

However, his words were not responded to. The other pavilion chiefs sneered: "Don't talk nonsense here. This is because the pavilion chief Heifu is capable. If you two are capable, why don't you sit in his position? Why are you working hard with us?"

Because Heifu, the pavilion chief, got his position by catching thieves and passing the performance evaluation. After taking office, he made great contributions again and again, and gradually became famous in the county. People couldn't find fault with him. Even several pavilion chiefs began to admire this colleague...

"You'd better listen carefully. Maybe next year, he will really become our superior!"

...

On the other hand, Heifu arranged those pavilion chiefs to search, while he stayed in the township and continued to think about the case in front of the documents.

In the previous investigation, the historians had already asked the relatives, friends and neighbors of the two deceased in detail. The book recorded it like this: "I also asked if there were any villagers who had a fight or grudge against each other, and whether they had taken Baoyong, the knowledgeable brothers in the village were poor, and suspected that the village guard had been robbed and killed. The answer was: The village guard liked to be a pig-lover, and often interacted with the widows in the village, and there was no other grudge."

The deceased village guard was really romantic when he was alive. He had a wife and children at home, but he also flirted with women everywhere, hooked up with widows in the village, and even slept with married women. In addition to the hunter who was kept in the dark, there were quite a few people in Liushu who knew about this and were disgusted with it, but they did not go to the extent of killing him to correct the moral atmosphere in Liushu.

Apart from his immoral private life, the village guard did well in other aspects. He had a high prestige in the village, was kind to his neighbors, was good to the farmers in his family, often assisted the poor people in Luzuo, had never had an argument with anyone in all these years, and was not rich...

In this way, several possibilities such as revenge killing and love killing were ruled out, and the biggest possibility was only one: killing for money.

Ling Shinu was good at on-site investigation, while Le was good at questioning insiders. After careful questioning, he told Hei Fu and others about his new discovery.

"Li Jianmen's wife said that a few days before the crime, Li Jianmen suddenly brought home two thousand coins. When asked where the money came from, Li Jianmen refused to tell her."

"In my opinion, these two thousand coins are most likely the reason for Li Jianmen's death!"

"But Li Jianmen's two thousand coins were hidden at home and have been sealed. He only took two or three hundred coins when he went out."

Hei Fu raised his doubts. In this day and age, you can tell how much money you bring when you go out by looking at the weight of your bag. Since the murderer had planned for a long time, it is impossible for him not to see it.

"If it was for robbery, why didn't he go directly to Li Jianmen's empty home to commit the crime, but chose the hunter's home? Judging from the murderer's means and planning, he would not make such a mistake."

"Didn't the murderer also plunder the hunter's house of money and take away Li Jianmen's sword because of greed? Maybe he is not as smart as Hei Fu thought."

"There are two murderers." Hei Fu emphasized.

Because the murderer's height was calculated from the footprints, we can only assume that there were two murderers. The tall one was outside the house, helping the other one break the window and using his body as a ladder to send him into the house to kill people, so the other one did not leave footprints in the mud.

However, all this is just inference. The real case may not be known until they find one of them...

In the evening of that day, Wei Shi Anpu, who was in charge of arresting people, brought back good news.

The suspect was caught!

...

"We caught him in Yidongli, which is adjacent to Liushuli."

Anpu took a pottery pot and gulped down water into his throat. It seemed that he was starving.

After drinking the water, he continued, "This man's name is 'Shi', he is eight feet two inches tall, and he walks with a slight limp on his right foot. When we went to question him, he was harvesting rice in the field. When he saw the red hat of the pavilion chief from afar, he was so guilty that he ran deep into the rice field. We spent a lot of effort to catch him..."

At this time, the suspect was also brought up. He was like a captured beast, caught in a fishing net, and dragged in by four people. He was tall, and even though he was curled up at this moment, you could still feel the strength of his body. He was covered with rice awns, and his bare hands and feet were cut by the mesh of the fishing net. He looked very miserable, with a hint of anger in his eyes.

"He is indeed a big man." Le laughed loudly, then frowned and questioned the man: "Tell me, the captain asked as a routine question, why did you run away?"

The big man was also tired after the chase and fight. After panting in the fishing net for a while, he said: "I was afraid of the officials, so I ran away in panic. I had no other intention."

"If you have not committed a crime, why should you be afraid of the officials?"

"How dare you not be afraid when they detain hundreds and execute more than ten at will?"

"You dare to be stubborn!" An Pu kicked him in anger.

Hei Fu shook his head, and felt that this man was more suspicious: "Although he looks fat, he doesn't have a sharp tongue."

Le liked this cat-and-mouse game very much. He picked up the knife that the man was wearing and said with a smile: "The blacksmith in the village said that you made a slap-bike from him three months ago. Let us take a look at it."

As he said that, Le pulled the weapon out of the scabbard, but it was not a slap-bike short knife, but a short sword!

Seeing this, Shi's face suddenly changed.

"The scabbard is filled with a sword. If my guess is correct, this sword must belong to the village guard who died in Liushuli!"

The height and the murder weapon are consistent. According to the report of the pavilion chiefs, after asking Shi's neighbors, they learned that the day of the crime was the busy farming season, but Shi made an excuse to go to the township market, left before dawn, and returned after breakfast. During the two hours, no one knew where he went or what he did.

In front of such evidence, Shi lowered his head and said as if he accepted his fate: "Since that's the case, I admit it. I did kill the jailer there... The two were very close to each other. That day, I saw the jailer carrying a bag and walking outside the inner wall. I was greedy for money, so I followed him to that house, jumped in through the window and killed the two..."

"Don't talk nonsense anymore. How could you jump out of the window to commit a crime with your fat body?" Hei Fu interrupted Shi's nonsense and asked, "Tell me quickly, who is your accomplice, the real murderer, and where is he!"

If Shi was just surprised just now, he was stunned now, but after being exposed by Hei Fu, he actually shut up and said nothing.

Hei Fu questioned Shi several times but to no avail, so he had to say: "Lingshi, this man is stubborn and should be detained immediately. Weishi, why not interrogate his family and friends first to see who he has been close to in recent years? Those who can take the risk to commit crimes together must be acquaintances."

After An Pu left, Le asked Shi a few more questions, but got no response, so he said angrily: "Since he is stubborn, there is nothing we can do. We can only use the worst plan."

He waved his hand: "Drag him away and use corporal punishment!"

Half an hour later, after a round of whipping, Shi, who was already covered in blood, was dragged up. He was already very weak and was pressed in front of Weishi, Hei Fu, and Le by two guards.

Wei Shi Anpu said: "Shi, your fellow villagers have said everything. You have been close to a group of peasants in the past year. Is one of them working with you?"

"I say..." After hearing this, Shi raised his head and said weakly: "I say, I hope Lingshi can untie my rope a little. It's too tight and I can't speak..."

There were five people in the room, all carrying weapons. Le didn't suspect him and asked someone to loosen Shi's rope.

Shi seemed to feel better. He murmured: "The person who committed the crime with me is called..."

Suddenly, Shi stood up abruptly. The eight-foot-two-inch big man burst out with amazing strength. With his hands tied together, he was able to knock the two guards behind him flying! Wei Shi Anpu was shocked and wanted to draw his sword to stop him, but he was also knocked by Shi's head! He leaned against the wall immediately, feeling a sharp pain in his chest and his ribs were about to break!

Then, Shi pounced on Lingshi Le in front of him, frightening him to sit on the ground.

However, Shi's target was not Le, but the sword on the table! The sword as evidence!

With the sword in hand, Shi raised his hands with difficulty, but did not cut anyone, but pointed the bronze sword blade at his neck!

He didn't want to escape, he wanted to commit suicide!

"Bang!"

In a flash, Hei Fu, who was the farthest away, took action. He drew his sword and smashed Shi's hands with the sword, knocking the weapon out of his hand!

"Good man, want to hide your accomplices by dying? Unfortunately, it's not that easy!"

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