what do you think sherlock

Chapter 44 Overdue for 30 years

"John, what do you mean? Could it be..." Mrs. Hudson covered her mouth in disbelief. Although she hadn't figured out the situation before, she had heard so much from Di Renjie just now. I roughly figured out what Di Renjie said inside and outside the meaning:
He believes that Nolan was not the culprit in the charge back then, but now he wants to reverse the case for Nolan.

It's just too...

Mrs. Hudson's eye sockets were slightly red at this time, she was looking forward to hearing Di Renjie continue, but she was also a little worried that she would end up being happy in vain.

"Mrs. Hudson, let's take a look at what news Captain Nolan left us 30 years ago."

Di Renjie gave Mrs. Hudson a reassuring look, then took the combination box in his hand, and rotated all the numbers on the combination lock to the correct position under the watchful eyes of everyone.

The password that Captain Nolan told him himself: "260519231106."

Surprisingly, however, when all the numbers were adjusted to the correct position, the cryptex did not open.

"Why did this happen?" Di Renjie was rarely surprised, "Wait a minute, Captain Nolan specifically explained that this is an alchemy item..."

"Maybe I should try this method," Di Renjie did as soon as he thought of it. He slowly guided his mental power to the palm of his hand, and then lightly touched the cipher box.

Apprentices of the first level of transcendence, logically speaking, cannot transmit their spiritual power outside the body, but at this moment Di Renjie felt that his spiritual power entered the cryptex very easily.

Is this what is so special about alchemy items?
But right now is not the time to be emotional. The moment the mental power entered the box, there was a sound of metal components turning inside the cipher box, and then, under everyone's gaze, the cipher box was slowly opened.

A stack of thick small pieces of paper appeared in front of everyone.

This stack of paper seems to be much thicker than the cipher box, but considering that when the paper is squeezed, the gap between the paper will be squeezed, so everyone didn't pay much attention to this anomaly.

At the moment, everyone's attention is attracted by these pieces of paper.

"What is this?" Lestrade stepped forward in surprise, but there was someone faster than him.

It was Mrs. Raglan. She almost broke out with all her strength, and rushed to Di Renjie's side in three steps at a time.

She looked nervously at the pieces of paper in the cipher box at first, but after seeing it for the first time, she showed joy again.

"I thought it was evidence, just a bunch of ghost symbols with unknown meaning! Your Excellency Superintendent, are you going to use such things to convict my husband who died for the country?" Mrs. Raglan sneered.

"This..." Lestrade looked at Di Renjie with some embarrassment. He obviously didn't see anything tricky from the pile of characters.

"Mrs. Raglan, you are right. To ordinary people, these are just a bunch of ghost symbols." Di Renjie smiled, and continued:

"But those who are proficient in military communications will know that this is a kind of intelligence code for the purpose of noting shorthand and keeping confidentiality. Of course, because during the Crimean War, the imperial military did not formulate a unified communication symbol, so We had no immediate way of knowing what the characters meant."

"If there is no uniform standard, then what you say is what you say, so what credibility does it have?" Mrs. Raglan sneered.

"It is of course difficult to guess out of thin air, but the question is, don't we have the files of military communications during the Crimean War? We can completely infer the meaning of the characters by comparing the previous orders." Di Renjie smiled modestly:

"It is very fortunate that such an archive is preserved in the British Museum, and it is even more fortunate that we have a master of deciphering the code."

Di Renjie looked at Sherlock who also turned his gaze at this time.

……

Several police officers quickly moved the files. There are quite a few of these files. However, military communications have strict format requirements. The names of the sender, sender, recorder, and recipient of the order must be clearly marked on the file. , Any mistakes and omissions may lead to the failure of military operations.

So now Sherlock and Di Renjie only need to screen out the orders related to Captain Nolan.

With the help of police officers and museum staff, the process took less than five minutes.

"The next thing to do is even simpler." Sherlock picked up the communication files stacked in chronological order:

"Multiple encrypted passwords are often difficult to crack, but considering the timeliness of battlefield communications, I don't think Captain Nolan will spend so much time performing multiple encryptions."

"Therefore, there is a high probability that this is a single and sequential encryption password. Considering that we already have the original document, deciphering these passwords only needs to be matched sequentially."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Lestrade, not understanding.

"It means that cracking these codes is very simple, and one person can do it." Sherlock spread his hands and said.

Although the words were very disdainful, Sherlock still started to decipher seriously, but it may be that this encryption is really too simple for him, so that the deciphering time is not even as good as the time for everyone to sift through the files.

"This symbol corresponds to the field marshal, this symbol is offensive, this one is Russian artillery, and the last symbol is ASAP."

"So together it means that the Marshal asked to attack the Russian artillery as soon as possible." Sherlock snapped his fingers and said very easily.

"That sounds all right?" said Mrs. Raglan, still resolutely.

"No, very problematic, ma'am," Sherlock picked up a file and showed it to everyone:
"This is the document that recorded this order at that time. The document shows that Mr. Marshal's order was to attack the retreating Russian artillery as soon as possible."

"However, the content recorded by Captain Nolan does not have the adjective 'retreating'. You know, we have just checked all the pieces of paper left by Captain Nolan. Except for this news, all other orders are with Marshal Raglan. matches the records below."

After Sherlock finished speaking, Di Renjie stepped forward and added: "Among the several officers who handled this order, Captain Nolan was the only one who died on the spot, so he is the least likely to fabricate a lie."

"But even if we take a step back, even if Mr. Marshal's order is accurately conveyed, this charge is still inevitable, because Mr. Marshal is standing on a high place, he can see two teams of Russian artillery, one team is withdrawing, and the other team is on the way. Hold the line at a distance."

"But when the order was passed on to the light cavalry, the retreating Russian artillery was still on the other side of the ridge, in the blind spot of the cavalry's field of vision, so do you think the cavalry, who can only see a group of Russian artillery, would not Will make the same choice as in history?"

"Finally, let's not forget the initial doubt. If Marshal Raglan didn't know that there was a problem with his order, why did you try everything possible to take away this cryptex tonight? Mrs. Raglan."

Di Renjie looked at the other party meaningfully.

Mrs. Raglan sank down on the floor.

(End of this chapter)