The First Great Ancestor of the Five Dynasties

Chapter 79 Zhu Xiaolang’s drug test and investigation

Outside the county government office, a large number of people gathered together.

Four straw mats covered with white cloth were lined up, and when the wind blew, the bodies underneath were revealed.

Several village men and women in mourning clothes knelt aside, wiping away tears and crying bitterly, their faces full of sorrow.

Bai Mai stands out among the crowd.

More and more people were watching, pointing at them and sighing with sympathy.

The gate of the county government office opened, and Zhu Xiu led his people out. The people immediately swarmed around, chattering and the scene was chaotic.

Shen Xuemin raised his hands in the air and shouted until his face turned red, but it still didn't work.

Zhu Xiu waved to Shi Xiangwen, Shi Xiangwen leaned down, and Zhu Xiu whispered a few words in his ear.

Shi Xiangwen nodded his big head, straightened up, looked around, took a deep breath, and shouted like a loudspeaker with full power: "Quiet~~"

The commanding roar of a lion dominated the entire audience, suppressing all the noise.

The scene fell silent for an instant, and all the people stared at the terrifying giant in horror.

Zhu Xiu nodded with satisfaction, waved his hand, and a dozen tooth soldiers rushed forward and lined up, making the crowd retreat to a limited distance.

"Who is the person in charge?"

Zhu Xiu looked at the people in the front row and asked harmoniously.

A 50-year-old man with a goatee wearing a mink hat and a brocade coat looked at Shi Xiangwen with fear, hesitated for a moment, stood up and bowed to Zhu Xiu and Shen Xuemin and said: "I, the head of Dongshan Township, have met these two Shangguan officials. "

Zhu Xiu looked at him: "What do you call the township head?"

The man hurriedly said: "My surname is Zhang."

"Head Zhang."

Zhu Xiu nodded and suddenly smiled and said: "Head Zhang and I have never met each other, and I am not wearing official uniform today. Why did Head Zhang address me as an official when we first met? I am young, how dare you judge me?" Do you have an official position?"

"This." Zhang Xiang was at a loss for words, and under Zhu Xiu's gaze, which looked more unnatural, he stammered: "Xiao Lang Junfeng is handsome, with extraordinary appearance, naturally he is not a person to be taken lightly."

"Haha." Zhu Xiu looked at him deeply. Mayor Zhang's eyes flickered and his temples were slightly wet.

"Everyone, please get up and talk." Zhu Xiu ignored him, and said kindly to several villagers in sackcloth kneeling beside the straw mat.

Shen Xuemin said hurriedly: "Villages, please get up. This is Secretary Zhu Zhang of Jiedu Mansion. This time, he came from Anding to handle matters in Dongshan Township."

Several villagers in mourning clothes looked at each other and cast questioning glances at Mayor Zhang.

"What are you looking at me doing? Magistrate Shen asked you to get up, why are you still kneeling?" Township Chief Zhang shook his sleeves and robe anxiously with a pale face, his expression unnatural.

Zhu Xiu signaled the tooth soldiers to come forward and help them up. Seeing the tooth soldiers wearing armor and carrying swords, several villagers did not dare to refuse and stood up tremblingly.

"These four corpses are the Dongshan villagers who unfortunately died of poisoning?" Zhu Xiu said solemnly.

"Shaolangjun Mingjian" Zhang Xiang was about to reply with a face, Zhu Xiu gave him a cold look: "Shut up! Let them talk!"

Mr. Zhang's throat slid and he did not dare to say anything more. He only felt that Zhu Xiu's eyes were as sharp as a knife, piercing the darkness hidden in his heart bit by bit.

Several villagers in mourning looked at each other, and one of them said, "The ones lying there are my eldest brother's family, my niece, nephew, and my sister-in-law, all of them were poisoned to death by poisonous salt!"

The people watching sighed in sympathy, a family of four was really pitiful.

Zhu Xiu suppressed the discomfort in her heart, squatted down, uncovered the white cloth, and looked at the corpses one by one.

The weather was still cold, and the corpse had been left there for many days. Its surface was dark green, the muscles and bones were stiff everywhere, and the faces were different.

There was a family of four, the daughter was eleven or twelve years old, and the son was only seven or eight years old. They died tragically.

After carefully observing the eyes, mouth, nose, nails and limbs of each corpse, almost every corpse had vomit residue in its mouth. Zhu Xiu's face was gloomy and he had some concerns in his heart.

A tooth soldier was called, Zhu Xiu whispered a few words, and the tooth soldier clasped his fists and followed the order.

"Order to find the widow who conducted the body inspection that day." Zhu Xiu ordered Shen Xuemin.

Shen Xuemin hastily summoned a county magistrate and gave some instructions in a low voice.

"How do you know that their family was killed by poisonous salt?" Zhu Xiu stared at the man in sackcloth.

The man's eyes were red, and he said angrily: "My eldest brother came back with white salt that day, and happily steamed a basket of white buns. My sister-in-law killed a chicken and asked me and my wife to bring the baby to the house in the afternoon. Eat wine.

But little did we know that when we arrived, my eldest brother and his family had already fallen to the ground and died!I checked everywhere and found that the white salt my elder brother brought back had an astringent smell. Only unclean poisonous salt has that kind of smell! "

Brine salt has a sour and pungent bitter taste. This is common knowledge. The man said this, and the people around him nodded. It seems that this family of four died unfortunately because of eating poisonous salt.

Zhu Xiu nodded, and glanced at the head of Zhang Township: "Dongshan Township's free official salt, are you responsible for distributing it?"

"It's me"

"Are there any other poisoning incidents in Hongo?"

"After this case occurred, word spread quickly throughout Dongshan Township. Villagers no longer dared to eat official salt, so there have been no other cases of poisoning."

Zhu Xiu said calmly: "So, this family of four is really unlucky. How come the poisonous salt got into his family's job?"

Mayor Zhang murmured without saying a word.

Zhu Xiu looked around and said loudly: "Apart from Dongshan Township, are there any other villagers inside and outside the county who have been poisoned by eating official salt?"

All the people looked at each other, and there were several sparse responses: "No!"

"never heard of that!"

“The news spread that Dongshan Township’s official salt poisoned people, who is not afraid of death and dares to eat the salt distributed by the government?”

Zhu Xiu said loudly again: "In Anding County, eighty miles away, almost everyone in the county eats free white salt. There is no case of poisoning. Why is there one in Dongshan Township? Don't you think it's strange?" Among you, many of you must have eaten white salt, have you ever been poisoned?

You have only heard that the official salt in Dongshan Township poisoned people, but who can be sure that it must be salt that poisons people?Everyone knows that brine salt smells bad. If you smell something wrong with the salt beforehand, who would eat it? "

There were murmurs in the crowd, and Zhu Xiu's few questions could easily arouse people's discussion.

The sweat on Zhang Xiang's temples was getting more and more, his mouth was dry, and he hesitated: "Even if not all official salt is poisonous, but these salts are not clean after all. If you are unlucky enough to receive poisonous salt, the people will not believe it." Jiedufu, I’m just worried.”

"Are you worried that you will be the next unlucky one?"

Zhu Xiu sneered and pointed at the four corpses under white cloth: "Does this family deserve to be unlucky? Hundreds of kilograms of salt bags were given out, but his family only received poisonous salt?"

Mayor Zhang was speechless and had a stiff smile on his face.

"I will definitely find out how this family died! If someone does something bad, they will definitely suffer retribution!" Zhu Xiu shouted sternly.

Mayor Zhang was startled, trembling all over, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

Soon, Wu Zuo arrived, a middle-aged man with short stature and ugly face.

"The villain kowtows to the big masters." Wu Zuo knelt down when they met, with a panicked expression, but his eyes rolled around.

"Are you inspecting these four corpses?" Zhu Xiu asked in a deep voice, with a serious look on his face.

Wu Zuo opened the white cloth, looked at it, and replied, "It was tested by a villain."

"How do you conclude they died from poisonous salt?"

Wu Zuo said: "The limbs of the corpse were twisted and stiff, the nails were blue, there was vomit in the mouth, the abdomen was stiff and stiff, and there were signs of incontinence, which is consistent with the symptoms of brine salt poisoning. The villain also poked the stomach of the corpse with a silver needle. The silver needle If it turns black, it means that what you ate before was poisonous.”

The people around him nodded. The symptoms of bittern salt poisoning mentioned by Wu Zuo were consistent with what they knew. The fact that the silver needle turned black after being pierced into the stomach was the best evidence.

Shen Xuemin whispered worriedly: "This person also told the official that day. Judging from the symptoms, it seems that this family member died from eating poisonous salt by mistake."

Zhu Xiu gave him a relieved look and said to him: "Did you bring any equipment? Try the silver needle detection method again in public." Wu Zuo didn't know why, and subconsciously glanced at Mayor Zhang from the corner of his eye.

"Why, before you inspect the body, do you still need to discuss it with Mayor Zhang?" Zhu Xiu chuckled coldly.

Mayor Zhang trembled and said in a panic: "I don't know how to do autopsies!"

Zhu Xiu snorted coldly and stared at Wu Zuo: "Why don't you do it quickly?"

Under the gaze of dozens of pairs of eyes, Wu Zuo uncovered the white cloth of the body, opened the iron box he carried with him, and took out a roll of leather. There were several small pockets inside, containing various knives and silver needles.

Zuo Zuo took out a silver needle about five inches long, located it in the stomach of the corpse, gently pierced it, twisted it for a moment and pulled it out. The part where the silver needle penetrated the stomach turned blue and black visible to the naked eye.

There was an exclamation in the crowd, and they shouted: "It is indeed poisonous salt!"

Wu Zuo also asked people to find saponin water, light candles, burn and scrub the silver needles repeatedly to restore their original color, and then inspected the remaining corpses according to the gourd painting ladle, and all of them were found to be poisonous.

"Young official, are you trustworthy this time?" Wu Zuo chuckled proudly.

Township head Zhang also secretly heaved a sigh of relief, pretending to be regretful and said: "Mr. Shaolang also saw that the four members of this family did die of poisoning!"

Zhu Xiu smiled coldly, took a few steps, glanced at Township Chief Zhang and Zuo with a pair of shining eyes, and said loudly to the people watching: "Dear fellow villagers, the four of them did die of poisoning, but it was not due to the poison they ingested." He died of salt, but because someone mixed arsenic into the white salt!"

"Arsenic!" The people exclaimed, and their expressions changed when they heard it. Everyone knew that arsenic is a highly poisonous thing.

Mayor Zhang's face suddenly turned pale, and Zuo Zuo was shocked.

Zhu Xiu snatched the silver needle from his hand and magically pulled out a light gray brine stone.

"Everyone, take a look. This is a brine stone. Anyone come forward to confirm it?"

A voice from the back of the crowd echoed: "I'll do it!"

Everyone looked back and saw a young man with a strange face.

Young people wear cloth robes and headbands, dressing up as ordinary people.

He strode forward, saluted Zhu Xiu, took the brine salt stone and looked at it carefully, sniffed it vigorously, stuck out his tongue and licked it, spit, and said loudly: "It's salty and astringent, it's brine salt!"

Shen Xuemin was stunned, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, this young man turned out to be Yan Ping.

A few more people in the front row took the brine stone and inspected it. Everyone saw and smelled it and didn't forget to lick it, which made Zhu Xiu feel cold.

These people were not entrusted by him.

After being unanimously confirmed by the villagers, Zhu Xiu asked people to find a stone mortar, put the brine stone in it, and asked Shi Xiangwen to crush it vigorously into powder, put it in a bowl filled with water, and make a solution.

"The brine salt dissolves in the water. If it is poisonous, the silver needle should change color."

Zhu Xiu put the silver needle into the bowl, stirred it, and took it out, but there was no change.

The common people crowded in front of the gate of the county government stood on their feet and stretched their necks, watching with wide eyes.

"This is a pack of white salt that has been sealed in the warehouse. It is the same batch as the ones distributed to everyone."

Several servants brought a bag of salt, Zhu Xiu untied it, took out a handful of salt, sprinkled it into the water bowl, stirred it with a silver needle, and took it out, but there was still no change in color.

The villagers watched with their own eyes and fell into silence.

Another officer brought a small paper bag, which was packed in rough paper. Before it was untied, a smell of sulfur came out.

"Everyone has seen it, this is a tael of arsenic!" Zhu Xiu held up the rough paper and showed it to everyone.

The people in the front row retreated one after another, fearing that they would be unable to avoid this highly poisonous thing.

Zhu Xiu shook the off-white arsenic powder mixed with red and yellow into the water bowl, stirred it with a silver needle, and the part submerged in the water immediately turned blue-black.

sizzle~~
There was a gasp in the crowd.

"The villagers have all seen it. The thing that can change the color of silver needles is clearly arsenic! There is nothing wrong with the white salt distributed to the villagers! It is poisonous, it should be arsenic! Someone mixed arsenic into white salt, and this family of four accidentally After eating them, they were poisoned and died! They were deliberately killed!"

Zhu Xiu shouted loudly, pointing at Township Chief Zhang and Zuo: "Arrest these two!"

Several county officials immediately rushed forward and controlled Mayor Zhang and his wife.

Township Chief Zhang struggled desperately and cried out that he was wronged with a red face.

However, Wu Zuo's legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground, with a smell of urine coming out from under his body.

The people looked at each other in blank dismay, but they didn't expect the case to turn around.

Zhu Xiu whispered to Shen Xuemin: "Put these two people in jail, interrogate them separately, and check their confessions. We will definitely find out the cause of the case. There is also the deceased's brother. That guy is not honest. Please interrogate them carefully."

Shen Xuemin was stunned for a moment, then cupped his hands and said, "I will obey your orders."

Seeing that he was hesitant to speak, Zhu Xiu smiled and said, "If you have something to say, you might as well just say it."

Shen Xuemin said: "How did Shaolangjun know that they died of arsenic poison? Also, as Gen Xiaguan knew, if brine salt is poisoned, it will also cause the silver needle to change color. Why did the brine salt stone in Shaolangjun's hand dissolve in the In the water, there is no response when tested with a silver needle? How can one differentiate between the two poisons?"

"Well, hehe, some small tricks are insignificant! County Magistrate Shen should review the case first to eliminate the negative impact and let the people of Liangyuan regain their confidence in the government."

Zhu Xiu patted him on the shoulder with a mysterious expression on his face.

Shen Xuemin thought he wanted to hide his secrets, so he smiled and didn't ask any more questions. He bowed deeply, ordered people to dismiss the people, and led the officers to take a few troublesome people into the county government office.

Zhu Xiu looked at the people who were gradually dispersing and let out a long sigh of relief. He finally saved the Jiedu Mansion from this crisis of trust.

The salt stone he brought from Anding was not a brine salt stone at all, but a piece of limestone that was repeatedly soaked in salt water and dried in the sun.

Pure arsenic was originally an odorless and tasteless white frost-like substance, but due to the rough production in ancient times, a large amount of impurities were often mixed in, and most of them were sulfides, so arsenic at this time often contained sulfur gas.

Silver needles are unable to detect arsenic poisoning, what is actually detected is a large amount of sulfide in it.

Arsenic has been the most common poison since ancient times, so people often used silver needles to detect whether it was poisonous or not.

This method is actually quite unreliable and extremely error-prone.

However, the ancients did not know the difference between sulfide and arsenic trioxide. Even Song Ci, the originator of forensic medicine more than 100 years later, affirmed the effectiveness of silver needle detection of poison in his masterpiece "Xie Yuan Ji Lu".

Zhu Xiu did not need to explain the little chemical knowledge contained in it to the people. He only needed to prove that the white salt distributed by Jiedu Mansion was safe and reliable.

The symptoms of the poor family of four were exactly the same as those of arsenic poisoning. Besides, Liangyuan, a small county, would not be able to find a second poison if they wanted to harm someone.

Wu Zuo originally wanted to bully Zhu Xiu for not knowing what he was doing, so he poked him twice with a silver needle and the color changed, indicating that he had died from poisonous salt.

Unexpectedly, his little trick would hit the wall when he met Zhu Xiu, an outstanding student in compulsory education.

Naturally, Township Chief Zhang and Zuo would not kill people for no reason. They also spread rumors that Jiedu Mansion sent poisonous salt to kill people. As for the mastermind behind it, Zhu Xiu could figure out who it was by picking up his toenails.

"The Xue family did this just to ruin the reputation of Jiedu Mansion?"

Zhu Xiu fell into deep thought and always felt that this matter was not simple.

From the moment he stepped into Liangyuan County, he felt frightened in his heart.

"Zhu Xiaolangjun! It's not good!~"

A dental soldier ran out of the county office in a panic.

"What happened?" Zhu Xiu's thoughts were interrupted, her heart skipped a beat, and she asked hurriedly.

The tooth soldier swallowed and said, "Hurry up and take a look, that party aristocrat seems to be dying!"

"What!?" Zhu Xiu was startled, turned around and rushed into the county office.

(End of this chapter)