Concubine

Chapter 440 Charcoal Poison
The previous inspection was not detailed, and Ji Gang made a mess of it. As a result, hundreds of innocent people died tragically. This taught Yang Qiuchi a big lesson, so this time he must try to find out the real cause of death.

He has already thought about how to test it. To find out the real cause of death without autopsy, he needs not only technology, but also some luck. I hope that the cause of death of Concubine Xian can be found out without autopsy.Otherwise, it will be difficult to handle.

Yang Qiuchi climbed up the ladder on the side of the coffin, and took off the satin quilt covering it, revealing the body of the concubine Xian. Due to the cold weather, it was deep underground. It was still the same as last time, with only mild corruption.

He first took out the exquisite and priceless funerary objects next to the body of Concubine Xian, revealing the embroidered brocade quilt underneath, grabbed the sheets on both sides, and lifted the body up forcefully.Slowly back down the wooden ladder, and put the body on the bluestone floor.

Unrolling the quilt revealed Concubine Xian's body.This time Yang Qiuchi was no longer polite, he stripped off all the clothes and skirts on Concubine Xian, and began to conduct physical examinations little by little.

The corpse spots are located on the lower back. According to the evidence of Lian Er and others, although Concubine Xian was lying on her side when she died, the corpse spots were discovered before they appeared or just started to appear, and then she was in a supine position.

When Yang Qiuchi carefully checked the condition of the corpse spot, he was surprised. The corpse spot was bright red instead of the usual dark red. There are two possibilities. Oxygenated hemoglobin is formed through the skin, so the plaque is bright red.Another possibility is that carboxyhemoglobin was formed in Concubine Xian's body, so the corpse spots are bright red. If this is the case, it means that Concubine Xian died of carbon monoxide poisoning!
This reminded Yang Qiuchi of the imperial physician's words when talking about the symptoms of Concubine Xian's death: "Guanzhi's lips are cherry red".This is one of the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, but it was the midsummer of July at that time, and it is generally impossible to have charcoal fires, so I didn't think about charcoal fire poisoning.Now combined with the corpse spots, the possibility of this suspicion has become more and more likely.

However, no conclusions can be drawn without further evidence.Before that, he decided to check whether Concubine Xian died of arsenic poisoning.

Yang Qiuchi opened the forensic evidence investigation box, took out a syringe, sucked some normal saline, stuck it into the stomach of Concubine Xian's corpse, and injected the normal saline into it.

After waiting for a while, I replaced the syringe with a large needle and slowly sucked back the normal saline injected into the stomach just now.The needle was removed and the tube of gastric solution was injected down the duck's throat.

After waiting for a long time, the duck was still alive and kicking, nothing happened.This proves that there is no poison in Concubine Xian's stomach!Of course, it proved to be poisoned after death.

Now that arsenic poisoning has been ruled out, it is even more likely that Concubine Xian died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

In the detection of carbon monoxide poisoning, the preferred sample is the blood in the heart and great vessels.If carbon monoxide is detected in the heart blood, it can be confirmed.

The blood of carbon monoxide poisoning is cherry red, fluid and not easy to corrupt, which will slow down the whole process of decay of the corpse.This was also one of the reasons why Concubine Xian's body was only slightly corrupted half a year after her death.

Since carboxyhemoglobin remains in the corpse for a long time, it can still be detected even if the corpse is decomposed.Therefore, Yang Qiuchi was not worried that he would not be able to find out.

He took a syringe, inserted it into the heart of the deceased, extracted the blood of the deceased, and then tested it with the sodium hydroxide method. A few minutes after the reagent was added to the sample blood, the blood turned straw yellow, which indicated that in the blood of the deceased's heart, Contains a high concentration of carbon monoxide, Concubine Xian died of carbon monoxide poisoning!
Yang Qiuchi was still worried, so he took the blood from the large blood vessels of the deceased and tested it with another method - the ammonium sulfide method. The result was that the blood was still rose red, while normal blood should turn greenish brown.This proves once again that Concubine Xian died of carbon monoxide poisoning!
In the midsummer of July, where does carbon monoxide come from?I can't figure it out, it seems that it is necessary to go to the post station and conduct on-site investigation again.

Yang Qiuchi continued the autopsy and found no other abnormalities. Then he put a dress on the corpse, packed up the testing equipment, and called Song Yun'er in.

Song Yuner asked curiously, "How is it? Did you find anything?"

Yang Qiuchi thought for a while, and then said: "Concubine Xian was not poisoned to death by arsenic, but was poisoned by charcoal. As for whether it was an accident, or someone deliberately used this method to murder, further investigation is needed."

Carbon monoxide poisoning has been known in ancient times, and it is recorded in "Xie Yuan Jilu": "People who are poisoned by coal, and the earth pit leaks fire gas and smells dirty, people are fumigated, and they die without knowing it. Their corpses are soft and uninjured. It is similar to those who cannot regain consciousness.” At that time, it was recognized that the gas produced by burning coal could cause death.However, it is not known that this gas is called carbon monoxide.

Song Yun'er was very strange, and asked: "No, it was July when Concubine Xian died, and it was the scorching heat, where did the coal come from?"

"So we have to go back to the post station crime scene to check."

Yang Qiuchi asked her to help put the body and funeral objects back into the coffin, and then asked Wang Zhixian to take Minzhuang to cover the coffin and backfill the tomb passage.

Afterwards, Yang Qiuchi rushed to Lincheng with Song Yuner, Hong Ling and the guards.Arrived in Lincheng two days later.

Because Long Live God and Empress lived in Lincheng Post Station, and the Empress died of illness in this post station, the magistrate of Lincheng thought it was very commemorative, so he reported to the higher authorities and applied for special funds to build another post station, and the original post station Then all of them will be sealed up and kept as a souvenir, and the supplies inside will also be kept as they are, and no one else is allowed to live in it.Of course no one dared to object to this idea.Therefore, the post station site is well preserved and has the value of re-surveying the site.

Accompanied by the magistrate of Lincheng and the post envoy of the post station, re-investigate the scene of the crime.

Lincheng is a small town, and the layout of this inn is also very simple. Yang Qiuchi took Song Yuner to look around in the room where the concubine Xian died, carefully inspecting each item, and found nothing abnormal.

Yang Qiuchi pondered for a while, since the concubine died of carbon monoxide poisoning, there were no car exhaust or gas stoves in ancient times, so the main things that can cause carbon monoxide poisoning are coal and charcoal.

Coal was far from being mined on a large scale in the Ming Dynasty, and the coal that had been mined was mainly used for smelting production, and almost no coal was used in daily life.After questioning, I learned that this post station did not use coal, so the only thing that is most likely to cause carbon monoxide poisoning is charcoal fire.

During the period when the emperor brought his empress to stay in the inn, the inn was heavily guarded, and outsiders could not approach at all. If they wanted to enter, they would have to go through security checks like the palace. If someone came with charcoal fire, they would definitely be questioned and arouse suspicion. Therefore, this It is almost impossible for charcoal fire to be brought in from outside.Then there is only one possibility - the charcoal fire that caused the carbon monoxide poisoning of the concubine Xian is in the station!

Yang Qiuchi asked the post envoy, "Does your post use charcoal fires for heating in winter?"

"Yes." The station envoy replied with a bow.

"Where do you keep your charcoal?"

The post envoy pointed to the two small rooms in the corner of the post yard: "It's right there."

Yang Qiuchi walked to the small room, the door was unlocked, and he gently pushed it open. This room is a suite, and there are several rows of braziers for burning charcoal and some stoves for boiling water neatly placed outside.

In the inner room was a small pile of charcoal.The station envoy explained: "These are all unused last winter. After the emperor left, according to the magistrate's instructions, the station was sealed and kept as it was."

Yang Qiuchi walked to the braziers and stoves in the outer room, squatted down, and carefully observed them one by one.After thinking for a while, he stood up, walked quickly to the room where the emperor lived, asked the others to wait outside, opened all the doors and windows, then entered the room by himself, and lay down under the last window of the room , with his face almost touching the ground, he first observed obliquely, and then looked at the past bit by bit.

The windows and doors were opened, and the room was very bright. Yang Qiuchi's eyes searched the ground inch by inch nervously. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he ordered Nan Gongxiong to bring in his forensic evidence investigation box, opened it, and took it out. Tweezers, carefully picked up seven or eight small particles on the ground with the tweezers, put them into the glass tube, and put them back into the forensic evidence investigation box.

Song Yun'er has been watching nervously at the door. During Yang Qiuchi's investigation of the scene, she never speaks. She knows that what Yang Qiuchi needs most at this time is quiet thinking.

Yang Qiuchi stood up, lay down on the ground one by one the rooms where the maids and eunuchs lived in at that time, and inspected the ground carefully.Finally, when he checked one of them, his eyes lit up again.I took the forensic evidence investigation box, took out the tweezers, lay down on the ground again, picked up a few small particles, and put them into another glass tube.

Then, Yang Qiuchi wandered around the room for a while, and his eyes fell on an iron kettle for boiling water on the table by the door. He walked over, lifted it up, looked at it, and nodded if he realized something.

After leaving the room, he went back to the small apartment where the charcoal was placed just now, picked up some charcoal slag and charcoal powder from the ground with tweezers, and put them into a new glass tube.

Yang Qiuchi returned to the room just now, told Song Yuner that they were waiting outside, then closed the doors and windows, took out the miniature microscope, and observed the small particles extracted in three places. When his eyes left the microscope, he was already full of excitement And a touch of complacency.

When Yang Qiuchi came out after the inspection, Song Yuner saw his excited face and couldn't help asking, "Brother, how are you doing? Did you find anything?"

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(End of this chapter)