Tang Dynasty detective

Chapter 209
The villagers looked at each other and muttered, wondering what happened.

However, no one admitted it.

"Since no one admits it, I have no choice but to find out by myself." Kang Xu glanced at the villagers majestically, then turned to Baojia and asked, "How many fishermen are there in Hetou Village?"

Baojia hurriedly lowered his head and replied: "My lord, because this village is close to Luoshui River and relies on water for water, more than [-]% of the labor force in the village are fishermen."

Kang Xu nodded, and said calmly, "Let all the fishermen come out."

Although Baojia didn't know why, he still followed what he said and made all the fishermen in the village stand up.

Kang Xu roughly counted, there were about dozens of people.

The fishermen didn't know why Kang Xu asked them to stand up, and started whispering among each other.

"Those who haven't fished in the past ten days take ten steps back." Kang Xu glanced at them and said calmly.

Several fishermen backed up immediately.

"Those who haven't fished for five days take three steps back." Kang Xu continued.

Everyone felt very baffled, but they dared not disobey the orders of the county magistrate, so they had to follow his orders.

This time, more than ten people retreated compared to last time, and there were less than ten people who did not move.

Kang Xu looked at the ten people who hadn't moved, stroked his chin, and suddenly changed his question: "Those of you who haven't fished for more than two days, stand up."

Those people became even more puzzled, guessing in their hearts, the county magistrate is playing us like monkeys?
Although a little upset in their hearts, they still obeyed orders.

Only three people stood up this time, and one of them was Zhou Ah Liu.

Kang Xu looked at those people, with the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, he pointed at the remaining two, and sternly shouted: "You are so courageous, you dare to pretend to be stupid when you commit a crime, and try to get away with it, come here, give me tied up!"

The sudden change caught everyone off guard. Before the two fishermen standing in front of Kang Xu could react, they were thrown to the ground by several yamen servants like hungry tigers pouncing on their food.

"My lord, why...why is this?" Baojia asked in a daze.

"These two people are related to the murder case. I want to take them back to the Yamen for a detailed trial." Kang Xu said flatly.

"They are related to the murder case? My lord, where do you start?" Baojia asked with a puzzled look on his face.

The two men knelt on the ground, yelling for injustice.

"Injustice? Then I will convince you." Kang Xu snorted coldly and said, "Three days ago, the two of you went fishing. During the fishing, you fished out a female corpse from the river. However , You didn't go to report to the police, but out of spite, you made up the idea of ​​the corpse. You dragged the corpse to the bank, searched for the jewelry and jewelry on the corpse, and then threw the corpse into the river again. Did the officer make a mistake?"

Those two people trembled slightly, they did not admit it, but shouted: "My lord, I am wronged! The younger one is just an ordinary fisherman, how dare I do such a wicked thing? I am wronged, my lord!"

"Hmph, now that the matter is up to now, you still want to deny it? Someone, present the evidence!" Kang Xu raised his eyebrows and gave a majestic shout.

Immediately, a government official came over with an evidence bag and put half a piece of fishing net in the evidence bag in front of them.

"You used fishing nets to salvage the corpses, but in the process of dragging the corpses, you accidentally tore the fishing nets. You only need to compare this fishing net with the net you used, and you will know the result naturally. Even now, you still want to deny it. No way?" Kang Xu stared at the two of them and shouted in a deep voice.

There was cold sweat on the foreheads of the two fishermen, and their bodies were shaking constantly.

"It's already disrespectful for you to steal the property of the deceased. What's more, you don't report the corpse and throw it away again. This has violated the laws of the Tang Dynasty. Do you know what crime this is?" Kang Xu sternly shouted.

Hearing that the law was violated, how could the two fishermen dare to deny it? They immediately kowtowed desperately, and said in panic: "My lord, please forgive me. The younger ones admit what the elder said, but the younger ones really don't know that this will violate the law. Lord, please forgive me!"

Seeing the two confessing, Baojia felt surprised in his heart, he really didn't understand how Kang Xu found them two among so many people.

"My lord, how do you know that the two of them salvaged the body, not the others?" Baojia asked cautiously.

Kang Xu said indifferently: "At first, I didn't know who salvaged the body, but after the screening just now, the result became clear at a glance. It has only been three days since Tao Zhaoxue's death. The body was found yesterday, but before the discovery However, in the lower reaches of Hetou Village, there were traces of corpses. According to the fishing net, the official concluded that the corpse must have been salvaged, but during the autopsy, the official did not find anything valuable on Tao Zhaoxue. Combined with the broken fishing net , I naturally thought that someone must have taken away the jewelry from the corpse while salvaging the corpse."

"But my lord, there were still seven or eight fishermen that day, how can you be sure it's the two of them?" Baojia still couldn't figure out this question.

"Tao Zhaoxue is the daughter of the Tao family, and the jewelry she wears is naturally valuable. The two made a fortune after looting the corpse, so they don't want to go fishing anymore and suffer from the wind and sun. "

Baojia suddenly realized, he finally understood why Kang Xu finally let people who had fished within five days but hadn’t set out in the past two days stand up.

"Did I say something wrong?" Kang Xu stared at the two fishermen and asked.

The two fishermen were already dripping with cold sweat, and they nodded repeatedly: "What the old man said is absolutely right, just as the old man said."

"Since that's the case, don't hesitate to take it seriously! Even the belongings of the dead are not spared, and the face of the village has been completely humiliated by you!" Baojia shouted angrily.

The two fishermen put on a bitter face, almost pleadingly: "Master, please forgive me, but the younger one is willing to do it all. It was because of the greed in our hearts that caused this trouble. Three days ago, when we were out on a boat to fish, we happened to meet When Zhou Ah Liu was holding a jade pendant, the two of us saw that the jade pendant was exquisitely carved and seemed to be worth a lot of money, so we asked him where he got it from. He said that the jade pendant was fished out by him when he was fishing. The two of us helped people salvage the sunken ship, and at a glance, we saw that the jade pendant had just sunk into the water. Thinking that there might be other treasures, we salvaged according to what Zhou Aliu said, and never thought that we would find it at the end of the village A female corpse."

Speaking of this, the fisherman shrank his neck, swallowed, and continued: "At that time, the two of us were startled, and we wanted to report to the police, but when we saw the gold and silver jewelry on the corpse, we immediately raised I became greedy. I thought, since this person is dead anyway, it is better to search for her jewelry and sink it into the bottom of the river. In this way, the two of us will make a fortune without getting into trouble. So I The two dragged the body to the bank, searched for the jewelry, and threw the body into the river again, never thought that all this would be seen through by the Elder Master, the Elder Master's eyes are like a torch, and I hope the Elder Master will be merciful!"

Kang Xu touched his chin, and he listened carefully to what the two fishermen were saying.

It wasn't until the two finished talking that he murmured, "How was the corpse when you fished it out?"

"The corpse was tied up with hemp rope, and there was a huge boulder falling from it. We guessed that the riverbed downstream of the village might be low, which caused the corpse to roll from the upstream village to the downstream village." The fisherman didn't dare to lie, and replied honestly. road.

"Since the corpse was tied up with hemp rope, why did you two cut the hemp rope?" Kang Xu asked with a serious face.

"Returning to the old man, although the two of us are greedy for money, we have a sense of guilt in searching the deceased's belongings. I thought it would be better to cut the hemp rope, throw away the boulder, and let the corpse drift with the tide, so that people might be able to find it. It feels better." The fisherman sighed and said very sincerely.

Kang Xu glanced at them in surprise, thinking, these two people still have such thoughts.

However, thanks to the two of them cutting off the boulder on which the body fell, otherwise Tao Zhaoxue's body would sink to the bottom of the river forever and feed the fish and shrimp.

"Although the two of you have mischievous intentions, but fortunately your conscience is still alive, I will let you go and hand over all the jewelry you found. Don't be greedy again in the future. If this happens again, He will be punished severely!"

As he spoke, Kang Xu waved his hand and ordered the two to be let go.

"Thank you Elder Master for your kindness, the two of us will never dare to be greedy again in the future, thank you Elder Master!"

"Thank you sir!"

After they kowtowed to Kang Xu several times, they got up tremblingly.

Kang Xu turned to look at Zhou Ah Liu, Zhou Ah Liu was so frightened that he trembled all over, thinking that he had just been hit by the board yesterday, and his buttocks felt a sharp pain.

"Zhou Ah Liu, I ask you, are they telling the truth?" Kang Xu asked.

"Yes, it's the truth." Zhou Aliu replied tremblingly.

"I ask you, where did you get the jade pendant?" Kang Xu asked in a deep voice.

Zhou Aliu shrank his neck and said, "Going back to the Eldest Master, it's in the upper reaches of the village."

"Take me there."

Zhou Ah Liu nodded yes, stood up hurriedly, and led the way ahead.

Kang Xu walked with his hands behind his back, meditating while walking, while the Chow Chow followed him wagging his head, bouncing around, seemingly in a good mood.

Combining the confessions of the two fishermen, as well as Zhang Hebi and Zhou Aliu's statement, he can now confirm that the place where the body was dumped is near Hetou Village.

Now, the whole murder case seems to be shrouded in a cloud of fog, and there are very few clues about the murderer. Kang Xu can only take one step at a time, first find the place where the body was dumped, and then look for clues from the place where the body was dumped.

Zhou Aliu led the crowd to the upper reaches of the village, where a reed grew near the shore.

"My lord, the place where I found the jade pendant is in the river two feet in front of the reed." Zhou Aliu pointed to the river behind the reed and said respectfully.

Kang Xu squinted his eyes and saw that behind the sparse reeds was a vast expanse of water.

"How deep is the water here?" Kang Xu asked.

"My lord, there is a depth of Zhang Xu here, and the river bed here is quite steep." Zhou Aliu replied.

(End of this chapter)