It would take some time for the corpse to be transported from the yamen to the warehouse, so Sun Shaozong first investigated the crime scene.
This Tianzihao warehouse is about eight feet [25.5 meters] long from east to west, and about three feet and five feet [11 meters] wide from north to south.
On the left side of the gate is a koan, with pen, ink, paper and inkstone on it, as well as three booklets with wooden shell covers.
Sun Shaozong flipped through it and found that one of them was a record of Du Ning's daily inventory check, and the other was a record of the time and purpose of other people entering and leaving the warehouse.
In the last booklet, some important to-do matters are recorded.
For example, the page on March 27 recorded Zhu Shan's important instructions on 'carrying out artillery maintenance in advance'—yes, this warehouse was always used to store trial-made artillery before the new type of gun was ushered in. Yes, and until now there are still several 'big' guns, placed in the innermost part of the warehouse.
As for the right side of the gate, there are four specially made lanterns, and some slogans of 'fire and theft' are posted.
Sun Shaozong picked up a lantern and looked at it carefully, and found that it was made of double-layer copper mesh. Even if the candle inside fell off the base, it would not be able to burn the outside with the barrier of the two layers of copper mesh. thing.
"Which lantern did Dunning use last night?"
"It's this one!"
Zhu Shan hurriedly took out another lantern from under the koan, and held it in front of Sun Shaozong with both hands.
However, Sun Shaozong was not in a hurry to pick it up, but turned his head to look at the four hooks on the wall, frowning and said, "This is all dead, and you even changed new lanterns on purpose?"
"No way."
Zhu Shan smiled helplessly and said: "The most important rules in our gunpowder bureau, according to the regulations formulated above, if the items in the important warehouse are damaged, they must be replaced with new ones as soon as possible, otherwise it will be a crime of dereliction of duty. "
It is estimated that this system was also set by Prince Yizhong at the beginning.
Sun Shaozong took the lantern and found that the copper mesh outside was slightly deformed, but the inside was basically intact.
After carefully observing for a while, and then asking about Duning's height, he raised the lantern in front of him to a height of about one meter two, then released his palm and let it fall freely.
bang~
The lantern smashed on the bluestone floor, rolled only half a circle, and then staggered to a stop.
Sun Shaozong picked it up and saw that although the lantern was slightly deformed, it was much less damaged than Du Ning's.
So he raised it by twenty centimeters and tried again.
Then there is an increase of 30 cm in height...
And then a little bit of force...
It wasn't until the four lanterns on the wall were smashed into disrespect that Sun Shaozong was under Zhu Shan's inexplicable gaze, and Shi Shiran launched the next step of investigation.
About one foot and five feet away from the gate, two rows of long tables were placed against the wall, and countless wooden shelves were nailed to them. A total of 218 Megatron-style muskets were placed neatly on these shelves. superior.
That is, at the beginning of the long table on the left, the two empty shelves are particularly eye-catching.
And equally dazzling, there is the dark brown blood on the ground.
Sun Shaozong first carefully observed the messy traces near the empty shelf, and then squatted on the ground to search for a long time, and circled the traces that were suspected of colliding with the lanterns, one by one, with a cinnabar pen.
"My lord, the body has already been transported."
At this time, Jia Shanyao and Lu Yuan led the four dragon guards and hurriedly brought in a corpse, which was naturally the corpse of Du Ning, the deputy supervisor of the Gunpowder Bureau.
"Rearrange the body as it was when he was found yesterday."
Sun Shaozong didn't even look at it, gave a casual order, and then seemed to slow down, checking the gun racks on the long table inch by inch.
Seeing that he was so meticulous, Lu Yuan naturally did not dare to fool the matter. He and Zhu Shan checked each other's deficiencies and filled the gaps, and finally restored the corpse to what it looked like at the time of the crime.
But seeing that Sun Shaozong hadn't finished the 'slow motion', they didn't dare to come forward to disturb him.
After waiting for another quarter of an hour, I saw Sun Shaozong come over with a dignified face. He was not in a hurry to check the body, but he asked first, "What repairing tools can be kept in this warehouse? For example, hammers, axes, etc. of?"
"It never was."
Zhu Shan immediately shook his head and said, "On weekdays, only Mr. Du comes in and out. Even if something is broken, he doesn't need to do it himself - we have craftsmen in the Gunpowder Bureau."
After speaking, Zhu Shan said with some doubts: "Your Excellency has found something suspicious, otherwise why did you suddenly ask about it?"
Sun Shaozong did not answer his question, but instead asked: "You said before that even Du Ning, who is in charge of the warehouse, is subject to a body search when entering and leaving the warehouse on weekdays - then this body search is once when you go in, once when you come out, or only once. When you come out of the warehouse, will you be searched?"
"this… "
Zhu Shan and Lu Yuan exchanged glances, and then hesitantly said: "According to the regulations, it is natural to check when entering and leaving, but generally when you enter the door, you will only check what is outside, and when you come out, you will be carefully searched."
Sun Shaozong immediately asked again: "That is to say, if he brings something close to him, he won't be found out?"
"This... it should be."
Zhu Shanluo hesitated, but nodded.
"Come on!"
Sun Shaozong immediately gave an order and said, "Let me go through it carefully and see if there is anything in this warehouse that shouldn't be there!"
Jia Shanyao and the four dragon guards responded quickly, and then called a team of people from outside, and launched a carpet-like search according to Sun Shaozong's intention.
And Sun Shaozong himself was not idle, he squatted in front of the corpse and examined it carefully.
This Duning is about forty years old, very thin, but with a big face - in addition, there are obvious dark circles around his eyes, and his sleep status should not be very good recently.
The corpse was lying on its back on the ground with its head, south, and north, and there was only a half-meter distance between its feet and the gun rack on the south side.
The fatal wound was a blood hole the size of a copper coin at the mouth of the heart—as for the murder weapon, it was naturally the bayonet that was brought along with the corpse.
By the way, there is a separate bayonet slot on the gun rack, and the third gun rack has only a musket, but no bayonet - obviously, the murderer stole two other complete muskets, including the bayonet. .
Both hands of the deceased were irregularly curved, and there were calluses and blisters that had been rubbed recently at the tiger's mouth.
In addition, the cuffs of the deceased's hands were stained with a lot of splattered blood.