Hanging and strangling corpses are different. The latter will show signs of crossed ropes on the back of the neck, and anyone who is strangled will definitely struggle violently before death, even if the neck is not scratched by nails. If there is a broken mark, there will definitely be other bruises and bruises on the body. This is clearly explained in the Northern Song Dynasty's "A Collection of Injustices".
At the level of an ordinary novel, it is not difficult to distinguish whether it is suicide or strangulation, and it is enough to familiarize yourself with "The Record of Wrongdoing".
Tang Fan was not very surprised by this result, because in his opinion, Mrs. Zhang, the wife of the Li family, is a kind person with a harmless personality. People with this kind of personality are generally patient and obedient, take the secular etiquette as normal, and obey them subconsciously. . Before she brought that beautiful woman back, Li Man already had two concubines, and she had never seen what Mrs. Zhang had done to them. Even if she was angry and sad, it was impossible for her to hang herself because of this incident.
For someone with a fierce and extreme temperament, it is possible, or like Zheng Sun's, to attack her husband directly.
Therefore, the possibility of Zhang's suicide is not very high.
Since it's not suicide, then we must find the murderer, and the Li family can no longer make the decision.
Tang Fan lives next door to Li's house, so he has to go there to see it.
But this time, he did not go alone as he did in the morning, but ordered several yamen servants such as Lao Wang in the yamen, together with Du Jiang, the inspector of the school, to go with him.
Zhang Shi's body was parked in the center of the Li family hall. The county magistrate and the principal of Wanping County were there, and there were other works in the county beside him.
Wanping County is directly under Shuntian Prefecture. They also knew Tang Fan. When they saw Tang Fan coming, they all came to greet him.
Tang Fan asked: "You two don't need to be too polite, how are things going?"
The county magistrate of Wanping said: "The Li family said that they didn't see any suspicious people entering their mistress's room that night, only the two maids were vigil outside, and now we have arrested them, the adults should ask ?"
Tang Fan said, "What about them?"
The county magistrate of Wanping asked them to bring them over. Both A Chun and A Xia were weak women, and there was no need to tie them up because they were watching from behind, but their expressions were sluggish, even worse than when they saw them in the morning.
The county magistrate of Wanping briefly stated the content of his cross-examination. In fact, Tang Fan had already asked the same content, and it didn't sound new at this time.
Li Man watched coldly for a long time, and finally couldn't help but stepped forward and said angrily: "Master Tang has made a mess of my family, but I am very proud? Since I can't find anything, why not let me wait for it first. Zhuo Jing is responsible for the funeral, so that she can be buried in the ground as soon as possible!"
The county magistrate of Wanping shouted: "The little people are rude. Now that there is a murder case, it is no longer your family's business. Zhang's body should be taken over by the government until the truth is revealed!"
Li Man sneered: "My wife died tragically, and I am also extremely saddened, but what's the matter with preventing the funeral! You adults are deceiving me and everyone in the Li family will not succeed. I think my grandfather was also a servant of the third rank. There are still one or two old seniors in the middle, if I sue me for this, I am afraid that all of you adults will not finish eating and leave!"
The Wanping county magistrate and the chief clerk were both dissatisfied that a businessman dared to threaten them, but they were unsure whether what Li Man said was true or not, so they all looked at Tang Fan. After all, among the three, Tang Fan had the highest official position, so naturally To follow his lead.
Tang Fan chuckled: "I don't know who the old senior you are talking about is, why don't you talk about it, maybe this official happens to know you too!"
Li Man paused for a while, and then asked in a soft tone: "Sir, the villain didn't mean to cause trouble, it's just that the weather is hot and it's not easy to store the body, and my wife has helped me with housework for decades. The affairs of the adults have nothing to do with the villains, I just hope that she can go to the ground as soon as possible, so as not to die under the Jiuquan, the dead are big, this is also the righteousness, a few adults must also be considerate?"
Before waiting for Tang Fan to respond, he said again: "The villain has an inside story, so please ask Master Tang to take a step to speak."
Li Man looked at Tang Fan expectantly, and the latter nodded: "Okay, just lead the way."
Li Man took Tang Fan to the inner room next door, without saying a word, he knelt down with a plop!
"About the death of Zhuojing, there is actually no secret. Here is a paper, please read it!"
He held the folded papers in his hands.
Tang Fan took it, but felt that his hand was heavy. He opened it and saw that among the layers of white paper, there were dozens of silver notes for Huitong numbers, some one hundred taels, some fifty taels, the total number combined There are at least two thousand two or so.
You must know that at this time, one tael of silver can buy more than two stone of rice, and two thousand tael is equivalent to more than 4,000 stone of rice, and a second-rank official like Liubu Shangshu costs sixty-one stone per month. .
But where there are poor people, there are rich people. For a successful businessman like Li Man, 2,000 taels is not an unaffordable number. Before Feng Qingzi wanted to redeem her life, she had to ask for 5,000 taels. It's not the lion's big mouth. For the real rich, five thousand taels is also a trifle.
However, compared to the court officials with very low salary, more than two thousand taels is a huge number.
Tang Fan held the bank note with a half-smile, "Why, are you trying to bribe?"
"How dare you!" Li Man hurriedly cupped his hands, "I heard from Lao Li that the Li family has been taken care of by Lord Tang for many years, and I am grateful to him, but I can't repay it, so it's not a matter of respect, so I hope you will accept it with a smile."
Tang Fan weighed the bank note: "Do you hope that this case will not be investigated further?"
Li Man smiled bitterly and said, "The death of Zhuojing is equally heart-wrenching to me. Your Excellency wants to investigate the case, so I naturally dare not stop me. I just hope that our family can have a good life for a few days. , not only the funeral can't be done, I'm afraid that those servants are also panicked and have no intention of doing things!"
Tang Fan nodded and took the silver note into his arms: "I understand what you mean."
After saying that, he turned around and walked out.
Seeing that he accepted the bank note, Li Man naturally knew that this was the case, and couldn't help being overjoyed, and hurriedly followed.
But it was said that when Tang Fan and the others returned to the hall, the Wanping county magistrate and the chief clerk both greeted him and asked him for his opinion: "Sir, should we investigate this case or not?"
Tang Fan asked strangely: "Check it out, why not check it? Even the murderer is there. Are you planning to let the real murderer go unpunished?"
Both the Wanping county magistrate and the chief clerk were shocked: "Where is the real murderer?"
Tang Fan pointed at Li Man and said, "Isn't this the real murderer?"
Before Li Man could speak, he shouted again, "Someone, tie him up!"
He brought people from Shuntian Prefecture himself, but he didn't bother the Wanping county magistrate and the others to do it. When Old Wang and the others heard Tang Fan's order, they immediately complied, strode forward, and pulled Li Man's hands back. Tie up tightly.
"You! How dare you wrong a good person and waste your life, I'm going to sue you! I'm going to sue you!" Li Man didn't expect Tang Fan to turn his face when he said that, he was shocked and angry, struggling desperately.
Tang Fan raised his eyebrows: "Wrongly wronged a good person? Not necessarily. You can even make a wife, so why call a good person? If you don't agree, it's okay, don't be impatient, and let me do it for you one by one."
He turned his head and asked A Chun, "Are the jade earrings I gave you that day still there?"
A Chun said: "Yes, I put it back in my wife's makeup box."
Tang Fan: "Go and take it out."
A Chun should be yes, get up and hold the entire makeup box: "Master Tang, it's in the last box."
Tang Fan opened the last box and found the lotus and jade earrings inside.
He motioned A-Chun to put down the box, and took out an identical earring from his arms.
A Chun exclaimed: "Master found another one?"
Tang Fan nodded and raised the jade earring: "This other pendant was found under the bed in your wife's room."
Tang Fan asked: "On weekdays, you wait in your wife's house, have you ever chased and played?"
A Chun said: "Naturally, it never happened. Although the wife is kind-hearted, after all, there are differences between masters and servants. The rules are there, and I can't be presumptuous."
Tang Fan asked again: "Then your wives usually have the habit of dancing or waking up at night when they sleep."
A Chun replied, "That's even more so. My wife sleeps so well, sometimes she doesn't even turn over all night."
Tang Fan said, "I'll ask you again. You said earlier that you went into the house to close the windows in the middle of the night, right or not?"
A Chun said: "Yes."
Tang Fan asked, "Did you go into the back room at that time?"
A Chun said: "No, I only closed the window outside at that time, and A Xia went to check the inner room."
Tang Fan asked A-Xia again, "So when you entered the back room, did you see anything unusual?"
A-Xia said: "No, no. At that time, my wife turned her back to me and was covered with a quilt. She seemed to be sleeping very deeply.
Tang Fan asked, "Have you ever looked under the bed?"
A-Xia shook her head: "The bed is covered with a sheet, which is usually only opened to clean the bottom of the bed when cleaning."
Tang Fan said: "A woman sleeps in her boudoir, and she sleeps very well, but she accidentally leaves the pendant beside the pillow, how can it fall into the depths of the bed for no reason? Then there are only two An explanation is that your wife did not accidentally drop the pair of earrings, but during the process of being strangled by someone's neck, the pendant was thrown from her ear and fell to the ground due to the violent struggle. Be careful to kick it under the bed!"
A Chun turned pale: "Could it be that the murderer was under the bed at the time?"
Tang Fan: "No, when you went in and closed the window, the murderer just jumped out of the window and escaped. If I guessed correctly, you were just looking out the window into the distance, but forgot to take a look at the bushes under the window?"
A Chun said: "Yes, yes, I took a look in the garden at that time, and heard the cat meow again, so I thought it was because I forgot to close the window earlier, which caused the wild cat to come in..."
Li Man shouted: "I have been married to Zhuojing for decades, and the flounder has a deep relationship. She is virtuous and virtuous, why should I kill her?! It's the murderer, I'm definitely going to sue the Department of Punishment and Dali Temple to avenge, don't bully me, there's no one in the Li family!"
Tang Fan said lightly: "Although you have been married to the Zhang family for decades, you were indeed deeply in love at first, but because of the passage of time, from strong to weak, you began to regret that you had spent all your family wealth for her and gave up the future of the imperial examination, and married such a man. A wife who can't bear children, and a young and beautiful concubine who encourages her, originally thought to divorce her and marry a new person. But because someone in Zhang's family is an official, you are afraid that you will not divorce your wife, but instead you have a grudge against the Zhang family. So if you don't do it again and again, the evil thoughts will suddenly arise, and you will directly strike first and kill her, right or not?"
Li Man sneered: "No! Of course not! You spit! When Mr. Zhang died, I was out of town, and I came back today. Since I'm not here, how can I kill someone?"
Tang Fan looked at him coldly: "If you have the guts to do it, don't have the guts to admit it. Don't you know that the sole of your right foot has exposed you."
His words caused everyone to look at Li Man's shoes, and even he himself couldn't help but look down.
Lao Wang bent down, took off Li Man's right shoe, and handed it to Tang Fan.
Tang Fan turned his shoes over: "You're right, you did come back from another place, but you didn't come back today, it should have been a few days earlier, in order to create alibi to avoid the murderer of his wife. Suspect, but this pair of shoes betrayed you."
Before Li Man could speak, he added, "For fear of leaving traces or footprints when you sneaked home to kill people, you deliberately wiped your shoes clean beforehand, but unfortunately this is not right! The soles of your shoes should have been dirty after a long journey. , why is yours clean? Could it be that you have traveled so many days and finally got home, but you are not in a hurry to go home, but instead find a place to clean your shoes first?!"
Tang Fan snorted slightly: "Also, when you jumped out of the window to escape, you accidentally made a noise, and worried that A Chun and the others would go in to see if they would be found, and jumped out of the window in a hurry, but the heel of your shoe rubbed hard against the wall of the window sill. Now, I've already seen the mark, and it's exactly the same as the wear on your shoe!"
He threw his shoes on the ground, sat on a chair, pointed at Zhang's coffin and said, "Speak up! In front of your wife, tell me why you did this. She has been married to you for decades. Even if you can't have children, you have done your best to be virtuous. Not only do you manage the housework for you, but you can't help taking concubines and giving birth to children. You treat your concubines as if you were your own. Although the world has many restrictions on women, the world can really be like you. The wife's share is very rare!"
Tang Fan's face sank, and he said sternly, "What's wrong with you, to the point of killing your wife?! Are you still human!"
Up to now, denial is useless, Li Man sullen face, after a long while, finally said: "Do you think I want to? When she married me, she was eighteen and I was twenty. It's a good marriage that no one else can envy."
"When she was 30 years old, her mother's family was in distress and needed a large amount of money. There were three brothers and sisters in her family, but none of them could be depended on. At that time, I was still studying hard in the cold window, and my family's savings were ancestral property. After getting through the difficulties, I gritted my teeth and sold my property and gave her the money, but I had to give up the imperial examinations for this, and used the remaining savings as capital to start a business, which made the family situation gradually improve."
"At this time, the two of us have been married for ten years, but we still have no children. After my repeated requests, Mrs. Zhang relented and agreed to take a concubine. This is how Li Lin came now. I go out to do business and often need to be with people. Socializing and socializing, Mrs. Zhang was illiterate and couldn't follow me out. She looked virtuous, but in fact the two concubines she had given me were either unsalutary or just as illiterate as she was, but I was the only one. The concubine, Mrs. Chen, is gentle and virtuous, and she has long sleeves and good dance. When I am busy in business, she can also help me socialize with the women's relatives of officials and businessmen. There have been several big deals recently, and her credit is indispensable."