The brothers Kong Daxueshi and Kong Jiu had their own troubles, but Zhu Tingfang had long forgotten about them. The next morning, when he went to the South City Military Department as usual, he got the news from the deputy military envoy who came to report - the fake messenger who committed suicide yesterday was examined by two of the best coroners in the capital, and the cause of death was found at dawn.
"Has he already swallowed the poison pill?"
Although Zhu Tingfang was smart and eager to learn, he could not claim to be very familiar with this kind of tricks. When he summoned two coroners, he frowned and asked a question. After getting a positive answer, he could not help but become even more confused, so he did not hesitate to ask questions.
"But when he was caught, he didn't show any signs of pain, and he died very quickly, as if he could decide when to die. What kind of poison pill could have such an effect?"
"Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to question you. Everyone has their own expertise. After all, you are more experienced in this area. I just want to take more precautions in the future. Therefore, you need to explain it more clearly. After all, I have already written a letter to apologize. If the emperor asks me in the future, I can't just say that someone swallowed a poison pill and committed suicide under my nose."
It was the first time for the two coroners to meet a big shot like Zhu Tingfang, who came from a noble family and held an important official position. Seeing that he was so friendly when he asked them questions, they finally felt a little more at ease.
The oldest one among them smiled apologetically and said, "Sir, this man said he swallowed a poison pill, but the poison pill was probably not swallowed secretly by him when you interrogated him, nor was it buried in his teeth long ago. Instead, it was wrapped in food and swallowed into his stomach long ago. And then he probably didn't eat or drink, so the outer layer of the poison pill was not digested in his stomach. And before that..."
He paused, and then continued, "When we tortured this man with a baton, we shouldn't have given him food. Of course, he later attempted suicide, and we blocked his mouth, so it was impossible and we didn't dare to let him eat. So, according to the residue in his stomach that we checked, there was only a little bit of food, and we also found poison residue..."
Although Zhu Tingfang was not an expert in pharmacology, he understood after hearing this. No matter who sent this fake messenger, it goes without saying that the person behind the scenes was scheming. It is also difficult to determine whether this fake messenger knew about it beforehand.
Because if someone knew in advance that there was poison in his stomach and was determined to die, he would just need to calculate the time to make trouble at the city gate, and then take advantage of the situation to kill himself with the poison. That would definitely cause an uproar in the whole city.
However, he died of poison after the interrogation when he revealed that the other party might not be the fake messenger sent by the eldest prince. It seemed that the timing of his death was good, but compared with the extent of making a big fuss, it was much smaller than the former. As for saying that he could put all the responsibility on him, it made sense, but the problem was... the emperor would probably just reprimand him.
"I see. You two have worked hard all night. Come, get ten strings of cash as a reward for them!"
Hearing that their hard work was not in vain, the two coroners were naturally delighted and kowtowed in thanks. After seeing Zhu Tingfang read the document signed and sealed by them and expressed his approval, they both left. After they left, Zhu Tingfang instructed the deputy military envoy who was sitting beside him: "Close the case directly and say that someone pretended to be a messenger and announced the death of the eldest prince with ulterior motives."