Zheng Zizi has only been in this county for two years, but this county is very extraordinary!

Wucheng County is a county named after Wu Zetian's surname in the second year of Tianshou. There are very few such counties in the entire Tang Dynasty. It is a county that has not had a major case for more than ten consecutive years. According to the current formulation, it is

It’s a model county. But he came here as an errand, and within two years such a big incident happened. Is this still a big deal?

Zheng Zhengzi's official career was far from prosperous, and it was hard enough to become a county magistrate.

The imperial examination system was prevalent in the Tang Dynasty. He took the exam three times and took nine years. He lost two and won one. It was not easy to get a Jinshi, but he was not young and his grades were not outstanding. In this way, although he speculated many times, his ability was not good.

Due to limited resources, he ultimately failed to stay in Luoyang, the capital of China, or Suzhou, the prefecture of Taoism. He was eagerly sent to a small seaside county in Jiangnan Province. First, he served as county magistrate in a small county in Zhoushan for two years, which is equivalent to today's deputy county magistrate.

Then he was sent to the newly named Wucheng County as the county magistrate.

Now that a murder case has occurred, this is what Di Guolao is most interested in, but for him, it is bad luck, alas.

Wu Zetian was interested in who would dare to do such a thing that would make her unhappy?

Zheng Zhengzi didn't think much about it, and hurriedly ordered the county government watchman to inform the county magistrate, county lieutenant, and government servants to return to the government office for discussion.

It was not until dawn that the officials on duty in the Yamen got the news and rushed over. It was already the time when the sun was rising and the Yamen hall was in session.

Dong dong dong——

As soon as Magistrate Zheng and his staff stepped into the front hall, the sound of drums could be heard behind them. Of course, this was the sound of drums that they were accustomed to hearing in the past.

Officials in the Tang Dynasty, those above the prefecture and county level, generally attended to matters in the morning and rested in the afternoon. However, officials at the county magistrate level of Qipin, who were on errands in the county offices, followed a strict schedule, usually at five o'clock in the morning.

Or at seven o'clock, the yamen would start attending to the affairs, and after having some lunch and taking a break, they would then start the afternoon attending. It would not be until 7 to 9 p.m., when the county magistrate came down from the hall, and the yamen servants would go outside to play drums, and everyone would disperse.

Officials in the Tang Dynasty said they would take matters into their own hands and call them to work today.

When the county magistrate goes out of the city to investigate a case in a remote village, he usually rides on horseback. However, the Huainan Township where the incident occurred is a mountainous area, and it is difficult for horses to enter.

The county magistrate walked up the mountain? Isn’t it too hard?

Not going? No way. A murder occurred in a county that Wu Zetian valued, and the county magistrate did not go to the scene to investigate the case. If Mr. Di Guo was blamed, wouldn't he be asking for trouble?

But walking in mountainous areas is not that easy.

A government official wanted to please Zheng Zongzi and asked him to hire a shoulder cart to carry him into the mountains.

What is Jianyu? Jianyu is a simple sedan that was popular in the Tang Dynasty. It is certainly not the kind of luxurious sedan that the emperor and his important ministers and their families sat on.

This simple sedan, that is, the chair with two wooden poles attached to the two chairs for reinforcement, was carried forward by two bearers. At that time, it was generally only used by the old, weak, sick, disabled or women, and was prohibited by officials.

In the Tang Dynasty, seventh-rank officials such as county magistrates were not qualified to ride in sedan chairs, and it was not popular in society at that time for ordinary officials to ride in sedan chairs.

The popular means of transportation at that time were nothing more than riding horses and riding bullock carts. However, these means of transportation could not enter some mountainous areas with difficult terrain.

Although Magistrate Zheng was tempted by the evil doctrine mentioned by the county government, after much deliberation, he felt that it was easy to be tricked. Therefore, Zheng Yuzi finally gave up the idea of ​​going into the mountains in a carriage.

Although the county magistrate has never met Wu Zetian, he is very afraid of Wu Zetian. Of course, Wu Zetian may not be able to handle this kind of thing, so the county magistrate might as well take charge of it now. Wu Zetian is not a county magistrate, but the queen who manages everything in Luoyang, so it is naturally more difficult.

Be aware of what is currently being done.

However, Zheng Taozi was still afraid of being reported to the capital by his lieutenants who were interested in the county magistrate's ability to ride, and would be easily discovered by the superiors. Therefore, he did not dare to show off, so he had to take his men and horses and prepare to ride to the mountainous area first.

Then get off your horse and climb the mountain on foot.

Readers may be wondering, weren't the two horses that reported the crime horses? Didn't they come from the mountainous area? It seems reasonable to ask this. But it was Lu Tong and Wei Kang who took a shortcut down the mountain from the dangerous pass south of Liuhe Village.

Horses from farmers in other villages came galloping in a big circle, but the county magistrate was a scholar. Let alone letting the horse run wildly, I am afraid that if the horse was led by someone and walked slowly, he might not be able to reach the scene of the crime on the same day.

There was no other way. Zheng Zizi first followed the county captain's suggestion and asked a dozen government officials who could ride horses to follow Wei Kangshun who came to report the crime. He took the staff who were not very good at riding horses and took a shortcut with Lu Tong leading the way.

Two young and strong government officials were asked to explore the road ahead, and they were helped to walk on the dangerous mountain roads that were difficult to walk. On the easy country roads, the villages along the way were asked to look for cars to pick them up.

By the time they arrived at the scene of the crime, the county magistrate's investigators had already closed the case. Magistrate Zheng just pretended to go to the crime scene, which was already emitting a foul stench, to inspect it. After that, he ordered the accompanying people to

After Wu Zuo (the official who examined autopsies and injured in the Tang Dynasty) conducted an autopsy and made a record, he asked Wei Kangshun, who was still weeping and howling, to collect his wife's body and bury it in a peaceful place.

After the on-site investigation was completed, the case entered the investigation stage. Magistrate Zheng's performance was over, and the next step was for the county lieutenant to make an undercover visit to find out and arrest the criminal.

The county lieutenant first asked Wei Kangshun, who reported the crime by beating the drum, to find out how he discovered and reported the crime.

Wei Kangshun said that when he came back from the fields, he saw that his wife was not at home. He remembered that before he went up the mountain, his wife went to a small river in the north of the village to wash clothes, so he hurriedly went to the river to look for her, but there was no trace of her. He then went downstream to look for her along the river.

After walking for a long time, it was getting dark, but there was still no sign of his beloved wife. He was anxious and hurriedly went to the Bao Zhang (one of the rural grassroots management units in the Tang Dynasty, with 20 households as one Bao, and a Bao Chief) to report the case.

Together with the security chief, he led Baoli's people to search everywhere throughout the night, but still couldn't find him.

The next day, the security chief reported the matter to Li Zheng (the five guarantees in the Tang Dynasty were one li, and Li Zheng was established). Li Zheng immediately sent more people to conduct a blanket search, and finally found him in a wicker bush by the river.

His wife's body. When Li Zheng saw a murder in his jurisdiction, he was too frightened to help Wei Kangshun arrange his wife's funeral. He hurriedly went to find the elder (a township official in the Tang Dynasty, equivalent to today's township head). The elder listened and hurriedly ordered

Li Zheng took Wei Kangshun down the mountain immediately and went to the county government office to report the case.

After hearing the explanations of Wei Kangshun, Li Zheng and others, the county lieutenant immediately made secret inspections through unscrupulous people and asked the villagers. Through the villagers, he learned the clue that Lu Dazhu, the second son of the Lu Qingchuan family at the east end of the village, had appeared nearby yesterday afternoon.

When the county lieutenant heard this, he sent a yamen officer to call Lu Dazhu to inquire. And Lu Dazhu was a lazy rich young man. Where had he seen such a formation? When he saw this scene, he was so frightened that he lost his mind and became incoherent. The county lieutenant saw it.

, he understood in his heart that eight or nine points, with a single order, the two government officials came forward and gave his buttocks sixty pieces of plank. The pain made him squeal like a butchered pig, and finally he could not withstand the plank spanking buttocks.

In the end, he had to be summoned and coaxed according to the truth. The county captain immediately ordered him to be taken down and thrown into prison.

After losing his beloved wife, Wei Kangshun was heartbroken. In a rage, he ran to Lu Dazhu's house, kicked the door, smashed the windows, threw pots and bowls, and made a scene. If the county government hadn't stopped him, he would have killed Lu Dazhu's wife.

The house burned down.

Li Zheng sent several people to persuade him to go home, and asked him to make preparations quickly, hold a decent funeral for his wife, and take good care of the child who had lost his mother. Therefore, he could not lose his mother at this time.

Be sensible, otherwise it will be even more difficult to handle. Wei Kangshun had no choice but to go home crying.

Magistrate Zheng was overjoyed when he saw that the case was solved so smoothly. Unexpectedly, when he personally interrogated Lu Dazhu, Lu Dazhu falsely accused the county captain of using a big board to force him to confess.

At the same time, Lu Dazhu also confessed a case within a case that surprised him. It is unknown whether it is related to this case.

According to Lu Dazhu's account, once when he was wandering around the mountains, he saw with his own eyes that Wei Kangshun, who was hoeing in the fields, was sucked in by a huge saucer-shaped round house flying from the sky and flew into the sky. After most of the day,

The saucer-shaped house flew back again, dropped Wei Kangshun and flew away.

Zheng Taozi originally disdained Lu Dazhu's unreliable nonsense. Unexpectedly, during this interrogation, the state judicial judge who had just arrived for questioning was present and listened to Lu Kangshun's nonsense. He actually believed it and became serious.

The county magistrate had no choice but to ask the Yamen servant to summon Wei Kangshun to come and testify. Unexpectedly, Wei Kangshun admitted it without hesitation.

This shocked everyone present, and the state judicial magistrate hurriedly asked the county magistrate to take Wei Kangshun and Lu Dazhu into custody and send them to prison. At the same time, he reported the case to the Ministry of Criminal Justice as a serious case.

Zheng Zizi was dumbfounded, what kind of case is this?

…

"What a cowardly official." Cui Jianfeng cursed angrily after explaining the causes and consequences of this so-called rebellion.

Later, Zhu Guangcai mentioned that there were a large amount of Tang Dynasty copper coins hidden in the residence of these three people. Cui Jianfeng was not surprised at all after hearing this, because he had been thinking about the fact that the older mute among the three people gave it to the waiter that day.

The six hanging copper wires were so serious. So when Zhu Guangcai said that a large number of Tang Dynasty copper coins were found in their residence, he immediately understood the purpose of these three people.

"If a large amount of copper coins are found, their money cannot be deemed illegal." It was obvious that Cui Jianfeng deliberately avoided these three people and did not want to further escalate the situation.
Chapter completed!