When the officers opened the coffin lid, a strong stench swept over them again.
Seeing this scene, Tan Miao's eyes suddenly showed a hint of cunning.
Chu Nanzhi covered herself with a scarf, put on the gloves prepared by Hu Maoxi, and went to the coffin with the two widowers to look at it carefully.
Although dry ice was placed everywhere in the house, and there was dry ice under the coffin to reduce the surrounding temperature, in this season of transition from summer to autumn, the body had still begun to gradually decay, and the swollen body had ulcers in many places.
Although the authorities in both counties had been conducting autopsies for many years, they suddenly seemed helpless.
First of all, the incision on the neck is obvious, which can directly determine the death by knife; secondly, in this era, there is no effective way to verify poisoning, unless it is a highly toxic substance such as arsenic, which can be tested with a silver needle.
As for the rest, we can only judge based on the experience accumulated in the past.
Chu Nanzhi looked at the embarrassed expressions on the two people's faces and had no choice but to step forward in person and talk to everyone in detail: "The body has been soaked in water for many days and has been inactive for half a month. It is really difficult to detect clues through the appearance. We can only
Two inspections are needed to determine whether the deceased was injured by the weapon or poisoned."
As she said that, she first faced the Haikang County elder, thinking about the contents of the autopsy report, and confirmed with him: "The autopsy in Niujia Village was the handiwork of the old man, right?"
"good."
The old man nodded thoughtfully: "The contents in the autopsy archive are all the common conclusions reached by the old man after examining multiple corpses."
"Okay, I remember it was recorded in the autopsy document that there were white horizontal stripes on the nails of the deceased."
Chu Nanzhi looked at the white horizontal lines printed on Zhu Yue's nails and said slowly: "The old man has been doing autopsies for many years. Have you noticed such abnormalities in ordinary deceased people?"
"Laochan has never found such symptoms before, except for the Niujiacun case."
Haikang County's widower shook his head in confusion.
The man from Luyan Gang half-squinted his sunken eyes and said slightly: "I once examined a deceased person who was poisoned by swallowing gold. The deceased had white horizontal stripes on his nails. There are also such records in ancient law."
Chu Nanzhi nodded and said with a smile: "Then please take a look at whether Zhu Xiancheng also has this symptom on his nails?"
The two of them came closer to take a closer look: "That's true."
The old man from Luyan Port frowned: "Could it be that Prime Minister Zhu also swallowed the gold alive?"
"Metal poisoning does not necessarily require direct ingestion of raw gold to cause toxicity."
Chu Nanzhi looked at Tan Miao and Chen Wu meaningfully and asked, "Chen Wu, when did you start using the salt from the Majia Village salt well in Zhu County Cheng's diet?"
Chen Wu thought for a moment, then replied sadly: "At the beginning of this year."
"This is it."
Chu Nanzhi pursed her lips and explained: "There is a smelting mine upstream of Majia Village. The smelting sewage flows into Niujia Village. It seeps into the ground and combines with the brine used to cook salt. It is also highly toxic. Taking it for a long time can naturally cause metal poisoning.
Sex poisoning, Chief Tan, I wonder if you think what I said is right or wrong?"
Tan Miao lowered his head and ignored it.
He had no idea about this. At first he just suspected that the death of the villagers in Niujia Village was indeed related to the salt in the salt well, and he tried to murder Qian County Cheng with a tentative attitude. He did not expect that he succeeded.
Chu Nanzhi looked at Zhu Yue's neck again, touched it lightly with his hand, and found that the throat was swollen with black plaques condensing, and then asked Chen Wu: "Chen Wu, please tell me in detail how you murdered Zhu Xiancheng that day.
"
Chen Wu buried his head and did not dare to look in the direction of the coffin, and replied in a low voice: "On the night of June 24th, under the instructions of Chief Tan, I stayed at the west intersection of the city, waiting for Zhu County Cheng to return to the city, but I waited for a long time.
There was no sign of the county magistrate, so I had no choice but to search along the way. I found traces of the county magistrate by a canal about twenty miles away from the city. However, the county magistrate had been dead for a long time, so I cut his throat with a knife.
, and threw the body into the canal.”
"How do you determine that Zhu Xiancheng has been dead for a long time?"
Chu Nanzhi asked.
Chen Wu didn't know how to answer, so he had to use an analogy: "I used to be a butcher of pigs. If a living pig was inserted into its throat with a knife, the hot blood would rush out. Only by bleeding the pigs that died of illness would there be no traces of blood."
After a pause, he continued: "Qian County Cheng and Yu County Cheng both died for a long time. The younger one cut the two adults' throats and there was no blood. The younger one used this to infer Master Zhu's death."
"good."
Chu Nanzhi pointed at Zhu Yue's neck and said to the two widowers:
"Zhu Xiancheng has been dead for many days, and his body has been soaked in water for many days. It is impossible to tell from the blood stains alone, but his throat was cut during his lifetime, which will definitely cause a lot of bleeding. Later, the muscles near the wound will shrink, and the skin will tighten and sag.
Zhuxian Cheng's throat was obviously swollen and dark, and there were clots in his throat. This could mean he died of poisoning and then had his throat cut."
At this point, she looked at Tan Miao with a faint look: "Master Tan, you have misguided everyone from the beginning of the case. First, you used Qi Dongqiang's incident to instigate Kang Mingyuan and Qi Luan to lead trouble to Sun Wuji.
Afraid of the rumors about the death of successive county magistrates in the county, the other person was eager to protect his son, so you secretly reminded the two of them that it was Qi Dongqiang who killed Zhu County Magistrate, so they went directly to the end of the canal in Sunjia Village.
Yesterday, when you saw that the matter was exposed, you misled me to investigate Qi Dongqiang and killed him before I entered the house. You wanted to have no evidence, but you never expected that Chen Wu was not a careful person, and you didn't have time to do anything in a hurry.
Cover it up a lot, so you only need to pay a little attention to realize that Qi Dongqiang did not commit suicide."
After saying this, Chu Nanzhi slowly moved from the side of the coffin, motioning for everyone to cover the coffin, and then stared at Tan Miao with downcast eyebrows again, and said leisurely:
"It wasn't until I was about to go to Niujia Village that you began to realize the seriousness of the situation. You first encouraged Kang Mingtang to send people to intercept and kill us halfway, and at the same time, you ordered Chen Wu to inform the Dongsang people and the nursing home at Kang Mingtang's home.
The dead soldiers were ambushing the city, waiting for an opportunity to assassinate Ambassador Lin, but you calculated everything, but you never thought that this fledgling disabled commander was one step ahead of you, and you lost everything in an instant."
As soon as she finished speaking, Hu Maoxi shouted over: "Tan Miao, now that the witnesses and physical evidence are all there, what else do you have to distinguish?"
"It's unjust, sir. I have no grievances against Zhuxian Cheng in my humble position, so why bother to harm him?"
Tan Miao pretended to be innocent and knelt down to beg for mercy: "My humble position is just that of a humble county clerk. How can I know so many things? I have no way of knowing that illegal salt can cause so-called metal poisoning. It is unheard of."
"Perhaps you really don't know such profound knowledge, but you do know how to judge the past against the present. The Niujiacun massacre was settled by the government as a plague, and the government deceived the superiors and concealed it, but you took advantage of Kang Mingyuan's weakness to make a fuss, even though
It was he who noticed that there was something fishy about the case, and he would only follow the clues given on the surface to pursue the case, and hastily closed the case of the deaths of successive county magistrates with sharp weapons."
When he heard him mention the word "humble", Chu Nanzhi sneered with some disapproval: "Master Tan calls himself a humble master, I don't think so."