The strange case of the Ming Dynasty The investigation and truth caused by the wind blowing the black yarn
When Cai Ying was nineteen years old, Yi Hongzhi was appointed as the governor of Hezhou, Lintao Prefecture, Shaanxi Province in the Ming Dynasty.
One night, Cai Zhixian was sitting in the hall, and suddenly a gust of wind blew the candle cover into the air, and the veil on Cai Zhixian's head fell to the ground. Cai Zhixian was waiting at the door to relight the candle, he wanted to find the veil, but he couldn't find it, everyone jokingly thought that the veil was hidden under the judges, so they asked the commentators, and the commentators were surprised when they heard it, and they all said they didn't see it. But Governor Kai did not believe it, and ordered the people to find the silk within three days, otherwise they would be severely punished.
The next day, Wei Zhong, who was working, came out of Beimen Town to arrest the prisoner, and walked to a place two miles away from Daping Town, but saw a pear pressed under his hat on the road, so he wanted to take it back to show Cai Ju. Cai Juan saw that it was indeed his hat, so he asked Wei Zhong where he got it, and asked him to lead the way to check it out for himself.
After Cai Zhixian found the pear tree, he climbed the steps to take a closer look, but found that the ground under the pear tree had turned into footprints, so he ordered someone to dig up the soil under the pear tree. After the earthy smell erupted, Cai Zhixian suddenly exclaimed that there was a corpse buried under the pear tree. Cai Zhixian immediately stepped forward to check and found that the body had just been buried, and there were obvious knife marks on its head, which seemed to have been buried here after being killed.
So Judge Cai took the body back to the government and sent another judge to investigate the arable land on both sides of the pear tree. Half a day later, Tao and Zou Qi, the owners on the left side of the pear tree, and Mei Mao and Mei Fang on the right, were carried into the court by four people, and Judge Cai immediately stood up and demanded that the case be filed.
Cai Zhifu looked at the four people kneeling at the foot of the hall and asked sharply"How dare you kill people and bury them under the pear tree? "
Tao Teng and the others were startled, and immediately exclaimed:"I am a good person, how dare I kill someone? Besides, they plough the fields every day, and if they do something wrong, how dare they bury the souls of sinners in the fields? "
Seeing this, Cai Ju specially ordered someone to move eight torture instruments into the hall so that the four of them could see it clearly, and then looked at the four people on the tongs and sticks, wanting to force each other with a big punishment. However, the four are still complaining and no one has confessed. Judge Cai determined that ** was not the four, so he took the four people away by the bailiff, but they were limited to three days to visit the real murderer, and there is still no news, if there is news, the four people still have to pay for their lives.
Tao Teng and the other four people left the yamen and returned home to investigate the surrounding situation, but they never found out what the news was, but from the mouths of the four people, this matter was widely spread and quickly became the focus of heated discussions in the city.
That night, Judge Cai secretly summoned sixteen judges, including Zeng Qi and Wei Zhong"I will give you four white cards, and tomorrow morning when the city gate is opened, you will be divided into four teams from all sides of the city gate, and each side will be guarded, and you will wait two miles outside the city. "(Note:.)"White card"Refers to white wood"Letter Cards", they are a kind of official documents of the Ming Dynasty, often used to summon the prefect for official business, detain criminals, and pass on decrees, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, with the use of cards, letter tables and fire cards, fire cards gradually declined).
The next day, Zeng Qi and others went to arrest people again, and by the time the city gate was closed in the evening, they had already arrested more than 200 people and locked them up in different cells, each holding three or five prisoners.
Judge Chua again secretly summoned all the police officers and judges and gave them the following instructions:'Each of you is in charge of a cell and secretly solicits bribes from prisoners. Promised to release them secretly if they gave them money. If anyone is genuinely willing to pay a bribe, please report it immediately"。
Subsequently, Cai Zhixian began to arrest the prisoners slowly and methodically, and as the sky became dark, he took the opportunity to leak secrets, deducing that it was too late, and he would arrest them one by one early tomorrow morning and interrogate them in detail.
The magistrate of Cai instructed Zeng Qi to guard a cell containing five prisoners. Zeng Qi took advantage of the fact that there was no one around, and secretly asked for bribes from five people. Among them, Qiu Tong, the owner of an inn, said that he was willing to pay five taels of silver to ask Zeng Qi to release him. Zeng Qi pretended to agree and immediately told Cai Zhixian the news. Cai Zhixian nodded with a smile, and immediately ordered the two judges to guard the entrance of the ya, and instructed Zeng Qi to release Qiu Tong after dinner as agreed.
After dinner, Zeng Qi Yinuo secretly let Qiu Tong go, Qiu Tong went to the yamen to wait for the two commentators, and the commentators said with a smile"The judge said that he wanted to escape, but we didn't believe it, but now it's true. "Qiu Tong didn't know how Governor Cai knew that he wanted to escape, and was immediately shocked.
Cai Xian Ling has been sitting in the public court for a long time, the public hall is brightly lit, the sound of torture, and the crows are silent, just like the palace of the king of Hades. Qiu Tong was escorted into the court, and was also frightened by this terrifying beginning, Cai Xian Ling knocked on the wood and shouted:"You killed someone and buried it under the pear tree, the dead ghost came to complain, I have found the real evidence, I must interrogate tomorrow, do you want to escape tonight? "When Qiu Tong heard this, he was frightened. Then understand what the official advised you today, and report the case honestly, don't suffer from this flesh and skin! "
Qiu Tong saw that Judge Cai was able to find himself out of more than 200 people, and he expected that he wanted to escape overnight, and he really thought that God was unaware, and this time he was really heartbroken. Qiu Tong thought that his ** had been discovered, but he was afraid that he would be truthfully recruited, so he peeked at the county officials from both sides like a wolf.
In fact, a month ago, a merchant with thirty taels of silver, stayed in the shop of Qiu Tong for one night, but accidentally leaked money, Qiu Tong had a bad heart, killed the person who slept at night, and moved the person to a pear tree two miles away at night and buried it. When he returned to the shop, he destroyed the merchant's belongings, leaving only thirty-two taels of silver, and buried them at the foot of the bed in the room, and wanted to use them again when the wind and grass were blowing, but he did not want to use them himself. When Judge Cai heard this, he ordered Judge Qiutong to bring the silver, and sure enough, there were thirty-two pieces, and the stolen silver was at the foot of the bed.
Now that the stolen goods have been recovered, Qiu Tong has pleaded guilty, the case has been closed, the stolen money has been put into the state treasury, and all other criminals have been released. Qiu Tong was sentenced to death for homicide for greed for money, and Cai Zhixian reported the case file to the imperial court, waiting for a retrial and beheading after the autumn.
This example is excerpted from Yu Xiangdu's "Biography of the Public Case of the Lianming Uprising in the Late Ming Dynasty".