1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1171 Strange Fire
After nightfall, Tongsheng Wharf was completely devoid of the hustle and bustle of the day. The laborers who had been busy all day had already gone home to rest, and there were only a few left-behind personnel in various warehouses on the entire wharf.And there was silence on the sailboat docked at the pier, as if the crew had already fallen asleep in the cabin early.

But at midnight, several carriages appeared on the Tongsheng Wharf like ghosts, and the crew and sailors of the Haihan fleet also appeared on the shore, quietly carried the things on the carriages onto the boat, and then A lot of things were removed from the ship and loaded on trucks to be transported away.At the same time, several people in Warehouse C were opening the wine boxes brought in during the day one by one, opened the Sanya special wine, and poured the kerosene inside the warehouse.

At two o'clock, flames burst into the sky from the Qiantang River. The warehouses on the bank and several sailboats on the river caught fire almost at the same time. The fire spread very quickly. It was burning so hard to get close.On the top of the city of Hangzhou a few miles away, the soldiers on duty had already seen the fire, and immediately reported it to their superiors.

About half an hour later, a Ming army of hundreds of people came out of Hangzhou City and rushed to the fire site.However, this force did not rush to put out the fire, but to maintain order around the fire site, so as to prevent people from taking advantage of troubled waters to do illegal things.At the same time, it is also to urge the surrounding people to evacuate as soon as possible to avoid greater personnel losses.

At this time, the fire was out of control. Although the fire was on the edge of the Qiantang River, the onlookers could not get close to the hot fire.

The fire lasted until dawn, and it was not extinguished naturally until there was nothing left to burn. Blue smoke was rising from the ruins of the walls, and there were vaguely burnt and carbonized corpses in the middle.At this time, the Hangzhou government has sent dozens of government officials to block the scene and prepare to investigate the cause of the fire.Since the eerie inn fire outside Hangzhou last June, there has not been a fire of this magnitude in the nearby area, and it will be another trouble for local police officers to deal with.

The head catcher who led the team was named Han Zhengshan, who was 41 years old. He was in his prime, and he was also one of the four big head catchers in Hangzhou Prefecture, specializing in solving criminal cases.He had already been notified in the middle of the night yesterday, but because only the army could leave the city before dawn, he had to wait until dawn to rush to the scene of the fire like everyone else.

As soon as he arrived at the scene, Han Zhengshan heard a very bad news: the three sailboats burned on the shore were all under the name of Haihan.As for the warehouse that has been burned into ruins, it is said that it is also full of Haihan goods that arrived here yesterday, and its value is at least tens of thousands of taels of silver.

"Have the stewards and foremen of Tongsheng Wharf been summoned?" Han Zhengshan asked.

Soon four men were brought in front of Han Zhengshan, among them was Gu Hui who had contacted Haihan yesterday.It was almost early in the morning when someone came to wake him up at home, saying that there was a fire at the Tongsheng Wharf, and asked him to go over and have a look.But when Gu Hui arrived at the pier, the fire was almost extinguished, and he could only stare dumbfounded at the pier, which was fine yesterday, turned into what it is now.

Han Zhengshan quickly confirmed the ownership of the burnt warehouse and sailboat from the steward and foreman. Just like the gossip he had heard before, the ship and cargo belonged to Haihan people, but the warehouse was said to be his own. His boss, the Hangzhou government, judged the property under Wang Yuan's name, which made him feel even more overwhelmed.

Not long after, Lin De, the ship's owner, and some cargo owners also rushed over from Hangzhou City.Most of the goods shipped to Hangzhou have been sold and paid for, and they are only temporarily stored in the warehouse here to be picked up by the owners themselves, so there are quite a few victims.

With a livid face, Lin De clasped his fists to Han Zhengshan and said, "Han Butou, I am the owner of these three ships. I went to meet friends in the city yesterday. I was late for dinner and couldn't leave the city in time. I was lucky enough to avoid this catastrophe. But there are still more than [-] crew members on these three ships, please Han Butou to confirm their casualties as soon as possible. In addition, there are still more than [-] taels of silver on board the ship received yesterday. Please Han Butou quickly check the money Are you still on board!"

Before Han Zhengshan had time to respond to him, a group of cargo owners rushed up to complain, asking Han Zhengshan to find out the cause of the fire in the warehouse as soon as possible and identify the person responsible, so that they can recover part of the loss.It took Han Zhengshan a stick of incense to finally get these people to shut up and wait for him to check the fire scene first.

Han Zhengshan has been in this industry for 20 years, and he has seen quite a few fire cases. After he came to the pier and saw the scene, he already felt that something was wrong.The two places where the fire broke out were the warehouse and the three sailboats docked at the pier, and the straight-line distance between the two places was at least thirty or forty feet, so logically speaking, they shouldn't be on fire at the same time.Moreover, there were more than [-] crew members on board, but there was not even a living person found at the scene. Could it be that they were all burned to death in their sleep?

Han Zhengshan first inspected the three sailing boats that were said to have suffered the most casualties. The water parts of these three boats were almost completely burned, and several small boats around them used poles to temporarily fix the hulls floating on the water. , otherwise it may have been washed away by the river.Several foremen are instructing the wharf workers to lift the remains in the remaining hull to the shore and temporarily cover them with mats.When Han Zhengshan came to check, he had already picked up five or six burnt black corpses.

"How's the situation?" Han Zhengshan asked a coordinator.

The assistant said in a low voice: "My lord, I'm afraid there is something wrong with this matter! The people on the boat were not burned to death."

"How do you say that?" Han Zhengshan asked.

The man squatted down and lifted the straw mat covering the corpses: "Look, my lord, it has been found that these corpses, or their necks or hearts, all have fatal injuries caused by sharp weapons. Although they were burned by fire, But it can still be clearly identified. Given its severity, these people are probably killed first and then burned to this point."

Han Zhengshan also squatted down to check the condition of several corpses carefully. As the author said, the necks of two corpses were obviously cut in half by a sharp blade, and the wounds of the other corpses whose chests were pierced by a sharp weapon were also similar. There is absolutely no way that such a wound could have been caused by a fire.

Han Zhengshan frowned and asked, "Did you find a lot of silver on the ship?"

Wu Zuo shook his head and said, "I haven't found this yet. But if there is really a lot of silver on board, it is unlikely that all of it will be melted with the fire last night."

Although the melting point of silver is only around 8 degrees, a higher ambient temperature is required for it to reach a molten state.Han Zhengshan knew that the official smelting and casting of official silver required the use of fluxes such as iron crucibles and borax.Although the unidentified fire last night came quickly, it is unlikely that the more than 8 taels of silver claimed by Linde will be burned without a trace.No silver was found on board, either Linde was lying, or the [-] taels of silver probably disappeared before the fire started.

But there are so many local merchants on the wharf who just completed the transaction with Linde yesterday. The 8 taels of silver are almost all the payment they gave to Linde. Just like the fire last night, it cannot be faked.Combined with the suspicious causes of death of these crew members, the latter possibility is more likely.

But the current evidence is insufficient, and Han Zhengshan does not dare to jump to conclusions. After inspecting the wreckage of these cargo ships, he returned to the pier to check the No. C warehouse that was on fire.

The police officers also found three corpses with suspicious causes of death in No. C warehouse, but they were burnt beyond recognition and difficult to identify.Han Zhengshan called the steward and foreman of the wharf to ask, and said that the only ones staying overnight in No. C warehouse were an old man who looked after the warehouse and two guards hired by Haihan, which coincided with the number of corpses.

However, after completing the on-site investigation, Han Zhengshan discovered a new doubtful point. The fire started from the warehouse at first, and there were at least five or six places where the fire started. The reason is gone.Although Han Zhengshan didn't want to admit it, judging from the situation of the fire scene, ninety-nine percent of it was intentional killing and then setting fire to cover up his whereabouts. It seemed that the method was very similar to the situation on the ship.

As the investigation progressed, the case gradually became clear in Han Zhengshan's mind.The trading fleet that Haihan came to Hangzhou every month may have been targeted by someone. Last night, this group attacked in the middle of the night, killed all the people on board and in the warehouse, took away their property, and then set fire to the scene.Even if the thieves left traces such as footprints and ruts when they entered and exited the scene, the crowd and the Ming army who came to the fire scene in the middle of the night to watch the fire had already destroyed these traces.

Han Zhengshan thought that it would not be possible for three or five people to complete such a big case in the middle of the night, murder, robbery, and arson in one go.Moreover, the guards in the other warehouses on the pier did not hear any calls for help at night. When they found out that the fire was on fire, they came out to check, and the thieves who did it had long since disappeared.

Since the thieves are most likely coming for money, after the arrival of the Haihan fleet yesterday, the only ones who know the contents of the goods on board and the delivery status of the silver goods are probably only the stewards on the dock and the merchants who participated in the transaction.Han Zhengshan believed that it was very possible that one of them colluded with the thieves internally and externally, and provided these key information, which led to the tragedy of the night.

However, the law and order in Hangzhou Prefecture has always been good, and Han Zhengshan has never heard of gangsters operating in groups in nearby prefectures.What's more, the Haihan people are said to be very powerful in force. When they first arrived in Zhejiang, they took care of all the heroes outside Hangzhou Bay. Wasn't this Linde who ran errands for the Haihan people in the past one of the gang leaders on Liuheng Island in Ningbo Prefecture? ?Han Zhengshan really couldn't understand that someone dared to break ground on the head of Tai Sui Haihan.

When Han Zhengshan returned to the pier, he was stopped by enthusiastic businessmen again.And Lin De, who is the biggest sufferer, obviously became the mouthpiece of this group of people, and asked loudly: "Han Botou, you have also seen the scene, what conclusions do you have? How did the people on my ship die? Where are the belongings on the ship?" ?”

Han Zhengshan opened his mouth, but did not respond immediately. He knew that since Shanghai Han was involved in this matter, it was no longer a simple case of arson.In the past, Haihan goods did not dare to trade so blatantly at the wharf outside Hangzhou. It was only after those adults who jumped up and down against Haihan disappeared for no reason in June last year that Haihan goods gradually became public. trading.In the past few months, there have been many people who have benefited from it and are jealous of it, and there are still many voices in the officialdom who oppose Haihan's entry into Zhejiang in the name of trade.At this time, Haihan had killed so many people in Hangzhou and lost so much money, if one detail is not handled properly, it may turn into a big trouble.

If it is announced immediately that this is a man-made arson case, it may affect the follow-up investigation work, and it is also difficult for Han Zhengshan to determine how Haihan will react to this.So he hesitated for a while, and finally responded in an official tone: "This case has yet to collect evidence before we can deduce the facts of the case. Everyone, please be patient. Each family can first calculate the loss of property and personnel by itself. In addition, in the near future, everyone Cargo owners and ship owners, as well as the foreman in charge of Tongsheng Wharf, should not leave the station at will, so as to cooperate with the government's investigation."

How could Linde let him go, and asked loudly at the front of the crowd: "There are many casualties under my command. Han Butou watched the scene for a long time, and didn't even say the cause of death? I heard that when the fire broke out last night, there was an The army was there to isolate the people who wanted to put out the fire, is there such a thing? What is the intention of these Ming troops, can Han Butou explain in public?"

Han Zhengshan thought to himself that Lao Tzu was only a policeman, not a soldier, so how could he have the qualifications to explain for the Ming army?Although he was not at the scene last night, he also knew the purpose of the Ming army rushing to the fire scene, but it was not appropriate for him to say this, and the Ming army had to come forward to explain it.But after such a toss, the rhythm was completely deviated by Linde.

Lin De said in a loud voice: "Just now, I have asked someone to inquire about it. The people burned to death in the fire were all killed by weapons, not burned to death. May I ask where there are so many well-trained thieves in the Hangzhou government? Quietly kill dozens of people in the middle of the night, remove a large amount of property, set fire to destroy corpses, and leave no trace?"

Although Lin De didn't mention his name yet, those who heard him would involuntarily associate what he called "a well-trained thief" with the Ming army mentioned earlier.Yes, besides the Ming army, who else is the most well-trained armed organization in Hangzhou Mansion?
Han Zhengshan's face changed color and said: "Bold! How dare you speak nonsense and deceive people! Even if you are the victim, and the case is not yet clear, you must not create rumors and slander irrelevant people!"

(End of this chapter)