Tang Dynasty Mingyue Song Dynasty Pass

Chapter 319

The guards reported that the eunuch Xiao Guizi had hanged himself, suspected of committing suicide in fear of crime. When the news spread, everyone standing in the Shangyao Bureau showed shocking expressions, obviously not expecting this situation.

It seems that the second prince's poisoning incident is not as simple as it appears on the surface, and there are indeed some strange things. Otherwise, how could such a good eunuch commit suicide?

Therefore, some of the imperial doctors of the Shang Pharmacy Bureau still held prejudices against Su Chen, thinking that he made a fuss out of a molehill, and it was because of his prescription that there was something wrong with it that harmed the second prince.But now that this incident happened, I gradually felt that Su Chen might have really been manipulated by someone to deliberately frame him.

Su Chen calmed down, thinking in his heart that his strategy had initially paid off. The mastermind behind the poisoning saw that things were developing into an uncontrollable situation, and was worried that more behind-the-scenes networks would be found out, so he promptly pinched it down. Break this line, let him come to a dead end.

Whether the epilepsy soup is toxic or not, as long as someone drinks it, it can prove its safety and efficacy. At that time, Su Chen will also be able to get rid of half of the charges. Therefore, the mastermind behind the scenes felt that the situation was a little out of control. The imperial court continued to investigate, worried that the harem would involve a big fish, so it was better to throw away the chess pieces earlier.

"Send someone to protect the scene, Your Majesty and Princess, Commander Yuchi, go over and have a look!"

Princess Yongning nodded. She has the most honorable status here, and said with a decent manner: "It's related to the investigation, you can go and have a look, Commander Yuchi, what do you think?"

Yu Chixin cupped his hands and said: "What Her Royal Highness said is absolutely true, let's go over and investigate the scene right away!"

So, everyone left Shang Yao Bureau and went to the area of ​​the imperial palace.

Since the imperial palace of the Southern Tang Dynasty was not as grand as the former capitals of Chang'an and the inner imperial city of Luoyang, the yamen of the six departments and nine ministers were all placed outside the imperial palace.However, the offices of Menxia Province, Zhongshu Province, Dianzhong Province, and Internal Servant Department were all located in the imperial palace and were given separate areas, because their daily work was closely related to the emperor's office and life.

There are six bureaus in Dianzhong Province, namely the Bureau of Shangyao, the Bureau of Shangshi, the Bureau of Shangyi, the Bureau of Shangshe, the Bureau of Shangcheng, and the Bureau of Shangcarriage.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs includes five bureaus, namely Yeting Bureau, Gongwei Bureau, Xiguan Bureau, Internal Servant Bureau, and Neifu Bureau, which manage some eunuchs, maids, finance, storage, etc. in the harem, and serve the emperor's family exclusively.

Most of the eunuchs in the palace live in the housing area where the Ministry of Internal Affairs is located, and a few will live in the side rooms of the courts where they serve the nobles, so that they can serve at any time.

Xiao Guizi was no longer a low-level eunuch, so he lived in a room shared by two people. The eunuch who shared the bed had already gone to change shifts, and he was the only one in the room. After he chose to commit suicide, he was not discovered in time.

When Su Chen and others came to this simple room, the body of the eunuch Xiao Guizi had already been put down, lying horizontally on the ground, and a layer of white cloth was spread over it.

Zhou Jiamin and Princess Yongjia were still young and were afraid of seeing dead people, so they didn't enter the house, but stood in the courtyard.

A group of eunuchs, big and small, gathered in the yard, whispering, mostly around the rumors of Xiao Guizi's "poisoning the second prince" and "suicide in fear of crime". It is estimated that they will soon go crazy inside and outside the harem and the court.

This is not a trivial matter. It involves murdering the prince. It is definitely not something a young eunuch can do. Someone must have promised benefits behind the scenes, but it is impossible to investigate who is behind the scenes.

Yu Chixin stepped forward and asked, "Have you found any criminal evidence?"

"Return to Commander Yuchi, we found a porcelain bottle in the dead man's luggage. The liquid medicine contained in it looks like poison, and it smells a little bad." After a guard replied, he handed over a small blue porcelain bottle respectfully.

Yu Chixin took it, pulled off the stopper and smelled it, there was indeed a peculiar smell, the liquid was dark, it didn't look like something good.

"Master Su, you know medicine, can you tell what kind of poison it is?"

"Let me test it." Su Chen reached out to take it, then took out a small white porcelain wine cup from the medical box, poured out a little venom, and tested it with a silver needle, but there was no response.

In fact, the effect of silver needles in testing poisons is limited, but it is exaggerated by martial arts novels. There are even records of silver needle autopsies as early as Song Ci's "Washing Wrongs" written by Song Ci in the Song Dynasty.But the poison the ancients referred to mainly refers to the highly toxic arsenic, which is chemically named arsenic trioxide.

Due to the backward production technology in ancient times, arsenic contains a small amount of sulfur and sulfides.When the sulfur contained in it comes into contact with silver, a certain chemical reaction can occur to form a layer of black "silver sulfide" on the surface of the silver needle.Therefore, the silver needle poison test only detected the sulfur in arsenic. Therefore, silver needles cannot identify poisons, let alone be widely used as a tool for drug testing.

Therefore, from a scientific point of view, silver objects such as silver needles turn black immediately after encountering something, mainly due to the interaction between silver and sulfide.

By doing this, Su Chen at least ruled out the highly poisonous arsenic, but the toxins on some poisonous insects and beasts need to be analyzed in detail.

He smelled it and looked at the color of the liquid. The residual liquid hanging on the inner wall of the wine cup was judged to be a poisonous substance from poisonous insects rather than poisonous weeds.

"Could it be centipede poison?"

Su Chen frowned, and had such a guess in his heart, because his prescription happened to contain centipede ingredients, and the people behind the scenes wanted to kill the second prince and put the blame on him. For the convulsions and other reactions of the prince, only centipede poison is the most suitable.

When it is added to it, the content of centipede poison in the medicinal soup will increase dozens of times. Death, these symptoms can also correspond to the second prince's reaction.

The most important thing is that if the imperial doctor is asked to test the medicinal soup and the reactions of other poison tasters, it will gradually be related to the centipede poison, so they will think that there is something wrong with the prescription Su Chen prescribed, and there are two centipedes in it, which triggered the second prince's attack. The illness, when the time comes, will be hard to argue with.

Seeing Su Chen lost in thought, Princess Yongning stepped forward and asked, "Su Chen, can you tell what kind of poison this is?"

"I speculate that it may be centipede poison, but I'm not sure yet. I need to ask the imperial doctors to study it and give the name of the specific poison."

"Centipede poison!" Princess Yongning thought of the appearance of that poisonous insect, and couldn't help shivering, a little afraid of that ugly and scary-looking insect.

Fengyu Fu Dongsheng and Zhichang Guo Sheng brought a few people to follow, and they all came forward to observe the venom at this time. Based on their many years of medical practice experience, after a few people judged, it was confirmed that it was centipede poison.

An imperial doctor said: "This little eunuch only has strangle marks on his neck all over his body, and his death is also consistent with suffocation. He died by hanging himself. It can be concluded."

Yu Chixin nodded and said: "It seems that this little eunuch is the despicable poisoner. After the incident happened, he knew that he could not escape. In order to cover the instigator behind the scenes, he committed suicide in fear of crime, so that we can no longer investigate."

Su Chen didn't come to a conclusion right away, but squatted down and inspected Xiao Guizi's body. Although there were no other injuries in his body, and it was true that he died of suffocation, he was a little surprised by the degree of stiffness of his limbs. Suicide, but homicide!

(End of this chapter)