Daming Yinghua

Chapter 59

Liu Shimin waved his hand to make the strong man in the brocade workshop step aside, and asked Hu Guihua again: "Did there be any movement in your house four nights ago?"

Hu Guihua's Mopanda face was obviously reddened.

"Back to Eunuch, no, there is no movement, Caomin's dyeing workshop does not start work at night."

Liu Shimin squinted his eyes and said meaningfully: "Yes, you run a dyeing workshop, not a restaurant. Besides, a restaurant owner wouldn't mess around with this in the middle of the night."

After speaking, he made a gesture, and the entourage pushed up three people, both male and female.

Liu Shimin straightened his face: "Mr. Hu, you are familiar with these neighbors, right? This one lives next door to you and grinds tofu. This one collects night incense. This one is a doctor. He is particular about the time to boil medicine. The medicine has to be boiled at night. Early this morning, people in our family were digging up and down the streets and asking from house to house, only to find out how many of them were there. Come on, tell me, What strange things did you hear that night?"

"Returning to my father-in-law, I heard, I heard that the dyeing workshop is killing chickens."

The three obediently gave the same answer.

"Why did you kill the chicken in the middle of the night! Tell me!" Liu Shimin suddenly turned to Hu Guihua and shouted angrily.

Everyone around, including the Shanghai magistrate who accompanied him but was ordered by Liu Shimin to stand outside the door temporarily, couldn't help but tremble.

However, Hu Guihua, who is more sophisticated than ordinary women and Taoists, still quibbles: "The woman, the woman suddenly got a hidden disease this year, and got a folk prescription from the wandering monk, saying that it is necessary to take the blood of the rooster in the middle of the night. , Soak the autumn jujube and steam it and take it, and you will be able to recover."

Liu Shimin sneered, stopped talking nonsense with the woman, and rushed out the door: "Shanghai County, bring your county clerk and arrester and come in quickly."

The people he called out quickly filed in respectfully and stood with their hands folded.

Liu Shimin motioned to the attendants he had brought, took out a porcelain bottle, unplugged it, and gave it to him to smell it.

"Is this the thick salt and vinegar sauce you use to test human blood?"

"Go back to Eunuch, yes."

"Okay, put things out."

In response to Liu Shimin's order, the entourage brought out three clay pots one after another, two of which were filled with chicken blood, and the third one contained a lump of soil.

Liu Shimin said: "Sprinkle."

The attendant obeyed, spread out a white cotton cloth on the ground, poured the first cup of chicken blood on it, and then dripped salt and vinegar juice.After a while, that part turned into a light purple-red color, which was quite different from the original color of chicken blood.

Liu Shimin personally walked over to several large dyeing vats to check, and pointed to his followers, "This pot of dyeing paste is a big-leaf banyan with lime added, come and get it."

The attendant then took a varnish wooden spoon from the bamboo box he brought, scooped the dyed paste into the second bowl of chicken blood, held it with both hands for a while, splashed some on the white cloth, and then poured salt and vinegar sauce on it.

The county magistrate of Shanghai County, with his subordinates, came forward to watch, and the man said in amazement: "Hey, my boy, this is the first time I know that chicken blood mixed with this dye will not change color when it encounters salt and vinegar. .”

Liu Shimin sneered, and said to the magistrate of Shanghai, "Wu Zuo means the same as human blood."

Hu Guihua lay on the ground, buried her face in her forehead, trembling.

Finally, a lighted stove was brought up, and Liu Shimin's attendants put the third clay pot directly on the stove to bake.

Not long after, white powder particles were obviously precipitated on the surface of the yellow mud that was originally reddish brown like old blood.

Liu Shimin turned his head and teased the county magistrate: "Your Shanghai county is a blessed place. The loess behind a small nunnery can easily burn lime."

Although the county magistrate of Shanghai is only of the seventh grade, he is not a person of the same rank. He had already considered the first sentence of the interrogation in his heart, and immediately sternly said to Hu Guihua: "Hu Guihua, you are telling the truth, why did you conspire with your son to murder the surname Yang?" An Hui merchant, and blamed the nun of Jiulian Nunnery!"

When Hu Guihua heard Liu Shimin say that the lime had been burnt out, her body was limp on the ground, but the word "son" in Zhixian's mouth made her tremble like a needle prick, she knelt up straight, and said loudly on her back : "Grandpa, grand lord, this matter has nothing to do with my son. He went to study in the county school in the morning, and slept in the school at night. Many villagers can testify."

The magistrate said sensibly: "This matter? What kind of unreasonable thing is this? Can there be an accomplice? Tell Eunuch Liu the truth!"

Hu Guihua's voice was weak: "I confess, confess..."

……

Zhang Dai and Zhang Yanke waited anxiously in the station.

"Master, who are you looking for?"

After noon, the man cleaning the porch in the court stared at the little official with soap boots who went straight to the door of the upper room. He just asked a question when he saw that man took off his gauze cap and tore off his mustache. woman.

Zhang Yanke had already seen it from under the window, stepped out hurriedly, and shouted at the guy with a bluffing face: "This is a friend of my family in Songjiang, you go to the outer courtyard, we have something to talk about."

Zheng Haizhu put the gauze hat and fake beard on the stone table in the courtyard, and said to Zhang Yanke: "Third Young Master, you scared that little fellow, I just wanted to ask him to pour me a bowl of water."

Zhang Yanke clapped his hands and said, "It's not easy".

He entered the room courteously, brought out the teapot and teacup, brewed a cup, and presented it to Zheng Haizhu: "Miss Zheng is working hard, I know that the real culprit must have been found out by looking at your face. What, is it the dye house?" who did it?"

Zhang Dai patted his younger brother on the shoulder, signaling him not to rush to ask questions, and sat down opposite the stone table, watching Zheng Haizhu drink water like a cow, and said softly: "Slow down, speak slowly."

Zheng Haizhu drank the third cup of tea and made a conclusion first: "You can rest assured, Sister He was wronged."

Then he said: "I went to the guest house this morning. Before I went to the dyeing workshop with my father-in-law dressed as a man, Mr. Liu's people had finished their unannounced visits and found several witnesses. They said that they heard that the dyeing house was killing chickens that night. When we arrived Dyeing workshop, after inquiries by Eunuch Liu, it turns out that among the five dyeing workshops in Shanghai County, this is the only one that can prepare ox blood red and vermilion dyeing pulp. According to Eunuch Liu’s instructions yesterday, I did three demonstrations respectively, and the county magistrate also understood. Now, because of the solid evidence, the county magistrate interrogated her a little bit, and the proprietress Hu Guihua recruited her."

It turns out that Hu Guihua was originally from Xiuning, Huizhou. Among her clan, a wealthy businessman, Mr. Hu, and Mr. Yang, a wealthy Qimen businessman, have accumulated feuds over the years due to peer bidding and competition for goods.

Master Hu learns that Master Yang is helping a nun print books in Shanghai County, so he bribes Master Yang's servant Yang Amo and neighbor Ye Carpenter.Together, several people poisoned Master Yang and Sister He to death in the nunnery. The servants and neighbors spread rumors, making the government and the people think that the two had an adulterous relationship and then turned against each other. The nun died with Master Yang in a rage.

That day, the workers in the dyeing workshop were on vacation, and her son was studying and repairing houses in the county. Hu Guihua was the only one in the dyeing workshop, which was very convenient.In the name of watching dyeing pulp, Yang Amo lured his master to the workshop, tied him up with a blessing belt stolen by Ye Carpenter from the nunnery, and imprisoned him, then moved him to a quiet time and poured poison until he died.

Carpenter Ye and Yang Amo transported Master Yang's body to the back door of Jiulian Nunnery by boat by the river.

Carpenter Ye turned inside first, intending to poison Sister He, but unexpectedly found that Sister He was not in the nunnery.

Yang Amo advocated dragging Master Yang's body into the nunnery first, but Carpenter Ye is a ruthless and refined character. He said that if the nun came back the next day and there was an alibi, it would be fine to slander her for killing people when she went out. It doesn't make sense, is there anyone who doesn't throw the corpse elsewhere after killing someone, but goes out to do errands first?
Carpenter Ye then suggested that Master Yang should be thrown into the river pond, leaving traces of the murder in the Nine Lotus Nunnery, and he would act to expose it.

Anyway, in the neighborhood, many men coveted the nun's beauty, and hated her for teaching girls to read, and the older jealous women wanted the nun to be sued.

At that time, by destroying and destroying the bones, the good citizens will be able to give the public a beheading sentence for the nun, which will help.

However, Master Yang had been dead for more than half an hour, Yang Amo stabbed in with a knife, but not much blood came out.

In desperation, Yang Amo turned back to the dyeing workshop and killed two chickens with Hu Guihua, but the blood volume was still not enough.

That Hu Guihua, a woman from a Taoist family, ran a dyeing workshop in public, and was able to get a job from the brocade workshop. Naturally, she often had to deal with various people from the county magistrate, subordinate officials to Jiazhang.She was very thoughtful, and remembered hearing the old man talk about the way of inspection when he was bragging.When the ducks were put on the shelves, they mixed chicken blood with the dyeing pulp of the banyan tree. After a test, it turned out to be a deep red color, not purple, so a bucket was filled for Ye Carpenter to take to the fake murder scene.

Zhang Yanke listened to Zheng Haizhu's words without blinking, and realized: "So, Miss Zheng took the footprints I found, the inside of the right foot is Yang Amo, and the other one wearing nun's shoes is Ye Carpenter?"

Zheng Haizhu nodded: "Exactly. I saw that the police sent Yang Amo, Ye Carpenter, and Master Hu to the county government. The county master also interrogated the three of them in front of Eunuch Liu. Come here, it's so late."

Zhang Dai finally let out a long sigh of relief.

This Miss Zheng really made the first contribution this time.

She kept saying that Eunuch Liu was great, and with just a few words of clues, she was able to lock down the dyeing workshop from the red dye with lime and arrange the visit carefully.

But in fact, Zhang Dai believes from the bottom of his heart that Ms. Zheng is the one who can do things best.

Not to mention her thinking about the traces left by the murder case, and not to mention that she is as good at seizing opportunities as chess, Zhang Luo came to Eunuch Liu to intervene, but just yesterday, when the Zhang brothers thanked Eunuch Liu for coming out to make decisions, Zheng Haizhu laughed at the side Yingying said, "Mr. Zhang is the best at writing Kunqu opera, this time I must write "Master Liu's Wisdom to Determine the Strange Case" and sing it all over the south of the Yangtze River."

Zhang Dai immediately understood that this was a promise of thanks to Liu Shimin for his brothers.

Jiangnan weaving admiral and eunuch, the father-in-law sitting in this seat, where is he short of money?
What is lacking is obviously a good reputation, so that the gang of overfed censors will not hand over impeachment papers like a lantern.

What's more, it lacks the reputation touted by the literati circle. After all, the most despised eunuchs in the world are civil servants and literati.

The Zhang family in Shanyin, the great-grandfather was the number one scholar, and the fathers of the Zhang brothers were also either Beijing officials, or the local gentry, and they were staff members of the Lu Wangfu. Prince.

Liu Shimin claims to be a courtier of the emperor with both intelligence and literary talent. If the Zhang family, who has been an official for generations, writes a playbook to praise him, wouldn't it be ten times better than the vulgar and dangerous thing like Lisheng Temple?
Sure enough, Eunuch Liu narrowed his eyes and said bluntly: "Oh, that's good. Mr. Zhang just writes the Kunqu opera, but our family suggests that you find a troupe of Yiyang opera to perform it. Yiyang opera is very suitable for the people who are surrounded by it." The situation of officials in charge, hearing and reviewing cases."

This rather interested attitude obviously shows that the gift giver has sent it in the right way.

At this moment, after Zheng Haizhu finished talking about the case, he still did not forget to remind Zhang Dai: "My lord, you must never forget about writing plays and singing them."

Zhang Yanke showed a mature face, pointed to Zhang Dai and said, "That's natural, even if my eldest brother is not sensible, a person like me who knows the importance will never procrastinate."

He smiled again, and said to Zheng Haizhu: "By the way, Miss Zheng, the thank you to Eunuch Liu is a drama, and the thank you to you must be money. With our current friendship, we don't care if we don't mention money." Sorry."

Zheng Haizhu was secretly thinking about another troublesome matter, but when he heard Zhang Yanke's glib and sincere remarks, he almost sprayed a mouthful of tea on the stone table.

Zhang Dai cast a helpless glance at his brother who was not serious, and smiled at Zheng Haizhu: "Miss Zheng, that's right. I heard from Ru Jiuer that you intend to use the money from the sale of your ancestral house in Zhangzhou to build a private school." .Yan Ke and I would like to contribute 500 taels of silver each, as a small contribution."

Zheng Haizhu's heart trembled violently, which was far more surprising than the affectionate confession from the leading actor and supporting actor.

The rent and sale of houses in the Ming Dynasty were not expensive, and Shanghai County in this world is far from being comparable to Nanjing and Suzhou. Five or six ordinary but acceptable quality houses, plus two small yards at the front and back, the annual rent is only 40 Two silver coins, plus the cost of hiring a teacher to teach, hiring craftsmen and technicians to teach skills, daily management costs, and the cost of adding things, the two brothers of the Zhang family contracted the cost of the private school for at least two years.

Hey, this is really, saving a life is better than creating a seventh-level God of Wealth!
Zheng Haizhu already knew the characters of Zhang Dai and Zhang Yanke in the real history. After contacting them this time, he felt that these two brothers are as good as each other, and they are good children who can cooperate.

So he didn't hesitate to refuse, and said with a genuine joy and gratitude on his face: "I want it, I want it, that's great, it really helps me a lot!"

Zhang Yanke laughed: "What I appreciate is the girl's unpretentious temperament. I guess the next thing the girl wants to ask is when the money will arrive. Don't worry, a gentleman pays money faster than a horse. My second brother This time I came here to invite Master Wu to build a garden in Shaoxing, after paying the deposit, there is still a surplus, the girl will find a ticket number in Songjiang Mansion, and I will deposit the amount to you tomorrow."

Zheng Haizhu's thoughts seemed to be running at twice the speed. After nodding his head, he seriously discussed the next work plan: "The two sons are so heroic and righteous. I thank the children of Songjiang, but I can't be ignorant of justice. After spending all the money, I would cry and ask the young masters for it. My idea is that in the private school, the hundred taels of silver from my nephew and I, plus the 1000 taels from both of us, should be made into a fund.”

(End of this chapter)