The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 430 "1.10 Major Family Extermination Case"

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, another year is coming to an end.

Looking back on the past year, various undertakings in Liujiazhuang have been flourishing like flowers blooming in spring, brilliant and dazzling.

The people in Liujiazhuang have happy smiles on their faces and their lives are full of hope and vitality.

Just as the people of Liujiazhuang were immersed in the joy of welcoming the Spring Festival, and every household was decorating with lights and preparing to celebrate this beautiful moment of reunion, an unexpected change, like a cold wind in winter, suddenly swept the entire area, breaking the tranquility and peace.

This unexpected incident not only caught the villagers off guard, but also cast a heavy shadow on everyone's heart.

At 1974:1 on January 20, 16, the Liujiazhuang Sub-district Police Station received a report from the security department of the brick and tile factory: Liu Shuzhi, a worker in the factory's mining and transportation workshop, his wife, Wang Fenglian, a worker in the factory's fourth workshop, and their three children were found brutally dead in their home. Preliminary investigation determined that it was homicide.

This was the first criminal homicide involving death in Liujiazhuang area since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Zhou Weiguo, director of the MTG Branch and Liujiazhuang Sub-district Police Station, led all members of the Criminal Investigation Department to rush to the Liujiazhuang Brick and Tile Factory to "attend the scene."

According to the reporter, Li Xiaojuan, a female worker at the brick and tile factory, she ran into the deceased Wang Fenglian's brother-in-law Zhou Bairen that day. They were colleagues, so she casually asked, "Sister Fenglian hasn't come to work for several days. Have you been to your house?"

Zhou Bairen said in a somewhat strange tone: "No."

Considering that Wang Fenglian and Tang Shuzhi had not been seen for several days, Li Xiaojuan, Zhou Bairen and another factory worker, Wang Wenge, went to Wang Fenglian's home at around 16: to check on her.

It turned out that the gate was locked, so Li Xiaojuan asked Zhou Bairen to climb over the wall of Liu Fuxing's yard, the neighbor to the west of Wang Fenglian's house, and put up a ladder to enter Wang Fenglian's yard.

Zhou Bairen, who entered the courtyard, shouted in surprise: "Oh no! The glass in their house is broken and the door is not locked. Something might have happened!... Brother Liu, please come over and take a look."

After hearing this, Liu Fuxing immediately followed Wang Fenglian into the yard and looked into the house through the broken window. He was so scared that his hands and feet turned cold.

He only saw his neighbor Tang Shuzhi lying on the kang in the inner room with blood all over his face. Because the light in the room was dim, he could not see the rest of the situation clearly.

Zhou Bairen and Liu Fuxing climbed over the wall again in a panic and told Li Xiaojuan the situation.

"Ah! How could this happen? What happened? Which beast did this... wuwu... my poor sister Wang's family!" Li Xiaojuan was frightened when she heard this, and then started crying again in grief and anger.

At the critical moment, Zhou Bairen remained calm and said immediately: "Oh, stop crying. It's already late. Go report the case!"

"Yes, yes... I'll go right away!" Li Xiaojuan said after she came to her senses, and immediately trotted over to report to the factory security department in a panic.

At around 17:, the brick factory security department and the police station immediately secured the scene and reported to the MTG branch.

When the police station chief Zhou Weiguo led the public security and security officers into the house with a heavy face, they found that Tang Shuzhi, Wang Fenglian and their three children were all dead. The house was full of blood and the scene was horrific.

The on-site investigation was conducted more than ten times in total and was not completed until the end of January.

The crime scene was located at No. 1.8, Row , in the Liujiazhuang Brick and Tile Factory's staff quarters. This dormitory faced north and south, and was divided into two rooms, an inner room and an outer room. It was surrounded by a -meter-high brick wall with a locked iron gate in the middle. There were scratches on the west wall and the south wall outside the courtyard left by footsteps.

There is a small cool room on each side of the door. Three bricks on the west edge of the roof of the cool room on the east side were moved away, and an iron wire used to fix the gate was knocked off. There was a bunch of keys on the roof of the cool room on the west side, which were found to be the keys to Tang Shuzhi's house.

The lower of the two panes of glass on the upper part of the door had been broken, with fragments falling on the ground 1 meter inside the door; opening the door and entering the outer room, one found a white washbasin half filled with water on the ground under the window. The water inside was stained blood, and a blood-stained iron-handled flat axe was soaked in it.

On the partition in the southwest corner of the outer room, there was a plate of cold and rotten stir-fried vermicelli with cabbage, kelp and shredded pork; on the partition in the northwest corner, there was half a basin of rotten potato and corn rice in the enamel rice bowl; on the stove, there was a large pot filled with half a pot of water with cabbage and kelp residue in it, and two rice bowls and three pairs of chopsticks were soaked in it.

On the bellows on the west side of the stove, there was a teapot filled with brick tea and a glass teacup filled with half a cup of water. A sweaty handprint was found on the teacup.

On the purple horse chest against the west wall lay a yellow cloth leather hat stained with a few blood spots.

On the kang lay a gray, half-worn men's jacket with a few blood spots and scratches on the lapels, collar and cuffs.

The door to the inner room was open. There were two red clothing boxes placed side by side against the east wall. One was locked and the other was unlocked. On the lid of the locked box was a glass filled with half a cup of brick tea. A sweaty handprint was found on the glass.

The calendar hanging on the wall inside the house stopped at January 1th.

A pair of cotton shoes, two pairs of men's leather shoes and three pairs of children's shoes were neatly placed in front of the clothes box and under the windowsill.

The switch cord of the indoor light was pulled up and hung on the wire used to hang towels, and traces of a glove were found on the lamp socket.

Apart from this, there were no other signs of disturbance at the scene. The bicycles, watches, passbooks and valuable clothes in the house were not taken away.

Tang Shuzhi, Wang Fenglian and their three children were all lying on the kang on the north side of the inner room. There were five people on the kang, but there were six pillows.

Tang Shuzhi's body was wearing a close-fitting cotton coat and trousers. He was lying on his back next to the dining table at the northeast corner of the kang, with his head leaning against the corner of the dining table facing northeast and his feet facing southwest. There were nine blunt-force cuts on his head and neck, the deepest of which were to the skull and cervical vertebrae. There were also multiple resistance wounds on his hands.

Wang Fenglian's body was also wearing close-fitting cotton clothes and pants. She was lying on her side to the west of Tang Shuzhi's body, with her head facing northwest and her feet facing southeast. The mattress on her lower body was soaked with urine. There were 13 blunt-force wounds on her head and neck, her skull was cut open, her brains were splashed, and there were multiple resistance wounds on her hands. A Shanghai brand ladies' watch on her left wrist was also smashed, and the face, minute hand, and second hand had all fallen off. According to the position of the hour hand, the last time on the watch was 6:40. Multiple stains of coagulated blood were extracted from the watch.

There was a lot of blood on the soles of Tang Shuzhi and Wang Fenglian's socks, but no dust was found.

Tang Zhi and Wang Fenglian's three sons, the eldest son Tang Chunmin, 9 years old, and the youngest son Tang Chunli, 2 years old, were all hacked to death in their beds without any resistance.

The forensic autopsy found that there was kelp, vermicelli, and minced meat in the stomachs of Tang Shuzhi and Wang Fenglian, but no rice or noodles.

Tang Chunmin and Tang Limin had no food in their stomachs, but there was half-digested rice in the upper part of their small intestines. Tang Chunli had not been weaned, had no food in his stomach, and had green spots on his belly.

All five people were killed by the iron-handled adze in the washbasin in the outer room. After on-site examination, the bloodstains on the hats and clothes found in the outer room, as well as the splattered and dripping bloodstains on the victims' bodies and at the scene, were of the same blood type.

After visiting the masses, Zhou Weiguo learned that Tang Shuzhi, then 30, and Wang Fenglian, then 26, were both from peasant families in Fshan County, had clean backgrounds, and no problems with their class backgrounds.

Tang Shuzhi has always been honest and loyal, and has no grudges against anyone; Wang Fenglian has never offended anyone either, but she had problems with her conduct when she was a girl, and had an affair with Zhou Bairen, one of the people who reported the case. But after she married Tang Shuzhi, no one heard about her conduct again.

They got married in 1964. At that time, Tang Shuzhi was particularly concerned about Wang Fenglian's past. He felt very embarrassed and was always upset about not marrying an "original" woman.

The couple often quarreled because of Wang Fenglian's pre-marital affairs, but after their eldest son Tang Chunmin was born, their relationship began to ease. After their second son Tang Liming and third son were born, their relationship became quite harmonious.

The last time they went to work was on January 1th, and they did not go to work again on January 9th.

Zhou Weiguo studied under Liu Zhiye, and he has also trained himself over the years.

He believed that the victims were victimized between the evening of January 1 and the early morning of January 9.

Based on the on-site investigation and interviews with the public, Zhou Weiguo and others determined that this was a home burglary and murder case. The scene was not turned over, and no valuables were lost, so the possibility of murder for money was low.

Wang Fenglian had problematic conduct during her lifetime and might have been killed because of an affair.

Based on the digestion of the deceased's stomach contents, Tang Chunmin and Tang Liming were killed 5 to 7 hours after the meal.

Tang Shuzhi and Wang Fenglian had stir-fried cabbage, kelp, pork and vermicelli after dinner and were killed two hours later.

Zhou Weiguo asked a professional watch repairman to check it. Although the face, minute hand and second hand of Wang Fenglian's Shanghai brand women's watch had fallen off, the internal parts of the watch were intact. It stopped because the blood inside the watch had coagulated, so the time of the incident must have been before 1:10 on January 6.

Based on all these circumstances, Zhou Weiguo and other members of the task force narrowed the time of the crime to between 1 and 10 a.m. on January 2.

After dinner, Tang Shuzhi and Wang Fenglian had stir-fried vermicelli with cabbage, kelp and shredded pork. Zhou Weiguo speculated that this dish might have been newly cooked to entertain the visitors.

People reported that Tang Shuzhi and Wang Fenglian did not usually drink brick tea, but there was tea at the crime scene, indicating that there were visitors at home when they were killed.

The sixth pillow on the kang also indicates that the visitor stayed at home that night and slept on the same kang with them.

The above situation shows that the murderer is likely to be a visitor who stayed at the crime scene at the time of the crime. The probability of the murder being committed by an acquaintance is very high. Moreover, the fact that this visitor slept in the same room with Tang Shuzhi and Wang Fenglian shows that they had a close relationship and must be an acquaintance.

After identification by workers at the brick and tile factory, it was found that the murder weapon, an iron-handled flat axe, was homemade in the factory workshop and was used by many people in the factory.

Later, after careful identification by Wang Fenglian's mother and sister, they confirmed that this was Tang Shuzhi's axe.

The clothes outside the house were identified by Wang Fenglian's sister, who confirmed that they were made by her sister for Tang Shuzhi before her sister and Tang Shuzhi got married. After marriage, Tang Shuzhi often wore them at work. The fur hat was also identified by his co-workers, and they all agreed that it belonged to Tang Shuzhi.

Therefore, based on the circumstances, Zhou Weiguo visualized the murderer's crime process in his mind.

The murderer first put on Tang Shuzhi's shirt, Tang Shuzhi's leather hat, and then put on gloves. After committing the crime with Tang Shuzhi's flat axe, he loosened the lamp socket, took off his hat, and broke the glass on the door, creating the illusion of breaking into the house, and finally escaped over the wall.

The murderer is not only cruel and vicious, but also very cunning. He has certain anti-detection capabilities and is very familiar with the situation near the scene.

Based on the investigation results, the task force focused on the social contacts of the deceased Wang Fenglian, especially the men who had improper relationships with her and often visited her home.

By mobilizing the masses, a large number of clues were found in just four or five days, and a total of eight suspects were found who had improper relationships and were frequent visitors to Wang Fenglian's home.

Together with three relatives and neighbors who had visited Tang Shuzhi's home recently before the incident, a total of eleven people had their fingerprints collected and compared with the sweat fingerprints extracted from the teacup at the scene. The results confirmed that the two sweat fingerprints were the same as the index finger fingerprint of the left hand of Ma Fenglian's brother-in-law Zhou Bairen.

Therefore, Zhou Bairen was listed as the key suspect in the case by the task force.

Without relaxing the comprehensive investigation work, the task force concentrated its elite forces to conduct an in-depth investigation into Zhou Bairen's behavior in the days before and after the incident, and discovered the following situation.

According to several neighbors of the Tang family, Zhou Bairen had spent the night at Wang Fenglian's home many times, and had gone to her class many times during the day to call Wang Fenglian and go home with her. Wang Fenglian had maintained an improper relationship with him before they got married.

After marriage, Wang Fenglian still stayed overnight at Zhou Bairen's house many times, but since last autumn, Wang Fenglian suddenly distanced herself from Zhou Bairen and once said: "Zhou Bairen is not as wise and honest as my son. I was blinded by him at first!"

In addition, Zhou Bairen secretly followed the task force several times after the incident and inquired about the progress of the case, but on the surface he declared: "This case is hopeless and cannot be solved!"

There was another situation that made Zhou Weiguo completely doubt him.

That is, on the third day after the incident, Wang Fenglian's mother and elder sister, who had originally identified the gray shirt, hat and axe as Tang Shuzhi's, suddenly changed their words and denied it, saying that these things did not belong to Tang Shuzhi.

To be cautious, the task force sent people to Fshan County overnight to take physical evidence to find Wang Fenglian's sister who was married there to identify the body.

Wang Fenglian's sister said with certainty: "The clothes were made by my eldest sister for Tang Shuzhi. The buttonholes of the shirt were buttoned with my left hand. There is no second one! The axe and hat are also from my second sister's family."

After Zhou Weiguo learned the result, he immediately summoned Wang Fenglian's mother and sister and educated them. The two then revealed that they changed their confession because they were threatened by Zhou Bairen.

Moreover, Chief Jia of the Security Department of Zhou Weiguo Brick Factory also made a great breakthrough during his visit to Zhou Bairen's colleagues.

Liu Chang, a worker in the same workshop and team as Zhou Bairen, confirmed: "Bai Ren and I started working the night shift on January 1th. Bai Ren was on duty on January 6th, 1th, 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th. He was absent from the night shift on January 12th." This means that no one can prove that Zhou Bairen's actions on the night of January 13th coincided with the time of the crime.

The day after Chief Jia of the Security Department questioned Liu Chang, Liu Chang took the initiative to expose the matter again.

He said that Zhou Bairen came to him and asked, "Why did the security department ask you for help?" Liu Chang said unnaturally, "Nothing. I wanted to separate my household registration from the canteen, so I talked to Chief Jia of the Security Department."

Zhou Bairen didn't believe it, so Liu Chang said, "I'm not kidding you. I'm really talking about the household registration issue."

Zhou Bairen continued, "They asked me what days I was at work, and who was there and who was not on January 1th. I said everyone was there. If I was not at work on a certain day and was being investigated, I would ask you again. You know what to say, right?"

It would have been fine if he didn't say it, but once he said it, it became obvious!
On February 2, Zhou Bairen was detained.

But this kid was not honest in prison. He threatened to commit suicide many times. What he said during the interrogation was incoherent and full of lies.

However, faced with a pile of evidence produced by the task force, Zhou Bairen finally couldn't bear it anymore. After being detained for 48 hours, he finally admitted: "I didn't want to do it either. It was all Tang Jiazhi who forced me to do it."

It turned out that after Zhou Bairen married Wang Fenglian's eldest sister, he felt that his cheerful second sister-in-law was more to his liking, so he had been having an affair with Wang Fenglian, who was still unmarried at the time, since seven or eight years ago.

Even after Wang Fenglian and Tang Shuzhi got married, they did not break up their relationship, but continued their "underground relationship."

But the matter was eventually exposed.

One night in early spring last year, Tang Shuzhi caught the two having an affair and used it to extort money from Zhou Bairen. Wang Fenglian also spread bad things about Zhou Bairen and became estranged from him.

For a time, Zhou Bairen's reputation in the factory and among his neighbors became very bad, so he always held a grudge.

On January 1 this year, Tang Shuzhi extorted money from Zhou Bairen again, saying that if he did not give him 8 yuan before the Spring Festival, he would make Zhou Bairen "too embarrassed to face people" in the factory.

This is not a small amount of money. Zhou Bairen has had enough of being blackmailed again and again. He finally made up his mind and decided to kill Tang Shuzhi's entire family to prevent future troubles.

He planned it in advance and rode his bike to Tang Shuzhi's house at around 1 p.m. on January 9, using the excuse of giving money.

Seeing that Zhou Bairen was sensible and in a good mood, Tang Shuzhi took the initiative to invite Zhou Bairen to stay and chat.

At this time, Tang Shuzhi's three sons were already asleep. The three of them drank a few cups of tea and chatted until after 1:10 on January 0, when Zhou Bairen told Wang Fenglian that he was "a little hungry."

Wang Fenglian went into the kitchen and fried a large plate of cabbage, kelp, shredded pork and vermicelli, and the three of them ate while chatting.

After eating, Tang Shuzhi and Wang Fenglian went back to their room to sleep.

Zhou Bairen said, "It's too late. I won't go back today." So he slept on the kang in the outer room.

At 3 a.m., after Zhou Bairen woke up, he first put on Tang Shuzhi's shirt and a pair of work pants that were hung outside the house, and then put on Tang Shuzhi's fur hat and gloves.

Then, he went to the cool room in the yard to get a flat axe, and finally tiptoed into the inner room, loosened the lamp socket, pulled the lamp cord, and with the help of the light in the yard, he used the flat axe to kill all five members of Tang Shuzhi's family who were sleeping.

After committing the crime, Zhou Bairen threw the pillows and quilts on the kang in the outer room onto the deceased's kang in the inner room, threw the flat axe into the basin of water in the outer room, then took off Liu Yongzhi's coat and work pants, deliberately broke the glass on the door, locked the courtyard gate, threw the key onto the roof of the Xiliang room, and then rode away on a bicycle.

He had not ridden far when he discovered that Tang Shuzhi's fur hat was still on his head, so he turned back and climbed into the yard from the east cool room.

At this time, someone from the neighbor's house to the west got up and turned on the light. Zhou Bairen was so scared that he hid in the west room and waited until the lights in the neighbor's house went out before he ran away again.

He rode his bicycle in such a panic that the chain fell off, only to realize that he had not put his hat back at the scene. He had no choice but to run back on foot, throw the hat on the purple horse chest against the west wall, and then run away again.

…………

The truth of the "1.10" family murder case has finally come to light, but its terrible aftermath will linger in people's minds for a long time.

Liujiazhuang, an area known for its prosperity and peace for many years, suffered such a horrific family massacre for the first time.

Although the victims were not from the village but just a family of migrant workers, this sudden tragedy undoubtedly cast a heavy shadow on this land.

The Liujiazhuang, where people did not pick up things on the road and did not lock their doors at night, seems to have changed quietly now.

When Liu Zhiye returned from outside and heard about this, he felt a chill in his heart, realizing that this once quiet little mountain village is no longer what it used to be.

The population of Liujiazhuang has increased dramatically, with 50,000 to 60,000 local residents and nearly 200,000 migrant workers. This large population easily leads to various public security problems.

(End of this chapter)