Concubine

Chapter 162 Cracking the Poisoning Case

Yang Qiuchi took the account book, but was not in a hurry to look through it, and asked shopkeeper Jiang: "Do you remember the incident when Mrs. Zhang went to your pharmacy to buy arsenic?"

"I remember." Shopkeeper Jiang replied with a bow.

Yang Qiuchi was a little strange, and asked: "So many people come to buy medicine every year, can you remember?"

Shopkeeper Jiang said with a smile on his face: "That's impossible. It's just that this arsenic business is different from others. First, the government has requirements, and people who buy and sell arsenic must pay attention to it. , ha ha." Speaking of this, he glanced at Mrs. Yang, and stopped talking.

Old Mrs. Yang snorted, but didn't speak.

Yang Qiuchi frowned: "What are you doing, hesitating."

Shopkeeper Jiang was a little embarrassed, he opened his mouth to say something but was too embarrassed to say it.Seeing the warmth on Yang Qiuchi's face, he didn't dare to hide it anymore, stepped forward, leaned into Yang Qiuchi's ear, and said softly: "The Zhang family was the red card of Yingtianfu's brothel in the early years, and the villain went to Yingtianfu for business. I met her in the brothel, so I know her."

Although the voice was low, Mrs. Yang still heard it, and snorted again, with some displeasure on his face, but he didn't say anything.

Only then did Yang Qiuchi understand that the second concubine, Mrs. Zhang, was born in a brothel, and she was also a red card. After Mrs. Yang fell in love with her, he redeemed her and took her as a concubine.No wonder shopkeeper Jiang knew each other, maybe he had an affair with her back then.

Yang Qiuchi picked up the ledger and looked through it.This account book is a bit old, and the cover is a bit incomplete.Shopkeeper Jiang helped Yang Qiuchi turn to one of the pages, pointed to a line of words on it and said, "My lord, please read."

Yang Qiuchi took a closer look, and saw the line read: "At noon on March [-], Yang Zhang, the concubine of Mrs. Yang in Yangjiacun, bought two taels of arsenic."

Yang Qiuchi's heart skipped a beat, two or two?The nanny Lu said that the second aunt Zhang only gave her one or two arsenic, so how about one or two more?

Old Mrs. Yang also leaned over to take a look, and let out a surprise.

Yang Qiuchi hurriedly asked: "Old Master, is there something wrong?"

"No, no," Old Master Yang said, "Your Third Aunt was hanged on March [-]. It's only two days away. It's a coincidence."

It was indeed a coincidence to hear Mrs. Yang say this.Yang Qiuchi did not extract Guo's stomach contents for testing, nor did he have the conditions for such testing.It is impossible to determine whether Guo Shi was given arsenic.

Mrs. Zhang probably bought arsenic to poison Mrs. Guo. When she came back, she thought that once she poisoned Mrs. Guo, the third concubine would definitely attract the attention of the government and intervene. They would soon suspect her, so she did not poison her. Instructing nurse Lu to strangle Guo to death, he gave the poison to Lu by the way, and let her poison Shan'er to death slowly.

This is just Yang Qiuchi's speculation. As for the reason, Zhang's mouth must be pried open to finally know the answer.

Mrs. Zhang bought a lot of two taels of arsenic, and it didn't take so much to poison a person. However, Mrs. Zhang certainly didn't know how much arsenic was needed to poison a person, so he bought two taels.

In fact, the lethal dose of pure arsenic trioxide (pure arsenic) for adults is only [-] to [-] grams, and the impure ones are of course higher. Almost all ancient arsenic was impure and contained impurities, so the lethal dose would definitely be higher than this standard.

Mrs. Zhang only gave one or two of arsenic to the nanny, Mrs. Lu, and the remaining one or two is probably still in Mrs. Zhang's room. Why did she keep one or two of arsenic and not give it all to Mrs. Lu?This will only be known after prying her mouth open.

When Yang Qiuchi shared his analysis with Song Tongzhi and Mrs. Yang, everyone thought it was very possible.So he decided to search Zhang's room immediately.

Mrs. Yang's wives and concubines all had their own small yards. After Mrs. Zhang was arrested, Yang Qiuchi ordered his guards and his servants to seal off Mrs. Zhang's yard, and no one was allowed to enter or leave.

A group of people came to Zhang's yard and searched Zhang's room in detail. After searching for a long time, they couldn't find it.

Yang Qiuchi was a little discouraged, did he make a mistake in his judgment?Or did Mrs. Lu lie?No, there is no need for Mrs. Lu to lie about this. Just imagine, Mrs. Lu gave more poison, but she used less, which could reduce her guilt, so she would not deliberately say that Mrs. Zhang gave less poison. What Shi gave her should be one tael. In addition, there is no sign that the shopkeeper Jiang of the pharmacy made a false account.

In other words, if these two items are not used up, they should still be in Mrs. Lu's room.But after searching inside and out, where would she hide?

One tael of arsenic is too little, and there are too many places to hide.Looking at the messy room, Yang Qiuchi frowned.

If it were me, where would I hide it?Yang Qiuchi conceived.This place is definitely not something that ordinary people can accidentally find.The second concubine, Mrs. Zhang, has maids and servants to clean, so it should be a place that they can't easily find when cleaning.This place should not be in a cabinet or a dresser that anyone can dig into.

The remaining arsenic has not been used for more than a year, so will it be thrown away?

No, she didn't know the lethal dose of arsenic, she wouldn't throw it away before Shan'er died, what if there wasn't enough.Besides, no one had suspected that Shan'er was poisoned before, so she was not in danger of being exposed, and there was no need to destroy the evidence.

Have you searched the furniture in the room? According to the speculation just now, it is unlikely to be placed in these places, and it will not be placed in other people's rooms, because if such important things are placed in other people's rooms, I am afraid that I will not be able to sleep. will be safe.Therefore, there are only two places where it is possible to store it, one is in the sky and the other is underground.

Search the sky first!Yang Qiuchi asked his servant to bring a ladder and put it on the beam. Song Yuner immediately guessed what Yang Qiuchi was thinking, and said happily: "Brother, I will go up and search to see if the second aunt hid the arsenic on the beam."

"And inside the beams!"

"Hmm!" Song Yuner nodded.Like a civet cat, he climbed up to the beams of the house, searched carefully bit by bit, and tapped his fingers from time to time to listen to the sound.

After a long time, he walked down the stairs with a face full of disappointment, shaking his head.

If there is no beam, then only the ground is left.

underground?Such a small amount of arsenic is hard to find wherever it is buried.However, there should still be logic to follow.This arsenic is powder, it is unlikely to be wrapped in paper and buried directly in the ground, it is most likely to be placed in a small sealed iron box, and then buried in the ground.

Where will it be buried?The houses in the small courtyard where Second Aunt lived were all bungalows, and the floor was paved with green bricks, very neat.Yang Qiuchi squatted on the ground, looking for the past brick by brick.

The blue bricks in the entire room were almost searched, but still nothing was found, only under the bed.

If it were to be buried in the ground, this would be the most likely place, because the servants would not get into the bed to do the cleaning, although they had to do the cleaning.

Yang Qiuchi ordered the big bed to be moved away.This is a sandalwood carved bed, very heavy, seven or eight servants worked together and moved the big bed to the side with great effort.

It didn't take much effort, but there were some special blue bricks near the head of the bed.This place can be obtained by squatting on the head of the bed, the possibility is very high.

The gaps between these blue bricks are relatively large, but fingers can’t be inserted in at all. The ancient blue bricks are very thick. If you use a knife to pry them in, you can’t pry them out because the blue bricks are close together. .

There are several blue bricks with relatively large gaps. It is impossible to hide only a small packet of arsenic in such a large area, and it is very likely that there are other things hidden.

If something is buried here, how do you get it out?There must be a tool, and this tool cannot be too far away.

Under the bed!Yang Qiuchi reacted immediately.He came to the head of the big sandalwood carved wooden bed, and reached out his hand to feel under the bed. Suddenly, his hand stopped, his face beamed with joy, and he slowly took out an iron handle clip.Yang Qiuchi observed the clip carefully, and nodded if he realized something.

Yang Qiuchi came to the green brick with the handle clamp, inserted the two iron pieces into the two sides of the green brick, grabbed the handle with one hand and lifted it up, and lifted the blue brick out.

Song Yuner said in surprise: "Brother, you are so smart, how did you discover this mechanism?"

This kind of small mechanism can be found after careful observation. Yang Qiuchi didn't have time to explain to her. He took out the few green bricks, and there was a small box with a handle on it. .

Yang Qiuchi took the box out and put it aside, the small box was not locked, it was hidden so well, naturally there was no need to lock it.

When they opened it, everyone was stunned. There was a box full of gold, silver and jewelry. It seemed that the second aunt had prepared quite a lot of private money.

After taking these out, a small package wrapped in oiled paper was found at the bottom of the box.Yang Qiuchi was overjoyed, and carefully unfolded it slowly, inside was a small paper bag, opened it again, and sure enough, inside was a small bag of reddish white powder!Ancient arsenic was almost impure, with impurities, showing a reddish white color.

Yang Qiuchi compared these powders with the small packet of arsenic found in Lu's room. The color and powder thickness are roughly the same. Unfortunately, chemical composition testing cannot be carried out, as long as the ratio of pure arsenic and impurities, or even the number of impurities can be proved. If they are the same, it can be determined whether the two have the same relationship as a whole, and thus can prove that Lu's arsenic was given to her by Zhang from this small bag.

However, the current evidence is sufficient to determine that Zhang abetted others to poison and murder.

With a sullen face, Old Master Yang ordered Steward Pang to escort Mrs. Zhang here.

After a while, Mrs. Zhang arrived and saw the big bed being lifted away, the few blue bricks being taken out, the small cabinet where she kept her private money spread out, and the small bag of arsenic spread out on the ground. .

Song Tongzhi will ask shopkeeper Jiang to turn over the registrations in that ledger to Mrs. Zhang. Mrs. Zhang sweats profusely and spreads out on the ground.

Song Tongzhi sneered and said: "Criminal, the criminal's wife, Mrs. Zhang, has all the stolen goods, and there are some witnesses here. You, don't you confess?"

Sitting paralyzed on the ground, Mrs. Zhang said, "I've recruited. The young master was poisoned by my nanny." Having said that, Mrs. Zhang got up and knelt in front of Mrs. Yang, kowtowing: "Master, please forgive me. I was wrong, I was jealous of sister Guo giving birth to a son and being favored by you, I will never dare again. Please forgive me, woo woo woo"

Speaking of this, the second aunt Zhang burst into tears.

Yang Qiuchi asked: "Why didn't you give all the arsenic to the nanny Lu?"

Zhang choked and said, "I heard shopkeeper Jiang say that if you use arsenic to poison mice, you can just pick a few fingernails. So I think half of it is enough to poison a child, so I don't give all of it."

It turned out to be like this, of course it doesn't take that much to poison a baby.Mrs. Zhang was still worried that the arsenic would not be enough in the future, so he didn't throw away the rest. It was really clever but was mistaken by cleverness, leaving behind this fatal evidence.

Her daughter Yang Aixiao saw that her mother had pleaded guilty, so she also knelt on the ground and pleaded for her mother with a mournful face.

Old Mrs. Yang had already beaten Mrs. Zhang violently before, most of his anger was gone, and he sighed: "If you know this, why did you do it in the first place? You poisoned and murdered and violated the law of the king. How can I spare you?" Turning to Song Tongzhi Said: "Master Tongzhi, I will leave this bitch to you, and you can deal with it as you like."

According to the "Law of the Great Ming Dynasty", murder by poisoning is different from ordinary murder, and the sentencing embodies the principle of seriousness. In the section "Murder by poisoning with livestock", it is stipulated: "If you use poison to kill, you shall be beheaded." The death penalty used is beheading (in In ancient times, chopping was more important than twisting, and the latter could leave the whole body).There is no distinction between completed and attempted murders by poisoning and murder, and there is no distinction between master and slave.

Now, Song Tongzhi is more concerned about the murder of the third aunt who has not yet been solved, and asked: "Mr. Zhang, did you kill the third aunt Guo too?"

When Ms. Zhang heard this, she hurriedly shook her head and denied: "No, really not! I originally bought the arsenic to poison my sister Guo, but I haven't found a suitable opportunity to poison her. I became nympho, and then hanged. After she died, I decided to poison the young master with arsenic. So I don’t know who strangled Sister Guo.”

"You still dare to quibble, torture me!" Beating a dog depends on the owner. Originally, it was inconvenient for Song Tongzhi to punish Mrs. Yang's concubine. .

This time, Song Tongzhi had brought back the arresters from Guangde County, took out the torture tool specially used for interrogating female criminals, and put it on the joints of Mrs. Zhang's slender fingers. Heartache, the second aunt, Mrs. Zhang's heart and lungs were in pain, and she screamed for a long time. The voice was so sharp and miserable that the whole village could hear it.

Yang Qiuchi didn't stop him, he wanted to see if what Mrs Zhang said was true,
Now Mrs. Zhang categorically denies that she ordered her nurse, Mrs. Lu, to strangle Mrs. Guo to death.Is what Zhang said true?Yang Qiuchi was also confused.

If it is said that Mrs. Zhang took advantage of the opportunity of the third concubine Mrs. Guo's nympho, and ordered her nurse Lu to strangle Mrs. Guo to death.Since the traces of strangulation and hanging are quite different, and there has been a deep understanding of these two methods of killing since ancient times, even a little experienced and serious autopsy can find it, and it is very likely to be exposed.

And once it was revealed, since there were only the nanny and the little maid in the room, Second Aunt Zhang would soon get burned.

Therefore, if Mrs. Zhang wanted to kill Mrs. Guo, the third concubine, it would be very risky to use this method.Since she had already bought the poison and prepared to poison it, they lived in the same big yard, there were too many opportunities to poison, as long as they were patient, they would always find it.

However, poisoning has a greater risk, that is, poisoning others to death may be found to be murder. In that case, the government will intervene, and there will be endless worries about being discovered.And pretending to hang himself, once successful, no one will investigate.

Therefore, there is no guarantee that Second Aunt Zhang will not use this relatively risky method.What's more, as long as the third aunt's death is described as horrific and associated with ghosts and evils, it will be easier to get past the test, and once passed, everything will be fine.Therefore, it is inevitable that she will not take this risky move.

The second concubine suggested that the third concubine was bewitched by an evil spirit and asked a mage to exorcise the ghost and find a shady place to bury her. This is probably the intention.

After thinking about it, Yang Qiuchi was still not sure.So simply sit on the sidelines and see if there is any breakthrough.

It seems that today is a day of misery for Mrs. Zhang. She was whipped by Mrs. Yang, and her fingers were pinched by the upper slap.However, thinking about how vicious she ordered her nanny Lu to poison the children, I don't think there is anything pitiful about her.

Although Mrs. Zhang was born in a brothel, after all, she has been pampered by Mrs. Yang's family for almost 20 years. How can she survive this kind of torture?Besides, she has already admitted that poisoning a child is already a capital crime, why should she suffer so much, and the will to resist will soon collapse, so in a moment, Zhang screamed and offered to recruit.

After the sentence was released, Luo Xiancheng ordered someone to record a statement for Zhang, and Zhang admitted that she had ordered her nurse, Lu, to strangle her to death while the third concubine Guo was in a daze, and pretended to hang herself.

Taking advantage of the victory to pursue, he brought the nanny Lu, and tortured him to extract a confession.

At first, Mrs. Lu refused to admit it. Song Tongzhi told her that she was poisoned and killed, and she would be beheaded according to the law. Whether Mrs. Lu admitted to the case or not, she could not escape death, and Mrs. Lu's spirit was completely broken. , while tortured his upper body, the severe pain was unbearable, and he pleaded guilty in a moment.

After recording the statements for the two, the case was solved. Song Tongzhi and others were very happy, and even praised Yang Qiuchi for solving the case like a god.But Yang Qiuchi just smiled and didn't say anything.Song Tongzhi was a little strange, Yang Qiuchi didn't seem very happy, as if he had a lot of things on his mind.

Yang Qiuchi had something on his mind, he didn't know what to do, although the case of poisoning and killing Shan'er was fine, both of them got the stolen goods, and the two confessed voluntarily, but Yang Qiuchi watched the case of the third aunt's hanging too coldly, thinking that it was probably Those who have been tortured to extract a confession, the real culprit is likely to be at large.

Although Yang Qiuchi himself was not at ease, he did not have any clues to overthrow the case.

However, this kind of time is often the time when the murderer is the most relaxed. The murderer will think that he is already safe, and it is often easy to show his feet.Therefore, Yang Qiuchi was not in a hurry.He waited for the moment when the willows were dark and the flowers were bright.

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