Di Renjie (630 -700), a daughter-in-law who died suddenly from bleeding to death, was a native of Nandi Village, Taiyuan City (now Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province) in the Tang Dynasty. She took the Ming Classics Examination (one of the subjects in the imperial examination system in the Tang Dynasty) and entered the official career. She was once a commander-in-chief and a prime minister. According to historical records, during the Yifeng period of Tang Gaozong (676 -679), he was the official of Dali Temple, and more than 7000 people were detained in prison within one year/kloc-0. None of them complained about grievances, and it was a beautiful talk in the government and the public. In fact, during his tenure as an official of the county and state government, he also made great efforts to break the prison, and solved countless suspicious cases and unjust cases.
The classmate poisoning case mentioned here is a strange case that he tried when he was the county magistrate of Changping Old County (now Chengnan Street, Changping District, Beijing) in his early years.
One day in the first year of the Gregorian calendar (698), Di Renjie suddenly heard a cry in front of his official. Many people grabbed a young man in his twenties, followed by a middle-aged woman who cried and cried, and crowded in together. When Di Renjie saw this, he ordered the officers to stop the crowd and only allowed the plaintiff to go to court. The plaintiff was the middle-aged woman and a white-haired old man. The middle-aged woman cried and said: Little woman Li Wangshi, her husband died early, and only one daughter Li Ligu, aged 19 this year, married Hua Wenjun, the son of a local juror Hua Guoxiang, the day before yesterday, and died suddenly within three days. When I went to watch, I saw that my daughter was bruised all over and bleeding from seven orifices. Obviously, her family murdered her and died. Begging Master Qingtian to be the master of the people and women.
Di Renjie asked the old man but Hua Guoxiang? The answer is yes. Di Renjie said, "A good wife is a joy in life. Why do you die after three days of marriage?"? From the real confession. Hua Guoxiang answered with tears streaming down her face: My family is a home of poetry and propriety, so how dare I abuse it? My son Wenjun is a young boy who takes the exam. He is newly married, and the husband and wife are harmonious. How can he bear this poisonous hand! Because of the wedding ceremony the day before yesterday, there were many young relatives and friends making trouble in their new houses at night. One of them was Hu Zuobin, a county student, who was a friend with children and loved to play. When he saw that his daughter-in-law was somewhat beautiful, he felt jealous and made comments, making a lot of noise. Seeing that it was late at night, I was afraid I would miss the ceremony, so I invited them to the study to drink, and everyone was willing, except Hu Zuobin. I said a few words to him, and he became angry from embarrassment and said viciously,' I can't help but make trouble with the new house. You old man, you are so angry that you will know my interests in the three dynasties. " I was only joking at that time, but I didn't care. Unexpectedly, he was narrow-minded and invited wine again yesterday. Somehow he put poison in the teapot in his new house. Wen Jun was out drinking wine last night, but fortunately she didn't drink it. My daughter-in-law didn't know when to drink tea. She had abnormal abdominal pain in the third watch, so it was too late to ask for medical treatment. She died before the fourth watch. Pity a daughter-in-law as beautiful as flowers and pure as jade, who was killed by a villain, so that adults can avenge Wang.
Di Renjie ordered Hu Zuobin to come to class, asking him to confess truthfully. Hu Zuobin prostrated himself on the ground and replied with tears in his eyes: My Lord, please calm down the anger of thunder and let the health workers elaborate. It was really too much for the trainee to make fun of the incident of having sex the day before yesterday, but there were no fewer than thirty or forty people present at that time. Hua Guoxiang assumed an elder face and scolded me in public, which made the trainee quite embarrassed for a while, so he said something careless and taught him to guard against it within three days. This was a gaffe when he was embarrassed. It was purely a joke. How can he take it seriously? Since Hua Guoxiang hosted a banquet the next day, even if there was a gap, it was made up. How can he do anything to kill people? Students are knowledgeable, don't you know that the national law is clear, sparse but not leaking, and there are still wives, children and mothers at home who need to rely on me to teach, so I don't think for myself, but also for them. Even if I am jealous, I will only try my best to occupy her. How can I poison her? Beg adults to see clearly.
Hu Zuobin's voice just fell and she saw a woman in her 40 s and 50 s complaining in class. It turned out that she was the mother of Hu Zuobin, Hu Zhaoshi, who had been widowed for many years and raised her son. Today, she was unexpected trouble because of a joke. She was afraid that her only son would suffer in class, so she came to plead.
Di Renjie saw that there was no evidence, and it was difficult to finalize the case only by the plaintiff's word, so he ordered Hu Zuobin to be put in prison and interrogated again after investigating the scene.
Di Renjie called Gao Chenshi, the companion of the deceased Li Ligu, and when she saw Di Renjie, she knelt on the ground and asked Di Renjie to pay her respects. Di Renjie asked her: Are you a companion? Is it Li Fu's dowry or the Chinese maid? There are many people in and out of the new house for days. Why don't you take care of it?
My aunt bowed her head and said, I was deeply loved by Li Furen since I was a child. I stayed in the Li family as a handmaid and later married Gao Qi. My husband and wife are both in the service of the Li family, and Miss Li Ligu was brought up by me. The young lady got married recently. Madame saw that the old slave was an old servant, and she came here specially for company. Unexpectedly, this disaster happened the night before. Miss's cause of death is unknown, so she begged the master to torture Hu Zuobin.
Di Renjie initially suspected that Li Ligu's death was caused by her companion's secret harm, so she arraigned her companion. At this time, listening to what she said, it was an old servant of the Li family, and Miss Li Ligu was brought up by her since childhood, so she had no idea.
Without a clue, I was inspired by Di Renjie's going back to my office from Hua's home. After thinking about it, I couldn't figure out a way to solve the case for several days in a row. Hua Guoxiang thought that Di Renjie deliberately excused Hu Zuobin and deliberately delayed the case, so he broke into the county government and questioned Di Renjie face to face, which ended in discord.
On this day, Di Renjie thought hard in class alone, analyzed the case, and his family sent a cup of tea. Di Renjie lifted the lid and saw some black foam floating on the tea. Di Renjie blamed his family for not cooking with clean water. The family replied: This matter has nothing to do with the tea man. It may be that the dust falling from the eaves of the house fell into it when making tea, but I didn't see it clearly at that time, which led to this.
When Di Renjie heard this, he suddenly woke up. He sent a message to his Chinese companion, Mrs. Gao Chen, asking: Did you buy the tea in that pot of tea in your new house outside the tea house or did you cook it at home?
The answer is that it is cooked at home. Di Renjie asked where to boil water, and replied that it was in the first spare room under the kitchen.
Poison is difficult to distinguish. The next day, Di Renjie came to Hua Guoxiang's house and asked Hua Wenjun, his aunt, servants and other relevant personnel in detail. After learning about the incident, everyone agreed that Hu Zuobin was the most suspected criminal. Di Renjie pointed out some doubts, which was regarded by Hua Guoxiang as an excuse for Hu Zuobin, and he was very unhappy.
Di Renjie saw that although everyone suspected Hu Zuobin of poisoning, no one saw him enter the new house with his own eyes, so he suspected that others in the Hua family might poison him. After investigation, the possibility of poisoning by the Hua family who entered and left the new house that day was ruled out, so we had to wait until the autopsy.
Di Renjie ordered the teapot in the new house to be brought and poured a cup of tea. As a result, the color was different, like sugar water, and there were bursts of gamey smell. Order people to take out food, pour tea, and then bring a dog to eat food, and the dog will die after eating. When I walked to the bed where the corpse was parked, I saw that the deceased was bruised and bleeding in his mouth, which was obviously caused by poison. Di Renjie saw that the situation was clear. After obtaining the consent of his family, he asked them to sign an exemption from inspection and collect the body as soon as possible.
Di Renjie thought this case was a poisoning case. However, since ancient times, the poisoners have used arsenic and so on. Even though it can make people bleed 7 times and die immediately, there is no such thing as foul smell. Obviously, there is another reason.
On-the-spot simulation showed that the culprit appeared. The next day, Di Renjie casually took only two officers, Ma Rong and Qiao Tai, and walked to Huajia. As soon as he entered the hall, he ordered Hua Guoxiang to call the maid who burned tea for questioning. According to this person, the stove for boiling water was in the house that day, and my aunt came to get boiling water. Because the boiling water on the stove was exhausted, she moved the stove under the eaves, added charcoal and water, and burned another pot, only half of which was used to make tea. When the other half pot of water was put in the yard to add cold water, she accidentally tripped and poured it on the ground. Know nothing about other matters.
Hearing this, Di Renjie asked Hua Guoxiang to go to the kitchen with him. I saw that the kitchen was dilapidated, and the tiles were mostly rotten. Di Renjie asked her companion to point out the place where the stove was put that day. After careful observation, she saw that the cornice was rotten and the rafters had fallen halfway. Di Renjie ordered her aunt to put the stove in its original place, add water to the fire, make tea after the water boiled, but she didn't drink it, adding water to burn it again, and so on for more than ten times. Suddenly, some plaster fell from the cornice, and my aunt brushed it off with her hand. When Di Renjie saw it, she called her over and said that the poison that harmed your young lady was immediately seen.
They didn't know what he meant, so they didn't dare to speak. They just looked straight up. Otherwise, I saw a hot smoke from the stove rushing straight to the roof. A glistening thing was slightly squirmed by the smoke, and finally a snake head came out, and a thick saliva flowed out of the mouth, just dripping into the stove. The snake head looked around, suddenly saw many people under it, and quickly shrank back.
Di Gong turned and looked at Hua Guoxiang, only to see the old juren still leaning back with a callous face, staring at the cornice with his mouth open for a long time. Di Gong said, Do you understand? This is the murderer who murdered your daughter-in-law Your house has been in disrepair for a long time, and this poison was born. In my opinion, it is better to take this opportunity to tear it down to avoid future troubles.
Hua Guoxiang was speechless and let Di Gong command him. At Di Gong's command, all the family members began to work together, found out the rake and hoe, and soon rammed down the rafters and tiles of the eaves. A three-foot-long bungee snake suddenly jumped out of the mud tile, and before it knew what had happened, it was caught by a fire fork. Everyone shouted and gathered around. Someone had mentioned a hoe and gave the snake a hard blow. The snake twisted a few times and stopped moving.
Di Renjie solved the case and ordered Li Wangshi to come and explain to her the cause of her daughter's death. After listening to this, Wang Li burst into tears, only sighing that his daughter Li Ligu had a hard life.