Chapter 323 Poetry

Fan Xiaoshan, a resident of Qingzhou, sells pens for a living and is away all year round. In April of this year, his wife He lived alone at home and was killed by thieves at night. It was drizzling at night. The government officials came to deal with the case and found a folding fan in the soil. A poem was written on it. The indated version was: Wang Sheng gave it to his good friend Wu Zhiqing.

Wu Qiqing is the son of a family. He is frivolous and is from the same hometown as Fan Xiaoshan. After the crime, the county magistrate arrested him and forced him to question the case. Wu Zhiqing repeatedly called him wronged him. The county magistrate ignored it and ordered the execution. Wu Zhiqing was tortured and was sentenced to death.

Wu Zhiqing knew that his fate would not be long, so he scattered all his wealth and did a wide range of good deeds. I bought a lot of cotton-padded trousers and cotton-padded jackets and gave them to the beggars in the county. They were asked to recite the Buddhist scriptures and pray for themselves. But in the end, it is still useless and difficult to save the fate. Seeing that the day of the fall was getting closer and closer, Wu Zhiqing did not want to be a headless ghost. He secretly bribed the guard and was ready to drink poisoned wine and kill himself. When I fell asleep this night, I saw a fairy in my dream and said to myself, "Don't die. Your savior will be here soon."

Wu Zhiqing asked, "Who is the savior?" The divine man said, "It's lucky inside." After saying that, he disappeared. Wu Zhiqing frowned and thought, and said to himself, "Isn't it just a Zhou character?" I want my savior surnamed Zhou.

Soon after, Mr. Zhou Yuanliang was transferred to Qingzhou to take office and looked through the prisoner's file. When he saw Wu Zhiqing, he was suspicious. At present, he arraigned the plaintiff and asked, "What is the evidence of Wu's murder?" Fan Xiaoshan said, "There is a fan as proof." Zhou Yuanliang opened the fan and looked at it and asked, "Who is Wang Sheng?" Fan Xiaoshan shook his head and said, "I don't know."

Zhou Yuanliang thought to himself, "This is obviously a blame. The weather in April is a rainy night, and the weather is cold. Who will be so careless and bring a fan on his body?" At present, all the government officials were ordered to lift Wu's shackles and transfer him to an ordinary cell.

Fan Xiaoshan was not convinced and argued for the reason. Zhou Yuanliang smiled and said, "Do you want to kill a person randomly to settle the case? Or do you want to find the real murderer?" Fan Xiaoshan said, "Of course, it's to find out the real culprit. What does this adult mean?"

Zhou Yuanliang said, "I have seen this poem on the fan on the wall of an inn. Just ask the store owner, and you will know who wrote this poem. Soon after, the store owner came to the county government and replied, "In last year's scientific examination, two talents came from Rizhao and lived in a small shop. One of them was surnamed Li, and the poems on the wall were his masterpiece."

Zhou Yuan nodded, and now the official went to Rizhao to arrest Li Xiucai and said angrily, "Why did you kill people?" Xiucai was stunned and said, "It's absolutely nothing." Zhou Yuanliang threw the fan on the ground and asked, "Is it you who wrote the poem on the fan?" The scholar said, "This poem was indeed written by Xiaosheng, but it has never been copied on the fan. Besides, this is not my handwriting.

Zhou Yuanliang muttered, "Since the owner of the folding fan knows this poem, he must know you. In your opinion, who is the most suspected? Xiucai said, "From the handwriting, it seems to be written by Wang Zuo of Yizhou." Zhou Yuanliang said, "Very good. Come on, go to Yizhou quickly and capture Wang Zuo.

Not long, Wang Zuo brought it and replied, "Poetry is indeed written by me, but I also wrote it for others. The person who asked me to write poetry, named Zhang Cheng, is a blacksmith, and Wang Sheng is his cousin." Zhou Yuanliang smiled and said, "Nedless to say, the murderer must be Wang Cheng." At present, Wang Zuo was released, and he sent someone to arrest Wang Cheng. After some interrogation, he confessed.

At the beginning, Wang Cheng met Wu Zhiqing because of his cousin. Later, once, Wang Cheng went to Qingzhou and accidentally saw Fan Xiaoshan's wife He Shi, who was greedy for her beauty, so he dressed up as Wu Zhiqing and went to tease her. He carried a folding fan with him, deliberately leaving Wu's name on it. In the middle of the night, Wang Cheng turned over. The wall entered the house and forced He to comply. He lived alone. In order to defend himself, there were scissors hidden under the pillow. Sensing that Wang Cheng had bad intentions, he immediately raised his knife to defend himself and shouted for help. In a panic, Wang Cheng grabbed the scissors and killed He. Then he threw the folding fan into the soil outside the wall and fled.

Zhou Yuanliang tried the case. At present, he sentenced Wang Cheng to death and was taken into prison. As for Wu Yuqing, he was purely wronged and acquitted.