Qin Official

"The house where the crime occurred is a hundred steps outside the inner wall and ten steps away from the road. It faces south and has two rooms on the front and side. The two rooms are connected. The main room has a door. The female body lay five steps inside the door. The side room is in the front. To the south of the landlord, there is a bed in the middle, with the male corpse lying on it; there is a window to the south of the side room, three feet wide, open, and the murderer may have jumped into the house through the window..."

Just as Ling Shi Nu walked to the window to watch, Heifu also carefully explored the grassy ground outside the window, and he soon made a discovery.

"Ling Shi, there is a footprint here!"

Nu immediately walked around and saw an obvious footprint on the mud outside the window!

He carefully lay down on the grass and stared at the footprints for a long time. After measuring it with a "Qin ruler", he immediately turned his head and said to the pen official beside him:

"Write it down. Half a step outside the south wall of the side room, there is a footprint. It seems to be a Qin-style hemp shoe, one foot and two inches long. There are signs of wear and tear on the shoe, and it does not look like it is new. The front of the shoe print has dense patterns and is four inches long. , the middle part has sparse patterns and is five inches long, and the heel part has dense patterns and is three inches long..."

This made Heifu stunned. During the robbery case in October, Nui's identification of the thief's injuries had already surprised him. But now the meticulous observation and recording of the footprints in front of us is comparable to the footprint studies of later generations.

But this was the beginning. Then, Nu really told Heifu why the jailers of the Qin State, who could also be called "Ling Shi", were called "China's earliest forensic doctors"!

After Nu Zai inspected and recorded the footprints under the window, he returned to the side room, where the murderer first committed the crime. He carefully examined the male body lying on the couch, but saw that his face was horrified and his eyes were wide open and he did not close them until he died.

Nu didn't dwell too much on the corpse's facial expression and let the clerk continue recording the love letter.

"The deceased was a middle-aged male with yellow skin, 7 feet 1 inch in length, and 2 feet in hair. He died on the couch in the side room, lying on his back, with his head facing north and feet facing south. There was a blade wound on the back of his hand, four inches long and one inch wide. It is suspected that he was cut during resistance. The fatal wound was on the throat, along the neck, three inches long and half an inch wide. Both wounds were transverse, and the wounds were smooth, like the marks of a knife. The male corpse's throat was bleeding heavily and was contaminated. The bed, deerskin, back and ground were all intact.”

"The male corpse was not wearing a single strand of clothing on his upper body, and there were two old moxibustion scars on his abdomen. He was wearing a single cloth short dress, but his lower body was exposed and the short dress was stained with blood. Under the bed, there were two pairs of Qin-style hemp shoes with slightly A pair of large shoes were just right for the man's corpse to put on. There were several pieces of clothing on the low table next to the couch, both male and female, including a wooden scabbard. The ground where it collapsed was hard and there were no traces of the murderer."

After doing this, Heifu couldn't help but be amazed. The level of the autopsy, the standard procedures, and the "closed diagnosis style" formed were not inferior to modern forensic examinations.

The so-called "closed diagnosis style" refers to different judicial behaviors and execution requirements in Qin Law. "Sealing" means sealing, "diagnosis" means investigation and inspection, and "style" refers to judicial norms; autopsy is part of "diagnosis", which is the work of the historian.

In later generations, the methods for protecting trace evidence at the scene included Heifu pulling up a rope to prevent others from entering and destroying it, and drawing out the trace evidence with a white circle. It is nothing more than protecting the discovered corpses, blood stains, handprints, footprints, traces, damaged objects, crime tools, etc. by recording methods.

This is exactly what Nu is doing, but it's a pity that Qin State doesn't have a camera, not even paper. The pen clerk could only hold the wooden tablet in one hand while struggling to write down every word of Nu's words. Due to the limitations of the medium, he had to be concise, comprehensive and extremely precise.

After recording the first corpse, Nu went to the female corpse in the main room without stopping.

The female corpse’s lower body was naked. Combined with the fact that the man’s upper body was also naked and his lower body was exposed, it’s not difficult to imagine what they were doing at the time of the crime. But one yard after another, because it was close to the door and the body could be seen from the outside, Heifu had someone cover her with a straw mat.

Angrily opened the straw mat, and under the fluffy black hair, a pretty face was revealed, but it was slightly twisted in pain.

Hei Fu secretly cursed: "Compared to the people in the countryside, she is indeed quite beautiful. No wonder the prison gate will commit adultery with her..."

Nu opened it further, only to see a knife inserted into her back, piercing deeply...

Just like the identification record of the male corpse just now, Nu You accurately described the characteristics of the female corpse and the location and shape of the fatal injuries. He even checked the hair and perineum to see if there was blood stasis on the body! This is to find out whether she was violated again before her death.

Seeing Ang's actions that seemed a bit vulgar but were actually very solemn, Heifu suddenly recalled some of the ancient crime-solving movies he had watched. Guan'er judged the case and found that there was no abnormality on the surface of the deceased, which seemed to rule out the possibility of homicide. Suddenly, someone around the official reminded him to check whether there were nails in the hair of the corpse. After a check, it turned out that there were nails, and the murderer was successfully found...

This kind of thing is impossible to happen in the Qin State. The regulations of the "Sealed Clinic" have clearly stated that the hair and perineum are the top priority of the autopsy!

After finishing the work of examining the body and recording, Nu took a piece of cloth, wiped his hands, and suddenly asked Heifu: "In the opinion of Pavilion Chief Heifu, how did the murderer commit the crime?"

Heifu had been thinking about it for a long time and immediately responded: "The murderer should have opened the window of the side room first and found the man and woman making out inside, so he took advantage of it, climbed in through the window, brandished a short knife, and stabbed the two of them. "

"At that time, the man was on top and the woman was on the bottom. After hearing the sound, the man turned around and blocked the first knife with his right arm. His blood dripped on the woman, and the woman got down in panic. At this time, the man leaned up and stepped back. I want to get the weapon next to the couch..."

The reason why he judged this was because there was a scabbard on the low table in front of the couch, but the sword inside was missing. It might be the man's weapon, and it might be more than just this item that was taken away.

"As a result, the man was stabbed by the murderer and his throat was cut. Then, the murderer jumped off the bed and chased the woman who was trying to escape to the door of the main room. He caught up five steps away from the door and stabbed her in the vest with the knife. The woman fell Die to the ground..."

"Well said! Exactly what I thought!"

Nu looked at Heifu with some admiration and asked him: "Have you ever learned the art of making history?"

Heifu shook his head: "I was born in the military and had a humble status. I didn't have the opportunity to enter the school. I don't know what the art of Lingshi is. I can only infer it based on the characteristics of the corpse and the traces on the scene recorded by Lingshi."

"Are you self-taught? It's amazing. What's even more amazing is that you can use ropes to prevent outsiders from entering, and you can also wrap up corpses with white coils. I have been an official for so many years and have examined countless corpses. Such a simple thing , why didn’t you think of it?”

He sighed angrily for a long time and said that he must tell the warden what he saw today. This good method must become the general practice of the warden in Anlu County, and he can even report it to Nanjun and Xianyang.

Next, Nu will collect all the physical evidence and murder weapons here and send them to the county. Because Li was going to look for the dead woman's husband, the current first suspect, Orion, would not be back for a while. The two corpses could not be left there for a long time to create panic. They also had to be carried away on wooden boards and sent to the countryside.

Nu and Heifu were happily chatting here based on the traces of the case, but unexpectedly Youyou Shuwu walked in. Seeing that Heifu was still there, he frowned and said, "Ting chief Heifu, why haven't you left yet?"

Nu immediately answered: "Youyou, Pavilion Chief Heifu is just assisting me in investigating the case."

But Shuwu was always unhappy. He and the head of the village pavilion had just been outside asking people about the relationship and grudges between the deceased man and woman during their lifetime, and they couldn't get away from it for a while. Unexpectedly, the black man climbed along the pole and chatted happily with Ling Shi from the county, as if he was the official responsible for this matter and he was a pawn who helped him...

In the last blind mountain case, Shuwu felt that he had given Heifu some credit, and all the limelight was stolen by Huyang Pavilion. Now that this case is not under Heifu's control, does he still want to have a hand in it?

Shu Wu was already convinced that this case must have been committed by the hunter. When he went home and saw his wife committing adultery with another man, he killed the adulterer in a rage and then ran away.

He believed that the case was clear and simple. All he had to do was issue a notice and search everywhere. It would not be difficult to catch the culprit. It was best to leave such an easy matter to himself and not let others take away the credit.

So Shuwu said with a straight face: "Chief Heifu Pavilion, this Liushu Lane is under the jurisdiction of Xiangting, not your Huyang Pavilion! Since you have told Lingshi everything you know, you don't need to stay long, so it's better to hurry up. Go back to the pavilion as soon as possible! You have no official duties, and if you don't come back for half a day, it will be dereliction of duty!"

Ling Shi was only an official with a hundred shi, and the salary of Youyou was a hundred and fifty shi. He was the highest-ranking official among everyone present. He should be in charge of this case, and the Qin State did expressly prohibit the behavior of Yue Zu's agents.

So although he could see Shu Wu's intention to drive people away, Hei Fu didn't argue anything. He cupped his hands in anger and said, "If Ling Shi has anything to ask, you can always have someone summon me."

After saying that, he said goodbye and went out.

The sun was shining brightly outside, sweeping away the haze of death in the house. The crowd of onlookers had been dispersed one after another, leaving only a few witnesses who needed to be questioned.

Heifu walked around them and was about to lead his horse, but when he passed by the ditch beside the door, he glanced over and stopped immediately as if he saw something.

There was a trace of blood on the grass blades beside the ditch. Heifu bent down, searched in the grass, and picked up something...

"Ling Shi, come and see, what is this?"

Heifu shouted, and his anger immediately came out, and he saw what was in Heifu's hand.

The thing was made of wood, about two fingers wide and about three inches long, with some tooth-like grooves deliberately cut out on it...

It seemed like it was thrown out accidentally, but also like it was deliberately discarded...

"Jing Guan."

Nu recognized it immediately, and his face became more solemn: "It's a thorn coupon used by merchants for trade!"