Recently, the TV series "The Three Strange Detectives of Chang'an" is being broadcast on TV. It is about three folk detectives in the late Tang Dynasty who used strange tricks and accomplished extraordinary feats in the process of solving crimes. In fact, there are many official "weird detectives" in the Tang Dynasty recorded in the classics. They used strange tricks to solve many difficult cases, which is eye-opening.
"The Prison Turtle Mirror" is a compilation of famous cases in ancient my country compiled by Zheng Ke in the Song Dynasty. It records many examples of "weird detectives" in the Tang Dynasty using their wisdom to solve crimes.
Let the old lady help solve the case
According to Volume 1 of "The Prison Turtle Mirror": During the Zhenguan period of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, there was an inn owner in Weizhou named Zhang Ti. One day, his wife went back to her parents' home to visit her relatives. Yang Zheng and three other tourists came to stay at the hotel. They were all from Sanwei, Weizhou. Because of the long distance, they left at five o'clock that night.
That night, someone secretly took the saber that Yang Zheng and the others carried and killed Zhang Ti, then put the murder weapon back into the scabbard. Yang Zheng and the others didn't notice at all. When daybreak, the store clerk caught up with them, checked them, and found that the knives were stained with blood, so they arrested the three of them and sent them to the government. Under severe torture, they reluctantly confessed to killing someone.
Later, the case was reported to the court. Tang Taizong became suspicious and sent Jiang Chang, the censor, to review the case. Jiang Chang is a well-known "master of strange detectives", and all the cases he has solved have been solved. Jiang Chang, who had read the files, had already made a plan in mind along the way. As soon as he arrived at the scene of the crime, he called in all the people over the age of 15 in the original store to be together. But they didn't all come together for a long time, so Jiang Chang asked them all to go back, leaving only an old woman in her eighties behind. He waited until it got very late before letting her go home. At the same time, a person with experience in handling cases and detection was secretly sent to follow the old woman secretly and told him: "If anyone talks to this old woman, write down his name immediately." Sure enough, one person asked the old woman: "The above What exactly did the person who sent you ask you?"
For three days, this person came to ask this mother-in-law. The old woman had dazzled eyes and ears, and she couldn't explain why.
So Jiang Chang asked this man to be captured. After interrogation, he confessed in detail how he had committed adultery with Zhang Ti's wife and killed Zhang Ti's framed traveler. After verification and verification, Yang Zheng and three others were released without charge.
This is exactly what it is: "Although the mother-in-law is old, she is still useful, but the imperial censor used clever tricks to lure the real murderer; when she is in love, she dares to try the method, but her cleverness is in vain."
Let the words come out to prove
p>Volume 3 of "Zhejiu Turtle Mirror": When Zhang Huo was a captain in Heyang County in the Tang Dynasty, a man named Lu Yuan forged a letter from Feng Chen, the official in charge of the warehouse, and stole the official's grain. . After the incident, Feng Chen refused to admit that he had written the letter, while Lu Yuan insisted that it was him. Both sides insisted on their own opinions, and a verdict could not be reached for a long time.
After carefully reviewing the case file, Zhang Jue thought carefully and came up with a countermeasure: He sent Lu Yuan and asked the Yamen servant to take Lu Yuan’s complaint in public, fold out a line of words, and fold the two ends. Cover it, leaving only one word in the middle, and then ask Lu Yuan: "Look at this word, if it is written by you, write the word 'yes', if it is not written by you, write the word 'no'." Maybe Lu Yuan Thinking that the covered letter was a forged letter, he felt guilty and wrote the word "not". Zhang Wei asked the yamen servant to take away the things covering the two ends and showed him. It turned out to be a petition written by Lu Yuan, so he slapped him 50 times. Then he took out the forged letter by Lu Yuan and covered both ends in the same way, leaving only one word in the middle to ask Lu Yuan. Lu Yuan wrote the word "yes", and then took away the things covering both ends. Lu Yuan It turned out that this was the letter he had faked written by Feng Chen! At this time, Lu Yuan had nothing to say, so he had to bow his head and confess.
Zhang Jue used psychological tactics, which left Lu Yuan confused about what was true and what was false, and finally exposed his flaws. In the end, he had to admit his crime and accept the sanction of the law.
This is precisely: "As a human being, don't deceive things. When the fake is true, the truth is also false; words can speak without sound, but tricks cannot escape after all."
"Drama Talk Record" "" and "History of Tang Dynasty" are collections of legendary novels compiled by Kang Pian and Gao Yanlin respectively in the Tang Dynasty. Among the wonderful novels, some cases of solving cases by "weird detectives" in the Tang Dynasty are also recorded.
Let the gold nuggets speak
According to "Ju Tan Lu": When Li Mian was guarding Fengxiang in the Tang Dynasty, a farmer in his county dug out a large urn while plowing the land. They were very conscious of the gold horseshoe and carried it to the county government. The county magistrate was very responsible. Because he was afraid that the officials in charge of the warehouse would be careless and make mistakes, which he would not be able to explain to him, he asked them to carry the big urn to his own room and put it under his watch.
Unexpectedly, the county magistrate opened the big urn the next day and was shocked. There were no gold nuggets anywhere, and the urn was full of clods of earth. He had no choice but to report the situation to his superiors, and the government sent subordinate officials to investigate. However, the county magistrate could not explain the reason, so he had to admit that he had exchanged the clods of soil for the horseshoe gold. Asked him where the gold went? The county magistrate first said that the horseshoe gold was buried in the soil and stolen; later he said that it was thrown into the water and the exact place could not be found. It’s hard to justify it. Although the final hiding place of the gold was not traced out, everyone believed that there was no doubt that the county magistrate exchanged the clods for the horseshoe gold.
One day, the officials in the government were dining together. When talking about this matter, they all sighed and felt sorry for the county magistrate. Yuan Zi, a calligrapher who later served as an observer in Hunan, was in the shogunate at the time. He was the only one to question the case. Li Mian ordered him to transfer the case from the county to the government for trial, and he must get to the bottom of it.
Yuan Zi knew that this was a difficult case, but if he didn't figure it out, the county magistrate might be wronged for the rest of his life. He first carefully inspected the large urn and took out 250 pieces of soil. I also asked the person who dug up the big urn first, and that person said that two people carried it to the county on a big bamboo pole. After hearing this, Yuan Zi was thoughtful and immediately asked people to go to the shops on the street to get some silver, melt it into silver pieces of the same size according to the shape of the clods of soil, and then weigh them. We are only halfway weighed, and we already weigh 300 kilograms. If silver is like this, wouldn't gold be heavier? Calculating its total weight, it is definitely not something that two people can lift with a bamboo pole. Therefore, Yuan Zi concluded that the gold nuggets had been replaced with soil clods on the way to the county. Obviously, the county magistrate was wronged. Yuan Zi's seriousness, responsibility and clever methods finally made an unjust case clear.
This is exactly what it means: "As an official, you should shoulder the responsibilities of your official position and prevent injustice from happening in the world; cleverness may seem like a common thing, but it requires hard work."
Let the scoundrels themselves Entering the Urn
According to "History of Tang Que": During the Xiantong period of Yizong of the Tang Dynasty, there were two farmers in Huaiyin County, Chuzhou. One lived in the east of the village and the other lived in the west of the village. The two families had been friends for generations. . The person in the east of the village used his land deed as collateral to borrow a thousand yuan from the person in the west of the village. The two parties agreed to repay the principal and interest in the second year and redeem the land deed. After the loan expired, the person who owed money had only 800 cents due to lack of money, so he took it to the lender and agreed to pay off the 200 cents owed and the interest on the next day and redeem the land deed. Because the two families were family friends and were only one night apart, the person who owed money did not ask the lender to write a receipt.
Unexpectedly, people’s hearts are unpredictable. The next day, when the person who owed money went to the lender to redeem the land deed with the remaining balance as agreed, he turned his back and refused to admit that he had received the 800 yuan from him yesterday. Reluctantly, the person who owed money filed a lawsuit with the county government, but because his words were unfounded and there was no evidence to support them, he lost the case. He went to the state capital to complain again, but still to no avail.
When the peasants who owed money were desperate, they heard that Zhao He, a native of Tianshui, was a county magistrate in Jiangyin County. He was good at solving cases and could detect difficult cases from a few words and clues, so he crossed the Yangtze River and went to Jiangyin County to find Zhao. and filing a complaint to redress grievances. Zhao He found it quite difficult because of his humble official position and because the case was not within his jurisdiction. But seeing the poor man who owed the money, who was desperate for life and death, the kind-hearted Zhao He made an exception and took over the case.
But the evidence in the lawsuit is what to do? Zhao He stayed up all night and finally came up with a clever plan. The next day, Zhao He sent his subordinates to Huaiyin County to deliver an official document, saying that Jiangyin County had captured a gangster, and during the trial he confessed that the gangster who had lent him the money was an accomplice, and asked the county to arrest him and deliver it. According to Tang law, robbers armed with knives and robbing rivers and lakes were not allowed to be protected in neighboring counties. This rogue was escorted to Jiangyin County.
The scoundrel acted as if he had done nothing wrong and was not afraid of ghosts knocking on the door. Zhao He said that what the robbers robbed was not farm items, but gold and silver treasures, and they wanted to go to the rogue's home to count and identify them. In order to clear his grievances and absolve himself of his guilt, the scoundrel racked his brains and wrote down a list of all the gold and silver treasures in his home, including the 800 coins that the debtor had to pay back to him. The scoundrel was so preoccupied with clearing his name in the Jiangyang heist case that he never expected that the person who owed money would cross the border to file a complaint. And this is what Zhao He wants most.
Zhao He took the list written by the scoundrel in his hand, smiled and said to him: "It seems that you did not participate in the robbery of the gangsters, but why don't you admit that you received the eight hundred coins from the debtor?" Where's the money?" He immediately called the person who owed money and asked him to confront the scoundrel in court. With all the witnesses, the scoundrel could no longer deny it, so he had to bow his head and confess, truthfully confessing that he had received 800 yuan from the person who owed money. The scoundrel was escorted back to his place of origin, and not only was the land deed returned to the person who owed money, but he was also punished by the government.
This is exactly what he said: "Zhao Hemou is a great example, but he still doesn't know when he invites you to enter the urn; the rogue himself leaks clues, and his betrayal will eventually be repaid."
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