The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 24: The Murder who made excuses

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty. 《成化十四年》Chengnian Shisi Nian
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 24: The Murder who made excuses

When he said Chen-shi, everyone looked at the beautiful woman who had come with Li Man. Tang Fan saw the woman's shrewd appearance and heard Li Man say that she had helped him a lot. He knew this woman was not an easy woman to work with. When Li Man was revealed to be the killer. She then kept a low profile, intentionally or not. As if trying to fit herself into the background in general.


When Li Man said this, Chen-shi knelt down and wiped her tears: "I'm ashamed to be so loved by you, if you're gone, what's the use of a concubine living alone?”

She was a good singer and a tearjerker, but Tang Fan was expressionless and didn't even look at her.

Li Man acted as if he didn't seem to have heard Chen-shi's words, his mind was lost in his memories, and after a pause, he continued: "I didn't want to kill her either... A long time ago, I asked Zhang-shi to divorce me and I offered to give her the money, but Zhang-shi was unwilling to do so, and then I offered to give her half of my family's money so that she would have no worries in her old age. I had no choice but to do so after several times of trying!"

His face was a bit fierce: "She knows nothing and can't help me, there are many more beautiful and capable women than her, I've already spent all my family money for her, I've done my best for her. It's not that I owe her, it's that she owes me! She owes me!"

There was silence in the hall, and everyone looked at Li Man in surprise, especially the Li Family.

Although Li Man seldom returned home, he and his wife, Zhang-shi, have always been very respectful of each other. Nor are they harsh on the inferior. The Li Family above and below treated him with respect.

But no one knew that underneath Li Man's peaceful and benevolent appearance, such a beast lurked!

Li Lin, the young master of the Li Family, was completely stunned, he looked at his father and muttered, "Father, why did you do this?"

Tang Fan said coldly, "It's not because she can't help you, it's because she can't support you, but in your heart, you've been holding on to the past thirty years ago, and you blame her mother's family for dragging you down and making you give so much! Thirty years ago, when you were young and in love, you thought it was acceptable to give so much, but when you got older, you were in the business world, you read people's hearts, you knew that farmers, businessmen are not respected, and people who were educated were the only ones who were noble, and you regretted your choice back then. This regret piles up day by day. Become a heart demon in your mind. As long as there is a slight teasing of external factors. This demon will not be able to wait to come out and do harm! All the reasons you say now are just excuses for your wrongdoings!"

"You did a lot of work in your early years, but all these years, Zhang-shi took care of the house for you and your son, and even if she owed you, she paid you back in full! What's wrong with her if she won't give you the divorce? What is wrong with her refusal? Which one of the seven things wrong did she do? Do you think a woman doesn't have to face the same fate even if she's divorced? What if you make up for your family's money, is her love for you for all these years a certain measure of money?"

Li Man laughed coldly: "You don't understand, you don't understand! My ancestor was also a Third Rank officer, so I was treated with disdain because I gave up the imperial examinations and joined the business route. The Li Family is what it is today because I worked so hard to earn its respect back, and she didn't have to do anything other than to live at home. If I had been able to join the imperial examinations back then, I'd be tied up in the girdle today, and you little officials would have to bow down in front of me too!"

Tang Da-ren is so well-cultivated. He couldn't help but roll his eyes when he heard this: "You're thinking too much. If I remember correctly, you just said that you were exactly 30 years old when Zhang-shi's mother's family fortunes changed, and even if you were 6 years old, that means you've been studying for 24 years, but even when you were in your thirties you didn't even get into the academy. Even if you were to be given another 24 years. I don't think you'll be able to pull off a trick either Wake up, you still want to be an official? I'm afraid you'll live to be an official in the end, but not to be a good one!"

Li Man laughed coldly: "I naturally know that you, the court officials, will always have such a high and mighty face, and still reach out for the money, but still have to put on a righteous face, hypocritical and disgusting!”

Tang Fan was not in a hurry to have him taken back: "You came back early to kill your wife, but you didn't want people to know about it, so you needed someone from inside and outside to help you get rid of the servants. If you come in through the front door, you would have to go through the outer and inner houses, and you had to hide it from the public, which is very troublesome, but if you come in through the back door, it will save you a lot of trouble. Who is this person who aided you?"

Li Man didn't answer, and Tang Fan didn't make him answer, his gaze sweeping over the dazed crowd of the Li Family and finally landing on someone.




"A-Xia."

A-Xia looked up in astonishment.

Tang Fan looked at her deeply: “The Li Family has treated you so well, so kindly, but why did you do this to her?"

A-Xia shook her head in succession: "No, I didn't..."

"And don't you dare say you didn't!" Tang Fan sternly said, “That night you were not feeling well, A-Chun had already said that she would watch the night for you, but you insisted that you would not go to rest, and that you would bring your moon sickness to watch the night with her, which was one thing people in that state would not do!”

"Secondly, there was a noise in your mistress's house, and you and A-Chun went in to check it out, A-Chun didn't go in, only you went in, but you didn't go in to check it out, instead you just looked at the door, and prevented A-Chun from going in. At that time, Mistress Li had already been killed. You're afraid A-Chun will find something strange when she goes in. What's not an evil in your heart? Say it!"

Li Man is still irrefutable in the face of solid evidence, let alone a woman like A-Xia, who has never experienced anything in the world, and Tang Fan's word "Say it" made her snap: "I didn't! I didn't! I was threatened by the master! I was forced to do it! I didn't kill my mistress!"

Tang Fan: "What did he threaten you with?"

A-Xia covered her face and sobbed, "I was sick that day, and went out to get medicine, but then I met the master, and he lured me to a place, and then he laid with me... and told me that now I was his woman, and if I did not obey him, he would tell his wife that I had seduced him, and that she will have to sell me! He wanted me to kill her, but I wouldn't, so he asked me to help him, to help him remove the Li Family's servants, saying that he would do it himself, but I couldn't... Why didn't you promise to kill me? If you had sent me away, it wouldn't have happened!"

The corners of Tang Fan's mouth were always slightly raised, with a warm smile, but when he was expressionless, there was a majestic look that people did not dare to look at.

"People like to find excuses for their mistakes. Don't you know how your mistress treats you? You helped Li Man to commit murder just because he tarnished your innocence. Don't you dare lie in front of your mistress? Say it with a clear conscience!"

A-Xia cried out in pain: "Madam, forgive me, forgive me!"

Tang Fan stopped caring about her, and turned to the Wanping County deputy and others and said: “This case should have been handled by the Wanping County, now that I'm meddling in it, I hope the commissioner won't blame me?"

The Wanping County Deputy said, "No, no, no! Da-ren had judged the case with clearness, I admire you very much!"

Tang Fan: “Then you'll take it from here."

The Wanping County deputy: “This is my duty!"

Tang Fan: “Lao Wang, give Li Man and A-Xia to the county deputy."

Lao Wang agreed, and escorted A-Xia to the bailiff brought by county deputy.

Tang Fan also said, "Although A-Xia is suspected of being an accessory, she has not taken part in the killing herself and has already confessed to the crime.

In view of this, the law takes extra care of women prisoners, sometimes they can even be interrogated at home, but A-Xia is now a coerced murderer, and the crime is proven and must be committed. An account of the crime has been given. The law of the land shall govern all interrogations. Please make sure there is a proper looking after, too."

The secular eye is particularly harsh on women. Once the woman is behind bars. People felt that this woman had lost her innocence. Those jailers, the bailiffs, may also have taken the opportunity to molest her more while in prison. With that in mind. The Great Ming Law takes extra care of women prisoners. Sometimes it is even possible to interrogate them only at home. But A-Xia is now coerced from killing. The evidence of guilt is overwhelming. It must be done that she is to be sent to the prison. Tang Fan didn't want to let her suffer the humiliation of being inside beyond the sanction of national law. Therefore, he would like to make a special announcement.

His meticulousness can also be seen from this.

A-Xia stopped crying and looked at him with a blank stare, her brow bruised with sadness, and she did not know what she was thinking.

A-Xia's heart was in the air, but she is not sure what she is thinking. Perhaps she laments that she is unlucky enough to follow Tang Fan, or perhaps she regrets that she should not have been blackmailed by Li Man to do such a wrong thing. Just help him do this kind of wrong.

But if I had known that, I wouldn't have done it in the first place.

Tang Fan turned his head to the Li Family steward: “Lao Li, come here."

“Tang Da-ren." Lao Li looked so miserable, he was loyal to the Li Family, but he did not expect his master to kill his wife, the sudden shock was so great that he bent his waist with shame.

Tang Fan took out a pile of white paper from his pocket: "Here are two thousand taels of silver coins, just now your lord asked me to go into the inner room and gave me this pile of things, so that I would not pursue further. You take the silver money. Take good care of your young master later."

Lao Li took it and shed a tear, “Thank you Tang Da-ren, for your great kindness to us the Li Family, the little ones were unforgettable!”

Li Man said indifferently, “Taking my money from the Li Family for a favor, Tang Da-ren you are a good planner!"

Tang Fan smiled: "Are you ashamed of giving bribes to a law officer, since you can’t bribe me it is better to shut up, the murderer will be killed, now the Li Family's money has nothing to do with you, it's all your son's."




Li Man's face was red with anger, and two resentful eyes almost burned holes in Tang Fan's body, saying in a grim voice: "I won't die, don't get too happy with this outcome!"

Tang Fan told the Wanping County deputy: "It seems improper for a suspect with such a bad attitude to rant about the court's orders here?"

The Wanping County deputy seemed to wake up from his daze and waved his hand and asked Li Man and A-Xia to be escorted back.

When Tang Fan and the others were about to leave, Lao Li called out to him: “Tang Da-ren, the family is unfortunate, now the master is like this, the wife has passed away again, the young master is the only one left in the family, the two aunts have never been in charge of the family matters before, the dragons can’t have no head, the youngest one wants to ask Da-ren to help him get a charter of by laws."



Tang Fan looked at Li Lin, who was dumbfounded: "If you have any reliable distant relatives in your master's or wife's family, you can ask them to help you preside over it, now that your young master is half age of the Da-ren, he will have to take care of the family from now on, and you can discuss everything with him."

Lao Li nodded in succession: “Tang Da-ren is right!"

After leaving Da-ren, Tang Fan called the Wanping County deputy, smiling but not laughing: “This case is not complicated, with the wisdom of the county deputy, it may not be impossible to find out, but why did you have to call me here, is there another reason?"

The Wanping County Deputy laughed at the embarrassment: “Da-ren is joking, if Da-ren hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known so many things, I'm afraid I would have wronged the good guys!”

In fact, Li Man had bribed Tang Fan, and naturally, he had also bribed the Wanping County deputy and the chief clerk, but since it was Tang Fan who took over the case in the first place, the deputy wanted to accept it, and he was afraid that Tang Fan would stab them, so he invited Tang Fan here first to see if he would accept his bribe so he can too.

Tang Fan understands this, but he doesn't try to expose the deputy and the chief clerk, because there is no fish in the clear water and one can be squeaky clean. Expose the intentions of country deputy would only make him angry. There is no use for that. A lot of people don't come to their senses just because you educate them in a big flashy way. It's easy to make them hate you for it. It's not hard to be a clear official. The hard part is being a clean official who wants to do things justifiably.

So he just stops at the point and lets them wake up themselves.

The next morning, Xue Ling sent someone to tell Tang Fan that he hadn't heard anything from the Depot Commander Eunuch Wang.

In other words, the Jinyiwei couldn't figure out why Wang Zhi wanted to invite Pan Bin to dinner.

He passed the news to Pan Bin, who, upon hearing the news, had a sad face.

Tang Fan reassured him: "Brother, don't worry, the Marquis of Wu'an Mansion case has indirectly benefited Wang Zhi, the Shuntian Prefecture has no intention of planting willows, and maybe he wants to express his gratitude?"

Pan Bin: "Do you think it's possible? Wang Zhi, you don't even care about the Cabinet of Ministers, where is the need to invite a small person like me to dinner, so let's do it, or you can come with me tomorrow night and give me a wake-up call if anything happens."

Tang Fan: "Isn't that good? You're the only one he's invited, so I'm not going to invite him, so he won't be happy?"

Pan Bin waved his hand: "It's okay, by then you don't take the position of the Shuntian Prefecture Promoter, take the position of my senior brother, it's a deal!"

The author has something to say:

Here's the said good gossip chat time, Ming Dynasty Harem 2~

We agreed to continue to talk about the Ming Dynasty harem.

Today we won't talk about Zhang-shi, we will talk about another strange woman, Sun-shi, Dingdong!

Sun-shi is the daughter-in law of the Zhang Family, also known as Zhu Di's grandson-in-law.

Sun-shi's life is very legendary, and Baidu has a very detailed, no-nonsense summary for those who don't know: Sun-shi was the daughter of a small official of a certain place, and because of her beauty, she entered the palace when she was a child, and she became a childhood friend of the later Emperor Xuanzong. She was supposed to be the future empress, but Zhu Di suddenly decided to switch to a new grand daughter-in-law and chose Hu-shi as his concubine.

It all started after Xuanzong was crowned the Emperor. Sun-shi was a noble consort, and like Empress Hu, she had no son.

This is complete imperial court bullshitting.





First of all, a concubine suddenly had a son, how could the empress, who lived with the emperor harem and manages the concubines, not know of the pregnancy?

So the only possibility is that the emperor knew about his son was abducted from another mother, and not only knew about it, but also took part in the planning, and by the way, took care of the mother's side and silenced her, so that Empress Dowager Zhang also acquiesced in the matter.

Later, the Emperor announced that the Noble Consort Sun had given birth to a son, so she was made Empress and Empress Hu was demoted.

This is true love, what is not true love that can make the Emperor do this?

The Chenghua Emperor hasn't even produced a son to pretend to have the son be born of the Noble Consort Wan!

The Noble Consort Wan: I don't deserve it! It's so easy for me to take the blame for all these years of love for nothing!

Of course, from the beginning to the end, the Empress Hu was also unlucky and went on to be abolished because she was childless, but between them, she was the winner, the Noble Consort Sun felt that he and the Emperor had known each other since childhood so she got what she deserved, Hu-shi was the one who intervened in their childhood love, Hu-shi also felt that she was innocent and had no choice.

It's hard to tell the right from the wrong.

In the records about Sun-shi, the Ming history is basically negative, such as “Taking a palace man's son for her own" and "using false words from a concubine".

Some people think that Ming history was written by the Qing dynasty, and that the Ming dynasty has been slandering it and cannot be used as a reference. But I don't think so, because there are some basic facts that can't be changed, and a person who knows right from wrong can find some reference things in it.

For example, Sun-shi, although she was not well regarded by Ming Dynasty, we can still see a very individual woman, and my impression of her is not that bad.

For the son Sun-shi brought up in the later Tumu Fort Crisis was Emperor Yingzong, the emperor who was stupid enough to be abducted by the Oirats. After the capture of Emperor Yingzong by the Oirats, the country was in chaos without a king, and many people argued over whether to move the capital, or to pay for the emperor, or to set up a new emperor, and then everyone knew what happened.

In the process of establishing Jingzong, Sun-shi had to nod her head, and if Sun-shi did not nod her head, her name would be disgraced.

Later, Sun-shi nodded her head, and instead of crying out for the minister to redeem the emperor, she made Yingzong’s brother the emperor.

From this point of view, she had a better view of the big picture.

Although many things happened between the two emperors, Sun-shi lived her whole life, just like the Li Family mistress Zhang-shi, and she deserved the title of the winner in life,

So hot, munchkins, I'll see you tomorrow night!













- The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty -



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