The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 33: A circle of blood and the mysterious needle

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty. 《成化十四年》Chengnian Shisi Nian
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 33: A circle of blood and the mysterious needle

Eunuch Wang can't help but look good now, after he recommended Tang Fan last night, he already tied Tang Fan to his own ship, if Tang Fan gives him any trouble, then he, the recommender, will inevitably have to bear the responsibility, he knows Shang Ming is still waiting to see him becoming a butt of a joke.


The Western Depot was just established not long ago, not as historical as the Eastern Depot, but also the meat and potatoes, who does not want to live on an equal footing with the Eastern Depot, and there are countless underlings, the front and back, is the power in their hands? Even Liang Fang and other senior officials are eyeing the Western Depot and salivating at the same time, even with the Noble Consort Wan in the background, Wang Zhi has to be careful.

This case just came out. When the Noble Consort Wan called Wang Zhi into the palace and asked him what he should do, he immediately thought of Tang Fan.

Eunuch Wang knew a lot of officials, and many of his men were willing to work for him, but when it came to sentencing him, Tang Fan seemed to be the most reliable person among the people he knew. Judging by the fact that Tang Fan came up with the idea for him via Pan Bin. He concluded that this man was way too smart and he will do things. He is sleek and aware of the times. He should be a figure like Liu Ji, the cabinet's Third Consul.

At that time the time was urgent and Wang Zhi could not get through to Tang Fan and talk about it beforehand, so he recommended him directly, thinking that with Tang Fan's intelligence, he would be able to understand the mystery of the case very quickly and not make any mistake.

But who knew this guy seemed to be smooth, but in fact, he was tough. First, he scared Wang Zhi into a cold sweat in front of the emperor and the noble consort. Later, he said something like that to Wang Zhi. Eunuch Wang didn't sleep well all night after he returned. The regret in his heart. Feels like he was looking at the wrong person completely.

But it's over. It was also unlikely that he would ever run to the Emperor again and say that he had recommended the wrong person and that he wanted to recommend a new one. Which means he only drop the body. Come and say hello to Tang Fan. Scouting to hear the man ideas, so that Tang Fan doesn't get all messed up when the time comes and pull Wang Zhi down in the trenches with him.

Wang Zhi ignored the expression of Bian Yu, whose eyes were almost bulging out and he patted Tang Fan's shoulder, smiling and saying, "I've been sleeping well too!

While talking, he took Tang Fan by the shoulders and walked forward.

Tang Fan thought that Eunuch Wang's strength was so great that he could almost match up with Sui Zhou. This one's a tug. He was at his wits' end.

As soon as he was pulled by Eunuch Wang past them, his face sank: “Tang Runqing, my lord has kindly warned you that this matter is very important, if you find out anything, you must keep in touch with me and don't make any decisions without knowing how it will affect your life His Majesty, though soft-hearted, does not love to kill. But it's not without exceptions."

Tang Fan laughed: “Eunuch Wang thinks too much of me, how can I, a small official, be in charge of the overall situation, not to mention the fact that the facts are not yet clear. . Eunuch Wang had already said that the matter was not the work of your madam. Why are you so nervous?"

Wang Zhi's voice was even lower: "Don't pretend! If it wasn't for your words of friendship with the Eastern Palace, would I let you come? In short, I'll leave it at that. The murderer must not be a noble consort, let alone be someone in the East Palace!"

Tang Fan shook his head: “Eunuch Wang need not worry too much, in my opinion, the Eastern Palace should have nothing to do with this."

Wang Zhi looked at him suspiciously, "Seriously?"



Tang Fan patiently said: "When I was in Hanlin Academy, I once saw an article made by the Crown Prince. At that time, the Crown Prince was just entering the school work, his writing was young and unworthy, but as the saying goes, the writing was just like him, the Crown Prince was young and not good at concealing his heart, if he had sinister heart, he would not be able to resist to reveal it in the words, but in my opinion, whether it was an article or a copying or pasting, every stroke showed naturalness, neutrality and smoothness, but also a little softness, it can be seen that the Crown Prince was also soft-hearted and bright-hearted, he did not blame the heaven and evil intentions just because of his youthful difficulties. It is unlikely that such a person would plant a trap against the Noble Consort Wan with the lives of his companions, the Noble Consort Wan is really thinking too much."

Wang Zhi couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief: "If what you say is true, then it would be best."

Tang Fan smiled and said: "What good is it to me to deceive you? It's a great blessing for the world to have a king. If not for that, why would I suggest Eunuch Wang to make a good relationship with the Eastern Palace?"

In the Great Ming Dynasty, most civil officials, even if they had to deal with eunuchs, but in fact they did not think much of them, even if they were very reputable eunuchs, in the history books they are not more than a muddled civilian, civil officials for eunuchs, more than themselves, a little power in hand, arbitrary actions, they were to be crowned as powerful eunuch. Such a title as a traitorous eunuch.

But Tang Fan has a slightly different view.




In the officialdom, it's not difficult to be a corrupt and a mediocre official, but if you have the chance, you can take advantage of it, but don't go too far, the key is to stand on the right side at all times, don't fight against the emperor, stick to this line, and you'll be able to retire with honor and take care of your life.

It's not hard to be a clear and honest official. You can do whatever you want, and they won't buy it. You can curse anyone who has done something bad, even the emperor. It's best to curse until you're exiled. To an imperial prison. Then you will be known for a lifetime.

However, it is difficult to be an official who does something practical, because most of the people at the top and bottom are colleagues who do nothing. What can be done about it? There is no one but those who can unite. Don't draw the line so clearly between good guys and bad guys. Just someone who is able to do things. Or be able to help yourself do things. That's who you can befriend.

According to this standard, in fact, Wang Zhi is not so bad, he also wants to work, is not so bad, but the identity of an eunuch limits a lot of what he can do, and because of the nature of his domineering, in control of the Western Depot, he pulled down a lot of officials really, resulting in his reputation being not very good.

So Tang Fan last time gave Wang Zhi that idea, is because he hoped it will  guide him to use his own power to do more useful things, do not spend all day arguing with Shang Ming and turn his focus on the exclusion of dissidents and wrestling with the top.

Eunuchs should also have the eunuch's pursuit.

Happily, Wang Zhi took his words to heart.

Unfortunately, Wang Zhi had his mind on cracking Tang Fan's head.

Having made a mistake, Tang Fan had no choice but to listen to Eunuch Wang's analysis of his earlier judgment on the Crown Prince.

Wang Zhi was finally satisfied, and when he found out that Tang Fan did not want to confront him, his face turned cloudy: "Who do you think the murderer will be?"

Tang Fan couldn't help but say, “The case hasn't been investigated yet, I'm not a god, how can I know? Even that paragraph just now is just my personal judgment, at best it can only be used as a supplement to the case, many things must be supported by evidence."

Wang Zhi laughed: "If you can successfully find out the truth of this case, I will promise to give you a good word in front of His Majesty and Your Highness, and then your rank will definitely be raised!

Tang Fan sighed: "I only ask Eunuch Wang to be merciful and not to lay the blame on me next time without saying a word.”

Wang Zhi nodded: "Good, then next time I'll prophesy it to you."

Tang Fan: "..."

Wang Zhi was in a good mood, and his feminine face looked more like a maiden, but Tang Fan, who had experienced his strength, would not regard him as one of those sissy eunuchs in any case.

Given the special nature of this case, it should not be conducted in a fanfare sorta way, but now Eunuch Wang looked at Sui Zhou, and did not spite him for the Jinyiwei status, but instead raised a deep smile: "I heard that you and General Sui Baihu are good friends, and also live in the same room, the rumor is really not bad, now you are even in the mission together!"

Wait, what do you mean by sharing a room?

The more Tang Fan listened, the more wrong he felt it was, and quickly clarified: “The rent in the capital is expensive, and it so happened that my brother lived alone in the house, so he invited me to move in with my sister. Now, the Shuntian Prefecture is having a difficult case, and I have not been able to count on the Shuntian Prefecture's officers to help me. So I had the cheek to ask for help from Brother Sui. Thanks to Brother Sui's righteousness there are no excuses. That's a favor. I can't thank him enough!"

Wang Zhi let out a whoosh. The tone dragged on long. An ambiguous face. Tang Fan didn't know what he was talking about, so he heard Eunuch Wang say, "I have a vacant residence in the capital, if Runqing doesn’t have a place, you can move there, so that you don't have to bother General Sui Baihu."

Tang Fan of course refused without thinking: “Thank you Eunuch Wang for your care, I am lazy by nature and don't want to move around, so don't bother."

Its one thing to befriend a eunuch, but it's another to live in a eunuch's house.

Wang Zhi smiled and said, "Me and my men are at the disposal of Tang Da-ren, if you need anything, just let me know."

The Western Depot and the Eastern Depot are the same position. Under the Depot, there are twelve officers in charge according to the twelfth hour of the fifth year of the year. Bian Yu is the boss of current leadership. He can report the situation directly to Wang Zhi.

Although Wang Zhi had already instructed him once before, he said it again in front of Tang Fan, which naturally means something different.

Bian Yu didn't know what Wang Zhi and Tang Fan had said in private, but he only saw Wang Zhi's kindness towards Tang Fan, for someone who didn't buy anyone's opinion, and the two of them were very close. Naturally, his mind was also tumbling with the clouds. Wang Zhi a go. Bian Yu's enthusiasm for Tang Fan is now on a new level. It's a big let's do what we want.

Tang Fan is also not polite, so he lets Bian Yu take them to the courtesan who brings the soup.

Because it's the Noble Consort Wan. The palace maid didn't suffer much. Just that she was secluded in a small room given food and shelter. But the mental torture was enough for her to drink a pot. After hearing the news that Han Zao had died after drinking the soup, the courtesan was in a state of panic. At this moment meet Tang Fan them. Immediately, she fell to his knees in tears and made shout out of injustice.

"Don't cry!" Next to the battering ram a broken drink. The court maid, as if her throat had been clenched, was silent, but looked at them with wide eyes.

Tang Fan said, "Don't be nervous, I've been ordered to investigate this case, and if you're innocent, I'll naturally clear your name. Now I'm going to ask you a few words. You have to answer truthfully. You understand?"

The courtesan nodded her head repeatedly.

Tang Fan asked, "What's your name?"

The courtesan: “Fu Ru, the name of this humble slave is Fu Ru."

Tang Fan: “Fu Ru, I ask you, those two bowls of green bean and lily soup, did you send them to the Crown Prince on the orders of the Noble Consort Wan?"

Fu Ru: "Yes."

Tang Fan: "Before the events of yesterday, did the Noble Consort Wan send food to the Prince?"

Fu Ru: "No."

Tang Fan: "If she didn't have it before, why did she send the food to him all of a sudden? If you lie to me, I can't help you if you are hiding anything."

Fu Ru, who had been calm and organized, said, "Your Highness, when she heard that the Empress Dowager Zhou was bringing food to the Crown Prince every day, and that the Crown Prince liked lily soup with green beans and lilies, she sent one to him as well. At that time I dissuaded her, but she still insisted on it."

Tang Fan asked, "What did you and the noble consort say at that time?"




Fu Ru said, "I told the Consort that the Crown Prince had remembered her, but he had not yet forgotten his mother, and that he was not close to you. But the Consort said, "He has been made the Crown Prince, and all the others are in a hurry to flatter him, but I am the only one who does not flatter for him, and his Majesty told me once yesterday that I should not alienate him. I only take it for His Majesty's sake. Lest it be said that I'm too much haughty of a consort!"

Tang Fan: "And?"

Fu Ru: “Then the noble consort then asked the dining room to make two bowls of green bean and lily soup and sent me to deliver them. The soup was made in the small dining room of the palace, not in the dining room used by everyone in the palace. The food came from the small dining room, and the soup was delivered by me myself. I have never left my work for anything. So there's certainly no problem."

Tang Fan didn't ask any more questions, so he reassured Fu Ru and left with Sui Zhou and Bian Yu.

Bian Yu took the initiative and said, "Han Zao's body is here too, Tang Da-ren can go and see it?"

Tang Fan looked at Sui Zhou first: “Guangchuan, please go check with Brother Bian first, I will go into the palace and bring the doctor who took Han Zao's pulse and examined him that day."

Sui Zhou nodded: "Go on."

With Tang Fan's rank and status, it is absolutely impossible for him to enter or leave the palace at will, but last night, after being summoned by the Chenghua Emperor, Wang Zhi gave him a token to facilitate his investigation, otherwise he would have to be informed every time he entered the palace, which would be a waste of time.

Just in time. Tang Fan went to Imperial Hospital and asked for the man who attended to the Empress Dowager Zhou and the Prince that day. The Imperial physician Sun, who also took Han Zao's pulse, happened to be the same doctor who arrived at the scene when Han Zao died, and he was also on duty today, which saved Tang Fan the trouble of running back and forth.

The Imperial physician Sun heard about Tang Fan's intention and sighed, "It's really surprising, when I took Han Zao's pulse, his body was healthy and he didn't have a single problem. When I rushed there that day, he still had a hint of breath, but it was too late, and it was difficult to prescribe the right remedy for him. And I'm not the Coroner after all, I know much less about a dead man's pulse. So there's nothing fishy about it either."

Tang Fan said, "Anyway, I have to ask you to come, after all, you are the first one to arrive, so there are some details that we have not found, and I need your help."

The Imperial physician Sun was also very happy: “This is what I should have done. Although I couldn't save Little Prince Han, if I could do something to help, I could comfort my conscience a little."

Tang Fan took the Imperial physician Sun out of the palace, the Imperial physician Sun was old and could not go on a long journey, so they hired a sedan chair and rushed directly to the Western Depot from the palace gate.

The head, Sui Zhou, was carrying the Coroner of the Western Depot to examine the bodies, and when he saw them coming, he raised his eyes a little and said, "Nothing."

Tang Fan was somewhat disappointed, but still asked, "Have you checked everything?"

Then the Coroner explained: "If there were no external wounds or bruises on his body, then he did not die from blunt force trauma."

Tang Fan then asked, "What if it's poisoning?"

The Coroner asked: "Is the poison immediate, or is it the result of years of long term poisoning?"

The Imperial physician Sun interjected: "If it's poisoning, it should be acute poisoning too."

When Han Zao fell to the ground with a stomach ache, the East Palace chambermaid ran to the Imperial Hospital to call for someone, and the Imperial physician Sun rushed over, but Han Zao died afterwards. The time between Han Zao's fall and the Imperial physician Sun's arrival was only half an hour at most, which is why the Imperial physician Sun judged so.



The Coroner shook his head: “That makes no sense. If you die of poisoning, even if you don't have any trauma, you'll still have marks, such as bruises all over your body, bruised fingernails, wide eyes, etc. But judging from his body, there's no sign of it."

With the Coroner's words, Tang Fan looked carefully at Han Zao's body, and indeed he did not see any clues.

The Coroner is a profession that is based on experience and handed down by master and disciple, and the Western Depot the Coroner's level is definitely much higher than the Shuntian Prefecture's. Tang Fan would not doubt the truth of his conclusion.

If you say you can't test it, then you can’t deny it.

If it is not a case of emergency, and there is no sign of poisoning, it only shows that the murderer is more cunning and clever than one can imagine.

This kind of case has always been the most troublesome for the officials, and in the end, it would be just an unresolved case, or a case where they have to arrest someone for the sake of checking their resume, but now, because all the parties are different and higher ups, even if they have no clue, they have to find a clue, even if there is no way, they have to step on a path.

Sui Zhou suddenly said, "Shave your hair, or dissect it."

Tang Fan understood what he meant, Sui Zhou must have thought of the experience in the Marquis of Wu'an Mansion, when they found a dent in the top of Zheng Cheng's head, and people rarely notice the area under the hair.

The Eastern Depot had always used a lot of methods to dissect the body, but considering the identity of the person involved, Bian Yu said hesitantly, “That's not good, in case the Han Family doesn't want..."

Tang Fan thought for a moment: "Shave his hair first, there is only one goal at this point, the rest is negotiable, I'll take care of the Han’s side.”

With his words, Bian Yu didn't say anything and let the razor come directly to him, the Coroner did it himself, the razor was really sharp, three strokes and two, a strand of hair fell off and Han Zao became a bald man.

The Imperial physician Sun watched Sui Zhou and Tang Fan as they went straight to the razor clear head, touching Han Zao's head, jerking his mouth and turning his head in disgust.

At that time, he heard Tang Fan say something, but he couldn't resist looking back again, so he saw Tang Fan bend over, pointing at the bone on Han Zao's head, and asked: “There seems to be some red here, did you accidentally rub the razor?

The Coroner said, "No, I shaved very carefully, and Little Master Han is dead..."

He also looked closer, and wondered, "Why does it seem like there's a halo of blood here?"

He touched it again: "But there are no wounds!"

The Imperial physician Sun suddenly said, "Wait, don't move!"

His voice was a little louder, so much so that everyone looked back at him.




The Imperial physician Sun was a bit embarrassed, and walked over to him, unable to take care of his cleanliness, and first touched him for a while, then squinted at him with his old eyes.

“There's blood, there's blood..."

He chattered repeatedly, and Tang Fan couldn't help but ask, "What did Lao Sun find?"

The Imperial physician Sun nodded, shook his head again: "Wait, wait."

Seeing him like this, the others stopped moving, watching him groping and thinking.

Only to see the Imperial physician Sun's hands moving down the Han Zao blood lines, tracing their way through the face, jaw, neck, sternum, and finally stopping an inch above the navel.

Then, everyone watched as the Imperial physician Sun bent down to scrutinize it, his hands stroking slowly, his expression changing from serious and grave to surprised and angry, and his mouth murmuring, “That's it, that's it!"

Tang Fan asked, "What did Sun Lao find out?"

The Imperial physician Sun waved at him: “Tang Da-ren, you come and see."

Tang Fan walked over, the Imperial physician Sun gave up his hand again and told him to draw the gourd according to the position he had just fumbled.

Tang Fan didn't understand, but he did it anyway. Han Zao had been dead for a day and night, and his body had slowly lost its elasticity, but just like that, when Tang Fan pressed it, he sensed something was wrong.

There was something underneath!

He looked at the Imperial physician Sun, the Imperial physician Sun nodded: "I feel like it's half a needle, but I have to take it out to see if I know."

The Coroner took over and touched the Imperial physician Sun's location, then took a sharp knife and carefully slashed it down.

The skin broke open, but no blood came out, and the Coroner quickly removed the foreign object from it with tweezers.

Upon closer inspection, the men were horrified.

It was a silver needle, less than half an inch, a mere millimeter.

It was as thin as a hair, so short that it was hard to see it when it was dropped on the ground.

But such a silver needle, appearing in Han Zao's belly, would be very abnormal.

The Imperial physician Sun sighed and said, "How could someone be so evil as to think of such a way to harm people?”

Tang Fan asked, "Sun, do you have anything to say here?"

Generally speaking, if a silver needle is inserted into a person's body, they may not feel anything, at most they will only feel a slight pain, but how could it kill them?

And what is the relationship between this silver needle and the halo of blood in Han Zao's head, how come the Imperial physician Sun could tell the difference from the lines of blood and find this silver needle by the way?

The author has something to say:






The following are some of the questions related to the text. 1:

1. About the way Han Zao died in this chapter, there is indeed a source, but it is slightly changed and fictional, so it is not necessary to take it seriously. If you're interested, you can look up the cause of death, and we'll find out tomorrow.

2. This case is a little off, it may not be so easy to guess, but as long as the guess is reasonable, the red packet will still be given.

3. There's a question from a friend, the Li Family case, why didn't Li Man change his shoes and wipe off the marks when Tang Da-ren found them? This is actually us looking at the ancient times from a modern point of view. The shoes sold outside in ancient times, were not like ours, were not clearly marked out and waiting for people to buy them, they were all made by own family members. One is to save the customer money, and if it doesn't sell, the shop won't lose too much money, the raw materials can be put to reuse, but if no one buys the shoes, the shop will lose a lot. If Li Man suddenly goes home with a new pair of shoes that don't fit, it's even more suspicious.

4. As for the character of the Noble Consort Wan, some people think she won't do poisoning because it's too stupid, and she doesn't have a son, and there's no need for that. But many things cannot be considered from a rational point of view, otherwise the Noble Consort Wan would not have murdered the crown prince biological mother Ji-shi after the crown prince had been installed. But this is not to say that she did it in this case, I just try to recreate my character from some facts, of course, since this is fiction, there must be some exaggeration and fictionalization. 5.

5. Some people feel that this article is too much and want to increase the length of solving cases, in fact solving cases is really Tang Da-ren's career line, but Tang Da-ren can't be solving cases all the time, it would give the impression that he is working all the time (...) The personal life of Tang Da-ren will also be depicted, as well as the personalities of many people of this era, as far as possible. I will try my best to present these characters as much as possible, and these characters will have a cross-cutting effect on Tang Da-ren's career, as well as the main lines of the text.















- The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty -



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