The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty. 《成化十四年》Chengnian Shisi Nian
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 8: Who mixed the poison?
Tang Fan nodded, "Fuyangchun is an aphrodisiac contained in the ancient prescription, the usage by itself is not uncommon, it can be formulated with herbs such as brown marmalated stink bug, the golden eye grass, rehmania, and the horny goat weed, although it may not be beneficial to take too much, but Zheng Fu said that Zheng Cheng took this medicine for about three or two months, so how can it not be so deadly. But it would be a different story if Chaihu was added. The Chaihu can solve the problem. It’s hot, but you can’t use it casually. People who want to preserve their strength will avoid it. Long-term usage will hurt the liver and kidney. The Chaihu has been added to Fuyangchun, and the prescription has changed from aphrodisiac to a life-threatening drug.
Sui Zhou: "I have received word from my men in the Weihui Prefecture that the Huichun Hall fellow Lin Chaodong who dispensed Zheng Cheng's medicine privately has not returned to his hometown and is nowhere to be found."
Tang Fan laughed bitterly: “Then the clue line will be broken again."
Sui Zhou was silent for a moment: "Not necessarily, follow me."
He got up and headed out, Tang Fan locked the courtyard door and followed suit.
In the blue sky and daylight, the strangulation marks on his neck are too horrifying, and the collar cannot hide them, and when walking next to the Jinyiwei, he caused passersby to look back frequently at him, they looked at Tang Fan gaze strangely as if one was looking at prisoner about to be executed.
Sui Zhou first returned to the Northern Administration Court division, pulled Zheng Fu inside, and took him to the Huichun Hall.
The two guards were ordered to guard the door of the Huichun Hall like gods, and even the business was pressed tight these days, the Apothecary Master Liu and the two people were sitting inside with a frown, and when they saw the Sui Zhou two, they stood up.
"Master Sui, look at us, the businessmen who are supposed to be a part of the business, Lin Chaodong that guy's business, also has nothing to do with Huichun Hall, can't..." the Apothecary master Liu was about to complain, but as a result, he was glared away by Sui Zhou's cold eyes, and the second half of his sentence was directly swallowed in.
Sui Zhou handed Zheng Fu the prescription that Tang Fan had given him: "Do you recognize the prescription above?"
Zheng Fu looked at it and nodded his head in succession, “This is the recipe for Fuyangchun, I saw it many times when I helped young master get medicine earlier... Hey, but there's no Chaihu on it!"
Sui Zhou: "When was the last time you came to dispense medicine?"
Zheng Fu: "About three or two months ago?"
Sui Zhou said coldly, “To the exact date, think back carefully!"
The human potential is infinite, being bluffed by Sui Zhou, Zheng Fu really remembered: "It's March 18, I remembered, it's March 18, because those pills have to be boiled into pills first every time, it's more troublesome, so I always go to say the order to Lin Chaodong two days in advance, and then wait until March 20, then go directly to get the pills!"
Sui Zhou looked over to the Apothecary master Liu, "You heard me, present the Huichun Hall records looking up the backup records of the two days of March 18 to March 20 for dispensing medicine."
The Apothecary master Liu: "Yes, yes, I'm going now!"
He hastily greeted Gao Yazi and the seated doctor closed the door of Huichun Hall, and then began to look up the records.
But where the patient go to get medicine, human life is a matter of heaven’s will, a bad situation will appear and people will die even after taking the medicine, inevitably there are peer to peer competition, behind the shadow machinations, so in order to avoid disputes of what medicine was calculated by who, like Huichun Hall had to experience after some years of fame, the apothecary will have such a record.
Now it came in handy.
With the exact date, the record was quickly fished out, and Tang Fan and Sui Zhou glanced at it, with the many medicinal herbs that were dispensed by the medicine hall during those two days, and even the prescriptions for which they were used, clearly written.
When they saw the third row, they saw the three words Fuyangchun, followed by a column of medicinal names, the only one without Chaihu listed.
If you look at the records of those two days, you won't find any of that medicine.
In other words, the Chaihu used in Lin Chaodong's medicine when he was dispensing it to Zheng Cheng must not have been taken from Huichun Hall.
In this way, Lin Chaodong is actually a very cautious person, in order to avoid being discovered by Huichun Hall, he simply bought Chaihu outside alone to add in the mix, but now it has become a clue to solve the case.
Sui Zhou immediately instructed the next two Jinyiwei, “Take your men, and go at once to the apothecary shops in the city, and see which one of them was once sold out the Chaihu in large quantities on the 18th of March!"
The two men took orders and left.
Tang Fan said to Sui Zhou, "General Sui Zongqi, can you show me the body of Zheng Cheng?"
Sui Zhou: "The coroner of the Northern Administration Court Division has checked it out and there is nothing unusual about the body."
In fact, when Zheng Cheng had just died, Tang Fan had already checked his corpse, it was true that there was nothing unusual found then, but Tang Fan always felt that it wouldn't be bad to be more cautious and have another look, now that so many days had passed since Zheng Cheng's death, it would be a pity if he didn't look at it again, when the corpse was completely rotten to the core.
So he still insisted: "Please General Sui Zongqi just accommodate me one or two more."
At the time Sui Zhou didn't think much of Shuntian Prefecture and didn't have much of an impression in front of Tang Fan, but now, seeing his damaged voice and uncomfortable, he still insists on running around with him to investigate the case, but his attitude is somewhat eased.
"Northern Administration Court Division has an ice chamber underneath, where Zheng Cheng's body is placed, for a while." Sui Zhou explained a bit more rare. "His Majesty has asked the Northern Administration Court Division to solve the case within one month, after one month, even if the case is not solved, the body will be returned to the Marquis of Wu’an Mansion, and tomorrow you can come to the Northern Administration Court Division to find me."
The world knows that the Jinyiwei is something which Taizu personally created, the initial role was “The direct arm of the Emperor and performing all things in the capital," meaning that is they are the Imperial Guard, who are responsible for patrolling the capital and oversee other security and ceremonial works and so on, and later they helped the Taizu emperor eradicate a lot of meritorious and corrupt officials, so in addition to being the imperial family security guards and ceremonial duties, but they also joined the later National Security Bureaus and Anti-Corruption Bureau positions, the Chengzu Yongle years restored Jinyiwei, the imperial torturing foul name Jinyiwei was known to the world.
But in reality, there was much more to the Jinyiwei than that: The examinations at the imperial examinations, where the Jinyiwei were deployed to help supervise; the rural examinations, which were conducted by the Shuntian Prefecture, which covered the imperial capital area, where the Jinyiwei were called in in case of major fraud; and many other things, such as repairing streets and catching thieves.
Many things that were supposed to be the responsibility of the Shuntian Prefecture often ended up being done by the Jinyiwei. In the final analysis, because Jinyiwei has many elites, the emperor pays attention to them, and give them more funds every year. Natural their soldiers are strong and powerful, and they are more effective than the Shuntian Prefecture and this made them the general administrative division, which is much higher, as for arresting the remnants of the White Lotus, for " Demon Fox Case of things," the closing job could have been the Shuntian Prefecture job content, the results because the Shuntian Prefecture’s bailiffs could not force, so they invited the Jinyiwei to do the job personally.
Because of this, the relationship between the Jinyiwei and the Shuntian Prefecture has always been very good, Tang Fan even if his fame is bigger, but he is physically a very weak civil service, and since he did not have the physical body to become a Jinyiwei, he then joined the "do-nothing base camp" at the Shuntian Prefecture, in the eyes of others, naturally he became a member of the "rice bucket"..
So Sui Zhou's opinion of Tang Fan is actually based on these reasons, and Tang Fan knows it well.
This is a historical legacy, and the location of the Shuntian Prefecture itself is also related, in the eyes of the emperor as the magistrate, Shuntian Prefecture is considered the first one, although at the administrative level the Prefecture leader is half a grade higher than other local officials, but since this is the Imperial capital there are officials all over the place, anyone can point the finger and cause Shuntian Prefecture to suffers.
Both Pan Bin and Pan Bin's predecessors were not strong men, and they worked for the justice and they did not ask for merit, but even if they work hard, and they began to push the case in quickly and non-sensationalized solving as soon as it became sensitive, so it is no wonder Sui Zhou did look down on them.
Although Tang Fan understood this, but he had just arrived in Shuntian Prefecture, and was still only a recent Prefect, there was nothing he could do in the face of this situation, he could only do something with his meager strength.
He breathed a sigh of relief and arched his hand: “Thank you General Sui Zongqi then."
Next to him the Apothecary master Liu intentionally curry favor with Tang Fan, he came forward and laughed, "Master Tang, this is the Qiuli ointment and the exclusive formula cream of the apothecary, the former is taken internally to moisten the throat and clear the heat, the latter is used externally to promote blood circulation and dispel stasis, the injuries on your neck, the next day after you use it, there will be no major problems!"
Because the breakfast was interrupted halfway through the meal, then followed Sui Zhou out to find someone to ask questions, he did not even have the time to rub the medicine, and after talking for most of the day, Tang Fan's voice was already hoarse, at this time by the Apothecary master Liu said, Tang Fan only found that the neck muscles are tugged raw pain, cannot help but frown slightly.
Tang Fan took the medicine from the Apothecary master Liu’s hand, said thank you, and gave the money despite his excuse, before following Sui Zhou out of the apothecary.
The sun was shining outside, not as light and rainy as it had been a few days earlier.
Sui Zhou, with a glance, saw the man beside him, with blue and white patches and the ten finger marks on his neck, which are also reflected more and more are striking in his eyes.
He touched a vial from his sleeve, handed it over, and said faintly, "External use three times a day."
Tang Fan took it over and laughed: "The Northern Administrative Court produced it, which is bound to be extraordinary. I have to try it."
Sui Zhou nodded his head and said nothing more, pressed his embroidered spring sword in his hand, and walked forward with one determined step.
The Chinese Chaihu is relatively strong, but only if used properly, it is not uncommon, the large capital city, how many apothecaries daily dispensing prescriptions, there is no telling how much Chinese herbal medicine, but to make so many pills, but also to achieve the effect of harming the body and people, the required dose is certainly relatively large, the Chaihu is not normally prescribed for medical treatment, and since it is limited to the two days of March 18, the search scope immediately narrowed down a lot.
The Jinyiwei were so efficient that it took only half a day for the Sui Zhou to get word of the men he had sent.
The Sanyuan Hall in the north of the city and the Renxin Hall in the east of the city, both of which had been sold away a large quantity on the day of March 18, were investigated by Sui Zhou and found to be the same person, and according to the other apothecary, it was not the mysteriously missing fellow of the Huichun Hall Lin Chaodong who had come to buy the medicine.
The Jinyiwei, who were in charge of patrolling for arrests, were familiar with such matters, and the Sui Zhou immediately called in a painter and asked him to draw the man according to the characteristics described by the two fellows.
Soon, an image of high cheekbones and a slightly collapsed nose jumped off the page.
Very facetious.
Sui Zhou frowned, in fact, he already had a vague direction in his mind, this case is said to be complex, in fact, it is not complex, sensitive is sensitive in the person concerned, because the person is the eldest son of the Marquis of Wu’an, the Marquis of Wu’an Mansion is not a place that can let people in and out at will.
The population of the capital city of one million, in and out every day, to find such a person out, is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.
At this time, Tang Fan, who was silent next to him, suddenly opened his mouth: "I've seen this man!"
Sui Zhou turned his head to look at him.
Tang Fan: "I remember this person, but as far as where I have seen him, but can't remember for a moment, if I do, I will tell you immediately."
Sui Zhou nodded and looked at the sky: "It's late, I'll be here today, and Master Tang can look for me tomorrow at the Northern Administration Court Division."
Tang Fan laughed and got up: "Good, today's harvest is quite good, I also have to go back to report to the Master of the Palace, I will leave."
The fact that Sui Zhou was a man who did not seem to be close, but was able to do things well, and that Tang Fan was able to get a bottle of medicine from him, suggests that the relationship between the two had improved more or less, and that if Shuntian Prefecture could establish a good relationship with the Northern Administration Court, it would of course be very helpful in the future.
Sui Zhou was inevitably told: "Master Pan is afraid to serve justice equally, and if Master Tang wants to do something justice, it will be a pity to be in the Shuntian Prefecture."
Tang Fan laughed, "Isn't General Sui Zongqi trying to dig Master Pan’s corner and invite me to serve in the Northern Administration Court Division?"
Sui Zhou: "If you wish, naturally you can."
The author has something to say: 1, That aphrodisiac prescription does have a source, but the addition of Chaihu will kill the person, this is purely artistic processing, and please you do not have to take it seriously.
- The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty -
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