It was late at night, but Situ Ce was not sleepy at all. The lights in the maid Linglong house had already been turned off. The little maid who had been tired for a day had fallen asleep, but Situ Ce was not sleepy at all. It was very hot. He put on his middle clothes and shook his folding fan and sat on the stone steps under the corridor. The stone steps were made of bluestone slabs, which were cool and just in time for the summer.

The courtyard was quiet, except for the occasional croaking of insects from the corners of the wall, there was no wind or even no annoying mosquitoes.

There was a lantern hanging in the yard. Situ Ce felt that the light was hot and asked the maid to blow it out, and only the moonlight was left in the yard.

The moonlight was as clear as water, shining on the banana tree in the courtyard, with its shadows steeping. Unfortunately, it was not raining, otherwise it would have felt a lot of feeling when the rain hits the banana tree. Situ Ce shook his folding fan and thought.

He stood up, walked slowly to the middle of the courtyard, and looked back at the row of bungalows. The corner of the room was his residence.

Living in an office is a very frustrating thing in modern society, but now Situ Ce does not feel this way. At least, he has a place to stand.

However, if you can take root or be swept out of the house, it depends on your performance. If you perform poorly in solving the case, you may not live here for a long time.

In the night, Situ Ce was filled with a thrill of heart, not knowing what kind of case would be waiting for him.

The next morning, Situ Ce started working formally.

The place where he went to work was next door. When he entered the study, Helanbing and Qiangu had not come yet. Only the little girl Linglong was cleaning the yard. When she saw him coming out, she smiled with a broom on her broom and said, "Master, you're so early, it's still half an hour before you go to the yamen. Why are you going to the study now? Don't you go out for a walk?"

Situ Ce was anxious to get into the role as soon as possible and smiled slightly: "I have traveled all over the city, and there is nothing to go. I have nothing to do with it, so just look at the official documents."

"Oh, then I'll make tea for you."

As she said that, Linglong quickly brewed a pot of fragrant tea. She brought the tea tray into the bookstore and saw Situ Ce standing in a daze at the desk, looking confused, and couldn't help but say wonderingly: "Master, what are you thinking?"

Situ Ce smiled bitterly: "I don't know what I should do!"

Linglong smiled and said, "Don't worry, when Master He comes, she will make arrangements for you. When Master He comes, I usually see Master He, and I have to go out to solve the case and write documents. I'm so busy that I can't touch the ground. I think, sometimes you are busy."

"That's true. I'll take a look first."

Linglong hurriedly put down the teapot and cup, and then went out to sweep the floor in the yard.

Situ Ce sat down on a chair, picked up a file and read it. It was a theft case. Both people and stolen goods were captured, and the criminal confessed and reported to him for execution. This case was fine according to the law, and there was no need to work on his own. Another one was a fight, and there was damage to each other. The other one had his leg broken, and he was also reported to him for execution.

He looked at several of them in a row, most of them were theft cases, as well as vicious cases such as injuries, robbery, fraud, kidnapping, rape, and murder. The number of files was quite large, which showed that the incidence rate of criminal cases in Zhenhai County was relatively high. However, these cases have been solved, and most of them were captured on the spot and sent to the government for punishment according to the law. It is estimated that the files of those unsolved cases are not here.

He looked at the files carefully, wanting to understand the types of cases and characteristics of the cases in ancient times, and accumulate relevant information for future cases to solve them.

When he saw a murder case file, he stopped.

Because the cases I have seen before were mostly arrested on the spot or the criminal surrendered, there is no problem with the evidence, but this one is different.

The case file is called Wang Boss Wang’s wife murder case. The suspect Wang Boss Wang was charged with strangling his wife to death. However, the suspect refused to admit that he had killed someone. The case was in the house and there was no third person present, which means there were no direct witnesses in the case. What’s even more troublesome is that the case was only reported after half a month, and the body was already highly ***.

The only thing that can be proved was that the coroner found that the teeth of the body turned into rose-red when they were inspected! The authoritative work of the ancient autopsy, "Xi'an Lu", clearly stated that this was the result of hanging, strangling or strangling. Song Ci's "Xi'an Lu" was the authoritative basis for ancient yamen to hear cases, so of course it was natural to convict.

Therefore, the suspect in this case was accused of strangling her wife to death. However, the suspect did not admit this, and only admitted that the two had a fierce quarrel, and some were pushed, but he definitely did not strangle her to death.

The file was very thin because the suspect had never pleaded guilty and had no other evidence, which made Situ Ce fall into deep thought.

In modern times, similar cases are generally not transferred to prosecution as insufficient evidence, but Situ Ce did not know how to deal with them in ancient times. Judging from the point of the case file being transferred to the Master of Criminal, it means that the crime has entered the process of punishment. Because the case trial is generally first proposed by the punishment room, and then submitted to the Master of Criminal. After the opinion is reviewed, the opinion is attached, and then submitted to the magistrate. The magistrate will be transferred to the court to ask the case. If the evidence is conclusive, there is no objection to the proposal (generally the magistrate is handled according to the opinion of the Master of Criminal). Then, the magistrate can be sentenced and then retaliated for review and approval according to authority. If it is not guilty, it will be released in court.

The Ming Dynasty was divided into five types of punishments: whipping, cane, slaughter, trampling, and death. At the grassroots prefecture and county level, the government can directly decide on small cases of flogging and cane punishment. Such cases are enough to be decided by prefecture and county, and there is no need to be reported. The prefecture can decide on cases where imprisonment is required, and the provincial level criminal procuratorate can decide on the judgment of the repatriation. For the death penalty, you must report to the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice, and finally report to the emperor for a decision.

In ancient times, the defendants in criminal cases had no right to appeal, and there were no public prosecution agencies and legal supervision agencies such as procuratorates in modern society. The cases were solved by the yamen themselves and then reported according to the final decision authority.

The case in Situ Ce is now that the husband kills his wife. If he is convicted, he may be sentenced to death, that is, he must report to the prefect, the Criminal Censorate, and the Dali Temple to the emperor to make a decision. However, the evidence for the criminal's murder in this case is almost blank. If such a case is reported, it is afraid that it will not be approved. Of course, if the ancient legal torture was used to torture and torture, the evidence of the so-called king of evidence may be obtained in the end. However, this is very dangerous. Once it is a wrong case, it is a problem of wrong killing.

Situ Ce placed the file on the table, walked around the house with his hands behind his back, thinking about this matter.

Suddenly, someone behind him said, "What are you thinking about so much?"

Situ Ce was shocked, turned his head and saw Helanbing holding the golden folding fan in his hand, standing there in white clothes, smiling at him. Seeing that his words scared him, Helanbing felt a little embarrassed and said, "Sorry!"

Situ Ce said: "It's okay, I was reading your file just now. I thought about a question and was fascinated."
Chapter completed!