In the hall, Yan Yunyun was still crying and telling her story.
The matter was simple. Zhang Shizhuo was going to a banquet with his father and brother tonight. He excused himself because he was not feeling well, and it was really just to find Yan Yunyun, but he died in her room.
The testimonies of many servants of the Yuan family also prove this.
For example, several maids who lived with Yan Yunyun insisted that Zhang Shizhuo send them away, with squinting expressions on their faces.
Wu Zuo held the candlelight and carefully identified the injuries on Zhang Shizhuo's neck, and then looked at his lower body.
The ugly appearance is exposed, and everyone is talking about it, and there is nothing much to say.
"County Magistrate, Zhang Erlang was indeed stabbed to death with a hairpin. There were no other wounds on his body... and he was indeed going to do that to Yan Xingshou..."
Following Wu Zuo's words, Yan Yunyun cried again, raised his hand, revealing a bright wrist, with two deep strangulation marks on his fair skin.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu He strangled Nujia so hard...so hard..."
Jiang Chun's mind was shaken, and he finally came back to his senses. He glanced at Fang Yankai and Li Xia, secretly thinking that these two subordinates were so determined, how could they not look away?
"No, they must be pretending, they must be." He thought to himself.
Fang Yankai sat there, his face a little ugly.
Of course he knew that Li Xia dared to advocate for an investigation and that Zhang Shizhuo must have done those things, but he still wanted to give it a try.
Jiang Yan walked through the lobby, walked behind him, and whispered: "Dong Weng, we have found out that the eldest wife of the Zhang family, Yang, and her grandson Zhang Daihen have been taken away by Li Feiyu in the name of 'protection'."
Fang Yankai glanced at Liu Jinsuo, then his eyes fell on Li Xia, thinking that he was a step too slow.
He originally wanted Wu Ang to do this, but Wu Ang never came tonight.
For some things, one can see the whole thing at a glance, and he can naturally tell what the people in the county are doing.
It's not that he can't spend more than a dozen coins to bribe anyone. It's just that Li Xia acted too quickly and had already given out thousands of coins for pensions and rewards, so it wasn't just a matter of a dozen coins.
But this time, Li Xiuruo secretly took away the Zhang family's wealth. Who will listen to his Fang Yankai in the future?
In addition, most of the fertile farmland in the county is owned by the Zhang family. If it is controlled by Li Xia, and the county magistrate has also reached a tacit agreement with Li Xia, what else does he need as the chief registrar?
It seems like a small case, but it concerns who will take power in Qingfu County after Jiang Chun leaves office...
Jiang Chun asked Yan Yunyun, "So, you admit that you killed Zhang Shizhuo?"
"The county magistrate...wuwu...it was indeed the slave who accidentally stabbed him to death..."
Jiang Chundao: "Have you really confessed your crime? Are you not afraid that this county will convict you of murder?"
Li Xia said: "Magistrate Jiang, isn't it appropriate to sentence him to murder? If Yan Yunyun doesn't kill Zhang Shizhuo, can he just let him rape him?"
"What the county lieutenant said makes sense." Jiang Chun twisted his beard and smiled, and said softly: "However, this is the county's method of investigating and questioning, just bluff her, don't worry, don't worry."
Li Xia said: "I think Yan Yunyun is not guilty."
Fang Yankai couldn't stand it any longer and felt that Jiang Chun didn't even want the dignity of the county magistrate in order to please Li Xia.
This is a method to deter questioning, so what's the use of just saying it?
It's simply blatant collusion.
He coughed and stood up.
"It is true that we should be convicted of murder. According to the law, it should be treated as a 'playful killing' crime. If you beat your lover to death as a prostitute, the crime will be increased to one level and you will be exiled for three thousand miles. Yan Yunyun, do you really plead guilty?!"
This last sharp shout made Yan Yunyun startled.
But when she raised her head, she saw Li Xia's tall and tall figure standing between her and Fang Yankai.
"What does the landlord's book mean?"
"Zhang Shizhuo raped a prostitute? This matter is too strange. It may not be the two of them... While they were having fun, Yan Yunyun accidentally killed him."
Liu Jinsuo said loudly: "Housekeeper, what does this 'playing' mean? I don't understand."
Fang Yankai was slightly stunned and turned to look at Jiang Chun. Does this mean that you don't care about this rough guy yelling at the court?
Jiang Chunzhen didn't care, as if the matter had nothing to do with him.
Jiang Yan walked into the hall and said: "This is obvious. This prostitute did not refuse to commit rape and murder, but killed her for fun. She deserves to be sentenced."
Li Xia said: "She is not a prostitute, she redeemed herself."
Yan Yunyun narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at Li Xia's back, and said: "The Nu family used to be not official prostitutes, but private prostitutes, and they are from good families."
Jiang Yan said: "That woman was also a prostitute with a frivolous behavior, but County Lieutenant Li said that she assassinated Zhang Shizhuo to protect her 'innocence'. Isn't it ridiculous?"
"I said, she is no longer a prostitute." Li Xia said, "What's more, even if she is a prostitute, she should be raped without resisting?"
Jiang Yan said: "Everyone with a discerning eye knows that this woman is frivolous. Is it possible that Zhang Shizhuo can't afford the prostitute?"
Han Qi'an took a few steps forward and said, "Mr. Jiang, you must be judging the person by his appearance, because Yan Yunyun once fell into the world? She can save money to redeem herself, which shows that she is noble."
"Gao Jie? How ridiculous." Jiang Yan said: "It is more likely that she died from playing with Zhang Shizhuo."
Han Qi'an said: "The strangulation injury on the wrist can already prove that it was Zhang Shizhuo who used force."
"That's killing someone!" Jiang Yan knew that he wanted to scare Yan Yunyun first, and shouted: "How can you be innocent of murder?!"
"Those who refuse to commit rape or commit murder should be exempted from the crime. This has precedent. In the winter of the third year of Shaoxi period, there was a man named Tao Deji in Jianzhou who coveted the beauty of his younger brother's wife Ding. One day, while his younger brother Delin did not return due to some matters, Deji entered the Ding family. He was indecently assaulted in the room, but he was unexpectedly killed by Ding. The state government carefully researched and found out the truth, and found Ding not guilty. The verdict was, 'It was indeed because he refused to rape and killed, and he was desperate to save himself, so he came here...'"
The laws these days are rudimentary...compared to later generations. In short, most cases are decided based on precedent.
At this time, various cases of Han Qi's case were opened to talk about. Jiang Yan was speechless for a moment. He thought for a while and then said: "It's different! In the Jianzhou case, Ding is a daughter of a good family, but in this case, Yan Yunyun is a prostitute..."
He had sat back, feeling a little bitter in his heart.
There is a precedent, and with Jiang Chun's virtue, it is impossible to judge again, and it is useless to argue again.
Of course, it doesn't matter whether there is a verdict or not. After all, even the victims want to put things to rest.
The purpose was not to convict Yan Yunyun, but to scare her into changing her story.
This woman had Li Xia, and Han Qi'an was emboldened and determined to admit the murder of Zhang Shizhuo, but the matter had no chance of turning around.
Fang Yankai knew he was defeated again.
The last time we lost was because of the pattern, this time we lost because of our courage.
Han Qi'an squinted his eyes and stared at Jiang Yan.
He thought about what happened tonight...
Even before the war started, when Li Xia forced Zhang Yuanming to move into the city, Han Qi'an had already arranged for people to keep an eye on the Zhang family.
But two days ago, someone was following Zhang Shifei and he was recognized by Yan Yunyun.
Unexpectedly, Yan Yunyun not only did not expose him, but instead took refuge in him.
Tonight, Zhang Shizhuo did not go to the banquet, but had a tryst with Yan Yunyun. However, she made an excuse to leave the Yuan family and informed Han Qi'an of the matter.
At that time, the banquet in the Qingyan Building had already begun, but Han Qi'an did not receive Li Xia's order to stop.
He immediately realized that Li Xia had given him full authority to take charge.
So Han Qi'an did not let Jiang Fan stop, but sent people to follow Yan Yunyun into Yuan's house, hide in the house, and kill Zhang Shizhuo...
At this time, Han Qi'an stared at Jiang Yan, and the thoughts in his heart drifted far away.
He seemed to be the same as Jiang Yan, a staff member of the county magistrate, but Jiang Yan looked down on him from the bottom of his heart, because he was a captured "Jin man" and was inferior to the people from Beigui.
Facing Jiang Yan's contempt, Han Qi'an felt extremely unwilling and humiliated in his heart.
Why?
The Han family was once a high-ranking family. It was the Zhao and Song Dynasties who professed their vassalage to the Jin Dynasty after they crossed south. They decided that "the southerners should return to the south and the northerners should return to the north."
Allegiance to the Kingdom of Jin.
Now that the Kingdom of Jin is dead, these southerners turn around and look down on the northerners. Why?
When he was young, he was captured by the Song army along with his father. He was renamed "Qi'an" and given the nickname "Yining", but how could he ever have peace?
When he was in Lin'an, Han Qi'an listened to his father's story about what happened in the north, and always thought that he should persuade Li Xia to go north to join Zhang Rou, because Guide Mansion was his home.
Because the Song people looked down on him, he also looked down on the Song people.
Since he came to Qingfu with Li Xia, every time he saw Jiang Yan's arrogant look in the county government office, he regretted that he didn't persuade Li Xia to move north.
But tonight, when Han Qian faced Jiang Yan, he finally no longer felt the humiliation.
Because I won.
His sickly body was slightly hunched, his mouth was closed and he didn't speak, but there was a confident smile in his eyes.
"You and I are both aides, but how much can Fang Yankai trust you? If it were you, would he dare to let you act with such full authority? How far can you do it for him? Dare you to kill people like me?
Is it okay to exterminate the entire clan? If you can’t do it, then how can you win against me?”
…
In silence, Jiang Yan tilted his head and sighed dejectedly.
They all know that the surname of Qingfu County will be Li from now on...