When Lu Zongyi saw this, he casually selected ten people from the Ministry of Punishment.
These ten people are all men in their early forties.
Among them, there is actually a pair of twins!
Although Lu Zongyi did not want to embarrass Hu Changan, he paid attention to rigor in deciding the case.
It would be disrespectful to everyone to jump to conclusions.
Therefore, Lu Zongyi was very careful when selecting people and selected some officials with similar heights and body shapes.
Among them, Lu Zongyi specially selected a pair of twins.
Everyone was shocked when they saw this.
"What? Lu Shangshu actually chose the twins from the Ministry of Justice? The twins even look exactly the same, how can their fingerprints be different? I think this Minister Hu is going to retire early!"
"It is said that these twins are quite similar even in their personalities and tempers. I often misidentified them before. Their fingerprints are definitely the same!"
"I think Mr. Hu may have been overconfident this time. I think he didn't expect that there would be a pair of twins in the Ministry of Punishment!"
Everyone feels that Hu Changan will lose this time!
However, Hu Changan still looked like an old god.
Oh, they're just twins.
In modern times, some people have done research on twins' fingerprints.
With so many pairs of twins having different fingerprints, Hu Changan didn't think he would overturn in front of these ancients.
Soon, these ten people lined up in the main hall.
Hu Changan smiled slightly, took rice paper and coal ash and said, "Please, gentlemen, dip your index fingers into some coal ash, and then print your fingers on the rice paper."
"In this way, your fingerprints can be clearly left on the rice paper."
When the ten people heard the words, they also acted according to the words.
After a while, the index finger prints of these ten people were printed on the rice paper.
Hu Changan walked up to Lu Zongyi, handed the rice paper to Lu Zongyi, and said, "Master Lu, please take a look, are the fingerprints of these ten people the same?"
Hearing this, Lu Zongyi quickly took the rice paper and read it carefully.
However, just by looking at it, he was completely stunned.
At a glance, it seems that the index finger prints of these ten people are really different?
Suddenly, Lu Zongyi discovered a problem: "Mr. Hu, do you think the fingerprints of these two people are the same?"
Suddenly, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
It seems that Hu Changan has lost after all!
However, there was no shock on Hu Changan's face. He just smiled and said to Lu Zongyi: "Sir, would you like to take a closer look?"
"I see that although the two fingerprints are roughly in the same direction, they are not completely overlapping."
"One of the fingerprints has a steeper tilt, while the other has a gentler pattern."
"If you don't believe me, Mr. Lu, you can fold this piece of rice paper in half under the sun and see if the two fingerprints completely overlap?"
Lu Zongyi saw Hu Changan's solemn expression and followed his words.
After careful comparison, Lu Zongyi saw the clues.
These two fingerprints are indeed as Hu Changan said, the tilt angles are inconsistent!
Lu Zongyi carefully looked at the remaining fingerprints, and then spoke cautiously: "Everyone, the fingerprints of these ten people are indeed different."
What?
Hearing this, everyone was stunned.
They never expected that the index finger prints of these ten people were really different.
Even the fingerprints of the twins are different!
At this time, everyone believed Hu Changan's words.
Since the fingerprints of twins who look the same are not identical, it is even less likely that the fingerprints of other people will be the same.
However, at this time, the people behind the scenes were anxious.
If it is true as Hu Changan said, wouldn't their little tricks be exposed?
no!
The things involved here cannot be explained casually.
If Zhu Yuanzhang is involved, half of the court will not be able to please him!
Seeing this, a censor suddenly stood up and said: "Your Majesty, I think this may be caused by too few people in the experiment."
"There are only ten people, so the probability that the fingerprints will not be repeated must be very high."
"I think we need to find at least twenty more people to leave their fingerprints to prove that what Mr. Hu is saying is true."
"What's more, Mr. Lu is not a professional draftsman. Sometimes he may not be able to see clearly."
"I think it would be safer to call in the court painter."
"As a painter who has been immersed in this art for many years, he must be able to see it more clearly than Mr. Lu."
Zhu Yuanzhang also nodded when he heard this.
After a while, a group of palace painters were brought.
Throughout the dynasties, court painters were recruited to paint portraits of royal personnel.
In the Song Dynasty, the palace painting academy was independent and had a strict hierarchical system.
In the Ming Dynasty, although there was no art academy established due to various reasons, court painters still existed.
Zhu Yuanzhang randomly selected twenty more people as an experiment.
When Zhu Yuanzhang appointed people, he naturally did not stick to the punishment department.
Among the six departments, there were people who were selected by Zhu Yuanzhang.
These twenty people also left their fingerprints on the rice paper one after another under the guidance of Hu Changan.
Seeing that the fingerprints had been collected, Hu Changan generously handed the rice paper to the palace painters and asked them to identify it carefully.
The time it takes to identify the fingerprints of thirty people is naturally longer than the time it takes to identify the fingerprints of ten people.
Moreover, those court painters were all literati, and they were not as cheerful as Lu Zongyi.
So a team of people studied like this for a long time.
Finally, when Zhu Yuanzhang was about to run out of patience, the leading painter stood up and came out of the queue, kowtowed to Zhu Yuanzhang and said: "Your Majesty, among these thirty fingerprints, none of them are the same."
Suddenly, everyone was in an uproar.
It may be a coincidence that ten people have different fingerprints.
But the fingerprints of thirty people are all different. This can no longer be described as a coincidence.
This shows that what Hu Changan said may really make sense!
Even Lu Zongyi, the Minister of Punishment, nodded repeatedly, his eyes burning.
If what Hu Changan said is true, then the Ministry of Punishment will have another way to handle cases in the future!
This iron-clad evidence is much stronger than those so-called confessions!
When the people behind the scenes heard this, they broke out in cold sweat.
He originally thought that Hu Changan was just talking big words, but he didn't expect that what Hu Changan said might be true!
Thinking that he would be exposed at this time, the person behind the scenes was so frightened that he could hardly stand still.
When the censor saw his master's pale face, he quickly repeated his old trick and said to everyone: "Everyone, I think these thirty people are still too few."
"Perhaps if we find a few more people to leave their fingerprints, we can find exactly the same fingerprints!" This chapter has been completed!