Since the case was so complicated, Xu Hanliang was ready to go and take a look.
Soon they followed a group of police officers and arrived at the place where the crime occurred.
The scene has been protected, which is also according to the statement in "The Record of Clearing Wrongs".
After reading the book "A Clearing of Wrongs" written by Xu Hanliang, Jiang Wen became more and more fond of it.
Reading it day and night, a lot of the content in it was naturally memorized in my mind.
Arriving in the room, Xu Hanliang looked around.
"Magistrate Sun Yuan was extremely heavy, weighing about 180 kilograms. If he was killed first and then hung from the rafters, it is possible that a gang committed the crime."
Jiang Wen looked at Xu Hanliang and continued.
"Are there any stools?"
Xu Hanliang then asked.
Jiang Wen was slightly startled: "Yes, yes."
It didn't take long for the official to bring over two ladders.
Xu Hanliang didn't think much, he directly put the ladder on the beam and began to investigate carefully.
It can be seen that the roof beams are rarely cleaned, but there are two traces that are very obvious.
There seems to be something that was once fixed on the beams.
After thinking for a moment, Xu Han already knew it in his conscience.
"This is not a gang crime, but only one person. Please move the ladder outside later and I will take a look."
Xu Hanliang said to several people.
Soon, Xu Hanliang arrived on the roof.
As soon as he reached the roof, Xu Hanliang almost slipped on the moss on the roof.
Under his investigation, there seemed to be traces of someone's presence on the roof, and the tiles had also been touched.
After coming down from the beam, Xu Hanliang looked at the county magistrate: "According to you, the magistrate Sun Yuan should have been quite strong during his lifetime. Are there any signs of struggle on his body?"
Jiang Wen shook his head: "Except for the marks of strangulation, there are no other marks on my body."
"According to this, there is a high probability that an acquaintance committed the crime, and there is also a possibility that he was knocked unconscious before committing the crime. Do the others have alibi?"
Xu Hanliang nodded and then asked.
"We checked all the people we know well in the morning, and there is indeed none."
Jiang Wen nodded and continued.
"Is there anything missing in his room?"
Xu Hanliang then asked.
Jiang Wen nodded: "Nothing is missing in terms of property, but according to his wife, part of the manuscripts he wrote are missing."
"Manuscript?"
Xu Hanliang asked rhetorically.
"It is said to be a public case novel. It seems to describe the theft of water transport. It is said that it is almost completed."
Jiang Wen repeated Mrs. Sun Yuan's statement.
"The water transport was stolen?"
Hearing this sentence, Xu Hanliang couldn't help but think of a case that happened in Wu County before.
The water transport theft case occurred about three years ago. At that time, the case even shocked the capital.
Water transportation has been a very important transportation route in all dynasties.
The main purpose is to transport food, silver and other items collected from various places to the capital.
The purpose of transporting grain and money was mainly for consumption in the palace, as well as for officials' salaries and military pay.
Water transportation not only refers to transportation by water, but can also be transported by land.
However, the water transportation at the time of the water transportation case was indeed by water, and happened to pass through Wu County.
But for some unknown reason, the boat suddenly capsized within the boundaries of Wuxian County.
After the boat capsized, the sailors on the boat were fine and were quickly rescued ashore.
However, during subsequent salvage operations, nothing was found about the silver coins on the ship, as if they had disappeared out of thin air.
At that time, there were a total of two hundred thousand taels of silver on board the ship.
After learning about this incident, the imperial court was also extremely angry and dismissed many officials from their posts and investigated.
Although this incident occurred within the boundaries of Wuxian County, the officials of Wuxian County did not seem to have much to do with the matter, so they were not too implicated.
Until now, the whereabouts of those silver coins have been unknown.
"Nine times out of ten, the person who committed the crime is an outsider, not one of our Changshu residents, and there should only be one person."
Xu Hanliang didn't think too much about the water transport case, and there seemed to be no connection between the two.
"But how could only one person hang up such a heavy Magistrate Sun? It is simply impossible."
When Jiang Wen heard this, his first reaction was disbelief.
Xu Hanliang didn't say much, but took the pen and paper from the official on the side.
Then he started drawing on the paper, and not long after, he drew a strange device.
"Let's go ahead and ask the blacksmith shop in Changshu to see if anyone has made such a device."
Xu Hanliang handed the painting to Jiang Wen and continued.
"What's this?"
Looking at Xu Hanliang's words, Jiang Wen was confused.
"If it can be found, it will be much easier to solve the case. If it cannot be found, and it is an outsider, I am afraid it will become an unsolved case."
Xu Hanliang didn't answer much, just explained a little.
What he drew was exactly a fixed pulley.
The traces he saw on the beams before were probably such a fixed pulley.
Although in ancient times, there was no concept of pulleys.
But this kind of thing that can be formed by relying on experience should have been created by someone.
However, fixed pulleys are not widely used, so it is normal for some people not to know.
As for the motive for committing the crime, it is not something that can be easily deduced.
Especially for a crime like this, the probability will only be known after the criminal is brought to justice.
Xu Hanliang always felt that this matter was not that simple.
But he didn't pay too much attention to it. There were still many things that needed to be done at hand. At most, he could help with this matter.
Whether the murderer can be found in the future can only depend on luck.
It wasn't that he didn't want to explain the working principle of this pulley block to Jiang Wen. The main reason was that it was too troublesome to explain.
All in all, if he could find a craftsman who had made such a thing,
Then this case will most likely have a clue.
Ancient times and modern times are different in that there is no surveillance and various criminal investigation methods, so the detection rate is naturally very low.
Even Xu Hanliang could only write one article, "The Record of Clearing Wrongs", to help others improve their level of criminal investigation.
What he wrote was just some common sense. He didn't know anything too in-depth, let alone write about it.
He and Zhimiang had agreed that they would return to Wu County tomorrow.
Now that the results of the imperial examination have come out, the cheap father will soon be imprisoned in the capital.
Before he entered the capital, Xu Hanliang also wanted him to have fun.