Chapter 28: You Fang Daoist
The person who performed the "skinned grass" operation for Zhao Jinzhou was a coroner named Zhang Mengcheng. Because he had no practical experience and lacked relevant technical information, the "skinned grass" was not successful. First of all, the ratio of straw to lime was severely dysfunctional. Excessive lime caused the specimen to dehydrate the epidermis, causing cracks in the sutures on the back and abdomen, and the disconnection was serious. In the end, even the face suddenly cracked. It was really hindering to put it in the court. It happened to be at this time.
Another news came that the Supervision History sent by the court wanted to personally pay tribute to the appearance of Comrade Zhao Jinzhou, the first person to take care of Hubei's "skinned grass" - Comrade Zhao Jinzhou. To be fair, Zhao Jinzhou's "skinned grass" operation failed, and at least it shouldn't be like this. At this time, Zhao Jinzhou had already seen nothing more than a person. In addition to having a personal outline, he could basically not be able to see that he was a person. What if Master Shi was not satisfied with him, would he still have his job?
Thinking of this, Zhang Mengcheng simply came up with a very stupid "cat cover" method to solve the annoying "cracking" problem, which is to pour water on the surface of the "corpse skin" and then apply butter to moisturize it, hoping to temporarily alleviate the dehydration and cracking of the "corpse skin" and first fool the supervision history.
"Spraying water?" Hearing this, Zhang Guozhong felt something was wrong. Maoshan Zhi believed that incomplete corpse was one of the main reasons for the aggravation of soul resentment. In ancient times, beheading, the criminal's head must be restored and buried again, otherwise it would be easy to cause disasters. This is an unwritten rule in the executioner industry for thousands of years. Zhu Yuanzhang was not interested in Yin and Yang, but he just slapped his forehead to think of "skinning" and it was easy to cause disasters. He happened to encounter this coroner who was cold and sore, and poured oil on the fire to pour water on the body. Zhao Jinzhou suffered a disaster and was already resentful, and the water was responsible for the Yin, so he used Yin to transform resentment. Isn't this a bad luck?
"Well, it was fine at that time. Zhao Jinzhou's body was placed in the yamen. It took twenty years to put it in. The yamen was originally a place to gather evil spirits, so it was safe..." Taoist Master Chen Guang shook his head, "But don't forget that the yamen was originally a place for political affairs, how could it always put the corpse in the court?"
In the 31st year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1398), Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang died, Huizong Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne and appointed the name of the first year to be "Jianwen". One Hongwu and the other Jianwen. It is not difficult to see from the term name that compared with Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's one-size-fits-all strategy of "using heavy dictates in troubled times", Zhu Yunwen's governing policy seemed to be more focused on "suppressing people with virtue."
As expected, the first decree issued by Zhu Yunwen after ascending the throne was to find a place to remove the "corrupt officials specimens" displayed in the yamen. The reason was that although he had seen such corrupt officials specimens from "skinned grass" with the censor Liu Yingzhang in the public when he was young, he was so disgusting that he did nothing after he ascended the throne. So he thought about removing these specimens first. As the name suggests, it was to establish a gentle government, a gentle court, and how could a gentle court put such disgusting things everywhere?
When dealing with Zhao Jinzhou's "corpse skin", a prosecutor in charge of the matter originally ordered the yamen runners to bury him back to the "Eight Thieves Tomb". However, after more than 20 years, in addition, when the "Eight Thieves Tombs" were dug, he did not set up a tomb in order to save trouble, but he just set up a wooden sign. At this time, the yamen runners who were in charge of this matter were already unlucky, so they dug a pit on the spot and buried the "corpse skin" casually in the periphery of Longhugang. As a result, that night, the three yamen runners who buried the corpse skin and the owner of the car who was responsible for driving the car died suddenly. After the coroner's autopsy, the cause of death of these four people was a sudden outbreak of heartache. According to modern terms, myocardial infarction, the streets and alleys were naturally full of rumors, saying that Zhao Jinzhou's wronged soul did not disperse and evil ghosts demanded their lives.
At that time, the prefect Lei Zhongli also invited a group of monks and Taoists to recite scriptures. But to be honest, this kind of purposeless chanting scriptures has no meaning. It is not difficult for people who understand Taoism to see that in the situation at that time, the most important measure should be taken to find the location of the Eight Tombs as soon as possible, dig out Zhao Jinzhou's body to bury it with his corpse skin, and then bury it with his relatives, and then perform salvation. Only in the order of "finding the skin of the corpse" can the evil ghosts be calmed down and further relied. However, the original intention of the prefect Lei Zhongli to chant scriptures is to calm the people and stabilize the hearts of the people. As for the resentment of the evil ghosts, no matter how you can make trouble, it is just a matter of making trouble in Longhugang, which is related to my bird's business?
At that time, several Taoist priests who practiced it also reminded Lei Zhongli that chanting scriptures like this is equivalent to wasting taxpayers' money. If you want to eradicate the root cause, you must search for a corpse to be liberated. However, Lei Zhongli misunderstood that these Taoist priests wanted to exaggerate the facts and earn more money, and they almost got punished. When other monks and Taoists saw this situation, they had to symbolically finish this meaningless ritual and take money away, so they missed the best period of salvation, which laid the groundwork for the disasters in later generations.
Time flies, and four years passes in a flash. In the third year of Jianwen (1402), Zhu Di led his troops to attack Yingtian Prefecture. The news of Zhu Yunwen's disappearance spread all over the country. When it comes to hearing about this, the people felt very numb. Most people think that this is no different from the brothers in the countryside fighting. It is the country of your Zhu family. Who is the emperor and the matter is related to my bird? For a time, except for a few wise ministers and officials who have shouted a few unfair words for Zhu Yunwen, and they were all labeled as the current counter-revolution and dealt with them all, they did not cause any further trouble.
Youdao is that one emperor is one minister, one new official is another group. This year, the prefect Lei Zhongli returned home after he was sick, and the new prefect Zhang Wenyong came to Xiangyang and intended to replace the magistrate* Li Guang. Originally, the new official took office, promoted the confidants and recruited the old subordinates were normal. If it were others, they would have changed. After all, the arm could not be thighs, but as Li Guang, he must not be replaced. First, the magistrate was a fat man, very rich. Secondly, during his years of office, he implemented a loose policy since Zhu Yunwen succeeded to the throne, and the court's anti-corruption efforts were greatly strengthened.
After the cut, Li Guang made a lot of money for corruption and bribery, and it was just that he had just taken bribes, but the embezzled money had been frozen three feet long. After several years of sand forming a tower, this big hole could not be blocked in a day or two. Once he was replaced, the huge deficit would be spread all over the world in an instant. Although the law at this time was much looser than in Hongwu Nian, cutting his head twice was basically enough. After repeatedly flattering Zhang Wenyong, Li Guang became a murderous intention and wanted to find a way to get rid of Zhang Wenyong before he could do anything to him.
To be honest, for Li Guang, who was powerless, it was not difficult to set a target of murder. The key was to implement it. Zhang Wenyong was a court official. If you want to hire an ordinary robber to assassinate, the risk was too great. Once the assassin was caught and bitten him, it would be a crime to kill the nine clans of digging the ancestral graves. If you want to poison him, Zhang Wenyong was always alienated from him and had no chance at all. Just when Li Guang was at a loss, a bizarre serial murder case suddenly appeared in Xiangyang City. The cause and effect of the entire case could only be described as "unbelievable". The occurrence of the murder case made Li Guang, who could only sit and wait for death, suddenly ignited the fire of hope.
There is a nouveau riche named Zhang Cong who started his business by selling private salt in Xiangyang City. He went back ten years and was also a master who ate corn on the cob with three meals and two meals. In recent years, he had two money on hand, so he thought about moving the ancestral tomb to build a new tomb. Zhang Cong's ancestors were all poor and lower-middle peasants. They were buried in Longhugang before, but not long after the tomb was moved, a murder occurred at Zhang Cong's family.
Before moving the grave, Zhang Cong once took a concubine named Zeng Shan'er. He had always been incompatible with Zhang Cong's original wife Liang. Liang had a younger brother named Liang Zhongbao, who was a gangster who was thinking about revenge on Zeng Shan'er all day long. Shortly after Zhang Cong moved the grave, Zeng Shan'er died inexplicably at the door of the house. The night before his sudden death, he had also been in a room with Zhang Cong. When Zhang Cong went out in the morning, he found that his concubine was dead at the door. He was so scared that he almost urinated on the spot. After being subjected to a coroner, Zeng Shan'er was killed by locking his neck. To put it bluntly, he was strangled to death.
The new governor Zhang Wenyong was a person who did not believe in evil. He had no idea about the evil ways. After a brief understanding of Zhang Cong's family relationship, he concluded that Liang encouraged his brother to kill Zeng Shan'er. Without saying a word, he took Liang's brothers to the lobby for severe punishment. After the torture was fruitless, he was temporarily sent to prison. As a result, just one day later, Zhang Cong himself died, and the cause of death was roughly similar to Zeng Shan'er. Zhang Wenyong took all the servants and servants of Zhang Cong's family to the lobby and tortured him in the lobby, but in the end he did not get any result.
Just when the servants of Zhang Cong's family were being tried in the front hall, Li Guang came to the prison and saw Li Guang. When he saw Li Guang, the Liang family could be said to be like seeing a savior. To be honest, selling private salt has been a death sentence in all dynasties. The reason why Zhang Cong was able to sell private salt for several years was entirely due to Li Guang's blessing. There were too many unclean things between the two families, and Li Guang inquired about Zhang Congqian's ancestral grave under the name of helping Liang family to seek justice.
When Liang heard that Zhang Cong moved his tomb, Li Guang immediately recalled the tragic death of three yamen runners in the past few years because of burying Zhao Jinzhou's corpse. Li Guang has always been skeptical about the legends of ghosts and gods on the streets and alleys, but these two things are too strange, right? After coming out of the prison, Li Guang visited Zhang Mengcheng, the 25th coroner in charge of the autopsy. According to Zhang Mengcheng's analysis, Zeng Shan'er and Li Guang's neck bones were broken when they died. The strength was unprecedented. The perpetrator must have achieved great skills.
Young masters also have to practice kung fu like "eagle claw" and "iron sand palm". Street gangsters like Liang Zhongbao should not have such great strength. After hearing this, Li Guangjue guessed it almost. Even if Zhang Cong had an enemy, his concubine Zeng Shan'er would not have any relationship with those heroes in the world. The only explanation for how people could break the neck bones was that the perpetrator was possessed by ghosts and gods. It seems that the rumors that had been circulating in Xiangyang Prefecture for decades seemed to be true. Zhao Jinzhou's wronged soul did not disperse...
In fact, as Li Guang, if there is any other way to kill Zhang Wenyong, he will never be able to make trouble for these ghosts and gods. But now he is at the point of desperate situation. He is about to step down. Once the new magistrate reviews the previous official documents, his death date will come. Now he can only be a living person and put the treasure on these ghosts and gods. If he can really get the ghosts and gods to kill Zhang Wenyong perfectly, he will take office as the new magistrate and replace him.
It took at least one year for this whole process to go through. Even if it wasn’t enough to block the holes for such a long time, it was at least enough to fly away and hide the name. Just when Li Guang was complacent about finding a solution, the problem arose again. How can we make the ghosts and gods harm Zhang Wenyong? Could it be that we dug out Zhao Jinzhou’s corpse skin and buried it in Zhang Wenyong’s yard? Not to mention that he didn’t know where Zhao Jinzhou’s specimen was buried. Even if he knew, he might be the one who died first.
It was a coincidence that when Li Guang turned from joy to sorrow, he went to Zhang Cong's house to investigate clues, the actions of a Taoist You Fang attracted Li Guang's attention. He had been wandering around Zhang Cong's house for a long time. After seeing the iron lock hanging high, he kept asking the neighbors about the whereabouts of the family. Seeing this situation, Li Guang hurried forward to salute and told the Taoist You Fang about Zhang Cong's experience after moving to the grave. After hearing Li Guang's words, the old Taoist sighed, saying that the demonic spirit in this house must be caused by evil ghosts. He wanted to earn some hard money for him to eliminate demons and suppress ghosts, but he did not expect that everyone would be taken by the government.
After hearing what the Taoist said, Li Guang was naturally overjoyed and hurriedly invited the old Taoist to his home and set up a table to wait for food and drinks. With the help of alcohol, Li Guang told the old Taoist about the series of deaths caused by Zhao Jinzhou's specimens a few years ago, and expressed his situation at this time and his idea of killing Zhang Wenyong.
When he heard that he wanted to kill someone and was a court official, the Taoist priest was hesitant. Finally, Li Guang gritted his teeth and simply vomited blood and paid a sky-high reward of 3,000 taels of silver. The bright silver notes were placed on the table, which was like a thousand auspicious lottery. If this amount was definitely a huge sum of money at that time, it was enough to build a Taoist temple of the same size as Shaolin Temple. A new Taoist temple of the same size as Shaolin Temple was enough. Are you always thinking about earning hard money? I asked you to earn all the hard money for eight lifetimes at one time. You Dao is that money can make ghosts push the mills. How could a Taoist priest in the airside ever see three thousand taels of silver? For the sake of the silver notes, the old Taoist agreed half-supported...
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annotation*:
Tongzong: Official title, under the prefect, he is in charge of matters such as grain transportation, homeland, water conservancy and litigation.
The value concept of silver in the Ming Dynasty: How much is the value of 3,000 taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty? The popular accounting method on the Internet is to use the rice price of ancient and modern times as the conversion standard. You can buy about one ton of rice in the Ming Dynasty with five taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty. According to the current wholesale price of about 3,500 yuan per ton of rice, the value of one tael of silver in the Ming Dynasty was about 700 yuan, and 3,000 taels was 2.1 million yuan. But the fact is not necessarily the case. There were no chemical fertilizers and pesticides in ancient times, and there were no super rice experts like Yuan Longping to invent high-quality products. Therefore, the rice at that time should be more valuable than it is now. Moreover, the current rice price is regulated by the state and cannot fully reflect the objective value of rice. Therefore, the "exchange rate" of 700 yuan for one tael of silver is only a very conservative reference comparison, and its actual value is far higher than this number.
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Chapter completed!