Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Dong Jin knelt down and kowtowed before saying, "Your Excellency is wise. The rents of shops on Yanghuai Street are much higher than those of other places. Therefore, the prices of Huichuntang's medicinal materials and prescriptions were indeed a few cents higher than those of other medicine shops. But after the Wen family lowered the rent some time ago, the prices of Huichuntang's medicinal materials and prescriptions also dropped."

As if afraid that she would not believe him, he hurriedly asked the remaining two assistants to bring her all the prescriptions they had written in the past two days.

Chen Shao was flipping through the prescription that the waiter brought over, and asked casually, "Did Shopkeeper Dong see where those crazy horses came from?"

Dong Jin looked at her cautiously, and seeing that she was also looking at him, he lowered his head in shock and replied hesitantly, "I'm not sure if that person is the murderer."

Chen Shao put down the prescription and said, "Tell me about it."

Dong Jin swallowed his saliva and said nervously, "Before the crazy horse hit the pedestrians, a man with a yellow face and thin face brought a few horses to Tongchun Hall to buy two strong medicines. He said that he wanted to pass those horses off as wild horses and sell them at a high price. In the past, many horse dealers have done this before, so I didn't question him. After the incident on the street, I also looked for that person everywhere, but I couldn't find him after searching several alleys."

Chen Shao looked at him inquiringly: "Why didn't you say it just now?"

Dong Jin kowtowed and said, "I deserve to die. I was worried about being identified as an accomplice, so I was confused for a moment, and then, then..."

Dong Jin slapped himself twice.

Chen Shao picked up the stack of prescriptions unmoved, flipped through them and asked, "Where's the prescription?"

Dong Jin cried, "Because this medicine is for animals, I didn't see a doctor, so I didn't get a prescription."

Chen Shao obediently asked, "Who got the medicine?"

Dong Jin hurriedly said, "This is the medicine I got."

Chen Shao: "What medicinal herbs did you pick? Tell me about it."

Dong Jin listed the five medicinal herbs quickly. Chen Shao listened without judging whether he was right or wrong, and continued to ask, "How many horses did the person who bought the medicine lead?"

Dong Jin replied: "There are about six or seven horses. I haven't counted them exactly."

Chen Shao looked into his eyes: "Is he the only one?"

Dong Jin trembled and said yes.

Chen Shao walked over and stood in front of him: "What does he look like, how tall is he, how is he dressed, and what accent does he speak with?"

Dong Jin subconsciously moved his legs: "I didn't..."

"You wouldn't have failed to notice it." Chen Shao interrupted him calmly, "Even if you didn't pay much attention to him when he came to buy medicine, you would have immediately thought about what that man looked like after Crazy Horse caused trouble."

Dong Jin panicked, finally understanding why Luo Zhengxin, Wu Dong and the like confessed. He carefully glanced around and saw many people gathered around to watch the excitement. As he became more and more panicked, he could only reluctantly answer: "I really didn't pay much attention. I just barely remember that the man was about five feet tall, dark-skinned and thin, and he seemed to be wearing coarse linen clothes, or fine linen clothes. He should be speaking the language of Hongyuan County, with a slight accent from other places."

Chen Shao stared at him quietly for a while, then asked slowly, "Let me ask you again, is he the only one?"

Dong Jin gritted his teeth and answered yes.

Chen Shao took two steps back and said, "Drag him out and chop him up."

The Yulin Guards quickly stepped forward and carried him out.

Dong Jin shouted loudly: "My Lord, my Lord, I am innocent..."

"Unfair?" Chen Shao sneered, "Those mad horses rushed out from three directions to commit the crime. The distance between the three directions was at least thirty feet. The first action of the mad horse was one, let's not talk about it for now. The second action of the mad horse was three, and from three different directions. Tell me, how could the murderer act in three directions at the same time?"

Dong Jin's pupils shrank, "Your Excellency is very observant, but I am ignorant. I only saw one person."

"Only one person?" Chen Shao walked up to him. "The facts prove that he has accomplices, but you only saw him... Tell me, why didn't he assign a few horses to his accomplices to look after, but had to lead all the horses to buy strong medicine from you, just to let you see that he was alone? If so, why didn't he do more thorough work and let you leave a prescription, or let a few more people see that he was alone?"

Dong Jin subconsciously looked at the other two guys.

Chen Shao also followed him and looked over.

The two guys immediately took a step back to indicate that they saw nothing.

Chen Shao curled his lips and looked back at Dong Jin, "Manager Dong, do you have anything else to say?"

Dong Jin opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

Chen Shao's face turned cold: "Drag him out!"

The Imperial Guards held him again and dragged him onto the street. One of them held his neck while the other drew his sword and laughed strangely, "Manager Dong, please be patient. My sword is not as good as a guillotine. It may take a few more chops to cut off your head."

"I say, I say, the murderers are Jiang Shu, Yang Zhi and Li Zheng!" Seeing the sword-wielding Yulin Guards take two steps back and their long gowns shrink upwards, Dong Jin finally couldn't hold back and shouted, "Jiang Shu is in Tongchun Hall, Yang Zhi and Li Zheng are in Shiweizhai and Changshun Shoe Shop!"

Without Chen Shao's instructions, Li Tianliu and Chan Yi had already given the order to arrest people.

The three of them soon knelt together.

But more and more people gathered around and kept crowding forward.

It was already dark, and in the dim light, it would be easy to get into trouble if they squeezed in. When they came here earlier, the Yulin Guards and the yamen runners only brought more than 20 people, and it was impossible to take care of maintaining order and escorting the suspect at the same time.

Seeing that the encirclement was getting smaller and smaller, Chen Shao decisively stood on the carriage, asked Chan Yi to light the lantern to shine on her, then quickly bowed to all directions and loudly asked everyone not to squeeze forward.

The people slowly stopped and stopped crowding forward. Chen Shao bowed to all four directions again, thanking everyone for their cooperation, and said, "I didn't expect the current situation when I came out. Please do me a favor."

Amid the waves of "Just give me your orders, sir," Chen Shao expressed his gratitude again and said, "As you all know, when the Crazy Horse incident happened here before, many innocent people suffered. I also know that you are all gathered here to help me catch the murderer, but it is dark now. In order to avoid injuries from happening again, please take care of yourselves for your parents and children at home and go home as soon as possible. Thank you very much."

As he said this, he bowed deeply again.

In such a courteous manner, the people shouted at each other and slowly retreated. Although most people did not go home, the encirclement became larger and larger and no longer crowded.

"Thank you all for your cooperation. Without you, we would never have been able to catch the murderer so quickly. Thank you all!" Chen Shao bowed to everyone and quickly walked towards the carriage. He said to Li Tianliu, "Immediately seal up the three shops and escort all the shop assistants back to the prefectural governor's mansion! When we get back to the prefectural governor's mansion, you must immediately arrange for people to arrest their families!"

Li Tianliu said cautiously: "It's not difficult to seal it up, but we may not have enough manpower to escort all the guys back."

"I'll find a way to get the manpower." Chen Shao said, and walked towards the crowd again.