Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Chen Shao paused, "Should he commit suicide, or..."

"He committed suicide." The Yulin Guards answered quickly.

Chen Shao turned and walked towards the prison, asking, "How did you commit suicide?"

"He hung his belt on the crossbar of the fence, with his back against the fence, and committed suicide while sitting." Yu Linwei spoke quickly, with a look of disbelief in his words. "Because he was in a corner, on a pile of straw, the brothers thought he was not used to sleeping lying down, so he fell asleep while sitting. No one was alert, and they didn't expect him to die like that."

"Can you commit suicide while sitting?" Chan Yi was surprised.

Chen Shao didn't say anything.

The prison was located in a low-lying area, and when it was built, they dug down more than ten steps to the height of a ladder. In addition, the windows were narrow, so even in the daytime, the prison was still dark.

The Imperial Guards had already lit torches and were waiting at the door. Under the light of the fire, Chen Shao quickly walked down the stone stairs to the cell, passed through the spacious and clean outer prison hall, and entered the cramped inner prison.

The air in the inner prison was stuffy and smelly. Chen Shao frowned slightly, took a quick glance at the prisoners looking around in each cell, and then entered the cell where Hu Qinglu was held.

To prevent them from colluding, Hu Qinglu and the assistant and secretary of the Sihu Cao were each in a cell. Hu Qinglu's cell was about two square meters. On the left side of the outer wall, where he committed suicide, there was a layer of straw sloppily laid out, and on the other side there was a toilet. Hu Qinglu sat in the straw pile, with his back against the fence separating him from another cell, his head tilted, and a tight belt exposed around his neck.

The other cell was empty.

Chen Shao stepped forward and used his feet to push aside the straw around him. He found that he was not sitting on the ground. His buttocks were still about 6 to 7 centimeters from the ground. He then looked at the fence where his belt was hanging. The fence was made of 10-centimeter-wide wood and fixed with crossbars of the same width. There was a distance of about one meter between the crossbars. His belt was tied to the second crossbar (the first crossbar was close to the ground).

He withdrew his gaze from the fence and looked at Hu Qinglu again.

Hu Qinglu's hair was neatly tied with a white jade crown as usual. His outer garment was messy, but his inner garment and shoes and pants were neat. His hands naturally fell on both sides of his body, his fingers were obviously covered with corpse spots, his nails were cyanotic, and there was dirt in the gaps between his nails. The ground where his hands fell was covered with a few scratches. His legs were stretched straight on the ground, with many signs of kicking.

Squatting down and looking at his crooked face, I could see that his face was pale, his lips were cyanotic, and there were a few hemorrhages on the conjunctiva of his eyelids.

The body was still warm and combined with the various symptoms on the surface of the body, the time of death was within three hours, which was around the time when Quan Shuyu got up.

"Look at the marks on the ground," Chan Yi asked Yu Lin Wei, "didn't you hear any noise when he committed suicide?"

The Yulin Guards all shook their heads in shame.

The person is already dead, there is no point in pursuing these things. Chen Shao stood up, took a few steps back, and calmly ordered: "Go and tell your general not to rest for the time being, and immediately lead people to surround the Hu family!"

After the Yulin Guard who had reported Hu Qinglu's suicide left, she continued to order: "Put down his body and search to see if there is any evidence hidden."

The two Yulin guards quickly stepped forward, cut off the belt with swords, put down the body, and searched it from top to bottom twice. Apart from a few pieces of silver, there was nothing else. Chen Shao was not surprised by this. He asked them to send the body to Xu's house and take the assistant and historian of the Ministry of Household Affairs to the second hall as usual, and then he left the prison.

The sky was still gray and it seemed like it was going to rain.

Chan Yi stood beside Chen Shao, and after looking at the sky with her, she said with emotion, "I didn't expect that Lord Hu was usually weak, but he was quite determined when he committed suicide."

Hanging oneself, after kicking off the stool, the person is hanging in the air, it is unlikely to regret, but if Hu Qinglu wanted to regret, he only needed to use his hands or legs to support his body. But from the traces at the scene, he did not regret at all during the whole process.

He was determined to end his life.

Chen Shao admired him for this matter, but even though he admired him, he was still somewhat angry at his attempt to evade responsibility by committing suicide.

There were three assistants, five historians, and one accountant in the Sihu Cao. Sihu was in charge of household registration, roads, transit, miscellaneous labor, marriage, land litigation, and civil affairs such as the nobles and the humble. The assistants were responsible for assisting Hu Qinglu, a military officer in Sihu, in handling daily affairs, while the historians were responsible for the implementation and verification of various affairs, and the accountant was similar to the accountant in the shop. All nine had heard about Hu Qinglu's suicide at night, and knew that the situation was hopeless, so they confessed to their past crimes.

Chen Shao did not rush to deal with them. After asking Chan Yi to record their crimes one by one, he turned to ask about Qingyu.

All nine people had bought green jade from Hu Qinglu, but they all bought the fifth type of green jade, which was green jade with lotus patterns but of inferior jade material. The green jade in Hu Qinglu's hands was bought from Lei Dehou, and the green jade in Lei Dehou's hands was bought from the Wen family and the Ren family.

Like Ding Lisheng and Zhao Lin, Lei Dehou and Hu Qinglu sold the green jade not only to them but also to many wealthy families and scholars in Hongyuan County.

After asking nine people to write down the names of those wealthy families and scholars, Chen Shao ordered the Yulin Guards to put them back in jail. After they left, he immediately sent someone to bring them back to the prefectural government according to the names on the list.

"Lord Lei is here, and has been waiting outside the second hall for a while." Chan Yi glanced outside and reminded in a low voice.

Chen Shao glanced outside and didn't see him. "Go and ask one of the two people next to Shuyu to come over."

The cicada leaves go quickly and come back quickly.

Chen Shao didn't say anything polite. He picked up a pen and wrote down the names of the nine people from the Ministry of Household Affairs and handed them to Xu Mingchao who had followed him back. He said, "Go find Mr. Shen immediately and help him take care of the families of these nine people. From now on, no one is allowed to go out without my order!"

After Xu Mingchao left with the list, Chen Shao instructed Chan Yi again: "Send someone to invite Wang Dangjia back."

Just as Chan Yi was about to move, Li Tianliu entered the second hall, followed by Wang Cong. "I know you need someone, so I've called them back."

After Chen Shao said "very good", he looked at Wang Cong and said, "Recently, there are more and more people who need to be looked after. To avoid riots, you don't have to check the treasury anymore. Go to Mr. Shen's place and help keep an eye on those people."

After Wang Cong agreed, Chen Shao thought about it again and again, and continued: "The people in each shop and the Ding, Zhao, and Hu families must be strictly monitored, and try not to let them commit suicide or kill each other. There are not enough people at the moment, and I can't mobilize more people for you to dispatch..."

Chen Shao pondered for a moment, then looked at Li Tianliu: "Follow the head of the Wang family to see if the second and third branches of the Zhu, Gu, and Fan families can pick out some useful people. No matter what, everyone must be kept under good care and no riots should occur."

After Li Tianliu followed Wang Cong away, Chen Shao slowed down before asking Chan Yi to invite Lei Dehou in.