The coroner and the concubine doctor pursue the murderer in the Dali Temple

The rotten smell was so strong that it made people want to vomit. There were a circle of racks in the room, and a dead woman was hung on each rack. They were not wearing any clothes. Some were almost turned into skeletons, while others were still in human form. There were about fifty or sixty of them, and it could be seen that they died at different times.

"What's wrong with you?" Chu Yunxi's voice came from behind.

Xiao Mubei turned around, feeling a little reluctant to let Chu Yunxi see the situation inside, but she was a coroner, and where there was a murder, how could a coroner be absent?

So Xiao Mubei and Wen Rulan silently stepped aside. Chu Yunxi looked into the room and was so shocked that she was speechless for a long time.

I thought that the baby's body hidden in the wall was tragic enough, but who knew that there is no worst, only worse.

Chu Yunxi was a professional coroner after all. After the initial shock, she silently put on a mask and gloves and stepped forward to go in.

Xiao Mubei stopped her and said, "Give me a mask and I'll go in with you."

Wen Rulan and Chu Zhongxi also said, "We'll go too."

Chu Yunxi looked back at them and said, "Senior Brother and Second Brother, stay outside and listen to the noise above. The prince and I will go in and let the prince take notes for me."

She handed Xiao Mubei another mask, and they went in together.

Chu Yunxi examined the bodies one by one, starting with those that seemed to have died the shortest time.

After untying the body and laying it flat on the ground, Chu Yunxi took out a scalpel and began to dissect it.

"Female, around 22 years old, died three days ago, cause of death..." Chu Yunxi felt a little reluctant, but still said it out loud, "Starved to death."

Xiao Mubei paused and looked at Chu Yunxi. She was looking at the stomach of the deceased, which was empty and all the water in the body was gone. He looked up at the corpses on the rack. They were all skinny, shriveled and small. It seemed that they all died of the same cause.

Chu Yunxi sighed and sewed up the body. There were no other fatal injuries on the body, only the marks on the wrists from being tied and the bloody wounds on the private parts from being tortured. There were no other scars.

"It seems that after she became useless, she was tortured and hung here. No one cared about her and she starved to death. I just checked Han Xue's body and she was not tortured. It seems that she had not reached this stage yet. Because we found her, we had to kill her in advance to silence her."

Chu Yunxi sewed up the bodies, went out to borrow a cloak from the Purple Guards, and covered herself with it. It was impossible to dissect the other bodies one by one, so Chu Yunxi checked the surface of the bodies, and found that they were all in a similar condition.

"There are a total of fifty-seven bodies here. The longest time of death was five years, and the shortest was three days. Including Han Xue, a total of fifty-eight women were killed. I think there were also fifty-eight babies."

Chu Yunxi felt heavy in her heart. She had never expected that such a crime was hidden in Mu Yue Town. In her era, this would have been a shocking case.

At this moment, Zi Han ran over and said to Xiao Mubei and Chu Yunxi: "Prince, Princess, the fire outside is basically out. The Yongzhou Army is here. We can go out now."

"Okay, let's go out." Xiao Mubei took the lead and Chu Yunxi followed behind him.

As soon as the door of the secret passage was opened, there was still a wave of heat and a burning smell, but it was no longer scorching hot and people could stand there.

There were sounds of fighting outside. There was no one else in the room for the time being, so Xiao Mubei went up first and pulled Chu Yunxi up.

Wen Rulan and the others came up soon after. When everyone looked outside, they saw that Wang Youkang and his men were surrounded by the Yongzhou army. There was a fierce fight going on in the middle of the encirclement, but the Yongzhou army had about 5,000 people, and Wang Youkang's men had no power to resist at all.

Xiao Mubei walked out, and Bai Yu instantly appeared in front of him, kneeling down to report, "It is my fault that I came too late, causing the prince and princess to suffer."

Xiao Mubei helped him up, "You came just in time, we are fine now."

Bai Yu stood up and stood behind Xiao Mubei. Another general-looking man came over to greet Xiao Mubei. "I am the commander of the Yongzhou Army, Zhou Zhenhe, and I am here to see His Royal Highness the King of Dingbei."

"General Zhou, please don't be polite. Thank you for your hard work, General Zhou, for personally leading the troops here."

"Your Highness is too polite. This is my duty. I am honored to be able to share your worries."

"General Zhou is indeed straightforward." Xiao Mubei patted Zhou Zhenhe on the shoulder.

Looking inside the field, Wang Youkang and the Chen brothers had all surrendered. As for the archers who resisted stubbornly, Zhou Zhenhe had already ordered their execution on the spot. The rest who surrendered were temporarily detained with Wang Youkang.

Xiao Mubei walked up to Wang Youkang. His fat body was shaking like a sieve. His knees softened and he knelt in front of Xiao Mubei.

"Please spare me, my lord. I was bewitched and believed Chen Da's sweet words and became his accomplice. I really didn't do it on purpose. It was Chen Da who instigated me. He did everything. I just took some money."

He no longer dared to call himself "this official".

Chen Da said angrily, "Wang Youkang, you dog official, did you only take a little money? When did we get the money, didn't we give you most of it? You took the money, and we brothers did all the dirty work. Now you want to distance yourself from the matter with just a few words, and let us brothers be scapegoats?"

"Mr. Chen, if it weren't for you coming up with this crazy idea, would we have gotten to this point today?" Wang Youkang was not to be outdone.

Seeing that the two were about to quarrel, Xiao Mubei said sternly, "That's enough. I don't want to hear you guys fighting each other anymore. General Zhou, first detain them in the county jail, and hand them over to the Qizhu County Magistrate when he arrives tomorrow. Thank you for your hard work today, General Zhou."

Zhou Zhenhe agreed and ordered his men to take away Wang Youkang, the three brothers of the Chen family and the two old women. Xiao Mubei asked him to leave behind a thousand soldiers, first pack the gold and silver treasures in the secret room and transport them out, then transport all the bodies of the women out, and ordered his men to buy dozens of coffins to bury all the women.

As for the remains of the babies, there was very little left after the fire. Chu Yunxi picked out the remains that could still be identified, but unfortunately they could not be pieced together, so she could only put them together in a pile and bury them in the same place as the remains of the women.

After finishing all these, a night had passed and the county magistrate of Qizhu County had arrived.

The magistrate of Qizhu County was a scholar in his thirties named Qi Yang. He was last year's top three scholar in the imperial examination. Qizhu County was his hometown. He requested to return to his hometown to serve as an official to take care of his elderly parents. Emperor Sui Ming was moved by his filial piety and fulfilled his wish by making him the magistrate of Qizhu County.